FTII People

Review by Vinoo
Language : Persian
Director : Abbas Kiarostami

What a movie. If I hadn’t seen it I would have dismissed ‘Shirin’ as pretentious stuff passed off as an experimental film. Here is the gist. Make what you can of it. Abbas Kiarostami experiments with an audience, comprising of 112 Iranian women (and I think I vaguely remember 2 men as well), watching a twelfth century Persian love story, the story of ‘Khosrow and Shirin’. All you see is the face of the audience. This goes on for five mins… ten… twenty… and by then you know that is all you will see for over an hour and a half. All you see is the expression of the women in the audience, who are really us. The expressions tell you the story. There is just the play of light on their faces, and the rich soundtrack that you hear. You almost feel you have seen the love story on screen. The actors have been filmed in fixed-frame close-up I gather. And for Juliette Binoche fans out there her face is one among the many women watching the film and reacting to it: sometimes smiling, sometimes shedding a tear, sometimes trying hard to mask an emotion. Surely was one movie that left an impression at this year’s IFFK. Hats off to the director for even thinking of making something that would seem outrageous unless of course you have seen it. This ran to a full house in Kerala. What more can I say?
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Review by Vinoo

Language : English / French
Director : Ken Loach

‘Looking for Eric’ is the story of how an imaginary Eric Cantona helps his huge fan, Eric Bishop, work his way out of a crisis. Eric Bishop is a middle-aged man working in the franking section of a post office. He has two step-sons who show him no respect whatsoever. His second wife has not contacted him for a while now. Eric is on the verge of committing suicide. During one of his drunken evenings he is high on dope and almost magically his Manchester United celebrity Eric Cantona appears. Eric cantona will serve as an example and will help his fan, Eric, put his life back in order. You get to see some old footage of the genius Eric Cantona playing for Manchester United. I am no great fan of this club but I sure loved Eric cantona and the film. How a Manchester Untited mob sorts all issues and how Eric re-unites with the family forms the rest of the film. Loved watching this one at the IFFK.

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Review by Vinoo

Language : Hindi

Director : Basu Bhattacharya

‘Anubhav’ tells the story of an urban couple. Meeta Sen (Tanuja), a middle-class woman, and Amar Sen (Sanjeev Kumar) a businessman, have been married for six years. Amar is too involved in his business and ignores his wife. Meeta decides to change everything and takes things head on by firing all the house help, save one. Hari (A K Hangal), the house help, is the only one who is witness to the fast breaking up relationship. To make matters worse Shashi (Dinesh Thakur), Meeta’s old boyfriend joins Amar’s office as his secretary. Meeta is not comfortable when he is around and even tries avoiding him. Things come to a break point when Amar overhears Meeta speak with Shashi and realizes that there is a past he doesn’t know about. He confronts her and she says the happiness she had in Shashi’s company in all of a collective six days, when he didn’t even touch her, Amar hasn’t been able to give her in six years of marriage. This shakes him up. And then all ends well with Tanuja playing her role to perfection. The body language and the roles played by Tanuja and Sanjeev Kumar only Basu Bhattacharya could have got out of them. When you watch the movie you feel they are a couple. The intimacy is not staged. Guess that’s what they call ‘On-screen Chemistry’.

If I fell in love with Supriya Pathak in ‘Bazaar’ I fell in love with Tanuja in this one.

This film has some of my favourite songs : ‘Mujhe jaan na kaho meri jaan’, ‘Koi chupke se aake’, ‘Mera dil jo mera hota’ (all by Geeta Dutt my favourite female playback) and ‘Phir kahin koi phool khila’ (Manna Dey). ‘Anubhav’ is part of the trilogy ‘Aavishkar’ (has my favourite Manna Da song ‘Hansne ki chaah ne itna mujhe rulaya hai’, and ‘Grihapravesh’. ‘Anubhav’ was the last film Geeta Dutt sung for. It is believed Geeta took to alcohol, after Guru Dutt’s suicide in 1964, and died of Cirrhosis in 1972.

All the songs except ‘Koi Chupke se aake’ (lyrics by Kapil Kumar I gather) has lyrics by Gulzar. The film has music by Kanu Roy, Geeta Dutt’s brother.

Also watch Basu Bhattacharya’s ‘Teesri Kasam’ (a rare Raj Kapoor favourite of mine), ‘Tumhara Kalloo’, ‘Aavishkar’, ‘Grihapravesh’, ‘Aastha’. The characters in all his films are so well etched out.

Useless trivia : The famous Bengali singer and composer, Subir Sen (of ‘Manzil wohin hai pyar ke’ from ‘Kathputli’ which you will mistake for Hemant Da’s voice) appears as himself in the movie and sings Tagore’s ‘Shei Din Dujone’ which has also been sung by Suraiya as ‘Nain Deewane’.

And just for the record, when Shashi gets dropped off at a theatre the movie playing is Vittorio De Sica’s ‘Sunflower’.

Review written by Vinoo

Language : Marathi
Director : Paresh Mokashi

‘Harishchandrachi Factory’(Harishchandra’s Factory) is the story of the making of India’s first full-length feature film. Dadasaheb Phalke gets to see an English film on the resurrection of Christ. He decides that very day to make a film for Indians, and the obvious decision is to make something about India and its culture. Beginning with his brief experimentation on the germination of a Pea plant he will go on to make a trip to England and will not rest until he makes that first film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ way back in 1913. His occasional trips to the red light area scouting for an actor to play his heroine is hilarious, particularly so his wife saying “Yes! I know he has gone there. So?”. Brilliant performances by the entire cast, particularly Phalke (Nandu Madhav), his wife (Vibhawari Deshpande) and the kids. A Biopic told in a way that is very interesting and funny at the same time. This film is definitely a very well-made tribute to Dadasaheb Phalke. The Director’s (Paresh Mokashi) theatre background is very evident and he has adapted very well the style onto film. This film stood out as one of the better films at the IFFK 2009, Trivandrum. The ‘Factory’ in the title comes from Phalke’s suggestion to his actors to use the foreign word to make it sound respectable at a time when cinema was unheard of and looked down upon. Releases on 29 January 2010. Don’t miss this one.
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Review by Vinoo
Language : Sinhala / English
Director : Uberto Pasolini
‘Machan’ is the story of a non-existent Srilankan National Handball Team put together by a bunch of Srilankan’s looking for any which way they can make money and escape their current state of poverty. A few slum-dweller’s, people not economically well off, neck deep in debt and individuals not able to make it in life think up a novel way of making it abroad. Each one of them has their own story to tell and going abroad is seemingly the solution to all their woes. None of them are able to make it until one fine day they see an invitation for a World Handball Tournament in Bavaria. They decide to put together a Handball team, and one after the other everyone joins in, and after a few futile attempts they fudge papers and they soon get an invitation from the handball federation. Now that they have an invitation to a World Handball Tournament they have a better case. Finally a motley crew of people, all with one motive that is escape to a world of riches rather than play handball, head out to Bavaria. The team now includes people who have helped them get a Visa, a forger and a couple of others as well. The getaway plan is foiled, at least temporarily, when the welcoming committee is at the airport to receive the Srilankan National Handball Team. The team gets a thrashing in the first game, and the second. The third game sees them get thrashed badly but then that single goal they manage to score calls for celebration like they have won the World Handball Tourney. Very soon things catch up with them and their con. The Srilankan government sends a letter to the Bavarian Federation that, leave alone a national Handball team, Srilanka doesn’t even have a Handball Club. By the time the letter gets to the relevant authorities in Bavaria, the entire team makes their getaway. The film ends with a note that most of them are currently working some place or the other in Europe. While the script has its flaws, it offers quite a few hilarious moments. I quite loved watching it at IFFK last year. Hoping for some surprise package this time around too. ‘Harishchandra Factory’ (fabulous), ‘Looking for Elly’ (My pick for the Best Film here this year), ‘True Noon’, ‘Shirin’ been good so far. And as always ‘Antichrist’ by Lars Von Trier has been a riot including a few fainted delgeates, and ‘Dreams’ by Kim Kiduk has been running to packed houses. I let that one pass cos I am not a great fan of Kim Kiduk except ‘Spring, Summer…’ and ‘3 Iron’ that is. Malayalam Cinema disappointing so far. Missed ‘Kerala Cafe’ and can’t comment about it.
The inaccuracies in this review attributed to things I have missed out when recalling the film from the last festival.
Uberto Pasolini has also produced ‘The Full Monty’ and also the in production ‘Bel Ami’. ‘Machan’ is his debut as Director.
Useless trivia : ‘Machan’ is apparently a true story, of a non-existent Srilankan Handball Team. I remember Uberto Pasolini, the Director, mention as he accepted the standing ovation in Trivandrum, “the script isn’t funny, the situations are.”
Anyone in Srilanka who is aware of this story? Quite an amazing true story methinx J. What lengths people will go to, to get to the other side really amazes me.

Review by Vinoo
Language : English
Director : Jules Dassin
Film noir at its best. Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark of ‘Kiss of death’, ‘True Colours’, ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ etc) is a hustler and all his plans go awry one after the other. He is onto something else this time or so he thinks and for this he will pledge just about everything. He has in his hands the chance “to control professional wrestling in all of London”. And to meet this end he would use, Gregorius (Stanislaus Zbyzsko who was a wrestler in real life too, which explains his performance), the famous wrestler against his son and underworld don, Kristo, who now controls the wrestling scene in London. Harry gets his money from Phil Nosseross, his boss, while at the same time secretively getting money from his boss’ wife as well. He pulls off the biggest fight ever when he pits Gregorius’ man against ‘The Strangler’(Mike Mazurki). Harry Fabian has it all set up and nothing can come between him and fame. But then, circumstances conspire to add to his woes. There is a brawl before the real event in which the wrestler’s ward breaks his wrist, and Gregorius and The Strangler take on each other. While Gregorius wins the unofficial bout even before the real event, he is fighting for his life and ultimately dies. Now Harry Fabian has everything at stake and no fight. The wrestler’s son, Kristo, wants him, the cops want him, his old boss will not let him go that easy and the only one he can trust is seemingly his girlfriend (Gene Tierney of ‘Laura’ fame which I haven’t seen, ‘Iron Curtain’,etc). And the ever-inventive Harry Fabian comes up with one final plan even as he is about to meet his end. Why not let his girlfriend, Mary, become a police informant, and collect the reward for spilling information on him? For once Harry Fabian seems to have a fool-proof plan. The set up is brilliant and so is the climax.
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With the whole world going online, its but natural that script writing software should too. Enter Adobe Story. There is a free preview version of Adobe Story here.

Read the help file here.

With this free preview version of Story, you can:

• Craft your tale anywhere and at anytime in a secure online and offline writing environment tailored to industry requirements
• Easily manage several script projects, develop character biographies, add links as reference points, and fashion synopses.
• Brainstorm script ideas or co-write and edit as a team. Assign roles that give production team members the ability to read, review, or modify the script.
• Import the sample script or your existing screenplay from other scriptwriting software, including Final Draft or MS Word.
• Take your script to the next stage by exporting to a variety of different formats such as PDF, XML, Text, MS Word, Movie Magic scheduler, or CSV for easy import into Excel.

written by Vinoo
Language : Hindi
Director : Sunil Dutt
‘Yaadein’ is an experimental film made way back in 1964. Directed by Sunil Dutt, who also happens to be the only actor in the entire film, it tells the story of Anil. Anil comes back home one evening to find that his wife, Priya, is not home. He initially thinks she, along with the kids, Pawan and Geeta, are playing a prank on him before it begins to dawn on him that they have left him forever. He reminisces his past beginning with the initial days of courtship with Priya, followed by the birth of the first kid and so on and even traces the small husband–wife tiffs. He is also reminded of his infidelity (whatever that means), which results in a showdown with his wife and her leaving him. Every single object at home seems to rake up some memory or the other. He is consumed by everything around him and ultimately contemplates suicide. What happens is revealed in the climax. Nargis’ shadow appears in the film towards the climax. Mario Miranda’s illustrations are used to good effect. So also the use of voices, particularly so the phone calls and even the birthday party celebrations and his soliloquy when in the midst of his kid’s toys are worth a mention. Quite commendable that a one-actor film manages to hold your interest through nearly two hours even if the dialogues don’t always deliver. Watch this one simply for the gall this man had to experiment with something like this, and way back in 1964. Also has a lovely and rare Lata Mangeshkar song, ‘Dekha hai sapna koi’

This film finds mention in the Guinness Book of World Records in the category ‘Fewest Actors in a Narrative Film’ (Courtesy : Wikipedia).
Other films of Sunil Dutt include ‘Waqt’, ‘Humraaz’, ‘Khandaan’, ‘Mujhe jeene do’ (where Waheeda is fab in the ‘Raat bhi hai kuch bheegi bheegi’ number), ‘Gumraah’, ‘Sujata’, besides directing ‘Reshma aur Shera’ (among the first few films of Amitabh Bachan) which I hope to revisit this week, ‘Rocky’, ‘Yaadein’ etc.
‘Yaadein’ is written by Akhthar-Ul-Iman who has written dialogues for films like ‘Humraaz’, ‘Ittefaaq’, ‘Waqt’, ‘Mera Saaya’ and the story and screenplay for films like the brilliant ‘Dhund’, ‘Pathar ke Sanam’, ‘Chirag’ etc.

Useless trivia : Sunil Dutt, born Balraj Dutt, started his career with Radio Ceylon, and was apparently a popular announcer on the channel. For aspiring stars there may be a hint : start with radio.
Sunil Dutt started his film career in 1955 in a film called ‘Railway Platform’. He didn’t have to wait too long before he became a name to reckon with when he acted in ‘Mother India’ in 1957. I will spare you the oft-repeated Sunil Dutt – Nargis story from ‘Mother India’.
NB : Today happens to be the last day for registration at IFFK. Here is the link www.iffk.in
Hope to see you there.

(review by Vinoo)
Author : Joseph Conrad
‘The Return’ is apparently Joseph Conrad’s tribute to Henry James, and his style of writing. It was made into a film ‘Gabrielle’. Conrad’s other works include ‘The Heart of Darkness’ (yet to read that one), ‘Sabotage’, (made into a movie by Hitchcock), ‘The Secret agent’ (also a movie) etc. Conrad famously said “Those who read me know my conviction that the world, the temporal world, rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests, notably, among others, on the idea of Fidelity.”
I haven’t read too many of Joseph Conrad. I liked this one and I would presume this one is different from the rest of his books. ‘The Return’ is a peep into the complexities and insecurities of human relationships. Half the book is about Alan Harvey revisiting his life and reasons why his wife left behind a letter the way she did and the rest is plain, lovely conversation and analysis of emotions triggered by an act, in this case a letter left behind by his wife.
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(Written by Vinoo)
Language : Greek
Director : Michael Cacoyannis
‘Stella’ is a carefree woman who will let no moral rules hinder her quest for life. She is a Rebetiko / Rembetiko (Greek Blues) singer. Stuck between her love and her desire to be free she would choose the latter. “Men wan’t to own everything and Stella just wont be tied down” she says as she refuses one man after another until she meets the football star, . They are deeply in love and he proposes marriage. She fails to appear in church and only in death can she be somebody’s. Adaptation of ‘Carmen’ this one is simply brilliant. As for the Greek language I simply like the ring to it.
I remember watching he brilliant ‘Zorba the Greek’ by Cacoyannis. Also hope to watch ‘Ifigegeia’ soon.
Useless trivia : Melinda Mercouri met her husband-to-be, Jules Dassin, at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. The movie ‘Stella’ failed to win an award for Marcelo Mercouri for best actor / actress at the cannes Film Festival. It raised such a controversy that Isa Miranda, one of the jury members, gave her a special ‘Isa Miranda Award’.