Friday, February 27, 2009

Delhi 6

my wife and i finally went for a move after a very long time. we got tickets for delhi 6 - a  new realease by the same director who made Rang De Basanti - Rakyesh Omprakash - it was a TRAGIC disappointment. One would assume that with a cast of rishi kapoor, om puri and wahida rahaman, the film will be as gripping as ever, the only gripping that was happening was me clawing into my seat out of sheer desperation. 

the film has a very relevant theme- of communal hatred being stirred by people with ulterior motives, caste and arranged marriages. the same thing that all people think of when they come to india. 

but thats it, it stops there,. there was a story that was smaller than a grain of rice, and the acting by certain characters was non existent. The most amount of dialogue came from the "news reporters" in the movie than from the lead characters. 

how did this get funding? :( 

Thursday, February 26, 2009

apologies?

i was thinking and penning down something similar  - but this blogger took the words right out! :)

http://imdur1980.blogspot.com

to think about it, there are a few people that i would like to rewind the clock and not say what i had said, and apologize to them, but i don't see that happening. :(

Monday, February 23, 2009

Slum Dog Millionaire - a repeat?

i know this might seem a little excessive, but what if? I equate this to the East India Company again. they came, they saw, they liked, they used, they got glory and now claim to be theirs.
Danny boyle (As much as I appreciate the other flicks sir!) has said it himself - "In Reality - IT is a british film".
Though the cast, crew, music, script and original story are indian - he is claiming it to be brit! damn!

Source: Times of India: http://is.gd/kCWE

Danny Boyle, 52, was born into a middle-class Irish family. He grew up in Northern England, and perhaps it is because he contemplated priesthood as a vocation in his youth that he now has this inexorably calm demeanour that refuses to be ruffled by accusations of poverty porn. Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan has even called him a saint. The self-deprecatory Brit in Boyle laughs off the praise. “My mother would have loved it if I had been a saint, but I’m far from it. I’m a very real guy,’’ he says.

A very real guy who has made a very real film, the brightest feather in a cap which boasts other acclaimed productions such as 28 Days Later and Trainspotting. “We worked with a budget of 13 million dollars. That is the amount I could raise without having a major Hollywood star in it, but we made it look like a hundred million dollars because we spent all of it on screen.’’

Talking to Times of India from Los Angeles an hour after he picked up his Oscar, a slightly out of breath, Boyle said, “I’m truly happy that every Indian I meet is beaming, and it is the ultimate compliment for me that people in India see Slumdog Millionaire as an Indian film. However, in reality it is a British film. It is a very gritty in the beginning and very realistic because our film culture is based on that kind of realism which in Hollywood and Bollywood isn’t quite there.’’

How soon does Boyle intend to return to Mumbai? “As I have said earlier, I intend to do a thriller in Mumbai. We are talking to a couple of people. It will be a while before the script is ready. I would be very privileged to work in India.’’

Although Boyle’s exposure to Bollywood is admittedly limited, he has seen some of its cinema. “Honestly I hadn’t seen too much of it before I came to Mumbai to shoot Slumdog,’’ he says. “I’ve seen films by Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair and Anurag Kashyap and Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya and Company. I liked what I saw because they are very much like my taste. These were different films, but I love the regular Bollywood stuff as well.

Finally, who is the real Danny Boyle? Sinner or saint? “I am not a saint, sadly,’’ he says. “I just give my job and the people I work with a lot of respect. And I’m always willing to learn. As a film-maker it is not about having a reputation and just going and doing it. With each film, you have got to learn. I like learning. I like starting from scratch. You learn that from your actors and from people who help you like Loveleen Tandan, Raj Acharya, Resul Pookutty and, of course, the charismatic Rahman.’’
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