Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, V: And the Oscar for restoring classics goes to…AMPAS!

American body Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is best known for presenting the annual awards, which are characterised by a figurine called the Oscar. Though that is the face of the academy, it does much more service to the cause of both American and international cinema than most people would imagine, including holding an annual student Oscars.

At the Black Box of Panaji’s Kala Academy, AMPAS’s inventory film archivist/short film preservationist Tessa Idlewine, who holds a degree in film archiving and restoration, revealed the extraordinary effort that the academy puts into film storage and restoration, and the pain-staking 20 years it took to restore Indian idol Satayjit Ray’s work. “It’s an on-going exercise that began with the shocking realisation that the academy did not have clips of serviceable quality to go with the audio-visual which was to precede the conferment of the Oscar on Ray, while he would address the gathering via video-link from his hospital bed in Kolkata. The results include the amazing restoration of almost all of his films, the most decorated of which, Pather Panchali, is being shown on Friday at IFFI Goa 2016,” she said.

AMPAS is among the three major film preservation and restoration centres in the USA, the National Archive and the Library of Congress being the other two . During the 1890s-1950s nitrate base was used to make film, and nitrate burns even without oxygen, so many of the titles perished. Even later, after acetate (vinegar-base) came in, the negatives corroded, mainly due to the vinegar (spilled acidic liquid) effect. So, only 20% of films could make it through, from the period 1910-20, and 50% from 1921-1950. Polyester, in use after 1990, is much more durable. Digital is the current rage, but we do not know how long-lasting it will be,” she added. Incidentally, Tessa’s range of duties spans film handling, film identification, preservation, conservation, cataloguing, film archiving ethics, curating, customer service skills, copy- editing, materials management, transcription, typing (70 WPM), and word processing.

Besides the Ray collection, to the restoration of which laboratory Cineteca, in Bolognia, Italy, made the most significant contribution, AMPAS already has 5,500 titles, weighing 1mn lbs/450,000 kg of film, in 8 mm, Super 8 mm, 9.5 mm (who knew about this?), 16 mm, 28 mm (rare indeed!) and the obvious gauge of 35 mm and 70 mm, stored in ideal conditions. Besides, 124 interviews have been recorded, including one with Sharmila Tagore, the yester-years’ Hindi and Bengali film-star, and former Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Informal archiving has been going on since the first Oscars, 1928-29 (audio) and formal work started in 1948-49 (audio-visual). Over the years, they have restored films like WestSide Story, Miracle on 34th Street, Oliver and Heaven Can Wait.

Archival Revival--25 Years of The Academy Film Archive, was launched last year, in July, and ran through September, with the Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins-directed classic, West Side Story, flagging it off. And if subsequent programs are anywhere near the quality of the 70MM and 6-track stereo sound restored film print, shown at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theatre,

Miracle was first shown in its restored version on Thursday, December 11, 2015, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater, in Beverly Hills. The 35mm print was from the collection of the Academy Film Archive, courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox, and was presented as part of the Academy’s Gold Standard screening series.

Made in 1947, the film was written and directed by George Seaton, and stars Maureen O’Hara as the cynical Macy’s executive whose equally sceptical eight-year-old daughter (Natalie Wood) is intrigued by the store’s seasonal Santa Claus, who may or may not be the real thing.

Miracle on 34th Street won Academy Awards for Actor in a Supporting Role (Edmund Gwenn), Writing--Motion Picture Story (Valentine Davies) and Writing--Screenplay (Seaton) and earned a nomination for Best Motion Picture (20th Century-Fox). Its lead actress, Maureen O’Hara died in October last year.

Shivendra Dungarpur, who is the Founder-Director of the Film Heritage Foundation (Mumbai) and who made a rivetting documentary on P.K. Nair, the late Director of the National Film Archive of India (Pune), introduced Idlewine and conducted the Q&A session afterwards. He recalled Ray’s legendary cameraman Subroto Mitra wondering whether future generations would be able to appreciate his work with Ray, given the sorry quality of existing prints and VHS tapes that were being used to copy films, those days. “He should have been alive today to see the remarkable restoration made possible by the resources and perseverance of a dedicated few,” wished Dungarpur.

He has collaborated on two world-class restoration projects with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation: Uday Shankar’s classic film ‘Kalpana’ and eminent Sri Lankan filmmaker Dr. Lester James Peries film ‘Nidhanaya’ that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and Venice Film Festival 2013 respectively. He was a donor for the restoration of Hitchcock’s silent film ‘The Lodger’ that was done by the British Film Institute. Shivendra travels the world to meet and extensively interview great masters of cinema for his personal.

Present in audience was Mr. Sid Ganis, Former President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and American Motion Picture Executive and Producer. Mr. Sid Ganis had a distinguished career in Hollywood as an executive at major studios, including Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and Paramount, and produced films such as Big Daddy, Deuce Bigalow, Mr. Deeds, The Master of Disguise and Akeelah and the Bee. He is a longtime member of the Academy of AMPAS, for which he served four consecutive year-long terms as president, from 2004-2009. At 77, he has had a long and illustrious career.

At a press conference held later, Ganis said that the Academy has been developing a very close relationship with the Indian film-makers, and with Goa, through the International Film Festival of India. In the past few years, the Academy is getting to know Indian celebrities and film-makers and wanting to enhance and expand their relationship with Indian Film Industry. He further added that the Academy is not just an Academy for America or Hollywood alone, but about film-makers and artists across the world. At the 47th IFFI, Mr. Ganis conducted a special workshop on 'Foreign Language Film Selection for Oscar Awards by AMPAS’.

At the same, joint conference, Idlewine described about the criteria, how a film is being selected for preserving, saying that, firstly, preference is given to the Oscar-nominated films, but that is not all. Apart from the Oscar nominated films, the ones, which are unique, important, and decaying, are also preserved. Out of the 37 films under the project, 21 have been restored successfully. Commenting over the preservation of the work of Satyajit Ray, Tessa said that the AMPAS is working continuously to save the artistic works of the maestro.

India’s Top 10 Lost Films – Compiled by late P.K. Nair, the Director and the moving force behind National Film Archive of India (NFAI). (Thanks to Shivendra Dungarpur for the information)

Bhakta Vidur (Alternate Title: Dharma Vijay), 1921, 89 mins

Adopting the perspective of Vidur- the chief advisor to the Kauravas, who, for ethical reasons, sided with the Pandavas prior to the great war of Kurukshetra- the film ‘Bhakta Vidur’ sought to hold a moral lens to the struggle between British colonialists and the Indian resistance.

Bilet pherat (Alternate title: England returned),1921, 68mins

One of the earliest examples of broad, deliberate satire made in the mould of the Hollywood slapstick comedies of the time, ‘Bilet Pherat’ (1921) lampoons the trend of Indians travelling abroad (in those days, usually to Britain) for higher education in a…

Savkari Pash (The Indian Shylock), 1925, 80 mins

A milestone film by Baburao Painter, ‘Savkari Pash’ is notable not just for its courage in going against the grain but also for its technical finesse and poignant treatment of its subject matter. At a time when mythological films were de rigueur, Baburao Painter staked almost everything to make India’s first social realist film.

Balidan (Sacrifice), 1927, 108 mins

‘An excellent and truly Indian film’- The Indian Cinematograph Committee, 1927.

‘Balidan’ was a persuasive effort at bringing about social reform with its story of a conflict between a progressive, rational king and an orthodox, ritual-bound priest.

Alam Ara (1931) Hindi/ Urdu, 124 mins

‘Alam Ara’ occupies its position in Indian film history as the first film to have employed sound and possess a diegetic soundtrack, complete with songs. A swashbuckling tale of warring queens, palace intrigue, jealousy and romance, the film was heavily drawn from Parsee theatre

Sairandhri, 1933, 148 mins

The first Indian film to have been made in colour, (though not indigenously since it was processed and printed in Babelsburg, Germany using the Agfacolor process), ‘Sairandhri’ is a remake of Baburao Painter’s silent classic from 1920, of the same name

Mill (Mazdoor), 1934, 142 mins

This is the only film written by the acclaimed writer Munshi Premchand in which he also played a cameo. The film courted controversy owing to its story of a prodigal son of a benevolent mill worker who inherits the mill and proceeds to treat its workers with disdain.

Seeta (1934), 119 mins

A mythological film with a stellar cast featuring Prithviraj Kapoor as Ram and Durga Khote as Seeta along with some of the most high-profile actors of the time, the film broke new ground by becoming the first Indian film to gain international exposure: it was screened at the 1934 Venice Film Festival where Debaki Bose won an award, the first Indian filmmaker to do so on an international platform.

Zindagi (Life), 1940, 120 mins

One of the highest grossing films of the 1940s, the music for the film was composed by Pankaj Mullick. The film saw P.C. Barua coming together once again with K.L. Saigal along with the actress Jamuna. It was a film that not only challenged social mores but also explored the complexities and consequent disillusionment of an unusual platonic relationship between an unmarried couple living together.

Khoon ka Khoon (Hamlet), 1935, 122 mins

This was the first adaptation of a Shakespearan drama in Indian cinema. Largely a filmed version of a stage performance of the play, the film contains a towering performance by Sohrab Modi in the central role of Hamlet, and is an astute adaptation of the original Shakespeare play. The film marked the feature debut of Naseem Banu, as Ophelia.

Meanwhile, AMPAS is at it all the time, with four goal-posts: Conservation, Preservation, Restoration, Access. Primarily of American Oscar-winners, and, more significantly for world cinema, any film it finds significant worthy of restoring.

We were treated to some mind-boggling and heart-tugging restored clips. Since you were not there, do the next best thing. Don’t miss these restored classics at their screenings, wherever  and whenever you get a chance!

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, VI: Life after Ghatak, and breaking mindsets

Federation of Film Societies of India continues to champion the cause of film culture and appreciation by not only running film societies all over India, but organising the Open Forum at IFFI every year, in collaboration with DFF. At IFFI 2016, it got to share hosting of the six-day platform with the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA), the first three days being allotted to FFSI. I missed the inaugural day’s proceedings, but in the second edition, the mid-day meetings of minds focussed on ‘The Scope and challenges for independent film-maker today’.

Six speakers attended the event, which was preceded by the release of a book by Nabarupa Bhattacharjee, the grand-daughter of one of India’s most lauded and posthumously acknowledged directors, Ritwick Ghatak, at the hands of the festival director, Mr. C. Senthil Rajan. Titled ‘Life After Ritwick Ghatak’, it is a collection of memories of Nabarupa’s grand-mother, Surama, who had to bear the brunt of her husband’s misfortunes and illnesses, and ultimately, separation. Asked whether the book was confined to the period after Ghataks’s death (in 1976, aged 50), she revealed that through the eyes of 90 year-old Surama, we will relive the earlier years too.

Goa-based lecturer and theatre veteran Rajeev Shinde confessed that he was a die-hard optimist, having been able to make K Sera Sera (Konkani, included in the Indian Panorama, and the last official screening on the last day of the festival) in 15 days, with a crew that almost entirely consisted of his students. “Don’t worry about the challenges too much; consider the scope that technology offers today, to make better-planned films, in lower budgets.”

Pierre Filmon (now that’s an apt name), of France, is a documentary film-maker, who is here, “…to learn, and not to teach.” Pierre Filmon made his first short film, ‘Blue of China’, in 1996. They were followed by ‘Espousals’ (1999) by Chekhov, and ‘Silence, First’ (2002) with Rüdiger Vogler. His three short films covered fifty festivals in France and abroad and won several prizes. In 2016, he released his first documentary-feature film, ‘Close Encounters with Vilmos Zsigmond’, which brought him to IFFI 2016. Circumstances are pretty much the same in France, he confided, but emphasised the need to connect with your audience base through social media very quickly, for completing a film is just the beginning of your journey.

“Breaking the mind-set that ‘anything that is not main-stream, is not to be touched’ is the biggest hurdle for an independent film-maker” opined indie film-maker Madhu Mahankali, from Hyderabad, who managed a 14-screen release of his Telugu film Parampara (2014). “Netflix offers some hope. Incidentally, in my part of the country, auditoria with seating 100 capacities, tickets priced at Rs. 50-100 ($1-1.5) are springing up. I am sure this will give a great fillip to the screening opportunities of independent film-makers,” he averred. 

Rama, Meena, Senthil, Navarupa and Pierre

Dr. Meena Longjam from Manipur, (“virgin North East India she called it”), who’s short Auto-Driver has won an award, lamented the ethnic hill and valley divide in the region. “An independent film-maker is like a bachelor or a spinster, not answerable to anyone. But funds are always short for him/her. Doc Edge in Kolkata is one source of funds. We need many more,” she exhorted.

Actress and IFFI 2016 selection Jury member, actress Rama Vij has produced three projects too. “Challenges for the independent film-maker have always been there, are there, will be there. My motto is ‘plunge into it; just do it.”

Re-iterating the government of India’s policy of encouraging independent film makers, Rajan shared, “IFFI 2016 has a large number of indies in its package.” On the issue of screening platforms, and low screen density in India, he hopes he recalled, “I recently met a person who organises short film festivals in beer bars. Maybe Goa could replicate this idea!”

On behalf of FFSI, the proceedings were conducted and moderated by Bh.S. S. Prakash Reddy (Regional Secretary, Southern Region) and G.K. Shyam (Secretary).

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, Open Forum III: Skill-building through master classes

An essential feature of every international film festival around the globe, mater classes abound at IFFI too. FFSI, in collaboration with DFF, chose to highlight their benefits in skill-building at the third Open Forum. An open-air affair, it did not attract too many attendees. Firstly, the location was remote and secondly the timing that has been a permanent slot for Open Forum at IFFI is from 1.30 pm to 2.30-3 pm, exactly when the audiences take their lunch and head into the scheduled third screening of the day. Moreover, the occasional benevolence of offering tea/snacks to those present has become a rarity, so most enthusiast choose partaking a meal  over skipping a meal.

On the panel were A. K. Bir (Chairman of the Technical and Theatre committee at IFFI; famed director-cinematographer); Ketan Mehta of Qube Cinema (not the namesake film director); another Mehta, Hardik (film-maker, whose film Famous in Amdavad was being shown at IFFI Goa 2016); Astri Ghosh (actress of mixed Norwegian-Indian parentage who grew up in Delhi); Tapan Acharya (who played a lead role in the Konkani film Aleesha, shown at IFFI 2004); Judy Gladstone (casting director and executive producer from Toronto, Canada) and Aseem Chhabra  (Director of the New York Indian Film Festival).

Hardik made a strong case for attending master classes. “The best lessons I learnt were from a master Class by the German genius, Werner Herzog, which I attended in Locarno. Believe me, it’s the best learning experience for a beginner. You can still catch it online. Why, right here at IFFI Goa 2016, there was an enlightening master class on costume design by Rosalie Varda of France, who told us how she turned to museums to recreate period costumes from paintings.”  Tapan predicted that, in the age of online communication, there might soon come a time when IFFI films would be viewed in real-time screenings on TVs, computers and phones across India, just by obtaining a password.

Amazingly gifted, Astri speaks English, Norwegian, Bengali and Hindi. She has translated the plays of renowned Norwegian playwright Ibsen and Bengali/Indian legend, Rabindranath Tagore and acted in two feature films, Life Goes On and Baarish. “It was while attending master classes at film festivals that my desire to take to acting as a profession was spurred on,” she revealed. Judy reminisced about her experiences in Toronto, which has a film festival every week!

“With the advent of Barco’s laser projectors, the era of Xenon lamp projectors is about to end. Also, films that used to be sent to festivals on DCP format are making way for online transfer,” prophesied Ketan. An attendee asked Aseem Chhabra whether the ‘talk-clips-Q&A’ style of master classes could be changed to a much more interactive approach, he replied, “What you are suggesting is that master classes should be more like workshops. A master class is usually conducted in the present manner only.”

Bir shared with the audience that the silver screen and laser technology was in use at IFFI, and it greatly helped in projecting 3D images from two projectors. “A semi-conductor chip, 1/5^th the breadth of human hair, houses innumerable mirrors, on hinges, that move to adjust to the demands of the picture’s luminance. Considering we still do not have a state-of-the-art festival complex (expected in 2019), we are doing quite well, technically.” Commenting on master classes, he had words of wisdom to share, “Any interaction with a master will stimulate a cognitive mind. But, in the end, we will need these three qualities for any creative process to be meaningful: Bounty, restraint and compassion.”

This was to be the last Open Forum at Kala Academy, also the last to be organised by then Federation of Film Societies of India. The baton would be passed on to the India Documentary Producers’ association for the next day, where confusion would prevail. What the confusion would be was an Open guess.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary VIII, Open Forum IV: Courses for horses or horses for courses?

Both, really. We are in the age of customised platforms for film viewing finding best-match, multiple-matches and staggered exhibition alternatives for films. A magnum opus like Bahubali (Indian mythological blockbuster franchise) needs a massive, four-digit spanning simultaneous, theatrical release while a Lunch Box (the mouse that roared a couple of years ago), though critically raved, would be have to be content with a two-cinema first-run. And online digital is the only way forward, in an era when hundreds of films do not see a theatrical release at all.

This was the centre-point of the fourth Open Forum at the International Film festival of India (IFFI) 2016. Organisers changed too, with the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) taking over from the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), in a 50%-50%/3-3 split of the six allotted days.

Six persons were seated on dais: Piiyush Singh (Country Head, Muvizz.com), Sid Bhargava (Managing Partner, Indian Content Mart/Sharar Technologies), Apoorva Bakshi (Head, Original Productions and Partnerships, Filmkaravan), Naman Ramchandran (author, journalist) and Sanjay Ram & Vivek Kajaria (co-founders, Basil Content). Another five represented IDPA: Usha Deshpande (Vice President), Ratnakar Tardalkar (Treasurer), Lygia Mathews (EC member), Veena Bakshi (EC member) and Satinder Mohan (EC member).

Some interesting insights emerged from the conversations:

1. Sensible cinema, like entertaining blockbusters, should not be available for free.

2. No film is bad. Even so-called bad films can make some money, if they are made within tighter budgets and exploited across avenues.

3. Rank newcomers may not be able to garner much interest from financers or digital distributors, but if your first or second film has been appreciated, you are quite likely to generate traction.

3. Reliance’s Jio and Eros Now are already emerging as huge providers of film and video content, and could outpace Netflix and Amazon Prime as the key players in the Indian mainstream, as well as indie film, digital distribution domain. Eros Now claims to have signed-up 55m subscribers already.

4. Selling your film to a company who gives you a higher price but takes away more rights and territories is a trap makers should avoid. Some of these buyers then exploit the titles piece-meal and make much more money than the producer imagined, and he regrets being short-changed. Incidentally, Netflix pays less for limited rights, but, in general, they buy Indian titles for a decent $90,000-$1,35,000.

5. Video-on-Demand (VOD) was a concept that few Indian producers understood till 2-3 years ago. Most of them equated it with piracy! Now, they are canvassing aggressively for selling their VOD rights.

6. Narrow-casting and market segregation mean that regional language (vernacular) films, as well as films in Indian dialects (Haryanvi, Maithili, Konkani, etc.) are likely to reach more eyeballs than one would have imagined, with pockets of ethnic groups in many urban centres across India.

7. Producers/directors should not treat their vision as sacred and untouchable. Rather than sticking to a Director’s Cut, they should be flexible enough to shoot, say, two endings for a film, one for the domestic market, in which the “kid lives in the end” and another for countries like Korea and Japan , where it is fine if he dies.

Abhayanand Singh, Manoj Bajpayee and Piiyush Singh

Muvizz.com

Abhayanand Singh, an investment banker and a movie buff based in Singapore, and Piiyush Singh, a producer of TV serials and documentaries, run this platform, which is registered in Singapore. Their upcoming feature film is titled ‘Bhonsle’ . Written and directed by Devashish Makhija, it will have Manoj Bajpayee playing the title role of ‘Bhonsle’. Singh, Bajpayee and Makhija have earlier worked together on a short film, ‘Taandav’ which earned rave reviews earlier.

Naman Ramachandran

Writer of Brahman Naman, the first Asian Netflix original, Naman completed a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism. After stints as a film critic, he took another Master’s degree, in Media Management, and then worked with the British Film Institute, managing their ImagineAsia project. He is the UK and Ireland correspondent for Cineuropa, writes for Variety and Sight & Sound, and has authored two books: Rajnikanth: The Definitive Biography, and Lights Camera Masala: Making Movies in Mumbai.

Indian Content Mart

Indian Content Market is a Delhi-based company “working hard to launch a new site that’s going to revolutionise the way you buy and sell films, TV series and other entertainment content from India.” It is in a nascent stage and claims to have 1,000+ titles, 50+ sellers, 1,000+ rights

 Vivek KajariaSanjay Ram

Basil Content

Basil Content Media is founded by National award winning producer Vivek Kajaria (Fandry, Marathi). The company is led by former festival programmer and Marketing/Production Executive, Sanjay Ram, along with former Festival advisor and programmer Rajat Goswami. The agency has picked up Pulkit’s ‘Maroon’, Ananya Kasaravalli's ‘Chronicles of Hari’, Dnyanesh Zoting’s ‘Drishyam’ and Sundance Lab selection ‘ Raakshas’ for sales, and Samit Kakkad’s ‘Half Ticket’ for representation.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, IX, Open Forum V: “We need more Amitabh Bachchans to help reduce global warming”

In its second Open Forum at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2016, Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) sounded an urgent warning about the spreading carbon footprint and discussed steps to curb/neutralise its deleterious effect, especially among the film fraternity. Mike Pandey, President of IDPA and world-renowned environment-awareness film-maker, was the moderator. On the panel were Senthil Rajan, Director DFF (who joined in at the fag end), and Arvind Ranade, of Vigyan Prasar (‘Science Communication’), Dept. of Science and Technology. Lygia Matthews, Executive Committee member of IDPA, conducted the proceedings.

Pandey reminded us that the carbon--and even more dangerously, the 20% more hazardous methane--footprints are spreading like wildfire across the globe, and India is among the highest generators, perhaps a corollary to rapid industrialisation, and a direct result of indiscriminate mining and tree-felling. Luckily, technology has helped reduce the dependence on pollutant light sources for film-making, he enthused. “Just a few days ago, I was shown a camera in London, which captured images without any light whatsoever, and I could still see through it objects in pitch darkness that I could not even see through my naked eyes!”

(Sony’s A7S II records in near pitch darkness, on 4k without any additional gear. Canon’s ME20F-SH camera can take full-colour shots in near-total darkness, maximum ISO in excess of 4 million (+75dB), delivering high quality professional grade Full HD footage).

Talking about Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF)’s contributions to the cause, Senthil mentioned the annual national award for the best film on environment, and the package of Swachh Bharat (Clean India) films at IFFI Goa 2016. On Pandey’s initiative to make IFFI a carbon-free festival, Senthil assured him that he would initiate steps towards this goal. Arvind stressed the need of some kinds of incentives to encourage film-makers to give due consideration to the environment while making their films, taking advantage of science and technology. Workshops could be an effective way of bringing this about, he believed.

Adding a touch of urgency to global issue, Pandey averred, “Goa (venue for IFFI 2016) is a great place for any type of location-shooting, with its stunning forests, villages and heritage buildings. But we must realise that it is home to hundreds of unique species and also a fortress against earth warming. The eco-system just has to be protected. In fact, if not checked, climate change could submerge some of our cities, suffering the same fate as the doomed cities of Dwarka and Atlantis. Believe it or not, even Mumbai could end up under 30 m. of water!”

Matthews cautioned against the large scale damage caused by the Rs. 100 crore (1 billion) film club, “Almost always, the bigger the budget, the higher the damage to the environment. Our films are a long way off from becoming carbon neutral.” (An average Indian film produces a carbon footprint of around 100 tons. Last year, Biswajeet Bora's Aisa Yeh Jahaan/Such is this World became India's first full-length Hindi feature film to be carbon-neutral. Its carbon footprint was mapped, and was offset by a tree-plantation drive. The final carbon footprint for pre-production, production and post-production was 78.477 tons of CO₂ e--carbon dioxide equivalent). To neutralise this effect, 560 saplings were planted in Mumbai).

Commending superstar Amitabh Bachchan for joining the movement to reduce use of non-essential vehicles and air-conditioning during film shootings, Pandey hoped that other eminent film personalities would follow suit.

In response to proposals from this writer, both Pandey and  Rajan agreed that holding a competitive Environment Film Festival to co-incide with World Environment Day, and to screen the award-winning films at IFFI, were very good ideas, and would be duly considered. They also welcomed a suggestion that, just as films have to display a mandatory declaration about not having harmed animals during shooting, they should also be audited for environment harm. Industry standards should be defined, all agreed.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary X, Open Forum 6: Finding your way across 2K, 4K, 6K, 8K  or 18K

A digital technician who has built theatres (Lightbox in Mumbai, for one)-Neil Sadwelkar, Na Tum Jaano Na Hum producer Vivek Singhania, and Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) President Mike Pandey, participated in the last Open Forum of International Film Festival of India 2016, organised by IDPA, at old GMC building, Panaji, Goa, on 27 November. The moderator was film-maker Naresh Sharma, Curator of the Indian Film Festival in Stuttgart, and a cinematographer-cum-still photographer.

(Left to right: Naresh Sharma, Mike Pandey, Neil Sadwelkar and Vivek Singhania)                                                                          

Indian films are still made in 2K resolution formats, but international clients are demanding 4K, in most cases. 2K cameras and projectors can be upgraded quite easily, but the progressive upgrading might cost a bit, and the details are sketchy at the moment, we learnt. “Yes, foreign buyers want 4K, even 6K, but history was not shot in 4K. A lot of my footage is not even in HD, yet they buy it for its value. For example, a few minutes of footage I shot of vultures in Ranthambore on primeval equipment is priceless today, because 99.9% of the species is extinct,” were the consoling words of Pandey, to those who wonder whether all the footage they shot over the last 50 years is turning out to be a total loss.

Neil reminded us that Indian TV content is still almost entirely SD, not even HD, and 4K projectors are just a handful, though their number is growing. “Platforms like Netflix and Amazon demand HDR 4K, but that should not be an issue, because up-sampling and down-sampling is happening all the time. Shooting specifications can be reduced to match projecting limitations. 35 mm celluloid film was in use for about 50 years as the pivot, but even during that era there were multiple formats in use.”

“Though cost is unimportant to big banners like Farhan Akhtar and Karan Johar, even low budget films are shot in 4K these days, and all the editing, post production, etc, is done in the format that suits the production best”, said Singhania, representing the producers’ interests. To encourage better technically quality film products, the government should reduce the duty on import of 4k, 6k and 8k cameras. Meanwhile, the industry bodies, like Film Federation of India (FFI), Films Division (FD), IDPA  need to come together to help producers, opined Pandey. He also urged producers not to sell comprehensive rights, as he had himself been able to negotiate good prices for his nature documentaries with Western TV channels, on a per screening basis, retaining all rights.

Celluloid film is still the best medium for archiving content, insisted Sadwelkar. “If you don’t access your hard drives for 2-3 years, you might find them blank when you finally do, and all your content will be erased forever. My advice is that you should have back-ups in all possible places: original film, cloud, and Netflix or any other platforms. Sell them even at a low price, so that at least they are preserved,” he concluded.

Picks of the pix

HD is usually 1920 x 1080, which could be called 1.92K, or 2K.

2K digital cinema projection is similar to HDTV projection, in terms of resolution.

UHD-1, or ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV), is the 4K standard for television. UHD-1 is also called 2160p, since it has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of 1080p. It has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (16:9, or approximately a 1.78:1 aspect ratio).

Generally 35mm negative should be scanned at 4K (4096 across for Super-35).

HDCAM, by the way, is 1440 x 1080 pixels. HDCAM-SR is 1920 x 1080.

Ben Hur was shot in 65mm anamorphic, to get a 2.7:1 aspect ratio

1080 and 2K really mean nearly the same thing.

In projection of print terms, 35mm is sub 4k, and dependent upon actual print and projector circumstances, sub-HD. A typical cinema projection of a distribution film print will offer no better resolution than an HD digital projection, probably less.

IMAX uses dual digital projectors, each with 2K resolution. They claim that this is equivalent to 4K resolution but it really is not. It is still 2K, but twice as bright. 4K digital movie theatres are wide screen theatres, more rectangular than IMAX. IMAX movies are also finished in a 1.9:1 aspect ratio, rather than the regular 2.40:1, which means that the screens in IMAX theatres are taller to support the projected image.

4K was all the rage at NAB 2014, but that's hardly the ceiling for resolution, even in the near future. Even at NAB 2014, you could see 8K acquisition in the Astrodesign and NHK booths, and you may have been wondering, then, how far resolution can really be pushed. For a hint, CMOS sensor design specialist, Forza Silicon, is introducing a new, customisable video-camera platform that can reach "resolutions approaching 200 megapixels," at 60fps.

Video professionals don't generally talk about images in megapixel units, which measure the number of pixels in an image (1 megapixel is either 1 million or 1,048,576 pixels, depending on who's counting). But, to put that in perspective, HD resolution is about two megapixels (1920 pixels horizontally multiplied by 1080 pixels vertically, gives you 2,073,600 pixels). 4K is a little less than nine megapixels. Even Red Dragon's vaunted 6K resolution equals only a little more than 19 megapixels. You'd need numbers like 18K--18,000 horizontal pixels-- in order for a 16×9 image to approach 200 megapixels, total.

4K means an incredible level of detail. A 4K picture projected on a cinema screen contains 4096 × 2160 pixels (or tiny dots). That’s over 8 megapixels (million pixels)…or four times the number of pixels on your Full HD TV at home (1920 x 1080 pixels).

And you won’t need to worry about pixelation – even if you’re sitting in the front row at your local multiplex, you won’t see a single pixel. 4K TV pictures have a resolution of 3840 x 2160, slightly lower than the cinematic version.

Marvel Studios' upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be the first feature film to be shot using 8K cameras, director James Gunn has confirmed.

The sequel to 2014's surprise hit superhero caper, Guardians of the Galaxy, is being shot on the RED 8K WEAPON Vista Vision camera, introduced in April 2015, with the new RED Dragon 8K sensor. The high-spec, high-price camera---they start at $20,000 (£13,700)--is capable of recording full 8K footage (8192 x 4320) at 75 frames per second, in 2.40:1 widescreen. It is, in cinematography terms, a beast. "Very excited to announce Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be the first film to shoot using the RED Weapon 8k," announced director James Gunn, on Twitter.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, XI: Virtual Reality: Think in 360

Clyde DeSouza found an elderly couple dancing in a Goa bar-restaurant. He captured the image and added perspective, giving it a 360⁰ viewing experience, and projected it at Maquinez Palace I, Panaji, as part of his Master Class at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2016. Even as the audience uttered wows, he clipped, “Imagine the same scene with a younger, more dynamic couple!” Welcome to Virtual Reality!

Science-fiction writer and Virtual Reality (VR) developer Clyde DeSouza is the man who has authored a short VR Graphic Novel, ‘Dirrogate’, based on his near-future science fiction novel, Memories with Maya. ‘Dirrogate’, the novel’s film adaptation, is an early example of VR Cinema, a 2015 stereoscopic 3D production, aimed at VR headsets, like Oculus Rift or Gear VR. ‘Dirrogates’ are digital surrogate, real-time 3D stereoscopic incarnations of persons, driven by real movements and body/face language. He made this film at a time when "no 360⁰ cameras were available, neither did we have 2D 360⁰ editing facilities."

“Besides being invaluable for its ability to detect audience engagement in ads, like: whether the audience is really looking at the product name or logo in this shot, and creating dynamic, changing billboards, VR has come to the feature film world too. Ridley Scott’s The Martian and James Wan’s The Conjuring 2 used VR. Cinematic hybrid worlds are the new thing. Video games and story-telling are possible in the same film. Just get the game deviser on the set. If you are making a blend of 3D stereoscopic and VR content, make sure that the cameras are in sync,” he shared.

There were four major international platforms for VR content until now--YouTube 360, Samsung VR, Oculus Store and Vrideo. “Unfortunately, Vrideo has shut shop just last week,” lamented DeSouza. China and Japan are way ahead of the West when it comes to VR. In India, Netflix and Hulu offer VR platforms. Hotstar and Voot are in talks too.” Dwelling on basics, DeSouza identified two set-up brands with cinematic VR cameras locked for 360 live action: one in the 16 configuration and the other in 24, capable of being upgraded to 32, but  “both are priced prohibitively, even after recent cuts,” he regretted.

(Nokia’s Ozo is one such camera. It was selling at US$45,000 in July 2016, compared to US$60,000 when it was first announced, back in December 2015. Each of the Ozo’s eight lenses has a 195° field of view, with a fixed aperture of f/2.4. Behind every lens is a 2K x 2K sensor. There is considerable overlap from one lens to another, which gives the user much more control at the stitching stage. It shoots at 30 frames per second, which is the live video standard, rather than 24 frames you usually see while watching a film).

In an illustration of what VR could achieve, Clyde showed the audience a short film made by an airline about its VR aero-plane at a trade exhibition. Seated in a model aircraft, ‘passengers’ were taken through a journey that promoted all the airlines’ services, and ended on a San Francisco beach. “When they came out, they were greeted by the same crew-member who had served them ‘on-board’, and you can see how excited they were.”

Some of the tips he gave to aspiring game-devisers and other VR hopefuls were:

Build for interaction

Show, don’t tell

Scale is relative, but build to room scale--you cannot cheat with scale.

Clyde DeSouza

Besides being a VR film-maker and advisor to technical bodies, Clyde DeSouza is the author of two books: "Think in 3D", for directors and 3D film-makers. The book has been seen on Hollywood sets of tent-pole productions, and Maya.

"Maya" is his debut novel in hard science fiction which has been received with critical acclaim from science personalities and reviewers.

Watch Dirrogate online at https://samsungvr.com/view/3aS_Berv0Qz

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, XII: Award-winners of Golden and Silver Peacocks

In the curtailed International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which has shrunk from 15 to 9 days over the last 30 years, the closing ceremony was held on the 28^th of November. Partly due to the fact that I have come to be less patient with speeches and formalities and partly in protest at the non-receipt of an invitation to the closing film screening, I decided to skip the ceremony, like I had skipped the opening fixture. Nevertheless, I was happy that a film a liked a lot won the main prize.

The International Competition section had a total of 15 entrants, of which two were from India. Judging them was an International Jury, headed by Czech writer-director Ivan Passer and comprised Larry Smith (UK), Lordan Zafranovic (Croatia), Leila Kilani (Morocco) and Nagesh Kukunoor (India). In addition, eight other movies competed with each other for the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award.

Here are the carpetbaggers;

*Best Film: Iranian film Daughter, directed by Reza Mirkarimi. Peacock statuette and a cash prize of Rs. 40 lakh (4 million) were awarded to the winner. (It’s a good film, not great, but still good enough. Wonder what the competition was like. I was exposed to just Mellow Mud, which was too mellow to keep me glued.)

*Best Director(s): Soner Caner and Baris Kaya for Turkish Film Rauf. Co-directors Soner Caner and Baris Kaya shared the Best Director award for this film. The award includes Rs 15 lakh, a citation and Silver Peacock Trophy.

*Best Actor (Male) Award: Farhad Aslani for Iranian film Daughter. Prize money of Rs.10 lakh was given to the awardee, along with the Silver Peacock Trophy.

*Best Actor (Female) Award: Elina Vaska for Latvian film Mellow Mud. She too received the Silver Peacock and Rs.10 Lakhs as the award.

*Special Jury Award: South Korean movie The Throne by Lee Joon-Ik. A special citation, a Silver Peacock, and a cash prize of Rs.15 lakh.

*The ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Award: Mustafa Kara, for Turkish film, Cold of Kalandar, a Turkish-Hungarian film.

* The ICFT UNESCO Special Mention Award: Tiffany Hsiung, for The Apology. The multi-lingual film The Apology, by Canadian filmmaker Tiffany Hsiung, received a Special Mention in the ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal Competition. The medal bears a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, etched alongside his message ‘in the midst of darkness light prevails.

*Centenary Award for the Best Debut Film of a Director: Pepa San Martin for the Spanish film Ra Ra.

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, XIII: IM Kwon-taek’s 102 films and SPB’s 40,000 songs

South Korean film-maker IM Kwon-taek was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Indian singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam was felicitated with the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year at the International Film festival of India, 2016. The 80 year-old, famed director talked briefly, even owning up to some of his work that wasn’t well-received. Regarded as the father of Korean cinema for his long and prolific career and his work on typically Korean themes and subjects, IM Kwon Taek was feted at the hands of noted Indian director, Ramesh Sippy, who made the all-time favourite dacoit drama, Sholay.

Born in a town that had no cinemas, he began as a studio director, in 1962, with Farewell Duman River. 1976’s Wang Sib Ri/My Hometown, that he began to approach film as a more artistic medium. From then on, he gained acclaim making a series of dramas focused on various aspects of Korean cultural facets, from shamanism (The Divine Bow, 1979) and Buddhism (Mandala, 1981) to womanhood (The Surrogate Womb, 1987) and politics (The Tae Baek Mountains, 1994). In a more commercial mould in the early 90s, IM made The General’s Son (1990-92, period gangster trilogy, the first two of which were the top-grossing films of 1990 and 1991. In 1993, IM made what is arguably the film he is most famous for, the pansori (ancient songs of unrequited love) road drama Seopyeonje (spelling varies), which was also the first Korean film to sell a million tickets in Seoul alone.

His 2000 pansori adaptation Chunhyang, was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and his next work, Chihwaseon, earned the Best Director award in the same competition in 2002. The Surrogate Womb winning Best Actress for current Busan International Film Festival director KANG Soo-yeon at the Venice International Film Festival in 1987 and his 1993 classic Seopyeonje often featuring near the top of best of Korean cinema lists. In 2005, he was conferred an honorary Golden Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival. Following a few films that were less well-received, IM returned with his 102nd film Revivre, in 2014, which debuted at Venice, and was broadly screened at international events.

Besides IFFI, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian Film Awards, too, in 2015. After Goa governor Mridula Sinha gave him the prize at the opening ceremony, IM made some brief remarks, alluding to how he felt he had made immature films at the beginning of his career. Earlier, at a press conference, the octogenarian filmmaker stated that he believed he had yet to make a full-fledged masterpiece.

IM also reserved some kind works for Indian cinema, when he mentioned his appreciation for the works of actor Shah Rukh Khan (did he get the name wrong or what? ShahRukh did not work in 3 Idiots, Aamir Khan did), including 3 Idiots (2009), and the India-set Danny Boyle’s Academy Award winner Slumdog Millionaire (2008, starring Dev Patel, and based on a novel that was inspired by a popular TV game show).

Legendary singer, actor and music director S.P. Balasubrahmanyam (with the shawl) was felicitated for his contribution to Indian Cinema at the hands of India’s Central Government Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Venkaiah Naidu and actor Mukesh Khanna (on the extreme right). Although he is cited as the personality of the Year, this is SPB’s 50^th year in films and he has completed 70 years of age last June. A few months before his 69^th birthday, SP Balasubrahmanyam had the rare distinction of singing the maximum number of songs on a single day. He recorded 21 songs in Kannada, for composer Upendra Kumar, from 9 am to 9 pm, on February 8, 1981. IN addition, he has also sung 19 songs in Tamil and 16 songs in Hindi in a day.

SPB was born in a part of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state, which is now revamped, and his birth home falls in TamilNadu. Having made his debut in 1966 in a Telugu film, Sri Sri Sri Maryaada Raamanna, he has rendered his voice to tens of thousands of songs in 15 languages, and holds a Guinness Record for having recorded the highest number of songs, which has led him to confess, “I regretted not watching my kids grow up due to my busy schedules.” And he is even a trained singer.

(with RDB, right)

Telugu movie Sankarabharanam and 1981 Hindi hit Ek Duje Ke Liye (he sang for the on-screen Kamalahasan, a pairing that was repeated in R.D. Burman and Ramesh Sippy’s Saagar) are films that became the turning points of his career. He later acquired fame in Hindi films as the playback voice that was best identified with the rising superstar, Salman Khan, mainly with the film Maine Pyar Kiya.

It was a dream come true for him when he was invited by no less a legend than the Emperor of film music, Naushad, to sing for Teri Payal Mere Geet. The film flopped, but Naushad received the Miyan Tansen (the unrivalled singer at Emperor Akbar’s court) award for the best classical composition in a Hindi film, while he bagged the best classical singer award. Relative newcomers but superstars of their time, the composer duo Nadeem-Shravan had great adulation for him. Nadeem often said that he was the best singer in of his time. SPB regards Mohammed Rafi as his ‘all time favourite’ singer and inspiration, and said he learnt from Rafi (died 1980), more than anyone else.

Controversy had raged all through the70s, when giants like Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi were trying to prove that one, not the other, had sung more than 28,000 songs. It was settled for good now, but not between them. Rafi died in 1980, Lata is close to 90. A third claimant emerged, and won: the six times winner of National Film Awards for Best Male Playback Singer, Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam has sung more than 40,000 songs so far, reckons the (Guinness) Book of World Records, taking him to the top of their countdown!

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary, XIV: Catching what you can!

If you really want to notch up six films a day, you can. All you need is luck, in terms of show slots and seats, an insatiable appetite for cinema of all forms from all countries, no appetite for food of the eating and drinking kind, an alarm clock body that can turn off on demand and turn on at will, and no commitments or engagements that you cannot skip or postpone during the festival period. Well, I might score high in terms of appetite for cinema, or soul curry, but on all other counts, my rank would be rock-bottom.

With no commitments, I can make it up to five; with one brief commitment a day, four. Once I had agreed to cover 11 events over eight days for the Festival’s official Daily Bulletin, Peacock, it immediately brought the projected tally down to four a day. Wait a minute! Attending takes away one slot, writing about the event costs another. So, I was sadly down to three films a day. I tried getting up early (8 a.m.) or sleeping late (3 a.m.), for ‘daylight saving’, but neither option worked more than once. No, not just two films! Heck, why did I go all the way to Panaji to watch two films a day? Wiser and regretful, I will hope NOT to write for the daily bulletin next year onwards, and concentrate on films, Films and more FILMS. At the International Film Festival of India, gimme a 5 every day, at least!

There were six screenings a day on many days at most venues, and managing to watch two films a day was still worth the while. Of course, you realise you would have missed 36 films by the end of the festival. But, by perverse logic, you end up feeling not so guilty, because the festival has been curtailed this year to 8 active days, from the routine 10. Had that been the case, my loss would have been 42 films!!

This is what I saw.

1.      Afterimage/Andzrej Wajda/Poland/Opening film

Brilliant imagery, mature direction (what else can one expect of the Master’s last film?), apt selection to flag off the festival. Strongly political, yet able to entrance on its own brilliance.

Rating: *** ½

2.      Tamara/Elia K. Schneider/Venezuela/Mid-Fest film

Sexuality and bi-sexuality are the themes of this amazingly bold film, where a star plays a real-life inspired character, involving explicit nudity. Ambitious, but does not quite get where it set out to go.

Rating: ***

3.      Daughter/Raza Mirkarimi/Iran

I thought it fell slightly below the mark, in terms of Iranian excellence benchmarks, when it comes to treatment of familial sensitivity. Fantastic performances helped it bag the Golden Peacock.

Rating: *** ½

4.      Mellow Mud/Renars Vimba/Latvia

Slow, dull, dragging films have been the bane of film festivals since 1976, at least. Not too long into the narrative, I found the film getting stuck in the mud, mellow or not did not matter. I did not sit through this one, so no ratings. 

5.      Scarred Hearts/Rado Jude/Romania-Germany

Set in 1937, the film is about a sanatorium and the patients who keep dying there. Jude proves that there can be genuine humour, love and compassion in the most morbid of circumstances. At 141 minutes, it is grim viewing, but good cinema.

Rating: ***

6.      Bench Cinema/Mohammad Ramanian/Iran

You’ve got to give it to them, and give it to them in this case, surely. Where do they dream up such realistic subjects from? ‘If foreign films are banned, as they were in Iran during the Cultural Revolution, try memorising the lines and render them before an audience, as a form of para-dubbing’. How’s that for a premise? A tad too long though.

Rating: ***

7.      Like Cotton Twines/Leila Djansi/Ghana

Noblesse of cause is just not enough. Harsh reality does not, in itself, make for engaging cinema. ‘Slaves to the gods’ (read priests) is a condemnable practice of sexual slavery thrust upon some girls entering puberty that still exists in parts of Ghana, and a lot of Western do-gooders are working hard to eradicate it. NGO stuff, mainly.

Rating: ** ½

8.      Malaria/Parviz Shahbazi/Iran

When an Iranian film is named Malaria, rest assured it will have nothing to do with the mosquito borne disease. A girl runs away from home and ends up with a street band called...ok, you got it....Malaria. Usual Iranian ambience, plus some unusually un-Iranian scenes.

Rating: ***

9.      We Are the Flesh/Emiliano Rocha Minter/Mexico

Indeed. Genitals are flesh, aren’t day? A surreal nightmare, there is very little to redeem the film, which is full of sex overdrive, grotesque images and dystopian nonsense. I saw it more than halfway through, hence the rating.

Rating: ½ *

10.  Godless/Ralitza Petrova/Bulgaria-France-Denmark

Godless and listless. A nurse looking after the old and infirm steals their id cards to make money on the side, to meet her morphine addiction. Drudgery, both on and off the screen. I escaped early, so the film goes ratingless.

11.  Death in Sarajevo/Denis Tanovic/France-Bosnia-Herzegovina

Layered and full of historical references, Denis Tanovic’s latest outing is not quite in the same league as the classic No Man’s Land. It is one of the most ‘moving’ films in recent history, with the word ‘moving’ translating as ‘endless walking’ within a hotel’s premises. If you can see more than I did, add half a star more.

Rating: ***

12.  Graduation/Cristian Mungiu/Romania-Belgium-France-UK

Very Iranian in terms of subject and socio-moral conflict, Mungiu, who wowed IFFI seven years ago with 4 Weeks 3 Months and 2 Days (Golden Palm and Best Director winner at Cannes, the first ever Romanian to win this big) serves us a reflective story of parental dilemmas and corruption as means of attaining goals, not out of greed, though.

Rating: ***

13.  I, Daniel Blake/Ken Loach/Belgium-France-UK

Old-fashioned is not dead. Straight, polished, compelling story-telling of the Kenneth Charles Loach (now 80) kind was a treat at IFFI, and, for me, the pick of the lot. The Wind that Shakes the Barley also fuels the never-say-die spirit of the lead character. Beating the system might be a pipe dream for a billion laymen, but they will all find their spirits soaring as they watch Daniel Blake confront British high-handed, uncaring bureaucracy. Why did it not win the Golden peacock? It wasn’t competing!

Rating: ****

14.  The Salesman/Asghar Farhadi/Iran-France

You cannot help expecting anything but a masterpiece from Asghar Farhadi, and you cannot then help being just a wee bit short-changed, even if a film is as good as The Salesman (Best Screenplay at Cannes). The man who gave us A Separation (Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film, Best Director at IFFI) is still in great form, though. Must see.

Rating: *** ½

15.  Paterson/Jim Jarmusch/USA-Germany-France

Paterson is about an American small-town bus-driver, who is madly in love with his Iranian wife, and is also a poet of considerable merit. Adam Driver (eponymous role?) and Golshifteh Farhani work magic. James Roberto ‘Jim’ Jarmusch is of German, Irish and Czech descent, and at 63, he captures the sensitivities and sensibilities of a minor universe. Call it art-house, call it Indie, just let it grow up to its 115 minutes, and you will cherish the ride.

Rating: *** ½

16.  Tunnel/Kim Seong-hun/Republic of Korea

Quite simply, this is what an honest natural disaster movie should look like. A strong commentary on capitalism, undying faith in human spirit, resilience, and, above all, the politico-media spectacle that that side-steps the core issues while lives are being lost. Tunnel is a Korean film bereft of any Big Brother Hollywood trappings.

Rating: ***

17.  Office/Hong Wan-chan/ South Korea

What if an office executive is unscrupulously victimised, targeted and sacked? In Office, he kills his family and commits suicide. That’s the prologue. Now begins a series of gory and unexplained deaths, with a touch of the super-natural. Amazingly slick and full of twists, this thriller leaves a few knots unravelled. Or, did I not watch it with requisite attention and missed the revelations?

Rating: ***

Genders and Sexualities in Films and Society: Beyond the Binary

Sexuality and the stigmas attached to it, by the state/religion/patriarchal society, have meant both a private and public hell, for those human beings who do not classify as male or female. There are already a significant number of closet queers/homosexuals, lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgender persons who have come out of into the open, including celebrities, especially media, entertainment and fashion industry figures.

Names like Great Garbo, Charles Laughton, Cary Grant, Anthony Perkins, Jodie Foster, Ellen DeGeneres, Bryan Singer, David Bowie, George Michael, Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Cynthia Nixon, Ricky Martin, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Tracy Chapman, Rupert Everett, Pedro Almodovar, Queen Latifah, Neal Patrick Harris, Matt Bomer, Michelle Rodriguez (swings both ways, pictured above) have identified themselves as beyond the binary.

Nearer home, in India, we have several personalities who feature in all discussions on the subject and are named as L/G/B/T/, but few have had the courage to admitting their sexual status. Names like Rohit Bal, Vikram Seth (public statement), Manish Arora (public admission), Manvendra Singh Gohil (a royal, known as the first Indian gay prince) occur often. Bobby Darling (Pankaj Sharma, underwent sex- change operation). Obvious names have been deliberately omitted.

Three film-related personalities turned up on December 10 at The Integral Space in Central Mumbai to read reports, recite poems, have panel discussions and present a snippet from a Hindu mythological epic, on the subject of Beyond the Binaries: Conversations on Genders and Sexualities. They were theatre-film actress, social worker and philanthropist, Dolly Thakore, editor script-writer Apurv (sometimes spelt Apurva) Asrani and theatre-film actress-director Faezeh Jalali.     

After proving himself as an editor with a keen eye, in films like Satya, Snip!, Shahid and CityLights, Apurva made his debut as a full-fledged screenwriter penning the story, screenplay and dialogue of Aligarh, directed by Hansal Mehta. The human rights biopic premièred at the Busan International Film Festival and had its UK première at the London Film Festival. It also enjoyed the rare honour of being the first Indian film to open the Mumbai Film Festival in 16 years, last year. It got limited release in multiplexes earlier this year.

Aligarh derives its title from a town in Uttar Pradesh state of India, and a University named after the town, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). It received a standing ovation after its screening at Busan, South Korea. When it came to theatrical release, the movie faced censor issues and the makers were not happy with the cuts (deletions) imposed on them. The Chairperson called their protests publicity stunts. They wanted to fight with the Tribunal. But as there wasn’t enough time for the tribunal to watch and certify the movie, the makers tried a trick: they made a collage/medley of all the films that were passed with Universal (U) Exhibition certificates and Universal--but children must be accompanied by Adults (UA) certificates, in spite of nudity, obscene language and sex. Here they were offering an Adults (A) Only certificate, but with cuts too. Finally, the makers accepted the some of the cuts suggested by the censor board, as a compromise, and released the film.

Aligarh, the film, is based on the true story of Professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, a shy academic, and real-life journalist Deepu Sebastian, who wrote about the case in The Indian Express (called India Post in the film). Siras was thrown out of AMU, in 2010, after he was filmed by intruders while having sex with a male rickshaw puller in his quarters, on campus. This happened in the year following the Delhi High Court’s historic ruling, reading down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, to effectively decriminalise homosexuality (overturned in 2013 by the Supreme Court, and now once again under the scanner of a larger SC bench of judges). Professor Siras successfully sued AMU in the Allahabad High Court. Shortly afterwards, he was found dead in mysterious circumstances, in his apartment, in what was at first suspected to be a suicide.

Talking about film, Asrani revealed that most of the problems it faced were pre-production or post production. “We were sued by the Professor’s family, who denied that Siras had any bisexual or homosexual leanings. Then, we faced censorship issues of the worst kind. The Panel members said things I could not believe, to deny the film a wider, unscathed release. Finally, after release, the multiplexes ran empty, and it broke my heart when I saw this for myself. We were lucky in getting a good release, thanks to some big names associated with the film---most such subjects would not find it easy--but were unsuccessful in reaching many viewers.”

On the issue of his own sexuality, Apurv has already declared in the media, “I am tired of living like a 2nd class citizen. Tired of pretending to be someone that I’m not. It makes my blood boil when you can hold your heterosexual partner publicly, but I can’t. It angers me when you introduce your ‘husband’ or your ‘wife’ at a public event and I have to introduce my partner as my ‘friend’. I am frustrated that when I sign my insurance papers, I can’t nominate the man who has stood by me for 9 years; nor can I adopt a child with him.”

Faezeh Jalili presented an excerpt from her play, Shikhandi, about the sister of the woman who was at the centre of the Mahabharat tale, Draupadi. As an actress, Faezeh was seen in Qissa, Qurbaan and Slumdog Millionaire. She is the Founder at FATS Theatre and Fat Productions (if the name is eponymous, maybe she was obese a decade ago; she is in great shape now!). Earlier associated with The Drama School, Mumbai and The Comedy Store, Faezeh studied Theatre at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and did stints at Berlin Post School, KiM: Physical Theatre and Dance, and Beloit College.

Shikhandi questions gender and sexuality in ancient times. The Story of the in-betweens it’s a tale of one of the earliest trans* (that’s the new, accepted term for the all encompassing non-binary community, we were told by social scientist Smriti Nevatia, who, earlier presented the findings of a survey) characters in mythology. Bagging the Runner-Up prize at the Sultan Padamsee Awards, she won Rs. 25,000. (Established in 1965, the Sultan Padamsee—younger brother of Alyque Padamsee--Award is aimed to celebrate new voices emerging from Indian theatre. It had been discontinued for two decades, and only revived this year. Sultan died at the age of 24). Having written a play for the first time, the theatre actor-cum-director plans to use the prize money to produce the play with some help from the prize money.

Speakers included well-known Harrish Iyer (equal rights activist), Sonal Glani (bi-sexual actvist) and Meet (Meet is a proper noun here; he is an Assistant Professor at Mumbai University) Tara Dnyaneshwar. Dolly Thakore, National Co-Ordinator for Laadli Girl Child campaign media award, recited a poem by Harnidh Kaur. Harrish rued the absence of a Phoolan (dreaded dacoit) Devi-like character with L/G/B/T/+ sexuality on Indian screens, and Meet lamented the fact that stereo-typing never ends, whatever the next or new label. Every label has its own narrow span, he asserted.

Sonal was encouraged by the response shown by the police to cases of violence and victimisation and disagreed with this writer, who tried to caution them against the apathy and corruption in the law enforcers of the country, and not to expect much help from them. All agreed on the need for strong pressure groups and NGOs to back the cause. Harrish made a strong pitch for supporting and joining the Gay Pride march, to be held early next year.

Grace Singh and Prakash Thangadas also read their poems; all three poems were curated from ‘#16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Contest’. Animated videos by Gaysi (Organisation) were also shown. Dolly had read out the poetry by Harnidh Kaur At the event, every performer and participant was felicitated with a bag of goodies, presented, in turns, by Dolly, and S.V. ‘Bobby’ Sista, Executive Trustee of Population First. Sista ran an advertising agency called Sistas for many a decade, and refuses to hang his boots, even at 85. Nishtha Vashisht(a), also part of the UNESCO family, based in Delhi, was among the attendees, having flown down especially for the occasion.

At the event, every performer and participant was felicitated with a bag of goodies, presented, in turns, by Dolly, and S.V. ‘Bobby’ Sista, Executive Trustee of Population First. Sista ran an advertising agency called Sistas for many a decade, and refuses to hang his boots, even at 85. Nishtha Vashisht(a), also part of the UNESCO family, based in Delhi, was among the attendees, having flown down especially for the occasion. Veena Vinod, Communications Manager, received the guests.Veena Vinod, Communications Manager, received the guests. Ishmeet Nagpal, Programme Manager​, Population First, compèred the event, while the panel discussion was moderated by Srinidhi Iyer, Gender Specialist, Population First. Support was extended by the Colors Viacom TV channel group and the Screen Writers’ Association.

Media was conspicuous by its absence, present company probably being the sole exclusion. Sound system played on, off and crackling games: one way now, another way then and another way next.

(Incidentally, a sandwich and tea do not qualify as the ‘high-tea’ promised in the flyer. It was sure a sip and a bite, but certainly not enough to make you ‘high’).

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Rewarding creativity in highlighting a burning issue, Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity were launched in 2008 by Population First, a UNESCO wing, to promote awareness about issues that are often either swept under the carpet, vehemently opposed or even violently attacked. Laadli means dear/loved/spoilt/indulged, in Urdu/Hindi, and is female in connotation.

You could submit entries in audio visual forms and many other formats, and win prizes. The last date has been extended from 15th December to 25th December.

Detailed info on: http://populationfirst.org/CALL%20FOR%20ENTRIES%202015-16_A3%20Final%20Version.pdf

Entry form: http://populationfirst.org/Entry_form_LMAAGS_2015_English.pdf

Siraj Syed reviews Rogue One, A Star Wars Story: While there is war, there is hope!

“Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.”

— George Walton Lucas, Jr.

"It's the reality of war. Good guys are bad. Bad guys are good. It's complicated, layered; a very rich scenario in which to set a movie." --Gareth Edwards.

It has been reported that the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, liked Rogue One very much, and that this means a lot to director Gareth Edwards. Good for Gareth. Lucas has not made a film in 11 years, on Star Wars or any other subject, and sold off his company and franchise to Disney, in 2012.

Pitched as the first of an anthology and coming in the middle of the long story, Rogue One has fleeting glimpses of the familiar characters who inhabited ‘a galaxy far, far away’. Personas it does have in its narrative are photo-shopped images of the familiar figures, and the round of applause that greets the entry of the oldies notwithstanding, the layers, when unpeeled, do not match up to the flesh and bones of the real thing.

After the formation of the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance recruits Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) to work with a team, including Alliance Intelligence Officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), to steal the design schematics of the Empire's new super-weapon, the Death Star. Jyn is the daughter of an Empire deserter scientist, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelson), who is dragged out of his hideout to join the weapon programme. His wife is killed, trying to resist, but his young daughter, hidden in a cave-like trench (safe-house?), manages to evade Advanced Weapons Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) killer troops. She is later rescued by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), but abandoned, for unknown reasons. Now an adult, she is unaware whether her father is alive or dead, but the rebels know that he is alive and working on the weapon.

Led into believing that the Alliance is out to rescue her father, Jyn is sent with Cassian to locate Galen, who has instructions to kill him on sight, rather than attempt a rescue. A robot named K2SO is the co-pilot. Along the way, the trio encounter Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), a blind ‘samurai’, who is a dedicated believer in the Force, and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang), a brutal mercenary, both of who come aboard on this do or die, rather do and die, mission. They are captured by Gerrera, a battered veteran of the Clone Wars, who is now a living bundle of contraptions, walking on artificial feet and breathing through a ventilator. There, they bump into Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), an Empire defector, who knows Galen. Gerrera tries to explain why he left Jyn to an uncertain fate, and the two then see the hologram sent by Galen. But just then, an explosion hits the city, and destroys it completely. It is Krennic testing the weapon, to prove his loyalty to the Empire.

How many of the characters in Rogue One are carry-overs from George Lucas’s manuscripts, only die-hard fans and the franchise makers would know. For a stand-alone viewer, it is tough remembering the names of the faces, even in the avatar at hand. Add to that the planets and stars (Scarif, Jedha, Death Star...), the animals and robots, the planes and contraptions, and you might run out of RAM. Let’s, instead, get to the names of the writers who keyed in these names, collating and coalescing a story and metamorphosing it into the screenplay. A long time ago, it was George Lucas. Now, we have Tony Gilroy (The Devil’s Advocate, Armageddon, Four Bourne films; did the Rogue One Re-shoot), John Knoll, (writing debut, worked with Industrial Light and Magic, part developed Adobe Photoshop; visual effects supervisor for the Star Wards prequel trilogy), Gary Whitta (parted ways early) and Chris Weitz (brother of Paul W; Cinderella, The Golden Compass). It was Knoll who pitched the idea for the film, a full 10 years before its development; after the Disney acquisition, he felt as if he had to pitch it again, or forever wonder, "what might've happened if I had?”

Rogue One is a reference not to a man or a nation or a ..., but to a ...“No spoilers, please.” Okay, so this to Karishma Pandya and Universal Communications, the PR agency that organised the press preview. I would not want to be the Rogue One, who spilled the beans. C3PO and R2D2 are sure-fire mass magnets, but what do you do when the story does not allow you to milk their charisma, except in a couple of fleeting catch- me-if-you-can pan shots? Create K2SO. Taller, with the same, or even sharper sense of humour. All said and done, a robot is robot. What’s in a name? So cute!

What is Rogue One about? Or, for that matter, what is the Star Wars series about? Stars, without doubt. Common men turning into ‘stars’. What is written in the stars. Stardust (Jyn’s pet-name is Stardust). Death Star. Stars and galaxies. Wars, for sure. Men, machines, animals. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Trade, power, greed. Tyrants, mercenaries and rebels. Now, if you distance yourself, you will have little difficulty in understanding the infinite permanence of war. We were fighting 10,000 years ago, we are fighting now and we will fight 10,000 years hence. It’s a War for bums on seats, ain’t it?

“Men may come and men may go, but war goes on forever,” with apologies to Alfred ‘Lord’ Tennyson. Another apology is due to Winston Churchill, “We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.” Rogue One is a futuristic re-creation of an ancient human trait that uses Biblical landscapes and World War II (Dunkirk, Normandy) as reference points.

Razzle dazzle, 3D thrills and inter-planetary visual treats, a cocky sense of humour, some well employed ploys (must mention Chirrut’s refrain, “The Force is With Me, I am With the Force”), and almost half a dozen above par performances, from an international cast (as an aside, tipping the hat to 72 year-old George Lucas, who is of German, Swiss, English, Scottish, Dutch and French descent), they all work for director Gareth Edwards (UK-Welsh; End Day, Monsters, Godzilla). As does the $200 million budget, which allows for some capturing breath-taking images by Greig Fraser (Australian; Snow White and the Huntsman, Zero Dark Thirty, Fox-catcher) on Ultra Panavision 70 lenses, mounted on Arri Alexa 65 cameras, to turn into another world experience.

The extended climax, in spite of several clever twists, needed to be sharper, though the length, at just over two hours, is still easy on you. Some gaping holes in the narrative, presumably for the fans to fill-in, are not fair on the itinerant ticket-buyer. And Jabez Olssen (New Zealand; The Lord of the Rings, King  Kong, The Lovely Bones) has to grope often for smooth cutting points, to splice successive shots. Music is crucial to such themes. Distant drums and eerie echoes, coupled with battle-field crescendos, are the general gamut for the genre. Same here. Michael Giacchino, the composer, stated: "It is a film that is, in many ways, a really great World War II movie (what did I tell you?), and I loved that about it.” Giacchino incorporated Williams' themes from previous films into the score. That’s welcome.

Felicity Jones (British, 33), where have you been hiding? Let’s add a few more nouns to your name: Authenticity, Tenacity, Sagacity, Vivacity, ...rather, let’s keep it simple: Simplicity. Diego Luna-Alexander (Mexican, The Terminal, Elysium, Milk) stumbles a bit when given mundane dialogue, but makes up when the going gets racy. Paul Benjamin ‘Ben’ Mendelsohn (Australian; Australia-the film, The Dark Knight Rises, Gods and Kings) is only passable. Mads has left the Bond villain way behind, and taken huge strides with almost every film he has done since.

Donnie Yen from HongKong (All’s Well, Ends Well, Monkey King, An Inspector Calls; basically an action director) adds stature to a caricature. Forest Whitaker, in a brief role, is less stereo-typical than is his wont, largely thanks to his incongruous get-up. Riz Ahmed (The Road to Guantanamo, Night-crawler, Jason Bourne)’s is a spirited portrayal, and it’s about time this ‘pilot’ took off for destined destinations. Jackie Shroff, Hindi films’ ‘Jaggu Dada’, has a clone in the shape of Jiang Wen, only bigger. D’Earth invader...oops, Darth Vader is voiced by, YES, James Earl Jones, while Vader is physically played by several “large-framed performers".

“Hope” is mentioned seven times in the film (8?9?).

“In a War Against all Odds, Hope is Your only Real Weapon.”

Have I leaked the opening crawl of the next volume in the anthology, due December 2017?

Hope not.

Rating: *** (As usual, fans can add their own ½ *)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1J8ZA8_plw

Siraj Syed reviews Wajah Tum Ho: Rapists and therapists, aka Serial Killing on a News Channel

Some people just deserve to die.

There must be a mistake. Are you talking to me? Are you suggesting that I have done something that ...

No, not you.

Then who?

The corrupt Assistant Commissioner of Police who preys on young lovers in parking lots, and extorts sex the teenage girl-friend in a guest-house, in return for letting them off.

Isn’t this the same cop who is blackmailing a Mumbai-based real-estate magnate for larger instalments, to keep his trap shut, in a case where the tycoon got away scot free, after committing a basement rape?

Yes, the same guy. He is the reason.

For what?

Murder.

Murder? Whose murder? Who murders whom?

Somebody murders the ACP. Brutally. Heinously.

Well, there are a lot of corrupt cops around, so one less...But murder...?

On live TV.

What? Live TV? How? Why?

Wajah Tum Ho! You are the reason!

Look, ...me? I am a mere...

No no, not you.

Then who?

The builder, who conspired with three others in the rape case, including the TV channel-owner and the cop, and now enjoys high-rise bedroom floor-shows, as a full-time occupation.

Well, a lot of building activity is illegal, and real-estate developers are known to use any means to grab plots, including...

Murder.

Yes, murder. They do have killer instincts, we know.

It is the builder who gets murdered!

Oh my God! Then it must be the handiwork of some dispossessed slum-dweller, seeking vengeance against the land-grabber. Builders are a mafia alright.

Do you think any slum-dweller would be able to commit and broadcast a billionaire’s murder, live, on a top news channel?

Again on live TV? Unbelievable! What’s going on? How?

Ever heard of hacking?

Of course. Hacked to death. Is that how the builder gets killed?

Not that kind of hacking. Hacking has several meanings.

I get it. Some of our less principled journalists do hacking jobs. Was the TV channel attempting...?

Not that kind of hacking either. I am talking about IP and satellite-based hacking, uploading your own content, supplanting the TV programme being aired. The builder is frozen to death in a transparent container, while the whole of India watches, stunned.

Really? But how can anyone do that? Are you suggesting that this was done to boost viewership ratings?

Maybe.

What do mean maybe? What is the channel doing about it? Why has the killer...

Killer? How do you know it is one person?

Okay, killer oblique killers...why has oblique have, he oblique they, not been caught yet?

He? Could be sex, male or female, mixed doubles, or gang or a syndicate. How do you know that the killer or killers belong to the male gender?

I don’t know. I only know what you have told me. Anyway, what are the cops doing about it?

Trying to prevent the third live broadcast.

Third? You mean one more could cop out?

Yes. Unless the cop on the case finds out who is, or are, the serial killer or killers, hacking into the news channel, showing a victim drowned in petrol, being set on fire.

Fire? I thought you said he was frozen!

The second victim was frozen, the first was burnt.

Fire and ice! Oh my God! How gory! Yet, I fail to see the reason...

We are the reason.

We? Who is we?

Commoners. The common man. Like the senior citizen passer-by, who hears shouts, then catches glimpses of a horrible crime being committed, live, by bending down to the level of the gap left between the rolling shutter and the floor, cries foul, jumps on to his scooter, rushes to a police station, and gets an Inspector to the scene of crime, against his will.

Against whose will?

The Inspector’s. Funny!

What a brave, conscientious man! But how is the do-gooder responsible for the mayhem on TV?

He gets killed too!

On TV? Live? Is there is no justice in this world? Doesn’t the Inspector protect the whistle-blower, ...witness protection and all that?

No. But misdeeds catch-up with the rogue. One day, while speeding his car, he tries to strike a bigger bargain with a builder, on the mobile phone, as his  “moonh band rakhneykee qeemat”, adjusted for inflation. His speeding car is attacked with an iron rod, which is driven into his palm, after he falls out in the bushes. He is then dragged to a secret, hi-tech chamber and then...

The ACP? This is the same ACP!

Yes, indeed. The ACP.

There is some justice, after all. So the builder did it!

Builder? Why? To save some lakhs?

You’re right. They are miserly, but ...On second thought, a rival TV channel did it!

Why? Jealousy? But the ratings went soaring after the murders. Besides, such channels would be prime suspects.

That’s a point. You know what? The rape victim did it. That should have been obvious.

Wrong. She is ...let us say...incapacitated ... not around.

Hmmm..., by elimination, that leaves only the TV channel owner himself. What a master stroke! Kill your partner in crime, kill the Inspector who worked on the case, and see your ratings surge to an all-time high. All in one go.

Aren’t you dumb? The obvious, logical, apparent, evident suspect is never the killer. What is the mystery, the suspense, the fun, the thrill in such a story? And as I hinted, he could be the third to meet a gruesome death. Besides, as I keep pointing out, nobody knows whether the therapy, the rapist, and his co-conspiratorist were subjected to, was a solo effort, and not team-work? You forgot the two opposing lawyers who are lovers outside the courtroom, the rape victim’s distraught parents, the head of IT in the TV channel, the couple in the first scene, ......

Ok. I  get the fundas. So how do we find out?

We don’t. He will.

Who’s he?

There is widower cop on the case. He has a really cute daughter who wants him to get her to pole position in the school dance, leveraging his uniform. The committed policeman mouths clap-trap dialogue @ 1 one-upmanship line per shot, is usually in mufti, shows rippling muscles, walks with a swagger, compares the slow unravelling of the case to peeling onions, hopes to surmount the astrological hurdle of a malevolent Saturn in his way, and wears dark glasses.

So how will he solve the case?

With a little help from us.

Look, Miss Marple, who do you think I am? Hercule Poirot, Inspector Maigret or Sherlock Holmes?

You didn’t have to be either. Just look for the motive. The reason. The Wajah.

Meanwhile, here a lot of red ear-rings as clues.

Ear-rings? Did I hear that right? You meant herrings, obviously.

Obviously, but never fall for the obvious.

Okay. Start

A song in the film Hate Story 3

Erotic thriller

Derrières and cleavages

Georgia

Three old film songs--two originally sung by the legendary Kishore Kumar--‘Pal pal dil key paas’ (hit), ‘Aesey na mujhey tum dekho’ (moderate hit) and ‘Maahi ve’ (more recent, runaway hit), from Kaante, re-interpreted, incorporated

One singer furious

CBFC’s For Adults Only rating

Story, screenplay and dialogue ‘suspects’: Sammeer Arora (also an alternate healing therapist; some wounds take time to heal, surely), Rashmi Singh-Virag Mishra and the man whodunit: Vishal Pandya

Pandya from the Vikram Bhatt camp (no kidding)

Hate Story 3

Hate Story 2

Three: Love Lies Betrayal

Sana Khan as Siya (Zarine Khan was Siya  in Hate Story 3; see ya!), lawyer No.1

Pole dance by Zarine Khan

Gurmeet Choudhary of TV fame, as lawyer No. 2

Sharman Joshi as the Inspector

Rajniesh Duggal as the TV boss delighted to have another Dev Anand song picturised on him, after ‘Chhod do aanchal’, in the sweltering company of Sana Khan and Sherlyn Chopra

Sherlyn Chopra doing a Sunny Leone

Prarthana Behere perambulates on to the Hindi screen effortlessly as the hapless victim

Himmanshoo Malhotra comes from TV

Suhas Khandke seen after a long time, playing the good Samaritan, doing a good job

Prakash Kutty (cinematography) and Manish More (editing) by the Hate Story 3 team-members is luscious and gripping, in good measure

There is a ‘Making of’ video on the Net, and we are sworn not to reveal the ending—of the video, that is

Denouement

Shhhhhh.... Keep quiet. This is an erotic, glossy, music video style, suspense thriller, murder mystery, revenge drama. Why do you keep laughing all the time?

Laugh? Who? Me? Why would I laugh?

There has to be a reason for everything.

Rating: *

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFhKj-NaHTc

Hate Story 4 is scheduled to arrive on 13 Oct 2017

Siraj Syed reviews screenwriter Kirtida Gautam’s thought-provoking novel, #Iam16ICanRape

If a title like this cannot provoke you, and arouse immense curiosity, very little else will. A #hashtag that boldly declares its raison d’être, and alludes to a provision under Indian Criminal Law that only adults can be convicted of most crimes, younger convicted criminals being sentenced to time in a remand (reform) home. Even as author Kirtida was moving base to a new home in another continent, the law was amended in India, and now, ‘under-age’ rape offenders will be treated like their adult counter-parts. Her stand that there should be no mitigating circumstances for a person committing rape, and being under 16 years of age, or of any age, is no defence.

Before I move on to address the book itself, it will be worthwhile quoting from her blogs. Here is an excerpt from 24 December 2015:

“Is this amendment a proactive action to lessen the growing rape culture in India?

As a clinical psychologist, I have my doubts about that.

The swiftness, severity, and certainty of punishment are the key elements in understanding a law’s ability to control human behaviour. 

Any crime should be seen in totality of the crime committed. Not just in the law books. When it is clear, visible, and objective that the crime committed was not the product of a juvenile mind but the product of a mind that is capable of premeditation, then the juvenile justice system must waiver the accused to the adult court.

And rape is one crime, which is ALWAYS PREMEDITATED. People can commit a murder in the spur of a moment, by mistake, but a person can’t commit a rape at the spur of the moment, by mistake. Therefore, the juvenile justice umbrella must be removed from law books in cases of coercive rape.

I don’t propose to lower down the age limit to 16. It doesn’t make any sense. Tomorrow, a boy of 15 years might commit a rape and we will start the whole circus again. My concern is not 18, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, or 2…

For rape, the juvenile justice system of this country must waiver the accused to the adult court. Waiver is the legal transfer of jurisdiction procedure over the juvenile offenders to the adult court for criminal prosecution.

If a person is adult enough to commit the rape, the person is adult enough to take the punishment, period.”

#IAm16ICanRape-- That such a rapacious thread can exist on the Internet, even in a novelist’s imagination, should be a cause for deep concern. And screen-writer turned novelist Kirtida’s book is nothing if not an epic encapsulation of concern, anguish, and print vigilantism. The thread evolves into a multi-layered collage of a family, individual fads and foibles, demeanours and misdemeanours, ambition and class divisions, and, above all, about evil.

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.” Was a line that was made immortal by Orson Welles during his radio days, playing a character called The Shadow. The Shadow is a fictional character created by Walter B. Gibson, one of the most famous of the pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s. Born Kent Allard, the Shadow, who was gifted with mind-reading abilities, assumed various identities for his crime-fighting work, most notably that of Lamont Cranston.

Most historical dictators and/or psychopaths have been geniuses first, and madmen later. Gautam reminds us that a perfectly normal looking and behaving teenager could be cultivating thought and ideas that, when put to practice, would seem too incredible, too dastardly to be true. Her Aarush Kashyap is just such a boy ‘wonder’.

Talking to a criminal psychologist who works in courts, and who is also a lecturer, I put across my own pet theory that all humans are born truly evil, capable of all possible heinous crimes. Most of them either do not get the opportunities to commit the crimes they desire to. Parents and social upbringing, as well as experiences, merely stoke or douse their traits, to varying degrees. I have met a few hundred such persons, and my theory is based on a long-term study. Expecting her to get outraged, I was trying to prepare for the retort; instead, she said, “That is the first lesson I teach in class.” My theory that had felt vindicated after I had read Kirtida’s book now stood re-affirmed, though I wonder whether Kirtida has such strong views. And yet, not for one moment does she relent in condemning the unflattering figure of 100 rapes a day, in the country of her birth and upbringing.

It was Rajabali who released the book the book at a Bandra, Mumbai, bookshop, which is where I first met Kirtida, her family—parents Parukant Desai and Leena, and her husband, Mrityunjay Mishra, a techno-geek. Little did I know then that it would take me ages to write this review and that Kirtida would have by then migrated to the USA, a year ago. We are still in touch, though, on the Net, where I have been finding convincing ways of telling her why it took me so long.

A chance meeting with Read Out Loud (the book’s marketing agency, which works on the principle, “You publish it. Leave the rest to us”)’s Mukti Jain had me listing my reasons for the inordinate delay. I kept reading a few pages a day. But after I had finished it, an avalanche of assignments kept it outside my reach. In turn, I asked Mukti what happened to the lecture tour that she wanted me to go on with her company, details of which were to have been decided nine months ago? That had been dropped, she clipped. Not even a line?!

It’s a novel alright, and part of the treatment is thrilleresque. Yet, you cannot rush through this one like a best-seller. It is a treatise too. Very often, it takes a two-shot cinematic approach, followed by preambles to both characters, then comes individual dialogue, followed by words describing what was going on in their minds when they said what they did.

At best, is as complex as the human brain, and worst, it is a psychologist’s attempt at character and behaviour analysis, and coming apart of the stuff that men and women are made of, Yin and Yang. Fictional characters, how-so-ever-much they might have been inspired from real life people, or amalgams of characters Kirtida met or heard/read about/saw, remain puppets on her keyboard: malleable, ductile, flexible and pliable. Her forté is setting you up with a line of action, then, when you are flowing one way, quite like in cricket, something goes against the run of play, and either a catch is dropped or a wicket falls.

That she is deeply aware of the falls in moral standards and the dark side of uncensored media that has occurred over the last 40 years or so is for all to see. Her ‘hero’ is an antagonist, a teenaged rapist whose mind-boggling IQ hovers in a plasma that is jet black for most parts, but with some shades of white and grey, that help him cover his tracks and pass off as normal. Aarush’s grandfather Rudransh is the protagonist, a man whose values were forged 60 years ago and who begins to believe that a grandson’s gruesome crimes are, at least in part, his burden too. That he takes this burden quite literally is bizarre, but then those were bizarre times. Parallel to Konstantin Stanislaski’s classical Method Acting theory, there is a school in writing that calls itself Method Writing. Gautam chooses this method to let characters develop. And maybe Anjum will smile at that, from the corner of his lips.

Kirti, like Shanti and Kanti, is a name that is gender agnostic; both men and women bear these names. And Kirtida is a derivative of Kirti, meaning fame. Kirtida is one who bestows fame. And here she is, garnering it for herself. Her likes include chai and chess. Chess it had to be. The chapters are quite like a chessboard, with all pawns, kings, queens and bishops being subjected to a writer’s roulette, which rolls inside a time-machine. There are scientific and mathematical analyses and medical theories, references to master psychologists, of then and now (Freud? You bet).

Vadodadra-born Kirtida lists Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Herman Hesse, The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus as her influences, One psycho-evolutionary theory that comes right at the end is going to raise a million eyebrows, and will force scholars to rethink the dissected, solidly construed premise of genetics of rape. Rape is male suppression of and dominance over woman? Theory or postulate? Think again. Contemplate.

Read the book.

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Quotes from the book

 “You cannot stop loving your child because you know that he has committed a wrong action. But you certainly stop loving yourself for loving him.

~ Rudransh Kashyap

“Self -pity is the worst form of poison. It kills a person without the person realising it”

~~ Aarush Kashyap

“People say that every person plays the lead role in the movie of their own lives. I don't. I play a side character even in my own life's movie.”

~ Mrigank Kashyap

 “I am not the Hero of this story Bob is

~ Aarush Kashyap

Three weeks ago, I found this on her Twitter page.

Kirtida Gautam ‏@KirtidaGautam  Dec 3, 2016

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Is this just me or someone else also feels complete despondency? So much so that I am on the verge of giving up.

I have been trying to give-up for 48 years, very, very seriously, and in the last 10 years with renewed vigour. My sincere hope is that your despondency is a passing phase, and nowhere near the parasite that my despondency has become, chewing my brain all the time. Not to mention my body. More fame awaits, Kirtida. Get on with that your next, the Second Part of the #YinYang brace! #2 is on the way. And avoid book- reviewing. Reviewers are not a loved species. NOBODY loves a reviewer, unless he is biased towards the reader’s/viewer’s favourites. The only true critics and reviewers are those who have no favourites, or forget who their favourites are once they get on with their jobs.

Lastly, how is this for a husband’s promo for his wife’s book?

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bMHbe5BmAg

Digibooster sells 14 Punjabi films to leading Digital Platform                             

Digibooster, the new content market for the media and entertainment industry and part of the Booster Network, has just announced that it helped sell digital platform rights of 14 Punjabi feature film titles. The list is appended below.

The Booster Network is currently focused on two businesses:

Idyabooster (www.idyabooster.com ) a platform to curate and invest in cutting edge content and

Digibooster (www.digibooster.co).

Nandini Mansinghka, who has already had a long career in investment banking and worked for organisations like The Times of India and J.P. Morgan, is part of the core team at Boosters, which operates out of Mumbai. She said that the market is opening up for all kinds of digital rights’ monetisation. “Buyers are looking for Music Videos for non-exclusive airline rights, Telugu films airline and broadcast rights, digital rights for Tamil and Telugu content, documentaries, short films and Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil films broadcast rights.”

Project Name  Project Type    Language        Genre

Punjab Bolda  Feature Film    Punjabi            Drama

Rabb Toh Sohna Ishq Feature Film    Punjabi            Action

Pata Nahi Rabb Kehdeyan Rangan Ch Raazi            Feature Film    Punjabi            Drama

Munde Patiale De       Feature Film    Punjabi            Comedy

Mere Yaar Kaminey    Feature Film    Punjabi            Comedy

You n Me        Feature Film    Punjabi            Romance

Yaar Annmulle            Feature Film    Punjabi            Romance

Sadi Gali Aaya Karo   Feature Film    Punjabi            Comedy

Kabaddi Once Again  Feature Film    Punjabi            Drama

Pure Punjabi    Feature Film    Punjabi            Drama

Titto MBA      Feature Film    Punjabi            Romance

Wake Up Singh           Feature Film    Punjabi            Drama

Tera Mera Vaada        Feature Film    Punjabi            Romance

Destination of Love    Feature Film    Punjabi            Drama

Siraj Syed reviews ‘The Cinema of Nasir Hussain’, by Akshay Manwani

...and serialises his own recollections of the Indian writer-director, who was a rare blend of pithy penmanship and shimmering showmanship.

Nasir Hussain (1931-2002) wrote and co-wrote a string of hits for Filmistan Studios, developed the persona of Shammi Kapoor as the Rebel Star, provided the platform to composer Rahul Dev Burman for his first big banner hit, sustained his faith in lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri’s ability to create narrative lyrical continuity on demand, gave slapstick comedian Rajindernath his best roles, teamed-up with writer duo Salim-Javed to create his (only) multi-starrer block-buster, paved the ground for the remarkable careers of his son Mansoor Khan, and nephew, Aamir Khan, even tried his hand at neo-realistic semi-melodrama, albeit with disastrous results.

And yet, what did most film-writers think of him then, as many still do?

“The writer who had only one story to tell; the wordsmith who could not think beyond lost and found sagas; the maker who’s films always had masquerading characters and revenge plots running through; the pen-pusher who loved mountains and balloons; the director who believed in over the top comedy; the film-maker to whom cinema was all about song and dance,” and so on.

He is never spoken of in the same breath as Shakti Samanta, Pramod Chakravarti, Subodh Mukerji, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, all of who used the same or similar tropes, and as often and as unrealistically, if not more so. They were all contemporaries of, or just that bit junior to, Hussain, a bunch of highly successful directors, and some of their films were mini classics. But whatever happened to the man who made Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dil Deke Dekho, Jab Pyar Kiseese Hota Hai, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Caravan, Teesri Manzil, Yaadon Ki Baarat and Hum Kiseese Kum Naheen? “He was slave to a formula, a maker with no originality; a maker whose films clicked largely due to the songs, locales and the charisma of the lead actors.” Really?

I saw Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Hussain’s debut as director, as a five year-old, and worked with Hussain on a few occasions, during 1972-80. We had several conversations in his office, and he even directed me in a few scenes (YKB, HKKN). During this period, cine-goers saw the best of his best, and also the beginning of his irreversible decline. I would be inclined to view any biography of Hussain as a process of discoveries, or negations, or both, like “Wow! I didn’t know that!” or, “No! That’s not true.” But guess what? This is not a biography, as biographies go.

Akshay Manwani graduated from St. Xavier’s College in 2000. He never met Hussain, who died in 2002. I assume he never met Majrooh or R.D. Burman either. So what is he doing here, writing about the cinema of Nasir Hussain? In the author’s words, “This book is not a biography that looks at Hussain’s personal life in great detail. Instead, it focusses essentially on Hussain’s cinematic craft.” No doubt about it, Akshay. However, such works are always in danger of becoming scholarly critiques or doctorate theses, often postulating, collecting quotes from several sources to further already set-out agendas.

Music Masti Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Hussain (Harper Collins, paperback, price; Rs. 599 in India, launched at the Mumbai Film Festival a few weeks ago, where I was given a review copy) does fall prey to the trap of eulogistic appraisal, backed by endorsements and validations, but balances it somewhat with a look at Hussain’s failures too. It would be unrealistic to expect an author of what is meant to be a tribute, to be blunt and unforgiving. In fact, Manwani has tapped a cross-section of sources, ranging from the extended Hussain family (Mansoor, Nuzhat, Aamir, Tariq) to other directors (Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar), script-writers (Javed Akhtar), authors, bloggers, analysts and a large chunk of archival anecdotes.

Most of the material that emanates from these origins is worthy; some, as a professional hazard, is repetitive and generalised. Indeed, many of these similar strokes might have been avoided with crisper editing. At 402 pages, Music Masti Modernity: The Cinema of Nasir Hussain, is a just a wee bit too long, like almost all of Hussain’s films, beginning with Yaadon Ki Baaraat. You don’t mind that, so long as the pace is racy, as in the 70s work, but it does get a bit tedious when it comes to the 80s: Zamaane Ko Dikhana Hai, Manzil Manzil and Zabardast. If Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar are lengthy, blame it on the director-son, not on the writer-father.

From Sahir Ludhianvi: The People’s Poet (published 2013), a socialist/communist to the core with a philosophy akin to the theme of Nasir Hussain’s biggest flop, Baharon Ke Sapne, to Nasir Hussain, the man identified with masala and formula concoctions to the film-making recipé, is quite a leap for Akshay Manwani, who took up journalistic writing in 2009. On the other hand, a film is a film, as a sport is a sport. Interestingly, Manwani is as keen about NBA as he is about cricket.

On his present subject, Manwani told a Mumbai daily, “Husain’s films reflect a certain Anglophone club culture that was omni-present in the hill-stations of India--be it Mussoorie, Darjeeling, Ooty--through the early-to-mid 20th century. His films, like Dil Deke Dekho, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai and Teesri Manzil, all show the club space inhabited by a certain Indian elite class that do not have problems with such Western spaces or Western culture. His music for such club spaces in these films is all rock-n-roll and heavily influenced by what is happening in the West, but what is ultimately being consumed by a certain strata of the Indian elite in these hill stations, in the 1950s and 1960s.”

Occasionally, the transliteration and translation of Urdu (a graduate in Urdu Literature, Economics and English from Lucknow University, and a resident of Bhopal, Nasir wrote in native Urdu) goes awry, but never so much as to put you off. There is a detailed filmography appended, as is a selected bibliography and handy index. Pictures, mostly in black and white, though few, are priceless. And there are surprises galore for lay film buff, like the fact that Nasir Hussain wrote the story of Anarkali, the screen version of Imtiaz Ali Taj’s 1922 play that was released by Filmistan a full seven years before its magnum opus big brother, Mughal-e-Azam, and that Zabardast was the name of a multi-starrer he had started, with Dilip Kumar in the central role, his most ambitious project and the only film that he had to shelve. (I attended the muhurt--launch ceremony)

Rating: ***

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What I remember as the first image of a Nasir Hussain film featured Shammi Kapoor and Ameeta in Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), is not on a hill-station, but on a Filmistan Studios set. It was the Rex cinema in Mumbai, and the film is among the earliest two I can remember, the other being Do Ankhen Barah Haath (at Royal Opera House). Obviously, it was also my introduction to Shammi Kapoor and O.P. Nayyar (music director). Little did I know that, 30 years later, I would be speaking these lines in Hum Kiseese Kum Naheen, lines that Manwani quotes (thrice?) in the book, as symbolic of the song-dance competition-exhibtion cinema of Nasir Hussain, without identifying the actor who mouths them.

The scan below is from the lines I penned in my own hand-writing. I was there when the fabulous numbers of YKB and HKKN were shot, and played a part, both off-screen and on screen, in their filming. And since I am not planning my own book, let me give key-in a first-person companion reader to Akshay Manwani’s book, based on my interactions with Nasir Saahab, Aamir Khan, Mansoor Khan, Zeenat Aman, Rishi Kapoor, Amjad Khan, Tariq, and several others, about the golden age of Nasir Hussain Khan.

Siraj Syed reviews Incarnate: This Entity is an Omen for the Exorcist

In cinema, as in most other industries, if you don’t innovate, you are dead. Innovation is an essential part of the survival kit, and if new genres are proving elusive, makers must, nevertheless, try to reformat the template. So, if you can’t re-incarnate, at least ‘incarnate’. A good example of eschewing supernatural tropes and plying atypical ropes instead is Incarnate. That it stumbles occasionally, and even trips on these very ropes, is unfortunate, and surprising, the effort itself being off-beat and laudable.

An unconventional, wheel-chair bound exorcist who can tap into the subconscious of the possessed and engage the demon in a battle of manipulated dreams meets his match when he confronts the case of an 11-year-old boy possessed by a demon from his (the exorcist’s) past. The demon preys on the disturbed boy’s weak mind, and forces him to indulge in violent acts.

Initially unwilling to take on the case because it is referred to him by the Vatican (he believes that his job is above any religion), he reconsiders when he learns that the Demon is Maggie, the woman who killed his wife and son, in an attempt to eliminate him, and has been elusive since then. Maggie is very powerful, and any confrontation could result in the death of the boy, or of himself or both. To eliminate the continuing threat, the exorcist puts his life at stake.

Incarnate took two years after its launch to land at cinemas in Belgium, another year to arrive at screens in the USA, and finds release in India four weeks later, on New Year’s Eve 2016-17. Hardly the kind of fare one would want to savour on a holiday weekend, the last of the year, one would demur. On second thought, Blumhouse specialises in low-budget horror stuff, and usually makes big ripples at the box-office while sending sharp shivers down audiences’ spines. Screen-writer Ronnie Christensen (Passengers, Dark Tide, Latitude) starts with familiar ingredients, and ends up with a dish that is not quite the Chef’s special, neither is it on the menu.

A paralysedeExorcist who first tries to conceal his gift and then turns it in to state-of-the-art diagnostic treatment, with a spunky babe and a tattooed dude as assistants, is not your conventional hero. Sending out realistic images through a drugged, near-deadened, brain, to counter the misleading reality conjured by the entity, is a departure from the norm, to be sure. And cleansing most of his patients by appearing in their para-normal consciousness, in his fully fitsy and fully fisty alter ego, is not the modus operandi we are accustomed to.

Where Christensen flounders is the completely digressive, though thankfully brief,  sub-plot, about the Vatican, the juvenile attack on the exorcist and his family by Maggie (in flashback), the predictable twist involving the exorcist’s teacher, the flimsy method of relocating the demon from one body to another, and the delineation of the boy’s father, including his pointless end. Christensen rises to the occasion when he seduces you into believing that it has all ended well, when ...no spoilers, okay? Moreover, if you have checked the film is 86 minutes long, you would already know that the 60 minute and 70 minute into the narrative point climaxes are all ploys and decoys.

Directed by Brad Peyton (Canadian; Evelyn: The Cutest Evil Dead Girl, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, San Andreas), Incarnate is kept at a healthy 86 minutes and has been passed by the Indian Central Board of Film Certification without any excision, but restricting admission to persons above 18 years of age A for Adults only). He does seem to get carried away by the grit that radiates from Eckhart’s grim-face, and allows him a free rein as a punch-machine. There is many a nod to trend-setters like Omen, Exorcist and Entity, yet there is no getting away from the fact that those are hard acts to follow.

After the villain in a Batman film and the President of America, Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight, Rabbit Hole, London Has Fallen), the visual reconstruction of Paul Newman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Charlton Heston, John Travolta, Sean Bean, Thomas Jane and more, has proven once again that he loves challenges and that being square-jaw does not come in the way emoting. Most critics, for their part, have not been kind to him this time, and he will have to ‘take it on the chin’ that the proverb is made of.                  

Supporting cast includes Carice van Houten (Dutch: The Fifth Estate, Race, Brimstone),   David Mazouz (young Bruce Wayne from Gotham), Catalina Sandino Moreno (Love in the Time of Cholera, Che, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), Mark Henry, George Anthony Anisimow, Karolina Wydra and Emjay Anthony. Music by Andrew Lockington is up to the mark.

With para-normal activity becoming normal, with horrific becoming terrific, with demons becoming de-rigueur, with possession becoming a profession, with entities becoming propensities---anything that is even remotely refreshing is welcome. No, not into the real spaces of your cranium, at least as a cinematic foray into grey areas and dream zones of your sub-conscious.

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUVwbhc0j18

P.S.: For reasons she did not elaborate, Aparna Kamerkar, the Executive Assistant who oversees Public Relations at the local distributor, Pictureworks, said to me at the press screening that she was keenly looking forward to my review of Incarnate. Such a statement could either denote endorsement of my earlier reviews, or suggest closer scrutiny of this one. I hope it is the former. Either way, it is encouraging enough that she reads my reviews!

Pictureworks was launched by Avinaash Jumani, in May 2010, with the acquisition of Luc Vinciguerra’s Santa Apprentice and Dermot Mulroney’s Love, Wedding, Marriage. Notable releases include Whiplash, Paddington and Eye in the Sky. It operates from Mumbai. Though there are several companies abroad (Shanghai, Hongkong, Kuala Lumpur, Dublin, and more) with similar names, including one located at Ang Mo Kio, Singapore, where I lived for eight years, Jumani’s Pictureworks™ is registered in India.

Siraj Syed reviews Assassin’s Creed: As a sin’s breed

Where do we begin? In 2016 (technically, in most places), when the game has notched up more than 100 million copies in sales, and the film franchise has leapt from centimetre screens to metric rectangles? Or, in 2007, when, in less than four weeks, Assassin’s Creed recorded more than two-and-a-half million units in worldwide sales?

How about going back a little farther, to 1986, when the five Guillemot brothers created Ubisoft Entertainment S.A, an educational software and video game publishing and distribution company? How’s 1492 for a backwards leap of faith, in the time of Chris(topher) Columbus? Yes, the same guy who’s credited with discovering America? Sounds good, but you still have an option to push back into 1091.

Gamers are already game. Non-gamers will start by wondering how assassins can be heroes, and their creed be one of honour and faith? But let’s stick to the film, and begin with a violent a man named Lynch, Callum Lynch, to be precise, the symbolic of his antecedents, not profession.

Convicted of killing a pimp, criminal Callum Lynch is rescued from his own execution by Abstergo (Latin for I clean/cleanse/wipe-off) Industries, the modern-day incarnation of the Templar Order, and learns that they are searching for the Apple of Eden, which seeded the first sin. Ostensibly, the objective is to rid mankind of sin, but in reality, they plan to subjugate the human race, by eliminating religious and all other forms of dissent, and of free will.

Scientist Dr. Sophia Rikkin, who is heading the project, reveals that Callum has been chosen since he is a descendant of Aguilar de Nerha, a member of a secret order of assassins that, for centuries, have opposed the Templar Order, and conscripts him to the Animus Project, operating from an ancient, gigantic building in Madrid, in which Callum is connected to a machine that allows him to revive Aguilar's memories, so Abstergo can the current whereabouts of the Apple of Eden.

In Spain, 1492, Aguilar and his partner Maria are deployed to rescue Prince Ahmed de Granada, who has been kidnapped by the leader of the Templars, Tomas de Torquemada, to coerce Prince Ahmed's father, Sultan Muhammad XII, to surrender the Apple of Eden, which is currently in his possession. Aguilar and Maria intercept the chariot transporting Ahmed, but are then ambushed and captured by Torquemada's enforcer, the hulk, Ojeda, just as Callum is pulled out of the Animus by Sophia.

In captivity, Callum befriends other descendants of assassins, led by Moussa, and begins experiencing hallucinations of both Aguilar and his own father, Joseph Lynch, who ‘murdered’ Callum's mother, while in assassin attire. Callum and Sophia build a rapport over their sessions, in which Sophia reveals herself as the daughter of Abstergo's CEO, Alan Rikkin, and confides with Callum that her mother was likewise murdered by an assassin. Back in the Animus, Aguilar and Maria are scheduled for execution, but Aguilar manages to free himself, and Maria, leading to a roof-top chase, in which they perform a Leap of Faith, and manage to escape.

That chase and its culmination in a Leap of Faith mark highest points in the screenplay by Michael Lesslie (Harrovian Oxford graduate; was 23 when the game was launched; wrote Macbeth and other plays), Adam Cooper & Bill Collage (Exodus: Gods and Kings, The General, The Transporter Refueled), which is based on Assassin's Creed, by Ubisoft. Cutting edge sci-fi transports Callum where eagles dare, and long, expansive tracking shots details battle-after-battle between the Templars’ royal warriors, their expansionist priest and their armed-to-the-teeth crusaders, versus the ‘heathen’ Sultan Mohammed’s out-gunned troops, propped-up by the blast from the future, Callum as Aguilar.

Most of the dialogue is devoid of inspiration and serves a purely utilitarian purpose. Memorable phrases can be counted on your finger-tips. And the ultimate manifestation of commitment to a cause, embodied in the phrase, “Leap of faith”, is so literally transposed against a real life leap of 38m/125ft, performed by Fassbender’s stunt-double, Damien Walters, that it comes across as a poor pun. After a well-crafted prologue, the unpeeling of various layers of Abstergo and the paper cut-out figures of Rikkin and Sofia are far less credible, even when they get into confrontation mode.

Recurring ding-dong pendulum (it’s actually a crane from which Callum is suspended) swings between the ‘real’ simulated in mid-air battles, in the present, and the host of hordes and horses that shower weapons and gallop non-stop, in 1492, are such an obvious time-buying tactic that it stares you in the face. Plot points are unimaginative and too predictable to hold interest. Various phases in the transformation of Callum ought to have panned out as a cat and mouse game. Instead, his mental make-up and motivation, both key to the plot, are both fuzzy and nebulous.

Justin Kurzel (Australian; Snowtown, The Turning, Macbeth-team of lead pair and director repeated) appears to believe that the game loyalists would not care for detailing in the narrative, so long as there is minute detailing in the sets, the technology and the grand canvas. What’s wrong with giving them both? Spectacle is plentiful, the action is barrelful.

There is so much running, horse-carts dashing across, flying, leaping across roof-tops, and even a helicopter to round it off that all fist-fights and small arm combats fail to hold your attention. When they are not Ben Hur, they are any old cowboy caper, when they are not 300, they are the recent Middle East war chronicles. Perhaps the characters of the two Rikkins, their right-hand man, the priest, several inmates of Abstergo’s Guantanamo Bay-like facility, and the Templar Excellency (Queen?) were thinly conceived—as director, Kurzel would still be responsible for making them three dimensional.  

Michael Fassbender (going on 40; 300, Inglourious Basterds, X-Men) gets to be human in just two or three scenes, where he is given dialogue that is in keeping with his violent robotic persona. That’s not hero stuff, for sure. Marion Cotillard as Sophia Rikkin (The Dark Knight Rises, The Immigrant, Macbeth) is crisp Brit and glistening eyes. But you cannot decide whether there is humanity in her, or only Animus. What’s more, it seems she cannot decide either. Jeremy Irons (67; Reversal of Fortunes, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Batman v/s Superman: Dawn of Justice) is over-confident and chooses under-acting as a tool, in a film that is over-the-(roof)top. (The character previously appeared in the first Assassin's Creed game).

Brendan Gleeson (Into the Storm, Calvary, The Guard, Harry Potter, Safe House) is cast as Joseph Lynch, Callum Lynch's father. Brian Gleeson portrays Young Joseph Lynch. Brendan has a highly expressive face and large build, which make it easy for any producer to give him strong-silent type parts. Charlotte Rampling (70; The Damned, Night Porter, Swimming Pool) is wasted as the Excellency, with merely two scenes of glib talking to be part of.

Michael K. Williams (12 Years a Slave, Robocop, Ghostbusters) as Moussa and Baptiste. (Baptiste previously appeared in Assassin's Creed: Liberation) is another incomplete character and even the truth he reveals about himself sounds phoney. Ariane Labed, 32, of Greek-French lineage, portrays Maria, an assassin in 15th century Spain, working with Aguilar, matching Aguilar jump for jump, bravado for bravado. Matias Varela appears as both Emir, and his ancestor, Yusuf. Michelle Lin portrays Lin, a descendant of an assassin, and another test subject at Abstergo, while James Sobol Kelly appears as Father Raymond, a priest. Denis Ménochet appears as McGowen, the head of Abstergo security, looking the part but stereo-typed to a fault.

Justin’s brother Danyel Kurzel, singer-songwriter-guitarist and film composer, a founding member of the Mess Hall (from 2001), a blues rock duo, scores the music. There’s a lot of it, in disparate styles, but wholly in tune.

Unfolding at a frenetic pace, Assassin’s Creed is about Templars’ Greed and going back in time to fight battles from within the bodies of historical figures—they did not do it, we did it for them. Is that a creed or plain greed?

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c

A question that has plagues the Indian patriotic and historic psyche for over 150years: How did the Koh-i-Noor diamond end up in the Queen of England’s treasury? Assassin’s Creed has already picked-up the dazzling light from this stone and turned it into a Game. It is called Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India. Set in Amritsar, 1841, during the British rule of India, its player is Master Templar Arbaaz Mir, who comes to steal Koh-i-Noor. On the way, he gets romantically entangled in diamond of the human kind, the Maharaja’s niece, Princess Pyara Kaur. (Yes, Pyara is an odd name for a woman). 

2016 good year for Sony Pictures Networks India

As 2016 fades out, Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) reveals that it has been a good year for the company. In 2007, the company had changed its name from Sony Entertainment Television (SET) to Multi Screen Media (MSM). Many viewers in India still remember the old name, which was the identity when the Sony group entered India, in 1995, not too long after the Indian skies had opened up to non-state, satellite television broadcasters.

According to N P Singh, CEO, Multi Screen Media (MSM; formerly COO), said that the strategic intent behind rebranding Multi Screen Media (MSM) into Sony Pictures Network (SPN) was to align with the parent company, and thereby accrue the benefit of global synergies. "The new logo is our way of creating a picture from a pixel; a campaign from an idea, and a revolution in progressive television entertainment. Going forward, Sony Pictures Networks will steer its helm on three levers, namely, general entertainment, sports and digital. With a comprehensive bouquet of varied channels, we are equipped today to serve India's population both, in the urban and rural areas, as well across geographies," says Singh.

India was a state monopoly when it came to radio and television, but that changed in the 90s, and, since then, Akashwani (All India Radio) and Doordarshan, the respective arms of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, have progressively lost ground to private and multi-national players. All government channels are free-t-air, while private channels cost between Rs. 5 and Rs. 100/month (current exchange rate is Rs. 68=$1), and up to 1,000 channels are available.

Singh added, "At MSM, we've served television audiences worldwide for the last 20 years, during which time, we pioneered new formats, new shows and actually set the trends for television entertainment. We changed the dynamics of how cricket and cinema were viewed on Indian television and contoured a variety of genres in TV entertainment. So, while Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire, anchored by Amitabh Bachchan) and Dus Ka Dum (The Power of Ten/Selman Khan) created new waves in television gaming, Boogie Woogie (Naved Jaffri and Ravi Behl) and Indian Idol (Indian version of the singing competition, American Idol) brought the commoner's talent on the telly. We were also the first ones to embrace the cultural fabric of India by providing SAB (Sri Adhikari Brothers’ channel, bought over)- an out-and-out family humour channel." (Watch video; link below)

Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd. owns and operates a television network in India. SPN comprises of Sony Entertainment Television (SET), one of India's leading Hindi general entertainment television channels; MAX, India's premium Hindi movies and special events channel; MAX 2, a second Hindi movie channel showcasing great Indian Cinema; SAB, a family comedy entertainment channel; PIX, the English movie channel; AXN, the leader among English Entertainment Channels; AATH, the Bangla (Bengali) movie channel, MIX a refreshing Hindi music channel; SIX, India’s Premier Sports Entertainment Channel; KIX, a youth-centric sports channel focusing on high adrenaline, fast-paced content and LIV--the Digital Entertainment Channel. Recent additions include co-branded networks Sony ESPN and Sony BBC Earth.

SPN’s flagship movie channel, Sony Max, has been the leader since the last 26 consecutive weeks. In May 2016, Sony expanded its movie cluster with its first free-to-air (FTA) channel Sony Wah. With this, the channel count in Sony's Hindi movie bouquet has reached four, including Sony Max, Sony Max2 and Sony Max HD. During the Indian Premier League cricket tournament season, each year, Sony Max registered highest ratings in the prime time (late evening) segment, hence the property is special for the group. Cricket is the most popular team sport in India. Sony Wah (an approximation of Wow/Good), according to the company, has been the leader for 23 out of 35 weeks in Financial Year 2016-17. Wah has notched only 25 weeks of airing. Sony Wah is, uncharacteristically, free to air. Overall, the company claims that it has grown by 30% over the last year, which is much better than the industry average.

Andy Kaplan, president, Worldwide Networks, Sony Pictures Television (SPT), says, "Our channels in India represent an important part of Sony Pictures Television's global portfolio and we are proud to be part of the fabric of the diverse Indian culture. As we celebrate bringing the best entertainment to viewers in India for 20 years, it's only fitting that these networks be branded as part of our Sony family. Like the Sony brand, which stands for innovation, creativity and delight, SPN brings the same qualities to our viewers."

MSM Motion Pictures is the company’s venture in film production. Sony Pictures Networks Distribution India Pvt. Ltd. (SPN Distribution India) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd. Along with ‘home’ channels SET, SAB, PAL, MAX, MAX 2, WAH, MIX, PIX, SIX, Sony ESPN, AXN, Animax, Aath (Eight), SET HD, MAX HD, SIX HD, PIX HD, AXN HD and Sony ESPN HD. It also distributes the well-known TV Today Network channels--India Today, Aaj Tak and Tez.

Some notable Sony films in Hindi

AZHAR, 2016

PIKU, 2015

YOUNGISTAAN, 2014

DAAR @ THE MALL, 2013

BAJATEY RAHO, 2013

Key Personnel

Mr. N. P. Singh, Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Jayesh D. Parekh, Co-Founder

Mr. Andy Kaplan, President of Worldwide Networks

Ms. Humsa Dhir, Head of PR & Corporate Communications and Senior Vice-President

Mr. Anup Vishwanathan, Head of Marketing and Senior Vice President

Mr. Neeraj Vyas, Sony Max (movie channel cluster) Senior Executive Vice-President and Business Head

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N.P. Singh video: https://youtu.be/Hjx1KbTZM2Y

Indian films’ greatest playback singer Mohammed Rafi: Tributes on his 92nd birthday

Rafi died in 1980. Among the singers who gave playback to songs picturised on Indian actors, he topped the list, both in terms of quality and quantity. Opinions have been expressed that Kishore Kumar had the edge when it came to spontaneity and Manna Dey was a classical wizard. My own childhood favourite, Mukesh, too, was the darling of a few millions, but nobody, nobody could eye the spot that Rafi had sculpted for himself, since 1947. It is a well-known fact that Rafi sang several songs for Kishore, when he donned grease-paint, and Manna himself admitted that he could, at best, match Rafi, when it came to classical renditions, but Rafi was always No. 1. So much for quality. Now, let’s look at quantity.

A controversy raged, from 1974 to 1991, about who had sung the maximum number of songs. Mukesh, Kishore and Manna were not even in the running. It was the female songstress Lata Mangeshkar, who had claimed that she had sung between 25,000 and 30,000 songs. Rafi challenged the claim, but neither could provide conclusive evidence. Ultimately, the Guinness Book of World Records deleted both their claims. From the mid 1940s to the mid 1990s, there is little doubt that the most prolific female singer was Lata, and Rafi ruled the roost among the men. But with neither claim fully substantiated, the name that emerged was Asha Bhosle, Lata’s sister. Rafi had died in 1980. However, nobody would have imagined that the most prolific playback singer to emerge on the scene would be from South India.

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam is his name. And he is 22 years younger than Rafi. This is SPB’s 50th year in films and he has completed 70 years of age last June. Song tally? 40,000 and counting. Which means he is not ahead by a neck; rather a whole 10,000 songs more! His idol? Mohammed Rafi. Rafi’s idol? Kundan Lal Sehgal. Song count? Less than 200. He died in his early 40s. Rafi died at 54. Lata and Asha survive, on either side of 90. But in the end, it is not about numbers. It’s not about notations or scales. It is about the heavenly vocal chords that resonate to perfection.

It was Mohammed Rafi’s birthday last week, like it is on 24^th December every year. This year, it was special. Efforts of a couple of Rafi devotees and an FM radio station resulted in the re-naming of the by-lane near Rafi Villa, 16th Road, Bandra, as Mohammed Rafi Marg (marg means road in Hindi). There is already a major square in Mumbai, on the arterial Swami Vivekanand Road-Hill Road intersection, where there is a traffic junction, generally known by the Irani restaurant that is open till late in the night, Lucky. It has been known as PadmaShri Mohammed Rafi Chowk. The sign on this junction was the spot where my script for the documentary on Mohammed Rafi was to begin. Sitting in another restaurant at the same square, I narrated my script three years ago, to Rashid K. Munir, and he liked it. Munir joined RafiSaahab in his heavenly abode sometime ago, without shooting even one frame of the film. The plaque reading 'Padmashri Mohammed Rafi Chowk' was renovated and shaped into a golden ball, reflecting his timeless 'golden voice', in time for his 92^nd.

Sonu, SPB, Biswajit and Anmol

A man named Venkitachalam Venkat, and another called Manish got together with Radio Nasha (intoxication) to get the naming of the lane done. Nasha’s popular Radio Jockey, RJ Anmol, who led the Road for Rafi campaign, put together a stage piece at the Rang Sharda auditorium, 2 km from both Rafi Villa and the S.V. Road milestone, and populated it with S.P.B., Jeetendra (actor-producer; used Rafi’s playback in over very many songs), Biswajit (actor-director; likewise), Sonu Nigam (top-rank singer in Rafi mould), Milind (part of composer duo Anand-Milind, who vividly remember the great closeness that their music director father Chitragupta shared with Rafi), Sanjeev Kohli and Sameer Kohli (sons of Rafi loyalist, composer Madan Mohan, pre-deceased Rafi), Chhaya (daughter of another Rafi loyalist, composer Ravi, who died not too long ago), Javed Badayuni (son of poet/lyricist Shakeel) and the two daughters of Mohammed Rafi, Yasmin and Nasreen (the third sister lives in London; Shahid, Rafi Saahab’s only surviving son, was not to be spotted.

SPB, Anmol, Jeertendra and the two 'Rafi daughters'

Seated in the audience were Parvez, Rafi’s son-in-law, Yasmin’s husband, and Rajni Acharya, the man who has made a two-hour documentary on Mohammed Rafi, titled, ‘Dastaan-e-Rafi’ (the film was shown on TV that very day and some 15-minutes of excerpts were screened at the venue) and Agam Kumar Nigam, Sonu’s prodigious Dad, who was later called on to the stage.

As a function, it was rather strange. There was no orchestra or real singing at all. Starting more than an hour late, the proceedings consisted of Acharya’s film projection and a round-table of sorts, though SPB, Sonu, Sonu’s father Agam and Biswajit obliged by breaking into song every time the anchor, Anmol, egged them on. I got invited because a friend could not attend. Most of the memories and anecdotes that were shared were not new for me. It did not hurt at all that ‘under 30’ Anmol did not know me from Adam, considering the long association I have had with RafiSaahab’s legacy since 1980, but it did hurt that I was not invited personally, since the Boss of FM station, Nasha, Gaurav Sharma, is a former student of mine. There was no break, no refreshments were served, none were available for sale and the entire afternoon lasted just over two hours.

Parvez did not recognise me, and how could I blame him? It must be 20 years since we last met. But when I told him who I was, he was so warm. It is always nice to bump into the Kohlis. Milind slipped away before I could catch him and Jeetendra had left halfway. I have never met Sonu since the time when a music director introduced me to him in his music room as the singer to lookout for. Balu (SPB) and I have yet to be introduced---my loss, and huge one at that.

SPB with Biswajit

One person brought a floodgate of memories in the green-room, after the event: Biswajit. His Hindi debut (he is from Bengal) suspense thriller was Bees Saal Baad, a runaway hit, propped-up mainly by a tight script (o of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Homes), masterful cinematography and editing and mesmerising music by Hemant Kumar. Waheeda Rehman was characteristically amazing, while Biswajit was a bit awkward. He beckoned the mimic in me, and, in 1962, all of ten years old, I was imitating him to a family audience of 4-5.

When you get to writing about Rafi, quantity is never enough. So, let that be. Just click on the video link below, and see what the torch-bearer of Mohammed Rafi’s legacy has to say, as I rue once again my family’s decision to oppose my film acting possibilities, even as a hobby, and not to allow me to play the lead role of the blind beggar-boy in Dosti, which naturally meant that in ‘Jaaneyvaalo zaraa’ Mohammed Rafi gave playback to Sudhir Kumar’s lip-sync, and not that of Siraj Syed.

From SPB’s Facebook

24th Dec., 2016 was, Janab Mohammad Rafi Saheb, MY GOD, MY MENTOR' s 92nd Birth day. It was gracious of his family and friends to have invited me. I cherished every moment of it. Was in Rafi Saheb's museum, where all his memorabilia was kept. One of the finest days in my life. Thanks to Mrs. Yasmin Ahmed, Mrs. Nasreen Ahmed, Mr. Parvez Ahmed, Mr. Meraj Ahmed, the sons in law, Mr. Irfan Ahmed the grandson, Mr. Firoze, grand-son-in law, of Rafi Saheb, Mr.Venkita and Mr. Karunesh, the Md. Rafi trust members.

Video link to S.P. Balasubrahmanyam speaking about Mohammed Rafi: https://youtu.be/vcJxGgn4g2U

(Photographs and the video-link have been provided here with due acknowledgement and thanks to the Facebook original postings of SPB and Mr Venkitachalam).