Category: Movies

Producers: Ajay Bijli, Sanjeev Bijli and Sunita A Gowarikar. Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar. Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Sikandar Kher, Vishakha Singh

MUMBAI: Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is a documentation of the Chittagong Rising, a local chapter during the British regime in India.

Historical films have no takers in Indian cinema since ours is a history of the vanquished and not of the victors. To choose to make a film on such a subject should be considered risky enough and to be able to justify and finally to make it acceptable to the audience is highly impossible. To add to the burden of having chosen this subject, director Ashutosh Gowarikar opts to treat it as a documentary rather than a compact dramatised version.

Based on Manini Chatterjee’s book, ‘Do And Die: The Chittagong Uprising 1930-34’, the film is a snail paced account of the event that makes one feel even the book would be faster moving than the film!

While the Congress continues its campaign against the British Raj, a group of five Chittagong lads led by Abhishek Bachchan, a school master, decides to chart its own course to deal with the British rather than continue their association with the Congress and its non-violent ways. Their way is to ambush five vital points of power of the local British Administration: the railways, the post office cum telephone exchange, the cantonment, the armoury etc. The plan works alright but due to a miscalculation, none of the British personnel could be held hostage, since the day happened to be a Good Friday and all had called in early. Expectedly, the manhunt begins and all rebels are caught to be dealt with mercilessly; apparently, they may have planned for the ambushes but not for the aftermath. 

The first half is entirely devoted to starting from scrap to go on to the enrolment of an army of 56 teenaged school boys, training them (which looks as serious as some kids playing war games!), raising funds to arranging for resources, reconnaissance of targets and detailed planning. This takes its toll on the viewer who would rather get this over and done with quickly.

Also, disappointingly, the execution of the operation, the ambush and destruction of the targets is lightening fast, done like a cakewalk without resistance or dramatics. Post this, the tedium sets in again as the film goes in details of how each group or individuals on the run was caught turn by turn; though they may mean something to the story, they mean nothing to the audience who don’t care if they live or not. Eventually, like it has happened in case of all the martyrs of Indian freedom movement, the heroes are sacrificed at the altar of the British Law.

There is quite an assembly of unknown faces in the cast led by Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone and they remain unknown since none of them has a scope to stand out by some sort of heroics or sacrifice. Along with few top rung characters, Abhishek Bachchan also has little to do by way of acting and to watch him in dhoti is hardly exciting for his fans. Deepika Padukone is bland.

Direction is lacklustre, falling victim to details rather than coherence and a compact narration; resultantly, nothing in the film evokes either sympathy or patriotism in the viewer. Dialogue is uninspiring and routine. Music lacks appeal. Cinematography is good.

Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey will just end up adding to the big league failure count.

PANAJI: Professor Piotr Klodowski, ambassador of Poland in India, said the language of cinema is the most universal for communication and he would, therefore, like greater cooperation between his country and India.

Klodowski, who speaks fluent Hindi, said the recent visit of the Polish Minister for Cultural and National Heritage to India had also strengthened this view.

He also promised to examine offers from film societies or filmmakers for Indo-Polish collaboration in this field. There were plans to collaborate with film schools, he said.

Addressing the Open Forum on Polish cinema with particular reference to the retrospective of the films of Jan Jacub Kolski at IFFI, he said cinema had undergone a major change in his country since 1989. While there was greater freedom, there were commercial pressures since the industry was earlier supported by the state. This had its positive and negative aspects. Films made before 1989 had restrictions but were generally good.

Kolsky said it was unfortunate that modern Polish cinema was turning to Hollywood for ideas, and therefore he avoided seeing films by other Polish filmmakers. However, he said Dorotha Kedzierzawska – who was also present – was an exception since she also stuck to her own style.

He said he wanted to keep his own perspective and stuck to his own style. He agreed to the presence of a strong Catholic influence in his films, but said he used this to expose the shallowness of Catholicism and use this to comment upon love, life and the world.

Asked if he had seen any Indian films, he said he preferred to watch the people. He felt it was too strong to say cinema in his country had degenerated but it had polarised and privatised.

He said eight of his 13 films were being shown and it was a mere coincidence that these eight were based in the countryside, since he had also made films in the city.

Referring to his latest film Venice shown here, he said it was based on the alter ego of the author who wrote the short story it was based on. It is about the oppression all around us with no place of escape. His central character, therefore, tends to withdraw into himself.

He said he was known for using stories that were ‘unadaptable’ to the large screen.

Dorotha said she liked the way Indians loved cinema. She said she agreed that Polish cinema was turning to Hollywood. The present Polish cinema was going in two directions: the commercial and the art. She preferred not to talk too much about her films, particularly after they had been made.

Kolsky’s cinematographer Arthur Reinhard said he had been talking to some Indians about making a film in India. Asked about his visuals, he said every film was a new challenge in itself.

The Open Forum has been organised by the Federation of Film Societies of India in collaboration with the Directorate of Film Festivals and the Entertainment Society of Goa.

Later addressing a press meet, Kolski said his film Venice “is about love awakened by a… lack of love. About growing up. About myself.”

The films being screened in the package are Venice, The Burial of Potato, Johnny The Aquarius, The Miraculous Place, The History of Cinema in the Village of Popielawy, Keep Away from the Window, Pornography, and Happy Aphonya.

The director was extremely happy with the response he received from the viewers at IFFI, and said his films are being perceived as Indian, and that he considers this as the best compliment.

He said he has received similar responses in Japan, Germany, and is happy to know of their universal appeal. When asked why most of the Polish films have a war background, he said “environment during oppression and adverse circumstances is a big stimulus to the creativity of filmmakers.”

Advising the film students, he said if the films are able to move the viewers, narrate a story and get a creative recognition, the filmmakers can consider their work to be successful. He said sensibility is very important for a filmmaker and he wants to make films which “one can absorb through all the senses.”

PANAJI: The Indo-Bangladesh co-production Moner Manush, directed by eminent filmmaker Goutam Ghose, today bagged the best film award at the 41st International Film Festival of India which concluded here.

The last time an India film received an award at the IFFI in 2002, when Revati, incidentally a member of jury this year, had received the special jury prize of Silver Peacock for her film, Mitr– My Friend.

The film, which is being released simultaneously tomorrow in India and Bangladesh, is about the Sufi Saint Lallan Faqir who also popularised Baul singing.

Another Indian film, Just Another Love story by Kaushik Ganguly in English, which starred the eminent director Rituparno Ghosh in a debut role, shared the Special Jury with ‘The Boy’ by Taik Wai Titi from New Zealand.

The best director award went to Susanne Bier for the film In a Better World from Dennark and was received by her son.

The best actor award went to Güven Kirac for the Turkish film The Crossing by Selim Demirdelen, while the best actress award went to Magdalena Boczarska in the Polish film Little Rose by Jan Kidawa-Blonski.

All the recipients except the best director were present to receive their awards.

The best film gets the Golden Peacock, a citation, and a cash award of Rs 4 million to be shared equally between the director and producer.

The best director also gets the Golden Peacock while the others get Silver Peacock.

The total award money is $200,000 (Rs nine million) for all awards.

The awards were given away at the ceremony at Kala Academy by Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Chowdhury Mohan Jatua, Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, matinee idol Saif Ali Khan (who was the Chief Guest) and other members of the Goa cabinet.

Polish writer, director, producer Jerzy Antczak who chaired the International Jury read out the awards while Indian member Revathy Menon read the citations.

Other members of the jury were: Sturla Gunnarsson who is a filmmaker from Canada; Australia’s Mick Molloy who is a writer, actor, producer; and Olivier P?re who is a festival programmer and author from France.

The concluding programme which culminated with screening of the closing film ‘The Princess of Montpensier’ from France directed by Bernard Tavernier was preceded by a dance programme devised by actress Gracy Singh. Arjun Bajwa and Neetu Chandra were the anchors for the grand finale.

Jatua said Indian films were now being seen in the remotest corners of the globe and were promoting national culture.

Indian cinema was also making a mark overseas in other ways and would be the focus in the next Locarno International Film Festival.

Kamat said the ticket sales had surpassed the sales of last year, fetching over Rs 100,000 as against Rs 80,000 in IFFI 2009. He said the government was aware of the lacunae in infrastructure and was doing everything to overcome these hurdles. He promised a large convention center with bigger capacity soon.

Four film artistes were felicitated on the occasion: actresses Padmapriya and Priyamani, and actors Arjun Rampal and Prosenjit Chatgterjee (son of actor Biswajeet and hero of ‘Moner Manush’).

Festival Director S M Khan from the Directorate of Film Festivals said a total of over 200 films from 61 countries had taken part in the Festival, which commenced on 22 November. Apart from 18 films in competition, 70 were in Cinema of the World while 26 features and 19 non-features were in the Indian Panorama. In addition, there were tributes to around 11 film personalities who passed away over the past year and there were several retrospectives and focus on four different countries.
 

MUMBAI: For the first time, an Indian film is being adapted to fit on stage as a musical. And the film is none other Mira Nair‘s Monsoon Wedding that Nair will shortly direct as a three-act stage version of the original.

Though still in its development stage, the project will gain steam once Nair is out of promoting her AIDS film, Jaago.

She has been ideating about the film since four years but was forced to put it in the back burner because of other projects like Namesake, but now she is ready to focus on the musical. 

The play that will be produced by the same people who produced the 2002 award-winning musical Hairspray, will have a few of the old songs while some new ones will be added. The musical will apparently feature two of the stars from the original movie.

Nair also intends to co-write a book on it along with Sabrina Dhawan, the writer of Monsoon Wedding.
 

MUMBAI: Touted to be India‘s first live action animation film, Krishika Lulla and Kumar Mangat Pathak‘s Ajay Devgn and Kajol starrer Toonpur Ka Superhero is slated to release on 24 December.

Directed by Kireet Khurana, the film sees the return of Tanuja on the silver screen after two decades.

The film, in which live characters merge with cartoons, is a story of a reel life superstar who accidentally lands in the world of cartoons, Toonpur.
 
The characters in Toonpur come from various cultural backgrounds of India. There is a Sardar, Bengali, Gujarati, Marwadi, Maharashtrian, Bihari, Tamil, Christian and lot more characters from our culturally rich country.

Naturally, for these various cartoon characters, there needs a lot of voice dubbing. Over 2000 voice artistes were auditioned and tested to get the right accent for the characters.

The film is being released by Eros International.

PANAJI: Bengali films lack global appeal due to poor marketing despite good content and being popular with the critics, top Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee said here.

Prosenjit, who has successfully transcended boundaries of commercial and art cinema with his roles, said commercial Bengali cinema is yet to find an audience beyond Bengal.

The actor, who has been ruling the industry for the last 30 years, hopes that things will change with his latest film Moner Manush (The Quest).

Directed by noted filmmaker Gautam Ghosh, the film is about the 19th century poet saint Lalon Fakir. It is the first Indo-Bangladesh co-production in 52 years and is being released simultaneously in both countries on 3 December.

The problem with Bengali cinema is that it has always focused on the art side but not on the commercial aspects, which have become increasingly important now. Films by masters like Satyajit Ray are known to even the non-Bengali audience, he regretted.