confessions of a filmmaker

Javier Grillo-Marxuach on Screenplays

2012-01-04T16:58:00.000+05:30

“[A] long time ago, I came to the realization that a script is more than just ‘a blueprint to a film.’ To truly be a successful manifestation of the form, a script needs to be a work of art in and of itself. It requires the same strict integrity of a poem or novel. A great script demands formal and structural elegance. It’s not enough to have a great story and great dialogue: a great script is one that, at every level — from the names of the characters to the layout of the words on the page — creates an irresistible narrative flow that propels the reader to an inevitable dramatic conclusion.”

Steve Jobs on Life..

2011-12-20T18:54:00.001+05:30

"When you grow up you, tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Sam Fuller

2011-12-19T02:39:00.000+05:30

Q. What makes a good movie?
SF. A Story.

Q. What makes a good story?
SF. A Story!

The Classic in Chronological Order

2011-12-18T16:07:00.002+05:30

...

2011-12-16T18:15:00.000+05:30

and so it was, a love letter to cinema.

The Spielberg Face or..The art of the dolly forward and the expressive close up.

2011-12-16T14:20:00.000+05:30

Love Cinema? Hate Piracy! Period.

2011-12-16T01:20:00.000+05:30

Great Movie Poster!

2011-10-26T12:33:00.000+05:30

For once I really wish the film really lives upto to the promise of the poster. Pulp-Retro-Hindi Cinema. Nothing like it.

The Native Telugu Cinema Movement - ' Maa Voollo Osari Em Jarigindante..'

2011-10-12T13:39:00.001+05:30

A couple of nights ago, I happened to catch a screening of a Telugu film at the Film Chamber theater.
I'll come to that in a minute..

Its obvious by now that independent cinema has a very limited distribution market in Andhra Pradesh.
My definition of 'Independent Telugu Cinema' is: cinema which is self produced, made on very tight budgets and schedules, may or may not have commercial elements and therefore is at the mercy of the distribution market to be picked up for a proper theatrical release. There are more poetic and creative connotations to Independent Cinema... but I think this is a realistic definition.

I've admired and envied the 'parallel' cinema movement in Tamil Nadu. One might also call it a sub-culture, native or new wave Tamil Cinema. These films have been received well by critics and audiences alike. They've also gone onto win National and International awards.

I've wondered, like I'm sure most of you have, will there ever be a 'New Wave Telugu Cinema Movement'? When will it happen? Will the market and the audiences allow it? Is there room at all for it?
In time we'll see, I suppose. But lets not argue that it legitimately exists even. I guess its upto us to make that happen.

Meanwhile...
We did have a legitimate 'sub-culture'/native movement in the few 'Angrez' type films. I thought it was the beginning of a new wave of sorts, but it seems to be diminishing fast. But this got me thinking. If a bunch of guys in Old City were making their very own genre films, crime/comedy, Hyderabadi-Biryani-Nawabi style. What is stopping our folk from other parts of the state?

Forget 'new wave'. A legitimate 'sub-culture' or native cinema movement is welcome and the need of the hour. Authentic, traditional, even commercial, but drenched in the nativity of the land, region and people it comes from. These need to be seen, these need to be theatrically distributed.

One such, charming, un-assuming, sweet, native, funny and really twisted little film is the one I saw a couple of nights ago. 'Maa Voollo Osari Em Jarigindante..'
Written, Produced and Directed by Chandrashekar aka Chendu.You'll hear more of him in the future, I can guarantee that.

Starring absolute amateurs, shot over a few days, on an unbelievable budget and 50 rolls of Kodak stock. This is a true 'sub-culture' Telugu film. Or wait, is 'native' the right word?

At this point some clarity on the word 'sub-culture' and 'native' is important.
The dictionary defines subculture as:
1. (Sociology) a subdivision of a national culture or an enclave within it with a distinct integrated network of behaviour, beliefs, and attitudes.
and 'native' as
1.(adj)Originating, growing, or produced in a certain place or region; indigenous:

In the case of ' Maa Voollo Osari Em Jarigindante..' probably native is the right term. Its a film which will remind of you the classic Pedda Vamsi films but without the sheen and without the glamor.

Its been a while since we've seen someone get that absolutely right. Chendu gets it 'bang-on' target.
The film tethers on being Malegoan like (http://bitURL.net/Malegoan) but straightens up to be a truly native and genuine effort.
I'm very confident this film will do well at the box office, if it finds the right kind of distribution, publicity and marketing. Setting the right expectations for the audiences might be crucial. You can see, I'm having a very hard time categorizing it efficiently.

But in a time, where commercial mainstream cinema, while entertaining has become increasingly predictable,
' Maa Voollo Osari Em Jarigindante..' came as a breath of fresh air for me. And this effort needs to be encouraged and supported. My friends and I are trying to do our bit.. we hope for the best. Meanwhile,

Here's to Chendu and his team. Three cheers mate! You've made an honest, genuine and truly native film.

As I sign off and you look at poster designs; a word of advice: This is a film which must not be judged by its cover-literally. It shouldn't be judged by some of its un-assumed cheesiness. It shouldn't be judged by the amateur acting.
Trust me.. Beneath it all is a very twisted plot and extremely entertaining dialogs and characters.
What more does anyone need?

R.I.P Steve Jobs

2011-10-07T00:12:00.000+05:30

How to Write a Great Novel

2011-08-09T02:59:00.001+05:30

PAMUK

970s Istanbul, came out last month.
Mr. Pamuk writes by hand, in graph-paper notebooks, filling a page with prose and leaving the adjacent page blank for revisions, which he inserts with dialogue-like balloons. He sends his notebooks to a speed typist who returns them as typed manuscripts; then he marks the pages up and sends them back to be retyped. The cycle continues three or four times.
Mr. Pamuk says he writes anywhere inspiration strikes—on airplanes, in hotel rooms, on a park bench. He's not given to bursts of spontaneity, though, when it comes to plot and story structure. "I plan everything," Mr. Pamuk says.

HILARY MANTEL

British novelist Hilary Mantel likes to write first thing in the morning, before she has uttered a word or had a sip of coffee. She usually jots down ideas and notes about her dreams. "I get very jangled if I can't do it," she says.
She's an obsessive note taker and always carries a notebook. Odd phrases, bits of dialogue and descriptions that come to her get tacked to a 7-foot-tall bulletin board in her kitchen; they remain there until Ms. Mantel finds a place for them in her narrative.
Ms. Mantel spent five years researching and writing the book, "Wolf Hall," her Booker Prize-winning Tudor drama set in the court of Henry VIII, out in the U.S. this month. The trickiest part was trying to match her version to the historical record. To avoid contradicting history, she created a card catalogue, organized alphabetically by character. Each card contained notes showing where a particular historical figure—such as protagonist Thomas Cromwell, Henry's adviser—was on relevant dates.
"You really need to know, where is the Duke of Suffolk at the moment? You can't have him in London if he's supposed to be somewhere else," she says.
One day, she was in a panic over how she would fit everything she needed to into the novel. She took a shower—her usual head-clearing ritual. "I burst out of the shower crying 'It's two books!'" says Ms. Mantel, who is writing a sequel that will end with Cromwell's beheading in 1540.

KAZUO ISHIGURO

From the time he was a teenager until his mid-20s, novelist Kazuo Ishiguro tried, unsuccessfully, to make it as a songwriter. His early career helped him to develop his style of spare, first-person narration where the narrator seems to know more than he or she lets on at first.
Mr. Ishiguro, author of six novels, including the Booker-prize winning "Remains of the Day,"typically spends two years researching a novel and a year writing it. Since his novels are written in the first person, the voice is crucial, so he "auditions" narrators by writing a few chapters from different characters' points of view. Before he begins a draft, he compiles folders of notes and flow charts that lay out not just the plot but also more subtle aspects of the narrative, such as a character's emotions or memories.
Obsessive preparation "gives me the opportunity to have my narrators suppress meaning and evade meaning when they say one thing and mean something else," says Mr. Ishiguro.
He collects his notes in binders and writes a first draft by hand. He edits with a pencil, then types the revised version into a computer, where he further refines it, sometimes deleting chunks as large as 100 pages.
In spite of all the groundwork, some novels fail to come together, including one that took place in medieval Britain. "I showed my wife a segment that I had honed down and she said, "This is awful. You have to figure out how they speak to each other. They're speaking in a moron language," he says.

MICHAEL ONDAATJE

Booker-prize winner Michael Ondaatje's preferred medium is 8½-by-11-inch Muji brand lined notebooks. He completes the first three or four drafts by hand, sometimes literally cutting and pasting passages and whole chapters with scissors and tape. Some of his notebooks have pages with four layers underneath.
Words come easily for the author—the bulk of the work is arranging and rewriting sentences. "I don't understand this whole concept of writer's block," says Mr. Ondaatje, who says he is working on a novel at the moment but declines to elaborate. "If I get stuck, I work on another scene."
Mr. Ondaatje, who started out as a poet, says plots often come to him as "a glimpse of a small situation." His 1992 novel "The English Patient" started out as two images: one of a patient lying in bed talking to a nurse, and another of a thief stealing a photograph of himself.
Sometimes he goes through an "anarchic" stage, cutting out characters or rearranging scenes. "Some writers know what the last sentence is going to be before they begin—I don't even know what the second sentence is going to be," says Mr. Ondaatje, whose most recent novel, "Divisadero," came out in 2007.

RICHARD POWERS

Richard Powers, whose books are often concept-driven, intricately plotted and stuffed with arcane science, wrote his last three novels while lying in bed, speaking to a lap-top computer with voice-recognition software.
To write "Generosity," his recent novel about the search for a happiness gene, he worked like this for eight or nine hours a day. He uses a stylus pen to edit on a touch screen, rewriting sentences and highlighting words.
"It's recovering storytelling by voice and recovering the use of the hand and all that tactile immediacy," Mr. Powers says of the process. "I like to use different parts of my brain."

DAN CHAON

Dan Chaon writes a first draft on color-coded note cards he buys at Office Max. Ideas for his books come to him as images and phrases rather than plots, characters or settings, he says. He begins by jotting down imagery, with no back story in mind. He keeps turning the images over in his mind until characters and themes emerge.
His most recent novel, "Await Your Reply," which has three interlocking narratives about identity theft, started out as scattered pictures of a lighthouse on a prairie, a car driving into the arctic tundra under a midnight sun and a boy and his father driving to the hospital at night with the boy's severed hand, resting on ice. He described each scene on a card, then began fleshing out the plotlines, alternating among blue, pink and green cards when he moved between narratives.
During the early stages of writing, he carries a pocketful of cards with him wherever he goes; as they accumulate, he stores them in a card catalogue that he bought at a library sale. It often takes two years before something resembling a novel takes shape. He eventually transcribes the cards onto the computer and writes furiously from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
"I used to think my average as a short story writer was one completed story out of every 20," says Mr. Chaon, who adds that his average has improved as he's gained experience . "I have at least two novels that I think are dead—maybe three if the thing I'm working on right now sputters to a stop."

KATE CHRISTENSEN

Kate Christensen was two years and 150 pages into her first novel, "In the Drink," about a boozy ghostwriter, before she discovered what the book was really about—so she dismantled the draft, threw out a bunch of pages and started over. The process repeated itself with her second, third and fourth novels, she says. With her 2009 novel "Trouble," a story about two women who go on a Thelma and Louise-like adventure to Mexico, the opening finally stuck. Ms. Christensen, who works out of her home in Tribeca, says a lot of her writing time is spent "not writing." Most mornings, she does housework, writes emails and talks on the phone to avoid facing her work. In the past, she's played 30 games of solitaire before typing a first sentence.
Last month, she started a new novel, titled "The Astral," about a 57-year-old poet in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who has been kicked out by his wife and is trying to get his son out of a mind control cult. "At the beginning, which is where I am now, there is always a certain amount of trepidation because the thing doesn't have a life of its own yet," says Ms. Christensen, who won the PEN/Faulkner Award last year.

MARGARET ATWOOD

"Put your left hand on the table. Put your right hand in the air. If you stay that way long enough, you'll get a plot," Margaret Atwood says when asked where her ideas come from. When questioned about whether she's ever used that approach, she adds, "No, I don't have to."
Ms. Atwood, who has written 13 novels, as well as poetry, short stories and nonfiction works, rarely gets writer's block. When ideas hit her, she scribbles phrases and notes on napkins, restaurant menus, in the margins of newspapers. She starts with a rough notion of how the story will develop, "which usually turns out to be wrong," she says. She moves back and forth between writing longhand and on the computer. When a narrative arc starts to take shape, she prints out chapters and arranges them in piles on the floor, and plays with the order by moving piles around.
Twice, she's abandoned books after a couple hundred pages, one in the late 1960s and another in the early 1980s. She was able to salvage a single sentence from one book, and carved two short stories out of the other, including one titled "The Whirlpool Rapids."
During a career that has spanned more than 40 years, Ms. Atwood has gone from cutting and pasting passages with scissors and tape to the communication of the electronic age. Lately, she's been blogging and using Twitter while on tour promoting her recent novel, "The Year of the Flood."

EDWIDGE DANTICAT

Before she begins a novel, Edwidge Danticat creates a collage on a bulletin board in her office, tacking up photos she's taken on trips to her native Haiti and images she clips from magazines ranging from Essence to National Geographic. Ms. Danticat, who works out of her home in Miami, says she adapted the technique from story boarding, which filmmakers use to map out scenes. "I like the tactile process. There's something old-fashioned about it, but what we do is kind of old-fashioned," she says.
Sometimes, the collage grows large enough to fill four bulletin boards. As the plot becomes clearer, she culls pictures and shrinks the visual map to a single board.
Right now, Ms. Danticat has two boards full of images depicting a seaside town in Haiti, the setting for a new novel that takes place in a village based on the one where her mother grew up.
She writes first drafts in flimsy blue exam notebooks that she orders from an online office supply store. She often uses 100 exam books for a draft. "The company I order from must think I'm a high school," she said. She types the draft on the computer and begins revising and cutting.
Finally, she makes a tape recording of herself reading the entire novel aloud—a trick she learned from Walter Mosley—and revises passages that cause her to stumble.

JUNOT DÍAZ

"I think 90% of my ideas evaporate because I have a terrible memory and because I seem to be committed to not scribble anything down," says Junot Díaz. "As soon as I write it down, my mind rejects it."
Juggling everything in his head has drawbacks, one of which is writing very slowly, he says. He threw out two earlier versions of his novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao"—the equivalent of about 600 pages—before the final version began to take shape. He also researches obsessively. When writing "Oscar Wao," he read J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy half a dozen times to get inside the head of his protagonist, an overweight Dominican teenager who's obsessed with fantasy and science fiction.
He often listens to orchestral movie soundtracks as he writes, because he's easily distracted by lyrics. When he needs to seal himself off from the world, he retreats into the bathroom and sits on the edge of the tub. "It drove my ex crazy," he says. "She would always know I was going to write because I would grab a notebook and run into the bathroom."

AMITAV GOSH

Amitav Ghosh's first novel ended in failure. He was in his mid 20s, doing research on agricultural development at a think tank in Kerala, India. He worked on the first draft for a year. "It was terrible and I had to throw it all away," he says. He's since written six novels, including "Sea of Poppies" and "The Glass Palace," but the process is always fraught.
"It never gets easier; it's always hard, it's always a test," says Mr. Ghosh, who splits his time between Goa, India, and Brooklyn, N.Y. "I've reached a point in my life where if a sentence seems easy, I distrust it."
Mr. Ghosh writes by hand, then types a manuscript onto his laptop. Every morning, he revises what he wrote the day before. Every sentence that appears in his books has been through at least 20 revisions, he says.
Mr. Ghosh, who is now working on the sequel to "Sea of Poppies," which is part of a trilogy, is particular about everything from his pen to the type of paper he writes on. He insists black ink Pelikan pens are the best, and buys white, lined paper from a French manufacturer. "If you work on paper so much, you get obsessive about even the spacing of the lines," he says. "I need them to be fairly widely spaced."

RUSSELL BANKS

Russell Banks, a novelist who lives in upstate New York, writes nonfiction essays and reviews on his computer, but "gets blocked" if he tries to write fiction that way. He scribbles out his first drafts in longhand, working from 8 in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon in a small writing studio. His studio, a converted sugar shack that was once used for boiling maple syrup, sits in a wooded area about 1,000 yards from his house.
His novels sometimes start out as a single sentence or phrase. As the story unfolds, he types up a rough outline that encompasses the whole plot, and a shorter, more detailed outline that maps out what's going to happen in the next 10 or 20 pages. "It keeps me from falling off a cliff," says Mr. Banks, whose books include "Affliction" and "The Sweet Hereafter," both novels.
He types his manuscripts onto the computer once he has a full draft, and goes through countless revisions.
Currently, Mr. Banks is about halfway through a novel set in Miami.

COLUM MCCANN

When he's in the middle of a novel, Colum McCann sometimes prints out a chapter or two in large font, staples it together like a book, and takes it to Central Park. He finds a quiet bench and pretends he's reading a book by someone else.
Other times, when he's re-reading a bit of dialogue or trying to tweak a character's voice, he'll reduce the computer font to eight-point Times New Roman. "It forces me to peer at the words and examine why they're there," Mr. McCann wrote in an email message.
Changing the way the words look physically gives him more critical distance, he says.
To research his 2009 novel "Let the Great World Spin," which is set in New York in the 1970s and is a finalist for the National Book Award, Mr. McCann went on rounds with homicide and housing cops, read oral histories of prostitutes from the era and watched archival film footage.
The hardest moment often comes at the end of the project, when he's emotionally spent and terrified that he'll never be able to write another novel, he says. At such moments, he reminds himself of Samuel Beckett's advice: "No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

ANNE RICE

When she was working on her first novel, "Interview With a Vampire," in the early 1970s, Anne Rice revised each typed page before moving on to the next. These days, she writes on a computer rather than a typewriter, and revisions are constant and more fluid. She writes a chapter a day to make sure each section is consistent in its tone and style, and often works for eight or nine hours straight when she's in the middle of a novel. Sometimes, she'll spend a year or two researching a book before she begins a full first draft.
She sets her font to 14 point Courier and double spaces the text on her 30-inch Mac computer monitor so that her field of vision is filled with words. "I find the bigger the monitor, the better the concentration," says Ms. Rice, who is writing the third book in her trilogy about angels. She edits her work continuously, down to tiny copy-editing changes at the end. "Even after you've done all that, somebody out there will find a typo and think you're a slob," she says.

JOHN WRAY

To write "Lowboy," which takes place in the New York City subway, Brooklyn-based novelist John Wray rode trains all over the city while pecking out a first draft on his laptop computer. He mainly rode the F, C and B trains, though "there was a time when I was really into the G," he says. He often sat in a corner near the conductor's booth with his headphones on. He worked like this, often for six hours a day, for nearly a year.
Initially, he wrote on the train not for research purposes, but to cut himself off from distractions like email and phone calls. Then the people and conversations he observed on the subway began to creep into the book, a novel about a paranoid schizophrenic teenager. One of the characters, a heavy-set homeless woman, is based on a woman Mr. Wray used to see at the Stillwell Avenue stop in Brooklyn. Bits of dialogue he overheard appear verbatim in the novel, including a strange conversation about how prospective homeowners should spend the night in a house before buying it in order to check the property for paranormal activity.
Writing on a noisy, crowded train was hard at times, but it was pleasant compared to the conditions under which he wrote his first novel, he says. In 1996, after losing his job in an art gallery, Mr. Wray lived in a tent in a rat-infested basement in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood. He wrote in the tent on an old 1940s typewriter. "I tried to approximate every cliché of the struggling novelist possible," he says.

LAURA LIPPMAN

Mystery writer Laura Lippman, who writes a popular series featuring detective Tess Monaghan, creates elaborate, color-coded plot charts, using index cards, sketchbook pages, colored ribbon and magic markers.
The diagrams vary from book to book, but Ms. Lippman says she can tell a novel is off-track if her chart lacks symmetry.
She first used the technique on her ninth book, "By A Spider's Thread," which had two lines of action. She assigned a color to each point of view and made a chart with alternating blocks of color. For her novel "To The Power of Three," which had seven different points of view, she bought seven different colors of ribbon and assigned a color to each character. Then she created a grid and strung colored ribbon representing each character between chapters where that character appeared, creating an intricate colored lattice.
Ms. Lippman says she becomes "somewhat obsessive" about her charts.
"Every time I show people these things they seem to find them mildly disturbing," she says

The Periodic Table of Storytelling

2011-04-11T02:10:00.000+05:30

a brief history of the art of the cinema title design.

2011-03-20T03:02:00.002+05:30

Stephen King On Writing....A few gems.

2011-02-19T19:20:00.000+05:30

Stephen King On Wrting is essential reading for any writer. Its been my favorite and one of the few books I've re-read. Here are a few gems...

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness,
excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you
can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind
and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched
and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down
names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry
you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any
way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to
the blank page."

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all
others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around
these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut."

"“I’ll never be able to write anything that good, not if I live to be a thousand”—
but such feelings can also serve as a spur, goading the writer
to work harder and aim higher. Being swept away by a combination
of great story and great writing—of being flattened,
in fact—is part of every writer’s necessary formation. You cannot
hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your
writing until it has been done to you."

"If I write rapidly, putting down my story exactly as it
comes into my mind, only looking back to check the names of
my characters and the relevant parts of their back stories, I
find that I can keep up with my original enthusiasm and at
the same time outrun the self-doubt that’s always waiting to
settle in."

"The most important things to remember about back story
are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very
interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don’t get carried
away with the rest. Long life stories are best received in bars,
and only then an hour or so before closing time, and if you
are buying."

"I’m often asked if I think the beginning writer of fiction can
benefit from writing classes or seminars. The people who ask
are, all too often, looking for a magic bullet or a secret ingredient
or possibly Dumbo’s magic feather, none of which can
be found in classrooms or at writing retreats, no matter how
enticing the brochures may be. As for myself, I’m doubtful
about writing classes, but not entirely against them."

--Stephen King

Kubrick, A Tribute

2011-02-06T13:06:00.000+05:30

A Few Coppola Gems. A Must Read

2011-01-06T01:04:00.000+05:30

Francis Ford Coppola: On Risk, Money, Craft & Collaboration

by Ariston Anderson

Photo via Grazia Magazine.

Over the course of 45 years in the film business, Francis Ford Coppola has refined a singular code of ethics that govern his filmmaking. There are three rules: 1) Write and direct original screenplays, 2) make them with the most modern technology available, and 3) self-finance them. But Coppola didn’t develop this formula overnight. Though he found Hollywood success at the young age of 30, he admits that the early “Godfather” fame pulled him off course from his dream of writing and directing personal stories. Like Bergman, Coppola wanted to wake up and make movies based on his dreams and nightmares.

Thanks in no small part to his booming wine business, Coppola now does just that. He recently wrapped his latest picture, “Twixt Now and Sunrise,” based on an alcohol-induced dream he had in Turkey. The film even features the latest 3-D technology – but as a brief dramatic segment that serves the story, rather than the typical two-hour, multiplex gimmick.

I sat down with Mr. Coppola at La Mamounia, the legendary Moroccan palace-turned-hotel, during the Marrakech International Film Festival, where he shared insights on the filmmaking craft with local students. Rejecting the popular “master class” format, Coppola preferred a simple “conversation,” where he spoke candidly with students and shared his advice generously. What follows are excerpts from both conversations.

Why did you choose not to teach a master class?
For me in cinema there are few masters. I have met some masters – Kurosawa, Polanski – but I am a student.

I just finished a film a few days ago, and I came home and said I learned so much today. So if I can come home from working on a little film after doing it for 45 years and say, “I learned so much today,” that shows something about the cinema. Because the cinema is very young. It’s only 100 years old.

Even in the early days of the movies, they didn’t know how to make movies. They had an image and it moved and the audience loved it. You saw a train coming into the station, and just to see motion was beautiful.

The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do. But unfortunately, after 15-20 years, it became a commercial industry. People made money in the cinema, and then they began to say to the pioneers, “Don’t experiment. We want to make money. We don’t want to take chances.”

The cinema language happened by experimentation – by people not knowing what to do.

An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before? I always like to say that cinema without risk is like having no sex and expecting to have a baby. You have to take a risk.

You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money. That tells me that although the cinema in the next 100 years is going to change a lot, it will slow down because they don’t want you to risk anymore. They don’t want you to take chances. So I feel like [I’m] part of the cinema as it was 100 years ago, when you didn't know how to make it. You have to discover how to make it.

Gene Hackman in The Conversation.

Do you feel like you’re more of a risk-taker now?
I was always a good adventurer. I was never afraid of risks. I always had a good philosophy about risks. The only risk is to waste your life, so that when you die, you say, “Oh, I wish I had done this.” I did everything I wanted to do, and I continue to.

What’s the most useful piece of advice you’d give a student?
The first thing you do when you take a piece of paper is always put the date on it, the month, the day, and where it is. Because every idea that you put on paper is useful to you. By putting the date on it as a habit, when you look for what you wrote down in your notes, you will be desperate to know that it happened in April in 1972 and it was in Paris and already it begins to be useful. One of the most important tools that a filmmaker has are his/her notes.

If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?

Is it important to veer away from the masters to develop one’s own style?
I once found a little excerpt from Balzac. He speaks about a young writer who stole some of his prose. The thing that almost made me weep, he said, “I was so happy when this young person took from me.” Because that’s what we want. We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that’s how you will find your voice.

And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you. And Balzac said that in his book: It makes me so happy because it makes me immortal because I know that 200 years from now there will be people doing things that somehow I am part of. So the answer to your question is: Don’t worry about whether it’s appropriate to borrow or to take or do something like someone you admire because that’s only the first step and you have to take the first step.

How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?
We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money.

What’s the greatest challenge of a screenwriter?
A screenplay has to be like a haiku. It has to be very concise and very clear, minimal. When you go to make it as a film, you have the suggestions of the actors, which are going to be available to you, right? You’re going to listen to the actors because they have great ideas. You’re going to listen to the photographer because he will have a great idea.

You must never be the kind of director, I think maybe I was when I was 18, “No, no, no, I know best.” That’s not good. You can make the decision that you feel is best, but listen to everyone, because cinema is collaboration. I always like to say that collaboration is the sex of art because you take from everyone you’re working with.

What is the one thing to keep in mind when making a film?
When you make a movie, always try to discover what the theme of the movie is in one or two words. Every time I made a film, I always knew what I thought the theme was, the core, in one word. In “The Godfather,” it was succession. In “The Conversation,” it was privacy. In “Apocalypse,” it was morality.

The reason it’s important to have this is because most of the time what a director really does is make decisions. All day long: Do you want it to be long hair or short hair? Do you want a dress or pants? Do you want a beard or no beard? There are many times when you don’t know the answer. Knowing what the theme is always helps you.

I remember in “The Conversation,” they brought all these coats to me, and they said: Do you want him to look like a detective, Humphrey Bogart? Do you want him to look like a blah blah blah. I didn’t know, and said the theme is ‘privacy’ and chose the plastic coat you could see through. So knowing the theme helps you make a decision when you’re not sure which way to go.

Marlon Brando in The Godfather.

What’s the secret to working with great actors?
I’m going to tell you the story of how I prepared the actors of “The Godfather.” Of course, we were all nervous about Marlon Brando. As theatre students in the ‘50s, we looked at him as the greatest. And there was going to be the first time when all the actors were going to meet. Of course, Al Pacino, Jimmy Caan, Bobby Duvall, Johnny Cazale – everyone just admired Marlon. He was the Godfather. I knew that, and I said, “I can use this.” Napoleon once said, “Use the weapons at hand,” and this is what a film director has to do everyday. So what I did is I arranged for the first meeting as an improvisation.

I said, “I want you to come and be hungry.” And they came to a restaurant that I had arranged, the back room of the restaurant, just a table that looked like a home. Marlon, I had sit at the head of the table, and to his right I put Al Pacino, and to his left I put Jimmy Caan. I put Bobby Duvall, and I put Johnny Cazale, and I had my sister Talia, who played Connie, serve the food.

They had a dinner improvisation together, and after awhile everyone is relating to Marlon as the father, and Jimmy Caan is trying to impress him with jokes, and Al Pacino is trying to impress him by being intense and quiet, and my sister was so frightened – she was serving the food. And after that dinner they were the characters. So one tip I give you is, with improvisations, they really stick if there’s something sensual connected with them, like food or eating or making something with their hands.

Napoleon once said, ‘Use the weapons at hand,’ and this is what a film director has to do everyday.

How do you adapt a novel into a script?
Well, usually it’s the novel that’s adapted. The novel, unfortunately, is not a good form to adapt to film because the question of the novel is it’s usually much, much, much too long with too many characters, too many parts. The short story is the natural narrative, linear narrative to become a film. Many, many short stories have become films.

With a novel, what I can recommend is when you first read the novel, put good notes in it the first time, right on the book, write down everything you feel, underline every sensation that you felt was strong. Those first notes are very valuable. Then, when you finish the book, you will see that some pages are filled with underlined notes and some are blank.

In theatre, there’s something called a prompt book. The prompt book is what the stage manager has, usually a loose-leaf book with all the lighting cues. I make a prompt book out of the novel. In other words, I break the novel, and I glue the pages in a loose-leaf, usually with the square cutout so I can see both sides.

I have that big book with the notes I took, and then I go and I put lots more observations and notes. Then I begin to go through that and summarize the part that I thought was useful. And quite naturally you’ll see that the parts fall away, or that you have too many characters, so you know that you have to eliminate some or combine some. Working on it this way, from the outside in, being more specific as to what you think… then when you finish that, you are qualified perhaps to try to write a draft based on that notebook.

In the case of “The Godfather” I did that, and although I had a screenplay, I never used it. I always used to take that big notebook around with me, and I made the movie from that notebook. In the case of “Apocalypse,” there was a script written by the great John Milius, but, I must say, what I really made the film from was the little green copy of Heart of Darkness that I had done all those lines in. Whenever I would do a scene, I would check that and see what can I give the movie from Conrad.

Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve given to your children, inside and outside of the industry?
Always make your work be personal.

And, you never have to lie. If you lie, you will only trip yourself up. You will always get caught in a lie. It is very important for an artist not to lie, and most important is not to lie to yourself. There are some questions that are inappropriate to ask, and rather than lie, I will not answer them because it’s not a question I accept. So many times we are asked things in our work or in life that you want to lie, and all you have to do is say, “No, that is an improper question.”

So when you get into a habit of not lying when you are writing, directing, or making a film, that will carry your personal conviction into your work. And, in a society where you say you are very free but you’re not entirely free, you have to try. There is something we know that’s connected with beauty and truth. There is something ancient. We know that art is about beauty, and therefore it has to be about truth.

You now have all the resources to do your own production, writing, directing. What’s the biggest barrier to being an artist?
Self-confidence always. The artist always battles his own/her own feeling of inadequacy.

How do you overcome that?
I’ve learned an interesting thing. When I was young on a movie set, I would try to stage the scene and the actors would read it, and I said, “Well, you stand here and you sit there, and blah, blah, blah.” They would say, “Well, I don’t think I should sit there, I should stand there. And I don’t think this line is right.” And they would begin to challenge the text.

What I learned, which is a simple idea, is that if you hold out with your vision a little bit, it’s like a cake being put in the oven. The scene doesn’t work immediately, you have to bake it a little bit. It’s unfair, when you begin to create a shot, say, or a scene, that it’s going to immediately be like those beautiful scenes in the movies. It needs a little bit of time to mature. It’s like taking the cake out without letting it be in the oven for more than a minute. Like, oh no, it’s terrible. So you have to be patient, and then slowly everyone starts to see that the ideas are right, or make the corrections. You have to battle the lack of confidence by giving the scene the chance to solidify.

Do you use that approach in life as well?
Yes, I think. We are very insecure. People are insecure, not just young people. Everyone is insecure. They say that Barbara Streisand, when she goes on, she has a panic attack. She feels she can’t sing. Of course, she can sing. I believe that when you write something, when I write something, I turn it over and I don’t look at it. Because I believe the writer, the young writer, has a hormone that makes them hate what they’ve written. And yet, the next morning, when you look at it, you say, “Oh that’s not bad.” But the first second you hate it.

--
Ariston Anderson is a writer and strategist based in Brooklyn, NY. Follow her on Twitter @Aristonian.

dare to dream

2010-12-17T22:04:00.000+05:30

Manish Acharya R.I.P

2010-12-12T12:18:00.000+05:30

He will be missed.He had a genuine and unique voice.A true talent

R.I.P Manish Acharya The video below is a tribute by his cast and crew members from 'Loins of Punjab'

so utterly true

2010-11-13T12:43:00.000+05:30

"On the 1st day of shooting, all the talking you've done becomes academic; you put it in a bag, seal it up & throw it away. But all of it is right there in your head, and it had better be in your hands as well because the director can't deal with it anymore. He has other problems."-Laszlo Kovacs, ASC

Phenomenal VFX work by Students of IACG!

2010-10-28T14:10:00.000+05:30

We have our very own Lucas's and Spielbergs, right at our doorstep. Take a bow guys!

ahem..

2010-10-25T13:58:00.000+05:30

I find my stories or my stories find me, In either case we are both on a journey to find each other.

When we meet? Well that's for the storyteller to decide...

60 Best Blogs for Aspiring Screenwriters

2010-10-25T04:48:00.001+05:30

60 Best Blogs for Aspiring Screenwriters

Check it out. Great Links!

it says so in the book

2010-09-26T21:27:00.000+05:30

"When you cross the valley of tears, and you arrive to the oasis, the reward of God is not success, it’s not money, it’s not admiration or fame, it’s not power. His reward is rest."

hmm...

Note to self

2010-08-17T18:44:00.000+05:30

I am on a lifelong path as a creative person. That path has many twists and turns. Sometimes I feel good about where I am. Other times, not so much. But even if I feel lost, I am still on the path. I am always on the path. And even if I feel like I'm slipping backward, I'm actually moving forward because I'm continually learning about my craft. Indeed I learn as much or more from when I'm feeling lost as when I'm feeling good about my writing. It's all part of my creative process. And I trust the process. ~mantra for the creative soul.

Jack Kerouac!

2010-07-06T03:05:00.000+05:30

He has been called "the King of the beats." His books include "The Subterraneans," "The Dharma Bums," and his most famous work "On The Road." He laid out 30 essentials to his approach to writing which is sometimes called "spontaneous prose":

Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for your own joy
Submissive to everything, open, listening
Try never get drunk outside your own house
Be in love with your life
Something that you feel will find its own form
Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
Blow as deep as you want to blow
Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
The unspeakable visions of the individual
No time for poetry but exactly what is
Visionary tics shivering in the chest
In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
Like Proust be an old teahead of time
Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
Write in recollection and amazement for yrself
Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
Accept loss forever
Believe in the holy contour of life
Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
Don't think of words when you stop but to see picture better
Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
You're a Genius all the time
Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

2010-07-03T06:29:00.000+05:30

A film which virtually tested the limits of sanity and mortality of one Mr.Francis Coppola. Hearts of Darkness is a fascinating documentary on the making of Apocalypse Now and a revealing character study of the movie director.

A must watch for anyone who didn't know, that some of the bravest, insanest minds and hearts on the planet are maverick movie directors who go after something so intangible...

Isn't this the ultimate dream and purpose of every filmmaker. Chasing the Intangible.

and finding it...

I've had my mini Apocalypse experience. I think it changed me. But am waiting for more. No filmmakers life or career is complete without an experience like the Apocalypse.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102015/

Walkabout Walkabout.

2010-06-12T05:12:00.000+05:30

This is a breathtakingly beautiful poetry on film.

The following verses read out at the end of the film sum up the movie perfectly.

"Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it, shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again."

-A. E. Houseman

Watch the movie, the chance you get.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067959/

THE BEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME-MAP

2010-06-12T03:41:00.000+05:30

THE WORLD CUP IS HERE!

2010-06-11T15:58:00.000+05:30

Conservation Cove

2010-05-28T03:42:00.000+05:30

In one word what do a documentaries want to achieve? CHANGE. another word. SPREAD. yet another. KNOWLEDGE. and another AWARENESS.

The Cove achieves all of this and more. An absolutely stunning piece of vigilante documentarism, its sole aim to bring to light to the world the INHUMAN way in which dolphins are massacred by the japanese fishing industries for meat and recreational purposes.
Its amazing what one can achieve if you get the right kind of people in your team. The documentary follows a group of individuals who all come together to highlight this problem. It has its share of suspense, crime and thrilling moments. But more than all that, it will simply change the way you think about FISH the next time you eat it. And your respect for the beloved DOLPHIN will grow manifold.

I have so much respect for animal conservationists and environmental conservationists. Their passion for nature, the ocean and animals who cant defend themselves against human cruelty is so INSPIRING. What a life some of these characters in this documentary have lived. Every child, every adult. Every human being who has ever thought about conservation or not, must watch this documentary. Thats how important this is.

This documentary shows, how powerful a visual medium is. It brought change, across the world! WOW.

Just Mindblowing stuff. Watch!

Lovely Looking Film

2010-05-27T17:31:00.001+05:30

Lovely Bones- Directed by Peter Jackson. The movie has the most beautiful special effects you could ever see. What can be more challenging for a vfx guy than being asked to create heaven, or in this case the middle world, filled with heaven bound spirits and dreamy imagery. The challenge for the vfx team is to create that highway to heaven that a soul needs to travel. So gorgeous to look at. Am really sad I didn't get to watch this visual spectacle on the big screen. Once again. Simply Gorgeous to look at. Only Peter Jackson's head could have come up with all that imagery. Magical.

When we come to the story though. It starts off with a very interesting premise. A girl dies. She's murdered and raped by a neighbour. Her parents are naturally devastated with the tragedy. Her father however is driven to find answers, to help him, his daughters soul lends a hand, showing him-telling him, where the answers lie. But time is running out. For the girl and the father.

The rest of the story is about how the girl has to make a choice of getting her soul to heaven or helping her father find the killer who is lurking in their own neighbourhood. A good one hour of the film really hooks you with the story telling, but it gets a little tame towards the end, and a very un-fulfilling climax. The screenplay could've been better I suppose. Regardless still a good watch.

There is so much to learn from the masters of the trade.sigh.

Gautama's Circle Of Red

2010-05-27T16:03:00.000+05:30

"Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: 'When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle.'"

Le Cercle Rouge- A chance meeting on the road. Two guys on the wrong side of the law. One a murderer and the other a thief. They form a team, helping each other out of their own mess while travelling between Marseille and Paris. They decide to team up for a heist together. All this while being pursued by a veteran cop whose got to proove something. The murderer having escaped from him earlier.
Whats really cool is, the film is very unhurried but never feels sluggish. This is old school story telling. A forgotten craft.
Sometimes there is so much you can learn as a character takes his time going up the steps or through his room to answer the door bell. Old school editing. Very interesting to watch. And used effectively in this film.
Very atmospheric, 70's Paris-gorgeous to look at, very minimal dialog, most of the film is all 'eyes' and directed with such craft. You don't really empathize with the characters but you still are riveted by the drama which unfolds. A climax, which takes you by surprise.

Jean Pierre Melville's classic. Unmissable.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065531/

motivational wisdom for the soul

2010-05-25T15:15:00.001+05:30

Here, I’ll share 20 of my favorite inspirational quotes. I won’t include any commentary because the quotes speak for themselves.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland

“If what you’re doing is not your passion, you have nothing to lose.”

“The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.” – George Eliot

“All our dreams can come true – if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

“What the mind can conceive, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” – Seneca

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” -Albert Einstein.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” -Milton Berle

“The sky has never been the limit. We are our own limits. It’s then about breaking our personal limits and outgrowing ourselves to live our best lives.”

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – Life’s Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“When you can’t change the direction of the wind — adjust your sails.” ~ H. Jackson Brown

“Everything you want should be yours: the type of work you want; the relationships you need; the social, mental, and aesthetic stimulation that will make you happy and fulfilled; the money you require for the lifestyle that is appropriate to you; and any requirement that you may (or may not) have for achievement or service to others. If you don’t aim for it all, you’ll never get it all. To aim for it requires that you know what you want” ~ Richard Koch

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” – Albert Ellis

“Confidence comes not from always being right but not fearing to be wrong”

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

Lets smoke up some conscience?

2010-05-24T18:45:00.000+05:30

Nick Naylor played by Aaron Eckhart is a lobbyist for the big tobacco firms in the United States. His job is to convince the public at large that its okay to smoke. No two ways about it. He does this with all the professionalism, integrity and passion that a soldier might bring onto the battlefield. He truly believes there's nothing wrong in doing his job and through his son we understand what lobbyists actually do and how they make a living.

Jason Reitman's first feature bristles with energy that comes with a fresh new voice. Although Juno is still my favorite, followed by Up In The Air. 'Thank you for smoking' leaves you with a great impression of the directors talent. However if one were to ask, what the point of the film was and what sorta journey did the protagonist go through. I'm not too sure about those answers. He does what he does, like he says, 'to pay the mortgage'.

Stylistic in its narration and wonderfully acted by Aaron Eckhart. Thank you for smoking is also quite funny. More like black humour. The character hangs out-best friends are fellow lobbyists from the alcohol and gun control industries. That was pure imagery I suppose.

I guess the point of the film was, to make us look a little inwards about all the choices we make, a be honest about why we make them. That's it. That's what I got from it.

Interesting film, from a very important director.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427944/

Notes on a poet.

2010-05-24T15:12:00.001+05:30

The most modest of homes for a giant of man.

I sat on a chair waiting for him.

I see his household, where time stood still.

A cup of hot coffee, as I glance at my boss. Wondering whats in store.

A small temple, agarbattis and potraits, a sign of his devotion.

Saraswati is in the air.

We're called into his room.

Sitting up on his bed, he smiles. I notice his feet, they must've walked many a mile.

His voice grainy but solid. His eyes all knowing. I know he is frail and ailing. I also know he is very strong.

What does a young man know about what time tells. He must surely think looking at me. I look down in reverence.

Conversations ensue, as I sit mutely. Watching a poet at work, my first oppurtunity.

A ball point pen and note pad. Enough for him to turn them to gold. He's written some and wants to recite.

I hear, but dont understand much. My boss thinks it over. Its probably divine.

Conversations flit past the song and into experiences and verses. I listen. Not knowing much. But enough to know its a moment in time.
Several such meetings, not one word spoken. Just mute observations of a man at work.

I understand his legacy and his work. I respect it to be mute in his presence. There is nothing I can add or discuss with a such a giant.

All I can do is keep an eager ear and listen to verses I am lucky to hear.

I wonder why he lives, such a simple life. I am told of his past and nod with awe.

What is his due, the world simply cannot pay. What is his worth, other poets must write.
I know this much. While I may not have grown up with him, I did grow when I was with him.

Legends dont die. Such men must only be celebrated. For he has served his creator well. For he has made us richer, more than we'll ever know.

Long Live, The Poet.

'Look into your heart'...I see Millers Crossing.

2010-05-24T13:01:00.000+05:30

Millers Crossing-A Coen brothers classic. The tale revolves around two warring gangsters in the prohibition era. Tom Regan played by Gabriel Byrne is a second in command to a lead gangster Leo (Albert Finney). Double crosses, an affair with the boss's girl, being beaten up every second day, all comes in a days work for Tom Regan, a true noir ani hero. His loyalties suspect, he moves to the other side, working with rival gangster Casper. What are the angles in the story? What is the play? Makes for an intruiging piece of cinema. With a music score that seems to go against the grain of the film, it builds on you hauntingly over time. Beautifully shot by Barry Sonnenfield. Wonderful black humour and violence that comes from nowhere, really gut wrenching stuff.

This movie a True Classic Coen brothers film. Terrific craft, story telling and acting.

Watch! You will doff your hat off to it. This a film made my masters of the cinema.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100150/

Beam me up!

2010-05-24T02:17:00.000+05:30

JJ Abrams does a great job in ressurecting Start Trek. An 'enterprise' which didnt seem like it had any future in cinema. The revisionist version is derived from what must've been a fabulous screenplay. Action, Adventure, Discovery, Comedy, Romance-Love, Redemption and Sacrifice all put together is a fun roller coaster ride of a film. Not to mention great TIME WARPS, BLACK HOLE THEORIES AND DESOLATE PLANETS!
The CGI is great, but JJ keeps in mind the original costumes and the main control room in this version. Not to mention the Start Ship Enterprise. Whats missing though is the original score of Star Trek, I missed it. They must have done a newer version of it, however I didnt seem to get it. Was entirely missing.

The story revolves around a younger Mr.Spock and the rebellious new recruit James Kirk, before they got to be great friends. With Mr.Spock being the reason for everything thats happening in the movie. Mr.Spocks ability to shock people by pressing down on their neck (most of us would remember doing this in school to each other) and The Enterprises ability of beaming people from one place to another always in the nick of time is great fun to watch.

I missed watching this on IMAX, it would have been great. But for people who might have been wary of catching Star Trek, I highly recommend that you do. Its a superb watch. The best CGI films are ones that have a STORY which is CUTTING EDGE and a thrill RIDE. That Star Trek, surely is...

JJ Abrams is a real whiz kid.

Roger Ebert on Udaan

2010-05-22T23:54:00.000+05:30

Although India has the world's second most active film industry, "Udaan,"by Vikramaditya Motwane, is its first competition entry in seven years. It's well made, involving, but (to my eyes at least) not particularly Indian. This story could have been set anywhere; it doesn't depend on location, but on personalities.

The hero, Rohan (Rajat Barmecha), is the son of a manufacturer, sent into storage for eight years at one of Indian's best boarding schools. He and his high-spirited friends get caught after hours in a cinema, he's expelled and sent home, and discovers only at that point that his father remarried, the marriage "didn't work out," and he has a young half-brother.

The father is a tyrant with no gift for parenthood. The son is determined to be a writer. The father won't hear of this. I hear the same thing over and again from Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Indian friends: If you want to do something artistic with your life instead of being a doctor or scientist, etc., you risk being disowned.

The story is told with force and conviction, and the Indian TV actor Ronit Roy is scary and effective as the father. The character isn't a sadist and martinet because he enjoys it, he conveys, but because he considers it his duty. Apparently he was shaped that way in childhood, and his son is lucky that boarding school spared him the same fate.

Perhaps when I say the film isn't especially "Indian" I am expecting something more exotic. But India has one of the world's largest middle classes, and its members spend very little time riding around on elephants. They are, I suppose, something like those we see here, with problems we can identify with.

note:

I cant comprehend Eberts ideas of exotic India, but am happy the film is receiving a positive buzz.

The Food We Eat Is The Person We Are.....

2010-05-22T19:57:00.000+05:30

Do we really ever take the time to sit back and think about what we eat. Food Inc is a very insightful documentary on the American food industry and how it has manipulated our food habits over the past 50 years. Why should farm grown vegetables be more expensive than a can of soda or a hamburger. How many calories and ...transfat is actually in all the fast food our young generation is consuming. We all need to have a second look at everything we eat. Our forefathers 50 years ago, definetely lived longer and healthier. Where are we going wrong? I think its more relevant for us in India, now that there has been a deluge of American products. Have we sat down to think about all those poultry farms and meat farms in the outskirts of our city, how are they treating the animals, what sorts of hormones they feed them gets into our system. Very very interesting and informative stuff.We in India also need to take an initiative. Lets try and support the
local farmer/butcher/poultry guy. Lets make the move to true organic
food grown locally. Makes you want to make that effort to eat healthy and more importantly make sure the generation after you is healthier. I feel strongly about this. Take the time to watch this fantastic documentary.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/

A Steven Spielberg 'Joke' I Found On The Net.

2010-05-20T18:11:00.000+05:30

Steven Spielberg dies and goes to heaven, and St. Peter says, "Oh, Mr Spielberg, we're so happy you're here. God has a very important assignment for you; we need you to make a movie. You can have your choice of anyone you want. Shakespeare can write the script; Michelangelo can paint the set; Mozart can write the music." Spielberg says, "What would be my compensation?" St. Peter says, "You can meet anyone you want.” Spielberg says, "I want to meet Stanley Kubrick. I was such a big fan, I never got to meet him, and I made A.I. because of my admiration for his work." St. Peter says, "Unfortunately, no one gets to meet Stanley Kubrick." As he says that, in the distance, Stanley Kubrick rides past on a bicycle. Steven says, "Whadya mean? That's Stanley right there! On the bike!" St. Peter says, "No, that's God pretending to be Stanley Kubrick."

True, so true. Sigh. I kneel before you sir.

WTF just happened?

2010-05-20T03:35:00.000+05:30

Directed by Barry Levinson. WJH is a movie closer home for me. I identify with De Niro's hyper on the edge film producer that he plays, while juggling with chaos on movie sets and his real life. While never nearly as dramatic as events in WJH, it mirrors a few years of my experiences in the industry. So I smile watching it, understanding everything that he is going through. It might work for anyone who loves and understands the crazy roller coaster world of the cinema business. A good onetime viewing.

factotum

2010-05-20T01:37:00.001+05:30

You watch a film, rooting for its character, as he stumbles, wanders, wallows and generally drops and fails to pick himself up. Writing for Hank Chinaski was his only hope of reaching out to a world which perhaps was beyond his grasp. For a such a sad, melancholic film, I was hoping for a better ending for Hank. But then I guess his life took its course. Interesting film. Watchable because of the under-rated Matt Dillons riveting performance. And for anyone interested in a writers brooding mind-scape... At the end of the film, you'd wish he'd sorted himself out.. leaving it untidy was a brave choice by the director..

Julie & Julie & Me

2010-05-19T17:13:00.003+05:30

I like writing about a movie as the credits roll. Sometimes. Just like talking about a great meal as you finish your dessert. Such is the experience of watching this delightful, heart-warming, funny, endearing, life affirming film called Julie & Julia. So beautifully shot, just like a gourmet filled movie must, exquisite production design- capturing two era's beautifully. Wonderfully directed by Nora Ephron- one of her best. And most importantly Meryl Streep shows us once more, what an EXTRA-ORDINARY ACTRESS she is- performing the role of Julia with the kind of arresting MAGNETISM very few can. Visit, devour and delight in this wonderful film.

Bon Appetit!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135503/

A Great Article, from johnaugust.com. Reflects my life story to an extent. Geography reversed.

2010-05-19T06:13:00.002+05:30

So you’re moving to Hollywood

Because this site is largely aimed at aspiring screenwriters, I like to include their first-person perspective on those early steps, beginning with the move to Los Angeles. Over the last few years, we’ve had guest blog posts from Adam Davis, Kris Galuska, Jerome Schwartz and Jonny Summers — all of whom are due for an update.

George Sloan is a writers’ assistant on “How I Met Your Mother.” He graciously agreed to write up a primer for recent college grads considering making the move to Hollywood.

Hi. I’m George. You probably don’t know me. But that’s okay. We’re friends now.

Below is some information I’ve compiled over the last four-and-a-half years, based on my experience as a PA in the industry, as well as questions I’ve been asked by people considering the move to Los Angeles. Keep in mind, this is an unofficial and relatively shitty guide to working in Hollywood.

The Big Move

Every year, thousands of 20-something guys and girls pack up their cars, leave their beloved suburban towns and head west to Los Angeles. And with good reason. LA is the international capital of television and motion pictures. Argue all you want about other places — Ne w York, New Orleans, Vancouver and Eastern Europe — but when all is said and done, LA is where you need to be. Granted, that may change over the next ten years, but as of 2010, LA is still the place.

Leaving home and saying goodbye to my family and friends, though incredibly difficult, was a necessity. But before I packed my ’98 Accord to the roof, I asked myself a question. It’s the same question that I pose to anyone considering the move to LA. “Aside from film and television, is there anything else you can see yourself doing with your life?” If the answer is no, pack your stuff and get out here.

The Drive

Recruit a friend to drive with you, if possible. I drove alone, however, and loved every minute of it. Those five days in the car, thinking and listening to music, allowed me to prepare myself mentally for the enormous change I was about to experience.

Saving Up

I moved to Los Angeles with $1,200 in savings. Dumb idea. I would suggest moving with no less than $5,000 in savings. LA is one of the more expensive cities in the country and you probably won’t have a job for the first few weeks. You’ll need enough to cover gas (about 50 cents more per gallon in LA than on the east coast), food, monthly bills (student loans, car loans, etc.), as well as your first/last month of rent and security deposit. You’ll also need money for furniture if you didn’t come out here with any. I moved in with a few guys I met on Craigslist who already had a fully-furnished house. That worked out well, but if you want to live alone, prepare to drop some cash at Ikea.

The First Job

Finding a job in LA is not that hard. Finding a good-paying job that you enjoy is very hard. I did freelance PA (production assistant) work for my first year out here (additionally, I had worked as a PA back in Boston for over a year), working on some embarrassing low-budget feature films, as well as some embarrassing big-budget reality shows. The hours were impossibly long and the pay was hilariously low. The tasks I was asked to complete were menial and beneath anybody with a high school diploma. My friends like to refer to some of the jobs I had as “pride-swallowing.” I prefer the term “soul-crushing.”

The Long and Winding Road

After a year or so, I got a job as an office PA on big-budget studio feature. It was thrilling, but eight months later, I felt like I wasn’t learning anything new and decided to leave. I scored an internship at a well-respected production company, eventually transitioning into a full-time job as an executive assistant. But after a year, I again grew restless. I thought about why I moved to LA in the first place: to pursue my dream of writing and directing. My two years in LA had certainly not been a waste (I had fun, I learned a lot and I made some great connections), but I didn’t feel any closer to my dream of writing and directing. So I set what I considered to be a realistic goal for myself: I would become a writers’ assistant on a TV show. I had heard there was a “ladder” to climb in television writing (start as an office PA, get promoted to writers’ PA, then get promoted to writers’ assistant), and was growing increasingly frustrated by the fact that no such ladder exists in the feature world.

Luckily, around this time, I received a call from a former employer who said “How I Met Your Mother” was looking for a new office PA. It seemed destined, so I started there over the summer, and busted my ass. When shooting began in the fall, a writers’ assistant position opened up and I made it clear that I was interested and prepared to do the job. I got the promotion. It took me two and a half years to find a job that I didn’t consider “soul-crushing,” but it finally happened. I still consider myself “just starting out” in the industry, but I now feel more confident in my future.

A Necessary Evil

The best advice I can give to anyone starting out in Hollywood is to find a job as a production assistant. It sucks hard, but it’s a necessary evil. Working as a PA is thankless. Truly. But it’s the nature of the beast. You must pay your dues. You’ll make shitty money, work long hours and be forced to swallow every ounce of pride that you have, but you’ll learn more in one day than you would in a lifetime of sitting in a classroom. You’ll also learn what you do and don’t want to do.

As a new PA on “How I Met Your Mother,” I was responsible for buying groceries and keeping the refrigerator stocked. Although it sounds silly, I took this job very seriously. Within a few days, the writers were telling me I was doing way better than the last guy and were offering to read any scripts I might be working on. Even the little things count. People notice.

The Giant Whirlpool

I think of Hollywood as a giant, freezing-cold, bacteria-ridden whirlpool. On the outside of the whirlpool, closest to the shore (and financial security), are the executives, the studio heads, the big-name actors, writers and directors. As you move towards the center, you come upon the lower-level employees. And moving further inwards still, you come to the PA’s. There’s thousands of them, all clamoring and clawing, trying desperately not to get sucked into the deep, dark hole of anonymity and sadness.

I’ve found, however, that if I focus on one particular point on the shore and swim hard enough, I begin to make some headway, inching further away from the center. At times I’ve felt very unmotivated. Those were the times that I lost focus and found myself swimming in a circle, passing the same people, also stuck, frustrated and sad.

Learn to swim.

Positioning Yourself

Once you get your first PA job, move as quickly as possible into the field that you want to end up in. For example, if you want to write for television, try to get a PA gig on a scripted TV show. If you want to produce reality shows, try to get into reality. If you want to be a cinematographer on feature films, get a job as an office PA, befriend the camera department PA and make it known where your interest lies. On the next show, people may offer you the position you’re looking for.

Internships

Internships are a great way to make connections and learn what you’re interested in. If you can afford to work for free (some internships do pay), get as many internships as possible. Most internships are two or three days a week and usually you can work with the internship coordinator at the company to work around whatever paying job you might have.

Some places will only hire you as an intern if you’re getting school credit. There are, however, ways around this. If you’ve already graduated from college, you can sign up for an independent study or a UCLA extension class. The company I wanted to intern with turned out to be laidback about the school credit thing, so I never had to enroll in a college class.

If you’ve already done an internship, for the love of all that is holy, use it to your advantage. Stay in touch with your supervisors. If the internship was done on the east coast, ask the people there if they know anyone in LA. If the internship was here in LA, ask them if they’re hiring. Put together a bad-ass resume and ask your supervisors if you can use them as references. Then write a bad-ass cover letter, buy the Hollywood Creative Directory (amazon.com or any LA library should have a copy) and send your info out to every office in town. Be professional and follow the guidelines of a normal cover letter, but make sure your unique personality comes across.

Film School

Film school is a tricky subject that everyone has an opinion about. You can ask ten people if they recommend going to film school and you’re likely to get ten different answers. My opinion is that film school is not necessary. I went to Quinnipiac University, a small school in Connecticut, and majored in film and television production. I’m doing just fine out here. I’ve worked with people that went to the best film schools in the country — USC and UCLA and NYU and Columbia — and we’re all at the same level. The only difference is they have some awesome looking short films and a solid alumni network. Film school is certainly a great way to meet passionate people who want to do the same thing as you, but that simply isn’t enough to convince me that film school is vital. More schooling means more money and more time, when you could just jump right into the industry. But again, opinions about going to school for film vary widely.

Connections

Connections are huge in Hollywood. Everyone has them, everyone wants them. Your best friend might know an actor from “Twilight.” Your father might know the creator of “Lost.” Your cousin might know the key make-up artist on “Avatar.” But until you are actually working in Hollywood, in a production office or on a set, none of these connections matter.

I made a list of 25 people that I knew in Los Angeles before I moved out here. When I arrived, not a single one of those people was able to help me find a job. It’s not that they didn’t want to, it’s that they weren’t able to. But I continue to check in with them periodically. A month before you move, email everyone you know in California. Send them your resume, tell them what you want to do, tell them you’ll work for free. Anything to get a foot in the door. Spread the word that you’re moving and that you’ll need a job in a few weeks. Post it on Facebook, MySpace (if it still exists) and Twitter. Text people. Send telegrams. In the unlikely chance that your big Hollywood connectiondoes get you a job, be ready, because once that door is open, you’re gonna have to work fast to prove that you’re the best.

Tracking Boards / Job Lists

Tracking boards are online forums that many assistants in Hollywood use to track upcoming film projects. In this manner, all participants can stay current on which companies are producing which films, which scripts have “heat,” which stars are signing which contracts, etc. These boards are also used to alert other members of new job openings. Often, you have to be invited to join a tracking board. For example, Boston University has a tracking board started by some of its alumni. If someone on the board hears about a job opening, they’ll email the group and hopefully secure the job for one of their friends. It’s a form of nepotism, but get used to it. There are also dozens of job lists circulating around Hollywood. The most popular is called the UTA Job List. UTA is one of the big talent agencies in town and every week they publish a comprehensive list of open assistant positions around Los Angeles. It’s very difficult to even get an interview based on this list because it’s so competitive, but usually the best jobs will be posted here.

The Mailroom

Many people working in Hollywood insist that the best way to break into the industry is by getting a job in the mailroom at one of the major agencies (CAA, UTA, WME, ICM) or, if need be, one of the smaller agencies (Gersch, Paradigm, ATA). I have absolutely no agency experience, so I can’t speak with authority on the subject, but be aware that it’s an option. From what I’m told, you work in the mailroom and sort mail for a while, become a “floater,” where you fill in and answer calls for various agents, and eventually get promoted to a more permanent assistant position. From there, you can decide if you’ve had enough, or if you want to continue on that path and become an agent.

LA: The Pros and Cons

I’ve only been in LA for four-and-a-half years, but I can tell you it really is the best place in the world for film. Every major studio is based here, every major filmmaker is based here. Every coffee shop you go to is full of people writing screenplays on their laptops and every movie theater is packed with like-minded people, all trying to carve a place for themselves in the industry. If you want to write, direct or produce feature films or television shows, this is the place you need to be. You’ll eventually want an agent, a manager, or a lawyer, all of whom will be based in LA.

Like any major city, LA is far from perfect and will take some getting used to. Here are a few drawbacks of the city, in no particular order: traffic, smog, lack of public transportation (in some areas), superficiality, obsession with celebrity culture, earthquakes, high sales tax.

And here are a few nice things about the city: consistently beautiful weather, proximity to beaches and mountains (often possible within a few hours), free movie screenings, world-renowned museums, a burgeoning theater scene, great Mexican food, Tom Hanks.

In Conclusion

In the end, it’s all in your hands. You need to be willing to work hard every single day. If you have any doubt that working in Hollywood is what you want to do with your life, then I would say don’t do it. As a PA, you’re replaceable. If you give up, there’s a hundred guys and girls waiting to take your job. You need to make yourself a vital component of the team. You need to observe what everyone does and ask lots of questions. You need to make friends with everybody. And most importantly, you need to want it more than everybody else. A lot of people in LA want to do nothing with their lives except work in film and television. They grew up thinking that and they’ll die thinking that. Those are the people you’re competing with.

There is also one tiny piece of information that people tend to forget. Moving to Los Angeles isn’t permanent. Nothing in life is. You might move out here and decide it’s not for you. A few of my friends have made that decision. There’s no shame in moving back home. More likely though, you’ll move out and jump right in. Just don’t get worried if it takes you a little while to figure out what you want to do and to find a job that you’re happy in. You’ll get where you want as long as you work hard, stay open-minded and remain passionate, even in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

And, of course, feel free to contact me with any questions along the way. I can be reached at geosloan@yahoo.com. Good luck!

Below is some additional information for future production assistants.

Things to remember:

Keep your cell phone on you at all times. Keep it charged. Silence it off while on set.
Have a car. Maintain it. Invest in a navigation system.
Write down any instructions from your boss so you don’t forget them.
Take a small notepad with you everywhere.
Ask questions if you’re unsure of something. Ask more questions if you’re still unsure.
Keep track of your mileage.
Learn proper walkie etiquette.
Talk to everyone.
Other PAs are your friends.
Be nice to everyone. You never know who might be your boss someday.
Be especially nice to security guards.
Check, double check, and triple check lunch orders.
Bridges burn easily.
Set two alarm clocks.
Don’t go to work hung over.
Wash your hands often. Use soap.
Read the script.
Read the call sheet.
Work on your own films/scripts at night and on the weekends.
Drink lots of water.
Never ask if it’s time to go home. Your boss will tell you when it’s time.
Avoid craft services unless you have a gym membership.
Don’t lie. Ever.
Know the difference between grip and electric.
Don’t loiter in video village.
If you’re going to be late, call your boss.
Seriously, if you’re going to be late, call your boss.

Movies to Rent:

Documentaries:

Project Greenlight (The Complete Series)
Overnight
The Hamster Effect
Lost in La Mancha
Hearts of Darkness

Narrative:

State and Main
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn
The Player
Day for Night

DVD Production Diaries to Watch:

Blow
Matchstick Men
Magnolia
Lost in Translation

Books To Read:

Writing:

Screenplay – Syd Field
Story – Robert McKee
The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats – Cole/Haag
The Screenwriter’s Bible – David Trottier
The Elements of Style – William Strunk & E.B. White
Becoming a Writer – Dorothea Brande
On Writing Well – William Zinsser
The Comedy Bible – Judy Carter
The Eight Characters of Comedy – Scott Sedita
How NOT to Write a Screenplay – Denny Martin Flinn
The Third Act – Drew Yanno
Save the Cat – Blake Snyder
On Writing – Stephen King
Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters – Michael Tierno Hyperion
Creating Unforgettable Characters – Linda Seger
Hello, Lied the Agent – Ian Gurvitz
Making a Good Script Great – Linda Seger Samuel
Successful Sitcom Writing – Jurgen Wolff
The Art of Dramatic Writing – Lajos Egri
The One-Hour Drama Series: Producing Episodic Television – Robert Del Valle
The Power of Myth – Joseph Campbell
The Script is Finished, Now What Do I Do? – K. Callen
The Sitcom Career Book – Mary Lou Belli & Phil Ramuno
The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers – Christopher Vogler
Wake Me When It’s Funny – Garry Marshall
Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg
You’re Lucky You’re Funny – Phil Rosenthal
Sit Ubu Sit – Gary David Goldberg

Directing:

Rebel Without a Crew – Robert Rodriguez
Getting Away With It – Steven Soderbergh
Thinking in Pictures – John Sayles
Making Movies – Sidney Lumet
I’ll Be in My Trailer – John Badham
My First Movie – Stephen Lowenstein
Directing Actors – Judith Weston
Setting Up Your Shots – Jeremy Vineyard
The Visual Story – Bruce Block

Acting:

Audition – Michael Shurtleff
Respect for Acting – Uta Hagen

Producing:

Hello, He Lied – Lynda Obst

Cinematography:

The Five C’s of Cinematography – Joseph Mascelli Silman
Notes on the Cinematographer – Robert Bresson

Editing:

In the Blink of an Eye (2nd Edition) – Walter Murch

Agenting/Managing:

The Mailroom – David Rensin

General:

Hollywood 101 – Frederick Levy

a love affair..

2010-05-03T05:38:00.000+05:30

So you dream a dream, Most beautiful. You go on a journey to find her. Once you do, you, your best friend and several of his mates along with a rich uncle try and woo her and her family. Having gotten her acceptance after fighting many a valiant battle, you bring her home for approval from your parents, your father especially. Once he approves, after a lost of skepticism and questions. He lets you get married. You invite everyone to the wedding finally. Hopefully they'll like the event and the dinner and not feel too sorry about taking the trouble to make it to the occasion. And most importantly will remember it for a very long time and tell their friends about how wonderful it all was.

The End

Film-making Analogy 1/100,00,000

Dark Clouds on Endless Roads

2010-04-28T02:52:00.000+05:30

smoking a thought.

2010-04-27T04:16:00.000+05:30

Done.

2010-04-27T03:35:00.002+05:30

Done. I am definitely done. Surely, I have to be done now. Right. Its time to take this outside, bring it to the world and see what happens.

After months of not knowing what to write after AB. After weeks of trying to understand if this story will ever find its audiences. It went back to 'instinct' and a little bit of 'hope'. Yeah, this is it. As far as the writing goes that is it. A screenplay I am very proud of. Probably my best and most well rounded. Artistically and commercially.

Wish I could say more about 'what it is' in the open. But I am hardly Anurag Kashyap or any of those successful filmmakers who can get projects going with a snap of their fingers or talk about stuff they want to make. I am what I am after AB. A 'struggler' once more, I suppose. Or at least someone who has something left to prove to himself and audiences. So let me coin a new term for someone like me, 'reprover'. That sounds about right. I am done with 'struggling'; I am onto 'reproving'. I am a 'reprover'.

And just like in my 'struggling' days, writing publicly was an outlet for myself. Not going to promise (to myself that is), but I think I'd like to blog about my adventures/mis-adventures of getting this project on-board and sailing.

Lets call its AK's UNTITLED MYSTERY PROJECT. or UMP. Yeah thats better, UMP.

The adventures and mis-adventures of Project UMP begin this week. May my faith, anyone's well-wishes and good tidings be upon me. Will be making some important phone calls this week.

Here I come TFI. For one more shot. Show me some love. I need it.

Meanwhile, As a little inspirational exercise, I'll post some pics relevant to my story; creating a digital rendition of the visual style of the project.

some more Russian love..

2010-04-19T23:12:00.000+05:30

Let's talk about this magical film ...

This love and tenderness ...

This is a movie that true name - happiness ...

Avakai Biryani

Kinya.

Tried to make a review without spoilers ...

What a charming movie!!!!! That's it! Film without a fight and blood, with a huge heart! Great and good! Which is just hugs, charms and instantly changes the viewer, making it more kindly.

God, what a movie! I'm just on emotion (vocabulary ended). I want to make something good (it is the power of art!), But I fear that in the second half of the night of my impulses goodness no one will appreciate.

In the second part of the movie i weep. Not because it's a drama or something hard. And because it just takes a soul, that it was impossible not to weep

Plot ... Meow! Moore! Mmmmm for scholars, of course, is not productive review… J But, my God! What a movie! Oh, I already say that? Amazing story! Every minute, every moment of the film - a masterpiece! It's incredible! One of my favorite movies, which immediately, from the first frame burst into my list of masterpieces, gave all smiles and cramped by other

Im as many people who dont like to watch a movie with unknown actors. Always start with cautiously.

Here and there was a case ... But!

Actors:

Kamal Kamaraju. I liked. Very charming. While it may be, the case in the character

Bindu Madhavi - I liked Kamal Kamaraj I liked. Very charming. While it may be, the case in the character

Bindu - I liked identically. Although ...

... Although it's difficult to talk about these two actors separately. They liked me together. So get all natural, emotionally ... if it is not a film - and life. Here they live, and we - sluchanye witnesses of their lives ... Although ...

... Although it's difficult to talk about these two actors separately. They liked me Pts together. So get all natural, emotionally ... if it is not a film – this is life. Here they live, and we - witnesses of their lives ..

Generally ... The film is a masterpiece!

Milana.

Kinya, I know that you like it! A lot of emotions after viewing, really J? I stayed in a wild delight after seeing! Simple no shaded feelings ... harmony of life paints ... as we say - all brilliant - easy! And this movie too much proof!

It is suuuuuch a romantic! Such a good movie! About the actors a good impression! Akbar nice guy (by their actions)! Girl is also very positive! Affected by an interesting topic, the separation of people by religion and I was very interested to know how the situation will develop. Thought that against the heroes, even though such films are usually well out, while in Bollywood Fashion went to the bad ending…. Good mood during the whole movie. Songs pleasant to the ears! Movie magic.

Tasha.

Excellent movie! Would not call it a masterpiece, but very real, sincere, and warm! And beautiful music very harmoniously intertwined.

Actors liked, though, I saw them the first time. The guy is not handsome, but looked and played naturally without pathos and not overplaying. If he lived his hero. And girl played very well!

Generally the film liked it so that it is very real, unvarnished, looked easy .. A charming film! Also bribed easy ... how told the story!

Naira

When sitting down to watch a movie, waiting for his lot…. Frankly, well, very much impressed comment by Kinya, because in my opinion, she is so admired for the last time on NN.

The film certainly liked. Everything about it was simply, softly, purely in the Indian language: this village, its inhabitants are of different faiths and so on. Even the appearance of characters that doesnt meet the standards of Bollywood beauty (IMHO), very consistent throughout this picture. All this has created such a powerful effect reality going on, not the movie, but rather a history to that observed in living.

Review this film I'll definitely. However, I want to say that film didnt make that enthusiasm, that I wanted and hoped to get, perhaps precisely because of too high expectations.

Shamili

The film is captured ... looks easy and pleasant. But while I see this film. in my heart was always one of anxiety about the about the tragic end ... was very surprised after happy-end ... And then, even thought it is Telugu, then all the happiness and love!

Music! Well music is just magic!

The most delicate beauty of music .. if woven of sweet airy cloud ... All shot very nice.

It is well that the girl's father understood and accepted the love of Akbar to Lakshmi

and eventually they were rewarded

He: The name is not remembered, but very much to madness like this actor! Just beautiful! And play nice, in general, he hooked me-)))

She: I dont know why but at the beginning when I saw her for the first time, I thought ... so homely sort of ... and then the game is imbued with this girl and still look at her beauty, very sweet, emotional and natural!

Outcome: The film gives a very pleasant feeling.

Alina

Reading enthusiasm by Kinya too much… And went to watch the movie. Definitely like it! It was a pleasant feeling of goodness and simplicity of the film, but in the end even cried a little bit ... I liked the actors, especially the girl. Songs in general somehow not noticed, except Sundari .. This music has been several times when he looked at the girl ...

True, the review will not, because such strong enthusiasm, like Kinya, I havent. But watch the film necessarily!

Anna

After watching the movie, I cant say that he liked me, but something in it definitely has, but very little. In my opinion at the beginning of the story as a prolonged, even to me it seemed boring. Once everything and nothing, I was filled to the history, but at the moment when the characters realize they love each other. Then began a game of colors, feelings and emotions, the impression that started from a very different film, not the one that I watched before. The only thing that ruined my impression of this part of the film - its end.

Honestly, what - is absurd. Her father was unable to evaluate actions and feelings of the protagonist to his beloved girl and her family, but 2 years later, having listened to his 5-minute speech, he suddenly realized. L(((

Salvi

Recently, the fate of me are gracious, that neither film - is a small oasis of love and inspiration.

I rested body and soul. AB took a light, delicate, air.

I liked the movie. Absolutely all: plot and the actors and their characters, the music just magic,

listening to her fly away far away from all problems and all the concerns and experiences takes a hand.

For all the desire to not even what criticize.

The love between Akbar and Lakshmi arose so beautifully, as if the heavens have given them this

Interweaving with friendship, mutual help and compassion that can not be separated from one another. The hero has a soul which is the force that leads him on the arduous path to a high goal.

This desire is very pleasant to me, and that he was no coward in front of difficulties. Its described him as a whole and self-sufficient young man.

She's a ray of light from her warm wave of laughter enveloped all around.

Half the movie I have crying from happiness. Simple - simple, good - good movie.

I love these movies. Realistic, at the same time beautiful. To me this seemed exactly like this - quiet, simple, about the ordinary lives of ordinary people. No fights (Thank you, Lord, I cant get used to the southern fight) , No ecumenical problems. A simple, clean story of pure love. It looks very attractive and important - not boring ... What a feeling I had after watching the recall feeling after I watched "Vivah" ... Two sweet, simple movie. Just as in life.

Actors saw the first time. In my opinion, both are ideally suited for their roles. Wonderful. Music quiet, dear.

In general, a great movie, a simple and kind. I recommend. 10 out of 10.

P.s. Only one frame from the movie brought me to a screeching halt.

Where in the Indian village of the Soviet hammer and sickle emblem?

Suhana

Just watched this movie. To say that i liked it - to say nothing !!!!

This is an amazing movie. Such a kind and takes over the soul. This is the first South Indian movie, that I watched. So many impressions…, probably today I cant sleep! It was where the laugh, cry…. film - a fairy tale

If all the South Indian movies in the same style, then I'm dead.

Telugu Language like me very much, even without translation much is clear. Emotions ... Amazing movie! I am very glad that it was my first film of the South Indian!!!

Very nice movie. Soul. Actors wonderful. I watched three times in a row and is ready to watch more.

Natalya

Finally I looked this wonderful film! I want to say to girls “Thanks!” for work (translated and adding to the directory).

The film is wonderful ... easier and nicer nowhere

Like many people here (on the forum), these actors can see the first time. First guy didnt like, but when he began to smile .... his white-toothed smile from ear to ear just killed ...

The girl cute and funny (Forgive me, not remember the first time their names )....

Like the plot: a very simple and without a fight, it was pleased ... But a little tense moment at the different religions in the movie. Well, let's say some Muslim, Hindu and others, it is clear from every faith, their customs, laws, orders and rules, but I can not understand (maybe I'm behind on life and something I dont understand) - why you need to reach the extremes?

Why this hatred for each other? Well, you live in one village, why should be separated from each other: Hindi in one corner, Muslims in another. Well, you go each to his own temple, pray as you said your faith, but to remain human beings with respect to each other. Who it forbade?

Really enjoyed the film.

PS: if I am someone hurt my statement about religion - I beg your pardon, because nothing I had in mind, only expressed her opinion ...

_____

Natalya, but this is not fiction, it is reality. And very soft. Well, some people can not accept others. There are many stereotypes about people of other cultures (including those of Russian dont always think well).

Although… happens that people of one culture and religion cant understand each other, but people are different culture and religion - to understand. For me too, there is no problem, the main thing - to find a man with no problems communicating. And what a man has faith - it's his personal.

Rulka

AB - usual entertaining film.

It was interesting to look at the relationship between the main characters, I liked that they had so long walked around, but some are not confessing feelings for each other. I love these stories, they add passion to browse. Just wanted to hurry, they be together, and wait with impatience the moment of recognition (or understanding of love).

Romantics bit in the movie, in my opinion, but the episode with the races in general killed her.

The end of the movie devoid of logic. After the end, I wanted to throw the slippers in a writer .. Incredible! He greased the overall impression of the film.

______

Kinya: Yes, of course, all have own tastes. Someone like him, someone not. But I dont agree with the fact that there is nothing instructive. On the contrary - very instructive ... While this is all shown in vivid colors, I also cried.

Rulka: Well enlighten me .. where instructive?))

Kinya: Well at least that we should be tolerant towards people of another religion. Her father mistreat to Muslims, but then changed his mind after all. He realized that the main thing is not a religion, not nationality. The main thing - good intentions.

Everything is very real, just like in life!

What the end waiting for, guys? I think this is the real end, which could be expected from the father's Lakshmi... They are people, not animals .. If there was a lamentable end or they would run away together - it would be a fairy tale! And I am very glad that the end is that!

This is not a movie - a real life with all its shortcomings and positive aspects, life is what it is really. That is the main strength of AB!

AB - is something that doesnt explain in words, you can only feel, to live a short time with the characters, imbued with their feelings and experience with them. All those who made this film - really have created a masterpiece.

Lana

This film is very simple, but it is not empty. It is so beautiful, that he took every cell of my heart! Not important that the actors are unfamiliar to me. No matter what language they speak - sure I would have understood them, if not read subtitles. The strength of this film is not a deep philosophical meaning. The strength in the fact that this movie has a soul - yes, a real soul, like a living person. The film is very clean, warm, boundless love and gratitude. I spent those 2 hours with heroes and fully immersed in their little world, rejoicing in their successes, their achievements, regretting their failure ... This is really life! Delighted with the movie.

Kamal - very well. In his eyes you can see all the emotions that he experienced. To look inconspicuous, but very strong guy. I, felt sympathy for this guy. Bindu - a nice girl. Her heroine Lakshmi was very persuasive.

I loved it. The only thing that disappointed - this is the end.

I didnt understand how this is possible - 2 years didnt hear, not seeing about each other and then bam! - and wedding …..

Kamal. I very much liked him. He is cute ... He played very well, as if he lived his hero. It was sorry for him in some points, but generally a good impression.

By the way, he reminds me…. outwardly whether Shah, whether Shahid.

Bindu. Very nice girl. Enjoyed and externally and play. Very natural.

Beautiful couple. Very good they looked. I liked the fact that there was some recognition of love, all as a matter of happened. It's great when everything is clear and without any admissions.

The film easily and naturally. I have been attracted by the history and looked with interest. If you like South Indian cinema - see required.

Alex

Well, finally I saw the film)))

First, I recommended it to look, and then recommended that in any case it doesnt look ... I was almost decided not to watch, but I look ...

I prepared for what it claims to be a masterpiece, always with a bad ending, well, stuff like that ... But no ... The movie was nothing like what I had imagined ...

I think a movie like many, and probably that was the idea of a movie ... make it as close to reality ... There is no fine speeches, tragic victims in the name of love ... It's simply life, simply a love story, no cine, and the usual love ... One genres of film have called Everyday, there are no sharp turns of the plot, all the usual and predictable ... in the process of viewing may be a feeling that you're there.

The actress who played the main role ... (my opinion) - predictable.

The actor who played a major role ... quite good. (I dont know why, but he seemed to me that he looks like Sergey Lazarev) I didnt leave the impression that I had seen him already on the screen.

When people talk about the soul of South Indian cinema, have a view of this particular film. He has soul. Like the movie or not - depends on the nature of man IMHO. But the movie definitely very warm.

Light film. Was not boring to watch and occasionally interesting, though nothing more than natural... I liked that there was no fighting )))))))

Actors, too, played well.

Racing Car ))))))))) What's this? ... I was killed by boy, who gave the start fall pants ... nightmare !!!!....

In general, the film would recommend to all who seek to see in the movies real life, who doesnt love the glamorous image, in principle, an easy film. Perhaps even those who dont believe in huge cine love this movie real. I dont regret that had looked AB, although it is not my movie, certainly not for me

Movie put 7 of 10

Dia

Finally, I watched the film, which would look like just read the title! I liked it very ... Only at the beginning I thought that a Bollywood film.

This film for me nostalgia ... Why? Just remembered my village. Very light and a good movie, without vulgarity.

This is not a movie - that life is much better than reality shows, whose game at the camera and raise the rating.

Very standard film, as if watching their life sitting at home.

Who is not looking necessarily look. There is no glamor, no pathos, there is life in his guise as it is, with all the flaws, with all the problems with the religious issue ... The world is not without good people ... People just need to believe in goodness.

Very interesting love story. At the end of the movie I laughed and cried together ...

Actors are very harmonious with their characters. Very well played. Cute both, very fit each other

Assistant casting - 5 +.

One thing I dont understand ... why Inept films professionally transferred, and such a great film cant translate?

Who didnt look - see - not regret it! Even if he doesnt like AB, you will still be pleasant emotions of this film.

Lina

Wah, Wah, Wah! What a movie! Actually I'm so excited that words cant describe. Empathize, rejoiced, was in love as Akbar. Such strength of character and I like the human soul. It watched with great pleasure. I. .. drumroll ... I finally like the main character – Lakshmi - charm.

Now this movie - my love among movies:))

And the music is what .. Hmmm. Tale. I ran to download.

I will say even more than that even very much liked this film. After viewing it, again would be reviewed.

By the way, began to look Chatrapati with Prabhas and there are again this actor J. But alas… No main role.

What can I say? ... Wonderful movie! A film about a simple human life!

Appearance Kamal I didnt like. But until… when i see his face with mustache! With a mustache Kamal, in my opinion, much nicer

Bindu I liked, very nice girl. A beautiful girl, which combines the best qualities: intelligence, beauty (not just external)

I liked the friends of Akbar, especially fidgety boy... - the miracle.

Dialogue Lakshmi with her father, after which I immediately felt for the main character!

Babbar (Varun) ... didnt understand his appearance. In one scene is nice, another funny ... When Lakshmi evening peeped through the window, he looked terrified.

The relationship of Akbar and Lakshmi make me happy. It was nice to watch them.

Like the scene when Lakshmi asked Akbar to sleep, or rather his behavior like: to show that she was not right, but at the same time didnt deny the help!

Sad was the scene with two young girls ... especially when the second began to cry when convinced that the water is no longer ... It's just awful to realize that there are places where people are deprived of elementary things ...

Excellent scene was when Lakshmi said: "I like you the way you are" ... I was so expecting that she would wait for his arrival in the city. Respectively delight knew no bounds when she really was waiting for him ... But those tears ... what a touching scene, or rather a sincere ... As a little girl burst into tears of joy, that Akbar had reached its goal ...

Amused by the appearance of the local mafia in white to help the family of Lakshmi

A great moment has turned over the fact his father Lakshmi learned about religion Akbar I really enjoyed it!

How I hoped that Lakshmi will run for Akbar, but then my hopes were not justified ... But the emergence of Akbar with a mustache made amends for my sorrow!

And the final scene is very good and touching

Good film, watch and just enjoy!

Shantal

Finally I looked this movie. Brilliant! I'm becoming a fan of movies of South India. From the screen could not tear myself away for a moment, worried for the characters. Here it is the movie that penetrates the soul and heart! Songs of the moving, I want to listen and listen. I am impressed.

My expectations were very high. This is because of, of course, Shekhar. Everything connected with him, wrapped in an aura of delight for me, and a priori must be heavenly.

He managed to cure me ... after the Japanese miracle "I just love you." The film warmed me with its naive purity. History crept into the heart of bright colors simple and so complicated at the same time the village life, family squabbles playful eyes that are looking for each other's inability to refuse, even if it would have to sleep through the night at the door.

Fell in love with music. Those who heard the song from «Avakai Biryani», agree with me, that there is a beautiful clips and great lyrics. I'm not talking about its innards - soft apricot love.

Film to impress me ... Voice Bindu amazing similarity to the voice Kamalinee Mukherjee. I reveled in the whole film this dear, this so beloved voice..

Movie was ... make me happy. Suppose that only a few hours, but he made me serenely happy, cracked down on all my anxieties and worries, give the feeling of weightlessness.

Thanks to the film for that no one died. Then one week, I buried a half-dozen characters. Honestly, you dont recognize the value of a happy-end, until the plunge into the world of Japanese-Korean cinema.

Actors, I dont think the strength of this film. For me they are played medium, though, tried. Kamal doesnt look like the main character. When its sun bring car .... (Residues), I'm just breathless with laughter. The girl I liked, beautiful. I have fresh, life-giving movie!

Oksana

What a good movie! Unfortunately, not everyone can recommend it ... Because he - like walking barefoot in the morning dew - someone will be cool and uncomfortable, too quiet, boring ... and someone will quietly and easily ...

For me it was easy. The entire film ... Artless happy to just be. Waking up in the morning, prayer, work, study ... just live each day simple - and still believe in the future.

The easiest film of all, ever seen me. There is no single second of glamor, luxury men and richly decorated songs. It all happens as if inside - inside a village, within the same family, within the two people ... And in that its transparency, in that his naivete and simplicity so soft charm.

I cant say that he took out of my soul that I was crying (although for a moment it was, but it's from happiness) ... On the contrary - my soul trembled, twitched at the break - and he told me quietly, like a child awakened at night "Tshshsh, Dont cry, relax, everything will be fine" and gently stroked my head.

Actors. I cant tell you anything about them, because no one didnt know. But they were their characters, they believed in them as much as I believed.

Music. Because of music I saw the film. And absolutely not disappointed - to the delightful music and the magic voices of Karthik and Shreya added amazing in content texts - are solid, such free.

Once again I repeat - this is a very simple film. There are no unexpected twists, deep heart wounds, no Superhero feats. The film - to take a break from movies and just live a little.

Shalini

Download this movie is not sorry.

Recently had simply not liked: is not Bollywood, is not the south, there was not that movie so hooked and here it is.

Actors saw the first time and none of them didnt disappoint, but especially liked the main actress

Music Good, but not without movie, only with visuals. Watching film…, he stuck in my soul

Wonderful movie! The magic, it just like a breath of fresh air! Very special! Beautiful thoughtful plot, no silly humorous spots, where even all the secondary characters in his place and immediately remembered. Long time since I had not experienced such emotions in the southern films.

Looked film yesterday, and still, listening to music there, in the clouds, in a favorable mood ...

The main characters is incredibly vital showed by young actors Kamal Kamaraju and Bindu Madhavi, and this of course great service by director Anish.

And as shoot, what kinds of nature, views and colors! This is a must see. The feeling that you yourself to be there and absorb the smell of spices, herbs, river..

I have always loved the characters of this film, as the actors, they have played so brilliantly that the roles chosen new fresh young faces!

Initially, not knowing the hero Kamal, he seemed to me like Buratino (My note – Russian Pinocchio) lanky and unsympathetic, but by the middle of the movie I had dearly loved and admired his character so that he seemed to me already insanely cute playboy, but by the end I felt to him some family feeling.

Girl Heroine (Bindu) is also incredibly sweet and charming. And both of them, of course, talented.

In general, this movie should see all, dont know whom may not like it, only if people will watch it on a tiny screen is poor and without translation.

It's just a wonderful movie. This lightweight, gentle, simple. Bollywood is now forgotten how to shoot like it. There's so simple shot. So beautiful that just want to go there. The movie has amazingly talented operator!

The main characters simply wonderful, lovely, natural. If you honestly cant imagine them separately. To me they are now one. Songs like everything. But most of all affected Nannu Chopagala Adham.

Katreena

Sincere, easy and very natural movie! Something heavenly, pleasant, making you dream, raising you and brings in the little world in which you look .. Some may focus on the living conditions of people, but it is, in my view, in relation to this movie is so petty, that havent even worth mentioning ...

Life, on the one hand, such a simple, but at the same time difficult ...

The special charm of the film created the actors who actually look like simple, ordinary people with their dreams, life goals, victories and joys, problems.

I dont know the name of each of them. Tell about the game at one word - beautiful.

Of particular share feelings in this movie creates music, I think it will make my mind soar more than once ... In the final film, I sat with very very stupid smiling, and it was impossible to stop.

During those days I saw AB for 2 times (I shows my mother), but I can still watch, more and more ...

Simple accommodation, actors from the usual appearance, the real problems that are raised in the film, it all makes sense that you're looking shot by hidden camera. So all closer to reality. It is this movie I liked. Love is in the movie, too real, it is these films are made to believe in what love is, and it is not a fairy tale. Music, though not memorable, but pleasant listening, and together with a picture like that on special sounds.

Nita

I really liked this movie! In this film you can understand that love doesnt differentiate between no religion or skin color. Love comes and all. Actors played their roles perfectly. And the music - it's something! The film definitely need to watch all the people who likes to South India!

So I looked at this truly beautiful film. This lightweight, touching story, as if it was not enough movies with similar plots, but this was a great success. It looks very easy, totally immersed in the atmosphere of a poor Indian village, where there are "wicked uncle" and of course a good, open-hearted guy, "the soul of the village."

And you begin to sympathize with all its failures, to rejoice with him his little victories. And certainly not without a good, open, sweet, pretty girl and love that broke out between them.

The film is very warm, sincere, bright. Very, very much, left the sea of pleasant experiences.

Dont never met these actors in films, but Akbar and Lakshmi liked. Well done very nice played with such ease.

Music in the film is good, too melodic.

I recommend the movie to compulsory viewing!

Koko

Normal film, calm. Watch interesting only the last hour, and at the beginning of boring. That's life - as it is, so it is. A rare case where the Minister was a good man, or at least had a normal PR. A little hurt that the girl's father assess the guy only after he made his way into the world.

I Love girl. Independent and good, with your opinion and appropriate behavior. This surprised. After all, movie still southern. Perhaps the film author, besides there is no known actors, and I couldnt love anyone.

But the boy and a girl, well played and looks good, really very nice.

This and the rest of the idols, and to remind ourselves that normal life, too close, even in places in

India

Alisa

AB was my first southern film .. From him I have only pleasant impressions .. Such a moving film, sometimes even want to cry. Actors gorgeous, though not known, but it only reinforced the impression of him .. Music inspires .. (especially when Akbar know that passed this unfortunate exam). I wish I could stumble across it again at some - some of the same film, which gives only a positive ..

Unable to look at it calmly .. So touching ..

Karina

Very nice, sweet, romantic and tender film.

I thought it would be something heavy. Typically, these stories - where different religions are involved and all that - are very bloody, tears. But here somehow quite calmly, easily, smoothly. Even without fights - this makes me especially happy.

Kamal Kamaraju - and liked the character and the actor. Very charming. A smile - simply stunning. At times, he reminds me of a young Amitabh Bachchan. I dont know why.

Bindu Madhavi - lovely actress who played very well - with soul, with emotion.

I film seemed easy, not prolonged. All developed smoothly, naturally - as it should be. And the final liked - the original and very cute, I just knew that she had brought him an invitation to their own wedding.

Well, from the wonderful species of nature - I just melt. How can they still know how to pick up beautiful views for the film. It always looks perfectly - he, she, a beautiful song and unmatched scenery.

Ilana

You may laugh, but I was a persistent belief that I was watching an old Soviet film. Only in their main character lives not for himself but for his country (even if this country is just a small, forgotten village). Only in the old movies a declaration of love can be so touching and innocent: "I like for the way you are ..." Only in old movies stern father thaws his heart under the influence of the public.

And this feeling of nostalgia for something very bright, kind, naive, what we dont have and never will, not letting go until the final.

Emma

This two and a half hours of continuous happiness, pure sunlight, and of the real

India

. Yes, yes, this, for what it really is - a spicy, tart and incredibly beautiful in its imperfection.

In the small village of many pressing problems, such as perpetual lack of water and no less eternal bad roads, but is it okay if they live with such wonderful people like Akbar and Lakshmi, and by the way, their love lives somewhere nearby. Initially, they had not noticed, or rather, trying not to notice, but it is a growing and gaining strength with each passing day, breaking through stereotypes tenacious and persistent religious prejudices. And flourishes despite all the vicissitudes of fate the main characters.

And the main characters in the movie the most that neither is real, warm, alive. Watching them, I could not shake the feeling that somewhere recently saw a guy like Akbar, or a girl that's just as Lakshmi. Maybe the fact that a piece of their simple lives of characters in each of us?

Kamal Kamaraju. Long remember his Akbar. Good, straight and strong, proud (as without it?), His character simply lives without doing anything supernatural, but to risk his life for his beloved is always ready.

Bindu Madhavi. Beloved girl is ready to wait as long as necessary, until her lover doesnt understand what friendship is long overdue call love, then again wait until the facts of life will not develop in their favor. Lakshmi, too, does nothing supernatural, it is just waiting for love, faith and dont forget that at the right time the first step will have to do for her.

Magic Music flourishing film most vivid colors, excellent camera work enables you to enjoy marvelous views of the Indian nature ... I want to say thanks to the director for he did "Avakai Biryani" so simple, so close and tangible, so different from other movies! Fantastic music. Outstanding natural beauty ... Just love. Just life ...

The Master of Contemporary Indian Cinema - Mani Ratnam

2010-04-17T03:58:00.001+05:30

What can they re-invent and revive? The can they now un-learn, re-learn and educate us with? What will they blow our minds with? What is that something new I will yearn and want to emulate myself? What will they have to say together next?

That's the power and inspiration that comes from a Mani-Rahman combo. Which other director has had amazing combination's with two Maestros? ManiRatnam brings out the best in them and vice versa.

All our individual childhoods and careers are literally 'bookmarked' by their(Illayaraja too) works. Sigh. Atleast mine is. ...

The only thing for me that beats the anticipation of a Spielberg blockbuster movie is a Ratnam cinema. I am a dedicated fan-boy.

Cannot wait for this one.
8 days. RAAAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVVVANNNNNNNN.

One more fundamental thing. He reminds me what cinema can do. He reminds me why I am in cinema in the first place. That's the impact he has had on many countless film-wallahs. That's a lot to OWE him for....

From Russia with love...

2010-04-16T01:29:00.005+05:30

Hi!

Probably you would've never heard from me since my appreciation of actors does not go as far as mailing them (out of respect to personal life - not because I don't want to). But that is not the subject of my letter...

I heard from Nastya today (the girl from Russia who translated you some portions of our forum) that you where some sort of upset by some people not getting the Avakai Biryani. So I wanted to share the whole story of Avakai Biryani in Russian-speaking part of the Internet with you.

It has all started with the girl named Shantal (well, it's a nickname actually) who loves Sekhar's movies A LOT. She is the one who translated Godavari subs, by the way... So she has waited for Avakai impatiently, she has posted a link to the music on the forum - for everybody else to start waiting as well =)

I was new to South Indian cinema back then (August 2009). I just have heard the music, felt in love with it and got this hunting idea of knowing the meaning of those songs - by watching the movie.

This part I won't describe to you, it's way too personal. Maybe... one day I will translate my review to this movie so you would understand...

But still.. My English may not sound like too much, but my Russian and writing reviews is somehow very good and it gets to people - everybody started wandering about the movie after my review. I felt responsible for this impact; I felt I owe something to this movie - so I've translated the subtitles. Actually, Shantal wanted to do so as well... but I got it first. It's not a competition - she trusted that I will give this movie and its translation some justice - and I did.

A lot of people watched this movie since... Most of them appreciated it, some even felt in love as deeply as I did, got totally crazy =) But the point of this letter are those people who didn't like the movie. My position - let them be. There is no such universal movie on Earth that is liked by everybody - it's a first point. This particular movie was never made to be loved by wide masses - second point. Sometimes it's not about quantity... Do you know this movie "Lady In The Water" by M. Night Shyamalan? There was this guy who was supposed to be saved from mystical monster. And when he asked about "Why am I so important? What am I to become of such significance?" - he was told "Basically, nothing. You are not to become famous or needed for the society. But you will write a book and years later some other man will read it and get inspired by it - and HE will change a history"... So my third point is - it's not about HOW MANY people gets the movie, it's about WHO gets it. Avakai is a filter - only special people get it! And it is a good thing!

So... hope I was not too boring and brought you something to be proud of. As a last mentioning - when I'm asked of my favorite Indian movies I say "K3G - it forgives me all my sins, Vivah is a movie where my dreams are born, I will go to Geetanjali if I need a glimpse of hope in the darkest time... And Avakai Biryani is a movie where my soul lives".

P.S. Since Avakai Biryani my translations became a quality trademark - not only to translation itself (let's face it: people who can't read English original subtitles would not now if the translation is correct) but to the quality of movies - because not it is know that I translate only those movies that means something to me, touch me in some way. I translate only special movies.

Oksana Rakovich

Some answers for questions that came my way.

2010-03-26T18:18:00.000+05:30

Q1. ".but do you know of ANY MUSLIM who holds his country in higher esteem than his allegiance to fellow Muslims & Allah."

Ans. I know not one but several. Almost every educated and rational Muslim (and there are many of them) don't support terrorism in any form and don't show any undue allegiance to their own kind. I can start with my friends and end with our superstars in Bollywood (they are our cultural ambassadors after all)

Q2. "It's rare that Muslims condemn the terrorism that their "fellow brethren" commit in the name of Allah.There are obviously exceptions(like D. Kalaam), but they are far and few in between."

Ans. Thats not true at all. Several Muslims all over the world condemn terrorism. Its unfortunate that we continue to ask them to prove their allegiance. In India so many have had candle light vigils and press conferences condemning violence. Imams and Ulemas have also come forward, Bollywood stars and Muslim intellectuals and politicians have come forward.

Its the media which could do better here by highlighting their protests and condemnations.

And let us stop asking every fellow Muslim to come down and condemn terrorism. Why should he be answerable to some mad mans acts? Why is it necessary for us to see a fellow Muslim condemn terrorism? Will we not trust him otherwise? Why should a normal, rational, balanced, educated Muslim be pinned to the wall time and again and asked to re-prove his allegiance, re-prove his faith, re-prove his love for his country and fellow men? Why are we hell bent on bullying them?

I'll tell you why! Because we are in the majority and think its our right to ask them these questions and expect them to bow down their heads every time an act of terrorism happens around the world. Lets not begin to discriminate our fellow Muslim brethren on this basis. That is the beginning of hatred. That is the beginning of separatism.

Q3. "I realize that generalizations are dangerous and there are good and bad in any race/religion, but when one considers that 95% of all terrorism in any given year is related to Muslims, one has to wonder..."

Ans. Yes generalizations are dangerous. period. They must stop. period. No two ways about that. Otherwise every Hindu will be a Gujurat mass murderer and Babri Masjid breaker. SO generalization are dangerous. They serve no purpose other than to vent feelings and tempers. Its not the way of a rational mind. period.

95% is a fictional statistic. But lets go with that. So 95% of terrorism is created by Muslims. So what % of terrorist-fanatic-anti- Islamic Muslims are we talking about here? 95%!...NO. We are talking somewhere in the ratio of 0.05%.

Thats also is a statistic. Statistics don't help. Ill feelings and generalizations don't help. Virtual condemnation of an entire religion (which is fundamentally based on peace) simply does not help.

Q4. "Pakistan seems to have only one agenda on its national policy..ie DESTROY INDIA..I somehow don't see Indian Muslims(SRK!!?..?bad example) saying anything that condemnd this..

Ans: Yes, Pakistan is a rogue military state. What else do we expect from them? Support from a rational, peace loving United States? Well you have it. Its no secret that the US uses Pakistan as a shoulder to shoot from.

Pakistans ANTI INDIA policy has nothing to do with Muslim Indians or even Muslims!

Why should it? That I am afraid is simply not the right way to think.

Indian Muslims have condemned violence. If the recent controversy for SRK's 'My Name is Khan' is anything to go by. Where he was repeatedly asked to prove his love for his country because he felt Pakistani players were given a raw deal in the IPL. The Shiv Sainiks (Warriors of Shiva) threatened to block the release of his movie. Which they did. The broke property and threatened his children. Will any Hindu, please speak up for the Shiv Sainiks activities? Who will speak for the Godhra riot victims? Who will speak for Muslims massacred in the Mumbai riots? Who will speak for the Kashmiri Muslim or Kashmiri Pandits? Who will speak for atrocities that happened on both sides during partition? Muslims? Hindus?

Are we asking any of our Hindu brothers to condemn all of that? Are we putting them up against the wall? Do they have to answer anyone? Is a Muslim asking them to answer?

Bottom Line:

It doesn't help condemning Muslim people. We are better of trying to find immediate and lasting peace to the Israeli-Arab conflict. The root problem.

America's so called 'foreign policy'. The root problem.

Who created and supported the Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, even before the rest of the world knew about them? The root problem.

Someone said. Love is our biggest weapon. We need to use it. We will all be the better for it. Muslims and Non Muslims.

Lets not ask Muslims any questions. Lets find those answers together.

:-) Peace, May Allah be with all of us. (And by Allah I mean the Lord, I mean Brahma,Zarathustra, Buddha etc). Beter still, may rationale and sanity prevail upong human kind.

My Cinema Moment for 3 Idiots

2010-01-14T01:33:00.000+05:30

Check out the song clip here!(Youtube Trailer bit)

The cinema moment in 3 Idiots is when Hari(Sharman) jumps of the window,the lamp shade SMASHES the window sill (having been caught in his foot moments earlier), CUT TO a TOP shot of him on the ground below and his mates running towards him,a sliver of a CRANE DOWN, cut to a CLOSE shot of his head beginning to bleed.....

"Jaane Nahin Denge Tujhe"(low octave) vocals started moments ago, SMASH CUT to a WIDE shot (rising Octave) of Rancho (Aamir) speeding on his scooter against the Rasthrapathi backdrop, CUT BACK to a widish mid shot of Rancho with his BLOODSTAINED (speaks so much!) t-shirt and the ambulance behind him, while he frantically waves to everyone to clear the road.....wow!

This is FINE ART, THE ARTIST IS HIRANI.THE ARTISTRY IS IN THE EDITING AND THE CONCEIVING/WRITING AND THE DIRECTING.

That is the moment in the film.There are moments which make a film what it is...for me this is what it is...AWESOME cinema moment,worth a watch a gizzilion times over...Thats why this film is a success for me!

THIS IS CINEMA! THIS IS THE MOVIES!

p.s will continue sharing/writing such cinema moments in the coming few segments.

Do you feel Lost with whats happening on L.O.S.T?

2010-01-07T13:50:00.001+05:30

All Seasons, pre finale in 8 min. Thank me later.

THE CAMPAIGN BEGINS

2009-11-12T10:58:00.000+05:30

after avakai what?

2009-11-02T00:19:00.002+05:30

I have been mulling over that question for almost a year now. In fact two weeks from now it will be a whole year since Avakai first hit theaters. Since then its been a whole new world of experiences.

Experiencing life through the pain of rejection and failure. Its been tough but enlightening at the same time. I took a lot of time to ponder about what kind of stories I must make and what kinds will be accepted by an audience...

I don't have an answer, but I have a new script...well, almost.
More about that in a later post.

I thought I would start writing once I started seeing a comment...so here it is, my first post in almost a year!
I will have more things to talk about in my next post (in a couple of days or so)...

until then...

back to blogging

2009-10-14T20:33:00.004+05:30

Just want to let anyone who might still be peeping at this blog, I will be posting here again every once in while or maybe just everyday, lets see how it goes.

See you soon.

a little bit of avakai in my life....

2008-07-01T20:01:00.000+05:30

As I sit watching the edit happen on my movie Avakai-Biryani (Mango Pickled Biryani), I am reminded about how all of this first started……..
Back in 2006. Sekhar Kammula’s ‘Godavari’ had just released to good reviews but to an unfavorable box office response, finally ending as an ‘average’ film business wise. Having worked as both the executive producer and associate director on the film, I gave it my all and I mean MY ALL, shooting in the middle of that amazing river for a 100 days, with more than a 100 people on board 3 launches, bang in the middle of the monsoon, with the heaviest rainfall and floods being recorded ever, the production of Godavari was a truly life changing experience for me, something I will take to my grave, something that made me believe that we could shoot on Mt.Everest next if we wanted to….something that really made a filmmaker out of me…
and watching it not making it in the box office, disheartened me, depressed me and pushed me into the blackest phase of my professional career…..I was questioning why I had spent the last 10 years of my life in this cynical-tough as nails-bitchy-unforgiving place called ‘the film industry’…
Sekhar had me take time off, I went on a bit of a soul searching trip across the konkan…drifting from one low to another….this trip was just a pretext to finally sit down and write a feature film, something Sekhar has been goading me to do since my ‘Anand’ days with him…little did he know, I was only making the trip to escape from the industry here in Hyderabad….The ‘Godavari’ experience left me feeling bitter about the people working here and the public….I was hard headed, I know, but I thought I needed to get away and re- renew my career…..my life….
This was when I tried to write something ‘happy’…something optimistic…something inspirational….something lighthearted….the result was Avakai-Biryani…but….I didn’t actually write the entire draft of ‘AB’ while on my trip on the konkan….instead I would write and leave it midway to wallow in self pity and a few vodkas, the depression wouldn’t leave me…..but I still managed to write a treatment which will make COF look like HAHK. (sigh….alright the full form “Hum Aapke Hain Koun”)
Anyways….The result of all of this was “confessions of a filmmaker”-(shot on HD-released on the internet, with assistance from PFC)…….but then, let me skip a few chapters after that….and talk about the immediate past and the imminent future….
Avakai Biryani….my first movie…my immediate past and my imminent future…
Hello PFC readers, don’t think anyone here would have missed me….but I am happy to be back, writing again…
Right after “Happy Days” began my “Happy Phase” (corny-I know)….but seriously, the super success of Sekhar’s ‘Happy Days’ revitalized me….so much so that I re-visited my once darkly written AB script….
The result was a happy, progressive, optimistic ,movie draft….which I was happy to present to Sekhar and which he readily agreed to produce….
And so today as I sit watching the edit….I am also reminded about what big adventures it took to make this small film…..but more about that in a later post….
For now cheers PFC.

My Last Post Until Further Notice.

2008-02-17T01:05:00.000+05:30

Yes, this will be my last post Until Further Notice. There is just too much to do on a daily basis, its becoming increasingly difficult and therefore redundant for me to continue writing this blog for now....

I have just a few weeks to go before shooting starts, and all my energies are focussed on achieving just that.

Things are looking great and progressing well....

So thats it for now guys. Sorry, but maybe I will write later, who knows, when things are calmer....like when the shooting is actually done.

until then....

bye for now

wed, feb 06(2)

2008-02-06T21:25:00.000+05:30

A good day today, finally I see my characters emerging through the rehearsals. This is really quite heartening. A bright positive day for me....

A first unit of technicians have left for the location to assess the situation there and make plans for some pre-liminary arrangements.

lets see what tomorrow has in store, today had good momentum....so much more exciting things to look fwd too.

wed, feb 06

2008-02-06T00:47:00.000+05:30

i have 7 min to go before my batteries ru out on the comp.
its been a tough revelatory day....tough times on the rehearsals, the actors are finding their way slowly but surely.....i really should try and spend some more time with them....

the complexity of the schedule becomes more and more evident and the pressure to make every day count is immense....
still m0re casting work to do...more logistics to be worked out....

i have to take my time out of all of this and write a bit, but i also need to be at work every minute, cus i wanna make sure we arent getting complacent...

there aren't enough hours in a day right now....the clock is ticking!!!!

mon,feb04

2008-02-04T16:20:00.000+05:30

Interesting days so far. Actings workshops have started. Our executive producer is in the house, taking over production issues, a location rekki is due in a couple of days, lyrics are being worked on....

more importantly, today i meet our cameraman....the man, whose vision is key to this films success....am keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out well for the both of us....lets see...

i am hoping the cameraman understands whats in store for us and i hope it inspires him...i am hoping the production designer gets going with his work asap....keeping my fingers crossed, my town is waiting for me....

all days from now lead to the shoot day...scheduled for the first week of march...i am really hoping we meet that deadline...if we do, super, that would be with only 1.5months of pre-production behind us....

everyday must count....

day 16 or is it 17, pre prod

2008-02-02T13:36:00.000+05:30

moving into February now. we have finalized the main leads, rehearsal workshops start tomorrow. action stations!!

the art team, costume team and the rest of it is closely coming together.

need to get back to work for now....will write in details in a later post.

day 14, pre-production

2008-01-30T20:35:00.000+05:30

the most introspective day so far. full up major up's and down's. boy, the day whizzes by so fast, so much happens and still not much happens....its a constant swing....

whats the fate of this film? what will happen? too many 'what's' too early in the day...
what seemed impossible yesterday, suddenly seems possible....what seemed a certainity now seems like a huge doubt....uff....

hmm....we have some way to go, its so hard to find talent, i cant come up with an innovative casting call option....we dont have professional casting directors, i wish we had professional location managers.....professional fund raisers....the list is endless :).....

i want to bring about a change in the way a film is produced with this project....there are so many innovative things i want to do...so little time to apply them right now...dunno know.....anyways..

more preparation, better mind and body co-ordination....more focus on the end goal....more emphasis on immediate targets....more, more, more....

lets see what tomorrow has in store, the months is coming to an end....we have about a month to go for shoot, i see the start day being pushed by a week....why? cus feb has 29 this time round, right?

enough time....dunno....so much has to happen?....hmmm........

later

day 13, pre production

2008-01-29T13:11:00.000+05:30

its been a whole week since i posted anything here...i dont know why...its been a whirlwind few days. a lot has been happening, i know i must make more of an effort to post regularly...

i just got back from chennai, had a few sessions with the music director, gave him the script and everything, had quite an intense time with him...the result is a few good tracks....happy about that....very happy...

we have also roped in the main female lead in the movie...so thats terrific too...

i know you guys have been saying, more pictures, no more cryptic messages, etc etc....i have to take a call on this....its not like confessions you know....this time its a high profile thing, and i dont think i wanna reveal too much about the MD or the heroine, the industry is a....so competitive....my assets soon become a liability.....i dont know...i see your point, let me see if i can work something out....

but yeah, lets see, its almost two weeks since pre-production started, and we have the main leads fixed, we have most of the tunes ready, i have an art director working on the designs, just waiting for some confirmations from the DOP and Cost.Designer....hmmm....

a lot of the casting is due though....lot of roles to audition for...maybe i must hit the 'press' button and get some more people coming in for auditions....lets see...

otherwise, tons of stuff happening everyday...i'll stop here for now, am blogging for work, so feeling kinda guilty about that.....must focus on some work....

till later guys

day 6 pre production

2008-01-22T10:19:00.000+05:30

was a terrific day yesterday, we might have found the perfect girl for the project, lets see if it works out...wont say anymore at this point.

things are moving on quite well....auditions and talent searches are in full swing...almost...well it could be better...

will keep it short this time....have to get back to some work right now...

day 5, pre production

2008-01-21T09:44:00.000+05:30

I told everyone to take it easy, was a sunday after all. Came in later to meet a few costume designers. All of them were not what I wanted in a film costume designer.....hardly anyone these days has any sort of passion for film costume designing....cant blame them I suppose, I guess they dont see much of a future here....

So here is a call out....is there a costume designer out there....I need one for my movie....he/she must be real/original/passionate and desperate to want to proove themselves in this field :) please do pass the word around, its a major position as far as my crew is concerned...

A few exciting things are in store this week...have been working on the title design for the movie....its still in its early stages, but we are getting it ready for a possible press conference later this week...

And from today its audition time....people are going to be coming in for screen tests...gotta rush out so later guys....

day 4, pre production

2008-01-20T11:23:00.000+05:30

the best day so far. had a day long script reading with the entire team....was a terrific session which ended with everyone debating about the film with passion...
good stuff.

as i went through the entire script one more time....it just re-affirmed to me, this is a monumental project...atleast for me...looking forward to the challenges ahead...

capped off the night with dinner with the team and headed back home...

day 3, pre production

2008-01-19T09:05:00.000+05:30

Its been great to see how the industry reacts to Sekhar. He is easily today the most eagerly watched and anticipated of all filmmakers here in A.P....from the days when he wasn't allowed into a studio floor and was asked to wait outside, to today when people leap out of chairs to greet him.....wow!
the industry is a funny place huh....

again not much happened at work yesterday, it was a nice lazy day spent chatting about the script and so on...but today morning is important...i must have already mentioned...a team script session...i am hoping for some bright ideas and questions....

last night i watched nagesh kukunoors bombay to bangkok.....a very bad movie....2 hrs long....but it felt lik 4hrs.....is this the same guy who made Iqbal and Dor...hmmm...

well, need to get ready for work...so will catch up later guys...

day 2, pre production

2008-01-17T19:41:00.000+05:30

I am writing while I am still at work. Goes to show that nothing much happened today. Most of the crew had to catch up on the script, so they have been spending the day reading, while I have been trying to put some of my thoughts about the project on a whiteboard.

An extremely dull day at work. Tomorrow will be better cus everyone would have read it by then and I am sure they will have a million things to say or maybe not...my direction team never had much to say, actually they had nothing to say after watching 'confessions'....so I'll be surprised if they have anything to say this time round....

sigh...."you guys can speak up you know...its a free country..."

So to encourage that, I will have a team script session tomorrow....that will get everyone on the same plane as far as the script goes....meanwhile my music director says he has a new tune coming up....keeping my fingers crossed on that one....

Have also let a leading art director read my script...I want him on the project, he is easily the best in the business right now and it will be a first for amigos if we hire a art department like his...lets see what happens with that.....

thats it for now

day 1, pre-production

2008-01-16T23:54:00.000+05:30

Wednesday, July 04, 2007 that was my last dated post in my earlier blog.

Lot has happened since then. Some of you might already know....I am on the verge of starting my second feature film.

Like I said, a lot has happened since the 4th of July last year. To start of Happy Days is the biggest hit of the year and then a script which I first started working on in 2006, came back to life late in 07.

So after months of making notes and rewrites, the script is finally done and official pre-production started today. well 16th actually.

I thought it was time for me to once again bring a blog back to life and get into the hang of writing....that will take a little time, but I must document this I feel....

Its going to be two months of pre-production starting today, followed by two months of shoot and a release hopefully in august-september or maybe winter (if post takes time).

I have so much more to talk about, but let me get this blog out of the way today.
I promise to have more details in tomorrow..

for now...I want to say 'hi' to all my friends who have been looking forward to hearing what I might have to say next....its been a wait huh?

bye for now.

One last confession....

2007-07-04T16:30:00.000+05:30

It’s a little over 2 weeks since COF released online. Its been something alright. Initially I just caved in to the pressure and the comments. I didn’t know how to react and sort of went into a shell. Also what was bothering me was I never had a chance to sit back and just enjoy the fact that I’d released my movie. There was tremendous backend support work which I had to do and am still doing.
I understood what it takes to have a pay-movie-site….things go wrong…people don’t get passwords….they don’t know how to login…there are video buffering problems,all kind of shit happens, I have had customers call me direct to my house…etc etc.
Through all of this I was trying to upload a higher quality video…but have failed so far…the uploads speeds just aren’t good enough here in India…but that’s alright.Anyways….so, it took a couple of weeks for everything to be streamlined….and now with almost minimal backend support, the movie is doing fine, no great!…

Its a small piece of history, maybe in telugu cinema, if not Indian cinema...a full length feature film...shot on hi-definition....
it had a blog running, building a community around it....released trailers on youtube and finally released the film itself on the web....small but siginificant....I wonder who can claim to have made some decent money on something like this too?
Meanwhile, its been wonderful connecting with every single person who has paid and watched my movie….thats a privilege very few filmmakers have….its also a privilege to hear the choicest abuses right at your face….but the compliments that come through, more than make up for the former. :)

Anyways….so, it took a couple of weeks for everything to be streamlined….and now with almost minimal backend support, the movie is doing fine, no great!
The feedback I have been getting has been tremendous….people have either loved it or hated it….and that’s fine…I have tried to write back to most of them…
The number of hits has been gratifying,overwhelming…..33,000 hits at the time of writing….thats great!...
ofcourse a small percentage of people have decided to pay $5 and watch too…. I’ll keep you guessing on the actual number :)….but I’ll admit its enough to pay off my credit card bills for now….I know for a fact that 1 out of 5 people have shared passwords...which is great for the movie...not that great for my purse though :) oh well, you win some you loose some,right?

So yes….what does a filmmaker go through once his film is released huh? Well I think its unique in each case….I believe my movie has been a success, more for me personally…I made a movie…I said what I had to say…and I got a few people to watch it…and some of them loved it….thats good enough for me…for now.
Made on a budget of 4.5lakhs, in 30 days….shooting for not more than 4 hours each day…editing and other post work for nearly 3-4 months, depending on when studios were free…I feel vindicated whenever I read or hear from someone who has understood the movie and what it stood for….I have put a lot more at stake professionally than financially.

In the PFC community, I would like to thank ‘Striker’ and ‘OM’….the very first reviews which came out were from them….their views and thoughts gave me a lot of confidence in the initial days….when more such reviews poured in, I felt vindicated.

And ofcourse, OZ….thanks for just having the vision to build a site like this….What a community of people these are….what a collective passion for cinema!. By taking up a cause like ‘confessions’ and several others, you truly stand by what you say your site is all about.
lol...this is beginning to sound like an award acceptance speech....so yeah, I'll continue..stop the music, let me finish...

thanks to everyone at PFC....we may not know each other by faces....but we know each other by our collective passions for cinema.
thanks to everyone who followed my blog....you didnt know me or my film then....but decided to spend some time on it.
thanks to everyone who wished me well....every great review and every bad review....if someone feels for your movie....good or bad....its an honour either ways.
thanks to my friends and family....for not questioning why I decided to do this...and supporting me all the way through.
thanks to anurag kashyap...I dont know you personally and I dont think you have watched it...but your outlook on cinema has been inspiring to me...a scene in my movie was based on your feelings.
(PFC viewers take the trouble to guess which one :))
thanks to kamal, for living the role and carrying the film on his shoulders....(remember guys, just one actor in a movie and 1hr:45mins, its not as easy as it sounds,its fucking tough.)

and finally....
thanks to our constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression, for which PFC and my blog is evidence of...

ciao.
for now...
Anish Kuruvilla

sigh

2007-06-30T18:57:00.000+05:30

I really dont know what to write. On the one hand, I am really happy my movie is released. I am also really satisfied with the feedback I have recieved. I mean its all cool. Lots of people watched...some money earnt....good.

but what really saddens me....is I have been unable to do anything about getting a high quality video out like I thought I could....
its too....its really dis-heartening....
my film was shot on hi-definition....and I have to make to with some really poor quality video....sigh.

anyways.....thats been hardest to deal with....I am still trying to see what I can do...its not that getting a high quality file is tough....but getting it uploaded with the shitty upload speeds I have here....thats a nightmare....
all this tech shit, has taken out the maaza from me completly....

anyways...I will write later....yet another weekend gone by, where I haven't been able to do what I want.....

A GRAPH SPEAKS A MILLION WORDS

2007-06-19T18:07:00.000+05:30

This is whats been happening at my site since the 15th of June 07.

:)

DOWN BUT NOT OUT!

2007-06-16T12:41:00.000+05:30

Its been terrible. First I thought I had only video problems. I got that sorted out in time.Now something in the 'code' gave in....we did a million tests earlier...and it was working fine....
but then....whatever.

we have found the problem...fixing it will take a couple of hours from now...and then the website will be up again..
its sheer hard luck....and i am trying not to get too worked up about it....
i hope i can bring back my audience to watch my film....

now is not the time to crib and complain...i am just waiting for my film to come out...and then i'll be a free man.

p.s users who have paid and are worried about pwd expiry...not to worry, i'll be fixing it. sorry for the HUGE KLPD!

ITS SHOWTIME SOON!

2007-06-15T07:44:00.000+05:30

Ok, so in a few hours from now my film will be ready for the world to see. I am relieved...finally all that I have been talking about is here.I am also relieved that I don't need to write or talk about this anymore...I think my film will do that for me...

There are a lot of mixed feelings. I am a little sad, that I am unable to show audiences the movie in the high definition format that this film was shot on. The internet movie version DOES NO JUSTICE to the original cinematography in the film. You might understand what I am saying after you watch the film.We still have a few years to go before high definition images on the internet becomes a regular feature. Atleast here in India.
I am happy, my film is called "Confessions of a Filmmaker-Naa Video Diary"....one thing the film will deliver on is...LIVING UPTO THE TITLE....
I mean REALLY live upto the title... :)

Like any filmmaker, I am nervous about audience reactions. But what has to be has to be....I hope none of you ever feel it wasn't worth your time and money. That's important for me.

Have a good time watching it....and please spread the word about the film. I wouldn't mind some money coming my way.... :)

See you all today evening, 18:00hrs EST

Eve of the release, too much stress

2007-06-14T04:27:00.000+05:30

Its been a tough past week, everything that had to go wrong, has gone wrong...the film was to be uplinked on the server by now...but I am still struggling to do that...
with the monsoons, erratic power and possibly everything else that can hinder the release of my film...every fucking thing is going wrong....I really dont know whats going to happen....

just uploading the film will take me a good 20hrs...encoding before that (which failed once) will take another 20hrs....theoritically at the time of writing this, I can still make it...

but the reality is something else....
trying to keep calm....lets see what destiny has in store for me, after all this time....

any regrets... too early to tell

p.s the pic above clearly depicts everything I am going through....

ITS JUNE15TH FOLKS, MAKE OR BREAK

2007-06-09T04:36:00.000+05:30

THATS IT...I'M NOT GONNA BE WRITING HERE FOR A BIT...OR MAYBE I WILL...OR MAYBE I WONT....
BUT ANYWAYS....THE POINT IS...THE BIG DAY IS ON THE 15TH OF JUNE 07 RIGHT HERE....WELL ALMOST....

@ WWW.CONFESSIONSOFAFILMMAKER.COM FOLKS.

REGISTER....PAY AND WATCH MY MOVIE...PLEASE :)AND PLEASE USE THE MSG BOARD ON THAT SITE TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS.

WILL BE BACK SOON, RANTING AND RAVING AS USUAL...
NOT TO WORRY

what have i been upto?

2007-06-06T02:45:00.000+05:30

THIS HAS PROBABLY BEEN THE LONGEST BREAK I EVER TOOK BETWEEN POSTS...SO WHAT HAVE I BEEN UPTO?

I HAVE BEEN GETTING READY TO RELEASE MY FILM ON THE INTERNET.
YES, THATS RIGHT, LIKE I ALREADY MENTIONED A FEW TIMES BEFORE...WORK HAS BEEN PROGRESSING SMOOTHLY...AND THE FILM WILL BE READY FOR AN INTERNET EXCLUSIVE RELEASE SOMETIME THIS MONTH.....

MEANWHILE, IF THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE OUT THERE, WHO CONTINUE TO COME OVER TO THIS SITE, I APOLOGISE FOR NOT KEEPING YOU UPDATED...I WILL TRY AND WRITE MORE REGULARLY...BUT ITS JUST THAT...ALL THE WORK THAT THIS EVENT NEEDS IS TAKING UP ALL MY TIME...AND LEAVING VERY LITTLE TO WRITE AS I ANXIOUSLY WAIT FOR THE RELEASE DATE...

http://www.confessionsofafilmmaker.com/

....IS THE URL WHICH WILL FWD YOU TO MY NEW WEBSITE....PLEASE KEEP CHECKING IN ON IT WHENEVER POSSIBLE FOR THE RELEASE DATES.....

MEANWHILE PL SPREAD THE WORD AROUND ABOUT THE WEBSITE....I NEED AN AUDIENCE ON RELEASE DAY AND AM TRYING MY BEST TO SPREAD THE WORD.

LET ME TAKE THIS OPPURTUNITY TO INTRODUCE ALL OF YOU TO ANOTHER GROUP OF ROCKERS...THIS TIME ITROCKERZ.....THE GUYS BEHIND DEVELOPING MY WEBSITE....
IF THIS WORKS...WE WOULD HAVE CREATED CINEMA HISTORY....I WANT TO PROOVE THAT THE INTERNET IS DEFINETLY A VIABLE OPTION FOR THE SMALL TIME FILMMAKER.......

P.S please watch this space, i will be posting regularly from now on...

THE MUSIC OF COF, AN INTERNET EXCLUSIVE

2007-05-30T12:20:00.000+05:30

Hi guys, the road towards the internet movie release of the COF is clear. Work is progressing smoothly on that front and hopefully I should have an announcement to make in a few days.
Meanwhile I have decided to showcase the music of COF.

The theme and an additional number were composed by a Hyderabad based band called EXAbyssus.

You can download the music directly from the links below. For those not too familiar with rapidshare downloads, after pasting the link on the URL bar,hit enter, scroll down and click 'free', it brings you to another page where you type in the SPAM code given to you and then simply click download.simple right?

these are the links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/34053751/02_Track_02.mp3
http://rapidshare.com/files/34052142/01_Track_01.mp3

EXCLUSIVE INTERNET RELEASE OF 'COF'

2007-05-24T00:37:00.000+05:30

Like I briefly mentioned in my earlier posts, I have plans to get this film across to people.

COF will premiere exclusively on the internet in a BIG WAY, 'sometime' in june.

I am a little guarded about the exact date, since work is still being done on a special portal being designed for the same.
I will look to everyone who writes in my blog to spread the word about the release, once the official dates are out and do all that they can to make sure everyone they know watches it....thats what I need from you guys...

It will be a pay site and I am doing all that I can do, legally and technically to curb piracy.
Well I will have more updates in the days to come...

meanwhile keep the flame burning...

THE CHENNAI ONLINE.COM REVIEW

2007-05-23T12:41:00.000+05:30

A movie on making a movie News
Anish Kuruvilla, who played the hero’s brother in Sekhar Kammula’s Telugu film 'Anand', has made a 90-minute film, 'Confessions of a Film-maker: Naa Video Diary’.

The film is all about a guy who loses faith in the system and culture prevailing in the Telugu film industry after failing to direct a film in the last minute despite being in the industry for 10 years.
The film is made with a crew of only three, including Anish, who wore different hats as a scriptwriter, cinematographer, director and producer. Kamala Kumara, who played a supporting role in 'Godavari', played the main lead in the film and came out with an impressive performance.

The film talks about how the people in the industry make use of aspiring directors as pimps and how Telugu films are becoming a reflection of sex. It documents the 10 days in the life of an aspiring doctor who commits suicide at the end of the 10th day after editing all that has been shot.
The film received big applause from the audience and was hailed as a bold step. Anish Kuruvilla has been associated with director Sekhar Kammula from his 'Dollar Dreams' days and has been a co-director and executive producer for all of Sekhar Kammula’s films including the latest one, 'Happy Days'.

"It is a small budget film. If I have to go for theatrical release, I will definitely have to spend more than what I spent for the film," he said.
Though Anish said the release of the film depends on the feedback after the screening, he said he was not going to release it after the screening but assured that he will release it in DVD format. "Though it can't bring change in the prevailing culture in the industry, it encourages one to speak up," opines Anish.

The best thing is that he assured that in future, if he makes any films, he would be bound by his 'Confessions of a Film-maker: Naa Video Diary’.
Though he is just 30 years old, the understanding he has about films is astounding. Though many didn't agree with the film targeting a few in the industry, it was appreciated.

We can see in the film the lead character holding placards at various places in the city, reading, 'Cinema will die if nepotism lives', 'Open your eye for a better cinema', 'Respect our time and money', 'Film-press stop lying'.
The movie talks about how the directors, despite being the creators of a film, have become pawns in the hands of a few influential directors and heroes.

Though people from the film fraternity like Gunnam Gangaraju, Sekhar Kammula, R Narayana Murthy and Tammareddy Bharadwaja, attended the screening, they were tight-lipped when it came to giving their comments.

P Haribabu

MAN THIS GUYS INTERPRETATION IS SO FLAWED...BUT WHAT THE HELL, A REVIEW IS A REVIEW...ANISH

Music release plans.

2007-05-20T12:47:00.000+05:30

The theme music and video, specially shot for 'confessions of a filmmaker' will be available on the net in a matter of days.
The music was composed by one of hyderabad's most influential rock bands-'EXABYSSUS'.
I am truly proud of their work and I think you'll agree when you hear it yourself.

I am also excited knowing that I am bringing my film one step closer to everyone. Its all a matter of time...

RELEASE PLAN OF 'C.O.F'

2007-05-19T11:38:00.000+05:30

I HAVE BEEN BUSY GETTING TOGETHER A RELEASE PLAN FOR C.O.F. WHILE IT WILL BEGIN MAKING THE FESTIVAL ROUTE FROM NEXT MONTH. I PLAN ON GETTING THE FILM OUT IN SOME FORM OR THE OTHER FOR THE OVERSEAS VIEWER BY JUNE....I ALSO HAVE THE SAME PLANS FOR VIEWERS IN INDIA.

WILL KEEP YOU POSTED ONCE I HAVE THE DATES SET.

just thought i'd share that with everyone.

CELEBRATING My 100th post, a poem written for me and my film.

2007-05-17T16:14:00.000+05:30

Hello Anish
I havent seen your movie, but after seeing the promos and various reviews on your blogsite, pfc and youtube....I really think you have tried something.
All I can wish you is best of luck and I have written a poem for you titled---- "confessions of a film maker"

Confessions of a Filmmaker ---Prashu (Prashanth Mahagaonkar)

I walked once
just once
with thousand of heels
through mirages of reels

I met a few
just a few
who counted my steps
with taps and claps

I shivered once
just once
when eyes stared
and future glared

I felt the dew
yes, the dew
caressing my fears
stopping my tears

I gave birth
birth at last
to what I feel and see
in this vicious sea

Will I live?
Will my voice live?
my few will decide the ends
for they are my friends

best of luck anish
Prashu

Prashanth Mahagaonkar
Research Fellow
Entrepreneurship,Growth and Public Policy
Max Planck Institute of Economics

CINEGOERS.COM REVIEW

2007-05-16T23:10:00.001+05:30

There is very little in Na Video Diary that we have not seen before (I remember watching a cross over film The Missed Call during the Film Fest) and yet it works, partly because the formula is simply so strong that it’s like you’d have to work doubly hard to break it, partly because the person in the director’s chair knows how to make a good reality cum parody fest and here the parody is smarter than the Telugu film industry that he is mocking.

However, if you aren’t hunting for a towering work of genius, and want to watch a good raw flick that is not regular, but makes you think of the kind of cinema you were being fed with all these years, then this is what you need. Kamal Kamaraju takes you through ten days of his life, and gives you a peep into the frustrations of a filmmaker who eventually shoots himself after the industry turns its back on him.

A man of self respect, a wannabe director Kamal portrays the angst of a man deprived of luck and opportunity in his life. He talks of the Babudom, the rampant sycophancy of the actors, actresses, their fake lives, the unwinding work in Krishna Nagar and Indira Nagar, the fans associations, the glorification of stars and the treatment and status accorded to directors in the industry.

The one and a half hour film doesn’t scandalise you with the liberty with which Anish, the director uses expletives. It makes every film journalist who writes review or an article with a commercial interest, every actor/actress who revels in the star status, the indulgence with which they are treated hide their faces in shame. If the Censor Board doesn’t release, it will be one missed opportunity to bring something new to a tired genre.

Posted by Y. Sunita Chowdhary

GREATANDHRA.COM REVIEW

2007-05-15T11:09:00.000+05:30

We have witnessed 'Naa Video Diary'- Confessions of the film maker, the boldest movie ever made in the history of 75-year old-Telugu film industry.

How a film maker goes bold and uses his Freedom of Expression completely? How a film maker used filthiest language in the film to make it natural? What is the meaning of being non-hypocritical? How are the things moving in Film industry? We can understand everything watching this mind-blowing revolutionary film.

Well, it was made by Aneesh, the close pal of Sekhar Kammula. Kamal Kamaraj (paired up with Neetu Chandra in Godavari) acted in the film. It's the film that was made on the 'confessions of a film maker'.

Story Line:

An aspiring director spends 10 years of time in film industry struggling to find a chance. But he finds nothing. He wants to commit suicide. Then out of frustration he makes a film of his own by asking his friend to shoot him for 10 days naturally. All that he speaks will be recorded in that.

What's recorded?

The aspiring director says many things about film industry and its celebrities.

Here are a few snippets out of his speech in unedited mode.

"What's this film industry? People come here with high aspirations imagining many things and start staying in Krishna Nagar.
"Who are these Babus? Were does this word come from? Always the directors who work with these so-called babus enquire, 'Babu Garu lecharaa"", etc etc. What do these Babus do? We know a babu who feels he is a great actor. He knows no acting other than shouting 'hehe he ..oho oho ho' (the name of this hero is not used directly)"

"Do you know why Sunil, Venu Madhav and all call heroes anna, babai and all? That's for security. If they find no films in future they can rely on these babais and annas to put them in their films on obligation. It's a hypocritical field".

"Some heroes say that there is acting in their blood. If there is acting in blood, what would be there in uchcha?"

A scene was shown this way: Beside the hoarding of Chiranjeevi's Charitable Trust, a placard is placed mentioned, "Open Your Eyes For Better Movies". That is the satire thrown on Chiranjeevi.

He hasn't spared any hero in this 95 minute film.

The film was screened last night (12th May) in Prasad's labs to which Tammareddy Bharadwaja, Gunnam Gangaraju, R Narayana Murthy, IMAX Prasad, Madhura Entertainment Sridhar, Sekhar Kammula and many journalists had made their presence.

Aneesh said that it is the first and last show in theater.

He also said that he is not going to release this film outside as the censor would cut the film to 9 minutes if attempted doing so.

A young female journalist asked, "Aneesh! It would had been better had you cut down the dialogues with words like gudda and sallu". (Yes! The journalist too asked boldly literally uttering the words loudly)

Gunnam Gangaraju also questioned the same.

Aneesh said that he wanted to showcase the film naturally without any filter.

Aneesh said that he is going to send that to censor in USA and release there in the form of DVDs. The full-version of the film also discussed about castiesm in film industry it seems.

The film was made in 5 days (it was made in 28 days! this writer didnt check facts with me) and made the audiences sit attentive to every second of it. Aneesh says that he plans to sell internet rights of this film.

(Review Report drafted by SiraSri- can be reached at sirasri@gmail.com)