Lucia : Recensione

[Blog] Recensione di Lucia, film sperimentale in lingua Kannada vincitore del Premio del Pubblico nella passata edizione del London Film Festival. Diretto da Pawan Kumar.

Aishwarya Rai ha compiuto 40 anni

[Archivio] Il primo novembre 2013 la donna più bella del mondo ha compiuto 40 anni. Il numero del 20 novembre 2013 di Filmfare aveva dedicato una stupenda copertina ad Aishwarya Rai. In Italia, il primo novembre La Repubblica ha offerto ai suoi lettori una ricca photo gallery: Bollywood festeggia Aishwarya: la più bella compie quarant'anni. Vi segnalo anche il video dell'incontro con la stampa organizzato il giorno stesso del suo compleanno. I prossimi 40 anni? Ash si mostra in pubblico sempre più spesso, per mondanità o per rispettare impegni professionali: fra gli altri, vi ricordo l'evento L'Oréal che si è tenuto a Mumbai nel dicembre 2013, in occasione del quale la diva ha sfoggiato un abito Dolce&Gabbana. Ma il cinema? Aishwarya ha lasciato un vuoto difficile, per le colleghe, da colmare, e quindi non vediamo l'ora di ammirarla nuovamente su grande schermo. 

Mumbai, primo novembre 2013

 

Evento L'Oréal - Mumbai, dicembre 2013

The brave new world of indie films

[Archivio] Vi segnalo l'articolo The brave new world of indie films, di Parul Khanna, pubblicato da Brunch l'8 dicembre 2013:

'Indie films demystified (...)

The generic definition of an indie film points to a small-budget project made and distributed by an independent source, without the intrusion of a big studio. But in India, distribution is a big hurdle, and most times, it happens only with the help of established studios. So our indie films are often made with money from independent sources or a producer who chips in. (...) An indie film could also be made by collecting money from multiple sources. (...) Unlike the parallel cinema movement of the ’70s and ’80s, which focused on social injustices and everyday struggles, today’s indie films are not bound by any one theme. (...) Song and dance routines are optional. (...)

Stories with passion

The reasons driving India’s new-age indie filmmakers are varied. (...) Most indie filmmakers cite world cinema and satellite television as influences and with changing technology, they also have a better means of telling their story than before. A film can now be shot on a digital motion picture camera. (...) Software for editing and music is easily available. (...) 

The roadblocks

If indie storytelling and filmmaking is original, then so are the ways to make and sell it. Big stars will fill theatres but cost money and compromise creativity. Even B-listers are often inaccessible. (...) Often, in the indie world, the star is not a person but a script. (...) Others cut location costs, edit everything on paper and plan better, so the project is more efficient. (...)

Changing tastes

Small films don’t always mean small successes. (...) This change in the way movies are being consumed is forcing filmmakers and production houses to change their thinking. (...) For big studios and stars, fringe films are also a means to invest in new audiences of the future. (...)

Release obstacles

While the nature of the stories has changed with indie cinema, other aspects are still fraught with old challenges. Once a movie is made, it just lies waiting for some Prince Charming distributor to pick it up. For films to be distributed and earn money, they still need to have stars. One reason distributors offer for not helping indie films is that they still aren’t drawing enough people to theatres. However, filmmakers complain that often films lose audiences because they aren’t advertised enough. But with promotion costs often running into four times an indie film’s budget, they’re understandably hard to promote too. (...) Several European countries (and the USA as well) make films direct to DVD or TV, solving the problem of distributors and cinema audiences India does. Add to it the threat of piracy, and it’s anyone’s guess how much money such a film will make. All of which means studio backing is an indie filmmaker’s only hope. Most indie filmmakers say the problem with the Indian distributor is that he acts as the spokesperson for what the audience wants. The distributor filters films even before the audience gets a chance to see them. (...)

Eyes on the world

All our indie films benefit from doing the festival circuit before they come to India. (...) [Anupama] Chopra, a regular at Cannes for years, says that there is a palpable change in our perception on the world stage. "For years, we had an Indian presence just on the red carpet. (...) This year, at Cannes, there were five movies officially selected." (...) The scene is evolving in India, too. (...) With an eye on a growing need for filmmakers to be trained like those in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, the National Film Development Corporation of India has launched a lab of its own. (...) Still, non-mainstream cinema needn’t and shouldn’t be a byword for boring. That would be the death of the genre. No movie or filmmaker, by default, becomes good, just because it is indie'.

Chander Pahar: locandine, trailer e recensione

Chander Pahar, costosissimo film distribuito il 20 dicembre 2013, è, ad oggi, il campione d'incassi nella storia del cinema bengali. Al botteghino si è comportato dignitosamente anche al di fuori dei confini del Bengala occidentale: a Mumbai, ad esempio, pur subendo la concorrenza del blockbuster Dhoom:3, CP si è difeso bene. La pellicola è diretta da Kamaleswar Mukherjee e interpretata dal giovane divo Dev. La sceneggiatura si basa sul famoso romanzo omonimo d'avventure del 1937 di Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadyay. Le riprese sono state  effettuate quasi interamente in Sudafrica. Trailer. Vi segnalo la recensione firmata da Anjan Dutt, pubblicata da The Telegraph il 24 dicembre 2013:

'Sometimes films are produced for breaking new grounds. Temporary gains are unimportant. (...) Chander Pahar (...) I am certain will change the course of Bengali cinema in the next three years. The most expensive Bengali film till date (...) will inspire if not force the Bengali industry to be more dynamic in scale, thought, courage. And the actual returns of this film will be evaluated by the quality and success of films that will follow Chander Pahar in the next three years. (...) Kamaleswar Mukherjee will go down in history for braving the very difficult journey filled with risk but full of confidence. After a long time a Bengali film made me feel proud. (...) Almost 85 per cent of the film was spellbinding, gorgeous and filled with sheer good taste. (...) With Chander Pahar he [Kamaleswar Mukherjee] enters a different league where confidence and sheer hard work are evident in almost every frame. (...) I only wish editor Rabiranjan Maitra had done away with the frequent slow-mo and ramping, and resorted to just cutting, because they distract you from the pace of the narration. (...) Dev’s almost childlike fearlessness to conquer the unknown heightens the philosophy of the basic text. I was weary of the commercial star till the film started, but through the viewing was convinced that no one else could have played Shankar. (...) Dev combines sheer strength with utter vulnerability that works magic. (...) Dev’s entry into serious cinema succeeds superbly because he simply whacks the ball out of the field. Credit goes to Kamaleswar for using Dev’s vulnerability as his strength. (...) There have been many alterations of the original text, but most of them work immensely because the writer and director make it dramatic and believable. (...) There is so much inherent power in the visuals that a lesser elaborate and more haunting, minimalistic score perhaps would have been apt. (...) But the player who is literally responsible for the victory is (...) Soumik Halder. Here is a film from Bengal where almost 90 per cent of the cinematography is sheer brilliance. (...) Together with the production designer Nomonde Ngema, Soumik works out series of sequences where one does not need to hear anything but just keep watching. (...) To me it looks and feels far bigger than a 15crore project. Far glorious than many bigger budget Hindi adventures I have ever seen'. .

 

Berlin International Film Festival 2014

Da destra: Imtiaz Ali, Alia Bhatt e Randeep Hooda

Il Berlin International Film Festival 2014 si è svolto dal 6 al 16 febbraio. Come da tradizione, molti i titoli indiani in cartellone, fra i quali segnalo:

* Killa, di Avinash Arun, in lingua marathi, vincitore dell'Orso di cristallo per il miglior film nella sezione Generation Kplus;

* Papilio Buddha, sezione Panorama, di Jayan Cherian, in lingua malayalam. Trailer. PB tratta il controverso tema delle discriminazioni e violenze di cui sono vittime gli intoccabili e le donne, e la sceneggiatura si ispira a fatti realmente accaduti. PB ha subito clamorose pressioni da parte della censura indiana. Il regista ha respinto quasi tutte le richieste avanzate dall'organo governativo di censura, e la proiezione della pellicola è stata negata persino nei festival cinematografici. Nel marzo 2013 aveva però beneficiato di una magra distribuzione in alcune selezionate sale in Kerala;

* Highway, sezione Panorama Special, di Imtiaz Ali, con Randeep Hooda e Alia Bhatt, colonna sonora di A.R. Rahman. L'area del sito della Berlinale dedicata a Highway offre il video della conferenza stampa, nonché alcune succose fotografie. E quando si tratta del fascinoso Randeep Hooda c'è da lustrarsi gli occhi.

Vedi anche Randeep Hooda: I did not talk to Alia for the longest time, 9 marzo 2014

 

Randeep Hooda (ritratto ufficiale)

 

Da destra: I. Ali, A.R. Rahman, A. Bhatt e R. Hooda

 

Topolino 3038: Topinadh Tandoori e la rosa del Rajasthan

La nostra Diana in questo periodo è impegnata con la sua bimba, ma giusto qualche minuto fa mi ha passato una succosa dritta: il numero 3038 di Topolino, in edicola oggi, include una storia tutta indiana, Topinadh Tandoori e la rosa del Rajasthan - Un musical bollywoodiano a fumetti, con danze, colori, rime e, naturalmente, un matrimonio. A seguire sei pagine di testo e fotografie dedicate al cinema indiano. 

 

River to River Florence Indian Film Festival 2013

[Archivio]

La 13esima edizione del River to River Florence Indian Film Festival si è svolta dal 22 al 28 novembre 2013. Lo scorso 28 ottobre Caterina aveva annunciato la presenza di Shabana Azmi in qualità di madrina della manifestazione (clicca qui). Hanno partecipato all'evento anche Abhishek Kapoor e Vijay Varma. The coffin maker di Veena Bakshi ha vinto il premio per il miglior lungometraggio - nel cast Naseeruddin Shah, affiancato dal suo (e mio, ma per ragioni diverse) pupillo Randeep Hooda, e da Ratna Pathak. Fra i titoli in cartellone segnalo Lessons in forgetting, di Unni Vijayan, tratto dal romanzo L'arte di dimenticare di Anita Nair. La sceneggiatura è firmata dalla stessa Nair. LIF si è aggiudicato il National Award per il miglior film in lingua inglese. Dal 14 al 16 febbraio 2014 il festival approderà a Milano, allo Spazio Oberdan. 

- Video La Repubblica: Shabana Azmi: "Violenza sulle donne, tolleranza zero", Claudio Giovannini e Gaia Rau, 22 novembre 2013. 

- L'India di Abhishek Kapoor obbligata al dialogo, Gaia Rau, La Repubblica, 22 novembre 2013:

Abhishek Kapoor

'Tre amici accomunati da un sogno, costruire un'impresa nel mondo del cricket. Sullo sfondo, l'India del 2002, lacerata dalle tensioni tra indù e musulmani. "Kai Po Che" di Abhishek Kapoor è il film che inaugura, stasera all'Odeon alla presenza dell'autore, la 13a edizione di "River to River", il festival dedicato al cinema indiano contemporaneo. Il lungometraggio - il cui titolo fa riferimento a un'esclamazione di vittoria gridata nelle gare di aquiloni: un omaggio, spiega il regista, "allo spirito umano che trionfa sulle avversità con flessibilità e positività" - è stato presentato all'ultima Berlinale, primo film indiano a entrare nella prestigiosa sezione "Panorama".

Abhishek Kapoor, non è la prima volta che i suoi film parlano di sport. Il suo primo lavoro, "Aryan", raccontava la storia di un giovane boxeur. Cosa significa lo sport per lei?

"Kai Po Che" è prima di tutto un film sull'amicizia, ma era essenziale che sullo sfondo vi fosse la purezza dello sport e il suo immenso contributo al nostro benessere. Sono sempre stato uno sportivo: la psicologia dello sport scorre nella mia scrittura e nella mia regia in modo ininterrotto. È una manifestazione dell'eccellenza umana, dello spingersi al limite e poi lanciarsi oltre.

Il film affronta un fatto drammatico per la storia indiana, la strage del treno di Godhra del 2002, in cui 58 pellegrini indù persero la vita in un incendio appiccato da musulmani. Una ferita ancora aperta?

Il mio obiettivo è fare in modo che non ci si dimentichi degli eventi che hanno forgiato il nostro destino di popolo libero e democratico. Ho scelto di narrare una storia di finzione in un contesto di fatti realmente accaduti per trasmettere l'impatto di questa negatività indesiderata sulla vita delle gente comune: innocenti che diventano vittime involontarie. Con un modello come Gandhi, come possiamo noi, come nazione, non reagire a quello che è accaduto a Godhra? Quell'incidente deve farci pensare, far parte della nostra coscienza collettiva.

Nonostante la tragedia, nel film l'amicizia trionfa. Una professione di ottimismo?

Sono un regista: voglio condividere, non predicare. Stimolare, non giudicare. Mi considero una persona patriottica ed ottimista e spero che, come nei classici, il bene trionfi. Ma i problemi non si risolvono da soli. A meno che il popolo indiano non creda davvero nella risoluzione dei conflitti religiosi, la strada davanti a noi resterà sempre impegnativa.

È la sua prima volta in Italia. Conosce il nostro cinema?

L'Italia ha uno spirito antico, che unisce un cuore caldo a una mente raffinata. In un certo senso, è come tornare a casa. Ho la fortuna di conoscere la genialità dei maestri italiani, penso a capolavori come "Ladri di biciclette", "8 ½", "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso", ma anche "La vita è bella", "Malena", "Io sono l'amore": film accomunati da una realtà adulta vista dalla prospettiva innocente di un bambino. Ed è stato proprio un film italiano, "La dolce vita" di Fellini, a insegnarmi che la mente è fatta per essere sbalordita.

Qual è il suo rapporto con Bollywood?

Lo vedo come una matriarca tradizionale che varca la soglia dell'era digitale cercando il proprio equilibrio, a passo di bambino. Sono nato con Bollywood, vi sono cresciuto dentro. Mi ha stimolato e costretto ad avventurarmi al di fuori del suo abbraccio rassicurante, ad espandere la mia visione, a riscoprire gli autori e a trovare la mia voce. Un viaggio che mi ha portato dove mi trovo adesso'.

Vijay Varma

Deepika Padukone: The new dream girl

[Archivio] Vi propongo l'articolo Deepika Padukone's easy appeal and raw energy mark her as the star of her generation of leading ladies, di Gayatri Jayaraman, pubblicato da India Today l'11 novembre 2013:

'Unlike many others of her age and in her position - image conscious, hesitant to reveal more than their carefully crafted public relations spin would have you see - she is intent on being perceived as honest. This rawness is integral to who Deepika is. The equation is simple for her: Since she cannot feign affection or establish subsistence-level niceties, it is necessary to seduce, and fall in love with, everyone. "There comes a time when I give myself so completely to the role that it becomes necessary. I am the character. And I must, in that process, fall in love with everyone I work with," she says. (...) Barely six years into the film industry, she is now an actor with Rs 700 crore riding on her. She has signed 11 top-end endorsement deals. (...) She has starred in three box-office blockbusters this year alone: Race 2 (Rs 110 crore), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (Rs 184.79 crore), and Chennai Express (Rs 218.29 crore). She is on the cusp of a fourth hit with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's [Goliyon Ki Raasleela] Ram-Leela. (...)

Finding herself

Daughter of badminton champion Prakash Padukone, Deepika began modelling at eight. Her mother Ujjala Padukone, 55, says she always wanted to be number one at whatever she did but her new-found balance has astounded even the parents. "She's got her meticulousness from me, and the ability to tackle success from her father. But the sheer maturity with which she handles her career surprises us every day," Ujjala says. More so because, for a while in between, everyone thought she'd lost the plot. She rode the initial euphoria of the dream launch in Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) and Love Aaj Kal (2009), but failed to capitalise on it. She struggled from Karthik Calling Karthik in 2010 to Desi Boyz in 2011, picking either bad roles or good roles in films that did badly. The tabloids referred to her as Ranbir Kapoor's current or ex - tags that seemed to gain precedence over any others that she could find at the time.

Towards the end of 2011, something suddenly changed. (...) Deepika has found her craft, and by extension, she's found herself. Shortly after her split with Ranbir, she bought a new sea-facing home in the heart of Mumbai's Prabhadevi area on the 26th floor of BeauMonde apartments. (...) The gated high-rise is not the typical choice for film stars, who usually live in Bandra or Juhu. Here, Deepika is the girl-next-door. She bumps into neighbours in the elevator or at the pool area. "I love the smells and sounds and feel of home," she says. Its gold walls, red velvet sofa, mahogany panelling and brass coffee tables (...) underline where she comes from. "Maturity is not becoming a different person, it's accepting the person you have always been in your core," she says. Ram-Leela director Bhansali sums up her friendly but elusive dream girl persona with his inimitable poetic flourish. "She is beautiful, graceful but pungent. Her face perched on that swan-like neck. She is colour. She is fire."

Love's lessons

Once someone enters Deepika's world, it is hard to exit. This perhaps springs from her self-professed "desperate need to be loved". "I cannot stand conflict and I will do anything to get past it," she says. (...) It's a remark that explains why she mends relationships with a vengeance. Deepika has stayed friends with all exes, and continues to work with them. (...) "When you're in a relationship, you take so much from each other. I believe people come into your life for a reason," she says. She describes Ranbir as a "positive influence" and adds that her relationships have changed her in small ways, making her more certain of what she wants in a partner. "But it's not like I keep a checklist. That would be like grocery shopping for a mate," she says. All she once dreamed of was a man who would be tall, dark, and handsome. Today, someone who is genuine and honest is the key.

Ask about her Ram-Leela co-star Ranveer Singh and she says the world has a problem with a man and a woman hanging out. "Every dinner date isn't a relationship. Feelings take time to develop, and the world does not give actors that time," she says, before hastening to add, "I have never met anyone quite like Ranveer in the industry though. He's so true to himself, so unaffected. He has also been a very positive influence in my life. He does his own thing, I do mine." Make of that statement whatever you will. (...)

World in her stride

Deepika's confidence is borne out of holding her failures as dear as her successes. She takes good natured ribbing about less successful roles in her stride. Chandni Chowk to China (2009), she admits, was "disastrous" but her action sequences from the film have still made it to her showreel. "Why do you need a showreel at all?" asks director Homi Adajania, with whom she is shooting Finding Fanny, and who has overheard snatches of the conversation. "Hollywood jaana hai na (I have to go to Hollywood, after all)," Deepika replies naughtily. (...)

The role that Deepika most identifies with is Naina from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani - socially awkward as a child, conventional in her beliefs. "If I were to break out, that is the way in which I would," she says, referring to Naina's post-intermission transformation. Roles that personify who she is at heart, her life, and her struggles are the ones she best identifies with. "Women come up to me after my films and tell me that they can connect with me," she says. "This feedback has become vital for me - this link with them, and with myself".'

Le prime del 14 febbraio 2014: Gunday

Quest'anno Yash Raj Films celebra San Valentino con un singolare gangster movie. Ambientato a Calcutta a partire dagli anni settanta, Gunday vede protagonisti due giovani promesse del cinema indiano: il lanciatissimo Ranveer Singh e Arjun Kapoor. Ad affiancarli Priyanka Chopra, che da una decina di giorni sta incendiando i sogni proibiti dei maschietti grazie all'infuocata coreografia di Asalaam-E-Ishqum (più di un milione di visualizzazioni). Nel cast anche Irrfan Khan. Dirige Ali Abbas Zafar. L'energetica colonna sonora è composta da Sohail Sen. Un ulteriore assaggio nei video dei brani Tune Maari Entriyaan, Saaiyaan, Jiya e Jashn-E-Ishqa. Sito ufficiale e trailer sottotitolato in inglese. La pellicola verrà distribuita anche in versione in lingua bengali.

 

 

Om Dar-B-Dar: locandina e trailer

La locandina è uno spettacolo. Diretto da Kamal Swaroop, e proiettato nel 1988 in prima mondiale al Berlin International Film Festival, Om Dar-B-Dar non ha mai giovato di una vera distribuzione, malgrado gli apprezzamenti della critica internazionale. La pellicola nel corso degli anni è assurta al rango di cult movie, e registi del calibro (anche commerciale) di Imtiaz Ali e di Anurag Kashyap la citano come fonte di ispirazione. Udite udite: la versione restaurata di Om Dar-B-Dar, non solo è stata presentata in prima mondiale al Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma 2013, ma il 17 gennaio 2014 è stata finalmente distribuita in India, in alcune sale selezionate, per la delizia dei suoi estimatori. Trailer. Ne approfitto per segnalarvi l'articolo One head scratcher of a movie!, di Mayank Shekhar, pubblicato da Open il 23 gennaio 2014:

'While the disjointed film defies description, it has enough genres heaped on to it, recurrent ones being ‘post-modern’ and ‘avantgarde’. (...) Kamal Swaroop’s Om Dar-B-Dar seems like a response to Indian cinema’s serious, self-conscious art-house movies of the 70s and 80s that stated such obvious truths about the human condition. The film is instantly surreal, making it an expression of subconscious thoughts, or dreams. (...) 

The Government-run National Film Development Corporation produced Om Dar-B-Dar. Swaroop had strong credentials. He had graduated in direction from FTII [Film and Television Institute of India], Pune. (...) He assisted Richard Attenborough on Gandhi (...). For his directorial debut, he approached the NFDC with a completely linear synopsis of his script, which is clearly not how he eventually filmed it. The producers must have been shocked by the outcome. 

Om Dar-B-Dar didn’t get a release. The film went straight to the cans, instead of Cannes; however, it did premiere at Berlin. It didn’t make it to the Government’s Indian Panaroma section that ensures screenings at State sponsored festivals. Miraculously enough, it picked up the Best Film (critics) prize at Filmfare Awards, which was then more than merely a television event. A thoroughly-confused Censor Board at the time didn’t grant the film a viewing certificate. They believed that while they couldn’t make head or tail of the movie, there must be subliminal, subversive messages being transmitted through it that may adversely affect an unsuspecting public. (...) 

The brass band section in the song Emosanal Attyachar from Anurag Kashyap’s Dev. D (2009) is evidently homage to the Om Dar-B-Dar track Meri Jaan AAA, which is also the song Natha’s son hums when his father disappears in Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli [Live] (2010). My favourite number in the film is Bablu Babylon Se. (...)

The film, in chaste Sanskritised Hindi, is a hallucinatory journey from adolescence to late teenage of young Om, who is an astrologer’s son. If you sit down to follow that story, chances are you’ll lose your mind. Deliberately hammy actors add to the humour. Swaroop says he took about three years to figure out a script, spending most of that time discarding any aspect in it that seemed like a film. He argues that if you merely remove sex and violence from a movie, it stops looking like one. (...) 

Swaroop says he drew heavily from free-spirited Maithili-Hindi-Bengali writer Rajkamal Chaudhary from Mahisi in north Bihar. Chaudhary’s writings effortlessly merged ‘American pop literature with Indian literary traditions, delving strongly in self-exorcism and black magic’. Chaudhary is often credited with one of the earliest references to lesbianism in a Hindi novel, Machhali Mari Hui, which is one of the books that Swaroop claims primarily inspired Om Dar-B-Dar. Chaudhary died of syphilis at the age of 38 in 1967. Swaroop, 61, hasn’t made a feature since Om Dar-B-Dar'. 

Majnu: le riprese in Italia

[Archivio] Tra la fine di settembre e gli inizi di ottobre dello scorso anno, la troupe del film in lingua bengali Majnu era a Como e a Milano per effettuare alcune riprese. Majnu è diretto da Rajiv Kumar e interpretato da Hiraan Chatterjee e Srabanti Chatterjee. Video dei brani E Mon Ajkal, girato a Milano, e O Piya Re Piya, girato a Como.

Como