Raanjhanaa : Recensione

[Blog] Recensione di Raanjhanaa (2013), film drammatico che segna il debutto nel cinema hindi di Dhanush, eccezionale attore tamil. Nel cast anche Sonam Kapoor e Abhay Deol. Regia di Aanand L.Rai.

Le prime del 24 ottobre 2012: Chakravyuh

Chakravyuh, diretto da Prakash Jha, è un film a sfondo politico che esplora il controverso tema dei naxaliti. Nel cast Arjun Rampal, Abhay Deol, Manoj Bajpayee, Kabir Bedi e Om Puri. La pellicola è stata proiettata qualche giorno fa in prima mondiale al 56esimo British Film Institute London Film Festival. Trailer. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Prakash Jha a Priya Gupta, pubblicata da The Times of India il 28 luglio 2012. Done with politics not with making political films: Prakash Jha: 

'Your next film Chakravyuh deals with Maoism and you travelled through the Red Corridor to research for it. What was the experience like?

The root cause for this social unrest is primarily our feudal mindset which creates systems to benefit a few and exploit the rest. Our democracy begins and ends with an election. The problem with democracy is that unless it has equal participation by everybody in the real sense it does not work. The Maoists feel that when the country was not independent they could live in the forest and survive. Post independence the government has taken over their land, they feel left out as they have no access to a better life. The government communicates with them through forest officials and guards who exploit them. (...) So while they are denied the benefits of development, the khakhiwalas [gli agenti] also exploit them. The backlash started in Naxalbari, in Bengal, over a contentious piece of land. When they were denied the land which was theirs, the Naxals got together and killed the landlord. That’s how the principle of wresting back land through force was established. The so called ‘Red Corridor’ covers more than 250 districts. These are areas which are liberated zones meaning that they do not operate under the government of India. As long as the conflict was restricted to these areas it did not affect us, but the conflict in Manesar at the Maruti factory is now suspected to have been triggered by the Naxals. So the conflict from the jungles is coming to industry. There are educated people from universities like Mumbai, Nagpur, Osmania, JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University] from where people are being recruited. My concern is that this movement is coming to our neighborhood. And so if this discontent comes to Dharavi, how will you save Mumbai? Through my film I am bringing this issue in the public domain and trying to warn the population of this country to wake up as we are sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode'.

Abhay Deol: It's unfair to compare me to my family

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Abhay Deol a Suruchi Sharma, pubblicata oggi da The Times of India. It's unfair to compare me to my family:

'Industry insiders and critics hail you as the pioneer in new-age cinema. How do you react to that? 

Its humbling, it’s exciting, it’s a huge compliment and it can be a little intimidating. But it makes me feel it was all worth it - all the struggle, all the fighting and cynicism or the bitterness that I went through. Not that the struggle is over, but when you hear things like you’re the ‘pioneer for change’ - that’s when you think that maybe I’m not making the amount of money that most actors do, maybe my films don’t get the budget that other films get and my films don’t get much better marketing and publicity - but despite all that, there is recognition, so I must be doing something right. (...) I like characters that I can relate to, characters that are close to people that I have seen in real life. I like scripts that marry entertainment with realism. For me, larger-than-life is boring. Neither can I do something that’s too real because then it becomes over intellectual. So I automatically gravitated towards scripts which were real and entertaining. The only thing that I can say at the risk of sounding egotistical, or arrogant is that I know my scripts - everything else is up in the air - but I depend on my own feelings and instincts when it comes to saying yes to a script. (...)

Even after so many years in B-wood, people ask you the ‘Deol’ question. Isn’t it annoying?

In the beginning it was expected. I mean I was debuting in Bollywood, I hadn’t done many movies, so I was ready for those questions, but when I did my 4th film, 5th, 6th film, and the questions didn’t end, then I started to feel it was very unfair to constantly compare me to my family or say that I don’t do typical Deol kind of roles. I think my family does exactly what everyone else in the industry does. They get an image, they conform to it and then cash in on it, that’s how the business works here - all stars confirm to an image. So let us not just single out my family. There are other actors too who come from film families but they are not constantly compared to their family, they are compared to the reigning stars. I want to be compared to the entire industry.

Are you bitter about this comparison? Or is there something else about this industry that makes you angry?

I was bitter in the beginning, as I felt people were being biased. There wasn’t much coming my way, and whatever work I got was mostly for playing the third guy who’s either a comic or an idiot. I turned down those movies. So, people thought, ‘his debut movie was a flop, he hasn’t worked in the industry that much, why is he turning me down?’ What people didn’t understand was that I was choosy from the very start. I was vocal about formula and non-formula and how we need to make a change. But 7-8 years back people didn’t understand all this. So I had a lot of angst in me because people would just not let me grow.

But you are growing now, with people like Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap?

To tell you the truth, Dibakar is an alien in a human body, he is not of this world and that’s why he is such a brilliant filmmaker. It was Dibakar who convinced me to do Shanghai. I wouldn’t have done something so alien to me if I wasn’t sure of the director. Though I was dying to work with him'.

Le prime dell'8 giugno 2012: Shanghai

Shanghai si preannuncia uno dei film più interessanti del 2012. Diretto dal talentuoso Dibakar Banerjee, è un thriller a sfondo politico, adattamento cinematografico di Z, romanzo del 1966 dello scrittore greco Vassilis Vassilikos. Dibakar ha lavorato per un anno e mezzo al progetto. I produttori hanno incontrato Vassilikos, il quale si è mostrato molto sorpreso ma soddisfatto della sceneggiatura. Il cast è di quelli da perderci il sonno. Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Emraan Hashmi e la superstar bengali Prosenjit Chatterjee, insieme sul grande schermo, costituiscono una golosità per veri appassionati di cinema indiano. Vishal-Shekhar firmano l'intrigante colonna sonora, che include anche un'item song, Imported Kamariya, visualizzata dalla modella britannica Scarlett Mellish Wilson. Il brano Bharat Mata Ki Jai vanta un testo redatto dallo stesso Banerjee, e in India ha suscitato un vespaio. Vi segnalo inoltre Khudaaya, Duaa, e Morcha. Trailer.

Aggiornamenti dell'8 giugno 2012:

- recensione di Raja Sen, Rediff, ****: 'At first glance, the irony is staggering. A country pretending to be another, brighter country, being shown up by a film that itself borrows form and content from another country. Yet so strident is Dibakar Banerjee's voice as a filmmaker that even this adaptation (...) is turned into a strikingly relevant story of our times and our crimes. (...) Banerjee's genius has always been most visible in his meticulous detailing, and this latest film is expectedly crammed with beautiful nuance. (...) The little touches are smashing, fleshing out most of the characters and making them into more than words and actors. Yet what words, what actors. Emraan Hashmi (...) delivers a knockout punch as he masters a complicated role. From his infuriatingly goofy laugh to poor attempts at making conversation, Hashmi proves himself the best of a very fine ensemble. (...) It's one of the best performances from one of our leading men in quite some time. (...) Bravo. (...) Banerjee must be lauded for not dumbing things down and creating a mature, serious film that engages, thrills and amuses. (...) Shanghai is all Dibakar, who we must lift on our shoulders with grateful pride. And we must exult in the fact that this D is never silent'.

- recensione di Mayank Shekhar: 'A picture that strikingly captures the chaos and curfews of middle India, (...) exposing the rule of the mob where democracy is merely centred on state-craft and elections, as against statesmanship or equality. (...) The first Indian mainstream film (...) to dig into the protocols and plotting that greases the wheels of Indian civil services. (...) We complain about the system quite often. Well, this is the system. Civil servants over time become minor mimics of the looting political masters they salute to. (...) A gritty drama, just as amusing as it is disturbing. Between artistry and analysis, Dibakar Bannerjee, without doubt the most exciting filmmaker around, chooses to entertain first. (...) Still, in its breathless pace, the narrative either skims over or completely overlooks several nuances and facets of Indian democracy that would play key roles in a high-profile case such as this. (...) Banerjee smartly finds in the book the compelling central conflict of rising India: displacement of poor locals versus development for richer millions; people’s empowerment versus nation’s economic growth. Neither side can be ignored. India, at present, houses the world’s largest number of people displaced for development projects. Not all of this movement could’ve been fair. (...) This is that important, universal story of modern India, interestingly told, enticingly captured. It must be watched, and relished, for sure'.

Aggiornamento del 12 giugno 2012 - Meet the spanking new Emraan Hashmi!, Shelly Walia, Rediff:

'"The film gives you a goodbye gift. One gets engaged and entertained while watching it, but in retrospect, you realise you are carrying with you a meaning, a message, a reality," says Banerjee. (...) "Abhay's role as a typical Tamilian bureaucrat did not come easy. The character is the voice of the establishment and has power, but is conservative. His character has shades of grey, which keep the audience guessing. To get the accent right, he had to undergo a month-long language workshop where he learnt to speak English and Hindi with a Tamil twang," says Banerjee. Deol also trained himself with the IAS [Indian Administrative Service] machinery to get the body language and the stern expression correct. "He plays a character much older than his real self. He needed to walk with a slight stoop, as someone who has led a sedentary life of working on the laptop for long hours," Banerjee adds.

For Hashmi's character, Banerjee needed an actor with whom the audience would connect. "Jogi is a street-smart cameraperson and part-time porn filmmaker. We researched quite a bit on porn filmmaking. The character had to appear dirty and sleazy, so we made him gain 10 kg. He had to have a paunch, blackened teeth and a darker complexion. He also took dancing lessons. Everything about him is in stark contrast to his earlier image," Banerjee says. (...)

Like Banerjee, Hashmi too steps into unexplored territory with Shanghai. A step away from the Mahesh Bhatt camp (most of his successful films have so far been with Bhatt) and in the midst of an offbeat cast, the actor outshines everybody else. But experts don't think this will do much to change his "lover boy" image. Hashmi today is the example of a successful actor with several box office hits, but one who has not been offered any brands to endorse. Brand strategy specialist Harish Bijoor says, "The movie will not help Hashmi in an image makeover, despite this being an out-of-the-box role for him. Brand advertisements are all related to happy stars." (...) John Abraham's happy-go-lucky image works well for him in the advertising space, though he is not as successful at the box office, Bijoor says. Brand expert Gullu Sen says that the Indian consumer is still very conservative. "It took Salman Khan years to rebuild his image. For Hashmi this must be a beginning, but there is a long way to go before he starts endorsing brands".'

Aggiornamento del 16 luglio 2012: ieri Shanghai è stato proiettato a Baghdad, alla presenza di Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail, membro del parlamento iracheno, e del politico indiano Suresh Reddy. L'evento è stato organizzato a ridosso  della zona internazionale della città. La corrente elettrica è mancata un paio di volte, ma pare che il pubblico presente in sala - soldati compresi - abbia comunque apprezzato la pellicola. Shanghai è il primo film indiano proiettato in Iraq negli ultimi vent'anni.

Vedi anche:

- Abhay Deol e Emraan Hashmi nel nuovo film di Dibakar Banerjee: Shanghai

- Dibakar Banerjee: Emraan Hashmi wanted to look ugly

- Kalki Koechlin: Kissing on screen is not a big deal

- Emraan Hashmi: Never thought I would end up where I am today, 17 giugno 2012

- Dibakar Banerjee: I am anti-dumb, 23 giugno 2012

- The Dibakarian way of life, 18 aprile 2022

It's crime time for small screen

The Times of India pubblica oggi un articolo, It's crime time for small screen, di Saloni Bhatia, dedicato alle trasmissioni televisive hindi che trattano temi di cronaca nera e che appassionano un numero sempre maggiore di spettatori. Negli ultimi mesi i fatti di cronaca, dagli abituali canali di informazione, sono debordati anche in quelli di intrattenimento. Fra i programmi più famosi: Crime Patrol (Sony), Gumrah (Channel V) e Savdhaan India (Life OK). Quali sono le caratteristiche che accomunano questi programmi? Vanno in onda in seconda serata e trattano - drammatizzandoli - casi di cronaca nera che hanno colpito particolarmente l'opinione pubblica. Il presentatore è di sesso maschile (almeno agli inizi), ha l'aria serissima (e un po' minacciosa), si colloca sempre al centro dello schermo, e illustra il caso con un tono da 'potete evitare che questo fatto accada anche a voi'. Attori semisconosciuti interpretano il caso. Il commento musicale è vagamente bollywoodiano (questo punto suona bizzarro). Non appaiono in studio conduttrici o vallette.

Aggiornamento del 3 maggio 2022:

* Crime Patrol è la trasmissione più longeva della categoria. Nata nel 2003, è tuttora in onda. Fra i conduttori delle varie stagioni, spiccano i nomi di Sonali Kulkarni e Ashutosh Rana.

* Gumrah. End of innocence nasce nel 2012 e si chiude nel 2016. Produce Ekta Kapoor. Fra i presentatori, spicca il nome di Abhay Deol.

* Savdhaan India nasce nel 2012 e si chiude nel 2021 (ad oggi, non vi sono notizie di un'eventuale nuova stagione). Fra i conduttori, spicca il nome di Divya Dutta.

India Today Conclave 2012

L'India Today Conclave 2012 si svolgerà a Delhi dal 16 al 17 marzo. Il tema dell'edizione di quest'anno è The Asian century: securing the global promise. Ospite d'onore alla cena di gala d'apertura sarà Henry Kissinger, accolto dal giornalista e scrittore M.J. Akbar. Fra le conferenze in programma il 16 marzo, vi segnalo How does a heroine become the hero?, con Kareena Kapoor, e soprattutto The liberty verses: I am what I am and that's all that I am, con Salman Rushdie. Il celebre scrittore tornerà dunque in India dopo la chiacchierata mancata partecipazione al Jaipur Literature Festival 2012. Pare che Imran Khan, l'ex capitano della nazionale pachistana di cricket, ora dedito alla politica, ospite d'onore alla cena di gala di chiusura, abbia deciso di disertare l'evento in segno di protesta per la presenza di Rushdie. Hari Kunzru ha commentato nel suo profilo Twitter: 'Imran Khan seems to be through his international secular playboy period, entering his flag-&-faith fundo period. #notcricket @salmanrushdie'. Fra le conferenze in programma il 17 marzo, segnalo Can you be a superstar without being an actor?, con Abhay Deol e Kangana Ranaut. Sito ufficiale dell'evento.

Kareena Kapoor

Kangana Ranaut

Abhay Deol