Randeep Hooda: I did not talk to Alia for the longest time

Ammettiamolo: è sempre un grande piacere ascoltare il suo timbro di voce e soprattutto ammirarlo in azione. Randeep Hooda forse non riuscirà a costruirsi una carriera sfolgorante come quella dei vari Khan, Kapoor o Kumar, ma la nicchia che si è ritagliato diventa ogni giorno più ampia, e lo stuolo delle sue fan ogni giorno più consistente. Come si può ignorare un uomo così? Perciò ecco qui, for your eyes only, il video del quarto episodio di Freaky Fridays dedicato a Randeep. E se non vi basta, segnalo anche l'intervista concessa dall'attore a Patcy N., pubblicata da Rediff il 21 febbraio 2014. I did not talk to Alia for the longest time: 

'You are quite a traveller and have travelled a lot for Highway.

I haven’t travelled extensively. For Highway, I travelled 2,500 kilometres by road. The experience was good. Every morning we would get up and travel to a new destination. The scenery was new, the clothing was different, the food was different, the feeling was different, and people were different in each place. When you travel by road, the etiquette of travel changes from state to state. Like people in Haryana and Punjab are very aggressive, people in Rajasthan are welcoming; people in Himachal Pradesh are so adjusting that they will wait for you to cross. I fell sick when I was in Himachal after I ate lots of pine nuts. A leader from Himachal came to meet us and she garlanded us with a pine-nut garland. I had not had lunch so I started eating it. I overate and was badly sick. I got altitude sickness too. Apart from that, the whole trip was well managed. (...) The stay and food arrangements were really good at all the places. Imtiaz himself is a foodie. He loves his food and still manages to stay so thin. Sometimes I would think that he selected a location to shoot because they served the food he likes (laughs).

Have you seen the telefilm on which the film is based?

I didn’t even know about it till much later, after the movie was shot. But I did get to see the picture of the two actors in the truck. The picture did not look the way the movie is. I didn’t think the male character in the picture looked anything like me, or what I played.

How different is your character from Alia’s?

When I read the script, I thought it was a requirement of the script that the two characters look poles apart. Alia and I both have a metropolitan upbringing. There is also a huge age gap. I think she is intellectually and emotionally more mature than me. It was very challenging to get the right look of the character that I play. I slept in the sun a lot to get the weather-beaten, leathery skin. I grew my moustache and beard, I stopped washing and combing my hair and applying any cream. I learnt the dialect of the Gujjar community, so when I speak it doesn’t sound like Hindi. I changed my voice a bit. When you see both the characters you should feel that they have nothing in common. That difference is very necessary for the script. India has two societies - of haves and have-nots. They are very different in every aspect - the way they deal with emotions is not the same. We have tried to get both these societies into Highway. Part of the film is about these two different classes of people, how they learn something from each other and get influenced by each other.

Alia Bhatt said you were a bit hard on her on the sets...

I did not talk to Alia for the longest time because in the film I don’t talk to her character and I am not very kind to her. I did not speak to her for 20-25 days. It’s only when we start interacting in the movie that I went and spoke to her. I did that because of two things: I was really trying to work on my character, and I wanted her to see me as Mahavir Bhatti (the character he plays in Highway) and not as Randeep Hooda.

What were your creative inputs in the film?

Every good director, when he casts an actor, writes the script or changes the script according to the actor. I am sure Imtiaz also did that. My character was well written. I didn’t improvise much. For all my movies I work on my character thoroughly, though sometimes I don’t get the script and sometimes I get the dialogues only on the sets. (...)

How come you are not typecast?

I don’t do conventional things like dancing and all. I pick things that are different and say no to scripts that are similar even if it’s for a big production house. It is important to keep filmmakers interested in you so they can offer you everything and anything. We actors are not given work on the basis of an audience poll; the filmmaker will cast you after seeing and liking your work. It is essential to do different kinds of films. There was a time in the past when I had no work. That time also I did not lose myself as an actor. (...)

Is your Polo team still functional? 

No, not yet. It is turning out to be far more expensive than I thought it would be. I have to do many more movies and still live in a rented house (to afford a functional polo team), which is not glamorous. But I have many horses. I cannot resist the temptation to buy a horse, that's where all my money goes'.

Vedi anche Berlin International Film Festival 2014

Le prime del 7 marzo 2014: Queen

Kangana Ranaut sembra tornata agli antichi fasti grazie ad un film confezionato su misura per lei: Queen, diretto da Vikas Bahl e prodotto da Anurag Kashyap e da Vikramaditya Motwane. Nel cast anche Rajkummar Rao, Lisa Haydon e Marco Canadea (attore svizzero di origine italiana). L'intrigante colonna sonora è composta da Amit Trivedi. Un gustoso assaggio nei brani Hungama Ho Gaya, London Thumakda, Badra Bahaar e O Gujariya. Trailer.

Aggiornamento del 7 marzo 2014 - Vi segnalo l'entusiastica (****) recensione di Raja Sen, pubblicata oggi da Rediff: 

'This is a story of girl meets girl, and you should know upfront that this is not a love story. Unless, of course, we refer to the relationship between the audience and the protagonist. Because I dare you to watch Queen and not fall in love with the character. (...) What happens in this film isn’t as important as the way it does. The plot is a mishmash of Meg Ryan’s French Kiss and Sridevi’s English Vinglish, but [Vikas] Bahl’s treatment is fresher and more vibrant, and - incredible as this may sound - his leading lady is better. Kangana Ranaut is gobstoppingly spectacular. The actress has always flirted with the unfamiliar but here - at her most real, at her most gorgeously guileless - she absolutely shines and the film stands back and lets her rule. There are many natural actresses in Hindi cinema today, but what Ranaut does here, the way she captures both the squeals and the silences of the character, is very special indeed. Her character is built to be endearing and Ranaut, while playing her Rani with wide-eyed candour, is ever sweet but never cloying. It’s a bold but immaculately measured performance, internalised and powerful while simultaneously as overt as it needs to be to moisten every eye in the house. (...) Ranaut stays firmly and impressively in character. (...) Rajkummar Rao is perfectly cringeworthy. (...) This is a massively entertaining film, even though it does run too long, and Rani’s fun travails are bogged down by a sense of tokenism, by her friends being White, Black and Asian. (...) Everyone in this film is playing a supporting role, even the director. When nothing else works in the shot, you can turn unfailingly to Rani, besotted, and smile at her with an affection you saved for your teenage crushes. She’s a wonder. (...) She made Rani and much as Rani’s making her, and for that we must tip our hats. Ranaut always seemed like a misfit in mainstream Hindi cinema, a stunning but strange creature who belonged to a different jigsaw, but now our movies are beginning to catch up with her. Queen is a good entertainer, sure, but, more critically, it is a showcase for an actress poised to reign. This is one of those monumental moments when you feel the movies shift, and nothing remains the same. I've seen the future, baby, and it's Kangana'.

Aggiornamento del 28 marzo 2014: Queen ha doppiato i 50 crore di incassi ed è ancora saldamente in vetta al botteghino. Queen è forse il primo titolo, dai tempi del blockbuster Gadar del 2001, a registrare incassi superiori nella seconda settimana di programmazione. Ciò significa che un film interpretato da una protagonista femminile è riuscito finalmente ad infrangere l'abitudine criminale del mordi e fuggi nel primo fine settimana, a raffreddare la febbre da record immediato, e a ripristinare la buona sana tradizione della permanenza prolungata nelle sale, che vivifica la possibilità concessa a pellicole di nicchia di crescere, farsi notare ed attrarre un pubblico sempre maggiore. Era ora.

Aggiornamento dell'11 settembre 2015: ieri sera Kangana Ranaut ha presenziato alla prima di Queen a Parigi, città nella quale il film è stato parzialmente girato. L'edizione doppiata in francese verrà distribuita nelle sale a partire dal 23 settembre 2015 (in Italia 'ste cose mai, eh?). Video Paris Videostars. 

Parigi, 10 settembre 2015

The lunchbox in Italia: locandina e trailer

The lunchbox verrà distribuito nelle sale italiane a partire dal 28 novembre 2013, grazie ad Academy Two, col titolo Lunchbox. Vi presento la locandina e il trailer. Lunchbox è in cartellone al Torino Film Festival 2013: il regista Ritesh Batra sarà nel capoluogo piemontese il 25 e il 26 novembre. Ne approfitto per segnalarvi alcuni articoli:

- A need for quietness, Bhumika K., The Hindu, 17 settembre 2013. Intervista rilasciata da Irrfan Khan:

'Why do we get this feeling that subtlety is not something an Indian audience agrees with?

I think market pressure is trying to create that kind of atmosphere. And it’s not just the Indian market. The whole world is on to a speedy roller coaster ride. It’s like the time has come to the end of the cone where everything has speeded up. And this is the struggle or fight to get noticed. That’s what marketing is all about. Getting noticed. So the easiest way is to make more noise. To show things in speed. That’s why there’s a tendency to find a shortcut. An easy way out. Not let the audience think, not let them breathe, that’s why everybody is doing that. But as human beings, we need to breathe, think. We are not machines, we are not designed to register things in a particular way. But even as there’s a pressure to build up speed and make more noise, there’s more need for a quietness, for a subtlety which gives you enough time to taste it.

Are people willing to do that? Most just seem to be in a hurry!

I think it’s a personal choice. Some people want to tell stories the way they want to tell them. The way it comes to them naturally. Sometimes people want to take the easy way out. Or some people really enjoy telling a story that way. Where things are faster, where they want the audience on the edge of the seat. I personally enjoy both these kind of films. But what I really enjoy is that a film should speak to me after I’ve watched it. It shouldn’t be like a one-night stand. Like you come out of the theatre and nothing’s left of the story. I don’t connect to such films. (...)

Karan Johar came on board for The Lunchbox!

I think everybody wants to expand their area. I don’t think Karan Johar will be supporting all kinds of films. He did it because this film has a heart and he could connect with it. It’s like you fall in love with somebody and you want to do anything and everything they want you to do. He really loved the story. He would like to do anything to help it find its feet'. 

- Irrfan: I always missed the mango pickle in my lunchbox, Sonil Dedhia, Rediff, 17 settembre 2013:

'So was it an instant yes in the case of The Lunchbox?

I instantly said yes. The only thing I didn’t like was playing an old character all over again. You really have to make yourself feel like an old man physically as well as mentally and it takes a lot to get out of such a mould. When I played an old man in The Namesake, it was really difficult to get that character out of my system. (...)

Today, if Irrfan is associated with an art-house film it gets attention from the public. Do you think you’ve become a torch-bearer for such cinema?

I don’t understand the term art-house. For me, films are commercial art. If there’s no commerce in the art, then it won’t have any value. A film has to make some profit. Interestingly, the films I have been associated with have somehow ended up becoming the most successful films of that particular director. Whether it’s Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi or Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire or Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar or Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool. Another reason I don’t understand the term art-house is because according to me a film should engage its audience. I do not like boring cinema. Films should be entertaining and engaging. There are two types of films, A - the time pass cinema which I do not like, and B - the films that stay with you even after you’ve left the cinema hall. So if at all there’s credibility attached to my name it’s only because I will do only those films that engage and entertain. (...)

The film was well received at the Cannes Film Festival and got a standing ovation. Apparently, you were teary-eyed with this response.

Yes, that’s because I too was watching the film for the first time. Quite a few people walked out of the theatre mid-way and the director, Ritesh Batra, started wondering is the film that bad? The French producer then revealed that the people walking out of the theatre were all buyers who wanted to queue up to buy the film before anybody else does. This was the first time that an Indian film got sold out worldwide within a day. Studios were lining up to buy the film. We were targeting to give the film either to Fox Studios or Sony for the American market because these two studios rule the business there. But before we could arrange for the screenings, Sony had already bought the film! We realised that the film has universal appeal and will connect with people globally. We also hope that at least this year a right film gets chosen for the Oscars from India'.

- Recensione di Raja Sen, pubblicata il 20 settembre 2013 da Rediff. Sen attribuisce alla pellicola un sonoro *****:

'Ritesh Batra’s film - about a city and serendipity - might be about unremarkable folk, but it is a masterfully made and diligently restrained effort, one that impresses a viewer without impressing upon a viewer. It is a simple story with unanimous appeal, told with unshowy efficacy, and yet The Lunchbox is the most fascinating film to come out of Bombay in a very, very long time. (...) This is a film about happenstance, a wondrous what-if movie that lifts us from realism to something far better, and it’s only fair that - in ways unique to itself - the city conspires, throughout the film, to set these events into motion, to champion this unlikely romance, to give us hope. For Mumbai has always motored along on magic. Irrfan Khan plays Mr. Fernandez with a superb placidity, a clock-obeying government employee who treasures silence. Khan clearly relishes the amount of internalisation the role allows him, and savours the quiet, thoughtful, melancholy beats of the film, unhurried but with his timing immaculate. He delivers his few lines with fantastic ease - a deadpan gag about a blind man stands out - but soaks up the silences even better. (...) Khan is a magnificent actor who keeps getting better, and this is him at his finest. (...) Nimrat Kaur (...) pulls off the role of a wife with a world on her shoulders very impressively. It is a disarmingly natural performance that is impossible to forget and difficult to analyse, and in this limited space one may merely express admiration. (...) She’s excellent. (...) Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays it relentlessly, bearing down on the taciturn Fernandez with irresistibly good-natured oafishness. (...) Batra, who has also written The Lunchbox, has allowed his smashing actors tremendous room to improvise, all the while himself sketching in nuanced details about the city, its food-ferriers, and the many disparities Mumbai is crammed with. It is a film of multiple pleasures - small ones and overwhelming ones and exquisitely crafted ones - layered one on top of the other, with something for everyone, and so, so much for the cinematic glutton'.

Aggiornamento del 23 marzo 2014: nel nostro Paese Lunchbox ha incontrato il favore del pubblico malgrado la fugace programmazione. I numeri del botteghino italiano sono stati diffusi persino in India da Taran Adarsh, noto analista di Bollywood Hungama. The lunchbox si sta rivelando uno dei film indiani di maggior successo commerciale all'estero, soprattutto in Germania e negli Stati Uniti. Vi ricordo che Lunchbox è stato distribuito in Italia in netto anticipo rispetto agli Stati Uniti, e son soddisfazioni. Non è raro leggere qua è là accenni alla pellicola da parte dei (cronicamente disinteressati) media locali. Vi segnalo, fra le tante, la recensione (****) di Alessandro Antinori, pubblicata da Movieplayer il 28 novembre 2013.

Aggiornamento del 3 aprile 2014: il DVD di Lunchbox sarà in distribuzione nei negozi italiani a partire dal prossimo 16 aprile.

Vedi anche:

- Festival di Cannes 2013

- Torino Film Festival 2013, 29 dicembre 2013

Kay Kay Menon: 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema

Ieri è stato distribuito Udhayam NH4, film tamil diretto dall'esordiente Manimaran, interpretato da Siddharth e da Kay Kay Menon (al suo debutto a Kollywood). Vetri Maaran ha collaborato alla sceneggiatura. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Kay Kay a Shobha Warrier, pubblicata da Rediff il 18 aprile 2013. Kay Kay Menon: 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema:

'What was your initial reaction when Vetri Maaran and Manimaran came to you with the script of Udhayam NH4?

The first time I met Vetri and Mani, I found that they were contemporary film makers, modern in their thinking and not orthodox in any sense. They had a unique sense of cinema. So, that was quite exciting for me and made me say 'yes' to their project. (...)

What impressed you about the story and the film-maker?

It has to do with the film-maker and not the story. A simple love story can be made into an interesting film if the film-maker can think differently. For me, the film-maker is more important than the story. What impressed me was his extremely modern way of thinking about cinema. The conversation I had with the film-maker was very interesting. (...) Only someone who thinks out of the box excites me. (...)

What kind of films do you believe in?

I believe in cinema! Unfortunately, 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema. Only marketing works here. Even the item songs in these films are an extension of marketing. (...) You must have certain integrity to make cinema. Unfortunately, in 90 per cent of cases only the marketing mind of the director works and not the creative mind. 

Has your idea of cinema changed over the years?

Certainly, it has evolved over a period of time, as you see more films and work in more films. Once you are working in films, you learn a lot more about cinema. It is connected to your thought process and like any thought process this also evolves after a period of time. After 16 years of working here, now I have a clear idea about what is cinema and what is non-cinema. (...) Where lots of money is involved in film-making do you see marketing governing the film. 

Many film-makers say that unlike writing or painting, a lot of money is involved in the making of a film, and it is necessary that they get the money back.

I don't agree with this argument. Nobody can use that as an excuse to make trash. Money can be used for a good purpose as well. That is a lame excuse for those who have no talent but have money. But if you have talent, you will use money very well and for the uplift of cinema. Like you can use money for eradication of poverty, you can use money to remove the poverty of mind in cinema. I feel it is the duty of the film-maker to try and uplift cinema and the mindset of the audience. If you give only trash all the time, the mindset of the audience also will not change. They will never evolve into good cinema viewers. (...)

Is the satisfaction you derive from cinema more important than money?

It is to do with legitimacy. You can earn money in any way but you have to have peace of mind too. What I do is only with good intention. That is more important than earning money for me. Fortunately, good cinema has increased in Hindi. So, we can have some hope that audiences are maturing.

Once you started acting in Udhayam NH4 were you happy with the way it was made?

I was very happy with working in this film. While making the film, we were evolving every day and creating new things. A genuine moment has no expiry date and this film has many genuine moments. 

What exactly impressed you about the way the film was made?

The whole process of thinking out of the box impressed me. It is like if you give a simple story to a mediocre film-maker and a brilliant film-maker you will see how different the films will be. You see a brilliant film-maker blossoming in front of you, improvising and growing. In the case of this film, once we started shooting, it went up by 10-15 notches.

Do you understand Tamil well?

I understand Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi but I can't read and write them. My policy is that I work only in films the language of which I understand even if I can't speak it. If you don't understand the language, you will only be mouthing the dialogues the assistant director tells you. Then, you will only be a dummy kind of actor, which I don't like. 

Was it enjoyable to shoot in real locations?

Shooting in real locations gives you a lot of possibilities. For example, the script may say the Jeep travels in one direction, stops, and the driver looks in one direction. Now, when in a real location, there are so many possibilities that you can use, like a dog running in front of you, or a tree or trees in that area. You will improvise according to the location and that becomes an interesting feeling for an actor.  

What kind of an actor are you? Do you internalise the character?

All acting is internal; there is nothing external which, according to me, is hamming. Even if you are playing a loud character, that is also an internal process. Each actor has a way of internalising. 

Has any character you played refused to leave you?

I let them live their own lives. I call them back whenever I require them! It's all about exploring your self. And I enjoy the process. Most actors are fake and they get away with hamming because of marketing. It has nothing to do with what you do in a film; it's all about marketing. 

Are you against marketing?

I am not as long as it doesn't intrude into cinema. I am also not against item numbers if it has something to do with the film. But if it spoils the film viewing, I am not for it. You cannot adulterate a film by forcing item numbers etc into it. A marketing guy cannot enter into the film; he can only be outside the film'. 

Bollywood's iconic hairstyles, over the years

Vi segnalo una curiosa photo gallery dedicata alle acconciature sfoggiate dalle dive bollywoodiane a partire dagli anni cinquanta ad oggi. Bollywood's iconic hairstyles, over the years, Sukanya Verma, Rediff, 19 marzo 2013: 'Every decade of Hindi films bears a stamp of individuality and instant recognition because of these seemingly frivolous attributes. Be it the timeless simplicity of the 1950s, dazzling flamboyance of the 1960s, free-spirited sleekness of the 1970s, kitschy excesses of the 1980s, exuberant vivacity of the 1990s or consciously chic approach of the 2000s and more, the imagery is copious, whimsical and super stylish. Forget the clothes; hairstyle alone has undergone tremendous change from the vintage waves to statement braids'.

Will the real RGV please stand up?

Vi segnalo un lungo articolo, piuttosto pungente, dedicato al regista Ram Gopal Varma. Will the real RGV please stand up?, Ranjeeta Ganeshan, Rediff, 11 marzo 2013:

'From the sublime to the ridiculous, Ram Gopal Varma’s films have been at the extreme ends of the Bollywood spectrum. (...) His factory was the stuff of which edgy dreams were made. He confronted convention, discerned talent and showed that guns and gravel could make perfectly acceptable substitutes for candyfloss. Aspiring writers, film makers and technicians found a messiah in the producer-director who rolled out movies on a conveyor belt. Still, the last five years have added to Ram Gopal Varma’s repertoire a clutter of mostly forgettable cinema. (...) Varma may have delivered a series of flops but that has not damaged his pace. (...) But this strategy of producing films every few months has led to them having shorter shelf lives. (...) 

Satya (...) inspired a rash of crime, thriller and shootout films. The much-admired gangster movie along with his debut work Shiva and Rangeela are his three cinematic mistakes, Varma once said in a blog, “because they have created a benchmark and all the time I get bashed up for not living up to them.” (...) Sarkar Raj in 2008 was Varma’s last memorable hit. (...) Despite a somewhat inconsistent career, his image as an intelligent director has not been compromised. Big distributors have been wary of his films for the past few years. Yet, for his directorial ventures, Varma manages to find financiers, a feat often attributed to his script-narration skills. (...) “If you look into Varma’s eyes when he narrates, you can’t say ‘no’; you just trust him,” says a producer. (...) 

According to Varma, his ability to bounce back after flops comes from never treating anything as a failure. “Others see the effect and I would analyse the cause. The moment you truly understand the cause, your failure will become your strength and the new-found knowledge will lead you to success,” he wrote on his blog, later admitting that this did not prevent him from making new mistakes. Among these new mistakes is a shift in focus from strong themes and crisp words to darker and dramatic images. The experimental rogue camera technique he introduced recently, where digital cameras are placed in various spots to capture the scene from various angles, was trashed by critics. (...) 

The crop of talents including Anurag Kashyap, (...) whom he encouraged early on, have embarked on their separate journeys and flourished. Kashyap has stopped watching his films. Critic [Mayank] Shekhar says, “he is no longer surrounded by the best creative minds that exist.” (...) The man, accused by some of having ‘no personal life,’ is said to spend his spare time watching movies, documentaries and short films. Of his romantic involvements, the director once said, “I have been taken and left many times”. (...) While seen as a serious man in television interviews, he maintained a very candid blog from 2008 to 2009. Now, he uses Twitter to offer explanations, lash out or just be cheeky. Varma is known to talk about the complexities of crime in a manner that would impress experts in the field of law. (...) 

“Megalomaniacal” is now a term used freely to describe his style. This was not the case during Satya. Most of the crew including Varma were relatively new and had nothing to lose then. “When you’re in a position where there are a lot of expectations, that’s when things go wrong,” observes Saurabh Shukla who co-wrote Satya with Kashyap. Shukla recalls Varma as a receptive man, whom even assistant directors could approach with suggestions. (...) “Varma has the right to do whatever fascinates him as an artist,” Shukla says. “Yes, it would be great if he does any other kind of film - what is not known in quotes as a ‘Ram Gopal Varma film’; because he will have a newer take on things.” [Makarand] Deshpande (...) adds, “He is his own enemy. He can anytime create wonders if he just becomes friends.” Over the years, Varma has accepted both criticism and praise, saying, “I equally love to be hated and loved. What scares me is to bore you all”.'

Makkhi: locandina e recensioni

Eega è senza dubbio il film dell'anno. S.S. Rajamouli ha diretto in simultanea la versione telugu (Eega) e quella tamil (Naan Ee). La produzione ha previsto inoltre le edizioni doppiate in hindi (Makkhi) e in malayalam (Eecha). La versione sottotitolata in inglese, distribuita negli USA nel luglio 2012, nel primo fine settimana di programmazione ha registrato  nelle sale americane una media di spettatori per proiezione superiore a quella conseguita da The Amazing Spider-Man. Il 12 ottobre 2012 è stato distribuito Makkhi, e vi segnalo di seguito alcune entusiastiche recensioni:

- Anupama Chopra, Hindustan Times, 13 ottobre 2012, ****: 'Makkhi is the most outlandish film I've seen in years. It's also the most fun I've had in a theatre recently. (...) It takes courage to pick a story as weird as this. Clearly writer-director S.S. Rajamouli is equipped with guts and a ferocious imagination. (...) By the end, I was clapping and rooting for the fly. How many films can get you emotionally invested in an insect? Makkhi is a mad roller coaster ride that's worth taking'.

- Ankur Pathak, Rediff, 12 ottobre 2012, ****: 'The camera work is beyond belief. The result is a mind-blowing rampage of uniquely filmed scenes. (...) This super-fly is a super-stud, a bee-sized package that promises definite entertainment which even the so called larger-than-life superstars fail to achieve or achieve at a highly superficial level. Director S.S. Rajamouli and Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, who handled the editing and camera work, and the entire team deserve thundering applause'.

- Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama, 9 ottobre 2012, ****: 'Original, inventive, innovative and imaginative, Makkhi raises the bar of films made in India. (...) At a time when most dream merchants in Bollywood are concentrating on mindless entertainers that kiss goodbye to logic, Rajamouli strikes the right balance between logic and entertainment in Makkhi. The scale of the film is colossal, the plot is invigorating and the outcome leaves you mesmerized. (...) A technical wonder, the computer generated fly is, without doubt, the star of the show. And its creator, Rajamouli, a sheer genius for creating a film that sweeps you off your feet and leaves you awe-struck. (...) The writing is smart and clever, the episodes are ingeniously integrated in the screenplay and the culmination to the tale leaves you spellbound. I'd go the extent of saying that Makkhi has an unfaultable start, immaculate middle and impeccable end, which is a rarity as far as Indian films go. (...) On the whole, Makkhi is a landmark film. You ought to watch certain films in your lifetime. Makkhi is one of those films. For choosing a crackling idea, for executing it with panache and for taking Indian cinema to the next level, I doff my hat to you, Mr. S.S. Rajamouli'.
- Box Office India: 'The story, the way it has been written and, above all, the way it has been presented on celluloid takes you totally by surprise. Every scene is a treat to watch, and one good scene is followed by an even better one. (...) Watching Makkhi is a sheer experience! (...) The major highlight of the film is its pace'.

Riporto anche alcune recensioni di Eega:

- Karthik Pasupulate, The Times of India, 6 luglio 2012, ****: 'What's fascinating is that the movie shows a computer-generated-housefly can have pretty much the same effect on the audiences as a rippling superstar. Hair-raising entertainment, jaw dropping, mind-bending thrill-a-second ride of the season, probably the decade, Eega is a game changer. (...) Rajamouli delivered all too well. (...) He's set a new bench mark for Telugu cinema. There are some very original thrills and sequences that will sweep you off your feet. The computer-generated wizardry is seamless. (...) But what is most impressive is the storytelling. Most Telugu filmmakers rely solely on dialogue to take the story forward, but this is perhaps the first film that has the camera taking the narrative forward. In fact, the housefly doesn't have a single dialogue. (...) Visual Effects are just the best ever for a Telugu film, both in terms of originality and quality of output. The film has over 90 minutes of never-before-seen-visual effects that just blow the audiences away'.

- Sangeetha Devi Dundoo, The Hindu, 7 luglio 2012: 'S.S. Rajamouli is completely in control of his team, his narrative and his vision. He proves, yet again, that he is one of the finest storytellers in contemporary Telugu cinema. He is aided by an equally talented team that helps give form to a movie that could have become gimmicky and shallow. Eega raises the bar for visual effects and animation for an Indian film. (...) Eega shows what Indian filmmakers and production houses are capable of, at budgets much lower than that of Hollywood. (...) Sudeep (...) is a perfect match for the animated Eega. (...) Only an actor of calibre could have pulled off a role that called for emoting with an imaginary Eega. Remember that the Eega was added to the frames with the computer graphics after the visuals were shot. Sudeep can keep a few empty shelves ready in his abode to accommodate all the awards he is poised to win the coming year'.

Aggiornamenti del 7 luglio 2022:

- Eega, S.S. Rajamouli's finest film, turns 10, Sagar Tetali, Film Companion, 5 luglio 2022

- As Eega turns 10, a love letter to the spectacular intro S.S. Rajamouli gave its hero, Sankhayan Ghosh, Film Companion, 7 luglio 2022 

Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma 2012

L'edizione 2012 del Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma si svolge dal 9 al 17 novembre. Unico lungometraggio indiano in cartellone: Tasher Desh di Q (alias Qaushik Mukherjee), in concorso nella sezione CINEMAXXI.

Aggiornamento del 21 novembre 2012: vi segnalo di seguito alcune recensioni.

- CineClandestino: 'Tasher Desh irrompe (...) con la deflagrante potenza distruttrice di un ordigno nucleare: (...) il film di Q è una delle materializzazioni possibili dell'idea stessa di kermesse propugnata da Marco Müller, quella che vede il festival come un luogo che accorpi nella stessa anima ricerca e intrattenimento, sperimentazione visiva e racconto popolare, innovazione e classicità. (...) La classe registica di Q, in grado di lavorare sulle geometrie della messa in scena e su un utilizzo quanto mai fertile e creativo della scenografia (la natura dello Sri Lanka, dove il film è stato girato, si mescola alla perfezione con la particolare ricreazione dello spazio voluta dal regista), si abbandona fin dall'incipit in bianco e nero (...) a una furibonda apocalisse visiva. Il montaggio sincopato, la narrazione ellittica e sconnessa, la recitazione urlata, le inquadrature sghembe fanno di The Land of Cards un elogio della frenesia e del caos che evidenzia, prima ancora che lo faccia il testo in sé e per sé, l'anima profondamente libertaria e antifascista del film. Una scheggia impazzita che attraversa la prassi cinematografica missando al proprio interno la cultura occidentale e quella indiana. (...) Q pone la firma in calce a un'opera orgogliosamente post-punk, in cui anche il colore è utilizzato in modo eversivo (...) e un incontro di ping pong dalla brevissima durata può essere risolto registicamente con otto inquadrature diverse. Spiazzante ed esaltante allo stesso tempo, The Land of Cards rammenta a coloro che ne avessero smarrito la memoria quanto il cinema possa essere rivoluzionario nell'utilizzo stesso delle tecniche e degli stili'.

- CineFatti: 'Tasher Desh è un capolavoro di rara bellezza e raffinatezza (...): Q può diventare il regista simbolo del cinema del XXI secolo, con le sue idee, con la sua fusione di stili e con i brividi di grande cinematografia classica inseriti in un vortice d’innovazione. (...) Sono uomini e donne, attori eccezionali che recitano come fossero in un'opera di teatro contemporaneo. È la regia di Q a rendere tutto diverso, movimentato, emozione pura, Cinema. (...) Gioia per uno dei film migliori visti fino ad oggi qui al Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, il migliore della sezione CinemaXXI in cui concorre. Duro da sopportare, difficile da digerire in molti momenti, ma le vere sfide vengono dai lavori difficili se si ha voglia di capirli e viverli per quello che vogliono essere. Momenti di puro cinema, cinema del futuro, quello che vorremmo vedere prevalere, simbolo del nuovo che tanto farebbe bisogno al mondo intero, perché si deve capire che le barriere vanno abbattute e spazio va lasciato alle nuove possibilità e ricerche'.

Area del profilo Facebook di Q dedicata alle fotografie scattate a Roma.

Aggiornamenti del 23 agosto 2013 - A partire da oggi, Tasher Desh viene finalmente distribuito in alcune aree in India in sale selezionate. Nell'intervista concessa da Q a Box Office India, pubblicata il 17 agosto 2013, si legge:

'The film travelled to the Rome Film Festival. How was it received there?

I was very happy with the response there. It was screened in a section called Cinema 21 and that was brilliant since I was in competition with people who I have looked up to all my life. My life was made that day. More importantly, I was happy knowing that critics were watching those films, which were not really cinema but playing with form. They were not looking for narrative, so I was overwhelmed. 90 per cent of them liked my film and equated it with an art installation project with lines and music. The narrative was always a problem so I was criticised there. But everybody who loved it also hated the fact the narrative was not joined'.

Vi segnalo anche la recensione di Raja Sen (giudizio 3,5), pubblicata oggi da Rediff, recensione che, nella versione integrale, include inaspettatamente più di un riferimento a David Bowie:

'The thing about building a house of cards - indeed, a country of cards - is that its very existence is rooted in caprice. With Tasher Desh, radical filmmaker Q takes on Rabindranath Tagore’s play and interprets a familiar text with much vim and great style, and yet the fact that the end results are uneven - and uneven they certainly are - seems as much an inevitability as a matter of choice. Discordance was always, well, on the cards. (...) This is a bizarre film, one that unapologetically meanders through most of its first hour, giving us a hint of its characters while soaking us in a psychedelic cauldron of ennui. It’s the same one Q’s protagonists sip from. On one hand is a bespectacled writer who wants to mount a production of Tasher Desh, but is overwhelmed by the relentlessness of the world around him. He escapes into the pages, where we meet the play’s hero, a restless Prince weary of his luxurious cage. And as the story flip-flops between these two, the teller and the doer, the film’s visuals take over our heads. (...) The surreal, madcap imagery is captivating, and many an image remains lodged in my head. Even a few that I found tiresome at the time. A primary reason for the tenacity of these strong, strange images - an Oracle with David Bowie cheekbones, a toddler prince with a sword larger than himself, clockwork squirrels going around in circles - is how violently they’re juxtaposed, not just against each other in immediate contrast, but along with the music. The soundtrack takes the songs from Tagore’s original musical and keeps the lyrics the same, and while the music is edgy and eclectic and defiantly modern, it is the classic lyrical heft that propels the film’s narrative. The filmmakers have done an artful job of subtitling these words, often sacrificing literality for inferred meaning, which helps greatly in grasping the film. This happens with dialogue too, when characters repeat the same lines and words over and over but the subtitles ascribe different meanings, or emphasise different parts of the translated line. (...) Clearly influenced by Lewis Carroll, Tagore conjured up a fascistic nation of people dressing up as playing cards, giving his musical its name. Q revels in this opportunity for structured mayhem, and his uniformed card soldiers (who come this close to actual goose-stepping) are a work of art, with their faces painted white and a tiny logo, of the suit they belong to, on their lips. The effect is striking - more Terry Gilliam than Tim Burton, thankfully - and with this highly theatrical approach, the film takes on a comic-book appearance. The colours pop, the subtitles are more stylised, and the cards yell out Bengali chopped into staccato syllables. “Progress?” is translated as “égobo?” but screamed “É!”, “Go!” and “Bo!”. (...) The Prince and his friend, cornered by gun-toting cards for having the temerity to laugh, come up with a delicious origin story and begin to sow seeds of revolution by appealing to the card-women. Good move, that. Suggestions of liberty from the outsiders intrigue the women in the ranks, and soon there is a full-blown sexual revolution. And here it is that the film becomes a highly erotic one, throbbing with abstract yet earthy sensuality. (...) Meanwhile, over on the other side of reality, the Writer too is grappling with matters of sexual urgency. “If it’s a riot you want...”, promises a queen ominously, her Bangla obfuscated and rendered exotic by a strange accent. There is a mighty mish-mash of tongues and nationalities amid the cards, hidden by white paint. It is a clever trick, in a film where the cast is mostly impressive. Rii Sen is a striking heroine, Tillotama Shome is evocative as the Prince’s mother, and all the cards get it very right indeed. Anubrata Basu (the hero of Q’s last film, Gandu) is well-suited to the part of the friend, even pulling off a Che Guevara look quite deftly in one scene, and Soumyak Kanti De Biswas is highly compelling as the Prince, especially when he looks fourth-wall-searingly through the camera. Tagore’s 1932 play is a remarkably progressive one, and Q’s adaptation starts off slow and visceral and then - after they land on the island halfway through the film - changes gears to become a racy, lucid, sexy adventure. This gamble doesn’t entirely pay off - the first half has several boring stretches; the film exasperatingly ends just when it hits its most enjoyable stride - but the film is staggeringly original, and far too much of it stays back in the head. To haunt and to enchant. The music plays a huge part, and the critical decision to use Tagore’s original songs - with Q singing on many of the tracks - is one that makes this effort magical, even when it misfires. But who’s to say any of the misfires were unintentional? Tasher Desh is more experience than film, more blank verse than story, and more poetry than anything else'.

Vedi anche:

- Anurag Kashyap produrrà il nuovo film di Q

- Kolkata extreme | Down and dirty in Kolkata, 30 luglio 2022

Q - Roma, 2012

Q - Roma, 2012

Le prime del 13 novembre 2012: Jab Tak Hai Jaan

Il Diwali 2012 dovrebbe incoronare Yash Chopra re del botteghino. Jab Tak Hai Jaan possiede infatti tutte le carte in regola per conquistare folle oceaniche di spettatori. Chopra è tornato alla regia, dopo otto anni dal deludente (spero nessuno mi spari) ma amatissimo Veer-Zaara, con una nuova storia d'amore creata per esaltare la figura dell'eroe romantico per eccellenza del cinema indiano: Shah Rukh Khan. Ad affiancarlo Katrina Kaif, l'attrice attualmente più quotata al botteghino, e la spumeggiante Anushka Sharma. Location incantevoli, eccellente fotografia, sguardi, sorrisi, drammi e batticuore, coreografie e abiti da sogno. La colonna sonora, piuttosto classica, è composta dal premio Oscar A.R. Rahman. JTHJ offre uno Shah Rukh anche in versione ruvida, con barba incolta da uomo che non deve chiedere (chissenefrega dell'eroe romantico: *Lui* rende molto meglio nei panni dello sciupafemmine, e spero che Yash non abbia esagerato con lo zucchero). Da non sottovalutare l'ondata di commozione suscitata dal decesso improvviso di Yash Chopra,  avvenuto il 21 ottobre 2012, e che ha etichettato JTHJ come l'ultimo lavoro dell'uomo più potente di Bollywood. Le aspettative sono dunque altissime, e, a meno che il film non si riveli orribile, il concorrente Son of Sardaar dovrà faticare parecchio per farsi notare. Vi propongo, oltre al trailer, i video dei brani Jiya Re, Saans, Challa, Ishq Shava e Heer.

Vedi anche Jab tak Hai Jaan: prima mondiale, 14 novembre 2012

Aggiornamento del 15 novembre 2012: come sta procedendo la sfida del Diwali? È ancora presto per decretare il vincitore, ma in rete è già stato diffuso qualche dato certo. La contesa relativa al numero delle sale si è conclusa con 2.500 sale per JTHJ e 2.000 per SOS. Entrambi i titoli stanno incendiando il botteghino, e l'industria cinematografica di Mumbai ha un motivo in più per celebrare. È un testa a testa che vede primeggiare alternativamente JTHJ e SOS. Nei circuiti multisala sembra avvantaggiarsi JTHJ, nei cinema monosala è invece SOS ad avere la meglio. All'estero JTHJ ha strozzato il rivale (pare che in Nuova Zelanda sia entrato direttamente al numero uno nella classifica dei titoli più visti, battendo le pellicole locali e quelle hollywoodiane), ed anche negli USA i numeri generano entusiasmo. Ma SOS ha bruciato sul tempo JTHJ in Pakistan, ridisegnando la storia di Bollywood nel Paese confinante. Sembra inoltre che entrambi i titoli abbiano segnato il record di incassi nel primo giorno di distribuzione per entrambi gli attori protagonisti. Le recensioni, però, non sono proprio entusiastiche. Per JTHJ, il decesso improvviso di Yash Chopra ha indotto i critici a limitare il sarcasmo e ad addolcire il giudizio finale. Il risultato? Pezzi monotoni e tediosi. Traspare che JTHJ non sia piaciuto poi molto, ma, agganciato al filone del classico film romantico d'altri tempi, gli vengono perdonati diversi passi falsi.

- Recensione di Raja Sen, Rediff, 13 novembre 2012, ***: 'A Yash Chopra drama that treads very familiar territory slickly - and a fair bit too slowly - but does so with an old-world sincerity that somehow makes most of it bearable. Rather like its leading man, who is often made to balance entire scenes on his dimples, grinning so wide his eyes appear closed. There are times in JTHJ when it's hard not to feel embarrassed for Shah Rukh Khan having to work with material this tedious - and yet he, despite the exaggerated show of youngness, manages inexplicably to charm. This is his film, and, against all odds, he works it well. (...) Katrina is the film's big surprise, providing a solidly competent performance in a role that could well have been reduced to farce. The lazy screenplay makes sure she kisses more than she gets to speak, which isn't a bad thing because she turns out pretty good with the silent moments. The actress brings a tenderness to the proceedings and emotes strongly, making sure her character - while unlikely, untimely and irrational - ends up real enough to root for. And yet it's not her film. Or even Yash Chopra's, really. JTHJ is all Shah Rukh, all the time. His character seems larger than the film, and Khan himself is in fine form even when the script deserves far less. There are times he seems out of place, certainly, but these are made up for by times where he grounds the narrative with one glare, with one scowl, with one kiss. The dude abides. As a swan-song for the master director, JTHJ might only be a middling effort. But then, sometimes, all we need is a Khan-song'.

- Recensione di Mayank Shekhar, 13 novembre 2012: 'This is a romantic weepy. They are expressly made for women audiences the world over. Be warned. But you knew that all along. These barriers are mostly blurred. There’s an emotional woman inside every hardened man. No one should feel shy about letting it all out. Except that by the end of the saga, you worry less about the hero’s love and his wellbeing, and far more for the movie’s length. (...) After about three and half hours in the theatre, when you step out of JTHJ, you realise his last movie, at 80, clearly wasn’t quite his best, or even close to it. It would have been unfair to even expect that. But it did have shades of what we loved him for. You can instantly tell why he was still the youngest filmmaker around. This film may not survive him. There’s a huge legacy that will, and I know we will forever thank him for being'.

Le prime del 13 novembre 2012: Son of Sardaar

Finalmente anche quest'anno è arrivato il Diwali, che, per noi amanti del cinema indiano, significa soprattutto abbuffata di (speriamo) blockbuster (speriamo) divertenti e gustosi. Son of Sardaar sembra il classico film d'azione tutto da ridere. Il trailer è molto accattivante. Ajay Devgan pare godersela un mondo. Ad affiancarlo Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt e Juhi Chawla. Ashwini Dhir dirige la banda di matti. La colonna sonora, composta da Himesh Reshammiya, è così così. I ritmi bhangra sono sempre irresistibili. Le canzoni mettono allegria però è come se mancasse qualcosa. Po Po Po, che offre un cameo di Salman Khan, è talmente demenziale da innamorarsene all'istante. Vi propongo anche i video dei brani Son of Sardaar, Rani Tu Mein Raja e Yeh Jo Halki Halki Khumariya. Sulla carta SOS è il meno favorito nella sfida del Diwali rispetto al concorrente Jab Tak Hai Jaan, ma Devgan, che è anche il produttore della pellicola, ci ha già sorpreso nel 2008 con Golmaal Returns, nel 2009 con All the best - Fun begins (battendo al botteghino il costosissimo Blue, interpretato da Akshay Kumar, e Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna, interpretato da Salman Khan), e nel 2010 con Golmaal 3. Difficile che SOS possa risultare il cavallo vincente nei primi giorni, ma in quelli a seguire tutto dipenderà dal passaparola. Ajay, solitamente molto riservato, nelle scorse settimane ha innescato una polemica a causa della denuncia per concorrenza sleale (in termini di numero di sale cinematografiche prenotate per la distribuzione di JTHJ) presentata ai danni di Yash Raj Films. Per approfondire le motivazioni del gesto di Devgan, vedi l'intervista concessa dall'attore a Sonil Dedhia, pubblicata ieri da Rediff: Ajay Devgn: YRF has been lying at every point. Staremo a vedere e... vinca il migliore!

Aggiornamento del 15 novembre 2012: come sta procedendo la sfida del Diwali? È ancora presto per decretare il vincitore, ma in rete è già stato diffuso qualche dato certo. La contesa relativa al numero delle sale si è conclusa con 2.500 sale per JTHJ e 2.000 per SOS. Entrambi i titoli stanno incendiando il botteghino, e l'industria cinematografica di Mumbai ha un motivo in più per celebrare. È un testa a testa che vede primeggiare alternativamente JTHJ e SOS. Nei circuiti multisala sembra avvantaggiarsi JTHJ, nei cinema monosala è invece SOS ad avere la meglio. All'estero JTHJ ha strozzato il rivale (pare che in Nuova Zelanda sia entrato direttamente al numero uno nella classifica dei titoli più visti, battendo le pellicole locali e quelle hollywoodiane), ed anche negli USA i numeri generano entusiasmo. Ma SOS ha bruciato sul tempo JTHJ in Pakistan, ridisegnando la storia di Bollywood nel Paese confinante. Sembra inoltre che entrambi i titoli abbiano segnato il record di incassi nel primo giorno di distribuzione per entrambi gli attori protagonisti. Le recensioni, però, non sono proprio entusiastiche.

Le prime dell'8 agosto 2012: Gangs of Wasseypur II

L'India è in fibrillazione: la seconda parte di Gangs of Wasseypur, il film fenomeno del 2012, viene finalmente distribuita nelle sale. Vi segnalo i video dei brani Chhi Chha Ledar (interpretato dalla dodicenne Durga - un nome, un programma), Electric Piya e Kaala Rey. Il trailer è a dir poco magnifico. Cosa aggiungere? Peccato non essere a Mumbai.

Aggiornamento del 12 agosto 2012 - Vi segnalo di seguito alcune recensioni:

- The Times of India, 10 agosto 2012, ****: 'This time it's double the dollops of gore; two much. Booming guns and metal-shredded innards spilling gut onto the streets. More revenge and rage. More gangs and more bangs (...) and more man-power. With every shade of red, black and grey - deeper and bolder. (...) Anurag Kashyap's culmination to this gang-saga is as bloody as the first (if not more); yet it's an easier watch. The story is astutely interspersed with bursts of music (Bihari folkish tunes with a modern twist), humour (crass and rural), high drama and sudden relief - like a sexual climaxing. Even with a high quotient of brutal violence and moral assassination, Kashyap keeps his sense of humour (mostly black) intact, and entertains. With characters named 'Perpendicular', 'Definite', (...) 'Tangent' - he truly defies all tiresomely tried-and-tested formulas of filmmaking in Bollywood with his 'big bang-bang theory'. Though in spurts, it unleashes scenes that make you crack up, in true Bollywood style humour. (...) Nawazuddin Siddiqui spells doom, is devious and highly-dramatic - yet you take to his character almost instantly. He brilliantly blazes through this role, from being as strong or as shallow as his character demands. (...) With excellent performances, a screenplay that's strung together beautifully (....) a revenge story that touches a dramatic crescendo and music that plays out perfectly in sync with tragic twists of tale - GOW II is an interesting watch, for the brave-hearted. Like the first part, the movie slows down at times (with pointless pistols, hordes of characters and wasted sub-plots); the length needs to be shot down desperately. But otherwise, it's revenge on a platter - served cold (heartedly) and definitely worth a 'second' helping'.

- Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama, 7 agosto 2012, ****: 'Murky, menacing and petrifying and yet witty, GOW II is one intriguing expedition that's several notches above the foremost part. Strengthened by exhilarating acts and stimulating plot dynamics, this is a transfixing motion picture that confiscates your complete concentration. In fact, this cartridge-ridden chronicle is immensely praiseworthy and commendable for a multiple viewing, only to grasp all its fine characteristics to the optimum. (...) On the facade, GOW II is a vengeance story. (...) Scrape that exterior and you'll notice more than that. The writing is unrestrained and imaginative. In fact, in terms of its screenplay, there is not a single scene in the film that leaves you with a sense of deja vu. (...) On the whole, GOW II is an Anurag Kashyap show all through and without an iota of doubt, can easily be listed as one amongst his paramount works. An engaging movie with several bravura moments. Watch it for its absolute cinematic brilliancy!'.

- Raja Sen, Rediff, 8 agosto 2012, *** 1/2: 'Kashyap, in pulling out all the stops, seems content here to let his madcap characters actually enjoy themselves a great deal, making for a far sillier - and decidedly more joyous - cinematic universe. (...) Kashyap's visual flair has just grown with each film, and this one is not just cinematically self-assured but also highly nuanced'.

- Tehelka, ***: 'Like the precocious child too aware of being cute, GOW is ultimately irritating. It’s not the cuteness or the precociousness that is the problem, it’s the awareness. Anurag Kashyap is a canny filmmaker. He knows what audiences will respond to, but he is so pleased with this knowledge that he can’t resist yet another slowmotion sequence, yet another film reference, yet another spray of too vivid blood, yet another character with yet another defining tic. (...) Sneha Khanwalkar’s unquestionably cool soundtrack is so overused, it punctuates the film like a giddy schoolgirl might punctuate a text message or tweet: “OMG!!!!! GoW ROCKS!! 2 gud!!! Nawazuddin is SOOO CUUTTEE!!!!” There are so many exclamation points, you long for the restraint of the full stop, the courtesy of the comma. (...) As with GOW I, GOW II careens from scene to scene like a drunk driver between lanes, the tone at once portentous, bawdy, abrasive, comic, earnest: the film amounts to much less than the sum of its often violent, often tender, often funny, often spectacular parts'.

- Mayank Shekhar, 8 agosto 2012: 'Few actors in recent years have managed to morph into characters the way Nawazuddin (Siddiqui) has. His everyman looks and incredible command over his demeanour helps him achieve a level of transition that makes every other leading man you’ve met at the movies this year seem like monkeys - imitations, either of others, or their own selves. You’re equally stunned by the casting (...) for the rest of the film. Each piece, right down to the toothy thanedar, fits in brilliantly across a saga phenomenally mined by (the) story writer. (...) Over the past few years, the kind of talents Anurag Kashyap has managed to attract and inspire as both producer and director makes him India’s top film school of his own. He’s rightly the fan-boy’s ultimate filmmaker. Director Ram Gopal Varma used to play this role before. This is doubtlessly Kashyap’s best work yet. (...) The director is interested in detail, whether in the step-by-step procedure of murder on the street, or booth-capturing, or sweetly mulling over seductive moments. He’s clearly mastered the pop-corn art of sensational killings and colourful dialogue. The reason you prefer this sequel to the first installment, besides it being more contemporary is, well, this is where the beginning ties up with the end. You get a full sense of the film’s ambitions. You leave the theatre feeling satiated, slightly rejuvenated, but mostly heavy in the head. You realise the picture might have hit you with a rod. Clearly that was the intention'.

- Sarit Ray, Hindustan Times, 10 agosto 2012: 'GOW II is less like a movie sequel, more like the season finale of an ongoing (and admittedly, engaging) TV series. (...) In Kashyap’s pulp-fiction version of the Jharkhand mafia wars, violence is fundamental. It’s graphic, easy and often without deliberation. The gravity of death is replaced by an ironical matter-of-factness: the cries of mourning are drowned out by the cheap noise of a brass band. Cinematic realism pervades, not only in the film, but in the minds of its characters. (...) The movie plays out amid political and financial machinations - illegal scrap metal trading, election rigging - not unheard of in Jharkhand. Yet, it would be a mistake to judge Wasseypur for factual correctness. Kashyap shows familiarity with this world in his attention to detail - the typical Hindi accents, the Ray Ban shades, the pager. But they enhance the flavour rather than the facts. Wasseypur is as much a celebration of small-town India as it is a sinister revenge tragedy. If the subject wasn’t so gory, you’d call it charming'.

Vedi anche Le prime del 22 giugno 2012: Gangs of Wasseypur I

Jism 2: recensioni

Erano anni che non mi divertivo così tanto scorrendo recensioni cinematografiche. Temevo commenti moralistici, invece la visione di Jism 2 ha solleticato il lato burlone dei critici indiani. La pellicola di Pooja Bhatt è stata letteralmente demolita con dosi industriali di umorismo. Ed è risaputo: l'ilarità uccide l'erotismo. (Nel film Sunny Leone sfoggia biancheria sexy a mucchi, pure in coda all'ufficio postale, ma tutto lo staff concorda con Caterina: la vera pornostar in Jism 2 è Randeep Hooda. Figo. Supremo).

- Rediff, Sukanya Verma, 3 agosto 2012, * 1/2: '(Sunny Leone) delivers her lines with the concentration of an impassive newsreader rattling off cue cards on the screen. She has the body but not the racy persona required to hit the sensual notes. (...) At best, it's just a blank, expressionless parade of rehearsed intimacy featuring an entire catalogue of seductive poses and salon-polished skin playing against various artists' bland soundtrack, which is better suited for exotic spa or honeymoon package commercials. Hollowness, not audacity, is Jism 2's real problem. (...) Moreover, it's impossible to concentrate on anything except the dialogues, which are so, SO cheesy, it'll split your sides. (...) It's like Sunny Leone's assets are the script, screenplay and sole purpose of Jism 2 and everyone outside that - Hooda, Singh, Zakaria or the audience - is obliged to wag their tongues with thrill'. 

- The Film Street Journal, *: 'The good: ? Let’s pass this one. The bad: The film unintentionally changes its genre to comedy because of some atrocious dialogues mouthed by a bunch of freaks who breathe lust. (...) The main problem is that it doesn’t even fit in the official porn category which is supposed to be unpretentious, emotionless and brainless. Jism 2 actually has pretentions of having a brain. Take any scene, any emotion, and Sunny Leone is directed to breathe through it. Yes, breathe heavily for obvious reasons. The only switch in Sunny’s expressions is in the range of her breathing speed. Normally a gifted actor, Randeep Hooda has nothing much to do except to look like a maniac'. 

- Mayank Shekhar, 3 agosto 2012: 'The predominantly male audiences at my theatre surely didn’t come to this film for its stars, songs or story-line. (...) Viewers probably walk in for the leading lady and the lovemaking. Several female actors in cinema exist merely to excite a wet dream. In a sexually repressed India, this is a social service of sorts. (...) The only thing they needed to get right with Ms. Leone’s acting is the dubbing. They made sure even that’s off. She sits or stands in every conversation, heavily breathing in and out her silicone implants, nervously twitching her eyebrows. It’s hard to tell what she plays in the movie. (...) This is good enough script for a pornographic pic. By the time you hit the climax, of the film of course, you realise, there was hardly more sex in it than any other skin flick, and you had to sit through two growling naked guys (Arunoday, Randeep) and a psycho boss (Arif Zakaria) instead, babbling over international terrorism. Audiences are known to giggle at uncomfortable sex scenes. They laugh here at the heroes’ serious dialogues, in chaste Urdu, cooking up obscure conspiracy theories. This is the entertainment we deserve'. 

Gangs of Wasseypur I: colonna sonora e recensioni

Gangs of Wasseypur I è stato distribuito ieri nelle sale indiane, e l'afflusso da parte del pubblico sembra in costante crescita. Le recensioni sono in generale positive. Ve ne segnalo alcune:

- Mayank Shekhar, 22 giugno 2012: 'So you know Sardar’s the hero, Ramadheer the villain, and the film, a revenge drama seeking poetic justice. And yet the worst mistake you’re likely to make is to walk into this film thinking like that. It’ll kill your fun. In fact, it’s advisable not to even perceive this as a feature film. It’s more of a multi-part mini-series. (...) Your patience is likely to wane after a point. And yes, it does. Yet, just as it does, the makers manage to successfully slip in an inspiring scene, an entertaining snippet or a limited twist in the plot and you go back to engaging with the picture all over again. (...) The film gets the atmospherics, beats and nuances just right. This is quite rare for movies placed in provincial towns. (...) GOW is fictionalised, blood-soaked, demented history that alternates between sharp grittiness and delicious grotesquery. Movies have a gender. This is animalist, male. Given how easy it is to kill off people in this picture, it’s a miracle that they’re all not dead yet!'.

- Raja Sen, Rediff, 22 giugno 2012, ** 1/2: 'And the yawns are the primary issue with Anurag Kashyap's GOW, an impressively ambitious - and excellently shot - collection of memorable characters and entertaining scenes, set to a killer soundtrack. The film never recovers from the unforgivably tedious first half-hour, and despite many laudable moments and nifty touches, never quite engages. This is (...) mostly because Kashyap is defiant in his self-indulgence, piling on more and more when less could have done the job more efficiently. (...) His film tries too hard to be more: more than just an actioner, more than just a drama, more even than a bloodied saga. This overreaching desire to be an Epic makes it a film that, despite some genuinely stunning individual pieces, fails to come together as a whole. There is much to treasure, but there is more to decry. Entire sequences that could be compressed into clever throwaway lines are staged in grand, time-consuming detail; while genuinely sharp lines are often repeated, as if too good to use just once. The characters are a wild, fantastical bunch of oddballs and trigger-happy loons, but attempting to do each fascinating freak justice with meaty chunks of screen-time may not even be film's job. Wasseypur may have worked better as a long and intriguing television series, one deserving a spin-off movie only after six seasons. Here it feels too linear, and even too predictable: scenes themselves often surprise, even delight, but the narrative is cumbersome and unexciting. (...) Yet it is the excess that suffocates all the magic, originality dying out for lack of room to breathe. Kashyap gets flavour, setting and character right, but the lack of economy cripples the film'.

- Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express, 22 giugno 2012, ****: 'GOW is a sprawling, exuberant, ferociously ambitious piece of film making, which hits most of its marks. It reunites Anurag Kashyap with exactly the kind of style he is most comfortable with: hyper masculine, hyper real, going for the jugular. (...) Wasseypur is not just a place, but a state of mind. (...) There's history here, of the kind almost never attempted by Hindi cinema, bouyed beautifully by geography: the locations are part of the pleasures of the film'.

- NDTV, ***1/2: 'The smartly filmed vendetta saga tosses and turns convulsively from one shootout to another as a bunch of amoral human bloodhounds sniff around for their next kill in a volatile, lawless landscape. The unbridled violence and fetid language - the expletives fly as thick and fast as the bullets - are, however, only one facet of this cinematically layered shot at a time-honoured and popular genre. (...) GOW benefits immensely from a towering performance by Manoj Bajpayee, who immerses himself in the central character of Sardar Khan with such conviction and controlled flair that it becomes impossible to separate the actor from the part'.

Per quanto concerne la spumeggiante colonna sonora, vi segnalo:

- Gangs of Wasseypur - Lyrics translations, MoiFightClub, 7 giugno 2012

- Songs in ‘Bhojpurised’ Hindi, Kashika Saxena, The Times of India, 15 giugno 2012:

'Never underestimate the power of music, because we love to have a song for every occasion. Filmmakers seem to understand this sentiment all too well, which is why even though Anurag Kashyap’s “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is a film about gangsters, its music is being talked about as much as its storyline. The filmmaker explained the quantum of music in the movie in a panel discussion at the Cannes Film Festival saying, “You can’t really get away from music in India. You walk on the street and you’ll hear music from some corner, somewhere. Music is omnipresent in our lives. And the second thing is that music has become a very important part of marketing. If you have good music in your film, you get free airplay, you get awareness about your film, because each Friday you have ten films competing for audience attention and you need to build that awareness. In fact, today, when sometimes a film in India doesn’t have music, marketing teams look for ways to introduce music, such as in the rolling credits, and release that music. I have learnt to try to use music in a way that does not impact the flow of the film, that it becomes as an extension of what is going on in front of the audience - then it’s not a forced insert just for the sake of marketing.”

The attention this film’s music is getting comes as no surprise, what with lyrics like “I am hunter and she want to see my gun”. Twenty-seven-year-old music director Sneha Khanwalkar has used a mix of eclectic artistes from places like Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Garbandha, among others, for the songs of the film, and she says that the idea was to use simple, vernacular lyrics that can be sung and understood easily. The feedback that she got from Cannes, where the film was praised by many international critics, was that the music wasn’t “very Bollywood”. “It was sounding very global to them because they probably haven’t heard these voices before. These voices are so authentic and from such interior parts. For instance, I went to Trinidad to record this guy Vedesh Sookoo for the song “Hunter” and he only speaks English, but he’s a Bihari who has never been to India, which I find very interesting. I then merged his part with other singers from more of core Bihar and made this song. ‘Shut up’ and ‘my name is’ are words and phrases that are used very easily in small towns like these and I’ve used the accent to show the vernacular influence,” she tells us. No other song except “Hunter” has Hinglish in it, but the lyrics are, in what Sneha calls “Bhojpurised Hindi”. “It is basically core interior land music. The vocal nature is quite cool, and I don’t think one would care about what is actually being sung. They could understand it, but even if they don’t, it’s all right because they would still get the meaning. Even I didn’t try to learn the exact language,” she says.

The people she met while she was making the music for the film, the ones who ended up singing these songs, aren’t professional singers. They’re people who would “probably start singing in the middle of the night in their village, if at all,” she says, adding, “They aren’t professional, but authentic. Like one of the women who sang “Womaniya”, Rekha Jha, is a housewife. Her father taught music and that’s how she did chorus for me. But later I found out that she’s from this place called Mithila, near Ganga, and that’s why her voice is so different from other voices in the Bhojpuri belt.” “The good part is that there was no hurry when I was making the music of this film. There was enough time to do this process because there was no rush; we were thinking only of the music. I gathered all this and then decided who to put where, and then the music got intertwined with the film,” she says'.

Vedi anche Le prime del 22 giugno 2012: Gangs of Wasseypur I