A definitive recap of Bollywood over the last decade

Oggi The Hindu pubblica una lista degli eventi salienti che hanno contrassegnato l'industria hindi nella decade 2000-2009. Si spazia dal centenario del cinema indiano, al 50esimo compleanno del regale triumvirato dei Khan, all'ascesa di Ranveer Singh e del favoloso trio Kaushal / Khurrana / Rao. E poi la svolta sociale e patriotica di Akshay Kumar, il successo delle pellicole nazionaliste, il movimento #MeToo, i titoli al femminile che hanno sbancato il botteghino, il clamoroso trionfo della saga di Baahubali anche in versione hindi, i film d'autore e non che hanno toccato temi delicati come l'omosessualità, la polemica sul nepotismo, l'ingresso in scena dei figli d'arte, il ritorno aggressivo dell'entroterra indiano come location, l'avvento delle piattaforme di streaming, la potenza promozionale dei social, e, purtroppo, i decessi illustri. A definitive recap of Bollywood over the last decade, Namrata Joshi.

Bheeshma: le riprese in Italia

La troupe del film in lingua telugu Bheeshma è in Italia per effettuare alcune riprese. Bheeshma è diretto da Venky Kudumula e interpretato da Rashmika Mandanna e Nithiin. Nei giorni scorsi i set sono stati allestiti a Minori e a Maiori, in Costiera Amalfitana. Alcune sequenze verranno girate a Bari (Lungomare San Girolamo), Alberobello, Positano, Ravello e forse anche a Roma. 

Aggiornamento del 26 dicembre 2019: a Positano, Nithiin e Rashmika reinterpretano Ghungroo (video).

Aggiornamento del 13 maggio 2020: 

- video dei brani Super Cute e Hey Choosa.

- Rashmika racconta a The Hindu le sue disavventure veneziane: l'attrice, durante il soggiorno nel nostro Paese, decide di concedersi una vacanza a Venezia e viaggia in treno da Roma a Venezia, ma scende alla fermata sbagliata. Non riesce a prendere un traghetto perché non incontra persone che parlino inglese, e raggiunge il suo albergo alle due del mattino. When Rashmika Mandanna went on a solo trip to Venice: 

'I was awestruck. The entire world comes here for vacation. Maybe, it was my bad luck that nobody could understand what I was trying to ask them, like 'where to go', 'how do you reach here'. I have never walked so much in my life. It was just me dragging my suitcase and walking around a residential street; there was not a single soul in sight. My phone battery was going to give up, I didn’t have a map and I started to think 'okay, what if I am supposed to spend the rest of my life here?'. I’m not kidding because I was so scared. Imagine, you are walking and you don’t see any one, there are just two people walking by and staring at you, probably because they think you are weird. I stayed in the hotel the next day because I was tired, but then the next two days I was out and about, taking the water taxis all around Venice trying to figure out the city, which stop connected to which place, talking to locals and clicking pictures. I did get lost in Venice but now I feel like I know each and every spot there. I feel like I’m a boss of Venice now'.

(Le fotografie che vi propongo sono state scattate a Ravello, qualora non diversamente indicato).

Nithiin e Venky Kudumula

Bari

Roma

(Località non precisata)

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

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 

Irrfan Khan: Khan rises in the West

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Irrfan Khan a Sudhish Kamath, pubblicata da The Hindu il 2 novembre 2012. Khan rises in the West:

'How are you enjoying your stint with Hollywood?

I have to restrain myself, resist the temptation because I keep getting all kinds of films from Hollywood. Because my survival is not based out of Hollywood. So this is a very privileged position for me. I do films sometimes for survival in India. I choose projects in Hollywood that are challenging... that have something new to offer to me. Whether it is The Namesake or In Treatment... If I have to define In Treatment, it was not TV, it was not theatre, it was not cinema... It was something else. I look for challenges and areas that I haven’t got a chance to explore with Hollywood.

So do you work with a different kind of remuneration with Hollywood to be able to do these roles?

Remuneration is not very lucrative for me. It’s not even one-fourth of what I get in India. Just because you see them making multi-million dollar films, it does not mean they will pay Irrfan Khan millions of dollars. The film business is run in a way that you get paid according to whatever your importance is. (...)

How has your understanding of cinema changed over the years?

When I came into cinema, I was mesmerised by a few actors and when I saw them, I thought they were experiencing something special. That’s what attracted me to films. Initially, it was more about fame. But later it changed. Fame is just an ego-massaging exercise. I’m fortunate to be in this line. I’m in a medium where I can connect with a person who doesn’t understand a single word of the language I speak. But he’s touched by my performance. I become a part of his emotional psyche. And that’s the kind of ability you have as an actor.

So Life Of Pi was one such experience?

No, that was my journey before Life Of Pi. The challenges in Life Of Pi were completely different, something I have never experienced as an actor. The film is dealing with complicated issues. Whoever wants to look at these issues would interpret them in their own way. It will entertain a child who is watching as much as it will entertain an intellectual person. This film will leave you with so many interpretations. And it cannot be achieved unless and until you are aware of it. You have to work towards it. That was the challenge.

What was the biggest take-home for you from Life Of Pi?

Watching Ang. The way he conducts himself, his personality... If you see him, it seems like he has just eliminated all the unnecessary things from his personality... you don’t see a kind of baggage that you would expect from one of the most important directors of our times. The way he’s passionate about his work, the way he is so concerned and very personal. He’s available to everybody and at the same time, also keeps to himself.

What kind of roles are you looking at doing here post Paan Singh Tomar here?

I am getting more or less the same kind of roles. I am looking at films that are different yet have the ability to make money. All things in this world are a product of contradictions. Like art and commerce. Even in life, there are two opposite forces that are colliding all the time in our universe. And something new emerges when they collide.

Are you excited and confident that films such as Paan Singh Tomar are getting recognised today?

I was confident even 10 to 12 years ago when I did Haasil. I knew people wanted to see something different. They wanted films where entertainment would be redefined. The entertainment industry cannot afford to keep repeating a formula. It needs to keep evolving and redefining itself. Am I pushing the boundaries? Is it good for cinema? Is it entertaining and engaging? Is it suited for cinema or better suited for a book or news? Is it smuggling the issues smartly enough without being in your face? These are things I look for when I choose films'.