Tabu in Dune: Prophecy

Tabu è stata scritturata dalla produzione della serie fantascientifica americana Dune: Prophecy, la cui diffusione è prevista entro la fine del 2024. All'attrice indiana è stato affidato il ruolo di Sister Francesca. La serie si ispira al romanzo Sisterhood of Dune, di Brian Herbert (figlio di Frank, l'autore del celeberrimo Dune) e Kevin J. Anderson. 

Deepa Mehta’s ‘Earth’ is a reminder of lines arbitrarily drawn between countries and hearts

Vi segnalo l'articolo Deepa Mehta’s ‘Earth’ is a reminder of lines arbitrarily drawn between countries and hearts, di Nandini Ramnath, pubblicato oggi da Scroll:

'Earth was inspired by [Deepa] Mehta’s own family history. “It was going to be loosely based on my parents’ experience as they ‘celebrated’ the Independence of India, which for them was always intertwined with the tragedy of its Partition. (...) They lived in Amritsar and Lahore was their second home.” Mehta had been moved by M.S. Sathyu’s Garm Hava (1973), about the dilemma that confronts a Muslim family that chooses India over Pakistan, and Vittorio De Sica’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970), about a Jewish family in Fascist-era Italy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Sometime in 1997, Mehta saw a copy of [Bapsi] Sidhwa’s Ice Candy Man (which is also titled Cracking India) in a bookstore. A quote by Sidhwa on the cover caught Mehta’s eye: “All wars are fought on women’s bodies.” “What could be more cinematic than those words?” Mehta said. (...)

One of the film’s most layered performances is by Aamir Khan. His Dil Navaz embodies the erasure of the boundary between religious feelings and political beliefs that marks accounts of Partition survivors. In a standout scene, Dil Navaz watches helplessly from a terrace as Lahore burns, his rage pickling into a hatred that frightens Shanta [protagonista femminile]. “David Hamilton and Jhamu Sughand were the two producers on the film,” Mehta said. “Jhamu gave Aamir the script. Aamir read it, liked it, we met, talked and that was it. I think he liked the challenge of Dil Navaz’s character arc - the ability of hatred to askew love and decency. It’s one of his most complex performances.” (...)

Partition-era Lahore was recreated in Delhi. “We went to Lahore for a recce but the logistics of shooting there were enormous,” Mehta said. (...) Earth was distributed by Jhamu Sughand. It had a limited run, and circulated more widely on pirated videos, Mehta recalled. To date, the film isn’t available on any streaming platform in India'.

Woh

Vi segnalo l'articolo How two men pulled off a 52-episode Indian adaptation of Stephen King's It... without reading a single page, di Gayle Sequeira, pubblicato oggi da Film Companion. Il pezzo racconta l'incredibile realizzazione di Woh, una serie televisiva indiana horror diretta da Glen Barretto e Ankush Mohla, trasmessa nel 1998 dal canale Zee TV, ispirata dalla seconda parte del celebre romanzo It - o meglio, dalla sinossi di dieci righe - e dalle due puntate della miniserie americana omonima. Né i registi né gli sceneggiatori hanno mai letto il libro. Nel cast Ashutosh Gowariker, Shreyas Talpade e Liliput Faruqui (nel ruolo del clown). L'articolo include il link ad un paio di episodi.

'Fresh off the shoot of Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995), on which he [Mohla] was an assistant director, he wanted to bring that "small-town, college campus" wibe to Woh. He asked Barretto, a chief assistant director he'd met as an apprentice on Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), to help him adapt the book into a series. (...)

His [di Barretto] next task was 'Indianizing' the show. He moved the setting from Derry, Maine, to the hill station of Panchgani, linked the resurgence of the clown to a solar eclipse (considered inauspicious in Hindu mythology) and wrote it such that the evil could only be defeated by a crystal found inside the well of a local temple.

In 1996, the two shot a 40-minute pilot at Madh Island "just for fun". They were in their 20s. (...) As he [Barretto] had assisted Gowariker on Pehla Nasha (1993) and Baazi (1995), convincing the director to play the part of Ashutosh, whose son is kidnapped (and later possessed) by the clown, was easy.

What's harder was finding takers for the show. (...) Sony passed on the pilot. Doordarshan picked it up but gave the show the 6.30 PM 'child programming' slot on seeing the clown. Baffled, Mohla and Barretto decided to turn down the offer. (...) Zee TV was interested in the show. " We got to know this in November 1997. Janyuary 1998 was supposed to be the telecast date. Everything moved quickly after that," says Mohla.

The title track happened overnight. Mohla and composer Raju Singh holed themselves up inside a room and listened to English electronic band Prodigy from 11 PM to 5 AM. They emerged with an eerie, childlike 'na na na na' tune. The voices chanting 'woh woh woh woh' over what sounds like a sick turntable beat are theirs. The resulting opening credits were a spooky, seemingly Se7en-inspired montage, featuring shots of a bloodied knife, scorpions, barbed wire, tribal masks and a mud crab (to represent Madh Island, where parts of the show were shot). (...)

As neither writer had read the book, they borrowed much of their characters' personalities from the actors playing them. (...) Mohla himself, who had what Barretto calls a "James Dean vibe" played Shiva, a local don. (...) As most of the cast were friends, dialogues were born out of their banter. Scenes and subplots were written, rewritten, added or subtracted to accomodate actors who had become more popular over the course of the show and were now busy with other projects. (...)

Liliput's own life experiences heavily influenced the ending. He told Mohla and Barretto anecdotes of being publicly laughed at and discriminated against because of his stature. His move to Mumbai and success as an actor despite these obstacles made them determined to give the character a great sendoff in the finale. The actor would later say this show was one of the few times he wasn't relegated to just the comic relief'.

Sex, drugs, politics: how the streaming giants are blowing up Bollywood

Vi segnalo l'articolo Sex, drugs, politics: how the streaming giants are blowing up Bollywood, di Steve Rose, pubblicato ieri da The Guardian:

'“The three big ‘no’s in Indian cinema are sexuality, religion and politics,” says Anurag Kashyap. “And in Sacred Games we address all three.” The Netflix series, which Kashyap co-directed, takes viewers to places Bollywood rarely does. (...) A dense, tense crime saga that closely tracks real-world history: political and police corruption, organised crime, religious tension, nuclear terrorism. (...) There is blood, sex, and violence, not to mention a trailblazing transgender character. “You cannot do that in mainstream cinema and have an audience,” Kashyap says. “It’s a given that movie-watching in India is a family experience, a community experience. Families didn’t sit together to see Sacred Games.” (...)

With 1.3 billion people and more than 500 million internet subscribers, not to mention flatlining growth in other territories, the streaming giants have been moving into India big time. Both Netflix and Amazon launched their services there in 2016, taking on larger local rivals such as the Disney-owned Hotstar. (...) Not only are these companies telling stories Bollywood can’t, they are bringing them to audiences Bollywood can’t reach. Sacred Games was a phenomenon in India, but the show was watched by twice as many people outside the country, according to Netflix. (...)

Sacred Games is not the only boundary-pushing Indian show Netflix has released. There is supernatural horror Ghoul, set in a detention facility in a near-future India under martial law due to sectarian violence. There is cricketing drama Selection Day, based on the book by Booker prize-winner Aravind Adiga, and directed by British-Indian Udayan Prasad. On a very different tack was Lust Stories, an anthology of short films by four directors (including Kashyap), all focusing on female sexuality. (...) Amazon has also put out provocative content, such as Mirzapur, a crime saga infused with sex and violence, that would not get past the cinema censors.

At the other end of the spectrum was this year’s Delhi Crime, based on the horrific gang rape, torture and murder of Jyoti Singh on a Delhi bus in 2012. (...) Delhi Crime focuses on the manhunt for the six perpetrators, based on the real-life case files. The investigation is spearheaded by a female deputy police commissioner. (...) Powerfully portrayed by Shefali Shah, she is a different kind of heroine to the Bollywood norm: fortysomething, a sympathetic mother but also a formidable leader, who insists everything is done by the book. (...) A pacy police procedural that doubles as a wide-ranging societal survey. Although it is sympathetic towards the police, the series hardly casts India in a flattering light. This is a landscape of institutional sexism, societal indifference, self-serving politicians, endemic corruption, press leaks, power cuts, pollution and badly funded public services. Even to get a forensic team to a crime scene requires twisting arms and calling in favours. (...)

Even in cinemas, streaming giants are exerting an influence on Indian cinema, it seems. (...) Could this be the beginning of a brain-drain in Indian cinema? Could the streaming services start to erode Bollywood? (...) There is something to lose here. For all its inaccessibility, Bollywood is really the only substantial national cinema that has not been co-opted by the US and other foreign players. As Kashyap puts it: “Our biggest strength is our biggest weakness: that we do not need to sell a single ticket to a non-Indian to sustain ourselves.” It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game, but the streaming companies have created an extra platform for more outward-facing Indian film-makers such as Kashyap. (...) Having been outsiders, they now find themselves in a position of unprecedented power and influence. The game has changed'.

Badlapur: recensione de La Stampa

Sriram Raghavan ha collaborato alla stesura della sceneggiatura di Badlapur - sceneggiatura basata sul romanzo L'oscura immensità della morte di Massimo Carlotto -, e ha diretto l'intrigante pellicola, interpretata da un cast di prim'ordine guidato dagli ottimi Varun Dhawan e Nawazuddin Siddiqui, distribuita nelle sale indiane nel febbraio 2015 (riscontrando un discreto successo di pubblico nonché il favore entusiasta della critica). Trailer.

Vi segnalo la recensione di Carlo Pizzati, pubblicata da La Stampa il 6 gennaio 2016:

'Può sembrare buffo immaginarsi i personaggi padovani di Silvano Contin, borghese al di sopra di ogni sospetto, e Raffaello Beggiato, criminale di medio livello, che si tramutano in due indiani della periferia di Mumbai con nomi come Raghu Pratap Singh e Liak Mohammed Tungrekar. Ma la città del Veneto prealpino ha qualcosa in comune con la terra desolata di Badlapur, stazione del treno a un’ora da Mumbai e titolo di un thriller di successo emerso quest’anno da Bollywood. Il noir indiano Badlapur è ispirato al giallo del padovano Massimo Carlotto, L’oscura immensità della morte, storia di crimine, vendetta e redenzione. Ma è anche una spietata critica a un sistema giudiziario che prevede il parere di vittime o parenti delle vittime per la domanda di grazia. (...) C’è da sorprendersi se un regista di successo di Bollywood scova nell’hinterland padovano personaggi che s’adattano così bene alla Nuova India? No, perché la struttura sociale da era post-industriale, le differenze di classe o di casta, la fragilità etica, ma soprattutto la disperazione e rabbia umane di fronte alla violenza sono universali. E dopotutto, come dice Salman Rushdie, gli indiani guardando gli italiani si sentono «di fronte a uno specchio dove possono ammirarsi come in una traduzione». (...) Ecco, magari nella sceneggiatura hanno dovuto limare il ruolo intermediario del prete cattolico, e trasformare la volontaria con giro di perle e villetta in una funzionaria di un’Ong. Ma è così sorprendente che un rapinatore omicida come Tungrekar si comporti con la stessa astuzia affamata, ma poi anche con la grandezza espiativa di un furbo Beggiato? Le differenze ci sono. Ma solo nei dettagli. Invece di mangiarsi la solita pasta, la famiglia nei ricordi del vedovo indiano si spazzola un contemporaneo «chili con carne» messicano, prodotto d’una globalizzazione alimentare che unisce le culture. Invece di parlare un italiano fin troppo ripulito per il contesto padovano come nel romanzo di Carlotto, sentirete dialogare in quel famoso hinglish da classe media, dove si miscela hindi e inglese. I poliziotti maneschi e sovrappeso sono gli stessi. La borghesia ben vestita con auto non troppo costose, ma nuove, ha colori un po’ più sgargianti nella versione Bollywood, piuttosto che nell’ambientazione veneta. Ed è pur sempre India, quindi spunta una specie di danza del ventre quando una prostituta cerca di sedurre il vedovo vendicativo con un ritmo bhangra-funky che unisce seduzione e rabbia. (...) Il film è girato bene, con ottimo montaggio, fotografia calda e precisa che dipinge questo purgatorio metaforico, nella suburra industriale tra Mumbai e Pune, sfondo di una storia che incrocia una rabbia legittima a un male senza senso, dove l’odio fermenta fino a snaturare in una crudeltà precisa e fredda. Con finale a sorpresa. (...) Oggi (...) la nuova Bollywood viene ad attingere per le sue storie anche tra gli angoli affaticati della nostra decadente Europa. Che in materia di riflessione sugli errori della contemporaneità, siano essi del sistema della giustizia o dell’ingiustizia sociale, è il caso di dirlo, ne ha da vendere'.

The Hundred-Foot Journey: locandina e trailer italiani

[Archivio] Il 9 ottobre 2014 era stata distribuita in Italia la pellicola internazionale The Hundred-Foot Journey, diretta da Lasse Hallström, adattamento cinematografico del romanzo omonimo di Richard C. Morais. Il film, prodotto da Steven Spielberg e Oprah Winfrey, è interpretato da Om Puri e Helen Mirren. Juhi Chawla regala un cameo. La colonna sonora è composta da A.R. Rahman. Il titolo italiano è Amore cucina e curry. Trailer. Il DVD è attualmente in vendita nei negozi del nostro Paese. Il romanzo tradotto è pubblicato da Neri Pozza Editore.

Chander Pahar: locandine, trailer e recensione

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

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

 

Salman Rushdie on bringing Midnight's Children to the big screen

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Salman Rushdie a Lily Rothman, pubblicata ieri da Time. Salman Rushdie on bringing Midnight’s Children to the big screen:

'Why now, a movie version of Midnight’s Children?

I had actually more or less given up on the idea that there would ever be a film of Midnight’s Children. After all, it’s rather an old book. [Director] Deepa Mehta and I had dinner together in Toronto at the time of the publication of The Enchantress of Florence. We were talking about this and that, and possible collaborations, and discussing other novels of mine that she was interested in. And then suddenly, out of the blue, she asked about Midnight’s Children and did I have the rights. I said I did, and she said, “Can I do that instead?”

You make it sound very easy.

It took 30 years for it to be easy.

Was the plan always for you to write the screenplay?

No. In fact, initially, I said I didn’t want to. I, more or less straightforwardly, refused to do it. I thought I’d written this already. One of the things I’ve learned in the last four or five years is that if Deepa wants something badly enough, in the end she gets it.

She was determined...

She went on and on at me about it. In the end, I agreed to do it for a number of reasons. One, it was the first of my books to be filmed. Given that I loved movies, and here’s a movie being made of my book, probably it’s a good idea to dive in. I thought I might enjoy that, I might learn something from it, that it might be fun. Also, because the novel was written so long ago, I was able to be distant from it in the way that I would need to be. (...)

Were there any scenes you particularly enjoyed writing?

There’s a scene that doesn’t exist in the novel. In the novel, Shiva, Saleem’s alter-ego - who was swapped with him as a baby - never finds out about the baby-swap. In the movie, I thought, if you’re going to do something as Bollywood melodramatic as swapping babies at birth, at some point, the swapped babies have to confront each other. If I’d been sharp enough 30 years ago, I would have included that scene in the novel. (...)

Were you very involved in creative decisions during filming?

The thing I didn’t do is, I didn’t go on the shoot. I thought, I know enough about movies to know only one person directs. I also know that if you’re on a movie set without a very specific job to do, you’re the most annoying person there. And it’s also really boring. But before, and after the shoot, I was quite involved. One of the things I think is quite wonderful in the film is the production design by Dilip Mehta, Deepa’s brother. I showed him a lot of old photographs of my family so that he could get the look of that time right. I made the mistake of telling Deepa that when we were children in my grandparents’ house, one of the things that really scared us was that my grandmother had a very terrifying flock of geese. When I saw the rushes, I realized to my horror that there were the damn geese in the movie!

What was it like the first time you saw a complete version?

The first rough cut was well over four hours long. I felt that it was there, but at that point, you’re in work mode and all you see is what’s wrong. It’s the same when I’m writing a book; if I write a draft of something, when I look at that draft, I’m looking for what’s wrong and how I can fix it. Then there was a moment - Deepa keeps reminding me that I burst into tears at this point, which maybe I did and maybe I didn’t - where we saw a cut, and I felt that everything that had finally come together.

What’s it like seeing the movie with an audience?

That’s been what’s been most interesting to me. Deepa and I have now seen the film, like, 400 times each, and we don’t really need to see it again. But what I do when I sit in screenings is, I watch the audience. We showed it at [the Telluride Film Festival, where it premiered last August], and when the lights came up, there was a gentleman sitting next to me who had tears on his face. I said to him that I was sorry I made him cry - which was a lie, by the way. I was not sorry I made him cry. I was rather pleased I’d made him cry. And he said this sweet thing, he said, “No, don’t be sorry, because these are tears of beauty.” I thought, Can I take that and put it on the poster, please?

And when you’re writing a book you don’t get to see people crying or laughing.

It’s quite true. People are always telling me that they’ve seen people reading my books on the subway, or the beach, or whenever. Other people tell me they see it all the time, but somehow the world is so orchestrated that I never get to see it. So this time, of course, it’s been very delightful to actually be able to watch from the back of the hall'.

Salman Rushdie talks 'Midnight's children', other projects

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Salman Rushdie a Katie Van Syckle, pubblicata oggi da Rolling Stone. Salman Rushdie talks ‘Midnight’s Children’, other projects:

'Did you feel comfortable writing a screenplay?

I’ve written screenplays before, they just haven’t been made. There was an idea to make a movie of my novel The Ground Beneath her Feet, but it didn’t come to anything. I actually spent my younger days writing advertising commercials, and I’ve written a lot of very short scripts, too. My way of writing a screenplay is you close your eyes and watch the movie in your head, then you open your eyes and write it down.

Have you wanted to adapt Midnight’s Children for a while?

No. In fact, I hadn’t been thinking about it at all. It was a happy series of accidents that brought it into being. But if I were to do it again, I’d prefer to write original material for the screen, instead of adapting.

You also helped adapt the book for a Royal Shakespeare Company production. How was that project different from this one?

The stage version wasn’t that much help in the end. The way the novel is written, Saleem, the hero, narrates the story retrospectively to a woman who works in the pickle factory where he’s ended up. On the stage, you can do that. But on screen, I thought it would seem intrusive to constantly cut back to a couple of people talking. It would break the audience’s emotional connection to the story. So I had to completely rethink it for the screen.

What movies were you thinking about when you wrote this treatment?

The great [Luchino] Visconti film, The Leopard. It also has this quality of epic action and revolution, combined with a very intimate family story at its heart. We thought we needed to find that tone of voice, one that allowed us to move from intimacy to epic. Another was a great film by the Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi called Ugetsu, which means “ghost.” That gave us some clues on how to handle the magical realism part of the story. The thing that is interesting about Ugetsu is that the ghost isn’t treated in a ghostly way. The ghost is treated as a character. We thought there was a clue there. If we had these magic children, when they appeared, they would have to behave - and be shot - to look like a real group of children. 

You’re no stranger to appearing in movies, too. My favorite is your cameo in Bridget Jones’ Diary.

You know, acting was always my unscratched itch, when I was in college and even afterwards. It was the only other thing I seriously thought about doing with my life. I probably made the right decision by not going that way, but every so often, that itch does recur, and if I have a chance to scratch it, I will.

How much were you influenced by Indian cinema?

We both, Deepa [Mehta] more than I, are steeped in Indian cinema, and it did help us with the casting. Siddharth, who plays Saleem’s alter ego, Shiva, and the actor Shriya Saran, who plays Parvati the Witch, are big stars in South Indian cinema. The boy who plays the younger Saleem, Darsheel Safary, was somebody that I saw in the Aamir Khan movie Like Stars on Earth a couple years ago. There’s a scene in the film where Saleem follows his mother to this café, and while he’s watching her, on his right, there’s a giant poster of the movie Mother India, which is a deliberate reference to that iconic film, a kind of Indian Gone With the Wind. In some ways, our film is about Mother India, too. 

Did you visit the set and watch dailies?

No. At that time, Deepa and I developed a relationship of real trust. I just said to her, go make the film, and I’ll see you in the cutting room.

Which scenes were the most difficult to write?

The last third of the film gets dark - there are some violent interrogation and torture scenes. Those were very tough to write. Oddly, the solution I found was to write the dialogue of the torturers almost like black comedy. There’s a little touch of Quentin Tarantino in there, a little bit of Reservoir Dogs. 

Your next project is The Next People, a Showtime science fiction series. Where are you with that?

I did three drafts of a script, and they declared themselves to be very happy. But at this point, there is no green light, so we just wait.

Are you interested in a career move towards television?

The sixty-minute drama form has become very rich. There is so much good work going on in that area, almost novelistic work. I’ve been tempted, but we’ll see.

Which shows are your favorites?

I have to say, that after some initial resistance, I’m now a complete Game of Thrones addict. 

Who is your favorite character?

I’m very proud of the fact that we got Charles Dance into Midnight’s Children to play William Methwold. We actually have the head of the Lannister dynasty in our movie!'

Midnight's Children in Italia

La regista Deepa Mehta ci ha gentilmente inviato un tweet nel quale ci informa che Midnight's Children verrà distribuito nelle sale italiane a fine marzo 2013: 'We have a fab distributor in Italy. They plan to release it March end. Love Italy. Spent last summer in Ravello - heaven!'. Grazie a Deepa per la cortesia.

Vedi anche I figli della mezzanotte in Italia, 17 marzo 2013

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

International Film Festival of India 2012

La 43esima edizione dell'International Film Festival of India si svolgerà a Goa dal 20 al 30 novembre 2012. Il titolo di apertura è Life of Pi di Ang Lee. Nel cast Irrfan Khan, nel ruolo di Pi adulto e quindi del narratore, Tabu e Adil Hussain. Una curiosità: Ayan Khan, il figlio di Irrfan, in Life of Pi interpreta il fratellino di Pi. La pellicola verrà distribuita nelle sale del nostro Paese il 20 dicembre 2012 col titolo Vita di Pi. Trailer in italiano. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Ang Lee a Karan Johar, pubblicata da Hindustan Times il 4 novembre 2012. Karan Johar interviews Ang Lee:

'Karan: Irrfan and Tabu are established names. Was it interesting to work with them?

Ang: Yes. They have so much respect from me. They are not the ones who said ‘yes’ to everything I said. They always made sure that what they were asked to do was okay. So I told them that it’s India, so you have to let me know. They are established actors. That’s why I don’t have anything to worry about. My main anxiety is that the reading is almost like a fable. I have worked on that story for the film and the script has been romanticised in the end. Since India is not home for me, my main anxiety is how people will receive the movie here. Will they raise their eyebrows or will they adore it? I don’t know'. 

Vedi anche:

- Irrfan Khan: Everything has come to me late in my life

- Irrfan Khan: Khan rises in the West

Irrfan Khan, Tabu e Ang Lee

Mohsin Hamid: Taking a hermit to a party and letting him dance

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Mohsin Hamid a Eefa Khalid e pubblicata ieri da Dawn. Taking a hermit to a party and letting him dance:

'Was it hard to readjust the novel when it came to writing the screen-play? 

Very hard. I didn’t want to do it. I thought it would be best to stick to writing novels and leave the film to Mira [Nair]. But after two years, Mira couldn’t find anyone she thought could do the screenplay. Some people could write Wall Street but not Pakistan, others could get the desi context but not the corporate one. So she asked me to get involved. I wound up working closely with her and two other writers.

How different was it in collaborating with a screenplay writer? 

Completely different. But mostly I enjoyed it. Once I let go of control I was fine, because in a film it’s the director, not the screenwriter or the novelist, who gets to shape the final vision. (...)

When you’re writing a novel, do you have a specific physical description/perception for each character? And in the film are they similar or did you have to re-create them? 

I tend to keep physical descriptions of characters pretty spare. That way readers get to create them in their imaginations. So I didn’t really have a “mind’s-eye view” of my characters. More of a feel. And that feel was obviously going to be different from everybody else’s.

How involved were you in the filming process? 

I was involved, but more like a consultant rather than someone working on it full-time. I visited the sets and  gave feedback on the rough cuts of the film. I went to the Lahore recording sessions for the sound-track. Mira’s a very generous, inclusive film-maker. She regularly asked for my opinion. But a novel writer is part of the supporting cast in making a film, not the star. (...)

In these changing days and times, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” is more relevant than ever, where would Changez be today? 

Ah, that’s for you to decide. The novel leaves his fate to the reader. With any luck, he’d have fallen for a sexy literature professor and be enjoying life in Lahore, except for the power cuts'.

Vedi anche Le prime del 17 maggio 2013: The reluctant fundamentalist, 11 maggio 2013

Toronto International Film Festival 2012

L'edizione 2012 del Toronto International Film Festival si svolgerà dal 6 al 16 settembre 2012. In cartellone English Vinglish e Il fondamentalista riluttante. Da segnalare la prima mondiale de I figli della mezzanotte, il nuovo lavoro di Deepa Mehta tratto dal romanzo omonimo di Salman Rushdie. Rushdie, che ha firmato la sceneggiatura, ha dichiarato: 'We met with a number of Bollywood titans, to whom I had to "narrate" the film in their homes and even in their stretch limousines; but we agreed, in the end, to avoid casting those Bombay ultra-stars who were unfamiliar with working as part of an ensemble cast. Instead, we chose wonderful actors, highly acclaimed wherever Indian films are seen, who left their egos at home and gave us their all'. Lo scrittore si riferisce al ricco cast di cui fanno parte Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Rahul Bose, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Soha Ali Khan, Anupam Kher, Ronit Roy, Darsheel Safary e Siddharth. La colonna sonora è composta da Nitin Sawhney. La pellicola, di produzione internazionale, dovrebbe essere distribuita in ottobre. Via Twitter, Deepa Mehta mi ha gentilmente assicurato che potremo ammirare il film su grande schermo anche in Italia.

Dibakar Banerjee: I am anti-dumb

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Dibakar Banerjee a Priya Gupta, pubblicata da The Times of India l'8 giugno 2012. I am anti-dumb: Dibakar Banerjee:

'Unlike many other directors in Bollywood who are star-chasers, you’re known for your unconventional casting. (...)

Today, people are calling Emraan Hashmi a box office star, but one year ago when I cast him in “Shanghai”, people who are seen as opinion makers, sneered at me and said, ‘Who? That kissie guy?’ I, of course, can’t stop smiling because I can stand on a roof top and say, ‘This person you have been sniggering at all these years can do this (performance)’. The same goes for Abhay Deol. When I was casting him in ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’ they said, ‘Why are you casting him? He is so non-filmi’, and then suddenly, he became the poster boy for alternative cinema. This gives me the strength to take the next step forward. For instance, you have no idea how much pressure I was put under before the making of “LSD”. After two National Award-winning films, you are expected to work on a big film with a big star. “LSD” was a small film with unknown actors, and yet became successful. Today, I get calls asking me how I made trend-setting films like “LSD”. Even with “Shanghai”, I cast Prosenjit Chatterjee because I wanted the audience to see a new face, and yet feel the impact of a star when he comes into the frame. Filmmaking is all about giving that juicy surprise; a good, commercial surprise. (...)

Which film directors do you look up to?

Shekhar Kapur. Anurag Kashyap, who really makes life quite interesting. It’s because of Anurag Kashyap’s presence that Indian cinema is exciting and can never be secure. He creates this energy of discomfort. I love his “Black Friday”. I was an unknown film director when I saw “Black Friday”. I went up to him and shook his hand. Of course he was too drunk to notice me. The same with Vishal Bhardwaj. After I saw “Maqbool”, I went and shook his hand, and said to him, ‘Today you gave me the courage to go ahead and make my film’. I also remember seeing “Bandit Queen” and going into deep depression because I thought this guy has robbed me of my only shot at glory. This was the film that changed my life. I could not believe that an Indian film could be made like this. (...)

You’ve called your film “Shanghai”. All of us know that connotation. Are you anti-development?

I am not anti-anything. I am just pro-brains. Any development plan that has been thought out, the future road-mapped and if done with a sense of justice and fair play, I am totally open to it. However, if you are doing anything in a dumbass way, which in the long run, creates more problems, even though it may be the flavour of the season, I am against it. Which is why I say I am anti-dumb.

Does “Shanghai” draw anything from your personal life?

Every film of mine draws from my personal life. This film draws from where I live in Parel (Mumbai), the area outside. When I come down from the 20th floor of my swanky building into the chawls [grandi caseggiati], I see people who have been living there for a century moving away to make way for the new multi-storey structures coming up. I am not saying it is good or bad. I can see society change in front of my own eyes. I can see history operate in front of my own eyes. On the 20th floor, every night, I am dancing at a party because down there in the chawl I hear a new DJ with a new remix of a new song and there are political meetings, there are marriages and there is one festival every week. So it’s like I am sitting on a cultural treasure house and every day I get something new. All of this has gone into "Shanghai" - the street band, the loudspeaker, the drum beat, (...) the non-stop celebration... So, even though “Shanghai” is a political thriller, in the film we are out on the road dancing, everybody is partying on the road'.

Irrfan Khan in un film di Marco Amenta?

Irrfan Khan interpreterà un film tratto dal saggio Il banchiere dei poveri di Muhammad Yunus, premio Nobel per la pace nel 2006. La pellicola, diretta dal regista Marco Amenta, è una coproduzione fra Italia (Eurofilm), Francia, Germania e India. La sceneggiatura è redatta da Massimo Gaudioso, Sergio Donati e Marco Amenta. Vi segnalo l'articolo Irrfan turns nobel laureate for next film, di Subhash K. Jha, pubblicato oggi da The Times of India: 'Apparently, the makers of the film zeroed in on Irrfan as the real-life hero of the downtrodden after they saw him play (...) in Mira Nair’s The Namesake. Irrfan confirmed the news and said, "I have been in talks for that film for a long time. I have already given my consent." However, he did not divulge any further details for contractual reasons. A friend of the actor said, "The challenge here is to recreate a living character of such distinguished achievement. Irrfan will meet Muhammad Yunus and spend as much time with him as possible. When he played Paan Singh Tomar, he relied on his imagination. But playing Prof. Yunus is a far bigger challenge since he is a much revered living personality. Irrfan will take a few months to get into the character".' Conoscete un modo migliore per rallegrare un piovoso lunedì?

Aggiornamento del 14 giugno 2012: ho contattato l'Eurofilm via email. Niccolò Stazzi conferma la notizia: 'Il film è in fase di pre-produzione. Il regista sarà Marco Amenta e gli sceneggiatori sono Massimo Gaudioso e Sergio Donati. Lo script ha vinto un premio al Tribeca Film Festival. Maggiori dettegli potrò darglieli tra circa un mese'.

Aggiornamento del 10 maggio 2022: purtroppo il progetto non si è concretizzato.

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

Hay Festival of Literature and Arts 2012

La 25esima edizione dell'Hay Festival of Literature and Arts si svolge dal 31 maggio al 10 giugno 2012 nella città dei libri: Hay-on Wye, nel Galles. La manifestazione prevede una rassegna cinematografica che include i seguenti titoli indiani: Rang De Basanti (Soha Ali Khan presente alla proiezione), Khosla Ka Ghosla (Anupam Kher presente alla proiezione), Firaaq (Nandita Das presente alla proiezione). In programma anche un incontro con Deepa Mehta e Salman Rushdie che discuteranno dell'adattamento cinematografico de I figli della mezzanotte.

Salman Rushdie e Deepa Mehta, Hay-on Wye 2012

The 10 greatest movies of the millennium

Il 15 maggio 2012 Time ha pubblicato la lista dei dieci film più grandiosi distribuiti a partire dall'anno 2000. Devdas occupa l'ottava posizione.

The 10 greatest movies of the millennium (thus far), Richard Corliss:

'A year after Moulin Rouge! had its world premiere at Cannes, another visually intoxicating musical opened at the festival, introducing sang-and-danced Bollywood dramas to the international culturati. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s (...) novel inspired at least a half-dozen film versions before this one - in its time, the priciest movie in Indian history (at about $ 10.6 million). The plot, based on a 1917 novel, is good-ol’ family-values propaganda, drenched in luscious masochism: rich-boy Devdas (all-world charismatist Shahrukh Khan) leaves home, abandons his girlfriend (former Miss World Aishwarya Rai) and suffers magnificently while dallying with a prostitute (Madhuri Dixit, a hot number who had danced flamenco on men’s libidos for a decade or so before appearing in this worldly-wise role). The piece is played with such commitment that the tritest plot twists seem worth believing - and dancing to, in nine nifty production numbers. But the fervid emotion is what makes the thing sing. Beyond that, Devdas is a visual ravishment, with sumptuous sets, fabulous frocks and beautiful people to fill them; it has a grandeur the old Hollywood moguls would have loved'.

Dibakar Banerjee: Emraan Hashmi wanted to look ugly

Emraan Hashmi in Shanghai

Chi avrebbe mai immaginato che un giorno Emraan Hashmi, il serial kisser di Bollywood, sarebbe stato scritturato nientemeno che da Dibakar Banerjee? Eppure per Shanghai è successo. Vi segnalo Emraan wanted to look ugly: Dibakar Banerjee, una divertente intervista concessa dal duo a Priyanka Jain, pubblicata oggi da Hindustan Times:

'What do you like about each other's brand of cinema?

Emraan: When I saw Khosla Ka Ghosla, I was impressed. Later, I came to know this strong and conceptually brilliant film was made on a miniscule budget. When Dibakar first messaged me, saying he wanted to meet to discuss a possible film, I had already decided to say yes. I had to work with him. He makes unique films that others would shy away from, and yet manage to strike a chord with the audience. Shanghai, though different from his usual films, does have his stamp on it. It’s a thriller, a whodunit and entertaining as well. The film is profound but it’s not preachy.

Dibakar: I have liked Emraan since his debut film Footpath (2003). He had little to do in that film, but he stood out from the rest. Despite the glam-heavy films he has done, you can see how his eyes speak a lot. I love how they can emote so much. Emraan always clicks with the audience instantly. He is so relatable in the films he has done that your heart goes out for the character.

So far, both of you have explored diverse sides of filmmaking. How has working together benefited both of you? Also, tell us more about each other's contributions to the film.

Emraan: There is a certain way in which Dibakar envisions characters in his films, a quality that is very unique to him. I haven’t seen things like that before in the films I have done so far. There is a certain subtext to every performance and role. He goes into the complexities of what each character is thinking - where it’s coming from, where it’s going and what it’s going through. That means even more hard work for the actor. He does a lot of prep work.

Dibakar: It is a winning formula for both of us. We were diametrically opposite, but what is more important is the coming together of Abhay Deol and Emraan Hashmi on screen. That is the odd, unique combination; people don’t know what to expect. A lot of people told me I had gone mad casting these two together and warned me against it. But I enjoy going against the grain.

Emraan, will being in a Dibakar film help you shed the serial kisser tag and let people take you seriously? And Dibakar, will Emraan’s mass appeal help you get eyeballs for your films?

Emraan: I don’t sign films with directors simply because their previous ventures had a Rs 50 crore opening. I don’t do south remakes just because it’s the trend now. I don’t jump onto those bandwagons. I like people like Dibakar Banerjee, Raj Kumar Gupta who are make interesting and unique cinema. I want to be part of their films. It’s not the need to shed a tag but the desire to do more. I take my films pretty seriously, be it Jannat 2 or Shanghai.

Dibakar: Of course. Emraan has a pull with his audience. However, we aren’t totally counting on that because we have cast Emraan in a non-sensual role. In fact, Emraan was excited when we told him: ‘You won’t look hot on screen!’. He jumped up and down in excitement when I said :‘We will make you look ugly.’ In this film, you will see a very repulsive and grotesque Emraan as Jogi Parmar.

Emraan, was it challenging to work with a director known for his strong subject-oriented films and maverick style of filming? Dibakar, was it daunting to cast Emraan in a non-glam avatar?

Emraan: I had to go through ten workshops with Dibakar’s team. It breaks you as an actor! He hurled me into the fire with this one. Jogi is not even five percent close to who I am. The character is someone I don’t understand at all. The whole shooting experience has been a discovery of sorts for me.

Dibakar: The audience is in for a surprise from Emraan in this film. He was initially uncomfortable and nervous about becoming Jogi. But he has put in a lot of hard work. Which other established actors would go through acting workshops to get into character? The first day when he came to the sets after the workshop, the crew was abuzz about how they saw Jogi in him and not Emraan!'.