Movie Murmur

A edit grab from the film 'Double Life' Didn't I mention earlier that the film laboratory person at Mahim talked about the state of affairs at Films Division? Well, that day he said something else too. Their laboratory often processed and bulk printed the ‘News Magazines’ that were to be shown compulsorily in movie theaters; after Films Division supplied it with the negatives of the films. The laboratory person had then whispered into my ears something to this effect, “They would order let's say X number of prints that were to be kept in X number of cans for a pan India release. Now, who knows what would be inside those X number of cans? Tell me... who knows? "   Well, it seems in retrospect, that whisper that day encapsulated in itself the crux of the matter that has been plaguing the organization over the years. Who knows what would be in those cans? Who knows, what are the Films Division films that were being screened at theaters across the country; an

It is almost like an odd-even scheme if you are seeing some of your work along with a group of selected and informed film buffs. Even - because you begin to see the graph of your journey and the connection between your seemingly different films. Odd - because the 'retrospective', so to say, gives you the feeling of being a 'senior citizen' and you end up saying, 'Holy shit, not so soon!!!' Ashish Arora Deepa Pathak Gurpal Singh Deepa Pathak and Ashish Aurora run a quintessential resort in the hilly Uttarakand village called Sonapani, in India. Well, it is not just a resort - they organise music festivals, food festivals and film festivals for select groups here. Gurpal Singh helps them curate some of these festivals. Raam Reddy, Niharika Popli, Ramchandra PN The film festival from 4th to 6th of March, 2016 was their tenth one in five years. Each time three film makers are invited and their select films screened. This time, it was young

A sunrise at Telangana. It is only in Hyderabad that someone like Parushuram Singh can sponsor a Biriyani and listen to the Telangana VS Seemaadra argument initiated by someone like Upender Apparasu. If Parushuram had anything remotely to do with any Government in India, in present times he could have initiated a case of sedition against Upender. Elavarty Satya Prakash and I, who had wry smiles on our faces during this discussion, would also be liable, then. Fortunately, Praushuram and Upender are just two old colleagues from the film world - local Hydrabadies. We were sitting in a cozy roof top hotel at Hyderabad when we were having this discussion and after attending a screening at Lamakaan of my recent film ‘Haale-Kangaal’ (The Bankrupts). Lamakaan Lamakaan is a cultural hub in Hyderabad. Recently, there were murmurs that it would be asked to shut down, allegedly due to parking issues that were created when culture shows happened here. But a swift signature camp

A 'Work in Progress' version of 'The Bankrupts' (Haal-E-Kangaal) was screened at the Manipal International Film Festival on the 20th April, 2014. The film was not colour corrected, the sound was not mixed. The Film Festival was jointly conducted by the Manipal Institute of Communication and the Udupi Chirta Samaj.  As a part of the communication course, the students have to conduct an event, a film festival, in this university. This is the third time that the Manipal Institute of Communication is conducting a Film Festival; last year they had celebrated 100 years of Indian cinema; where they had also screened my 93 minute documentary on theater personality BV Karanth called  'BV Kranth: Baba'. A 118 minute version of 'The Bankrupts' (Haal-E-Kangaal) was screened for the second year direction students at the Film & TV Institute of India in Poona some time back this year. After an interaction with the audience, I did go back to the drawing b