Movie Murmur

Niraj Sah and Hemant Mahaur in 'Haal e Kangaal' (The Bankrupts) It was started off when friend Shrikant Prabhu goaded me to send a dvd copy of the film to Vidyarthi Chatterjee, a no-nonsense film critic from Kolkata. When I sent it to him, it was Durga pooja time.  After a couple of days when he did not receive my calls, I was worried. The meaning making machine that my mind is, thought that maybe the senior critic has not liked the film.  And then the next day came the call, that lasted all of forty seven minutes. He had not heard the phone ring as the Durga Pooja celebrations around his house was at its peak. After cursing the noise levels, he spoke about my film, Haal e Kangaal (The Bankrupts), the one that I had sent it to him.  During the course of the conversation he said among other things, "The film is unusual, perky, interesting, experimental and smartly made in a positive sense. There are a few films like this, and you should continue to

To MK Raghavendra Greetings. I have today sent you a dvd copy of my new feature film called 'Haal-e-Kangaal (The Bankrupts)'. I was wondering if you could see the film at your convenience and give an opinion on it. ******* Dear Mr Ramachandra,  A still from Haal-e-Kangaal (The Bankrupts) I watched your film and found it very interesting conceptually. But here are some critical comments: a) It is a very personal film, I think, about the dreams film students have, the compromises they make and where they finally go. I would say that it is very, very pessimistic. It shows how most lives are actually wasted. 20 years after graduating people are forced to tell lies to those who were once closest to them – to look better than they are. It is also about the end of friendships . b) Its difficulty is that it is too personal. It is like making a film only for those who have gone through the same experiences. There will be very few who will feel what you feel by watchin

Naveen Sunag is an independent film maker based out of UK. He is a graduate from the VGIK film school in Russia. His views after watching the film The Bankrupts (Haal-e-Kangaal):- Hemant Mahaur "The Bankruts ( Haal - e – Kangal), a film made by dear friend, film maker P.N. Ramchandra effectively narrates the intellectual, emotional , ethical, cultural, professional so on and so forth, bankruptcy of the society.  It is a productive piece that shows the decadence of the present world around us. A world of adjustments, easily jumping to conclusion and passing on judgements on one another. The jump cuts and the characters of the film going inside their characters, coming out of them at times to narrate the script as another character (This also reminds me of one my own scripts), a technique used in the film goes well with the narration .  Needless to say both actors have done good justice to the characters they have played. In all the film engages the audience we

Cameraman Narayanan Venkataraman watching a projection in Mumbai It was clear during the very conception of the film 'Haal-e-Kangaal' (The Bankrupts) that it would be difficult to find a conventional release for it. Despite this, the small crew that the film had, did get enrolled into the making of this film. They found it worth giving their time and effort for the film and I am thankful for them.  We shot the film in 2013, had a rough cut in 2013 itself. I then met a producer who had once asked me to come to him, if I had an edit in hand. It would be easier to for him to 'pick' the film because half the work was already done. He met me, heard me patiently and told me that he would be needing a minimum of 25 lakhs of rupees to be put into publicity and marketing for any film to have a conventional release, however limited it maybe. 'If I had that kind of money, I would put it into real estate', he added. Very logical. He already had two such

The Bankrupts (Haal-e-Kangaal) V N Lakshminarayana, Critic, Mysore It was a fruitful experience to watch 'The Bankrupts' at Mysuru and again In Bengaluru. 'The Bankrupts' is a high profile movie packed with the dialectics of form and content, image and sound, verbal and the nonverbal expression, truth and falsehood, bluff and imagination, gender and human relationships, capital and cinematic art- and finally the ideology in the era of postmodernism that is embedded in the very fabric of social life of the people at large. An undercurrent of sadness born out of systemic deprivation of existential opportunities to realize one's talents adds to the absurdity of the entangled life situation the two artiste friends are placed in, gives the movie a tint of comedy too. The minimalistic approach adopted in creating the entire movie is not only novel but also path breaking in the production of Indian films. Rajiv Kumar, Film maker, Delhi 'Th

This is a fake trailer (3.35 mins) is made by two filmmakers Tripurari Gupta and Lokesh Sharma; for a film called THE BANKRUPTS (HAAL-E-KANGAAL), in which they have themselves acted. Details of the film 118 minutes Hindi / EST / India. Cast: Niraj Sah, Hemant Mahaur Associate Director: Suresh Gujar Sound: Santosh Kumar DOP: Narayanan Venkataraman Writer, Director, Editor: Ramchandra PN If you are looking to arrange a screening for your club / college / house / office please click HERE

Teaser of my latest fiction feature film 'The Bankrupts' (Haal-E-Kangaal) Production details: 118 Minutes / Hindi / India / 2013 / English Subtitles Synopsis: Two filmmakers meet after a gap of fifteen years but struggle to shred away their uncomfortable common past. Credits: Cast: Niraj Sah, Hemant Mahaur Associate Director: Suresh Gujar Hindi Dialogues: Niraj Sah Producer: Sushma PN Location Sound: Santosh Kumar Cameraman: Narayanan Venkatramanan Story, Screenplay, Direction: Ramchandra PN If you are looking to arrange a screening for your club / college / house / office please click HERE

I was in Pune last week to conduct a six days short film making workshop for the TV direction students at my Alma Mater, The Film and TV Institute of India. Ravi Dawala, who was facilitating the workshop, and I interacted a lot during this period. We discussed about a host of topics which included amongst other things - the Big Bang theory, Stephen Hawking, the grand design, atoms etc… We also dealt with the question of making independent self funded films - like the one I am presently working on called Haal-e-Kangaal' (The Bankrupts) and the difficulty of finding an audience for such films, when we are not going through the mainstream distribution system. All of a sudden Ravi asked me a question, ‘Why are you making the film that you are making?' For a second I was speechless. Why was I making films at all? And then I said, ‘I have made the films that I have made because I have said that I would make them. Now, after having said so, if I had not made those those films,