Movie Murmur

The Unbearable Being of Lightness from Ram PN on Vimeo . To screen 'The Unbearable Being of Lightness' or any of my other films in your schools, colleges, offices and film clubs please contact HERE

A still from the film The public premier of the film THE UNBEARABLE BEING OF LIGHTNESS was held on 12-11-2016 at the  Kolkata International Film Festival in the  Competition Section for documentary films at Shishir Mancha 2. Click here for the SCHEDULE Link to the Film Festival Site KIFF

The trailer of 'The Unbearable Being of Lightness' - a documentary on a suicide note, a few gazes and a shopping area by Ramchandra PN To screen 'The Unbearable Being of Lightness' or any of my other films in your schools, colleges, offices and film clubs please contact HERE

The Unbearable Being of Lightness A few days back I gave some finishing touches to my new work "The Unbearable Being of Lightness", a documentary on a suicide note, a few gazes and a shopping area. I was putting in the credit titles into it. The last title card always is 'A film by...'. Every time I type this title card I invariably hesitate, giving a pause. This time too, it was no exception. As I deleted the words 'film by' I stared into the blank title card wondering, as always, is this really a film? After all I had not used a 'thin flexible strip of plastic or other material coated with light-sensitive emulsion for exposure in a camera, used to produce photographs or motion pictures' to make this work. I had used a digital camera. I thought of using 'A video by...'. But somehow the images of fungus ridden U-matic magnetic tapes that we used to work on ages ago splashed into my mind. No one uses 'A video by...'....

Haal e Kangaal Poster I always wondered if Haal-e-Kangaal (The Bankrupts) would blend itself well with an rural audience. Some of my friends who have seen this film too have expressed apprehensions about this.  Post screening. The twenty five screening that I have had of this film were largely for a city based audiences and in cities. This is an audience that has already an exposure for offbeat cinema and world cinema. To an extent I found their positive reactions to the film, not surprising. But I always wanted a rural or a small town screening. That is when I thought the 'niche' tag would vanish for this film. I found an opportunity when I screened the film in Ahmednagar, a small town in central Maharashtra, at the New Arts, Science and Commerce college. Bapu Chandanshive Bapu Chandanshive who heads the Communication Department is the guiding force behind the film club that the Arts department runs at the campus. The club is presently managed by th...

Finally, Haal e Kangaal (The Bankrupts) is seeing a VOD (Video on Demand) release at MOVIZZ.COM. Please do click on the snap below, go to the site, log in, watch the movie and tell us about it. 'Haal e Kangaal' being watched on demand If you want to screen 'Haal e Kangaal' (The Bankrupts) or any of my other film in your schools, colleges , film clubs and offices, please contact us  HERE. 

There is something about Dharwad that makes me go back to it every now and then. Dharwad Pedas Although this is where I had shot my second feature film ‘Putaani Party’  in 2008, my first memories of this place dates back to my childhood. We were transferred there. I was in my high school, then.  It was here that I had started learning cycling. It was here that I was waiting by the highway, in excitement for three hours on an empty stomach, to watch the London-Sydney care race, getting thrilled by the swanky cars zip by.  The route touched the town of Dharwad and our school had declared half a day of holiday, so that we kids see this race.  It was here when we friends giggled away to glory when we watched a naked monk who was on a religious padayatra (a tour by walk). Poor man, he was oblivious to our intent. It was here that I saw my first film shooting - that of Shankar Nag's 'Minchina Oota'. We had taken his autograph, then. It was here that I firs...

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...

The last time I met Dr Verghese Pulickal, it was around four years back when I had gone to conduct a workshop at the Kuvempu University in Karnataka. This year too Dr Poornananda DS from the Mass Communication department invited me to hold a similar workshop; and of course he wanted to screen ‘Haal-e-Kangaal’ (The Bankrupts) to his students. I reached Shimogga at about five in the morning; Dr Verghese received me and took him to his house. A couple of hours later we were driving down to Shankarghatta, where the University exists. There is now a brand new four lane road built enroute. This is laid specially for the airport that is being planned in Shimogga. I was told that the planning itself is in the initial stage, but the approach roads are ready. At one point somewhere down the line, the road narrows down. Members of three houses here have refused to vacate; they have moved to the courts. Dissent… Dr Poornananda DS The workshops are always educative for me. You thin...

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...

Sumit Ghosh Sumit Ghosh is an affable character.   Although he joined the Film & TV Institute of India a year after I did, we graduated together, as he was in the editing course, which was then just two years. For a year or so, he was even my neighbor at the institute hostel.  I had requested him to support me in arranging a few screenings of ‘Haal-e-Kangaal’ in Kolkata. Referring to the dates that I had chalked out he had mailed me, ‘Oh, why did you plan during those days?’ He was worried that we could not meet, as he was to go to the North-East for a workshop. But before going he had put me on to filmmaker Pradipta Bhattacharyya. Pradipta Bhattacharyya Pradipta Bhattacharyya had made “ Bakita Byaktigato ’ (The Rest is Personal), a film in Bengali language that is not only refreshing in it’s form and content but it had also broken away from the conventions of the ‘realism’ debate that Indian cinema has gloriously clung on to, over the years, ever sin...