"I enjoy the writing process a lot because there is no external pressure. As a director, I tend to have more pressure. So, when people see my film and appreciate me as a director, it is because of the writer in me. In those pressure situations, the writer will come out and find a solution. There is a lot of improvisation that takes place on the set, and the writer in me helps take those creative calls."

When People See My Film And Appreciate Me As A Director, It Is Because Of The Writer In Me: Karthik Subbaraj

'Birdman' Inarritu Ready to Shake Up Audiences with 'The Revenant'

Mexican maestro Alejander Inarritu's upcoming release, 'The Revenant', has been garnering rapturous reviews from critics across the board. The verdict: Innaritu follows up his Oscar-winning 'Birdman' with another masterpiece. The film has been touted as a front-runner for major Oscar awards.

Critics have also heaped praise on Leonardo DiCaprio's "searing performance" worthy of an Oscar. One many well ask what else does DeCaprio need to do now to lay his hands on that award that has  been eluding the actor over the past decade despite his best efforts to snag it.

The Revenant tells the tale of 1820s explorer and fur trapper Hugh Glass (DiCaprio), who is mauled by a ferocious grizzly bear in the American wilderness and then left for dead by his comrade John Fitzgerald (a captivatingly cold-eyed Tom Hardy). Fitzgerald also kills Hugh’s half-Native American son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) in front of the crippled Glass. Though brutally mauled to pieces, Glass literally rises from his own grave and sets out across the harsh land in search of Fitzgerald. 

Commenting on the film, the Daily Beast says:

Working with famed cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (an Oscar winner each of the past two years, for Gravity and Birdman), Iñárritu delivers one breathtaking snapshot of suffering and tenacity after another, in the process making The Revenant the most awe-inspiringly beautiful film of the year. The duo’s camera begins by gliding in and out of a chaotic battle with fluid ferocity, moving in to close-up and out to grand, expansive panoramas (and back again) with a masterful grasp of spatial dynamics. 

Such aesthetic virtuosity is ever-present, with Iñárritu and Lubezki crafting a bevy of prolonged single-take centerpieces that vacillate between intense intimacy and large-scale wonder and terror, all of them shot with a naturalistic splendor—the majesty of forests coated in fresh snow, the formidable iciness of roaring rivers, the gnarliness of torn-to-shreds human and animal carcasses—that has a rugged, tactile quality to it. (The Most Breathtakingly Beautiful Film of the Year)

Film magazine Variety, which is less generous in its review, says:

 Few prestige directors have so fully committed to the notion of cinema as an endurance test as Alejandro G. Inarritu, and he pushes himself, the audience and an aggrieved 19th-century frontiersman well beyond their usual limits in “The Revenant.” Bleak as hell but considerably more beautiful, this nightmarish plunge into a frigid, forbidding American outback is a movie of pitiless violence, grueling intensity and continually breathtaking imagery, a feat of high-wire filmmaking to surpass even Inarritu and d.p. Emmanuel Lubezki’s work on last year’s Oscar-winning “Birdman.” 

Yet in attempting to merge a Western revenge thriller, a meditative epic in the Terrence Malick mold, and a lost-in-the-wilderness production of near-Herzogian insanity, “The Revenant” increasingly succumbs to the air of grim overdetermination that has marred much of Inarritu’s past work: It’s an imposing vision, to be sure, but also an inflated and emotionally stunted one, despite an anchoring performance of ferocious 200% commitment from Leonardo DiCaprio. (Innaritu's Brutal, Beautiful, Yet Emotionally Stunted Epic) 

Steve Buscemi: Thee Creepy, Neurotic, Oddball Misfit

It is heartening to see an article on an actor who is not only one of the most under-rated in Hollywood, but also someone who has never been in the showbiz race for the simple reason he does not care a damn about it. Yet, he is one of the most recognisable faces on television and cinema. Make no mistake, Steve Buscemi is right up there among the best, and has probably more ace performances under his belt that better known actors would vie for.

This piece in 'The Telegraph (London)' on Buscemi's birthday paints a fine canvas of the actor, the characters he has played and the kind of experiences (he has driven an ice-cream truck, has been a furniture remover, a dishwasher and a bus boy) that he brings to the complex roles that he plays with ease on the screen. As the article says:

"He brings such complexity to the bad guys he plays – often neurotic oddballs – that his name must be on speed dial if casting agents want the perfect creepy, convincing misfit."

...One of his big cinema breaks came in working for the Coen Brothers, with whom he has made six movies. The Coens first used him as Mink in Miller's Crossing. He also played Donny in The Big Lebowski and, perhaps his finest role for them, Carl Showalter in the magnificent Fargo."

However, as all Buscemi fans would agree, his greatest triumph was as Nucky Thompson in the highly rated HBO TV series, Boardwalk Empire.

Read on:

The Master Misfit

Is Imtiaz Ali's 'Tamasha' a Companion Piece to 'Rockstar'?

Weeks before the build-up for Imtiaz Ali's new release 'Tamasha' (starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone), I was curious to know whether Imtiaz might have pulled in a few threads from his 2011 film 'Rockstar' and sewed them into the story of Tamasha. And it turns out that there are quite a few similarities in both the films (apart from Ranbir, of course).

As in the case of 'Rockstar', most critics have been quick to tear apart 'Tamasha' too for its story, structure, pace and premise. But today, 'Rockstar', despite having been panned by critics, has acquired  a near cult status for portraying a story of an angst-ridden singer who finds his life's redemption through the woman he loves and yet loses in the end.

Same is going to be the fate of 'Tamasha', although this film has done reasonably well at the box office thanks to the pull factor of its lead stars/actors. From what I gathered from some of the reviews, 'Tamasha', despite its imperfections and shortcomings, has the makings of a classic that will stand the test of time in the years and decades to come.

As Baradwaj Rangan (The Hindu's critic) pointed out in his review ('Tamasha'...For Imtiaz Ali fans, another rich, messy, imperfect love story)

"...Ali creates an intense, immersive experience, a lot of which is surely autobiographical....

...Ali writes for men the kind of stories Barbara Cartland wrote for women, except that his stories have a steel core of angst – they’re Snarlequin Romances. If you’re logical-minded, you’ll probably look at his heroes and say, 'Oh, grow up!' But you need to be a romantic like Ali – or like Jordan (Rockstar), or like Veer Singh from Love Aaj Kal – to really enter his world...."

But the piece that pickled my mind was the one titled 'Why Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar and Tamasha Might Just be the Same Film'. In drawing several interesting similarities and comparisons of both films, its authort Pradeep Menon writes:

"...Rockstar and Tamasha are incredibly similar, and yet they are vastly different. The one line story may be the same. But again, with Imtiaz Ali, it isn’t the story that matters, but the character. Ved needs Tara as a cocoon for his suppressed alter-ego. In both films, there’s no explanation for why the woman has such unfathomable effects on the man, and this lack of explanation is explicitly stated in each film. Heer and Tara aren’t merely women; they are concepts. They are the cure for whatever illness afflicts the minds of Jordan and Ved respectively. The films differ in the way these concepts affect the protagonists. As the oft-repeated saying goes, it isn’t about the destination, but about the journey. And every journey is different...."

Mani Ratnam Unplugged: In Conversation with BFI's Peter Webber

"Sometimes you're so involved in your work; all you can see is pixels. To be able to see the whole picture, it's necessary to disassociate yourself from it and look at it objectively."
                                                                    有的

“All a filmmaker is trying to do on set is to make the scenes come alive, through all these shots, angles and movements. But sometimes you realise that if the actor can deliver, you simply have to be the eye and observe!”

Here is a rare interview of director Mani Ratnam (with British Film Institute's Peter Webber) that sees the reticent film maker open up on his craft, his influences and inspirations, his way of weaving songs into the narrative--and what goes on in his mind while shooting a scene.

Please watch the video of this interview:

An Actor of All Seasons

For someone who grew up watching films starring this versatile actor, it is indeed sad to know that Saeed Jaffrey is no more.  Jaffrey (January 8, 1929-November 15, 2015), as is well known, straddled disparate worlds (theatre, radio, theatre, television and films) and was a director's actor who excelled in films across the art-commercial spectrum. As actor Om Puri put it: "Look at his range of work...It was staggering. He worked with Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor, John Huston, Sai Paranjpye, David Lean and Yash Chopra. He enjoyed his work thoroughly, and it showed." Adds actor Deepti Naval, who worked with him in the films Ek Baar Phir and Chashme Buddoor: "When Saaed arrived, he looked around the crowded area, spotted a man walking by in a lungi with the Taj Mahal printed on it. He decided his character Lalan Miyan would wear that lungi. He made that man take off the lungi and wore it. That's how I'd like to remember Saeed. Vivacious and exuberant as an actor. When he wanted something, he would get it anyhow."

When Saeed Jaffrey wanted something he would get it anyhow

He began his career in theatre and ended up working on more than 100 Bollywood productions and earned a BAFTA nomination for his role in My Beautiful Laundrette. 

Of the films (starring Saeed) that I watched, I particularly remember his performances in Shatranj ke Khiladi, Chashme Budoor, Masoom, My Beautiful Laundrette, Gandhi, and Sardar to name a few.  What makes them memorable for me is the ease with which he performed those roles, showcasing his range of talent in an understated yet brilliant manner.

To me, Jaffrey was not only a consummate actor  but also the first Indian who successfully did the crossover to Western cinema much before the word became fashionable in India. 

Here is a scene from Shatranj ki Khiladi that I would like to leave you with:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b5vPGaMpGws

16 Legendary Filmmakers Praised by Other Great Directors

For lovers of auteur cinema, this article is a treat. Read this excerpt before going to the full article:

"While the medium is galloping towards infinite possibilities, an introspective study of its past is becoming more and more necessary. One significant way in which cinema triumphs as a truly global experience is in upholding its universal character over the ages, and sustaining an all-encompassing intimate fraternity, despite attaining the proportions of a more and more industrial technological exercise. 

Twentieth century auteur cinema found its lifeline in the film festivals… a celebration of independent content, fresh aesthetics and substantial experimentation. Because of these film festivals, and a critical movie-watching culture and appetite developing in cities around the world, those were undoubtedly the warmest times in the history of the craft."

The full article: 16 Legendary Filmmakers Praised by Other Great Directors