'Spielberg moves to a new realm of artistry in Bridge of Spies'

In a wonderful review on Spielberg's latest film, Bridge of Spies, The Hindu's critic Baradwaj Rangan says "with films like Munich and Bridge of Spies, Spielberg has moved to a realm of artistry where he’s able to put out ideas and also give us cinema, which is something of a Holy Grail for mainstream filmmakers who aren’t just out to make a buck.

He further writes that "It’s important to judge Spielberg as a mainstream filmmaker, and not compare him to someone who might make more uncompromised films that would play in a handful of art-house theatres.) How to entertain versus how to educate. How to make us enjoy the film (a function of our senses) and yet make us think (a function of the intellect). Spielberg balances it all beautifully (in Bridge of Spies)."

I was particularly happy to see Rangan mention about director Guillermo del Toro's admiration for Spielberg's style of making films (especially, Catch Me If You Can). In a recent interview with deadline.com, Toro said, "It’s preternaturally nimble with such grace in the way it’s staged. It’s so brisk. It’s so breathless. It’s so apparently effortless and so damn fluid. The hardest thing to accomplish on film is to make time stand still, or make a story completely fluid. Those are two truly, truly difficult things to do… The way [Spielberg’s] narrative flows is just almost miraculous and so beautifully staged.”

Rangan adds: "In other words, del Toro admires Spielberg for the reasons many of us do: his amazing ability to direct a sequence. Few other directors use the space on screen so well, move the camera so instinctually that we think this is the only way this sequence could have been staged, the only way it would have made sense."

Read the full review here: 

TITLI: When Normal is Dysfunctional in Delhi's badlands

I am sure fans of director Dibakar Banerjee (Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Shanghai) would hate to miss this flick.

This time, however, Dibakar has donned the producer's mantle (along Yash Raj Films), helping his team member Kanu Behl transform a script into a film that has won rave reviews at Cannes 2014 and other international festivals.

Story synopsis: In the badlands of Delhi's hellish underbelly. Titli, the youngest member of a violent car-jacking brotherhood, plots a desperate bid to escape the 'family' business.

Here is the trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OOqiQiMkXDA&feature=youtu.be

Dibakar and his team members had some interesting insights on the film.

In one interview, Dibakar says: "To be honest I didn’t quite pick Titli. It was Kanu who picked me as the producer. Titli, as a script from the NFDC Film Script Lab, was one of the most sought after Indie scripts of 2013. At various points, many producers, including YRF (before my association with them), wanted to produce it. I was at first involved only creatively because I was fascinated by the script and the characters. What grabbed me was the fact that it said many profound things in layers, without the characters and the milieu sounding pretentious or arty. It’s one of the simplest films I have seen in terms of its vocabulary: Simple and strong yet truly deep."

In the same interview, Director Behl points out that Dibakar played a big role in creating an enabling environment for the film to be made. "Dibakar is a director’s producer, because he himself is a director. I think that while being the co-producer of Titli, Dibakar was trying to give me the working conditions he himself would want as a director. Whether it was a crucial session on the script or while finishing the edit, his experience as a filmmaker helped cut out the fat. Other than that, the most important I would say, have been the conversations, unrelated to Titli, that we’ve had over the years. They have helped nurture my voice."

In another piece, Ranvir Shorey (who plays one of Titli's brothers in the film) says: “It is never easy to essay characters that are far removed from your everyday life but most of filmmaking is about this. I do not belong to that social class, and it is quite different to read about such things and watch them on TV. We had workshops to help us understand the psyche, and how to talk like them."

The film releases on October 30, 2015.

Subrata Mitra: The Cinematic Eye of Satyajit Ray

A wonderful piece on Subrata Mitra, one of Indian cinema's pioneering cinematographers who brought a unique styule and sensibility to the art of capturing moving images. Mitra is acclaimed by cinematic greats around the world for his magical use of natural and 'bounce' light  to create black-and-white masterpieces for film makers  such as  Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar, Aparajito, Devi), Merchant-Ivory (Householder, Shakespearewalah) and Basu Bhattacharya (Teesri Kasam).  

As the writer says:

"...Subrata Mitra can best be described as the perfect cinematic eye of Satyajit Ray. So well did he understand Ray’s thoughts, imagination and visualisation that his camera's interpretation of them was sans any flaws....

...Ray’s films after 'Nayak' (1966) lacked the genius of Mitra’s cinematography. Mitra sans Ray was also not at his altruistic best. One of Indian cinema’s greatest tragedies.

...The genius took a sabbatical from cinematography in mid 70s. He returned in 1986 to shoot Ramesh Sharma’s 'New Delhi Times'. The shot of Shashi Kapoor running in a dream sequence as his newspaper office burns remains a lesson in cinematography...."


Read the full article: http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/with-a-perfect-eye/article7792914.ece

'Spectre' ultimately feels like a lesser film than 'Skyfall' : Hollywood Reporter

The reviews of 'Spectre' are out, and most of them have given five-star ratings to the film. Of the many I read, I thought the review by Hollywood Reporter gave a pretty rounded view of the movie, picking out the high-points and pitfalls in good measure.  

According to the magazine, "while its commercial prospects seem bulletproof, Spectre ultimately feels like a lesser film than Skyfall, falling back on cliche and convention."

It further adds: "Spectre is the most expensive 007 movie to date, with a budget rumored to be well north of $250 million. At 148 minutes, it is also the longest, which becomes evident in the bloated second half. But Mendes kicks off in the same impressive mode as Skyfall, deepening Bond's back story while self-consciously borrowing from the franchise's classic Sixties heritage. The first act is great, full of dark portent and bravura film-making flourishes. However, the final hour disappoints, with too many off-the-peg plot twists and too many characters conforming to type."

Read the full review: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/spectre-film-review-833833

However, Hollywood Reporter might seem as an exception to the general consensus among critics that Spectre's cast and crew shakes and stirs the Bond brew well enough to deliver a top-notch, glued-to-the-seat entertainer.   

Here is a roundup of the reviews by leading papers and magazines across the globe. Click on the links inside for the full reviews.

What makes Mani Ratnam's 'Nayagan' so special?

Celebrating a Tamil cinematic masterpiece (and probably among the top 5 Indian films) which was released on this date 28 years ago (October 21, 1987).

A biopic on Mumbai's underworld don Varadaraja Mudaliar, 'NAYAGAN' underlined MANI RATNAM's genius in using visuals, lighting (dark and subtle), background score, dialogue, natural sound and silence to stunning effect. 

This film will also be remembered for Kamal Haasan's epic performance (as Velu Nayagan), P. C. Sriram's magnificent cinematography, Thota Tharani's Art Direction, and a haunting soundtrack by ILAIYARAJA....

I am sure Nayagan will continue to stay in the list of TIME magazine's 'All-Time 100 Best Films' for a long time....

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(If you still haven't seen the film, do get the DVD and watch it on your home screen. And if you want to know how to screw up up a masterpiece, watch Nayagan's Hindi remake (DAYAVAN)..)

Here is a classic scene from the film: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kOUcRIbw-gw

Reminiscing about the film, Kamal wrote in an article (in the Hindu in 2013) that "Nayakan was one of the films — along with the films I’ve done with Balu Mahendra, K. Vishwanath and, of course, my guru K. Balachander — that made me decide that I should not be doing short-lived masala movies anymore. Except nostalgia, they added nothing to my career. I was fed up. I was nearing middle-age. I thought, 'If I don’t do this now, then when will I do it?' After wrapping the film, I was so happy that I took Sarika and went for a walk around the empty set. I remember just sitting there with a satisfied sigh."

Renowned film critic Maithili Rao on her new book: 'Smita Patil - A Brief Incandescence'

"....She seems to have been amazingly self-effacing, not taken in by the trappings of stardom. It has to be innate and also the ethos of strong middle-class values with which she grew up. Actually, I call Smita the pioneer of social work at the zenith of her career — unlike stars like Nargis who became socially active after retiring from films.

If she were not so passionately committed to the cause of women, the performances would not have been so authentic. This was not merely at the level of propaganda. It was a lived faith...."

http://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/maithili-rao-speaks-with-kunal-ray-about-smita-patil-a-brief-incandescence/article7769651.ece  

"I'd rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again"

For fans of Daniel Craig (as James Bond), it is indeed disappointing to know that the actor is considering to move out of the Bond franchise. I, for one, would have been happy to see him reprise the role for some more years.

In a recent interview, he is quoted to have said, "I'd rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again." He went on to say, "I’m over it at the moment. We’re done. All I want to do is move on.”

Now, a statement like this has serious implications. It just goes to show that playing Bond ain't as sexy as it sounds to be. The glitter, glory and hype conceal the fact that the churning a film from the 007 factory is quite a laborious ordeal for both the crew and cast, considering that it takes nothing less three years for the product to hit the screens. And in some cases, as it seems with Craig, the long shoot and post-production schedule probably leads to a burn-out--or extreme aversion for the role.

In any case, Craig would have a couple of years (when the next Bond film is announced) before he takes a decision. One hopes that retirement from the superhero brand would lead him on to do some meaningful roles in the future--and perhaps shine as an actor than a star.

Spielberg Joins with Tom Hanks to recreate a gripping Cold War drama

Spielberg reunites with his old friend Tom Hanks in this Cold War drama (set during the late 1950s) about a New York lawyer tasked with negotiating the prisoner exchange of Francis Gary Powers (an American pilot whose spy plane was shot down in USSR) for Rudolf Abel (a Soviet spy).

Two interesting things about this movie:

## In Spielberg's entire career, this is only his second film (after Color Purple) which will not have his favourite composer John Williams scoring the soundtrack. Thomas Newman (Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, Spectre) takes the place of Williams, who opted out for health reasons.

## This is the first time Spielberg has collaborated with Coen brothers (Fargo, No Country for Old Men), who have written the screenplay.

Here is the trailer:

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

Film-maker Prakash Jha on his new film (the sequel to Gangaajal)

"...Do you know what the biggest issue is in the country today? It is the ownership of land. Right from the poorest to the richest person in this country. All politics, economics, and society hinges on land. You leave your village because you don’t have land, but if you have land, the government and industry wants it for development. Why do politicians own thousands of acres ? Why do companies want it too? Why is it that the land ordinance became such a big issue in Parliament? Everything revolves around it and hence it became the issue of my film..."

Three years after Satyagraha, and 12 years after Gangaajal, which exposed the criminal-politician nexus in Bihar, film-maker Prakash Jha is back with Jai Gangaajal. Priyanka Chopra replaces Ajay Devgn as the honest cop and the film focusses on the political hot potato of land acquisition.

Read the full story: 

http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/prakash-jha-talks-to-alok-deshpande-about-jai-gangaajal/article7742826.ece

The first superstar and anti-hero of Hindi cinema

Kumudlal Ganguly (better known as Ashok Kumar)...The first superstar of Hindi cinema, the first lead actor to play an anti-hero, the first actor whose film entered the 1-crore club (Kismet) in the 1940s...

And probably the only actor who as producer (of Bombay Talkies) gave those crucial breaks to Bollywood greats such as Dev Anand, Pran, Madhubala, Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar.

And interestingly, a career in acting happened purely by accident for this law graduate from Presidency College (Kolkata) who aspired to become a film technician.

Read on: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/education/story/ashok-kumar/1/497246.html

When De Niro and Anne Hathaway Warm the Hearts

A nice treat for the weekend if you like the Nancy Meyers brand of movies (Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday, It's Complicated, What Women Want, The Father of the Bride).

Robert De Niro (as a 70-year old intern) and Anne Hathaway (his CEO/mentor) shine in this heartwarming film on how Gen-Y leaders can learn valuable lessons on work and life from their senior citizen counterparts.

Story synopsis:

70-year-old widower Ben Whittaker has discovered that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f6dKhzYgksc