Sometimes, an idea gets stuck in your head. It’s like that fragment of a tune or those staggered images that continues to play in a loop – and refuses to budge unless you do something with it. A musician will probably create a symphony out of it; an artist will…
For the past few weeks I had been pushing people to write about Gautam Chatterjee – and now I don’t know what to write myself. It’s tough. He touched lives in multiple layers – and did so with such fondness and integrity, that you can’t pinpoint on a single thing,…
Take a wild guess – what could be the silliest question that one can ask ace cinematographer / director Santosh Sivan. Especially when, being one among the busiest Industry professionals, whose comeback film in Malayalam Jack and Jill is ready for release – he is not likely to give you…
No, I can’t wait any more. This self-imposed exile from blogging is gnawing at my ligaments like a regiment of termites; the wobble in all my joints are asking me, can you really do anything at all about the ‘situation’ out there? If you can’t, why don’t you do what…
It does seem a bit odd to write a piece on a film that I consider to be a cult-classic even while the cinema halls are closed, and the nation is under a lockdown. While that’s true, certain things can’t wait, like anniversaries. Let’s revise a old snippet of wisdom…
Tapas Nayak has been working in the film-industry for close to two decades now, with a number of blockbusters and award winning films under his wings. Asking him to pick a few of them to discuss their soundscape is a real challenge, since every film in which he has worked…
When given an opportunity, Tapas Nayak likes to tell stories with sound. Even while making films completely intended for the mass-market– this high-on-demand Sound Technician based in South of India loves to put in his delicate ‘aural’ touches that enhances the cine-viewing experience manifold. Problem is, not many people usually…
‘To Let’, I sincerely believe, is a textbook in cinematic realism. Every student of cinema should watch it carefully, again and again, to find those various ‘moments’ and study their ‘making’ that makes this film memorable. A film like this can’t be possible without a like-minded team coming together and…
Dheeraj made his debut short feature ‘The School Bag’ at a time when jingoism was not yet trending hot in India. But yes, the storm clouds were very much growling across the horizons, and liberals were pretty much starting to lose their voices, and sometimes their lives. Free-thinking was definitely…
Asif Noor, the producer of Raakh, shared an interesting story with me, about a train journey, in 1990. It was during his stint with fashion, when, by his own admission, he did 1,80000 kms in Rajdhani Chair Cars in a single year; during one of these whirlwind tours, while travelling…
Editing is the process where the story takes it’s real shape – but that’s what we already know, don’t we? What we probably do not know is the role that the film-editor plays during the entire creative process of a film. Yes, he is there, all along, and not just…
When Sreekar Prasad, the ace film editor, agreed to talk to me for my blog, I was totally baffled. I have grown up drooling at his work, from the time I bunked school to watch ‘Raakh’ till I gaped in awe at the visual opulence of ‘Ashoka’, from the understated…
There’s absolutely no reason why advertising legend Stanley Pinto should give me an interview. Yes, I had infrequently tried my hand at advertising copy writing, rather unsuccessfully. The fact that I did that to tide over my frequent bouts of depression as a natural fallout of being a documentary script…
There’s something disconcerting about Vincent Van Gogh that has always attracted me, even while I was in no position to understand the depth or the significance of his work. I might still be not qualified enough to even appreciate him, but what to do; that enigmatic pull has only increased…
It’s not every day that you get to interview someone like Farrukh Dhondy. All I can say, films he has worked in have been films that inspired my very early thoughts about choosing a career in screenwriting. I remember breaking down the ravine sequences of ‘Bandit Queen’ when I was…
Aviva Field is true to her words. She took my question rather seriously, and has shared a response, which could probably be called the first step to a long journey. Now, by storytelling, one is normally inclined to think fiction; more specifically, feature films. Syd’s books, whatever I have read,…
I wanted to ask screenwriting guru Syd Field a question when I first read his book, two decades back. It remained unanswered, mainly because I never asked it. After starting this blog, and browsing through his books again, the question returned. Since Syd wasn’t there any more, I thought of…
Shankar Mahadevan has a couple of molar teeth missing. That doesn’t stop him from laughing out loud. To me, he came across as a simple man, happy with life and mad about music. If he does care about his public image or his fragmented smile, it doesn’t show. At least…
When I think of the way I have treated my career in writing it often ends up giving me a shudder. It wasn’t really a choice for me – I started writing since I had no other skills to sell. It became a question of survival, so I wrote whatever…
Ever since I started watching cinema as an art form, with as much seriousness I could garner – I have always had a special place for the cinema of the South of India. Might be because I am ‘regional’ myself, and even after close to three decades of stay in…
The premise (and the practice) of film criticism has always fascinated me. Although I have never felt confident to venture into that field myself, since I fancy myself of being from the industry – and I also believe it requires a lot of hard work to be able to aptly…
When Subhash Ghai came to the Subah Savere studio to promote ‘Taal’ – he had a preconceived notion that he might be meeting a bunch of arty-intellectuals who are neither aware not appreciative of his work. But Nilendu Sen, the producer of the show, soon convinced him that this was…
To be honest, I never had the opportunity to work directly under Nilendu-da. During my early years in the Delhi News TV circuit, I might have seen his signature gallis-mounted frame a couple of times during my not so frequent visits to the Moving Pictures office at Jangpura, where I…
My introduction to Hemant Chaturvedi could be best described as accidental. By his own admission, accidents are somewhat frequent with him, and more often than not, they have happy endings. I should include the one with me in that list. It was during the initial days of the first phase…
