Not every film acknowledges the Chief Minister of the state. The small rustic town of Baliya in Uttar Pradesh, is the setting for the lives of four youth of the locality, to intersect. Suraj (Karan Mahavar) has developed a fixation for the sassy Jyoti (Aradhana Jagota); Kadambri (Aditya Kumar) is in the family business of…
Based on the 2013 Muzzafarnagar riots, the film is upon us finally. Reportedly banned in parts of UP, Shorgul is the story of a Hindu boy Raghu in love with a Muslim girl Zainab (debutante Suha Gezen), who breaks into a toothy smile whenever the camera is focused on her. For good measure, we have…
With ‘Veerappan’, Ram Gopal Varma seems to be back in business after a series of duds. Voltaire’s ‘a society gets the criminal it deserves’ is artfully woven into the film’s introduction even as RGV opens the film of a juvenile delinquent settling down to an avowed life of crime, chronicling 40 years of evils of…
Shorn of the usual trappings of Hindi cinema – tear–jerker dialogues and outlandish performances – ‘Waiting’ (largely in English), alluding to the time spent in waiting-rooms of hospitals and the periods consumed waiting for the recovery of your loved ones, has a refreshingly rational take on the above. Shiv Kumar (Naseeruddin Shah) is a retired…
2015 marked 160 years since Western Railway (erstwhile Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway) as we know it, was inaugurated; 145 years since Churchgate station originated; and 18th December marked 85 years since Bombay Central was established as a station! In an interesting and amusing review, Hoshang Katrak ‘tracks’ a few train-based songs in Hindi…
Biopics are a gateway to revisiting your childhood heroes. Ramchandra Chitalkar (C. Ramchandra the music director) was Bhagwan (Dada) Abhaji Palav’s alter ego. The two sons of the Maharashtrian soil combined harmoniously to give the Hindi film industry, in 1951, arguably its greatest musical sleeper hit. Ekk Albela opens in 1930 before the diminutive actor…
Of all the seasons, the monsoon is the best, in spite of the flooded roads, railway tracks, traffic jams and telephone lines being ‘katti’ with you. It’s the most audible of all seasons with an entire gamut of ‘dhoom-dhadakas’ of thunder, savage winds lashing out at trees and making them sway like the ‘sega’ dancers…
Recipe for a successful film: take a controversial subject—ensure the outdoor location is a porous state of India—sign a rockstar hero (the shorter the better) — add a diva – X, Y or Z, preferably an ex (doesn’t matter if they do not have scenes together)—sprinkle liberally coloured powder (no kitchen condiments please)—add one more…
Movies starring relentless and ruthless martial arts artists do not necessarily translate into riveting films. In his seventh outing as director, Deepak Tijori makes an honest effort at adapting the successful 2011 Korean ‘Always’, but sadly lets the script fall prey to the dictates of Bollywood. A fortuitous meeting between a visually impaired Jenny Mathias…
At 73, and after 47 years in the industry, the consummate Amitabh Bachchan has nothing left to prove to his fans. He’s done the gamut of roles—and emotions. Sujoy Ghosh, after having helmed the hugely successful 2012 thriller ‘Kahani’, now turns producer, leaving the direction to Ribhu Dasgupta whose only feature so far was the…
[otw_shortcode_info_box border_style=”bordered” css_class=”boxed”]A statistical data presented by Google states that the increase in the consumption of short films among the masses, is in tandem with the growth of ‘Shamiana’ – the leading short-film club in Asia. This week as ‘Shamiana’ celebrates its 8th anniversary, Parsi Times Special Correspondent, Delaveen Tarapore chats with its versatile founder,…