There’s something alluring about Hollywood, and it is not restricted to just us mortals. In the course of their teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda (the subject of this bio-documentary) went there in the 1920s, Meher Baba visited it in 1932. Both these hallowed men count among their followers hundreds of Zoroastrians. In 1920, at the age of…
On Friday, 10th June, Parsi Times film critic Hoshang K. Katrak, known for his encyclopedic knowledge and passion for films, was invited by Dignity Foundation as Guest Speaker to discuss ‘Early Indian Cinema (silent and talkies), with special emphasis on the contribution of Parsis, highlighting their pioneering achievements in Indian cinema. Equipped with his plethora…
Parsi Times Film Reviewer Hoshang K. Katrak was present at the book launch of Shashi Kapoor’s biography. An interesting report… The select 150-odd who were present at The Sofitel Mumbai, BKC, on 11th June at the glittering launch of ‘Shashi Kapoor: The Householder, the Star’ by New York based film journalist and columnist, Aseem Chhabra,…
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…
‘Haunting, A-haunting we go’ is the motto of the master of shocker flicks James Wan, in this sequel to the 2013 ‘Conjuring’. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reprise their earlier roles of wife–husband paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren. The film begins with the couple conducting a séance in Amityville. While on the job, the psychic…
The third, and latest, in the Housefull series (and I sincerely hope it IS the last), HF3 is aimed solely at those who have nothing better to do – even reading your daily newspaper for the umpteenth time would be a safer bet. The film begins with a geography primer. We are shown the London…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows There was a time, whenever the fate of our planet was in peril due to man-made situations, politicians and bureaucrats would bail us out. No more. Our guardian angels are now Hollywood studios who have stepped in by inventing eerie, gargantuan and ogrish creatures, who battle somebody,…
Remember the spaghetti westerns of the early 70s- the ‘Trinity’ films and ‘Watch Out We’re Mad’- starring Italians Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer? Well, both the ‘Nice Guys’ too are as recklessly insane as Hollywood permits them to be. The story may look half-baked: set in LA in 1977 and following the mysterious death of…