Lucia-The Film

Pawan Kumar,a engineering drop out,a writer,dramatist,film maker gave us a beautiful cinema called Lifeu Ishtene.Now he is back with Lucia,a crowd funded film.The trailer looks very promising and quiet different from usual run of the mill movies.Looks like this movie is about Insomnia,a medical disorder.As far as i know no one in Indian cinema made a movie on this subject.

All the best Pawan Kumar!!I hope audience will support this effort.

Iron Man Rises?

Tony Stark,a genius,philanthropist,playboy,multi billionaire is back with his yet another super hero avatar.Yes  trailer of Iron Man 3 debuts in Youtube this week.By looking at the trailer anybody can say that it is inspired from Christhopher Nolan's final Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises.Robert Downey Jr. is back as Marvel comic super hero Tony Stark/Iron man and Ben Kingsley as Iron man's archenemy Mandarin,thats interesting!!!!So is it a clash of Titans?

Drama

Guess What?!!!,Bhat is back with his new movie Drama!!!!It looks like a teenage thriller.His favourite cinematographer Krishna who worked with him in epic Mungaru Male is back in his team.Here is the first look.Film stars Yash,Radhika Pandit and veteran actor Ambrish in an important role.

Long ago i read a novel called Confessions of Sulthana Daku written by Sujit Saraf.It is the story of a bhagi or rebel who terrorized British India.But never knew his family maintained his so called legacy and followed Sulthana Daku into a life of crime.

Well, i remembered the novel when i watched this amazing movie called Gangs of Wasseypur which tells the story of coal mafia that reportedly existed in Dhanbad, Bihar of Northern India.British started the coal industry and after independence some powerful  Jamindar's continues the business which gives birth to some of the most powerful gangster families.This movie is all about the journey of mafia families from 1940's to present day,a five hour biographic movie which will be released in India into 2 parts roughly 150 minutes each.This movie is not for entertainment seeking audience but for people who actually care for cinema and who believes cinema is more of an art than a just a business.I believe people who admires the work of great film makers like Martin Scorsese,Quentin Tarantino,Sergio Leone,David Fincher,Coppola or even Akira Kurosowa will watch this Indian master piece.I have always been a fan of Anurag Kashyap,liked most of his movies but this one is epic,a magnum opus.It is not regular craps like Ready,Dabbang or Rowdy Rathore which is insulting people's intelligence,this cinema can be compared with the likes of Godfather or any other such landmark films.This is not a local Indian masala cinema,this is a true world cinema made in India.

Anurag's style of film making has a similarity to Quentin Tarantino's style of film making,his use of raw locations,dark humor,violence,sex hard hitting dialogues,detailed characterization,and the way of story telling is very much similar to Tarantino's films.I love this kind of film makers or people who swims against the tide.When whole of Bollywood is busy making masala films,this guy dared to swim against the tide.

Manoj Bajpayee,a product of Ram Gopal Verma's Factory(Even the director is a sisya of RGV) gave a stellar performance yet again.I remember his great performances in Sathya and then in Shool,Pinjar and very recently in Rajneeti.Not just him every single actors in the movie breathed life into the characters.No wonder most of the actors in the movie are stage actors.Personally i liked the performances of Richa Chadda(again a theatre actor),who played role Najma,foul mouthed wife of Sardar Khan played by Manoj Bajpai.It needs lot of home work and guts to play an uneducated village girl from Bihar.Then there is Tigmanshu Dhulia  as Ramdhir Singh,another great performance in the movie.Reema Sen as Durga,too gives stellar performance.And eagerly waiting to watch Nawazuddin Siddiqui in part 2,who has won accolades for his performance in this film.

Finally,this movie is for people who is fed up of watching typical Bolly flicks where hero flaunts his 6 pack abs and where heroine shows her cleavage (who cares porn is just a click away) and who is fed up of heroines saying i kissed the hero so many number of times in the movie and it was so hard(as if they deserve Oscar for kissing)People who watch movies just for time pass can stay away from the movie.

Agneepath- My Review

"Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, Poora naam, baap ka naam Deenanath Chauhan, gaon Mandwa".Amitabh Bachan immortalized this line in 1990s cult revenge drama Agneepath directed by late Mukul Anand.Revisiting the classic is always a bad idea since it draws many comparisons to the original.And also its impossible to recreate the magic of Amitabh Bachan' voice,his screen presence or the man himself.But when i watched the 2012 version of the movie is completely different and more realistic compared to the original.

Biggest asset of the movie is menacing Sanjay Dutt as Kancha and Rishi Kapoor in a negative role as Rauf Lala.And Hrithik Roshan also did a tremendous job but unfortunately he is not man enough to carry the role of a gangster.He looks tiny and looks like a boy in front of Sanjay Dutt but the movie is all about men,muscles,revenge,action.Hrithik was very good as a sophisticated English speaking hi tech thief in Dhoom 2 but he almost failed to carry the role of a local ruffian.


The original bad boy of Bollywood, Sanjay 'The Hulk' Dutt is as good as legendary Gabbar Singh and iconic Mogambo.He brought back the memories of all the menacing,merciless screen villains of 80s and 90s.His evil smile,bald head,philosophical dialogues and his menacing 'gollum'ish looks will surely bring nightmares to women and children.




The surprise package of the movie is Rishi Kapoor,lover boy of 80s.He gave a convincing performance as a drug dealer,flesh trader Rauf Lala.All these years i thought he is just a mediocre actor but he proved me wrong and also surpassed my expectations. 


In recent times Bollywood filmmakers are trying hard to copy Hollywood and on the way they are losing their own identity.In most of the movies characters will be Indian but that character behaves,speaks and dresses like an American.(Americans are dominating the world both politically and culturally)But this movie is an exception.The lead actor dresses,behaves and talks like a common Indian.Lives a middle class life,prays Lord Ganesh,goes to temple.We can easily identify ourselves with the lead character.The writer and director did a awe inspiring work.I hope at least this year main stream Bollywood film makers start to think beyond foreign locations,six packs,bikini,glamour and concentrate on doing good movies.

Moving Pictures

Moving Pictures

Birth of an Actor

Throw stones and I will build a house try 2 burn me and I will use that fire 2 light my life.if u chase me I will reach goal faster.


I was astonished to see the above statement when maverick film maker Ramgopal Varma tweeted it long ago.What an incredible confidence this guy has!!!He is the best example for optimism and confidence. Most probably he is one of the best character actors Indian cinema has ever witnessed.Yes i am talking about the Prakash Rai also known as Prakash Raj.

One of my earliest memory of  him is from t.v serial Guddada Bhoota telecasted on Doordarshan in early 90s.Needless to say,it had an unforgettable theme song which was rehashed from a Tulu Folk song and Prakash Rai made a name for himself from that serial.He slowly started to act in movies in supporting roles,most memorable are his small role in epic war movie Muthina Hara,Nishkarsha,Lock up Death and many Ravichandran's movies.


One fine day he got a call from guru K.Balachander and he offered him a role in the movie Duet which did wonders to his career.A small time actor from Bengaluru who started acting in stage plays, suddenly became a household name in South India and then a superstar.

According to me his three best performances are Iruvar in Tamil,Nagamandala in Kannada and Anthapuram in Telugu.His potential as an actor came out very well in Iruvar and he won National Award for it.It is considered as one of the best works of Mani Rathnam as well as Prakash Rai.It is the fictionalized account of the life of Tamil film icon MGR and writer politician Karunanithi.Prakash Rai played the character influenced by Karuna who speaks pure Tamil and Prakash Rai being a non Tamil carried the role very well.Coming to Nagamandala directed by multiple National Award winner T.S.Nagabharana,the way he spoke North Karnataka dialect Kannada in the movie is priceless.It is very hard for the guy who came from South Karnataka region.His acting is over the top once again and it became a surprise hit in the box office even though it was made with a artistic feel.After his Telugu blockbuster Okkadu he became most sought after villain in Tamil and Telugu and actually acted in  lot of mindless commercial cinemas but invested the money he earned from it in making sensible cinemas through his production house, Duet movies.He made some critically acclaimed movies like Velliterai,Poi,Mozhi,Payanam,Puttakkana Highway etc.Most of them were commercial success as well.


I personally feel his acting skill is comparable to Hollywood giant, multiple Academy Award winning actor Jack Nicholson.In India, movies are very star centric and are made for masses.There is huge dearth of sensible audience who appreciates serious cinema.Generally, movies with rich artistic value is considered as elite and very less amount of money is spent on that kind of cinemas and also it gets very little amount of attention.Some of his brilliant Kannada movies which i know, deserved more recognition but ended up being an 'art' cinema with lack of promotion and he him had to choose mainstream commercial cinemas which hardly did justice to his enormous talent.


What surprises me the most is his command over the language and understanding the local culture and literature.He proved his versatility by doing lead roles, supporting roles,villian,comedian and also won two National Awards[Actually he deserves more] and many State awards,Filmfare awards.Indian cinema needs more intellectual producers,film makers who truly loves literature,cinema.Prakash Rai is one of them.He just needs respect and appreciation from the audience.