Himmat karne wAlonki hAr nahin hOti Three years ago Anupam Kher received a note that read, “You don’t belong to the category of heroes and lead actors, but we can’t not award you because that would draw everyone’s attention to our impaired judgment,” along with a Special Jury National Film Award. It was for his [...]
Posts from ‘August, 2009’
PIFF Movie Interpretation: Three Monkeys
Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film making style is mostly categorized as ‘high art’ making him a Cannes favorite and an acquired taste. His Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun) was one of the PIFF 2009 movies that I didn’t like then but think about even now. I have now finalized one interpretation. It is amazing how much [...]
How Tom Rob Smith Implicated Mayawati
As someone who reads little contemporary crime fiction, I have taken to reading the highly acclaimed debut novels of each year. Tana French’s In the Woods (2007), Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 (2008), and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009). I haven’t come to the latter one yet because I can’t decide [...]
A Weekend With Guru Dutt
Chaudhvin Ka Chand is among the purest of Hindi movies I have seen, in terms of the language. Even though the movie opened with English titles, ladies before gentlemen, the only English words heard throughout were a few utterances of ‘municipality’, ‘doctor’, ‘inspector’, ‘judge’. There have been very many triangular love stories based on the [...]
Another Independence Day
We wore ironed white uniforms and dashed off to school before 0800 Hrs. We pinned a paper flag to our breast pockets, loudly practiced speeches and songs, ran around with white powder to draw lines or with banners and ropes pasted with paper flags to hang, and wished each other a happy independence day. To [...]