All’s Well…? - Rangashankara from 23 Oct-25 Oct

Kriyative Theatre presented the play - All’s Well…? at Rangashankara from 23 Oct-25 Oct Bangalore. Artistes: Sundar, Laxmi Chandrashekar, Vidya Venkatram, Shilpa Rudrappa and Ramakrishna Kannarapadi.

Good props, excellent delivery and performance, music a bit too loud, a lot of cliché, set ideologies, biases and hearsay. It delves on the human relationships and bonds laced with humor. There is scope to treat the subject with more intensity.

The President is Coming

The President is Coming

Hilarious, sarcastic and contemporary. Witty and humorous. Discovery Ira Dubey and Shivani Tanksale. The movie is an adaptation of a play by the same name.

Shivani Tanksale an accomplished theatre artist from Bombay; popular on the ad circuit and off and on stage.
Ira Dubey, younger daughter of theatre artist Lillete Dubey, Yale educated, and also hosts a show on Sony Pix – Chicks on Flicks, this is her first feature film.

Hyderabad Blues, Hyderabad Blues 2

Much has been said and written about HB and HB2; I wanted to do a little bit of reading about Rajshri, Jyoti Dogra and Elahe.

Jyoti Dogra – a product of prestigious NSD, has worked with Anurag Kashyap in Gulal. She tells in an interview to Hindu, how difficult it is to get good roles in Indian mainstream cinema for women, and how apprehensive she was about HB2. She was always told that she was supposed to fill in the big shoes of Rajshri Nair. More of her interview here:

http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2004/07/06/stories/2004070600580400.htm

Rajshri Nair - hardly there is any information about her on the net, she was definitely not available for HB2, as she had moved to US and had visa issues. She apparently has done few more regional films, but I could not find much about her on the net yet.

Elahe Hiptoola – She and Nagesh make a great pair and have done a lot of movies together. She appears in both HB and HB2. Independent and thinking woman, she has found her passion re-ignited with cinema.

Dev D

Phew!!! I should have heard Souvik’s advice long back!!! Dev D is quite contemporary in style, format and delivery. Only the Punjabi angle to it was quite cliché, the much needed zing factor to click with the Punjabi obsessed Indian audience.

Kalki

Born to French parents who met in India and stayed, Kalki did her schooling in Ooty. She spent three years studying theatre at Goldsmith, London. She was quite active on the theatre circuit in Mumbai, and has won the Playwright’s award for ‘The Skelton Woman’ …and with the auditions of Dev D, her life took complete U turn. She can speak Tamil, French and English, which she manages quite well in the movie too…She is now the love interest of Anurag Kashyap, and she makes no bones about it.

Darjeeling Limited

This one is directed by American Director Wes Anderson, who was nominated for the Academy in the Best Screenplay category for The Royal Tenenbaums. He also produced The Squid and the Whale, which is one of my favorite movies. He also reportedly shares a great rapport with Noah Baumbach, Owen Wilson and Sofia Coppola. I now have some of his movies lined up for viewing – Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums.

Very symbolic and with deep Indian spiritual nuances, Darjeeling Limited, is a delight for anyone who wants to experience India. My discovery in this movie was ‘sweet lime’ Amara Karan – an English actress born to Sri Lankan parents. This is her debut film, and has all what it takes to create an element mysticism - what the character was supposed to portray.

Holy Smoke more or less falls in the similar kind of trail.

Jogger's Park

Subhash Ghai known as the Showman in Bollywood, has written and produced this movie. Well 2003 when this movie was released, India had started to see the new age of film making with non commercial plots with heavy influences of Hinglish.

Human Stain and Elegy too border on similar plots, but the treatment of the subject is so sophisticated and mature that Jogger’s Park towards the end becomes too preachy and lacks the courage to defy the convention.

Perizaad Zorabian made her appearance as lead actress in this movie, she attended Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and was educated in NYC. Usha Uthup’s ‘Jaan hai to Jahan ha’i plays leitmotif for the movie.

Inglorious Basterds

Here the much awaited, Cannes Palme d’Or nominee, winner for best actor and one of the most talked film this year, ‘Inglorious Basterds’ made it to the theatres in Bangalore last week. ‘Basterds’ – is supposed to be the spelt the way it is pronounced. I had happened to get a copy of the movie earlier, put due to poor quality, decided to wait till it hit the theatre release.

More than Quentin, this time, the movie belongs to Christopher Waltz, for his debut performance. You can see the brilliance of Tarantino to create a character with such an impact. Christopher Waltz is shrewd, cunning, as they frighteningly polite, multi lingual, keen eye for detail, ruthless, understands the psyche of people – good and bad, acts beyond the call of duty, opportunists….Christopher plays the character to the hilt. Every moment, to its perfection. For me, he overshadows the Brad Pitt, almost completely.

Another discovery is Melanie Laurent, plays Shoshanna, a woman with an independent thinking mind, not influenced by the commotion happening around her, fearless, and at the same the fire to avenge burning within her. She plays the role really well, and slips in to the shoe of the character, really well. Her encounter with Zoller during the screening, though dramatic sets the pace for the events to follow.

Verdict – Quentin Tarantino never disappoints.

Comme Une Image - Look at Me

This my second chance to see the work joint work of Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri. Though it was recommended by a friend long back, it took almost an year to get hold of the movie. I was quite impressed with ‘The Taste of Others’. Like the previous movie, there are definitely traces of similar strain in this movie too. What really appeals to the audience is the effortless building of plot and almost natural course of plot development and execution. There is no need for over dramatization to deal with such a melodramatic subject at hand. The way the movie concludes is so absolutely natural, w/o nay need to justify, preach, or communicate a message.

I was watching the making of the movie and to some extent I was displeased by the way Agnes was trying to help the actors sing and pronouncing the lyrics right.