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Showing posts from May, 2008

Entre Les Murs wins the Palme d' Or- Cannes 2008 Winners

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Supriya Suri , Fr France wins its first Palme d' or in 21 years, Laurent Cantet, documentary on the life of a French schoolteacher, based on the autobiographical novel by Francois Begaudeau won the coveted award, here's an update on the winners of the Cannes film festival 2008: * Palme d'Or ( Golden Palm)- Entre les murs ( Between the walls ) is a work of contemporary fiction by writer Francois Begaudea. Grand Prix - Matteo Garrone - Gomorra Prix d'inter prétation féminine (Best Actress) - Sandra Corveloni( Line of Passage) Prix d'interprétation masculine (Best Actor) - Benico del toro (Che -Steven Soderbergh) Prix de la mise en scène ( Best Director) - Nuri Bilge Ceylan(Three Monkeys) Prix du scénario (Best Screenplay)- Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne - Le Silence de Lorna Prix du Jury - Paolo Sorrentino's( Il Divo) Special Award: Catherine Deneuve , who stars in Un Certain Regard's " Je Veux Voir , Clint East Wood * Palme d'Or du cou

Cinephilia la India: A Decay of Cinema

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The Moor's Last Sigh Is there a living, breathing, thriving Cinephile community in India? I doubt, whether such a cine-love exist in close proximity of people who know each other. Often, I bump into people whose love for Cinema is simply to dive into the other line of spectrum, “ I have seen this films group ”, and be a poseur of the purest kind(since watching such film for a broad group of people has nothing to do with love, but more to do with acceptance into an ' elitist' group, that again, Cinephilia and such film don't hold. True, Cinephilia, here in India is something extremely rare to see, a person who has the capacity to watch varieties of films, discuss, learn, and talk about them humbly and, opinionated, is rare. Since, often than not, most discussion of such kinds slides into flames and rants. Susan Sontag wrote and important piece on the nature of Cinema and Cinephilia in general. And I th

Crayon Physics- An Indie Delicacy

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Shashank Kumar There are action games which are mixed with heavy and intensive role playing; that makes you sit hours hooked to it; and there are strategy games which takes the bolts out of your head; and there are racing games fast , aggressive which make you foresee whats coming next, but there are very less games which defines a genre of their own and, still, come out as a winner in terms of both game playing and addiction. Crayon physics is one masterpiece form the indie game designer 'Petri Purho' who actually managed to grab the Best Indie Game Award. Crayon Physics was designed in less than seven days. First of all, the game has nothing to do with your Physics scores, the name outlines the basic structure and framework of the gameplay- the principle on which the entire game is based. The gameplay is as simple as A, B, C there is a ball and a star and the sole objective of the game is to make the ball touch the star but, hey, it ain't so easy( I said- simple, not easy

DHRUPAD- Poetry in Ragas

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DHRUPAD(1983) Mani Kaul Mani Kaul belonged to an era when ‘Cinema in India’ was riding high on various stages of experimentation; in its inherent form and aesthetics; from features to Documentaries. From the likes of John Abraham, who was Mani Kaul’s junior in FTII down to the one of the last bastion of Indian Parallel Cinema movement, Govind Nihalani. The Indian Parallel Wave brought in a new language, dialect and grammar to Indian Cinema. Mani Kaul along with Kumar Shahini were the harbinger of formalist influx between form and narrative. Both of them combined various degrees of Indian Classical Music in their mise-en-scene. Sadly, today hardly any films of these Masters are available in the market. Dhrupad is a documentary on one of the oldest form of surviving Classical music in India. And here Mani Kaul combines his self-reflexive threads to weave a mesmerizing documentary on music. The Documentary captures the essence of ragas often sublimed with images and voice-overs describin

Crimsonland- Classic ' Indie' Shooter

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Gravito " A" Shrut Crimsonland is a pure stress buster, with no story and no plot whatsoever.You play as a lone renegade soldier going solo against hordes of Aliens, Zombies, Lizards and Spiders. The game plays in a fluid 2D shoot-em-up scroller like fashion, showing sign of masterpiece Radiant Silvergun . Your basic aim is to shoot anything that moves. You control your character by standard ' Keyboard Control' and shoot by aiming using the mouse. The gameplay is fast, frantic and, keeps, you at the edge of you'r of the seats,especially in higher difficulty and that makes this game superb. Features:- There are a total of 25 weapons in the game which are more than enough to start a World War 3. The common Assault Rifles, Sub Machine guns, Rocket Launchers,IonCannons,Jackhammer,Plasma Shotguns and my favorite:- Gauss Shotgun.The trail of blood it leaves is simply perfect!! Along with drop bonuses which assists you as you go trigger happy.There are many bonuses lik

TASHAN: - A Pervert guide to a Bollywood Film.

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( More intoxicating than sleeping pill) 1) Star and power + Yashraj= Immense success – False. 2) Once the tracking shot was a question of morale. Today, thanks to Jimmy Jib, our directors love moving in an out of shots without any purpose, every god-damn framing and composition are tried here- without understanding the basic nature of angle, shot, frame and composition. 3) Ever since the likes of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie decided to create the phenomenon of circular tracks; it has been misused to the max, and something similar can be seen in the film. Eventually leading to a severe headache. 4) How long can people in the Industry and Yashraj keep fooling us with their star power, money and repeated stories? There is no difference between our local vegetable seller and this people; after all, each time I go to the market, they scream on top of their lungs selling their products, something similar with our filmmaker when they proclaim: “Our films have emotions, drama, song and dance an

Call of Duty: United Offensive- Revisitng the war.

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"It pained my heart to see what man has made of man"- William Wordsworth William Wordsworth’s lines certainly highlight the fact how war has torn the world into walls and boundaries. Wars have caused immense destruction from the beginning of human civilization; but video game makers seem to love every small detail and nuances of untold wars, unsung heroes and a place that is full of rubble and shattered debris. I am not in the position to judge whether these games should really recreate the pain and horror that war is in reality; after all, there are no heroes in war. Nevertheless, I had the privilege to revisit war from the perspective of Gray Matter. I sincerely loved my revisit to the war torn lands. The guys at Gray Matter make you cling for your life. Moreover, they make you realize that with each gunshot, you are one-step closer to death. As war is not a single man’s toil, this game teaches you to fight together and play as a team. United Offensive builds on the origina