Winds From The East

Supriya Suri Cinema as an art form can reach a mass unlike any other; at the same, it can be provocative. India is a movie crazy nation, but one illiterate about the medium. Indian cinema is often defined as ‘Bollywood’, since it is also the popular form with its ritual of song, dances and over-the-top melodrama. However, the late 60s and early 70s were time of experimentation in the format of ‘storytelling’ and ‘form’ in Indian Cinema. But, usually the sad fact of life is that we might be living and experiencing a circumstance, but when shown or confronted the truth, we refuse to accept. Cinema is a moment of escapism. This is one of the many reasons why the bold and revolutionary ‘Parallel Movement in India’ never became popular. If we look at Indian cinema, whether it is Bollywood or regional cinema both might be representing the culture and society, but the difference that lies between the two is that Bollywood gets you involved emotionally, projects conventional, sensationalize...

Chaaru Haasan As against the art of acting, especially with facial expressions, the cops in the west have developed a science of facial expressions. It all started with a cop who was on patrol found three juvenile delinquents in an area known for violence. By the time the cop got out of his car with gun raised two of them ran away while one stood still. The cop pointing the gun at the boy, who was hardly fourteen years, shouted ordering him to put his hands on his head. The boy, instead, reached his pocket and came out with an automatic pistol. The cop who was concentrating on his face, held his fire. The boy dropped the gun on the floor and raised his hands in the air. Later the cop explained that he saw only fear in the face of the boy and not anger that would be the kind of emotion that would have made the boy to take pot shot at a cop. The innocent Brazilian died in London recently as the cops involved had no acumen for studying facial expressions or body language or they interpret...

Ritwik Ghatak, in partition, not physically of willingness -the country departed Out of his outer consciousness - cosmic consciousness none of his mistakes, Reactions - natural reactions - reflections Ritwik Ghatak, refugee, unborn, unwanted, unbearable penetrative towards the Victorian hangover of the Tagorian corruption of thinking Life was more important to him than the words in praise of god, the god of Victorian Tagorian thinking. Hence, he was rejected from the Bengalian thinking Ritwik Ghatak - the name doesn't suit the hierarchic thinking of the Raynian Zamidarian thinking Perhaps, the long echo of the forgotten factors that becomes reminiscence of the 'death of the salesman' or otherwise the long columns and no more Chhabi Biswas, Cardiac arrest is common. The death of Ghatak is uncommon. Nay, Ritwik Ghatak I remember, a tall man his hands moving around my shoulders, catching me with the feeling of nearness, rather than imperial...

Sigmund Freud found it extremely difficult analyzing women. Today, analysts from across the world find it nerve-racking to predict the stock market. Both elements have the disruptive hormones of sentiment running in them. If one out of the hundred analyses fails on target, the entire chain crumbles. And that’s exactly what happened to the markets around the world on September 15th 2008 and incisively four days later with Warner Brother’s first foray in India, Saas Bahu Aur Sensex. The films begins with Binita Sen (Kirron Kher) moving from Kolkata to Mumbai (due to her divorce) along with her daughter, Nitya Sen (Tansuhree Dutta). She has no money, but lives in a posh-apartment with kitty-party aunties, a clichéd and stereotypical bunch. Although a few jokes and elements of realism are present in the dialogues to make the whole façade of the film seem ‘real’, they come across only through the subtle and controlled performances from Kitron Kher and her broker (Farooque Sheikh), both of t...

On Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th 1999, six days before the millennium, Flight 814 (IC 814) was hijacked. It took eight days of negotiations, and a death to finally get the hostage released in return for three extremists. The entire nation sat and watched the drama unfold on their television screens, but what happened inside could be best described with these words: fright, despair, Stockholm syndrome, stench, prophecy, dream, illusion and nostalgia – in short, the passengers only wanted to get out alive. Moreover, the animal behind the basic human façade comes through in faces of adversity. It’s then humans behave and emote in true mannerism. Such an atmosphere when recreated and captured subjectively by the camera should reflect the two polar extremes of human nature – to kill and to escape, to live and to die-in the name of God, but sadly Hijack is miles away in form and content of the subjective matter and medium. Hijack is a Bollywood film: it has songs, dances, hero, vil...

'Prayōga' is a Sanskrit word, which loosely translates as 'experiment' but can also mean 'representation' and 'practice'. Coined by film historian Amrit Gangar, the term 'cinema of prayōga' defines "the eternal quest, [the] continuing process in time and space" central to artists' film and video. "In 1949, Einstein pointed out to me during one of several long and highly involved private technical discussions that certain beautifully formulated theories of his would mean that the whole universe consisted of no more than two charged particles. Then he added with a rueful smile, “Perhaps I have been working on the wrong lines, and nature does not obey differential equations after all.” If a scientist of his rank could face the possibility that his entire lifework might have to be discarded, could I insist that the theorems whose inner beauty brought me so much pleasure after heavy toil must be of profound significance in natural p...

Supriya Suri Just as the film title suggests, the movie is about the betrayal in the legal system . It talks about corruption, morals, duty, honesty, principals and how people due to circumstances have to bend upon their self believes and values. The narrative deals with two dedicated police officers, Abhay Singh( Om Puri) and Abbas Lodhi (Naseeruddin Shah) leading an operation," Dhanush", against a Terrorism group by sending two under cover officers in their group, while the commander of the terrorist group, splendidly played by Ashish Vidyarthi, is under arrest and operates from the cell. Soon the nexus between the Police force and terrorism is unfolded, leaving Abhay bemused on trusting his own officers even his seniors. As the commande, Ashish Vidyarthi, sends in spies at Abhay Singh's house, and his family gets in trouble of being killed by them, the officer is not left with any choice than to reveal the vital secrets of Dhanush. The act of Om Puri, surrenderin...