Editor's Pen: This Week...

Hi Folks….

We apologize… This month we were definitely not up to the mark. There are no excuses… but plain reason. We, the members; are college going people and were busy with our exams. At least, sometimes everyone needs to be a bit serious… especially when it’s your last exam of your graduation.

Cinema world has almost stopped… IPL and the strike are doing a lot of mess. Well, now the IPL is over but the strike is still on.

We lost an eminent personality on 17th May. Mr. Prakash Mehra left the world for the Heavens. God bless him…

Warm Regards…

Sujoy Ghosh

Statesmen: Prakash Mehra

There are certain people who create myths. Prakash Mehra was one of them. The showman who created the legendary myth of The Angry Young Man.

Born on July 13, 1939 in Bijnaur (U.P.), a small town by all means, he rose to the podium of Indian Cinema as a director. In his first attempt, he directed Haseena Maan Jayegi with Shashi Kapoor in lead. But his first big blockbuster was Zanjeer (1973) that carved a star out of Amitabh Bachchan. In Zanjeer, he created the myth of The Angry Young Man that was taken to a higher level by Saleem-Javed duo in Deewar.

Bachchan did seven more movies with him. The list included some timeless classics like Muqaddar Ka Sikander and Sharaabi. Laawaris and Namak Halaal were two other great movies of this Actor-Director team. As a team, Jaadugar was their last venture. As director, Bal Brahmachari was his last movie that was launching pad of Puru Raaj Kumar, son of Raaj Kumar who refused to play a role in Zanjeer. Amitabh Bachchan later essayed the dream role.

In Cinema, he is known as a great showman. He was not only a great director but also a fine critic. His cinema portrayed stories in a simple way. He always believed in the power of script and maintained that the power of leis in paper and not in camera’s artistic movements. He was also a musician in his own realm and the music in his movies had a lot from him only.

On 17th May, 2009, he left the materialistic world for ever. The connoisseurs of Cinema would never forget his contribution.

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

The Critique: Bandini

Bandini is a Bimal Roy’s movie that is more than just another highly acclaimed movie of the perfectionist. Bandini is a paranoma of some great performances by Nutan, Ashok Kumar and Dharmendra. The movie speaks a lot about the changing times where woman takes her own decision to decide her life.

Kalyani is a prisoner who is in jail for killing her lover’s wife. Her lover was Bikash (Ashok Kumar) who falls in love with her as a freedom fighter but the destiny never allows their union. In search of her lover, she comes to city and serves as caretaker of a woman who turns out to be Bikash’s wife. Kalyani takes step in rage when she comes realises that her misery is due to this woman. In jail, the jail doctor falls in love with her and the movie shows her dilemma when she has to choose between the two- past and future.

This movie explores new levels of female freedom and sensibility. It is a classic in its own way and a must for all cine-lovers.

Bandini is beautifully laced with S.D. Burman’s music that is milestone. ‘O Jaanewale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Aana’ and ‘Mora Gora Ang Lai Le’ are timeless songs. The movie was brilliantly photographed by Kamal Bose. The frames are class. The movie grabbed six Filmfares for diferent categories.

For The Reel; Written By: Akshay (AK-47)

Under Lens: Genesis From Paper To Screen – 2

When we talk about novels crafted into cinema, one famous novelist comes into our mind. Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay…

Sharatchandra wrote sagas of life in Bengal that were realized by many Directors from time to time. Bimal Roy to Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Pradeep Sarkar. Two favorites have been Parineeta and Devdas.

Parineeta and Devdas have certain qualities in common. They are about simple girls with self-pride. Parineeta talks about Lolita who falls in love and marriage by destiny and her husband fails to remember the sacred ritual. Instead of struggle, she performs all her duties. Two most remembered roles were played by Meena Kumari and Vidya Balan separated by ages.

Devdas is the most famous one of all of his works. K.L. Sehgal, Dileep Kumar and Shahrukh Khan essayed the three Devs of three ages. It is about one man who falls in love of a neighbor Paro. His father doesn’t agree and he leaves her. But when she marries someone else, he loses it all. He drinks heavily and destiny puts him in front of Chandramukhi, a prostitute; who falls in love with him. Alcohol takes him to death and he dies at the door of Paro’s in-laws house.

Sharatchandra will always be remembered as an iconic writer of all time. He has been a favorite of artists from West Bengal to Mumbai. His characters have influenced cinema far more than any other writer. His works are ageless…

In contemporary cinema, a highly acclaimed director brought up a movie with extreme realism and darkness but with a different climax. The movie was Dev D inspired from Devdas and the director is Anurag Kashyap.
With hopes that you are loving the series…

For The Reel; Written By Sujoy Ghosh

Under Lens: Genesis From Paper To Screen - 1

What is common between Ben Hur and Harry Potter? Both are top grosser of their times and have originated from some novel.

Around The World In Eighty Days, Charlotte’s Web, Love Story, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Schindler's List, Devdas, Parineeta, Shatranj Ke Khiladi… They all were based on novels. Beautifully written and wonderfully crafted. For sometime now… Under Lens we would discover some of the novels that were brought live on celluloid.

Novel-“Guide” Movie-“Guide”: Guide was a wonderful movie starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Indian Cinema. It was based on a novel by the same name- Guide. R.K. Narayan was the writer of Guide. The story strikes a perfect blend of two contrasting lives of the same person in present and flashback. In the former he is a revered saint and in the latter he is a shrewd guide.

Novel-“Forrest Gump” Movie-“Forrest Gump”: Winston Groom wrote a beautiful story of a person suffering from autism. The lead role was portrayed exceptionally by Tom Hanks. The story teaches a big lesson in life that even if you have the bare minimum, try to live it to the fullest. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get.

Novel-“The Graduate” Movie-“The Graduate”: On AFI’s list, the movie based on the novel with the same title is at seventh position. Author of this ’67 comedy-drama movie must be a happy person. He was Charles Webb, who wrote the piece shortly after graduating. The protagonist Ben (played by Dustin Hoffman) is seduced by an older woman and finally falls in love with her daughter.

Next time we will return with some more fabulous novels brought alive on screen.

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

The Critique: Million Dollar Baby

You would cry with pain taking her away and drops of tears will dry finally, feeling the trauma of a man who lost his only star. Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman created a magic in script directed by Eastwood himself- a movie that was itself a million dollar baby.

Maggie played by Swank is an amateur boxer who wants to make it big. She meets an under-rated coach Dunn (Eastwood) who is suffering a bad relationship with his daughter. Though initially reluctant Dunn; on persuasion of a friend Dupris (Freeman), decides to coach her.

During coaching both forms a strong bond of friendship and Dunn feels fatherly towards her. She works hard and excels in the game till her journey to success comes to a halt by a fatal accident ruining her spinal cord. Her suffering takes a lot out of Dunn and finally he decides to give her mercy death.

In scenes, movie show the struggle of two leading men in their lives and psyche, struggle of a woman who wants to carve a niche for herself in the field of women-boxing, apathy of her family and their selfishness and the struggle of a under-rated coach and a desperate sportsperson.

The climax will steal your heart. The expression on the face of fatherly coach while giving fatal dose of medicine to a ravaged paralyzed soul is unexplainable. He wants to kill her, not to do away with his guilt but to relieve her from a life of vegetable. Both the actors deserve applause for it.

Swank and Eastwood raised their bar with this movie. Freeman, like always; did justice to his complex character. The movie received extremely favorable reviews and applause at Oscars and Golden Globes. It won four Oscars and two Golden Globes for the exceptional performances. However, the movie was heavily criticized for supporting euthanasia (mercy-killing). Eastwood; at a point, said that it (euthanasia) was far better than killing with a gun in hand, something he did for a large part of his screen life.

The movie will always be remembered for the strong performances. One of the best movies of its decade…

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Statesmen: Aparna Sen

36 Chowringhee Lane is considered to be one of the most appreciated movies beyond the borders. The lady who directed the movie was Aparna Sen.

She started her career as an actress at age of sixteen, with Satyajit Ray’s famed saga Teen Kanya. She did some more movies with Ray including highly acclaimed movie Pikoo. With Mrinal Sen, she worked in Akash Kusum. In her acting career she performed in numerous Bangla, Hindi and English movies. But acting was not her destiny.

In ’81, she directed 36 Chowringhee Lane. She got accolades for her directorial debut. She won National Awards and Golden Eagle at Manila. The film was about an Anglo-English teacher living in Calcutta. SShe followed up the success with Paroma, Sati and Yugant. In these movies, she examined and highlighted the state of women in India.

In 2002, she presented her extremely gifted daughter Konkana Sen Sharma in movie Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. The movie dealt with two totally different people pretending to be husband and wife in extremely adverse conditions. She won National Award for direction and Konkana grabbed it for her stunning performance. Apart from these, the movie got extremely favorable remarks at different film festivals.

In 2005, she presented a story of schizophrenic patient and her relations with her sister. The movie was 15, Park Avenue. Again, Konkana played the lead role. Her last venture was The Japanese Wife starring Raima Sen and Rahul Bose.

To the world of cinema, she is known as a strong intellectual who has the guts to say spade a spade. She is not one in the league of diplomats. In 1986, she was bestowed upon with Padma Shri for her contribution to Indian Cinema. This reflects what she means to Cinema. She is a blessing while some directors are making mockery of the art.

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Hammers High: Lost Romance Of Mughal-e-Azam

Legendary Dilip Kumar saw Mughal-E-Azam for the first time in 1975, some fifteen years after its first premiere. Why? Read on.

It was onset of a classic romance, Dilip and Madhubala was a perfect match, they were both rising stars and had similar backgrounds to help take the relationship forward. Bliss followed with ecstasy of Dilip-Madhu Relationship mirroring that of Saleem-Anarkali relationship in the beginning. K Asif, the director would drop by at Dilip’s house for lengthy discussions, here he met Dilip elder sister Akhtar. Akhtar was a MA in Philosophy and would have long conversatios with K Asif. K Asif was married to Nigar Sultana (who played the crafty Bahar in the movie).

From then on relationship between these co-workers took downturn. Ironically, tense turn in Saleem-Anarkali relationship in script also mirrored in Dilip-Madhu Relationship. Madhu’s father was against the relation as she was the sole breadwinner in the family.They stopped seeing each other. K Asif and Akhtar got married against the wishes of Dilip. This in turn also estranged K Asif from Nigar Sultana.

Shooting took about ten years to complete and these people would grudgingly work together. So by the time shoot got over, most of the major people didn’t want to see each others face, to the extent that Dilip Kumar did not attend the premiere.

Thus one of the greatest films of Indian Cinema was also the cause of immense pain to many greats of the industry…

Written By: Ali ‘Rosebud’ Naqvi

Editor's Pen: Good Morning…

Good morning is a brilliant way to start a conversation because it always gives you a new beginning.

I was talking with Ali and he said that he noticed some good pattern at google analytics about our venture. 100 plus hits is not that bad. We have some comments and that gives us the hope that we will out do ourselves.

Some of our articles are featuring in the blog segment of a news portal- dmanewsdesk. It’s a wonderful place to find some really good articles and news items handpicked by people with great experience in media.

There must be queries, I guess. We welcome you all to write for us. Just contact us at the.reel.admin@gmail.com. The only thing we want is passion for cinema… in the true sense.

Final words… We, the whole team here, dedicate this issue to Late Feroz Khan Sahab. God bless his soul…

Warm Regards

Sujoy Ghosh

The Eyes Read It: Latest

With a silence in the multiplexes, and IPL on the run… its hard time for cine-lovers.

Sanjay Dutt and Nafisa Ali are working hard to grab the Lucknow seat. Similarly, many stars are trying their luck this time. Good Luck to them.

Shilpa and Priety are having some good fun at IPL and SRK; I guess there is no fun for him atleast. With KKR doing bad and poison blog doing well, SRK is really messed up.

Rumors are there that Soha and Kunal Khemu are together! Good for them. Finally, both brother and sister are settled.

After unbuttoned controversy, the ads minus a button are sparkling on the pages of various news papers on daily basis. Akshay Kumar knows how to grab the maximum attention and benefit… even if it means a few hours of Police Station for his Madame…

There is a bad news too. Style icon of Indian Cinema- Feroz Khan expired after prolonged suffering. God bless his soul. He will be remembered as a great artist.

Critique: Awara

In the history of cinema, some movies are called landmarks- Awara, leads the league by leagues.

A perfectionist in his own realm, Raj Kapoor directed and produced this wonderful movie that tells a strong story of the irony of life in land of Sita, who was forced to leave country due to a petty washer man.
Pritviraj Kapoor as Judge Raghunath doubts the loyalty of his wife due to misadventure courtesy Jagga, portrayed by K.N.Singh. He throws her out of his house. Raj Kapoor (as Raj), thus, lives a life of poverty.

As a child, he finds a companion in a girl named Rita but they are separated by Judge Raghunath who becomes the guardian of the girl after her parents’ death. Later, as young people, they fall in love. When Raj grows up, he starts working for Jagga but when he comes to know about his mother’s misfortune, he kills Jagga and tries to kill his father. Consequently, he appears in court of his father.

In the end of the movie, he is awarded punishment of three years behind the bars. This highlights the fact that, only law has the right to take actions. For no reason, anybody gets the right to punish anyone. It was a top grosser of its time. It earned applauds not only in India but also in Russia, Middle East and China.

The high points of the movie were the characterization of Raj that was loosely built on Charlie Chaplin and strong romance between Raj and Rita, beautifully played by Nargis. Both of these were resonant in many movies that followed Awaara. By all means, it was a phenomenal movie... A must watch for every cine-lover.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Statesmen: Balraj Sahni

Waqt is a legend in cine-folklore and the man who immortalised the song Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen by his prominent screen presence was none other than Balraj Sahni; the Kabuliwallah.

He was born in Rawalpindi on May 01, 1913 and studied in Lahore. After his Masters he returned to Rawalpindi to join his family business. However, that was not enough to feed the actor in him. In ’30s he went to Shantiniketan to join as a teacher for Hindi and English. There he met Mahatma Gandhi and that rendezvous led him to BBC-London where he worked as a radio announcer for Hindi. He returned back in 1943. He was yet to make his debut as an actor.

He stormed into the arena of Indian cinema with stunning performance in Dharti Ke Laal (1946) followed with brilliant performances. However, it was his exceptionally brilliant performances as Shambhu in Do Beegha Zameen and Abdul in Kabuliwallah that established him in the league of Motilal and Gurudutt. His performance in Haqeeqat and Garam Hawa also won accolades in media. Exceptional acting skills and charming voice were two qualities that made his persona unforgettable.

He was a gifted writer and contributed to literature with his works. He was deeply inspired by Russian Revolution and was a proclaimed socialist. He was a highly learned and well-informed person. This trait can be realised by reading his works published across the globe, specially the works on politics. He was one of the founders of IPTA.

He always stood for the poor and what a destiny, he was born on May Day (International Labour’s Day).
He expired in ’73 at age of 60. People remember him as a stylish sophisticated person but when you watch him in Bimal Roy’s Do Beegha Zameen, you will be astonished by the level of method acting.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Hammers High: Brokeback Does A Titanic; Almost A Controversy

Two movies, different stories, same genre but still opposite categories.
Brokeback Mountain and Titanic, both are considered to be great love stories. While the former highlights unconventional homosexual love, the latter depicts love beyond social classes. But something was common in both...

Brokeback Mountain received mixed responses from different sectors of Hollywood. It was a love story that suffered due to the fear of brickbats from society. The lovers had a painful thorn in their chest and were forced to live a complex life. Gay Rights’ forums consider it to be a groundbreaking movie and some rate it as one of the most adorable romantic movies of all time.

Titanic on the other hand, received applauds for everything in the movie. It was clearly the greatest movie of its decade. The love between the rich girl and the poor boy was never so nerve wrecking. Literally, on the edge of life and death. The scene in which the boy dies in his efforts to save the girl in chilling water is convincing enough to make you cry.

But what’s the controversy.... In Hammer High we discuss known and unknown controversies? Don’t we?
Looking at the poster of Brokeback Mountain, the intention is clear. It’s a love story to match the ecstasy of Titanic. May be when the poster-maker drafted the poster he/she had no idea that it resembles the famous Titanic poster, but some where it was definitely there that comes out so lively in the image.

Makers of Titanic never pursued the case, but some where deep; every viewer noticed the resemblance that was so co-incidental. Fortunately, the makers of Brokeback Mountain did justice to the co-incidence.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh