We have waited long for this one. Nolan, once again, doesn't disappoint us. The Dark Knight Rises, in true sense. All the hype and doubts can rest in abyss as the movie delivers what you might expect. TDK was so gross because they had a gross supervillain. In TDKR, Bane is no Joker but still he is a Bane. He is dangerous because he exists in the time when Dark Knight is a lost entity.
The story starts where it finished last time. Joker is a past and Harvey Dent is a hero. Batman, despite of everything, is a fallen angel. Gordon has cleaned the city. Bruce Wayne has turned into a recluse of extreme variant. Alfred wants to take him out of the situation but Bruce cannot detach himself from Rachel. Wayne Enterprises is in shabby state and we have a new villain, Bane. Bane who? Well, a complex entity whose one point agenda is to turn Gotham into ashes. And yes, there are two more characters. Blake who believes Batman and Selina who believes herself.
Like Batman Begins, this movie is more about what and who Bruce Wayne is than Batman. Bruce is more vulnerable, more human and more astute. His character grows manifold as Batman diminishes. TDKR is Bruce Wayne Rises. Joker challenges Batman and his sanity. Bane challenges Bruce Wayne and everything he stands for. Unlike previous editions, this time Nolans focussed on subplots as well. They were well detailed and met the conclusion. If they say that this is the third act of the trilogy, Syd Field got a fine tribute.
As Bruce, Christian Bale just improves his act. Tom Hardy as Bane roars and make you feel weak. He had a difficult job as he had only his voice and body language. He does well. Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman were usual self. Gary, however, got a better role in this edition. Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were good but nothing memorable. Technically, from screenwriting to visual effect, background score to art direction, everything is very much at par with TDK. Nolan and crew nailed it hard. Third act done well. Nolan, we will be anxiously waiting for your next.
Dara Singhji’s absence would be felt. The machismo he added to Indian cinema has no parallel. Maybe only Fearless Nadia left a more memorable imprint or may be a shade less. To most of the people who worked along with him, even if it meant a scene or two, he will be remembered as gentleman with huge persona. For rest, he was and will remain Hanuman. We usually forget our icons. Shameful but we do. Overtime people will forget Dara Singhji as well. But the everlasting impression he made on Indian cinema will remain and sing ballads in his praise. Dara Singhji R.I.P.
As Gyandeep would say, ‘after 20th July, world will be divided in two factions – one who loved The Dark Knight Rises and other whoare yet to see it.’ Twitter and fb will tell you how crazy world is going in anticipation of TDKR. Maybe most powerful buildup before any release. Maybe even more than Avatar. Nolan is one of the most respected filmmakers. His greatest strength has been to exceed expectation each and every time. His films tests not only mental but also emotional strength of viewers. I can still find people who are yet to find what happened in Memento.
Well, in other news, in next edition we will bring up the list of most memorable heroes of Hindi Cinema in Uttkrishtt. Our search for the top ten will continue from there.
We had a golden chance to have an interview with Kshay fame Writer Director Karan Gour and Producer Shaan. They talked about the movie and how it was made...
Q1: How do you feel when you hear good words flowing in from all sections? Its impressive that Kshay earned its space in a month that saw Shanghai and Gangs Of Wasseypur releasing and Rowdy Rathore breaking BO records.
Karan: Its always great to hear good words from everywhere. Makes us feel accepted and not like outcasts. Makes us believe that there are more like us out there. Its almost like you trudged through a barren landscape for years and finally found civilization.
Shaan: We actually chose that date since we thought it’ll be quite iconic to release between Shanghai and Wasseypur. The fact that there wasn’t a very big release on the same day helped us get the date. The spread in the kind of films releasing in the same month just shows that we have audiences for every kind of cinema.
Q2: What were the resources you had when you started? How much training did you went through before taking the first take?
Karan: My training was just watching films. I think more than any film school, just general film watching is the best kind of training for any filmmaker. I think if you watch every film as a viewer with an open mind and not as an analyst, there’s so much to learn. When we started, we only had the script and a camera.
Q3: Which tools came handy, especially in editing video and composing background score?
Karan: I edited it first on Adobe's Premiere, which is the most glitchy editing software out there. I would have to render every time I did a cut to see how it looked as the software wouldn't allow me to see it within its own window smoothly. So because of things like that, it took about 3 months just to put the edit together. Then when it came time to color-correct, we found out that Premiere messes up gamma values in the ProRes footage. After that, it was two weeks of shifting our 900 or so cuts over to Final Cut Pro, which was just torture because it was a lot of work for absolutely no fault of ours. For music I used a sampler called Vienna Symphonic Library, which is a sampled recording of the various string instruments done by the Vienna Symphony. I use Fruity Loops for pretty much everything musical and then run everything for the master sound mix into Cubase.
Q4: First timers usually have issues with handling grainy footage and dubbing the dialogues. How did you overcome these issues?
Karan: Grain was something we never wanted to remove as it played into the narrative exceptionally well. We just didn't want that nasty splotchy digital grain that comes with digital footage. So every frame of the film is littered with a simulation of film grain, which is far smaller and a lot more dynamic in its movement. It sort of bombards the digital grain, especially in the blacks, to make the patches look smoother. Towards the end of the film, the grains get more and more, which just worked wonderfully with the climax so we never touched it. We had live sound for some of the dialogues which was usable, so some of those inside-the-house scenes were all live sound. The dubbing was primarily for everything outdoors and some indoors shots. The dub happened in our two-room apartment, with one room being used as the recording booth and the other as the control room with the computers and everything. It was a neat setup although a lot of sound from the outside would bleed into the microphone as this was a residential complex that our apartment was in. So after the dubbing, I took about 3 months of cleaning up the dub, synchronizing every word to the video, and adding reverb to the dialogues that made them fit into the environment you're seeing on screen. This last part is what most films that use dubbing never do. I feel it's a must because otherwise all dialogues either sound like their lines being spoken for an animated character or like they were voice-overs.
Q5: Most of the short film makers don't know how to connect with people from industry. Without showing your work, its difficult to get backing. How did you approach people for screenings?
Karan: I am not sure about the whole connecting part. We just approached PVR as they had that exhibiting platform called Director's Rare. They decided to let us play in that section without charging us any fees, so that worked out well for our screenings.
Q6: Kshay is done. What next?
Karan: Writing at the moment.
Team TRM wishes Karan and Shaan all the good wishes for their future endeavors. With Kshay as their base, expectations would be sky high.
‘Suchitra Short Fiction Film Festival’ or ‘S2F3’ as they call it, has been one of the best things to have happened to me in the past some time. Not very famous yet, but a very good film festival for short films. In all, competitive and non-competitive segments, 28 were selected were screened. One out of those lucky 28 being our short film Itaanu Uttaram, I got a chance to be a part of the event organized by a film society contributing for over four decades.
Spread over 2 days, the fest gave me a chance to meet many enthusiastic people from different professional backgrounds, to understand their understanding of the art, to see their piece of work, to have a discussion with them, to have a discussion on our work with industry experts like Mr. Prakash Belawadi, a well-known theatre & film personality, to feel good about seeing your work being screened on a big screen and seeing people enjoy it.
Day 1 was hectic but very eventful. Watching so many short films in a day was an experience like nothing else. We saw all, the good the bad and the ugly, but every short had something to teach. We travelled from Bangalore to Kerala, we witnessed road accidents and love accidents, the love of a man for a tree, the respect of a man for his leader, the superstitions people believe in, the law that they don’t believe in and much more, all through those films.
Day 2, discussion on the films screened, which I, with a prejudiced mind, anticipated to be a boring event eventually turned out to be an experience worthier than the screening itself. We got to learn some of the nuances of filmmaking and acting as well, the technicalities which can be or should be used and which are actually used. How to create the desired effect by the use of space and sequence and how it is all about creating an illusion for the audience.
All in all, it was a memorable event and a wonderful experience. To the readers I would suggest keep making films, send them to festivals and if you get chance please attend them to learn more because as Mr. Prakash said ‘Films is not a basic necessity for people, they won’t give a damn if we stop making films. It’s our passion and hence our responsibility to master the art and make better films every next time.’
Raymond Shaw in a zombie like motion goes to convention hall where Presidential nominee is giving a speech. A few scenes before Raymond is instructed by his operator to carry out the assassination. The operator is his mother working for communists. Raymond is tamed by Queen of Diamonds. Whenever he sees the card, he goes into a trance state and acts as per instructions. As a result of this, Raymond can never remember what he did and who made him do that. This breaks the chain between action and instructor safeguarding the latter. In convention hall, Raymond hides in a small room at a height and aims from there. Manchurian Candidate was released in October 1962.
One year later, November 22nd 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a shooter hiding in a building on sixth floor. The assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald. What makes all this more interesting are some co-incidences in modus operandi and background of fictional Raymond Shaw and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Bothe Shaw and Oswald had a defense background. Shaw was platoon commander and Oswald was with Marine. Both had good credentials as sharpshooters. Both had Soviet links. Shaw was captured and hypnotized in Manchuria. His escape from captivity was heroic but a little unbelievable due to lack of details. Oswald, on the other hand, was a Soviet sympathizer. He even expressed desire to denounce his US citizenship and live in Soviet. Raymond, had he being arrested, could not have provide any logical explanation of his action. In front of law he would have been a sole conspirator. Oswald was named as sole conspirator by Warren Commission. Finally, Raymond committed suicide just after firing. Oswald was killed two days later by Jack Ruby, a man with no big reason to call the trouble home. Raymond and Oswald never faced trial.
Interesting fact is that the movie was rarely shown on TV post assassination. Though, its was later explained that this happened due to issues with distribution rights, many people believe that JFK assassination was the main reason. People associated with the movie deny this outright.
Kshay is an intense word. Literally it mean ‘corrode’ but due to archaic value the word symbolizes multiple layers of intensity and trauma. Writer Director Karan Gour shows this as an obsession taking over a person individuality. What is the obsession? Well, it’s a statue of Goddess Lakshmi which metaphorically translates into ‘wealth’. A housewife who is going through a phase of personal trauma, whose husband works hard to meet the ends becomes obsessed about a statue. In a religious country like ours, having statues of God and Goddesses is a very usual thing. However, in Kshay, it means something different. It’s not about religion. The statue is a symbol of materialism and the housewife symbolizes ‘Us’.
A simple story which has multiple layers of thought processes and this makes Kshay a powerful movie. Shot in black and white with a small budget, Kshay lays its foundation on three pillars – script, acting and direction. Along with its flaws, Kshay manages to rake some positive criticism and establishes as a good model for indie movies. Promotion for Kshay was visible over facebook and twitter. Words from film festivals and reputed critics supported their case. Rarely, an indie based on serious topics gathers word-of-mouth publicity of this order. Kshay didn’t went Rowdy on BO but earned enough respect. For everyone involved, road ahead will be a little easier.
Indie needs these kind of efforts. Mass movies will keep coming up and will continue using same age-old formulas. If movies with higher content value stop braving the tides, cinema will become a madhouse. Watch indie and help them. We need good movies.
Filmmaking went into its shell in eighties and nothing progressive was happening in Mainstream cinema. Parallel cinema on the other hand was able to retain its dignity but their reach was scant. While cinema across the world was evolving different ways to narration, story telling, special effects and characterisation, Bollywood was feasting on cliched formulas. Worst thing was that this was wrongly portrayed as personality of Bollywood.
In last 15 years, many movies came and brought in influences of European and American cinema, dumped the cliches and stressed on innovations. Bollywood started learning. Realism evolved in Mainstream Cinema. Characters were no longer extra-ordinary human beings, they were one among us, simple and fragile. Though mass movie kept on raking gold, new/alternate/parallel/indie cinema started getting its due. Among many faces, two people made themselves pretty recognisable - Ram Gopal Varma and Anurag Kashyap.
In this Director Special Edition, we decided to talk about these two goodfellas who influenced Indian cinema in last two decades more than any one. Waiting for your comments...
'Rangeela Re' was easily the most popular track of 1995. It marked the arrival of A.R. Rahman in Bollywood. The movie not only did good business, it established Urmila as an actress and Ram Gopal Varma as a Director. His acumen was never doubted, his ability in popular cinema was subject to speculations. Rangeela brought him in mainstream cinema's big league.
Munna, a tapori, loves his childhood friend Mili. Mili wants to be an actress and is infatuated with persona of Raj, a superstar. She gets a movie with him and Munna realises that differences between him and her have grown beyond repair. He decides to let his love go because he doesn’t know if she loves him the way he does and he believes that Raj can offer her a better future. Characters are very simple. In Munna one can see the influence of Anil Kapoor's mannerism. Mili is a dreamer and varies from spontaneous to shy. She is a little tomboyish adding to the effect. Raj is very suave. In short, it’s a clichéd story with clichéd characterization which works due to smart dialogues, good performances and music by Mozart of Madras.
Performances are good. Jackie and Urmila played their characters very well. However, Aamir playing Munna steals the show. His screen presence is awesome. Camera work is pretty decent. Editing is crisp. Scenes don’t drag unnecessarily. Direction is good. Nothing extraordinary still with a fresh feel. RGV's approach to direction and storytelling in Rangeela was short of movies he made later, though way better than some of the contemporary money spinners.
Satya was perhaps first realistic take on Mumbai mafia in mainstream cinema and was beginning of a great partnership between Anurag Kashyap and Ram Gopal Varma who together made a few movies Indian Cinema can be proud of. Satya also marked advent of Manoj Bajpayee - a maverick in his own right. But the most important thing, some movies are important because of the timeline on which they exists, Satya is one of them. While Mumbai mafia was trying to take Mumbai by ransom and post '92 bomb blasts, a feel of uncertainty was there, Satya showed how exactly mafia looks from the inside. In a way similar to Scorsese's Goodfellas.
Satya (JD) is an immigrant who is wrongly framed in a false case. In jail, he becomes friend of Bheeku (Manoj) who is a part of mafia. With Bheeku, Satya's tryst with mafia happens. From this point their ascent in mafia happens only to fall with an end conforming to Bollywood norm where crime never pays. The relationship between Bheeku and Satya are the highlight of this movie. The parallel plot of Satya's love life adds immense value because it shows the human side of people working for mafia. For them crime is their job. They don't want to mix it with their personal life.
As Satya, JD delivers a fine performance. A de-glam Urmila is convincing. Saurabh Shukla and Shefali Shah are usual self playing on their merits and well within their limitations. The show stealer is Manoj Bajpayee who simply overtakes each and every scene he is present in. His screen presence is good, dialogue delivery is good and intensity is simply mind-blowing. However, the movie doesn't work just due to incredible performances. Both script and direction are class. There is an in-depth understanding of lives in low rungs where glam of Bollywood seldom ventures. Anurag Kashyap, Saurabh Shukla and Ram Gopal Varma made Satya as close to reality as possible. The imagination of these three people set the cast for this cult movie.
Post Satya, the perception towards Mafia changed. Everyone started looking it from RGV's lenses. As for RGV, this was beginning of his trilogy about Indian Gangsters - Satya, Company and D.
In a comparatively short span, Bollywood witnessed three path breaking movies from duo Ram Gopal Varma and Anurag Kashyap. When they first collaborated for Satya, RGV was an established name and Anurag was yet to settle in industry. Infact, RGV didn't trusted Anurag for dialogues of Satya and roped in Saurabh Shukla, a veteran who later played an important role in the movie. Satya is perhaps one of most realistic take on underworld till date. This was attested by many people from mafia. Success of Satya led to foundation of many gangster based movies to follow up including cult Company, D and their innumerous cousins.
This Director Actor duo brought a new concept to Indian cinema by making Kaun. With just three characters, Anurag created a story set in a bungalow with numerous twists and turns. It had that Alfred Hitchcock feel. However, not every good movie is well received. Despite of critical acclaim, Kaun failed to achieve huge BO success and did an average business. Ability of Anurag as a storyteller came to fore. The style was hailed by critics and film students. It also heralded a new beginning of suspense and thriller genre in Bollywood.
Between 1997-99, Ram Gopal Varma and Anurag Kashyap explored places Bollywood conviniently ignored. Along with E. Nivas, RGV and AK worked on Shool. Shool was a blunt take on politician-criminal nexus. An honest cop Samar, who follows law in letter and spirit, takes on a criminal turned politician Bachhu Yadav. One can see influences of movies from 80s and hard hitting parallel cinema. Having said that, Shool attained cult following for hard hitting dialogues, realistic cinematography and small town sensibilities. Shool influenced many movies which followed making Bihar as subject. Shool was perhaps Anurag's nursery for Gangs Of Wasseypur.
Interesting trivia is that in all these three movie, Manoj Bajpai plays an important role. Maybe he is not the most successful actor around, but is definitely one of the best thing happened to Hindi Cinema in 90s.
Satya and couple of movies that followed it were impressive enough to mark Ram Gopal Varma as a promising director. It was Company which actually established him as a king maker. Between Satya and Company, he made movie which were good, received favorable comments from critics and established his name but they were just a notch less than Satya and he needed something at par. Company was that movie.
Loosely based on lives of Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan, this Ajay Devgan - Vivek Oberoi starrer gave goose bumps to people associated with Mumbai underworld. This was commercialised realistic cinema - realism and gloss of glamour in true colors. Company showed how the underworld works. It was an extension of Satya in a sense that Satya talked about the grass root level underworld and Company showed the organized face of underworld at a higher level in hierarchy. The narrative style of company still remains a benchmark for cinebuffs. The way Jaideep Sahni blended narration into the story to give it a gripping docudrama feel was impressive. Company was a box office success as well.
Bollywood has always been short of good quality horror movies. Bhoot filled that void. Ajay Devgan-Urmila starrer Bhoot was a huge commercial success. Instead of relying on makeup and prosthetics, RGV focusses on his script and cinematography. It worked. Influences of world cinema was pretty evident. Use of background score was path breaking. Bhoot gave RGV everything- acclaim, money and awards.
Sarkar was an adaptation of The Godfather. RGV spiced it up by adding politics and while doing so, story seemed to have inspirations drawn from life of Balasaheb. It was controversial enough to give an initial mileage to the movie. The story of Sarkar was parallel to fading line of difference between politics and crime. Sarkar Subhash Nagre is a political Godfather who doesn't hesitate taking law in hand to ensure justice for people. Though Sarkar lacked the depth of The Godfather, it was a very decent effort. Like company, Sarkar got appreciation from both audience and critics.
Company, Bhoot and Sarkar were three movies which made RGV a big brand. Almost an outsider, he was perhaps the first person to create a camp for himself in last 15 years. He broke into monopoly of already established big names and made Factory as new nursery for talent. Shimit Amin and Sriram Raghavan were brought into limelight by RGV in this period. As they say, everything at a height is bound to fall... these three movies were that height.
Paanch was remade last year as Shaitaan. Shaitaan was the most successful production of Anurag Kashyap, but Paanch didn’t even release. This shows the kind of shift that has come about in Hindi Movie scene. Thats good for Anurag Kashyap.
Paanch is where Anurag Kashyap’s legend began. As Paanch was banned from releasing, Anurag went to newspapers and news channels. People started noticing him. Suddenly he became poster boy for everything that was wrong with Indian censorboard. he became rallying point. In my opnion, Ban in release of Paanch did him more good than its release would have. Paanch could just have been an unnoticed Indie made by a writer who was on team of Ram Gopal Verma.
Then came Black Friday, and I thought,’Let’s see, what this guy is all about’. I grabbed the DVD, and about 2 hours later I was blown away. Level of detail in characters, historical accuracy, Motivation of characters, direction, performances everything was spot on. I can safely say that, personally for me none of Anurag’s film yet have beaten Black Friday. Even Gangs of Wasseypur. Disagree? Tell us in the comments
No Smoking was based on Stephen King's short story Quitters, Inc. Considered as one of the most abstract movies in Hindi Cinema, No Smoking failed to click with the audience especially the intended ones. Definitely it was for the youth and as the title suggest, it had the element of preach which usually doesn't go well with Indian audience. The movie bombed.
The very year, a sense of mock was in air when Ram Gopal Varma came out with his version of Sholay titled 'Aag' (RGV Ki Aag). Remaking a cult classic can be a good idea when done in Hollywood. In India, people don't like them to be remade unless it stars a certain Shahrukh Khan. Aag went on break records of all wrong sorts. The Box Office collections were pathetic and Sippy's had the last laugh.
Why these two movie failed?
Any abstract movie needs to connect with the audience. However, sensibilities of Indian youth was perhaps not that open to ideas as they are today. The unusual screenplay leaving a lot to audience's grey matter was a liitle too much to ask for. On the other hand, John was not half the BO magnet he is today. Anyways, over five years, No Smoking has earned some respect and people rate it as one of best by Anurag Kashyap.
Aag was a blunder when it was conceived. Sippy's opposition, casting of Nisha/Priyanka as Basanti V2.0, Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar V2.0 and Ajay Devgan as Veeru V2.0, RGV's recent BO performances added all the negativity available on block. Reinventing characters and misinterpreting them are two different things. RGV somehow missed this basic point. So-called reinvention of 32 seasons old iconic characters didn't go well with audience and movie was grounded.
Anurag made a good movie which didn't work. RGV made a bad movie which didn't work. Over years we can see that Anurag learnt his lesson but...
2012 saw release of Gangs of Wasseypur and Department. It sharply demonstrates where two masters are today.
Anurag on one hand has just showcased Gangs… at Cannes Film Festival to standing ovation. RGV on the other has just showcased Department which has caricatures for characters and sole purpose being to demonstrate how unconventional cameras can be used to make film. Yes its made in good intention to help fellow film makers, but what about the audience? What about connecting to them?
Anurag’s future projects are collaboration with Oscar winner Danny Boyle and Nolan-ish take on India’s first comic based Superhero-Doga. Ramu on the other hand is doing Ab Tak Chappan-2. RGV has run out of ideas. Only redeeming direction he can take is let his ego go and hire good script writers and work on fresh ideas. Or produce films for genuine talents. He can spot talents.
Here’s hoping RGV gets back his lost mojo. Or better still maybe in future Anurag and RGV can team up again and give us more gems like Satya. Here’s to the hope!
Ram Gopal Verma, this name today invites groans and anxiety from viewers across India. About 7-8 years ago, it was the other way round. Mention of RGV (as Ram Gopal Verma is fondly referred to) triggered anticipation in most film buffs. Most of his earlier films were critically acclaimed and moderately to highly successful.
He entered public imagination with his hit Rangeela. It was different from formulaic films love stories being made at the time. It had characters that were different than the stock movie characters of that time. It had a story of a superstar, a starlet and a roadside romeo.
This followed with the crime drama Satya. Like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, which started trend of big family films, Satya started a trend of realistic gangster movies. In this series of movies came Company, which was near perfect in all respects and is infact one of my all time favourite movies.
Then Verma turned attention towards Horror films. He made classic Bhoot and continued making more horror film. This point on it was big spiral downwards in terms of quality. Critics and audiences started disliking RGV’s films. This triggered what seems like an adamant streak in Varma in which he stopped caring for what others had to say. He has famously said,’I make movies for myself’.
RGV ki Aag became his biggest undoing. Lately he has been dabbling in experiments.Department recently was shot with non-professional cameras. As Anurag Kashyap recently said about RGV that he is like child with toys. He has lost direction, doing experiments with other people’s money. If he doesn’t make a decent movie soon, people might start asking same question as they did for Dev Anand, ‘Who pays for him to making movies?’
When we collected votes for first Uttkrishtt, I was a little surprised. Black Friday was rated higher than Mother India, Pyaasa and Sholay. It was #2 on our top Hindi film list. That was a small indication how strongly Brand Anurag Kashyap has evolved over the years. From being the face of independent cinema in this country, today Anurag is perhaps the most respected Indian director. How strong is this brand can be easily gauged by the fact that many people went to see Shanghai because Anurag strongly recommended it (by my personal experience). The reco was all over the papers and people were booking their tickets online.
In intial days, when Anurag was still a student at Hansraj College, Delhi University, he developed an interest in world movies. In a film festival he happened to see Bicycle Thieves and had his Satyajit Ray moment. The impact of de Sica revered neo-realistic film was huge. Like Ray, Anurag decided to take his steps forward in the world of cinema and landed in Mumbai. He joined theatre, tried acting and writing and joined a group of likeminded people. After lot of hardships, he got his big break with Satya. Satya and established him as a script writer. But still a lot was amiss. He was a name in inner circles of industry. Satya was a RGV movie for public. AK was just an unknown entity.
Anurag took a step forward and directed Paanch and Black Friday. Paanch was written during his early days in Mumbai when he was a nobody and elements of frustration of a young nobody were visible. Black Friday was a clinical study of Bombay Bomb Blasts. Paanch never saw the daylight however is perhaps one of the most acclaimed work. Black Friday fought court cases and was released. These two movie hardly gave Anurag a financial boost but the acclaim these movies got made a thumping noise. Anurag arrived the scene.
Paanch was banned. Black Friday saw monstrous roadblocks. Still the name evolved. No Smoking came and masses rejected it. People started doubting. Then came Dev D and the duo of Abhay Deol and AK nailed it. The adaptation of Devdas got adulation at Box Office. His repute as a strong storyteller was an established fact. He backed Aamir, Shaitan and Udaan. Each of them changed the outlook of Indian film audience. Despite of his failures on BO for Gulaal and TGIYB, Brand Anurag Kashyap has evolved largely due to multiplex culture and exposure to world cinema due to torrents. Lack of many intelligent makers beyond studio and camps helped his cause and made him the poster boy of Indian Indie.
