Blue Notebook Results | 2014 Thanks 2013

Its magical how cinema works. Like an impossible jigsaw puzzle which somehow fits in to amazement of audience. The creator smiles and thanks the Lord on the seventh heaven. Cinema is probably one of the most complicated puzzle. The outcome looks simple but the process demands blood and dedication in addition to talent to back with.

Last year I said - New Wave/Parallel/Alternate Cinema is no more different from mainstream cinema. Its part and parcel… no rather focal center of Indian Cinema now. When 2013 will take over the reins, it will have herculean tasks to accomplish. Well, I was right. Year 2013 had some tough time to deal with. It did well. It didn’t raised the bar but didn’t let it fall either. Probably there was a silver lining as well – small films doing well.

Let us start with first set of awards.

Living in an era and bringing it alive on screen are two different things. Art Direction is the craft to make it possible. From fine details like kind of shaving blade used to larger artifacts, everything speaks about the time and era. The trick is not only to be accurate but to be convincing as well. It’s something that can easily go wrong but tough to appreciate. The unsung heroes of Cinema. The award for Best Art Direction goes to  Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

While Art Director makes think relevant in all dimensions, x,y,z and time – Editing involves an equally daunting task. What exactly an editor does? Clips cut and add? In layman language, it’s as complicated as selecting equal sized pebbles on shore of an ocean.  You have tools but if you don’t have an eye for perfection, no video editing tool can help you. In 2013, this trick was nailed by team of Madras Café. Kudos.

Best Art Direction –  Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Best Editing – Madras Café

Indian films have always been about music. Musical dramas have been our forte. A Russian singing ‘awaara hoon’ or an Uzbeik dancing on ‘disco dancer’ simply elaborate the global reach of Indian Music. However, over last few years the focus have shifted. This year has been a very average year. Still few albums made their mark. Like the winner of this category.  The award for Best Music goes to  Aashiqui 2. Frankly, it had no contest. Outright winner with 37.5 percent votes.

Few years back it was incomprehensible that we will deal with topics like the ones we managed this year. From adaptations to obscure, Hindi films toyed with multiple ideas and worked them out with some finesse. The winner of the award in this segment was a slice from past. While Tamil cinema has done some incredible work, Hindi cinema remained largely aloof. Yes, we are talking about the Best Story award winner Madras Café which successfully handled a complicated and sensitive talking to walk past the next best story – Fukrey – with lead of seven percent.

Best Music – Aashiqui 2

Best Story – Madras Café

The boundaries are becoming irrelevant. Films which were earlier geographically localized are now becoming global phenomenon. Success of Regional and Foreign Films attest that. This year there is a curious tie for Best Film In Regional Language between two very well made and deserving films - Duniyadari (Marathi) and Lucia (Kannada). On the other hand we had a clear dominating winner in Best Film In Foreign Language category – sci-fi philosophical adventure Gravity (USA).

Best Film In Regional Language – Duniyadari (Marathi) and Lucia (Kannada)

Best Film In Foreign Language –  Gravity (USA)

Now let’s talk about the most outstanding performances on screen. Last year Irrfan Khan won it for Paan Singh Tomar. This year, I don’t know if its co-incidence, the award for Best Actor goes to extremely talented Farhan Akhtar (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) for capturing the imagination of Indian audience with metamorphosis and soulful performance. This has definitely opened the doors for better sports films in this country.

Among actresses, all nominations had something about the role they played and there was No Vidya Balan this year. And there was a tie. The Best Actress most deservingly goes to Divya Dutta  (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag), Nimrat Kaur (The Lunchbox) and Chitrangada Singh (Inkaar). Kudos. The tie says it all. Brilliant contest.

Best Actor – Farhan Akhtar (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag)

Best Actress – Divya Dutta  (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag), Nimrat Kaur (The Lunchbox) and Chitrangada Singh (Inkaar)

The director who got our attention and the prized recognition of Best Director did something unusual. He redefined film making with a small film that made everyone smile. He used a motif so visible that it was literally non-consequential and weaved the story around a rare co-incidence. The Lunchbox brought a sense of Relevance in our lives. Thanks and congratulations Ritesh Batra. Way to go man. Rakesh Omprakash was a close runner up losing by a margin of less than 2 percent.

The Best Film will bring some reaction. Even we didn’t expect this. Apparently as a package film was a complete delight. It was not philosophical on a higher level but had some moments which made us thoughtful. Some moments were brilliantly captured. Critics would argue but audience has made their choice.  Its Raanjhanaa.

Best Director – Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox)

Best Film – Raanjhanaa

With that we would like to thank you for all your votes and appreciation. It means a lot to us. I hope you like this entire exercise.

The year 2013 was a good year, hopefully 2014 will be even better. We will come back with Blue Notebook again in 2015.

Indie Efforts Making A Point | Blue Notebook

The Lunchbox: Ritesh Batra’s much appreciated film which was almost selected for country’s entry for Academy Awards – Foreign Language was more about relationships and abstract connection between rather unrelated dots. Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur – rather unusual lead pair – was dubbed as the most romantic couple on screen in a couple of year or so. on the other hand, in a quintessential role, Nawazuddin held his guns against the last king of his kind – Irrfan Khan.

Lucia: Nolan is definitely not the only man who can sell dreams so convincingly. Crowd funding, low budget and word of mouth, Kannada film Lucia appeared to have checked all the boxes correctly. Pawan Kumar moved from his acclaimed debut Lifeu Ishtene to a new model of funding and worked it out well. However, the USP was not crowd funding. It could have been made anyways and still would have got the acclaim for being an interesting psychological thriller. Critics rated it the best film concept wise in rather a long duration.

Qissa: An Indo-German collaboration, Anup Singh’s Irrfan Khan and Tillotama Shome starrer Qissa can boast of accolades it has got across the globe. Irrfan plays patriarch of a sikh family with four daughter. In the turbulent times of ’47 partition he raises his fourth daughter as a boy. The idea and the performance backed with capable technicians makes Qissa more than just an interesting watch.

Tasher Desh: More than often Q will appear in this section. His adaptation of Tagore’s  work by the same name has broken the conventions, even the ones set by Q himself. The selling point of the film is Q’s interpretation of Tagore’s work and its presentation. If at times performances don’t matter much, this is one such occasion. However, Q has been lucky to get a good team both behind and in front of camera.

B.A. Pass: Noir rarely work in India. Low budget noir die premature death. Ajay Bahl however managed to get the business right. Word of mouth and saucy promotions ensured enough footage to get the audience. Shilpa Shukla was the star of the film from the moment her name came across. She justified it with her performance. Though there were moments which seemed to be overdone, the movie successfully passed the message across the board. Well, a good precedent.

Legends We Lost Last Year | Blue Notebook

Roger Ebert - Film Critic - One of the most revered film reviewer of all time, Ebert was the first critic to receive a star at Hollywood Walk Of Fame. He popularized the art of film reviewing and inspired a whole generation of film bloggers.

Peter O'Toole - Actor - Shakespearean actor Peter was a known name in theatre circles before he came to cinema and adopted it with great finesse. Eight Oscar nominations spanning over five decades speaks volumes about his body of work.

Rituparno Ghosh - Director/Actor - Rituparno, one of the finest Bengali directors, will be remembered for his open thoughts, compassion for Rabindranath Tagore's craft and sensitive filmmaking. Awarded with National Award 12 times, he died fairly young leaving behind a thought - may be his best was yet to come.

Joan Fontaine - Actress - Joan will be remembered for her charm and acting skills. She is the only actor who got an Academy Award for a part in Alfred Hitchcock film. Only sad note will be uneasy relationship with her sister, an equally accomplished Olivia de Havilland.

Farooq Sheikh - Actor - One of the most underrated actor of post Golden era in Hindi cinema when mainstream and Parallel cinema parted and later came together. He played roles in exceptional films like Garam Hawa, Shatrannj Ke Khiladi and Chashme Buddoor.

2014 - Waiting List | Blue Notebook

Year 2014 sounds like an interesting offer. Apart from expected blockbusters like Jai Ho, P.K., Kick and Shuddhi, there are few interesting indie and offbeat cinema on platter. Mainstream too is experimenting on those line. TRM sneaked into 2014 and picked films which might grab your attention:

1. Miss Lovely: Ashim Ahluwalia’s film about C-Grade cinema may or may not interest the big spenders, it will be a treat for cinebuffs. Nawazuddin’s performance has gathered accolades in various fests the movie have been to.

2. Shaadi Ke Side Effects: Two immensely talented actors – Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan – will be a couple in this film. Sparks are already there on youtube. Laughter fest for sure. Trick is that it’s a sequel. Will it match the standards?

3. Finding Fanny Fernandes: Homi Adajania had our attention with Being Cyrus and Cocktail, will try to stretch the envelope. Some films deserve to be made, this story about five friends searching for an old postman’s lost love is one of them.

4. Haider: After Maqbool and Omkara, this will complete the Vishal Bhardwaj – Shakespeare’s trilogy. One of the most complicated stories of Shakespeare is a challenge for everyone – from actors to technicians. Will they bridge the gap?

5. Bombay Velvet: Ah, one of the most awaited film for like two thousand years now. It was in air when Dev D was released. Will this movie really release? Anurag Kashyap’s second outing of the year will note debut of Karan Johar in a major role. With Ranbeer and Anushka, there is some talent up there.

Music Of 2013 | A Random List | Blue Notebook

In quest of searching nominations for Blue Notebook, we did a little scan of the music of 2013 and courtesy our music specialists Neha and Rishabh we made a quick list of best of 2013 and the crooners who rendered their voice.

1. Ambarsariya (Fukrey) - Sona Mohapatra

2. Chahun Main Yaa Na (Aashiqui 2) - Arijit Singh, Palak Muchhal

3. Khoon Choos Le (Go Goa Gone) - Arjun Kanungo, Suraj Jagan and Priya Panchal

4. Meethi Boliyan (Kai Po Che) - Amit Trivedi and Mili Nair

5. Kabira (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani) - Mohit Chauhan, Harshdeep Kaur | Rekha Bhardwaj, Tochi Raina

6. Zinda (Lootera) - Amit Trivedi

7. Raanjhanaa (Raanjhanaa) - Shiraz Uppal, Jaswinder Singh

8. Poore Chaand (Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela) - Shail Hada

9. Saawan Bairi (Commando) - Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

10. Maston Ka Jhund (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) - Divya Kumar

Blue Notebook - 2014

Blue Notebook | The King Is Back | Editor's Pen

Hi Friends,

Blue Notebook is back. Its payback time, friends. Appreciate quality cinema and open arms for more and more quality work. This year -2013 - has been a year of big blockbusters and cool indies. Money and art are growing together and how well, We sincerely hope that the story continues.

Last year ended on a sad note. Ever smiling Farooq Sheikh left us in tears.

Over last three decades, he was a part of Indian middle class. Films like Garam Hawa, Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Noorie, Umrao Jaan, Chashme Buddoor, Katha and Lahore, tele-shows like Chamatkar and Ji Mantriji, chat show like Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai and one of the most highly rated theatre romance – Tumhari Amrita. Such diverse and prolific career has no parallel. Be it Garam Hawa, Katha or Chashme Buddoor, he reflected the persona of a young man to the tee. With same brilliance he played Kaul in Shanghai. But probably the finest example for this generation would be Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani. This movie almost touched 200 Crore barrier but the most memorable were those five minutes where Farooq Sa’ab talks to his son Ranbeer. The movie was worth every penny spent for those few minutes. I felt I was talking to my father. We will miss you Sir.

I hope you like the new look of TheReelMag. We tried to make it more reader friendly – from both visual and navigation point of view. It might not strike as something outstanding from looks perspective, I hope it’s pleasing and comfortable for a sweet lingering reading experience. Well, more changes are in pipeline and will update you.

Love

Sujoy Ghosh

Blue Notebook | Voting