films

A woman in a ghetto in Cambodia who will not let her house be pulled down. Elsewhere, in Rio Janeiro, a mother mourns the death of a son killed amidst the rivalry between favelas. In India, another woman wows that her son will only marry a rape victim. In Kibera (Kenya), the largest slum in Africa, a mother still dares to dream of a better world for her children. These are some of the protagonists of director JR's Women are Heroes, joined only by their gender and their undefeatable propensity to hope. Pic courtesy: JR's official website. The picture represents…

Two years ago, Ekta Mittal, co-founder, Maraa and Yashaswini Raghunandan, a film maker and artist started working on their film Behind the Tin Sheets. The production documents the lives of the workers who are involved in building the Bangalore Metro. It also captures the changes that the city has undergo during the construction."The process has been one of the most endearing one for us. It was a great way to deal with the transformations of the city and film some of the most interesting stories", say Ekta and Yashu (as friends call her). A fellowship from the Centre for Media…

Kempe Gowda (Kannada)Kempe Gowda is a typical "cops and robbers" film from Indian cinema. But Kicha Sudeep brings together excellent production values and powerful performances to make for entertaining cinema. Source: Facebook Official Fan Page Based on the Tamil film Surya-starrer Singam, we see police officer Kempe Gowda (Sudeep) taking on the powerful underworld don Arumugham (Ravishankar). Backing him every step is the lady he loves (Ragini Dwivedi).The highlight of this film is Sudeep's performance as he breathes fire and power into his role. It's hard to find a single frame where he's not in character, and this gives the…

Did you know that 50,000 people die of venomous snakebites in India every year? Deaths that could be averted if people had access to an effective anti-venom cure. This was one of many startling discoveries at the end of the screening of A Million Snakebites by the Gerry Martin project at the British Council. The Gerry Martin Project is an initiative for wildlife conservation and education, spearheaded by Bangalore based Gerry Martin. In this film made for the BBC, reptile conservationist Rom Whitaker travels across India, from Tamil Nadu to Rajasthan to Assam, collecting snake venom in an effort to…

With 7 Khoon Maaf, director Vishal Bhardwaj returns for the second time to another Ruskin Bond short story Susanna's Seven Husbands. His first was Blue Umbrella. The film is at one level a woman's search for love. Bhardwaj makes this journey through the mind of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) - a woman who lives the world not in black and white, but in all its accompanying shades of grey. She veers at the precipice between sanity and insanity, almost willing herself back from the edge just as she threatens to veer over. This should have made for a promising…

With Patiala House, director Nikhil Advani, who debuted with Kal Ho Na ho, returns once again to the familiar background of the Indian Diaspora in the UK. The cast of Patiala House The film tells the story of a young cricket loving British Indian of Sikh origin Parghat Singh Kahlon (Akshay Kumar), whose passion for cricket falls in conflict with his father's desire that he should never represent England. As he settles into the life of being the shopkeeper Gattu, he is reminded of the dreams he left behind by the woman he loves Simran (Anushka Sharma). While the Indian…

Yeh Saali Zindagi (Hindi) Any film that gets director Sudhir Mishra to the lens again, with the immensely talented Irrfan Khan and Chitrangda Singh as part of the cast that brings the film to life, automatically finds its way on to your ‘must watch’ list. But Yeh Saali Zindagi fails to live up to our high expectations. Even when unpredictable, the film still leaves you dissatisfied. While it’s a departure from Mishra’s previous work like Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and Khoya Khoya Chand, there are commonalities with the treatment and thematic focus of his earlier films like Chameli and Iss Raat…

No One Killed Jessica It was a murder and a trial that transfixed India. Now the story returns to celluloid in director Raj Kumar Gupta's account of the murder of model Jessica Lall and the subsequent trial of Manu Sharma. It remains an important film of our times, yet it is not always landmark cinema. The film narrates in dramatised documentary style the events surrounding Jessica's murder and the subsequent investigation and trial. Certain movies will also be remembered for the manner in which they caricature a city. No one killed Jessica is a film that also puts Delhi on…

Rewind 2010 While the first five films are the big budget films that either rocked box office or created a buzz amongst cinema lovers across India, the next 10 films either stretched the boundaries of their genre or are significant from a historical perspective. Major Box office hits Dabangg (Hindi)Inception (English)The Social Network (English)Endhiraan (Tamil)My Name is Khan (Hindi) Interesting films of the year Peepli Live (Hindi) - Kanasemba Kudureyaneri (Kannada)  Autograph (Bengali) Pranchiyettan and the Saint (Malayalam) The Japanese Wife (Hindi) Aptharakshaka (Kannada) Do Dooni Chaar (Hindi)Phas Gaya Re Obama (Hindi) Pancharangi (Kannada) Legend of the Guardians: The Owls…

Twenty-eight-year-old Bangalorean Pawan Kumar's inspiring journey began, when he quit his engineering degree from PESIT college, around 2000 to follow his passion for theatre and cinema. By 2003, he had set up his own theatre company ACTor Productions. In 2009, director Yograj Bhat released Manasaare to commercial success and critical acclaim within the Kannada film fraternity. But even as the film-makers, including Yograj and screenplay writer Pawan Kumar, travelled through urban and rural Karnataka observing the response to their film, they noticed a curious dichotomy. This in fact formed the basis of their next film. Pawan's transformation from actor to…