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Siraj Syed is the India Correspondent for FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. He is a Film Festival Correspondent since 1976, Film-critic since 1969 and a Feature-writer since 1970. He is also an acting and dialogue coach. @SirajHSyed
RIFF 09, 2023, 4: Life-time Achievement Award for Parikshat Sahni
The 9th Edition of the Rajasthan International Film Festival(RIFF) 2023
will be held from 1st to 5th February in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Festival Director announced that the life-time achievement award will be given this year to lead actor and later character artiste, the eminent personality, Parikshat Sahni. Sahni is well-known to the earlier generation for TV shows like Barrister Vinod and Gul Gulshan Gulfaam. The latter was set ...
SCO Film Festival: India to host, festival begins tomorrow
In a first-of-its-kind event, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO)’s film festival opens tomorrow in Mumbai. This is part of the initiatives taken by India after assuming Presidency of SCO. A total of 55 films will be screened during the festival, at two venues: the Films Division Complex, Peddar Road, and Nehru Centre. Proceedings will be kicked-off at an inaugural function, to be held at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, Nat...
Pathaan, Review: Exploits and exploitation
Encyclopedia Brittanica defines a pathan thus: Pashtun, also spelled Pushtun or Pakhtun, Hindustani Pathan, Persian Afghan, ethnolinguistic group residing primarily in the region that lies between the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan and the northern stretch of the Indus River in Pakistan. The Pashtun constitute the largest ethnic group of the population of Afghanistan and bore the exclusive name of Afghan before that name came to denote any na...
New Year’s Special: Distributor Anil Thadani in an exclusive interview with Siraj Syed, Part III
Siraj: How do you choose multiplexes or single screen cinemas for particular films?
Anil: Basically, you have to understand your own product. The kind of film you are releasing. And then you pick and choose where you think…which is the pocket that deserves a film like…a particular film. And that is how you release. It is your gut feeling about your product… what you are...
Zindagi Shatranj Hai, Review: Partly chess, partly mess
With a title like Zindagi Shatranj Hai (Life is a game of chess), you are ready to watch some smart moves, and the film does offer a few such moves. But it also offers several false moves that negate the positive ones. Designed as a mystery-suspense-thriller, it has a plot within a plot within a plot. Besides that, there is pretty little in terms of good cinematic content. There are many loose ends that are left untied and several thread...
RIFF, 09, 2023, 03: Festival director’s film screened at Dhaka International Film Festival
Rajasthani documentary film Dhinga Gavar, directed and produced by Somendra Harsh, was screened at the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival. The film had its world première at the National Museum in Dhaka on Wednesday. Somendra Harsh represented his film and interacted with the cine lovers present there. ‘Dhinga’ means fun by pretence and ‘Gavar’ means Gangaur or G...
It’s Almost Pyaar with Anurag Kashyap’s DJ Mohabbat team and its trailer
Anurag Kashyap’s much awaited movie Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, his ode to modern love, had its trailer launch in Mumbai, at the PVR multiplex, Juhu, Mumbai, yesterday. The event was attended by the female lead, Alaya F., debutant Karan Mehta and Anurag himself, along with the music director Amit Trivedi, producers Ranjan Singh and Kabir Ahuja and ZEE Studios’ Shariq Patel
After everybody had...
Puss in Boots-The Last Wish, Review: It’s not yet the time to hang up your boots
A cat-sized cat in boots, with a cat-sized sword, taking on mighty villains and evading arrest by a Sherriff and his posse, is surely the stuff that fairy tales are made of. Just to remind you, there is a title card and a line on the posters that tells you, “This is a fairy tale”. That, technically, refers to the visual style of narrative employed by the film, which is very story-book in nature....
Broker, Review: Brokering a deal for heavy, serious, dark cinema
A Japanese film won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or in 2018, titled Shoplifters. It was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. The following year, a South Korean film bagged the honours. It was called Parasite. After the lean, Covid years of 2020 and 2021, we have a South Korean film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, called Broker, releasing in 2022. The film competed for the Palme d’Or, but bagged only the Ecumeni...
T24: Tiger in a man’s world
Not often do we see a feature length documentary on a tiger get a theatrical release. But here is one that makes it, thanks to the initiative of brave distributor Anil Thadani’s AA Films. The title refers to the number given to a tiger named Ustaad, who inhabited the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve.
Charmed by his majestic looks and gait, short-film-maker Warren Pereira (Lovely Coffee, Salt and Silicone, Moving Higher) decided to capture his movements and li...
Trailer and music launched for first Marathi underwater supernatural thriller, Gadad Andhar
Shot 110 feet below sea level, in the sea near the Maldives coast, Gadad Andhar, meaning intense darkness, breaks new ground in the Marathi film universe. The trailer of the film was released on 17 January 2023, at Famous Preview Theatre, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai, in the presence of the cast and crew, and media. A song, ‘Dariya dariya’ (dariya means sea), was also shown. It is a background number ...
RIFF 09, 2023, 02: Second list of films to be screened announced
9th edition of the Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF), organised by RIFF Film Club and accredited by the Federation of Film Societies of India (North Region), will be held from 1st to 5th February 2023 at INOX, Crystal Palm, C-Scheme, Jaipur, with the theme ‘Sports in Cinema’. The second list of films to be screened during this festival was released a couple of days ago.
A total of 20 films have been off...
Farzi: ‘Fake’ encounter with the team of Amazon Prime Video’s new show and trailer launch
Creators of the mega-hit web series, The Family Man, Raj and DK are back in action with the crime thriller Farzi, which marks the digital debut of Shahid Kapoor and ‘Makkal Selvan’ Vijay Sethupathi (full name: Vijaya Gurunatha Sethupathi). The series also stars Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Amol Palekar, Regina Cassandra, Bhuvan Arora and Kubra Sait, in pivotal roles, and w...
Kuttey, Review: Gulp Friction
Quentin Tarantino can rightfully claim a patent to the format used in Kuttey: prologue, epilogue and a non-chronological structure, with the present merging with the past and the past merging with the present. The co-writer and director of Kuttey (Dogs), Aasmaan Bhardwaj was born one year after Pulp Fiction (1994) was released, bagged top honours at home and abroad, and attained cult status soon afterwards. Twenty-seven years after he was born, Aasmaan has made h...
Lakadbaggha, Review: Hyena in a dog’s world
Considering the amount of footage devoted to dogs, Lakadbaggha (Hyena) is more a dog film than a hyena flick. The first and only hyena you see is late in the second half of the film. But, to be fair, that hyena is in sharp focus as the film moves towards its climax. Besides a thought-provoking insight into the world of dogs, the film gives us some raw, bare handed, martial arts, in the krav maga style of combat, which originated in Israel. It ...
Sachin-The Ultimate Winner, Review: No option of a third umpire
Sometimes a film is made amateurishly, for home consumption. ‘Home’ here could mean captive audiences, like a chain of schools, some of whose students feature in the film. Sachin-The Ultimate Winner is one such film. It is probably close to what is called a zero-budget movie, has tacky values, a predictable plot, passable performances, and music that leaves much to be desired. It seems stuck in a time warp, and heavil...
Spy thriller G2 launched in Mumbai, with Telugu superstar Adivi Sesh
In a significant move, a Telugu unit has launched a film in Mumbai, on January 9, 2022, at the PVR Multiplex, Citi Mall, Andheri. It is a spy thriller, starring Adivi Sesh, in continuation of the first instalment of the highly successful G series, Goodhachari (2018, co-written by Sesh), produced by T.G. Vishwa Prasad and Abhishek Agarwal and directed by Vinay Kumar Sirigineedi, who were all present on the occasion. No more ...
Victoria-Ek Rahasya, Review: The Untold Tale of Victoria Hotel
Any film-maker venturing into the spirit world has the following things to keep in mind: 1. Is he going to endorse the existence of spirits/ghosts? 2. Is he going to give the audience genuine scares, or jump scares/hallucinations? 3. How convincingly is he going to explain the goings-on in the climax? Marathi-English film Victoria-Ek Rahasya (Victoria, A Secret) leaves the first clause vague, goes halfway down the jump scare/hallu...
New Year’s Special: Distributor Anil Thadani in an exclusive interview with Siraj Syed, Part II
Siraj Syed: Any films that you are currently releasing in partnership with producers?
Anil: I have done many films like this.
Siraj: Do you tie up with distributors to jointly release films?
Anil: No. I usually get solo world rights, which include both India and overseas rights.
Siraj: Have you been involved with some films right from the launch till the release?
Anil: Most of the Excel ...
In the mood for Mood Banaleya, with Amruta Fadnavis
Her instant intro on Instagram reads, “Banker, Singer, Social Worker, Unadulterated Free Spirit! What you have many can have...but what you are no one can be! Stay Unique!” Click on www.amrutafadnavis.in, and you can discover her biography, in her own words. “Amruta Fadnavis is a trained classical singer, a social activist and a banker. She is married to Deputy Chief Minister (and former Chief Minister) of Maharashtra, Deve...
Surya, Review: Twilight zone
Giving no clue about its content, Surya is an eponymous title, being the short form of the name of the protagonist. Symbolically, it also stands for the sun, as the dispeller of darkness. While there is no denying that the hero of the film does what all action heroes do, namely dispel darkness by annihilating the baddies, the way he is made to go about it is not only jaded but beaten to death, pun intended. Surya, made in Marathi language, with a generous dose of ...
Trailer launch of Lakadbaggha: Hyenas, dogs and animal vigilantes
For many, the meaning of the word lakadbaggha was discovered yesterday, when they attended the trailer launch of the eponymous film at Cinépolis, Fun Republic, Link Road, Andheri, Mumbai. It means hyena. And I bet no Indian film has been made with this title, before this. It is produced by First Ray Films, the production unit headed by actor Anshuman Jha. In an amazing co-incidence, a film called Kuttey (meaning ‘d...
New Year’s Special: Distributor Anil Thadani in an exclusive interview with Siraj Syed, Part I
Reclusive film distributor Anil Thadani, who is known to avoid the media, talks to Siraj Syed about himself, his business and issues facing the film industry. Anil distributed films some 30 films in 2022, including blockbusters like KGF Chapter 2, Bhool Bhulaiya 2 and Kantara.
Siraj: What do the letters ‘a a’ in your company’s name, ‘a a films’, stand for?
Anil:...
Kishore Kumar, The Ultimate Biography: The Penultimate Review
Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar have been both adventurous and courageous in calling their Biography of that eccentric genius, Kishore Kumar, ‘The Ultimate’. Some biographies about one of India’s greatest ever playback singers-actors, also a music director and film producer, have already been written, and others will be written. And so, Ultimate is an indulgent word. Not given to such extravagance, I shall...
Ved, review: The craze phase
To those who do not know Marathi, and maybe a few of those who do, the word Ved, with its present spelling, could mean the ancient scripture of Hindus, part of the Vedas. But that is not what it means here. It could also mean ‘time’, which has a similar pronunciation. Negative again. Ved is an approximation of the sound that means madness or craze in Marathi. Ved, the film, is about craze, no doubt. In fact, many a craze. The protagonist confesses that...
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About Siraj Syed
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India.
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, Germany
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins.
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984.
Bandra West, Mumbai India View my profileSend me a message
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