Mother Teresa & Me: A stunning Swiss portrait of an Indian Saint
He comes across as a youngish, genial uncle, with a deadpan sense of humour. Answering to a name like Kamal Musale, he had to be at least part Indian. This Swiss-Indian film-maker’s Swiss company – Les Films du Lotus Sàrl – and his Indian company – Curry Western Productions Pvt Ltd – produce movies with Indian content, for western taste. Mother Teresa & Me transcends any such boundari...
Incomparable Shachin Dev Burman: HQ Chowdhury’s labour of love, about the man and his music
It is not often that one gets to hear about a book and its author first, and gets to spend some enriching time with the author afterwards, before getting an autographed copy of his book, as a gift. And to think this happened 2,500 km away from my city of Mumbai, in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, at Chowdhury’s posh guest house, seems almost unreal. Reading Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman ...
IFII 51, 49: Avijatrik, a sequel to Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar
In an edition where the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) pays tribute to legendary film-maker Satyajit Ray, there was a fitting entry in the Indian Panorama Feature Film section of the festival, which builds on his rich cinematic contribution. Avijatrik, a sequel to Ray’s The Apu Trilogy, often cited as the three greatest films in Indian film history. The trilogy comprises the Bengali films Pather Panchali ...
Siraj Syed reviews Lion: Soaring emotions, roaring cinema
Lion is the tale of mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, separation and unification, brimming with humanity, and yet not fighting shy of tilting the camera down, to capture the grim realities of crime and perversion in a cruel and miserable world. All those who frown upon technology as the bane of the 21st century, here’s a glorious tribute to the great service it can and is meant to render, and does, as evidenced in the film....
In what way is this year’s KolKota festival, the 11th, different from previous years?
We have continued with the same components within the previous structure but regarding film selection we have become more serious, we are looking at more cerebral films, giving better cerebral exercise to our audiences. Our Pedro Almodovar retrospective is an example of this. And in the international section there are several lesser known directors but we have given preference to them because of their crea...
November 15, 2005
THE 11th annual Kolkata(Calcutta) Film Festival (KFF) is in full swing this week with more than 125,000 people expected to see a total of 138 films at 240 screenings in eight venues.
The festival got off on a high note with the showing of Christophe Barratier’s Les Choristes for the inaugural evening, marking the first time the French box-office hit has been shown in the sub-continent.
The film was shown in the largest of the three halls that make up Nanda...
