IFFI 53, 2022, 13: Master Class on Gender and Work in Hindi Cinema A Masterclass on Gender Participation in Hindi Cinema was held at the 53rd International Film Festival of India, in association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in Panaji, Goa wherein a presentation on Breaking the Screen Ceiling: Gender and Work in Hindi Cinema was held. Key insights from a quantitative research study on gender and work, both on and off screen, in Hindi cinema, were presented during the mas...

IFFI Goa 2017, VI: Sexy Durga and Nude--two films you will not see Since the first screening as a work in progress film in the NFDC Film Bazaar, held in Goa, 2016, Sexy Durga (Malayalam) received good reviews from the viewers. Also talked about ever since it was launched was the Marathi film, Nude. Both were selected by the selections juries to be shown at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Goa 2017, which begins in a week from now. Both have since been removed from the list, an...

IFFI Goa 2017, IV: No Director, no Jt. Director, but the Indian film lists are out Press Information Bureau (PIB), Mumbai, is largely invested with managing the media at International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Their home page has the following address: http://pibmumbai.gov.in/# On this home page, you are greeted with a pop up about the government’s cleanliness drive. Click on the cross at the top right hand corner there, and the pop-up closes. Now you are led to a site whose addr...

Ajji, Review: Gran finalé Enough of laurels for acclaimed shorts like Taandav, Aglee Baar, Absent, and the largely unknown feature, Oonga. It was time for Devashish Makhija to push the limits hard, and make a shocker that would provoke the critics into hot debate, and leave the masses, if and as and when they get to see it, cringing and stunned. In Ajji (Granny/Marathi title, though the film is in Hindi), as in most films that emanate from and belong to a genre, content dictates form....

Toilet—Ek Prem Katha, Review by Siraj Syed: Loo and behold! There is no point getting revolted by the title. Any fear that the film might have ‘dirty’ scenes can be laid to rest by the realisation that we have a robust Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that sanitises every film before release. And almost every Indian knows that the current Prime Minister launched a campaign two-and-a-half years ago, to ensure that millions of villages and small towns in rural India ...

Phullu, Review by Siraj Syed: Misleading title, taboo subject, tenacious treatment This is a good example of a film named after its lead character, with no regard for audiences’ perception of what it might stand for, and no clue about the storyline. The word is not a corruption of phool (flower), though it could well be an attempt to synthesise phool with ullu (owl; figuratively, a fool). We can go with the assumption that they intended to call him the flower fool, Phullu. Phullu is ab...

Siraj Syed reviews Haraamkhor: Harmful to the core Haraamkhor: A derisive term, having its roots in Persian (Farsi) and widely used in present-day Urdu and Hindi. Haraamkhor literally means one who feeds on ill-begotten food, haraam meaning immoral, or not kosher, the antonym of halaal, right and approved. Khor refers to eater, or consumer, from the Persian verb khordan, to eat. Some prefer to spell the word beginning with a qh, to distinguish from the kh sound, which is less guttural and not...