Dharma’s Dharmatic Decision: Will it make a difference? Film critics in Mumbai received a communication last week from Dharma Productions, which has been the talk of the community since then. Dharma was founded in the 1970s by the late Yash Johar, and is currently owned by the Johars, Karan and his mother, Hiroo Yash Johar. On the Dharma website, we are told that: “The name Karan Johar is synonymous with prestige, elegance, versatility and success. He is amongst a prolific group...

Amaze on Prime video: PLOTT A LOTT GOTT Inviting us at 12 noon for lunch at a 5-star hotel was unusual. The practice is to invite you at 12 or 12.30 pm, and serve you lunch at any time between 3 and 5 pm. Oh, the price you pay for being a journalist! Proceedings begin at around 2 pm, and last for about 1- ½ --2 hours. Lunch dare not be served before the proceedings begin, or while they are on, because savvy organisers believe that starved journalists would wait, while ‘lunched&rs...

Bakhtawar Mazhar: In Flames of Glory A day before the awards were announced, declaring In Flames the best film, at the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF), I was face–to-face with Bakhtawar Mazhar, one of the protagonists of In Flames, her feature debut, a film that had made a tremendous impression on me. This, a face-to-face with a Pakistani actress, had never happened before, and I was not going to let this opportunity go by. We got into a car, and started talking. “M...

Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, Review: All rhyme, no reason When a film tries too hard to please too many viewers, it shows. When it has too many stars, including stars of yesteryear, predictably, its length grows. When the maker goes back three generations and sets one chunk of the story in 1978, the public knows. When a layman at a bus-stop on a rainy night tells you lots about a film he has not seen because, perhaps, he has seen the trailer and read stuff about the movie, you know that&rs...

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:...

Case Toh Banta Hai, Trailer Launch and Press Conference: Courting laughter Trials and tribulations continue on the web. The genre has attracted Banijay Asia production house to create a show based on weird and ludicrous allegations levelled against film personalities that are debated and judged by TV/film/web veterans. A 'notice' of things to come was served to us today at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, Juhu, Mumbai. Some of the persons associated with the show were present, and many others...

        IFFI 52, 034: Some competition films not competitive, below par When you have already attended 44 IFFIs, you pretty much know what to expect. Or do you? Arriving from Mumbai by train on the 20th morning, the day of the inauguration, I found my usual hotel in an unkempt state. The owner, who had a flat there till some years ago, has let it sink into squalor, but critics like me, who fund all own expenses at IFFI, cannot really complain. A couple of hours later, after...

Bhoot, the Haunted Ship-Part I, Review: Scares are scarce Considering the negligible number of ghost stories being made in India, Bhoot, the Haunted Ship-Part I, made by names Dharma and ZEE, would have been a film to look forward to. It turns-up with a mixed bag, offering more mix than bag. Firstly, the title is a giveaway, for we already know that there is going to be a ship and that it will be haunted. Secondly, the film plays totally safe, in catering to both kinds of audiences—thos...

Good Newwz, Review: Madame Ovary Apologies to Gustave Flaubert, whose French novel, Madame Bovary, lends itself to the headline for this review. The title was too punny to escape, what with his famous trial of 1857, on charges of obscenity, and the subsequent classification of the work as a classic of modern realism. Among those who made films on this subject are Jean Renoir, Vincente Minnelli, Claude Chabrol and David Lean, not to mention our own Ketan Mehta’s Maya Memsaab. Good Newwz ...

Student of the Year-2, Review: Kya baddi kya baddi Kya baddi Karan Johar, what was the earth-shaking supersonic idea that made you cash in on the ‘The biggest franchise of Bollywood’ (imdb’s words, not mine) and redraw the Archie-Betty-Veronica isosceles triangle for the umpteenth time, after you yourself had milked it silica gel dry exactly 20 years ago, as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (185 minutes), and launch a pomp-romp-stomp-clomp-chomp-whomp called Student of the Year 2 (mercifu...

Kalank, Review: Masochistic miasma Everything in Kalank (blemish, stigma) is grand, both in content and in form. Sets and décor, riches and poverty, locales and vehicles, make-up and costumes, dances and fights, colours and luminance, all are designed to make your jaw drop in awe. All this opulence is merely the canvas on which a heart-wrenching tragedy is painted, around the time of India’s partition, with the entire ensemble cast at the receiving end of a woeful operatic wail, ...

Dhadak, Review: Kiss kiss kill kill A noun form of the verb dhadakna, which means ‘beating of the heart’, Dhadak re-introduces us to Ishan Khattar and gives us the much-awaited first look at Jahnvi Kapoor. Both have acting parentage, and that comes with a lot of weight. In the first half of the film, the two succeed in captivating the audience with their sheer freshness and electrical chemistry. Then, sadly, formulae and tropism take over, the pulsation of early dhadaks get blocke...

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary X, Open Forum 6: Finding your way across 2K, 4K, 6K, 8K  or 18K A digital technician who has built theatres (Lightbox in Mumbai, for one)-Neil Sadwelkar, Na Tum Jaano Na Hum producer Vivek Singhania, and Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) President Mike Pandey, participated in the last Open Forum of International Film Festival of India 2016, organised by IDPA, at old GMC building, Panaji, Goa, on 27 November. The moderator was film-m...

by Siraj Syed It was through the thoughtfulness of a WhatsApp group member that I came to know about a Press Conference being organised on the 29th of September by Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) to announce the 18th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. MAMI is a trust that was formed 19 years ago, and the trustees included Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Shyam Benegal, Amol Palekar and Sudhir Mishra. The reins are now held by Kiran Rao, who is also Mrs. Aamir Khan and Anupama Chopra (journalist, a...

Shaandaar, Review: Insomniacs, maniacs, megalomaniacs and necrophiliacs It’s a Shaandaar combination. Producers of this eagerly-awaited film include the Dharma banner owner Karan Johar (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, My Name is Khan, Student of the Year; also director), Vikramaditya Motwane (director of the mini-classic, Udaan, and co-owner of the production house, Phantom Films, with Shaandaar director Vikas Bahl, Anurag Kashyap, and Madhu Mantena) and Anurag Kashyap himself, the director of such...