Blame it on Fidel - A Review

Blame it on Fidel

If I were to recommend you to watch ‘Blame it on Fidel’ for a light, afternoon children’s fare, I would be spot on. Strangely, I would also be right if I were to claim that it is a subtle examination of political system and economic organization of our time. Yes, this contradiction and the film’s ability to pull it off with aplomb makes it a must-watch gem.

The film sets out to explore the turning of Anna and her brother, Francois’s life upside down in the midst of widespread political upheaval sweeping across continents and their very home.  Their parents are liberals hauled into the swirling political winds of 1970s France in part due to guilt of having ignored their social belief in order to build a comfortable life  of well-adorned home and manicured gardens. In an effort to right the wrong and embrace a new life of bohemian adventure and iconoclastic ideology, they start with gusto. But Anna is not so sure.

Francois provides the much needed comic relief in this adorable tussle between the elder child and her parents. In the aftermath of one such battle, Anna storms out of the house hauling Francois (perhaps to save him from her parents) onto the streets of Paris. The lilting melody of those moments becomes the troubling memory of the film. Audiences will, at once, find themselves smiling at the girl’s fiery temperament and profoundly touched by the love between siblings.

The movie is particularly effective by not answering the very questions it poses. Anna does not simply accept her parent’s theories at face value. She resists, she prods, she questions before she embraces. Essentially, what begins as a journey to educate Anna on a certain ideology also ends up being a lesson for parents themselves. In the process, audiences are left delving deeper into their own minds wondering if they can differentiate between group solidarity and sheep mentality, if they always know when they are sure, if it is ok to simply throw crumbs at poor farmers and workers in the name of charity or do we need to bring fundamental change to right the wrong of generations past.

Nitin Sonawane

Half Time Report

2012 has had a strange start to it as far as movies are concerned. Typically the convention is that very few big banner movies are released in the first half of the year so that they can cash in on the summer box office. With the advent of the IPL it has only helped diminish the few who did release their films during the first half. But this year was different because there were several anticipated big banner films that were released before July and whats more is that they did well in terms of business.

The year started with Abbas-Mustan's Players. An official remake to 'The Italian Job', Players failed to set the box office ringing. It failed to capture the essence of the original and was a scene to scene remake which made it quite an uninteresting watch. The action was uninspiring especially after seeing movies like Don and Ra.one the previous year. Following suit in the remakes brigade was Karan Malhotra's Agneepath. Although some feared that this movie would mar the memories of the old classic, it proved out to be quite the winner. A remolded character sketch of the famous Vijay Deenanath Chauhan only helped the films cause. It made you forget the original and accept it as a new film. Hrithik's performance and the music was the highlight of the movie.

Then came a movie which showed great promise in its promos, Gali Gali Chor hai. But like a bad diwali firework it wiped out even before starting. Akshaye Khanna and Annu Kapoor's valiant effort could not save the poor screenplay. K Jo in a very unlike K Jo fashion came up with another release in the space of 2 weeks, Ek Main aur Ek Tu staring a new jodi of Imran and Kareena. A brisk rom-com which definitely had its moments. The highlight of the movie was Kareena's acting, the super ending and Amit Trivedi's music. Then came the reel to real love story Tere Naal Love ho gaya. Aptly synchronized to release in the month of their wedding, the movie did open to a decent response. But failed to keep momentum due to a mundane script and screenplay.

March was a mixed bag. It started with yet another rom com, London Paris New York. Although it had decent performances and a decent musical score, it failed to make an impact. The character sketches were far too weak and uninvolved in each other in my opinion. Then came Paan Singh Tomar which was a very captivating film. Irfan Khan delivered a brilliant performance. As it was a true story it had a disturbing attribute to it which is why people shied away from it I guess. The film of the year in my opinion was released on 9th March. Kahaani not only boasted of a wonderful script screenplay and direction but also of a stellar performance by Vidya Balan. It definitely has to be one of the finer thrillers to have come out in recent times. March also saw the release of Saif's magnum opus project Agent Vinod. Although it had its moments of brilliance, director Sriram Raghavan failed to recreate the magic of his previous films. Too many twists in the tale brought its downfall in my opinion.

Housefull 2 aptly released on April Fool's weekend. This was a loud comedy that raked in moolah like no tomorrow. Personally I hated this movie, but it turned out to be quite the audience favorite. April also saw the 'chupa rustam of 2012', Vicky Donor. This small budget John Abraham production had a wonderful script and screenplay by Juhi Chaturvedi and was directed by Shoojit Sircar. Impactful performances by Annu Kapoor and Ayushman Khurana only strengthened the movies cause. The star studded Tezz soon followed in the theatres. It boasted of some slick action but failed to keep the audience hooked on and turned out to be not so profitable.

In the month of May, IPL was at its peak. So very few A grade movies tried their luck at the box office. Karisma Kapoor marked her return with Dangerous Ishq. I have not seen the film to comment on it but from the promos it had a very 90s look and feel to it. Then came one of the most anticipated films of 2012, Ishaqzaade. The look was very fresh with new actors. The film was below par in my opinion. I never felt the connect between the lead characters of the movie. Parineeti's acting was the highlight of the movie for me. RGV was back with a star studded venture, Department. The movie was marred with controversies with Sanjay and Ramu badmouthing each other. The movie had bizarre camera angles to say the least which drove away many a spectators. The only shining spot in this flick was Amitabh Bachhan.

The much anticipated Rowdy Rathore released as soon as the IPL was over. By now the song 'chinta ta chita chita' was a rage. Again personally I did not like this movie at all but it is the biggest earner of the year so far. Another of the LYBAH (Leave your brains at home) comedy. The next to release was Shanghai. Supposedly, this was Dibakar Banerjee's best work. But I beg to differ. I found the movie too predictable. Somehow it dod not work for me. Maybe it was the hype around it. Ferrari ki Sawari released as small film since it had no big stars to boast about. But Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and the screenplay stood tall to give this movie its much deserved success. It stuck to telling a simple tale of a simple man and that it where it won the race in my opinion. The week after that was followed by Teri Meri Kahani and Gangs of Wasseypur. Kunal Kohli's Teri Meri Kahani had nothing new to offer. To add to its misery, bad promos and bad writing prevented this movie from using its starcast's full potential.

All in all this has been a very good year so far, with most of the movies doing good at the box office. There has been something to satiate every cine goer's taste and that has been the brilliance of this year.

My personal top 5 of this year are as follows.
1) Kahaani
2) Agneepath
3) Vicky Donor
4) Ferrari Ki Sawari
5) Ek mai aur ek tu

@ Original Post from http://g2g316.blogspot.com/2012/07/half-time-report_391.html

A TV Show, A Celebrity Opinion and A Question about Feminism in the Movies

Recently, a friend sent me a link to a TV show - Love2HateU which featured "the prolific Mr. Mahesh Bhatt" coming face-to-face with a girl who declared she hated his readily available sound bytes for all occasions and his current propensity for being associated with cinematic sleaze. Mahesh Bhatt, loud and belligerent, unapologetic about his recent choices and ever-ready opinions, bellowed at her with a devil-may-care attitude that was intimidating yet oddly impressive. For the most part, it felt like he was playing to the gallery, vying for some much desired TV buzz by being not just controversial but outright ridiculous (in my opinion, of course).

Overall, immensely forgettable.

But there was a moment there, when defending Mallika Sherawat's choice to shed her clothes for fame, he accused his hater for being anti-feminist because she couldn't respect that path to fame.

"Women like you pretend to fight for the cause of women and yet you are the biggest enemies of women"

Being a strongly vocal feminist (almost to a fault) myself, yet oddly prudish by the standards of today's generation, it got me thinking about what feminism means, what we ask for when we demand gender equality and what is implied by the oft-touted phrase "women's liberation" and how is all of this coming forward in Hindi films today.

As for any serious writer, the first thing for me to do was, of course, get the Wikipedia definition. As expected the scope of the issue was too vast to wrap up in a couple of trite sentences. For the interested reader, you can find the details here.

Noticeably, it doesn't talk about how women dress or the use of sex appeal by women to get ahead in life, possibly because that is something as old as time.

My next thought was to see what roles were women being offered in Hindi films today. I didn't need a refresher course on all the songs being churned out today be it Munni, Sheila or Chameli, we've all heard way too much about their Tinku Jiya's and Ooh La La's.

What about mainstream cinema and leading actresses? What were they being offered?

A cursory look through the top grossing films of 2011 gives us this list -

- a spoilt little rich girl in love with her bodyguard (Bodyguard),

- a damsel in distress mother being protected by the robotic replica of her dead husband (Ra-One),

- another spoilt little rich girl with a cursory interest in a career but a more real interest in getting married (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara),

- the ditzy, air-headed shrew who manipulates every waking moment of  her harried fiance (Delhi Belly) and

- a sultry starlet ready to shed every bit of clothing for fame and glory (The Dirty Picture).

Admittedly there are also a couple of roles like the the gutsy journalist (Delhi Belly) or the live-life-on-the-edge deep-sea diver (Zindagi...) but they're few and far between and almost never the only female protagonist in the film.

It's not a very impressive list, as I see it. Women are either in need of protection or are simply annoying. And no matter who they are or in what phase of life, they must either already have a man or are on the constant look out for one.

(I can almost hear most of my male readers snicker at this point. )

Women in Indian cinema are rarely portrayed as intelligent, self-reliant, independent characters facing real situations with courage and gumption, without a man, while being fully clothed. 

So where is the much talked about gender equality?

Specifically on the topic of Mallika Sherawat and her claims to fame - is it really being liberated if the shortcut to some twisted idea of success is the display of one's anatomical assets? If so, then why should a Salman Khan be ridiculed for it and a Mallika Sherawat be applauded? Leveraging the anatomy you were born with as acting talent, irrespective of how many hours you put in the gym or under the scalpel, sounds to me to be quite the opposite of liberation, no matter what your gender is.

Women are still not paid at par to the men, unless it's an "item song" which requires little acting and a lot of blatant sexual display. When someone as notable as Mahesh Bhatt touts women who look like they're having an asthma attack while they heave their bosoms as sensual and remarkably modern / liberated, it propagates this illusion even further.

Mr Bhatt, to your point above I'd like to say to you that when you ask Udita Goswami or Mallika Sherawat to strip for your movies, you know deep-down that your target demographic is not the liberated 21st century feminist. Nor is it the forward-thinking, self-aware male who has a healthy respect for womanhood and all her beauty. For obvious reasons. Whether you admit it or not, no matter how you justify it, you're pandering to the repressed Indian male who gets to wolf whistle at an unknown woman in the comfortable dark anonymity of the movie theater because he's unable to have that desired freedom at home. And, at that point, you're no better than the feudal lords who cultivated harems and sex slaves under the umbrella of patronizing the arts. The only difference is that today you have convinced the women who do your bidding that it is the gutsy, "modern" thing to do, at the cost of their self-respect and dignity.

"What you see as a degeneration, I see as an evolution..." said the angry Mr Bhatt at a later point in the show.

I wonder what it is an evolution into. If women in cinema are consistently reduced to a sum of their body parts, to me it means that the much needed feminist movement is being twisted into making women believe they are powerful only if they take their clothes off because "that is what sells". (I believe that is the oldest excuse in the book to peddle trash under the name of artistic expression.) True feminism is not needing to resort to sexual power play for one-upmanship. How did we ever let anyone convince us otherwise?

Even more so, my message for all the Munnis and Shiela and Chamelis, to all the Malika Sherawats and Nisha Kotharis, out there is - don't mistake scandal for respect or infamy for glory. As a woman, you're more than just eye-candy. You're so much more than that.

Isn't that what Feminism is really all about after all, Mr. Bhatt?

Poll Results - Dec 2011

These are results of the polls appearing on this blog

Which amongst these SRK Films was he Best in?

1. Chak De India -- (24%)
2. Swades -- (34%)
3. DDLJ -- (10%)
4. Darr -- (6%)
5. Baazigar -- (24%)

I have always wished that SRK played more characters and less of SRK the star. This poll shows that there are others who agree with me :)

Swades clearly stands out in people's memory, but in my heart 'Baazigar' is a clear winner


Which among these is Anurag Kashyap's Best Screenplay?

1. Satya -- (40%)
2. Dev D -- (20%)
3. Black Friday -- (0%)
4. Gulaal -- (20%)
5. Kaun? -- (20%)

Take a bow Mr. Kashyap, What a list! Each one of these is very special, but every now and then a film shakes the industry up and leaves a mark forever. 'Satya' is stunning and has inspired an entire generation of filmmakers. I really hope Anurag Kashyap writes for RGV again, the results are usually quite amazing.

New Poll is up! Please let us know your Best 2011 Film!

Not A Love Story: RGV Experiments

Not a love story(Trailer) is the latest flick directed by Ram Gopal Varma. This will be his 36th film as director. He has also produced another 20 odd films. He finishes them faster than most of us can make short films. Anyway this is not a post about him, its more about the film. I thought the movie was not bad, in fact it was a good watch. But the reason I thought this film deserves a post was because of some interesting techniques used in its making. I got all this information from his interviews and his blog.


The Camera
The film is entirely shot on a Canon 5D (digital) which is a DSLR camera. Canon 5D is tiny compared to the traditional 35mm film camera which is what most of the Hindi films are shot on. Not to mention it costs a fraction of the price. I believe it can be as less as 1/3rd the price. RGV shot a Telugu film(Dongala Muta) in 5 days to experiment with these digital cameras. And because he was so impressed by its flexibility and its HD output that he decided to make another feature length film in Hindi. Needless to say that a camera that small can easily be maneuvered and the possibilities with angles and movement are endless. A few other filmmakers have also started using these cameras in Hinidi cinema and many think that eventually these(Digital) will take over all cinema.

On the Set
Some more RGV madness. There was no Director of Photography(DP) in this film. Typically, the director comes up with what we call a shot-list. This is then discussed with the DP who is responsible for lighting the shots and composing the frames as per the shot list. Obviously it is an extremely important job as he directly affects what we see and a lot of the aesthetic sense comes from him. Besides he is the busiest person on a film set trying to get the lighting just right for every shot. When I heard that there was no DP on this film I was genuinely confused as to how exactly did they shoot this. Firstly RGV decided to "not do lighting;" meaning everything you see is mostly natural lighting. He hired 5 fresh film school graduates, handed them a 5D each and let them go about their way. So that means the actors do a shot with 3-5 cameras recording them without really knowing which angle will be used. I have done some filming myself and this sounds chaotic. Imagine trying to keep the crew and equipment out of the frame for all 5 cameras. Or if you did a shot and the retake was done several hours later because of a delay, the natural light is now completely different. The DP is supposed to maintain the light so that it stays consistent. Also, what kind of shot list would they work off, would they have a separate list each? But knowing how RGV likes to finish films fast I suspect this whole experiment was done to make things simpler. So instead of intricate planning which is required for multiple cameras they shot it without much detailed instruction. Which means the footage was then sorted out by the post production team as it came in. The lighting may have been handled by the 5 camera controllers themselves which would include adjusting the lights so that they work for all cameras and maintaining consistency for all the retakes. Many amatuer short films are shot like that with minimal planning. These pictures give us a good sense of how minimal the lighting arrangement was. (Almost looks like one of my student film sets :)). The entire film was shot in 20 days.

So how did the result turn out? They were able to cut it seamlessly and the lighting was not bad at all. So in a sense they succeeded in the experiment but I didn't like it. This is clearly more because of RGV's aesthetic sense and less to do with the techniques described above. If you have watched a RGV film from the last 5-6 years you will know what I am talking about. The film has constant moving shots(not driven by action ) and fast cuts through out which I personally do not like. I have been curious about what he tries to achieve through these, it almost feels like its because he is bored doing the standard shots. I love some of the frames, but just wish he used the movement more sparingly. However that choice is subjective and may well work for others. I will need another post to discuss how his cinematography has changed over the years. Having said that, this technique is quite fascinating and could be used to reduce time required in setting up multiple shots. The conclusion that I come to is that if as a director you want to control the look of the film, this process will have to be looked over by a DP(for lighting and consistency) and then you would have to work very closely with the editor. This is because you are essentially writing the shots as you decide the cuts. If you do not do this, you will have little control on the end result which will be a product created mainly by the camera controllers and the editor; which is how I believe 'Not A Love Story' was made and intentionally so.

COLT: Finally Releases on YouTube

"The initial script was written only in 2 hours."
"The only professional on the set was the director of photography."

To get a dolly shot, we made the DP sit in a walker and made MG push him on a rough, unstable ground multiple times until we finally got a steady shot with the actor's right expression."


These and many more snippets of memorable moments in the making of COLT, I have heard since I have known the crew members of COLT.

COLT is the first short film of Aisle Seat Productions(ASP) and is a conversational thriller.
Although, I have never discussed this movie with the other 2 members of ASP, I am sure that each of them has more unique and still lucid anecdotes to share. COLT is an attempt of 4 engineers, Onkar, Sal, Nazzu and Tushar, at an art, films, which like cricket and religion in India, comprises of fans and fanatics. While each of them chose to make a film for different reasons, spending all their spare time from a full time IT job, one sentiment is common - passion for the art.
 While i was never on the set with the 8 member crew, the people involved have told me a variety of stories. It was shot in 2 weekends, nights included!
It was then I realized: the movies that have gotten me through long boring study holidays, those that I watched by bunking classes and those that I stood in ticket lines for hours to see first week, were indeed a complex art. It has many artistic facets, acting, direction, cinematography and music to name a few. To get all these right and create those few special moments, the emotional attachment and entertain the audience sitting on the couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon, is a challenge! But the process of film making , pre-production, shooting and post production (which I experienced closely), goes on for months and sometime years. To keep the energy going, to not let one's mundane and hectic life sap the energy out of the art, is a personal struggle. How Onkar, lived and breathed this movie, to be able to revive it from the dead after the initial shooting was done is what I have been privy to in the making of COLT.

The frustration, accompanied with the enthusiasm of the the stakeholders as they tried to get the raw footage from the camera onto a film on the big screen, was a tumultuous, tedious and seemingly never ending process for the team. Once the post production was done, the next challenge was how to get people to watch it and if they watch it, will they like it? The stakes were not too high yet they were. ASP didn't have to live up to any prior audience expectations (except for their brilliant 1 minute short-films which had won accolades) so they didn't have much to lose but for all the time and emotions invested in COLT, they had a lot to lose if their audience reacted negatively. For some of them, each reaction would decide if film making should even be considered as a future career.
They held 2 screenings for friends, family and people in the industry, in the 2 centers of cinemas, Los Angeles and Mumbai. They received mixed reactions. ASP heard their critics, trying to absorb what their film didn't do right, while they humbly accepted the praises with happiness and sense of achievement. Like Onkar says, 'When you are an artist, you have set yourself up for ridicule". With that positive attitude, ASP finally made COLT public on YouTube on Dec 30th, 2011...almost 3 years after the idea was conceived.

As a close observer, with no vested interest in COLT, all i can say that it was a long, bumpy ride and they survived it well with grace and confidence.

The voice over in the movie has been recorded at the least a 100 times, at all different times of the day, with different instruments over months until Onkar thought it was fine. The final voice over is what he did in a closed, walk-in closet of his bedroom. This will always be my memory of COLT.

Now that my rant is over, here are the links that I sincerely hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Movie: http://youtu.be/E5wwpUparM4
Blog posts written during the shoots by Onkar: http://amstillalive.blogspot.com/

Go watch it guys, not because my friends made it but because it is good.

All the best to ASP in their future film making endeavors and Happy 2012 to all the blog readers!