Stuff on Satyajit Ray

Found a site where a lot of pictures, interviews and information can be found on Satyajit Ray. 

Visit :

 http://raylifeandwork.blogspot.com

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Movievolution - Bangladesh

Picking up a fashion magazine, it took me no time to browse till the back cover, and finally, I read. It was an ad for the latest Ananta film "Speed". I hear the producer, Ananta, is a very successful businessman, and this is as far as I know his second movie. I saw the first one "Khoj: The Search", and this is a followup "Goti: The Speed". In both, he is the star actor, the hero.


Back to the ad, it did a marvelous job of marketing it, boasting such things as:

• a Russian Dancers - I assume all women
• a film crew from Gujrat or some other place in India
• use of cameras that are used in Hollywood, etc...

I quickly remembered another movie that came out, "Lal Tip: The Red Point". (Apparently, Tip doesn't have a proper translation into English, but its a colofrul, circular or often leaf shaped ornamental piece, that women from the Indian subcontinent can put on their foreheads, a little above the level of the eyes. Point, however sounds wrong). This movie also boast such things:

One single love story, 2 continents; 4 countries involvement, 4000 actors & extras, 180 different locations, used 3500 individual shots, more than 200 crews at home & abroad, best music, IMPRESS TELEFILM's biggest venture, Swapan Ahmed with his promises = LAL TIP

 The above is quoted from their trailer on YouTube. You can actually catch the trailers for both these films over there - Goti: The Speed (Trailer) | Lal Tip: The Red Point (Trailer)

From these trailers, I am not intrigued. These are not movies I am looking forward to watching. The intention behind watching Khoj was to get a few laughs, even though its from the action genre. For as long as I can remember, India has served as the inspiration of our mainstream film makers. Their films of the late 80's are still copied and imitated. Think Jitendro, Anil Kapoor, shirts unbuttoned near the chest showing some of those man hairs, comic relief characters in the backdrop of a social drama or an action flick, rape, corruption, heroes saving the day in the end bringing feuding family members together.

Lal Tip and Goti are instances of breaking away from that, and many claim that its something we should be thankful for. These are now just imitating the Bollywood movies of the late 90's, or maybe someone like Karan Johar. Good cameras, shooting in foreign lands (France, Italy, Malaysia, etc), item songs (google that if you don't know, can't bear to explain), etc.

My bone with these movies, is the lack of attention to a story. A story that is hard to turn away from, a story that says something relevant to our times, a story that awes and evokes and entertains. Those, to me, are the reasons people make movies.

If we are to look towards India, I'd like to urge our film makers to take a quick glance at this brilliant film "Nobel Chor"


There are lots of other examples out of India which have showed an extraordinary understanding of storytelling and movie making then and now, but I think the wrong reasons for making movies are driving what we call Dhaliwood.

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Dhaka International Film Festival

I am thrilled that we are having an international film festival! I am sad that its so far away from me! I wish the festival was spread across town rather than centered around Dhaka University. I can see the advantages of having it in that area - the Public Library auditorium is there, there are some in the National Museum, and there are some showings in Alliance Francais in Dhanmondi.

I did manage to go up there, and one movie I enjoyed a lot was "Nobel Thief", which came from Kolkata starring Satyajit Ray's favorite Soumitro Chatterjee and the Disco Dance famed Mithun Chakrabartee. Its a fictitious account of a poor fellow from a village finding the Rabindranath Tagore's nobel medal which the thieves have dropped on their escape route. The poor man and the poor village he hails from find themselves in a dilemma to whether to return it, or whether they can sell the medal to bring some much needed money into their village. The setup, the dialogues and the execution of the film was exquisite, and it kept the audience laughing and jeering throughout. I recommend this film to everyone. The Dhaka Film Festival is going on till the 20th, so go!

Meanwhile, the lil promo that was made for the festival is also quite enjoyable:



Not so enjoyable, is the fact that someone is spending a lot of money to produce some mediocre cinema as well:

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Satyajit Ray

Just thought I'd post this wonderful link i came across:
http://www.satyajitray.org/

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