Posts tagged ‘Vidhu Vinod Chopra’

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April 21, 2010

Pancham Unmixed: Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai (2009)

This documentary on the late great RD Burman is a bit of a mixed bag (pun fully intended! sorry!!), but it is well worth watching. At its very best it is a primer for film music dilettantes (ie, me) in understanding Burman’s musical brilliance, and a rare chance to listen in on conversations of those involved in the industry then. Director Brahmanand Singh gives us insight into Burman as a man and a musician through lengthy interviews with his colleagues and peers (Manna Dey, Gulzar, Asha Bhosle, Shammi and Rishi Kapoor, and many others), and complements it with discussions on his long-term legacy from contemporary composers like Shantanu Moitra, Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Vishal Bhardwaj.

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Posted in Hindi movies | 111 Comments »

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October 1, 2008

Khamosh (1985)

Vidhu Vinod Chopra wrote, directed and produced this intriguing murder mystery, which takes place in northeast India on location with a Hindi film unit. Shabana Azmi, Amol Palekar and Soni Razdan all play themselves, and there is much gentle poking-of-fun at the Hindi movie world—changes to the script midstream, casting couch propositions, artist rivalries and insecurities. The “filmi insider” ambiance adds a whole new dimension to this stylish whodunit.

As the murders pile up, the twists and turns of the story are surprising, and everyone becomes a suspect. I love murder mysteries, especially of the British-village variety, and this feels just like that, only with a setting that I find even more engaging, and characters who are also real people. So much fun!

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Posted in Hindi movies | 27 Comments »

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October 7, 2007

The Chopras at the Peabody Essex Museum

eklavya_knife.jpg

Yesterday I went up to the Peabody Essex Museum near Salem, MA for part of the Bombay Film Festival there. Anupama Chopra was to hold a discussion about her biography of Shah Rukh Khan, and then Eklavya—this year’s entry from India to the Oscars—was showing, followed by a discussion with Vinod Chopra.

We didn’t think about the fact that October is basically Crazy Person Month in Salem—tourists from all over participating in the Disneyfication of the historical tragedy that was the Salem witch trials, dressing up like slutty witches or pumpkins and creating traffic snarls and parking nightmares (the usual museum parking garage fee was hiked up from its usual $5 to $20, for instance); and apparently the whole scene scared the Chopras too, because they fled soon after Eklavya started and there was no post-film discussion. Sadly, Filmigeek who was supposed to meet me there also got trapped in the mayhem and hightailed it out too.

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Posted in Hindi movies | 2 Comments »

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