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Mita Vashisht shoots for Antaheen
Fresh from the success of his debut film Anuranan, filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Choudhury is about to wrap up the shooting of his new film Antaheen which features a casting coup that brings together two pillars of Indian cinema on screen, Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore for the first time. Another Bollywood actress who plays a role in the film is Mita Vashisht who already made her Bengali debut in Patal Ghar a few years ago. Mita plays a small but important role in the film. "It is a relationship film where I play the wife of Shauvik, a comparative newcomer to Bengali films. We play Mr. And Mrs. Mehra, one of the three couples that have different kinds of problems within their respective marriages," Mita says, adding, "I love doing Bangla films." Since the character she plays is not a Bengali one, it has helped too she admits. Shauvik, who plays her husband is based in Detroit.
Bong Connection 2 announced
Bangla cinema seems to be hung up on sequels. Joy Ganguly of Moxie Entertainment recently announced the launch of his new production Maach Mishti and More-Bong Connection 2, enthused by the commercial success of the original Bong Connection directed by Anjan Dutt. But the new film has a new director too. Mainak Bhowmick who directed the youth-angst film Aamra last year will direct the film. "The tagline is The Bong Connection 2 is because of the fun element – Bengalis laughing at themselves will echo itself in Maach, Mishti and More but it is definitely not a sequel. We are taking a look at contemporary Bengalis and Marwaris living in Kolkata without really hitting either community below the belt," says Joy.
Maach, Mishti and More is about three brothers played by Shauvik, the NRI who played the role of the cabbie in Anjan Dutt's The Bong Connection, Parambrato Chatterjee, and Gaurab Chatterjee (Uttam Kumar's grandson) who live in Kolkata. Shauvik is an expat who has shifted base to Kolkata and wants to start his own business. Parambrato is the ambitious second brother who is dating a Marwari girl with an eye to join her father's business. Gaurab is the youngest of the three who has been dumped by his girl friend and does not believe in love any more. Somewhere along the way, Parambrato meets Ira, also a Marwari and is confused about his feelings towards the other girl. Ira, incidentally, is the younger daughter of veteran theatre and screen actress Lillette Dubey and is happy following her sister and mother to the screen. The producer is now scouting around for a girl who will play Gaurab's girlfriend. Negotiations are on with Raima Sen who has been tipped to play Shouvik's cribbing, dissatisfied wife. With Raima's ascent on the star ladder in Bollywood and her recent decision not to take up multi-starrer assignments and only main female leads, whether she will sign on the dotted line for this one remains a moot question.
Maach, Mishti and More will go on the floors in November and will be shot entirely in Kolkata. Ornob from Bangladesh has been roped in to compose music for the six tracks.
Casting couch comment stirs up Tollywood
A Koel Mullick interview published in an English daily and her rash comment on the state of morals among female stars and starlets in Tollywood is threatening to snowball into a major issue in Tollygunge. Swastika Mukherjee, the beautiful actress and an industry rival of Koel, daughter of well-known actor Ranjit Mullick, lashed out against Koel's comment in a rejoinder published last week.
Without mentioning names, Koel threw an arbitrary but damaging statement saying that actresses in Tollygunge slept around with producers and heroes to establish and sustain themselves in the industry. In her rejoinder, an angry Swastika leashed out asking whether Koel includes herself in this casting couch list too. "Does she include big stars like Indrani Haldar and Rituparna Sengupta in this list? Who has given her the right to pass such judgments on the moral character of others?" asks Swastika.
People from the industry have responded to Swastika's attack with mixed feelings. But on the whole they are backing her. Rachana Banerjee, another rising female star, has joined Swastika by sending off an official complaint to matinee idol Prosenjeet, secretary of the Artists' Forum. Declining any official comment, Prosenjeet lets out that the Forum has no part in what appears to be a personal squabble between two stars. But, "It ceases to remain personal once an official complaint has been lodged in writing to the Forum," says N.K. Salil, well-known screenplay and dialogues writer of Bengali films. "The Artistes' Forum ought to have taken action as soon as the letter reached it. It is an important issue that involves the entire industry," he adds.
"I can't blame Swastika. We have families of our own. Koel's irresponsible comment that points fingers at actresses and the casting couch can harm all of us. The saddest part of this whole issue is that Koel fails to realise that if you point a finger at others, the other fingers will point back at you," says an embittered Rachana, a wife and mother in personal life..
Santoor exponent captured in docu film
Santoor was originally a folk instrument played by Sufi musicians of Kashmir. It was Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, santoor's foremost exponent, who brought it to the genre of classical musical instrument. He began his musical training with vocal and tabla lessons. He stepped into learning the santoor almost by accident his first guru being his father Pandit Uma Dutt Sharma. Only his immediate family and friends knew how he left his secure and comfortable life in Kashmir for the rather insecure and uncertain life in Mumbai with just five hundred rupees in his pocket. All these and more are captured in a documentary on the life of this great artiste by Jabbar Patel Antardhwani, a 70-minute documentary.
Patel had earned fame and awards for his brilliant Subah starring Smita Patil many years ago, followed by accolades for his biographical work on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. His new documentary on Sharma was recently screened in Kolkata in the presence of the artiste himself.
The title of the film is a play on a classical raga composed by Panditji himself. Having watched the screening of the biographical documentary for the first time, a happy Panditji said, "Patel has created the music, the ambience, the struggles, the problems, my relationship with other musicians, my association with the film world and tied these different strands together in 70 minutes. It is an apt portrayal of my life."
The film faithfully follows Panditji's collaborations with Pandit Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, Ustad Zakir Hussain and of course, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. As you watch the film, your participate in it as you watch him play, hear him sing, look at old photographs that take you back to a world that once was and now is, shaped and honed in the persona of one of the greatest musicians the country has ever produced. Ina Puri's biography of Panditji, namely, Journey With a Hundred Strings-My Life in Music, was released on the same occasion at Starmark bookstore.
Persepolis wins India audience heart
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Patonnaud's wonderful film got enthusiastic response in India. The award-winning story of a young girl coming of age in Iran is both lively and thought provoking. The film marked a fitting start to NDTV-Lumiere India's ongoing programme of bringing to the country the best of contemporary world cinema for the Indian audience. Persepolis, shot in two-dimensional animation, won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes in 2007, was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Film at the 2008 Oscars and for the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes.
Satrapi and Patonnaud jointly direct the film based on Marjane Satrai's book. There are 600 characters but you do not realise it as they come and go in a flash and yet make their presence felt. Though it is basically rooted in Iran, it covers issues of family bonding, of revolutionaries being killed with impunity, of the constant flux in Iran about its position on the veil, education of girls, on using slogans on tee-shirts, on the close bonding shared between Marjane and her grandmother, and ultimately, on her growing up under conflicting circumstances both in Iran and in Austria, where her parents are forced to send her for her 'safety.' These have universal implications for everyone in the contemporary world. It changes the common man's perspective of animation being a form enjoyed more by children than by adults and also, more for amusement and entertainment than for enlightenment and information. Persepolis is wonderful journey that not only crosses barriers of geography, culture, language and politics, but also widens the parameters of cinema, as we know it.
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