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Posted on 11.19.08 by David @ 10:01 am
Our semi-regular round-up of what is new in Indian cinema (including Kollywood, Tollywood, and all the -Ollywoods you can shake a stick at). GORDON LIU IN BOLLYWOOD
Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Bollywood and Movie News: India and People: Ram Gopal Varma and People: Gordon Liu and Bollywood News Round-up Comments: None |
Gordon Liu, beloved of kung fu fans for his series of outstanding films with Liu Chia-lung in the seventies and eighties, is continuing to ride the late period revival led by his double-casting in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Now Liu is making the leap to Bollywood, with an appearance in Nikhil Advani’s Chandni Chowk to China, slated to hit screens in 2009. Advani is a talented director, producing superior quality commercial pictures like Kal Ho Naa Ho, which we at CSB are only a little ashamed to admit that we enjoyed quite a bit, so Chandni Chowk has some real potential. The film also is being produced in conjunction with Warner Brothers, so there may be a decent budget.|
Posted on 08.30.07 by David @ 4:21 pm
Our semi-regular round-up of what is new in Indian cinema.
Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Bollywood and Movie News: India and People: Ram Gopal Varma and Bollywood News Round-up Comments: None |
It appears the numerous lawsuits and bad press are finally affecting remake-happy producers in India. Ravi Chopra has bucked the usual trend by actually seeking to acquire the remake rights to My Cousin Vinny, instead of just knocking it off in the style of Kaante (a mishmash of Reservoir Dogs, Usual Suspects, and Heat) or Zinda (Old Boy). I honestly can’t decide if this make me happy or not - to some extent it was the complete willingness to throw copyright to the wind that made film industries like that of Turkey and Hong Kong so much fun back in the day. With strict copyright protection, you’d never get mindbogglers like vampires kicking the heads off people to the tune of the James Bond theme in Kung Fu Zombie.|
Posted on 03.05.07 by Jeff @ 9:57 am
Literal translation of title: Truth Review By: Jeff  As a director and a producer, Ram Gopal Varma is one of the leading lights of contemporary Indian filmmaking. Varma specializes in crime films, and much of his best work has a common aesthetic: a gritty Mumbai milieu, naturalistic performances, flashy camerawork, and crisp editing. We here at Cinema Strikes Back have already alerted our readers to many of Varma’s more outstanding efforts, such as Company, D, and Ab Tak Chappan. However, we have yet to cover Satya, the one film Varma has made (to date) that is for the ages. Satya is a tragedy, the devastating tale of an impoverished man who is completely dehumanized by urban Indian society, and, ironically, can only regain some of his humanity by becoming a coldblooded killer. The first thirty minutes or so of Satya may constitute the most exciting half hour of Indian cinema that I have ever seen. These thirty minutes — breathless, technically dazzling, and brutally violent — herald the arrival of a major new talent, just like how the opening sequence of Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive served as Miike’s calling card, encapsulating his adrenalized and shocking aesthetic. The movie begins with a pseudodocumentary montage of images of the city of Mumbai. Already at this juncture, the viewer is aware that he or she is watching a very different type of film from the gangster epics that Bollywood usually churns out. The images in this montage do not shy away from the very real poverty that pervades the city (a sharp contrast from the unconvincing shantytown sets that one often sees in Bollywood films). Nor does the montage shy away from shocking bursts of violence, weaving in flashforwards of pivotal events from later in the film. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Rating: Great ★★★★ and Movie Reviews: India and People: Ram Gopal Varma and Contributors: Jeff and DVD Reviews: India Comments: 6 Comments |
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Posted on 08.15.06 by Jeff @ 12:04 pm
::: Being: Kingpin Ram Gopal Varma Via www.naachgaana.com Filed under: General and Movie News and Movie News: Bollywood and Movie News: India and People: Ram Gopal Varma Comments: 1 Comment |
Ram Gopal Varma (see our profile |
Posted on 06.16.06 by David @ 9:44 am
 (CSB correspondent Jeff also contributed to this article)
The New York Asian Film Festival is presenting the World Premiere of his latest film, Shiva, and staging a retrospective of several older films that he directed or produced, Company, Ab Tak Chhappan, and Ek Hasina Thi. For those who dismiss Indian films out of hand as musicals and melodramas, these films will prove you wrong so fast that your head will spin. Company and Ab Tak Chhappan in particular are first rate films that no true movie buff should miss. And who knows, maybe after you get your feet wet, you might be inspired to see some more traditional Bollywood fare, like DDLJ or Sholay. Filed under: General and Movie News and Movie News: Bollywood and Contributors: David and Movie News: India and People: Ram Gopal Varma and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2006 and Contributors: Jeff Comments: 6 Comments |
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Posted on 02.17.06 by David @ 8:23 am
 Sounds like the Bollywood quasi-remake of Fight Club is every bit the useless tripe that one might have expected. It’s really a shame that Bollywood is wasting time, money and stars on lame remakes of films like Oldboy (Zinda) and Fight Club (Fight Club). The career of director Sanjay Gupta seems entirely devoted to creating pointless but stylish mish-mashes of Hollywood films, like his slick, soulless Musafir, (a knock-off of U-Turn) which had nothing going for it but gorgeous dancers and a surprisingly tough Anil Kapoor, and Kaante, which put large elements of Reservoir Dogs, Heat, and The Usual Suspects in a blender and hit puree. The results are rarely unwatchable, but rarely memorable either. Wearing a stylistic influence on your sleeve (like the repeated Scarface references in Ram Gopal Varma’s excellent and original Company) is one thing, blatant remakes are another. We already get enough of that crap from Hollywood, we don’t need it from Bollywood, which has always functioned as a separate stylistic pole star from California, also. ::: Don’t bother joining this Fight Club Thanks to Jeff M. for bringing this to our attention. Related Links: Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Bollywood and Movie News: India and Movie Reviews: External and People: Ram Gopal Varma Comments: None |
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Posted on 08.24.05 by Charlie @ 12:13 pm
Country: India (2005) Review by: Charlie Prince
Chances are you need to pay closer attention to Indian cinema, especially if you like gangster films. Yes, I know, the epic-length masala movies are cheeseball, and you either develop a taste for them or you don’t, but there’s a new wave of Indian filmmakers that have moved in a different direction, pumping out shorter, focused, and at times gritty movies – increasingly without a song or dance in sight. My hero in this new wave is Ram Gopal Varma, whose films Satya and Company I’d count among my favorite films of all time (I ranked Company slightly ahead of Korean film Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance as my favorite film of 2002). When I heard a prequel, D, had been released, but that it wasn’t directed by Ram Gopal Varma, I was apprehensive, and I need not have been. D kicks ass. Yes it leans heavily on Satya and Company for style but then again it’s a prequel and it’s supposed to be consistent with those films. These are on par with the Infernal Affairs trilogy (Hong Kong), with the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (Japan), with the Godfather trilogy (USA), and with Fernando Di Leo’s Milieu Trilogy (including La Mala Ordina, which Dave reviewed separately on this site here) (Italy). Take my word for it on this one – Satya, Company and D are required viewing. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Contributors: Charlie and Rating: Great ★★★★ and Movie Reviews: India and People: Ram Gopal Varma Comments: 10 Comments |
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