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BIFFes 16, 2025: The flicks, picks and my jinx, Part I
Among the 1,000 odd classic films that I had yet to see was an iconic film by the late actor-director-producer Guru Dutt, Kagaz Ke Phool (paper flowers). I had managed to watch his other classic, Pyasa, a few years ago. No restored print of Kagaz Ke Phool was available, till very recently, and when I saw the schedule of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes), I found that Kagaz Ke Phool, restored, was slotted for 7.30 pm show ...
BIFFes 16, 2025: All the Winners and Winners take all
All eyes and ears were on Bengaluru International Film Festival’s Artistic Director, Vidyashankar Jois, on the evening of 8th March, at Sulochana, Information Department, Infantry Road. He first introduced the Selection Juries, that helped him reduce the number of entries from 400+ to 200, then the Award Juries were introduced, and finally, the films and makers who bagged awards. Besides the citation and a trophy, the awards, in each...
My Melbourne, Review: Ticking the diversity box
Taking the cue from the last segment, which centres around cricket, this is a boundary film, a four in one compendium, or anthology. It premièred last August, in Australia, and has been released yesterday, 14th March 2025, in India. Of the four protagonists, two are Indian and one Afghan. There is only one Australian in the lead cast. Again, three of the four are women and the fourth is a homosexual. Since it is shot in Melbourne, the iss...
2050 Care with Love: A lot of love and care, but little else
On display here is a short film, shot in feature/TV serial episode style, where all the four main characters are sensitive, caring and loving individuals. As the film progresses, the qualities these individuals possess bloom on, and it all ends on a happy note. ‘Feel good’ is the operative term for 2050 Care with Love. But extricate yourself from the mushy situations on screen and apply film-making technique barometers, ...
Aamir turns 60, celebrates birthday with media
It was producer Tahir Hussain’s residence on Pali Hill, Bandra, where I first saw his cute son Aamir. Aged about seven, he was sitting on a chair and apparently studying or doing his home-work. The year was 1972, and Tahir Hussain wanted me to help him get permission to shoot his new film Anamika’s first scene in my college, National College, which is situated on Linking Road. I had been a student of that college, and had held many po...
BIFFes 16, 2025: The opening, closing, and the team behind the festival
Besides showing films, major film festivals have a grand inaugural ceremony and an equally grand closing ceremony. The venue for the BIFFes 16 inauguration was the lawmakers’ abode, the Vidhan Soudha (Legislative Assembly) ramparts. Invited guests were taken there in big, comfortable cars or coaches. On such occasions, the 5-10 leading personalities that made the festival possible are invited (they invite themselves...
Superboys of Malegaon: Seeing is believing
As you watch Superboys of Malegaon, there is an uncanny feeling that it has been made by one or more of the Superboys themselves. It does not go over the top when the boys reap unexpected success, and does not become judgmental when differences arise among them. It is not sympathy on show here—it is empathy. That is a rare commodity in cinema, and happens only when your heart beats for your characters. The film, which comes 16 years after Faiza...
PARAM KALRA: From sci-fi to Rom Kom
A Physics graduate from Delhi, with a certificate in video editing, writer-director Param Kalra began his career rather modestly. He will not name the films, but they were B and C grade, he says, nonchalantly. Ignoring the content of those films, he learnt about the basics of shooting any film during this period. Whether it is a B grade or C grade film, there will be trolley movements, there will be prime or ultra-prime lenses, and the rest of shooting para...
Bengaluru International Film Festival, BIFFes, 2025: Universal Peace in Diversity
At one time, Bangalore (now Bengaluru) was considered an ideal holiday location and a town where retirees could settle down after their decades of service. Today’s Bengaluru is nothing of the kind. It has progressed beyond the wildest imaginations. Many top companies, both Indian and foreign, have made it their headquarters, or regional headquarters. And, perhaps, it was the first city to earn the title of...
Categories of entries at the 3rd Tamil Nadu Film Festival, 10-19 August 2025, Chennai
INTERNATIONAL Narrative Feature
*Films originating from outside India must be submitted in the INTERNATIONAL CATEGORY.
*Films produced from 1st January 2021 are eligible to participate in the competition section of the TNFF.
*Submit films made in any language and from anywhere in the world except INDIA.
*Films with a minimum run time of 45 minutes to a maximum run time of 120 Minutes are eligible under t...
Trailer launch of CrazXy: What’s new and different this time?
With an output of two films since 2012, actor-producer Sohum Shah cannot be called prolific. “I believe in taking due time, right from the script stage till the post-production. This is done to achieve something different, something new, in each of my films,” explained Shah. He was speaking to the press at the trailer launch of his third film, CrazXy, at the Juhu PVR multiplex, on 17 February. Releasing on the 28t...
3rd Tamil Nadu Film Festival calls for entries
Submit your film (Narrative Feature, Documentary, Animation, Short Film or Music Video) to the 3rd Tamil Nadu Film Festival (TNFF), 2025.
* Films can originate from anywhere in the world.
* There is an entry fee.
* Final submission deadline is 10 April 2025.
* Late submission deadline is 20 May 2025.
* Student-made films compete separately.
* Films made after 1 Jan 2020 are eligible
* Special Screening of films suitable for 9-year-old to 1...
Chhava, Review: Vicky Kaushal has arrived, and how!
A new word for many cine-goers, Chhava means a lion’s cub or an elephant’s young one. It was an epithet given to Chhatrapati Sambhaji, son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, as the lion, and his son, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, as the cub, to symbolise his valour and legacy. It also means boss. A film, based on Sambhaji’s life, has just been released, with the title, Chhava. It comes as part of t...
SuperBoys of Malegaon, Trailer launch: The new Mollywood
Utter the word Malegaon and a sleepy small town, in Nashik, 270 km from Mumbai, population 8,00,000, comes to mind. Some two decades ago, a bunch of Malegaonists, with no exposure to the art, dreamt about making their own film, inspired by big Hindustani films from Mumbai. Against all odds, they succeeded. Ideal subject for a documentary? Indeed! One was made, and widely acclaimed. Years later, three major film-making firms—Excel ...
Calling entries for FIPRESCI Grand Prix for the best film of 2024, 70 minutes and more
FIPRESCI extends this invitation to you to film-makers to submit films (70 minutes and above) for the annual FIPRESCI India Grand Prix Award for the year 2024.
About the Award: The Grand Prix Award, instituted by FIPRESCI-India (the India chapter of the International Federation of Film Critics: FIPRESCI) seeks to celebrate and recognize outstanding achievements in fiction and non-fiction f...
LoveYaPa, Review: The mobile phone as Pandora’s Box
Those who are uninitiated might not realise that the title is a variation of siyapa, which means chaos or jiggery-pokery, and that siyapa itself comes from the Urdu word, siyah, meaning black, or dark. Siyapa has been used in the title of a film some years ago. So the makers of LoveYaPa have come up with this three-word composite term, standing for Love Ya and Pa. Translate these three words, and you get Love Or Pa (father). Clever, ve...
Srilankan film The Other Half, Review: Death, despair and despondency
In the opening titles, the carries a long message about Srilankans dying of kidney failure, caused by the wide use of contaminated or sub-standard fertilisers and pesticides. As many as 50,000 of them have lost their lives due to such poisoning, and continue to die, making it a tragedy equal to, or perhaps even greater than the Civil War that ravaged the island state in recent decades. This makes you wonder whether a docume...
Saudi Nights, A Report: The ecstasy and the agony
If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain, goes the adage. Since Saudi Arabian films were not coming to India, I went to Saudi Arabia in 2023, to attend the 2nd Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF), in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There, I saw Saudi Arabian, and many other films, from all over the world, in what was one of the grandest, most hospitable film festivals I have ever attended. And no, I have never ...
Deva, Overview: Different, not distinguished
It is different. Though the central character is an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), and a tough nut at that, the film has a modest littering of corpses and a very few incredible, blood-letting or torture sequences. Based on these very qualities, Deva, which is almost poles apart from the spate of current films that are contrary to this approach, should be welcomed. Moreover, it stars Shahid Kapoor, who is yet to be labelled a hit man, most ...
Ilu Ilu 1998, Review: Too many luse ends
A good 38 years ago, in a Hindustani hit film titled Saudagar, lyricist Anand Bakhshi coined a sensible nonsensical term in one of its songs, which began with Ilu Ilu, the three letters of the alphabets, standing for I Love U. It was a runaway hit. The song lived in the memory of a unit of Marathi film-makers, who might have been just born then or in their early childhood. Cut to 2025. A Phalke family (any possible connection with the father of Indian ...
FICCI FRAMES 2025, 01: Ayushmann Khurrana appointed brand ambassador
Calling him the Face of the Media and Entertainment Industry of India, FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) FRAMES has appointed actor-singer Ayushmann Khurrana the brand ambassador for the event. This is a first for the event, which has not had any personality as brand ambassador in its previous 24 editions. Usually held in March, FICCI has yet to announce the dates for this year’s edition.
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SkyForce, Review: May the Force be with you
That is more like it. When you are making a film about war and real wartime heroes, stick to the basics and let jingoism take a back seat. We have had more than our fair share of war movies, with Indo-Pak conflicts dominating the screen. Many have set their tales in British India, going back up to 200 years. Yet others have flashed back a good 1,000 years, to reawaken the history of Muslim/Mughal rule over our country. SkyForce narrates the story of...
Overview, Game Changer: The Collector, his sideways sidekick, the CM and the game of musical chairs
It used to be ‘the end justifies the means’, and the end was always the turnstiles. So, the end was always the same, only the means, or the ways of getting there, were different. Then it became ‘the means are the same, since the end is the same’. So we had similarity in approach too, with only a semblance of difference. Finally, we have reached a stage where ‘the t...
LoveYaPa, Trailer and song launch: Aamir dominates press and fan meet, speaks with characteristic candour
It was a roller-coaster ride for the attendees, and a personal nostalgia trip for me, when the title song and trailer of the forthcoming film, LoveYaPa (a pun on Love or Pa), releasing on 07 February, the week preceding Valentine’s Day, in the presence of media and fans. The day was today and the venue was New Excelsior Cinema, now under Mukta A2 ownership, and the time was…w...
Love is Forever, Overview: Unrequited love, unimpressive expression
If one were to take a count of films made on the theme of love, in all its splendour, one might find that the overwhelming majority of films made in the past 100 years have love at their core: filial love, maternal love, paternal love, love between spouses, flirtation, love as lust, love as a pursuit, patriotic love, spiritual love, love of a game, platonic love, sublime love, triangular love and unrequited love, are some exa...
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About Siraj Syed
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India.
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, Germany
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins.
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984.
Bandra West, Mumbai India View my profileSend me a message
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