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Siraj Syed is the India Correspondent for FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. He is a Film Festival Correspondent since 1976, Film-critic since 1969 and a Feature-writer since 1970. He is also an acting and dialogue coach. @SirajHSyed
Guilty Minds: Amazon Prime’s new series brings the court-room into your drawing room
A first in the genre for Amazon, the series dramatises ten court-room cases and encapsulates the proceedings, one in each episode. In real-life, court cases in India often take decades to reach conclusion, but directors Shefali Bhushan and co-director Jayant Digambar Somalkar make sure that each case reaches its end at the end of the episode. The series will start streaming on 22 April, can be seen by ...
Gajab Thai Gayo!, Review: Study in a Gujarati medium school, you could win Rs. 25 lakh
Defying any form of classification, Gujarati language film Gajab Thai Gayo! (It’s a Calamity, though calamity is perhaps too strong a translation of Gajab) moves in so many different directions that you end up failing to appreciate its novelty and path-breaking tracks. What appears to be a film on science-fiction constantly hammers the triple messages, that India and Indians have made huge contributio...
Heropanti 2: Tiger does not roar, but croons, courtesy A.R. Rahman
Young, macho, human weapon and dazzling dancer Tiger Shroff has sung a song in his latest film, Heropanti 2, titles Miss Hairaan. Is that taking you by surprise and making you hairan? It shouldn’t, because this is not the first time that Tiger has ventured into musical territory. Jai Hemant ‘Tiger’ Shroff has lent his voice to a handful of tracks, including Casanova and Vande Mataram, which got very popular a...
KGF Chapter 2: Cinépolis IMAX, Seawoods, Navi Mumbai to be launched with Yash-starrer
One ‘crazy’ fan, a man apparently in his late twenties, stood outside the Seawoods Grand Central in Navi (New) Mumbai, belting out dialogue from KGF 1 and expressing his absolute devotion to the lead actor, Yash. He said he had travelled all the way from Varanasi, a distance of 1,500 kms, to meet the superstar, and would not go away until he got a chance to meet Yash. This was happening on...
RIFF, 08, 2022, 12: A talk show on Raj Kapoor-The Master at Work
On Tuesday, the fifth day of the Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF) 2022, a talk show was held on the topic "Cinema and Books - A Boundless Relationship". The basis of the discussion was the book "Raj Kapoor: The Master at Work", written by Rahul Rawail, who worked as assistant director to the late genius for several years. Since then he has carved a niche for himself as a director of great merit, b...
RIFF, 08, 2022, 11: Regional language films create investment platform and boost tourism
On the fourth day of Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF) on Monday, a talk show on "Culture and Tourism Promotion Through Cinema" was also organised. Indian Cinema's trade analyst Komal Nahta, film-maker and director Rajendra Gupta, film-maker N.R. Godha, actor Charles Thomson and producer-director-editor-exhibitor N. Chandra shared their views in this talk show.
Komal Nahta said...
A Hero, Review: On the see-saw of truth and lies
Out on parole, a jailbird becomes a hero overnight, without lifting a finger. It wouldn’t be much of a story if it ended there, and it doesn’t. There are twists and turns, quite like a suspense thriller, only here there is no murder nor any serious crime committed. That’s the operative word. Serious. Is lying a crime? Is repeated lying a serious crime? Is lying to garnish a truth a very serious crime? Iranian master Asghar Far...
RIFF 08, 2022, 10: Challenges and Future of Regional and Rajasthani Language and Films
On the third day of Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF), Jodhpur, a talk show was held on the subject Challenges and Future of Regional and Rajasthani Language and Films
In this talk show, Ramesh Bohrana, Theatre Artiste and Film Actor Shailendra Vyas, Vice President of Rajasthan Mela Authority and French Film Director and Writer Fabienne Le Houérou, who has made a full length documentary o...
RIFF 08, 2022, 09: Films for change in society
As a regular feature, the Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF) holds Talk Shows, on the lines of the Open Forum, conducted by the Federation of Film Societies of India, at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). In the first talk show, ‘Films for change in society’, held on 26 March 2022, Bollywood trade analyst Komal Nahta, Indian film producer, writer and director Chandrashekhar Narvekar (N. Chandra), famous Indian...
Book Review: The Master at Work, by Rahul Rawail, a Masterly Work
How many 15 somethings would be offered chances to work as assistants to legendary directors like Raj Kapoor (RK)? Rahul Rawail was 15 going on 16 when he came on board with the master, who was then making Mera Naam Joker, and stayed on to assist him in Bobby. Over the next few years, Rahul earned his spurs the hard way, for RK was a genius who did not use conventional teaching methods, did not suffer fools and was not easy to ...
RIFF 08, 2022, 08: Awards and rewards at the colourful closing ceremony
The Closing Ceremony and Award Night of the 8th Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF), 2022, was held at the Jaswant Thada Lawn, at the foot of the Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, on 30 March. It included a colorful cultural dance programme, to mark Rajasthan Diwas, the Founding Day of the State of Rajasthan. Nagar Nigam (Municipal Council) North Mayor Ms. Kunti Deora Parihar was present on the occasion as the chief gu...
Attack-Part 1, Review: Dawn of a new Ira
Ira is the new Artificial Intelligence set-up, inspired by Alexa, that is implanted in a soldier who has been paralysed as a result of a bullet wound, converting him into a cyborg. That concept was milked over years in Hollywood films like The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Then there was the Universal Soldier series, Universal...
Jalsa, Review: The feisty anchor, their devoted maid, her teenaged daughter and a ghastly accident
If there was a contest for the most misleading film names, Jalsa (celebration) would stand a good chance of making it to the top, with the title emanating from the last few minutes, having no connection to the two hours that have gone before it. And though the film is being touted as an Amazon Prime Original Film, with T-Series and Abundantia as production partners, why did I get the feel throug...
Bachchan Paandey, Review: Gangsters are best played by real-life gangsters
Why would you choose a name like Bachchan Pandey, unless you thought you could cash-in on the franchises called Amitabh Bachchan (name of a real life actor) and Chulbul Pandey (name of a reel-life character, played in several movies by Salman Khan)? Point is, does a superstar himself, like Akshay Kumar, who plays the title role, need these props? Leaving the Paandey behind, ‘Bachchan’ is made to speak some ...
Incomparable Shachin Dev Burman: HQ Chowdhury’s labour of love, about the man and his music
It is not often that one gets to hear about a book and its author first, and gets to spend some enriching time with the author afterwards, before getting an autographed copy of his book, as a gift. And to think this happened 2,500 km away from my city of Mumbai, in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, at Chowdhury’s posh guest house, seems almost unreal. Reading Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman ...
RIFF 08, 2022, 07: Third and final list of selected films released
The Third and the final list of the officially selected films to be shown at the 8th Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF) was released this week. It includes Student Hindi short film Riddle, Directed and Produced by Umang Patel, Rajasthani Short Film Mhari Pyari Baisa, Directed and Produced by Narpat Singh Gaur, Hindi short film Tooti Chappal, Directed and Produced by Kuldeep Vyas, two Hindi Music Video Albums by Kunal...
Radhe Shyam, Review: Goodness gracious, how flirtatious!
At its core, Radhe Shyam rakes-up an interesting debate, between destiny and those exceptions who surmount their pre-ordained destiny, and, in some cases, defy it. For destiny, read ‘predictions based on palmistry’. And yet, it tilts the balance strongly in favour of destiny, putting forth emphatically the theory that 99% of us cannot escape what has been written on our palms. Had this been the track that the screenplay deve...
Music Forever: Long performing music duo L-P, alias Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Ajay Poundarik is neither a writer nor a journalist. But if he is anything, he is a fanatic admirer of the work of the music composer duo of Hindi films, Laxmikant and Pyarelal, better known as L-P. LP, which, in music parlance, is an acronym for Long Playing Record, is a term that fits them like the proverbial glove. They were indeed a long-playing pair, to be sure.
As a tribute to his ‘deities’, Poundarik ...
Parallel Mothers, Review: Swapped babies and a Spanish history lesson from the Master
Expectations suddenly rise when the name Pedro Almodóvar is mentioned. One regrets having missed the screening at IFFI, November 2021, but then Impact Films, Mumbai, of Ashwani Sharma, acquires distribution rights of Parallel Mothers, for India, and holds a press screening at Soho, in Juhu, Bombay, a small but exotic theatre, fixes its release on 11 March 2022, and invites you to catch-up on what you ...
Rudra, Review: Drastic crimes call for Rudrastic punishments
How important is the name of a TV programme or a web series? Should the name convey something about the programme, or anything that sounds good is good enough? Some names that come to mind are Sacred Games, The Family Man, Delhi Crime, CID, Crime Patrol, Crime Watch and Special Ops. Whereas the iconic Sacred Games gives no hint about its content, The Family Man is misleadingly titled, being about a family man who is into tackling te...
Jhund, Review: Every Jhunderdog has his day
Literally translated, Jhund means herd. Only in this case, the reference is to a group of young slum-dwelling, smoking, drinking ragamuffins, who are also petty criminals, but are transformed into a high class football team, thanks to the efforts of a neighbouring school-teacher, who is about to retire. The film is many films in one and can be seen from several perspectives, each of which would be a valid point of ‘view’. But at its core...
Gangubai Kathiawadi, Review: Guess what is the oldest profession in the world, and meet its President
Gangubai, a variation of Ganga, is the most common name of Maharashtrian maid-servants in Mumbai. Ganga becoming Gangu is quite normal, while the Bai here refers to her designation as maid. An engaging film was made in 2013, with the maid as the central character, only it was spelt phonetically more correct, Gangoobai. In other parts of the country, Bai could mean a courtesan, a classical sin...
Love Hostel, Review: Khaps, cops, corpses, more corpses and still more corpses
It’s not about a hostel. But it is about love. And the price that has to be paid for falling in love with someone who follows another religion. Killings spread through the film like a pandemic caused by a particularly deadly virus strain, ‘LH Covid 22’. The makers could run a contest with the big question: How many people are killed in the film? The prize could be four tickets for the film, so tha...
Pondicherry, Review: Enough icing, but the cherry is missing
Marathi language Indian film Pondicherry is like a French patisserie (it used to be a French colony), with some delectable pastries to savour. It uses the relatively unknown locale quite well, and incorporates tastes of various other languages, besides Marathi: Hindi, Punjabi-accented Hindi, English, Tamil and French. It also uses characters from the ages of 7 to 70, to be really democratic in its story-telling. Having set the base ...
Pyar Mein Thoda Twist, Review: A sack-full of emptiness
A lot of action in the film Pyar Mein Thoda Twist takes place inside a bound sack. It is marked, Lena Hae Lena Hae (have to take, have to take) Brand, and it twists alright. No, not because it is haunted, but because it holds a man captive. This man is supposed to be Mr. Wanted, a dangerous criminal, whose capture carries a reward of Rs. 2 million. While the sack changes hands and locations several times, being stolen or ‘kidnapped...
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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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