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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
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Farooque Sheikh: Memories and Musings on his 70th birth anniversary-II
Ramesh Talwar on Farooque Shaikh
Director Ramesh Talwar, who directed films (Doosara Aadmi, Sahiban, +5) and plays (Apan To Bhai Aise Hain, Darinde and many, many more), directed Farooque when he was still a student at Xavier’s. Talwar had studied at Khalsa College but had already earned a reputation as a man of great merit. Farooque invited him to direct Dekh Kabira Roya (about one boy and three girls) and Mirza S...
October, Review: Shoojit and the Shirker
Names have great significance in director Shoojit Sircar’s October. The month symbolises the blooming and autumn fall season of the night jasmine/coral jasmine flower, known in Bengali as Shiuli. Shiuli is also the name of his heroine, though she is Tamilian, Shiuli Iyer, but because Shiuli was so fond of the flower, they name her after it. Her mother is a lecturer and is called Vidya, meaning education. His protagonist is called Dan until three ...
Exclusive interview with Aneek Chaudhuri, director of off-beat films Streer Potro and White
*Tell us about the themes/central ideas of your two feature films, The Wife’s Letter (Streer Potro, in Bengali) and White (no dialogue).
Aneek: The Wife's letter is based on an abstract theme where mathematics has been related to emotions, inspired by the surrealist form of Dali and simplistic form of Tagore. White is based on sexual assaults on women and has a universal relevance.
*You hav...
Mercury, Review: The evil that corporates do kills after them*
No, not the planet, but the element. Like lead, mercury poisoning can cause permanent damage to the human body. The movie, Mercury, begins when the damage is long done and the factory that caused it is shut and abandoned. However, the after-effects are about to wreak havoc on five deaf-mute friends, and one blind man will extort vengeance of the most brutal kind. Made without dialogue, Mercury has a soundtrack that ranges from cac...
Prof. Waman Kendre and Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Curtain falls on NSD’s historic Theatre Olympics after 16-day Mumbai marathon
Staggered across 17 cities, National School of Drama’s 8th Theatre Olympics came to an end after 16 continuous days of performances, seminars, master classes, interactions and street theatre shows. A glittering closing ceremony was held at the Kamgar Maidan, Elphinstone Road, Central Mumbai, not very far from the venues of the Olympics themselves.
Among the lu...
The Brink!
A recap of the plays and theatrical performances at NSD’s 16 day Theatre Olympics, II
DAY 14
COURT MARTIAL (Hindi)
Show: Friday 6th April - 4:30 PM at Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi.
Synopsis: Court Martial’s central character is Ram Chander, a jawan in the army. He has been accused of murdering one of his senior officers, Captain Verma, and injuring another, Captain B.D. Kapoor. When the play begins, Ram Chander is already in the court...
Gazab Teri Ada
A recap of the plays and theatrical performances at NSD’s 16 day Theatre Olympics
DAY 1
MOHE PIYA
A tale from the epic Mahabharata.
Director: Waman Kendre, Director of the National School of Drama, organisers of the Theatre Olympics
Group: Rangpeeth, Mumbai
Language: Hindi
Duration: 1 hour 30 mins.
Rating: ****
DAY 2
MAIN HOON NA (IN TIME AND SPACE)
A tale from the Mahabharata, about Lord Krishna.
Director: Bharti Sharma
Group: Kshitij, Delhi
Languag...
Destiny, Review: Your vengeance, my luck
You might think that a film about vengeance would be bloody and gruesome. Destiny, about a jilted girl’s vengeance against her imagined prospective husband, has only a few drops of blood, and they come from the lover’s bleeding forehead, not caused by anything thrown at him but a result of tripping at a pizzeria’s entrance. It is more of a romantic comedy than a revenge story. Destiny is a cute, neat film that has a twist at the end, ...
Drishtti, Review: Reflections in a crystal ball
Mugdha Veira Godse, a popular model and Hindi film actor, has turned producer (co-producer, to be accurate) with the short film, Drishtti (stylised from Drishti, meaning vision) which is streaming on Hungama Play from 30 March. It is the story of a crystal ball gazer (Mugdha Godse) who has the gift of analysing personalities and traits, and predicting the future, albeit partially.
A journalist called Naina comes to interview her. During the con...
Missing, Review: You aren’t missing anything
It’s a confessional title and admission of guilt, for there is a lot that is missing in this film, a credible plot to begin with. Crisp editing and some good performances cannot rescue Missing, a psychological thriller that isn’t. Like one character in the film, who takes everybody for a huge ride, the makers have decided to inflict the same punishment on the audience. The fact that persons of the calibre of Neeraj Pandey (directo...
Midnight Sun, Review: XPeriencing XP from Windows
It’s not about Norway or the North Pole, where the sun shines at midnight. Rather, it is about a girl who suffers from a disease in which exposure to the sun, even for a few seconds, can prove fatal. Midnight Sun comes from a lineage that is populated by names like Anand, Love Story, Ankhiyon Ke Jharaokhon Se, Kaash and Paa. Then, there were toned down variants like Meri Surat Teri Aankhen, Dosti, Children of a Lesser God, Koshish, Taare...
Peter Rabbit, Review: Fertile comedy
Peter Rabbit is an irreverent, computer-generated (largely) animated comedy, based on a 125 year-old story that has been updated to present times. Most of the story undulates as a never-ending, recurring chase, and battle of wits, between the live action hero and the cartoon animals, in Tom and Jerry style. While it should appeal naturally to kids in the age-group of 3-12, some adult-ish content makes it more relevant to the 13-18 bracket. Adults, who are ...
A Quiet Place, Review: Silence is Golden
In 2017, the world undergoes lockdown as blind monsters search for victims by sound. The few survivors of an unknown attack in New York appear as the Abbott family, who are visiting a supermarket, while maintaining total silence. The family is mourning the death of Beau, a victim to the monsters a year earlier.
Back home, following several prior encounters, the monsters become aware of the family’s presence while Lee Abbott develops a sound-proo...
NSD’s Theatre Olympics continue, with classic French playwright Molière’s Tartuffe
National School of Drama, New Delhi, an autonomous institution under Ministry of Culture, Government of India, is currently organising the 8th Theatre Olympics all over India. We, in Mumbai, are witnessing plays from India and overseas, staged at two venues, both in central Mumbai.
With free entry, the Olympics are a treat for connoisseurs of drama, both traditional and modern. Mumbai is hos...
Baaghi 2, Review: Do we still need an army?
He’s an army-man and he’s angry, first at the stone-pelters in Kashmir, and then at the drug-peddlers in Goa. In the former case, he has a bee in his bonnet. Rather, he ties a local to the bonnet on his Jeep, using him as a human shield, and drives through, teaching the militants a lesson. This earns a serious reprimand from his superior officers and a strenuous survival punishment as well. In the latter case, he conducts a master class ...
Director Ashutosh Gowariker, actor Vikram Gokhale flag-off 8th Theatre Olympics in Mumbai
Taking forward its long association with the world of drama, the city inaugurated the 8th Theatre Olympics, a fortnight-long international theatre festival, organised by the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, on 24th March. Eminent film and theatre actor Vikram Gokhale, and reputed film-maker Ashutosh Gowarikar inaugurated the festival, at a function held at the prestigious Nehru Centre, that was...
Farouque Shaikh: Memories and musings on his 70th birth anniversary
My earliest memories of the fresh and confident Farouque date back to the time when he was a senior at the elitist St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and I was a junior at the then humble National College, circa 1970-72. Among his contemporaries were Shabana Azmi, Satish Shah (Farouque was rather close to Satish), Pankaj Udhas, Anuradha (Paudwal) and Sharada (Kavita) Krishnamurthy, all celebrities in waiting. The college had...
Hichki, Review: Hitch key
Protagonist Rani Mukerji plays a spunky woman with Tourette Syndrome*, who sets her mind on teaching as a profession. Rather ambitious, considering she bursts into tics, making funny, bark-like noises every 30 seconds or so. It is inspired by the life of American Brad Cohen, probably the most famous person with Tourette Syndrome. With no real stars, this come-back vehicle of actress Rani Mukerji, who took a break for about four years, post marriage to the Yash Raj Fi...
Baa Baaa Black Sheep, Review: Wolf in sheep’s clothing
Director Vishwas Paandya is not serious. A confessional in the beginning dedicates Baa Baaa Black Sheep to the films he grew up on. He’s also asked his partner in crime (it’s a crime story), writer Sunjiv Puri, to strictly follow his brief. So, when the film was launched, in early 2015, they were probably referencing films of the 1980s-1990s. One character is named Charlie, in a tribute to the legendary comedian, who rul...
The Strangers--Prey at Night, Review: “Why kill strangers?” “Why not?”
They last preyed on innocents in 2008. Since then, families must have been praying that they do not return. No such luck. A sequel was taking shape since 2012, and Prey at Night saw light of day in 2018. Writer-director of the original, Bryan Bertino is only a co-writer this time round, the three murderers are the same, and so is the quest for Tamara. The rest is new. Is unmotivated mayhem and psych...
The Past coming to haunt you
The Past is a terrifying horror story that has been shot in an actually ‘haunted’ location. The film stars Vedita Pratap Singh, Yuvraj Parasher, Rajesh Sharma, Samiksha Bhatt, Jaya Villey and Soniya Albizuri, in pivotal roles. It is directed By Gagan Puri and produced by Peacock Motion Filmz, an Indian film studio founded by Jaspal Singh and Nitesh Kumar.
Gagan Puri has over eight years of experience in Hindi Cinema, and is also the writer of...
Raja Abroadiya, Review: Staying home is a better option
Both for the lead characters in the film, and potential viewers. If the film-makers had been warned in time to stay home themselves, the viewers would not have had to be given this warning of staying home, and would have been spared a film that has almost nothing to offer, the Miss India and Miss Diva connections of the two lead actresses notwithstanding. Okay, so there must be some audiences who like over the top buffoonery and will wat...
7 Days in Entebbe/Entebbe, Review: Week plot
In the cast are the President of Uganda and Prime Minister of Israel, Defence Minister of Israel as well as several Israeli Prime Ministers-to-be. The plot consists of the most daring rescue operation, called Thunderbolt, violating the international border of a friendly country, aerospace as well as land trespass. Indeed, some might even say that it was the Israelis who taught the Western powers how to attack the enemy by air and on land, wherever ...
Irrfan Khan, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri’s Alma Mater, NSD’s Theatre Olympics
India’s National School of Drama (NSD) has produced many a luminary in the field of film and television, both in front of and behind the camera. An autonomous institution under Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, it is located in New Delhi. The first batch of students came in 1961. Since then, between 10 and 33 students pass out every year.
NSD is now holding its 8th Theatre Olympics in Mumbai, ...
Gringo, Review: Enough of Judas! What about Peter?
“Which is the best Beatles album?” asks the man with the gun. If your answer is ‘Sergeant Pepper and the Lonely Hearts’ Club’, you die. If you do not like the Beatles or have outgrown them, he will still kill you. Your only hope is...‘Let It Be’! Get it right and he might either let you off, or just settle for chopping your finger off.
That is Gringo, a slightly confused and wayward take on an Americ...
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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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