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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
Amazon Prime Video’s International spy web series Citadel: Messing with minds
Imagine you are a spy. Imagine you have done things to people that they cannot imagine, and some of those people have done the same to you. Now imagine that an organisation can erase your memory and give you a new identity. So, in other words, your memory is at the mercy of a professional outfit that messes with your mind. Now imagine Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as the top spies of Citadel, in Ama...
One way of owning a film, an extension of the auteur theory, would be to name the film with your name preceding the title. Might sound quirky to some, but so what? It is his film, and he can call it Nani’s Dasara or whatever else he likes. But you do wonder why Telugu actor Nani chose to call it his Dasara when he has neither written nor directed it, not even produced it. The nomenclature is a reference to the Dasara (Dussehra) festival, which forms the climax of the story, in which case...
Amazon Prime Video’s Jubilee: A celebration of the golden era of Hindustani cinema
When a director like Vikramaditya Motwane charts new territory in the shape of a 10-episode web series, with lip-sync songs, something he has never done before, there is high curiosity value. It’s called Jubilee and the trailer was launched at Four Seasons Hotel, Mahalakshmi, Mumbai, on Friday afternoon. Starting just 30 minutes after the scheduled time, the proceedings ended within an hour, which i...
Nani’s Dasara creates Dhoom Dhaam across the earth, the moon and the sun
To north Indians, Nani means maternal grandmother. Wonder what it means in Nani’s native Telugu. His full name, though, is Ghanta Naveen Babu, and he is 39. After a dubbed success called Super Khiladi 4, in this, his 29th film, Dasara, he has a very earthy look, unshaven and with long, unruly hair. “You might be pardoned for thinking that this is the same look sported by Allu Arjun in Pushpa, though the...
Hunter, Tootega Nahin, Todega, Amazon Mini web series: Give us a break
Don’t blame me for a sense of ennui and déjà vu that is having an extended run over the last few years, both on the big screen and on OTT. The number of films that have our armed forces and secret services battling that of our neighbour is falling from all sides, like snowfall. But by and large, what we are served is ‘been there done that’. Lagging not far behind is the genre of bad cop batt...
Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Cinema Speculation’: Autobiography? Encyclopaedia? Critiques?...Keep Speculating!
Confined by time (1968-1981) and restricted to select genres, like revenge, gory violence, exploitation and blaxploitation, Quentin Tarantino’s 392-page hard-cover Hachette publication is a voyage of discovery that is not for the feeble-hearted or the purist. In baseball and cricketing terminology, he hits the ball all over the park. Though he was born in 1963, the (r...
Zwigato, Review: Wobbligato
Too good to be true-life, Zwigato might have been inspired by true incidents. The narrative does try to convey that feel. At first, it sucks you in with its no blemish couple and their ideal family. But then the layers come off one by one. There are tropes galore, masquerading as plot points. Is the film narrating the story of a food delivery boy, with interesting twists and turns, or is it taking the delivery boy as a prototype and making him go through the motion...
Triangle of Sadness: An American Marxist and a Russian Capitalist on a $250 m yacht
As movies go, there are several advantages of being different. Genre films have been beaten to death and critics, not to mention discerning audiences, are dying to watch something different. There are those who are different by virtue of original ideas, while others are different for the sake of being different. Let’s begin with the title: in the first few minutes of the film, you are told that it is som...
Rabia and Olivia, Review: A loving, fatherless nanny and a motherless, disturbed girl
It is not too often that an Indie film, having Canadian and Indian actors, strikes a few right chords, avoids the obvious and delivers a credible ending. Rabia and Olivia seems to have languished in the cans for some time, going by the dateline of the events, which occur in 2018. And one can see why. There’s India and there is Canada, but there is no terrorism, no overdone immigrant issues and no roma...
Khela Hobe, Review: Om Puri lives, six years after his death
Your gut reaction on seeing a film like Khela Hobe is to lambast it, tear it to shreds and dump it in the bin. You can have a field day showcasing your linguistic prowess and delivering a lecture on the prolific use of demeaning adjectives. But somewhere along the line, a modicum of empathy surfaces. This is largely due to the passing away of lead actor Om Puri, a friend, who died over six years ago. Obviously, this film is more tha...
Main Raj Kapoor Ho Gaya, Review: A drunk, moping, slum-dweller, and his three muses
Most films have at least a semblance of reference to the title. Some, though, choose to get philosophical when picking a moniker for their screen vehicle. Then there those that have a prosaic sentence as the title, and neither prose nor poetry to justify it. Main Raj Kapoor Ho Gaya is one such. What the title means is “I have become Raj Kapoor.” Raj Kapoor, of course, was the cinematic genius who a...
Manmarzee album launch: Hari in a hurry
What’s in a name? The venue was Bora Bora, on Link Road, Andheri West. The real Bora Bora is an island group in the Leeward Islands, French Polynesia. This one is a resto-bar on the second floor. Eternal Sounds is the name of the company that has produced the album. And if that is not a creative nomenclature that reflects the ambitions of the promoters, what is? Manmarzee is what they call the album. Translated from the original Urdu, it means hea...
RIFF, 09, 2023, 08: What you missed
Third day of Rajasthan International Film Festival (RIFF) showcased a number of interesting films, and talk-shows on topics concerning cinema, at INOX, Crystal Palm, Jaipur.
The talk-show, Cinema and Society, was a discussion about the importance of cinema at social level, and the participating dignitaries stated their related thoughts. Participants included Ajit Rai, Buvana Ram, Charles Thomson, a senior official of the Rajasthan Police and Siraj Syed. ...
RIFF, 09, 2023, 07: The Big Night
At the concluding ceremony of the Rajasthan International Film Festival, at the Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, on 05 February 2023, a total of 54 awards were presented.
Special Awards – [7]
[01] RIFF 2023 - LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION IN INDIAN
CINEMA: PARIKSHAT SAHNI
[02] RIFF 2023 -LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION IN RAJASTHANI CINEMA: PRAVEEN KUMAR
[03] RIFF 2023 HONORARY AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION IN INTERNATIONAL CINEM...
RIFF 09, 2023, 6: Days 01 and 02
On 01 February 2023, day one of the Rajasthan International Film Festival the late actor Padma Shri Irrfaan Khan (full name Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan) was honoured with the RIFF Theme Award 2023 (Sports in Cinema), for the film Paan Singh Tomar. Ms. Sutapa Sikdar, writer and wife of Irrfan Khan, accepted the honour on his behalf.
Rajasthani Documentary film Dhinga Gavar, directed by Somendra Harsh, which was screened in January at the Dhaka International Fil...
RIFF 09, 2023, 5: The Line-up
The venues
The grand Opening Ceremony of Rajasthan International Film Festival - RIFF 2023 was to be held in Jaipur on 1st February at INOX, Crystal Palm, C-Scheme, Jaipur. This would be followed by film screenings, open forums, workshops and talk shows for the next four days, which be held at Screen 3 - INOX, Crystal Palm, C - Scheme, from 2 to 5 February 2023. The grand RIFF Closing Ceremony and RIFF Award Night was to be held on 5 February at the Open-Air The...
RIFF 09, 2023, 4: Life-time Achievement Award for Parikshat Sahni
The 9th Edition of the Rajasthan International Film Festival(RIFF) 2023
will be held from 1st to 5th February in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Festival Director announced that the life-time achievement award will be given this year to lead actor and later character artiste, the eminent personality, Parikshat Sahni. Sahni is well-known to the earlier generation for TV shows like Barrister Vinod and Gul Gulshan Gulfaam. The latter was set ...
SCO Film Festival: India to host, festival begins tomorrow
In a first-of-its-kind event, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO)’s film festival opens tomorrow in Mumbai. This is part of the initiatives taken by India after assuming Presidency of SCO. A total of 55 films will be screened during the festival, at two venues: the Films Division Complex, Peddar Road, and Nehru Centre. Proceedings will be kicked-off at an inaugural function, to be held at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, Nat...
Pathaan, Review: Exploits and exploitation
Encyclopedia Brittanica defines a pathan thus: Pashtun, also spelled Pushtun or Pakhtun, Hindustani Pathan, Persian Afghan, ethnolinguistic group residing primarily in the region that lies between the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan and the northern stretch of the Indus River in Pakistan. The Pashtun constitute the largest ethnic group of the population of Afghanistan and bore the exclusive name of Afghan before that name came to denote any na...
New Year’s Special: Distributor Anil Thadani in an exclusive interview with Siraj Syed, Part III
Siraj: How do you choose multiplexes or single screen cinemas for particular films?
Anil: Basically, you have to understand your own product. The kind of film you are releasing. And then you pick and choose where you think…which is the pocket that deserves a film like…a particular film. And that is how you release. It is your gut feeling about your product… what you are...
Zindagi Shatranj Hai, Review: Partly chess, partly mess
With a title like Zindagi Shatranj Hai (Life is a game of chess), you are ready to watch some smart moves, and the film does offer a few such moves. But it also offers several false moves that negate the positive ones. Designed as a mystery-suspense-thriller, it has a plot within a plot within a plot. Besides that, there is pretty little in terms of good cinematic content. There are many loose ends that are left untied and several thread...
RIFF, 09, 2023, 03: Festival director’s film screened at Dhaka International Film Festival
Rajasthani documentary film Dhinga Gavar, directed and produced by Somendra Harsh, was screened at the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival. The film had its world première at the National Museum in Dhaka on Wednesday. Somendra Harsh represented his film and interacted with the cine lovers present there. ‘Dhinga’ means fun by pretence and ‘Gavar’ means Gangaur or G...
It’s Almost Pyaar with Anurag Kashyap’s DJ Mohabbat team and its trailer
Anurag Kashyap’s much awaited movie Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, his ode to modern love, had its trailer launch in Mumbai, at the PVR multiplex, Juhu, Mumbai, yesterday. The event was attended by the female lead, Alaya F., debutant Karan Mehta and Anurag himself, along with the music director Amit Trivedi, producers Ranjan Singh and Kabir Ahuja and ZEE Studios’ Shariq Patel
After everybody had...
Puss in Boots-The Last Wish, Review: It’s not yet the time to hang up your boots
A cat-sized cat in boots, with a cat-sized sword, taking on mighty villains and evading arrest by a Sherriff and his posse, is surely the stuff that fairy tales are made of. Just to remind you, there is a title card and a line on the posters that tells you, “This is a fairy tale”. That, technically, refers to the visual style of narrative employed by the film, which is very story-book in nature....
Broker, Review: Brokering a deal for heavy, serious, dark cinema
A Japanese film won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or in 2018, titled Shoplifters. It was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. The following year, a South Korean film bagged the honours. It was called Parasite. After the lean, Covid years of 2020 and 2021, we have a South Korean film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, called Broker, releasing in 2022. The film competed for the Palme d’Or, but bagged only the Ecumeni...
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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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