Goldfish, Review:  Without your memory, you are like a goldfish out of water Probably used as a metaphor for the memory lapses of its central character, who is suffering from dementia, the goldfish, believed to have a memory span of three seconds, has, in fact, a rather long memory. On the website Live Science, the short-memory theory has been debunked, “In reality, goldfish (Carassius auratus) have much longer memories — spanning weeks, months and even years. And the science...

Goldfish, Trailer launch: Mind matters Splendid Films yesterday released the trailer of their internationally acclaimed film, Goldfish, followed by a panel discussion, in association with Mpower Minds, an initiative of Aditya Birla Education Trust. Goldfish, which was shown at IFFI 2022, is set to release in India on 25th August, 2023. The event was held at Birla Centurion Business Centre, in Worli, Central Mumbai. For once, I was late. Very late. The venue was absolutely new to me and there ...

Made in Heaven, Season 2: "Marriages are made in heaven, so are thunder and lightning" Although the quote comes from Clint Eastwood, you can say it again, for this is Season 2. And unlike most marriages in real life, on OTT you get a second chance, to revisit heaven. After a successful Season 1 (2019), the team from Excel Media and Entertainment, and Tiger Baby Films, is back, with Season 2. Many characters are retained, and a few are added, to make these marriages work, I presume, ...

IFFI 53, 2022, 13: Master Class on Gender and Work in Hindi Cinema A Masterclass on Gender Participation in Hindi Cinema was held at the 53rd International Film Festival of India, in association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in Panaji, Goa wherein a presentation on Breaking the Screen Ceiling: Gender and Work in Hindi Cinema was held. Key insights from a quantitative research study on gender and work, both on and off screen, in Hindi cinema, were presented during the mas...

10th Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai-I: Sweet and sour, like the candy of the sponsor Accreditation as a media-person was not a problem, this year, probably due to the intervention of the Principal Correspondent of Jagran, Ms. Smita Srivastava. Jagran is a media major, and this was the tenth Jagran Film Festival (JFF) they held across India, culminating at Mumbai. It was a short festival, lasting just four days, with screenings and sessions at the four auditoria of Cinépolis (once known a...

Siraj Syed reviews Mantra: Travails and travesties In one scene of Mantra, the protagonist, a Delhi industrialist called KK (Kapil Kapoor) who is about to sell his bleeding chips-manufacturing business to his cash-rich multi-national rival, finds a Frenchman looking for a drug (of the smoking kind) and the two manage to find a dealer named Rahul. On a high, the man tells the Frenchman that the Beatles have split. Nothing wrong in breaking such news to a pot-partner, even if the guy happens to...

MFF 17, by Jio-MAMI, Festival Diary, part I  MFF 17, by Jio-MAMI, Festival Diary, II                                       Kiran Rao and Anupama Chandra Come 28 October, and we learnt that the inauguration of Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival would be held on 29th October in open-air at Mumbai’s most famous landmark, the Gateway of India. It was also learnt that the inaugural fi...

Margarita, With a Straw, Review: Heady Cocktail of Passions Raw Earlier titled Chhoone Chali Aasman (she’s reaching for the sky), the film settles for an even more abstract title. Margarita, as a drink, might be known only to the club/bar circuit among the upper middle class and upper class of Indian society. Moreover, a large part of the dialogue is in English, often-sub-titled. Then to discover that it is the story of a young woman struck with cerebral palsy, who wants to be a creati...

  With a title like Margarita, with a Straw and a festive screening on Cinco de Mayo eve, you'd think this foreign import would be part of a Mexican muestra. But Margarita is the opening night selection of the 15th annual New York Indian Film festival, which runs May 4 - 9. Directed by Shonali Bose, the film stars Kalki Koechlin as a spirited coed with cerebral palsy who pursues a bachelor's degree and sundry bachelorette gratifications at New York University. Bose&rsq...