Remembering a forgotten director star — Miklós Janscó
Gautam Kaul | July 31
There are film directors who create film stars and then there are film directors who become stars themselves.
Since cinema started as a means of business, stars and star film directors have both co existed. A star could not survive without a good film director but a star film director could thrive without stars. Each national language cinema has had its fair share of both stars and star film directors. In India, individuals in both categories have lived and thrived by the dozens; while in countries with smaller film audiences, star directors have been few. Miklós Janscó was one such rare star among directors…
… The introduction of Hungarian cinema in India started with the screening of Janscó’s The Round-Up...
… Janscó is best remembered for a unique signature in film narrative that was marked by the sparing use of words in dialogues interspersed by long scene takes. In Red Psalms, this style took an extreme position when scenes were allowed to linger on for 9 minutes and more without a single cut. Film critics found in such depiction, symbolism that perhaps even the film director never thought of. But he accepted these interpretations since they created for him a distinct image that added to his cinematic aura in the international film circles.
Dialogues tell a story
Saurabh Turakhia | July 31
Cinema has come a long way from a time when long dialogues struck gold at the box-office and cemented a struggling protagonist’s position as a dependable hero to a time when it is cool to be conversational… What is it about dialogues that endear themselves to audiences? Is it mere wordplay? Are dialogues like closed curtains, using which we can get to know a personality better? Do dialogues have to be merely instructional or can they stand out as life mantras? The popularity of dialogues reflects the power of words in creating an impact on minds and hearts.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
MK Raghavendra | July 31
Liberals in the sub-continent feel compelled to take certain political positions more in order to define themselves than because the positions are defensible. There is a deliberate propagation of half-truths and untruths in the service of the ‘correct’, the understanding being that the ‘morally correct’ and the ‘true’ are not synonymous… The film is structured as a thriller… But even as we admire the way it is put together, we begin to see the sleight of hand by which elements of culture like poetry and music are being associated with religion and the lines between the two deliberately blurred.
Festival and awards circuit
Premendra Mazumder | Bengali Film Festival of Dallas
Premendra Mazumder | Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Rashmi Doraiswamy | Eurasian Film Festival, Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan
Saibal Chatterjee | Bengaluru Bengali Kannada Film Festival
Siladitya Sen | Bengaluru Bengali Kannada Film Festival
GP Ramachandran /Academy members | Kerala State Film Awards
GP Ramachandran | Green Panorama Environmental Film Festival
Talks & screenings
Jai Arjun Singh talks on b-grade films | Second edition of the Film Walon Ka Adda, Delhi
Ratnottama Sengupta talks on children and artistic talents | Kolkata Centre for Creativity
Utpal Datta talks on film (Photo: Khanjan Kishore Nath) | Renaissance Junior College, Nagaon
Utpal Datta participates in a poetry reading session | Sahitya Akademi, Guwahati
VK Joseph speaks at the AGM of the Federation of Film Societies of India - Keralam
Aseem Chhabra speaks, following the Indian premiere of Arshad Khan's Abu | Habitat Centre, Delhi
Homage
GP Ramachandran pays tribute to theatre artiste Girish Karnad | Sri Shankaracharya Sanskrit University
GP Ramachandran pays tribute to Girish Karnad | Cinema Collective, Vadakara
Anil Zankar presents his translations of Pasternaks' and Neruda's poems | Flame University, Pune
GPR pays tribute to MJ Radhakrishnan (Photo: Krishnadas M) | Mannarkkad Taluk Reference Library
VK Joseph pays tribute to cinematographer MJ Radhakrishnan | Kerala State Film Academy