Here we go again:
I will try livetyping some thoughts while reading these reviews all over the net - so this article may grow and grow and grow.

One thing (bad first?) Maria, Oliver and me, all three using a 10 point system, all give only 6 of 10 points to sanjays movie. But i promise: We’d not spoken about our points bevor publishing. But sanjay also gehts 3 of 4 rubberducks by kaddele (i also want one, please). Marco gives 2,5 of 5 and sweet mirie has not told us her points.
Thats all a bit average only, isn’t it?

As i’d written in some comment somewhere in any review before, its because the most critizised moments of the movie comes late - and stays longer in mind.
Oliver wrote about the sati chapters:

Especially the Sati-track in the final act is far too long, seems forced and leads to nothing.

This central theme in just the moment, when the movies climax should be reached, doesn’t work.

But on the other hand, while mirie thinks about

PJPSNJ rather works as a comedy than as a drama, but one has to say that newcomer Sanjay Jha is doing quite good at this balancing act.

i see it the different way:

The first, courageous half becomes a little bit overwhelming with slapstick and comedy, craziness and unreal. Some scenes may be funny and interesting to watch, but the climax drops out.

Kaddele joins my views:

Personally I liked the first one and a half hours better than what follows afterwards. That’s mainly because I liked the way the different stories of the people in the chawl are presented. I also found the use of the conventions and stereotypes that can be found in so many films quite well-done.

But she mentions also:

First of all it’s really funny to watch and secondly, they set off the often quite shocking stories about the violence and abuse the people (mainly the women) are faced with and which is even more shocking because it comes unexpectedly after scenes that are really funny.

And Marco, the German speaking Bollywood Guru with a awsome knowledge of having seen over 800 movies,

As I just said, the funny part of the film worked better than the serious one.

But also he thinks, that

The film therefore works best as a parody with witty dialogue and loosely connected vignettes - but even on that level, it never fully clicks. The drama is even less successful due to its fragmentary nature and the strapped-on moral at the end, served by a funny geezer with an absurdly ill fitting latex baldie cap.

Oliver sees it quite different:

For one, “Praan” is clearly intend as a social commentary, addressing shortcomings and injustices for the people of this chawl, succeeding quite well in doing this in an urgent and poignant way. (…) On a third level, all of this gets sometimes an ironic treatment, revealing the “filmy” attitude of the proceedings; it’s just that there is no discernible pattern visible why the filmmakers sometimes stay in a serious mood, and sometimes admit that it’s all just hokum and that the audience needs to know that they are just watching a movie.

Maria takes both sides equal:

Sanjay Jha tackles both parts of his film quite well and with a lot of commitment - the comedy-part is hilarious, the social-problems-part is touching and agitating - but regrettably the both parts clash bitterly and just won’t workpraan-women.jpg together, annihilating the impact of both parts.

Some way we all are equal and different. And when we all come to the common view that this movie is special but average comparing it with other movies, we all argue different. Isn’t that interesting? As in school in math: Its not the summary counting, its the way to get to the summary. And this ways are all different. I hadn’t expected that (and that is what moviemaking makes so hard to work: people see the same thing different).

–to be continued–

I’t to disable gravatars, cause it made comment page load too long. I try to fix it soon, but i think i don’t manage it until october (vacations waits for me)

Avid Bollywood fans will agree that the industry has evolved immensely over the past few decades. Gone are the days of running around trees and singing in the rain. Also, gone are the days when the main leads were written specifically for up and coming actors. I decided to take a look at a few films that have gone against the norm, and where slightly older stars are now in the spotlight.The standard formula for a Bollywood formula is that the cast will be made up of one or more central young characters, with some of yesteryears stars playing the role of parents. It is highly unlikely that say, the father of the hero becomes the main character in the film. Think Khabie Khushi Khabi Gham. Amitabh Bachan was the patriarch of the film – holding his family together, but it was Shah Rukh Khan’s character (along with others, like Hrithik Roshan, Kajol and Kareena Kapoor) who really gained much attention from the film.

Bollywood is star-studded with up and coming young actors. This leaves stars of the past two decades playing roles of parents or villains. Of course, there are films where older characters are given a different kind of role to play, like Amitabh Bachan’s character in Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.

However, it seems as though that it was Ravi Chopra’s Baghban, starring Amitabh Bachan and Hema Malini as the lead couple, that films written for actors above the age of 60 have come to be noticed once again. The film dealt around relationship of parents and children and the obligation and reciprocation existing between the two generations. Stars like Salman Khan and Mahima Chaudhary had secondary roles in the film as the story revolved primarily around Bachan and Malini. Audiences the world over related to the problems and emotional turmoil that is faced by the older generation. Younger viewers were given a break from what has become the tradition of bikini-clad films and were able to view serious situations in a different light.

Ravi Chopra was so overwhelmed by the success of the film that he came out with two other films with Bachan. The first was Babul, where the father-in-law tires to get his widowed daughter-law (Rani Mukherjee) remarried. In Mahesh Manjrekar’s Viruddh, Bachan plays a father who fights for justice for his dead son.

Victor Banerjee stars in Jogger’s Park where he plays the role of a well-known retired judge. He meets Jenny, played by Perizaad Zorabian and is absolutely smitten by her. Although she is much younger than him, he is willing to sacrifice his family and reputation for her. Films like this seem to be paving the way for more controversial subjects, which Bollywood audiences are beginning to be introduced to.

But what is interesting is that Big B seems to bagging most of the leads in such films these days. Is there a chance that there will be competition between Amitabh and Abishek one day? Be sure to check in next month as we discuss the Big B vs Small B!

Some weeks ago in Stuttgart (Germany) the Bollywood and Beyond Film Festival has been
held. Half a week there have been many movies in 3 theaters, Indian cooking, a so-called bazaar, Indian cinema professionals like producers for discussion, and journalists - there could be nothing more for fans like us to have at such a festival. If i had ever wished such a festival, near me in Stuttgart, i’d wished it that way. Not to forget the movies there. This article concerns about the festival idea, the movies there and how the festival organization plays with these things.

This festival was thought as a place for cultural exchange, as they write at their homepage:

The aim of this initiative was to enrich the festival situation in the region. The goal of the festival “Bollywood and beyond” was, besides the promotion of the economic cooperation, to provide the viewers with an insight to the cultural diversity of a film industry which was then largely unknown in Germany.

(origin of quote here)

This changed these days in a special manner typical for Germans: Once Bollywood and Beyond, both equal weights as words in the header (but bollywood for promotional purpose written larger than beyond), changed to “only Beyond is good cinema”. Indian Commercial Cinema is not of interest for festival management. It is too profane. There is too less arts but too much business and too much what audience wants to see. Its a german speciallity to show your own intelligence, experience and abilitiy by denying mainstream and by denying others abilities. Or as its called:

Reviewer (and festival managers) are like eunuchs: They know how it works but still can’t do it themselves.

You goat about art house filme knowledge. Its a problem many film festivals have: They select cinema into public and commercial one on a side and intellectual one on the other side. Of course, you could decide that you only want to show art house movies. But its not fair for Bollywood to be the eponym for the festival and then call it not as good as intellectual management would like to be themselves.

And that is the point: Its nothing about the festivals reputation, but about managements own reputation.

On one hand they want big business with 10.000s of visitors. On the other hand they want to show their intellectual decision against mainstream. That’s false, in my opinion. You can decide in favor of this side, but you can’t have both in the same moment.

You can’t sell great movies like “Manasarovar” or “Daivanamathil” as Bollywood without lying to your audience. And, that’s the point, you can’t make a film festival “to provide the viewers with an insight to the cultural diversity of a film industry ” by denying Bolly/Kolly/Tolly/Mollywood. Art house is also a part of Indian cinema as Bollywood is. Both are such an important parts of Indian culture. You can’t deny indian stardom, Bollywoods colors, these always equal and really flat stories. That is Indian cinema too, that is Indians wannabe, somehow.

And of course you can’t - as German - decide - which part of a culture is worth to be shown. Thats the key: By showing your own intellect because you know - as the only one - which movie is worth to be shown, you also show bad understanding. That you don’t have understand anything.

And, for second, you also make some special festival to some arbitrary.

There is no real commercial Indian cinema festival worldwide. Why not?
Can’t we get people to less audience movies in the fairway of a blockbuster? Do we need to learn cultural exchange with a mallet?

The German Mainstream Community fears a festival without Bollywood. We love the Indian cinema, neither only Bollywood nor art house. And people visiting this festival see it the same way: Sold out? No movie was, was any? Only Krrish managed a 500 seat theater to be 3/4 full. Only Krrish managed a large auditorium. So tell me: Must art and intellect kill things people like for some personal reasons?

Its only one person with that view in Germany (i hope), the festival manager Mrs. Reiss. We don’t know which way Bollywood & Beyond will go. But we know that we don’t want it to go that way. International and national press only writes what is shown to them. About success in Germany and about a big festival.
But independent sources attested me that some cinema professionals don’t like that idea a lot.

Never forget: Cinema is both art and business. The same way is it with making a festival. Lets hope Mrs. Reiss will understand it some day.

(Thanks, S., for correcting my English)

Update: In my german blog festival manager reiss told one of my visitor to delete his post speaking about her failures in management. Else she spoke about further steps.

After sanjay jha, director at bollywood and blogger told me at my blog to review his debut movie “praan jaye par shaan na jaye”, i’ve got the idea of international blogosphere commenting his debut movie simultaniously. Once german blogs did such a connecting blogging act, and it was interesting. So bloggers meet director was born:

I’d to announce that at september 30th the following bloggers/website owners will publish their review and or opinion/thoughts about sanjay jhas “praan jaye par shaan na jaye”.

babasko
marco
michael
bridget
maria giovanna
beth
mirie
oli
maria
kaddele

If you out there also want to participate, write me

Hopefully, sanjay jha will then speak and discuss with us about our different views of his movie. Will you, sanjay?

Update: Two more bloggers added

This weekend i had to go to duesseldorf for business on monday (not the duesseldorf of chukkalo chandrudu, the real one in germany).

Happy to have five hours each way for looking dvds (especially sanjay jhas movie) i took 5 dvds in my suitcase and lots of anticipation. I took my notebook, asked german railways for a seat with power socket and desk cause battery only work for an hour now. Everything was perfect, everything was fine. But then, sitting in the train, i remembered one thing forgotten: My linecord. Damn, i didn’t put it in my suitcase. 5 hours and a long evening in the city with longest bar worldwide, but _no_ dvds viewable all that time. No use of w-lan (only 30 minutes i’d battery left) Stupidness.

Its interesting, earlier i hated such long train journies. You sleep much, look out of the window, read books and magazines. But mostly time is lost until you get where you want to go. Since looking bollywood i abused my apple powerbook g4 als cinema. And time my beautiful girlfriend lives away from me is just 30 minutes to short (for watching a whole bollywood blockbuster, but of course 3 hours too far for the rest)