Film

Hindustan Times • 21st November 2025

‘Agra is me trying to hold up a mirror and say: This is who we are now. It’s time to talk about this’: Kanu Behl

There is often a tenderness to slice-of-life stories set in non-metropolitan India. People lean on each other; the light is tinged with gold.Expect none of that in Agra.This a world that is breathless, brutal and relentless.The second feature film by Kanu Behl, 45, has made news for how few screens it has been given (a number that is slowly rising, with rising interest in the movie). It has made news for premiering at Cannes, as Behl’s first film Titli did, in 2014.What it should be making news...

Hindustan Times • 13th January 2018

Life of an ex-dictator: A documentary on Pervez Musharraf throws some uncomfortable questions

Filmmaker Mohammed Ali Naqvi, or Mo, is known to use his work to explore perilous subjects. His last film, Among the Believers, was about Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, head of the Lal Masjid mujahideen training base; a Special Emmy-winning project before that was on the international human rights icon and gang-rape survivor Mukhtaran Mai.For his documentary on Musharraf, Insha’Allah Democracy, Naqvi shadowed the former dictator and Army general for five years, as the man readied for a political come...

Hindustan Times • 8th May 2016

Cinema Travellers: Tracing the decline of tent cinema in India

The film is about how cable TV and the internet are pushing the once-hugely-popular tambu talkies or pop-up tent cinemas into oblivion. The Cinema Travellers has been selected for premiere in the Cannes Classics selection, dedicated to cinema on cinema.Or it used to be. Abraham and her colleague Amit Madheshiya are currently in the midst of prepping their documentary, The Cinema Travellers, for its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15.Watching a film in a village is such a physical exp...

Hindustan Times • 4th May 2016

McKellen to kick-start global tribute to Shakespeare in Mumbai

The programme starts celebrating the bard by having the veteran actor in conversation with a Bollywood superstar (whose name isn’t disclosed as yet) and it will also mark the launch of the MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image) Film Club. On the next day, film buffs can treat themselves to Sir McKellen hosting the screening of Richard III (1995) the film he co-adapted for the big screen and starred in.Read more: Ian McKellan to visit India, not early, not late, but precisely on timeShakespeare Li...

Hindustan Times • 4th October 2015

Court, Lai Bhaari and more: The rise and rise of Marathi cinema

Think of it like a film reel. The first few frames show Ashok Saraf in the cult comedy classic Ashi Hi Banwa Banwi (1988), standing in line to buy milk, feigning a stomach-ache to get someone to give him their bottle.Fast-forward and you come to Mahesh Manjrekar dressed all in silk, discussing with Sachin Khedekar what it means to be a Marathi manoos in Mumbai, in Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy (2009). Vira Satidhar in a still from Marathi film Court. (YOIUTUBE)Fast forward a bit and you come to...

Hindustan Times • 15th August 2015

A freedom fighter talks about his struggles before and after 1947

There were two reasons Gour Hari Das was glad to be going to prison in 1945. “I was happy to being going to jail for my country,” says the 84-year-old. “And we had been told we would be taken to the Balasore district jail by train, which was considered a marvel in those days. It was like travelling by air! The sight of the steam engine, the chhuk-chhuk sound, the flying sparks, the whistle — I still remember it.”HT ImageDas was 14 at the time. He, his father and his elder brother would spend nea...

Mid-Day • 20th November 2014

We lack a sense of preservation: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

Last year’s centenary celebrations of Indian cinema were definitely hard to miss. Yet, much as one wished to celebrate the 100-year-old history of the Indian celluloid with screenings of noted films of yesteryear, one had to make do with only 6,000 films, as that was all the archives at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) offered. In fact, the first talkie of the country, Alam Ara is lost and is without a trace, making it unavailable to posterity.

Last year’s centenary celebrations of Ind...

Mid-Day • 4th August 2014

Mumbai boy's film heads to Venice

Chaitanya Tamhane's film, Court, takes the courtroom as its premises and looks at the personal lives of judges and lawyers. It has been selected for the Horizons section in Venice Film FestivalCome late August, and Mumbai boy Chaitanya Tamhane will pack his bags for Venice where he will wait for a judgment and his moment of glory. Tamhane (27) is the young filmmaker of the feature film, Court, that has been selected for the 71st Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section.
Set in Mumbai, the f...

Mid-Day • 7th April 2014

From Durga to Miss India

The cliche Bollywood dialogue goes that a woman is so much more — a daughter, a mother, a wife and so on. But in the case of Nisha Pahuja’s documentary, The World Before Her (TWBH), it would be wrong to watch it as a feminist film; it’s much more. From women who find the secret thrill in using rifle guns, to young Miss India 2011 contenders who find the redundancy in the wearing ‘skimpy clothes’ for the biking round — it captures the contemporary Indian woman who is neither idolised nor demonise...

Hindustan Times • 1st March 2014

The caste story is not over yet: Nagraj Manjule

"I have seen and experienced caste discrimination for as long as I can remember," says the 35-year-old filmmaker, who belongs to the Wadar tribe and grew up in the small town of Kamrala in Maharashtra's Solapur district. "I was always angry and conflicted because of my caste and my father's source of livelihood — he was a stone-crusher, who also had to catch pigs. Fandry draws heavily from my adolescence and of those around me."Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), 20...

Mid-Day • 20th November 2013

Animation for kids: Where are the original stories?

As the curtains come down on the 18th International Children's Film Festival India popularly known as The Golden Elephant, Kanika Sharma eavesdrops in one of the most pivotal discussions that took centre stage at this cinematic spectacle ufffd animation films. It's time your child chose to watch Goopy over Shin Chan and co. ‘Yeh anek kya hai, didi?’ is a line that the generation that was fed on Doordarshan in India might be able to relate to. Recalling the voice of five-year-old Sadhna Sa...

Mid-Day • 24th October 2013

Many pasts, many stories at the Mumbai International Film Festival

How did your love for filmmaking begin? I began wanting to make movies when I was about 12. From the age of 13, I started making a short film each year. All were 8mm movies, low-budget, and very rudimentary in technique. It started from my love of looking at photos, which I still like to do. There was a photography shop near our house. When I looked at those portraits, a story in my mind developed naturally. Images make me travel to another world. The first time I went to a cinema hall, I was...

Mid-Day • 22nd October 2013

The man behind Z

There is a lot more to Costa Gavras than his political thrillers. Kanika Sharma discovers the grandeur and vision that makes this 80-year-old celebrated filmmaker tower over the history of meaningful cinema An epitome when it comes to imbuing thrill in political stories, Costa Gavras graced the 15th Mumbai Film Festival, last week in all his affability and augustness. Be it the legendary films Z, Missing or many others from his 20-something pantheon of great cinema, Gavras has always inspired...