Saeed ( 71 in 2014 ) wrote films such as Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyo Aata Hai?, Salim Langade Pe Mat Ro, Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!, Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Daastaan. Mirza has also written TV shows like Nukkad. He also writes books — The Monk, the Moor And Moses, Ben Jalloun. He made documentaries about India for, DD. His wife is Jennifer. His son Safdar is New York banker married to a Chinese girl. Another son Zahir is an advertising man in Dubai and married to a Christian girl. His father Akhtar Mirza wrote Naya Daur and Waqt. Saeed is now Goa based. He dislikes flying and is driven around by his Man Friday Ayub. Saeed is suspicious of state authority and of religion. Saeed is as interesting as a person as his work.
Author: Shabbir Chunawalla
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Celebratory Cinema Viewing in India
According to Sanjay Leela Bhansali, cinema is no longer art in India. People do not watch art anymore. Cinema viewing is celebratory here. It is just like celebrating a festival. You go to a film that gives you all the joy, laughter, fun, action, romance, whistles and claps. It is a tradition here to see all this. This is where people belong. Even while making a serious film, the melodrama must be balanced. Though good experimental movies work, the dominant mood is entertainment.
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Marathi Films
Previously the output of Marathi films was hardly 10-15 films per annum. These days 90-100 Marathi films are produced every year. The technical excellence is satisfactory. Even now the Marathi films are greatly influenced by Marathi plays. The cinema is verbose and talkative. Cinema has its own language — many Marathi films lack this video language. Marathi movies still has to improve their background music and songs. Music is a neglected area. Marathi cinema lacks the heroes and heroines having star appeal. Despite this, the younsters welcome new-age directors.
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Vespa Scooter’s Design
Corradino D’Ascanio designed Vespa. He is responsible for the design of Italy’s helicopter around World War II. He had dislike for motorcycles, which he believed were bulky, uncomfortable and unreliable. Enrico Piaggio, the Italian industrialist found the design resembles a wasp and hence the name Vespa. Vespa has featured in movies such as Roman Holiday, The Talented Mr Ripley and Larry Crowne. The first design of Vespa was done after drawing a person sitting comfortably on sofa in his drawing room, and the scooter was designed around him. The first Vespa model was called Paperino, Italian for Donald Duck. Vespa’s new version has Italian looks and a stylish retro design with glittering chrome finish.
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Shyamchi Aai — A Marathi Movie by Atre Based On Sane Guruji Work
Sane Guruji wrote Shyamchi Aai which has impressed many generations. Acharya P K Atre made a movie based on this book.The screenplay selected playful incidents for the first half, and let the melodrama take over in the second half. On March 6, 2015 Shyamchi Aai will complete 62 years. It was made in 1953. The movie was awarded the President’s Gold Medal. Madhav Vaze enacted the role of Shyam. Acharya Atre selected judiciously the incidents out of 42 nights which the book had described. The selection took care that the movie does not become preachy. Atre took an independent view of Shyam’s childhood. Atre was loyal to the book while writing the screenplay and dialogue. The atmosphere reflected the family life style of the 1950s and 1960s. The movie had a moral anchoring.Vanmalabai is another actor in the movie. Shankar Rao Kulkarni, Saraswati Bodas, Prabodhankar Thackeray, Damu Anna Joshi contributed a great deal. Vasant Desai was the music director. Rele was the cinematographer. The director was Acharya P K Atre himself.
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150th Birth Anniversary of Louis Jean ( Lumiere Brothers) , 2014
The Lumiere brothers — Louis and Auguste — were pioneers of the motion film and also the cinematograph ( motion picture film camera ). As they used the celluloid film, the movie industry is still known as the film industry, despite digitisation of the the cinema halls. October 5, 2014 marked the birth anniversary of Louis Jean, one half of the Lumiere brothers. In 2014, we celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of the motion picture icon and co-inventor of cinematograph.
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Hot and Cold Media
Understanding Media written by Marshall McLuhan puts media into two categories — hot media and cold media. By hot he means media that engages the audience. Those media which keeps the audience passive is called cold. Radio has classified as hot in his book. TV has been put in the cold category. These definitions should be revisited in view of the emergence of the new media — the social media.
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Steven Spielberg — Screenplay Is the Star
Steven Spielberg, the iconic Hollywood director makes movies where superstars do not dominate. To him, screenplay is the star.All of us are in the service of the story and telling it in a dynamic and colourful way. He has never written a story to fit an actor. The screenplay is more important than anybody, even the actor, however big he may be.
If the American movie industry can be separated into two stages, the period from 1920 to about 1960 would be called the era of actor superstars like Clark Gable, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant and the one from 1970 onward would be dubbed the era of director superstars who elevated screenplay to a special status.
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Murphy Boy
Murphy, a radio company, way back in the 1970s and 1980s advertised with a baby called Murphy baby. That baby was a Murphy mascot, just like Air India’s Maharajah or Amul baby. The original Murphy baby was a girl who expired. The makers then approached Kagyur Tulku Rinopoche in Manali who was 3 years old then to be the Murphy baby. Later this boy was in a monaestry for 20 years, and did not pursue modelling. He happened to marry Mandakini, the star of the 1980s. He currently resides in Andheri. Both of them shifted to Mumbai 17 years ago. They are in the process of co-direcfing a film.
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Cinema Evolving and Churning
According to Nasreen Munni Kabir, a cinema scholar, this is a moment of great churning in Indian films. Films such as Kahaani and Vicky Donor prove that people are ready to accept different kinds of films which are observant about characters and life.These are presented in a humorous way.
According to Nasreen, popular cinema is repetitive — the hero and heroine with 65 dancers behind them. It gets tedious, as it does not convey anything. It strives to entertain. After a while, one cannot tell one scene from the other. There is space for this kind of cinema, but it should not be the only kind of cinema that is produced.
The 200-crore club, formerly pegged at 100-crore and likely to go up to 300-crore, indicates commercial success, but it does not indicate good cinema necessarily. The audience is willing to see other kinds of movies.
However, Indian cinema has developed a narrative which is so strong and so connected to the audience that it has survived Hollywood. There is no other cinema that has succeeded in surviving Hollywood, not even the French.