TollywoodThe actor has been approached but it is not clear if she has given her go-ahead yet. Digital NativeDigital NativeExpectations are riding high on Vakeel Saab as it will mark the comeback of the Tollywood Power Star Pawan Kalyan after a gap of two years. The star had stayed away from the arc lights due to his political commitments and decided to don the greasepaint considering the meaty role he was offered. The star cast of Vakeel Saab, a social thriller, includes Anjali, Nivetha Thomas, and Ananya Nagalla as the female leads with Prakash Raj in a pivotal role. Venu Sriram is directing the film, which is bankrolled by Dil Raju under his banner Sri Venkateswara Creations. The technical crew comprises S Thaman for music, Ps Vinod for cinematography and Prawin Pudi for editing. According to latest reports, talks are on with Jacqueline Fernandez to sign her up to do...
- 4/24/2020
- by Luke
- The News Minute
TollywoodWhile this project is taking shape, Pawan Kalyan is busy with 'Vakeel Saab'. Digital NativeDigital NativeReports surfaced a few weeks ago that actor and producer Nagendra Babu will soon be producing a film under his banner which will star his younger brother and Power Star Pawan Kalyan with Krish directing it. In an interview with the Times of India, Nagendra Babu has reportedly said that this project is titled Virupaksha. He has been quoted as saying, “Pawan Kalyan’s movie with Krish is going to be big. As far as I know, the title Virupaksha has been locked for this crazy movie. It’s going to be a historical drama and Pawan Kalyan will play a thief in the contemporary Aurangzeb period.” While this project is taking shape, Pawan Kalyan is busy with Vakeel Saab. A remake of the hit Bollywood flick Pink, Vakeel Saab will have Pawan Kalyan reprising...
- 4/18/2020
- by Luke
- The News Minute
Tollywood The film is a remake of the Hindi film ‘Pink’ and will see Pawan Kalyan reprising Amitabh Bacchan’s role from the original.Digital NativeThe internet was abuzz with rumours that Shruti Haasan will be playing Pawan Kalyan’s wife in the upcoming film Vakeel Saab. However, it now appears that she is in no way connected to the project. The actor confirmed in an interview to the Times of India that she would not be a part of the film. “It was something that just passed by. It wasn’t concrete. It’s really an elaboration of a rumour. So, I wouldn’t like to talk about it," she said. A remake of the hit Bollywood flick Pink, Vakeel Saab will have Pawan Kalyan reprising the role done by Amitabh Bachchan. Venu Sriram is directing the film, which is bankrolled by Dil Raju under his banner Sri Venkateswara Creations.
- 4/11/2020
- by Nimeshika
- The News Minute
Satyajit Ray's The Stranger (1991) is showing January 20 - February 18, 2020 in many countries around the world in the series A Journey into Indian Cinema.Bengalis, quite self-celebratory, build the foundations of their lives and societies on what they call culture and struggle. While culture encompasses their deep-seated love for cinema, sports, and the arts, struggle is more a comment on their Left-leaning ambitions which prevents them from ever becoming very rich. It is somewhat akin to the American usage of “hustle.”It is curious when Satyajit Ray (one of the reigning deities of that aforementioned culture) makes his last film The Stranger, in 1992, barely a few months before his death, holding a mirror to the community’s bourgeois hypocrisies and asking people to re-evaluate their priorities and revisit the definitions of culture, struggle, and pride embedded in their psyches. He wants people to educate their minds before falling into their echo chambers of unfounded pride.
- 2/12/2020
- MUBI
TollywoodPawan Kalyan will be reprising the role played by Amitabh Bachchan in Hindi.Digital NativeThe shooting of the Telugu remake of Pink will begin next month, say sources and now reports have it that Nivetha Thomas may be reprising the role done by Taapsee Pannu from the original. However, official confirmation on this is awaited. Pawan Kalyan will be playing Amitabh Bachchan’s role in the film and will be joining the sets in February. The star stayed away from the lime light due to his political commitments and decided to don the greasepaint for Pink remake considering the meaty role he is offered. His last outing at the theatres was with Agnyaathavaasi, which released in 2018. Agnyaathavaasi, directed by Trivikram Srinivas, had Pawan Kalyan and Keerthy Suresh in the lead roles, with Adhi Pinisetty and Anu Emmanuel in important roles. Despite a very grand opening, it failed to sustain at the box office.
- 12/12/2019
- by Priyankar
- The News Minute
Srijit Mukherji made the film “Jaatishwaar” (A Musical of Memories) to pay tribute to a cult song with the same name by Kabir Suman, one of the greatest songsmiths of modern Bengal. The story of “Jaatishwar” revolves around Hensman Anthony, a 19th century Bengali Kabiyal poet and singer of Portuguese origin, who is reincarnated as Kushal Hazra in modern day Bengal. The narration spreads over two centuries and depicts the evolution of Bengali modern music through the ages of Kirtan, Tappa, Bhatiali and other types of folk music, with an underlying love story. The film contains some brilliant performances from all the actors and some outstanding melodies by the maestro Kabir Suman. In 2014, the film was recognized with the maximum number (four) of awards in the National Film Awards of India.
Rohit Mehta is a Gujrati boy from Kolkata who falls in love with Bengali girl Maya, who is an...
Rohit Mehta is a Gujrati boy from Kolkata who falls in love with Bengali girl Maya, who is an...
- 4/6/2019
- by Sankha Ray
- AsianMoviePulse
Pink
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Tapsee Pannu,Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang
Directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Rating: *****(5 stars)
How many films have you seen where you forget you are watching a film, where the line dividing the audience from the characters get so blurred as to make the distinction almost redundant?
Pink sucks us so deep into its characters’ lives that we come away breathess and anxious. For almost ten minutes after the end-titles I couldn’t move from my seat. I had just seen what three Delhi girls had gone through because they decided to have a fun night out after a rock concert with some boys .In Meenal (Tapsee Pannu), Falak (Kirti Kilhari) and Andrea (Andrea Tariang) I saw all our daughters, grappling with the befuddled notions of What Men Can Do, What Women Can’t Do and what happens when women do what men say, women can’t do.
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Tapsee Pannu,Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang
Directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Rating: *****(5 stars)
How many films have you seen where you forget you are watching a film, where the line dividing the audience from the characters get so blurred as to make the distinction almost redundant?
Pink sucks us so deep into its characters’ lives that we come away breathess and anxious. For almost ten minutes after the end-titles I couldn’t move from my seat. I had just seen what three Delhi girls had gone through because they decided to have a fun night out after a rock concert with some boys .In Meenal (Tapsee Pannu), Falak (Kirti Kilhari) and Andrea (Andrea Tariang) I saw all our daughters, grappling with the befuddled notions of What Men Can Do, What Women Can’t Do and what happens when women do what men say, women can’t do.
- 9/16/2016
- by Subhash K Jha
- Bollyspice
Besides being a veteran actress- cum choreographer, Mamata Shankar also happens to be the daughter of the legendary dancers Uday Shankar and Amala Shankar. Mamata Shankar will soon be seen in Bollywood playing the role of Amitabh Bachchan's wife in Pink. Readers may know that Mamata Shankar has made her acting debut with Mrinal Sen's Mrigayaa (1976) which had Mithun Chakraborty as her co-star. Speaking about Pink, Mamata Shankar said that she was nervous shooting with Amitabh Bachchan, whom she had known since the late 1960s when he spent time in Kolkata. Even though she was offered a role in yet another Amitabh Bachchan starrer Te3n (film by Sujoy Ghosh), the makers reportedly never got back to her, even after the discussions and fixing the shoot schedule. Maybe that explains the reason of her being hesitant to give her nod to Pink, because of her previous bad experience with Te3n.
- 4/14/2016
- by Bollywood Hungama News Network
- BollywoodHungama
With a balance of glamour and tradition, the 17th Kolkata Film Festival (Kff) started here Thursday with Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan and the popular Sharmila Tagore inaugurating the eight-day fest by lighting the ceremonial lamp.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, host of Bengali film personalities including top star Prosenjit Chatterjee and delegates from across the country and abroad, as also creme de la creme of the culture-loving city were at the Netaji Indoor Stadium to attend the opening of the Kff . the second oldest international film festival of India.The programme began with a lively performance by the Kolkata Music Academy Orchestra, which played tunes of Rabindra sangeet.Film directors Aparna Sen, Sandip Ray, poet Shankha Ghosh, writers Sunil Gangopadhay, Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, and Bengali actor Dev were also present.The Mamata Shankar Ballet troupe performed after the inaugural speeches.There are many firsts attached to this edition of the Kff.
- 11/10/2011
- Filmicafe
Munni Badnam Hui conceptualised by Lyricist and Music Director Lalit Pandit has created an up-roar in the Hindi Film industry. With a figure many women would envy and a great sense of rhythm Munni sways to the music in a manner that would leave the audience thumping their feet to the beat of the music. As for Malika Arora Khan this was the first time that she was seen on a home production. The thumka’s along with the nasal voice of the singers Mamata Shankar and Aishwarya gave the song masala to take Munni to the heights it has reached. Sheila on the other hand a product of Tees Maar Khan is a dance that the Hindi Film audience is g...
- 2/10/2011
- Bollywoodmantra.com
Mamata Shankar has claimed that she feels guilty that she has not encouraged Martin Scorsese to remake Kalpana. The actress, who has just finished shooting Bengali movie Abohoman, also said that she had been busy but wanted the director to restore her father Uday Shankar's film. "He [Scorsese] has indeed been very interested," she told Real Bollywood. "I've not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I'd like to. I'm (more)...
- 2/17/2010
- by By Will Astbury
- Digital Spy
Mumbai, Feb 17 – American filmmaker Martin C. Scorsese has shown a keen interest in revising and restoring legendary choreographer Uday Shankar’s film Kalpana, the dancer’s daughter and actor Mamata Shankar has said.
However, Mamata confesses she has not been as swift and professional in her dealings with Scorsese as she should have.
‘He has indeed been very interested. But I’ve not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I’d.
However, Mamata confesses she has not been as swift and professional in her dealings with Scorsese as she should have.
‘He has indeed been very interested. But I’ve not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I’d.
- 2/17/2010
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
Martin Scorsese has shown keen interest in revising and restoring Mamata Shankar's legendary father Uday Shankar's film Kalpana. Sheepishly Mamata confesses she has been not as swift and professional in her dealings with Martin Scorsese as she should have. "He has indeed been very interested. But I've not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I'd like to. I'm so busy with many different things. Apart from looking after my family and work I also have a mother (former danseuse Amala Shankar) who is over 90. All this is no excuse for putting behind a project as important as a restoration of my father's film." Mamata now intends to interact seriously with Martin Scorsese and get the restoration work off the ground. "I feel it's a great responsibility that has been put forward for me. I can't thank Martin Scorsese enough for taking such keen interest in Kalpana.
- 2/17/2010
- by Subhash K. Jha
- BollywoodHungama
Martin Scorsese has shown keen interest in revising and restoring Mamata Shankar's legendary father Uday Shankar's film Kalpana. Sheepishly Mamata confesses she has been not as swift and professional in her dealings with Martin Scorsese as she should have. "He has indeed been very interested. But I've not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I'd like to. I'm so busy with many different things. Apart from looking after my family and work I also have a mother (former danseuse Amala Shankar) who is over 90. All this is no excuse for putting behind a project as important as a restoration of my father's film." Mamata now intends to interact seriously with Martin Scorsese and get the restoration work off the ground. "I feel it's a great responsibility that has been put forward for me. I can't thank Martin Scorsese enough for taking such keen interest in Kalpana.
- 2/17/2010
- by Subhash K. Jha
- BollywoodHungama
February 17, 2010: Martin Scorsese has shown keen interest in revising and restoring Mamata Shankar’s legendary father Uday Shankar’s film ‘Kalpana’.
Sheepishly Mamata confesses she has been not as swift and professional in her dealings with Martin Scorsese as she should have. “He has indeed been very interested. But I’ve not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I’d like to. I’m so busy with many different things. Apart from looking after my family and work I also have a mother (former danseuse Amala Shankar) who is over 90. All this.
Sheepishly Mamata confesses she has been not as swift and professional in her dealings with Martin Scorsese as she should have. “He has indeed been very interested. But I’ve not been able to keep up the communication with Martin as much as I’d like to. I’m so busy with many different things. Apart from looking after my family and work I also have a mother (former danseuse Amala Shankar) who is over 90. All this.
- 2/17/2010
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
Review: Abhomaan (The Eternal)Cast: Deepankar De, Mamata Shankar, Jisshu Sengupta, Ananya Chatterjee and Riya SenDirection: Rituparno GhoshRating: ** 1/2 Often scriptwriters and directors forget that cinema is a visual medium, and unlike theatre, a film has to string its story through intelligent and imaginative images. Not words. But even some of India’s well-established directors walk into the pit of verbosity. Much of the narrative moves through monologues and dialogues, and the screen begins to reflect a stage. National Award winner Rituparno Ghosh’s latest, Abhomaan (The Eternal, Bengali), relies mostly on the spoken word to tell us a story ...
- 1/21/2010
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
New Delhi, Jan 7 (Ians) After travelling to various international film festivals, Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Abohomaan’, which explores the nuances of relationships, is set for commercial release Jan 22. The director says he is eager to know the audience response.
Produced by Reliance Big Pictures, the film starring Mamata Shankar, Deepankar De, Jishu Sengupta and Ananya Chatterjee has been to various international film festivals last year including Montreal World Film Festival, Pusan International.
Produced by Reliance Big Pictures, the film starring Mamata Shankar, Deepankar De, Jishu Sengupta and Ananya Chatterjee has been to various international film festivals last year including Montreal World Film Festival, Pusan International.
- 1/7/2010
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
Rituparno Ghosh was supposed to leave for the Marrakech Film Festival, which begins on December 4. His latest film ‘Abohoman’, allegedly based on the personal life of Satyajit Ray, was to be screened.
But Ghosh has opted out, apparently because the film’s leading lady Mamata Shankar was not allowed to accompany Ghosh.
Rituparno denies that to be the only reason why he’s boycotting Marrakech. “It’s true that I wanted Mamata to come along, since she’s the film’s leading lady. And yes, she didn’t get to go. But besides that it’s a very long and tiring journey to Marrakech..
But Ghosh has opted out, apparently because the film’s leading lady Mamata Shankar was not allowed to accompany Ghosh.
Rituparno denies that to be the only reason why he’s boycotting Marrakech. “It’s true that I wanted Mamata to come along, since she’s the film’s leading lady. And yes, she didn’t get to go. But besides that it’s a very long and tiring journey to Marrakech..
- 12/11/2009
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN
1:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m.
Spanish actress Carmen Maura takes a serious turn in Belgian filmmaker Marion Hansel's tale of a population crisis in the near future. The crisis, in a turnabout, isn't of overpopulation but of human extinction -- threatened when all across Europe every pregnancy becomes overdue and, when labor is medically induced, every baby is stillborn.
Maura plays a TV newswoman impregnated during an impulsive coupling in a stalled elevator. When she finally announces her condition at work, she is given an assignment on overdue pregnancies as a lead-up to her own pregnancy leave.
However, just as she realizes how widespread and cataclysmic the condition is -- both for the mothers and the population at large -- she begins to carry on telepathic communications with her own child who announces that he and all the other unborn children are refusing to live in a world without hope.
The film has several effective moments, particularly involving mothers frantic over their condition, but the larger points are watered down by Hansel's lack of specifics over the precise nature of the unborn's depression and her confusion of "universal'' with "European.'' -- Henry Sheehan
BROTHER'S KEEPER
1:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m.
The system works. When viewing the absorbing documentary "Brother's Keeper, '' that's the feeling you get about a simple farmer arrested for taking the life of his older brother. Viewers will likely be divided pro and con about the guilt or innocence of one Delbert Ward, an illiterate dairyman farmer who was charged with snuffing out the life of his Brother William, and brought to trial for what many considered an act of mercy.
Kindly put, The Ward Brothers were a dim lot: The four of them farmed in Upstate New York for their entire lives and were considered, basically, the village lunatics by their agricultural brethren. They were slovenly and kept pretty much to themselves, living together in a decrepit shack with no plumbing.
On the morning of June 6, 1990, one of the "boys'' was found dead in his bed. The coroner's report said the cause was suffocation.
Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky trace this strange human drama in its public unfoldings. We see a real-life trial told in its essential terms as Delbert Ward is brought to justice for what community leaders deemed, at worst, a mercy killing.
Skillfully juxtaposing private revelations with public documents, co-directors Berlinger and Sinofsky have created a mesmerizing portrait of the American justice system and revealed an insight into this country's nature -- throughout, there is the feeling that people take care of one another, and neither laws nor outsiders can quell inherent qualities of decency. -- Duane Byrge
GROWN-UPS
1:45 p.m., 7 p.m.
The social and the personal get all bound up -- make that messed up -- in this 1980 telefilm by Mike Leigh ("Life Is Sweet'') which builds from scenes of routine day-to-day interactions to a climax of calamitously unwelcome class interaction.
A young working-class couple (Phillip Davis and Lesley Manville) have moved into their own home, a comfortable, if cramped, semi-detached row house. Their hoped-for privacy is interrupted more or less continuously by the wife's sister (Janine Duvitski), an unmarried woman well on her way to spinsterhood, who is forever dropping over for endless cups of tea.
As it turns out, the young couple have the last state-subsidized "council house'' on the street; not only do the next-door couple own their own, but the husband turns out to have been the high school teacher of his new neighbors. This leads to cautious, reluctant hellos, which burst into convulsive, invasive intimacy when Duvitski, told she's not wanted as a guest anymore, has an attack of hysteria and pulls the neighbors into the family squabbles.
The film manages to be understanding towards some, though far from all, of the characters without ever being sympathetic for the moment. Leigh -- as he was doing in all of his films of this period -- ruthlessly exposes what he apparently believes is the inherent nastiness and philistinism of most of the English. -- Henry Sheehan
LABYRINTH
4 p.m., 9:15 p.m.
A notebook film built around the musings of a film director -- played by Maximilian Schell -- planning to make a biographical feature about Franz Kafka. As Schell's fictional filmmaker ponders various books and papers, or gazes out his Prague hotel window at a Jewish cemetary, actual co-writer/director Jaromil Jires cuts to dramatized portions of the life of Kafka (Christopher Chaplin), particularly his largely unrealized romantic life and an encounter with the police, re-created scenes of Prague's Jewish history, and even a pair of film versions of the Golem legend, which was set in Prague.
As the action progresses, it focuses increasingly on Kafka's Jewishness, the rise of Nazism and the death of his family in concentration camps after his own untimely passing. Jires does a good job of emphasizing Kafka's role as a social prophet, rather than as a purely personal and hallucinatory writer -- without disserving the latter. But like his fictional creation, he never does quite come up with a format that comfortably encloses all the points he wants to make while actually bringing us close to Kafka the man. -- Henry Sheehan
THE STRANGER
4:15 p.m., 9:30 p.m.
Sadly, "The Stranger'' lacks much of the charm and substance of Satyajit Ray's previous films. There are glimpses of his former mastery, and a snippet or two of biting humor, but for the most part this film is a tedious diatribe with almost no movement at all. It's literally a sleeper.
Not based on Camus' novel, this film centers around a pending visit from an uncle not heard from for 35 years. His niece, Anila Bose (Mamata Shankar), is excited at seeing the uncle she barely remembers. Her naturally suspicious husband, Sudhindra (Deepankar De), however, distrusts the man even before meeting him. He tells his wife he needs proof before he'll accept the man's claim to be her uncle.
Finally, this relative "stranger, '' Manomohan Mitra (Utpal Dutt), arrives and immediately charms Anila and her son, Satyaki (Bikram Bhattacharya). But even after producing his passport, Mitra assures Sudhindra that it could be a fake and that Sudhindra shouldn't believe him so easily. Mitra plays on Sudhindra's cynical nature, causing his host to doubt his own doubts.
It's a cute setup, but then things quickly deteriorate as Mitra is forced to enter into a L-O-N-G debate about religion, science, technology and cannibalism.
The film comes to an almost complete standstill, and it becomes a struggle to make it to the finish.
One should be kind to strangers, but chances are history will be kinder to Ray's other, and more approachable, films (HR 5/22). -- Jeff Menell
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
1:15 p.m., 6:30 p.m.
Spanish actress Carmen Maura takes a serious turn in Belgian filmmaker Marion Hansel's tale of a population crisis in the near future. The crisis, in a turnabout, isn't of overpopulation but of human extinction -- threatened when all across Europe every pregnancy becomes overdue and, when labor is medically induced, every baby is stillborn.
Maura plays a TV newswoman impregnated during an impulsive coupling in a stalled elevator. When she finally announces her condition at work, she is given an assignment on overdue pregnancies as a lead-up to her own pregnancy leave.
However, just as she realizes how widespread and cataclysmic the condition is -- both for the mothers and the population at large -- she begins to carry on telepathic communications with her own child who announces that he and all the other unborn children are refusing to live in a world without hope.
The film has several effective moments, particularly involving mothers frantic over their condition, but the larger points are watered down by Hansel's lack of specifics over the precise nature of the unborn's depression and her confusion of "universal'' with "European.'' -- Henry Sheehan
BROTHER'S KEEPER
1:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m.
The system works. When viewing the absorbing documentary "Brother's Keeper, '' that's the feeling you get about a simple farmer arrested for taking the life of his older brother. Viewers will likely be divided pro and con about the guilt or innocence of one Delbert Ward, an illiterate dairyman farmer who was charged with snuffing out the life of his Brother William, and brought to trial for what many considered an act of mercy.
Kindly put, The Ward Brothers were a dim lot: The four of them farmed in Upstate New York for their entire lives and were considered, basically, the village lunatics by their agricultural brethren. They were slovenly and kept pretty much to themselves, living together in a decrepit shack with no plumbing.
On the morning of June 6, 1990, one of the "boys'' was found dead in his bed. The coroner's report said the cause was suffocation.
Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky trace this strange human drama in its public unfoldings. We see a real-life trial told in its essential terms as Delbert Ward is brought to justice for what community leaders deemed, at worst, a mercy killing.
Skillfully juxtaposing private revelations with public documents, co-directors Berlinger and Sinofsky have created a mesmerizing portrait of the American justice system and revealed an insight into this country's nature -- throughout, there is the feeling that people take care of one another, and neither laws nor outsiders can quell inherent qualities of decency. -- Duane Byrge
GROWN-UPS
1:45 p.m., 7 p.m.
The social and the personal get all bound up -- make that messed up -- in this 1980 telefilm by Mike Leigh ("Life Is Sweet'') which builds from scenes of routine day-to-day interactions to a climax of calamitously unwelcome class interaction.
A young working-class couple (Phillip Davis and Lesley Manville) have moved into their own home, a comfortable, if cramped, semi-detached row house. Their hoped-for privacy is interrupted more or less continuously by the wife's sister (Janine Duvitski), an unmarried woman well on her way to spinsterhood, who is forever dropping over for endless cups of tea.
As it turns out, the young couple have the last state-subsidized "council house'' on the street; not only do the next-door couple own their own, but the husband turns out to have been the high school teacher of his new neighbors. This leads to cautious, reluctant hellos, which burst into convulsive, invasive intimacy when Duvitski, told she's not wanted as a guest anymore, has an attack of hysteria and pulls the neighbors into the family squabbles.
The film manages to be understanding towards some, though far from all, of the characters without ever being sympathetic for the moment. Leigh -- as he was doing in all of his films of this period -- ruthlessly exposes what he apparently believes is the inherent nastiness and philistinism of most of the English. -- Henry Sheehan
LABYRINTH
4 p.m., 9:15 p.m.
A notebook film built around the musings of a film director -- played by Maximilian Schell -- planning to make a biographical feature about Franz Kafka. As Schell's fictional filmmaker ponders various books and papers, or gazes out his Prague hotel window at a Jewish cemetary, actual co-writer/director Jaromil Jires cuts to dramatized portions of the life of Kafka (Christopher Chaplin), particularly his largely unrealized romantic life and an encounter with the police, re-created scenes of Prague's Jewish history, and even a pair of film versions of the Golem legend, which was set in Prague.
As the action progresses, it focuses increasingly on Kafka's Jewishness, the rise of Nazism and the death of his family in concentration camps after his own untimely passing. Jires does a good job of emphasizing Kafka's role as a social prophet, rather than as a purely personal and hallucinatory writer -- without disserving the latter. But like his fictional creation, he never does quite come up with a format that comfortably encloses all the points he wants to make while actually bringing us close to Kafka the man. -- Henry Sheehan
THE STRANGER
4:15 p.m., 9:30 p.m.
Sadly, "The Stranger'' lacks much of the charm and substance of Satyajit Ray's previous films. There are glimpses of his former mastery, and a snippet or two of biting humor, but for the most part this film is a tedious diatribe with almost no movement at all. It's literally a sleeper.
Not based on Camus' novel, this film centers around a pending visit from an uncle not heard from for 35 years. His niece, Anila Bose (Mamata Shankar), is excited at seeing the uncle she barely remembers. Her naturally suspicious husband, Sudhindra (Deepankar De), however, distrusts the man even before meeting him. He tells his wife he needs proof before he'll accept the man's claim to be her uncle.
Finally, this relative "stranger, '' Manomohan Mitra (Utpal Dutt), arrives and immediately charms Anila and her son, Satyaki (Bikram Bhattacharya). But even after producing his passport, Mitra assures Sudhindra that it could be a fake and that Sudhindra shouldn't believe him so easily. Mitra plays on Sudhindra's cynical nature, causing his host to doubt his own doubts.
It's a cute setup, but then things quickly deteriorate as Mitra is forced to enter into a L-O-N-G debate about religion, science, technology and cannibalism.
The film comes to an almost complete standstill, and it becomes a struggle to make it to the finish.
One should be kind to strangers, but chances are history will be kinder to Ray's other, and more approachable, films (HR 5/22). -- Jeff Menell
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 6/29/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Just as certain Indian cuisine satisfies different cravings, and is an acquired taste, such is the way of Indian cinema. Satyajit Ray's latest film, ''The Branches of the Tree, '' still pays homage to this master filmmaker's skills, but does so in extremely slow fashion.
The 70-year-old Ray, India's most treasured and honored filmmaker who recently received an honorary Oscar, seems here to be reflecting on the state of the world in general, rather than on just the microcosmic family portrayed in this deliberately paced film.
Making its New York premiere at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, ''Branches'' is an artful lesson in patience, honesty and familial pressures. Ray's name alone is an invitation to the art-house crowd, and though his style may be mellower and less expansive, the heart of this film will repay their loyalty.
The story revolves around the Majunda clan. Today is Ananda's (Ajit Banerjee) 70th birthday, a fact he must humbly remind his slightly brain-damaged son Proshanto (Soumitra Chatterjee). Proshanto recites, and reveals to us, his father's two credos: ''Work is worship''; ''Honesty is the best policy.'' Ananda has based his life on this philosophy.
As the town bearing his name honors him on his birthday, Ananda has a heart attack and collapses. This necessitates that the rest of his family stay with him while he recuperates.
The other three sons are vastly different from one another. All they have in common is their seeming lack of compassion toward family life. Probir (Deepankar De), an arrogant gambler, is anxious to collect his share of the inheritance even though poor old dad is still alive.
The elder son, Probodh (Maradan Banerjee), tries to be patriarchal, but instead sets a bad example as he admits to accepting his share of ''black'' money (via corruption). Protap (Ranjit Mallik), the youngest son, is a brooding malcontent, who has just quit his job to join an acting troupe. He also has a close friendship with Probir's wife Tapati (Mamata Shankar), that adds tension to an already severely strained marriage.
The characters' revelations are basically all that happens in this film. There is no action, per se. Dialogue dominates the arena, particularly during mealtimes. This almost total reliance on talk may lose viewers who don't possess unlimited concentration power.
The interplay among family members is to a certain degree Bergman-esque, except here it is treated with a dash of levity and only a modicum of melodrama. And though the process may feel like a slow one, the characters do develop, even if it is only to come full circle.
True to Ananda's philosophy, which must parallel Ray's own beliefs, the camera never lies. It probes beneath the surface, revealing the true nature of each character. Ray's years of experience and obvious sincerity are evident in every painstaking frame. The director lures us in by gaining our trust, and rewards us by never betraying that trust.
THE BRANCHES OF THE TREE
Erato/DD Productions/Soprofilms/Satyajit Ray Productions
Director, writer, music Satyajit Ray
Photographer Barun Raha
Editor Dulal Dutt
Producers Toscan du Plantier, Gerard Depardieu
Color
In Indian with subtitles
Cast:
Ananda Majunda Ajit Banerjee
Probodh Maradan Banerjee
Uma Lily Charraborty
Proshanto Soumitra Chatterjee
Probir Deepankar De
Tapati Mamata Shankar
Protap Ranjit Mallik
Running time - 120 minutes
No MPAA Rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
The 70-year-old Ray, India's most treasured and honored filmmaker who recently received an honorary Oscar, seems here to be reflecting on the state of the world in general, rather than on just the microcosmic family portrayed in this deliberately paced film.
Making its New York premiere at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, ''Branches'' is an artful lesson in patience, honesty and familial pressures. Ray's name alone is an invitation to the art-house crowd, and though his style may be mellower and less expansive, the heart of this film will repay their loyalty.
The story revolves around the Majunda clan. Today is Ananda's (Ajit Banerjee) 70th birthday, a fact he must humbly remind his slightly brain-damaged son Proshanto (Soumitra Chatterjee). Proshanto recites, and reveals to us, his father's two credos: ''Work is worship''; ''Honesty is the best policy.'' Ananda has based his life on this philosophy.
As the town bearing his name honors him on his birthday, Ananda has a heart attack and collapses. This necessitates that the rest of his family stay with him while he recuperates.
The other three sons are vastly different from one another. All they have in common is their seeming lack of compassion toward family life. Probir (Deepankar De), an arrogant gambler, is anxious to collect his share of the inheritance even though poor old dad is still alive.
The elder son, Probodh (Maradan Banerjee), tries to be patriarchal, but instead sets a bad example as he admits to accepting his share of ''black'' money (via corruption). Protap (Ranjit Mallik), the youngest son, is a brooding malcontent, who has just quit his job to join an acting troupe. He also has a close friendship with Probir's wife Tapati (Mamata Shankar), that adds tension to an already severely strained marriage.
The characters' revelations are basically all that happens in this film. There is no action, per se. Dialogue dominates the arena, particularly during mealtimes. This almost total reliance on talk may lose viewers who don't possess unlimited concentration power.
The interplay among family members is to a certain degree Bergman-esque, except here it is treated with a dash of levity and only a modicum of melodrama. And though the process may feel like a slow one, the characters do develop, even if it is only to come full circle.
True to Ananda's philosophy, which must parallel Ray's own beliefs, the camera never lies. It probes beneath the surface, revealing the true nature of each character. Ray's years of experience and obvious sincerity are evident in every painstaking frame. The director lures us in by gaining our trust, and rewards us by never betraying that trust.
THE BRANCHES OF THE TREE
Erato/DD Productions/Soprofilms/Satyajit Ray Productions
Director, writer, music Satyajit Ray
Photographer Barun Raha
Editor Dulal Dutt
Producers Toscan du Plantier, Gerard Depardieu
Color
In Indian with subtitles
Cast:
Ananda Majunda Ajit Banerjee
Probodh Maradan Banerjee
Uma Lily Charraborty
Proshanto Soumitra Chatterjee
Probir Deepankar De
Tapati Mamata Shankar
Protap Ranjit Mallik
Running time - 120 minutes
No MPAA Rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 4/16/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.