Nondescript filmmaker

What I like best about Chalo Dilli is Lara Dutta. Am not saying Vinay Pathak wasn't very good. Just that, this much is expected of him. I knew Lara Dutta could act. No I don't know her personally. For that matter, I don't know any film folk personally. I was surprised when she came on the scene. Though I don't remember the names of the films :( she came across as an intelligent woman whose performances almost matched her good looks. Her performances were getting in and out of the range of good acting. I thought it was just a matter of time and experience after which she would 'get' it. But sadly it didn't. I missed out one crucial factor. Roles maketh an actor. Bollywood tends to make decent to good actors look like idiots especially if they are women.Take Katrina Kaif for example. She was lovely to look at, sincere and believable in her roles until she became successful. Somebody brainwashed her into believing that her pout was the most attractive thing...

The only thing I ended up doing yesterday-in the context of my writing-was drawing the room of my main character.  The more I thought about it, the more clearer it became. I knew what he was thinking in that space and how he would be spending his time there or why he would not spend it there. I was able to connect from my own experience with the room.  I knew the array of experiences that a character could feel in such a room and towards it.    This thing of writing about the room came out of the blue. I didn't deliberate about it, weigh the pros and cons before doing the drawing. It was a simple task, because it was simply meant to be a top view or a schematic diagram of his room. In a top view, door or a window would appear as a line, a shelf or a bed would appear as a rectangle. How difficult can that be? I knew his bed was next to the wall opposite to bedroom door. But I wondered if it should touch two sides of the room or one. But that didn't seem to affect an...

I have been talking about new age filmmaking for a few years now but I haven't been able to take advantage of that knowledge. So listening to a podcast INTERVIEW with Edward Burns by Jeff Goldsmith has been very encouraging. Some of what he talks about are the very same things that I have been thinking about but had no experience to back it up with. INTERVIEW with Edward Burns by Jeff Goldsmith Edward Burns is a successful American actor-director, who has made 11 independant  films. Highlights Managing filmmaking and earning a living Working with a three-man crew Shooting a film for US$ 25000 for 12 days over 8 months Engaging the cast Approaching writing in different ways Being a part of the new age film distribution ...and a lot more. One of the biggest stumbling blocks that I have been facing has been about getting stuck for long periods of time. Often I don't even come back to it again or at least not with the same enthusiasm that I started out with. I get dis...

Long ago, I remember arguing with a friend about what made a 'good' film a good film and what didn't. Both of us watched and liked different films. He had little exposure to World Cinema and I found most American films consumer-focussed, shallow and unsatisfying. I didn't agree with his point of view that validation of the box office or awards determined the merit of a film. Half the reason was  that movies I loved neither made it to the blockbuster list nor did they win their deserved share of awards. I was quite sure that some of these films, which moved me or  compelled me to think deeper than I usually do, had something powerful going for it. What I couldn't fathom was how these blockbuster films and their crew and cast beat these other films to the awards. The jury and the process seemed highly questionable. Earlier I was too naive about the idea of awards. Look around and see the number of film awards these days and you'll understand why.  I appreciated...