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Mirch Masala.Spanning almost three decades, the Indian Parallel Cinema movement produced more than 200 feature films, outnumbering those of the French New Wave and the New German Cinema combined. The sheer prolificity of the period confirms its historical significance but makes its character and contours difficult to comprehend in the aggregate. A new comprehensive study by Omar Ahmed, The Revolution of Indian Parallel Cinema in the Global South (1968–1995), surveys the birth and development of Parallel Cinema, contextualizing it in the political, economic, and social crucible of a young nation. The book traces the early influences on the movement, the effect of the Emergency years in the mid-1970s—during which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ruled by decree, censored the media, and imprisoned political enemies—and, finally, the movement’s decline in the face of right-wing majoritarianism.The story begins in the 1940s, when the Indian People’s Theatre Association (Ipta...

As Upendra Baxi notes in “Postcolonial Legality: A Postscript from India,” the postcolonial remains an unusually “resilient and versatile” term — in part because postcolonialism critiques the very colonial systems that shaped it. However, there lies a paradox at the heart of the postcolonial condition, for it resists structures inherited from colonial rule while also being haunted by them. And this paradox unfolds most powerfully in cinema, where art fuses with reality to reveal uncomfortable truths — ones that we often passively accept as “normal” or inescapable. Two such films, Satyajit Ray’s “Hirak Rajar Deshe” and Mrinal Sen’s “Chorus,” blend fantasy and realism, satire and song, to offer searing critiques of power, control, and resistance.

In both films, power is not maintained through violence alone, but through manipulation of thought and illusion; whether it is the despotic king who uses the “Jantar Mantar” to brainwash citizens into submission, or the...

Subhash K Jha shines the light on the legendary Mithun Chakraborty in the special feature.

It is hard to believe that Mithun Chakraborty is 75! The actor’s zest for life makes him eligible for eternality.

Laughing off the praise Mithunda says, “I’ve never believed in stardom or behaving like a star. I don’t know how to behave like a star. I have always been one of the people, and I continue to be one of them. Cinema to me is a means to reach the public.”

The actor who won the National award for his debut film Mrigaya doesn’t like looking back. “I’ve done hundreds of films, many of them have stood the test of time. Other haven’t. For me all my films are precious. But yes, if you insist on singling out the important films, I’d say Mrinal Sen’s Mrigaya , then Disco Dancer...

To celebrate Lagaan, which released 24 years ago today, we present Subhash K Jha’s far-reaching interview with Aamir Khan from 2001 right after the film had wrapped, about working on the epic Lagaan as actor and producer.

Aamir Khan has always been an adventurer.

It therefore comes as no surprise to anyone that he completed the shooting of his first home production Lagaan in record time. Curiosity about Lagaan in the film trade was intense. Was Lagaan a period film? Was it a historical? Did Aamir Khan ghost-direct the film on behalf of Ashutosh Gowariker? (Certainly not!) The film’s intense producer-leading-man shed light on his commitment to making a quality product.

While many of your colleagues shy away from film production, you’ve plunged into it fearlessly. What is Jhamu Sughand’s role in the making of Lagaan?

Jhamu Sughand is financing the film. I am the producer. Either the...

Mario Martone’s Fuori plunges viewers into the paradox of liberation found within Rome’s Rebibbia prison, where writer Goliarda Sapienza (Valeria Golino) spends five transformative days in 1980. Against a backdrop of sun-drenched cobblestones and towering concrete walls, the film sketches a portrait of creative rebirth born from enforced solitude.

Martone—whose work often channels Italian neorealist roots—teams with Golino, who brings an insider’s intimacy to Sapienza after adapting her magnum opus The Art of Joy. Together they evoke a world that feels both local and universal: Sapienza’s search for voice amid bars and barred thoughts parallels the hunger for authenticity seen in India’s parallel cinema of the 1970s and ’80s.

As political unrest simmers offscreen, Fuori focuses on small acts—a shared cigarette, a fleeting embrace—that ripple outward into artistic awakening. The film announces its themes of freedom, solidarity and self-discovery with graceful restraint,...

Camille reigns supreme at a French sports-study boarding school, his every jab and uppercut marking him as the nation’s junior boxing champion. Yet the moment he plummets ten metres down a rocky incline, the gravity of his world shifts—muscles stiffen with phantom pain, confidence fractures and a once-tight brotherhood begins to splinter. Set against a backdrop of echoing gymnasiums and mist-shrouded woods, Wild Foxes threads high-octane fight sequences with hushed forest vignettes, creating a rhythm that echoes the push-and-pull of physical mastery and introspection.

The film’s environment recalls the focused energy found in Indian parallel-cinema classics, where the body often becomes both canvas and battleground—think Mrinal Sen’s explorations of societal constraints or the visceral realism of contemporary sports dramas like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. Carnoy’s camera shifts from steady wide shots in the ring to handheld immediacy, mirroring Camille’s fluctuating sense of control. The forest,...

The film opens on a vast horizon where grey sea and pale sky merge, a visual motif recalling the austere tableaux of Indian parallel cinema’s salt flats in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. Here, 12-year-old Nanning stands barefoot on the North Frisian shore, wind tugging at his uniform, a silent witness to history’s collapse. Time is April 1945, and the island’s rhythm—be it the drip of melting snow or the distant drone of Raf fighters—anchors us in those final wartime days.

At its heart lies a simple yet profound journey: a boy’s search for white bread, butter and honey to revive his grieving mother. This quest echoes the mythic errands of Bollywood’s golden-era heroes, whose offerings often serve as portals into wider cultural reckonings. The director’s choice to frame each errand as a discrete episode recalls the chaptered narratives of Amol Palekar’s films,...

“Yunan” unfolds as a measured exploration of one man’s search for solace. Munir, a Hamburg-based novelist weighed down by chronic stress and a sense of dislocation, arrives on Germany’s marsh-flooded Hallig islands under a doctor’s recommendation to rest. Stripped of familiar routines, he confronts his own isolation amid windswept pastures and salt-stung air.

Director Ameer Fakher Eldin fashions this film as the second installment of his ‘Homeland’ project, following 2021’s debut. Coproduced across Palestine, Jordan, Canada, Germany, Italy and France, the movie bridges narratives of Middle Eastern displacement with European landscapes. This international partnership brings authenticity to a story centered on exile and human connection.

The film’s heartbeat is its unhurried tone, a naturalistic drama that alternates between Munir’s real-world encounters and poetic interludes drawn from a fragmentary fable. These dream-like sequences echo Abbasid poetry, weaving cultural symbolism into the stark northern coast.

Cinematographer Ronald Plante...

Did Amitabh Bachchan Face Rejection Because Of His Voice? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan was once rejected because of his voice. His deep baritone voice was considered a negative factor until it soon turned into his biggest plus point for stardom as the ‘Shahenshah’ of Indian cinema.

The Lean Man With A ‘Not Suitable’ Voice

Bachchan had numerous rejections and struggles before he entered the acting world. The first setback the actor faced was when he auditioned for All India Radio (Air). He tried to get a job as a radio jockey but was rejected by none other than the legendary Ameen Sayani. His voice, which now commands millions of ears, was considered unsuitable back then.

Reflecting on this phase, Big B once said (via India TV News), “Maybe my voice was not suitable for what they were looking for. There were many eminent commentators at that time,...

It’s interesting to see women directors in India pushing the envelope to explore themes. After we had Farah Khan doing a ‘boys’ film (Main Hoon Na), the following year, Vinta Nanda, a past master at TV soaps, turned the tables on the macho brigade in Bollywood by doing the kind of angst-laden film on suburban paranoia that would normally go to a male director like Mahesh Bhatt.

White Noise is Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth without the comfort of distance. Nanda plunges right into the centre of her protagonist’s anguished universe. Her first-hand experiences in the TV industry, her despair at getting caught up in the mediocrity and morass of the Great Indian Soap Trick, and most importantly, her acerbic study of promiscuous, easy-flowing relationships in showbiz are given a peculiarly pungent treatment in her debut spin.

By a stroke of luck, Nanda has got a relatively untried but...

Looking back at the true story of the writer and the brilliant film Staying Alive with director and lead player Anant Mahadevan.

Screenwriter Sujit Sen, who died unsung in 2005, was the subject of Anant Mahdevan’s Staying Alive. “It was the story of a journalist, played by me, who has had three heart attacks and is back in hospital where he encounters a gangster, played by Sourabh Shukla, in the next bed. These are incidents that actually happened in Sujit’s life. It’s sad that he’s gone before Staying Alive could be released. As a dear friend, I’d have liked to have it released before his death… Sujit Sen was like a father figure, brilliant but broken by the blitzkrieg of callousness in Bollywood.”

Apparently, Sujit, who wrote Mahesh Bhatt’s best films Arth and Saraansh, never quite survived the break with the filmmaker. Anant shrugs off...

Even if horror is your scene—it is certainly not mine—Nosferatu, which is one of the most talked-about shiver givers in recent times, please be cautioned: Nosferatu is a bit of a selfimportant slog. It is like one of those streetside pamphleteers who think they are changing the world. But in actuality they are merely making noise that feels urgent but is just heated humbug.

All through this bleak and burly slow-burn drama I felt a sense of mounting tension. But there is little to back up the sense of foreboding. The ostensibly Big Moments end in a whimper, sometimes literally. There is an episode where the female protagonist Ellen(Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny Depp’s Daughter) goes into a trance-like fit with loud moaning gasping, as if she has just watched the uncut version of Pushpa.

The sequence builds up to a crescendo and then simply collapses in exhaustion.

As we have mentioned many times before, the documentary is currently experiencing one of its golden periods, with the fact that reality goes beyond any script becoming quite obvious throughout the plethora of entries we have been seeing during that last few years. Furthermore, as a number of courageous filmmakers shed light to issues that are dangerous to depict (to say the least) or even hard to watch, the quality of the category continues to improve. Add to that the biographical ones, the ones that present real but relatively unknown sides of each country’s society and you have the majority of reasons for what we mentioned in the beginning.

Without further ado, here are the 15 Best Asian Documentaries of 2024, in reverse order. Some may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.

15. Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen Aparna Sen © Mayaleela Films

“When actors become mainstream stars,...

As someone whose life is centered around the world of entertainment, I depend on movies and TV shows to stay motivated. It’s not a necessity for these movies and TV shows to be masterpieces; they just need to be entertaining. For example, if I have had an exhausting week, I’m not going to choose something by Hayao Miyazaki, Martin Scorsese, or Mrinal Sen. I’ll definitely be looking for something trashy as a pick-me-up. It’s only when I am feeling really good that I go on a hot streak of 5-star films and shows and experience true bliss. But when it comes to work, you can’t always choose your battles. Sometimes you need to do what needs to be done. And in those moments, you can only pray to the gods of entertainment that you don’t have a Harlan Coben adaptation on the horizon, all...

Unlike the halcyon era of Bengali cinema, which had been responsible for empowering and pushing the boundaries of cinema in the Indian sphere, the current regional outputs have been largely unremarkable, primarily because of the industry’s proclivity to iterate what works rather than innovate. As a result, both the audience and the capital for it decreased significantly in the last decade. Having said that, there are still gems being released from the industry, as well as big swings, both in terms of artistic and commercial endeavors, within the contours of limited budgets. The Bengali movies listed below impressed me in 2024, primarily due to their overarching quality and the variation in story and storytelling, which amounts to a major swing from the norm.

5. Beline

“Beline,” by Samik Roy Choudhury, is ample proof of how smart direction and extraordinary performances can elevate standard pulp genre fare. The story of an octogenarian...

Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk), adding to her impressive collection of career recognitions that includes the Venice Film Festival’s career Golden Lion.

The award, which comes with a cash prize of INR1 million, a sculpture, and a citation, will be presented by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at the festival’s opening ceremony on Dec. 13 at state capital Thiruvananthapuram’s Nishagandhi Auditorium.

Hui, 77, stands as a pivotal figure in Asian cinema, particularly known for her contributions to the Hong Kong New Wave movement. Her five-decade career has consistently focused on social issues, with particular attention to women’s experiences in Hong Kong society. Her work examines themes ranging from gender discrimination to the cultural shifts surrounding Hong Kong’s transition from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty.

Born in Anshan, China in...

10 Best Mrinal Sen Movies, Ranked: Mrinal Sen will always be known as a Marxist artist. Right from being involved with the cultural wing of the Communist Party to his close association with the Indian Peoples Theatre Association, Sen confessed his dire need to involve political characters with social implications. Stumbling on a copy of Film Aesthetics, Sen started his journey as a medical representative, leaving it for a job in a Calcutta Film Studio as an audio technician. His first feature film “Raat Bhore” (1955) made him explore varied themes within his familiar middle-class environment. He was vocal against the excessive male chauvinism within highly industrialized societies and chose to be a ‘social agent’ rather than a preaching didact. His style was to provoke his audience, steering them toward a particular way of thinking, rather than offering a conclusive argument, leaving room for subversive creative interpretation.

The following is a comprehensive...

Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty has been named the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest honor in cinema.

The announcement was made by Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Railways and Electronics and Information Technology.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema.

Chakraborty, 74, has appeared in over 350 films across multiple Indian languages during his nearly five-decade career. He rose to prominence with his debut in “Mrigayaa” (1976), which earned him his first Indian National Film Award for Best Actor. The actor gained widespread recognition for his role in “Disco Dancer” (1982), a film that also found success beyond Indian shores across Asia, the erstwhile Soviet Union, eastern Europe, the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

Throughout his career, Chakraborty has collected three acting...

Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s “Dear Jassi” and Arati Kadav’s “Mrs” will open and close this year’s New York Indian Film Festival.

Punjabi and English-language “Dear Jassi,” a tale of star-crossed lovers based on a true story, arrives in New York after a glittering festival run that began in 2023, at Toronto, where it won the Platform Prize. That was followed by outings in London, Goa, the Red Sea, Goteborg and Hong Kong festivals. The film is produced by powerhouse Indian studio T-Series alongside Wakaoo Films and Creative Strokes Group.

Hindi-language “Mrs,” a portrait of domestic hell based on acclaimed 2021 Malayalam-language film “The Great Indian Kitchen,” previously played at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. It is produced by Jio Studios and Baweja Studios.

The centerpiece of the festival is an event celebrating 50 years of thespian Shabana Azmi’s career where a screening of...

India's “renaissance woman” Aparna Sen – actress, director, producer, fighter for women's right, diversity and ethnic & religious minorities – whose career in the film business spans over six decades, was presented with the Red Lotus Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 in Vienna. The filmmaker was unfortunately not able to fly over to recieve it, and the award was presented to the winner through the German film critic and editor of the film magazine Shomingeki, Rüdiger Tomczak.

Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen screened at Red Lotus Asian Film Festival Vienna

Only a few months ago, Sumah Ghosh's documentary “Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen” about the Indian helmer celebrated its world premiere in the Cinema Regained strand of IFFR, and it was only logical to include it in the repertoire of Red Lotus Asian Film Festival. It is a film that gives a deep insight into the life and work of one of the...

As with any time I try to explain a massive figure in Indian film to the uninitiated, the temptation rises quickly to compare director Sanjay Leela Bhansali to someone in Hollywood.

And, as with any time I actually make these comparisons, everything falls short. Bhansali depicts spectacle evocative of the work of Baz Luhrmann, but even that is a pale imitation (no disrespect to either). There is no one literally anywhere in the world creating cinema with the scale and grandeur that Bhansali has cultivated as his signature, a style so distinct that his own peers pay homage to it while he’s still alive and working.

But at the top of IndieWire’s conversation about Bhansali’s career, he’s quick to shake the larger-than-life visual splendor of his creations, emphasizing — as writer, director and producer, among his many hats — that the stories themselves evoke that scope.

“It’s...

His portrayals of the idiosyncratic, moustache-fanatic, and rule-imposing Bhawani Shankar or the stern Acp Dhurandhar Bhatawadekar in a brace of breezy Bollywood comedies are undeniably unforgettable, but he played a more realistic role in ‘Guddi’ – that gentle deconstruction of the glittering yet hollow edifice of filmdom.

Utpal Dutt, as Prof Gupta in the 1971 film, knows neither scolding nor advice will change the filmstar-struck teenager (then Jaya Bhaduri in her first Hindi film), and the only way out is to let her indulge in fascination with films and learn first-hand the artificiality, heartbreaks, and struggle that lies behind them.

Portraying a teacher, with innovative ideas, was not difficult for Dutt, who was born on this day (March 29) in Bengal’s Barisal (now in Bangladesh) in 1929. He had been an English teacher in (then) Calcutta’s South Point School in the 1950s and earned his students’ admiration for his insights into literature,...

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has completed a “wondrous” 55 years in the world of Hindi cinema and to celebrate it he has given himself an AI spin. It was in 1969, when the cine icon stepped into the world of showbiz with ‘Saat Hindustani’ and since then he has captivated the audience with his impeccable performances on screen.

Amitabh took to X (formerly Twitter), where he dropped two AI images of himself.

The first picture has a camera lens in place of his spectacle lens. The second photo has a colourful camera reel like streamers with faces and eyes made on it.

“T 4924 – 55 years in the wondrous world of Cinema… and AI, gives me its interpretation… a presentation by Ef B… self made,” Big B wrote on Twitter.

Even though he started his acting career with ‘Saat Hindustani, Big B had first began his journey as a voice narrator in ‘Bhuvan Shome’ starring...

From making his debut playing a Santhal rebel in a Mrinal Sen film to being emblazoned in public memory as the Disco Dancer, from Communist to Bjp bhakt, and hospitality industry baron based out of Ooty, Mithun Chakraborty has lived a crowded and colourful life that has finally been acknowledged by the President confirming upon him the prestigious Padma Bhushan.

Born on June 16, 1950, in Kolkata, Mithun marked his acting debut with the critically acclaimed Mrinal Sen film ‘Mrigayaa’ in 1976. His big screen journey is a fascinating odyssey, and he is celebrated for his versatility, seamlessly transitioning between various genres, including drama, action and dance.

Mithun’s filmography, in fact, is a testament to his versatility and enduring appeal. Here’s the Ians selection of his most memorable films:

‘Mrigayaa’: The actor’s foray into cinema began with the 1976 historical film set in the British Raj, ‘Mrigayaa’, directed by Mrinal Sen....

Revered Indian actor and filmmaker Aparna Sen is the subject of Suman Ghosh’s documentary “Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen,” which has its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam‘s Cinema Regained strand.

Sen came to notice as an actor with the “Samapti” segment in Oscar winner Satyajit Ray’s “Three Daughters” (1961). She acted in several more films by Ray and also worked with Indian cinema greats Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Rituparno Ghosh. Her acting credits also include Merchant-Ivory films “The Guru” (1969) and “Bombay Talkie” (1970).

“36 Chowringhee Lane” (1981), Sen’s directorial debut, won her best director at India’s National Film Awards. She has directed several acclaimed films since, including “Paroma” (1984), “Sati” (1989), “Paromitar Ek Din” (2000), “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer” (2002), “Goynar Baksho” (2013) and “The Rapist,” which won the Kim Jiseok prize at Busan in 2021.

Sen starred in Ghosh’s “The Bose Family” (2019). Ghosh is a prolific filmmaker who is...

Stuart Gatt’s “Catching Dust,” which premiered at Tribeca earlier this year, will open the 54th International Film Festival of India (Iffi), Goa.

Robert Kolodny’s “The Featherweight,” which bowed at Venice, will close the festival. Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” for which Merve Dizdar won best actress at Cannes, will be the mid-festival gala.

The fiction feature strand of the Indian panorama showcase will open with Anand Ekarshi’s “Aattam” and the documentary strand with Longjam Meena’s “Andro Dream.” The panorama will screen 25 fiction features, including five mainstream films, plus 20 documentaries.

Michael Douglas will deliver the key festival masterclass. The international competition jury will be led by eminent filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”) and also includes producers Catherine Dussart (“Silence in the Dust”) and Helen Leake (“Carnifex”), former Cannes market chief Jerome Paillard and Pedro Almodovar’s long-standing cinematographer José Luis Alcaine, P.K. Atre’s “Shyamchi Aai...

The prestigious London Indian Film Festival is ready to once again showcase outstanding films in its Autumn programme. This extraordinary festival, running from 25th October to 4th November, will feature incredible films with many Indian and South Asian premieres, as well as classic movies and even a first web series preview. Plus, so much more!

The festival is expanding and bringing even more excellence with screenings and special events in 5 different locations, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Bradford.

Berlin

It starts in London with the European premiere of the fast-paced whodunnit espionage drama Berlin. From writer and director Atul Sabharwal, this compelling spy thriller stars Aparshakti Khurana (Jubilee) as a young sign language teacher lured into the dark world of espionage. Undercover security forces coerce him to interrogate a young deaf man, powerfully played by Ishwak Singh (Rocket Boys), accused of spying. Veteran actor Kabir Bedi also features in a commanding cameo.

Exclusive: The London Indian Film Festival is expanding.

With its 2023 edition, running October 25 to November 4, the festival will, for the first time, run simultaneously across five cities: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford and Leeds.

The festival will open with the European Premiere of Berlin. From writer-director Atul Sabharwal, this spy thriller stars Aparshakti Khurana (Jubilee) as a young sign language teacher lured into the dark world of espionage, as he is coerced by undercover security forces to interrogate a young deaf man, played by Ishwak Singh, (Rocket Boys) who has been accused of spying. Veteran actor Kabir Bedi also stars.

With support from the BFI Audience Projects Fund, the festival is also moving into the world of online gaming and Xr. In collaboration with Tulsea and Format, Manchester’s gaming and nightlife festival, the fest will showcase new computer games developed by South Asian creatives. The games will be presented on October 26 in Manchester.

Revered Indian actor Waheeda Rehman has been accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema.

Rehman, the 85-year-old grande dame of Indian cinema has worked with most of the legendary filmmakers of her country during her career and the roles she chose were in films that are considered classics in the annals of Indian cinema. She worked with Guru Dutt in “Pyaasa” (1957) and “Kaagaz Ke Phool” (1959), Satyajit Ray in “Abhijaan” (1962), Basu Bhattacharya in “Teesri Kasam” (1966) and Yash Chopra in “Kabhie Kabhie” (1976), among many other memorable roles.

But it is her role as Rosie in Vijay Anand’s “Guide” (1965) that Rehman remembers with the greatest fondness. “When I signed ‘Guide’ more than 50 years ago, my friends told...

Taking a trip down the memory lane, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has a career spanning over five decades, shared his experience of bagging his first film, and revealed his thoughts about the first earnings.

Amitabh Bachchan, who is referred to as the ‘Shahenshah of Bollywood’, and ‘Sadi Ke Mahanayak’, made his film debut in 1969, as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen’s National Award-winning film Bhuvan Shome.

However, his first acting role was as one of the seven protagonists in the 1969 film ‘Saat Hindustani’, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and featuring Utpal Dutt, Anwar Ali, Madhu and Jalal Agha.

Episode 27 of the quiz-based reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ season 15 was a Ganesh Chaturthi special. Host Big B welcomed Vivek Kumar Agrawal from Naila-Janjgir, Chhatisgarh to the hot seat.

The contestant shared that it took 17 years for him to reach Kbc. He owns a retail shop for utensils.

During the conversation,...

Taking a trip down the memory lane, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who has a career spanning over five decades, shared his experience of bagging his first film, and revealed his thoughts about the first earnings.

Amitabh Bachchan, who is referred to as the ‘Shahenshah of Bollywood’, and ‘Sadi Ke Mahanayak’, made his film debut in 1969, as a voice narrator in Mrinal Sen’s National Award-winning film Bhuvan Shome.

However, his first acting role was as one of the seven protagonists in the 1969 film ‘Saat Hindustani’, directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and featuring Utpal Dutt, Anwar Ali, Madhu and Jalal Agha.

Episode 27 of the quiz-based reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ season 15 was a Ganesh Chaturthi special. Host Big B welcomed Vivek Kumar Agrawal from Naila-Janjgir, Chhatisgarh to the hot seat.

The contestant shared that it took 17 years for him to reach Kbc. He owns a retail shop for utensils.

During the conversation,...

Mumbai, Aug 28 (Ians) The teaser of the upcoming Bengali film ‘Raktbeej’, which was unveiled on Monday, promises a compelling thriller. The 1 minute long teaser begins with building the hype around Padma Bhushan and National Film Award recipient, the veteran actor Victor Banerjee as he can be seen signing a document with a fountain pen.

The teaser then goes onto showing the montages from the film in fast cuts thereby maintaining the intrigue and thriller about the plot and the characters.

The film has been directed by the renowned director duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, and is inspired by the Burdwan blast in 2014, which shook up Bengal and also the nation, the film is about the homecoming of a man, who holds an important portfolio, and how an accidental blast in a firecracker unit unveils a bigger threat to his life.

On October 2, 2014, which coincided with Mahashtami that year, an...

New Delhi, April 28 (Ians) The ‘Habitat Film Festival 2023’, scheduled to be held from May 5 to 14 at the India Habitat Centre in the national capital promises to offer a selection of the finest of Indian cinema. The pan-Indian platter includes about 60 features, documentaries and short films in 17 languages. Films will be screened in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese, Maithili, Odia, Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Ladakhi, Meiteilon, and, for the first time, Kumaoni.

For the first time, several films will have their national and Delhi premieres at the festival. The national premiers include the Malayalam film ‘Meghdoot/ The Cloud Messenger’ directed by Rahat Mahajan, and two Bengali films: Sujit Kumar Pyne’s ‘Meghbari’, and Aritra Sen’s ‘Ghore Pherar Gaan/ The Homecoming Song’.

Delhi premiers include ‘Tora’s Husband’, an Assamese film by award-winning filmmaker Rima Das; Gautham Ramachandran’s Tamil film ‘Gargi’, and ‘Arivu Mattu Guruvu/ The Word...

And this was recognised by his peers. There is a story that once he and Raj Kapoor were at the Calcutta airport in 1973, when a cinema fan went to the latter to get his autograph and was told to approach Dutt first, with the master showman saying that he was only a "star", but Dutt was an actor!

While Dutt’s sense of timing, the funny intonation, and the maniacal gleam and laughter he could produce at will, served him well in comedy as "Gol Maal" (1979), "Rang Birangi" – with its slapstick chase through a children’s playground, "Kissi Se Na Kehna" (both 1983), "Lakhon Ki Baat" (1984), et al, attest, he could deftly turn the same mannerisms to display a marked unrepentant villainy.

Be it as the leader of the 40 thieves in "Marjina Abdulla", the crafty munim Ghoshal who drives the hero (Uttam Kumar) to utter despair in "Amanush", as corrupt and...

Indian film icon Amitabh Bachchan raised the issue of freedom of speech and tightened censorship on the film industry in recent years, in a rare break for Bollywood’s studied silence on political matters.

The 80-year-old actor, who is known for steering clear of politically charged statements and controversies, made the remarks at the inauguration of the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival in the western state of West Bengal.

Mr Bachchan began his speech by "saluting" Kolkata for its artistic temperament that "embraces the essence of plurality and equality".

Referring to the history of censorship in Indian cinema, he said: "But even now, I am sure my colleagues on the stage would agree, questions are being raised on civil liberties and freedom of expression."

He added that since the advent of cinema in India in 1913, films have gone through tremendous change, ranging from the subject to the medium.

"From mythological films.

Actress Rani Mukerji, who is set to inaugurate 28th Kolkata International Film Festival, said that a visit to Kolkata is always special to her as it brings back childhood memories.

Rani Mukerji will make a trip to Kolkata to inaugurate the Kolkata International Film Festival with the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee. In its 28th edition, the festival has invited Rani as a Distinguished Guest for her illustrious career over the last 25 years and her immeasurable contribution to the Indian film industry.

She will be felicitated at its inaugural ceremony where dignitaries from world cinema, Indian cinema and West Bengal will be present.

Rani said: “A visit to Kolkata is always special to me as it brings back childhood memories and reminds me of my love for cinema that grew in my heart from an early age.”

“Kolkata International Film Festival has celebrated the legacy of filmmakers like Satyajit Ray,...

Rani Mukerji will make a trip to Kolkata to inaugurate the Kolkata International Film Festival with the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee. In its 28th edition, the festival has invited Rani as a Distinguished Guest for her illustrious career over the last 25 years and her immeasurable contribution to the Indian film industry. She will be felicitated at its inaugural ceremony where dignitaries from world cinema, Indian cinema and West Bengal will be present.

As a highly successful mainstream movie star who has sustained over decades and re-invented herself cinematically, she serves as an inspiration for Bengali youth.

Rani said, “A visit to Kolkata is always special to me as it brings back childhood memories and reminds me of my love for cinema that grew in my heart from an early age. Kolkata International Film Festival has celebrated the legacy of filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen...

Satyajit Rays 1955 classic ‘Pather Panchali’ was named the best Indian film of all time in a poll conducted by Fipresci-India.

Ritwik Ghatak’s 1960 drama ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ was placed in the second spot, followed by Mrinal Sen’s ‘Bhuvan Shome’ (1969).

Fipresci took out a list of the ‘All Time Ten Best Indian Films’, listing the top 10 films in the history of Indian cinema across languages.

Ray’s 1955 film ‘Pather Panchali’, which is based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s 1929 Bengali novel of the same name, marked his directorial debut.

It was also the first film of the Apu Trilogy. Regarded as one of the most iconic films ever made, ‘Pather Panchali’ depicts the childhood travails of protagonist Apu and his elder sister Durga amid the harsh village life of their poor family. It was followed by ‘Aparajito’ (1956) and ‘Apur Sansar’ (1959).

Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s 1981 Malayalam film ‘Elippathayam’, Girish Kasaravalli’s 1977 film ‘Ghatashraddha’, and M.

Veteran actress Jaya Bachchan was seen complaining to her husband and superstar Amitabh Bachchan for not sending flowers and letters to her like he sends to others as a token of appreciation.

She said questioning Big B: “I have not seen but heard that when you are impressed with someone’s work or nature, you send that person either flowers or letters but you never sent it to me. Did you ever?”

Abhishek Bachchan also nodded his head and Big B replied: “This programme is going public and it is not a good thing.”

Jaya also made Big B speechless by asking an interesting question that what he would do if he is stuck with her on an island and the ‘Shakti’ star failed to answer it and asked for options. To which Jaya said that there are no options for this question.

Bachchan was also left teary-eyed after...

Despite the pandemic disruption of the film industry around the world, which impacted everything in film from production to simple moviegoing, the vibrancy of cinema culture throughout the year has felt as strong as ever, and fiercely resilient. In our small but passionate way we also have made a show of force. In 2021 alone, Notebook has published over 400 articles. Here are some highlights from the year—and we encourage you to use the "Explore" menu or dive into our archives to find even more excellent work published this year.ARTICLESTikTok meets silent cinema in Caroline Golum's witty essay. Cinematic technology used not for social celebrity but rather for criminal forensics was the focus of an article by Emerson Goo.The French New Wave's Luc Moullet, a guiding light for Notebook, was the subject of two pieces, one about the extraordinary TV show How to with John Wilson, the other...

Nepotism is again a much-discussed subject in Bollywood, what with 3 prominent star kids Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor and Suhana Khan making their debut in Zoya Akhtar’s next. The “N” word makes all of us movie buffs look inward. Is Bollywood really a den of nepotism? But if we look at the history of Hindi cinema, the star-kid syndrome is relatively recent. It started when Raj Kapoor’s son Rishi Kapoor made his debut with Bobby. Prior to that all the major stars, from Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor in the 1950s to Rajendra Kumar, Jeetendra, Dharmendra in the 1960s to Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, were outsiders. Thereafter star-kid after star-kid was launched with much fanfare. And yet there are 5 outsiders with zero connections in the film industry, who broke through in in spite of nepotism ruling the roost.

Mithun Chakraborty

With his bronze skin and sinewy personality,...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Adoor Gopalakrishnan on the set of KathapurushanIn 1982, Elippathayam (Rat-Trap) was introduced at the National Film Theatre, London, and won the Sutherland Trophy for the “most original and imaginative film” of the year. The Malayalam-language film succeeded in catapulting its director, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, to widespread international acclaim. Until then, the rare British Film Institute (BFI) honor had been bestowed upon only one filmmaker from India: Satyajit Ray. Along with Ray and Mrinal Sen, Gopalakrishnan is one of the most recognized and admired Indian filmmakers in world cinema. The International Film Critics Prize (Fipresci) has gone to him six times successively. Decorated with honors such as the French Government's Commander of the Order of Arts & Letters, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award—India's highest award in cinema—and winner of several international awards, his films...

Parallel cinema cuts loose from the musicality of Bollywood and the common perception of Indian cinema at large. Coming out of West Bengal in the 1950s, parallel cinema appeared as an alternative to the glamour and dance; socially conscious and experimental in style and mood, it maps the origins of art cinema in India, and for the first time, the rest of the world was looking at India as an innovator of film language (Satyajit Ray’s 1955 train sequence Pather Panchali is one of the most celebrated in film history). In this movement, which followed in the wake of Italian neorealism, life's diegetics became the soundtrack, real life movement over set up musical numbers. This mix traces some choice moments in Parallel Cinema’s sound. Many songs and soundtracks from this period have a lofi quality to them—due in part to the quality of audio recording equipment throughout the years of the movement,...

The series Voice of the Unheard: A Mrinal Sen Retrospective is playing on Mubi in many countries starting September 27, 2021.The Guerilla Fighter (1973)"In the beginning, there were the heaven and the earth and also the stinking malarial swamp."—Mrinal Sen, Always Being Born (2004)Instead of pulling an all-nighter to finish his assignment, Dipu (played by Anjan Dutt)—the ebullient young journalist who, at the start of Mrinal Sen’s dizzying, self-reflexive film, Chaalchitra, begrudgingly agrees to write an “intimate family portrait” about growing up just above the poverty line—becomes frustrated, throws a temper tantrum, and falls into a deep, dream-filled sleep. Sen’s itinerant camera dives into the slithy depths of Dipu’s unconscious, where his editor (whose demand for “salable” copy to “feed the public” leads to Dipu’s spiral) sits alone in a pristine, unpeopled bungalow. Lounging below electric lights, he sucks at a pipe and whirring fans deodorize the air.

“The Rapist,” which has its premiere next month at the Busan International Film Festival is the hardest hitting film that Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen has ever made.

A chronicler of different aspects of Indian life, Sen has previously won global acclaim for her eclectic body of work, which includes “36 Chowringhee Lane” (1981), “Paroma” (1985) and “Iti Mrinalini” (2010) as a director.

Sen is also one of India’s most feted actors who has worked with the stalwarts of the country’s cinema including Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Rituparno Ghosh and internationally with Ismail Merchant and James Ivory.

Sen had the idea for “The Rapist” some 15 years ago, and decided to revisit the subject after the recent spate of rape incidents in India. “I began to wonder about why men rape. No one is born a rapist. They go through infancy, through the toddler stage and through boyhood in all innocence,” Sen tells Variety.

The U.S. lineup at Mubi next month has been unveiled, featuring films by Claude Chabrol, Paulo Rocha, Ulrich Köhler, and more. Notable new releases include Pedro Costa’s striking Locarno winner Vitalina Varela as well as the Julia Fox-led Pvt Chat (check out our extensive interview with director Ben Hozie here.).

As part of their series Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors, the Martin Scorsese favorite Wake in Fright joins Mubi, along with Fabrice Du Welz’s Alleluia, Nicolas Winding Refn’s underseen Fear X, and Ben Wheatley’s trippy A Field in England.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

October 1 | Alléluia | Fabrice Du Welz | Thrills, Chills, and Exquisite Horrors

October 2 | Styx | Wolfgang Fischer

October 3 | The Green Years | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha

October 4 | Change of Life | Paulo Rocha | Double Bill: Paulo Rocha

October 5 | Your Day Is My Night | Lynne Sachs

October 6 | Hey, You!

Indian cinema superstar Rajinikanth, 70, will be the 2021 recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor.

The award is given for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema and is named after Phalke, director of “Raja Harischandra” (1913), India’s first full-length feature, who is considered the father of Indian cinema. It carries a cash prize of Inr 1 million.

Announcing the award on Thursday, Prakash Javadekar, India’s information and broadcasting minister tweeted: “Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji. His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has been iconic.”

The award jury consisted of filmmaker Subhash Ghai, musicians Asha Bhonsle and Shankar Mahadevan, and actors Mohanlal and Biswajit Chatterjee.

Happy to announce #Dadasaheb Phalke award for 2019 to one of the greatest actors in history of Indian cinema Rajnikant ji

His contribution as actor, producer and screenwriter has...

Flix FlashbackGV Iyer wrote and directed this unconventional film that was way ahead of its time, focusing on a couple and their children.Sanjana DeshpandeScreengrab: Nalegalannu Maduvavaru/YouTube/Tvnxt The 1950s were a defining time for the Indian cinema industry. The New Indian Cinema movement, inspired by Italian Neorealism, first began in West Bengal with filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen making films that presented the reality of the prevalent sociopolitical climate. The flames of parallel cinema soon engulfed the rest of India. ‘Kannada Bheeshma’ Gv Iyer was one of the earlier Kannada parallel cinema filmmakers. Ganapathi Venkataramana Iyer has a legion of esteemed awards to his name. Iyer’s films always circled around the theme of spirituality. However, Nalegalannu Maduvavaru (The Ones Who Will Build the Future) stands out in his filmography. The film, which released in 1976-1977, moves away from the realm of spirituality and explores rationality.

ObituaryChatterjee was considered one of the first proponents of the naturalistic style of acting in Bengali cinema, a trademark of Satyajit Ray's movies.PTIImage: Wikimedia Commons/Biswarup GangulyHe was the actor who epitomised the best of world cinema, transcending the boundaries of country, state and language to give expression to Satyajit Ray's cinematic vision and get framed in celluloid greatness. But the legacy of Soumitra Chatterjee, who died on Sunday at the age of 85, is not limited to the Ray firmament, just as he was never only a Bengali star of Bengali cinema. The suave actor of the world, sometimes called last of the Mohicans and familiar to students of cinema anywhere in the globe, acted in 14 Ray films and over 300 others, gracefully transitioning into commercial cinema in a variety of roles. He made his presence felt on the stage too as actor, playwright and director. One of the...

By Vinayak Chakravorty

He was the alt superstar of Bangla cinema in its glory years, the affable Bhadralok icon who crafted a towering stature ironically banking on down-to-earth, believable characters that represented middle-class Bengal. The brand of stardom was in stark contrast to the other shining luminary of contemporary cinema in the state -- Uttam Kumar -- whose position as Mahanayak in the Bengali psyche was primarily cemented in idol worship and mass hysteria.

Soumitra Chattopadhyay -- Chatterjee to anglicised India -- answers to the term ‘phenomenon' as absolutely as few actors do, for the sheer ease with which he defied the cliches of image. His stardom was sensational, and yet born out of realism. He was the mascot of the peerless Satyajit Ray's oeuvre, having worked with the maestro in 14 films, and yet he scored with the same assuredness in works of contemporary commercial powerhouses as Ajoy Kar and Tarun Mazumdar.