Monika’s Pensieve

{FILM DIARY}
Taare Zameen Par (India, 2007)
Seen: Saturday, 28th March 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: 165′
Director: Aamir Khan
Cast: Darsheel Safary, Aamir Khan, Tanay Chheda
Production House: Aamir Khan Productions, PVR Pictures
Plot: The story of Ishaan Awasthi, a little boy who struggles with school because of dyslexia.
Scene From The Film
This is a sort of song number from the film [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Dostana (India, 2008)
Seen: Thursday, 26th March 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Director: Tarun Mansukhani
Cast: John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Bobby Deol, Kiron Kher, Shilpa Shetty (cameo), Boman Irani
Production House: Dharma Productions
Plot: (from imdb)
Kunal and Sameer, two straight guys who pretend to be a gay couple to secure an posh Miami apartment, but both of them [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Water (Canada/India, 2005)
Seen: Monday, 23rd March 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: 117′
Director: Deepa Mehta
Cast: Sarala, Manorama, Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Raghuvir Yadav
Production House: Deepa Mehta Films, Flagship International, David Hamilton Productions, Echo Lake Productions, Noble Nomad Pictures, Téléfilm Canada
Plot: Chuyia is 7 years old when her husband dies. She has never seen him [...]

I’m not sure what I think of this, but it’s interesting…

As of the 4th of April no new films are going to be shown in Indian multiplexes. Film producers say they cannot afford the deals multiplexes force upon them and that’s why they’ve had to take such drastic action.

I’ve had some people tell me they won’t watch Slumdog Millionaire because the kids in the film were exploited - they’re still living in the slums, were paid below minimum wage etc. The story that’s coming through most loudly is hardly the only one though, so I thought I’d try and gather all the different [...]

So yeah - I think I’ll spend most of March sitting in dark cinema halls :]
I’m putting the schedule of the festival below - I’ve marked the films I cannot possibly miss with red. The festival takes place in all cinemas in the Multikino and SilverScreen chains.
Monday, 23rd March 2009
18:30 Water
Tuesday, 24th March 2009
18:30 Hello
Wednesday, [...]

{FILM SPOTTING}
March has me very confused as to what to see :] There’s nothing that has me seriously excited, but an abundance of things that I wouldn’t mind seeing. I rather think this means that I’m not going to see even half of what’s in this post ;-P
Watchmen (USA, 2009)
Polish Distributor: United International Pictures Sp [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Slumdog Millionaire (UK/France, 2008)
Seen: Saturday, 21st February 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: 120′
Polish Distributor: Monolith Plus (27th February 2009)
Release Date (worldwide): 30th August 2008
Director: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan (co-director)
Cast: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto, Irrfan Khan
Production House: Celador Films, Film4, Pathé Pictures International
Plot: (from imdb)
A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes [...]

There’s this very weird (and pretty bad) Indian art house film with Shahrukh from 1995, which is called Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India (literal translation: “Oh Darling! This is India”). The reason it’s called that is that throughout the film anything strange that happens is followed by that line. When I watched the clip below, [...]