Rolling Dreams!

Ram-Leela’s ‘Laal Ishq’ Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Goliyon ki raasleela-Ramleela’ struck a chord within and enveloped me with its undying romance. If passion, madness, devotion, love, faith and revolution can be put together to summarise the film, I would still fall short of words to explain the colourful, magnificent canvas of love. The story is inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but I would like to mention that Leela was an ardent, stunning and audacious rebirth of Juliet. Ram was adorable yet powerful both physically and emotionally. The story is based on the Rajaadi and Sanedaa communities of Rajasthan where Ram and Leela’s love flourishes. The violence projected by Mr. Bhansali is brutal, giving a sense of the existing reality between those communities. Ram and Leela just kept on evolving in their ‘laal ishq’ even while they were surrounded by bloodshed. The music was gripping and took the story forward. Each song was a testimony to their love ...

A Film Carnival It was a nostalgic moment when I wore the 15th Mumbai Film Festival delegate badge around my neck. Just 4 years back, I was part of the Young Critics Jury of the 11 th Mumbai International Film Festival, MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Images). The experience was enriching and refreshing. It’s a spectrum of diverse cultures, art,human sensibilities of dealing with issues, interpretations and deeper human connections. Watching films has always been a visual treat for me. As a child I always believed that Bollywood was the only film industry in the world. I was so wrong!  The realization of films being made in other parts of the world hit me when I attended MAMI. There are number of factors which determine your exposure to the world while growing up. I was fortunate enough that I didn’t miss it and it found a way to reach me. I fell in love with world cinema and enlightened myself with a more profound definition to cinema. It was the best t...

  Are you scared of the dark? I am scared… I am sure there are more people among you who are scared too. Since childhood I could never sit through horror TV shows or films. I never saw anything, but the fear element stayed forever.   When I entered the film Industry, it was clear in my head that I would never cross paths with the genre of thriller films. The reason can definitely be that I don’t understand them and their purpose as part of cinema.  A few Bollywood films like “Veeraana”, “Raat”, “Raaz”, “1920 Evil Returns”, and the most recent one “Warning” have all the ingredients of horror thrillers.   One day a very close friend just called up and offered me to be his associate director for a thriller film he was directing. The reply was very straight and clear, a big NO! A horror film was just out of question and it was not my genre.It took a lot of convincing for my friend to get me on the project and I finally entered the scary door m...

Behind lights, camera and action! “Pain is temporary, Film is forever” as the saying goes filmmaking is an enriching and enthralling experience in itself. Cinema emote life and gives a canvas to those beautiful human fantasies. ‘Bollywood’ is a home for the dreamers, performers and the achievers. You have a concept in mind and you write it down and start visualizing every single word you have written. The conception of the film has begun. You write and as you continue writing the characters in your story become living breathing individuals. This can be termed as madness but no there is a certain faith that one develops within them. The story is ready and then the journey begins of introducing your characters to the real world. The individual who has written the story and wants to tell his/her story takes the manuscript to a DIRECTOR, who has the technical abilities to execute it. Sometimes the Director is only the writer of the film. He is also referred to as “...