21.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B Entertainment, under its Creative Partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment, and Capcom (a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games) have come to terms on the film rights relating to Dark Void, a new property from Capcom. The theatrical version of the Dark Void game is being developed as a sci-fi action franchise and potential starring vehicle for Pitt.
Capcom will release Dark Void on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and PC in North America on January 19, 2010 and across Europe on January 22, 2010.
Dark Void is an adrenaline-fuelled blend of aerial and ground-pounding combat which centers on Will, a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission. Will wakes up to find himself in ‘The Void’, an alternate world resembling a primitive earth where aliens with superior technology are planning to take over civilization. Together with a faction of humans who have disappeared into the Void, Will takes on the alien race using their own advanced technology including a high-powered jet pack to defeat them and keep order in the civilized world.
Reliance BIG Entertainment first introduced its Creative Partnership (an innovative development / production financing deal) with Plan B Entertainment at the Cannes Film Festival 2008.
Speaking on this new development, Reliance BIG Entertainment’s Chairman, Mr. Amit Khanna commented, “We are delighted that our Creative Partnership with Plan B has led to this agreement to develop the Dark Void motion picture based on the Dark Void game along with Capcom and we look forward to future projects with them.”
“As a game, Dark Void was developed with a wide-screen mentality – a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale,” said Germaine Gioia, Senior Vice- President, licensing, Capcom Entertainment. “Plan B recognized the potential of our newest property and are as excited about bringing Dark Void to life in cinemas as Capcom is to bring the interactive experience to home theaters.”
21.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
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Keeping aside certain threats that Kurbaan has received courtesy its posters, even otherwise the film comes with a volatile theme which is centred on global terrorism. With the film’s release almost coinciding with 26/11 attack in 2008, the matter becomes further sensitive. This is why one strongly hopes and believes that even after the release of Kurbaan, there would be no disruptions from any political or religious sections that may see red in the content or timing of Kurbaan. Joginder Tuteja gets into a conversation with Karan Johar and asks if he fears any further protests.
Karan, knowing the sensibilities of Dharma Productions, one always expects a quality outing with a sensitive storyline that doesn’t threat anyone’s sensibilities – whether social, political, religious or emotional. Still, in the democratic environment that we are in, do you fear any protests coming the way of Kurbaan since it deals with
terrorism?
No, I don’t see foresee any controversies around the film since it is only showing things as they are. It has been made with a huge level of sensitivity and I am sure it won’t be offending anyone’s sensibilities. (Pauses) No, there should not be a protest or any other disruptive activity.
It has been made with a huge level of sensitivity and I am sure it won’t be offending anyone’s sensibilities
So, is the element of terror constant throughout the film or do we see some other layers as well?
Of course the film is conveying an important point of view with an eye on global terrorism. However, at the heart of it all, it’s a love story and that itself is its biggest strength too. This is what constitutes for an emotional narrative against the backdrop of terrorism. Of course emotional strength is the film’s mainstay but I can confidently state that
Kurbaan does scratch the surface more than any other film based on a similar subject. Still, we are not making a political or a social commentary here.
Well, one has to agree that in a limited time span, Kurbaan has managed to create quite some curiosity around itself…
I am thankful that this has happened for both the movie and the songs. Our marketing window for the film was just 5 weeks and it’s great that we have been able to penetrate the market in such limited framework of time. See, certain products need a slow build up, like it was in the case of Wake Up Sid. We had to work our way in people’s
mind. On the other hand Kurbaan is thrilling. Also, it has Saif and Kareena and this is why the movie is so hot today and has a curiosity of its own.
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I remember you mentioning that once they are hired, you let your directors loose. Was it the same case with first timer Rensil D’Silva as well?
Rensil cinema has nothing to do with me. Yes, the story is mine but I have nothing to do on a creative level. It’s entirely Rensil’s take on how the film has been shot and executed. In fact you would know that when you see the film. Every director has his own voice and Rensil has his own. Another strong point that he brings to the table is that he is also a writer. Sometimes writers become indulgent but he is not. He is very easy to deal with. I didn’t have to tell him what to cut. He understands the pace of the film and kept it’s duration just the way it should be.
Rensil cinema has nothing to do with me
You seem to be quite impressed with him…
And that’s because he knows what he is talking about. He has written the film’s screenplay and the entire mystery of Kurbaan lies in this element. He knows his subject inside outside.
Ever since Jab We Met, I have never seen Kareena so gung go about a film as has been in the case of Kurbaan. What is it so special about the film that makes her extremely confident and close to the product?
In fact Bebo has been a huge support to the film and has given it all. She has grasped the character very well and worked hard on the film. That level of passion shows. I believe that everyone has done an exceptional job, whether it is Saif, Vivek or herself.
However, Kareena believes that Saif is all set to walk away with the biggest honors after Kurbaan. Do we actually foresee that coming?
[Smiles] Bebo is very passionate about Kurbaan and obviously has great things to say about everything associated with it. Yes, I am proud of the work done, the technique applied and overall filmmaking. However, the biggest verdict is the box office verdict. That’s going to validate if we have actually come up with something that deserves critical and commercial acclaim.
21.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Yesterday, in Part 1 of the interview, he spoke about how promoting a movie has taken a different form and shape in current times, his annoyance with the way some sections of media have splashed stories about Kurbaan and Kareena and himself in a not-so-flattering manner. In the second and concluding part of this exclusive interview with Joginder Tuteja, Saif talks about the ‘A’ certificate that the film has been granted, changing business scenario at the box office and how Kurbaan goes beyond his off-screen pairing with Kareena.
Even if one leaves the poster aside, one can’t deny the fact that a major promotional peg for Kurbaan is Saif-Kareena pairing…
Yes, our coming together has been much spoken about and it was nice to be eventually doing Kurbaan together. I was often scared that people should not be bored by the pair because we are together in real life. This is why it is so important to be playing the character well so that you are seen doing something which brings in a lot more on the table than just being a regular pair. Thankfully, the characterization of both Ehsaan and Avantika are pretty well etched out so that wasn’t difficult.
There is still good enough population above 18 years that can come together to watch a film and turn it into a super hit
With someone like Rensil on board, one does hope that he has moved beyond off-screen pairing…
Karan is very lucky to have entrusted Rensil for the job. He is a first time director and I am highly impressed since he is a deeply intelligent man and an observant person. Also, he is a very gifted storyteller.
Kurbaan has got an ‘A’ certificate for itself. Doesn’t it bother you that audience footfall would be impacted due to this?
Let me explain it this way. You can try and make a Disney film which promises a wide audience for a 2 year old and her 60 year old grandfather; now that’s an ideal producer scenario. But then, that’s not the only kind of film which you want to make. You also want to make a gripping, scary, gritty film because entertainment can come in different ways. Some films are so violent, suspenseful, thrilling or sensual that censorship is required. This is why; I don’t mind it at all when Kurbaan gets an ‘A’ certificate. In any case, there is still good enough population above 18 years that can come together to watch a film and turn it into a super hit.
Well, Wanted with an ‘A’ certificate and that too with a substantial single screen audiences, did turn into a super hit this year…
And so did Race last year. The film’s concept was quite adult and it broke the cliche of a man sacrificing his life for his brother. The film was quite intriguing, restricted kids from watching it, and still was widely accepted. We have enough examples where ‘A’ movies have done quite well commercially.
Talking about commercial gains, after Love Aaj Kal people would be expecting yet another record breaking opening from a film of yours. Doesn’t it become a scary thought?
It is a scary thought, but then, also an understandable thought. See, today, the growth in business and economy gets reflected in box office returns. There are new records which are set practically every month or at least every quarter. If Kurbaan sets a record today, I am sure 3 Idiots will set another tomorrow. And then there will be another film which would succeed those high numbers. This is why it is unfair to think of records as they are not meant to be taken seriously.
If Kurbaan sets a record today, I am sure 3 Idiots will set another tomorrow
But being a producer yourself, you would certainly wish to keep a tab on emerging business scenario?
In our box office business which hasn’t peaked yet, it is ridiculous to think records. In fact we should phrase this like ‘So far, Ghajini has taken the biggest opening ever’. Or, ‘In 2009 so far, Love Aaj Kal has opened the best.’ Records should be an area of interest / debate / concern, when it is about crossing the peak of human endurance. Say for example, when someone creates a new record in a 100 meters sprint. Now that’s an achievement.
And what have you achieved with Kurbaan?
My achievement is that I got to work in a movie which isn’t regular or run of the mill. The film follows the caption of ‘Some Love Stories Have Blood On Them’ to the T. It has got a strange ending, has quite a few grey characters and grey emotions with not much being black & white. In how many films do you see a girl in love with a man while knowing that he is a terrorist?
21.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Rensil D’Silva doesn’t speak his heart out. He stamps an impression on each word and each sentence when he speaks. Why? Because he is one of the best writers we have in our Indian Film Industry. Ask him on his turning a director he says, “Directing is an easy job. What’s difficult is writing a good film.” In person he is tough. As soon as the first question is asked, though, he relaxes, like someone coming up for air. He starts talking in a broad, slightly high-pitched Indian accent and grows more and more. What’s got him going is the acting of his current cinematic muses – Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Vivek Oberoi. It’s a statement that goes – Kurbaan will give out the performance of the year from Kareena’. A line for Saif too goes this way – I don’t think you’ll find a tougher role than Kurbaan in Saif’s filmography, and then the underdog Vivek – He is the most dramatic of the three. It doesn’t require boldness to say things about actors like them. Rather, it takes confidence in you as a writer and director which Rensil so badly possesses. By now he is conducting the conversation as he might, well, direct a movie. And then there are his eyes which have their own power, framed by two shockingly black eyebrows set behind his not-so-thick rimmed glasses. UK’s Harrow Observer columnist and Bollywood Hungama’s London correspondent meets the hurricane of energy – a man called Rensil D’Silva.
A writer is the best believer in the story. What did you believe in when you made Kurbaan?
Well, ideologically, my point of view is out there in the film. I believe that I can tell the story of Kurbaan really well because it engages head and heart which is always a tough thing when you are a writer or a story teller or a director. Usually you have something so intellectual that the critics can like it and you get a bit myopic about things. Then you have something like leave-your-brains-at-home kind of films. I didn’t want to make such cinema. I wanted to make something sensible and heart wrenching at the same time. The world view of the film has really intrigued me quite a lot, like how the West views Islam and all.
The world view of the film has really intrigued me quite a lot, like how the West views Islam and all
I’m sure the research didn’t come that easy then?
Yes. You’re right. But we did a good bit of reading too. I picked up a book called ‘A suicide bomber’
from London. I’ve got a book where an Algerian journalist infiltrated the Al Qaeda for a two year period. Then I also got my hands on some MI5 reports because the film was initially based in London on the number of sleeper cells which makes garage bombs or worse. There are some four thousand such cells in the UK alone. The magnitude of the problem kind of hits you when you get such information.
There are some four thousand sleeper cells in the UK alone
Is part of the film based on real life characters or events?
There aren’t any real life or people events shown in the film. It’s almost an amalgamation of the problem. Quite frankly, the last thirty minutes have played out in some form, may be in London, where I first set this film. It has nothing to do with real people and events but has to do with the broader aspect of a terrorist attack.
Why go for the under-rated Vivek Oberoi?
I’ve always been a fan of Vivek Oberoi after watching Company and Saathiya. I think he is a great actor and hopefully you’ll see that on the screen. If I had to define the three roles then Vivek’s is the most dramatic of the three. It’s got lots of twists and turns and all the monologues. It’s got a very powerful scene which happens in the class room. Vivek has an accent too in the film which is very New York specific. There is a lot for Vivek to do and he has been up to the task.
What is challenging? Writing or directing?
Definitely as a writer. I think the hardest thing is to put the blue print in place. If you are clear in your vision, you can go out and direct. I’ve been directing ad-films for ten years now. So technically, there isn’t any problem. I really believe that even if a director is not a technical person, there are some great technicians who can chip in for him. If you don’t know pacing, if you don’t know the story and how long to hold on your characters then you’re dead. That comes from writing a story. The image that you see while writing is the same image that should be transformed on the screen.
How important is the screenplay then?
A series of ideas by which you tell a story is the screenplay of the film. I actually believe that it’s great to have a germ in the story. But if you don’t know how to deliver it you’re screwed. Over the past couple of years, screenplay has started to play more importance, whether it’s Rang De Basanti where you shift back in time or it’s a non linear structure. Today one shouldn’t take audiences for granted. They are damn smart and they are the head of the filmmakers today. They are watching everything on the television which is being done around the world. They are superior in terms of the number of films they’ve seen than the director of any film. Screenplay should involve the audiences. You just can’t say that you’ve got a great story and hopefully some acting will happen. It doesn’t work that way.
Today one shouldn’t take audiences for granted. They are damn smart and they are the head of the filmmakers today
After writing Kurbaan, what did you do? Did you take it to the production house or the actors?
Its many things. When I did not have the power to direct a film and while I was just a writer, I took it to actors. I still do. We live in an industry where if you want a certain amount of money, you got to get actors on board. In the case of someone like Karan, who has the power to green light a project, you just need his consent. If he likes it, the film will get made. But if you’re out there as a story writer or a screenplay writer, you should get a star on board first.
The word Kurbaan means a lot to Islam. Is that why you came up with the title?
May be you’re right. But the title came out from the romantic story of the film, where a man has to choose between love and a cause. I think the one powerful message we have in the film is that love conquers all. And if the cause means taking a life or an actor giving a life, it becomes even more interesting. There is a line in the film that says ‘A terrorist can understand the value of a human life and maybe there is hope for us all’. So I guess, the title could’ve come to our mind from all that. Kurbaan deals with a lot of intense themes.
Saif Ali Khan – How raw can he get as an actor?
He is fabulously raw. It’s his toughest role yet. I don’t think you’ll find a tougher role in Saif Ali Khan’s filmography. It’s crazy because the moment you start showing things he is going against the role. There are lot of silences and pauses in the film. This is the role that people will see Saif as a man’s man.
No one’s talking about Dia Mirza.
She has a very important role in the film. She plays a producer in a news channel and is a romantic interest for Vivek Oberoi. She is absolutely lovely in the film. She is so real and today’s woman. A lot of people who’ve seen the trial have loved her, not that she is doing any great histrionics but the fact that she embodies her role so well.
And what about Kareena? Improving by day and age?
…And films too (laughs). Kareena is a fabulous metamorphosis as an actress. I loved her in Jab We Met and this has taken her one step further. Kurbaan will give out the performance of the year from Kareena. I am not being biased. She is playing a de-glamorised look and she has given it her all. The last ten minutes of Kurbaan you have to see Kareena to believe it.
Kurbaan is the film which only has one poster, one creative to it. Why?
The poster has become the most important tool to get the public in because they sense it. The success quotient of any film is its poster and its promo. It’s not about how many times you bombard them. It’s a waste of money then. Karan and I wanted a one iconic look to sell Kurbaan. The strategy of the marketing team was to sell the film as a love story and a thriller. What you see on the poster is how you will see them in the film and it’s the most powerful scene of Kurbaan. It’s a scene which is very edgy and shows their love. It has a huge thriller element to it.
It’s a disgrace when people make issues out of nothing, isn’t it?
(Laughs) Very good. Exactly. We are one billion people here. Obviously couples aren’t shaking their hands and going to bed turning to their respective sides of the bed every night. I mean, they are making babies man! And lots of them. If you are hungry, you’ll eat. If you’re in a relationship, you’ll make love. So what’s the big deal? I personally think there should be a protest because protest is a form of democracy. If you don’t you are autocrats. But my humble submission to these people is that they see things in the context of the film. There is a difference between pornography and an aesthetic nude art.
21.11.09 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
”When a bomb explodes mainly the innocent die,” says Vivek Oberoi towards the blood-red-hot finale when, to put it at the most basic level, all hell breaks loose.
Innocence is not quite snuffed out at the end of this explosive drama on international terrorism.
In Rang De Basanti Rensil D’Silva had taken screenwriting in Hindi cinema to a new level of expressionism. With his directorial debut coming as it does with the erroneously filmy title of Kurbaan, Rensil carries the spoken unspoken, visual and metaphorical language of mainstream cinema to an unvisited distant shore.
Blending the thorny theme of the political-cultural identity of the Muslim community post 26/11 with the commercial identity of contemporary Hindi cinema is not an easy task. The film manages to be many notches superior to other national and international films on global terrorism, a theme that now threatens to turn into a full-blown commercial formula.
Kurbaan averts a catastrophic collision of ‘message’ and entertainment by preserving a virile and healthy contempt for the trite expressions of formulistic terrorism in films that use fundamentalism as a villainous formula. Here the characters are not representational of Islamic ideology. They function in the brilliantly-designed plot as people who subscribe to the view that the Muslim community across the world are persecuted, hounded victims of an American oil-politics that threatens to annihilate the Islamic world.
This is a very thin ice for a debutant director to walk on. Rensil D’Silva’s film says, sometimes right out loud, that a sense of aggressive isolation grips the entire Muslim community. There are either those (like the chanters played by Om Puri, Kirron Kher and Saif Ali Khan) who think a direct action plan of retaliation and retribution is required to save Muslims from mass destruction. Or, more alarmingly, there are those like Vivek Oberoi and his father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) who are tacitly in favour of violence against their community’s collective persecution.
Either way, Rensil’s film looks at the theme of Islamic terrorism with fearless and brutal honestly. There’s no attempt to dilute the damning exposition on the ghetto-styled fundamentalism of the Muslim community in the US.
After a rather pale preambular courtship in Delhi (with a couple of unnecessary kissing scenes thrown in for added value) the Hindu lecturer Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) flies into New York with her ever-so-suave suitor Ehsaan (Saif).
The narrative immediately and inextricably plunges Avantika (who becomes the audiences’ viewpoint in the tale of terrorism) into the vortex of a 26/11-styled conspiracy being hatched in her backyard on a deceptively quiet suburban street filled with Asian homes.
If the closet terrorists in the narrative proves themselves master plotters, director Rensil D’Silva is no less. While the master-plotters in Kurbaan finally fail, Rensil walks past the finishing line with victorious strides. With cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi (giving the narration a hue of heightened sinister ness) Rensil moves stealthily in and out of politically-challenged lives with the least amount of drama and ostentation.
The background score is kept at a bare minimum. The sense of heightened poignancy which is constantly created in celluloid dramas of the doomed is stubbornly averted. Kurbaan creates its drama from the characters’ misbegotten sense of identity. From that vantage point of disorientation the film dexterously moved into the agile mode of action-driven conflicts.
From the pre-intermission point in the narration where Ehsaan and his accomplice are chased down by cops as they carry a dead Muslim wife’s body for burial Kurbaan is one relentlessly breathless treatise on ‘How To Create A Prolonged Climax In A Plot Without Losing The Theme’s Bearings.’
The film has been shot as an extended crime thriller which penetrates deeper and deeper into the anatomy of a crime thriller until the core of the crisis is reached with painful bluntness. Miraculously the director avoids the shrill will right to the blood-spattered finale. There is room in the commodious narration for disgruntled characters from a multitude of Islamic countries huddled in the US to create retaliatory mayhem. But at the core there are just three characters, the terrorist, his pregnant and rebellious wife and the expose-driven journalist, played by Saif, Kareena and Vivek Oberoi.
Oberoi, in spite of his now-on-now-off Yankee accent plays the conflicted progressive American Muslim with a resolute understanding of the underlying politics that plagues his character’s soul. But Saif Ali Khan is a disappointment. In a role that could have been a career-defining event the actor pitches a performance as a not-so-reluctant terrorist that simply swims on the surface. There’s no attempt by the actor to understand the workings of Ehsaan’s mind or to revisit Ehsaan’s roots. What we see is a confused rather than a politically and religiously conflicted soul tormented by an ideological crisis.
Where is the mean-spirited guy who exploited and cheated Urmila Matondkar in Ek Hasina Thi? Or the innerving enigma of the tortured terrorist that Manisha Koirala
played in Dil Se? Wake up and smell the Kafir, Saif!
The whole humbug of watching a real-life pair making lingering love on screen is blessedly gotten over with in no time at all, though would the director please explain why and how the terrorist has sex with his heavily pregnant wife at a time when his life as a husband and a responsible citizen are falling apart?
Finally Kurbaan belongs to Kareena Kapoor. In her most consistently-pitched performance to date she pulls out all stops to play a betrayed wife with splendid sensitivity. Kareena accommodates her radiant beauty into an utterly credible character and performance. At her best, Kareena is incomparable. She proves it in Kurbaan.
Much of the credit for Kareena’s compelling performance must go to the written word. Anurag Kashyap and Niranjan Iyenger enter the characters’ dark and anguished world
with words that avoid rhetorical excesses. However a key classroom discussion on Islam and the Western World is ruined because even the American students speak in Hindi!
Kurbaan creates a kingdom of doom with a deep understanding of the bonds that bind and separate the Islamic world from the West. It is a critically important work
because it spells out uncomfortable truths in a cinematic language that’s riveting and resonant without resorting to extravagant flourishes and fireworks.
Not to be missed.
