Bicycle Days, Review: Going round in circles A realistic village setting, a bunch of child actors picked from local schools, working together with adults who have theatre/film experience, concerns and issues that could easily be part of the life of inhabitants of this milieu, and yet they do not all add-up. Bicycle Days is a children’s film, with children being its primary audience. But children will be escorted by adults, when they go to cinema halls, and even if it is a children&rsquo...

One way of owning a film, an extension of the auteur theory, would be to name the film with your name preceding the title. Might sound quirky to some, but so what? It is his film, and he can call it Nani’s Dasara or whatever else he likes. But you do wonder why Telugu actor Nani chose to call it his Dasara when he has neither written nor directed it, not even produced it. The nomenclature is a reference to the Dasara (Dussehra) festival, which forms the climax of the story, in which case...

Amazon Prime Video’s Jubilee: A celebration of the golden era of Hindustani cinema When a director like Vikramaditya Motwane charts new territory in the shape of a 10-episode web series, with lip-sync songs, something he has never done before, there is high curiosity value. It’s called Jubilee and the trailer was launched at Four Seasons Hotel, Mahalakshmi, Mumbai, on Friday afternoon. Starting just 30 minutes after the scheduled time, the proceedings ended within an hour, which i...

Nani’s Dasara creates Dhoom Dhaam across the earth, the moon and the sun To north Indians, Nani means maternal grandmother. Wonder what it means in Nani’s native Telugu. His full name, though, is Ghanta Naveen Babu, and he is 39. After a dubbed success called Super Khiladi 4, in this, his 29th film, Dasara, he has a very earthy look, unshaven and with long, unruly hair. “You might be pardoned for thinking that this is the same look sported by Allu Arjun in Pushpa, though the...

Zwigato, Review: Wobbligato Too good to be true-life, Zwigato might have been inspired by true incidents. The narrative does try to convey that feel. At first, it sucks you in with its no blemish couple and their ideal family. But then the layers come off one by one. There are tropes galore, masquerading as plot points. Is the film narrating the story of a food delivery boy, with interesting twists and turns, or is it taking the delivery boy as a prototype and making him go through the motion...

Wonderful! Our film is nominated for the BEST FIRST TIME DIRECTOR at the Digital Griffix Film Awards in MONTREAL, Canada! Here is a quote from the film festival about the jury: "Our jury is composed of award-winning filmmakers who perfectly understand the hard work put into independent filmmaking!" We are overjoyed and very proud! Thank you to our cast and crew and everyone who ed us in the process! Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXuEJiN3rD0 Watch the music...

Great news! As a prelude to the movie premiere, a book with photos by of the film team has been published! The book by Ana Bilić contains selected film stills, set photos and photos of rehearsals that she took herself. A special selection! Included is also her statement about the film as a director. Available as a paperback in landscape format and available now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3YwynQB Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXuEJiN3rD0 Watch the music video: ht...

We are delighted that our film received the HONORABLE MENTION for BEST ORIGINAL SCORE and at the same time the OFFICIAL SELECTION for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY at the Florence Film Awards in Italy! We are honored that our film was very well received in the beautiful city of Florence! We thank all our film team and all ers! Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXuEJiN3rD0 Watch the music video: https://youtu.be/sDsy_MdP4gE More information: https://heidelerche-fil...

GREAT NEWS! Official Selection in INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION at SANFICI - Santander Festival internacional de cine independiente in Bucaramanga, Colombia! SANFICI promises "5 intense days of the best independent cinema"! Our film will be shown on February 23, 2023 at 4pm at the Auditorio Luis A. Calvo - which makes us tremendously happy because the auditorium seats 989! We thank the cast and crew, and all the ers who believed in us! Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXu...

Rabia and Olivia, Review: A loving, fatherless nanny and a motherless, disturbed girl It is not too often that an Indie film, having Canadian and Indian actors, strikes a few right chords, avoids the obvious and delivers a credible ending. Rabia and Olivia seems to have languished in the cans for some time, going by the dateline of the events, which occur in 2018. And one can see why. There’s India and there is Canada, but there is no terrorism, no overdone immigrant issues and no roma...

Khela Hobe, Review: Om Puri lives, six years after his death Your gut reaction on seeing a film like Khela Hobe is to lambast it, tear it to shreds and dump it in the bin. You can have a field day showcasing your linguistic prowess and delivering a lecture on the prolific use of demeaning adjectives. But somewhere along the line, a modicum of empathy surfaces. This is largely due to the ing away of lead actor Om Puri, a friend, who died over six years ago. Obviously, this film is more tha...

Main Raj Kapoor Ho Gaya, Review: A drunk, moping, slum-dweller, and his three muses Most films have at least a semblance of reference to the title. Some, though, choose to get philosophical when picking a moniker for their screen vehicle. Then there those that have a prosaic sentence as the title, and neither prose nor poetry to justify it. Main Raj Kapoor Ho Gaya is one such. What the title means is “I have become Raj Kapoor.” Raj Kapoor, of course, was the cinematic genius who a...

Very nice news! Official Selection in the category BEST DIRECTOR at the 4THEATRE SELECTION Film Festival in the USA. The film festival selects the best films among thousands of projects from all over the world. We are honored and very happy to be selected! ☞ Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXuEJiN3rD0 ☞ Watch the music-clip: https://youtu.be/sDsy_MdP4gE ☞ More information: https://heidelerche-film.cittador.com/   ...

MISSING PERSON - redux – a James W. Hawk semi-finalist narrative short film, is LIVE NOW on YouTube HERE IS THE YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqPD6N1fV0M MISSING PERSON - a narrative live-action short film, was a SEMI-FINALIST at the WACO FAMILY AND FAITH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL and has been screened at 11 film festivals/venues on 3 continents. An IMDb named  “carolvandenhende: “ put this comment on IMDb, “What a touching, heart-warming p...

Pathaan, Review: Exploits and exploitation Encyclopedia Brittanica defines a pathan thus: Pashtun, also spelled Pushtun or Pakhtun, Hindustani Pathan, Persian Afghan, ethnolinguistic group residing primarily in the region that lies between the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan and the northern stretch of the Indus River in Pakistan. The Pashtun constitute the largest ethnic group of the population of Afghanistan and bore the exclusive name of Afghan before that name came to denote any na...

New Year’s Special: Distributor Anil Thadani in an exclusive interview with Siraj Syed, Part III Siraj: How do you choose multiplexes or single screen cinemas for particular films? Anil: Basically, you have to understand your own product. The kind of film you are releasing. And then you pick and choose where you think…which is the pocket that deserves a film like…a particular film. And that is how you release. It is your gut feeling about your product… what you are...

Zindagi Shatranj Hai, Review: Partly chess, partly mess With a title like Zindagi Shatranj Hai (Life is a game of chess), you are ready to watch some smart moves, and the film does offer a few such moves. But it also offers several false moves that negate the positive ones. Designed as a mystery-suspense-thriller, it has a plot within a plot within a plot. Besides that, there is pretty little in of good cinematic content. There are many loose ends that are left untied and several thread...

Broker, Review: Brokering a deal for heavy, serious, dark cinema A Japanese film won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or in 2018, titled Shoplifters. It was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. The following year, a South Korean film bagged the honours. It was called Parasite. After the lean, Covid years of 2020 and 2021, we have a South Korean film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, called Broker, releasing in 2022. The film competed for the Palme d’Or, but bagged only the Ecumeni...

T24: Tiger in a man’s world Not often do we see a feature length documentary on a tiger get a theatrical release. But here is one that makes it, thanks to the initiative of brave distributor Anil Thadani’s AA Films. The title refers to the number given to a tiger named Ustaad, who inhabited the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. Charmed by his majestic looks and gait, short-film-maker Warren Pereira (Lovely Coffee, Salt and Silicone, Moving Higher) decided to capture his movements and li...

Trailer and music launched for first Marathi underwater supernatural thriller, Gadad Andhar Shot 110 feet below sea level, in the sea near the Maldives coast, Gadad Andhar, meaning intense darkness, breaks new ground in the Marathi film universe. The trailer of the film was released on 17 January 2023, at Famous Preview Theatre, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai, in the presence of the cast and crew, and media. A song, ‘Dariya dariya’ (dariya means sea), was also shown. It is a background number ...

Farzi: ‘Fake’ encounter with the team of Amazon Prime Video’s new show and trailer launch Creators of the mega-hit web series, The Family Man, Raj and DK are back in action with the crime thriller Farzi, which marks the digital debut of Shahid Kapoor and ‘Makkal Selvan’ Vijay Sethupathi (full name: Vijaya Gurunatha Sethupathi). The series also stars Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Amol Palekar, Regina Cassandra, Bhuvan Arora and Kubra Sait, in pivotal roles, and w...

Kuttey, Review: Gulp Friction Quentin Tarantino can rightfully claim a patent to the format used in Kuttey: prologue, epilogue and a non-chronological structure, with the present merging with the past and the past merging with the present. The co-writer and director of Kuttey (Dogs), Aasmaan Bhardwaj was born one year after Pulp Fiction (1994) was released, bagged top honours at home and abroad, and attained cult status soon afterwards. Twenty-seven years after he was born, Aasmaan has made h...

Lakadbaggha, Review: Hyena in a dog’s world Considering the amount of footage devoted to dogs, Lakadbaggha (Hyena) is more a dog film than a hyena flick. The first and only hyena you see is late in the second half of the film. But, to be fair, that hyena is in sharp focus as the film moves towards its climax. Besides a thought-provoking insight into the world of dogs, the film gives us some raw, bare handed, martial arts, in the krav maga style of combat, which originated in Israel. It ...

Sachin-The Ultimate Winner, Review: No option of a third umpire Sometimes a film is made amateurishly, for home consumption. ‘Home’ here could mean captive audiences, like a chain of schools, some of whose students feature in the film. Sachin-The Ultimate Winner is one such film. It is probably close to what is called a zero-budget movie, has tacky values, a predictable plot, able performances, and music that leaves much to be desired. It seems stuck in a time warp, and heavil...

Spy thriller G2 launched in Mumbai, with Telugu superstar Adivi Sesh In a significant move, a Telugu unit has launched a film in Mumbai, on January 9, 2022, at the PVR Multiplex, Citi Mall, Andheri. It is a spy thriller, starring Adivi Sesh, in continuation of the first instalment of the highly successful G series, Goodhachari (2018, co-written by Sesh), produced by T.G. Vishwa Prasad and Abhishek Agarwal and directed by Vinay Kumar Sirigineedi, who were all present on the occasion. No more ...