Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Expressive Cinematography at its finest

There are two films in the Harry Potter franchise that I have a bi-polar appreciation for. Previously, I have said why I think Prisoner of Azkaban is the best one of the lot, because of the brilliant direction of Alfonso Cuaron, even though I don’t like that some of the important plot points from the […]

Curtains down on the Golden Era of Bengali Cinema

You were cinema’s young man who showed us what it means to lose really everything in life and yet have the courage to start over. You were the jovial yet heart-breaking brother-in-law; and the proud, angry Rajput taxi driver set on an expedition to find his place in the world. You gave life to our […]

WALL-E: Hope for a Better Tomorrow

CAPTAIN Psst! Computer. (the holo-screen lights up) Define “dancing”. BACK OUTSIDE THE AXIOM Eve and Wall-E descend along the starboard side. Spiral gracefully around one another. SHIP’S COMPUTER (V.O.) “Dancing” – A series of movements, involving two partners, where speed and rhythm match harmoniously with music. Wall-E’s extinguisher runs out of foam. He lets it […]

1917: A Visual Masterpiece

April 1917, the Western Front. A young soldier, Lance-Corporal Blake, is given a perilous mission. He has to carry a message through a “No Man’s Land” to a battalion of the Devonshires, revoking an attack planned for the next day. The Germans have put just retreated to the Hindenburg Line – but aerial reconnaissance has […]

Kedara: A Symphony of Silence

“Less is more.” That’s the art of minimalism – to speak less and say more. Indraadip Dasgupta has been a celebrated music director in the Bengali film industry for two decades and has scored some of the best-known songs over the years. But it was the call of the spot behind the camera that he […]

Why should Films be Taught in School?

Okay, hold your horses! Calm down and listen to me before you get all riled up about the futility of this. Now instead of jumping into it directly, let’s take a step back. Let’s talk about that form of art that is already being taught in schools around the globe – literature. So why do […]

Subrata Mitra: The Forgotten Master of Light

“We Indians do not celebrate our genius, that’s why we need a Richard Attenborough to present our Gandhi to the world. And, we do not appreciate technology as an art, that’s why Subrata Mitra’s retrospective is celebrated in Italy, not here” Ashok Mehta, National award-winning cinematographer of films like Bandit Queen, Moksha and 36 Chowringhee Lane […]

Feluda Pherot!

Yes, Ray’s super sleuth is coming back, though not on the big screen, but as a web-series. Feluda Pherot (or should I write Pheluda Pherot, the phonetically correct spelling that Srijit Mukherji prefers) is the title of his upcoming project. Srijit Mukherji is one of the most popular filmmakers in Bengal today and has been […]

The Shining: The Art of Horror

What springs to your mind when you hear about The Shining? Is it the river of blood flowing through the Overlook Hotel? Or the sinister Grady Twins tormenting poor Danny Torrance? Or maybe it’s Jack Nicholson crashing an axe through the bathroom door and shouting “Here’s Johnny!”? Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror strikes a chord with […]

Comic-Con 2019 trailer round-up

The SAN DIEGO COMIC CONVENTION (Comic-Con International) is a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation organized for charitable purposes and dedicated to creating the general public’s awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms, including participation in and support of public presentations, conventions, exhibits, museums and other public outreach activities which celebrate the […]