Cinemaesque

Now this comes before Danny Boyle tried to show the poverty stricken India in Slumdog Millionaire. My friend Chelsea had sent me this link more than a year ago and I thought these pictures were some of the most beautiful ones I had ever seen. Considering my love for cinema, I just couldn't take my eyes of some of them. Jonathan Torgovnik obviously a foreigner has captured some of India's present day yet to be eventually forgotten cinema marvels with elan. It's pretty amazing how so much of this beauty is in front of one's eyes yet we cannot see them. Torgovnik has captured the simplest thing like buying the orange movie ticket and made it more than wonderful or the classic village touring cinemas. Just check out these beauties and go gaga!!

You can find the rest of the pictures on the following link.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0306/jt_index.html

These images and text are all extracts from the book Bollywood Dreams and are subject to copyright.

Near the tent small metal ticket booths are set up. A young boy purchases a 10Rs. ($0.25) ticket to his first film ever. in the village of Palli.


An Usher displays 12rs. ($0.25) tickets collected at the 80 year old "Imperial" cinema one of the oldest in Mumbai (Bombay),


The front row of New Shirin Cinema in Mumbai (Bombay), while the film is projected. The cinema is divided to sections and ticket price. The people which sit in the front rows are considered the biggest fans.


The interior of the tuck with two projectors mounted on the floor, projecting the film through a hole in the back wall of the truck. The films are projected all night, and the projectionists take turns in sleeping between shows.


A food stall near Alfred cinema, Mumbai (Bombay).


Artists at "Mohan Arts" studio, in front of their freshly painted "cut outs" which will be placed out side movie theaters in Chennai. The cut out can be up to 60' high. The cost for these larger than life hand painted advertisements is still cheaper to produce than printed ones. In south India, particularly in Madras and Hydrabad, the hand painted film advertisements are still more common than printed ones. In Bombay the hand painted banners hardly exists today.


Film projector operators at the "Padmam" theater projection room, Chennai (Madras). Cinema-goers became accustomed to dim projection, poor focus and quavering sound. Things are now changing for the better.


Beside the main hero and heroine, other characters carry the narrative in Indian films. These roles, whether father or friend, are played by a number of actors known as 'character' actors. Razak Khan is known to play a gangster side-kick. on the set of "Dil Ke Aas Paas" (nearest to the hart) in "Filmaliya" studios Mumbai.


In the court yard of " Roopam" cinema in Chennai (Madras). A boy stretching his hand, trying to touch the lips of a painted larger than life image of his favorite actress film star.


Amar Touring Cinema camped in the village of Palli, with Kisan the projector operator sitting on the truck.


Young kids pounce on cars stuck at traffic lights in Mumbai (Bombay), and thrust glossy gossip film magazines at them. Stardust and Filmfare are two of the local film monthlies, reporting gossip on who’s secretly seeing whom, which star is furious with which, etc.


Actresses Madooh and Urmila embrace, and a film crew man blocking the light from the camera by hand holding a black cloth. As labor is very cheap in India, this film crew worker is acting as a human 'flag' for blocking the light, where in western productions a stand would be used.

Filmdom lookalikes

Thought I would put up this forward up... old one but some timepass...



Think MJ and SRK's one is the best!!




Frieda Pinto can also be added here...

Suga Daddies

Recession is in and how… after endorsing the big cola giants our top Bollywood superstars are now relegated to promoting ganna juice.



On my recent trip to Kanpur while being the pillion rider on a never heard before LML Freedom, I spotted this sugarcane vendor whose vinyl banner had Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra holding a glass filled with ganna juice. Asked my friend to stop the bike. I had to take a picture of this. Everyone was staring at me and my friend… we were looking like A-grade city folk horny for a pic of Priyanka… It was so cheesy, corny whatever you call it and not something you would find back here in Mumbai.



The next day I found out that almost every sugarcane vendor has similar banners. Salman, Akshay, Katrina, Kareena, Abhishek too had joined the Rs. 3 per glass bandwagon. Photoshop has indeed arrived!!

I don’t really know having these stars on your sign board would help on not… however, if my office maid Vijaya ever saw the board with SRK, I’m sure she would leave town in the very next train to Uttar Pradesh!! (Read next posting)

Maid in Mannat

Here’s an exclusive picture of SRK posing with my maid. Remember it’s a cinemacaroni.blogspot.com exclusive.

Ever since the horrendous news came out that the super rich Shah Rukh Khan needs minor shoulder surgery my dear office maid Vijaya was rolling on her bed as she could not sleep at night.


“Saahrook Kaan ospital mein bimaar hai.” Said she the next day in office as she drank her 23rd glass of water after getting dehydrated from the excess tears of seeing her hero on apparent death bed.

Well, our Indian media isn’t really any more smarter considering they too flock outside SRK’s Jannat Mannat to capture a glimpse of their star but what sets Vijaya apart is the fact that she was going to visit Siddhivinayak Temple to pray for his health. I rolled on the floor (which the maid didn’t clean) laughing at her stupidity.

Here is a man who can afford five star treatment, buy the hospital and the doctors and nurses as his personal playthings yet my genius maid decides to pray for the speedy recovery of his Dard-E-Ligaments.

I recall my parents telling me that people prayed for Amitabh Bachcan’s recovery when he was almost dying after getting accidentally stabbed by Puneet Issar during the shoot of Coolie. Well, a knife in his stomach is definitely worse off than a shoulder surgery, I presume.

Siddhivinayak should charge an entry fee of which the proceedings go to charity. I'm sure they'll make a bomb when ultra-rich tycoons complain of broken finger-nails and paper cuts.

More jokes on my maid in future posts. Please visit…

Favourite scene from Notting Hill

Have attached a clipping from my favourite romantic film of all time Notting Hill.

Personally it's one of the most simplest and most effective dialogues I have ever seen. If you haven’t seen the movie you probably won’t find this very touching. Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts do an amazing job- brilliant chemistry throughout the film.

William (Hugh Grant): I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are, my mother has trouble remembering my name.

Anna Scott (Julia Roberts): I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

I don’t know if anyone but me thinks these are good… well, I don’t really care. But please please watch the movie at any cost… Whoopsidaisies!

Bhole Shankar special

This is a long posting… if you aren’t a Mithun fan then you can skip this one. Love you.

Wow, what a pleasant morning surprise... I was heading towards office passing Lotus Petrol Pump sans my morning cup of tea. Monday morning blues were closing in but something just caught my eye. You have to know that the wall next to Lotus Petrol Pump and the wall under the Juhu beach hoardings are my favourite spots to check out some ultra funny B-Grade/ Dubbed South/ Bhojpuri movie posters. To my amusement I saw Manoj Tiwari with none other than my favourite Mithunda in a Bhojpuri film called Bhole Shankar. Aaahh… this was better than caffeine and I had completely woken up from a long weekend.

Never did I imagine Mithun and Tiwari in the same frame mainly because I know the Bihar Jharkhand Motion Picture Association has banned all Mithun movies in Bihar and Jharkhand over a previous issue. However, apparently the producers paid a hefty amount to the association to get their film released.

The first thing I did upon reaching office was google Bhole Shankar and I was surprised at the amount of stuff available on the net. On the sets, synopsis, interviews, blogs, music launch, controversies, box-office collections in Bihar, and even anti-Marathi statements. Clearly, this was a big Bhojpuri film. A little more reading made me find out that it indeed was Bhojpuri cinema’s costliest film and most successful one at that too. Phew!!

This is Mithunda’s first Bhojpuri film and I cannot remember the number of times his character has been named Shankar/ Gauri Shankar in his B-Grade Ooty films. Considering the fact that Bhojpuri films aren’t anywhere close to path-breaking Shankar seemed so expected.

After reading the synopsis, the film seemed similar to the Dharmendra- Anil Kapoor starrer Humlaa but in a new avtaar. Post Deshdrohi (Maybe pre-Deshdrohi), this film also has some anti- Marathi statements. Mithun an underworld Don arrives in the nick of time and saves his brother Manoj from getting whacked by Marathi speaking goons (see video). He mouths, “Ek Bihari Sau Par Bhari”… wah wah. I don’t think the not-so-Bhole MNS idiots know about this yet or else I doubt the film would release peacefully in Mumbai.

Now I know it’s bad to insult different cultures but I must say that Manoj Tiwari has just two expressions in his entire acting career. Have a close look at the video and if you spot him in a third ham then I will give you a poster of Bhole Shankar personally autographed by the Lotus Petrol Pump staff.

I really want to know if the invention of the compact disc has caught on in the north… check out the music release picture and notice these guys just proudly holding up audio cassettes of the music. Haha… Look at what poor Mukesh Rishi is relegated to…

The one time famous Shailendra Singh apparently has also crooned a song for Mithunda after 20 years or so. Don’t know how good that is going to be.

Mithun will definitely be in his funny Yaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii best. Look at the pic where the director is explaining a scene to Mithun from a three page script. Ha!!

Judging by the promo, Bhole Shankar seems like your regular formula Gangamaiya ki saughand stuffed with fight sequences, songs (even Rajesh Vivek has a solo song) and a hamming mother. Can’t wait to watch it!!