TFPS Introductory Production | Session 2014-2015

The Technology Filmmaking and Photography Society, fondly known as TFPS, conducted its Introductory Production for the freshmen joining the Institute to give them an idea about the works done by the society. The event was organised on July 31st, 2014 in Kalidas Auditorium. The event was pretty much a success with an approximate footfall of around four hundred students.
In this production, TFPS showcased some of their previously acclaimed short films as well as new short-films. The event also featured a witty power-point presentation on why people should join TFPS by Devashish Mulye, one of the TFPS co-ordinators .

Here are some of the short films that were shown during the Production-

1. 20 Seconds : Even after two years of its release, 20 Seconds still manages to tickle the funny bones. The audience enjoyed a lot this funny tale of three roommates and their romantic adventures.

2. Maze : Maze, a thriller short film marked its first public screening during the Production. It received a positive verdict from the audience despite being an offbeat film for the audience in general.

3. Epiphany : Epiphany is a moving drama which questions the significance of Christmas in the lives of three individuals.

4. Shit Freshers Say : Shit Freshers Say was the second movie which marked its first public screening in the production. It's a funny take on the most common dialogues that freshers are seen speaking throughout their first year of stay at IIT Kharagpur.

5. The While Cloud : This documentary was made by TFPS veteran and ex-governor Ashay Gangwar. It's about a day in the life of Duncan Jude Hall, a day when we hangs his boots.

6. Live Production : Live production was completely shot and edited during the event and released in the end.  It highlighted the theme of the event- "Anyone can make a movie".

The event concluded with the introduction of the four governors followed by other members & announcement of the selection procedure for the freshers' batch.

( +Lokesh Deshmukh , author of this blog is a co-ordinator at TFPS)

Annual Report (2013-14)

Technology Filmmaking and Photography society, IIT Kharagpur,despite being a relatively newer society, has been appreciated by the student community of IIT Kharagpur. We released a total of seven productions in the academic year 2013-2014:

1. The Walk-Tale: The first production of the year, “The Walk-tale” was made for the fresher’s Introduction program. It is indeed a great trip down the memory lane. Through this video, we have made you all visit and fall in love with kgp. This video comprises of a walk through various academic and extra-curricular activities that occur inside the campus. The Walk-Tale very well sums up the campus life of every KGPian.

2. The Epiphany: Released just before Spring Fest, The short-film ‘The Epiphany’ was based on a day in the life of three individuals, a day which happens to be Christmas and how they celebrate it. This true piece of art was made for the short-film competition of Spring Fest. The Epiphany tries to ask a simple question, “What does Christmas mean to you?”

3. As Long as the Night Lasts: This short-film was shot without any script and it is a good example of spontaneous filmmaking. It was our tribute to the two best movies of 2013, ‘Nebraska’ and ‘Inside Llewyn Dewis’. As Long as the Night Lasts is based on a conversation between two final year students sitting on the footpath of the over-bridge just outside the gate of IIT and talking about their memories from KGP.

4. 20 Months: This short-film is a love story spread over a period of 20 months, its tagline being “He doesn’t want to risk rejection, She trusts god by waiting!” This film did set high bars in technical aspects of filmmaking such as cinematography and editing.

5. Godsend: Godsend is the story of a heart-broken guy who finds solace in an unknown girl who guides him by leaving notes at a bookstore and unfortunately loses her too.  

6. Masala Flakes- Placement: With the aim of re-launching “Masala Flakes” after the success of its season-1 (2012-2013, which had 4 episodes) another episode was released based on casual “Bakar” on placements. Continuing its legacy this episode too made use of subtle gestures and wonderful satires to enthrall its audience.

7. The Interview: The short-film shows a comic encounter between a “Berozgaar KGPian” and an arrogant interviewer. His “creativity” leaves the interviewer amazed and the audience amused!   

The success of our productions is the sole consequence of unparalleled dedication and handwork of the members and brilliant guidance of the governors and heads.  

Graduating seniors:

Ashay Gangwar & Sourabh Wani

“TFPS is a place for daydreamers to realize their dreams on a screen”.

                                                                                                               -Ashay Gangwar

( +Shourabh Shekhar , the author of the blog is one of the Governors of TFPS for the session 2014-15)

27 Film & TV to look forward to in 2014

Before we give ourselves in to the frenzy of the upcoming awards season, here follows a series of film & TV titles (in no particular order or rank) that are killing us with the anticipation. And also time for you to update your watchlist (and break those new year resolutions you were going to break anyway!)

PS: Here is no mention of Sherlock because it doesn't need any. And if you are reading this but have not watched it, then please close the tab - download it, watch it and then come back! We will be waiting for you.

Here we go - 

• House of Cards (Season 2)

Easily the best political drama/thriller that has arrived on TV, House of Cards in it's debut season dipped the temperature even more with the cold blooded wrath of the Underwoods. Starring Kevin Spacey in his 'born-to-do' role, we can already see the cracks that have appeared on our fourth walls. 

• I, Origins

Friends Mike Cahill and Brit Marling reunite after their outstanding indie thriller 'Another Earth' for another sci-fi project that involves a molecular biologist getting hands upon some shocking evidence that could fundamentally change the society as we know it. 

• Omar

A psychological thriller and heartbreaking love story set in Palestine, this film is about how life is constantly lived dodging bullets, in moments between life and death; a reflection on love, loyalty and betrayal in the occupied territories. Also has swept a bunch of prizes: Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, best Arab film and director at Dubai, Best Feature at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and is Palestine’s official entry to the Oscars.

• Snowpiercer

Joon-ho Bong - the man behind the Korean masterpiece 'Memories of Murder' makes his English debut with this sci-fi action thriller. The whole movie is set inside a train known as 'Snowpiercer' which is in perpetual motion around the planet. Based on a French graphic novel, this film promises an interesting social commentary.

• Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson is perhaps the greatest American filmmaker of our era and with Joaquin Phoenix (The Master, Walk the line) in the lead, things are going to get more insane and extraordinary. Also brings the beautiful Reese Witherspoon into picture. Based on the Thomas Pynchon novel.

• Mad Men (Season 7)

Mad Men - the definitive American drama on TV is closing shop and it would be interesting to see what the future has in store for Don Draper, all the more with the season 6 finale setting the platform up so beautifully.

If PT Anderson were to make a TV series, he would have made this one, none other.

• Babylon

A TV movie revolving around cops. Not interesting? But do you know who's in charge? 

DANNY fucking BOYLE. Sold! 

• How to train your Dragon 2

Toothless and Hiccup are back in the sequel of a film that had blew our minds with its overdose of fun, humour and adventure. If trailers are anything to go by, goosebumps are guaranteed. 

• Detective Byomkesh Bakshi

A great artist going back to his roots = A Dibakar Banerjee film inspired from Bengali literature. It will be great to see a desi Sherlock Homes on the screens for a change!

• Noah

Darren Aronofsky's take on the Biblical Noah and his ark. Here he not only has mammoth budgets to handle but also mammoth actors like Anthony Hopkins and Russell Crowe who plays the titular role. And trust in Aronofsky to churn out another one of his trademark hair-raising climaxes (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan) 

• Birdman

After the terrific 'Death trilogy' (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) Alejandro Inarritu will be back this year with a comedy/drama about a washed-up actor who once played an iconic superhero who has to overcome his ego and family trouble to mount a Broadway play to reclaim his past glory. 

• Sin City : A dame to kill for

The long awaited follow-up to Frank Miller's haunting Sin City will be here and with Robert Rodrigues (El Mariachi, Planet Terror) - on the helms again, we probably won't be missing Tarantino much this year. 

• Gone Girl

Riding high on his Emmy win (yes! for House of Cards) David Fincher adapts a Gillian Flynn novel about a girl who mysteriously disappears on her wedding anniversary. And as goes with Fincher - he is never satisfied with the thriller/suspense part but goes deep to the psychology, complications and dynamics of human relationships.

• Only Lovers left alive

The film is set in a space which spans centuries about the two vampires in love. A Jim Jarsmuch film. Initial reviews are abuzz with the poetic brilliance the film has managed to capture.

• Transcendence

The plot (A terminally ill scientist downloads his body into a computer. This grants him power beyond his wildest dreams, and soon he becomes unstoppable.) has already got us hooked but it remains to see how much from Christopher Nolan's enormous talent pool has percolated to his long time cinematographer Wally Pfister who makes his directorial debut with this. A sci-fi thriller with Knowledge vs Power theme at its core. Starring Johnny Depp, Kate Mara, Morgan Freeman among others.

• A million ways to die in the West

From the creator of the hilarious TV animation series Family Guy and 2012's rib splitting Ted - Seth Macfarlane is up this time with a Western comedy. Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Liam Nesson and the man himself.

• Foxcatcher

This drama film about the Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz is making buzz mostly because of Steve Carell's powerhouse performance as the paranoid, schizophrenic friend of the Schultzs. We can already smell The Fighter here. 

• The Double

Director Richard Ayoade stormed into the scene with his fabulous Submarine and now he is back with what looks like a Kafkaesque comedy based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name. Very interesting.

• Magic in the moonlight

How does he make movies at this ripe an age is a mystery and now that his writing has become less cynical and more about the human misery and innocence (self confessed) it will be interesting to see what kind of magic he weaves with his moonlight. 

• PK

The team of 3 idiots is back. Going by the filmography of Rajkumar Hirani - the man who comes from the Spielberg school of cinema - we know he can do no wrong. Sushant Singh Rajput and Anushka Sharma are on board too.

• Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel have upped their own ante with a movie that promises to be bigger than The Avengers with Bradley Cooper and the beautiful Zoe Saldana playing superheroes. 

• Nymph()maniac

Lars Von Trier's 5 hours long sex epic. Already has created a storm with its out of the box marketing campaign (mysterious website, O-pose posters, titillating clips) and has got mindblowing reviews when it opened in Danish theatres last Christmas. Seems the film is Von Trier's metaphorical Brothers Karamzov (the last Dostoevsky novel where he said all he had to say)

• Jupiter Ascending

"In a universe where humans are near the bottom of the evolutionary ladder, a young destitute human woman is targeted for assassination by the Queen of the Universe because her very existence threatens to end the Queen's reign."

Directed by the Wachowskis - the creators of the Matrix trilogy.

• The Wind Rises

The swansong of the one of the greatest animators of all time - Hayao Miyazaki. Set in the times of World War II, the films looks at the life of Jiro Horikoshi who designed fighter planes for Japan. This film is not only a major Oscar contender this year but also has wowed the critics, sparked controversies and finally annihilated the box office.

• Bombay Velvet

The most anticipated Hindi film of the year. Anurag Kashyap's big neo-noir film with Ranbir Kapoor as boxer/street fighter and Anushka Sharma as a jazz singer. With Amit Trivedi churning out 60's jazz tunes for the film, one can only froth until Christmas comes along.  

• Interstellar

A Christopher Nolan film. Enough said.

• The Grand Budapest Hotel

The biggest Wes Anderson film to date. (You can also guess that by the above poster!) And if you have watched any of his quirky crazy films, there is no reason for you to be not excited. Starring Ralph Fiennes as a hotel concierge who strikes up a friendship with a young employee at the hotel at which they work. 

Special Mentions : Rio, I Love you (by Fernando Meirelles, dir. City of God), Winter Sleep, The Amazing Spiderman 2, Ugly, Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem, Ridley Scott's Exodus etc.

So which movies are you looking forward to this year? Do let us know in the comments.

The 10 Best Hindi films of 2013

I would have liked to write an emotional introductory speech to kick start the blog in a more cheesy way but fortunately I too am a person with vacations and have to hurry (to greet the new year in a more embarrassing way than last year) So here's a very quick but thoughtful compilation of the best of Hindi cinema that came out this year. 2013 was a better year at the movies than the last for this year we saw films that were socially relevant, satirical, unafraid of taking risks, more entertaining and fortunately got a better distribution too. This year mostly belonged to low budget independent cinema and short films for which we can never thank UTV enough.

Why this top ten list - I can't say. I probably love doing this. But yes standing up for a film takes a lot more than writing it off. When you open your heart, you are open to ridicule and so does this list. So fearing less and loving more, here we go :   

PS:  I have excluded Chennai Express and Dhoom 3 from the list because they are truly great films and the list found itself too poor to include them. 

Disclaimer : This list remains what it is - a scribble of my personal humble brag opinions and verdicts. In no way does it express the view of TFPS as a whole. 

10. Ram-Leela

Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet travelled to Gujarat this time and still didn't get lost in the over indulgent canvases of the director. Even with all the ingredients of a typical Indian masala film - (bandooks, naach-gaana, thoda action-thoda jackson etc.) this one managed to stand out mostly due to the sizzling pair of Ranveer & Deepika who can easily stake their claim for the best Physics, Chemistry and Biology of the year award for blazing the screen to smoke like never before. Sanjay Leela Bhansali not only finds his feet after a string of flops but makes them dance with the grace and power only he is capable of. I tried to hate it for all the reasons that I could come up with but in the end COULD NOT. Man, it looked gorgeous even in the CAM-RIP. What could I do?    

9. Shahid

Based on the life of  human rights lawyer Shahid Azmi who was murdered in cold blood in his office while defending the wrongly accused of his community, this film not only brings out the extraordinary story about his fight for justice in a nation fragmented by communal divides but also maintains a non sentimental, non heroic tone throughout - the quality of every good biopic which Bhaag Milkha Bhaag ceremoniously lacked. Was doing the rounds of festival circuits for quite sometime before UTV decided to give it a theatrical release. As they say about justice in the film - "देर लगती है पर हो जाता है ।" Hard hitting and gritty film.

8. Bombay Talkies + Shorts

      






An amazing year for short films.

Bombay Talkies not only marked the completion of 100 years of Indian cinema (Raja Harishchandra was released on the same date a century back!) but also got the honour of being the first anthology film of India. . And it’s not everyday that Anurag Kashyap makes a film as sweet as a Murabba!

Taking the lead from Bombay Talkies, Shorts gave us 5 dark and chilling short films that unleashed upon us a breed of filmmakers who were young, bold and unafraid of challenging conventions and tell the stories that they wanted to. Two thumbs up.

7. Jolly LLB

Similar in tone with the outrageously funny 'Phas gaye re Obama' - which also happened to be the director's first film - this one, based on the famous BMW hit and run case of Sanjeev Nanda, too cracks up your ribs while being a topical, intelligent and power packed courtroom drama. Most important of all it breaks the stereotyping of courtrooms (and all the melodrama that came with it), and brings the actual face of Indian courts to the screens. A few songs tad unnecessary but in fact remains a genuinely funny crowd pleasing film with its soul in the right place.


6. Madras Cafe

Yes. For John Abraham - the producer (not the actor) for making a political thriller when everybody in the industry was shying away from it. A sensitive topic (the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi) and even more sensitive country but still they went and made it. All the credit goes to the explosive screenplay that cleverly hid all the flaws and  shortcomings and turned it into a gripping piece of cinema. And afterwards it also triggered a 3 hour long wiki freefall for me which I was only grateful. Excellent film.

5. Shuddh Desi Romance

This came as a stunner from the Yashraj camp. Jaideep Sahni - the man behind Chak de India and Khosla ka Ghosla once again surprised us with his delicious cocktail of Crush, Lust, Attraction, Love, Commitment and what not. This 'Chanchal Man ati random' take on marriage and relationships perhaps didn't go down well with even the so called 'liberal thinkers' and I think that's where this film gains the brownie points. After all where's the fun if you don't keep pissing off people? Not only the most audacious film but also the most contemporary and crackling romantic comedy which hit the screens this year.
  

4. Inkaar

The most overlooked film of the year. I know there is a common perception that Sudhir Mishra is a serious filmmaker and very 'arthouse' but this film totally fits into the commercial mould of filmmaking and is very easily accessible to the wider demographic which makes me wonder all the more why this film was underrated as badly as it was. About the film - it deals with sexual harassment in corporate set-up following the story of the CEO of an ad advertising company, who has to follow the lawsuit of sexual harassment filed by his protégé - Both of who also happen(ed) to be lovers. Very topical in its plot and treatment, filled with tension and conflicts, the film takes a semi-Rashomon route to dissect the hot cake of sexual harassment and arrives at this beautiful dialogue that sums up everything - तुम और मेरे जैसे लोग जो ज़िन्दगी में प्यार के अलावा भी बहुत कुछ चाहते हैं, क्या उनके बीच कुछ मुमकिन है ?


3. Ship of Theseus

If you have somehow got to know the plot of the film and what its about, you probably have already watched the movie or you simply have an enormous patience. This film is like opening a can of worms - once you watch it, you will be discussing it for days and weeks, I bet. Don't believe me? then take the challenge. 
Very Very Essential cinema.

2. The Lunchbox

How stupid of the FFI to not send this to the Oscars! The beauty of the film lies not just in the unique epistolary romance between Saajan and Ila but in the themes it touches upon that have a resounding global resonance. The fine subtlety displayed throughout the film wins hearts many times over. कभी कभी गलत ट्रैन भी सही जगह पहुंचा देती है । 
And Oh! Irrfan Khan - he sure can ACT. 

1. Raanjhanaa

Honestly speaking, this position would have belonged to any of the above three films but while picking one over another I go by their commercial viability. Raanjhanaa was mindblowing in so many ways that I cannot explain. This film will certainly be remembered for the its clever screenplay (the Communism connection among many other facets), AMAZING dialogues (the monologue at the climax - who is going to forget that?), ARR's mesmerizing music and obviously for the flamboyant wristcutter that was Kundan (First Nawaz, then Dhanush - totally changing the concept of a Bollywood hero. Powerhouse acting.). More importantly, came up with that innocent idea of romance that had gotten lost amid the nagging logic and chutiyaapa of modern day relationships. The film deserved all the accolades it got.

As Himanshu Sharma, writer of the film warns - इश्क़ में आबाद हो जाइए या बर्बाद हो जाइए पर बीच का जुगाड़ मत कीजिये । Priceless.


Honourable Mentions : 

Matru ke Bijli ka Mandola (the film takes a very much required anti commerce stand but falls in the trappings of commerce. Ironic. Pankaj Kapur's marvellous though.) The 1st half of D-Day (nail-biting like anything and Irrfan again delivers! Why they made the other half is a mystery till now.) B.A Pass (Shilpa Shukla and neon lights is what I will take with me from this film, rest was too morally bankrupt for me to appreciate.) Kai Po Che (a film you can't believe is based on a Chetan Bhagat novel. Superb acting and direction. Missed this list by a whisker - maybe I was looking for a profounder picture.) & Special 26.

Major Disappointments : 

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (drowned deep in kitsch and melodrama)  Lootera (technically brilliant but failed to move. When have the background tracks taken the story forward?) Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani (I simply can't believe this was the guy who made 'Wake up Sid'. A heap of clichés. Meh!) Satyagraha (Praksh Jha should go back to Congress, if he wants to fail so badly.)

You too must be having your favorites, so please do let us know in the comments. It'll be much appreciated. Here's wishing you all a Happy New Year and a great time at the movies.

( +Satyam Sai, the author of this blog post is one of the ex-governors of TFPS.)