Hello Cinema

12/09/2018

15/05/2015

Dr Rashmi Doraiswamy's wonderful introduction to Yoji Yamada-san's work

15/05/2015

Dr Rashmi Doraiswamy's introduction to Yoji Yamada the great Japanese filmmaker was a wonderful start to a delightful evening at The Japan Foundation, New Delhi. Her talk preceded the screening of one of Yoji Yamada's masterpieces The Hidden Blade. Dr. Doraiswamy rightly pointed out that Yoji-san's work is not very well known in India. She highlighted some very key characteristics of Yoji Yamada's films like the importance he gave to the theme of family, humane stories simply presented. She complimented Japan Foundation for selecting works by Yoji Yamada and specially the two films that were being screened -
the Hodden Blade and Kabei the Mother.

12/05/2015

Born September 13, 1931 in Toyonaka, Osaka, Yoji Yamada is a Japanese film director best known for his Otoko wa Tsurai yo series of films and his Samurai Trilogy (the Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor). He has won many awards throughout his lengthy career and is well respected n Japan and by critics throughout the world. He wrote his first screenplay in 1958, and directed his first movie in 1961. Yamada continues to make movies till day.

We will be showcasing two of his movies The Hidden Blade & Kabei: Our Mother Foundation, Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi on May 15 and May 16 respectively.

We request your presence for the event.

12/05/2015

The 10th Habitat Film Festival ( 8 to 17 may 2015) has a very good selection of films. Seen a number of them but the two which made an impact were the Malayalam film Ottal by Jayraj and the Hindi film Citylights by Hansal Mehta. Both were heart wrenching and that is where the similarity ends.... Ottal a visual delight set in the backwaters of Kerala, extremely well acted by non actors - Kumarakam Vasudevan as the grandfather and young Master Ashanth K. Sha as his grandchild. Ottal won both the Best film on Environment and Best Screenplay in the 62nd National Film. Awards. Jayraj has the great quality of making his films memorable one never forgets his hard hitting simply worded emotional dialogue like in Karunam where the old grandfather wishes to know how was Niagara Falls more important for his grandchildren than visiting the grandparents. Jayaraj has mastered the art of engaging one both visually and emotionally. Citylights was gripping and kudos to Hansal Mehta for making such challenging films. Very well acted Rajkumar Rao and Patralekha. The young couple's plight leaves one very concerned about the disparity that exists specially in large metros. Great direction Hansal!

30/01/2015

GANDHI LIVES, does not present a stereotypical portrait of Gandhi, but rather looks at him through the eyes of a generation who never knew him. This view in the film highlights what Gandhi was and how he is perceived today. The film refrains from intellectualizing Mahatma Gandhi, and steers away from relegating him to the dusty pages of history. Instead it explores the relevance of Gandhi in modern times through professionals and ordinary people in urban and rural India. It ends with Gandhi coming alive, seen through the eyes of a 92 year old remarkable man, V. Kalyanam, the last Personal Secretary to Gandhi.

27/11/2014

8
(Being screened at the Hello Cinema Film Club on 29 November 2014 at H 1508, Chinmaya Ranjan, CR Park)
In the depths of a snowy forest in an unknown wartime, two soldiers from opposing armies try to outwit each other in a perilous game of cat and mouse - until they find themselves outplayed by destiny.

26/11/2014

TOYLAND
The respective sons of a Jew & 'A***n' family discreetly take piano lessons together. The deportation of the Jews to a concentration camp is imminent, and when the eager A***n Boy asks why they may have to go soon, his mother does not tell him the truth. She instead invents a story that the Jews will go to a new place called "Toyland". The A***n boy secretly plans to go with them.

26/11/2014

Jockstrap Raiders, 19 mins. USA
An Oscar winning Film, Mark Nelson's Student Film is set in Leeds, England at the time of the First World War and centres on a group of misfits unable to enlist in the regular armed forces. When they hear of an imminent attack by the German Kaiser, who is constructing a bridge across the English Channel, they embark on a mission to save their country using homemade planes and explosives. The squadron are forced to strip to their jock straps in order to get their fleet of aircraft airborne and, despite many mishaps, succeed in blowing up the bridge and saving the nation.

25/11/2014

COMMEMORATING THE WORLD WARS!
The absence or presence of war has determined the fate of many nations and peoples in the world today. As the world observes in horror and awe the 100th Anniversary of the First World War and the 75th anniversary of the other, we attempt to understand the roles of peace and conflict through cinematic stories from different parts of the world. For most of us, born or having lived most part of our lives in this identity driven, post globalization world, war, in a conventional sense, is a distant reality. Yet, the two wars that half of the world fought to subdue each other, has only led us to believe what Bertand Russell once said: “War does not determine who is right, only who is left.”

26/09/2014

A peak into the Films being screened this month:

Dhyaan Dein (Attention Please ) by Ansh Vohra & Satendra Singh

Actuality and perception of actuality are two different, but equally valid realities. What's ordinary might suddenly seem bizarre and what's bizarre might emerge from something extremely ordinary. The film juggles between these two realities while trying to blur the lines that separate them in an attempt to understand them both better.