Just wanted to thank everyone that have posted birthday wishes to me on this blog, on my e mail and via text. I spent my birthday on a flight to London, on my way to Marrakech. Where I am on the jury of the film festival. The chairman of Jury is Milos Foreman, who has made some of my all time favourite films…..
… Ragtime, One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest, Amedeus. To spend time with him analysing films is reason enough for me to be here. The actor John Hurt is also on the Jury. I feel humbled in this company.
Of course there is a very fuzzy line between judgement and prejudice. Or even a sense of what is contemporary. For that changes from culture to culture. But I have done this before and the most exciting part of this is when the jury does not agree. That ensures a completely healthy and hugely educative debate. especially when the people involved are the likes of Milos Foreman and John Hurt.
shekhar
Dear Shekhar,
I hope you have a wonderful time at the Marrakech Film Festival and I hope you enjoyed your birthday. I had the pleasure to meet and briefly talk to Milos Foreman in New York a few months back where they were screening ‘Amadeus’ at the official AMPAS theater in Manhattan. They do an event called ‘Monday Nights with Oscar’ and screen one oscar winning film each month, and it was probably one of the best films I saw in my life ever. I thought a long( 2hrs 40 min) costume drama might not be as interesting but the film flew away in like 5 min. The theater, the audience, the film – its score, writing, acting and Milos’ Oscar winning direction were all perfect – the audience looked stunned and humbled and even after 23 yrs gave him a standing ovation.
I truly hope you have a wonderful time at the Festival and do share your experiences with us.
Best Regards,
Himanshu
Belated birthday wishes. Hoping you have a splendid year ahead.
Good Morning Shekar….
Neendh nahi ah rahi…
Uffffff
Hi Shekhar, we share favourites there. Milos/OfotCn attracted my attention towards the power of Cinema and the art of symbolic film making.
It very beautifully showed the eternal conflict between creative free spirit and established social control.
Belated happy b’day Shekhar.Funny how i got the opportunity to celebrate ur b’day with a cake while u were away in a plane.U see my son ‘Swaijit’ just turned 5 on Dec 6 this year.
Dear Shekhar,
Why did we lose you? Why could the Indian film industry not look after you?
Great talents like Shyam Benegal, yourself could have put the real Indian cinema on the map – not the fluffy NRI inspired Karan Johar stuff.
I love bollywood masala movies too, but lately there have been NO movies you would want to pass on to your kids to watch later.
My dad passed on Do Bheega Zameen, Jewel Thief, Guide, Shatranj ke Khiladi,Masoom, Kalyug, Junoon, Kabhie Kabhie, Kaala Pathar – we got nothing – Bandit Queen was the last great Indian movie.