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St. Paul’s Institute, Mumbai, screens Jafar Panahi’s This is Not a Film 4r611o
St. Paul’s Institute, Mumbai, screens Jafar Panahi’s This is Not a Film Made in 2011, This is Not a Film is a genre-defying, ground-breaking film (yes, it is a film) about the reputed Iranian film-maker, Jafar Panahi, made in collaboration with one who his friends, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, who wields the camera too. It was shot secretly in and from the house and building of Panahi, where he was serving a house-imprisonment sentence, for having made anti-establishment films secretly and...
Asia Tech x Singapore, 2025, 03: Industry Leaders to Accelerate Tech Adoption including GenAI for more than 6,000 Enterprises 6m5t41
Asia Tech x Singapore, 2025, 03: Industry Leaders to Accelerate Tech Adoption including GenAI for more than 6,000 Enterprises 1. New partnerships with industry giants Alibaba Cloud, Prudential and ST Engineering will give more local SMEs access to cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and cyber security. Announced today at the opening of ATxEnterprise by Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information, these new collaboration...
AsiaTech x Singapore, 2025, 02: Future of Broadcast: Asia-Pac, navigating the shift from legacy TV to a cloud-driven, streaming 412l4p
AsiaTech x Singapore, 2025, 02: Future of Broadcast: Asia-Pac, navigating the shift from legacy TV to a cloud-driven, streaming era One of the key themes shaping ongoing conversations in the broadcast and media industry is the Future of Broadcast. BroadcastAsia is the premier broadcast trade show in the Asia-Pacific region, bringing together the most influential broadcasters, media executives, and entertainment professionals. The event offers invaluable insights into the technologies a...
From the World of John Wick-Ballerina, Review: Biting the Ballet, gunfire and fireguns 1j253n
From the World of John Wick-Ballerina, Review: Biting the Ballet, gunfire and fireguns Father and young daughter talking seriously, almost in whispers; daughter clinging on to a plastic toy, where a ballerina performs to Tchaikovsky’s tune, in a small round container Heads, torsos and figures emerging from a river, carrying guns Hell breaks loose; there are a dozen or more men; they want to get to the man and his daughter, who, live in a fancy, remote mansion Bullets, bullets, more b...
Kubera song launch: Beggars can be choosers 166t6m
Kubera song launch: Beggars can be choosers Nagarjuna, Dhanush and Rashmika Mandanna in one film. Music by Devi Sri Prasad (DSP) and direction by Sekhar Kammula. This makes the project special (not Director’s Special, please). Also present was Jim Sarbh, who, apparently, plays the villain. They all came to the Juhu PVR INOX multiplex to launch two songs and a teaser on June 10. Proceedings began about two hours late, because Dhanush was shooting and could only come to the venue during t...
Asia Tech x Singapore, 2025, 01: Expo-nential 2m301o
Asia Tech x Singapore, 2025, 01: Expo-nential What began as a regular event at the Expo Exhibition during end May/beginning June, the humungous technology extravaganza was held during May 27-29 this year. This is where it began, and after stints at Marina Bay and Suntec City, it has returned to its roots, at Expo, in the far East of Singapore, which is where I first attended it, some 25 years back. It was then known as CommmunicAsia. Some years later, it added Satellite Asia, Broadcast Asia, ...
Bhool Chuk Maaf, Overview: 29 retakes of Scene 29, Take 29 1w6k5m
Bhool Chuk Maaf, Overview: 29 retakes of Scene 29, Take 29 Maddock Films has produced this movie. Maddock is a rarely used word and means "fortunate" or "goodly", and is of Welsh origin. It's an anglicised form of Madog, a Welsh given name. Historically, Maddock was a common surname and given name in Wales and neighboring areas. So, let’s put all mad in the dock, start looking at a film from this production power-house, and forgive mistakes, if any, for that is w...
Lilo & Stitch, Review: A Stitch in Time, and Space--Bad kid+bad alien=good kid+good alien Why li lo for 23 years, when you can stitch together a film that cocks-a-snook at genres? And what age-group is this cartoon, animation, live action, stop motion, motion capture, VFX, space travel, and many other technical processes, like AI? Get cracking. Wait a minute. Who is the product aimed at? The target audience? The age group? 0-3 years You must be joking! Do0 children in this bracket watch...
Mission Impossible-The Final Reckoning, Review: Tom Cruises through air, water, ice and land; dies twice, lives thrice 3y1745
Mission Impossible-The Final Reckoning, Review: Tom Cruises through air, water, ice and land; dies twice, lives thrice 1,000? You are nowhere near. 10,000? You are getting warmer. 100,000? That, I guess, is very, very, close. It must have taken at least 100,000 persons to put together this humungous spectacle called Mission Impossible-The Final Reckoning, going by the end credits roll. I am making a wild guess, since it was not possible to count the names, which went on rolling for several m...
PARAM KALRA: From sci-fi to Rom Kom 3j7369
PARAM KALRA: From sci-fi to Rom Kom Writer-director Param Kalra began his career rather modestly, with sex romps. He learnt about the basics of shooting any film during this period. Fate then got him opportunities to work for off-beat film-maker Anurag Kashyap and showman Subhash Ghai. Today, he has already made a sci-fi drama, ZIPCODE 47, and is working on his feature debut film, Rom Kom. Through a reference, Param ed showman Subhash Ghai in his story department, where he worked with An...
The Networker, Review: Not-worker 654y2t
The Networker, Review: Not-worker This might sound funny in the days, when film sound-tracks are no more released and marketed separately, but the makers of The Networker should consider ways of marketing their back-ground score. It is constant, comprehensive and compelling. It is also loud, distracting and jarring. But does it drown the dialogue? No. How is that possible? It is, if the dialogue track is equally loud and blaring. Was the team unaware that the sound is faithfully captured on m...
WAVES and I: Registrations open for everyone, except the most deserving media journalist 1vg3l
WAVES and I: Registrations open for everyone, except the most deserving media journalist Press Information Bureau (PIB) team WAVES put out a Press Release on 28 April on its website, as below. Reading it, we learn that WAVES will be held at the Jio World Center in BKC, Mumbai, during May 01-04. It ends with these words: for WAVES now. But it does not say that media-persons cannot now, or hereafter. PIB is the central government’s public relations and inform...
The Legend of Ochi, Review: Conversations with a baby monster 2x2b6t
The Legend of Ochi, Review: Conversations with a baby monster Whenever Hollywood films take-up a subject that is steeped in folklore, mythology, talking animals, birds, creatures or monsters, it creates a universe for them. In other, similar films, the creature is neither a hero or villain among his own ilk. Then there is the choice between full-fledged animation, or a combination of Animation and VFX. The Legend of Ochi is one film where the monster is neither glorified nor vilified. Instead...
Auntypreneur, Review: Stock market saves sassy Aunty’s housing society from demolition 216e29
Auntypreneur, Review: Stock market saves sassy Aunty’s housing society from demolition There are very few of his kind. Pratik Rajen Kothari is a cool, calm live-wire. I had seen him only in plays so far, so it came as a pleasant surprise that he has directed a Gujarati feature film. His father, Rajen Kothari, was an ace cinematographer, who died young. But Pratik is a real chip of the old block. Shot in Ahmedabad, with local actors, barring his protagonist, Supriya Pathak Kapur, the fil...
Another Simple Favor, Review: Hope, Charity, Faith and the other ‘f’ word forever 4v4q41
Another Simple Favor, Review: Hope, Charity, Faith and the other ‘f’ word forever An author who writes reality fiction and has a huge following on her ‘Moms’ social platform; she spills the beans on a gym instructor at a school, who films his children in the buff; he shoots and kills himself; she also provides material in her next book on a woman who, she says, murdered her sister; she sleeps with her half-brother; she has an obese black woman as an publishing agent wh...
Ground Zero, Review: Found Hero 1of1c
Ground Zero, Review: Found Hero Kashmir. The paradise on earth. The powder keg. The subject of a dozen films made in the last few years. Terror attacks launched by Pakistani infiltrators, or locals recruited by handlers, and Indian armed personnel targetted. Sometimes, civilians are among the casualties. Sometimes only civilians are killed. India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and the local police retaliate. Perpetrators are often found and eliminated. Their ‘handlers’ are se...
Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins, Review: Slick flick from Netflix, but does it click? 6k543m
Jewel Thief—The Heist Begins, Review: Slick flick from Netflix, but does it click? A film with a giveaway title. A film that repeats the title of a brilliant 1967 crime suspense thriller, starring Dev Anand and Ashok Kumar, and directed by Dev’s younger brother, Vijay ‘Goldie’ Anand. A film those title reminds you of the able ‘sequel’, Return of Jewel Thief, directed by Ashok Tyagi and starring Dev Anand and Ashok Kumar. A film produced by Siddharth Ana...
Kesari, Chapter 2, The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh, Review: Trigger-happy General Dyer, and Barrister Sankaran Nair on fire 533h4
Kesari, Chapter 2, The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh, Review: Trigger-happy General Dyer, and Barrister Sankaran Nair on fire It is the era of real stories, ‘based on real incidents, and biopics. Here is none more of the popular genre. Kesar is the Hindi word for saffron. It is also used as a patriotic symbol. Kesari means saffron-coloured. A film titled Kesari was released in 2019, the centenary anniversary of the Jallianwala massacre. It retold the story of Battle of Saragarhi, whe...
Big Bad Idea’s Outsiders Film Festival gets big, good audience 6m2e2x
Big Bad Idea’s Outsiders Film Festival gets big, good audience Had it been a regular theatre, they would have put up a sign saying House Full. But Veda Black Box in Aram Nagar II, Versova, is not a cinema, and is designed for more intimate gatherings, like plays and workshops, so no such sign greeted me when I arrived at the venue of the Outsiders’ one-day film festival, some 2 hours after it had started. That happened because I had another appointment in the morning/forenoon, and...
BIFFes 16, 2025: The flicks, picks and my jinx, Part II 6d1m5f
BIFFes 16, 2025: The flicks, picks and my jinx, Part II My third visit to the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) in three decades was enjoyable and comfortable. However, my selection of films to watch was jinxed, with very few movies meeting minimum expectations. Not surprising, considering the same had happened at the International Film Festival of India. As a critic, I prefer to pick films without doing any background reading or asking people who might know somethings about them...
BIFFes 16, 2025: The flicks, picks and my jinx, Part I 6z5x7
BIFFes 16, 2025: The flicks, picks and my jinx, Part I Among the 1,000 odd classic films that I had yet to see was an iconic film by the late actor-director-producer Guru Dutt, Kagaz Ke Phool (paper flowers). I had managed to watch his other classic, Pyasa, a few years ago. No restored print of Kagaz Ke Phool was available, till very recently, and when I saw the schedule of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes), I found that Kagaz Ke Phool, restored, was slotted for 7.30 pm show ...
BIFFes 16, 2025: All the Winners and Winners take all 2t6h68
BIFFes 16, 2025: All the Winners and Winners take all All eyes and ears were on Bengaluru International Film Festival’s Artistic Director, Vidyashankar Jois, on the evening of 8th March, at Sulochana, Information Department, Infantry Road. He first introduced the Selection Juries, that helped him reduce the number of entries from 400+ to 200, then the Award Juries were introduced, and finally, the films and makers who bagged awards. Besides the citation and a trophy, the awards, in each...
My Melbourne, Review: Ticking the diversity box 111665
My Melbourne, Review: Ticking the diversity box Taking the cue from the last segment, which centres around cricket, this is a boundary film, a four in one compendium, or anthology. It premièred last August, in Australia, and has been released yesterday, 14th March 2025, in India. Of the four protagonists, two are Indian and one Afghan. There is only one Australian in the lead cast. Again, three of the four are women and the fourth is a homosexual. Since it is shot in Melbourne, the iss...
2050 Care with Love: A lot of love and care, but little else 47531
2050 Care with Love: A lot of love and care, but little else On display here is a short film, shot in feature/TV serial episode style, where all the four main characters are sensitive, caring and loving individuals. As the film progresses, the qualities these individuals possess bloom on, and it all ends on a happy note. ‘Feel good’ is the operative term for 2050 Care with Love. But extricate yourself from the mushy situations on screen and apply film-making technique barometers, ...
Aamir turns 60, celebrates birthday with media 3e3q
Aamir turns 60, celebrates birthday with media It was producer Tahir Hussain’s residence on Pali Hill, Bandra, where I first saw his cute son Aamir. Aged about seven, he was sitting on a chair and apparently studying or doing his home-work. The year was 1972, and Tahir Hussain wanted me to help him get permission to shoot his new film Anamika’s first scene in my college, National College, which is situated on Linking Road. I had been a student of that college, and had held many po...
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About Siraj Syed 3m2j6u
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India. 2l6563
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, 6359a
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins. 3f1x2o
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984. 4u4r6c
Bandra West, Mumbai
Send me a message
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