My take on rapid change in movie making after AVATAR!

Should we really thank James Cameron for AVATAR?

Look around you, all the movie geeks are talking about one thing and one thing only, how Christopher Nolan spat on the face of every big film maker with something as unique as Inception! The excitement, the apprehension and off course the response of people after watching inception was so overwhelming that every filmmaker in entire world cinema felt like an ant in front of this epic creation. When was the last time we had a situation like this? Let me guess, around six months ago at the time of AVATAR?

When you sit down and think it through about Inception, you realize all that hype and anxiety in people was just because of one thing, they saw something original after a long time. Cinema changed rapidly after James Cameron's AVATAR. The net gross of 2.7bn$ wooed every big budget film producer and initiated the chain of sequels, remakes, even reboots and most sadly re-releases. Producers digged up the big franchise corpses and started new projects with same old concepts. Roughly around 90 3-D projects have got official release dates till 2012. The year which is supposed to be the end of human civilization also seems to be the end of 'cinema originality'.

The class which is badly affected due to this change is the 'Indie films'. Independent films are one of a kind yet ignored. And now with all these big budget flicks racing for box office success, these films are left far behind. An independent film shows you the real art of filmmaking. Yet somehow we close the eyes to this talented artist’s creation. Now with this entire 3-D buzz surrounding us, these films will be ignored more. Seriously tell me, how many of you saw ‘Winter’s bone’ which is a dark horse after Inception in this year’s Oscar’s race so far?

So is 3-D and CGI’s new ‘avatar’ a curse for world cinema? Definitely no. It all greedy producers who make 3-D movies with no sense. 2-D converted 3-D is worst case in this scenario. Try to remember your ‘Clash of the titans’ and ‘The last Airbender’ experience. I bet it must have ruined your all extra dimension craze for films.

In next two years all we are going to see are high budget technically advance movies with not a hint of good story. Thanks to directors like Christopher Nolan who still consider movie making as an art rather than just a money making business. And all this arises only one question, Should we really thank James Cameron for AVATAR?

-Pushkar Kulkarni

Udaan- Review

In the land of bollywood, almost thousands movies are released every year. But there are only few who remain in our heart. Udaan is one of those few which will be cherished for years.

Udaan is totally unconventional bollywood film which is at its very best. That’s what makes it a selection of 2010 Cannes Festival. Udaan deals with teenage problems. Not the one like finding a girlfriend to discover sex and bang her. These are real teenage problem (hard to believe?).

Rohan (played by Rajat Barmecha) is thrown out of boarding school with his bunch of friends after being caught watching an adult film in local theatre. Being expelled, he forcefully returns to his motherless home where his father Bhairavsingh (played by Ronit Roy) is nothing but a clone of Hitler. For him, the issues are mostly existential....Like, how does he cope with a father; how does he pursue his dreams of becoming a writer, when disciplinarian dad insists he must join him in the factory; how does he learn to love a step brother he doesn't even know; how does he get back to a family that doesn't exist; and how does he adjust to a small town with its uneventful life and its middle-class morality.

Udaan is essentially a performance movie. Characters like Rohan, his half brother Arjun and Bhairavsingh stays in your heart even after the movie. With only a star producer in its crew, Udaan smash into face of many big budget movies. Udaan is a terrific debuted for Vikramaditya Motwane. The way he kept everything so simple yet so strong is substantial. While watching, many might get a Déjà vu as most of these sequences are taken from our day to day life. It's hard not to be moved by the coming-of-age journey of Vikramaditya’s tale.

Udaan comes across as an intensely personal film; a coming-of-age story without the choreographed songs or road-trips. It has the edgy feel and the bitter sweet emotional core characteristic of India's neo wave cinema. No, life ain't all ha-ha-hee-hee and families that eat together don't always stay together, happily-ever-after. There's a lot of rough-and-tumble-beneath the gloss and that's where all the real drama actually lies. Get down to some real business. Enter some real homes. Grapple with some real problems. And feel some real joy....

My Rating- 4 out of 5

A must watch!!!