Senior Rediff.com Contributor Aseem Chhabra is director of the New York Indian Film Festival, an entertainment writer and author of Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star. You can e-mail the author at aseem.chhabra@gmail.com
How wonderful it would be for all of us to watch the Oscar ceremony on March 2, 2025 and watch AWIAL win an Oscar, notes Aseem Chhabra.
Angry Young Men misses some important elements of the Salim-Javed story including an understanding of the duo's creative process. In fact, the two men do not even appear together in the same space in the series.
'I think because India is a bigger country and Bollywood is such a well-oiled machine, the star thing has become so much bigger than the actor thing.'
'I think of that young baby, still in her diapers, balancing with her arms held up by her mother, a Tamil woman wearing a salwar kameez and a dupatta, seated on a stoop,' recalls Aseem Chhabra.
'It's such a mishmash of wonderful things, so many different cultures, subsections of society and weird histories.'
'Hope is about being more accepting of each other, the kind of solidarity and friendship that even our families may not be able to give.'
'I have nostalgia for Ladakhi culture, which is common to both Muslims and Buddhists.' 'It is kind of a Buddhist way of life. You are compassionate and nice to each other.' 'You are good human beings.'
'The problems that the film explores still remain. It was a different time when we made the film. We were young and we thought we could change the world.'
The show takes its own pace to pick up, but then when you least expect, it grabs you by the throat, notes Aseem Chhabra.
'Pandi was promised something, that is not happening, so his anger is not of a villain's.' 'That's how all normal humans would react, or they stay silent.' 'Our violence is our silence. So in this world, everybody is innocent.'
In the biggest surprise of the night, Emma Stone grabbed the Best Actress trophy for the complex portrayal of a Frankenstein-like character Bella, in Yargos Lanthimos' electrifying and most original film Poor Things. Aseem Chhabra recaps the 96th Annual Academy Awards.
Martin Scorsese, 'the reigning king of cinema', gets an honorary Golden Bear at the 74th Berlinale.
'I thought of a suppressed country and a free world.' 'If we travel from one to another, what will that road look like?' 'What colours, music there will be? What kind of people would you see?'
'Usually, we are always worried that we are missing out something in life.' 'We are very keen for the audience to have this as a cinema experience in theatres.' 'You get the rare chance to be patient.'
'I went to a school in Baroda, where if the boys harassed us, the teachers pulled the girls aside and said, "Oh, your skirts are too short".' 'They made us feel ashamed of having any sexual feelings or having bodies that were growing up to be a young women.'
Aseem Chhabra rates the movies he's watched in 2023, and tells you where you can watch them!
'This was a film, a story that had never been told before.'
'Find a name that changes the words honor killing and hopefully it includes the word murder.' 'If you use the words, you are trying to justify the murders.'
Aseem Chhabra lists his favorite 2023 films -- a healthy blend of Bollywood, Hindi indies and some of the best work that is being done in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali cinema.
2023 was a good year for international cinema with many strong films premiering at the Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto film festivals.
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