Or perhaps it’s the feeling that political projects are not bankable; that audiences are mostly looking for escapist fare.  Making a full-length film is quite an investment , so the prospect of the film running to empty halls is not for the faint-hearted. And finally, it’s probably a matter of talent as well – how does one explore a complex issue without taking sides? How does one avoid the temptation of righteous indignation or the call to stereotype? How does one, in the end, make a film that does more than just entertain ?

Unsurprisingly, the directors who have chosen to explore the political genre are some of the most talented we have in India : Gulzar, Mani Ratnam, Prakash Jha and Ram Gopal Varma, to name a few.

Here, then, on the heels of the release of Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti, MoovieShoovie and its community members present the pick of India’s political movies.Special thanks to  community member Mihir Trivedi for his contributions. Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you ..

India’s Best Political Cinema

Aandhi Directed by : Gulzar

This 70′s movie was supposed to have been based on Indira Gandhi’s life and was banned on release. Despite immortal songs such as “Tum Aa Gaye Ho” and stellar performances by Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen, this movie never got its due. Even today, it’s hard to lay one’s hands on a copy of the film.

Gangaajal Directed by : Prakash Jha

Set in the heartland, this is the story of an upright police officer who wants to improve law and order, only to find that his political masters are the selfsame thugs who have managed to get themselves into the houses of parliament. Frustrated, he begins to use a questionable method to enforce law and order. Gracy Singh plays his wife, who is horrified at his moral descent. Sadly, her relentless probing only serves to drive the couple further apart .

Satta Directed by : Madhur Bhandarkar

Raveena Tandon plays a woman who marries into a politically powerful family. She turns into a politician herself to get back at her husband and his family; and to make herself heard. She creates a niche for herself as being a woman politician was not much appreciated in that time and place. As opposed to other films of the political genre where the protagonist himself/herself has to compromise on their basic moral character to manipulate the levers of the system, Satta shows a main character who exploits the system while remaining unsullied herself.

Main Azad Hoon Directed by : Tinnu Anand

One of the best performances by Amitabh Bachchan to date, this movie was way ahead of it time in portraying the relationship between media and politics. Shabana Azmi plays a journalist who chances upon a device to voice her frustration, penning a column in the name of Azad.  The column becomes an unexpected hit. She looks for a way to extend its run with the connivance of her editor and props up a homeless man as the original author. Based on Capra’s “Meet John Doe”, this movie is entirely believable in the Indian setting, thanks to strong writing and performances.

Sarkar Directed by : Ram Gopal Varma

Sarkar shows that there is a very thin line between the underworld and politics. This is considered another of Ambitabh Bachchan’s stronger roles, wherein he plays – let’s call a spade a spade – a Godfatherish figure and political leader with a righteous streak. Kay Kay Menon and Abhishek Bachchan  play his sons, one a gadabout and the other an earnest US-returned fellow who ends up bearing the mantle of Sarkar.

Apaharan Directed by : Prakash Jha

The film , set in Bihar , tells the story of a tumultuous and complex relationship between an honest father and son, set against the backdrop of a thriving kidnapping industry . Inspired by his father, a socialist leader, Ajay Devgan wants to be a police officer. Thwarted in his aims, he makes a deal with the devil – or the local don – in order to fund his wearing of the khakhi vardi and sets into motion a sequence of events filled with betrayals and double-crosses.

Iruvar (Tamil) Directed by : Mani Ratnam

Said to be based on the true-life stories of two giants of Tamil politics – MGR and Karunanidhi – Iruvar traces the story of two friends, one a script-writer and the other a struggling actor. As their stars ascend, they come to the notice of the legendary political leader, Annadurai. Together, they bring the political party to dizzying heights. But when they find themselves in contention for the chief minister’s chair, their friendship turns into rivalry . Mohanlal and Prakash Rai play the leading roles.

Satya Directed by : Ram Gopal Varma

The film is the story of a young man, who chases a dream to Mumbai and ends up in the underworld. It is the story of men for whom killing is just another job. It lights flashbulbs in the underworld, a world that is dark, murky and unpredictable. Satya tries to hold on to a promise of a normal life with the woman he loves but that dream slips from his grasp as the consequences of his actions come home to roost. Manoj Bajpai as Biku Mhatre essays the role of a lifetime and pulls it off.

New Delhi Times Directed by : Ramesh Sharma

This movie is probably lost for good … a pity, since it is said to be an exceptionally well-made movie about an investigative journalist who is horrified to uncover the close links between gangsterism and politics. He risks his life and limb to unravel the treads of two tragedies, one a mass death caused by spurious liquor and the other, the death of a political leader. He finds them connected to a single individual, a rising politician.  Determined  to uncover the truth, he finds that he is being manipulated for political gains .

Generally, political thrillers don’t have happy endings. Should there be movies in which the individual triumphs over the system ? Surely, there must be a few cases in a country as vast as ours. Are the tragic endings formulaic in their own way ? Tell us on this blog , on our fan page and at our app, First Show

About our office

Location : Sindhi Colony, near Ulsoor Lake

Size : Not sure, roughly 1000 sq ft. Outside seating area of about 300 sq ft.

Furniture : Most provided, probably best if you bring your own. No cubicles, but open desk atmosphere. Kitchenette with Fridge.

UPS : Available, but needs to be upgraded.

Date available : June 1st 2010

Not your type ? Tell us if you have space in yours at info@moovieshoovie.com

As a mom myself, I often bemoan the lack of good films to watch with my son. If I were in Mumbai, I would run, not walk, to this festival.

Check out the schedule

DATE

Morning Show – 11 a.m. to 1p.m.

Afternoon Show – 4 p.m.to 6 p.m.

03.05.10

Chutkan ki Mahabharat

Dir: Sankalp Meshram

Krish Trish and Baltiboy – 1(Animation)

Dir: Munjal Shroff & Tilak Raj Shetty

05.05.10

Halo

Dir: Santosh Sivan

Karamati Coat

Dir: Ajay Kartik

07.05.10

Mahek Mirza

Dir: Kranti Kanade

Charandas Chor (B&W)

Dir: Shyam Benegal

10.05.10

Chota Sipahi

Dir: Jayashree Kanal & A.S. Kanal

Kabhi Paas Kabhi Fail

Dir: Virendra Saini

12.05.10

Sunday

Dir: Pankaj Advani

Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo

Dir: Sridhar Rangayan

14.05.10

Aasman Se Gira

Dir: Pankuj Parashar

Malli

Dir: Santosh Sivan

17.05.10

Bhago Bhoot

Dir: Sai Paranjpye

Lilkee

Dir: Batul Mukhtiar

19.05.10

Mujshe Dosti Karoge!

Dir: Gopi Desai

Dost Magarmach

Dir: Romulus Whitaker

21.05.10

Karamati Coat

Dir: Ajay Kartik

Chutkan ki Mahabharat

Dir: Sankalp Meshram

24.05.10

Krish, Trish & Baltiboy -1 (Animation)

Dir: Munjal Shroff & Tilak Raj Shetty

Uranchoo

Dir: Shivendra Sinha

26.05.10

The Goal

Dir: Gul Bahar Singh

Hungama Bombay Ishtyle (B&W)

Dir: Siraj Ayesha Sayani

28.05.10

Kaya Palat

Dir: Satyen Bose

Halo

Dir: Santosh Sivan

31.05.10

Foto

Dir: Virendra Saini

Hayat (Iran)

Dir: Gholam Raza Ramejani

So run, don’t walk, to Summer Bonanza. We’d be there if we lived in Mumbai !

Honestly, we don’t compete with YouTube with the same content, just like we don’t compete with other sites that give away content for free.  Our slice of the market is different : it is the monetization of premium content that is in search of the right audience. And while we’re on the topic, this is a nice deal for YouTube, but I’m puzzled as to why the makers of Striker – a large, well-monetized division of Network 18 – signed up for it.

To understand why the makers of Striker might have taken this path ( which effectively shoots them in the foot) , let’s first talk about how the revenues for a movie are structured. In general, the theatrical rights of a movie are sold first for a large lumpsum; after which DVD and TV-channel rights are sold. Depending on a movie’s quality, these rights would be worth lakhs, if not crores, of rupees.

If a movie’s makers were to release a movie to the internet – for free – at the same time the movie was being made available via theaters, DVD and TV, what would happen ?

I’ll pause here to let you imagine the consequences, but the short answer is this : the partners who are selling ticket seats, DVDs and TV ads would be very upset because online consumption would eat into their revenues.  For this to be financially viable, the revenues from online sales accruing to the maker of the film would have to equal the revenue from the sale of DVD, theatrical and TV rights.

Now look at another piece of data : the ad revenue from online video turns out to be about $50 per thousand views. If we’re talking about 50-50 rev share, that’s about $25 per thousand views – at the top end. You’ll quickly see that the numbers don’t add up for a direct to online strategy : not only does it eat into the real money, it also doesn’t amount to much by itself even when future revenues are added up.

It would only make sense if the makers didn’t expect the movie to do at all well in the cinemas or in stores. A quick look at Box office India tells us that Striker has indeed done very badly at the cinemas, but whether this is the cause of their free online distribution initiative or the effect of it is not clear. See http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/boxoffice_update/index.html for viewership rates of 5-7% .  And despite whatever I am hearing about 2 lakh views, the most I could see onYouTube was about 11,000 views of one of their promos. If someone can direct me to the actual movie, I would be greatful. Update : tried it and got the message that Studio 18 “has decided to block it in your country”.

You’ll also notice that the makers of “3 idiots” talked about free online distribution, but quickly backed away when it turned out that the movie was a super-duper hit.  Giving away good movies for free just doesn’t make sense financially for the movie-maker, especially for large movie corporations that invest pretty heavily in their films and have no immediate reason to give away movies for free. From a revenue POV, online distribution is like icing on the cake, not the cake itself…. for now, anyway.

Now why did the makers of Striker opt for this , knowing that they were forgoing revenue ?

Answer a: This is a good way to give Siddarth, the hero of this movie, some name recognition since he isn’t known much outside  his native Andhra Pradesh . It would make sense if the studio had a multi-movie contract with Siddarth.

Answer b: They knew that their movie would do badly in their theaters and decide to use this as a strategy to position themselves as innovators and to experiment with online distribution.

Answer c: They didn’t know yet about MoovieShoovie : ) , which would have given them a chance to reach a wider audience without compromising their film’s premium content positioning.

This is a super-interesting space that’s full of developments and we are learners ourselves, so we will wait and watch – quite literally .

Your thoughts ?

There are lots of things one finds in desi movies that have one doing a literal double-take. Yes, one needs to suspend one’s disbelief when watching a typical desi film – we’ve all had plenty of practice believing that people are able to create songs and set them to tunes on the spur of the moment, that folks can disguise themselves for years just by donning a pair of sunshades, that  40-year-olds can be college students. But we’re not talking about what has become par for the course. We are talking about scenes that require one to take that suspension of disbelief to a whole new level. Here, then, is an anthology that is sure to boggle your mind and leave you asking ” Whaaaat ? Did I just see what I thought I saw??”

Take notes, young Casanovas, on accessories that will impress the beautiful heiress . Imagine this scene: dry barren lands surrounded by hills on all sides. No sign of water anywhere in the frame. Looks like the place hasn’t received any kind of rain for years together, leave alone a lake or a river there. And out steps a jaunty Dev Anand in a natty outfit and the funkiest of all accessories – a fishing rod. With a plastic fish hanging from it.   Is he going to win his lover girl by flaunting such unimaginable accessories? Watch it and find out in this classic from ‘Jewel Thief’

Who said vegetarians are weak ? Sanjay Dutt is a ruthless killer, alcoholic and womanizer who is smitten by Madhuri. His guards abduct her and leave her at his mercy . As he leers at her, Madhuri breaks into a dance to express her contempt for him. But wait ! This is not the unbelievable part. At the end of the clip, an animal knocks the Dutt down flat, enabling Madhuri to flee. Guess which animal ? Hint 1 : It is a herbivore  Hint 2: It has two long ears.

Yes, you guessed right ! Out of the blue an innocuous little rabbit  flies at the deadly Dutt and lands him a knock-out punch. Watch the super strong knock out punch here.

Not surprisingly, this  creativity is not restricted to the Hindi movies alone. Here are a few such classics from the worlds of Tollywood and Kollywood.

Bullet Balakrishna – Villain ties up the hero and his near and dear ones. Common enough! There is a bomb tied to one of them. Common again! Hero tries to save everyone. No movie is complete without this! Now comes the shocker – how does he save everyone ? Watch this for the one and only Bullet Balakrishnan in action.

Matrix Vijayakanth – Don’t despair that Matrix hasn’t been released in Indian languages. Our Tamil movies more than fill the gap. Watch Vijayakanth in this ‘glass-shattering’ sequence proving as an inspiration to some of the Hollywood superstars. Here comes the Kollywood Matrix.

And if you haven’t gone bonkers laughing your heart out, here are two more plum examples of magical realism from the South Indian film industry.

Enjaaaaaay !!

Happened on “The Way I work” series put together by the folks at Inc. Magazine, featuring people like Jason Fried from 37 Signals, Essie Weingarten of Essie Cosmetics , Matt Mullenweg of WordPress and others. I seem to remember that Fortune Magazine had done a similar series on leadership behemoths like Colin Powell and John McCain, but Inc.’s set is a lot more inspirational and actionable to me because they feature entrepreneurs . BTW, Inc. has some really good content for startups – wonder how I never came across it before.

A lot of folks in the series talked about how they don’t really require their employees to come in to work and are perfectly happy with them working from home. Well, this is something I subscribed to when I first got to Bangalore from the Valley, but over the past year, have changed my stance significantly. You would think that, on the surface, working from home would be a good solution in a city where traffic is the single biggest deterrent to productivity, but as I found out, the cultural and infrastructural set up doesn’t really support that. Here’s why .

Spotty power and connectivity : The first shocker for most people like me is that power and internet connectivity are unreliable in India. You or your employee might be terrifically productive at home – but you do need power and internet connectivity , right ?  In India, the power and network connectivity have frequent outages, sometimes several times a week. If your employee does not have a generator at his place, then he’s pretty much out cold for the count. It may take a few minutes or several hours for him to become productive again –  how is that going to impact your project ? At the very best, this kind of experience is very frustrating, at the middling, it is lost time that you can never regain, at the worst it becomes an excuse for every late project.

I just called to say “Your code sucks”: Having tough conversations is that much more complicated when you’re not face to face. The difficulty of demonstrating how something does not work on your machine when someone else claims that it works on his machine is exacerbated by distance. We’ve had that experience , and it was not fun. Our team has changed since, and I’m happy to say that we all come in to work and don’t have the same issues any more.

The team that has fun together stays together : You miss out on a lot of the good stuff when you’re working from home. At MoovieShoovie, we all come in and leave at different times, but we have lunch together. Talking and gossiping for this short thirty-minute period every day is an effective adhesive – it brings us closer so that we don’t have to do any “team-building activities” ( though, of course, we go out pretty much every fortnight). Employees who don’t come in miss that camaraderie. I wonder how they managed to build the team spirit at 37sig, wordpress et. al. when they were all in their individual cocoons.

That said, I think one of the unsaid points in all these articles was that people do creative work on their own schedule and not always from 9 am to 6 pm. I totally agree with that principle- it’s just that working in India needs a different model. Out here we are most productive when we come in to work, have reliable infrastructure and enjoy the face-to-face interactions. None of our meetings last more than 30 minutes, and we never have more than 2 a week. Almost everything can be resolved with a 45-second conversation across the table, so our email traffic is at a minimum.  Which is a relief in itself.

BTW, we use Google sites to help us track weekly deliverables. What do other people use ?

Dilip Kumar in Ram Aur Shyam where Ram is the mild one and Shyam the
confident one

Seeta Aur Geeta, one of Hema‘s rise to fame movies. Seeta, the meek one and Geeta, the heroic one.

Who can forget Amitabh in Don. In a double role as Vijay, the Mr.Nice guy and Don, the underworld, well, Don.

Then there was Chalbaaz with Sridevi in the roles of Anju and Manju. An absolute treat for all Sridevi fans.

The most recent one was Kaminey. Shahid in a double role.While Guddu is a simpleton,his twin brother, Charlie is one whithout a conscience and ready to make a quick buck.

Finally, the one that I saved for the last, is comedy at its best..Angoor. With 2 pairs of identical twins played by Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma.

In 40 countries (17.7%)

Front-end engineer(s) : We have a requirement for a junior engineer with 0-2 years of experience in front-end technologies like HTML, Javascript and XML. This person will work with our designer and product team to deliver an exceptional user experience and have the opportunity to work on Facebook apps and the like. Must love technology, must have developed the odd app or website and must be a real go-getter. FT with excellent prospects.

Interaction/Graphic designer ( PT): Will work with our business and community teams to design the user experience. Will be on the leading edge of designing exceptionally useful and visually attractive UIs. This is a key PT role with the possibility of developing into a FT role. Portfolio is a must.

QA Lead : 3-5 years of experience with consumer apps, should understand how to test fast and test smart. Should have high standards and be willing to own the responsibility of delivering a stable and usable product to end users. FT/PT

Who we are : A media company that aims to make great Indian cinema accessible the world over. We are 3 FT and 1 PT person, all with graduate degrees. Our site has been launched in Beta since June . Traffic has been growing at 200% month over month, with visitors from 25 different countries visiting our site. We aim to use social media to leverage the inherent virality of Bollywood to make a market for streaming video, DVDs and merchandising. We promise both freedom and responsibility; and an outstanding experience for your career.

Read an entertainment headline today, Rakhi Sawant, after her tremendous success in ‘Rakhi ka Swayamvar’ is now going to be on ‘Pati, Patni Aur Woh’, another reality show. I almost doubled over, mostly with frustration, I think.
Tell me guys, do people really want to watch Rakhi Sawant on prime time TV, in a main character role? I cannot and will not digest this. Is the viewership so good for them to announce another show with her in a lead role? Is my mind so twisted that it cannot fathom this? The swayamvar ads were all over the place.Even those of us not following the show knew about it. Ask any child about swayamvar, and she/he will know because of Rakhi, not because of Sita.
Rakhi Sawant has gone up the ladder, from an item girl tag, she now has the tag of a REALITY STAR! I can now accept Shilpa Shetty’s leap to fame with Big Boss a little more easily. Can we not see the downward graph of our quality on TV?
Shilpa Shetty – > Rakhi Sawant -> What next?(Bobby Darling??Dont know who that is?Lucky You!!) Are we not going really wrong somewhere?

I am not saying we should start watching Ramayan. But we definitely are in dire need of sensible TV. We have such intelligent people in the industry and in the audience. I do not want to believe that shows like this is what ‘aam junta’ wants! The cycle has to end sometime, somewhere. Either the producers have to take a risk and not just go by ratings OR the audience, for the lack of anything else, instead of watching this, should turn the TV off, and turn the radio on!
Don’t we remember in the early 80s and part of 90s we had some terrible movies? Before that we had some masterpieces, and again, after that we have had a lot of directors, ready to risk making good movies. Am not referring to some low budget, no light, no make up actors showing us what bad things happen in the world today. I am talking about a Dil Chahta Hai, an Omkara and a Jab We Met, which made loads of money too..When there are good creative people ready to take a risk on a good script with confidence, producers will be ready to plunge too and vice versa.

We need that kind of revolution on TV. Some simple measures…
1)Lets not copy what is happening out in the west. Lets be original guys. Indians, through history, have been forerunners in so many things. Let’s try to get back there.
2)We need laughter on TV. Not cheap slapstick, but real good humor. I am sure our writers can think harder!
3)And please, oh please, let kids be kids! Don’t slap on makeup on them and ask them to say things, which I think, my granny used to say ! Remember Kachi Dhoop? Amol Palekar ji, where are you?We need more serials from the likes of you.