Shukriya, Amitabh Bachchan! (Celebrating 100 Years of Indian Cinema at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival)

Big B. certainly is getting around! At the Marrakech Film Festival, he was introduced by none other than Catherine Deneuve, one of my first cinema idols:

Bollywood and beyond: Looking Back at the 9th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart

Festival regular / Stammgast des Festivals (Photo: ©Peter Jebsen)

The festival formerly known as “Bollywood and beyond” was highly enjoyable this year (July 18-22, 2012): After several years at the impersonal SI-Centrum, the 9th edition of the Indian Film Festival Stuttgart finally returned to the great Metropol cinema in central Stuttgart. Some of the festival highlights happened at the 5 Bar * Restaurant * Lounge * Club next door – including the impromptu a cappella singing of Tannishtha Chatterjee (“Brick Lane” / “Shadows of Time”) at the opening party (around 1 am).

“When I asked you to blow, why do you suck?”

Bollywood subtitles from hell – posted on the page “Paagal Subtitle”:

Screenshot (paagalsubtitle.tumblr.com)

This fine site is a side project of the Beth Loves Hollwood blog (Twitter: bethlovesbolly).

Aparna Sen and Rahul Bose at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival

There was a nice Q&A session with director Aparna Sen and actor Rahul Bose after last night’s screening of “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer” at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival. I asked him whether his boxing and playing rugby have been helpful to his movie career. His answer:

7th Film Festival “Bollywood and beyond”: The Tweets (incl. Trailers)

Short Twitter reviews I posted after each screening during the Bollywood and beyond festival in Stuttgart:

Today’s Special (USA 2010): Deliciously funny & touching indie food movie. Naseeruddin Shah steals every scene he is in. I liked the movie right from the start – any film movie starting off with the music of 1957′s “Eena Meena Deeka” & food scenes is my thing. The movie will be released in the U.S. on October 8, 2010. Check out the official website and the Facebook fan page. ***** of *****

Einmal Bollywood und zurück, bitte!

Wie jedes Jahr befinde ich mich gerade beim Filmfestival “Bollywood and beyond” in Stuttgart (offizielle Website). Ich werde hinterher darüber bloggen, während des Festivals gibt es nur aktuelle Twitter-Updates.

Indien liegt in Middlesex

Mehfil Hotel
45 The Green
Southall UB2 4AR
Great Britain
Telefon: +44 20 8606 8811
www.threetunshotel.com

Wenn ich in London einen freien Abend habe, verbringe ich den als Freund des indischen Kinos und der indischen Küche gern in Southall, einem Ort in Middlesex, der wegen des hohen indischen und pakistanischen Bevölkerungsanteils auch „Little India“ genannt wird. Und dessen Bahnhof über eines der seltenen zweisprachigen Stationsschilder verfügt:

Paris? Hamburg? Beirut? Who Cares … It’s Bollywood!!!

This is the opening song of the movie “An Evening in Paris” (1967) … please watch it, and enjoy the authentic depiction of Paris by night (runs until time code 2:20):

You watched it? Okay. Now, allow me to elaborate for a second.

Filmtipp: “Wake Up Sid” – Bollywood Goes Indie

Ich versuche, in diesem Blog meine Bollywood-Begeisterung nicht allzu detailliert zu thematisieren, da es dafür sicherlich geeignetere Spezialforen gibt.

Ab und zu tauchen jedoch Bollywood-Filme auf, die ich ohne Bedenken auch all den Kino-Fans empfehlen kann, die sich für Hindi-Popular-Kino aus Mumbai bisher noch nicht so erwärmen konnten.

Ein solcher Streifen ist die von Star-Regisseur Karan Johar produzierte romantische Komödie „Wake Up Sid“, die am 2. Oktober 2009 in Indien anlief und dort laut Wikipedia in den ersten beiden Wochen an den Kinokassen die Nummer eins war. Und das, obwohl (oder weil?) der Film mit einigen Bollywood-Standards bricht. Er enthält keine Musik- und Tanznummern, und statt des sonst üblichen überfrachteten Masala-Stil-Mischmaschs erzählt er seine kleine Geschichte geradlinig, sensibel und fast zurückhaltend.

Stöckchen: “Fifteen Films and Fifteen Friends”

Found on Facebook: >> Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you’ve seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what movies my friends choose. <<

Here we go:

Main Hoon Na
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
She’s Gotta Have It
Lola rennt (Run Lola Run)
The Shining
Slumdog Millionaire
Life of Brian
Grease
Daai si gin (Breaking News)
Lat sau san taam (Hard Boiled)
Lagaan
Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist
Casablanca
Gone With the Wind
Hellzapoppin’

Gibt’s Freiwlllige für weitere Listen? / Any volunteers for additional lists?