Something interesting happened to me this morning. Got a mail from Saumin, which had a youtube link: Positive: A Short Film by Farhan Akhtar. I remember I wanted to see this film for a longtime but as it happens always, the ‘want’ slipped my mind completely till I got this mail. Anyway enough of प्रस्तावना let me come back to the main topic – मुद्दे की बात as we call it.
Film makers coming together to do short films for social causes or otherwise isn’t a new concept for west. Tarantino and Rodriguez have been doing it since you can remember (I know..I know they are not that old to use such a phrase..but still)..Not for any social cause though (yup…if popularizing Grindhouse Movies was a social cause, they’ve done it). Anyway, without indulging into too many details and instances where film makers came together to direct different stories/sections of a film in Hollywood (Twilight Zone-The movie or Four Rooms for example) I would like to get back to the topic.
I was talking about Indian film makers coming together to make a film/collection of Short Film, you rarely get to see such thing here (sorry I don’t consider Sanjay ‘DVD’ Gupta’s Dus Kahaniyaan as a film). Sometime during last year I was pleasantly surprized, when I heard the news of Mira Nair producing a collection of four short films on AIDS Awareness by four acclaimed Indian film makers- Mira herself, Vishal Bharadwaj, Santosh Sivan and Farhan Akhtar.
These films were premiered on various TV Channels including Zoom and Nat Geo but thanks to my anti-cable movement, wasn’t able to see them then except for Mira's Migration.
Just watched the films on youtube and felt like sharing them with the readers (if there are any) of my blog. Do watch them, they are really good.
I don’t know how to add videos to my blog, so I am posting the links.
About the Films:
AIDS JaaGO is A Mira Nair Project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has four short films by four different directors. Mira's Migration, Vishal Bharadwaj's Blood Brothers, Santosh Sivan's Prarambh and Farhan Akhtar's Positive.
Every film has its makers' signature style and flavour. Farhan's take is young and urban; Vishal's fetish for dadhiwale heroes and shero shayri is evident in his short film too and Sivan's film's theme ‘Suffering of innocence’ is something we all know him for.
Meera's film was scripted by Zoya Akhtar and had Sameera Reddy, Shiney Ahuja,Vijay Raaz etc, have seen the film at a friends place but unable to locate it on youtube. Badluck!
Here are the links:
Vishal Bharadwaj’s Blood Brother – Part 1
Vishal Bharadwaj’s Blood Brother – Part 2
Santosh Sivan’s Prarambha (With Subtitles) – Part 1
Santosh Sivan’s Prarambha (With Subtitles) – Part 2
Farhan Akhtar’s Positive – Part 1
Farhan Akhtar’s Positive – Part 2
2 comments:
good to se a wave of films like that ..
it would be also nice to do a full on film anthology with all new young film makers ..
:)
thanks for the links bro
Hey anytime bro. People are planning such anthologies...but as we all know creative inputs from others always lead to creative disputes and things get shelved :(
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