Updated: 16 March, '09
Read my Gulaal review on Passionforcinema.
March 14, 2009 @ work
Further reading:
Gulaal's music: Love, power, revolution
March 16, 2009
Anurag isn’t God, he ain’t Godard either
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The reaction from Indian Auteur:
Just in. You may call this is an expose if you want to, but if you were aware of how a thing called the red-tape works in this country, you would just throw your hands up in the air and say, “So what?”. Think of it, it’s precisely this laid-back attitude, this subconscious acceptance of the constant abuse of authority by the power-mongers, and this rotten dictatorship disguised as democracy that we must fight.
In the December of last year, as the world slept, engulfed in its comfy winter slumber; so did a site, engulfed in its false sense of security and assurance. Three idiots woke it up, shouting at the top of their voice about the inherent fallacies of their beliefs. It culminated into what we can now call the ‘The Great Indian Cinema Debate’. You can read it on our blog. The three called for a re-valuation of the belief system of the site, which apparently is the go-to for the new age Indian cinema. And boy, were they welcomed!
Now the members of our brother cinema site, one with the noblest intentions, Passionforcinema.com, have suddenly felt the coming of a revelation upon them. One sent down by the heavens. As if stuck in an empty field by lightening, and waking up to the possession of the Absolute truth, all of them ran towards the village shouting, “I found it! I found it!”
In an article by Mr.Salik Shah, he writes, “Mr.Anurag Kashyap isn’t God, he isn’t Godard either.” Now please do not misconstrue the topic of the post as being Anurag Kashyap. We review his films, of them two have released since we launched, and one will release even now, and talk about him occasionally; but you will observe that we did not dedicate an entire issue to him, as with the second issue; or devote nine pages to dissection of his work, such as in the first issue with Mr.Buddhadeb Dasgupta. To us, he is just another director working in Hindi cinema today. We do know that he is talented than most, but not one that evokes the greatest debates in this cinephile board on Indian Auteur...
So, coming back, the article by Mr.Salik Shah, has suddenly, and I am sure, very shockingly for people there, got conformists. Visitors to the site actually began admittance, if only a confession of their committing of the original sin. Almost repenting, remorseful, and regretful, they came slowly in and observed that Mr.Kashyap also has flaws in his work, that we (they) should not be turning a blind eye towards with such regularity.
All of them, in the joy of such revelation, and only too joyous to know that they are not alone in their dislike of the master’s latest film, got together and realized that their ‘sin’ had now become a ‘ritual’. Now that everyone was collectively disliking it, how can it be only their fault?
Here comes the catch in the story though. When the author of this article, Debojit Ghatak, left a comment there, detecting the inherent hypocrisy of the situation, and observing how three of our writers, Nitesh Rohit, Anuj Malhotra and Ankit Choudhary, had anticipated this situation a whole three months ago. While they had only said so much as deeming Mr.Kashyap a mere mortal who makes good films, a realization that they are now believing they are first one to be the owners of. In spite of the fact that it’s was all those people who had ganged up and vilified, ridiculed, mocked, ostracized, stigmatized, and chased them out of the site.
The best part, however, is this. Passionforcinema’s administration never published the comments that can in favor of our cinephile support, promising moderation, but eventually twisting the notion of democracy by its hand, they did not publish what does not suit them. And no, the comment contained no cusswords, no personal abuses, no racial/religious attacks, no sexual abuses, and no derision of their passion; and yet, they just did not. Wonder why.
— Debojit Ghatak
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