From theindianentertainment.com ● Volume No: I-16 pickle● Jan 20-26, 2007 ● New Delhi ● India The animation film is directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao GHATOTHKACH The production work of the Rs 15-crore Gattu was done in Phillipines, UK, Singapore and India t is a special summer for Indian cinema this year. In 1957, we saw the creation of classic Telugu film Maya Bazar. Fifty years later, as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Maya Bazar, the magic is Ibeing recreated with animation film Ghatothkach, the latest from the Singeetam Srinivasa Rao stable (Mayuri, Aditya 369, Bhairava Dweepam, Pushpak, Son Of Alladin) and produced by Hyderabad-based Sun Animatics (Rao is the Chairman). With a mix of classic & CGI animation, the 100- minute Ghatothkach is being done in Hindi & English with voice track in five Indian lan- guages -– Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali. The Rs 15-crore film, cur- rently under post production (at Digiquest and other studios), is slated for release in April-May 2007. The production work of the film was done at Philippines, Singapore and United Kingdom. Owell Mina is the animation director (The Legend of the Dragon, Little Amadeus) and the story board director is Danny Mila Miles (The Legend of Zorro). “The animated film portrays the operations in Philippines and the USA. The story childhood of Ghatothkach begins when baby Ghatothkach starts showing his in modern format (You magical powers from the crib. Son of Bhim the Pandav can find Gattu in malls and Hidimbi the demon princess, magic is an inheri- The Master of and escalators). In the Maya tance to Ghatothkach. As a 5-year-old, Gattu rescues Bazar, the film begins with the Gajju a baby elephant which leads to a lifelong friend- Magic is all adulthood of Ghatothkach. There ship. As he nears the adventurous teenage he sets off set to hit is also a huge demand in the to bring a unique gift for his mother who is so fed up cinema theatres global market for Indian mytho- with his mischief that she challenges him to bring her logical content. We will also tar- the impossible golden pearl from the depths of the in the summer. get the festivals and overseas oceans. He succeeds, meets Abhimanyu his cousin & The release will market,” says Vinod Suryadevara, son of Arjun on the way back home. The story moves producer of the film and MD Sun on to Gattu using his magic to unite Abhimanyu and clash with Animatics. The company is head his childhood love, Surekha with the blessings and Spider-Man-3 quartered in Hyderabad and has connivance of Lord Krishna. 1 pickle ● January 20-26, 2007 ● New Delhi● India No Indian film in the Rotterdam Competition Section Rotterdam from Jan24 Argentine film La Antena will open the International Rotterdam Film Festival. Nineteen festival films received finance from Hubert Bals Fund A scene from Nayi Neralu in the Kings and Aces theme Nana Patekar in Yatra, part of the Time and Tide theme Films From India At International Rotterdam Film Festival Yatra (The Journey) Focus Kasaravalli. Production company and Sales: Directed by Goutam Ghose Basant Productions. Part of Theme: Time and Tide he film is directed by renowned Bengali director Antaral (End Note) T and cameraman Goutam Ghose. It is about a Directed by Ashish Avikunthak famous novelist who becomes obsessed by Lajvanti, Part of Theme: Short. As Long As it takes the mysterious heroine from his latest novel. The film hree women reflect on their years at school in the evokes the important Indian classic Umrao Jaan by T beautiful experimental short after Samuel Beckett. superstar Rekha, who appears in both films in the role They share a strange secret about each other that is of seductive courtesan. Rekha succeeds in bringing to never made known to us. The film is a cinematic inter- life the dualism of Lajvanti's complex psychological pretation of Samuel Beckett’s 1967 drama, Come and state. Production company and sales: SPS Arts & Go. Production company and sales: Ashish Avikunthak Entertainment Ltd. Productions. Shoonya (Zero Zone) Video Game Directed by Arindam Mitra Directed by Vipin Vijay Part of Theme: Time and Tide Part of Theme: Short. As Long As it takes his film is a psychological thriller. It portrays a unique Indian road movie. The film maker under- T famous Indian cricket player (played by Kay Kay A takes a journey to locations used on a previous Menon) who is arrested on charges of match fixing. 35mm film. He takes his video camera along and Production and sales company Mirror Films. makes a personal on-the-road contemplation about life and its passing nature. Nayi Neralu (In the Shadow of the Dog) Production company: PSBT- Public Service Directed by Girish Kasaravalli Broadcasting Trust Sales Holygrail Film Studios. Part of Theme: Kings & Aces young man appears in the village and alleges he Season Outside A is the reincarnation of the husband of Directed by Amar Kanwar Venkatalakshmi who died 22 years ago. After initial Part of Theme: Films in Context hesitance, she accepts him as her husband. Excellent mar Kanwar traces the story of oppression and acting and cinematographic and musical brilliance Aviolence through current and historic events characterise this feature by the former Filmmaker in between his native India and Pakistan. Credit: (IFFR) The International Film Festival Rotterdam offers a quality selection of worldwide independent, innovative and experimental cinema ABOUT ROTTERDAM and visual arts. Devoted to offering a platform to and actively sup- porting independent filmmaking from around the globe. It is also FILM FESTIVAL, NETHERLANDS an essential hub for discovering film talent. 2 pickle ● January 20-26, 2007 ● New Delhi● India Rang De is out of the Oscar Best Foreign Language film slot Volver, worthy of Oscar Chances are bright for the Pedro Almodovar movie WHY ARE WE, WHAT WE ARE has been often attracted to desi subjects. Water is the third part of SHEER JOY OF CINEMA UTV Produced, Rakeysh Omprakash her trilogy on the elements of What could is Pedro Almodovar's Mehra's Rang De Basanti (Paint It Nature. Because of protest in India Volver, which in Spanish means "To Yellow) is out of the Oscar race. The for the movie, Deepa gave up the Return". When I saw this movie at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and idea of making the movie in India, the Cannes Film Festival last May, I Sciences has announced a slightly and later shot it in Sri Lanaka with just loved it. To me, it was sheer cin- longer short list of nine films, in a different artists. Water, starring Lisa ema, the sheer joy of cinema. departure from the usual. The final Ray and John Abraham, is set in the Almodovar ("Bad Education", "Talk list of five movies will be out on India of 1938, during Gandhiji's To Her", "All About My Mother" and January 23 along with the other soul-stirring freedom struggle, and "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" among nominations in various sections. describes the predicament of poor his other directorial ventures) focus- Normally, a picture is selected and widows in Varanasi. Forgotten by es on a family of women that has sent up for a possible nod by a the world, but sexually exploited by migrated from La Mancha (in Spain) small team from the Film Federation upper caste men, these women to Madrid in search of better times. of India, and it has seldom chosen were as restless as the ripples in Central to this is Raimunda one outside Bollywood. (Penelope Cruz), who is This is an unfair practice, hardworking, young and for after all the country vivacious, but with a lazy produces some good husband and an attractive movies in, for instance, daughter. Almodovar Malayalam and Bengali. spins a griping yarn Little wonder, then, that around these women, ever since the Oscars complete with a dead were instituted in 1929, body in the freezer and a only three Indian films walking-talking ghost. He have made it to the list lightens the mood by of five: Mother India, delightful doses of Salaam Bombay and humour (thanks to the Lagaan. They were all in ghost). He collides with Hindi, and none ever issues as grave as won a statuette. Such Volver attempted rape, murder narrow parochialism and and loss. Yet, by stretching nepotism not only mar the power of sheer inven- our prospects at the Academy Water. Deepa's protagonist is a tion, the Spanish master does not awards, but also make us a laugh- young and beautiful widow, played let pain and pessimism cloud the ing stock the world over. by Lisa, whose attempt to free her- canvas. Volver's opening sequence is self from the shackles of society significantly indicative of what we WATER HAS LITTLE CHANCE merely nudges her to a tragic finale. can expect: a battery of widows and Incidentally, it is not a great film -- daughters can be seen cleaning the Deepa Mehta's Water, though Indian with poor performances by the lead gravestones of their departed ones in many respects, is a Canadian pair, who seem like they have just in a La Mancha cemetery. What entry in the Best Foreign Language got out of a ramp show rather than emerges out of all this is sheer Picture slot at the Oscars. This is a hellish existence. Deepa Mehta's sublimity of cinema. Worthy of an because Deepa lives in Toronto, and Water glosses over sheer misery, Oscar, oh, yes, undoubtedly so. is a Canadian citizen. But she is an and would probably not make it on Indian by birth from New Delhi, and the big night in February.