Mola Ram, I'm with you 110%. I sincerely hope and pray that Vishal Bharadwaj does not opt for Hemant Chatruvedi. I cannot stand his camerawork and it's the only aspect of "Maqbool" that I didn't care for.

Mola Ram, i am not sure whether or not Bharadwaj is concerned with the racial elements in the play. but the fact that he casts his "dark" Devgan and "luminous, ethereal" Kareena and says that the two will "form a perfect contrast" tells me that he's buying into notions of darker skin=darker character. but maybe i'm reading too much into it...

dvdisoil, i agree that Indian cinema should deal with subjects dealing with race. the problem is when Indian cinema uses racist sources to make films.

who is Bharadwaj pandering to? the English-speaking, Shakespeare-loving West? or does he want to further Anglicize Indians? (i'm playing devil's advocate...)

hal I think you misunderstood my post dude

I luv chaturvedi’s work - his camerawork is fantastic… very raw, gritty and realistic, w/ frequent use of handycam and very stylized

his work in ‘company’ and ‘maqbool’ were both brilliant

and it is commonly known that it was chaturvedi who ghost directed ‘maqbool’ and ‘makdee’

I was watching a naseer interview on tv abt his new film (the one w/ jimmy and irfan) - and he was saying how incredible chaturvedi was during ‘maqbool’, that he just had to get him to do his film

Well, I hope Bhardwaj, does not get fixed for GOOD! on Shakespearean inspired remakes!!! rather than trying to do some original work with some quality writers!!

Hey dvdisoil didn't know you're a fan of Jean Renoir, hmm so am I. I have the following on Criterion The River, Le Grande Illusion, French CanCan and The golden Coach!

Bharadwaj's collaboration with Robin Bhatt sounds icky for this film. The casting itself sounds too star-studded, which might lead to artistic compromization somwhere down the line(gosh! am I becoming too cynical now a days??). But, acknowledging the fact that Bharadwaj is a great admirer of World cinema, I wonder and hope if he has learned anything from Orson Welles(the greatest filmmaker ever! of Shakespearian adaptation). Pun intended.

Very cool - yeah i like him ( just attended a special screening of rules of the game at a local theater in India (!) to celebrates 110 years of world cinema) , i am yet to see his Stage Spectacle series - hopefully i can do it sometime soon.



Its curios u say this because ..., i used to think ( still do ) that some of our beloved mythology such as Ramayan and Mahabratha are wonderful works that can be screen adapted ...... but according to your argument that would make Ramayan racist ( "fair" skinned Rama against "dark" skinned Ravana ) - not knowing Shakespeare racial stance ..., i only take what he was hinting at , the motifs he uses. Its common in literature to use Fair/White for purity , while Dark/Black for something "evil" ..., so to me it makes perfect sense to adapt it




I think its unfair to put this blame on Bhardwaj - MAQBOOL though adapted is as original as it gets , i think George Luca$ ( paraphrasing kurosawa) once said that " there are only 4 or 5 different type of stories” , I am going to go one step further and say that there is really only one type of story that is told onscreen and that everything boils down to being a love story ( that of father/mother, father/son, mother/son, son/brother, brother/sister , love for society , love for freedom, love for expression, love for survival ....) - that way there really is not much of a choice , so that would mean everything is "un-orginal" ?? . and as for writing , i thought MAQBOOL has some excellent writing seen in recent time - care to differ ??



That is a good point

yes, if Indian directors want to adapt the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, these works should be rewritten for our times (btw, what's racist about the Mahabharata? i ask out of ignorance...)

Aime Cesaire, a Caribbean writer, took Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and re-wrote it, negating the racist elements. if Bharadwaj is planning something similar, great.

as for it being common to use Fair/White for purity and Dark/Black for evil, this is itself racist and should not be condoned just because it is common. there is nothing inherently evil in blackness, or pure in whiteness.

Good for you, next on my list!

I never denied GREATNESS of MAQBOOL though!

There are not very many films, that when they finish , you want to see more For me Maqbool was one of those rare version of cinema!!

No doubt Irfan was Great as ever!! But Punkaj Kapoor was simply Brilliant along with Tabu! and Music was Great too, even it went UNHEARD as ever!! and Film did not get its glory due to Kameena YRF who never released a proper dvd

Mahabaratha "hinges" on the Hindu caste system that is inherently racist ( assuming we agree that racism doesn’t necessary stop at skin color, even then the class system could be based on skin color also as per the controversial INDO-ARYAN Invasion theory during the vedic period ) - that said instances of Karna being "rejected" initially to lead the army ...., Ekalvya ( a son of tribal leader ?) cannot learn from dronachrya because he does not belong to the right "class" ..., in addition Mahabartha can also be seen as a SEXIST creation - with Kunti disowning Karna before her "actual" marriage ( pre-marital sex ?) , Practice of POLYGAMY ( it was ok for Lord Krishna to marry daughter of each kingdom he visits) . Another case is of Draupadi "serving" 5 husbands ( nicely done in Matrubhoomi - good film btw) .

I hope people dont take this the wrong way - Both Epics are "great" and i am sure some really intelligent philosophers have different take on this story ..., but still its pretty hard to ignore such viewpoints ( which must have been prevalent in "those" days) .

And as for "correcting" them to suit modern age - well i am never for Political Correctness ...., just because we don’t want to associate ourselves with racism doesn’t mean it does not exist and hence should not be shown, but i guess thats my personal opinion and just for the record - i am sure each one of us know there is nothing inherently evil in blackness, or pure in whiteness - all i was saying is that’s how it has been used often in literature.

dvdisoil, thanks for the prep on the Mahabharata.

as for correcting the epics to be "politically correct", this is not what i'm advocating. when one re-writes a racist text, one is not dodging racism, but dealing with it. Bharadwaj seems to be merely adapting Othello instead of critically revising it.

I dont think anyone other than Bharadwaj knows what he is doing - so lets wait and see on this one

indeed.

wow I didn’t know robin bhatt was writing the script, that does sound horrible

what the hell was vishal thinking??