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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Prithvi Theatre

Prithvi Theatre Festival 06, commemorating the...Image via Wikipedia
Prithvi Theatre is one of Mumbai's best known theatres. It belongs to the Kapoor family, one of the most influential actor/director families in Bollywood. The theatre is named after Prithviraj Kapoor who first founded 'Prithvi Theatres', a travelling theatre company in 1944. The company ran for sixteen years. . In 1978 Prithvi Theatre opened in Juhu, Mumbai by Prthiviraj's son and daughter-in-law, actors Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor. The Prithvi theatre company was established in 1993. It is now run by Prithviraj's grandchildren, Kunal Kapoor & Sanjana Kapoor

Prithvi Theatres was founded in 1944 , by Prithviraj Kapoor, as a travelling troupe with 150 members , which staged productions across India. Its maiden performance was Kalidasa's classic "Shakuntala". In subsequent years the theatre staged some 2,662 plays such as "Deewar" (Wall), "Pathan" (a community comprising Hindus and Muslims of North India), "Ghaddar" (Traitor), "Aahuthi" (Offering), "Kalaakar" (Artist), "Paisa" (Money) and "Kisaan" (Farmer). Prithviraj starred as the lead actor in every show.. His work in the Indian film industryfunded the activities of the company
Prithviraj Kapoor's youngest son Shashi Kapoor, who had trained as an actor in the Prithvi Theatres, married Jennifer Kendal, daughter of Laura and Geoffrey Kendal, and the leading actress of their theatre company, Shakespearana. Both Shashi and Jennifer shared a deep passion for theatr, and a great respect for Prithviraj's dream for Indian theatre.

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Friday, January 15, 2010

Rewind '09: Nisha Narayanan - 'Ad community can use radio in the South effectively by using the last mile connect'





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Red FM Sr Vice President (Programming & Projects) Nisha Narayanan

Radio has a history of preserving the traditional music of this country, its folk and classical forms.
The public service broadcaster – All India Radio – has kept this legacy alive for over 80 years now. It is unfortunate that our FM policy and lawless copyright regime does not allow commercial FM players to be as versatile and experimental in their programming as they can be, to reflect India’s diverse musical traditions. They are compelled to live with a limited repertoire of film music, and survive on bland and unimaginative playlists.   
In spite of a hostile FM policy, south India has had considerable success with commercial radio. During Phase II of FM licensing, a remarkably large number of regional players from the south bid for frequencies. FM radio found takers in all the 18 southern cities where frequencies were auctioned, unlike the north where many frequencies went a-begging and city after city went without a private radio station. From Mangalore to Rajamundry, from Tirunelveli to Kannur, every Phase II city in the south has at least one radio station.  Incidentally there are 15 players who forayed into FM radio in the south; out of which at least 10 are regional players.
Radio penetration in key metros in the South is significantly higher than in other regions. According to IRS 2009, radio penetration in Chennai is 42 per cent, and 35 per cent in Kochi and Bangalore. In comparison, Delhi has barely 28 per cent radio penetration, and the corresponding figure for Mumbai is even lower. We can assume that a key factor driving this high appeal of radio in the south is the quality of its regional language offerings, which are localized not just to the state but to urban and rural areas within the state. Regional players have the advantage of knowing the local market and local ethos, and for obvious reasons localization favors print and radio more than any other medium. Though a broadcaster with a national footprint with 41 stations, localization is at the core of Red FM’s programming and marketing initiatives in all the cities we are present in.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

MAARGAM

MAARGAM (THE PATH) Malayalam/108 minutes/35mm/Colour The film explores a father-daughter relationship against the backdrop of the contemporary realities of a globalising, urban society in Kerala. Menon suffers from frequent spells of depression. In her emotional efforts to help her father, the daughter begins to understand the dichotomies of his past and paradoxes of the present, where the concept of a culturally diverse egalitarian society itself is being questioned. The father and daughter are carried on to an inward journey of re-discovery and re-definition of the human story. Director / Producer : Rajiv Vijay Raghavan Rajiv Vijay Raghavan has directed nine documentaries and has won two Kerala state awards and a National Award. ‘Maargam’ is his first feature film. CREDITS Screenplay : S. P. Ramesh , Anwar Ali, Rajiv Vijay Raghavan Camera : Venu Editing : Bina Paul Music : Isaac Kottukapally Cast : Nedumudi Venu, Meera Krishna, KPAC Lalitha, Valsala Menon. AK/BKS/BY/VRG 13/ 26.11.2004


Friday, November 20, 2009

Pre festival screenings for the press begin

As part of 40th International Film Festival of India – 2009 pre Festival screenings commenced today for the Press and Media. ‘Ilisa Amagi Mahao’, ‘For Real’, ‘Ekti Kaktaliya Golpo’, ‘Angshumaner’, ‘Dot In For Motion’, ‘Ijjodu’, ‘Swaymabhu Sen Foreseas’ and ‘Kutty Srank’ are being screened in Macquinez I. The synopses of these are as below:

ILISA AMAGI MAHAO (The Taste of A Hilsa)

It is not dawn yet. Only the father and the son in a boat can be seen stirring the river. After casting their net once or twice they move down southwards. Drifting a little further they hit on luck. A big, silvery white hilsa is rolling in the net. Father decides not to sell it off. He hopes to invite his pregnant daughter for a meal. He wishes to share the taste of hilsa with his family. But he comes to know that they have no rice to cook…….

FOR REAL

For Real is all about a child’s determination to keep her family together when the adults are intent on destroying it. Six-year old Shruti knows something no one else does. An alien has come in place of her mother and her real mother has been sent to the Orion Galaxy. While the alien looks just like her mother on the outside, Shruti knows she is completely different from her beloved mother on the inside. Shruti turns to her brother for help but he doesn’t believe her. Her father, like always, remains engrossed in work and unavailable to her. Unable to accept the Alien in her home and desperate to be with her mother, the lonely child runs away. What follows is a child’s passage to finding her real mother, a man’s struggle to save his family and a woman’s journey to finding herself.

EKTI KAKTALIYA GOLPO

The narrative revolves around a 13-year-old boy, Babai. He is given a magic marble (which apparently has the power to summon the king of fish) by an old man who stays in the ground floor flat of his apartment. His teacher (who stays in the same building) takes it way asking him to concentrate on his studies than on fantasies. The boy’s dreams are crushed as he sits by his window with a handmade fishing rod. However, coincidences bring about an unusual turn of events.

ANGSHUMANER CHHOBI

Angshuman had left Kolkata eight years ago to pursue a course in filmmaking in Italy. He stayed back for a career in documentary and advertising. But he has to fulfil a commitment to his college professor to make a film in Bengali. Armed with an interesting script about the curious relationship between a septuagenarian celebrity painter and a young nurse, Angshuman lands in Kolkata. But the project turns out to be a non-starter with a series of hurdles coming one after another, involving three people who are linked to Angshuman’s film-Pradyut, the legend of Bengali cinema living in self-imposed exile, Madhura, who could never live up to the expectations generated by the national award she won for her first film and Neel, a young man passionate about dance and astronomy who finds his life getting changed forever with a stroke of destiny. Things come to a head with a crime on the scene. An alleged suicide brings SP Sourya Roy to investigate the case.

DOT IN FOR MOTION

Dot in for motion traces India’s recent growth after economic liberalization and the information revolution and its effect on the lives of the vast Indian populace. Does globalization really usher in liberty? Does the open market mean a more open society? Does it really foster democracy? Or is it a process of homogenization slowly taking over this nation of enormous diversity? The film neutrally records the voice of people, from lounge of the silicon city to a remote tribal village that never heard of electricity.

IJJODU

In a remote area in Karnataka, photojournalist Ananda meets Chenni, a woman who was made a Basavi-offered at the altar of the village deity to save the superstitions locals from a devastating epidemic. Basavis, like Devdasis, often end up becoming sex workers and bear the brunt of social stigma. Ananda is shocked to learn that Chenni is a Basavi and tries to persuade her, with rational arguments, not to pay the price for superstition. When he insists that she should get married, Chenni asks him if he would marry her but he is not bold enough. The next day when Chenni is found dead on the steps of the temple pond, Ananda feels guilty for her suicide because he was not strong enough to give her a new life.

SWAYMABHU SEN FORESEAS HIS END

It’s 26 July 2005. Three narrators atop a bus entertain the stranded with an urban legend of an extraordinary filmmaker who stole everything he needed to make a film, from film stock to camera. Beyond this the three narrators take the stories in different directions. All stories conclude with the filmmaker not making the film but the how and why differ. The film is a magical, dark journey into the possibilities of fate and the survival or true talent in the business that Indian popular cinema has been reduced to.

KUTTY SRANK

The police find an unidentified body on the beach and three women turn up, each claiming it is ‘her’ Kutty Srank. One is a wealthy woman who wants to become a Buddhist nun. The second is an actress who is later accused of the murder. She was acting in a traditional Christian play with Kutty Srank. The third is a gentle, mute woman who gets pregnant by Kutty Srank. Will this richly short film, with multiple skeins and powerful imagery, reveal the real Kutty Srank?

Sunday, November 15, 2009

आकाशवाणी

All India Radio (abbreviated as AIR), officially known as Akashvani (Devanagari: आकाशवाणी, ākāshavānī)is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati(Broadcasting Corporation of India), an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Established in 1936, today, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster.

The word Akashavani was coined by Professor Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy for his radio station in Mysore during 1936.

All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks in the world. The headquarters is at the Akashwani Bhavan, New Delhi. Akashwani Bhavan houses the drama section, the FM section and the National service. The Doordarshan Kendra (Delhi) is also located on the 6th floor of Akashvani Bhavan.

During his regular broadcasts from the Azad Hind Radio, Subhas Chandra Bose used to refer to the pre-independence AIR as Anti Indian Radio.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film, directed by Davis Guggenheim, about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he's given more than a thousand times.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Nandi Awards

The Nandi Awards are presented annually in Andhra Pradesh, India for Telugu cinema by State government. "Nandi" means "bull", the awards being named after the big granite bull at Lepakshi — a cultural and historical symbol of Andhra Pradesh. Nandi Awards are presented in four categories: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper. A variant, Nandi Natakotsavam Awards is also given every year by the Andhra Pradeshgovernment for social, mythological and poetic Dramas