Mumbai, Dec 14: Actress Raakhee Gulzar spent weeks learning how to play the sitar from the maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar himself. It was for her role of the unfulfilled housewife in Aparna Sen's "Paroma".
Recalling the glorious time she had strumming those magical strings under the guidance of the late master sitarist, Raakhee said: "There were scenes in 'Paroma' where my character was shown to be playing the sitar. Neither Aparna nor I wanted to fake it. Pandit Ravi Shankar was requested to give me sitar lessons."
What was meant to be just surface-level tips on rudimentary rules of managing the instrument, turned out to be full-fledged.
Recalling the glorious time she had strumming those magical strings under the guidance of the late master sitarist, Raakhee said: "There were scenes in 'Paroma' where my character was shown to be playing the sitar. Neither Aparna nor I wanted to fake it. Pandit Ravi Shankar was requested to give me sitar lessons."
What was meant to be just surface-level tips on rudimentary rules of managing the instrument, turned out to be full-fledged.
- 12/14/2012
- by Meeta Kabra
- RealBollywood.com
Mumbai, Aug 18: Filmmaker Aparna Sen, who had worked with cinematographer Ashok Mehta in "36 Chowringhee Lane", "Paroma" and "Sati", is devastated after learning about his demise, as she considered him her pillar of strength.
"The last time I met him was at the Mumbai premiere of my film 'The Japanese Wife'. I can't believe he's gone! I didn't even know he was suffering from lung cancer. But then I am not really that.
"The last time I met him was at the Mumbai premiere of my film 'The Japanese Wife'. I can't believe he's gone! I didn't even know he was suffering from lung cancer. But then I am not really that.
- 8/18/2012
- by Lohit Reddy
- RealBollywood.com
India’s well-known cinematographer Ashok Mehta, 65, passed away in Mumbai on Wednesday. He was suffering from lung cancer and was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital.
Some of his memorable works include: Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen, Shyam Benegal’s Mandi and Trikaal, Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane and Paroma, Subhash Ghai’s Ram Lakhan, Khalnayak and Kisna, Mf Husain’s Gaja Gamini, Rajkumar Santoshi’s Pukar and Mukul Anand’s Trimurti.
Mehta won the National Award for Cinematography in 1981 for 36 Chowringhee Lane and in 2000 for Moksha. Moksha was the only feature length film he wrote and directed.
Some of his memorable works include: Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen, Shyam Benegal’s Mandi and Trikaal, Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane and Paroma, Subhash Ghai’s Ram Lakhan, Khalnayak and Kisna, Mf Husain’s Gaja Gamini, Rajkumar Santoshi’s Pukar and Mukul Anand’s Trimurti.
Mehta won the National Award for Cinematography in 1981 for 36 Chowringhee Lane and in 2000 for Moksha. Moksha was the only feature length film he wrote and directed.
- 8/15/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Indian indie favourite Aparna Sen’s new film about love through letters lacks style and diction.
The phonetic possibility of her surname Sen makes Indian indie filmmaker Aparna Sen’s films a fine fodder for all sorts of rhetorical puns in English, most obviously for a word, like say, sensational. But sadly her latest outing, “The Japanese Wife,” does not lend itself to the word because the film is anything but an Aparna Sen film. This also means that many of her previous films actually do lend themselves to hyperbole and it is incumbent to look closely at them individually, which, given her sparse filmography, is not a difficult task at hand. Only such a critique will best highlight why her latest is simply not up to the mark. Otherwise, the author remains a huge admirer of Sen’s abundant sensibility as a filmmaker, which makes her deserving of a seat among global auteurs,...
The phonetic possibility of her surname Sen makes Indian indie filmmaker Aparna Sen’s films a fine fodder for all sorts of rhetorical puns in English, most obviously for a word, like say, sensational. But sadly her latest outing, “The Japanese Wife,” does not lend itself to the word because the film is anything but an Aparna Sen film. This also means that many of her previous films actually do lend themselves to hyperbole and it is incumbent to look closely at them individually, which, given her sparse filmography, is not a difficult task at hand. Only such a critique will best highlight why her latest is simply not up to the mark. Otherwise, the author remains a huge admirer of Sen’s abundant sensibility as a filmmaker, which makes her deserving of a seat among global auteurs,...
- 5/20/2010
- by Sayandeb Chowdhury
- The Moving Arts Journal
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