Hollywood star Tom Hanks has acted in nearly 100 movies but thinks only four of them are “pretty good”.

“No one knows how a movie is made — though everyone thinks they do,” Hanks said in a new interview with ‘People’, reports ‘Variety’.

“I’ve made a tonne of movies (and four of them are pretty good, I think), and I’m still amazed at how films come together. From a flicker of an idea to the flickering image onscreen, the whole process is a miracle.”

Hanks has led some of cinema’s most celebrated films over his four-decade career, including ‘Forest Gump’ and ‘Philadelphia’, both of which earned him the Academy Award for best actor.

Hanks was also Oscar-nominated for ‘Cast Away’, ‘Big’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and 2020’s ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’.

But it’s unclear which titles in Hanks’ filmography he considers to be the best.

“Movie-making is very hard work over a very long period of time that consists of so many moments of joy slapped up against an equal number of feelings of self-loathing,” he said. “It is the greatest job in the world and the most confounding of labours that I know of.”

Hanks, who starred in box office smash ‘Elvis’ and Disney’s live-action ‘Pinocchio’ remake this year, is gearing up to release his first novel, titled ‘The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece’, out May 9, 2023.

S S Rajamouli has a thing for artistically choreographing chaos. As far as the eye can see, the dusty ground is filled with people wearing large turbans. On the outskirts of Delhi, a protest is brewing and threatening to become a full-fledged rebellion in the aftermath of the arrest of Lala Lajpat Rai. One man gets to the middle of the action and shows people who is the boss. For a split second, a bird’s eye view of this canvas is reminiscent of the battlefield in Baahubali. But then, it is the 1920s and the freedom struggle is brewing in India. People move in on the lone opponent and pile on him, only to understand his tenacity in the next few minutes. This is among the many stunning sequences that show how the stunt directors (Solomon Raju and Nick Powell), junior artistes, the cinematographer (KK Senthil Kumar), the production designer (Sabu Cyril) and the visual effects team (supervised by Srinivas Mohan) have worked in tandem to bring to life the director’s vision. 

RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) turns out to be a canvas for Rajamouli to scale up his showmanship after Baahubali. He leads us into the film in chapters — the story, the fire, the water… introducing the film’s context and its protagonists Bheem (NTR) and Ram (Ram Charan). 

A lengthy disclaimer emphasises that the story is fictional. That gives the filmmaker the liberty to dramatise rather than build a story on the historical characters of Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. The few years that they had been in oblivion, with no recorded history of their journeys, becomes the film’s canvas.

It can be viewed as a coming-of-age story of these freedom fighters but mostly, it is the story of their friendship, anchored sumptuously by M M Keeravani’s Dosti’ song. Quite a bit of the showmanship comes from Keeravani’s score — from the title cards till the very end — as he blends in Indian and western classical, and contemporary beats to give the film a lot more emotional depth than the storytelling manages to.

There is a story that can potentially move you, make you weep for the characters — but it lies buried beneath the overarching effort to mount one visual spectacle after another. Rousing introductory sequences for both the stars and an extended pre-interval sequence where their energies, represented by fire and water, collide, are all presented with jaw-dropping visuals, punctuated by the superbly choreographed ‘Naatu naatu’ (‘ Nacho nacho’ in Hindi) song.

In the meantime, the sliver of the story that begins in the Adilabad forest languishes on the outskirts of Delhi. The narrative spells out every little detail, leaving little room for disbelief or conceit. For instance, when Ram hides a tear while splashing his face with water after tackling a mob, you know his true intentions and can guess his backstory.

Ram’s camaraderie with Bheem and their polar opposite personalities, one being stoic, sophisticated and presenting an impenetrable demeanour while the other is like an open book, giving in to emotional overtures and wearing both his innocence and anger on his sleeve, help in holding interest. NTR, who is easily among the best Telugu actors, delivers a terrific performance. In one scene where he calls himself ‘adavi manishi’ (a tribal man from the jungle), he sums up the characterisation that he so beautifully presents. Be it sparring with a tiger that is terrifically shot or much later holding attention in a Gladiator-like sequence (we shall get to that in a bit), he is in top form. For Charan, this is his best after Rangasthalam and the actor befits his role to the T. His transformation to a warrior is also convincing and he takes it on his shoulders to steer Bheem to a stunning climactic action sequence.

The crux of the story comes to the fore in the latter half and at least for some time, tries to give the emotional depth to anchor the extravagant action pieces. The action sequences roll out at regular intervals, transforming the two men into superheroes, like a part Iron man, part Thor or Superman. They can also be victims who are beaten black and blue in front of a bloodthirsty and sneering British power. “There is hardly any blood, hit him harder,” says one character in a scene where a man refuses to kneel and ask forgiveness. While a man is fed to animals in Gladiator, here he becomes fodder for the animal instinct of the rulers.

The film is largely about Ram and Bheem, with the help of supporting characters played effectively by Samuthirakani, Rahul Ramakrishna and Shriya Saran among others. Ajay Devgn in an extended cameo gives heft to the larger battle and so does Alia Bhatt in her limited part. Casting her as Sita gives the part credence. I wish there had been more of her in the film.

With its run time of more than three hours, RRR tries to present a fictional chapter inspired by real freedom fighters as an epic story. The painstaking effort shows. In contrast, the showmanship flowed more easily in Baahubali. Remember the statue of Bhallaladeva Vs Baahubali in part one and the coronation sequence in part two? Those were effortlessly spellbinding, rather than the much-laboured action spectacles in RRR.

RRR made me wonder if in a bid to keep scaling up, Rajamouli the storyteller is taking a backseat. Looking back, he worked with an incredulous idea of a housefly as the hero taunting the villain in Eega (Naan Ee in Tamil and Makkhi in Hindi). It could have become gimmicky had he erred. But it worked so well, making us root for the housefly. All the technical effort was backed by brilliant storytelling, which is sorely missing in RRR.

There are small, appreciable flourishes like the British characters not speaking a heavily accented Indian language and sticking to English. A translator is used where needed and in some portions, Rana Daggubati’s voiceover does the needful. But the characterisation of the British parts enacted by Alison Doody and Ray Stevenson remains strictly unidimensional, except Olivia Morris (she is effective and has a good screen presence). Elsewhere, an indigenous bangle gives hope to the tribal child and the yin and yang locket binds Ram and Sita. There is also the effective story of the cost of manufacturing bullets and whether the victims are worth it, which hits the bull’s eye (pardon the pun). I wish there had been more such soulful moments.

Is RRR a spectacle worthy of the large screen? Most certainly. Is it a riveting film? Not quite.

RRR is currently running in theatres

Veteran actor Asha Parekh will be honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke award for 2020, the highest recognition in the field of Indian cinema, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said on Tuesday. Parekh, 79, will be presented with the award during the 68th National Film Awards ceremony, to be held on Friday.  

The five-member Dada Saheb Phalke Award committee — comprising Asha Bhosle, Hema Malini, Poonam Dhillon, Udit Narayan, and TS Nagabharana — decided on Parekh’s name for the honour, Thakur told reporters in his constituency Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh.

“They decided in the meeting that this time Asha Parekh ji will be honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, which will be presented during the National Film Awards ceremony. It is a matter of pride for the ministry to announce this prestigious award for the veteran actress,” the minister said. Parekh, an eminent actor whose career spans close to five decades, started her acting career at the age of 10. 

Known for starring in over 95 films that include “Dil Deke Dekho”, “Kati Patang”, “Teesri Manzil”, “Baharon Ke Sapne”, “Pyar Ka Mausam”, and “Caravan”, she is considered one of the most influential actresses of all time in Hindi cinema. She started her career as a child artist with the 1952 film “Aasmaan” and went on to star in Bimal Roy’s “Baap Beti” two years later.

Parekh made her debut as a leading lady in Nasir Hussain’s 1959 movie “Dil Deke Dekho”, in which she starred opposite Shammi Kapoor. Also a director and producer, Parekh had helmed the acclaimed TV drama “Kora Kagaz” in the late 1990s. The screen legend also served as the first female chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) from 1998-2001. 

She came out with her autobiography, “The Hit Girl”, co-written by film critic Khalid Mohamed, in 2017. She was also honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award of the country, in 1992. Last year, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2019 was conferred on Rajinikanth.

(With PTI inputs)

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‘Brahmastra’, which starred Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles of Shiva and Isha respectively, hit the silver screens on September 9. The film enjoyed a fabulous third weekend at the box office, and raked in around Rs 23 crore nett at the box-office between Friday and Sunday, as reported by Hindustan Times.

The report also mentions that the film witnessed a decent third Sunday overseas and its total worldwide box office collection now stands at over Rs 400 crore. It is the first Hindi film to do so since the pandemic. Till Saturday, ‘Brahmastra’ had collected Rs 104 gross in overseas collections, which took the collection to over Rs 400 crore. While the official Sunday figures are yet to be announced, the total box office collection of the film is clearly on a rise.

At the domestic box office, ‘Brahmastra’ saw a phenomenal response on National Cinema Day. After a good third weekend, on its third Monday (September 26), ‘Brahmastra’ collected Rs 2 crore. The film has now managed to reportedly breach the Rs 250 crore mark by taking the domestic nett collection to Rs 255.87 crore. With this, ‘Brahmastra’ has also crossed the total domestic box office collection of ‘The Kashmir Files’, which reportedly stands at Rs 252 crore.

A post shared by Ayan Mukerji (@ayan_mukerji)

Nonetheless, ‘Brahmastra’ is still behind the Hindi-dubbed versions of ‘RRR’ and ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ as the Hindi version of ‘Brahmastra’ has minted approximately Rs 234 crore nett.

‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’ is the first part of the planned trilogy in the Astraverse by Ayan Mukerji. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy and Nagarjuna Akkineni.

Days Gone will reportedly be the next PlayStation franchise to be adapted into a feature film.

According to Deadline, Sony’s PlayStation Productions division is working on the Days Gone movie project with Oscar nominated writer Sheldon Turner, who wrote Up in the Air and has a story credit for X-Men: First Class.

Scottish actor Sam Heughan, known for his roles in Outlander and Bloodshot, is said to be being considered for the main role of Deacon St. John, with the script said to be “a love ballad to motorcycle movies”.

The Bend Studio game is set in the Pacific Northwest after a global pandemic. The game follows former motorcycle club member Deacon St. John as he fights to survive against mutated, predatory humans in his quest to find his missing partner.

The big screen adaptation will likely be welcomed by fans of the Days Gone game, who have had plenty of reasons recently to believe Sony had all but abandoned it.

Last year a Bloomberg report first suggested that PlayStation had rejected plans for the sequel, after which the game’s leads left the company.

Sony has not released official sales numbers for Days Gone (although its director claims it sold around 10 million units), but its Metacritic score of 71 will likely have been disappointing for the company, which is used to its first-party releases enjoying near-unanimous critical acclaim.

Speaking publicly last year, Days Gone’s director Jeff Ross, who left Bend Studio in 2020 after some 20 years at the company, confirmed that he was at one point working on a Days Gone 2 pitch.

Further reading

Ross later criticised Sony for allegedly making Bend Studio “feel like it was a big disappointment”.

“At the time I left Sony, Days Gone had been out for a year and a half (and a month), and sold over 8 million copies,” the director wrote. “It’s since gone on to sell more, and then a million+ on Steam. Local studio management always made us feel like it was a big disappointment.”

Sony Interactive Entertainment has confirmed that Bend Studio is working on a new IP and “building on the deep open-world systems that they developed with Days Gone”.

Netflix’s Animated ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie’ Trailer

by Alex Billington
July 6, 2022
Source: YouTube

“We’ve still got a ninja’s greatest weapon: hope.” Netflix has revealed the full-length official trailer for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, a spin-off continuation of their animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series. This Turtles special event is a movie landing on Netflix in August as part of their summer festivities. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in action and up to their teenage antics in this comedic adventure that raises the stakes higher than ever before. When a mysterious stranger arrives from the future with a dire warning, Leo is forced to rise and lead his brothers, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey in a fight to save the world from a terrifying alien species. Featuring the voices oBen Schwartz as Leo, Omar Benson Miller as Raph, Brandon Mychal Smith as Mikey, Josh Brener as Donnie, and Eric Bauza as Splinter; plus Kat Graham, Haley Joel Osment, Rhys Darby, and John Michael Higgins. The big bad villain they have to fight in this is Krang, in what looks like an Akira-level takeover of their beloved city. I really dig the animation style and the character designs for this series – looks like it will be worth a watch.

Official trailer for Netflix’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, from YouTube:

Continuing the tale from the hit Nickelodeon series, Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello are back in action and up to their teenage antics in this comedic adventure that raises the stakes higher than ever before. The Turtles are put to the test when a mysterious stranger named Casey Jones arrives from the future to warn the mutant brothers of an impending invasion·of the most dangerous alien force in the galaxy – the Krang! Can the team rise up to become the heroes they are destined to be, or will their teenage foibles get the better of them? What unfolds is the most adventurous, emotional, and epic story ever told of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie is co-directed by filmmakers Ant Ward (supervising producer on “The Penguins of Madagascar” “TMNT” series) Andy Suriano (director on “Plastic Man” + a series character designer). The screenplay is written by Tony Gama-Lobo and Rebecca May. Made by Nickelodeon Animation. Netflix will debut Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie streaming on Netflix starting August 5th, 2022 later this summer. Who’s down?

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