memories from the making of Black Friday

As the real black friday draws close and Anurag Kashyap is all set to make his marquee, posts have begun on PFC dedicated to the making of the film. The latest edition offers a wealth of sound clips comprising an interview with Anurag Kashyap about the film and its various aspects. Hear all about the long Dostoevskyian baadashaah khaan sequence and the importance of the music, the points of view chosen and abandoned, the chase sequence that links this film to the never-begun Allwyn Kalicharan (and connections to Takeshi Kitano and Andrei Tarkovsky), the importance of the choice of language, the impact of economics (probably the most expensive non-star-cast film made in India) and a tad more detail on why Naseeruddin Shah and Ir(r)fan Khan backing out. There's also a very interesting bit from the trial: after the film was actually screened at the hearing, the accused party wanted to change their stance!

A lot of what unfolds in the interview might make more sense for those lucky enough to have caught a bootleg or a film festival screening, but the interview with its very engrossing questions and answers is highly recommended. The PFC post also has links to the other items in the Black Friday series.

Come February 09, 2007, you can watch the film and then judge the film. YT sincerely hopes that you rule in AK's favour.

Some interesting asides: Super 35 (which is the choice for AK's No Smoking) was not available in this country until Sarkar; the first film on Panavision is being shot by N Chandra (the film's called Breaking News).

It would be amiss of me not to mention that the interview also touches on some interesting aspects of the still-unfinished Gulaal.

There's also a very important thought that AK labels as his "theory of relativity of cinema" -- he uses my favourite example (Citizen Kane) when he notes "the importance of [the film] ... why it is the greatest film can be best defined by people who saw it in '46/'50 [1941]"; it also anticipates the reaction of people to Paanch (when it's eventually released, grossly out of sequence in his ouevre).

The bellyaching moment arrives in the form of an answer to the question about problems with the censors this time around. It echoes some of the charming reasons dished out by the censors for banning Paanch):

is baar censors ne kuchh nahii.n kaaTaa ... chaar gaaliyaa.N kaaTii.n; do m**darch*d kaaTe ek b*hench*d kaaTaa; ek aur gaalii kaaTii; aur jab usake liye hamane argument kiyaa ki sir ye aap kyo.n kaaT rahe ho Black Friday me.n se ... aise hii ye log baat karate the ... wo actually jab Tiger Memom kaa ghar jalataa hai puuraa maahiim jalaa duu.Ngaa m**darch*d kar ke ... wahaa.N beep aataa hai ... to chaar jagah beep aataa hai ... wo chaar gaaliyaa.N kaaTii hai.n ... aur jab hamane unako puuchhaa ki aapane ye kyo.n kaaTaa ... censor-waalo.n ne ... unakaa argument ye thaa ... counter-argument ... ki aap ko aThaarah ch**tye diye the na is baar?

And some peeks into Vishal Bhardwaj's soundtrack of No Smoking: two qawwaaliis, one by Daler Mehndi and Sukhwinder; a Sufi song by Kailash Kher and Swanand Kirkire.

And there's an appreciation of Mani Ratnam, and especially RGV (only an outsider can make Satya), who manage to objectively deal with their own work.

And now, thanks to Anurag Kashyap, I have something interesting to feast my ears on -- the Brooks Qawwali Party.