Dalton
Quintessential film critic. Additionally, music journalist; editor of Cinematic Illusions & the Journal of Indian Cinema; co-author of a book on cinema; founder of the Cinema Society of India, which screens films; CEO of House of Illusions, a film studio that creates meaningful cinema; advisory board member of the Guwahati Asian Film Festival, Kautik International Film Festival, & Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati, USA; former artistic director of the Chalachitram National Film Festival and the Chicago International Indie Film Festival; and founder festival director of the Mumbai International Student Film Festival. He has served on the music jury of Mahatma Gandhi University and on the film jury of the 67th National Film Awards.
The director’s baton is not a toy; before wielding it for the first time, one is required to learn, at least, the basic theories, and spend quality time gathering some amount of practical knowledge. Maharaja Talkies, with a premise of immense potential, fails miserably, chiefly because the plot and...
Mainstream Indian filmmakers are generally “inspired” by the premises and plots of foreign-language films. Lijo Pellissery doesn’t flick any story; he just tries, very hard and unsuccessfully, to replicate the stylization and treatment of the original City of God. Handheld cameras are used throughout. The film opens with a...
Originality is an art that isn’t practiced everywhere. Unfortunately, Malayalam cinema too, as ‘Celluloid’ explicitly suggests, appears to have its roots in what is now a Hollywood classic. Circa 1926, JC Daniel sells a portion of his ancestral land in order to make what would be the first Malayalam...
The neorealist school of filmmaking when it came into existence advocated for a particular reason the use of a deep focus lens: it allowed reality to pervade every micro-inch of the screen. Annayum Rasoolum follows none of the laid-down rules, but strives nevertheless to be real, and only partially...