First Day First Show | Reviews of ‘Kaala’ and ‘Mark Antony’
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Around Tinsel Town
>> Toronto International Film Festival 2023
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is back for its 48th edition, welcoming movies from around the world to premiere in Canada. This year, the festival is being held in the backdrop of two Hollywood strikes that have paralysed production.
Here are a few highlights from the 11-day festival:
> What to watch at the Toronto Film Festival
> Spike Lee, Pedro Almodóvar, Vicki Krieps honoured at TIFF Tribute Awards
> Hayao Miyazaki invites moviegoers to dream with him one last time
> ‘Dicks: The Musical’ brings laughs to Toronto film festival
> Nickelback reclaims the narrative with documentary ‘Love to Hate: Nickelback’
> Premiere of documentary on Lil Nas X delayed by bomb threat
> Vicky Krieps on the feminist Western ‘The Dead Don’t Hurt’ and how she leaves behind past roles
> Paul Simon takes a bow with a new career-spanning documentary
> ‘Dumb Money’ goes all in on the GameStop stock frenzy — and may come out a winner
> A new documentary reexamines the Louis CK scandal, 6 years later
> Ethan Hawke and daughter Maya tap Flannery O’Connor’s fiction to tell her story in ‘Wildcat’
> Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard bring Hollywood to festival amid strikes
>> Dev Anand @100: Watch ‘C.I.D’, ‘Guide’, ‘Jewel Thief’ and ‘Johny Mera Naam’ on the large screen
Movie lovers in 30 cities across India can watch the restored 4K versions of Hindi films C. I. D, Guide, Jewel Thief and Johny Mera Naam on September 23 and 24 at PVR Inox, ahead of the 100th birth anniversary of actor Dev Anand, which falls on September 26. The classics have been restored by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) and National Film Archive of India (NFAI) and the festival is curated in collaboration with the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF)
Bollywood
Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’ collects Rs 520.79 crore worldwide in first weekend
Akshay Kumar announces ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ on 56th birthday
Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘Khufiya’ gets premiere date
Hollywood
Yorgos Lanthimos Emma Stone’s ‘Poor Things’ wins Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologise for ‘pain’ their letters on behalf of Danny Masterson caused
Drew Barrymore criticized for returning with talk show amid strikes; removed as National Book Awards host
Martin Scorsese to play a role in his new film on Jesus Christ
Marvel VFX workers vote to unionise with IATSE
Meryl Streep says she is open to returning for ‘Mamma Mia! 3’
Nicolas Cage-starrer ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ to stream in India on Lionsgate Play
Regional Cinema
Rajinikanth, Lokesh Kanagaraj team up for action-thriller
Release of Prabhas and Prashanth Neel’s ‘Salaar’ postponed
Allu Arjun, director Sukumar’s ‘Pushpa 2’ to release in theatres on August 15, 2024
First look of Vijay Sethupathi’s 50th film, ‘Maharaja’, out
Ramesh Aravind’s next is ‘Daiji’ with Akash Srivatsa
First look out of Jayam Ravi’s action-drama ‘Siren’
Rima Das directorial ‘Tora’s Husband’ set for India release on Sept 22
First look out of Anand Deverakonda’s ‘Gam Gam Ganesha’
Soori, Sasikumar, Unni Mukundan to star in Durai Senthilkumar’s next
Karthi, Yuvan Shankar Raja voice support for AR Rahman after ‘Marakkuma Nenjam’ controversy
World Cinema
Hayao Miyazaki has ideas for next project after ‘The Boy and the Heron’
Israeli drama series ‘Fauda’ renewed for a fifth season
‘Joyland’ star Sarwat Gilani to headline ‘Farar,’ a web series directed by Mehreen Jabbar
Trailers
Trailer of the fourth and final season of ‘Sex Education’ out
Teaser of Apple TV+’s Monsterverse series ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ out
Vicky Kaushal is a bhajan star in crisis in the trailer of ‘The Great Indian Family’
‘Jigarthanda Double X’ teaser shows Raghava Lawrence, SJ Suryah in Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Pandyaa Western’ film
A family of spies go on a mission to save the world in the trailer of ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’
It’s scientists versus narratives in Vivek Agnihotri’s latest, ‘The Vaccine War’
‘Margazhi Thingal’ trailer features Bharathiraja, Suseenthiran in an intense social romance drama
New in streaming
New on Netflix in September: Hindi thriller Jaane Jaan, fourth season of Sex Education, fifth Spy Kids movie Spy Kids: Armageddon, and more
New on Amazon Prime Video this week: Crime drama Bambai Meri Jaan, thriller series Wilderness, action drama Killer Coaster and more
Coming to Apple TV+: Season 3 of The Morning Show, four-part documentary event series The Super Models, Sundance Film Festival Selection Flora and Son and more
New on Disney+ Hotstar in September: Crime drama Kaala, Season 2 of I Am Groot, season 2 of Welcome to Wrexham, and more
New K-dramas to watch this September: Time-slip romance A Time Called You, supernatural romance My Lovely Liar, period drama Song of the Bandits, and more
Essential reading
1) All about ‘800’: Muthiah Muralidharan and actor Madhurr Mittal on the cricketing biopic
>> The Sri Lankan cricketing legend goes down memory lane, discussing growing up in Kandy where he developed his unique bowling technique
2) Sanya Malhotra on ‘Jawan’, SRK’s feminism, and ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’ remake
>> The actor discusses her role in Atlee’s socially resonant blockbuster, and fulfilling a lifelong dream of working with Shah Rukh Khan
3) How Kannada cinema debunked the pan-India theory
>> Small-scale films with fresh concepts focused on their target audience and adopted unique promotional strategies to succeed at the box-office
4) A.R. Rahman on his ‘Marakkuma Nenjam’ concert: I’m terribly disturbed and accountable for what happened
>> Rahman clarifies what went wrong at the concert that left many fans disheartened, leading to a social media uproar
5) Decoding the political messaging of ‘Jawan’
>> The film raises important issues in the mainstream Hindi cinema discourse but the treatment is more like bumper sticker activism that shoots and scoots
6) September rejig: It’s advantage small films after ‘Salaar’ postpones its release
>> With ‘Salaar’ postponed and ‘Skanda’ vying for that long weekend, a bunch of smaller Telugu films are poised to release in the preceding weekends
7) Dhyan Sreenivasan peaks about ‘Nadikalil Sundari Yamuna’
>> The actor says that the film is an entertainer with a feel of Malayalam films of the 1980s-90s with situational comedy thrown in
8) Rintu Thomas: It still feels like a dream
>> The co-director of ‘Writing with Fire’, talks about the Academy Award-winning film’s journey to fame
9) With ‘Jagane Thanthiram’, this Chennai stand-up comedian blends music and romance
>> Tamil stand-up comedian Jagan Krishnan is currently touring his first solo show that has elements of humour, music and romance
10) Rajesh Thaithara from Kerala built the dummy train in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Jawan’
>> Thaithara, who built the dummy metro train that features in the film, speaks about his experience
What to watch
1) Bejoy Nambiar fashions a competent but dull thriller in ‘Kaala’
2) ‘Bambai Meri Jaan’ is an uneasy take on Mumbai mafia that blurs the line between the good and the evil
3) SJ Suryah has some fun in ‘Mark Antony’, a loud and silly time-travel gangster flick
4) Asif Ali and Sunny Wayne starter ‘Kasargold’ fails to bring anything new to the table
5) ‘Changure Bangaru Raja’, Ravi Teja production, is a partly-amusing crime comedy
6) Meghana Raj Sarja, Prajwal Devaraj shine in ‘Tatsama Tadbhava’, a taut thriller
7) ‘A Million Miles Away’, José Hernández’s journey to the stars, is compelling
8) LaKeith Stanfield shines in ‘The Changeling’, a baffling fairy tale-turned-horror drama
