CONGRATULATION!

It's great coincidence that when the mission like 'MeToo' is going strong.. the novel raising the issue of woman harassment.. 'Milkman' won this year's 'Man Booker Prize'!

'Milkman' is about a young woman harassed by powerful older man. And it's author 
Ms. Anna Burns has become the first Northern Irish to win this prestigious award!

Congrats to her and more power to such writers!!

- Manoj Kulkarni

GREAT SERBIAN ACTRESS MILENA DRAVIC!

Legendary Actress of Serbia and Yugoslavia..Milena Dravic!

One of the greatest actresses of Serbia & entire Yugoslavia..Milena Dravic passed away recently!

Young pretty..Milena Dravic.

Born in Belgrade..since childhood Milena Dravic started performing on stage..and became classical ballet dancer! During 1959 director Frantisek Cap saw her and asked to act in his film 'Vrata Ostaju Otvorena'! With that screen debut she appeared in few films and to become a professional artist she entered in 'Belgrade Dramatic Arts Academy'!

Milena Dravic in film 'Prekobrojna' (1962).

Then in 1962 Milena Dravic's role in Branko Bauer's film 'Prekobrojna' earned her 'Golden Arena for Best Actress'..And with this she soon became Yugoslav's first big female filmstar! 

Then she acted in films mostly with war and socio-political backdrop like same year 'Kozara' the partisan film, Dusan Makavejev's first 'Man is not a Bird' (1965) & 'Battle of Neretva' (1969). 

Milena Dravic in 'Special Treatment' (1980).

Milena Dravic also co-hosted popular television program 'Obraz uz obraz' in 1970s with her third husband (Serbian actor) Dragan Nikolic!

She worked as eccentric protagonist of experimental arthouse films like 'WR: Mysteries of the Organism' (1971). Then she received 'Best Supporting Actress' award in 'Cannes Film Festival' for her role in Goran Paskaljevic's film 'Special Treatment' (1980).  
Apart from such films, as a versatile actress she did various kind of roles in her film career..like in Serbian romantic comedy 'Ljubav i drugi zlocini' ('Love and other crimes'/2008).

Milena Dravic in 'WR: Mysteries of the Organism' (1971)

Milena Dravic was honoured with 'Pavle Vujisic' award in 1994 for her contribution to domestic cinematography..And in 2017 with prestigious 'Dobricin prsten lifetime achievement award' in Belgrade!

 
Homage to this legendary actress!!

 
- Manoj Kulkarni
  ['Chitrasrushti']
    [Pune, India]

Happy 70th Birthday to first female superstar of Bollywood and..
Dreamgirl of yesteryears..graceful Hema Maliniji!

 

Remembering nice meeting her!!

- Manoj Kulkarni
  ['Chitrasrushti']

Sympathy and support to Ms.Tanushree and all such suffered!

They should get justice!! 

 - Manoj Kulkarni
  ['Chitrasrushti']

TRIBUTE TO..'BHAI-BHAI'!

Real brothers Ashok Kumar & Kishore Kumar in reel roles as-in 'Bhai-Bhai' (1956).

Recently happened 13th October..birth anniversary of one of the great actors of our Indian cinema..Ashok Kumar and..also death anniversary of his brother singer-actor Kishore Kumar!

Nirupa Roy & Kumar brothers in 'Bhai-Bhai' (1956).

They acted brothers in 'AVM's M.V. Raman directed film 'Bhai-Bhai' (1956) completed 60 years!

In this film actress Nirupa Roy acted with them and that's her death anniversary too! (Other actresses in it were Nimmi & Shyama!).


One more important thing about this is the song "Apna hai phir bhee.." which written by Rajendra Krishna and in the music of Madan Mohan sung by..great Mohammed Rafi and picturised on two brothers!


It's a tribute..and homage!!

- Manoj Kulkarni
['Chitrasrushti', Pune]

CAMERA EYE OF RAY...SUBRATA MITRA!

Great Cinematographer of our India...Subrata Mitra!

Birth anniversary of renowned cinematographer of our India...Subrata Mitra recently happened!

Mitra cinematographed famous train sequence of Ray's 'Pather Panchali' (1955)

In 1955 he began his career as a cinematographer with renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray for 'Pather Panchali' and cinematographed next two films of it's 'The Apu Trilogy'.. 'Aparajito' (1956) & 'Apur Sansar' (1959). After that his camera became the inseparable part of Ray's cinema!

Close up of Aparna..Sharmila Tagore 

in Satyajit Ray's 'Apur Sansar' (1959).

Subrata Mitra known for pioneering the technique of bounce lighting and especially I admire him for the excellent camera movement whether long shots like famous train sequence Or close ups of Apu or Aparna!.His camera talked a lot!

Subrata Mitra & Satyajit Ray shooting film!

He also cinematographed other filmmakers movies like..James Ivory's 'The House Holder' (1963), 'Basu Bhattacharya's 'Teesari Kasam' (1966) 
& Romesh Sharma's 'New Delhi Times' (1985). 

I am with great Subrata Mitraji in film festival!

Subrata Mitra won many awards including national & international!




I still remember meeting Subrata Mitraji!

Tribute to this great cinematographer!


- Manoj Kulkarni
['Chitrasrushti', Pune]

EXCLUSIVE:

 

"BOL VOLGA - GANGA SANGAM HOGA.." 

 

(ON INDO-SOVIET JOINT CINEMA!)

 

Beautiful Kseniya Ryabinkina in 'RK's film 'Mera Naam Joker' (1970).

Recently saw the news of Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin's visit to our India..and remembered the traditional friendship between these two countries!..And also India-Soviet/Russia co-produced films!

We all know our Indian films are very much popular in Russia! People there still sings Bollywood songs like RK's "Aawaaraa hoon.." and Mithun's film song "Jimi Jimi Jimi aaja aaja.." But that is not sufficient, there were several films jointly made by Indian & Soviet/Russian filmmakers!

Nargis, Oleg Strizhenov & Balraj Sahni in 'Pardesi' (1957)

First time in 1957 joint venture happened between Soviet Union's 'Mosfilm Studio' and India's K. A. Abbas's 'Naya Sansar International Production House'..And title of that film was 'Pardesi'! That was based on the travelogues of Afanasy Nikitin..named 'Journey Beyond Three Seas' which was also English title of that film! It tells story of 15th century Russian trader who travelled to India and falls in love with an Indian girl Champa! Abbas wrote it with Mariya Smirnova and himself directed with Soviet cinematographer Vasili Pronin. It was in two versions..Hindi & Russian and artists from both the sides acted..from here Nargis, Balraj Sahni, Padmini & Prithviraj Kapoor..and from there Iva Arepina, Vitali Belyakov, Stepan Kayukov & Oleg Strizhenov as Nikitin! Ali Sardar Jafri & Prem Dhawan wrote the songs of it and music composed by Anil Biswas & Boris Chaikovsky. It's Meena Kapoor sung '"Rasiya re man basiya re.." was memorable! This film won Best Art Direction Award (for M. R. Acharekar)..and was shown in 'Cannes Film Festival'!

Zeenat Aman, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Prem Chopra 
& Rolan Bykov in 'Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor' (1980).

Then there were different genre of films jointly made. In 1971 our renowned filmmaker M. S. Sathyu made film 'Black Mountain' 
on the story by Aleksandr Zguridi who also co-directed it! That was on heart trending friendship of young boy with elephant! Artists in it were Reshama Pasha & Prince Pradeep! Like this there was short children film 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi' (1975). 

And in 1980 popular film 'Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor' (Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves') was an India-USSR join production. Basically the folk tale from Arabian Nights..for film screenplay was written by Shanti Prakash Bakshi & Boris Saakov. This film produced by F. C. Mehra and jointly directed by Latif Faiziyev & Umeash Mehra. In this Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman & Rolan Bykov were in the main roles! R. D. Burman composed music and P. L. Raj choreographed the dances of this hit film! 

Poonam Dhillon, Sunny Deol and others in film 'Sohni Mahiwal' (1984)

Again in 1984 same writer-producer-directors made film on immortal lovers.. 'Sohni Mahiwal' for which Javed Siddiqui wrote dialogues! Handsome Sunny Deol 
and pretty gorgeous Poonam Dhillon were in the romantic lead with Indian & Russian artists in it! This hit film's songs written by Anand Bakshi & Anu Malik composed music! This film won 3 Filmfare awards which includes Best Female Playback Singer for Anupama Deshpande for song "Sohni Chinab di.."  

Then same directors jointly made film 'Shikari' (1991) under the banners of 'Eagle Films' (India) & 'Shak Film' (USSR). This film co-written by Roskov, Nikolai, Ulmas Umberbekov & Vinay Shukla..And also co-cinematographed by L. Travitsky and  
S. Pappu! In this Mithun Chakraborty, Varsha Usgaonkar & Russian Irina Kushnareva were in the main roles!

Mithun Chakraborty and Russian 
Irina Kushnareva in 'Shikari' (1991).

In 1991 our famous actor Shashi Kapoor produced film 'Ajooba' which he co-directed with Soviet filmmaker Gennadi Vasilyev. Inspired from Arabian mythology..this fantasy film co-written by Yu Avetikov, Bharat Bhalla, Valentin Ezhov, Brij Katyal & Prayag Raj. Also co-cinematographed by Sergei Anufriyev, Aleksandr Kovalchuk & Peter Pereira..And co-edited by Bhanudas Divakar & Tatyana Malyavina! This big budget film was produced in association with famous 'Gorky Studios' in Moscow. Amitabh Bachchan was in the lead of this film with (first time) Dimple Kapadia, Rishi Kapoor, Sonam & Amrish Puri. With them there were several Russian artists, but their speech not matched with Hindi dialogues! This film released in the Soviet Union with Russian title 'Vozvrashcheniye Bagdadskogo Vora'!

Shashi Kapoor with Shammi Kapoor & Russian artists 
during the shooting of his 'Ajooba' (1991).

Apart from co-productions, Russian artists always comes India to work in our Bollywood. Like Kseniya Ryabinkina who acted in 'RK's 'Mera Naam Joker' (1970) and got popularity!..Now more such beautiful artists & talented people from Russia can work creatively here!

At the end I just modified the old song of 'RK's film 'Sangam'..

"Mere man ki Ganga aur tere man ki Volga ka

Bol sangaam hoga ke nahin.."

- Manoj Kulkarni
['Chitrasrushti', Pune, India]