Senior Rediff.com Contributor Aseem Chhabra is director of the New York Indian Film Festival, an entertainment writer and author of Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star. You can e-mail the author at aseem.chhabra@gmail.com
I have heard cynics say that Priyanka Chopra Jonas as we know her today is the creation of a PR machinery, but that is rather a poor reading of a determined woman and the work she has done to get to where she is. Aseem Chhabra salutes the movie star on her 40th birthday on July 18.
'If you don't have children, that's also a problem.' 'There's no right way to live because everybody has an opinion about your personal life, and how you should live.' 'You have to listen to them, unless you can pick a fight with everyone.'
Dear Mr Spielberg, can we now put to rest this overstretched, bloated dinosaur franchise? asks Aseem Chhabra.
'The idea was to show the simultaneity and coexistence of life in the city.'
A beautiful documentary from Delhi. A shocking satire that spares no one. A thriller about a serial killer in Iran. A Pakistan film about family secrets... Aseem Chhabra lists the best films he saw in Cannes.
'Why was Top Gun: Maverick made? 'And the only reason I can think of is that the new film was made to emphasise and re-establish Tom Cruise's superstar status,' notes Aseem Chhabra who watched the Top Gun sequel at its premiere in Cannes.
'The richness of Buddhism makes it possible for us to create these stories and to interpret them.'
'How is it to live in a place that does not have electricity or a telephone connection, where people do not have any concept of what the world is beyond the mountains?'
Twists and turns, shocking revelations, explosions, chase sequences and a lot of moodiness make The Batman a riveting movie going experience, notes Aseem Chhabra.
Aseem Chhabra brings you the Best of the Berlinale.
Two men smiling, eyeing each other as they briefly let their guard down, with no care of what the world around them is thinking, that has almost never been shown in a Bollywood film, notes Aseem Chhabra.
'There is a part of me that says it is a great time to tell stories from my own land.' 'But then opportunities are coming my way from all over the world.' 'So one foot is here and one foot is in the West.'
Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2021.
One could be anywhere -- huddled around a transistor radio at home in the evenings, walking past a neighbour's house, or waiting at a bus stop and Lata Mangeshkar's voice would reach us. Aseem Chhabra pays rich tribute to The Legend.
There was no drama, no applause, no tears, no laughter. The 79th Golden Globes had indeed lost its lustre, says Aseem Chhabra.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite Indian films of 2021.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite films, most of them shown at international film festivals held virtually (Berlinale and Rotterdam), hybrid (Toronto) or physical (Cannes and Venice).
'You need to be very passionate towards life, not because you are a film-maker, but because you are a human being.' 'If you can do that, then I think it reflects in the films that you make.'
Films that amazed Aseem Chhabra at the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt.
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