AB Corp Productions, Produced by AB Corp with no Bachchans Options

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http://www.ptinews.com/news/572597_AB-Corp...hi-films--Big-B

AB Corp happy to produce Marathi films: Big B


Mumbai, Mar 19 (PTI) Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan today said Marathi cinema is growing and his production company wants to be part of the trend by producing more films.

"Over the years I have noticed that the Marathi cinema is growing. If there are any proposals from the Marathi films, AB Corp Limited will be happy to produce it," Bachchan told reporters here.

In 2008, MNS Chief Raj Thackeray had targeted Bachchan for favouring Uttar Pradesh, where he was born, over Maharashtra, where he achieved stardom.

Bachchan today inaugurated the 11th year of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) voting weekend 2010 beginning from March 19 to 21.

"There is a huge amount of development and progress in terms of quality, content and performances. I hope the growing trend continues," Big B said.

Umesh Kulkarni's 'Vihir', a Marathi film which released today, has been produced by Amitabh Bachchan Corp Ltd (ABCL).

[Annihilator]

http://movies.ibnlive.in.com/interviews/mo...-films/184834/0

Amitabh to produce more Marathi films

The actor is impressed with the response to 'Vihir'


The premiere of AB Corp's Marathi film Vihir was held in Mumbai on March 18 among fanfare. Amitabh Bachchan was present at the event. Shweta Parande of IBNMovies spoke to the superstar on the occasion.

Was producing Marathi cinema always on AB Corp's agenda?

We have always been open to producing regional cinema. Not many people know this, but since AB Corp's inception in 1995, we have produced Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi cinema. Jaya (Bachchan) and I have even starred in a Marathi film (Akka) made by my make-up man Deepak Sawant.

How did you pick up Vihir?

As for Vihir, its director Umesh Kulkarni is a gold medalist from the film institute (FTII, Pune). Since Jaya is his senior there, she was very impressed with his work and instrumental in him getting a gold medal. We are very proud of the response Vihir has been getting. It has been screened at film festivals in Seoul, Berlin, London, Rotterdam….

So, do you plan to produce more Marathi films?

For the past couple of years, Marathi cinema has made huge progress in terms of its quality, content and performances. Hindi cinema has always had actors from Marathi stage and films. But Marathi films have really come up in quality now. So, we might produce some more.

[Spencer]

Umesh Kulkarni’s Vihir (The Well) is bloody brillant, cinematic masterstroke and a must watch!

March 19, 2010

Now that the post header has made you curious enough to book your tickets, do give the film some time and space. Its not your corn and cola cinema. For that you can wait for pottymaker’s Housefull!

As I returned home after the screening and looked at the bucketful of water in the bathroom and the reflection of the light on its surface, I could not look beyond. A bucketful water never meant so much. Never held my attention. When you go to a theatre to watch a film, its entertainment but when you come back home with a cinema inside you, you know its a masterstroke.

Vihir is one such cinematic masterstroke. Directed by Umesh Kulkrani and written by Girish Kulkarni & Sati Bhave, its devastatingly gorgeous, warm and heartwrenching tale of two freinds and their adolescent days. Of lost and found. Of life and death. Of hide and seek. Of love, lost and longing.

According to the official release, the synopsis of Vihir is as follows…

A story of two adolescent boys Sameer and Nachiket (cousins who are best friends) standing on the crossroads of life… to choose between the life that leads to petty worldly small existence or the life of free existence that would let them spread their wings and soar high in open skies…

They play a game of hide and seek in a rather unusual way. Where one cousin hides in death and the other is looking for him in the life around him. . . . Samir’s search leads him towards the experience of oneness where he can unite with Nachiket again!

Scratch the surface and you will find that the water runs really deep. There is family politics, pain of growing up, existensial crisis, chinese whispers, detachment and finding that “best friend” during one of the most difficult & exciting time of life – adolescent days. When suddenly one day you spot some soft hair strands slowly making a thin line just below your nose, you dont remain the same anymore. You want to talk to someone who belongs to the same club. You try to make sense of the world.

And like me, if you have spent your summer vacations at your nanihaal or mamabadi or mamaghar or Grandma’s place, you will instantly connect with it. Uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents - all under one roof. Things that you should not have known, tales that you should not have heard and incidents that you should not have been part of – you grow up then and there. You become Adult. Vihir moves in similar territory as Sameer & his Nachiketdada try to decipher the meaning of life around them. They are not only cousins but best friends too. One (Sameer) idolises the other but the other is lost. He is also trying to find himself. And its through one’s loss, that the other discovers himself.

But what kind of loss is it ? Is it just being invisible ? Or more than that. Here comes the maturity in the writing and direction part. And now slowly all the dots connect. The simple game of hide and seek & chinese whispers dont remain the same anymore. Dont want to write more here to spoil the experience for you.

The character actors are all familar faces of marathi cinema. Lead actors Madan Deodhar (Sameer) & Alok Rajwade (Nachiket) say it more through the silences and gestures than the dialogues. Alok was also the lead in Siddharth Sinha’s FTII diploma film Udhedbun which bagged the Silver Bear at Berlin Film Festival in 2008. Shot gorgeously by Sudheer Palsane, the camera takes you straight inside the family affairs. The acting across the board is so natural that it looks like someone just put a camera there. Am not sure if the actors spent some time together before the shoot or what lead to such strong bond on screen but its pure magic.

When the first half got over, I was bit lost wondering if its the end of the film. And it could have been a superb end there. As i came out and met few other film buffs, realised that others also felt the same. So now what ? What will he do in the second half ? How will he wrap up ?

Fuck Syd Field and fuck all plot points. Umesh Kulkarni’s second half is pure visual delight. Mood piece. At one point, some 20 minutes of the film is complete silence. No dialogues. And once you are with the character, you know what that silence means. If you have ever loved and lost someone, you know its difficult to find a way out. You dont want to hear people talking. They just dont make sense. You need no gyaan. You need that journey to nowhere. Remember last year’s Dev D ?

In the secod half, I felt the same once again. When “the well” scene comes, I thought here is one more end. But then there is some more. Its a journey of self-discovery. So, no point trying to figure out an end to join the dots. Let it go on.

And as a killer line in Rocket Singh song goes…Uljhe nahi to kaise suljhoge…bikhre nahi to kaise nikhroge. Nobody grows up in years, its always in deeds.

Water is life. And death too. In every drop. Everywhere. The subtle hints, the subtext and the layers – by the end it seems nothing is as simple as it looks.

(PS – Its great that AB Corp produced it. All respect. Hope they do more such films. And those of you who still think that am biased against the Bachchans, doesnt this post say enough to shut you up! We all love to champion a film that we like. Rest doesnt matter. It seems Jaya Bachchan was the key person for making this happen. This surely is one tight slap on the face of Raj Thackeray and his supporters who claimed Guddi buddhi zali, tari ajun akkal nahi aali. And do watch it on big screen. You need to dive into that water. The dark theatre and the big screen sets the perfect mood. )

http://moifightclub.wordpress.com/2010/03/...d-a-must-watch/

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http://movies.ibnlive.in.com/reviews/movie...cinema/184846/0

MARATHI REVIEW: Vihir is brilliant cinema

It is going to make you nostalgic

In the opening credits of his film, Vihir, director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni dedicates his film to popular Marathi writers GA Kulkarni and CT Khanolkar (aka Aarti Prabhu) and sets the tone for what is in store ahead. Like these writers' works Kulkarni's Vihir too is a film whose characters are in a pursuit of the unknowable destiny and a dark mood reflects the inscrutable ways in which destiny shadows these characters.

Cousins Sameer (Madan Deodhar) and Nachiket (Alok Rajwade) stay in Pune and Pandharpur respectively. While Sameer's family is still a bit better off, Nachiket has to contend with an alcoholic father who vanishes for weeks and his mother having a tough time managing the house.

Through the hand written letters that they regularly write to each other, both, on the verge of adulthood exchange their anxieties about their future. Fourteen years old Sameer is a year younger than Nachiket and his joy knows no bounds when he learns that they all shall be getting together for their aunt's wedding.

After arriving at their ancestral home in their village for the wedding, both are inseparable. Free spirited and much maturer than his age, Nachiket's talks while roaming around the hill side and swimming in the family-owned well leave Sameer in more awe of him.

However Nachiket's rebuff to the idea of shifting to Pune to stay with their family to pursue further studies leaves Sameer annoyed. Sameer doesn't approve of Nachiket's plans to run away from his family and explore the world on his own.

An upset Sameer then leaves for a short visit back to Pune for his swimming championship selections. On his return he is shocked to learn about Nachiket’s death in the same well they both very fond of. What annoys Sameer is the nonchalance he senses creeping up in few of his relatives regarding Nachiket's death.

But then was it a suicide or an accidental death? Finding it unbearable to live with thousand questions cropping up his head, Sameer sets off in a search. This search leads him towards the experience of oneness where he can unite with Nachiket again.

FTII graduate Kulkarni's debut feature Valu (2008), a black comedy, was both a critical and box office success. In Vihir he has yet again set his film majorly in the interior of Maharashtra. Kulkarni has effectively used symbolism, metaphor and sarcasm providing his film a unique texture and ethos. The allegorical manner in which Umesh has used the simple childhood game of Hide and Seek deserves a huge bow. A loss of a person you are very close to is always not very easy to overcome.

Writers Girish Kulkarni and Sati Bhave have amazingly explored how Sameer tries to deal with the tragedy, rummaging through memory in an attempt to reconcile what he knew, and what he didn't know, about his late cousin. The film is deliberately slow paced and silences are effectively used. Sudheer Palsane's cinematography is nothing short of brilliant as it captures the vast expanse of the countryside splendidly.

There are many characters in the film and the actors playing them are all so absolutely natural that you actually feel like they are one close knit family in real. The film however works largely because of the outstanding performances by both the boys - Alok and Madan. Veterans Mohan Agashe and Jyoti Subhash playing their grandparents are terrific as usual. Writer, producer of the film Girish Kulkarni as their uncle is very impressive. Sulbha Deshpande playing their cranky grand aunt brings in a few laughs.

Subtitled in English, Vihir marks the foray of Amitabh Bachchan's production house AB Corp into Marathi film production and what a quality product they have come out with! Instead of opting for making an A-list Marathi film star cast money spinner their choice of subject deserves a huge applause. Vihir received great acclaim at the recently concluded Berlin Film Festival and Rotterdam Film Festival.

It is definitely going to make you nostalgic about the good times you had together with your cousins during your vacation visits but at the same time make you introspect a lot of things around you. It also makes you feel proud that Marathi cinema is taking the right step towards World Cinema.

Rating: A must watch.

[Annihilator]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/AB-Corp-to-p...le1-558470.aspx

AB Corp to promote regional cinema

Hiren Kotwani , Hindustan Times


PaaAfter Paa, AB Corp produced a Marathi film, Vihir, and is now juggling between four scripts. “Two of the films will be made in Marathi and one in Bengali. We’ve just received another good script and the director is open to making the film in any language. Regional cinema has some wonderful talent and we want to give them a good platform,” informs Abhishek Bachchan.

The actor-turned-producer insists that for his company, production is not just a money making venture. “Obviously we’re not producing films for charity, but I want everyone to earn from it. At the same time, I want to make films that we believe in, even if it means gambling Rs 14 crore on an unconventional subject like Paa,” asserts Bachchan.

He is happy that the experimental Paa worked well for AB Corp, netting in a profit in the first week itself. Encouraged by its success, he is prepared to go with a bigger budget the next time around, provided the film deserves to be made on a more lavish scale.

Prudently, he has also decided not to over-sell his productions. “I had Rs 80 crore offers for Paa and could have made a huge table profit on it even before its release. But Paa wasn’t the kind of film that would have earned Rs 500 crore. And I didn’t want the distributors and exhibitors to feel cheated,” he points out, adding that upping the price without being assured of the returns is unfair. “Today, I’m happy that everyone associated with the film made money.”

So, what’s the next big project? Bachchan says that three to four scripts have been locked and are being developed. “We’ll see how they turn out, we’re in no hurry,” he says. “ABCL was Bollywood’s first corporate company and we have a certain business plan for the company (now AB Corp) that will come up with A-list products.”

[AishAbhilov]

^Business savvy and a great actor!

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http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/repo...stivals_1403760

Marathi film Vihir's dream run continues at international festivals

Thursday, July 1, 2010 11:56 IST

Mumbai: After being screened in over 10 film festivals world-wide, Marathi film Vihir would be shown at five more international film festivals this month.


"The film will be a part of Karlovy vary International Film Festival, Taipei International film festival, La Rochelle International Film Festival and London Indian Film Festival," director Umesh Kulkarni told PTI.

Vihir (Well) will be the closing film of the London festival, he said, adding it will be the inaugural movie for the Bollywood and Beyond International Film Festival to be held at Stuttgart in Germany.

The Karlovy vary Film Festival will be held from July 2 to 10 in the Czech Republic. The Taipei film festival would begin on July 4 and would conclude on July 12.

The La Rochelle International Film Festival to be held in France would begin on July 2 and end on July 9.

The London festival would be a six-day affair commencing from July 15. Similarly, Bollywood and Beyond International film festival in Germany would begin on July 22 and would culminate on July 25.

Vihir has been screened in festivals like Berlin and Rotterdam. The movie is the first Marathi production of Amitabh Bachchan Corp Ltd (ABCL).

The film starring Madan Deodhar, Alok Rajwade, Jyoti Subhash, Amruta Subhash, Mohan Agashe and Sulbha Deshpande deals with questions regarding birth and death being faced by a teenager after the death of his cousin.

The film was released in Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, and Kolhapur on March 19 followed by other cities in Maharashtra.

[Spencer]

Review : Vihir

Who would have thought that a modest and unassuming young man from Pune would spring the city back to the place of pride it once held on India’s cinema landscape? Home to FTII, the country’s premier film school & Prabhat Film Company, one of India’s oldest and most prestigious production houses, the city boasts of a connection with leading lights in all departments of filmmaking. Pune also played host to the formation of one of Indian cinema’s greatest ever collaborations – Guru Dutt & Dev Anand. Sadly, in spite of its rich cultural heritage, close connections to cinema and a passionate fervour for the art among its citizens, Pune hadn’t provided the industry with a homegrown talent worth its salt in recent years. That stands changed, for Umesh Kulkarni has arrived, and how! His first film, Valu, a satire based in rural Maharashtra, had won a lot of critical acclaim and also gave an ample glimpse of his promise. With his second film, Vihir, again based in rural Maharashtra, Umesh transcends the heights of Valu many times over.

The opening sequence of Vihir is a fine example of the magic in Umesh’s craft. Through an exchange of letters between the two main protagonists, Samir (Madan Deodhar) & Nachiket (Alok Rajawade), he kills two birds with one stone. He establishes the character sketches of the two, cousins & best friends. Samir is the city boy, living in Pune. His mother is married into a decently well-off middle class family. He’s outgoing, competitive & is interested in sports. Nachiket, slightly older, resides in Pandharpur. His mother, Samir’s maternal aunt, is married to a wastrel whose life begins and ends with the liquor bottle. Nachiket is introverted, contemplative and is interested in science. Apart from establishing the characters, the sequence also shows minutely detailed differences between urban & rural life through its mise-en-scene, thus sensitizing the viewer towards the atmosphere of the film.

The action then shifts to Samir & Nachiket’s mothers’ village where the entire extended family has gathered for their youngest aunt’s wedding. This is where the film hits top gear, with each family member playing an important part in the proceedingswhich operate at different layers – material, metaphysical & philosophical. The crux of the action remains around Samir & Nachiket though the other strains are all connected beautifully to a larger point the film is trying to make.

The family is dysfunctional. The relationships are mired with conflicts and tensions. Ideological clashes, jealousy, economic hardships and compromises are the salient features of the household. But it still forges on like a well-oiled machine, an unseen force guiding it. This puzzle of the Indian family, that has baffled sociologists for ages, is brilliantly deconstructed by Umesh in the film.

The conversations between Samir and Nachiket are mind-blowing. They’re made up of mundane day to day language that’s common to boys in their late teens and yet, are deeply philosophical. Their favourite rendezvous is the family well (Vihir is marathi for Well) where the two feel far removed from the tensions back home and bare their hearts out to each other. Nachiket’s patience with the conflicts at his parents home as well as his grandfather’s has reached a boiling point and he wants to run away from it. His conversation with Samir on the subject brings out the maturity gap between the two in sublime fashion. Another highlight is their conversation about invisibility. Trust me, this is stuff you’ll want to hear and reflect on again and again.

And then, tragedy strikes, taking Samir on a journey to resolve the many puzzles he’s facing in life, a journey that is highly reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s Waking Life. He meets several people along the way, goes through life-altering experiences and endsthe journey coinciding with his emotional transformation from boy to man. This is a refreshingly different coming of age story where unlike the regular rigmarole in films of this genre, where the protagonist faces struggles in his life to come out a better person. In Vihir, the protagonist comes out of his comfort zones out of his own free well and explores his bearings without any struggles to motivate him. Samir’s interactions with an old & wise shepherd he meets on the journey deserve special mention.

The hero of the film is its writing. Writers Satee Bhave & Girish Kulkarni deserve full marks for their efforts which reflect tremendous philosophical depth on their part. The parallels drawn between death and invisibility, the spontaneous inclusion of social comments and the interplay between different characters is done without compromising on the rustic flavour of the film and the simplicity of the writing.

The deep and elaborate content is ably matched by the film’s technical finesse. The astute sound design, the expert camerawork and the melliflous background music enhance the effect of the content manifold. The sound engineers have exquisitely captured various water sounds – the gush of a stream, the splash in a well, the echo of ripples and even the stony silence of a calm well. Sudhir Palsane’s camerawork in the dull interiors of the family house as well as the beautiful landscape of the Maharashtra hinterland is a treat.The Hindustani classical based background music sucks you into the film with its haunting charm.

The performances in the film are top-rate. Madan Deodhar & Alok Rajawade are confident and exude the essence of the film remarkably well. It must’ve been a challenging ask for Umesh to have made these young minds understand the depth of the film’s content and he’s done it with astounding success. The supporting cast of Mohan Agashe (grandfather), Jyoti Subhash (grandmother), Girish Kulkarni (uncle) etc. have also turned in great performances.

Umesh has made optimum use of all these elements to create a landmark in the history of Indian cinema. Vihir is a moving, thoughtprovoking, spellbinding and emotionally gratifying epic. Here’s a filmmaker with the potential to be named alongside Ray, Sen, Gopalakrishnan, Dutt & their likes. But for that to happen, he’ll need every bit of support from the industry as well as from us, the audience. ABCorp has already set the ball rolling by producing Vihir. We’re looking forward to other producers coming to the fore as well. As for us, the audience, let’s make the Vihir DVD a huge success by buying a copy when it releases. And if someone from the authorities are listening, Vihir is the best bet we’ve had in recent years to bag international film awards of repute. Please, someone have a look.

http://www.cinemaaonline.com/cinemaagazine/review-vihir

[AishAbhilov]

So ABCorp has produced another film and Marathi at that; and it doing very well! That's very good news!