Asian Film awards

Chinese love story dominates Asian film awards, December 8, 2006

SINGAPORE - Reuters

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=61205

A love story about a mismatched Chinese couple was the big winner at an Asian film festival for first-time film makers in Singapore on Wednesday, scooping up three awards including best film and best screenplay.

The Chinese movie saw off challengers at the Asian Festival of 1st Films from crowd favorites such as a Vietnamese movie about a family’s fight for freedom in war-torn Vietnam, and an Indian film about a middle-aged bank employee struggling to fit into society.

“The Road,” which traces the difficult love affair between an elderly bus driver and a young, attractive, female bus conductor in China, also picked up a special film award. “The movie focuses on why the emotional lives of mainland Chinese are in tatters, and the problems of putting material pursuits before emotional needs,” said scriptwriter Yuan Da Ju.

The Vietnamese film, “Journey from the Fall,” and the Indian movie (Marathi), “Dombivli Fast,” both won best director.

Co-funded by the Singapore government and in its second year, the festival aims to help debutant movie makers in Asia who are often hamstrung by small budgets and lack of interest from audiences. “Thank you for your support, and thank you for your financing, which is the most important,” said Sanjoy Roy, festival founder and director, in his opening speech as he addressed a Singapore government official present at the event.

Held at the Raffles Hotel, the awards counted Hollywood scriptwriter James Hart – who wrote the film “Hook” directed by Steven Spielberg – among its presenters. Hong Kong stars Anthony Wong, known for his villain roles, and Cecilia Yip, who has been named best actress at several Chinese film awards, were also present.

The festival, which showed 29 films this year, drew 320 entries mainly from China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Israel, Canada and Spain. “The Road in the Air,” a Taiwanese film about a relationship between a teenage delinquent and a police officer, received the best male actor award, while Indian love story “Gangster” clinched best female actress.

Re: Asian Film awards

which movie is this : "an Indian film about a middle-aged bank employee struggling to fit into society". I don't think i've seen it but would like to.

It's nice to know that some of these Indian movies are at the same level as the movies from these other Asian film industries.

Re: Asian Film awards - Dombivli Fast

These days lot of good Marathi, Tamil and Bengali films have been released. Unfortunately only Bollywood crap is watched by most people.

Dombivli Fast

Marathi Movie

http://movies.indivibes.net/5/dombivli-fast

Filed under: Drama Bollywood Flick— Saurabh @ 11:34 am

I caught this movie, at the Pune International Film Festival (which was my second good movie of the day) - and very worth the effort of waiting an hour and a half in front of the doors for the movie to start.

In five minutes, the hall was jam packed - with no one being able to get in because of the number of people sitting on the floors and standing by the doors to catch the movie.

Dombivli Fast is a marathi movie which revolves around the life of a middle class man - Madhav Apte (played by Sandeep Kulkarni) who is a pretty stubborn man and has a very ’’No compromising on my principles’’ attitude.

The starting of the movie depicts the redundancy of his everyday life with him doing the same things day after day after day …

Madhav Apte has never bribed anyone in his life and has never accepted any bribes himself. He is a very straight forward guy who has lived his life so far on his principles and is hell bent on continuing to do the same.

He sees the rampant corruption around him, the apathy of people and how everyone has the ’’chalta hai’’ attitude.
Everytime he tries to intervene or do something, he is stopped by one of his friends or colleagues who tell him to ’’forget it and move on’’.

Throughout his life, he is taunted by his wife, friends and neighbours on his uncompromising attitude, and how the ’’real’’ world does not work that way.

Finally, one day, he flips - the constant taunts and the drudgery of his everyday routine playing a major part in it.
What happens next when he flips, is what the movie is all about.

The supporting cast did a pretty awesome job and their acting was pretty much flawless. Kudos to Sandesh Jadhav who plays the cop and Shilpa Tulaskar who plays his wife.

The director of the movie is Nishikant Kamat and he’s also done a fabulous job of shaping the movie in the way it was done.
For a Indian movie, this one had some surprisingly, good production which put it on par with the other movies being shown at the film festival.

I personally felt, that a little bit more time should have been spent in character building - due to which it takes sometime to empathize with the main protagonist.
Due to this, the movie seems to drag a bit towards the middle, but the ending of the film is awesome and justifies for any other little flaw that the movie might have had.

Once the movie got over in the over crowded hall, the exit doors were empty.

Everyone, including the people who were sitting on the walk-ways were just .. sitting.

No one spoke for quite sometime.

The movie depicts how every person should think, but also at the same time, sticks to the sad reality of how the outcome might turn up.

http://www.lff.org.uk/films_details.php?FilmID=1006

This multiple award-winning homage to Taxi Driver and Falling Down takes its name from the train station in Mumbai’s suburbs, where the film’s central character Madhav Apte commutes to his banking job up town. His high principles are challenged every day by corruption and double-dealing - when he takes his daughter to be enrolled at the local school the headmistress even requests a backhander. Adding to the pressure, his aspiring wife begins to chide him for holding the family back. One day an everyday incident makes Apte finally snap, and in front of his work colleagues he attacks a street vendor who refuses him change. Now out of control, vigilante-style, he searches the streets for misdemeanours, wreaking havoc as he goes. A police team follow, not sure whether to gun him down or decorate him as a hero; meanwhile his terrified family sit and watch it all on TV. Dombivli Fast is dark, smart and stunningly photographed with rapid editing that creates a sense of tension and energy evocative of Mumbai, one of world’s busiest cities.
Cary Rajinder Sawhney

Cast and Credits:
Directed by Nishikant Kamat
Written by Nishikant Kamat, Bal, Sanjay Pawar
With Sandeep Kulkarni, Shilpa Tulaskar, Sandesh Jadhav

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0833444/

New York Times Review
Dombivli-Fast
2006-India

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=348842

PLOT DESCRIPTION
In the tradition of Death Wish, Falling Down and Fighting Mad comes the urban vigilante drama Dombivli Fast - a tough, bitter dissection of the rage that lies at the core of contemporary society. The story concerns Madhav Apte (Sandeep Kulkarni), an Indian banker whose firm moral principles are constantly challenged by friends, family and associates. Ultimately, they goad him over the edge, and he suddenly cracks, physically attacking a street vendor in broad daylight for refusing to give him change. Apte then arms himself, wandering the streets and scouring the neighborhoods for any sign of wrongdoing that he can “correct,” but leaving a nasty trail of destruction in his wake. The police are promptly alerted, but cannot decide whether to arraign Apte or treat his actions as necessary heroics. Co-writer-director Nishikant Kamat utilizes rapid fire editing and frenzied camerawork to capture the story’s high-wire, cutthroat tension. Shilpa Tulaskar and Sandesh Jadhav co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

» Rate or Review ‘Dombivli-Fast’