pAgE tHrEe cApErS...

Into his third major film this year, after the successful Chandni Bar and Satta, Madhur Bhandarkar is ambitious about Page Three, his comment on the party culture of metro India, writes Vimla Patil

MADHUR BHANDARKAR’S two earlier films, Chandni Bar and Satta, were acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. Why did Madhur think about the party and celebrity culture of metro India that is discussed threadbare at almost every social gathering or seminar in India today? "I was a part of this culture after I directed two successful films," he says, "I was invited to Page Three parties very often. I began to observe the behaviour of people who came to them. There were rich socialites, film and television actors, industrialists, models, successful people from different fields, heads of NGOs and, of course, many PR people. The networking was phenomenal and each invitee had definite reasons for partying. Page Three parties were like a common platform where everyone came searching for what they wanted and worked to get what they were looking for.

"I also met journalists who came to cover such parties for their publications or TV channels and studied their predicament. They got sucked into the celebrity party culture and ran around with their dictaphones and cameras to get sound-bytes, quotes or photo ops as if there was no tomorrow. The ‘attack’ of media persons on a star or model was a sight.

"I thought a film on the subject would be a good project. I worked on the script and within an year, I made the film. I am not against the much-famed Page Three culture but I certainly have a critical view that comes across in the film. According to Madhur, "The film presents their behaviour, personalities, hectic networking and the turns and twists in their relationships."

Though the film is entirely fictional, Konkana does represent my viewpoint to some extent. The film represents the personal journey of a journalist in such a society and her search for self. And the journey is empty at the end of the day and does not give the necessary sense of purpose or fulfilment to a journalist."

Madhur’s critique causes no concern to party regulars and wannabe celebrities. In a recent quote, Nikita Anand, the new Miss India entrant to Bollywood says, "It’s very fashionable to criticise the Page Three gang when everyone wants to part of it. I am becoming a Page Three person. That’s fun!"

my comments: This is actually being based on a true story obviously with some alterations but this is the type of issues that the public need to be aware of. This idea of a CELEBRITY CULTURE has increased people are aspiring to it like shown in the films girls would do anything to get there. I think that this film should of opened the eyes of many people to realise whats going on in the society around them.

ChArAcTeR PrOFiLe...

Konkana Sen(Actress) - Madhavi

• main protagonist
• see the film through her eyes
• forced to feel what she feels/emotions/shared thoughts
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  
  

Boman Irani(Actor) - Deepak Suri

• The man behind the magazine
• forced not to print the truth - bribed.
  
  
  

Tara Sharma(Actress) - Gayatri

• Wants to be famous - wants to act
• Would do just about anything to get there.
• after she becomes famous she acts like the other celebs
  

• 
  
  
  

DiReCtOr: Madhur Bhandarkar

• Made similar style in films - E.g Coporate (2006) Chandni Bar (2001)

ReViEw...

'Page 3' Exposé of the elite By Nitika DesaiFilm critic, ApunKaChoice.

"...ComMadhur Bhandarkar’s movie ‘Page 3’ takes a candid look into the lives of celebrities and stars that adorn the third page of newspaper. The film penetrates through the façade of their ‘hunky-dory’ lives and reveals the hypocrisy, superficiality and shallowness that lie underneath.

Madhavi takes to her job like a fish to water and soon becomes a known face in the parties and get togethers. That is when she gradually begins to see the glimpses of the reality behind the beautiful facades. The real faces of Page 3 celebs are exposed through a number of characters – businessmen and their resentful wives, social workers with dysfunctional families, politicians and their lofty talks, friends that backbite each other, desensitized cops, pedophiles, drug addicts, a gay make-up artist, a ‘person’ with indeterminate sex, and so on…

The director also brings out a fine contrast in the second half of his story by shifting the focus to downtown Mumbai and revealing its shady denizens like prostitutes, pimps, petty criminals, drug peddlers and so on.Konkana Sen fits well into the role of a rookie journalist owing to her unassuming persona. She catches the nuances of her character well enough and finely brings out its disillusionment of the shallow and pretentious side of high society life. Another plus point of ‘Page 3’ is that the songs have been kept in the background. However, one item number Kuan Ma Doob Jaaoongi simply irritates.

All in all, a good movie.

My comments: This review was taken from .. http://www.apunkachoice.com/movies/mov490/
and it basically tells us that this film has a strong reflection of reality. After watching this film people tend to think now that Bollywood has actually stepped into a different genre. Bollywood has obviously been influenced by the western culture, "pimps..." not only in characters but by in genre has followed this realistic approach in many other Films not only 'Page 3'.The film was a hit in britain the western audience liked it however in India there was alot of dispute about it and how it was frowned upon. This could suggest that people in India are so into films being made for escapism that when the truth is shown they seen to take a downwards approach.

Blog Buddies:

13D: Raspreet - Bride and Prejudice

Essay Title: 'How are Asians represented in film and television, with particular focus on Bride & Prejudice?'

Representation: Asians: women, traditional Indian families. Asian women are shown to be niave and innocent. By adding humour to the family suggests how people take an exaggerated view of asians. To what extent is this view accurate amongst the Asian community.

Link: This links to my independent study as is concentrates on niave individuals in society this refelcts the main protagonist in Page 3. Not only that but we both are discussing the representations of Asians.

13C: PiP - Life isn't all ha ha hee hee

Essay Title : How accurately are Asians represented in “Life isn’t all ha ha hee hee?”

Representation: Three british born Asians who struggle to live both lives of a traditional Indian girl and their British side. Views of the family, society. Continues stereotypes within community.

Link: This links to my independent study as it conentrates on the views of Asians. This idea that not asians are portrayed as in its stereotype. Also the fact that Asian women are rebelling against the traditional roles and are working.

IdEa On My TiTLe...

" 'Page 3' should be seen by all because of the important issues it raises and its ruthless insights into the world of socialites"

This was a quote from a website review. i think it proves very useful for my independent study as it pionts out that there are issues raised in this film which need to be acknowledged by the public.

Key words - 'A'

Actuality : Filming or reporting of Real Life events E.g. Kashmir bombings
Alientation: Marxist term for the emotional seperation of workers from the product of their own labour as a result of complex mass production process.
Althusser, Louis - interested in the role of the media in supporting dominant ideology.
Antagonist: the principle opposing figure or villian in a narrative, set in bunary opposition against the protagonist.
Anit-narrative: a text that challenges the traditional idea of sequence linear narrative by using flashbacks, unrelated images and altered in time sequence.
Archetype: an often-repeated character type or representation which is instantly recognisable to an audience.
Aspirational media: magazines whos readership aspires to the lifestyle represented in the magazines.
Attitudes, Beliefs and Values: term commonly used when discussing the audience for media products and the factors of influencing the reception of media messages.
Avant-garde: an experiemental style of film production that breaks new ground in the taste, content and treatement, often attracting criticism from the mainstream for its radical challenge to the orthodox.

TrAiLoR :

http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/trailer/7404.html

M - I - G -R - A- I- N analysis:

Media Language (M)

- Semiotics: when the reactions of the characters are emphasised the use of close up and dramatic music help to build up the main themes. (affairs,seducation and scandal along with man others) After every event the director links back to the party atmosphere as this is where everythin happens, therefore this would be seen as the iconographic symbol.
- Cinematography, camerawork: The director uses many close ups which help us identify with the characters. As they are many in the film the use of close up also allow the audience to see reactions including facial epressions. The use of Long shots also come in handy as this film is abroad therefore using a classy, expensice mis en scene help create the right tone of the film.
- Mise-en-scéne: As this film revolves around celebrities and people in power the use of props i.e . costumes also added this effect of the rich upper class power and wealth.
- Sound: The sound throughout the film is very up beat and party type as it links to the narrative. The non-diagetic sounds of the people talking and gossiping.
- Editing: In this scene the edits are very quick at the begining as there had just been a terrorist therefore the use of fast edits allows the audience to feel afraid or jumpy.

Institution (I)

- Production: It is a Bollywood film, therfore we instantly relate it to the typical/stereotypical conventions.
-promotion: To reach its audiences this film was promoted in posters (shown on my blog) cinema's, TV and websites (which i have also provided)

Genre (G)

- Hybrid: This film has many different genres which follow different narratives. Suprisingly the main theme/ genre is not Love infact this is one of the side genre.
- Generic conventions/repertoire of elements: The repeated icon is a camera and this idea of a celebrity party. After each event the plot returns to these two images.

Representation (R)

- Asians : This film is filled with indian people from India, it represent in a non-stereotyical way therfore discouraging the positive stereotypes of indians. women are also represented to be weak and passive however some women are seen as power and wealthy however they got their because of their husbands or in a deagrding way.
- Realist aesthetic, naturalism: This film therefore provides a realistic however it can be argued to present a exxaggertaed approach.

Audience (A)

- Primary/secondary audiencestarget audience: This film targets the audience of a asian minority however the secondary audience is the western group. This film did not target its primary audience as this theme of realism is new to them, however to a weatern audience found this fim down to earth.

fulfilled/cheated, subvertednarrative pleasures:

Ideology & Values (I)

- Patriachal: As this film provides a realistic approach it shows all the negative aspects of society. The society is run by the male race therefore presenting the patrichal society to me much more superior. Thisfilm also educates society to observe the deviance in society and make people aware of how people abuse power.

Narrative (N)

-Closed narrative/open narrative: Here in this film we get the idea os continuity, that things are not sorted because of this corruption. In the end we are left feeling that society will carry on like the one we see in the film, until everyone realises (like the main character) that power and money actually can buy everything.
- Linear narrative: This film is presented in chronological order. Which allows a clear transparent narrative.
- Narrative roles: There is one main protagnist (madhvi) who is the innocent niave female, she along with some others try to print the truth in the magazine they are working for.