Superstition Or Superscience?
Amid accusations of having saffronised higher education of the country, the Centre approves the teaching of astrology in universities.
Is the Government promoting a
science or a sham?

Science Or Sham?
Even as stargazers claim their knowledge has an empirical basis, scientists debunk it as mumbo-jumbo.

PM's Point Man
Sidelined two years ago, he has bounced back to become one of the most powerful ministers in the NDA.

Diverging Tracks
The Gormu-Lhasa railway line will significantly improve China's military logistics capability and exert strategic pressure on India.

Plane Pique
The Gujarat Government resents the CAG indictment for the purchase of an aircraft.

CINEMA: ACTION FILMS

Bullet-time Photography

	Abhay Action Director: Vikram Dharma Cost of Production: Rs 32 crore SFX+ Action budget: Rs 7.5 crore

Director Sanjay Gupta hired foreign hands for the action for Kaante, a Rs 28-crore film, labelled the mother of all Bollywood action dramas with a cast that includes Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Shetty and Sanjay Dutt. The producers are spending Rs 9 crore for thrills. The bulk of the action budget is being spent on the film’s opening car chase sequence through New York as six NRI bank robbers flee a hundred policemen. To achieve a sequence similar to “the visual style of films like The Rock and Gone in 60 Seconds,” Gupta scanned the resumes of several Hollywood action directors. He stopped at Spiro Razatos, who choreographed the action in race-track drama Driven and the Kevin Costner heist film 3000 Miles to Graceland. “Spiro is the best action director in town,” declares Gupta.

Although Kaante is loosely based on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, its special effects are a tribute to The Matrix: bullets leave the gun barrels in super-slow motion and characters are filmed using complex bullet-time photography. Abhay’s visual-effects director George Merkert supervises the action in Kaante too and Gupta has engaged the team that used over 200 still cameras to capture a single sequence in the just-released Hollywood thriller, Swordfish.

But not everyone believes it’s necessary to export foreign talent to produce a well-made action movie. They say it is possible to replicate good action sequences with a bit of innovation. For the surrealistic mud-fight in his Nayak, director Shankar ringed Anil Kapoor with 35 movie cameras for a bullet-time effect. And Bollywood’s leading action director Tinnu Verma says that foreign stunt directors work with huge budgets and state-of-the-art technology: “A single action sequence from Pearl Harbour probably costs more than the budget of our films. Give the Indian action directors half those facilities and budgets and they too can perform well.” Verma himself came close to doing that in the James Bondesque opening sequence of Jaal. Heavily armed ski terrorists drop out of four helicopters in a snow-clad range in southern New Zealand to pursue heroine Reema Sen and her Z-plus security group. This seven-minute sequence cost the producer almost Rs 1 crore.

But even with big budgets, the latest gizmos and choreography by foreign directors, can action films deliver in an age of technicolour romances? “Audiences are vulnerable after an overdose of syrupy love triangles and homogenised assembly-line romances. The time is ripe for a well-made action film,” says trade analyst Amod Mehra. In other words, technology-assisted action may just propel producers into a new age of filmmaking.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Chennai Restaurant:
Beijing Blues

Delhi Contemporary Crafts: The Craft Workshop

Delhi Restro-bar: 4S