And in any case, sports just forms one layer in the second Jafar Panahi film on this list. But the global phenomenon, the universal language of sports as expressed in football made it the obvious choice. Offside (2006)Īs a cricket buff, how I wish the backdrop of this film could have been cricket instead of football.
Whenever I’m thinking of siege-thrillers and trying to come up with ideas I have the amazing score by John Carpenter pumping from my speakers full blast. With one of the best film-scores ever made and a coldness and matter-of-factness to it that just seems to work.
This film is just so cool, understated and sinister to this very day. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927) about a single farming family. It’s such an uplifting experience because it gives you a slice of such pristine, simple, honest, emotive life. Picked for a special recommendation at Venice Film Festival, it is a Marathi film from Prabhat Studios made by Vishnupant Damle, a sound designer and Sheikh Fattelal, an art director. This was the first film with children at the centre that actually touched me. Talk to Her is about the mysteries of human behaviour, which is what we call life at the end of the day. The narrative is about two men who strike up a friendship in the hospital because their wives are in a coma. This 2002 film is one of the most twisted and most obsessive love stories of all time. The camera style in this film is very personal and intimate. It’s not about twists and turns, rather it is about internal conflicts. It’s a very unconventional screenplay and I think that is what I really liked. It has no shock value and is very real in its structure. The movie tries to explore the line between friendship and physical attraction. It’s a modern take on male-female relationships but is not a romantic comedy. The director is one of the people who initiated the mumblecore filmmaking in America. It changed my take on how I wanted to approach performances. You’re not even allowed to shoot there now. I still remember that song called ‘Dil Ka Bhanwar Kare Pukaar’, which was shot at Qutub Minar. Thanga Pathakkam was a film that inspired me in every possible way. With this script, he made Sivaji, an expressive actor, deliver a restrained performance. As a scriptwriter, I find Mahendran sir (he wrote Thanga…) one of the greatest. A father is in a position where he must kill his son and I was stunned by the thought behind the film. I saw a lot of conflict in the wants and needs of the protagonist.
I saw Thanga Pathakkam about 10 to 15 times, and then wrote the plot line of Anjathey. When people talk about my films, they speak of Anjathey, and its structure is quite similar to Thanga Pathakkam. This is the first movie that inspired me. It’s got a mind-blowing sequence in which a suspect is caught at a football match. So it’s their love story but it’s also an investigation. Many years later, he comes back to write about an unsolved case and by now, she’s become a judge. It’s about this guy who is an investigator for a lawyer.