Tag Archives: movie quiz

9

Parallel Cinema Quiz for Quizcraft

This is the parallel cinema quiz I did at the group Quizcraft. Here I am trying to pay tribute to the Indian parallel cinema movement by moving beyond mere financial considerations. As there are only 10 questions, I have failed to cover all the luminaries of this genre but will try to do the same in the future. Have a look at the questions, the answers have also been provided at the bottom.

Indian Parallel Cinema Quiz:


1. A once made a film B based on a short story by C. The same story was later directed by D in a more glitzy manner with bigger stars and the film was called E. D was also an actor in his younger days was known for his common man acts. Identify all.

2. How are they connected?

3.Set in a decrepit Mumbai slum, this film comes with characters like an attractive widower, her teenaged children and her suitors (one of whom duffers from syphilis, one of the rare depictions of STD in Hindi cinema). True to the ideals of parallel cinema of its times, it is as gritty and realistic as it can be. It was the first and last feature length film of the director as his life was tragically cut short by an accident. It fittingly stars two of the biggest “parallel” stars of those times. So, just name the film.

4.One of the earliest instances of using an inanimate object as a character, this film is the first theatrical release of its director. Noted critic once Jonathan Rosenbaum had once drew parallels to Jacques Tati’s Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot. Full with symbolism and wry humor, this 1958 release still remains one of the lesser known works of this maestro. Name it.

5. Name the lady here…she dint do any of those “parallel” films herself…but there exists a connect somehow…


6. Connect

7. Largely overlooked at the time of its release, this film has gone on to receive cult status over time. This late 80’s film portraying life in a fictional small town in India came out of near oblivion couple of years ago, when an equally rebellious new age director accepted its influence on his latest release. Identify this film. (It might look vague but I would refrain from naming anyone here as it would be a giveaway…or probably it already is!)

8. Connect

9. Exhaustive List…connect

10. Simple one 2 wind up…gimme the cult film…

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Indian Parallel Cinema Quiz Answers:

1. A= Mani Kaul, B=Duvidha, C=Vijaydan Dvetha. D= Amol Palekar, E=Paheli

2. The connect is Byomkesh Bakshi.
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, the creator, Basu Chatterjee who made the cult serial and Ray who made Chriakhana with Uttam Kumar as Byomkesh

3. Chakra by Rabindra Dharmaraj. One of the lesser known ones of its genre but I was blown away by it. Stars Smita Patil & Naseeruddin Shah among others

4. Ajantrik by Ritwik Ghatak that depicts a man and his relationship with his beloved Taxi, a 1920 model Chevrolet which is in dilapidated condition but is his only companion nevertheless.

5. Hansa Wadkar, a popular actress of Hindi and Marathi films in the 30’s & 40’s & was know to be ahead of her time which also lead to problems in her personal life. Shyam Benegal & Smita Patil brought her back to life through their film Bhumika which is actually the parallel cinema connection in this case.

6. Neecha Nagar, is the connect. Maxim Gorky, Chetan Anand & Cannes film Festival. It is on of the first Indian films to gain international recognition, after it shared the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film (Best Film) award at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946. It was based on a Hindi story, Neecha Nagar, written by Hayatulla Ansari, which in turn was inspired by Maxim Gorky’s “Lower Depths”.

7. Om Dar Badar by Kamal Swaroop. A certain scene is supposed to have inspired the picturization of Emosanal Atyachar.

8. Movies adopted from Mahashweta Devi’s novels…Sanghursh, Rudaali, Hazar CHurashi Ki Maa…

9. Now everyone has got Ray here…but as I said, it was an exhaustive list. The exact connect is the Original Screenplays or Stories by Ray. Kanchenjunga & Nayak are his only proper original screenplays. Sonar Kella, Hirak Rajar Deshe, Jaibaba Felunath & Agantuk are based on his own stories or novels. All his other works are based on noted literary works by other authors such as Rabindranath, Bibhutibhushan, SUnil Gangopadhyay, Sankar, Premchand etc.

*But I have realized now that Shakha Proshakha is another film that is originally written by him. The ray foundation site says “Only six screenplays of these feature length films were entirely original”…but then it names seven films, which confused me…u can follow the link & see for urself…

10. Jane Bhi Do Yaaron, Kundan Shah, Weekend at Bernie’s which is believed to have been inspired by the same & Blow up which has been referenced in the film.

4

Cinephilia Quiz 1: Asian Cinema

Hi all,

This is the first of a series of quizzes about various genres of cinema. Today’s topic is Asian cinema (Indian films included). I intend to make it a weekly event but it will depend on various external factors.

Rules:

Put your answers as comments.

They are being moderated and will be published only after the deadline.

You can make multiple attempts and in case of conflicts your last answer will be taken as final.

Every question is worth 10 points irrespective of dificulty level (for ease of calculation).

Prizes:

After a three month cycle, the top three cumulative scoreholders will be given certain prizes. The nature of prizes are still being decided. (Please moderate your expectations, my resources are limited!!!)

Deadline:

24 hours from the moment of publishing.

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Questions:

1. Identify this Chinese film released in 2000 and the Indian film released in 2009 and explain what is common between them. (No points for only identification)

Clue: There is a reason why this question is at the beginning.

2. The following is the cover of a Russian book from 1920s which was made into a film in 1961. But a more famous version was made by X, who is not a Russian, but a well konown master of the art. Identify the book/films and X.

3. Guessable and Googlable: Five Deadly Venoms is a popular 1978 Hong Kong cult martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh. The five deadly venoms are The Centipede, The Snake, The Scorpion, The Lizard and The Toad. The film was listed at number 11 on Entertainment Weekly’s Top 50 Cult Films list. It is well known that in Kill Bill The five assassins of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are a reference to the Five Deadly Venoms. But another popular 2008 film also claims to have based 5 of its major supporting characters on the five venoms. Which film?

4. A sitter. Identify the person on the right side.

5. Set in the deserts of Manchuria, this film tells the story of an ironic goldrush involving Imperial Japanese Army, Korean Gunslingers and Manchurian Bandits. But actually it is a rehash of a cult film of 1960s, so much so that only one word differs the titles of both the films. Identify the film and its original.

6. The film A is the first English film by much acclaimed Asian Director B. It stars C in the leading role. Now, C is not really known for acting but for singing. C’s father D composed music for another film E, in the 1950’s. E is considered to be one of the pioneers of neorealism in its own country. Identify A-E.

7. The film here shares its name with a person quite well known for various reasons. While this similarity can mislead people, actually the film has nothing to do with that person. One of the rare films to have come out of its country in recent times, this film has achieved much international acclaim. Identify the film

8. Give me the cult movie that is somehow related to these images. It also has multiple remakes and spinoffs.

9. X is often known as the Y of his country. X’s film Z won the second ever Oscar in a certain category. While Y is the pioneer of this genre, X is one of the last living exponents of traditional techniques perfected by early masters like Y because modern technology has significantly altered the production processes in this genre. Identify X, Y, Z.

10. P is considered to be one of the greatest Indian filmmakers. But he hardly witnessed any commercial success during his lifetime. His biggest commercial success came as a screenwriter of an influential film Q that has led to multiple remakes and adaptations, mostly in pop commercial format unimaginable by the standards of its original makers. Director of Q was R, who earlier made the film S, another landmark film in all respects, a cannes triumph and the pioneer of later neo realist films. Identify P-S.

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OK here are the answers, only 4 entries this time. Hope the numbers will improve in the future contests.

1. Chinese film Shadow Magic and the Indian (Marathi) film Harishchandrachi Factory deal with the pioneers of cinema in both the countries, Dadasaheb Phalke in India and Liu jinglun in China.

2. Dersu Uzala. X is Akira Kurosawa who made 1975 film titled Dersu uzala that won the Oscar as the Best Foreign Language Film.

3. Kung Fu Panda. The Forbidden Kingdom is not being accepted here. It does haev reference to the Venom Group but I asked for something more specific. Kung Fu Panda has the Furious Five (Crane, Tigress, Mantis, Monkey, and Viper), five specific characters designed after the five in the original film.

4. Jackie Chan

5. Korean film “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” adapted from the Sergio Leone masterpiece “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

6. A – My Blueberry nights, B – Wong Kar Wai C – Norah Jones D – Ravi Shankar E – Pather Panchali

7. OSAMA, by Siddiq Barmak

8. Godzilla (1954). Godzilla is also originally called Gojira in Japanese, a combination of two Japanese words: gorira (“gorilla”), and kujira (“whale”). Directed by Ishiro Honda.

9. Hayao Miyazaki is often called the Disney of Asia although he himself does not like it. His film Spirited Away won the second ever Oscar for Best Animation film after Shrek. Miyazaki still prefers traditional hand drawn animation techniques instead of CGI.

10. P – Rithwik Ghatak, who wrote the screenplay for Q – Madhumati that inspired Karz, Karzzz etc. R – Bimal Roy and S – Do Bigha Zameen.

PS: Some of the questions may look vague… but at this age of Google I tend to be very paranoid.

PPS: Scores will be calculated after a few quizzes.