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The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema
Anupama Chopra's The Front Row hosted some of the biggest names from Bollywood, Hollywood and world cinema. There were candid, intelligent discussions on stardom, craft, fame, relationships, work-life balance and much more. The Front Row broke the mould of the celebrity chat show, reflecting instead the thoughtful, straight-talking nature of the host herself. It brought to bear on the conversations Chopra's own deep understanding of cinema and of the world behind it. This book is a selection of the very best of The Front Row.
From Salman Khan to Madhuri Dixit, Priyanka Chopra to Nicole Kidman, Raju Hirani to Rohit Shetty, they are all here. The insightful discussions range from the Rs 100-crore club, supporting actors and villains in Hindi cinema, to the making of some of the most celebrated movies in recent times. While Ang Lee talks about surrendering to the movie god, Amitabh Bachchan discusses what it is like to be called God. If Aamir Khan owns up to how Satyamev Jayate changed him as a person, Shah Rukh Khan talks about what it is like to be 'just an employee of the Shah Rukh Khan myth'. Johnny Depp reacts to Tim Burton's verse about him - 'There was a young man, people thought he was handsome, so he tied up his face and held it to ransom' - Martin Scorsese wrestles with the question of how a film-maker can combine artistic integrity with commercial success, and Spielberg acknowledges how he 'wouldn't know how to make a Martin Scorsese movie' and how that makes him sad.
Engaging, penetrating and great fun, The Front Conversations on Cinema is essential reading for all movie buffs.
From Salman Khan to Madhuri Dixit, Priyanka Chopra to Nicole Kidman, Raju Hirani to Rohit Shetty, they are all here. The insightful discussions range from the Rs 100-crore club, supporting actors and villains in Hindi cinema, to the making of some of the most celebrated movies in recent times. While Ang Lee talks about surrendering to the movie god, Amitabh Bachchan discusses what it is like to be called God. If Aamir Khan owns up to how Satyamev Jayate changed him as a person, Shah Rukh Khan talks about what it is like to be 'just an employee of the Shah Rukh Khan myth'. Johnny Depp reacts to Tim Burton's verse about him - 'There was a young man, people thought he was handsome, so he tied up his face and held it to ransom' - Martin Scorsese wrestles with the question of how a film-maker can combine artistic integrity with commercial success, and Spielberg acknowledges how he 'wouldn't know how to make a Martin Scorsese movie' and how that makes him sad.
Engaging, penetrating and great fun, The Front Conversations on Cinema is essential reading for all movie buffs.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 19, 2021
Was a fan of her interviewing style when I read this. Stay away if you are not.
March 4, 2015
While I am very fond of cinema (and, though I am primarily interested in old films, I also do watch a lot of new cinema), I watch almost no TV—so I didn't know that Anupama Chopra, film critic, television anchor and Director of the Mumbai Film Festival, hosted (or still hosts? I don't know) a show called The Front Row, in which she interviewed some of the film industry's most prominent personalities, not just from India but also from Hollywood and elsewhere.
The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema is a compilation of some of the interviews that Anupama Chopra conducted as part of The Front Row. The book is divided into four sections: Actorspeak (featuring interviews with individual actors); Jugalbandi: Talking Films (chats about specific films: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Barfi!, Life of Pi and Ram-Leela); The Foreign Hand (featuring film personalities from overseas), and The Front Row Dialogues, which bring together various film personalities to discuss issues regarding cinema.
Since I almost never watch interviews and rarely even read newspaper interviews, Actorspeak was—in some cases—a bit of a revelation. In the case of some people (Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit stood out) I found the conversation a little too predictable—focussed too much on the old question of Indian women continuing to act after a certain age, especially after having borne children. Others surprised me, and pleasantly: Hrithik Roshan turned out to be much more philosophical (as did Salman Khan) than I'd expected, Shah Rukh's candour and sense of humour were refreshing, and Kangana Ranaut was brilliantly, brutally honest.
In contrast, the foreign actors and film personalities seemed to have been plugged in just for the sake of it. The names are mouthwatering: Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Will Smith, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender (and no, despite what the blurb on the back cover may say, no Nicole Kidman) —but each interview is barely half a dozen questions, if that. This section left me utterly disappointed: I wanted to know more about these actors, but this was obviously not the place I was going to find out.
Jugalbandi: Talking Films brings together not just prominent cast members, but also the directors, writers and other important people of four very different types of films, but again left me clamouring for more as far as one particular film—the brilliant Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro—was concerned.
The Front Row Dialogues was for me the most interesting of the four sections of this book, because it brought together cinema people (and not necessarily those we hear about much, either, like writers and editors) to talk about topics ranging from what direction is all about, to women in cinema, to the villainy of classic filmi baddies. This invariably made for a more free-flowing, honest chat with interesting insights and points of view.
On the whole, a somewhat spotty book. Some interviews and chats are very satisfying and engaging; others are relatively boring or have little new to say. It is also most definitely a book for lovers of contemporary Hindi cinema, with only a passing nod to the yesteryears, in the form of people like Prem Chopra or Amitabh Bachchan. You are expected to know who these people are, and what they do (slightly difficult for someone like me, who had to resort to IMDb to find out who some of the people were).
One last grouse: the dodgy transliteration. In some of the more informal chats—especially in the The Front Row Dialogues—a lot of the conversation ends up drifting off into Hindi (which, by the way, isn't translated, so if you don't know Hindi, this can be a bit of a problem). For me, the problem was not the Hindi, but the fact that it was transliterated badly, with hain instead of hai, chalte instead of chalti, and so on. It made for taxing reading.
The Front Row: Conversations on Cinema is a compilation of some of the interviews that Anupama Chopra conducted as part of The Front Row. The book is divided into four sections: Actorspeak (featuring interviews with individual actors); Jugalbandi: Talking Films (chats about specific films: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Barfi!, Life of Pi and Ram-Leela); The Foreign Hand (featuring film personalities from overseas), and The Front Row Dialogues, which bring together various film personalities to discuss issues regarding cinema.
Since I almost never watch interviews and rarely even read newspaper interviews, Actorspeak was—in some cases—a bit of a revelation. In the case of some people (Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit stood out) I found the conversation a little too predictable—focussed too much on the old question of Indian women continuing to act after a certain age, especially after having borne children. Others surprised me, and pleasantly: Hrithik Roshan turned out to be much more philosophical (as did Salman Khan) than I'd expected, Shah Rukh's candour and sense of humour were refreshing, and Kangana Ranaut was brilliantly, brutally honest.
In contrast, the foreign actors and film personalities seemed to have been plugged in just for the sake of it. The names are mouthwatering: Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Will Smith, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender (and no, despite what the blurb on the back cover may say, no Nicole Kidman) —but each interview is barely half a dozen questions, if that. This section left me utterly disappointed: I wanted to know more about these actors, but this was obviously not the place I was going to find out.
Jugalbandi: Talking Films brings together not just prominent cast members, but also the directors, writers and other important people of four very different types of films, but again left me clamouring for more as far as one particular film—the brilliant Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro—was concerned.
The Front Row Dialogues was for me the most interesting of the four sections of this book, because it brought together cinema people (and not necessarily those we hear about much, either, like writers and editors) to talk about topics ranging from what direction is all about, to women in cinema, to the villainy of classic filmi baddies. This invariably made for a more free-flowing, honest chat with interesting insights and points of view.
On the whole, a somewhat spotty book. Some interviews and chats are very satisfying and engaging; others are relatively boring or have little new to say. It is also most definitely a book for lovers of contemporary Hindi cinema, with only a passing nod to the yesteryears, in the form of people like Prem Chopra or Amitabh Bachchan. You are expected to know who these people are, and what they do (slightly difficult for someone like me, who had to resort to IMDb to find out who some of the people were).
One last grouse: the dodgy transliteration. In some of the more informal chats—especially in the The Front Row Dialogues—a lot of the conversation ends up drifting off into Hindi (which, by the way, isn't translated, so if you don't know Hindi, this can be a bit of a problem). For me, the problem was not the Hindi, but the fact that it was transliterated badly, with hain instead of hai, chalte instead of chalti, and so on. It made for taxing reading.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews