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ConnecTechASia/CommunicAsia 2018, IV: JMA Wireless Showcases Solutions
JMA Wireless, a global leader in wireless communications solutions, exhibited at NXTAsia a part of ConnecTechAsia, June 26-28, at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. This leading international communications and technology conference expects to attract over 2,000 exhibitors from around the globe.
“The advent of massive IoT and 5G will require wireless networks to offer greater speed, provide increased in...
Skyscraper, Review: The Rock climber’s burning issues
Disaster films have been appearing on the screen for decades. In some of them, it is the earth that plays the villain (earthquakes), in others, it is water (floods), in still others it is wind (tornadoes, hurricanes) and fire, naturally occurring or man-made, is the burning issue in some of the movies. Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, tackles impossible odds in Skyscraper and onlookers applaud his bravura. As we see the crowds playing t...
Dhadak, Review: Kiss kiss kill kill
A noun form of the verb dhadakna, which means ‘beating of the heart’, Dhadak re-introduces us to Ishan Khattar and gives us the much-awaited first look at Jahnvi Kapoor. Both have acting parentage, and that comes with a lot of weight. In the first half of the film, the two succeed in captivating the audience with their sheer freshness and electrical chemistry. Then, sadly, formulae and tropism take over, the pulsation of early dhadaks get blocke...
Delhi 47 km, Review: Keep safe distance
Title-wise, Delhi 47 sounds like Bombay 405 Miles, made in the 70s. That one did not have a great run, in spite of a star-cast and a reputed director. This one neither has a star cast nor a reputed director, but it does have an actor-writer-producer-director who either lacks knowledge about his responsibilities, or is incompetent and inept at executing them. And the odds that this will run or not run are 47: 1.
35 year-old Shadab Khann earlier wrote an...
Actors celebrate FIFA World Cup live, with fans and fanfare
Producer and Celebrity Manager Santosh Gupta of Pinnacle Celebrity Management, has teamed- up with Ali Merchant and Sakshi Jhala, to launch a company, Milagro, that will be managing various pubs and lounges across the Mumbai. In a first, the company started managing Kube Lounge, in Andheri West, where they organised screening of FIFA finalé on a giant screen.
The nail-biting telecast of the match between France and Croatia had ...
Amimon’s Wireless for every video production
Amimon offers both embedded boards and fully enclosed reference design product solutions for professional filmmaking and high-end productions. Their Zero Delay technology enables the perfect shot in film production, with the highest value.
Amimon solutions work perfectly in indoor, studios, urban or outdoor locations. Their product line brings the cinematography industry a cable-free environment, enabling fast changes on the set saving time ...
ConnecTechAsia 2018, June 26-28, Singapore: Exhibition Review
Asia’s mega technology event premièred, with much acclaim from attendees. ConnecTechAsia encompassed 3 focused shows – BroadcastAsia, CommunicAsia and NXTAsia, and represented the convergence of technologies and industries. Across 2 venues and a total of 67,000sqm, the event welcomed close to 40,000 attendees from around the world.
The event kicked off with an Opening Address by Mr S. Iswaran, Minister for Commu...
Teri Bhabhi Hai Pagle, Review: Mediocre mockery and tiresome satire
Films about films and film-makers are dicey propositions. The earliest in my time was Guru Dutt’s Kaaghaz Ke Phool, which bombed so badly at the box office that the director-actor never recovered, only to become an all-time classic a decade later. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi enjoyed above average success and Asrani’s Chala Murari Hero Banne was not bad either. Tanveer Ahmed’s Aakarshan flopped,...
Lathe Joshi, Review: Better Lathe than never
In a rare combination of inspirations, writer-director Mangesh Joshi looks up to Satyajit Ray and Charlie Chaplin to churn out a serviceable film about a soft-spoken man who has only one skill, and his world crumbles around him when he is retrenched from his job, a victim of new technology and upgrading of a manufacturing process. Modern Times and Pather Panchali blend in the India of 2018, to tell the tale of loneliness and poverty, old age and th...
Dry Day, Review: To avoid a hangover, stay drunk!
A Marathi language film with an English name, Dry Day picks its title from the term used to define certain days in the year when liquor sales and serving are not allowed in a particular state, or even the entire country. The local or union government decides which days should be Dry. On such days, habitual drinkers stock-up alcohol or get it from smugglers/suppliers, and consume the stuff out of the range of the police patrols that are entrust...
Soorma, Review: Bio-pick
Diljit Dosanjh pours his heart into a dream role, and director Shaad Ali inspires the cast to turn a real-life, touching tale of a star hockey player into a rivetting bio-pic. Even if the writers have deviated from incidents and facts (we call it cinematic licence), it all jells together into a highly convincing drama that survives a 132-minute run and stays with you for even after a full 24 hours and more.
Soorma (not to be confused with surma, which is applied in t...
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Wassup the ante
Ant-Man 2 begins while Scott Lang is under house arrest by the FBI, some two years after he interfered with Captain America’s mission in Germany. That is in perfect sync with Ant-Man 1, which was released in 2015. Part 2 features expanding and shrinking ants, wasps that fly at fabulous speeds and a woman who suffers from 'ghost syndrome', which makes her body density change from visible to almost invisible and again visible, in milliseconds....
Sarkaar Haazir Ho, Review: Unstirred and unshaken
Sarkaar is a Hindi/Urdu word that means Sire/Madam/government, depending on the context it is used in. It is also a common surname among the Bengali community, where it is pronounced Shorkaar. In this court-room, it is the surname of the family which is at the epicentre of a double murder.
Sarkaar Haazir Ho, which translates as Sarkaar ‘may be produced in court’, is a sensationalised title that lends itself to a belief that it cou...
ConnecTechASia/CommunicAsia 2018, III: PSN Indonesia selects Hughes JUPITER
PSN of Indonesia has selected Hughes Network Systems, LLC’s JUPITER system to enable Broadband Services throughout Indonesia, it was announced in Singapore on 27 June. It will operate over the PSN VI High-Throughput satellite.
Hughes, the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, has been selected by PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN), the oldest private telecommunication and information...
ConnecTechAsia/CommunicAsia 2018, II: Hughes News
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, announced at CommunicAsia 2018, Singapore, June 26-28, that it has been selected by Mutiara (which translates as Pearl) Smart Senderian Berhad (Private Limited), a leading provider of network telecommunication and IT services in Malaysia, to deploy the JUPITER™ System bring enterprise-grade, managed network services to Malaysian governme...
ConnecTech Asia/BroadcastAsia 2018, I: Promises to keep
Promise Technology Inc., a leading developer of open storage platforms, showcased its latest rich media storage technology innovations, tailored for the entire rich media workflow, at BroadcastAsia 2018, SunTec City, Singapore, June 26-28.
Highlights included the newly launched SANLink3 N1 (Thunderbolt 3™ to SAN bridge); the TD-300 (high speed Thunderbolt™ 3 Dock with power delivery), and the VTrak D5800 (unified storage sys...
Hanuman v/s Mahiravana, Review: Monkey god, who knows many tricks and means business
Green Gold Animation, the creators of India's favourite animation character which is a rage among TV watching children, Chhota Bheem, has released Hanuman vs Mahiravana in stereoscopic 3D. A mythological animation movie, it's based on a less known story from the, Hindu holy book, the Ramayana. The movie showcases the race against time for Hanuman to save the princes of Ayodhya, Rama and his brother, a...
Sicario 2-Day of the Soldado, Review: Benicio and Josh raise the' False Flag' and kill at will
‘Soldado’ is Spanish for a soldier who fights for a cause. ‘Sicario’ was the name of those who resisted Roman colonial invaders, and that in Mexico, it means ‘hit-man’. And in Sicario (2): Day of the Soldado, the twain meet. The movie is not too different from Sicario (1), but different enough to hold its own. Overall, it is just a notch below its predeces...
Isle of Dogs, Review: No bow-wows only wow-wows
Dog lovers of the world, unite, stop motion—you have everything to keep but your dogs to lose! Imagine a scenario where all the dogs in a city are captured and dropped-off on a deserted island by cable cars, because of a dog flu epidemic. The story is set in Japan, in the dystopian near-future, and a lot of the dialogue and captions/sub-titles are in Nihongo…er…Japanese. But the appeal is universal, both to dog lovers and pet...
The Incredibles-2, Review: The unbelievable Dash of Jack-Jack and Elastigirl
In gestation for a good14 years, a sequel to the 2004 animation cartoon superhero flick, The Incredibles, has been worth the wait. In the story, an evil mind takes control of hapless victims by placing a pair of hi-tech glasses on their faces and makes them do ‘unacceptable’ things. As a parallel, you will be donning 3D glasses to watch Incredibles 2, a totally acceptable, mandatory need that the format d...
Afreen
MTV’s Date to Remember: End is near, my Dear Exs and eXs, so step on the accelerator
MTV’s popular show ‘Date to Remember’ is nearing the end of its seasonal and things are getting complicated. There are fights, new love stories, and fresh grouping of the contestants. It all started with the nail-biting suspense at the elimination stage in the last episode. This week, we would only see it going a step further.
Some contestants are in the danger zone already, i...
CommunicAsia 2018, 03: Telos Infinity IP Intercom at InfoComm
Award-winning Telos Infinity™ IP Intercom will be featured at InfoComm 2018, which is part of CommunicAsia 2018. This has been described as the AoIP solution that ‘changes everything’.
At booth # C713you will experience the first product in a new series of Telos Infinity solutions that provide infinite scalability and increased functionality in a simplified, cost effective, and more elegant form, for distributed...
CommunicAsia 2018, 02: Brainstorm to showcase its graphics and virtual set range at BroadcastAsia
If you come down to booth 4P-01 at the Broadcast Asia segment of CommunicAsia, you will find Spain's Brainstorm, a leading manufacturer of real-time 3D graphics and virtual studio solutions. They will be showing the latest enhancements for high-end and hyper-realistic content, creation using virtual sets, Augmented Reality and data-driven graphics.
The company will showcase a photo-realistic...
Jurassic World-A Fallen Kingdom: Tyrannosaurus, Baryonyx, Indoraptor, Pterosaurs Carnotaurus, Mosaurus, Thesaurus and some humans
You’ve got to give it to them. Since the film is about dinosaurs, they filled the screen with myriad variations on the thematic anima/bird. Problem is, they all do almost the same thing, except with the handler, and that too when he pretends to be sad. The ‘same thing’ is making ferocious calls, and then getting into the seek-and-destroy anything ...
Aditi Govitrikar and Asif Bhamla
Stars sparkle for World Environment Day in Mumbai
Sparkles Diamond Jewellery joined hands with Bhamla Foundation to observe World Environment Day on June 05. Present on the occasion were actors Tanisha Mukerji, Sidhhant Kapoor (son of Shakti Kapoor), Aditi Govitrikar, singer composer Armaan Malik and playback singer Shaan (real-name Shantanu Mukherjee).
Shaan and Tanisha
Sparkles Diamond Jewellery is a brand of Poddar Diamonds Limited and Asif Bhamla is a p...
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About Siraj Syed
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India.
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, Germany
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins.
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984.
Bandra West, Mumbai India View my profileSend me a message
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