Films like ‘Stranger than fiction’, ‘Bowfinger’, ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’, ‘Get Shorty’ etc explored either the personalities involved in film-making or the process of it. And films like ‘Abhimaan’, ‘Sur’, ‘Swathi Kiranam’, ‘Rangeela’ ‘Janam’ etc threw light on the relationships of the protagonists and how they change for better or worse during the course of their artistic careers or specifically during a project..
‘Halal Love Story’ does a combination of both. It’s about a bunch of likeminded people who know exactly what their film should be, yet absolutely ignorant of the whole process. Interestingly they get the first step right—The producers. These are like the Chili Palmer(Get Shorty) kind in ‘who believe they don’t have to know much about producing’, yet smart enough to make the key decisions about how their film would eventually turn out as per their inspiration, which in this case is the Iranian classic ‘Children of Heaven’.
‘Halal Love Story’ is an endearing tale of emotions and how the simple things become complicated in life and then simple again. It’s a must watch for any person who is interested in movie-making and management. What in management? One can still stick to his principles and get a project done and that accommodating the emotions of the team always helps in a better output.
Tailpiece 1: ‘Bowfinger’
Q:Why don’t you wait till you get a star who wants to be in it?
Mr.Bowfinger: I’m 49 years old. Admittedly, I could get away with 44, 41, maybe 38. But when you hit 50, they don’t hire you anymore. It’s like they can smell 50.
Tailpiece 2: ‘Get Shorty’
Q: What the f do you know about producing?
Chili Palmer: I don’t think the producer has to do much, outside of maybe knowing a writer.
Tailpiece 3:
When my father made a film for TV, he called it TV Cinema 🙂 That’s the same term producers use in ‘Halal Love Story’ 🙂
Tailpiece 4
Sync sound used to be a very expensive affair. Not sure how it was even considered at that time. But the cameo of Soubin Shahir is very funny.