Articles by Sreesha Belakvaadi

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Sreesha is a hardcore Bangalorean and loves the city more than any other! With IT being his main profession, Sreesha still finds time to keep up with many of his hobbies including filmmaking and short story writing.

Having co-founded 5th Dimension Films – an independent filmmaking forum 2004, Sreesha continues to drive the leadership and marketing.

Sreesha comes from a Super 8mm filmmaking background, certified by the Millennium Films, New York . He has made two short films – “King and the Pawn” and “Desires” the former being telecasted in one the film festivals hosted by Millennium Films, New York; Sreesha dreams of making a feature film and is currently working on one.

Given leisurely time, Sreesha loves to spend time with family, friends and a host of activities ranging from reading books to watching movies. He always finds joy in little and simple things life can offer.

Feel free to contact Sreesha at sreesha.buddha@gmail.com

Sreesha Belakvaadi: ROCK ON – A classic CULT puller!
By the time this movie got over, I said to myself atleast umpteen number of times “WoW, what a direction”. This movie really rocks at the edge – reverberating, pulsating, throbbing and charging the audience in an altogether new consciousness of entertainment. If you want to feel a new definition of entertainment-energy, an altogether new singular genre in filmmaking, an altogether new electric-punch in freshness – ROCK ON is the answer! Read On

The middle - path of filmmaking…
The face of cinema has changed dramatically over the years. Especially a country like India where culture itself is so dynamically evolving, it’s not surprising we have atleast a dozen filmmakers who have emerged as the messiahs of contemporary filmmaking. There is a definite, tangible, conscious paradigm shift in the films that were made ten years ago to what is seen today. It gives a hard-kick to our energies to witness such a revolution in the Indian cinema, especially within Hindi film industry – the so-called Bollywood for world cinema Read On

In the wake of modernization…
“DEALS”, “ SALE ”, “FREEBIES”, “FESTIVE OFFERS”, and “BUY ONE GET ONE FREE” – you are probably tired of hearing; the list is endless; every human is in a chain, a circle. Businessmen are behind consumers. Consumers are behind possessions. Then at some level, even businessmen are victims of these possessions in their own insecure-worlds. Consumers succumb to not just possessing them, but to a large degree getting entangled in the web of insecurities, peer / social pressures and moving along the so-called imaginary chord of the magic wheel of energy (read westernization or modernization) that’s controlling the entire society. Read On

Dinesh Baboo: A classic filmmaker of expensive taste
Its sad that hardly people know this name Dinesh Baboo – a filmy craftsman of a classic caliber who can be compared to any of the legends mentioned above or perhaps much more in a way. This article is a deep reverence to this artist, to expose a shadow (if not the great realness in him which is not easy to tap) of his artistry and his expensive taste he has outpoured. Read On

Background Music: The Backbone of a Film
The background music is the soul of the film, the backbone on which the “life” of the film exits. It’s the heart-center of the film that captivates the audience without their consciousness. It’s such a pivotal engine through which the film can influence the minds of the audience, a bad score in the background can take the audience to another world altogether, far away from what the director wanted to convey. Read On

Shankar Nag: The Lamp That Flashed Like A Wave
About 15 years back, Shankar Nag disappeared like a wave in a road accident, but what is left behind is the rich heritage of abundant art that he churned out like magic all through his career in cinema and stage. From a Marathi stage artist to a filmmaker to his world-class serial – Malgudi Days, Shankar Nag has left some deep imprints of solid artwork, the world will remember always. Read On

Stanley Kunbrick: A Connoisseur Of Cinematic Excellence
This article is an inspiration that stems from my deep love and reverence towards Stanley Kubrick’s art and artistry. There could be hundreds of websites that may describe the genius, so I will NOT talk upon his biographies; rather I’ll share something that I want to dissipate – the energy in me that germinated when I watched Kubrick’s movies. Read On

Versatility & Singularity: Filmmakers’ Label
While it instigates me to appreciate the “versatility” in a filmmaker more than the “singularity” in him, nevertheless I am highly tempted to serve my reverence to some of the best “singular” filmmakers of India: I would like to show cast “Girish Kasaravalli” whose movies all have a strong “fragrance” in terms of sets, lighting, cinematography and language. It’s extremely easy to point and observe that all his movies share a kind of common ambience that is very vivid and highly “singular”. With little observation, one can easily coin that Tabarana Kathe to Mane to Dweepa are all from the same filmmaker. Read On

Songs in movies: Sense OR Nonsense?
There are essentially two subtle things to understand: Firstly “The significance of songs” per se and secondly “Its value-addition” to cinema In simple and fundamental definitions, Songs are basically channels through which heavy emotions can be dissipated. They act as straits where “flowery” sensations that pulsate in the heart are transformed to music-n-lyrics that supposedly touch the audience in the same wavelength. These heavy emotions can never be conveyed through ordinary dialogues basically because dialogues are “mind-oriented” whereas these heavy pulsating-emotions are “heart-oriented”. Read On

Suresh Heblikar: A man of many faces
When asked about his favorite and the movies that really inspired him, Heblikar points to Satyagit Ray’s Mahanagar, The legendary period film Casablanca and a French film Wages Of War – that indicates the strong maturity of “taste” the artist possesses. Suresh Heblikar is not just a brilliant moviemaker; his passion as an Environmentalist has shown deep-rooted results in many ways fostering a positive development both “ecologically” as well as “socially”. Read On

The Oscars: Are they really prestigious?
I have watched Italian, French, Portugal , Chinese and other Foreign Language movies that are most brilliant in nature; I don’t care a damn whether they really won Oscars. From Sir Alfred Hitchcock to Sir Charles Chaplin, from Martin Sorsce to Stanley Kubrcik, from Adoor Gopalakrishnan to Girish Kasravalli, from Bhuddhadeb Das Gupta to Mrinal Sen and from the legendary Satyagit Ray to Puttanna Kanagal – none of them have bagged Oscars for their movies…and that gives us a strong streak of light toward the dark alleys of fantasies the world has built over Oscars. Read On

Art and Commercial cinema – The different shades
Take for example a movie such as Pushpak directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. The movie has a layer of comedy above with serious messages underlined below. The movie was a huge success at the box office. The movie indeed was slow-paced in terms of story, script, music and camera work. There were no songs, no fights, no masala, no dialogues, no commercial elements, nothing at all in fact : it was a lovely portrayal of Singeetam’s inspirations… Read On

The Art and Craft of Sunil Kumar Desai
Scorpio by birth (22nd November), an architect by qualification, a fan of Alfred Hitchcock, Desai is of a short and fair personality, very reserved and a man of few acquaintances. Coming to technical brilliance, Desai had an eagle’s eye on every detail of his movies. Gunasingh his musician, P Rajan his cinematographer and R. Janardhan his editor by then had formed an impregnable team for all of his movies. It was like the moment Desai narrated a scene, there was nothing more for either Rajan or Gunasingh or Janardhan to inter-collate the ideas among themselves…everything worked like a clock. Read On