Friday, November 16, 2007

SRK apologises to Manoj Kumar

Press Trust of India, Friday, November 16, 2007: (Mumbai):

Offended by a sequence in recently-released film Om Shanti Om, yesteryear actor Manoj Kumar is contemplating a legal action against the fim's makers.However, Shah Rukh Khan tendered an unqualified apology to Manoj Kumar for the sequence in the film.

"Manoj Kumar has been offended by a certain sequence in the film, and he asked me whether any legal action was possible," Kumar's lawyer Mukesh Vashi said. "However, I myself haven't seen the film. So, I would be able to advise him only after seeing it," Vashi added. Kumar told a TV channel that "Indian audiences had made Manoj Kumar into an icon; that icon has been wounded, made fun of; a moral action is more important than a legal action." Om Shanti Om, released last week, is a spoof on Bollywood films of 70s, and shows a few real-life film characters from the Mumbai film world. Kumar is reportedly angry about a sequence in which he has been shown being thrashed by policemen outside a theatre. In the movie, Khan's character steals Kumar's pass to enter a movie premiere, and police, not recognising Kumar, beat him.

Khan is also a co-producer of the movie, directed by Farah Khan. Khan said "I was completely wrong. If he is hurt, I apologise. I called him in the afternoon, and the first thing he said to me was "it is no big deal, son," Khan told reporters.

"People do parody. It is a done thing," Khan said, adding Manoj Kumar had every right to say anything to him. A look-alike has played Kumar in the movie, Khan's home production. In a hastily called press conference, Khan said "I should have been over-careful. I should have called him earlier (to tell him about the spoof)."

Farah Khan, who was also present, said "I am to blame for this. I wrote that scene."
About Kumar's remark that it was unpatriotic on OSO producer's part to make fun of him, Khan said "I think he did not mean it. He was angry." When asked whether Manoj Kumar was over-reacting, Khan said it was not so. "He belongs to a different era. People from that era have a different way of talking. If I were old, I would react in the same way," Khan said. "His achievements are marvelous. We grew up watching his movies. I have immense respect for him", the younger actor said.

"Tomorrow, we will go his place and have a cup of tea," Farah said. Farah said she offerred to cut the scene when she called Major Kumar but he said there was no need.

Earlier, an emotional Major Kumar had told reporters that "Shahrukh has hurt my soul. Manoj Kumar was made into icon of India by the audiences. By making fun of him, Shahrukh Khan has wounded him." He had also consulted lawyers as to whether any legal action was possible.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Farah Khan credits Shah Rukh’s shirtless act behind film’s success

Bollywood filmmaker Farah Khan, who is riding high on the success of "Om Shanti Om", credits superstar Shah Rukh Khan's shirtless song-and-dance sequence as one of the main reasons for the film's good opening.

"Om Shanti Om", a film on reincarnation, had a tough battle to overcome for box-office supremacy as it was sharing its opening date with "Saawariya" -- on unrequited love -- by top Bollywood filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

But three-days since its release, analysts say, "Om Shanti Om" has edged past "Saawariya”.

"The entire credit for the film's success goes to Shah Rukh," director Farah Khan told Reuters over phone on Sunday. "He is the film's main attraction and the shirtless song is definitely one of the main reasons for the film's hit. It is the scene to watch out for."

The bare-chested act by the 42-year-old actor who underwent rigorous training sessions to develop a six-pack, has helped the song "Dard-E-Disco" reach the top of the charts across television channels and FM radio stations.

"I have made many girls and women happy by showing Shah Rukh in a very different way," she said. "He has a huge audience base and everyone I'm sure is loving the way he has pulled it off. He had to train a lot for the scene and he is looking very good."

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Dream Girl goes on canvas




After making millions of hearts flutter with her evergreen beauty, the dream girl of Bollywood Hema Malini has been put on canvas by Kanhai Brothers. The beauty of traditional Kanhai art is implausible. The life-size portrait of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K Advani says it all. Govind and Krishna Kanhai were to gift Hema Malini this beautiful creation on her birthday. However, due to some schedule problems, they could not make it. Nevertheless, Vrindavan brothers did the honour of laying an exhibition in Mumbai

Kanhai Brothers seem to be adding on in the list of Dream girl’s admirers. Well, that does not come as a big surprise. What say Hemaji?

Source : IndiaFM

Ash to do a sci-fi film?

If all goes as per plans, it will be nearly after a decade that actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan would be starring in a film with sci-fi elements and fantasy. This would be for the upcoming and untitled offering by producer Rohan Sippy. Incidentally, Rohan is known to share a close friendship with Abhishek Bachchan. In the start of her career, Aishwarya had worked in the Shankar directed ‘Jeans’ (1998), which abounded in special effects.

However, while John Abraham’s dates are already available with the makers, Aishwarya’s signature on the dotted line is still awaited. Director Sriram Raghavan (‘Johnny Gaddaar’), who would be shifting genres from thrillers ( he also directed ‘Ek Haseena Thi’) to a love story with this film says, “Yes, the film does have a fair bit of sci-fi and fantasy elements. Though it is a love story, the plot is unique and requires a different treatment. We may go abroad to get the special effects in place.”

Will Aishwarya feature in this film? “There are positive indications about her being a part of the project. But I guess the final decision may come only after Diwali once we are able to sit down and discuss it with her,” divulges Sriram. He adds, “Aishwarya was busy with her ‘Pink Panther’ shoot abroad. Once in India, she was occupied with the Karva Chauth ceremony. Once the festivities are through after Diwali, we should have all the dates finalised.”

Earlier there were talks about the shooting beginning in November. “We have moved a little. We will begin in December and should still be able to finish more than 70 per cent of the shoot in a start to finish schedule. Post this, work on special effects would begin.” The film will also star Nana Patekar. Incidentally, Aishwarya’s ‘tough girl’ act in Aditya Chopra’s ‘Dhoom 2’ was much appreciated.

Source : DNAIndia

Friday, November 9, 2007

Oh, how Sanjay Bhansali hams!

On screen on Diwali


www.rediff.com
Raja Sen


First off, using the ever-fantastic words of Pete Townshend entirely out of context, The Kids Are Alright.

No, Ranbir and Sonam Kapoor -- megahyped bachchas sharing a surname but entirely different Bollywood legacies -- aren't, as the hype might have had you believe, the instant quick-mix superstars ready to take Bollywood into the next generation. He's occasionally likeable, she's undeniably attractive. And that's that. As said, they're alright.

The problem lies with their puppeteer, the all-conquering badshah of bluster. Sanjay Leela Bhansali [Images] takes Fyodor Dostoevsky's White Nights -- a stark, lovely story about romance born and rekindled over four nights -- and, picking out its barest heart, proceeds to smother it in mixed-up layers of trite melodrama. And money. And so this soft core, this tender tale, is hidden -- under several reams of indiscriminately wrapped silk and velvet, of loud noise and harsh light, of bewildering backdrops and the colour blue -- so deep beneath smug self-indulgence and a bizarre budget that you can't even hear the heartbeat anymore.

The story is simple: a minstrel, full to the brim with can-do enthusiasm, falls in love with a fair maiden. All would be well, except she is awaiting her faraway lover. Doggedly the singer tries to awaken her love, while she loyally stalks the bridge assigned to the some-night rendezvous. Over four nights, love, loyalty and longing are all born and questioned.

A still from SaawariyaWe're told, most redundantly, that this is a tale set in a different world. It is a fairytale realm reminiscent of the classic Prince Of Persia video game, with gondolas and prostitutes scattered around a wet Venetian nightmare. The architecture is whimsical, as is the generous use of flickery neon. Clock towers with hyperactive needles coexist merrily with sprawling mosque courtyards and numerous tiny cobalt by-lanes lead arterially out of the central tiny bridge area, most such roads seeming to lead to the exorbitantly built brothel or the one-resident-only guesthouse. It sounds fantastical and brilliant, and could certainly have been, except it doesn't really have a concept. Or a point.

Thus Omung Kumar gets to play madman art-director, Bhansali letting him go wild and asking only that he be theatrical and sporadic. 'Just paint everything blue and leave lots of room for Raj Kapoor film references,' the brief could well have read. And so runs the gamut, from azure to cerulean, with walls and pillars and peculiar choices of artwork.

And while dollars are positively dripping from the scenery, nothing is spectacular. Remember MF Hussain's Gajagamini? Now replace the high concept in that film with a big budget. The result is Saawariya [Images], an underwhelming waste. Thousands of Bollywood songs are shot with madcap little unreal backdrops; Bhansali has just used one of those for his entire film. One imagines it'll be a while before Sony Pictures grandly bankrolls another Indian project.

Black, flaws and all, was very well shot. Here one can imagine cinematographer Ravi K Chandran stifling a yawn. And if, for God's sake, you're building an absurdist city-of-many-cities, at least leave physical room for some mindblowing camerawork. There are a few -- four, count them -- well-executed shots in Saawariya, most of them simple cutaway shots. What in the world has been thought-through in this movie?

Not the characters, certainly. Ranbir's Ranbir Raj tells Sonam's Sakina that she knows everything about him: his name, where he lives, what he does. One assumes that is all there exists in their character sketches as well. Oh, and the boy is told to be restless, the girl, patient. Outside of that, there is no depth, despite the actress' limpid eyes and the actor's sometimes cheeky grin. These are cardboard characters, lazily written and ineffective. In a stylised world impossible to relate to, at least the protagonists should have been flesh and blood.

Instead, the director hams.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali needs to be thwacked with a subtlety stick, much like Sakina messily beats carpets hanging around her. Everything is overblown and hyper-real in the director's head, and there is no room for soft reality. The characters populating his movie, therefore, cannot sob without hysteria or laugh without sliding off a chair. A glare is held for ten minutes, a coy glance for five. And the dialogue is immeasurably grating, making the film's sub-130 minute length seem twice as long.

It is a testament to the star-kids, then, that they've gamely gone through these dizzying motions without afflicting career hara-kiri. Ranbir, playing a character labeled over-lovable from start to scratch, is often painfully exaggerated and moronic, but he does salvage a few moments of charm where you feel for him -- even if only sympathy at his debuting in this production. There might be hope, sure. But then there's that towel song, the most homoerotic picturisation in Hindi cinema, which could likely take a few years to live down.

The gorgeous Sonam Kapoor [Images] is armed with a great laugh -- almost as infectious as her father's -- and one wishes she was allowed to simper softly, instead of having a clearly overdubbed plastic giggle plastered onto her. She has the worst lines and moments in the script -- save for Rani Mukerji's [Images], where Bhansali clearly cashed in all his Black chips -- but there is a merciful agility to her movement, a fluidity to her style. It is a character impossible to like, and yet she warms you up to her.

The only times in the film the kids really, really work are when the tension abruptly breaks and they burst into laughter. It is almost as if -- or, possibly, because -- the director yelled cut and two old friends dropped the painful masks and chilled. God, how much better a Jab We Met [Images] style debut would have been for these two.

A still from SaawariyaIt's hard to fathom what Bhansali expects anybody to like in this film. With close to a dozen songs assaulting us once every seven minutes, on average, there is no room for the narrative to flow. The background score is deafening, and the writing is so emotionally manipulative -- wait for the way Ranbir convinces Zohra Sehgal to let him bunk with her -- it makes you want to pen down an alternate script in immediate protest. And, despite conjuring up moments with legends like Sehgal and Begum Para -- irresistible when devoutly mouthing Mughal-E-Azam dialogues -- these are too few and far between. Are we actually supposed to enjoy Ranbir doing dad Rishi's rabblerousing lines from Karz, or laugh at Rani's pathetic half-malapropisms? Please.

What's the deal, Mr Bhansali? This isn't a Luchino Visconti remake, as many had feared, but a bizarre reworking, an overbaked version of a very simple romance. Dozens of dancing prostitutes do not a Federico Fellini make, sir.

This film opens with Ranbir, off-screen, persuading a whore to listen to two lines of song. She deigns to listen and he picks up his blue six-string. And instead of an eager-to-please youth fumbling with a scratchy guitar, we get -- after a sudden title screen with the star-kids' name, a la Rajnikanth [Images] -- a mega song-and-dance production, a full-blown intro. No wonder the heartbeat is muted.

As Gulabjee, lady of the night, would say, I don't likes.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

For some dreams, life is not enough

Preview - Om Shanti Om

This Diwali will see release of Shahrukh’s most awaited mega movie namely ‘Om Shanti Om’,. Time will tell whether his magic will work or not ? But nevertheless Shahrukh is all out to promote the same. The film is about reincarnation and has glamorous supermodel turn actress stunning Deepika Padukone opposite King khan. The movies plot starts in 1970 and ends in 2007, and probably that is the reason has a catch line ‘for some dreams life is not enough’.

Deepika is already in news with this movie and other thing which had caught media attention is King Khan’s six packs body which has already made it to cover page of many film magazines. Om Shanti Om has 12 song tracks but one of them namely "Deewangi Deewangi will feature 31 bollywood stars, and has zany signature tune of the film. Film has all the hit- masala and is raring to go. It has been produced by Gauri Khan (SRK’s wife) and directed by Farah Khan, her second directorial venture after her first ‘Main Hoon Naa’. Film already has a web site namely www.omshantiomfilm.com , in case you wish to hear a song track and download the film poster. Arjun Rampal, Kirron Kher, Bindu and Shreyas Talpade are some of the other cast in the film. Media reports quoting Farah Khan state that Amitabh Bacchan and Abhishek will be there in a guest appearance in the film. Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjani, better known as Vishal-Shekar, have put together the possible hit music of the film.

The film will be released at Diwali with another blockbuster Sawaariya. Though media reports do point out about some contention between the multiplex owners and distributors of these two movies over revenue sharing. Hopefully it will get resolved by then or else, will not to able to see both of these in multiplexes.

Rani and Konkana shine in an average film ‘Laaga Chunari Mein Daag’

After a brief hiatus, Rani Mukherji was back with ‘Laaga Chunari mein daag’. Laaga Chunari Mein Daag is directed by Pradeep Sarker under Yash Raj Banner. Though it is a typical average Hindi film based on the plot of 1970s – 1980s, but something, which outshines in the film is the work of Rani and Konkana Sen, who play roles of sisters. The film starts with a nice humming number. Cinematography is superb in the film; Ghats of the Ganga, and Banaras, looks stunning so is Switzerland.

Story revolves around Rani who plays a role of Badki, elder sister of the family who due to hardships in the family, decides to take on the responsibility and lands up in Mumbai to earn money to support the family. She is exploited, but fights on and gets transformed into Natasha, a high priced escort. Meanwhile Chutki her younger sister, played by Konkana Sen after completing her MBA, gets a job in an ad agency, in Mumbai and comes to stay with her sister.

When she realizes the bitter truth about Badki’s lifestyle, she insists that the family face it together. Kunal Kapoor who plays boss of the younger sister and then her fiancĂ© suits his character while Abshihek Bacchan has a two song and five scene role and is paired with Rani. Role of father is played by Anupam Kher while mother who undergoes hardships and turmoil of life is played by Jaya Bacchan. Hema Malini is there for a scene but as always looks stunning.

An average film, but is doing brisk business. A debatable dialogue in the film was on definition of patents and trademarks by Rani Mukherji on her role as Natasha whereby she defines it as practices used by so called developed world on developing world to exploit them further.

by Anil Gulati
Source www.mynews.in

Salman Khan on a wall clock!

Anil Gulati

Moved by his idol, Salman Khan, Kirori Mal got Salman moving on the wall. That’s the ingenuity of a barber in a dusty village in Madhya Pradesh.

DHARDA GANESH is a village in the Shivpuri district of the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is more than an hour’s drive from main district headquarter or Shivpuri urban and one has to navigate many bumpy roads and stretches which hardly have roads. The village looks like a typical village in the state of Madhya Pradesh with a cluster of mud huts, roofed with thatch or earthen tiles, narrow paths full of mud and water (if it rains) which leads to the outside world. Probably time had a little effect on these villages.

I happened to visit this village on some work. But it was interesting visit for me as I had an opportunity to visit the shop of Kirori Mal. Kirori Mal is a barber. His shop is just at the entrance of the village, outside the Panchayat Bhawan. It was a makeshift shop, a few inches above the ground. One had to climb to enter it.

Probably he seems to be a huge fan of Bollywood. The walls of his shop were lacquered with the photographs of all the well-known actresses. May be it was an added attraction to his shop for the clients who came for a haircut or for shave and sometimes had to wait for their turn. He was a self-confessed fan of Salman Khan. But I was bit puzzled as I could not see Salman Khan on the walls so got bit inquisitive. I dared ask him where is Salman Khan? He looked into my eyes and then pointed his finger towards his wall clock, which was hanging on the wall of his shop.

There was the Khan, captured in the wall clock! Actually he had a cut out of Salman Khan and had replaced it with second’s needle in the clock. Instead of ‘seconds’ needle, it was Salman’s photograph cut in shape of it. It was quite an interesting way to use a photograph of his idol.

So it was Salman Khan on the move that too every second! Not only Bollywood actress but also moving Salman attracted the young clients of the village to visit his shop every now and then.

Source - www.merinews.com