Monday, June 2, 2008

Where was Shahrukh Khan?

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Salman
was there, so was Aamir, but where was Shahrukh Khan? This is the question the everybody is asking after the 'Baadshah of Bollywood' was not seen among the crowds in the grand finale of the Indian Premier League. Shahrukh who was involved in the tournament right from the start owning the Kolkata Knight Riders gave the final a surprising miss.

It may be mentioned that Shahrukh was upset with the BCCI and the ICC when he was asked by the Anti-Corruption unit of the ICC to stay away from the players dugout during matches. This led Shahrukh to stay away from the last few matches of the Kolkata Knight Riders. His sms to the team on that issue had also turned controversial.

Aamir Khan who is surprisingly getting media friendly these days was spotted enjoying the match with Sachin Tendulkar. Salman Khan added glamour to the evening by performing at the closing ceremony. Making good use of the occasion Salman even promoted his upcoming show 10 Ka Dum. A host of Bollywood beauties including Amrita Arora, Sameera Reddy, Shamita Shetty and Diya Mirza performed during the event.

But Shahrukh's absence raised a few eyebrows as he has shared a love hate relationship with the BCCI. It may be recalled that Shahrukh had vowed not to enter a cricket stadium after some board members accused him of promoting his movies during cricket matches. It is highly ironical that the man who got the industry involved in the tournament gave a slip when the finale was in the B-Town itself.

Salman Khan avoids Aishwarya again

Salman Khan
Salman Khan was missing at the premier of Sanjay Gupta's Woodstock Villa, starring his brother Arbaaz Khan. Except Malaika Arora and Amrita Arora (who was seen with Arbaaz), no Khan member was present. The buzz is that it was the presence of the Bachchans (especially Aishwarya's) that was the cause of Salman's no-show.

Says a source, "Arbaaz held a trial on Thursday for the Khan family at 12.30 in the afternoon at Ketnav theatre in Bandra where everyone from Alvira and Atul Agnihotri, Salim and Salma Khan to Salman was present. After the trial, Salman drove off to his Panvel farmhouse in the evening. But the real reason that Salman and Salim Khan didn't go for the premier, which was such an important event for Arbaaz wasbecause Salim Khan and Salman wanted to avoid the Bachchan family. Recently, Salim Khan had made certain disparaging remarks against Amitabh Bachchan and it would have made an awkward moment for both if they had come face-to-face."

Apparently, Salman also wasn't keen on coming. The source clarifies, "Though Salman shares a cordial relationship with Abhishek and a warm and affectionate relationship with the Big B, it would have made for another awkward moment if Aishwarya, the Bachchan bahu and he bumped into each other at the premier. Rather than have so many uncomfortable moments the Khan family decided to skip the premier."

Arbaaz, however, says, "Salman has just returned from a long and hectic schedule of Main Aur Mrs Khanna in Australia so he couldn't make it to the premier. But dad and him and the rest of the family saw it at the trial at Ketnav. Also he's currently very busy preparing for his TV show, 10 Ka Dum, which airs next week on June 6. We have seen the first episode and Salman is simply brilliant!"

Arbaaz is thrilled with the response he's got for his performance in Woodstock Villa, where he plays Neha Uberoi's husband. Arbaaz's "biggest critic", his father, Salim Khan has also liked his performance. "Dad never gets over-enthusiastic in his praise so when he says it's good it means a lot. He's liked the film and my performance. It was a challenging role to play where I had to convey a lot silently through my expressions. Many have said that it's one of my best performances in recent times."

Bollywood Blockbusters to release in coming months

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The first to be released will be Ram Gopal Verma’s ‘Sarkar Raj’ in June. The movie stars Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Love Story 2050 will be released in July, starring Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra. Aamir Khan will release his home production ‘Jaane Tu…’ in July. It will see the launch of his nephew Imran Khan. Mission Istambul is also slated for release in July.
August should see the release of ‘God Tussi Great Ho’ starring Salman Khan. Drona will see Abhishek Bachchan in action which is scheduled to be released in October. Both the movies are by Eros International and have been staggered to target holiday season. With the IPL behind us it is time for a lot of Bollywood action.

Now, it's Salman vs Hrithik

It looks like the Big names in Bollywood. are being bitten by the Big B and SRK bug. Two more names -- Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan will soon be battling for viewers attention with their TV shows.

Looks like the small screen space is hotting up with Bollywood biggies courting the medium after Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, who competed against each other on television, its time to witness another star war.

This time its Hrithik Roshan pitted against Salman Khan-- both the superstars will vie for eyelballs for their respective shows this season. While Salman is coming up with a new show titled Dus Ka Dum, Hrithik is all set to counter his popularity by being part of the upcoming show Junoon- Kuchh Kar Dikhaane Ka.

With SRK's show Paanchvi Pas not living upto the expectation, lets hope Salman and Hrithik's new offering manages the popular pulse.

Priyanka Chopra- Lady of the superheroes

Priyanka Chopra seems to have become a favourite for being in the cast of fantasy and futuristic movies.

If the numerous gossip bits which are floating around come true, Priyanka Chopra who had the luck to be the lady love of India's first superhero in the blockbuster movie 'Krish' will be promoting herself to be the sweet heart of one of the oldest and most famous superhero in the world- Superman.

It is said that the makers of the movie were searching for an Indian actress to play the part and now the director Bryan Singer has already met Priyanka in USA and that she has been fixed for the role in the movie 'Man of Steel'.

It is often said in the film circles that once you are cast in a particular role and if the film becomes a hit, then you are always offered with roles of the similar kind.

This scenario might be talked as a disadvantage by many actresses but for Priyanka Chopra the role that she portrayed in 'Krissh', turned out to be a turning point in her Bollywood career.

The big advantage Priyanka has is that even though she was the heroine in 'Krissh' opposite Hrithick Roshan, fantasy movies are not produced in Bollywood that frequently and when ever a fantasy movie is thought of, the former miss world is considered as the heroine.

What else should be understood when Priyanka is gone to be seen in a completely new get up for the tale of love set in the future-'Love Story 2050', again a fantasy film which will be released in July and after that she will be seen as Abhishek Bachchan's heroine in the highly awaited flick 'Drona' which also is termed as a superhero story with high end graphics.

Abhi-Ash buy home in Dubai

The latest in the list, from India's tinsel town to acquire property in the gulf island, is Bollywood's star couple Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who have purchased a house in Sanctuary Falls in Dubai.

The house is expected to be ready in the first quarter of 2010 and the price of the villas ranges from AED 15 million to AED 35 million.

"Dubai is special to us not just as a place where we enjoy great warmth and generosity in terms of love from the people, but it's become a remarkable place and one that is so close to home for us," Abhishek said.

Speaking on the film Sarkar Raj -- starring both Aishwarya and Abhishek, besides Amitabh Bachchan , which is scheduled to release next week, Aishwarya said the Bachchan family had a great experience working for it and were excited about sharing it with the audience. "I'm always excited, I've never been nervous before (the release of) a film. It's been a great experience and I'm looking forward to sharing it with the audiences", said the former Miss World.

However, the two were yet to watch the film, they said. Asked if they planned to move to the Emirates, Abhishek said relocating "in the real sense" was not on the cards, as the family lived and worked in Mumbai. However Aishwarya said they were looking forward to spend more time in the island. "It's so close to Mumbai, so we'll probably be spending a lot more weekends here," she was quoted as saying by Gulf News

Is Ash pregnant?

It’s not easy to be a celebrity. And so one can imagine how tough it is to be in a family which has only stars. Yes we are talking about the Bachchan family, which is one of the most respectable families of Bollywood.

And the one question that is on everyone’s mind is when will Aishwarya Rai Bachchan be pregnant? Never has a celebrity been exposed to such intense media scrutiny as much as Ash. The media went into a frenzy when she tied the knot to Abhishek and it looks like that this will now be extended to her pregnancy.

Last night the Bachchan trio came for the promotion of Ram Gopal Varma’s forthcoming film Sarkar Raj . This film brings the three Bachchans together once again after Bunty Aur Babli . More than that it’s the first film after Abhishek-Ash’s marriage, so it is obvious why the film is generating so much attention and hype.

But more than the plot of Sarkar Raj , everybody was interested to know when would Ash and Abhishek be in the family way. When Amitabh Bachchan was asked when will he become a grandfather, a rather restrained reply came as, “I am already a grandfather. I have two grandchildren.”

Reacting to his answer another journalist clarified the question and asked, when he will be grandfather of Ash and Abhishek’s child. Now Abhi and Ash were totally amazed and wanted to see the person who asked this question.

While not reacting much on it Big B said, “ Achcha!! Ab mein dada kab banunga yeh baat mujhse poochne ke bajay (pointed at Abhi-Ash) inse pooche to behtar hota! mein aasha karta hu aap film se jude sawaal pooche!”

The scribe was not put off by the rebuff, He then looked asked Ash whether she is pregnant or not? As she was about to say no...Big B interrupted and said its better the media sticks to questions related to Sarkar Raaj.

Celebrities in India pay a heavy price for their stardom by losing their privacy. And nobody knows it better that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Bollywood gears up for post-IPL releases

MUMBAI: Bollywood is looking to take over from where IPL ends.

The post-IPL period will see a flurry of big releases with ‘Sarkar Raj’, which marks the coming together of the three Bachchans, seeking to initiate box-office hungama. The industry has seen a lull in the recent past, which has coincided with the cricket extravaganza, and only one film (‘Jannat’) has managed to buck the trend as films of various budgets have kept bombing at the box office during the 40-day IPL fever.

But Bollywood is gearing up to take its revenge. ‘Sarkar Raj’, a sequel to the 2005 hit ‘Sarkar’, is the first biggie (lined up for release this Friday); the film stars the three Bs (Amitabh, Abhishek and Aishwarya). The other big films slated for a June release are Priyadarshan’s ‘Mere Baap Pehle Aap’ and Yash Raj Films’ ‘Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic’.

July 4 is likely to be another big Friday for Bollywood with ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ and ‘Love Story 2050’ releasing that day.

Some smaller-budget but thematically interesting films like ‘Aamir’, ‘Via Darjeeling’ and ‘Mukhbir’ are also releasing during this period.

Producer-director Vipul Shah said: "The IPL period has certainly been one of low returns for films. The industry will take this into account from next year."

A trade expert concurred: "The IPL has certainly eaten into our revenues. One long-time fear is that the summer vacation, usually a good one for films because of holidays, will become unproductive for Bollywood every year because of IPL."

Film broker Dilip Soni said film-makers would plan release dates keeping IPL matches in mind from next year.Soni felt the industry would not openly object to IPL because a lot of Bollywood stars are involved.

Jannat Movie Review

Cast: Emran Hashmi, Sonal Chauhan, Samir Kochar, Javed Shaikh, Vishal Malhotra
Director: Kunal Deshmukh
Ratings: ***

More, more, more...The motto of motorised materialism seems to have overtaken contemporary life. Everyone wants the good things in life in the shortest time possible. The acquisitive spirit has seldom been defined with such economy of storytelling as in "Jannat".

Not surprisingly, a lot of Mahesh Bhatt's latest exposition on the excesses of materialism is shot in shopping malls, expensive restaurants and posh stadiums where money flows like unadulterated honey.

And when our hero sees the love of his life staring at a diamond ring he walks into the showroom and breaks the display window.

Get what you want by force and forget those homilies that papa preached at the dinner table about the virtues of honesty. "Honest money means hard work and little reward," says a wry character in "Jannat". He's obviously not read Ayn Rand.

Sanjay Masoom's scathing dialogues scamper across the film's lush skyline to create a language of wannabes who would stop at nothing to get that new villa on the Gold Coast.

Let's then applaud one more moral fable from Bhatt's sensible stable.

"Jannat" tells us to waste not, want 'nought'...By all means covet the zeroes on that pay cheque. But don't forget that if you run after the zeroes your life ends up in the zero zone.

Forty years ago in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's "Satyakam" Dharmendra had refused to succumb to all the temptations of materialism that were strewn in his path to salvation. Lying dying of cancer, he's asked by his wife: "Finally what do you have to say about your life of integrity?"

"I've lived," Dharmendra says at the end of "Satyakam".

Can Emran Hashmi (playing the small-time wheeler dealer who turns into a cricket match-fixer, criminal and moral transgressor) turn around before his gruesome death to say he has lived?

Yes, Arjun (Emran) has loved. At heart "Jannat" is a dark tragic love story. While the girl's innocence and the man's corruptible countenance resembles "Kalyug", the whole dilemma of the beloved being instrumental in destroying the criminal hero echoes "Gangster".

Both "Kalyug" and "Gangster" were superior in content and treatment.

Debutant director Kunal Deshmukh cannot escape the clichés on existentialism that have come to surround Bhatt's cinema...the morally conflicted Shakespeare-meets-James Hadley Chase hero, the independent-minded strong and value-based heroine, the hero's trusted and loyal friend (Purab Kohli in "Woh Lamhe", Shaad Randhawa in "Awaarapan", and now Vishal Malhotra), the ideologue father whose principles are held up to ridicule until the hero discovers the hard way that dad's remedies are the best to deal with ethical ambivalence.

These lingering leitmotifs get a renewed, if not luminous, life in every Bhatt production. But "Jannat" lacks the resonance and staying power of some of Bhatt's earlier films about crime and punishment from "Naam" to "Gangster".

Cleverly and cautiously Deshmukh's film brings in the cricket element, which has audiences ignoring the pitfalls of rejuvenating Bhatt's age-old iconoclasm.

The stock footage of real-life cricket matches are used well and sparingly in the plot. The stress, as ever in Bhatt's saga of our stressful times, is on the clashing colliding crisscross of human relationships.

Emran's father's sequence in his son's luxurious bathroom where he comments on the basket of soaps is a whammer.

But the wheeling dealing in the greenroom and clubs with cricketers of indeterminate nationality behaving like debauched goblins smacks of amteurishness. The murder of the Australian coach turns the Bob Woolmer scandal into a climactic add-on. May his soul rest in peace.

But what stays is the protagonist's passion for money as opposed to his love for Zoya (Sonal Chauhan). The end-game where the engagement ring is juxtaposed against the gun is arresting in more ways than one.

While Emran interprets the over-reaching get-rich-quick schemer's part with a native cunning, one misses that suave and smooth transitions in the character that perhaps a Naseeruddin Shah or even a Shahid Kapoor would bring on the table.

But Emran is charming enough to let the protagonist's journey from a chawl to Cape Town look interesting. He's constantly getting author-backed roles of the angst-ridden social outcast (a garage-sale version of Amitabh Bachchan) which he plays with a fair amount of sensitivity.

Debutant Sonal has much more to do than be the decorative doll she seems equipped to be.

She's the weakest link in the powerplay where the politics of the playing field is extended to an engrossing exposition of greed atonement.

Some of the supporting cast, especially Jawed Shaikh as the cricketing don and Abhimanyu as his silent henchman, come to grips with their characters better than you would expect in a film that has scant space for anyone except the man who would be king.

Jimmy Movie Review

By Subhash K Jha

Staring Mimoh Chakbraborty, Vivana, Zulfi Syed
Directed by Raj N Sippy
Rating: *

"Do you think I'm a rejected man?" the villain asks repeatedly after his true intentions are exposed at the end of this tediously-assembled pastiche of the crude bad and the ugly.

Don't know about the poor battered psycho who controrts his face like his pants were just bitten off by a colony of ants. But this film sure looks like a collage of rejected footage from a series of canned films that filmmakers made and forgot to go back to.

The characters don't talk in Jimmy, they scream dialogues which we thought had died with Pramod Chakravrty. And matching their screechy decibel of dialogue is the sound of cars skidding screeching and groaning in and out of the frames with the misinformed celerity of a noisy baraat which has lost its way to the bride's home.

Dulhan ache rot ki? You bet! Jimmy takes us into the kingdom of the dangerously damned. And none as damned as the audience which sits to the end to watch Mithun-da's boy dance on glass, in a manner of slipping.

Mimoh doesn't dance, he glides. He doesn't moonwalk, he trapezes through a field of corrupted corn planted by a screenwriter whose mind seems to have stopped working two decades ago.

How else do we explain the crass and clamorous crowd of crippling clichés, like the over-painted weepy mother, the over-painted giggly girlfriend, her over-panting suitor, the hero's rich friend (Zulfi Zayed, in the think-less part), the gaggles of villains schemers screamers and good samaritans all crammed in one line of strained vision which recalls the worst moments of television from the time when Doordarshan ruled the roost.

Mithun Chakraborty's son Mimoh gets a nightmare launch worthy of being canned for good. What were the people behind this film thinking when they decided to put together a film so tacky and tattered at the edges it makes a mockery of poor Mimoh's star aspirations.

Director Raj N Sippy made some engaging wannabe-Hollywood flicks in the 1970s and 80s, all cleverly adapted from American films but never slipshod.

Ironically Jimmy rips off Hindi films from the 1970s including Mithun-da's gyratory Jimmy-hijinks like Disco Dancer and the Bachchan starrer Majboor.

All in vain. The plot is propelled by gallery of grotesque caricatures.

This is cinema at its worst. Gimmicky and overblown with no hope for escape because you want to watch Mithun's boy trying to make his way out of this film with no exits.

Only Rahul Dev seems to blessed with a twist of sobriety in a film that equates outdated mayhem with pavement delights.

Arati Chabria Wallpaper


Drona Movie Preview

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Kay Kay Menon
Director: Goldie Behl

Drona is a compelling modern tale of one man's journey through the labyrinths of mystic myths and legendary legacies.

As good and evil clash in this contemporary fantasy fable, a fascinating journey unfolds into a world of mythical heroes and malicious magicians with cunning curses.

It is a world, where spells can turn flesh to cold stone.

It is a world full of thrills, magic and adventures.

Directed by Goldie Behl, Drona introduces yet another superhero onto the Bollywood celluloid - Abhishek Bachchan.

According to reports, Drona is going to be even bigger and better in terms of special effects compared with Rakesh Roshan's Krrish.

Ek The Power Of One Preview

Cast: Bobby Deol, Chunky Pandey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Nana Patekar, Shreya Saran
Director: Sangeeth Sivan

Nandu (Bobby Deol) is an assassin by profession. Somehow he gets wrongly accused of a politician's murder.

Whilst on the run from the police, he boards a train where he meets Shehar (Pradeep).

Shehar is returning home for the first time after 14 years.

As they converse, Nandu gets to know all about his joint family and the imminent wedding of Shehar's cousin. This is the main reason he is going home for.

The twist comes when the police catches up with Nandu on the train. In the shootout that follows, Shehar accidentally dies.

Deeply shocked by the incident, Nandu goes to Shehar's family home to return his belongings to his grandfather and also break the news of his grandson's death.

But when Nandu arrives at Shehar's family home, he is mistaken for Shehar himself.

With no time to explain what had happened, the family members get him involved with the wedding preparations and celebrations.

Preet (Shriya Saran), the daughter of a family friend becomes fascinated by Nandu. In no time she falls in love with him.

Meanwhile, police inspector Rane (Nana Patekar), is given the responsibility of tracking down the killer and he is close on Nandu's trail.

Will Nandu be able to come out of the crisis unscathed? Will the family come to know about his real identity? What would be the fate of Nandu and Preet's love story? And who is actually the real killer?

Ek - The Power Of One is a Bollywood Masala movie full of family emotions and suspense starring Sunny Deol in the lead role.

Mission Istanbul Review

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Sunil Shetty, Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Shabbir Ahluwalia, Shreya Saran, Nikitin Dheer
Director: Apoorva Lakhia

One of India's most respected journalists, Vikas Sagar (Zayed Khan) receives an offer he cannot refuse from Owais Hussain (Sunil Shetty).

Owais is the head of an Istanbul television news channel. He offers Vikas a very high salary package with all the frills if he accepts a position within his company.

For Vikas, this offer couldn't have come at a better time. He is going through a messy divorce with his wife Anjali (Shriya Saran) and needs to get away from the stress of it all.

So Vikas accepts Hussain's offer whole-heartedly. But little does he know that one decision will change his life forever.

Well settled into his new role, he decides to voice his plans to quit the channel and move on to newer pastures.

But to his surprise, he learns from the Turkish commando, Rizwan Khan (Vivek Oberoi), on how others who quit the television channel got mysteriously killed because they knew too much.

So will this journalist be able to survive the onslaught where others have fallen prey?