De Dhana Dhan – hathoda maar bheje par, bheja shor karta hai!

Priyadarshan strikes again with his usual brand of slapstick melded with a schtick finale that could have come from the Bazmee stable. The film was touted as the coming together of the grand trio (Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Suneil Shetty) of Hera Pheri – the last genuinely funny film that Priyan made. Of course instead of the understated Tabu, we saw the non-acting Katrina. The previews showed the superstars Akki and Katrina, and lavish songs in SIK and Welcome style – like Paisa Paisa, and Bamulaiza. There were “comic” scenes in SIK style with the dog biting Akki’s nose, peeing on him, and his tying his suit pants with a string. He and Suneil Shetty were poor working stiffs – just like in Hera Pheri. So what does the film serve up? Is it a worthy successor to Hera Pheri, or a funny ride like Welcome, or a crowd pleaser like SIK?

The Kid Stays in the Picture! (2002)

This award winning film on the life of the legendary Paramount Pictures producer Robert Evans is a must for those interested in the inner workings of cinema. The film is based on an autobiography by Evans and traces his life from the time he came to Beverly Hills to set up the LA branch of Evan Picone, fashion designers who got women into slacks! At the poolside he was spotted by Norma Shearer, convinced by her to act in a film. He then juggled the clothing business and an acting career for a few years. He was offered an acting gig to play a matador in The Sun Also Rises and put in lots of practice in Mexico. But Hemingway was horrified to hear that a two bit actor would portray a character he had based on himself.

The politics of Kurbaan…….

The reviews were all over the place and Dharma productions reputation of being the peddler of overseas based candyfloss romances was something that suggested this film could not be real or hard-hitting. So I went with suitably lowered expectations to the afternoon show of Kurbaan with my Kashmiri Muslim friend. There was a long line at the ticket window, for the Twilight movie – mostly females of all ages. (Aside – a mother with her 10 year old daughter was buying tickets for the Twilight film, that raised many disturbing questions for me, but I’ll save those for now). We went in as the previews were beginning and had to find seats way in the front in a theater that was about 80% full.

Mandi – do ankhon ki tulna!

Shyam Benegal’s Mandi (1983) was one of a handful of films in which two amazing actresses came together in well-matched roles. The first one was Arth (1982) and Mandi followed close on its heels. The earliest one, Nishant, was clearly Shabana’s film with Smita in a lesser role. A satirical tale verging on black comedy, Mandi dealt with the buying and selling of human flesh. The hypocrisy associated with the buyers was matched equally in parts by the avarice of the sellers but also their ultimate honesty in the approach to these transactions. Is prostitution a blot on society, or is it the band-aid that contains the disease of society and prevents it from erupting into something bigger and worse? Who is right? The madam who shelters abandoned women, but also trains them to ply the trade, or the hypocritical social and political leaders who profit from these businesses while having questionable morals?

Delicatessen – Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Set in an unknown post/apocalyptic era somewhere in France (presumably – they all speak French!), this 1991 film tracks the lives of the butcher Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), and a bevy of tenants who inhabit the rooms above his delicatessen.

Kapoors, Johars & Khans made B-town

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh lists the top five production houses in Bollywood thus, in terms of their standing in the trade circuits and financial standings: UTV (owned by Ronnie Screwvala, Deven Khote and Zareena Mehta), Yash Chopra’s Yash Raj Films (YRF), Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Rakesh Roshan’s Filmkraft Productions and Sanjay Leela Bhansali Films.

“Over the past few years, it has been more or less a toss-up between these five production houses in terms of number of movies released, number of hits registered, the annual turnover and popularity overseas. Although Subhash Ghai’s banner hasn’t recorded many hits in the recent past, the company’s market value is still on a par with the five biggies,” Adarsh says.

Link

Amitabh: All I am sayin’ is give Abhi a chance

Today I present a column from guest writer and friend Kunal! Here are his heartfelt questions to Mr. Bachchan, Sr., after watching the promotional material of PAA.

Amitabh: All I am sayin’ is give Abhi a chance

I have seen Amitabh and Abhishek working in quite a few films. and though, I agree that Amitabh is at a different level altogether but what really baffles me is the fact that he doesn’t even give better role to Abhshek. If BnB had Amitabh in a better role, Sarkar had Amitabh as hero, and in Sarkar raj, Abhishek was not only having lesser role, but was also bumped off at the half time. Now, I can understand that BnB was YRF, Sarkar was RGv, but what about Paa now?

Ghazab Ranbir lifts Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani!

I do not use the word “ghazab” lightly. When two Indian baseball prospects were lifted out of village life and thrown into baseball training camp, they visited the home of Barry Bonds and wrote in their blog – he has a refrigerator that turns into a TV – GHAZAB!! Similarly astonishing is how Ranbir managed to elevate his performance from film to film until he is at a point where you cannot imagine anyone else doing the role.

Just Chillll Dhondooo – All The Best!

When I heard Rohit Shetty of the BIG senseless songs, exploding cars and loud clothing in Golmaal and Golmaal Returns, was directing this Ajay DevGN productions film and it had the usual suspects in the cast, it did not inspire me to seek the film out. Ajay Devgan (oops DevGN) as the cool guy would annoy me, Fardeen can’t act saala, and Sunjay Dutt has only shown disinterest in almost every recent film. I like Bipasha and Mugdha was an unknown quantity for me. The name was intriguing though – it reminded me of Shakespearean comedies that had names like As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing etc. and were usually frothy pieces about identity confusion and the madness that ensues.

This is not your father’s Oldsmobile – or why teenagers love Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

I wonder if any of you recall the fuddy-duddy Oldsmobile brand of automobile, and their decision in 1988 to make their image more youthful with a series of ads that started with “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile!” That campaign pretty much marked the demise of the brand and the line was discontinued by General Motors in 2000. It had in fact become too youthful for the fuddy duddies and could not stay quite young enough to keep up with the youth.

Abbas Tyrewala is the wunderkind credited with dialogs for films like Asoka, Munnabhai MBBS, Salaam Namaste and Welcome, screenplays for Main Hoon Naa and Maqbool. So when he decides to write and direct a film we all sit up and take notice. The interest grows when the film has names like Aamir Khan, Mansoor Khan, and AR Rahman associated with it. So what if the most prominent member of the cast is a young unknown man who calls Aamir ‘Mamu’, and is often dressed to look like Mamu in the early 90s. So what if the leading lady is not unknown to us, in fact has another film running at the same time, but is kept demurely hidden. All this only increases our interest in the film, feeds the frenzy if you will. We have been told it is a very fresh, youthful romance.

Political Satire at its best – David Mamet’s November

The American Conservatory Theater’s West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s November, directed by Ron Lagomarsino (television pilots include Picket Fences – Directors Guild Award, Homefront – Emmy nomination), is a bellyful of laughs!

What can one say about a playwright who has won a Pulitzer and been Oscar nominated twice? That he is a genius? His political beliefs were squarely on the liberal side but then he came out and said this:

“I found not only that I didn’t trust the current government (that, to me, was no surprise), but that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president—whom I, a good liberal, considered a monster—were little different from those of a president whom I revered. Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh.”

On-screen chemistry – what’s that? Part 1

He looks into her eyes and says “Here’s looking at you kid” and then walks away. No sizzling sex scenes, no drenched in the rain romance, but on-screen chemistry? Hell yes! That was the one and only Humphrey Bogart bidding goodbye to Ingrid Bergman. Off screen they barely spoke to each other and yet on screen they made one of the most romantic couples ever. Bogie was twice married once divorced what Casablanca was being made; his marriage at the time was working. But then came Lauren Bacall, 25 years his junior and the couple sizzled both on-screen in films like To have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and off-screen. A third marriage for Bogie was the result! The repartee between Bogie and Bacall and the crackling sense of made for each other is hard to forget. One can also remember fondly the real slow burning chemistry between Bogie and Katherine Hepburn in African Queen as the boated down a river in Belgian Congo.

Oye Rabba! review of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi…..

The general public was expecting a DDLJ, SRK fans were just praying really really hard that they not get another Mohabbatein (the others can fill in the blanks for what they were hoping for). So after an 8-year hiatus what exactly did SRK and Aditya Chopra deliver? As the film began with shots of streets and surrounds in Amritsar I saw Akki Narula’s name flash by as costume designer and I began to get anxious. What on earth would Akki be designing in a supposedly down-to-earth film? But then a train chugged into a station and we saw a pair of sneakers on trousered legs and I relaxed a bit. The opening scene instantly set the stage for a not quite right marriage – and also a deconstruction of DDLJ where Raj holds out his hand and Simran runs and grabs it as he pulls her onto a train. Here a gauche and awkward man holds out his hand and she ignores it as she steps off the train! (and a child asks – papa yeh kaun hai, Papa replies – Shahrukh, and kid says nahin Papa!)

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi pe chance maar le!

One year after the first promo of Rab ne Bana Di Jodi was released, and on Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday, I have the good fortune to present an exclusive piece written by a fellow blogger and friend, VirtuallyReel! Enjoy!
“Creating the polar opposites in Suri and Raj”

by VirtuallyReel

We all are aware of how Yash Raj, and for that matter Karan Johar and many other filmmakers, approach their romantic stories in films. They have a set pattern, in which the first half goes about introducing characters that joke around to successfully generate a light atmosphere. The second half, on the other hand, gets serious where we mostly see that the lead actors have fallen in love with each other and they try to resolve matters like family problems, a love triangle, a villainous rival and other such things, so that they can live happily ever after. And this is where most of the films lose their charm. Tarun Mansukhani’s Dharma produced Dostana is one such example.

Aladin and his magical djinn!

The childhood tale from 1001 Nights of a boy with a magic lamp, a genie, wishes, a beautiful woman, a powerful sorcerer and a fight between good and evil, is reworked for today and Bollywood, and a magical concoction results.
Sujoy Ghosh last satisfied immensely with Jhankaar Beats, and returns to direct Aladin. This fantasy tale is set in Khwaish, a town somewhere in the north of India, or maybe in your imagination! There are towering minars and domes and Arabian Nights like cobbled alleyways and in these streets we find Aladin Chatterjee, who had the “misfortune” of being thus named by his now dead parents. He grows up with the taunts of his classmates, enough lamps thrown at him for rubbing, and a drubbing that inevitably follows. Aladin’s misfortunes start taking an abrupt different turn when the beautiful Jasmine shows up as an exchange student and he is smitten at first sight. However, far away in a fantasy bleak landscape, the Ringmaster is busy planning Aladin’s downfall and he is blissfully unaware of all this. Then Jasmine gifts Aladin a lamp, the one that has been waiting for its rightful owner for aeons!