Archive for the ‘bollywood’ Category

Blame it on Ides Of March ? When we are wishing desperately that when we grow up just make us  Bhagnani, any Bhagnani, and Karan Johar goes for the reverse take!

Think about it – you can be a FALTU Bhagnani and still have everything you want. And we never expected that the one who are born with Khan, Chopra and Johar surnames in Bollywood would openly want to be Kashyap or Bhardwaj. They belong to the two extremes, their cinema and sensibility is different. My Name Is Johar And I am Not Kashyap or Bhardwaj ?

On a serious note, is Karan Johar serious about it ? As in, seriously serious ? One of the most powerful brands in Bollywood, if he is admitting that there is a shift in our cinema, you got to listen. To say the cliche, love or hate him but you can’t ignore K JO.

Or is it the effect of Ishqiya + LSD + Udaan + Peepli Live + Do Dooni Chaar + Band Baaja Baarat + Phans Gaye Re Obama + Tanu Weds Manu ?

Also, you may HATE his films, but there is no doubt he is easily one of the smartest guys around. May be, just next to Shah Rukh Khan. Just that their smartness doesn’t show in the choice of their films, whatever is the reason for that. Lack of talent, conviction, fear of failure or just opting for the easy route.

And here are some more priceless gems from him….( From Anupama Chopra’s show Picture This on NDTV. The topic of discussion was Bollywood discovers its roots. Vikramaditya Motwane and Habib Faisal were also part of the discussion.)

The english speaking critics were watching Dabang like they were watching a Tarantino film.

You have Kashyap as your last name so its all validated. If he was Abhinav Sharma, it was what he is making ? Oh he is Kashyap guy, so definitely he is intelligent. He is making fun of the genrae. He is having fun.

I want to change my last name. It will help a lot.

There is very strong credibility factor that people are aspiring to acheive as well. I have made so many films but none of them have got the credibility of say 3 crore net box office Udaan. I know that for a fact. And that credibility is paramount for a production house. While you want to make the money, you also want the respect. The combination of those two is 3 idiots.

You cant beat them, join them.

(Scroll down and watch the full discussion in the embedded video. And if the video doesn’t work, click here to watch it.)

And if you were surprised about Johar, Kashyap and Motwane joining hands for Motwane’s next, then this video has all the answers. Credibility. Or may be The Unbearable Lightness Of Being.

If KJo is here, can SRK be far behind. Ok, bad one. Shah Rukh Khan was at the India Today conclave recently. To quote him…

–  Three essentials to make Bollywood films global – screenplay writing, technology and discipline.

– It disturbs me that all Indian filmmakers are chasing an elusive dream of crossover cinema…It is nothing at all – there is nothing known as crossover film.

Click here and here to read the full report.

We agree on the first point. And completely disagree on the second point. Because Kites is not crossover cinema.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

You must have seen the video announcing the launch of Y-Films by Yash Raj Films. If you are still clueless about it, in simple words, Yash Raj is going U-25, and wants to pocket all the ‘new money’. Or in simpler words, for fans of Twilight, or say, Justin Bieber – it’s about the demography now. Why ? Because 70% of India is below the age of 35 and it’s too big an audience to ignore.

So, the first thing they did was to hire the head honcho of MTv – Ashish Patil. Roadies, here they come!

According to official release, Y-Films promises to deliver kick ass films of the youth, by the youth, for the youth. And be a platform for new talent – both on screen and behind the scenes – who will challenge, break and set new rules of story telling. Get ready to spread the Y-rus! The films will be laser-focused on the universe of the young covering all genres – thrillers, comedies, chick-flicks, capers – with some really fresh music.

And Y-Films is ready with its first production – Luv Ka The End, an ‘anti-rom-com’, which will release on 6th May, 2011. It stars Shraddha Kapoor and a bunch of new faces.

Click here to know more about Y-Films.

For a moment, we felt that one star is missing in the title and it’s A** Is Killed. But naah, Himesbhai is just a *.

According to TaranBhai’s report, “Himesh was selected by the makers as they felt he suited the part of Sidharth Patel, who is supposed to be an Indian musician absolutely mesmerized by a superstar who is killed under mysterious circumstances. How the truth behind the superstar’s murder unfolds forms the crux of the story.”

And HimeshBhai also claims that “I am the only Indian actor in the film.”

( PS – We need LOL tags soon. For this post, will use the Bolly jokes tag. )

Once upon a time there was a filmmaker called Nikhil Advani who directed Kal Ho Na Ho. And the rest, as they say, is all history. Salaam-e-Ishq, Chandni Chowk To China, Patiala House. And looking at his history, some say KHNH wasn’t that Advani but might have been that Johar. If that wasn’t enough, he has signed Akshay Kumar for one more film. And somewhere in between is the Delhi Safari.

It’s a 100 minute 3D animation feature which involves 7 main characters voiced by Govinda, Akshay Khanna, Urmila Matondkar, Boman Irani and Prem Chopra. And here’s a trailer of the film..

And if you are still curious about the film without thinking much about Rango, Rio or Kung Fu Panda2, here’s the synopsis of the film…

The animals of the national park in Bombay welcome a bright sunny morning, birds singing, animals running, Sultan the leopard and his young cub Yuvi, playing by the lakeside. The jungle has an air of joy and peace. Until, a distant thunder breaks the silence and a closer look reveals the jungle being raided by man and machine, destroying everything in its path. Sultan tries to fight a futile battle and ends up losing his life. A sign announcing a proposed apartment complex is hammered into the ground where Sultan has fallen.

That night, a group of frightened animals gather to discuss their fate. Yuvi, Sultan’s cub, tries to reason with the elders, urging them not to give up their homes. Asking them to do what his father would have wanted. The hot headed military monkey, Bajrangi, wants to declare a full scale war, but the anger management Guru, Bagga the bear, has a more civilized suggestions. He believes that all problems could be sorted out through peaceful discussions. Saying the best way to get back their homes is to have a dialogue with the humans and win their hearts. The only problem being that animals can’t speak to humans. Then, Air India, a pigeon with short term memory loss, remembers meeting a parrot who spoke human.

With hope in their hearts, Yuvi, Bajrangi, and Bagga set out and ultimately find Alex, the talking parrot, in his luxurious golden cage. However, their hope turns to despair as Alex is not interested in helping the barbaric animals with their cause, since this would mean leaving his life of luxury. Also Alex is sure that such issues would need to be addressed in the parliament at Delhi.

The motley crew manage to coerce Alex to join them and they begin their journey across the mountains and rivers of India, hitching rides in trains and trucks, to take their petition to the leader of the humans in Delhi. Along the way they discover that not only are their homes in jeopardy, but the homes and lives of thousands of other animals on the way. Their exciting journey becomes one where enemies become friends and an unlikely family comes together to fight for what rightfully belongs to them – A HOME.

Tip – Jhandubaba Chinchin

Goga Kapoor RIP

Posted: March 3, 2011 by moifightclub in bollywood, RIP
Tags: ,

And here is a video from Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na in which he had one of the prominent roles, the lovable Don who even had to fake the mark sheets of the hero.

This is not going to end so soon. We started with this post, Varun wrote this one, and Subrat took the Mir route with this post.

And in this post we are putting out some of the interesting links that we read recently…VB, Ranjan Palit, 7KM, Ismat Chugtai, prosthetics and more.

 

Time Out’s Nandini Ramnath did an interview with 7 Khoon Maaf’s cinematographer Ranjan Palit. To quote…

In an interview with Time Out in 2009, Palit declared, “I wouldn’t do a Bollywood song and dance film even if I were paid a crore.” Famous last words, it seems.

Click here to read the interview.

Pratim Das Gupta of The Telegraph also interviewed Palit after the release, much longer and a better interview….what he shot, how he shot and why he shot it that way….To quote…

I had to try and make sure that the prosthetics couldn’t be seen. I think there were around seven-eight prosthetic parts stuck on her face in the aged avatar. She would be made up for four hours every day. So, I was asked to shoot in such a way that those parts were not seen. But you can do that in an interior night scene, what do you do during the daytime? We had decided that we would correct that with computer graphics but it’s hugely expensive and tough to spend so much money after the shooting is done….

…..You know what, I first saw a two-hour-45-minute version. It was then cut by 25 minutes for the final theatrical version. In that cutting, some of the finesse, some of the moments got lost. Maybe the rhythm has also slightly suffered. That director’s cut was beautifully paced….

….People in Mumbai have shown interest in working with me right from the time the 7 Khoon Maaf trailer came out. Boley na, jaatey uthey gechhi! But there’s no existing filmmaker apart from Vishal with whom I want to work. I am a snob that way. I appreciate what (Anurag) Kashyap does. bolley, hoyto korbo. I am not dying to work with anybody. I am dying to work with Vishal again.

Click here to read the full interview.

And if you are bored of the long and meandering reviews, then Nisha Susan of Tehelka has packed the Seven Course Meal in short  and sassy new way. To quote…

+7 FOR THE ISMAT CHUGHTAI moment when PC and Irrfan make an elephant under their lihaaf. 10 for naming the Russian Vronsky and Susanna reading Anna Karenina.

+8 TO NEIL NITIN MUKESH
for waving a phallic stump at Priyanka
. Minus 9 points to Neil for setting our teeth on edge a la Kangana whenever he speaks English.

The film scores 98 invaluable points and the point system follows no convention. Bring it on! Click here to read her piece, point-by-point.

If Tehelka is here, can Open be far behind ? Ajit Duara of Open has thrashed the film completely and rated it just 1 star. To quote…

What substitutes for motive is a dark lighting style;  as if to say that if you light a movie dimly enough, depth and hidden meaning will emerge. It never does, and 7 Khoon Maaf ends up as a hothouse of exotic spouses with names scratched off the catalogue at metronomic  intervals.

Click here to read the full review.

Open also has an interesting article titled – Inside the Mind of Vishal Bhardwaj.  His long time associate, co-writer, and the director of Ishqiya, Abhishek Chaubey describes the filmmaker, from his Makdee days to 7 Khoon Maaf. To quote..

After Makdee was made, Vishal called me to a theatre in Juhu. Gulzarsaab and his friend Shivam Nair were also there. Makdee had been made for the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI). They had rejected it outright, claiming all sorts of problems with it—“Badly directed, badly shot.” He wanted us to see if that was really the case. We all thought their reaction was extreme.

Then Vishal did something courageous, given that he was just a music director then, and not the sort with 20 songs in the bank that he could give producers when they’d come to him. He had worked on very few films. As a producer, he was nobody. And yet, he decided to take the CFSI head on. He told them, “If you don’t like the film, I will buy it off you.” He must have paid Rs 20–30 lakh. He put everything at risk. We completed Makdee and went around town selling it…..

….Vishal had the letter he got from the CFSI framed, and it is still on his wall. It’s right in front of where he sits. Not only was Makdee released, it also won an award at a children’s film festival in Chicago. ‘Courage’ is too goody-two-shoes a term for it. It takes balls.

Click here to read the full piece.

And the last link is a video. Click on the play button to hear Gulzar dissect his own words…the poetry in 7 Khoon Maaf.

Pic Courtesy – Time Out Mumbai

The header is from one of the tweets of Varun Grover. He has posted a long comment on this post also. Just when we thought that we all agree on one film finally, Varun felt otherwise – Aha, the joy and beauty of cinema! One film but so many things for so many souls.  He gives a strong recco for Vishal Bhardwaj’s 7 Khoon Maaf – Poetry, pain, darkness, more than a bunch of crackling performances, and quirks that stab you lovingly. Read on…

‘७ खून माफ’ के बारे में बहुत कुछ कहा जा रहा है. बोरिंग, कच्ची, बचकानी, और ना जाने क्या क्या! इन सब रंग-बिरंगे इल्जामों का जवाब देने में वक्त बर्बाद किये बिना मैं बस यही कहूँगा कि  जिसे ‘७ खून माफ’ बोरिंग लगी उसे गज़लें नहीं सुननी चाहिए और ना ही ठंडी-अँधेरी रातों में बाहर निकलना चाहिए. उन लोगों को गज़लें भी बोरिंग लग सकती हैं, और ठंडी अँधेरी रातें बेमतलब.

फिल्म के अंदर का मैं कुछ भी नहीं बताऊँगा…और मुझे भी फिल्म शायद इसलिए बहुत पसंद आई क्यूंकि मैं खुद बहुत बच के रहा था पिछले दिनों फिल्म के बारे में कुछ भी जानने से. अच्छा-बुरा कुछ भी नहीं. तो अगर आप सिर्फ ये जानने के लिए पढ़ रहे हैं कि देखनी है या नहीं – तो अभी कह दिया – देख लो जा के! और बाकी का वापस आकर पढ़ो.

अगर फिर भी कीड़ा है, और अभी पढ़ना ही है तो भी वादा है कि आगे कोई spoiler नहीं है. लेकिन उसके बावजूद – जो भी है, फिल्म से ही जुड़ा हुआ है ना! आगे आपकी श्रद्धा.

मैं यहाँ बस यही बताऊँगा कि फिल्म देख कर मुझे क्या-क्या याद आया. कौन-कौन सी चीज़ें याद आयीं. और वो चीज़ें, यादें, कितनी गहरी हैं. क्यूंकि याद बहुत कुछ आया. सबसे पहले तो याद आया विशाल का गुलज़ार से इतना लंबा रिश्ता. फिल्म शुरू होने के १० मिनट में ही भाषा ने पकड़ लिया. इतनी साफ़, नपी-तुली ज़बान सिर्फ विशाल की फिल्मो में ही कैसे मिलती है? उनकी फिल्म यू.पी. की हो, या बंबई की, या कश्मीर की – सब जगह की ज़बान का वज़न बराबर रहता है. और ‘७ खून माफ’ में तो उन्होंने ‘ग़ालिब’ से लेकर ‘मीर’ तक सबको याद कर लिया है….साथ में गुलज़ार साब के लिखे गाने!

इसके अलावा याद आयीं दो फिल्में जिनका इस-से कोई सीधा लेना-देना नहीं है (फिर भी treat this as a spoiler) – पहली Lars Von Trier की Dogville, और दूसरी ‘साहिब बीबी और गुलाम’. दोनों में प्यार से जुडी उदासी, manipulations, cruelty, अंतहीन खोज, और अधिकतर शांत (या reaction-mode में) central female character है. और इन दोनों फिल्मों का याद एक ही फिल्म देखकर याद आना मेरे हिसाब से बहुत बड़ी उपलब्धि है.

फिर याद आये विशाल के पुराने गुरु Shakespeare और inevitably, मकबूल. फिल्म में बार बार यही लगता है कि विशाल ने रस्किन बोंड की कहानी को शेक्सपियर वाली बोतल में डाल के जमा दिया. किरदारों की भीड़, नौकरों का कहानी में बहुत बड़ा रोल, quirky characters, और लंबे-लंबे dialogue…सब उसी कमरे के थे जिसमें मकबूल लिखी गयी थी. और भी बहुत सी वजहों से मकबूल याद आई…पर यहाँ नहीं बताऊँगा. देखो और सोचो.

इसके अलावा भी बहुत कुछ याद आया – बहुत सी कविताएं, गज़लें, सपने, डर, और गीत. एक बार ‘मेरा नाम जोकर’ भी याद आई.

और अंत में बाहर निकलते हुए, जब आगे चल रहे दो लड़के बोल रहे थे ‘यार ठीक थी…पर कहानी कुछ पूरी नहीं हुयी…’ तो याद आया कि थोड़े दिन पहले कहीं और भी बात हो रही थी (‘दायें या बाएं’ देखने के बाद) – कि हम लोगों ने कहानी को इतना सर पे चढ़ा लिया है कि सिनेमा के बाकी मतलब कभी ढूंढते ही नहीं. परदे पर कई बार एक साथ १०-१२ चीज़ें चल रही होती हैं….और हम लोग सिर्फ ये खोजते रह जाते हैं कि कहानी कहाँ आगे बढ़ी? मुझे तो खैर इसमें कहानी भी हर वक्त आगे बढती हुयी ही दिखी (सिर्फ एक जॉन अब्राहम वाला किस्सा थोड़ा out of place लगा) – लेकिन जो सिर्फ कहानी देख के आ जायेंगे, उनको इस फिल्म का असली प्रसाद नहीं मिलने वाला. एक-एक फ्रेम, एक-एक लफ्ज़, एक-एक किरदार का मतलब है…और वो मतलब गज़ल की तरह ही, कई बार हौले से बोला गया है….कई बार उर्दू या फ़ारसी में, जो हमें समझ तक नहीं आती. उसे दोबारा सुनो, या जोड़-घटा के समझो, या गुज़र जाने दो…किसी अच्छी गज़ल के उस हिस्से की तरह जो समझ आये बिना भी हम गुनगुनाते रहते हैं.

PS – To copy-paste another tweet of his – All you good folks, falling for bad-reviews of 7KM, just one piece of advise – GO WATCH IT! VB IS STILL THE DADDY.

The day I got to know that Vishal Bhardwaj was adapting another Ruskin Bond short story for the big screen, I went to all the possible book stores, searched desperately for the book with the story Sussana’s Seven Husbands, found it, bought it, read it and then heaved a sigh of relief. How else can you claim to be a Bhardwaj Fanboy!

The short story (just 5 or 6 pages) by Bond is a mood piece, sets an atmosphere where you don’t feel comfortable and there is an eerie feeling that something is lurking around the corner. Things are not explained, deaths are without any reasons and everything else is left to your imagination. Once I and other B-fanboys finished reading it, we all wondered endlessly about how Vishal is going to adapt it for the big screen. Knowing Bond, it should have been easy to predict. Rewind to Rusty days.

But what will compensate for the lack of central drama ? Add to that, our cinema habit of enjoying a “destination film” more than a “journey film”. If the last 20 minutes doesn’t satisfy us, nothing can compensate for the price of the ticket, no matter how brillant the rest of the film is.

And every fear came true with 7 Khoon Maaf. In CBSE curriculum, we had a short story in school titled “Curiosity Killed The Crow”. In case of 7 Khoon Maaf, I was the Crow. Not sure how different my reaction would have been had I not known about all the spoilers. Since the announcement of the film, have been following every bit of news, forcing every possible source to spill out the beans and I even knew about the spoiler in the film. The film’s official synopsis made matters worse where it gave out every detail about the plot. The only thing left to know was – How ?

The film opens with a scene where Priyanka is holding a gun close to her head. And the first thing I noticed was the patchy make-up on her face. You don’t expect to see such a face in a film directed by one of the country’s top five filmmakers. And things got worse from there. Not sure on whom the blame should be put but you can almost feel the layercake of make-up put on Priyanka’s face in many scenes.

If you follow the blog, am guessing you know more than enough about the story. Sussana. Six Marriages. Husbands. Dead. Neil’s character had so much potential but if only fake moustaches could save the day, we all would have been roaming around with those. John, well, I don’t have too many adjectives for wooden blocks. More or less, he remains the same. Naseeruddin Shah doesn’t have much to do, Russian actor Aleksandr Dyachenko has a charming presence and as always,  Annu Kapoor is effortless. Irrfan Khan – benign by day, beast by night and he can go no wrong. But the one who gets to be the dude is Shah Junior – Vivaan. Not conventional good looking but confident and how! An assured debut. Unlike other first timers, not self-conscious of his body language at all. Blame it on the Shah-DNA. But to imagine him as Konkona’s husband, and again with that layer-cake make-up, that was the toughest part. Priyanka is spot-on, whatever she is expected to deliver, she does it well. If only she could get rid of that school-girl giggle, she would be more likeable.

If I ever murder someone, I’ll put the blame on Coen Brothers. Because they make killing look so cool. Wish I could share the blame with Bhardwaj too. But he goes for the emotional baggage. Justifiying every killing of the “dukhi-bechari-badkismat” Maidyum. Looking for love. Settling for blood. Killing just for the sake of killing, what a delicious dish it is! Like that war of whip-lashes (Neil Nitin Mukesh) in an open muddy ground.

And what’s the big picture ? 1,2,3,4,5,6 and then go for the sublime sufi swirls. Count that 7 and bingo!

The brillance of Bhardwaj is there, but too little, the way scenes are set and lit ( Double woot for Ranjan Palit).  The master who has penned some of the best dialogues in the last few years, also drops few few lines here and there. Shaadi jaldi jaldi aur pachtao araam se. But it all boils down to nothing. It’s packed with so much stuff and yet offers so little.

The worst – even the song Tere Liye is not there in the film. At least that would have compensated for some of the pain of seeing one of your favourite filmmakers falter this way.

The first look of Rohan Sippy’s new film Dum Maaro Dum is out. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and Rana Daggubati. Prateik is credited as Special Appearance in the teaser. It’s written by Shridhar Raghavan, shot by Amit Roy and has Pritam’s Music. Check it out.

And here is the official synopsis….

Goa. Paradise on Earth. But every Paradise has a few snakes.

Multiple lives collide brutally one day at Goa Airport… and change forever.

Prateik Babbar: Lorry
A student on the verge of following his girlfriend to a US University. But when his scholarship gets rejected, his life threatens to spiral out of control, until he meets a smooth talking hustler who promises to get it back on track. For a small price. His soul.

Abhishek Bachchan: ACP Vishnu Kamath
A self destructive cop fleeing his own past, Kamath is given the job of destroying the brutal local and international drug mafia in Goa. As he begins his ruthless, relentless campaign and takes on the murky drug world… he discovers nothing is what it seems.

Rana Daggubati: DJ Joki
A local musician and mute spectator to what is happening around him, Joki drifts aimlessly through life after an encounter with the drug mafia cost him everything he held dear. Today he discovers history has a nasty habit of repeating itself. Will he finally have the guts to take a stand?

Bipasha Basu: Zoe
An aspiring airhostess who saw her dreams turn to dust, Zoey in a way represents Goa itself. A child of the hippy generation, a mix of local and foreign culture, innocence and beauty have gradually been replaced by cynicism and abuse.

Aditya Pancholi: Lorsa Biscuta aka the Biscuit
A ruthless local businessman, the Biscuit has his finger in every Goan pie, legal or illegal. The point person between all the various Mafias operating in Goa, the Biscuit finds himself pushed to the extreme limit with Kamath’s arrival. But he knows who to turn to:

A mysterious shadow
The ultimate drug kingpin. Many names, many identities but no one knows who he is….

We hurtle into the bylanes, beach shacks and raves of Goa with Lorry as his life spirals out of control, with Joki as he tries to redeem the past and with Kamath as he goes no-holds-barred after the mysterious shadow figure behind it all…

Punctuated with a soundtrack that moves from pulsating dance tracks to haunting Konkani songs, shot right in the midst of the teeming international tourist hotspots, Dum Maaro Dum takes you on a dramatic, thrilling trip filled with twists, turns, suspense… and a shocking finale!

As always, thanks to Pavan Jha.