what we are reading – EightandHalf
Are the Sony Music guys waiting for the album to hatch golden eggs ? They dont. And even if they ever do, they can do only when its out in the market.
Dibakar Banerjee’s new film Love Sex Aur Dhokha (LSD) is releasing on 19th March. Not even 10 days left and the music is still not out. Wake up Sony! Smell the coffee. Generally the music of a hindi film is released a month before its schedule release date and every week a new song is aired on tv channels to build up the hype.
In recent past, T-Series did a superb job with two film albums which had no big stars and not big budgets. Dev D and Ishqiya. And it helped both the film’s box office performance too. Dev D was sex + shock + songs, it jazzed up the curiousity factor immensely! Rest all depends on how good or bad the film is. Similarly, Ishqiya’s dil to bachcha hai ji & Kaminey’s Dhen Tedan hyped the film and gave it a strong recall value.
The problem is big labels need big stars. And better if the big stars lipsync the songs. Otherwise they dont have any clue how to market the album and the songs. And they are least bothered. So, the super giant Sony is sitting-thinking-shitting-pondering-ruminating-supershitting.
The music of LSD is by Sneha Khanwalkar who delivered a killer soundtrack with her last album Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. Rustic sound, lesser known singers, all packaged with a power punch. And interestingly, Dibakar has turned solo lyricist with LSD. He co-wrote few songs for Oye Luck Lucky Oye also. But this time, its all solo. Not one or two but he has written three songs including the now popular title track Love sex aur dhokha darling love sex aur dhokha. The second one is – I cant hold it any longer, an English-Rajasthani fusion!
The third song is Tu Nangi Acchi Lagti hai and there is another version of the same song- Tu Gandi Acchi Lagti Hai. Both versions have been written by Dibakar. No, there was no Censor locha as reported in the newspapers. One version is used in the film that goes with one of the characters (nangi) and the other version (gandi) is in the album.
Not sure when will Sony realise that there are people out there who are waiting for LSD music! If only management graduates knew everything about films and music, we would have an Auteur Club passing out of IIM’s every year!
Here is the title track sung by Kailash Kher.
Lil late to discover it but as they say, better late than never. Atleast for the record!
Remember the popular Iktara song from last year’s Wake Up Sid ? We discovered Kavita Seth and realised that Amit Trivedi can kill Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with just one song. The trio had the rest of the album. But nobody played anything beyond Ikatara. And many are still playing it in non-stop loop.
Had lot of doubts since the song came out. It sounded so different from rest of the album. And then got to know that there is a male version too. And the male version is not in the CD ? It was released much much later. Was it a official release ? Not sure. A good friend mailed it to us as we were desperatley looking for it. So, whats the story ?
Intially Amitabh Bhattacharya wrote the male version of the Iktara song. Everyone liked it. But Javed Akhtar doesnt like sharing credit on music albums. Its should be only him or let anyone else write all the songs! But it was too good a song to let it go.
To solve the problem Javed Akhtar rewrote a new version of the same Iktara song. It was recorded in a female voice and was put in the album. The male version of the song remained in the system and was released much later after the release of the film.
For better comparison, here is the lyrics of the male version and click here for the lyrics of the female version. Thanks for it Goonda, the only person who doesnt like the song! Or better click on the play buttons of the video attched and decide for yourself. First the female version and the next is male version.
This friday its Ringa Ringa at the movies. In both the films, its too much confusion over one phone call. Karthik Calling Karthik is directed by debutant Vijay Lalwani, stars Farhan Akhtar & Deepika Padukone and produced by Excel Entertainment. Lets see if actor Farhan manages to score a hattrick.
Anupama Chopra (NDTV) – Karthik Calling Karthik is inconsistent with its own internal logic. When you backtrack and see how the pieces fit, it doesn’t hang together. Eventually then, Karthik Calling Karthik feels like a vanity project for Farhan Akhtar, who is in every frame of the film. He’s compelling, especially in vulnerable loser mode, but he can’t add flesh to this sliver of a story. KCK isn’t a bad film but it isn’t very good either. – 2.5/5
Shubhra Gupta (Indian Express) – ‘Karthik Calling Karthik’ is actually two films. One, an office romance between a colourless drone and a beautiful colleague who notices him only when the boss lashes out at him in public. And the other about a guy who hears voices in his head and gets strange phonecalls from someone who claims to be him. Karthik calling Karthik, geddit? – 1/5
Sukanya Verma (Rediff) – Films like Karthik Calling Karthik are all about winding up right. This one fails to make a connect. Pity, it could have been that all important call you’ve always been waiting for – 2.5/5
Taran Adarsh (Indiafm) – KCK a decent product with an unconvincing conclusion. Watch it for the wonderful performances of Farhan and Deepika, if you have to. Caters to the youth in metros mainly – 2.5/5
Nikhat Kazmi (TOI) – One does wish there was a bit more of the bubbly Ms Padukone, though. Where it doesn’t work is the entertainment factor. The screenplay does tend to get a bit clunky and the drama somewhat heavy as the director looks for text book resolutions of the teasing problem. But, by and large, there is a thrill factor that keeps the momentum on. In the mood for serious cinema? Watch Karthik Calling Karthik – 3.5 /5
Mayank Shekhar (HT) – The genre of course has its limitations. And someone who’s seen the film before, will inevitable blurt out, what the film’s deal was, or, ‘Who’s the caller’. As an audience, you’re not always two steps behind the script either. But that doesn’t take away from how the film holds you, almost all the way. This isn’t easy. I suspect you’re not going to love the sound of a ringing landline for a while. I hope you don’t question the workings of your brain as much – 3/5
Rajeev Masand (CNN IBN) – In the end, Karthik Calling Karthik appears confused and half-baked, and it commits that deadly unforgivable cinematic sin – it bores you! – 2/5
Aniruddha Guha (DNA) – Farhan may have put in a good act – it’s his best, certainly, among just three films so far – and Deepika looks smoldering and performs well too. But that’s hardly reason enough to sit through this one. Unless you don’t mind thinking to yourself in the end, “THIS is what it was all about?!” – 2/5
Minty Tejpal (Mumbai Mirror) – KCK is low on entertainment and remains a bit dark and dreary, so it’s entirely your call – 2/5
Teen Patti is directed by Leena Yadav (Shabd), Produced by Ambika Hinduja and stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R Madhavan, Raima Sen and a bunch of newcomers. Click here to our Twittereview review of the film.
Anupama Chopra (NDTV) – Teen Patti is a train-wreck of a movie. It’s incoherent, lengthy and worst of all, agonisingly pretentious. Director Leena Yadav takes the kernel of the story from the 2008 Hollywood film 21, about an MIT professor and his students who figure out how to count cards and make millions at casinos in Las Vegas – 1.5/5
Shubhra Gupta (Indian Express) – The trouble with `Teen Patti’ is not that we’re all too familiar with its central idea. It lies in the patchy way the plot is laid out, and in the characters who do not, at any point, feel completely filled out. In too many places, the design is allowed to scream for attention, overwhelming the people, and the action, such as there is – 2/5
Rajeev Masand (CNN IBN) – Directed by Leena Yadav, Teen Patti is an incoherent mess of logic-defying scenes that never come together as a fluid script. It’s got snazzy camerawork and occasionally hip production design, but none of that matters in the end. What you take with you as you leave the cinema is shock. Shock that nobody associated with this film had the intelligence or the courage to turn around and say, “This sucks.” – 1/5
Preeti Arora (Rediff) – Three decades after Gandhi, Ben Kingsley still weaves magic for the Indian audiences. As Kingsley and Bachchan share their life experiences, there is the sheer pleasure of watching two legends share screen space. And since there is no attempt to overshadow the other, the experience is memorable. It’s difficult to visualise other actors in these roles. Teen Patti is worth a watch just for these actors – 2.5/5
Taran Adarsh (Indiafm) – On the whole, Teen Patti is a fresh concept for Indian viewers, made well, but limits itself to the intelligentsia and big city audiences mainly – 2.5/5
Mayank Shekhar (HT) – No kidding. This is the most elegantly lit (cinematographer Aseem Bajaj) rendition of pure gibberish that I’ve seen in a while. The filmmakers profess they came up with this script before the Kevin Spacey starrer 21 came into the theatres. Given this flick, you couldn’t care less for its alleged inspiration – 1/5
Nikhat Kazmi (TOI) – The second half does get somewhat repetitive, with the film refusing to move out of the gambling dens and the climax gets somewhat hurried. But majorly, the film holds as a taut thriller that keeps you glued for most of the screen time. Watch out for Sunidhi Chauhan’s item number, Teri Neeyat Kharab Hai. It rocks – 3.5/5
Minty Tejpal (Mumbai Mirror) – Teen Patti is a slick and stylish film with many stars, fancy styling, big budget but little substance and very convoluted logic. Part of the film is in English, part of it is in algebra and the rest seems gobbledygook – 2/5
Will update the list with more reviews as soon as its out. So, wondering what to watch this friday ? Bet its better to go for hollywood releases.
Not sure where to start and how to start. Ok, making it simple and starting with the intro. Teen Patti is directed by Leena Yadav (Shabd), produced by Ambika Hinduja ( Big moneybag. Hinduja family), stars Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley, R Madhavan, Raima Sen and a bunch of new comers. The not-sure-what-they-were-doing list includes Ajay Devgan, Mita Vashisth, Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor, Ranjeet, Mahesh Manjrekar, Tinnu Anand, Siddharth Sanghvi and Barry John.
Was interested because of only name. Shiv Subramanium, whose writing credits includes films like Parinda, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi, 1942 A Love Story, Hazaroon Khwashein Aisi and Chameli. He co-wrote the film with Leena Yadav. What were they smoking ?
Since I dont have any more energy left to write a full post on the film, here is the new format we are introducing. Putting together everything that we tweet about the film while watching it. And few things which we didnt tweet but kept in our head. Here is our first Twittereview!
– What we heard before entering the theatre : Ok, goodfellas…seems its a bad friday at the movies. As a friend said….Do Karthik, Teen Patti… All tatti!
– No havent seen Teen Patti. Watching it now. Halfway through. Exactly what i expected from the promos…very very filmy!
– Someone asked : How many stars would you give it out of 21 ? Replied : Hehhehe. Am big Kevin Spacey fan. Still counting the stars as its only halfway through.
– Post-interval : Oh man! Where is it going ? Am willing to submit all my pattas and pattis to get out now! Becoming unbearable.
– Its ringa ringa in Teen Patti too. Would be good if someone can connect the phone lines of Karthik with these guys and edit a single film out of the two. Karthik Calling Team Patti!
– Teen Patti in one line is mayhem because of money. And it turned out to be money spent in mayhem. Ben Kingsley nods listens nods listens nods listens.
– Out of the theatre : Teen Patti – bad writing, badly directed, acted, edited. It goes all over the place without making sense. Wanted to see because of Shiv Subramanium.
And here are the tweets which didnt make it to our timeline because of lack of space, time, energy, interest or whatever…..
– Madhvan is bad. No, he is terrible. Naah..Horrible. What is he doing ? He is so bad that he is good!
– With so much money, Hindujas could have bought the rights of 21 and done an official remake. It would not have been so bad.
– Barry John TEACHES acting ? Really ?
– Can see what they were trying to do. But it doesnt come together as a film. All scattered, going in random directions, the emotions doesnt show on screen and the two roommates track is funny as hell.
– Bonny and Clyde ? Who thought of that ? Deserves Red & White Bravery Awards.
As the tagline of the film says “Sab Khel Hai”, in twitter lingo we would like to add “Aur Teen Patti #Fail Hai”. Go play at your own risk.
Actor Arshad Warsi has turned producer with his new film Hum Tum Aur Ghost. The film was earlier titled Kaun Bola ? Its directed by Kabeer Kaushik, who made a superb debut with Sehar. But nobody knows how he lost the plot in his next film Chamku. Was it the Deols-who-dont-die in films ?
Hum Tum Aur Ghost stars Arshad Warsi, Dia Mirza, Sandhya Mridul and Boman Irani. Can anyone smell Ghost Town ? As always in bollywood, Arshad clarified that after he wrote the script hi freinds told him that it sounds like Ghost Town. Otherwise he had no clue.
The filmmaker, oops, pottymaker is back! He made his feature directorial debut with Heyy Potty and claimed himself as “The King Of The World”. Here is the first trailer of his new film Housefull. Expect more of banana peel and poo poo jokes! Looks like a strange cocktail of lot of films that you have seen.
The film is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Malaika Arora, Randhir Kapoor, Jiah Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez and Boman Irani.
Can someone please tell Ramu that you cant fool everyone all the time. You surely can make a joke of yourself by making one stupid film after another and still talking and giving gyaan like a Gyaan Guru. Get that GG avatar out of your heard, sir!
As if making horrible films is not a crime, Ram Gopal Varma has gone a step further. Ram Gopal Varma has always been Ram Gimmick Varma and he is still trying his luck with it.
For Phoonk, they ran a contest daring people to watch it in the theatre alone. Rules and regulations were not clear. And nobody knows what happened finally. Who watched, how, where, when. There were allegations that it was rigged. No answers.
Ramu did something similar for Agyaat too. It was a short film contest where it was announced that the winner will get to direct a film. We had put out a post on the same and when readers asked about the winner we had no clue. It seems no winner was announced and there were no prizes. Everything remained Agyaat! And here is the comment posted on our blog by one of the participants…
Has RGV become a fraud? This contest is a fraud on indian public. If u write on his blog asking about contest, ur comment will be DELETED. Try it urself. If makin bad films was not enuf he’s now cheating public with fake contest. That man has lost all sense of shame.
Ram Gimmick Varma is back again! For Phoonk 2. We would suggest, DONT trust the man and his gimmicks. But if you still want to, here is the official release on the contest.
The PHOONK 2 Scare Contest
• Before the release of “PHOONK” we had challenged that if any viewer could dare to see the film sitting all alone in a theatre and not run out scared he will get a Cash Prize of Rs.5 Lakhs.
• The contestant who took the challenge didn’t even last for 30mins and ran out of the theatre.
• After the release, some people alleged that the contest was rigged (Huh! Is it a way to admit it ? ) and that they never felt fear while watching the film. So now without going into a pointless argument on the same, we the Phoonk 2 team have decided to open ourselves to a scientific evaluation of that claim.
• For “PHOONK 2” we are going to implement our Contest in a very scientific way as never ever done before in the history of Cinema anywhere across the World. The viewer who will claim that he is not going to get scared will be fitted with a ECG machine while he is watching Phoonk 2 which will monitor his Heartbeat and Pulse rate and this will be shown live on a screen outside the theatre to both the Media and all concerned.
• A normal person according to professionals has a certain average heartbeat and when subjected to any kind of an intense emotion the beats will considerably go up. So if the challenger claims that he had no fear while watching Phoonk 2 the monitor will tell whether he is lying or not and on the other hand if he can control his fear and thereby his heartbeat and not let it cross his normal heartbeat then he will get to win the cash prize.
• The PHOONK 2 Team DARES any viewer to take this Challenge and watch PHOONK 2.
• We intend to launch the contest on 10th March on our official website www.phoonk2.in . This contest is Restricted to only healthy people with no history of Cardiac disease and also only to people who are between 18 and 60 years of age.
• The contest will be open for people across INDIA and based on a computerized random draw people will be shortlisted, who then further will have to give a medical indemnification for further selection by our team and a medical professional who will eventually single out the final Challenger to be subjected to the test. The Challengers normal heartbeat will be recorded before and while the screening is happening. We will also make sure that the contestant is actually watching the film without closing his eyes by shooting him Live through a night vision camera and showing his facial expressions to the media and all concerned on a screen outside the theatre. If at all he wins this challenge he will be awarded the Prize money right at the Venue in front of everybody.
PS: For any unforeseen situations an Ambulance will be on standby at the Theatre to monitor the contestants.
Phhonk 2 is directed by Milind Gadagkar and stars Sudeep, Neeru Bajwa, Amruta Khanvilkar and Ahsaas Channa. The film is releasing on 9th April 2010
The first trailer of Mahesh Manjrekar’s new film City Of Gold is out. Check it out.
This one had lot of promise, till we saw the trailer. The premise, setting, time, incidents and an untold story. But from the trailer it looks too tacky! City Of Gold is set in Mumbai’s mills era. Here is the official synopsis of the film…
Today, there is hardly anyone who hasn’t visited the swanky shopping malls, nightclubs, lounge bars, clubs and other such lifestyle destinations that sprung up across the centre of Mumbai. However, very few know that buried deep below these glittering edifices to consumerism lies the dark, dirty and painful reality of many thousands of mill workers who once worked the cotton mills in this very same area. Rising and toiling to the wail of the mill sirens each and every day, seven days a week, these workers embodied the true unbridled zeal and unflagging spirit of the city and played a pivotal role in the evolution of Mumbai as the modern day business capital of India.
And then it suddenly was as if they never existed. Following the mill workers strike in the mid-80s, these mills began closing down rapidly and the mill-workers mysteriously disappeared. What happened to them, and where they went is one of the most shameful secrets that the city of Mumbai will have to bear for generations, one that until now has always been spoken about in hushed whispers.
City of Gold – the story of these long-forgotten masses – not only explores the apathy of these mill workers narrated through the story of one such family, but is also a take-no-prisoners account of the birth of the true underbelly of organized crime in Mumbai.
The film traces the birth of the politics of greed in Mumbai and exposes the unholy collusion between the triumvirate of big business, the political establishment and the trade union leaders who ostensibly were charged with protecting the rights of the mill workers. In the two decades that followed, the entire landscape of Central Mumbai was changed forever. Land became the currency of growth, and this began the systematic extinction of mills in Mumbai. In a matter of just a few years, hundreds of thousands of workers lost their means of livelihood. Having worked in these mills from generation to generation, this was the only vocation that they knew.
Many left Mumbai and went back to their ancestral homes, some others chose to stay back and fight what they soon realised was a losing battle, some took the extreme step of ending their miserable lives, and still some others took to a world of crime.
Truth… as is said, is stranger than fiction. But the truth that the film uncovers is not just stranger but darker and dirtier than any mind has ever imagined. Produced by DAR Motion Pictures and from the Director of dark and realistic films like Vaastav – Mr Mahesh Manjrekar, ‘City of Gold’ takes another trip down memory lane…. just that this time around the result is a much more heart wrenching, soul stirring and shocking film about human avarice and apathy.
The film doesn’t provide any direct solutions. Yet it shatters many a myth and raises many a question which only the passage of time will provide answers to.
To know more about the film, click here for the official website.
In an interview to LA Times, Vidhu Vinod Chopra has revealed the plot of his new film Broken Horses. Its his first Hollywood film which he has been threatening to make for quite sometime. To quote from the feature…..
His English-language directorial debut about two brothers, one a violinist in New York, the other a hired gun, set against the drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border.
As Chopra points out, “there is nothing Indian about the movie except the director. The heart of the movie is the relationship between these two brothers, but within that is a story about how we destroy what we love. It’s about the choices we make in life.”
This sounds exactly like Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey! Ok, not exactly but lot of similarities. Two brothers (Ok, not twins), there is gun, there is violin (not guitar), drug and war too! How we destroy what we love ? Its about the choices we make in life ? We might be reading too much between the lines and the words but doesnt it all sound like Guddu & Charlie’s world.
Ofourse everything else will be different. But we could not resist connecting the dots. Its written by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijaat Joshi and Jason Richman is the script consultant ( Swing Vote, Bangkok Dangerous). To give you the mood & feel of the film, VVC has already cut a trailer from the recce footage. Go to www.vinodchopra.com , click on the pic of Broken Horses and select trailer.
And to read the complete feature published in LA Times, click here. In a separate interview to Hindustan Times, he has clarified that 64 Squares and his ambitious project Talisman to be directed by Ram Madhvani is NOT happening. Other two projects, Ferrari Ki Sawaari to be directed by Rajesh Mapuskar and Paachisvi Saalgirah are in development. Click here to read the full interview.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 