From the Filmfares (The Bachchans and Shahrukh Khan)

Jodha Akbar had a very good night overall. Hrithik won best actor and of course Rahman won for the music. Aamir Khan was again denied best actor while Priyanka won best actress for Fashion. Normally Filmfare have a habit of rewarding the year’s biggest hit. Ghajini was a historic grosser last year but Aamir’s habit of boycotting all awards functions perhaps ensured this decision much as in 2006 he again did not receive the same despite having the Rang De Basanti/Fanaa double. In any case these awards are mostly so compromised and/or corrupt that I wish more stars would follow Aamir’s lead in this matter.

Nonetheless Abhishek and Shahrukh seem to be sharing a warm moment here.. Shahrukh has just gone through major shoulder surgery. One hopes he’s able to recover quickly..

Complete list HERE

Munnabhai chala South Africa

LINK

Campaign karne mamu, bole to, ekdum Gandhiji ke maafik

Vikram’s Tora Bora Song!

Some trivia might be in order here for those who need subtitles. The male protagonist here at one point sings about finding his lover and be willing to go even to the ends of the earth to do so. This sentiment is expressed by the Tora Bora reference. In essence he’s willing to go even to Tora Bora to find his lover! Needless to say this film postdates Bush’s Afghan war! Vikram meanwhile also appears as ‘Raavan’ in Rathnam underproduction film (Tamil version) while in the Hindi one he’s ‘Ram’ to Abhishek’s ‘Raavan’. In this song I’ve put up here he’s in the guise of a warrior. The film is titled Samurai.

Mohanlal as Prospero…

LINK

Not sure if the play is going to be performed in a translated version, but Mohanlal’s English isn’t exactly the best. Would be interested to see this captured on video, though. The idea of Lal performing Shakespeare is certainly interesting, especially as his stage career these days is a helluva lot more interesting than what he’s been doing on screen, for the most part.

Boxoffice thread Feb 28 to March 5

Delhi 6 dicey, Billu flops!

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/domestic_boxoffice/index.html

My thoughts on MUMBAI MERI JAAN (Hindi, 2008)

My thoughts on MUMBAI MERI JAAN (Hindi, 2008)

http://masterpraz.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/my-thoughts-on-mumbai-meri-jaan-hindi-2008/

On one hand viewers worldwide marvel over Danny Boyle’s enthralling (albeit a tad overrated) SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE while on the other hand Mumbai cinema churns out what is possibly the years finest film and a stunning kaleidoscope portrait of Mumbai city.

11 July 2006, Mumbai was shattered by seven bomb blasts on the Western Railway stations: Matunga, Mahim, Khar, Bandra, Jogeshwari, Borivali, and Bhayandar.

Director Nishikant Kamat (who made his debut with the small budget masterpiece DOMBIVILI FAST deserves a big pat on his back for scripting and directing this feature with a lot of heart and a lot of vigour. The film can best be described as India’s answer to the Oscar-winning CRASH, this one features a multithreaded storyline consisting of common Mumbai citizens limping back to normalcy after the 7/11 serial bomb blasts two years ago. The film touches upon a vast range of controversial and topical subjects from Hindu-Muslim tensions, the corruption of the media, the common man’s survival with industrial growth and capitalism.

Book Review: A Passage To India

From Darkness to Light

Author: E M Forster
Written in: 1924

http://sandyi.blogspot.com/

 

Many critics believe that without A Passage To India, E M Forster wouldn’t have perhaps been the author of eminence he is today. This novel, based in India during the British rule, is easily one of the most definitive works written in that period and rightfully, happens to be Forster’s best work. Not that Howards End and A Room With A View do not contain merits but A Passage To India – by having a dark. impenetrable core (the caves) – right in the middle of the book — breaks away from Forster’s otherwise Edwardian conventionality and takes on modernist hues. It’s a mature breakaway for the author and what we have here  is a mytho poetic novel that unravels a wealth of meaning.

Sachin Tendulkar at Madame Tussauds wax museum

LINK

Sachin Tendulkar reached a new level of fame yesterday when it was announced that a wax figure of his will be part of internationally renowned Madame Tussauds, London in April.

From Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers

[These two sequential segments deserve to be seen in full, begin at the 6:45 mark in the first one]

Bachchan — 310

LINK

“Our culture has always taught us the importance of the care that is due to those who brought us into this world. If ever I were to express my regrets in life, they would most certainly be the loss of opportunity in spending more time with my Father and Mother. I hope with sufficient resolve that Abhishek never has to entertain such regret.

A Dissent on Rajni’s Shivaji

(parts of a discussion around the time of the film’s release)

[The point about Sivaji is that given this is Shankar at the helm, given that this was the biggest film in recent memory (in the South), surely it wasn’t too much to expect Shankar to either stick to the India/gentleman kind of format or on the other hand Anniyan. The latter was over the top but it also took it’s star-actor seriously. The weird thing about Sivaji is that it gives people the Rajni circus! In other words this is a compendium of past ‘circus’ moments!

Mehboob Khan’s Andaz

It is hard to write about a film that as I write this piece is about sixty years old. For the advantage of hindsight is that greater objectivity is brought about but often at the cost of ´estrangement´. This is to say that the world of the film becomes so remote that one is often emotionally or intellectually unable to comprehend it without the expenditure of great effort as well as the most imaginative ‘perspectivizing’.

Now, Saif Ali Khan sweats for 8-pack abs

LINK

Six pack abs are passé. The milestone Aamir Khan set with his eight-pack abs is now being emulated by other stars.

Saif Ali Khan , who’s been fit but has never been known for his brawns, is nowadays sweating it out in a gym that he’s set up at his house in Bandra. The actor is intent on shedding all the extra fat from his body and at the same time developing muscles for his role of a detective agent in home production Agent Vinod .

The movie, to be directed by Imtiaz Ali , will have Saif pairing up with girlfriend Kareena Kapoor .

Kylie drives away Akki’s Blues?

Exc pic: Pop Singer Kylie Minogue graces Akshay Kumar’s home for lunch at Palm Beach Building, Juhu.

Courtesy: Prashant Sawant (Sakaal Times)

A Twist in the Tale(Frontline on Dev D)

LINK


UMA MAHADEVAN-DASGUPTA

Anurag Kashyap’s “Dev D” asks us to look at those who drift, those who take the wrong turns, and those who have stopped.

NOTHING, not even the quirky intelligence of Anurag Kashyap’s earlier works, could have prepared us for the stunning beauty of his latest film, Dev D.

Karz to Om Shanti Om

Rajiv Menon’s Abhi – Ash starrer is titled ‘Dhun’

LINK

Mumbai: Ace cinematographer Rajiv Menon captured some really beautiful moments between Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Mani Ratnam’s ‘Guru’. Now Rajiv is all set to direct Bollywood’s most talked about couple in his next film.

Reporters spoke to the South based cinematographer who confirmed the news. “Yes…Abhishek and Aishwarya are starring in my next directorial venture titled ‘Dhun’. It’s a film where music plays a very important role. The film goes on floors sometime in June this year.”

Sandy’s interview with John Abraham

‘I don’t care what the world thinks of Aashayein’

http://sandhyai.blogspot.com/

http://www.sandyi.blogspot.com/

John Abraham speaks to Sandhya Iyer about his image post Dostana, his new film NewYork and why he still stands by the much-delayed Aashayein

John Abraham has two things at the moment that is keeping him busy and excited.

The Interesting in 2008

[In no particular order though I probably liked Che and Waltz with Bashir the most.. as always these lists are ongoing efforts much like my earlier 2006 and 2007 lists (accessible in the sidebar)]

Che
An ambitious biopic which presents the great revolutionary’s life as an exercise in iconography. There is a before and after structure to the work which interestingly never captures Che in his full moment of plenitude or right after his success in Cuba. This intelligently creates a gap in the narrative that works especially well if one has seen the roadshow version at one sitting. Che remains enigmatic through the film and yet completely persuasive as a legend in the making. Splitting the difference would seem to be rather hard but Soderbergh does it admirably well (as does his lead actor). Additionally, he also brings a different palette, differing screen ratios, in general a distinct set of visual cues to contrast the film’s halves.

Banarsi Babu

LINK