Happy New Year to all..

Wish more taste for some, less words for others (!), more ‘humor’ for all and 150 crores for the Aamir competition (so that they can buy up enough tickets for their films).. have a great year all.. wish my erstwhile ‘home’ NG the very best as well..

Jashn 2010

this was aired last night on Star

Favourite filmi moments of Noughties

No particular order;
- Aishwariya revealing herself with Ajay Devgan in Khakee
- Finale clash sequence between SRK and Big B in Mohabbatein
- Saif explaining how he got robbed in Goa sequence from DCH
- Saif explaining sequence in car about Sonali Kulkarni and BF from DCH
- Aamir setting Saif up for break-up with GF from DCH
- K3G ending credits
- LRM – munna and circuit make up scene

The Tamil box office in 2009

LINK

It looks like it is boom time in Kollywood as a record 131 films were released in 2009. This is the highest number of films released in a year for nearly two decades. Out of the 131 only 18 films got back their investment or were break even. Hit ratio has come down to 14 percent against 18 percent of 2008 and a peak of 24 percent in 2006.

My Top 10 films of 2009…

Omissions: KURBAAN, waiting on a decent print…

1) 3 IDIOTS : Hirani does it again! Aamir does it again (cliché)! The “blockbuster” of the year has arrived in true “desi” style, laughing and crying away in Manmohan Desai “ishtyle” this is no doubt the “feel-good” film of the year which drives it’s message home loud and clear with a big fat smile!

Screen Nominations 2010

Best Film
3 Idiots
Dev D
Kaminey
Love Aaj Kal
Paa

Kannada cinema stalwart Vishnuvardhan dead

One of the stalwarts of the Kannada film Industry Vishnuvardhan died of a heart attack in Mysore late on Tuesday evening. The popular Kannada actor, whose real name was Sampath Kumar, passed away at the age of 59 years.

Reflecting on Kashyap’s PAANCH (Hindi, 2003)

The print/cut I saw was the same as the one shown at the Osiafan’s festival in 03!

Long before DEV D, GULAAL, NO SMOKING and BLACK FRIDAY there was a far darker beginning to the “brand” now known as AK or Anurag Kashyap. Long before Farhan Akhtar and co. decided to shout ROCK ON and show the angst of a teen band in a Urban city and furthermore, only shortly after Farhan Akhtar himself invented the genre with DIL CHAHTA HAI there was Anurag Kashyap’s PAANCH, a film so sharp that it cuts through the nerves, so hard-hitting it leaves the viewer completely gob-smacked, and so exhilarating it leaves the viewer breathless and completely shaken and eventually a revelation on the disintegration of the Urban Youth who’ve lost their way.

Read the rest from HERE

Bachchan — 618 & 619 & 620 and 621 and 621 (i) & 622 & 623

LINK
“But enough of family and back to this ‘family’. Sachin Tendulkar called to personally compliment me on Paa. I was wanting for him to finish his cricket matches with Sri Lanka and then invite him over to see the film at a private screening, but he beat me to it and went across to a theatre and saw the film. Arghhh !! wanted to invite him as settled with him earlier, but …
Paa, now eventually being accepted as a hit by the trade, which is heartening to know and being touted as one of the most impactful and loved in the year !! Money made by Reliance, money made by AB Corp, appreciation for film and content and performance and another combination for Abhishek and me working successful. “

Kannada music composer C Aswath dead

LINK

 

Well-known Kannada composer-singer C Aswath died on Tuesday after a prolonged illness in the Asian Columbia hospital in Bangalore on his 70th birthday. He suffered kidney failure, which triggered off multiple health problems.

His last rites will be performed at Banashankari in the evening. Before that his body will kept at Kannada Bhavana near Ravindra Kalakshethra.

The Karnataka Assembly and the Legislative Council expressed deep sorrow over the death of the musical genius who was trained in Hindustani music under the guidance of Devagirl Shankara Rao.

Director’s cut on Delhi 6 set to release

LINK

A year after the release of the ill-received Delhi-6, director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is set to release the film with a new tragic ending. The film was originally planned with Abhishek Bachchan’s character’s death at the end. Mehra, apparently with considerable pressure from his producer, UTV, decided to alter the ending to a happy one. Incidentally, Abhishek had strongly advised his director-friend against the ending.

Jayshah’s thoughts on 3 Idiots

It is 7PM on Monday night. An exhausting tiring weekend and having missed out on tickets to 3 Idiots on Wednesday, we arrived at the theatre with one huge long ass queue and the film list showing 3 Idiots 7:40PM Full, 3 Idiots 8.10PM Full, 3 Idiots 9.40PM Avaliable. Life ek race hai, was ringing in my ear and the only race I could think off was jumping in the queue to get my tickets! We waited 30mins. Idiot workers took there time and constant checking of 9.40PM board to hope it still reads avaliable. FINALLY we got tickets. But its 7.40PM. So we went to my aunites for some dhokla, thepla and chai

‘Interesting’ Hindi films in 2009

(in no particular order.. I do not include films that I would necessarily consider ‘perfect’ but those that are interesting even in their failures and in any case better than others that might otherwise be more consistent narratives)

1)3 Idiots
The best film of the year and the most enjoyable film of the decade for this viewer. The critique of the bourgeois world offered here is as sharp (the first Munnabhai) as anything Hirani has done. This is not a film ‘about’ the educational system but one that interrogates an entire way of life devoted to ‘calculative logic’.

And the film of the year is…

-Town filmmakers pick their favourite film of 2009. 3 Idiots was the clear winner, followed by Paa PS: Avatar and Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year also feature prominently It was the year of the alien.  When an American film Avatar completely took over our Bollywood filmmakers’ psyche making them feel small inadequate and incompetent.
Then, Paa and 3 Idiots came along at year-end to give back the industry and our filmmakers their self-esteem.
Read on to find out the fav film of your fav director….

Akshay waives his fee for his next two?

LINK

It could be atonement for his past deeds, or should it read, atonement for his past fees. Trade circles say that Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar who attained notoriety as the actor who was reportedly signed for as high a fee as Rs 71 crore for a film, has had a change of mind. Reliable market sources say that the entire completion cost of Akshay’s next two films -Khatta Meetha directed by Priyadarshan and Tees Maar Khan directed by Farah Khan will reportedly not exceed Rs 35 crore.

After thoughts on KAMINEY (Hindi, 2009)

Thank you to the countless people, their views and the on-going conversation around the movie (namely at Satyamshot with GF/Satyam and at NG)!

It’s taken me 3 re-watches to finally give it some form of “review”. It’s a film I’ve been most indifferent to all year as it simply left me under-whelmed for the most, and I still retain that about the film at large.
Vishal Bharadwaj does a surprise turn from his Shakespeare epics to a different type of cinema, part Guy Ritchie, part Tarantino, with a dash of Hindi Cinema’s masala legacy with a classical case of two “dopplelangers”.

Read the rest from HERE

Dulha Mil Gaya trailers (updated)

Images from Chance Pe Dance (updated)

MEMORIES ON LIFE, SYSTEM AND MUGGING (Rooney’s thoughts on 3I)

not a review for that satyam, Q , gf , sandy and abzee is sufficient and creates a complete universe in cinematic sense with one dissenting opinion covering all negative aspect … mine is thus random thought.. about life, studies, system, sufferings etc

I still remember my early exposure to science stream in HSC exams, which was my first actual understanding the impact of Rote learning in life. (or mugging) As we are aware there were textbooks there I would say was a ratio of 5 is to 10 of people who use to mug and then I came across a topper from the class who did tell u any answer of any sum in mathmatics by just looking at the sum. Later I came across various having skills in chemistry (equations), physic (problems) and biology (here may be justified). The outcome was that after initial round of exams, the ratio increased and many a my friends started following the same and the method yielding more and more favourable results it bloody skyrocketed.

The Unfettered triumphs of 3 Idiots

Raju Hirani does not so much make movies in the traditional way as much as he choreographs scripts. A stray Manmohan Desai gene has perhaps founds its way into Hirani’s bloodstream as the latter once again delivers a film for the ages and one where he surpasses the strengths of the deservedly enshrined Munnabhai films. The director is the rare talent who seems to be schooled in Desai’s improbable art of narrative velocity married to quasi-operatic mini-climaxes that in turn do not sacrifice the tale’s cumulative logic and this mix essentially existing in a comic framework. Aamir Khan meanwhile defeats all cliche once more and yet again emerges in a film that bears witness to his uncanny career re-invention this decade. That these two talents with unquestionable integrity in each case got together for this film is perhaps fortuitous.