Rahman gets a double Grammy!

Baz Luhrmann, Vincent Fantauzzo & the Bachchans

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Bachchan Family Baz Luhrmann might don a lot of hats – director, actor and musician – but the Australian storyteller who gave us gems like Moulin Rouge and Australia, comes as a messenger of peace to India on his most recent trip. The recent outburst against Indians in Australia has prompted him and good friend and artist, Vincent Fantauzzo, to make this trip, to drive home the point that their country considers India their friend. And in the process of doing the same, they have in their few days in India, packed quite a bit of adventure and creativity.

Hrithik a magician in Guzaarish

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Over the decades, actors have learnt various skills to get into the skin of their characters. Dilip Kumar learnt to play the sitar for Azad and Shabana Azmi learnt Carnatic sangeet for Morning Raga. While Ranbir Kapoor will learn to play the guitar for Imtiaz Ali’s Rock Star, Hrithik Roshan has recently learnt a skill which no other Indian actor (barring Kamal Haasan in the South) has learnt.

Rekha, Vinod Khanna, Rajesh Khanna, Smita Patil on Stardust (Feb 1982)

Screen awards 2010

On the Indo-Islamic in Bombay cinema

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The media is agog with promos of Shah Rukh Khan’s “My Name is Khan”, an unusual Hindi film selling itself with the name of the Muslim protagonist. Though an increasingly rare instance now, Shah Rukh’s film is merely walking down the lane populated by countless Muslim historicals, social dramas and the like. Remember the likes of “Ghalib”, “Shah Jahan”, “Raziya Sultan”, etc?

The dark horse

The dark horse
Twenty years into Bollywood, Akshay still wins over his audience
By Bidisha Ghosal

A quick background check on the top five superstars of Bollywood today: Shah Rukh Khan studied in prestigious Delhi schools and received the best training an aspiring actor could get. Aamir Khan and Salman Khan hail from film families and grew up breathing, eating and sleeping films. Amitabh Bachchan comes from an academically accomplished family and is lauded for his cultured baritone. And then you have Akshay Kumar, lesser known as Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, who travelled like a nomad and worked as a cook, jewellery seller, small-time model and martial arts teacher.
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Bachchan — 650 & 651 & 652

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“Many namaskars and waves later, the parted sea of Moses in the Ten Commandments and back to Janak with Vishal Bharadwaj. What a range of subjects he puts forth with innocent ease of reference. His exuberance for Paa and the desire on both our parts to work together in the not too distant future, vibes well.”
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“Uddhav Thakeray calls. he has just come out of the theatre after ‘Rann’ and is not able to find appropriate words to describe his appreciation for the film and the performance. Minutes later Bala Saheb calls. ‘I want to see this film. Come and show it to me !’ ‘You have not been to see me for a long time !’

Nothing to lust after – Sandy’s review of Ishqiya

Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Rating: **1/2

There is a cliché about how some filmmakers get so consumed with getting the look of their film right, working towards that perfect camera angle and shot, that many a times the soul of their film is lost. Vishal Bharadwaj, for some time now, has been the torch-bearer for filmmakers aiming to please an audience with their story-telling, even as they impress with their ingenuity and craftsmanship. However, with Kaminey and now, Ishqiya – though it’s Bharadwaj’s assistant Abhishek Chaubey who wields the camera this time around — one gets the sinking feeling that the filmmaker is increasingly choosing treatment and style over story. So even though Ishqiya gets everything right in terms of the look, it disappoints heavily in content.

My Review of DULHA MIL GAYA (Hindi,2010)

The first release of 2010 sounded like a somewhat safe bet at the Box-office with Shahrukh Khan reuniting with Sushmita Sen for a dazzling extended special appearence in a romantic comedy which is decayed with an over-whelming sense of deja-vu, the film fails to offer anything novel or new despite a lifting act by the bewitching Sushmita Sen.

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Kanthasamy at Chennai’s Udhayam theater

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Aamir still possible for the Guru Dutt biopic

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A biopic on the legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt is underway and none-other-than Aamir Khan is likely to play the veteran in the film. The iconic filmmaker’s son Arun Dutt said that the film’s script in being written by Anurag Kashyap and Aamir has already been approached for the role.

Rahman to set Karunanidhi poem to music

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[hoardings a couple of years ago celebrating his 50 years as legislator]
Chennai, Jan 29 (PTI) Oscar winner A R Rahman will compose music for a poem penned by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The poem will be the theme song for the World Tamil Classical Conference to be held at Coimbatore in June.

Rajendra Kumar (‘Jubilee Kumar’) on Filmfare (May 31, 1974)

Striker trailers (updated)

Rann, Ishqiya, Veer (ongoing), 3I (unceasing) & all the other box office blather

last week’s thread

Bombay’s Alankar cinema

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Bachchan 646 & 647 & 648 & 649

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“Learning can never be limited to age. I learnt in the early years, in the middle of my youth and then … vroom … in today’s time as well. Everyday is a learning graph. So much to assimilate, so much to gain knowledge of and so little time and space.”
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“I cannot remember it happening to me in recent times, nor in times past – an audience applause in the middle of my film, at the end of a scene or dialogue. But it happened tonight at the premier of RANN. A thunderous and prolonged applause at the end of a scene that I perform towards the end of the film, moved me to tears.”

Images from Bachchan’s Teen Patti (updated)

The Wrangled Banner! (Abzee reviews Zenda)

Zenda
Dir- Avdhoot Gupte
Cast- Santosh Juvekar, Siddharth Chandekar, Sachit Patil, Chinmay Mandlekar, Rajesh Shrungarpure, Sunil Tawde and Pushkar Shrotri
Rating- ****

Marathi Manoos! Who is this guy that I keep hearing and reading about almost every other day? Who is this phantom figure, representing this mass of Maharashtrians, conveniently brought to the fore by the national media as a parochial zealot whenever either of the two state political parties (spearheaded by warring brothers of the same family) chooses to address his insecurities of being marginalized in his own state or his culture being crushed under an invasive onslaught? I am a Maharashtrian, and yet whenever I hear a Marathi Manoos being called out, I turn over my shoulder to look behind and see who he is. For he is most certainly not me! At least, I am not the Marathi Manoos the media speaks of.