Oscars 2011

NOMINEES….

The Untitled Leader

Loved this book, can’t wait to see the movie….hope they cast Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor if it’s a Bollywood film….

LINK

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari is all set for a theatrical adaptation

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari which made Robin Sharma one of the top five leadership experts in the world 10 years ago, now leads him down the path of theatre. It is being adapted into a play by Ashvin Gidwani Productions.

A “fable about fulfilling your dreams and reaching your destiny”, this simple piece of writing has inspired many the world over, garnering millions of followers. With over a million copies sold worldwide and translations into 50 languages, including Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Italian and Spanish, the book is said to have changed the lives of numerous people.

Koffee with Karan (Madhuri & Sonakshi)

Akshay Kumar confirmed for Once Upon a Time in Mumbai sequel

LINK

Rumors and reports have been flying back and forth over whether Akshay Kumar will be a part of Balaji Film’s sequel to their critical and box office success Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai. Some said yes, he will play the part of the don, others say no he has not signed, while others reported they are still in talks. However, now it all seems to be resolved because we have had confirmation that Akshay will be a part of the film. Akshay will take over the role of Dawood Ibrahim that was played by Emraan Hashmi in the original film. Directed once again by Milan Luthria, this second film follows Dawood’s rise to power as an underworld don.

A call out to all comic book publishers and artists in Pakistan and South Africa!

With the successful launch of Cloud 9 Comix (click here to see the press release, we’re now on the look out for any Independent comic book publishers in South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil or any other countries…..anywhere in the world!

If you know someone who maybe able to help then please forward this to them, otherwise leave a comment here or email me at prazhari@socialwizz.com.

Also a HUGE thanks to Satyamshot and Naachgaana as through here I got introduced to Vimanika comics and Level 10 Studios

Thanks again

Tees Maar Khan & Akshay Kumar’s mysterious enchainment

Spoofing an Akshay Kumar comedy is a rather hazardous enterprise. So many of the star’s hits in this genre run close to parody anyway and therefore when a film adopts the latter approach there can be the sense of pointlessness. This was certainly true for Chandni Chowk to China. It was only partially true for Tashan which was saved by some of its tonal inconsistencies (it was sometimes spoof and sometimes not!). No such luck however with Tees Maar Khan though this is hardly the greatest of the film’s oddities. One would have expected Farah Khan, after her first two successful films, to better appreciate the importance of a framing narrative in her sort of bastardized masala, especially with her blockbuster ambitions. But somehow she has drawn the worst lessons from Om Shanti Om. Here in Tees Maar Khan all pretense of a ‘plot’ has more or less been shunned for a full blown parody that weirdly enough is so incomplete an effort that it comes across as a trailer of a film. It is not an unwatchable movie by any means but it completely refuses any level of involvement by the viewer. It is as if Farah Khan decided that the circus elements of Om Shanti Om were more than enough to sustain a film with Akshay Kumar and then proceeded to direct this extremely half-hearted effort where hardly any feature from the caper sequences to the song videos registers any impact.

Tanu weds Manu, 7 Khoon Maaf (ongoing), other box office tales..

last week’s thread

Amar Chitra Katha creator Anant Pai dies at 81

Anant Pai, better known as Uncle Pai, creator of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle comics has died at the age of 81.
Amar Chitra Katha has shown millions of Indians the route to their roots. Tinkle has been the childhood companion of many for over two and half decades. In 1967, the educational comics series Amar Chitra Katha was launched. Each of the comics in this series was devoted to a person or event in Indian history, religion and mythology. Anant Pai conceptualized of all of these, and wrote the scenarios for most of them. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award this month at India’s first ever Comic Convention held in New Delhi on February 19-20.

KSD Appalraju (RGV) trailers

thanks to Abzee..

M S Shinde in dire straits..

LINK
Ramesh Sippy’s editor beginning with Seeta aur Geeta and through the very end.. of course he did lots of other work too..
VIDEO LINK

In a tragic twist of fate, the largest slum in Asia — called Dharavi — houses a man who gave India one of her most revered films: Sholay. M S Shinde was the film’s editor, and the only person to win a Filmfare award for it. He has edited over 100 movies over the years. But the 81-year-old man is reduced to living in a 160 square feet small room with his youngest daughter Achala.

Dumbed-down Don!

I initially added this longer comment here but then decided that informal as it was it probably deserved its own post. The continuing Don ‘debate’ is basically the jump-off point for what follows..


People often forget that even the most commercial cinema has its own logic. When you watch a film by Manmohan Desai it doesn’t matter that a guy beats up ten people or that people separate and ‘re-connect’ as a series of coincidences. All of this could be justified on its own terms of course but the point is that the emotional truth of Desai’s world transcends these ordinary ‘realistic’ concerns. Which concerns (to be repetitive) are misplaced in the first place. One does not ask of the Iliad whether it is ‘realistic’. One judges the Iliad using the terms of this work. Similarly the wager of Manmohan Desai is hardly that of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Scorsese and DiCaprio once again with Wolf of Wall Street

LINK

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will collaborate for the fifth time on The Wolf of Wall Street, a project the two attempted before and later became Leo’s possible reunion with Ridley Scott.

Vulture learned last week the project left Warner Bros and secured independent financing to possibly shoot by June 2012. The potential film keeps Scorsese working with “Boardwalk Empire” producer Terence Winter, who wrote the script circa 2008, after the legendary filmmaker shot the HBO pilot and executive produced the series.

A film on ‘Savita Bhabhi’!

LINK

Its pubescent obsession with sex boys made her the darling of an entire nation of cyber addicts. Until the prudes killed Savita Bhabhi, the Madame Bovary of the internet generation. Yet love, as they say, never dies. Savitabhabhi.com, a raunchy website that became a rage for its detailing of small town aesthetics and its lurid chronicling of a randy housewife, will now be seen on the big screen. India’s favourite sister-in-law will be rechristened as Sheetal Bhabhi in a film titled Sheetalbhabhi.com.

Illustrated Weekly of India Diwali cover (Oct 28. 1962)

Kofee with Karan (Anushka and Ranveer)

Tanu weds Manu trailers (updated)

Thor images & trailer (updated)

thanks to Rooney..

7 Khoon Maaf, Patiala House (ongoing), and more box office tales!

last week’s thread

Enter Patiala House at your own risk, unless the alternative is Bollywood!

If one is willing to overlook the improbability of a 34 year old fast bowler debuting for England after having not played the game formally at any level since the age of 17, if one also does not mind Nikhil Advani’s fairly lethargic direction which despite some possibilities in the script makes for a mostly inert film, if one does not object to Anushka Sharma only playing Punjabi characters in film after film and imitating Kajol for good measure here, if one can similarly gloss over Punjabi ethnicity reduced to the kind of fetish in this film which would warm the cockles of Yash Chopra’s heart, if one can overcome one’s dismay at seeing Akshay Kumar given a sensible and even affecting part for once but then relegated to the sidelines for the greater part of the film where his character could have been vastly more developed, and finally if one, as a quintessential contemporary ‘Bollywood’ viewer, finds the gross simplifications of this film at the level of character and plot acceptable then this is actually somewhat passable fare. Oh and one gets something approximating the Oldham riots for good measure!

Rajnikant ‘Entertainer of the Decade’ at NDTV’s yearly Bollywood awards

thanks to Ideaunique..

some of the others…