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76 Responses to “Paan Singh Tomar, London New York Paris, the rest of the box office”
Di,
Thanks for psoting that clip of the Talk Back interview of Javed Akhtar.
Have a new found respect for him. The interviewer was fair tho in my opinion except they still cant accept the Pakistani hand in the terorists acts in India.
🙂
I think there is 3 parts to that interview. I am not sure where it is being conducted (India or Pakistn) but the interviewer seems to be Pakistani and for Pakistani TV. I found him (interviewer) aggresive and rude, the way he was *attacking* and very narraw minded!
irfan has got good exposure in hollywood much earlier some 25 years back only with salam bombay(which was oscar nominated) but some of his bollywood choices in recent times left lot to be desired …
an accomploshed actor doing hiss with malika sherawat or doing item number or second lead in akshay movies is more baffling …
it seems he hardly is taking any interest in bollywood( his roots ) and here research seems to be bigger problem or for that matter he is content in being another kabir bedi
Leaving aside the ridiculousness of the Kabir Bedi comment, I would hardly blame Irfan for not taking any interest in Bollywood! In fact, I’d flip the logic of that statement around because it’s painfully clear that Bollywood doesn’t take enough interest in him! And it’s the industry’s loss. Because barring an odd Maqbool, Haasil or (it would seem) PST, he’s not exactly offered strong roles in commercial projects.
kabir was immensely sucessful( not only in hollywood but also in tv just like irfan infact on a bigger scale ) and acted as villain in bond movie and i guess the bigger acheivment of irfan also is the villanious act in sidrman
as an actor there is harrdly any comparison neverthless and they are not in same league
mean do disrespect but those films you mentioned came at time when irfan needed recognition …choices just not only comes with miira nair or deepa mehta’s band of cinema
@rockstar: Irrfan is consumate artist (type). So he won’t have a place in bw song/dance type of setup. He would have to go Nasiruddin Shah/Sanjeev kumar way.
It is not just Irrfan khan, where does Manoj Bajpai get meaningful roles? Our audience is not that evolved to watch meaningful cinema. Our whole setup doesn’t encourage outsiders. We need more directors like Dhulia who can make movies in 2-3 crore budget and make entertaining meaningful cinema and maybe made for television movies.
You can’t take Kabir Bedi and Irrfan khan’s name in same sentence 😉
another harsh and alternate opinion which dont’t go with flow or pr write up’s:
consumate artist has fair runs with mainstream heroines and author back role ala lara (billu) ..chitragandha(yeh sali zindagi ) or priyanka(7 khoon mauf)….
to fe frank his acting range is limited and so is his monotonous dialague deleivry and that makes him restricted and ya naseer is in different league with versatily ( and here i am not talking about exposure
“to fe frank his acting range is limited and so is his monotonous dialague deleivry and that makes him restricted…”
One man’s good actor is another’s chalta hai. lolz
I can prolly say the same on all actors…De Niro to dilip to bachchan to nasir…they all have their individual styles and in that all of them are “limited”
In the end, what matters is: how well you essay your role that you have in the plate. In that sense, Salman in dabaang is “thespian” because whatever was given to him in that genre, he aced it. I would not put him as aadivaasi in ardh satya. Or I would not give Irrfan’s role in Maqbool to Hrithik…etc.
buut an actor has to prove himself on different genre time and again to kiill others perception…others you named have did time and again infact over a extended period of time in different genre and set uup’s ( both nero and bachchan are acting in the age of 70’s and 80’s with author back roles) ….infact the only two and roles are still written for them ….
irfan is lucky to get so much attention than to nair’s and mehta brand of cinema…
“others you named have did time and again infact over a extended period of time in different genre and set uup’s”
If I was more patient person, I would certainly debate on this. I sorta disagree.
Sean Penn is fine-fine actor but he accepts and can do only certain types of role (by choice). As fine as Bachchan is, he cannot/should not attempt to play gabbar singh or he will fail. We all have our USP. A mira nair can but should not direct harry potter…so on and so forth. This doesn’t make actor less effective…in fact it makes them more effective.
villain in satte pe satta was more popuular than hero i guues…..
mira nair hardly dvelved into anything apart from hittting best selling books …sean peann may accept but robert de nero or al pacino won’t and there lies difference and that to in stature
I remember reading a review on this movie more than a year ago and it wasn’t very positive. Saying its sluggish and TD doesn’t quite delve into T’s psyche – why the turnaround to becoming a dacoit – some such. So thought it made some fest rounds and vanished, until now. I don’t think was dreaming @ reading that, so am wondering if this a late commercial release for PST…
“, so am wondering if this a late commercial release for PST…”
IT was ready and completed…UTV was renegotiating the satellite channel rights. According to director (Dhulia), satellite rights were not a biggie when the movie was made but now they are. Prolly the producer knows that it won’t be a hit movie per se, so trying to recover cost by making it profitable (renegotiate the satellite contract)…one will see this movie over and over again on T.V. channels!
London Paris New York, Paan Singh Tomar and Will You Marry Me all opened to poor across the country. London Paris New York was best at around 15% while the other two had collections around the 5% mark.
The opening of the films was lower than the two releases of last week Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya and Jodi Breakers.
London Paris New York has a lot of screen space so has potential to collect well but will needs good word of mouth and a big jump in collections. The other two are also heavily dependent on word of mouth and while that is expected for a film like Paan Singh Tomar, Will You Marry Me suffered on the account of poor promotion.
Well havent seen EMET but didn’t expect it to fall like this
Given that some patrons ( some young girls ) have seen EMET multiple times 😉
Btw watched ‘what happens in Vegas’-remaining bits
Actually don’t wanna be snobbish just bcos of the genre
Wasn’t bad fun
Xameron Diaz as usual was entertaining
Some crisp moments there
YES
I feel vindicated
More strength to hritik roshan and well,
May kareena get married asap and stay away from the camera 😉
breaking News–
Oldgold and Amy have got into trouble with law
Caught ‘luring’ unsuspecting innocent ones into multiple serial viewings of artist and EMET
Hope they get out soon
But some times her old songs like the one from Fida and Ajnabee can b handy when one is in mood… she really has most seductive eyes… she is like 2 min instant popcorns wen the sinful need arises for (alex u know wat i m talkin bout…. other just skip all of this)…lol… Apart from that damn irritating…
Making films in India is hard not because of the heat, or the bureaucracy, or the traffic. Not even, says Liz Mermin, the director of Bollywood underworld exposé Shot in Bombay, because its superstar subject Sanjay Dutt grew nervous about the project. “The hardest thing for a film-maker is that you fly there, look around, take out your camera – and everything is a cliche. Poverty, chaos, cows, flowers: I was going around desperately looking for a shot I hadn’t seen before.”
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Production year: 2011Country: UKCert (UK): 12ARuntime: 118 minsDirectors: John MaddenCast: Bill Nighy, Billy Nighy, Celia Imrie, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Lillete Dubey, Liza Tarbuck, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Ramona Marquez, Ronald Pickup, Tena Desae, Tom WilkinsonMore on this filmThat difficulty – to say nothing of the challenge of depicting India in more than just western terms – led Louis Malle to name the first section of his six-hour Phantom India (1969) “The Impossible Camera”. Yet, even though “India” in its teeming multiplicity may be as much a conceit as “the west”, many directors have stepped up to this challenge. Jean Renoir’s The River (1951), Roberto Rossellini’s India: Matri Bhumi (1959), Fritz Lang’s The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Notes For A Film On India (1967), Werner Herzog’s Jag Mandir (1991), and, yes, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) are just a fraction of the films that have sought to make their outsider perspectives a virtue.
Now joining that list are John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna. The former, an adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s 2004 novel These Foolish Things, follows a group of English pensioners (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton) as they travel to a retirement sanctuary in Jaipur that, although more decrepit than either the brochure or its manager (Dev Patel) let on, proves to be a much-loved base for them as they go about re-envisaging and rebuilding their lives.
Trishna, meanwhile, is the latest instalment in Winterbottom’s ongoing dedication to bringing the novels of Thomas Hardy to the big screen. Following Jude (1996) and The Claim (2000), his version of The Mayor of Casterbridge, he has relocated Tess of the d’Urbervilles to modern-day India. In the title role, Freida Pinto plays a smalltown girl who, after her father has an accident, goes to work for a rich British businessman (Riz Ahmed) with whom she falls in love. They move, first to a turbulent Mumbai, later to palatial Rajasthan where he runs a hotel, but over time their relationship fractures and darkens.
In some ways, these films are poles apart. Madden, best known as the director of Shakespeare In Love, describes The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as “a comedy of dislocation” that “evokes the form of a William Shakespeare comedy whose characters are transplanted to a different environment”. Ol Parker’s screenplay is informed by politics – its starting point is the outsourcing of old age, a phenomenon promoted by Indian finance minister Jaswant Singh in 2003 when he pushed for the nation to become a “global health destination” – but certainly not defined by it.
By contrast, Trishna is a tragedy marked by improvised acting, cityscapes full of MTV-style billboards, yuppie bars and dance studios, and, in no small part due to Marcel Zyskind’s atmospheric, hand-held photography, a persistent mood of ellipsis and in-betweenness. Winterbottom is more attuned to the social and economic niceties of his characters: “In the novel, Tess’s family is one of the poorest in the village,” he says. “In Trishna they’re the equivalent of a lower middle-class family. They aspire to benefit from the changes but find themselves in a situation that’s difficult with the growing economy, urbanisation and changing values.”
Yet it’s precisely this fascination with India as a place in flux that the two films have in common. Historically, outsider artists have tended to portray the nation as old, spiritual, rural, in thrall to tradition. For some, this was its appeal, for others, a curse. In Dick Fontaine’s Temporary Person Passing Through (1965), a melancholic James Cameron (the veteran journalist, not the director) laments: “There’s too much of everything, too many people, too many cows, too many problems. Too much India, really.”
Now, in 2012, when Indian politicians are increasingly embracing neoliberalism and boasting of the country’s Bric status, it’s more likely to be depicted as a modern, urban, entrepreneur-friendly tiger economy. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel relocates Moggach’s novel from IT hub Bangalore to more picturesque Jaipur, but still shows an India that’s the dynamic antithesis to – even the cure for – a Britain defined by failed internet ventures, hip-operation waiting lists and cramped bungalow homes. “Transformation is at its heart,” argues Parker.
For Winterbottom, whose In This World and Code 46 showcased his appreciation of the cultural dynamics and faultlines that animate contemporary globalisation, the transformations in India serve to cast a cruel spotlight on Britain. “Hardy’s novels are often about modernity and speed and energy. But it’s hard to get that sense of a dynamically changing world if you set one in this country. Here the problems are more to do with a lack of mobility rather than an excess of it.”
Is there a danger that this fascination with the turbo-economics of the east becomes a new kind of orientalism, one in its own way as romanticising as Eat Pray Love’s ascription of superior wisdom to India? Ashim Ahluwalia, Mumbai-based director of John and Jane (2005), a brilliantly disturbing drama-documentary mashup about urban identity in modern India, believes it is: “In order to understand with any depth what it means to be Indian today, we should stop endorsing the collective fantasy of ‘India Shining’ – this laughable state of mind in which many modern Indians imagine a new incredible India that looks and feels like a first-world nation.”
Anjalika Sagar, one half of the Otolith Group, whose films explore radical and utopian flashpoints since the war, says: “India is proud of its film industry and its tourist industry. Often these are the same thing. The country’s history, nature and air are under threat. Mining companies are setting its agenda. Millions of people are being displaced. How can you make a film about the country without engaging with its socio-political underclass?”
Sagar looks back on the 80s with a touch of nostalgia. Although films and TV series such as Gandhi, The Far Pavilions and The Jewel In The Crown were sometimes accused of stoking a Raj revival, a foretaste of what writer Pankaj Mishra has dubbed the “neo-imperialist vision” of Niall Ferguson and other evangelists for the empire, she defends them for “at least engaging with questions of power. Independence wasn’t so far in the past back then. Now, with a tiny number of exceptions, there’s no attention to the history of colonialism. There’s an amnesia within India.”
If that’s true, it might represent an opportunity for British directors and screenwriters – though they shouldn’t assume that taking it will guarantee them either audiences or appreciation. “In the big cities especially there’s often a real fuck-off attitude towards the west,” laughs Mermin. “There’s not a trace of cultural insecurity that a particular postcolonial sensibility might wish to see.”
Ahluwalia puts it another way: “We’ve always been eating brains in Indiana Jones films or stammering awkward English sentences in various other western productions, so I don’t think we have high expectations.”
While on Agneepath, all this debates on comparing
Bachchan with any Khan is utterly ridiculous.
None of the Khans have managed to give even half the number of hits Amitabh has delivered. And also the overall hit ratio of Amitabh’s entire career (including all the flops in his old age) is in the same range as any Khan … Go figure!
The new releases of the week all opened very poorly.London Paris New York opened to a 10-15% response. Paan Singh Tomar was around 10% and Will You Marry Me was at around 0-5%.
Paan Singh Tomar may emerge the best bet of the lot as it has decent reports and there was a slight improvement in collections as the day progressed.
Jodi Breakers collected around 8 crore nett in its first week and is down heavily in week two. FLOP
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya had a steady week after a low start. Despite steady collections, the first week was still below the mark and if collections can hold week in week two it may emerge an average fare.
Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu added around 1.50 crore nett in week three taking its three week total close to 40 crore nett.
Btw genelia has married ritesh d apparently
Best wishes to them (they need em) lol
Actually read somewhere that they were being called a poor mans kareena saif
Don’t agree
Find them more sensible cute and somewhat endearing
Unlike the she-male/transvestite mismatched combo!!!
There u go leighann
🙂
Try out the ‘khwaja’ version rahmans connections 2011 folks
Alaskan born and raised Yahtzee prodigy, Leigh Ann is one of four
ruthless soccer-playing sisters. Although, well known by her friends
for disliking armadillos who burrow under her house and Austin
traffic, she loves good radio stations and watermelon.
Leigh Ann is an up and coming oboist earning a DMA at The University
of Texas at Austin, by way of Arkansas (Master of Music degree,
Arkansas State) and Ohio (Bachelor of Music degree, Miami University).
Recently she recorded the instrumental version of the new UN peace
anthem in India with A.R.Rahman. Between time speOnt of the road and
practicing, Leigh Ann enjoys life as an instructor at Texas Lutheran
University, teaching privately in Austin, and performing with local symphonies.
March 2, 2012
Movie Review
They’re Young, in Love and Willing to Commit (Minus Any Strings)
By RACHEL SALTZ
The hero and heroine of the Bollywood romance “London Paris New York,” written and directed by the newcomer Anu Menon, talk a lot about freedom. And as the title suggests, they search for it far from India and home.
The pair first meet at the airport in London. Nikhil (the Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar) has come to London for — what else? — film school. Lalitha (Aditi Rao Hydari), a committed feminist, is on her way to New York to study political science.
The film’s conceit is that they spend one day together in each of the title cities (which contribute little beyond touristy scenery). In London they fall in love. In Paris a few years later they consummate their relationship and fall out. (Is it her awful wig that drives a wedge between them?) In New York they’re older and wiser, but face new obstacles.
You can feel Ms. Menon seeking her own kind of freedom. She tries hard to take a fresh look at sophisticated young Indians and at love, but her film ends up being just as formulaic as a run-of-the-mill Bollywood romance and less emotionally engaging.
The beginning has promise, thanks to Ms. Hydari. She gives Lalitha a sweet seriousness, avoiding the petulance that too often stands in for character in Hindi movie heroines. And you’re right with her when she’s embarrassed by Nikhil’s “I’m a crazy guy” behavior. Must he insist on shouting “freedom!” as they wander London?
Mr. Zafar, who has been winning in the past, here seems too convinced of his own adorableness. When Lalitha falls for Nikhil, it’s hard to believe that it’s a time-and-geography-conquering passion. It’s more like business as usual for any old her and him out of Bollywood central casting.
For an actor, Irrfan Khan is lucky to have those gifted expressive eyes. He uses them to great effect but he’s one of the rare of his professional ilk who throws his whole body into the character he’s playing. I love the way he manipulates his body to create a genuinely affecting physical presence.
I look at this snapshot here and can write a para on it. He’s checking on his bullets here but he might as well be flicking of the invisible dust off his tux..
The thing is, directors today have no clue how to use this talent. Why, looking at IK the actor, can’t some talented worthwhile director / writer come up with a pure, unadulterated explosive adult love story with him in the lead…
agree with ya…compare to lot of ugly ones out there (NS, OP etc) he is indeed talented and good look too…but getting slightly old…he will be more like anthony hopkins (who got critical acclaim late in life or work later in life).
A very good point indeed arthi
Actually his ‘expressive’ eyes may well be due to some disease eg thyroid for all u know
but yes, he uses it well…
go on-write your para 🙂
London paris new york
ok, the first ‘word of mouth’ reports on
some chums have seem london paris new york..
(inspite of having to drive out of the way)
needless to say: the young female demographic ‘loved’ the film
ive been told ive missed something special
hohoho
Apparently, it is a delicate subtle romcom having effectively only two actors
But it works…
I actually am not surprised by these ‘reports’ 🙂
anyhow–from the promos and his interview with komal nahata (that ive just seen)
suspect that a new star is born –ali zafar
LPNY -contd–
Infact a girl (who is a traditional srk fan) said that this movie ‘touched her’ like v few movies have done
(have heard it b4 though) chuckling….
🙂
actually dont mind this song
the lyrics are quite apt for quite a few girls 🙂
Well written by zafar hahahaha
so gals–hit the multiplexes
can vouch –u will like this movie–going by some female reactions uve seen
Finally, New York. The big apple excites you, not because it’s the chapter where differences will be creased out and kiss and makeup will be executed. But you’re mostly comforted by the idea of getting back to the world outside this multiplex. Will Lalitha give in to Nikhil’s 33 dental soldiers pleading for her love? Will Nikhil discover that inexcusable grinning can cause cheek muscles to tear? To find out, you have to suffer this film.
Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao Hydari have both done a couple of films each and cannot be discounted for their performance. While Ali seems to be swinging sporadically between spitting-with-every-dialogue theatrical and casual, Aditi is consistently and unreasonably grim. The music, vocals and lyrics by Zafar may not exit the cinema hall or atleast you hope it doesn’t. Many argue that this one is a Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V of ‘Before Sunrise’ and ‘Before Sunset’, but here the sun doesn’t rise or set, not on the script atleast.
After praising EMAET…. Masand has same verdict for LPNY… I always thought ‘That guy has too much feminine side to his entire personality..’
Eithet Masand has a teenage girl hidden inside his psyche or he has lost his marbels…
The Rockstar heroine will star opposite—wait for this—fellow teakwood Arjun Rampal in a film
Beware! Nargis Fakhri, literally the most embarrassing thing to have happened to Hindi movies since Deepak Malhotra in Lamhe, has apparently signed a new film. The Rockstar heroine will star opposite—wait for this—fellow teakwood Arjun Rampal in a film to be produced by Salaam-e-Ishq’s Nikhil Advani. Industry insiders have already begun sniggering that watching this film will be akin to witnessing the Olympics of bad acting!
Meanwhile, Nargis has found a new friend in Shahid Kapoor, whose birthday celebrations she attended in Goa last week, reportedly frolicking about in a bikini, drawing much attention to herself from passersby and hotel guests. If Shahid and Nargis are a couple (like some say they are), the duo is said to have done a good job hiding their relationship in Goa. Meanwhile, there’s no clarity either on the status of Nargis’ relationship with model-actor Shayan Munshi who she’s been seeing for some time now.
+++
Ranveer’s Big Chance
After being turned down reportedly by Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, and Shah Rukh Khan, the buzz is that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has signed on Band Baaja Baaraat’s Ranveer Singh as the leading man for his next film. It’s a love story, and Bhansali is apparently alternating between Kareena Kapoor and Anushka Sharma for the female lead.
Singh, who’s currently shooting with Sonakshi Sinha for Udaan director Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera (based on a short story by O Henry), has also been zeroed in on to star in an ambitious remake of the Telugu blockbuster Magadheera, which will be produced by Anurag Kashyap and Motwane’s indie outfit Phantom Films. Part period drama and part contemporary action film, Magadheera was a big-scale production whose remake rights had become the most coveted property in Bollywood not so long ago, with even Hrithik Roshan attached to star at one point.
But it appears Kashyap and his partners have decided to invest in Singh. Apart from Lootera and the Magadheera remake, there have been hushed whispers that Singh could also star in Kashyap’s own three-part directorial venture Bombay Velvet, which Aamir Khan was rumoured to have shown interest in a few years ago.
In the current scenario where there are only a handful of viable male leads for filmmakers to choose from, Kashyap and his partners are reportedly creating their own talent pool for mid-sized and unconventional projects. And Ranveer Singh is the actor they’ve decided to put their money on.
It’s an exciting opportunity for Singh—until now seen as a charming heartthrob star—to earn some street-cred as an actor… if he can change his high-handed ways, that is. Industry sources haven’t stopped comparing Ranveer to the famously obnoxious Viveik Oberoi who blew his chance to make it big because of his monster ego.
+++
Bedhopping at the Goa Wedding
There’s just no end to the stories emerging from this Goa weekend wedding. A heartthrob actor who’s a close friend of the groom is believed to have had the most fun, literally bed- hopping between actress’ rooms.
It’s now a known fact that he spent some ‘quality time’ with a has-been female star (who recently launched her own production company), whose make-up woman allegedly spilt the beans on their dirty little dalliance. But an older male actor who was also at the celebrations has been saying the young heartthrob also hooked up with his actress ex when she arrived late for the wedding in Goa.
According to the senior actor’s story, the young charmer showed up at his ex’s room to make sure all was well when she didn’t turn up in time for the shaadi, and then proceeded to stay on until much longer. Apparently, the young heartthrob confirmed to the older star that he had indeed rekindled this old flame ‘twice’ while locked up inside her room all afternoon.
When he dirty danced with his ex at the reception later that evening, all the guests noticed their closeness. But the actor threw a curveball when he revealed they were just ‘good friends’ now, as he’d gone back to seeing another one of his on-off actress exes.
Many thanks for that update on nargis f
Actually her ‘allure’ to me has never been her (lack of) actin skills
But certain ‘ intangibles’ hahaha
Seems her career isn’t really goin great guns bit there has been some undue negativity about her acting skills as if most of the other alternatives have been junior Meryl streeps 🙂
Good that she is ‘making up’ by atleast having fun rather than gettin bogged down by the negativity
The more ‘bed hopping’ the better-more the merrier
😉
Like her ‘free spirit’
Just hope that those waiting to take advantage of females who are relatively ‘down and out’: don’t really have a field day
Applause
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4114&nCat=
Paan Singh Tomar had a huge leap in collections all over as many multiplexes collections were double of their Friday numbers. The collections on Saturday were better than London Paris New York despite a much smaller release than that film and having a lower Friday than that film.
Paan Singh Tomar has good chances of putting up steady collections over the next few weeks as its release strategy is just 300 screens and with occupancies improving it will hold similar screen space over next two weeks. The weekend for the film should cross 3.75 crore nett. The business for the first two days is as follows.
LNPY is a good watch if ur looking for an adult romcom….i liked menon’s direction….esp. the paris scenes….music is a winner
Aditi rao is a really sweet but Ali Zafar is the man! He was brilliant. I watched it in Cardiff on a Saturday night and the mainly student crowd loved it 😉
Hahaha
Notably km is not answeriing
C’mon km- was jus havin fun
Won’t track u in Cardiff
😉
hav a few ‘friends’ in Cardiff
U know-
Will tell em to check it out
Paan Singh Tomar has emerged a surprise success at the box office with collections of nearly 4 crore nett over its first weekend. The film which has been long delayed and released without much marketing or promotion started slowly on Friday morning but picked up quickly at the box office.
Paan Singh Tomar was released on around 300 screens and the jump in collections was across the board with all circuits showing similar trending. The release in mass circuits was limited kept to the theatres where the film had chances. The film collected 70 lakhs on Friday, 1.40 crore nett on Saturday and 1.75 crore nett plus on Sunday.
Paan Singh Tomar is a surprise success and likely to see a good run at the box office for the next 2-3 weeks.
London Paris New York had a poor weekend as it grossed around 3.50 crore nett over the weekend. The film had a poor start and failed to show noteworthy growth on Saturday and Sunday. The daily breakdown of its weekend business was as follows.
Friday – 95 lakhs
Saturday – 1.15 crore
Sunday – 1.35 crore
The film collected best in Delhi city but even there it was still well below the mark and looking at the weekend trending not much can be expected from the weekdays as the film is likely to finish with lifetime business in the 6-7 crore nett region.
“Among last Friday’s releases, Paan Singh Tomar picked up very well over the weekend. The Irrfan Khan starrer collected Rs. 75 lakh on Friday, Rs. 1.35 crore on Saturday and Rs. 2 crore on Sunday (all figures are all-India net collections).
However, in spite of the pickup in collections, the final tally of Paan Singh Tomar will not be enough to recover the cost of the film (Rs. 8 crore) plus the interest cost incurred due to the 2-3 year delay in the film’s release.
On the other hand, the collections of the Ali Zafar-Aditi Rao Hydari starrer London Paris New York were not very good. The film collected Rs. 1 crore on the opening day; Rs. 1.25 crore on Saturday and Rs. 1.35 – 1.50 crore on Sunday. The final tally of the film will not be good enough to cover its cost (Rs. 14 crore).”
Hmmm, for these kids without fathers ( PST and LPNY) there is no accounting of other revenue streams from Mr.Nahi Nahata when for other films he painstakingly considers everything.
Are you referring to satellite rightsof PST? I heard that it took 2 years to release because UTV was re-negotiating satellite rights. UTV might have already recovered cost, which would explain their lukewarm response to promote the movie (PST).
sorry..I am not knowledgeble on BO stuff but just interested in PST (type of *indie* movies) success.
Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia’s biopic “Paan Singh Tomar”, which has been receiving rave reviews from all quarters, has had a decent start in its opening weekend with earnings amounting to Rs.4.25 crore.
And then we have Komal nahata… understating its performance… I guess any film outside KJO and SRK production always underperforms…
People dont compare PST to gigantic bollywood movies… Films like these still see the day light and earn 4.5 crores weekend is itself an achievement in BO driven mindless scenario of India.
I salute to the actors and directors who r creating something for which they fel in love with cinema.. not with the fame and money it provides.
Alex- saw LPNY today- I really liked it. Its a sweet romcom with some witty dialogues and 2 lead actors who are very suited for the genre and for their roles- nothing pathbreaking- but I thought the character arcs for both Ali and Aditi were much better developed than usual.
Especially the character of Lalitha- enacted excellently by Aditi- really stood out from the usual underdeveloped Hindi heroines.
In the first segment she is shown as a naive, idealistic college student who thinks she can change the world and is too shy to act upon her attraction to Ali. In the second segment you see her as someone who is more confident of who she is- more expressive of her desires- and now a rebel instead of an idealist. In the final segment she has matured into a woman who is neither wild child nor unrealistic dreamer but a practical adult. This is hardly the work of genius-but I cannot think of too many other Bollywood films that had such a realistic character arc for a woman.
It is quite a flawed film actually- and it does drag in parts- but overall a very pleasant watch.
Thanx for the note, swetha oops Amy
By the way: which of u two liked the film more
This seems a film from the female perspective of the (female) director
I always felt that (good) female directors always bring something nuanced, empathetic and sensitive to the table
Think this new director anu menon seems good
All the time spent in uk learning the ropes has been somewhat useful, it seems
London Paris New York grossed around 60-65 lakhs nett on Monday which is only 35% lower than its Friday business but that Friday business was low so the Monday drop is also limited as the film can’t drop much lower.
The four day business of the film is just over 4 crore nett and the week is likely to finish around 5.50 crore nett. The business of the film is affected by Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya as it is of same genre and that film is in its second week and is established at the box office with decent appreciation.
There are two new releases this week and two present releases holding well at the box office so London Paris New York will be out of most theatres in week two.
And Amy: stop watching dodgy stuff on swethas laptop
No doubt she needs new antivirus software
🙂
By the way folks: seems two good films PST & even LPNY
shows that wheteher one likes it or not:
The star system is v much alive and kicking
A handful of ‘ big’ (male) stars are needed to get bums on seats
SATYAMSHOT 
March 1, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Di,
Thanks for psoting that clip of the Talk Back interview of Javed Akhtar.
Have a new found respect for him. The interviewer was fair tho in my opinion except they still cant accept the Pakistani hand in the terorists acts in India.
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March 1, 2012 at 8:06 PM
🙂
I think there is 3 parts to that interview. I am not sure where it is being conducted (India or Pakistn) but the interviewer seems to be Pakistani and for Pakistani TV. I found him (interviewer) aggresive and rude, the way he was *attacking* and very narraw minded!
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March 1, 2012 at 5:06 PM
Had no idea Paan Singh Tomar was releasing. Hope this comes out near me.
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March 2, 2012 at 12:59 PM
irfan has got good exposure in hollywood much earlier some 25 years back only with salam bombay(which was oscar nominated) but some of his bollywood choices in recent times left lot to be desired …
an accomploshed actor doing hiss with malika sherawat or doing item number or second lead in akshay movies is more baffling …
it seems he hardly is taking any interest in bollywood( his roots ) and here research seems to be bigger problem or for that matter he is content in being another kabir bedi
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March 2, 2012 at 1:17 PM
Leaving aside the ridiculousness of the Kabir Bedi comment, I would hardly blame Irfan for not taking any interest in Bollywood! In fact, I’d flip the logic of that statement around because it’s painfully clear that Bollywood doesn’t take enough interest in him! And it’s the industry’s loss. Because barring an odd Maqbool, Haasil or (it would seem) PST, he’s not exactly offered strong roles in commercial projects.
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March 2, 2012 at 1:28 PM
kabir was immensely sucessful( not only in hollywood but also in tv just like irfan infact on a bigger scale ) and acted as villain in bond movie and i guess the bigger acheivment of irfan also is the villanious act in sidrman
as an actor there is harrdly any comparison neverthless and they are not in same league
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March 2, 2012 at 2:05 PM
mean do disrespect but those films you mentioned came at time when irfan needed recognition …choices just not only comes with miira nair or deepa mehta’s band of cinema
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March 2, 2012 at 2:25 PM
@rockstar: Irrfan is consumate artist (type). So he won’t have a place in bw song/dance type of setup. He would have to go Nasiruddin Shah/Sanjeev kumar way.
It is not just Irrfan khan, where does Manoj Bajpai get meaningful roles? Our audience is not that evolved to watch meaningful cinema. Our whole setup doesn’t encourage outsiders. We need more directors like Dhulia who can make movies in 2-3 crore budget and make entertaining meaningful cinema and maybe made for television movies.
You can’t take Kabir Bedi and Irrfan khan’s name in same sentence 😉
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March 2, 2012 at 2:38 PM
another harsh and alternate opinion which dont’t go with flow or pr write up’s:
consumate artist has fair runs with mainstream heroines and author back role ala lara (billu) ..chitragandha(yeh sali zindagi ) or priyanka(7 khoon mauf)….
to fe frank his acting range is limited and so is his monotonous dialague deleivry and that makes him restricted and ya naseer is in different league with versatily ( and here i am not talking about exposure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabir_Bedi
( a guy with such a sort of body of work is not a small name)
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March 2, 2012 at 2:53 PM
“to fe frank his acting range is limited and so is his monotonous dialague deleivry and that makes him restricted…”
One man’s good actor is another’s chalta hai. lolz
I can prolly say the same on all actors…De Niro to dilip to bachchan to nasir…they all have their individual styles and in that all of them are “limited”
In the end, what matters is: how well you essay your role that you have in the plate. In that sense, Salman in dabaang is “thespian” because whatever was given to him in that genre, he aced it. I would not put him as aadivaasi in ardh satya. Or I would not give Irrfan’s role in Maqbool to Hrithik…etc.
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March 2, 2012 at 2:54 PM
I think we give too much importance to “actors”. It is director and his vision that is important…actor is merely a tool in that whole process…no?
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March 2, 2012 at 3:06 PM
as you said it all depends on perception
buut an actor has to prove himself on different genre time and again to kiill others perception…others you named have did time and again infact over a extended period of time in different genre and set uup’s ( both nero and bachchan are acting in the age of 70’s and 80’s with author back roles) ….infact the only two and roles are still written for them ….
irfan is lucky to get so much attention than to nair’s and mehta brand of cinema…
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March 2, 2012 at 3:20 PM
“others you named have did time and again infact over a extended period of time in different genre and set uup’s”
If I was more patient person, I would certainly debate on this. I sorta disagree.
Sean Penn is fine-fine actor but he accepts and can do only certain types of role (by choice). As fine as Bachchan is, he cannot/should not attempt to play gabbar singh or he will fail. We all have our USP. A mira nair can but should not direct harry potter…so on and so forth. This doesn’t make actor less effective…in fact it makes them more effective.
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March 2, 2012 at 3:26 PM
they can’t do all but they did the most..i guess amitabh played mean villaim many time….here is one of his classic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parwana_(1971_film)…
villain in satte pe satta was more popuular than hero i guues…..
mira nair hardly dvelved into anything apart from hittting best selling books …sean peann may accept but robert de nero or al pacino won’t and there lies difference and that to in stature
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March 2, 2012 at 1:51 AM
I remember reading a review on this movie more than a year ago and it wasn’t very positive. Saying its sluggish and TD doesn’t quite delve into T’s psyche – why the turnaround to becoming a dacoit – some such. So thought it made some fest rounds and vanished, until now. I don’t think was dreaming @ reading that, so am wondering if this a late commercial release for PST…
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March 2, 2012 at 9:57 AM
“, so am wondering if this a late commercial release for PST…”
IT was ready and completed…UTV was renegotiating the satellite channel rights. According to director (Dhulia), satellite rights were not a biggie when the movie was made but now they are. Prolly the producer knows that it won’t be a hit movie per se, so trying to recover cost by making it profitable (renegotiate the satellite contract)…one will see this movie over and over again on T.V. channels!
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March 2, 2012 at 3:34 AM
Love Aditi Rao..
But love Aditi Sharma more.. she’s such a cutie pie.. 😦
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March 2, 2012 at 6:58 AM
Three New Releases Open To Poor Houses
Friday 2nd March 2012 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
London Paris New York, Paan Singh Tomar and Will You Marry Me all opened to poor across the country. London Paris New York was best at around 15% while the other two had collections around the 5% mark.
The opening of the films was lower than the two releases of last week Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya and Jodi Breakers.
London Paris New York has a lot of screen space so has potential to collect well but will needs good word of mouth and a big jump in collections. The other two are also heavily dependent on word of mouth and while that is expected for a film like Paan Singh Tomar, Will You Marry Me suffered on the account of poor promotion.
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March 2, 2012 at 7:34 AM
Top 5: ‘TNLHG’ scores, ‘JB’ fails
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March 2, 2012 at 7:42 AM
Taran adarsh had to call EMAET just Average… he must b shedding blood from his eyes instead of tears… lol
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March 2, 2012 at 1:40 PM
Well havent seen EMET but didn’t expect it to fall like this
Given that some patrons ( some young girls ) have seen EMET multiple times 😉
Btw watched ‘what happens in Vegas’-remaining bits
Actually don’t wanna be snobbish just bcos of the genre
Wasn’t bad fun
Xameron Diaz as usual was entertaining
Some crisp moments there
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March 2, 2012 at 5:06 PM
While the sweet EMAET has crashed, the bloody Agneepath has crossed 125 cr!
http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5892636
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March 2, 2012 at 5:11 PM
YES
I feel vindicated
More strength to hritik roshan and well,
May kareena get married asap and stay away from the camera 😉
breaking News–
Oldgold and Amy have got into trouble with law
Caught ‘luring’ unsuspecting innocent ones into multiple serial viewings of artist and EMET
Hope they get out soon
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March 2, 2012 at 5:37 PM
And produce lil Kareenas…make lexy happy 😉
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March 2, 2012 at 5:44 PM
nooo
no more kareeenas plz
btw dimple–who according to u is the most pathetically irritatingly ugly actress of bollywood
My vote goes to kareena obviously
what do others feel
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March 3, 2012 at 4:03 AM
Kareena for sure…
But some times her old songs like the one from Fida and Ajnabee can b handy when one is in mood… she really has most seductive eyes… she is like 2 min instant popcorns wen the sinful need arises for (alex u know wat i m talkin bout…. other just skip all of this)…lol… Apart from that damn irritating…
I guess i wasnt explicit…
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March 3, 2012 at 4:13 AM
“Kareena for sure…”–good boy
“wen the sinful need arises for “–hmmm
but even then….kareena is the pits !!
& dont worry about being explicit here 😉
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March 2, 2012 at 5:12 PM
may watch trishna
Making films in India is hard not because of the heat, or the bureaucracy, or the traffic. Not even, says Liz Mermin, the director of Bollywood underworld exposé Shot in Bombay, because its superstar subject Sanjay Dutt grew nervous about the project. “The hardest thing for a film-maker is that you fly there, look around, take out your camera – and everything is a cliche. Poverty, chaos, cows, flowers: I was going around desperately looking for a shot I hadn’t seen before.”
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Production year: 2011Country: UKCert (UK): 12ARuntime: 118 minsDirectors: John MaddenCast: Bill Nighy, Billy Nighy, Celia Imrie, Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Lillete Dubey, Liza Tarbuck, Maggie Smith, Penelope Wilton, Ramona Marquez, Ronald Pickup, Tena Desae, Tom WilkinsonMore on this filmThat difficulty – to say nothing of the challenge of depicting India in more than just western terms – led Louis Malle to name the first section of his six-hour Phantom India (1969) “The Impossible Camera”. Yet, even though “India” in its teeming multiplicity may be as much a conceit as “the west”, many directors have stepped up to this challenge. Jean Renoir’s The River (1951), Roberto Rossellini’s India: Matri Bhumi (1959), Fritz Lang’s The Tiger of Eschnapur (1959), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Notes For A Film On India (1967), Werner Herzog’s Jag Mandir (1991), and, yes, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) are just a fraction of the films that have sought to make their outsider perspectives a virtue.
Now joining that list are John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna. The former, an adaptation of Deborah Moggach’s 2004 novel These Foolish Things, follows a group of English pensioners (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton) as they travel to a retirement sanctuary in Jaipur that, although more decrepit than either the brochure or its manager (Dev Patel) let on, proves to be a much-loved base for them as they go about re-envisaging and rebuilding their lives.
Trishna, meanwhile, is the latest instalment in Winterbottom’s ongoing dedication to bringing the novels of Thomas Hardy to the big screen. Following Jude (1996) and The Claim (2000), his version of The Mayor of Casterbridge, he has relocated Tess of the d’Urbervilles to modern-day India. In the title role, Freida Pinto plays a smalltown girl who, after her father has an accident, goes to work for a rich British businessman (Riz Ahmed) with whom she falls in love. They move, first to a turbulent Mumbai, later to palatial Rajasthan where he runs a hotel, but over time their relationship fractures and darkens.
In some ways, these films are poles apart. Madden, best known as the director of Shakespeare In Love, describes The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as “a comedy of dislocation” that “evokes the form of a William Shakespeare comedy whose characters are transplanted to a different environment”. Ol Parker’s screenplay is informed by politics – its starting point is the outsourcing of old age, a phenomenon promoted by Indian finance minister Jaswant Singh in 2003 when he pushed for the nation to become a “global health destination” – but certainly not defined by it.
By contrast, Trishna is a tragedy marked by improvised acting, cityscapes full of MTV-style billboards, yuppie bars and dance studios, and, in no small part due to Marcel Zyskind’s atmospheric, hand-held photography, a persistent mood of ellipsis and in-betweenness. Winterbottom is more attuned to the social and economic niceties of his characters: “In the novel, Tess’s family is one of the poorest in the village,” he says. “In Trishna they’re the equivalent of a lower middle-class family. They aspire to benefit from the changes but find themselves in a situation that’s difficult with the growing economy, urbanisation and changing values.”
Yet it’s precisely this fascination with India as a place in flux that the two films have in common. Historically, outsider artists have tended to portray the nation as old, spiritual, rural, in thrall to tradition. For some, this was its appeal, for others, a curse. In Dick Fontaine’s Temporary Person Passing Through (1965), a melancholic James Cameron (the veteran journalist, not the director) laments: “There’s too much of everything, too many people, too many cows, too many problems. Too much India, really.”
Now, in 2012, when Indian politicians are increasingly embracing neoliberalism and boasting of the country’s Bric status, it’s more likely to be depicted as a modern, urban, entrepreneur-friendly tiger economy. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel relocates Moggach’s novel from IT hub Bangalore to more picturesque Jaipur, but still shows an India that’s the dynamic antithesis to – even the cure for – a Britain defined by failed internet ventures, hip-operation waiting lists and cramped bungalow homes. “Transformation is at its heart,” argues Parker.
For Winterbottom, whose In This World and Code 46 showcased his appreciation of the cultural dynamics and faultlines that animate contemporary globalisation, the transformations in India serve to cast a cruel spotlight on Britain. “Hardy’s novels are often about modernity and speed and energy. But it’s hard to get that sense of a dynamically changing world if you set one in this country. Here the problems are more to do with a lack of mobility rather than an excess of it.”
Is there a danger that this fascination with the turbo-economics of the east becomes a new kind of orientalism, one in its own way as romanticising as Eat Pray Love’s ascription of superior wisdom to India? Ashim Ahluwalia, Mumbai-based director of John and Jane (2005), a brilliantly disturbing drama-documentary mashup about urban identity in modern India, believes it is: “In order to understand with any depth what it means to be Indian today, we should stop endorsing the collective fantasy of ‘India Shining’ – this laughable state of mind in which many modern Indians imagine a new incredible India that looks and feels like a first-world nation.”
Anjalika Sagar, one half of the Otolith Group, whose films explore radical and utopian flashpoints since the war, says: “India is proud of its film industry and its tourist industry. Often these are the same thing. The country’s history, nature and air are under threat. Mining companies are setting its agenda. Millions of people are being displaced. How can you make a film about the country without engaging with its socio-political underclass?”
Sagar looks back on the 80s with a touch of nostalgia. Although films and TV series such as Gandhi, The Far Pavilions and The Jewel In The Crown were sometimes accused of stoking a Raj revival, a foretaste of what writer Pankaj Mishra has dubbed the “neo-imperialist vision” of Niall Ferguson and other evangelists for the empire, she defends them for “at least engaging with questions of power. Independence wasn’t so far in the past back then. Now, with a tiny number of exceptions, there’s no attention to the history of colonialism. There’s an amnesia within India.”
If that’s true, it might represent an opportunity for British directors and screenwriters – though they shouldn’t assume that taking it will guarantee them either audiences or appreciation. “In the big cities especially there’s often a real fuck-off attitude towards the west,” laughs Mermin. “There’s not a trace of cultural insecurity that a particular postcolonial sensibility might wish to see.”
Ahluwalia puts it another way: “We’ve always been eating brains in Indiana Jones films or stammering awkward English sentences in various other western productions, so I don’t think we have high expectations.”
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March 2, 2012 at 5:14 PM
While on Agneepath, all this debates on comparing
Bachchan with any Khan is utterly ridiculous.
None of the Khans have managed to give even half the number of hits Amitabh has delivered. And also the overall hit ratio of Amitabh’s entire career (including all the flops in his old age) is in the same range as any Khan … Go figure!
http://bomodel.blogspot.com/search/label/Actor%20Records
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March 3, 2012 at 12:21 AM
New Releases Open Poorly Paan Singh Tomar Decent Reports
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4108&nCat=
The new releases of the week all opened very poorly.London Paris New York opened to a 10-15% response. Paan Singh Tomar was around 10% and Will You Marry Me was at around 0-5%.
Paan Singh Tomar may emerge the best bet of the lot as it has decent reports and there was a slight improvement in collections as the day progressed.
Jodi Breakers collected around 8 crore nett in its first week and is down heavily in week two. FLOP
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya had a steady week after a low start. Despite steady collections, the first week was still below the mark and if collections can hold week in week two it may emerge an average fare.
Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu added around 1.50 crore nett in week three taking its three week total close to 40 crore nett.
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March 3, 2012 at 4:59 AM
Btw genelia has married ritesh d apparently
Best wishes to them (they need em) lol
Actually read somewhere that they were being called a poor mans kareena saif
Don’t agree
Find them more sensible cute and somewhat endearing
Unlike the she-male/transvestite mismatched combo!!!
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March 3, 2012 at 5:50 AM
There u go leighann
🙂
Try out the ‘khwaja’ version rahmans connections 2011 folks
Alaskan born and raised Yahtzee prodigy, Leigh Ann is one of four
ruthless soccer-playing sisters. Although, well known by her friends
for disliking armadillos who burrow under her house and Austin
traffic, she loves good radio stations and watermelon.
Leigh Ann is an up and coming oboist earning a DMA at The University
of Texas at Austin, by way of Arkansas (Master of Music degree,
Arkansas State) and Ohio (Bachelor of Music degree, Miami University).
Recently she recorded the instrumental version of the new UN peace
anthem in India with A.R.Rahman. Between time speOnt of the road and
practicing, Leigh Ann enjoys life as an instructor at Texas Lutheran
University, teaching privately in Austin, and performing with local symphonies.
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March 3, 2012 at 6:03 AM
Oops that was a wrong link not for here^
The lament of leaves
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March 3, 2012 at 9:38 AM
http://www.newsbullet.in/india/34-more/26388-groom-stands-by-raped-bride-in-madhya-pradesh
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March 3, 2012 at 10:26 AM
March 2, 2012
Movie Review
They’re Young, in Love and Willing to Commit (Minus Any Strings)
By RACHEL SALTZ
The hero and heroine of the Bollywood romance “London Paris New York,” written and directed by the newcomer Anu Menon, talk a lot about freedom. And as the title suggests, they search for it far from India and home.
The pair first meet at the airport in London. Nikhil (the Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar) has come to London for — what else? — film school. Lalitha (Aditi Rao Hydari), a committed feminist, is on her way to New York to study political science.
The film’s conceit is that they spend one day together in each of the title cities (which contribute little beyond touristy scenery). In London they fall in love. In Paris a few years later they consummate their relationship and fall out. (Is it her awful wig that drives a wedge between them?) In New York they’re older and wiser, but face new obstacles.
You can feel Ms. Menon seeking her own kind of freedom. She tries hard to take a fresh look at sophisticated young Indians and at love, but her film ends up being just as formulaic as a run-of-the-mill Bollywood romance and less emotionally engaging.
The beginning has promise, thanks to Ms. Hydari. She gives Lalitha a sweet seriousness, avoiding the petulance that too often stands in for character in Hindi movie heroines. And you’re right with her when she’s embarrassed by Nikhil’s “I’m a crazy guy” behavior. Must he insist on shouting “freedom!” as they wander London?
Mr. Zafar, who has been winning in the past, here seems too convinced of his own adorableness. When Lalitha falls for Nikhil, it’s hard to believe that it’s a time-and-geography-conquering passion. It’s more like business as usual for any old her and him out of Bollywood central casting.
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March 3, 2012 at 10:27 AM
and to prove yet again my earlier point this film gets exactly the same attention that Paan Singh does!
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March 3, 2012 at 6:10 PM
They don’t understand the difference bet. indie and commerical cinema(?)…all bw in one basket?!
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March 3, 2012 at 11:03 AM
For an actor, Irrfan Khan is lucky to have those gifted expressive eyes. He uses them to great effect but he’s one of the rare of his professional ilk who throws his whole body into the character he’s playing. I love the way he manipulates his body to create a genuinely affecting physical presence.
I look at this snapshot here and can write a para on it. He’s checking on his bullets here but he might as well be flicking of the invisible dust off his tux..
The thing is, directors today have no clue how to use this talent. Why, looking at IK the actor, can’t some talented worthwhile director / writer come up with a pure, unadulterated explosive adult love story with him in the lead…
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March 3, 2012 at 6:04 PM
agree with ya…compare to lot of ugly ones out there (NS, OP etc) he is indeed talented and good look too…but getting slightly old…he will be more like anthony hopkins (who got critical acclaim late in life or work later in life).
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March 3, 2012 at 11:09 AM
A very good point indeed arthi
Actually his ‘expressive’ eyes may well be due to some disease eg thyroid for all u know
but yes, he uses it well…
go on-write your para 🙂
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March 3, 2012 at 12:12 PM
London paris new york
ok, the first ‘word of mouth’ reports on
some chums have seem london paris new york..
(inspite of having to drive out of the way)
needless to say: the young female demographic ‘loved’ the film
ive been told ive missed something special
hohoho
Apparently, it is a delicate subtle romcom having effectively only two actors
But it works…
I actually am not surprised by these ‘reports’ 🙂
anyhow–from the promos and his interview with komal nahata (that ive just seen)
suspect that a new star is born –ali zafar
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March 3, 2012 at 12:21 PM
LPNY -contd–
Infact a girl (who is a traditional srk fan) said that this movie ‘touched her’ like v few movies have done
(have heard it b4 though) chuckling….
🙂
actually dont mind this song
the lyrics are quite apt for quite a few girls 🙂
Well written by zafar hahahaha
so gals–hit the multiplexes
can vouch –u will like this movie–going by some female reactions uve seen
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March 3, 2012 at 3:51 PM
Finally, New York. The big apple excites you, not because it’s the chapter where differences will be creased out and kiss and makeup will be executed. But you’re mostly comforted by the idea of getting back to the world outside this multiplex. Will Lalitha give in to Nikhil’s 33 dental soldiers pleading for her love? Will Nikhil discover that inexcusable grinning can cause cheek muscles to tear? To find out, you have to suffer this film.
Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao Hydari have both done a couple of films each and cannot be discounted for their performance. While Ali seems to be swinging sporadically between spitting-with-every-dialogue theatrical and casual, Aditi is consistently and unreasonably grim. The music, vocals and lyrics by Zafar may not exit the cinema hall or atleast you hope it doesn’t. Many argue that this one is a Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V of ‘Before Sunrise’ and ‘Before Sunset’, but here the sun doesn’t rise or set, not on the script atleast.
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-reviews/london-paris-york-180556926.html
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March 3, 2012 at 3:58 PM
After praising EMAET…. Masand has same verdict for LPNY… I always thought ‘That guy has too much feminine side to his entire personality..’
Eithet Masand has a teenage girl hidden inside his psyche or he has lost his marbels…
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-reviews/london-paris-york-180556926.html
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March 3, 2012 at 3:59 PM
Although think Aditi rao hydari is nconventionally Sexy…
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March 4, 2012 at 6:49 AM
oops
just been texted regularly-some have really liked LPNY-lots of buzz
hope 2 get the reviews of the likes of amy,di and oldgold 😉
and PST getting the ‘critics approval’–seems a taut screenplay
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March 4, 2012 at 1:58 PM
For Alex Adams – the Nargis fan
Nargis and the Teakwood Special
The Rockstar heroine will star opposite—wait for this—fellow teakwood Arjun Rampal in a film
Beware! Nargis Fakhri, literally the most embarrassing thing to have happened to Hindi movies since Deepak Malhotra in Lamhe, has apparently signed a new film. The Rockstar heroine will star opposite—wait for this—fellow teakwood Arjun Rampal in a film to be produced by Salaam-e-Ishq’s Nikhil Advani. Industry insiders have already begun sniggering that watching this film will be akin to witnessing the Olympics of bad acting!
Meanwhile, Nargis has found a new friend in Shahid Kapoor, whose birthday celebrations she attended in Goa last week, reportedly frolicking about in a bikini, drawing much attention to herself from passersby and hotel guests. If Shahid and Nargis are a couple (like some say they are), the duo is said to have done a good job hiding their relationship in Goa. Meanwhile, there’s no clarity either on the status of Nargis’ relationship with model-actor Shayan Munshi who she’s been seeing for some time now.
+++
Ranveer’s Big Chance
After being turned down reportedly by Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, and Shah Rukh Khan, the buzz is that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has signed on Band Baaja Baaraat’s Ranveer Singh as the leading man for his next film. It’s a love story, and Bhansali is apparently alternating between Kareena Kapoor and Anushka Sharma for the female lead.
Singh, who’s currently shooting with Sonakshi Sinha for Udaan director Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera (based on a short story by O Henry), has also been zeroed in on to star in an ambitious remake of the Telugu blockbuster Magadheera, which will be produced by Anurag Kashyap and Motwane’s indie outfit Phantom Films. Part period drama and part contemporary action film, Magadheera was a big-scale production whose remake rights had become the most coveted property in Bollywood not so long ago, with even Hrithik Roshan attached to star at one point.
But it appears Kashyap and his partners have decided to invest in Singh. Apart from Lootera and the Magadheera remake, there have been hushed whispers that Singh could also star in Kashyap’s own three-part directorial venture Bombay Velvet, which Aamir Khan was rumoured to have shown interest in a few years ago.
In the current scenario where there are only a handful of viable male leads for filmmakers to choose from, Kashyap and his partners are reportedly creating their own talent pool for mid-sized and unconventional projects. And Ranveer Singh is the actor they’ve decided to put their money on.
It’s an exciting opportunity for Singh—until now seen as a charming heartthrob star—to earn some street-cred as an actor… if he can change his high-handed ways, that is. Industry sources haven’t stopped comparing Ranveer to the famously obnoxious Viveik Oberoi who blew his chance to make it big because of his monster ego.
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Bedhopping at the Goa Wedding
There’s just no end to the stories emerging from this Goa weekend wedding. A heartthrob actor who’s a close friend of the groom is believed to have had the most fun, literally bed- hopping between actress’ rooms.
It’s now a known fact that he spent some ‘quality time’ with a has-been female star (who recently launched her own production company), whose make-up woman allegedly spilt the beans on their dirty little dalliance. But an older male actor who was also at the celebrations has been saying the young heartthrob also hooked up with his actress ex when she arrived late for the wedding in Goa.
According to the senior actor’s story, the young charmer showed up at his ex’s room to make sure all was well when she didn’t turn up in time for the shaadi, and then proceeded to stay on until much longer. Apparently, the young heartthrob confirmed to the older star that he had indeed rekindled this old flame ‘twice’ while locked up inside her room all afternoon.
When he dirty danced with his ex at the reception later that evening, all the guests noticed their closeness. But the actor threw a curveball when he revealed they were just ‘good friends’ now, as he’d gone back to seeing another one of his on-off actress exes.
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/nargis-and-the-teakwood-special
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March 4, 2012 at 4:37 PM
Many thanks for that update on nargis f
Actually her ‘allure’ to me has never been her (lack of) actin skills
But certain ‘ intangibles’ hahaha
Seems her career isn’t really goin great guns bit there has been some undue negativity about her acting skills as if most of the other alternatives have been junior Meryl streeps 🙂
Good that she is ‘making up’ by atleast having fun rather than gettin bogged down by the negativity
The more ‘bed hopping’ the better-more the merrier
😉
Like her ‘free spirit’
Just hope that those waiting to take advantage of females who are relatively ‘down and out’: don’t really have a field day
Applause
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March 4, 2012 at 2:59 PM
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4114&nCat=
Paan Singh Tomar had a huge leap in collections all over as many multiplexes collections were double of their Friday numbers. The collections on Saturday were better than London Paris New York despite a much smaller release than that film and having a lower Friday than that film.
Paan Singh Tomar has good chances of putting up steady collections over the next few weeks as its release strategy is just 300 screens and with occupancies improving it will hold similar screen space over next two weeks. The weekend for the film should cross 3.75 crore nett. The business for the first two days is as follows.
Friday 70 lakhs
Saturday 1.25-1.30 crore
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March 4, 2012 at 3:49 PM
excellent news!
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March 4, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Interesting list of movies which includes a few Indian ones from They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?
Ain’t Nobody’s Blues But My Own
Flying in the face of consensus — A selection of 250 mostly obscure, mostly overlooked, and/or mostly unloved films.
http://www.theyshootpictures.com/aintnobodys.htm
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March 4, 2012 at 6:15 PM
Lucky ali/mikey mccleary
doin what they do best–up my alley!!
By the way–this has been filmed somehwere in the western ghats
Mcclearys guitar continues to allure–enjoy
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March 4, 2012 at 6:19 PM
^^ xsuie
The lyrics here arent as good as his previous works–missing the architect buddy 😉
but the guitar work, percussion is awesome
btw note that this was filmed BEFORE znmds similarly picturised song …
welldone guys
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March 4, 2012 at 6:42 PM
LNPY is a good watch if ur looking for an adult romcom….i liked menon’s direction….esp. the paris scenes….music is a winner
Aditi rao is a really sweet but Ali Zafar is the man! He was brilliant. I watched it in Cardiff on a Saturday night and the mainly student crowd loved it 😉
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March 4, 2012 at 6:46 PM
thanx km
“but Ali Zafar is the man!”
are u a guy or girl though (in cardiff)…
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March 4, 2012 at 7:08 PM
Re: are u a guy or girl
GF,
If one could have a dime for every time Alex has asked this question here, one could be a lot richer than the Lal/Kamal comparision!
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March 4, 2012 at 7:18 PM
Hahaha
Notably km is not answeriing
C’mon km- was jus havin fun
Won’t track u in Cardiff
😉
hav a few ‘friends’ in Cardiff
U know-
Will tell em to check it out
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March 4, 2012 at 7:20 PM
Km u are behaving more shy than aditi rao hydari
Relax 🙂
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March 5, 2012 at 8:53 AM
Alex
i’m male
30yrs old
married
2 kids
I’m not gay so please don’t try to find me
😉
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March 5, 2012 at 8:34 AM
Midweek: ‘PST’ eclipses all releases, emerges winner!
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March 5, 2012 at 8:36 AM
Paan Singh Tomar Is Surprise Success
Monday 5th March 2012 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Paan Singh Tomar has emerged a surprise success at the box office with collections of nearly 4 crore nett over its first weekend. The film which has been long delayed and released without much marketing or promotion started slowly on Friday morning but picked up quickly at the box office.
Paan Singh Tomar was released on around 300 screens and the jump in collections was across the board with all circuits showing similar trending. The release in mass circuits was limited kept to the theatres where the film had chances. The film collected 70 lakhs on Friday, 1.40 crore nett on Saturday and 1.75 crore nett plus on Sunday.
Paan Singh Tomar is a surprise success and likely to see a good run at the box office for the next 2-3 weeks.
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March 5, 2012 at 8:36 AM
London Paris New York Has Poor Weekend
Monday 5th March 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
London Paris New York had a poor weekend as it grossed around 3.50 crore nett over the weekend. The film had a poor start and failed to show noteworthy growth on Saturday and Sunday. The daily breakdown of its weekend business was as follows.
Friday – 95 lakhs
Saturday – 1.15 crore
Sunday – 1.35 crore
The film collected best in Delhi city but even there it was still well below the mark and looking at the weekend trending not much can be expected from the weekdays as the film is likely to finish with lifetime business in the 6-7 crore nett region.
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March 5, 2012 at 8:37 AM
Paan Singh Tomar Weekend Territorial Breakdown
Monday 5th March 2012 17.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Paan Singh Tomar grossed around 4 crore nett over its first weekend. The weekend territorial breakdown is as follows.
Mumbai – 1.75 crore
Delhi/UP – 89 lakhs
East Punjab – 35 lakhs
West Bengal – 11 lakhs
Bihar – 3 lakhs
CP Berar – 14 lakhs
CI – 15 lakhs
Rajasthan – 13.50 lakhs
Nizam – 13 lakhs
Mysore – 26.50 lakhs
Others – 7 lakhs
TOTAL – 4.02 crore
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March 5, 2012 at 8:40 AM
“Among last Friday’s releases, Paan Singh Tomar picked up very well over the weekend. The Irrfan Khan starrer collected Rs. 75 lakh on Friday, Rs. 1.35 crore on Saturday and Rs. 2 crore on Sunday (all figures are all-India net collections).
However, in spite of the pickup in collections, the final tally of Paan Singh Tomar will not be enough to recover the cost of the film (Rs. 8 crore) plus the interest cost incurred due to the 2-3 year delay in the film’s release.
On the other hand, the collections of the Ali Zafar-Aditi Rao Hydari starrer London Paris New York were not very good. The film collected Rs. 1 crore on the opening day; Rs. 1.25 crore on Saturday and Rs. 1.35 – 1.50 crore on Sunday. The final tally of the film will not be good enough to cover its cost (Rs. 14 crore).”
http://www.koimoi.com/box-office/paan-singh-tomar-does-better-than-lpny-weekend-box-office/
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March 5, 2012 at 8:55 AM
Its sad that the audience has not come out to watch 2 good films
PST & LPNY
But they come out in droves to watch shit like Housefull etc
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March 5, 2012 at 10:36 AM
Hmmm, for these kids without fathers ( PST and LPNY) there is no accounting of other revenue streams from Mr.Nahi Nahata when for other films he painstakingly considers everything.
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March 5, 2012 at 10:48 AM
Are you referring to satellite rightsof PST? I heard that it took 2 years to release because UTV was re-negotiating satellite rights. UTV might have already recovered cost, which would explain their lukewarm response to promote the movie (PST).
sorry..I am not knowledgeble on BO stuff but just interested in PST (type of *indie* movies) success.
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March 5, 2012 at 10:52 AM
Good News:
Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia’s biopic “Paan Singh Tomar”, which has been receiving rave reviews from all quarters, has had a decent start in its opening weekend with earnings amounting to Rs.4.25 crore.
Made at a meagre budget of Rs.4.5 crore, the film witnessed a slow start as it earned only Rs.85 lakh Friday. However, the response improved over Saturday and Sunday with collections of Rs.1.4 crore and Rs.2 crore, respectively, according to trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/media/entertainment-/entertainment/paan-singh-tomar-earns-rs-4-25-crore-over-weekend/articleshow/12148792.cms
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March 5, 2012 at 11:46 AM
And then we have Komal nahata… understating its performance… I guess any film outside KJO and SRK production always underperforms…
People dont compare PST to gigantic bollywood movies… Films like these still see the day light and earn 4.5 crores weekend is itself an achievement in BO driven mindless scenario of India.
I salute to the actors and directors who r creating something for which they fel in love with cinema.. not with the fame and money it provides.
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March 7, 2012 at 8:26 AM
Anyone with a review on LPNY
surprisingly even Amy , Di , oldgold etc seem to have ditched the three cities
How is it doing box office wise
As for PST -not showing overseas in most centre
Like the background theme misc thougH
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March 7, 2012 at 2:39 PM
Alex- saw LPNY today- I really liked it. Its a sweet romcom with some witty dialogues and 2 lead actors who are very suited for the genre and for their roles- nothing pathbreaking- but I thought the character arcs for both Ali and Aditi were much better developed than usual.
Especially the character of Lalitha- enacted excellently by Aditi- really stood out from the usual underdeveloped Hindi heroines.
In the first segment she is shown as a naive, idealistic college student who thinks she can change the world and is too shy to act upon her attraction to Ali. In the second segment you see her as someone who is more confident of who she is- more expressive of her desires- and now a rebel instead of an idealist. In the final segment she has matured into a woman who is neither wild child nor unrealistic dreamer but a practical adult. This is hardly the work of genius-but I cannot think of too many other Bollywood films that had such a realistic character arc for a woman.
It is quite a flawed film actually- and it does drag in parts- but overall a very pleasant watch.
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March 7, 2012 at 2:40 PM
Satyam- this was Ami again. 🙂 Can you please publish from my ID?
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March 7, 2012 at 4:19 PM
Thanx for the note, swetha oops Amy
By the way: which of u two liked the film more
This seems a film from the female perspective of the (female) director
I always felt that (good) female directors always bring something nuanced, empathetic and sensitive to the table
Think this new director anu menon seems good
All the time spent in uk learning the ropes has been somewhat useful, it seems
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March 7, 2012 at 3:04 PM
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4124&nCat=
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March 7, 2012 at 3:05 PM
London Paris New York grossed around 60-65 lakhs nett on Monday which is only 35% lower than its Friday business but that Friday business was low so the Monday drop is also limited as the film can’t drop much lower.
The four day business of the film is just over 4 crore nett and the week is likely to finish around 5.50 crore nett. The business of the film is affected by Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya as it is of same genre and that film is in its second week and is established at the box office with decent appreciation.
There are two new releases this week and two present releases holding well at the box office so London Paris New York will be out of most theatres in week two.
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March 7, 2012 at 4:36 PM
And Amy: stop watching dodgy stuff on swethas laptop
No doubt she needs new antivirus software
🙂
By the way folks: seems two good films PST & even LPNY
shows that wheteher one likes it or not:
The star system is v much alive and kicking
A handful of ‘ big’ (male) stars are needed to get bums on seats
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