Bollywood Film Critic

Hollywood actresses in Bollywood Spirit ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:48:00 +0000

Uma Thurman and Debra Messing were seen in traditional Indian costumes of Saree and Salwar Kurta as they filmed scenes for the new musical 'Smash' in New York City today.

The actresses apparently were very pleased to walk in NYC in their Indian clothes in Bollywood spirit! The trend seems Bollywood actresses wear western clothes in Indian movies, while Hollywood actresses wear Indian outfits in Hollywood productions ;)

The musical series Smash is due to hit TV screens in America this week Feb 6, 2012, before it airs in the UK later this year. Smash is the behind-the-scenes look at a team preparing to put on a Broadway musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe. Debra is said to have a starring role in the drama, while Uma is a guest appearance in just one episode.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2095173/Uma-Thurman-Debra-Messing-sparkle-Indian-dress-film-scenes-Smash.html#ixzz1lByAqjLp

Bollywood Movies Releases- January-February 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:25:00 +0000

Players:
Cast: Abhishek, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Doel, Bipasha Basu , Neil Nitin Mukesh, Omi Vaidya, Vinod Khanna
Director: Abbas Mastan
Screenplay: Rohit Jugraj
Music: Pritam
Inspired by Italian Job
website: http://playersgoforgold.in.com/
Genre: Action thriller
Release: Jan 6th

Agneepath:
Cast:
Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor
Director: Karan Malhotra
Producer: Karan johar
Screenplay: Ila Dutta Bedi, Karan Johar
Music: Ajay-Atul
Based on Mukul Anand's Agneepath (1990) starring Amitabh Bachchan
Genre: Action, Drama
Release: Jan 26
website: http://www.agneepaththefilm.com/

Ek Main our Ek Tu
Cast: Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah.
Director: Shakun Batra
Producer: Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar, Ronnie Screwvala
Music: Amit Trivedi
website : http://ekmainaurekktuthemovie.com/
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Release : Feb 10

Tere Naal Love Ho Gayya
Cast: Ritesh Deshmukh, Genelia D’Souza
Directed by Mandeep Kumar
Produced by Kumar Taurani
Story by Abhijeet Sandhu
Music by Sachin-Jigar
website:http://www.tips.in/
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Release: Feb 24

Jodi Breakers
Cast: Madhavan, Bipasha Basu, Omi Vaidya, Dipannita Sharma
Director: Ashwini Chaudhary
Music- Salim-Sulaiman
Genre: Romance
Release: Feb 24

Legendary Actor Dev Anand passes away.

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 03:52:00 +0000

Legendary actor Dev Anand, the 'evergreen romantic superstar' of Indian cinema, who was 88, died following a cardiac arrest. Dev Anand was known for movies, Jewel Thief, Guide, CID, 'Johny Mera Naam', 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' etc

Song from Guide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V-wefxMxDY&feature=relmfu
Song from Jewel Thief
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5OXj62qJUQ
Song From Hare Rama Hare Krishna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygeZfOExejA

Bollywood Movies Releases- December 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:09:00 +0000

The Dirty Picture

Directed by Milan Luthria
Produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor
Screenplay: Rajat Arora
Starring : Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor
Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Genre: Biographical film/ biopic on the life of South Indian Movie Actress Silk Smita
Release date: December 2, 2011

Don 2

Directed by Farhan Akhtar
Produced by Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shahrukh Khan
Screenplay: Ameet Mehta, Amrish Shah
Story: Farhan Akhtar, Ameet Mehta, Amrish Shah
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Om Puri, Kunal Kapoor
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Genre: Action Thriller
Sequel to Don: The Chase Begins Again (2006) which was a remake of Don(1978)
Release date: December 23, 2011

Baby Bachchan Born ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:26:00 +0000

Princess Bachchan is born. The much awaited baby in the Bachchan family was born Nov 16 th 2011. The Bollywood star and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan gave birth to a baby girl at the seven Hills hospital in Mumbai, India.

Her husband Bollywood actor, Abhishek Bachchan announced on Twitter (@juniorbachchan) "IT'S A GIRL!," While Amitabh Bachchan, India’s Biggest bollywood star and legend announced on twitter(@SrBachchan) : "A dada ji (a grandfather)...Ecstatic!", calling his new granddaughter "the cutest baby girl".

Because of the hype created by media to cover the Bachchan baby delivery, the media has been asked to show restraint where the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) issued a 10-point advisory for responsible coverage of the development. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry had also asked the electronic media to respect the privacy of the Bachchan family.

Hence further details about the baby will be released only by the Bachchan family.

Here are pics of Abishesk Bachchan and Aishwarya in their childhood and Bachchan family pics which will preview how the baby Bachchan may look like ;)

Abhishek Bachchan with mom Jaya Bachchan

Ash with her mom

Amitabh Bachchan with Sweta and Abhishek

Aishwarya with Rai parents

Jaya & Amitabh Bachchan with daughter Sweta's family and abhishek

Aishwarya as baby

Amitabh and jaya with kids

Aishwarya with her brother

Bachchans

Pregnant Aishwarya

Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan

more details: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Aishwarya-Rai-Bachchan-blessed-with-a-baby-girl/articleshow/10751518.cms

Shahrukh Khan Is Super Hero!

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:55:00 +0000

He is not Superman or Batman or Spiderman. He is G-One pronounced as ‘Jeevan’ which means ‘ Life’!   Seeing the potential to make a super hero like Batman, Spiderman… in Bollywood movie Industry, Shahrukh Khan created an Indian Super Hero- G.One.   Having been quoted as saying "Why should Indians be wearing only Batman T-Shirts or our kids collect toy merchandise from Hollywood movies." Shahrukh Khan now will personify the character of this new super hero ‘G-One’. G-One is the superhero of the movie ‘Ra-one’ the most expensively produced sci-fi movie of Bollywood industry.

"Ra.One is the modern, new age technology version of our mythological "Raavan", who was a mixture of ten different evil characters. I am essaying the role of G.One or better say "Jeevan", a superhero who saves the mankind from Ra.One’s torment. Through this film, I want to prove that Indian superheroes can also be as cool as the international ones."—Shahrukh Khan on Ra.One

In spite of the Indian film industry being the largest producer of films in a year, we haven’t ventured much into futuristic or scifi or even super hero kind of movies earlier. The Indian films have been made is almost every genre like romance, action, drama, historical, mythological, political, social … and now venturing into sci-fi!

It’s not that super heroes were not created before in Indian movies. We always had action adventure movies with angry young man superheroes, or hero’s saving a damsel in distress! But we also had some savior super heroes,   masked vigilantes and heroes with super powers: Amitabh Bachchan as Shehenshah, Anil Kapoor as Mr India, Hrithik Roshan as Krish, Abhishek Bachchan as Drona, and Rajnikanth as Enthiraan and Robot.

But finally its Shahrukh Khan who may be creating Indias first ‘SuperHero’ in the likes of Superman, Spider man and Batman!   Taking it one step ahead Shahrukh’s , Red Chillies Entertainment tied up with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to build a full cycle game of the film on PlayStation- "Ra.One - The Game" ; and also created the superhero G-One’s graphic novels and comics which he has apparently scripted himself! Shahrukh Khan also tied up with Seventymm to market a variety of merchandises related to the film, like G.One tee shirts, coffee mugs, wrist bands, watches, mobile pouches, video cameras etc.

G-One is a total super hero package, we just have to wait and watch how much of a hero he will become in India and abroad!

Ra-One official Website: http://www.raonemovie.com/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO9uR3ggcd4

Also check out making making of 'chamak chalo' the popular song with Akon from movie Ra-One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAHagot7RIQ

The popular Song 'chamak chalo'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh2K9VlGj9Q&feature=relmfu

Release date : 26 Oct 2011
Genre: Scifi
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, (Special appearance- Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, Rajnikanth,), Satish Shah, Dalip Tahil, Shahana Goswami, Suresh Menon, Tom Wu
Producer: Gauri Khan
Executive Producer / Co-Producers: Sanjeev Chawla, Prashant Shah, Anil Sable
Writer/Director: Anubhav Sinha
Screenplay:Anubhav Sinha, Mushtaq Sheikh,Kanika Dhillon
Music Director: Vishal Dadlanim, Shekhar Ravjiani

Bollywood Movie Releases: October-November 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:09:00 +0000

Ra One
Release date : 26 Oct 2011
Genre: Scifi
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, (Special appearance- Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, Rajnikanth,), Satish Shah, Dalip Tahil, Shahana Goswami, Suresh Menon, Tom Wu
Producer: Gauri Khan
Executive Producer / Co-Producers: Sanjeev Chawla, Prashant Shah, Anil Sable
Writer/Director: Anubhav Sinha
Screenplay:Anubhav Sinha, Mushtaq Sheikh,Kanika Dhillon
Music Director: Vishal Dadlanim, Shekhar Ravjiani

Rockstar

Release date : 11 Nov 2011
Genre: Romance / Drama
Cast; Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri, Shammi Kapoor
Producer: Dhillin Mehta
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Music Director; A R Rahman

Desi Boyz
Release date : 18 Nov 2011 / Nov 25 2011
Genre: Comedy/ Action
Cast: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Chitrangda Singh, Omi Vaidya
Sanjay Dutt(special appearance)
Producer: Vijay Ahuja, Krishika Lulla, Jyoti Deshpande,
Executive Producer / Co-Producer: Manoj Mittra, Ram Mirchandani
Writer/Director: Rohit Dhawan
Music Director: Pritam Chakraborty
Screenplay: Milap Zaveri Rohit Dhawan

Bollywood Influence on Western Commercials

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Bollywood song for Heineken Beer!

I was watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night when an interesting commercial of Heineken got aired. This high energy, extremely well made commercial is complimented by a musical score from the 1960’s Bollywood track “Jaan pehcaan ho”. Having been a copy writer with advertising background and being a Bollwood blah writer, I got intrigued into finding out more.

The commercial I am talking about is Heineken’s “The Date”, the second film from their advertising campaign “Open Your World”. Their earlier film from the campaign was the Clio award-winning film 'The Entrance'.
The “Date” is a beautifully crafted, yet incredibly high-energy story following the Heineken® legend as he woos his stunning date on an epic journey, a glamorous tribute to all magical dates and legendary night-outs. The hip atmosphere of ‘The Date’ is complemented by a musical score featuring the catchy 1960s Bollywood track “Jaan Pehechaan Ho”.

Check out link for the advertisement film;
http://wkamst.com/#/work/heineken/the-legends-campaign

Also check out the song in full from the movie Gumnam;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyEnG_DEB1I

The original song “Jaan pehchaan ho” was sung by Bollywood legendry playback singer Mohammed Rafi in the 1965 movie "Gumnaam". "Gumnaam" (Hindi for "unknown" or "anonymous") is a 1965 Indian horror thriller film directed by Raja Nawathe, produced by N N Sippy, starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood. The music for the film was composed by Shankar-Jaikishan The story is apparently based on Agatha Christie's novel “And Then There Were None”.

The film and the song came to wider attention when the song "Jaan Pehechan Ho" ( translated as "We should get to know each other") was in the opening credits of 2001 teenage comedy-drama movie Ghost world.
The movie Ghost World, features one of the characters Enid watching and dancing to the song.

The song is incidentally also featured on the CD Bollywood Steel Guitar[3], a various artists compilation released in 2008 by the Sublime Frequencies record label.

The Heineken ad was made by the advertising agency: Wieden+ Kennedy .

The Date Film was developed at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam by executive creative directors Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy, art director Alvaro Sotomayor, copywriter Roger Hoard, broadcast director Erik Verheijen, agency producer Tony Stearns, associate producer Niko Koot, planners Stuart Parkinson and Martin Weigel, group account director Clay Mills, account director Jasmina Krnjetin, account manager Dan Colgan, project manager Sharon Kwiatkowski, business affairs manager Karen Crossley, working with Heineken global brand director Cyril Charza, global communications team  Sandrine Huijgen,  Josefien Olij and  Rachel Ijzendoorn.
Filming was shot by director Fredrik Bond via Sonny London with director of photography Mattias Montero, producer Alicia Bernard and executive producer Helen Kenny. The Making Of the Legend team also included digital content directors Zak and Dan, producer Jack Beardsley, and digital content photographer Hugo Stenson.
Editor was Tim Thornton-Allan at Marshall Street Editors.
Sound Designer/Mixer was Raja Sehgal at Grand Central Studios, London. Music is “Jaan Pehechaan Ho”, performed by Mohammed Rafi, through Agoraphone, with music supervisor Beth Urdang.
Post production was done at The Mill, London, by Flame artist Jay Bandlish, 3D artist David Lawson, colorist Adam Scott, and producer Paul Schleicher.

Bollywood Movie Releases- September 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:35:00 +0000

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar
Produced by Aditya Chopra
Story by Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar
Music by Sohail Sen
Release date: September 09, 2011
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Website : http://www.yashrajfilms.com/microsites/mbkd/index.html

Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSwvdvRx8cg

Mausam
Directed by Pankaj Kapoor
Produced by Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Sunil Lulla
Screenplay by Pankaj Kapoor
Starring : Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Anupam Kher
Music by Pritam
Release date: September 16, 2011
Genre: Romance
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cILw5BlRk9I&

Tell me O KKhuda
Produced by Hema Malini
Directed by Hema Malini, Mayur Puri
Starring: Esha Deol, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Arjan Bajwa, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Sudhanshu Pandey, Farooq Sheikh, Hema Malini, Deepti Naval, Salman Khan(Cameo), Johny Lever, Gurbachan, Madhoo
Music Director: Pritam Chakraborty Release Date: September 30, 2011
Genre: Drama

Speedy Singh/ Breakaway
Producer: Akshay Kumar, Ajay Virmani
Executive Producer / Co-Producer: Russell Peters, Pauline Dhillon, Paul Gross, Clayton Peters
Director: Robert Lieberman
Starring: Vinay Virmani, Akshay Kumar(As Himself), Anupam Kher, Camilla Belle, Gurpreet Guggi. Russell Peters, Noureen Dewulf, Sakina Jaffrey, Rob Lowe,
Music Director: Sandeep Chowta, Anjjan (Meet Bros), Harmeet (Meet Bros),Manmeet (Meet Bros)
Screenplay: Vinay Virmani
Story / Writer: Vinay Virmani, Noel Barker,Jeffrey Schechter, Matt Simmons
Release Date: September 23, 2011
Genre: Family Drama

Force

Directed by Nishikanth Kamath
Produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Screenplay by Ritesh Shah
Story by Gautham Menon
Starring; John Abraham,Genelia D'Souza
Music by Harris Jayaraj, Lalit Pandit
Genre: Action, Romance.
Release Date : Sept 30, 2011
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYyH6ujINzU&feature=relmfu

Soundtrack
Starring: Rajeev Khadelwal, Soha Ali Khan, Mrinalini Sharma
Directed by Neeraj Ghosh
Music : Midival Punditz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ8rH8trxGE&feature=related
Release date: Sept 30 ,2011
Genre: Musical

Bollywood Movie Releases August 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 05:52:00 +0000

Aarakshan
Director: Prakash Jha
Producers: Prakash Jha, Firoz A. Nadiadwala
Screenplay: Anjum Rajabali, Prakash Jha
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan,Manoj Bajpayee,Deepika Padukone,Prateik Babbar Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Running time 175 minutes
Language: Hindi
Genre: Socio-Politico drama
Release date: August 12, 2011

Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWyAOhOoSqE

Chatur Singh -Two Star
Director: Ajay Chandhok
Producer: Mohammad Aslam
Screenplay: Rumi Jaffery
Story: Rumi Jaffery , Sai Kabir
Starring : Sanjay Dutt, Ameesha Patel, Suresh Menon, Anupam kher
Music by Sajid-Wajid
Genre: Comedy
Language: Hindi
Inspiration : Pink Panther

Release date: August 19, 2011

BodyGaurd
Director: Siddique
Producer: Atul Agnihotri, Alvira Agnihotri
Screenplay/story: Siddique
Starring Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Raj Babbar
Music by Himesh Reshammiya, Pritam
Genre: romance; comedy
Language- Hindi
Remake of : Malyalam movie: Bodygaurd/ Telegu movie: Ganga;
Tamil movie: Kaavalan.
Release date: August 31, 2011

Bol
Directed by Shoaib Mansoor
Produced by Shoman Productions
Written by Shoaib Mansoor
Starring Atif Aslamm, Humaima Malik, Mahira Khan,Iman Ali, Shafqat Cheema
Manzar Sehbai, Zaib Rehman, Amr Kashmiri
Music by Atif Aslam, Shoaib Mansoor, Sajjad Ali, Ahmed Jahanzeb

Language- Urdu/ English
Genre: Social, Drama

Earlier Pakistan Release: June 24, 2011
World Wide Release Date: August 31, 2011

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara……..Carpe diem -Seize the day!

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 06:56:00 +0000

Cast: Hrithik Roshan , Farhan Akhtar , Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin
Producer: Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Story/screenplay : Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar
Dialogues: Farhan Akhtar
Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan , Ehsaan Noorani , Loy Mendonca
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Romance
Rating: ***.5 ( 3.5/5)
Website: http://www.znmdthemovie.com/

The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. Minor details may have been divulged for proper review!

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is about ‘Carpe Diem’, ‘Seize the day’, ‘you only live once’, ‘do what you want to do’,’ face your fears’, ‘fight insecurities’, have adventures, ‘appease your soul’, ‘live out of the box’, make life worth living for………

Its philosophy rings a bell of Robin Williams philosophizing of carpe diem seize the day- make your life extra ordinary in Dead Poets Society; …… Its inspiration seems to be from Hangover where the groom and his friends go on a bachelors party trip and have many misadventures; …… And it brings memories of a movie about 3 friends with a philosophy of ‘do what your heart wants’ ' Dil Chahta Hai'

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara buddies are copy writer Imraan (Farhan Akhtar), stock broker Arjun (Hrithik Roshan) and construction businessman Kabir (Abhay Doel). The adventurous road trip they have is in picturesque Spain. Their dare devil adventures to challenge their fears and do the extraordinary are Scuba Diving, Sky Diving and Running of the Bulls (Encierro).

Besides adventure and thrills it’s about emotions, fears, indulgence, relationships, friends, tender sensitive moments, spontaneous incidents, bonding moments, lively banter, romance, camaraderie, juvenile pranks, and of course carpe diem and realization that zindagi na milegi dobara.

The movie was worth seeing in theatre today with friends and kids. It was a pleasure to the eye seeing beautiful and picturesque Spain in travelogue form on big screen with handsome studs and beautiful babes. There is eloquent poetry and flamenco music for the ear too. The movie on the whole is entertaining and well made but not spectacular as it was rumored to be!

Bagwati ;)

My favorite scenes were Farhan Aktars personification of the inanimate designer Hermes hand bag as ‘Bagwati’

Cast of this movie was excellent with good acting by all. Imran/Farhan Akhtar comes out as the sweet, likable, deep creative writer. His stumbling words and emotions meeting his birth father/Naseeruddin Shah was well emoted.

Arjun/Hrithikh’s character grows from a workaholic focused financial guy to a sensitive, spontaneous person under the influence of a beautiful, free-spirited and spontaneous personality of Laila/ Katrina Kaif. The emotions of accomplishment/contentment depicted by Hrithikh after scuba diving for a non swimmer were excellent. Katrina quite appropriate for the role enacts both the sparkling and tender moments pretty well. Her philosophies of life delivered very subtly and matter of factly was realistic. Her lines of thinking and living out of the box and the box being only for the dead were excellent, of course credit goes to the dialog writer ;)

The stable yet juvenile prankster who has emotional conflicts regarding his wedding is depicted well by Kabir/Abhay Doel. And finally if I didn’t like anyone, it was Natasha/ kalki /'chudail/witch alert', the character was as painful as the actor.

@ Tomatina festival

While the Akhtar’s - Zoya, Farhan and Javed excelled in their contributive parts of direction, production, acting, story and lyrics, the movie could have done better with better editing and avoiding the dragging parts!

There were some flaws and technical gliches too: An obvious one was when Hrithikh Roshan gets a call on his cell in Spain, its on vodaphone service, an exclusive Indian telephone service!!

Bollywood Movie Releases June -July 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 06:17:00 +0000

Ready
Directed by Anees Bazmee
Produced by Rajat Rawail, Bhushan Kumar, Nitin Manmohan, Kishan Kumar, Sohail Khan
Screenplay by Rajiv Kaul, Rajan Agarwal, Ikram Akhtar
Story by Gopimohan, Nisar Akhtar
Starring : Salman Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Arya Babbar, Paresh Rawal, Puneet Issar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Akhilendra Mishra
Music by Pritam
Remake of Telegu movie : Ready ( 2008)
Genre: comedy
http://www.readythemovie.com/

Double Dhamal
Directed by Indra Kumar
Produced by Ashok Thakeria, Indra Kumar
Screenplay by Tushar Hiranandani
Story by Tushar Hiranandani
Starring Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Jaaved Jaaferi, Aashish Chaudhary
Music by Anand Raj Anand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j743nTV-5WE
Genre: Comedy
website : http://www.doubledhamaalmovie.com/

Delhi Belly
Directed by Abhinay Deo
Produced by Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Ronnie Screwvala, Jim Furgele
Story by Akshat Verma
Starring Imran Khan, Vir Das, Poorna Jagannathan, Kunal Roy Kapoor,Shenaz Treasurywala
Music by Ram Sampath
Genre: Comedy

Bbuddah hoga tera baap

Director: Poori Jagannath
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Raveena Tandon, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj, Makrand Deshpande, Shahwar Ali, Rajeev Mehta, Rajeev Varma, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Atul Parchure
Music Director: Vishal – Shekhar
Lyricist: Vishal Dadlani, Swanand Kirkire, Anvita Dutt Guptan
Singer(s): Amitabh Bachchan
Genre: Action
website: http://www.bigbisback.com/
video trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7g_0naxTjI&feature=player_embedded

Zindagi Na Milege Dobara

Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin
Directed by Zoya Akhtar
Produced by Farhan Akhtar,Ritesh Sidhwani
Screenplay by Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti
Story by Zoya Akhtar,Reema Kagti
Starring Hrithik Roshan,Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin,Ariadna Cabrol, Naseeruddin Shah
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Genre: romance
http://www.znmdthemovie.com/

Chillar party
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala, Salman Khan
Director: Vikas Bahl, Nitesh Tiwari
Cast:
Irrfan Khan ,Sanath Menon, Rohan Grover, Naman Jain, Aarav Khanna, Vishesh Tiwari, Chinmai Chandranshuh, Vedant Desai, Divji Handa, Sherya Sharma, Ranbir Kapoor...... Item Number
Music Director: Amit Trivedi
Genre: Childrens movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls7hxjVnHNQ

http://www.chillarparty.net/

Singham
Directed by Rohit Shetty
Screenplay by Yunus Sajawal
Starring Ajay Devgn, Kajal Aggarwal,Prakash Raj
Music by Ajay-Atul
Remake of Tamil movie Singam(2010)
Genre: Action
http://www.singhamthefilm.com/

Lady Gaga too remixes with Bollywood Music.

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 05:58:00 +0000

Lady Gaga teamed up with ‘Desi Hits’ and famous Bollywood music composers Salim-Sulaiman and released a Bollywood-inspired remix of her hit single "Born This Way,".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9_elVuSZWM&feature=related

Salim- Sulaiman are known for their successful music direction in movies- Fashion and ‘Rab ne Bane di Jodi’. Sulaiman says of this remix, "When we started working on "Born This Way" there was a feeling of excitement and a bit of nervousness. This was the no. 1 track in 23 countries and to remix it and give it an Indian touch was something that we were very conscious about. The sitar was the instrument of choice for us when it came to creating a melodic riff. Of course there was the dholak and the dhol that always create the atmosphere of party and euphoria, but what really rocked it all was Salim's voice to add that Indian flavor."

This is the first step Lady Gaga has taken to break into the Indian market, while may other pop stars before her have been seeking the Indian audiences in various ways.

No one killed Jessica - A Review

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:07:00 +0000

Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan, Myra Karn, Neil Bhopalam, Rajesh Sharma, Bubbles Sabhrewal, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Yogendra Tikku, Geeta Sudan, Shireesh Sharma, Samara Chopra
Producer: Ronnie Screwwala
Director: Raj Kumar Gupta
Screenplay & Dialogues: Raj Kumar Gupta
Background Score and Music Director: Amit Trivedi
Duration: 2 hrs 20 mins
Website: http://www.noonekilledjessica.com/
Genres: True Story, Social
Rating: ***

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/utvmotionpictures#p/u/32/IzGZ9oL9Lv0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glo7MAa6htQ

The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. Minor details may have been divulged for proper review!

The story of this movie is based on the real life story of Jessica Lal murder and the ensuing display of corruption in judiciary and political systems, contrasting with the defenselessness of the common man struggling for justice, and highlighted with the crusade of a journalist to expose the system and help justice prevail.

The story showcases how a frustrated Vidya Balan (Sabrina/ Jessica’s sister) struggles for seven years to seek justice for her sisters death while power, money, politics, and corruption change the face of the case.
It shows how giddy power and political clout of one (Zeeshan Ayub as Manish ) equates a price of life to a drink!

The obvious and inescapable existence of bribery and corruption in the system is also displayed in the dialogs of the police cop in charge of the case: “Sab koi Khaata hai, Kis liye mein fark hai” a reasoning that he gives that he too accepted a bribe but only to be gentle to the accused in custody not for dishonest reasons like the forensics did of changing the evidence or defence did of buying off or influencing the witnesses.

The movie highlights the strength of ‘media’ and news media magazines and channels like Tehelka which are taking up causes and exposing the loopholes and sleazy duplicity of many power hogging people and corruption in the system. Here the feisty reporter Rani Mukerjee as Meera Gaity takes up the cause to help justice prevail in the Jessica Lal murder by reopening the proceedings of the case with the help of television exposés, igniting public’s righteous anger and concern using social networks, text messages and candlelight vigils.

The movie inspite of being inspired from a true story, the handling of the story doesn’t make it ‘documentrish’ but incidents of fiction, back stories in narrative and interesting dialogs { “Everybody is Somebody in Delhi ......Nobody is Nobody” - Meera/ Rani mukerjee } and excellent music and songs makes it an interesting watch.

The cast of the movie is excellent. Vidya Balan plays the ordinary frustrated sister seeking justice very well. Rani Mukerjee in a feisty and brash role of a journalist carries herself well. The new actors Zeeshan Ayub as the accused and Myra as Jessica/victim and Neil Bhopalam as the coward witness play their parts well too, not to forget excellent acting by Rajesh Sharma as the cop.

The songs ‘Dili Dili’ , ‘’Aitbar and other music score are racy and meaningful. The writer and director Raj Kumar Gupta keeps the movie crisp and heart rendering, reaching out to the people with positive reinforcement of possibilities of changing the system if one unifies for a cause!

Should 'Bollywood' be 'Bollywood' or not?

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:14:00 +0000

"The above image is the 'photoshoped' image of the Hollywood banner!!"

In a recent argument instigated by Salman Khan on Twitter, many in the Hindi film Industry have come to discuss the credibility of the name Bollywood for the Hindi Film Industry. Many years ago the name Bollywood was coined for the Hindi Film Industry inspired by 'Hollywood' which is the location of American Film Industry. The name "Bollywood” was derived from Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) . But unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place.

Some agree with Salman Khan and are not comfortable to have an aped name of ‘Bollywood’ like Hollywood; while some do not want to change the name having lived with it since so many years, and also because now its globally popular and recognized name for the Hindi Film Industry!!

This argument was earlier instigated few years ago by Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest star of the Hindi film industry but no change or discussion happened in this context. This time too it may just pass since creating a name change of the film industry is going to be a much bigger campaign than changing names of cities as is the trend in India these days!

Check out details on
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Bollywood-mat-kaho-na/Article1-658568.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood

Twitter:

BeingSalmanKhan Salman Khan

Hate this bloody name , bollywood , koi naam hai kya ? Disgusting .

2 Feb

What is your opinion, should Bollywood change its name? Do write your point of view or at least vote in the Bollywood poll below.

56th Filmfare Awards 2010 Top Winners – ‘My Name is Khan’, ‘Dabangg’, ‘Udaan’

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:28:00 +0000

The 56th Idea Filmfare Awards had three movies winning most awards- 'My Name is Khan', 'Dabaang' and 'Udaan'. Sharukh Khan’s 'My Name Is Khan' got 3 most popular awards - Best Director, Best Actor (Male), Best Actor (Female); Salman Khan starrer 'Dabangg' got 6 awards; ‘Udaan’ got 7 awards- Best Supporting Actor (Male), Best Film (Critics), Best Story, Cinematography, Screenplay, Best Background Music and Best Sound Design Award.

POPULAR AWARDS
Best Actor: Shah Rukh Khan for 'My Name is Khan'
Best Actress: Kajol for 'My Name is Khan'
Best Film: 'Dabangg'
Best Director Award: Karan Johar for My Name is Khan.
Best Debut Director: Manish Sharma for Band Baajaa Baaraat
Best Debut Actor (Male): Ranveer Singh for Band Baajaa Baaraat

Best Debut Actor (Female): Sonakshi Sinha for Dabangg

Best Supporting Actor (Male): Ronit Roy for 'Udaan'
Best Supporting Actor (Female): Kareena Kapoor for 'We Are Family'

FILMFARE CRITICS AWARDS
Best Actor (Critics): Rishi Kapoor for 'Do Dooni Chaar'
Best Actress (Critics): Vidya Balan for 'Ishqiya'
Best Film (Critics): Vikramaditya Motwane and Sanjay Singh for 'Udaan'

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Prabodh Chandra aka Manna Dey the melodious playback singer was felicitated with one of the most prestigious award of the night - the Lifetime Achievement award. ( He had won his first Filmfare Award in 1970 for singing the song 'Ae Bhai Zara Dekh Ke Chalo' from Mera Naam Joker).

SPECIAL AWARDS were given to Amitabh Bachchan an award for completing 40 years in the film industry! And Madhuri Dixit for completing 25 years in the film industry!

FILMFARE MUSIC AWARDS

Best Music Composer: Sajid Wajid won the Best Music Composer Award for Dabangg.
Best Song Composer : Lalit Pandit for the song Munni Badnam Hui…
Best Lyrics: Gulzar won the Best Lyrics Award for the song 'Ibn-e-Batuta' (Ishqiya).
Most Promising Talent in Music: Sneha Khanwalkar for 'Love Sex aur Dhokha'
Best Playback Singer (Male): Rahat Fateh Ali Khan won Best Playback Singer (Male) for 'Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji' (Ishqiya)
Best Playback Singer (Female): Best Playback Singer (Female) Award was shared between Mamta Sharma for 'Munni Badnaam Hui' (Dabangg) and Sunidhi Chauhan for 'Sheila Ki Jawani' (Tees Maar Khan)

FILMFARE TECHNICAL AWARDS

Best Choreography: Farah Khan for 'Sheila Ki Jawani' from Tees Maar Khan.
Best Dialogue : Habib Faisal for Do Dooni Chaar
Best Screenplay: Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane for Udaan
Best Story: Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane for Udaan
Best Background Music: Amit Trivedi for Udaan.
Best ActionDirector:Vijayan Master for Dabbang
BestCinematography: Mahendra Shetty for Udaan
Best Action Sequence: Vijayan Master for Dabbang
Best Editing Award: Namrata Rao for 'Love Sex aur Dhoka'.
Best Production Design Award : Mukund Gupta for 'Do Dooni Chaar'.
Best Sound Design Award: Best Sound Design Award is shared by Pritam Das for 'Love Sex Aur Dhoka' and Kunal Sharma for 'Udaan'.
Best Costume Design Award : Varsha and Shilpa have won the Best Costume Design Award for the film Do Dooni Chaar.
Best Scene of the Year Award: Golmaal 3

56th Filmfare Awards for 2010 Bollywood movies coming soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:23:00 +0000

Who will win the 'Best Actor Award' ? Who will win the 'Best Actress Award' for 2010 ? Which Bollywood movie do you think was the 'Best' in 2010! Start guessing soon…

The 56th Filmfare Awards 2010 will select the best Bollywood movies, actors, actresses, music and more on Saturday 29th January 2011. The event to be hosted this year by Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan is to be held at Yash Raj Films Studios, in Mumbai, India.

It seems like the game is between Sharukh Khan and Salman Khan since both SRK’s My Name Is Khan and Salman Khan’s Dabangg are nominated for many award categories this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTg1kpxdQ9s&NR=1

Here are the nominees for the 56th Filmfare Awards:

Best Film
Band Baaja Baaraat
Dabangg
My Name Is Khan
Peepli Live
Udaan

Best Director
Abhinav Kashyap (Dabangg)
Karan Johar (My Name Is Khan)
Manish Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat )
Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Guzarish)
Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Ajay Devgan (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Hrithik Roshan (Guzaarish)
Salman Khan (Dabangg)
Shah Rukh Khan (My Name Is Khan)
Ranbir Kapoor (Raajneeti)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Aishwariya Rai Bachchan (Guzaarish)
Anushka Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat )
Kajol (My Name Is Khan)
Kareena Kapoor (Golmaal 3)
Vidya Balan (Ishqiya)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Male
Arjun Rampal (Raajneeti)
Arshad Warsi (Golmaal 3)
Emraan Hashmi (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Manoj Bajpai (Raajneeti)
Nana Patekar (Raajneeti)
Ronit Roy (Udaan)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Female
Amrita Puri (Aisha)
Kareena Kapoor (We Are Family)
Prachi Desai (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Ratna Patak Shah (Golmaal 3)
Supriya Pathak Kapoor (Khichdi, The Movie)

Best Music
Pritam Chakraborty (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Sajid – Wajid & Lalit Pandit (Dabangg)
Shankar Ehsaan Loy (My Name Is Khan)
Vishal – Shekhar (Anjaana Anjaani)
Vishal – Shekhar (I Hate Luv Storys)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Ishqiya)

Best Lyrics
Faiz Anwar – Tere Mast Mast (Dabangg)
Gulzar – Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (Ishqiya)
Niranjan Iyenger – Sajda (My Name Is Khan)
Niranjan Iyenger – Noor e Khuda (My Name Is Khan)
Vishal Dadlani – Bin Tere (I Hate Luv Storys)

Best Male Playback Singer
Adnan Sami, Shankar Mahadevan – Noor e Khuda (My Name Is Khan)
Mohit Chauhan – Pee Loon (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – Sajda (My Name Is Khan)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (Ishqiya)
Shafqat Amanat Ali – Bin Tere (I Hate Luv Storys)

Best Female Playback Singer
Mamta Sharma – Munni Badnaam Hui (Dabangg)
Shreya Ghoshal – Bahara (I Hate Luv Storys)
Shreya Ghoshal – Noor e Khuda (My Name Is Khan)
Sunidhi Chauhan – Sheila Ki Jawani (Tees Maar Khan)
Sunidhi Chauhan – Udi (Guzaarish)

Guzarish- A Review

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:06:00 +0000

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shernaz Patel, Nafisa Ali, Aditya Roy Kapur, Monikangana Dutta, Suhel Seth, Sheranaz Patel, Nafisa Ali
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Producer: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ronnie Screwwala
Screenplay: Bhavani Iyer, Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cinematography: Sudeep Chaterjee
Editor: Hemal Kothari
Music Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: ***
Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes
Official Site: http://www.guzaarishthefilm.com/

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QiS6nw1DM

The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. Minor details may have been divulged for proper review!

This movie pulls strings and touches the hearts of all those of us who have seen people up-close who are suffering from neurological or nerve damage or paraplegia or partial coma or are on life support, …………The movie is sad yet beautifully and artistically made with creative cinematography and crisp editing.

Though I may not agree with euthanasia or mercy killing, the film is well crafted to not make one condemn the thought but to accept each individual’s personal decisions about life and death.

The story is about Ethan Mascarenhas ( Hrithik Roshan), an incapacitated paraplegic who has a paralyzed lower body after an accident performing his magic act 14 years ago. But he lives a soulful life as a radio disk jockey, enjoys books, music, television, and a window with a view; he is cared for by nurse Sophia ( Aishwarya Rai) who is in love with him and has company of good friends, a lawyer (Shanaz Patel) a doctor ( Suhel Seth) and a student of magic (Aditya Kapur). Yet he wants to end his limitations and degenerating life and appeals to the court for euthanasia or mercy killing!

The beauty of this movie is its crisp direction, cinematography, and taut editing about a polemic topic and its ability to sensitively portray the life of a paraplegic with pathos but without the melodrama. The screenplay has some well executed use of humor in banter and repartee slipped in dramatic moments. The cinematography is artistically beautiful, giving each frame and scene a life of its own; and of course the cast and performances of all the characters is excellent.

Now to detail out the other aspects of the movie:

-    The story seems to have been inspired largely from the movie “ The Sea Inside”, a Spanish movie with English subtitles starring Javier Bardem ( of Eat, Pray, Love) about a paraplegic appealing for euthanasia!

-    The setting though it says is Goa, India, it looks old European settings- The medieval mansion, the interiors, furniture, grand curtains, blinds, and walls adorned with photography and art and décor around the home, bedroom, and kitchen, reflects European style; Even the 18th century bathing spa machinery for the disabled is from the old European bath houses. The director Sanjay Leela Bansali seemed to be captivated with the drama and magnificence the European setting creates in many Hollywood movies and profusely borrowed it.

-    Costumes and jewelry in this movie also has Spanish and European influence with beautiful long flowing Flememnco dresses with deep necks, scarfs and umbrellas; The nurse’s means of transportation is also on a bike or a boat; Even though Goa was a Portuguese colony, and had some Spanish influences, the Spanish portrayal in this movie in pretty unrealistic.

-    The relationship between Ethan (Hrithik) and Sophia( Aishwaya) is much more than that of patient-nurse, and is handled aesthetically with the casual flirting and facial expressions and special endearing moments. These scenes show shades inspired from movies like ‘English Patient’ !

-    The story in its later part is introduced with a succession of many characters in small parts trying to tie the loose ends of the story. Though tying the loose ends is good, this could have been handled better by the writer and director.

Lastly the performances of the whole cast in this movie is consistently good. Both Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya give excellent performances. Hrithik with his expressive eyes and facial expressions says more than his words. Aishwarya surprisingly handles the different shades of fiery and tender role of the character pretty well, though her hot red lipstick doesn’t match the tender moments but only the fiery ones! Shenaz Patel and Nafisa Ali have excellent performances too. Aditya Roy Kapur has shades of good and bad while his character too is not built well into the screenplay.

If one ignores the euthanasia part and just sees it as a portrayal of daily ritualistic life of a paraplegic or a paralytic or a disabled person, its creates an awareness and understanding of an incapacitated life and may stimulate some in improving the conditions of many lives. Hrithik Roshan after this movie is supposed to have invested in a charity to help the disabled to get larger freedoms in life and is advocating ramps in public places for wheel chairs and transportation facilities with ability to carry wheel chairs etc in India.

Upcoming Bollywood Releases- January 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:37:00 +0000

No One Killed Jessica

http://noonekilledjessica.com/

Genre: Social and Political Thriller

Screen play and Director: Raj Kumar Gupta

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala

Cast : Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerji, Neil Bhoopalam, Rajesh Sharma, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Bubbles Sabharwal, Yogendra Tikku,

Shireesh Sharma, Deepak Dobriyal, Samara Chopra, Myra Karn

Music by Amit Trivedi

Yamla Pagla Deewana

http://www.yamlapagladeewana.com/

Genre: Comedy

Cast : Sunny Deol, Dharmendra, Bobby Deol, Kulraj Randhawa, Paresh Rawal

Director: Samir Karnik

Producers: Samir Karnik, Nitin Manmohan

Story: Jasvinder Bath

Music: Pyarelal

Dhobi Ghat

http://dhobighatfilm.com/

Genre: Social Drama

Writer/Director : Kiran Rao

Producers: Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao

Cast : Prateik Babbar, Aamir Khan, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra

Music : Gustavo Santaolalla

Turning 30!!!

Genre: Comedy

Writer/ Director: Alankrita Shrivastava

Producer: Prakash Jha

Cast: Purab Kohli, Gul Panag, Siddharth Makkar, Tillotama Shome, Jeneva Talwar, Anita Kanwar, Rahul Singh, Sameer Malhotra, Ira Dubey, Bikramjeet Kanwarpal

Music by Siddharth, Suhas

Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Producer: Madhur Bhandarkar, Kumar Mangat

Screenplay: Madhur Bhandarkar, Anil Pandey, Neeraj Udwani

Story: Madhur Bhandarkar, Anil Pandey, Neeraj Udwani

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidya, Amisha Patel, Jiah Khan ,Shazahn Padamsee, Shruti Haasan, Shraddha Das

Music by Pritam Chakraborty

Wish you an Entertaining New Year 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:24:00 +0000

Hindi movie releases December 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 05:59:00 +0000

No problem

Genre:Comedy
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, Suniel Shetty, Kangna Ranaut, Neetu Chandra, Sushmita Sen, Paresh Rawal, Saloni Daini, Shakti Kapoor, Mukesh Tiwari, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Ranjeet, Suresh Menon
Producer: Rajat Rawail, Anil Kapoor, Sunil A. Lulla, Dr. B. K. Modi
Director: Anees Bazmee
Music Director: Sajid, Wajid,Pritam Chakraborty, Anand Raj Anand
Screenplay: Rajiv Kaul, Anees Bazmee,Rajan Agarwal, Ikram Akhtar
Story / Writer: Anees Bazmee

Band Baja Baraat

Genre: Drama / Social
Cast:Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Manmeet Singh, Manish Choudhary, Neeraj Sood.
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Director: Maneesh Sharma
Music Director: Salim Merchant,Sulaiman Merchant
Story / Writer: Maneesh Sharma

Toonpur Ka Superrhero

Genre: Action / Animation
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kajol,Tanuja,Sanjay Mishra,Delnaz Paul,Mukesh Tiwari,Viveck Vaswani, Raza Murad,Shereveer Vakil, Amey Pandya.
Producer: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Krishika Lulla
Director: Kireet Khurana
Music Director: Anu Malik
Screenplay: Raagi Bhatnagar
Story / Writer;Kireet Khurana,Raagi Bhatnagar

Tees Maar Khan

Genre:Action / Comedy
Cast: Akshay Kumar,Akshaye Khanna,Katrina Kaif, Raghu Ram,Rajiv Laxman,Arya Babbar, Anil Kapoor,Salman Khan, Diva ,Anya,Czar, Sanjay Dutt-Narrator, Sachin Khedekar,Vijay Patkar
Murli Sharma, Ali Asgar, Vijay Maurya, Aman Verma, Mia Evonne Uyeda
Producer: Shirish Kunder, Ronnie Screwvala, Twinkle Khanna
Director: Farah Khan

Music Director: Shirish Kunder,Vishal Dadlani,Shekhar Ravjiani
Story / Writer:Ashmith Kunder,Shirish Kunder

Tera Kya Hoga Johny

Genre:Crime / Thriller

Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Soha Ali Khan,Kay Kay Menon, Shahana Goswami, Karan Nath, Saurabh Shukla,Vijay Maurya,Virendra Saxena,Makrand Deshpande,Abhay Deol.Anurag Kashyap,Ashok Pandit,Madhukar Dixit, Shereveer Vakil,Razzak Khan.
Producer:Sudhir Mishra,Tutu Sharma,Manu S Kumaran
Director: Sudhir Mishra

Music Director: Pankaj Awasthi, Abhishek Ray,Ali Azmat
Screenplay:Sudhir Mishra,Pankaj Kapoor , Joydeep Sarkar

Isi Life Mein

Genre: Drama
Cast: Akshay Oberoi, Sandeepa Dhar, Salman Khan, Mohnish Behl, Prachi Shah. Aditya Raj Kapoor, Shagufta Ali, Moin Khan ,Neha Kakkar,Veebha Anand, Akash Bathija, Rahul Kalra, Deepak Ramola, Ayush Mehra,Samaira Rao, Suyesha,Tasha Kapoor, Mansee Desshmukh, Dilip Raj, Gajendra Chauhan
Suhasini Mulay,Daisy Irani,Dalip Tahil,Madhur Arora,Rajesh Balwani.,Vineeta Agarwal,Poonam Gulati, Master Rishi Krishnan.
Producer: Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Rajkumar Barjatya, Ajit Kumar Barjatya, Sooraj Barjatya,Rajat Barjatya
Director: Vidhi Kasliwal

Music Director: Meet Bros Anjan Ankit
Screenplay: Sulekha Bajpai
Story / Writer:Vidhi Kasliwal

Robot- Enthiran- Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:11:00 +0000

Cast: Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Denzongpa
Screen play & Direction : S. Shankar
Producer: Kalanidhi Maran
Music: A. R. Rahman
Genre: Scifi, romance, action
Rating:***

Its an elaborately lousy sci-fi production, ridiculous script and dialogs, pathetic songs, plastic acting,…. yet Enthiran- Robot is strangely an expensively ( Rs 160 crores) made super hit blockbuster movie!

Yes it has positives, its among the first scifi bollywood movies made, it has moments of glory with impressive special effects, technical lingo ( Asimov Theory) and stunt performances. If you are the type who enjoys special effects and stunt action, and are a Rajnikant fan and can ignore the illogical parts like robot talking to mosquitos etc you may enjoy the movie !

FYI- If you are seeing this because you are a Rajnikant fan, surprisingly this movie lacks the typical ‘Rajnikant chaap’ or his unique style, though there are two Rajnikants in the movie- the scientists and the robot, the characters dont perform his usual antics popular in his movies.

The story is about how a scientist develops a robot to serve humanity and upgrades it with human emotions, this leads to trouble with the robot falling for the scientists girlfriend. Of course there is a villain in every story, a rival scientist tampers the robot to cause harm and destruction. All this plus crappy masala filled in makes the movie.

Rajnikanth sorry to say looks very old, he should act his age and move on. The wigs and make up do nothing for him here. Yes he carries the movie on his shoulders, besides the special effects hugely sharing the weight. Aishwarya Rai is ridiculously plastic and Barbie dollish, her acting is plastic, fake and silly.

For the amount of money spent and the popularity of the lead actors one would have expected a better movie but there are many audiences who accept the illogical and ludicrousness of bollywood movies dished out, hence they become blockbusters!!

November & October 2010 Movie Releases

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 03:18:00 +0000

Guzaarish
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aditya Roy Kapur, Monikangana Dutta, Rajit Kapoor,Shernaz Patel, Sanjay Lafont, Nafisa Ali.
Producer: Sanjay Leela Bhansali; Ronnie Screwvala
Director, Sceenplay and Music: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Release date : 19 Nov 2010 Genre:Romance

Break Ke Baad
Cast: Imran Khan, Deepika Padukone, Sharmila Tagore, Shahana Goswami,Yudishtir Urs, Lilette Dubey,Naveen Nischol
Producer: Kunal Kohli
Director: Danish Aslam
Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi,Vishal Dadlani
Music Director: Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani
Screenplay:Renuka Kunzru
Story / Writer:Danish Aslam, Renuka Kunzru
Release date : 26 Nov 2010
Genre: Romance

Allah Ke Banday
Cast: Naseruddin Shah, Sharman Joshi, Faruk Kabir, Atul Kulkarni, Anjana Sukhani,Rukhsar,Zakir Hussain, Saksham Kulkarni, Suhasini Mulay, Vikram Gokhale
Producer: Ravi Walia
Director: Faruk Kabir
Story and Screenplay:Faruk Kabir
Release date : 12 Nov 2010
Genre: Action / Drama

Action Replayy
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randhir Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Kiron Kher, Om Puri, Rannvijay Singh, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Sudeepa Singh, Rajpal Yadav
Director: Vipul Shah
Producer: Vipul Shah
Writer:    Suresh Nair, Aatish Kapadia
Music director:    Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
Release date-   5 November 2010
Genre: Romantic Comedy

Golmal 3
Cast:    Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Ratna Pathak, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Kunal Khemu, Johny Lever, Arshad Warsi, Sanjay Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee, Ashwini Kalsekar, Murli Sharma, Mukesh Tiwari, Vijay Patkar
Director:   Rohit Shetty
Producer:   Dhillin Mehta
Music Director:   Pritam Chakraborty
Lyricst: Kumaar
Release date: 5 November 2010
Genre: comedy

Maalik Ek
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Divya Dutta, Shakti Kapoor, Sudesh Berry, Vikram Gokhale, Parikshit Sahni, Anup Jalota, Zarina Wahab, Rajeshwari Sachdeo, Kishori Shahane, Vidya Sinha, Smriti Irani
Director: Deepak Balraj Vij
Producer: Kishori Shahane
Music : Anup Jalota
Release date: Oct 29,2010
Genre: spiritual movie

Hisss
Cast: Mallika Sherawat, Irrfan Khan, Divya Dutta, Jeff Douchette, , Priyanka Rawat
Director: Jennifer Lynch
Producer: Vikram Singh, Govind Menon, William Sees Keenan, Ratan Jain
Music: Alexander von Bubenheim
Release date:October 22, 2010
Language: Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam

Rakht Charitra - I
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, Sane Obul Reddy, Sushant Singh, Zarina Wahab, Aashish Vidyarthi, Suriya, Priyamani, Anupam Shyam, Ashwini Kalsekar, Sushmita Mukherjee, Srinivasa Rao Kota, Tanikella Bharani, Sudeep, Radhika Apte
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Madhu Mantena, Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Chinna Vasudeva Reddy, Rajkumar
Writer: Prashant Pandey
Release Date : 22,Oct 2010; 26 November 2010(part2)
Genre: political; biography; action

Jhootha Hi Sahi
Starring: John Abraham, Pakhi, R. Madhavan, Raghu Ram, Manasi Scott, Anaitha Nair, Nandana Sen

Director: Abbas Tyrewala
Producer: Madhu Mantena, Abbas Tyrewala
Release Date : 22,Oct 2010
Genre: Romantic comedy

Aakrosh
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Amita Pathak, Reema Sen

Director: Priyadarshan
Producer: Kumar Mangat
Release Date : 15,Oct 2010
Genre: Action thriller

Knock Out
Cast : Sanjay Dutt, Kangna Ranaut, Irrfan Khan, Gulshan Grover, Sushant Singh, Asif Basra, Rukhsar,Apoorva Lakhia
Director: Mani Shankar
Producer: Sohail Maklai
Music: Gaurav Dasgupta
Release Date : 15,Oct 2010

Do Dooni Chaar
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Archit Krishna, Aditi Vasudev, Akhilendra Mishra, Supriya Shukla
Director: Habib Faisal
Producer: Arindam Chaudhuri
Release Date : 08,Oct 2010
Genre: Drama, comedy

Dabangg- A Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 05:27:00 +0000

Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Arbaaz Khan, Sonu Sood, Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Om Puri, Mahesh Manjrekar, Mahi Gill
Producer: Arbaaz Khan, Malaika Arora Khan, Dhillin Mehta
Director: Abhinav Kashyap
Story: Dilip Shukla, Abhinav Kashyap
Music Director: Sajid, Wajid
Genre: Action comedy
Rating ***

This movie was made for certain target market and achieved in entertaining that focus audience well, hence became a blockbuster hit! The rest of the elite audiences who like a movie to intellectually appeal to the senses while entertaining them found this a little cheesy watch!

The movie had Salman Khan all over in his silly funny ways with his hip swinging, tongue in cheek dialogues and slapstick comedy. The action looks like desi Rajnikant meets Antonio Banderas in Desparodo, ducking bullets Matrix style! It also had yesteryears inspired ‘Angry Young Man Hero’ in goofy style ;)

Though there is not much of a story, it’s a typical hackneyed story of a sibling rivalry taken advantage by a goon, and of course there is a heroine to add some oomph. Finally to this equation is the much hyped and talked about Mallika Arora's munni badnam …..zandu balm item song! Though the song is not on par with other popular item songs like beedi jalai le jigar me… it got free publicity from the Zandu Balm folks warning to sue them for uninformed inclusion of their product in a song!

The positives and negatives of the movie is its silliness, the point of view of course changes with each viewer! There is not all nonsense in the movie though. There has been a serious thought and effort to leave an open ended climax and unexplained dialogs for making a sequel. Unexplained dialogs like why Rajjo/Sonakshi is called Arota by her father, which she doesn’t explain and wants it to be uncovered by Chulbul/Salman could be a lead to another angle of a story!

Salman khan has aged and grown out of shape, though suitable for the role of an Indian cop. His acting or overacting is meant to entertain which it does! Experienced actors like Dimple Kapadia and Vinod Khanna are wasted in small roles. The debutante Sonakshi Sinha, Shatrugan Sinha’s daughter surprisingly a Reena Roy look-alike performs well and apparently is having a beeline of movies.

Dabang is apparently successful and beating box-office records, the plain logic could be:-Timing- the timing of the release was right, a release on Eid, after Ramadan where people flock to theatres is bound to get major first day record sales ;) ; Niche market- In the recent past most movies have been either made for elite thinking audiences, urban audiences or the expat NRI’s , hence this movie catering to the local common man/ aam admi of the heavily populated India grabbed that niche market. ….. whatever the reason, this movie isn’t about sense! It’s senseless.

We are Family - A Review

noreply@blogger.com (Birjis Rashed) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:35:00 +0000

Directed by Siddharth Malhotra
Produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar
Written by Gigi Levangie Grazer; Venita Coelho
Starring Kajol, Kareena Kapoor,Arjun Rampal
Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography Mohanan
Genre: Drama
Rating: **.5(2.5/5)
Inspiration: Stepmom

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)

'We are Family' is the first bollywood movie legitimately copied and credited and rights purchased from its original Hollywood version! But why make an apparently Indian version of ‘stepmom’ when it’s set in Australia, and is an' Expactriate-Indian' version of the story with similar scenes and dialogues as the original! Yes, it has the natural performer and an excellent actress like Kajol, but why watch a movie which is a very predictable and sad version of the Hollywood one!

This movie handles the difficult issues of divorce, separation, relationships and death. It’s a tragedy, and its written all over in every scene with its gloomy predictability, depressing story, zero light-hearted relief and lack of depth. It has a few sad and heartrending scenes, but that doesn’t affect you throughout the movie, because of its superficiality.

Kajol has to be applauded for her natural performance reflected as the multi tasker disciplinarian mom, with shades of possessive, envious, jealous, sad, helpless, big hearted, scared of her impending death and departure from her family and finally accepting of the inevitable. Kareena too has matured in performance but comparing her to Julia Roberts in Stepmom, it’s not good enough. Arjun Ramphal is the man involved with these strong women and nothing much.

This emotional drama fell flat from my good expectaions of it being a Stepmoms remake with actresses like Kajol and Kareena with a producer like Karan Johar!