Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan, most preferred in romantic films, of which he may have done only a few, is finding it hard to find a slot lately. He has tried his hand at multiple genres recently: Ra.One, a super hero film; Don 2, an action-for-action‘s-sake film; Jab Tak Hai Jaan, where he plays a larger than life bomb expert. Somehow, he does not seem to have found the right fit. Chennai Express is the outcome of this confusing situation as the film can’t define its genre even after it has run through 143 minutes. Is it a comedy, a road movie, an action movie or a romance? And is it a Hindi or a Tamil movie?

Producers: Gauri Khan, Karim Morani, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapoor. Director: Rohit Shetty. Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Nikitin Dheer, Sathyaraj, Manorama, Kamini Kaushal, Lekh Tandon.

Shah Rukh Khan’s halwai grandfather has passed away and his last wish is that his grandson should immerse his ashes in the sea at Rameshwaram. However, Khan and his friends had plans to holiday in Goa. This assignment comes as a hurdle in their plans. However, Khan’s friends convince him that even if he immersed the ashes at Goa, they would finally end up reaching the sea at Rameshwaram! This is the first warning of what is to come. Since the grandmother plans to see off Khan at the station, he plans to take a south bound train, get off at the first station nearby and join his friends for a road trip to Goa.

Khan spots Deepika Padukone running to catch the train which has started moving and helps her in. He also helps four mean and scary looking guys board the running train. It turns out that Deepika, who is running away from her father who is in a village near Chennai, catches a train going towards her father. The four goons Khan helped board the train are her father’s henchmen, chasing her to take her back to her village. Her father, who is the local don, plans to marry her off to a strongman from another village, Nikitin Dheer against her wishes. That would help him extend his power further.

Deepika blames Khan for her problem. He decides to help her but his attempts are thwarted by the foursome. They are a dangerous lot which they demonstrate first by throwing away Khan’s costly cell phone from the train and later by throwing out the TC. Deepika and Khan communicate through Hindi film songs as if they are singing a duet; the goons couldn’t care less since the things are very much under their control.

Finally, they arrive at her village. But since it is not a scheduled stop, the goons pull the chain and out there, to welcome the boss’ daughter, is a crowd of hundreds. Khan could have continued with his journey but, for whatever reason, he also decides to tag along! Since Deepika does not want to marry Dheer, she introduces Khan as the guy she loves and plans to marry. The son-in-law to be is cheered by the villagers. But Dheer is not the kind to give in so easily. He challenges Khan to a fight the next morning. This is one giant problem for Khan for that is how Dheer compares to Khan in physique. The only way to survive is to escape.

Khan and Deepika plan to escape before the duel starts, but Khan spoils the plan by getting drunk. Still, he steals a bike and manages to get away, only to crash near a police station. The Sikh cop, Mukesh Trivedi, hides him in a safe place which, when he wakes up, turns out to be a smugglers’ dhow heading towards Sri Lanka. Soon the dhow is raided and Khan taken back to the village he had run from.

It is her wedding day when, once again, Khan and Deepika escape, this time to fall in love for real. Khan wants to take her honourably and comes back to her village, to the don, the mob and Dheer. In a sudden burst of enthusiasm he beats up all the goons, armed as well as unarmed and, finally, also takes on Dheer!

Chennai Express is a poor story idea badly developed. The script has no substance and a lot of footage is filled with nothing happening or, in second half, by crowding the footage with three songs almost back-to-back. Except at two or three places, the comedy is pathetic and the jokes are all decades-old PJs. The music score is generally no help and the only well tuned song isTitli… In fact, some songs sound like they have been dubbed from Tamil songs.

The Rohit Shetty touch is missing here; there is not much entertainment to be found, even of the mindless variety. Photography is good. Dialogue is uninspiring. A lot of Tamil is used in dialogue without sub titles which is very curious: there is not much to understand in this film but this shows a disregard for the audience. Editing is slack.

Deepika shines and is the only worthy performer in the film. Khan, sad to say, resorts to buffoonery when not overacting; his fans expect better. Dheer is aptly sinister.

Chennai Express may not generate good word of mouth but, thanks to the Eid weekend release at 3500 screens with multiplexes running 12 to 16 shows, it is sure to amass bumper weekend collections and help avoid a big setback.

NEW DELHI: US based Indian filmmaker Tirlok Malik has been awarded the National AIA Honor Award by Association of Indians in America for his contribution as a filmmaker.

AIA, the oldest national association of Asian Indians in America, was founded in 1967. The association continues to recognise people with exceptional qualities and have organised national honour awards for those excelling in their respective fields of medicine, business, science, technology, art, and others.

This is the first time that the association has honoured a filmmaker. Malik said he was humbled by this award.

The event was attended by many AIA committee members from all over US and also many US Congressman from Chicago. 

Malik the founder of the NRI TV Film Club had recently made a Punjabi film, Khushiyaan, starring Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Rama Vij among others.

Malik, who has won several awards including one for his very first film ‘Lonely in America’ in which he had also acted, had been nominated for New York Emmy Award in the category of Historical Programming—Cultural Historical in a Thirteen/WNET segment. His other films include Love Lust and Marriage with Dipti Naval.

“I love making films in New York,” were his opening lines in the segment on Indian filmmaking of which Malik was also the segment producer and has been aired several times on Thirteen/WNET in both- Setting the Stage and the New York Voices programmes.

He has also worked as line producer for many Indian films like Ambedkar, Lajja and Rajnikant‘s Sivaji.

NEW DELHI: The second South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA) is to be held at the Sharjah Expo Centre on 12 and 13 September this year.

Actress Shriya Saran, along with Rana Daggubati and Arya, announced at a press meet in Dubai that shortlisting of the best films of all South Indian languages – Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada – was in progress.

SIIMA has been instituted with the aim of creating a global platform for the South Indian film industry which releases over 500 films in a year and is one of the largest in the world.

SIIMA founder and MD Vishnuvardhan Induri said: “SIIMA is a platform for South Indian Film industries to showcase their cinema to the world, SIIMA will travel to a different country every year and it will be a great platform for south Indian films to market and publicise their movies.”

Arya, Indian Tamil actor and co-host at SIIMA, said: “I am very excited to be a part of a function where South Indian cinema is presented on a global platform.”

The awards ceremony will be spread over two days. Day one will comprise the ‘Generation Next Awards Night‘, and will be hosted by former Miss India World and actress Parvathy Omanakuttan, and co-hosted by stand-up comedian Ash Chandler. The ‘Popular Awards‘ will be held on day two, and will be co-hosted by Arya, Shriya Saran, Rana Daggubati and Sonu Sood.

Shriya Saran, co-host at SIIMA said, “I am very excited to be a part of SIIMA. I had started my career with South Indian films so this industry is very close to my heart. I am really thrilled that I am co-hosting this prestigious award function and will be sharing the platform with three handsome co-anchors.”

The prestigious panel of experts at SIIMA have chosen the nominees of the awards, and the winners will be chosen by an online voting system.

Rana Daggubati, Indian actor and co-host at SIIMA said: “I am really looking forward to being with a room full of attractive, admired and extremely successful people from the South Indian film industry that are being honored for their artistic contribution. As the host, it will be a pleasure to ensure that amongst all the cheer, the stars have a good time, are thoroughly entertained, and cherish their moment of praise.”

The awards night will be packed with breath-taking acts and performances by some of the biggest stars in South Indian cinema.

NEW DELHI: While it has failed to make it to the competition section, there are four films from India in the focus on World Cinema of the 37th Montreal World Film Festival this year.

The Festival will be held between 22 August to 2 September will screen 218 feature films, of which it claims more than half are international (or world) premieres.

As in recent years, films from China and Japan dominate the selections. There are twenty titles from the two countries. There are two other films from southeast Asia.

Interestingly, two of the four films from India are collaborations with filmmakers in the United States: Chittagong (2010) directed by Bedabrato Pain; and Papilio Buddha directed Jayan K. Cherian.

Filmistaan directed by Nitin Kakkar, and Monsoon Shootout by Amit Kumar are the other two entries from India.

The festival is also hosting a tribute to South Korea cinema with eight features and ten shorts with a mix of independent and more mainstream titles.

MUMBAI: It‘s good news for movie lovers. The 15th edition of Mumbai Film Festival is officially open for delegate and media registrations. The iconic film festival which showcases award winning and acclaimed films from all over the globe has announced its online registrations with early bird discounts. The early bird registrations will close at 1900 hours on1 October.

The eight day film festival which will be held from 17-24 October will showcase a stellar lineup of over 200 films from about 60 countries. National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point and Metro Cinema are the main festival venues, while Cinemax, Andheri (West) will be the satellite venue.

The registration process for both the delegate and media can be done online on the film festival‘s website http://www.mumbaifilmfest.com. The delegates registering online will subsequently receive a confirmation through an e-mail. This year the festival has made arrangements for sms and e-mail alerts about delegate card pickups, on-line seat reservation system for screenings during the festival and important festival communication for registered delegates.

For any problems related to online registrations, delegates can send an e-mail at registration@mumbaifilmfest.com. The registration form can be downloaded and later submitted along with fees at the Mumbai Film Festival office till 1October, between 11 am to 6 pm.

Delegates must carry their college ID card, film industry card or film society membership cards for verification at the time of catalogue fee payment/collection of delegate cards.