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Category: Hindi

  • Haasan approaches CCI in Vishwaroopam release row

    Haasan approaches CCI in Vishwaroopam release row

    MUMBAI: Actor and film maker Kamal Haasan has moved the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against certain theatre associations. Haasan alleged that these bodies restricted the release of his film Vishwaroopam report the Press Trust of India.

    A senior official from CCI told PTI, “”We have received a complaint from Kamal Haasan (related to Vishwaroopam)…We are likely to take a call on the issue next week.” The complaint has been filed by Haasan‘s production house Rajkamal Films International.

    Meanwhile, Haasan has virtually ruled out the premiere of his film Vishwaroopam on the Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform ahead of its release in theatres. He has reportedly admitted a ‘change of mind‘ on proceeding with his controversial decision that had met with stiff resistance from a section of exhibitors.

    “I have changed my mind on having the premiere (on DTH platform ahead of releasing it in theatres). I will discuss (with DTH partners) on how close or far to release date (will be a DTH show),” he said.

    Hassan observed that he had taken into account suggestions from many to consider the ‘good health‘ of Tamil cinema industry before going ahead with his decision.

    “Many had requested me to take into consideration the good health of the industry and proceed with DTH. It is my primary duty to make it happen,” he said after consulting with exhibitors and theatre owners here.

    He also said that talks were on with DTH players on the issue but declined to divulge on the matter. “They have been kind to me. Will say later when the film will come on DTH,” he said.

    Haasan said the film will be released in Tamil and Telugu on 25 January as announced earlier but its Hindi release will be finalized only after further talks with industry associates.

    The tech-savvy actor-filmmaker‘s decision to have a premiere of his much anticipated trilingual action film on DTH caused ripples in the multi-million rupee Tamil cinema industry, with a section of theatre owners deciding to boycott the film.

  • Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola: Bharadwaj fails to enthrall

    Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola: Bharadwaj fails to enthrall

    MUMBAI: Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is a Haryanvi film made in Hindi and English. When the characters don‘t add ‘Se‘ to end a sentence like Hai in Hindi, Aahe in Marathi, Chhe in Gujarati, they are speaking immaculate Hindi or English. This time, the ardent Shakespeare devotee, Vishal Bhardwaj attempts to create his own masterpiece. He has Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma at his disposal but he chooses veteran Pankaj Kapur to be his star attraction.


    Producers: Vishal Bhardwaj, Fox Star India.

    Director: Vishal Bhardwaj.

    Cast: Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapur, ShabanaAzmi, Arya Babbar.

    Kapur‘s character is inspired from a Rajshri film, Sunayana (which was ‘inspired‘ by a Charlie Chaplin classic, City Lights) where a drunkard rich man has split personality, all heart when drunk and a tyrant when sober. The rest is loosely strewn around him.

    Kapur is Mr Mandola, the tycoon in a village populated of 300 farmers. His home is palatial and the village Mandola, district Rohtak, Haryana state, is named after his family. He is a single parent to his only daughter, Sharma, who has been away most of her growing years, first studying in Delhi and later attending Oxford. Since Kapur has this problem where after four pegs he tends to get generous and will donate his fortune, he has employed a retainer, Matru, played by Khan. His job is to drive Kapur around and stop him from drinking after fourth peg. Kapur is bent on quitting alcohol but lacks willpower. He has another problem. His preferred brand of alcohol is Gulabo and every time he tries to go off drinks, he sees a pink buffalo, which only makes him drink again.

    Kapur is a land-grabbing tycoon who has dreams of turning the village of Mandola into another Gurgaon, filled with malls, multiplexes, corporate parks et al. Sharing Kapur‘s dream is the state CM, Shabana Azmi. She is obsessed by Pragati-progress-and has one eye on Kapur‘s estate and the other on Delhi, for ultimate power. To keep Kapur in check, she keeps romancing him and playing footsie with him while planning to marry her son, Arya Babbar, to Kapur‘s daughter.

    So, what does the hero Khan do for there is no romance happening in this film? He plays retainer to Kapur by the day, is his drinking partner by night and also plays a Zorro like character on the side, a saviour of the village people whose land he wants to save.

    Azmi, once she is in Mandola, forgets her state and acts like the CM of the village! Along with Kapur, she tries all sorts of tricks to make sure the crop is destroyed and the farmers are compelled to sell their land. One of the tricks is to invoke the rain gods to flood the village and ruin the harvested crop stored all around the village. The prayers work and crops are destroyed. If this is comedy, it does not work on the audience.

    That is the problem with Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola. Tagged as a romantic comedy, it fails on both counts. There is no romancing at all and the comedy is pathetic and juvenile. In fact, the first time one chuckles is a good 40 minutes into the film. There being no story as such, the film needed gags but they are sorely lacking. The film‘s co-writer, music composer and director fails on all counts. Gulzar‘s lyrics are uninspiring. And why did this charade have to last 150 minutes?

    Nothing much is expected from stars in this kind of film. Still, Kapoor, the veteran master, excels. To pit Khan against him is merciless act. Sharma is okay. Azmi‘s casting raises expectations but the characterisation is too bad for her to deliver. Babbar‘s job is to clown around and he is not good at that.

    Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is poor at multiplexes and very poor at single screens. If it sustains through the week, it is only because the exhibitors have no other option to feed their screens.

     
    Gangoobai: Feel good movie

    Producer: National Film Development Corporation Ltd.

    Director: Priya Krishnaswami.

    Cast: Sarita Joshi, Purab Kohli, Meeta Vasisht, Raj Zutshi, Gopi Desai, Rushad Rana, Nidhi Sunil, Behram Rana, Ankita Shrivastav, Aparna Khanekar.

    MUMBAI: Gangoobai is mostly a Mumbai-centric subject; one which would have had some relevance in 1960s or thereabouts. It is a feel-good film in which there are no grey shades. All are positive, caring and considerate.

    Gangoobai is portrayed by veteran stage and TV artiste Sarita Joshi. She works as domestic help in Matheran, a hill station near Mumbai. Her employers visit their bungalow once a month and are generous. That is except for one young girl, Ankita Srivastava, who stays put in Matheran and is rude and abusive with Gangoobai. But Gangoobai is oblivious to all that because she is nurturing a dream since she saw Srivastava in a Parsi Gara sari. The sari is worth Rs 45,000 but that is no deterrent for Gangoobai; she wants to own one soon. She promises her dead husband‘s picture she will get one. He had wished to gift her beautiful sari but died in an accident before he could. (This should have come in a flashback when she makes up her mind but comes much later in the story.)

    Gangoobai stretches her limits and takes up multiple assignments to collect the money. Finally, when she has collected Rs 50,000, she descends on Mumbai with a plan to visit the shop, buy the sari and return to Matheran by the evening. But what she thought was a shop was actually a boutique where saris are designed exclusively and displayed in live ramp shows to be picked up by discerning and rich clients. With her appearance, Gangoobai is not entertained by the manager, Meeta Vasisht. But after seeing Gangoobai‘s determination and listening to her story, she melts and makes place for her to attend the ramp show.

    Gangoobai chooses her sari and plans to go back. But it turns out that the sari she chose is a demo piece and she has to wait a week before they can have a new one ready for her. Her host for her stay is Purab Kohli, the store cashier. Nidhi Sunil is her escort to his house. While in Mumbai, Gangoobai wins over everybody who comes in contact with her. They all are nice, kind-hearted people and take her as one of them.

    Gangoobai returns to Matheran with her sari to face another twist of fate but the end is very happy for her because the film is all syrup.

    Gangoobai has been given a very limited release with a show a day only in Mumbai and few centres of Maharashtra.

  • Shahid Kapoor-starrer Rambo Rajkumar to release on 15 November

    Shahid Kapoor-starrer Rambo Rajkumar to release on 15 November

    MUMBAI: Prabhudeva‘s Shahid Kapoor starrer Rambo Rajkumar has been slated for release on 15 November, 2013. The film was earlier titled Namak.

     

    It will follow Rakesh Roshan‘s Hrithik Roshan-starrer Krrish 3 that will release during Diwali on 2 November.

     

    Rambo Rajkumar, as the name suggests, is an action film packed with Bollywood masala. The film is generating anticipation since it brings together Shahid and Sonakshi Sinha for the first time.

     

    It will be interesting to see this time whether Prabhu Deva continues his dream run at box office after Wanted and Rowdy Rathore especially when India‘s most loved superhero Krrish will be playing in cinemas.

  • ‘Lincoln’, ‘Life Of Pi’ top Oscar nominations

    ‘Lincoln’, ‘Life Of Pi’ top Oscar nominations

    MUMBAI: ‘Lincoln‘ continued to gain strong momentum in the Hollywood awards season. The Steven Spielberg biopic got 12 nominations. Just behind is Ang Lee‘s ‘Life of Pi‘ with 11 nominations.

     

    Both are among the nine pictures nominated for best film. The others are ‘Argo‘, ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘, ‘Amour‘, ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘, ‘Beasts Of The Southern Wild‘, ‘Django Unchained‘ and ‘Les Miserables‘. Missing from the list are ‘Skyfall‘, ‘The Master‘ and ‘Moonrise Kingdom‘.

     

    But the big surprise is in best director. Apart from Lee and Spielberg none of the other three directors who were nominated for the DGA have gotten in. This includes Kathryn Bigelow who helmed critics favourite ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘ and Ben Affleck for ‘Argo‘. That seriously hurts both these films‘ chances of winning the best picture Oscar. The last time a film won best picture without its director being nominated was ‘Driving Miss Daisy‘ way back in 1989.

     

    Apart from Lee and Spielberg, the directors competing for an Oscar are Michael Hanecke for ‘, Benh Zeitlin for ‘Beasts Of The southern Wild‘ and David O Russell for ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘.Amour

     

    Another big surprise is in foreign language film. The nominees do not include ‘The Intouchables‘. ‘Amour‘ is the favourite to win here. The other nominees are ‘Kon-Tiki‘, ‘No‘, ‘A Royal Affair‘ and ‘War Witch.

     

    The best actress category has the oldest ever nominee Emannuelle Riva for ‘Amour‘ and the youngest ever in Quvenzhané Wallis in “Beasts of the Southern Wild”. But the race is probably a shootout between Jessica Chastain for ‘Zero Dark Thirty‘ and Jennifer Lawrence for ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘. Naomi Watts in ‘The Impossible‘ has also made the cut.

     

    Lawrence has a bit of an edge in that ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘ did better than expected. It got eight nominations including one in supporting actress for Jackie Weaver. It is the only movie to have been nominated in all the acting categories. ‘Les Miserables‘ also got eight nominations, though more were expected. Its helmer Tom Hooper has been left out.

  • Director of Bombay to Goa S Ramanathan dies

    Director of Bombay to Goa S Ramanathan dies

    MUMBAI: Acclaimed director S Ramanathan, who brought Amitabh Bachchan into the limelight with his film Bombay to Goa, passed away in Chennai on Wednesday. It is said Ramanathan was listening to music when he just collapsed and passed away. It was a case of cardiac failure.

     

    Ramanathan shared a special bond with Amitabh Bachchan. He made three films with him namely Giraftaar, Ganga Jamuna Saraswati and Mahaan. Bachchan was also starring in his last vehicle Zamaanat that was in the making for more than a decade. He was planning to release the film this year.

     

    The other actor with whom the reputed Kannada director was associated with was Mehmood with whom he made Sabse Bada Rupaiya, Do Phool, Bombay To Goa and Faisla.

     

    Ramanathan started his career with theatre in Bangalore and spent most of his early days in the city. He later shifted to Madras, now known as Chennai, mainly because in the late 1950s and early 1960s the city was known for its film activities.

     

    Initially, he worked as an assistant to the then well-known director A Bhim Singh and later turned director with the Malayalam film Naadodikal and followed it up with films like Shreekovil and Devaalayam.

     

    After the success of Bhim Singh‘s Tamil film Madras To Pondicherry, Ramanathan decided to remake it in Hindi and moved to Mumbai. He titled the film Bombay to Goa for which he roped in then struggling actor Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role. The film became a hit and marked his long relationship with the superstar.

     

    Ramanathan had also the honour of working with legendary artistes like Raj Kumar, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vishnuvardhan and Shivaraj Kumar in multiple languages.

  • Activities of NRI Film Producers Association kick starts at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

    Activities of NRI Film Producers Association kick starts at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

    MUMBAI: Non Resident Indian Producers Association (NRIPA) on Wednesday kick started its journey in making films at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas conference in Kochi.

     

    All this was at the behest of renowned filmmaker and president of NRIPA Sohan Roy who gained international acceptance and recognition by his film DAM 999. NRIPA has been formed with an aim to be the most useful and efficient association in the film industry by promoting new generation film makers and nurturing a fresh culture within the industry.

     

    Talking at the launch, Roy said, “As a producer of my first project, I have learnt that making films in India provides a big heap of opportunity for any producer to make money but I also learnt the hard fact that the most first timers don‘t make it into the profit zone purely because of their ignorance.

     

    You will also be surprised to know the reality that the largest film producing nation in the world has the least presence in international film circuits. Indian films rarely make attempts to make their presence felt at the 40 internationally recognized film marketing zones. This is purely because of the ignorance about the opportunities existing outside. With NRIPA I would like to obliterate this ignorance by giving my fellow film makers the right guidance.”

     

    NRIPA has launched with the major objective of bringing enthusiastic potential NRI producers to invest in the brand called ‘Film India‘ and to ensure profitable returns to the investment.

     

    Saint Dracula 3D the world‘s first 3D Dracula movie is the first project under NRIPA. It has already made it into the Oscar selections in different categories this year with the help of NRIPA.

  • Vishwaroopam’s theatrical release postponed to 25 Jan

    Vishwaroopam’s theatrical release postponed to 25 Jan

    MUMBAI: Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan‘s upcoming film ‘Vishwaroopam‘ will now release on 25 January instead of 11 January, the earlier decided date of release.

     

    The Rajkamal Films International‘s movie that was to release on DTH platforms on 10 January was called off by Haasan after the opposition from the theatre owners as it would have affected their business. It is now uncertain when the movie will air on DTH platforms.

     

    Haasan said in a press statement, “Based on the unstinted support of theatre owners and distributors fraternity, ‘Vishwaroopam‘ will release in over 500 screens across the State of Tamil Nadu. I appreciate the exhibitors and distributors brethren for having understood my vision for creating a new revenue stream for the film producing community through DTH.”

     

    “In line with the postponement of the release date of the movie ‘Vishwaroopam‘ (Tamil and Telugu)/‘Vishwaroop‘ (Hindi)‘ across theatres and on the DTH platform by Rajkamal Films, we have stopped taking bookings for the movie premiere that was scheduled for 10 January at 9.30 p.m. on Airtel DTH,” Bharti Airtel CEO-DTH/Media Shashi Arora said in a statement issued by the company.

     

    Haasan has acted, directed and produced the movie. In a press meet on Wednesday, he said that he is considering releasing the movie simultaneously in both theaters and DTH platforms.

     

    The other DTH operators with which Haasan had tied up for the movie premiere of ‘Vishwaroopam‘ included Tata Sky, Dish TV and Videocon d2h, Sun Direct and Reliance Digital TV.

  • Yash Raj Films signs three film deal with Dibakar Banerjee

    Yash Raj Films signs three film deal with Dibakar Banerjee

    MUMBAI: In a tie that promises to be its long time strategy, Yash Raj Films has announced a three film co-production deal with Dibakar Banerjee Productions.

     

    Banerjee said, “This is new, promising and exciting. Adi and I have different and individualistic creative visions while sharing a tremendous synergy in our ambition to take Indian cinema to new milestones at home and abroad. We decided to embark on this venture almost immediately after our very first meeting.”

     

    “I respect quality, consistency and true professionalism. YRF stands for that. Given my style of film making and YRF‘s tremendous presence, reach and experience, this association will merge our respective expertise to create really trendsetting yet entertaining content for a really wide audience. I see tremendous potential in Adi‘s concerted plans for getting into co-production agreements with diverse, like-minded filmmakers,” he adds.

     

    While specifics of the slate are still being decided, the arrangement entails that two of the films will be directed by Dibakar and the third by his long-time associate and the writer of the path-breaking Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Kanu Behl.

  • Tips’ Race 2 being readied for release on 25 January

    Tips’ Race 2 being readied for release on 25 January

    MUMBAI: Tips Industries‘ Race 2 was flooded with association and in-film offers from over 15 brands thanks to the ensemble star cast that includes names like John Abraham, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Anil Kapoor and Jacqueline Fernandes.

     

    While global brands like Audi,Van Huesen and Tanishq have gotten attached to the film as brand associations, the film‘s marketing and promotions is also reaching a flashpoint with the star cast going all out to promote the film as it is being readied for release.

     

    Producer Ramesh Taurani said, “We are excited with the feedback coming our way for the film….The star cast is equally excited and is going all out to promote Race 2.”

     

    Apart from traveling to Delhi, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bengaluru, the team will even travel to Dubai to meet the local press and then to London for a press conference organized at The Hippodrome Casino – Leicester keeping with the mafia theme of the film.

     

    While the starcast is already shooting for several reality shows like Bigg Boss, Comedy Circus, Nach Baliye and Sa Re Ga Ma finale ,the film‘s leading ladies Deepika Padukone and Jacqueline Fernandes have also started scorching the award season performing to the film‘s hit songs at the Zee Awards and Umang Police show.

     

    If that is not all, a special game will soon be launched on the film in association with an internet partner.

     

    Directed by Abbas-Mustan, Race 2 will release on 25 January.

  • Suraj Sharma nominated for BAFTA’s Rising Star award

    Suraj Sharma nominated for BAFTA’s Rising Star award

    MUMBAI: Suraj Sharma‘s brilliant performance of Piscine Molitor Patel (Pi Patel) in his debut film Life of Pi has got him recognition as an actor and has been nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award this year.

     

    Suraj joins the likes of British actresses Juno Temple, Andrea Riseborough, Elizabeth Olsen and Alicia Vikander who are also in the running for the award recognising new talent in the film industry.

     

    The 19-year old Suraj is the only male nominee on the shortlist, selected by a judging panel that included Sherlock Holmes actor Benedict Cumberbatch and director Kevin Macdonald.

     

    Suraj had no prior acting experience whatsoever, and auditioned only because he was there with his younger brother who had asked him to come along. He was one of the 3,000 actors to audition for the role of Pi Patel.

     

    Since filming Life of Pi, Sharma has returned to studying philosophy at St. Stephen‘s college Delhi University, and intends to continue working in film making in some capacity.

     

    The award is voted for by the public and the winner will be announced on 10 February.

     

    Earlier winners of BAFTA awards include James McAvoy, Tom Hardy, Eva Green, Shia LaBeouf and Kristen Stewart.