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Category: Hindi

  • Sleaze takes over script in Jism2

    Sleaze takes over script in Jism2

    MUMBAI: Jism part of the Jism2 is an apt title in that the reputation of its female lead, Sunny Leone, as a porn star and her willingness to shed her clothes in front of the camera makes this film with a banal story idea into a hot proposal in trade, the media and finally the by-now-curious moviegoer. It has given the film great start. 
    Sunny  Leone introduces herself as a porn star at the onset; does not matter that this has nothing to do with whatever happens in the film thereafter. Arunoday Singh represents a secret intelligence force made of a select few whose existence is not on any record; he is chasing Sunny Leone for some prolonged time to enrol her into an assignment. She is willing to sleep with him as soon as she sets her eyes on him but is not sure if she would be interested in his assignment.

    A price tag of Rs 100 million convinces her to take up the assignment but she is not sure again if she should because the assignment is to go back to Randeep Hooda, who she loved immensely once and who walked out on her one night. She only has hatred for him now. That he was equally in love with her is why she is chosen to take up the job. The prospect of getting even with Hooda convinces Leone to go ahead.

    Hooda is holed up in some picturesque location in Sri Lanka. Singh and Leone land up in a cottage bang opposite him. Their cover story is that she is here with her fiancé, a PR man who has some work to finish but the real purpose being to find a hard disc on which Hooda has a list of crimes and criminals. Hooda loves Leone still as much but his new profile as an assassin compels him to keep her away from his troubled life. He is drawn to her again easily enough providing Singh the opportunity to search Hooda‘s place for the disc and to producers to put Leone‘s body on exhibition, not that she wears much throughout the film anyway!

    As Leone gets deeper into luring Hooda back to her, Singh meanwhile falls in love with her and becomes jealous as well as possessive of her. This has now developed into a love triangle. While Singh gets a couple of pecks and kisses, sex with Leone is Hooda‘s domain. The thought makes Singh furious. The proceedings are slow and rather boring with just three characters dominating the screen time and no twists and turns in the story. Songs are the only distraction but they are of a kind that one would rather hear on a system than watch on screen.

    The little excitement, though predictable, happens only at the end, when the cards open and it is revealed that the good men were not really good and the bad man was not a bad man as he was made out to be.

    In the absence of a sensible, taut story, Jism2 has an excuse for a plot. The treatment is routine. In all, there are three decently penned dialogues. The location is beautiful. The film can be trimmed and will serve the purpose of showing Leone and her Jism. Randeep Hooda as at times violent, at times tear shedding lover and at times a loony loner does well. Sunny Leone tries to act; Arunoday Singh does not.

    Besides the casting of a porn star, Jism2 can be called marketing coup of sorts where the producer Pooja Bhatt has more than doubled her investment and the all-world theatrical distribution rights holder, Wave Pictures, already has in their kitty a handsome margin of about 70 per cent. The film has had excellent opening at most places. All this notwithstanding, a couple of distributors, who have paid high price for their territory, will stand to make losses.

  • Anhey Ghorey Da Daan to release on 10 August

    Anhey Ghorey Da Daan to release on 10 August

    MUMBAI: National award-winning Punjabi film Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms for the Blind Horse) is scheduled to release across select cities on 10 August.

    “With the release of this film, we are delivering on our promise to build the brand ‘Cinemas of India‘, which endorses deserving independent and art-house cinema across India and in doing so, we showcase to Indian audiences the diversity that exists in Indian cinema,” NFDC, managing director Nina Lath Gupta said in a press statement.

    The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), in association with PVR ‘Directors Rare‘, which gives a platform to critically-acclaimed and independent films, will theatrically release the movie across Delhi, Mumbai, Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

    Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan is based on Punjabi novelist Gurdial Singh‘s novel by the same name. The film, which has been to international film festivals in Venice, London, Abu Dhabi, Rotterdam and Busan, brings to the screen the effect that years of subordination can bring to struggling masses.

    The film won the 59th National film award for best direction and best cinematography.

  • Multiplexes turn face away from Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai

    Multiplexes turn face away from Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai

    Mumbai: The producers of Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai have been left in the lurch with the movie failing to get enough screens for exhibition. It could only manage a few multiplexes but only for a few shows, it is unlike what producer Ashim Samanta had envisaged about.

    Grouses Samanta, “It seems the multiplex cartel has decided not to release non-star cast films (the film stars Aditya Samanta and Nazia Hussain) because they say that they don‘t get the numbers.”

    He adds, “However, they are kind enough to give us two shows; one in the morning 9 am show and the other at 12.15 am. At least we are better off; Prateek Chakraborty‘s From Sydney With Love could not get even one screen. Hence, they have postponed the film‘s release to 24 August. However, I fail to understand the logic as to why Krishna Aur Kans has as many as 300 multiplex screens at its disposal.”

    Samanta relates that the condition remains similar outside Mumbai too. “We haven‘t got a single screen in Hyderabad, Nagpur, Chandigarh and Jallandhar. In Baroda, we have been allotted one show. However, my film has got as many as 50 to 60 screens in Assam.”

    When inquired about the matter with Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films, the distributor of the film, he said, “They should thank their stars that they got some shows; see what happened to the Prateek Chakraborty film? With films like Bol Bachchan, Cocktail and The Dark Knight Rises doing pretty well, exhibitors are just not interested to take up non-star cast films for release.”

    Averred Cinemax DGM Girish Wankhede, “We don‘t get the required numbers for a non-star film and with several a-listed films doing quite well, we have allotted them only two shows that we could afford.”

  • Four film personalities align to develop quality children‘s films in India

    Four film personalities align to develop quality children‘s films in India

    MUMBAI: Director Onir, Paan Singh Tomar screenwriter Sanjay Chouhan, actress Tannishtha Chatterjee and noted German director Arend Agthe have decided to align to develop quality Indian children‘s cinema.

    The group will mentor 18 screenplays for children‘s cinema at the Green Screen Lab 2012 being organised by Eleeanora Images Pvt Ltd (India) and Performing Arts Lab (UK) in association with Children‘s Film Society, India (CFSI), in Bhubhaneshwar in Odisha.

    The 18 screenplays include five from North-East India as part of the Lab organisers‘ idea to bring out the many exciting stories from the neglected region to the mainstream India and beyond.

    At least five projects are likely to be chosen for development and production funding with the target to take the films to the floor in 2013.

    Acclaimed author Ruskin Bond, whose works have been adapted to the screen by directors like Shyam Benegal and Vishal Bhardwaj, will attend the Lab as a special guest, and share his thoughts on the relationship between literature and cinema with the participants.

    “The call for entry to the Lab elicited a huge response and the selection jury had a tough time picking up the chosen 18 as the quality of the submissions was generally quite high. In fact, this gives us great hope about the future of children‘s cinema, which has been a neglected genre in India largely,” said Nila Madhab Panda, maker of I am Kalam.

  • Meghe Dhaka Tara to show at TIFF

    Meghe Dhaka Tara to show at TIFF

    MUMBAI: Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud Capped Star), directed by Ritwik Ghatak in 1960, will be screened in Cinematheque programme of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2012.

    “A young woman desperately struggles to keep her family out of poverty in this fiercely moving masterpiece by the great, perennially under-recognised Indian auteur Ritwik Ghatak,” the festival website describes of the film.

    The other films to screen in this section are The Bitter Ash by Larry Kent, Dial M for Murder by Alfred Hitchcock, Loin du Vi?tnam by Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agn?s Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais; Stromboli by Roberto Rossellini and Tess by Roman Polanski.

  • PVR Q1 net Rs 78.1 mn vs loss in previous quarter

    PVR Q1 net Rs 78.1 mn vs loss in previous quarter

    MUMBAI: Cinema exhibitor PVR Limited returned to profits in the first quarter ended 30 June after a loss in the preceding quarter ended 31 March 2012.

    PVR said its net profit in the first quarter was Rs 78.1 million against a loss of Rs 132.4 million in the preceding quarter. The net profit in the first quarter was down nearly 46 per cent from Rs 144.2 million a year earlier.

    The company‘s consolidated revenues for the first quarter were up 51 per cent to Rs 1.77 billion from Rs. 1.17 billion a year earlier.

    Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter was Rs. 346 million, up 52 per cent from Rs 227.7 million a year earlier.

    Commenting on the results, PVR Ltd chairman cum MD Ajay Bijli said, “The good results is a function of the company‘s long term location strategy to partner in best mall developments in the country, its unique design philosophy, strong customer focus and a unique brand positioning. We are encouraged by the robust growth in footfalls and remain buoyant regarding the potential for box office success for the remainder of FY 2012-13.

    The standalone revenues from exhibition/production business increased to Rs 1.59 billion from Rs 1.04 billion in the same period last year, up by 52 per cent. EBITDA for the quarter was Rs. 334.4 million as compared to Rs 195.4 million in corresponding period of last year, up by 71 per cent.

    Its net profit for the first quarter was Rs 79.8 million down from Rs 224.7 million a year earlier and against a net loss of Rs 148.1 million in preceding quarter ended March 31, 2012.

    The company said its exhibition business showed a growth of 33 per cent in the overall revenues driven by strong box office performance and food & beverage revenues.

    During the quarter under review and subsequent period the company added 13 screens at Jalandhar, Ujjain and Ludhiana. The company at present operates 41 properties with 179 screens in 24 cities across the country.

    The company has significant expansion plans and intends to add another 69 screens in the remainder of 2012-13 in key markets like Pune, Bangalore, Nagpur, Mumbai, Mysore, Bilaspur, Panipat, Kolkata and Vijayawada.

    The company‘s subsidiary PVR bluO is also setting up bowling centers across the country with four new centers with 80 lanes slated to open in FY 2012-13.

  • Vasan Bala’s Peddlers to show at TIFF

    Vasan Bala’s Peddlers to show at TIFF

    MUMBAI: After garnering a fantastic response whilst competing at the International Critics Week at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival recently, Vasan Bala‘s Peddlers, starring Gulshan Deviah, Siddharth Menon, Kriti Malhotra and Nimrat Kaur, is all set to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year.

    The film has been programmed for the City-to-City section with an aim to bring global cities to Toronto audiences where the focus will be on Mumbai this year.

    Produced by Guneet Monga and Anurag Kashyap, Peddlers has definitely been creating an impact with the buzz around it in India and in the international festival circuits. Speaking about the film, Guneet Monga said, “TIFF is among world‘s top movie events, and is a gateway for international films into the North American region. We are very proud and honored to have not one, but four of our films including Peddlers at the festival this year. Eros International saw the potential in the film the moment they saw it and decided to back it up.”

    Interestingly, Peddlers is Vasan Bala‘s directorial debut. Prior to Peddlers, Bala assisted Kashyap on Dev D, That Girl In Yellow Boots among others and partnered with him as the associate director of Michael Winterbottom‘s Trishna that was filmed in India.

    Talking about his first film, Bala said, “It‘s great that the film has been selected at Toronto after Cannes. Since the French press sighted a very American independent influence on the film, I am quite curious how it will be received here.”

  • Delhi can be a gateway to north India for filmmaking: Dr Kiran Walia

    Delhi can be a gateway to north India for filmmaking: Dr Kiran Walia

    NEW DELHI: Delhi has the potential of becoming the film city for north and north-east India.

    Delhi Women and Child Development and Languages Minister Dr Kiran Walia said the Delhi government had already worked to make Delhi the cultural hub of the country and would be eager to help in turning the city into a film hub if concrete suggestions were made by anyone.

    Inaugurating a two-day meet on ‘Is India’s next film city?‘ as part of the 12th Osian’s Cinefan Festival for Asian and Arab Cinema, she said Delhi can become a film production centre as a gateway to north and north-east India.

    She said that things could be worked out if any party came forward for this purpose, adding that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had asked her to convey this sentiment.

    Delhi Tourism is also close to working out a policy whereby it will facilitate film shooting in the national capital territory region. Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation Managing Director G G Saxena said a booklet would be issued soon about the facilities that can be offered to filmmakers.

    Earlier, Osian’s chairman Neville Tuli announced that his group was setting up a museum which will house material relating to the arts, Osianama, in Delhi as its contribution towards helping Delhi grow as a major hub of cultural activities. He said cinema can play a complimentary role in this endeavour.

    He said it was unfortunate that filmmakers never left the infrastructures they built for their films for others to use, otherwise Delhi would have had enough infrastructure by now.

    He was categorical that it was wrong to depend on the government for everything as it had no role in a private endeavour. Even monuments where filmmakers decide to shoot their films should be given on payment.

    Delhi can embrace cinema in a more systematic way, and there has to be a ‘jugalbandi’ (collaboration) between the government and the private sector.

    Bobby Bedi said it was unfortunate that cinema’s role had never been seen as culture. He said this country is held together by cricket and cinema, apart from language – English or Hindi. Thus cinema plays a major national role.

    There is, therefore, a strong case for establishing cinema in north India as a gateway to the north and the north-east.

    He said it was a cakewalk to shoot films in Delhi as compared to Mumbai, and so it was for the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to approve this. And there were ample places available in the NCR outside the main city for developing a film city.

    However, eminent filmmaker Shekhar Kapur did not feel that Delhi could be a film hub because all the decision makers were in Mumbai and all the talent moved out of Delhi to Mumbai. He said that there was need to open more institutions to train people in filmmaking if Delhi was to become a hub, adding that he regretted that the talent from the National School of Drama did not stay in the capital. He also said that most of the decision makers – the producers – were in Mumbai.

    Creative people needed creative environments and could not flourish in a bureaucratic city.

    Sudhir Tandon of Osian’s who is coordinating the two-day meet said the aim of Osian’s was to start a debate on the subject.

    Meanwhile, the Government is close to drawing up a plan for single-window clearance system for those wanting to shoot in the country.

    Eminent filmmaker Bobby Bedi said the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had been working on this for several months and was very close to finalising the details of the policy.

  • MAMI announces new Indian competition section

    MAMI announces new Indian competition section

    MUMBAI: The 14th Mumbai Film Festival organised by MAMI will take place from the 18 to 25 October. And in the run up to the gala event, the organisers have begun accepting entries for the Indian film competition titled India Gold 2012.

    This competition has been specially introduced this year by the 14th Mumbai Film Festival to celebrate the 100 years of Indian Cinema. It aims at showcasing the best of Indian Cinema. Henceforth, this section will become an annual part of the festival.

    This new competition section will carry total prize money of Rs 15 lakhs in addition to the Golden and Silver Gateway trophies.

    Open to all Indian filmmakers having made their film post November 2011 and having their Indian premieres, are eligible to apply for this section. The special section, that will be adjudged by a panel of international Jury members, becomes the first Indian Award to be judged by an International Panel.

    This initiative comes in addition to the International Competition section offering total prize money of USD 150,000.

  • Bollywood Festival of Norway from 7-14 Sept

    Bollywood Festival of Norway from 7-14 Sept

    MUMBAI: The Bollywood Festival Norway, one of the biggest Film festivals happening in the country, will be celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema. On the occasion, the festival organizers have planned to highlight and screen the best of Bollywood and show the true meaning of Hindi Cinema. The highlight of the Festival, will be the presence of Hema Malini along with daughters Esha and Ahana Deol.

    Said Festival Director Nasrullah Qureshi, “This is Hema Malini‘s first visit to Norway, the country in which the Nobel peace prize is given out. It will be an honor for Bollywood festival Norway to have Hema Malini as our guest.

    “Our previous guests have been personalities like Anil Kapoor, Amisha Patel, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Manoj Bajpayee, Prem Chopra Neha Dhupia, Padmini Kolhapure, Sharman Joshi, Sonakshi Sinha and Salman Khan to name some.”

    The Bollywood festival Norway aims to promote Indian culture, dance and cinema in Norway, and have been doing so for the past 10 years with great friends from the Indian film industry.

    Not only that, the festival will be celebrating its 10 years with dance show at Oslo concert house on 9 September with Hema Malini, Esha Deol, and Ahana Deol performing a classical dance presentation in Odissi and Bharat Natyam.

    The Indian dance and film festival runs from 7 to 14 September.