Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: Vishesh Films is planning to make a sequel of its 2004 hit movie Murder.

Though Murder was directed by Anurag Basu, the sequel will be handled by Mohit Suri.

Emraan Hashmi will continue play the male protagonist in the sequel. The search is on for the one who will play the female lead, earlier enacted by Mallika Sherawat.

As for the story and script of the film, Suri avers, “Right now, I am adding the finishing touches to the script. I guess in about a week or two, it will be finished and only then will we be actually rounding the script to see if any modifications are needed.”

After about three weeks for the script to get ready, the cast will be finalised.
 

Directer: Jennifer Lynch Producer: Govind Menon, Vikram Singh, Ratan Jain, William Sees Keenan Starring : Malika Sherawat, Divya Dutta, Priyanka Rawat, Irrfan Khan, Jeff Doucette

MUMBAI: It is a given fact that trespassing into one‘s territory or spoiling one‘s party often leads to violence. But what would creatures do if man violates all norms for his selfish motives? We have heard enough stories of leopards or other animals killing human beings after encroaching into human territory.

Similar is the story of Jeniffer Lynch-directed Hisss. Both the male and the female snake are romancing deep inside the woods, when George States (Jeff Douchette) and his henchmen abduct the male snake, knowing well that the female snake (nagin) would follow. And that is the time when States would bring out the naagmani of the nagin that would make him immortal.

Till here, the film is understandable. What follows is a series of absurdities like the nagin transforming herself into a stunningly beautiful and attractive woman (Mallika Sherawat) who now is on the trail of States. Along the way, she mercilessly kills people who try to rape or harm her. The film goes haywire as the climax arrives and results into a drab affair.

Such stories have a high mythological value for Indians. But unfortunately, this film takes the mythological element away from the story. On the contrary, it tries to capitalise on the snake woman‘s sexy body.

Going by the fact that Jennifer Lynch is the daughter of Oscar-winning director David Lynch and director of films like Boxing Helena and Surveillance, one was curious to see her handle a creature feature to her optimum best, but what comes out is a senseless film.

The screenplay of Lynch is hackneyed with no one able to connect each frame from the other. The director seems clueless about the emotions ichchhadhari snakes evoke in Indians and she seems completely unaware about inter-personal relationships between family members in India. The film is devoid of drama, emotions, comedy or romance. The special effects are just about passable.

After a long time, here is a film where no one needs to perform. Sherawat exposes very boldly and bares her body on several occasions. Irrfan Khan and Divya Dutt are passable.

From the end-result of Hisss, it is clearly evident that in the absence of a good script a good director too becomes incapable. It‘s best to give this disjointed venture a miss for its lack of fizz.

MUMBAI: Eros International Media Ltd will release No Problem, a film produced by Anil Kapoor Film Company, Rawail Grandsons Entertainment and Software and Spice Entertainment, on 10 December.

Anees Bazmee, who had earlier directed No Entry, Welcome and Singh is Kinng, has directed the film that has Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna along with Sushmita Sen, Kangna Raut and Neetu Chandra.

Said Anil Kapoor, “I enjoy a great professional relationship with Eros and look forward to co-producing films with them. We want to reach out to a vast global audience through their widespread distribution network with our enjoyable and entertaining film No Problem.”

A gorilla imported from South Africa plays an important role in the film.

Averred Eros International Media managing director Sunil Lulla, ” We are very proud to be associated once again with Anil Kapoor and are looking forward to releasing No Problem. After seeing the film, we have immense confidence in this project and are of the opinion that Anees Bazmee has once again delivered a sure-shot ribtickler. We are extremely excited about the project and will be leveraging our extensive distribution network to have a simultaneous worldwide co-ordinated release.

MUMBAI: Rakht Charitra, Jhootha Hi Sahi and Hisss, three major releases of the week, account for three major disasters as they show very poor collections or ‘no show‘ signs

Hisss had its own problem attending to a ‘cruelty to animals‘ plea in court. Its release was cleared on Thursday, only a day before release. Surprisingly, still, it has done marginally better than both hero oriented films, Rakht Charitra and Jhootha Hi Sahi!

The first weekend figures for Rakht Charitra is Rs 39.9 million; Jhootha Hi Sahi recorded Rs 46.3 million and Hisss Rs 58.6 million. This, certainly, is a poor showing.

According to Brajesh Tandon, a veteran theatre controller and distributor for Delhi-UP Circuit, Hisss has done well at single screen cinemas of UP but has done badly at multiplexes while the other two are poor.”

Ashish Thakur, a Bombay Circuit theatre controller and distributor of regional as well as Hindi cinema, observes, “The subjects fail to appeal; while Hisss, of snake and revenge, is outdated, Rakht Charitra is dark and about South politics, so who cares in Hindi belt? As for Jhootha Hi Sahi, I don‘t think John Abraham has a following to carry a solo hero film yet.”

MUMBAI: Subhash Ghai-promoted Mukta Arts has firmed up three big budget movies that will go on the floors early next year.

The movies, the details of which are not revealed yet, will be directed separately by Ghai, Abbas Mustan and Priyadarshan.

Abbas-Mustan, who will direct a movie titled Garjann, an action thriller, said, “We will be starting the film Garjann for Mukta Arts in 2011.”

The other two films are untitled and the details are in the process of being finalised.

Says Priyadarshan, “I have few gurus from whom I learnt filmmaking from and one of the prominent teachers of mine has been Subhashji and my text book of entertaining and visual cinema comes from his films. It’s a great honour for me that I have been chosen as one of the directors to direct a film for Mukta Arts. It is a great responsibility, excitement and a big water mark for my career and I believe I can do justice to the film.”

Mukta Arts will also release a romantic entertainer, Paschim Express With Love, in February 2011.

Mukta Arts, which is celebrating its 32nd anniversary, has made films like Karz, Ram Lakhan, Karma, Khalnayak, Taal, Pardes, Aitraaz and Apna Sapna Money Money.

MUMBAI: Founder of the World Cinema Foundation and a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to cinema, Martin Scorsese has firmed up plans to visit Kolkata for a couple of days in December to pay his respect to his long lost friend Satyajit Ray.

The Taxi Driver and Raging Bull director was instrumental in ensuring that Ray was awarded with the Oscar in the Lifetime Achievement Award category in 1992.

Scorsese is expected to meet Ray‘s family and visit the Satyajit Ray Film School in the city for a tour and meet-and-greet event. He is also supposed to visit the Ray archives and check out the films that have been stored and restored.

It is expected that Scorsese‘s visit might also translate into more gifts and grants to the Kolkata institute and also international job offers for students of the film school as Scorsese will bring global limelight to the centre.

Scorsese, who is the president of The Film Foundation, has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Directors Guild of America.

MUMBAI: Shantketan Films and Movie Masti Magic Studios’ Dunno Y.. Na Jaane Kyun has been awarded the ‘Viewers Choice Award’ at the Trikone International Film Festival, Sydney.

This festival has viewers deciding upon the best film. “The response of audience was so fantastic that we had to keep a repeat screening of the film. The film is ground breaking and emotions are so real that it moves you to tears,” says Alan Maurice, chairperson of the festival. 

The film is one of the first Indian production to address alternative lifestyles and relationships among gay men. The film has a male kissing scene that is probably also first in the Indian movie industry.

Dunno Y…, directed by Sanjay Sharma, has also won an award at Mumbai International Queer Festival and its lead actors Kapil Sharma and Yuvraaj Parashar were awarded awards by the Maharashtra government for their sensitive and daring performance.

Incidentally the film also got good response at London, New York and will soon be screened at Germany.
 

NEW DELHI: The makers of the gay film, Dunno Y, Na Jaane Kyun, are upset over what they term as “double standards of the Central Board of Film Certification in India”, particularly because of the 40 per cent of the lovemaking and sensual scenes between Kapil Sharma and Yuvraaj Parashar that had to be deleted.

A scene of nude Parashar from behind has been deleted. The makers allege that just because the love making scene were between two men, instead of a boy and a girl, the censors were prejudiced, and some women members reportedly said this was against Indian culture.

The filmmakers point out that the censors have been clearing lovemaking scenes between men and women and there should be no discrimination.

The gay activists are furious since they consider that it is their legal right after the Delhi High Court judgment on Article 377, and claim that homosexuality existed even in ancient times and is also mentioned in the Kamasutra and can be seen in the frescoes in Khajuraho.

The film has won acclaim at gay film festivals for portraying the emotional conflict arising out of the protagonists’ realization of sexual preferences that are against social norms.

The actors have also been getting threatening mails from hard line individuals and organisations warning them with dire consequences if the film is released, it was alleged.

The filmmakers and the director approached the police for protection and lodged an official complaint. A complaint was lodged with the Khar police station. A petrified Parashar says, “Kapil and I are new to the film industry and do not want these people to harm us before our career even takes off.”

MUMBAI: On day 2 of the MAMI, the Film Business Centre opened to cater to the business of cinema. The scenario saw global people networking film business deals with their Indian counterparts. They were seen making deals with those of India not forgetting to ask those at its reception to fix appointment with a list they provided.

But the day would be remembered for the debate on censorship in which all forms of it came under fire. The debate saw filmmakers like Mukesh Bhatt, Sudhir Mishra, Vinod Pandey and a young filmmaker Piyush Jha sharing the dias with ex-Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Regional Office (RO) Vinayak Azad for a livid discussion.

Also present was Pankaja Thakur, the current CBFC regional officer. Both Thakur and Azad defended the government’s position effectively. Both of them welcomed Bhatt’s suggestion to have a producer’s guild member in the CFBC screening committees.

The debate that began on a sedate note, warned up midway. Emotions flared up as Vinod Pande criticised the film industry of being closeted in their own censorship issues and not fighting for larger problems.

Pande was hinting at the Mumbai University ban on Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey. Even though moderator Sudhir Mishra tried hard to divert the topic, many in the audience took his cue and debated on the extra-constitutional form of censorship practiced by political parties.

Without naming the author or the political party, Pande named ‘Such A Long Journey‘ by Rohinton Mistry and urged the industry to join the fight against censorship in toto rather than limiting it to their own world. It may be remembered that Mistry‘s book was dropped from the English syllabus of Mumbai University after the Shiv Sena raised a furore.

Pande’s conclusion, “You are talking about freedom in this country, sadly it does not exist,” had many in the audience supporting.

On his part Azad reminded the audience that CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) was not a censor but merely a certification body. When someone asked him why the censorship policy in the country was so bad, he said: “CBFC is not a policy-making body, we only implement policy. It is beyond our purview to question policy.”

The new CBFC Regional Officer, Pankaja Thakur, though not part of the panel, informed the audience that she was at the meet to gauge the mood of the industry at the request of higher ups in the ministry.

MUMBAI: Ramgopal Varma‘s latest film Rakta Charitra ran into problems in some places of Andhra Pradesh when Telugu Desam Party workers blocked the screening of it. They were protesting against misrepresentation of facts related to party founder-president NT Rama Rao in the film.

The party workers took strong objection to three main scenes in the film including one that sought to portray Rao as a timid person. Relenting to the TDP protest, Varma announced late in the evening that he would delete that particular scene and also other portions, if Rao‘s family felt offended.

The controversial film, which Varma claimed was based on real-life faction feud between slain TDP leader Paritala Ravindra and his opponents in Anantpur district, has Vivek Oberoi playing the lead role.

While screening of one show of the film was stopped in Vishakhapatnam and Anantapur districts, protests were held in Karimnagar, Srikakulam, Vijayawada in Krishna district and Tirupati in Chittoor districts against the screening of the film.