Category: Hindi

MUMBAI: B4U Pictures is releasing the Punjabi film Mel Karade Rabba on 16 July.

Starring Jimmy Sheirgill, Gippy Grewal and Neeru Bajwa, Mel Karade Rabba is said to be one of biggest films to come out of Punjabi cinema this year. 

Directed by Navaniat Singh, Mel Karade Rabba is a romantic, action film based around the conflicts in love and friendship amongst college students.

Since their entry into the field of distribution, B4U Pictures has released films in all languages for Bollywood, South Indian and Punjabi markets with an aim to cater and promote films from underrepresented markets.

MUMBAI: After directing a strew of Bengali films like Shunya Theke Suru, Kichhu Sanglap Kichhu Pralap, Swapner Sandhaney, Byatikrami and a Hindi film Shesh Sanghat, Kolkata-based director Ashok Vishwanathan is all set to release his second Hindi film Gumshuda.

The film, loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes thriller The Sign of Four, has Rajit Kapoor essaying the role of the investigator while Priyanshu Chatterjee will play his assistant Dr Watson. The film that has Simone Singh playing the female lead also has Victor Bannerjee and Raj Zutshi in the cast.

Though Gumshuda follows the yardstick of a commercial film, there‘s a tint of intellect interspersed within the fabric, confirms Vishwanathan. The film has Holmes investigating the Agra treasure heist incident of 1857. “Besides, I can‘t reveal anything else,” observes the director.

It was in Shesh Sanghat that Vishwanathan did a sort of casting coup when he cast Jackie Shroff opposite Jayaprada and former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh.
 

MUMBAI: Hindi movies continued their sluggish run at the box-office with the lone exception of I Hate Luv Stories that collected Rs 320 million in its first eek.

The previous week‘s two releases – Milenge Milenge and Red Alert – The War Within – failed to garner enough eyeballs.

Avers trade analyst Taran Adarsh, “Both the films didn’t have a good opening. While the Boney Kapoor film was generally dull at the plexes, it was slightly better at some single screens. The T P Agarwal film, despite appreciation and critical acclaim, also opened to a lukewarm response.”

Next Friday will witness the release of three contrastingly opposite films in Lamhe, Tere Bin Osama and Udaan. While Lamhe centres around terrorist activities in Kashmir, Tere Bin Laden is a satire and Udaan deals with a child’s dreams and aspirations.

MUMBAI: Bunty Walia‘s Lamhaa will be screened at the 7th edition of Indian film festival ‘Bollywood and Beyond‘ of the Stuttgard Film Festival on 23 July.

The film will be shown in two sections viz ‘German Star of India‘ and ‘Audience Award‘ section. The festival is to be held from 21 to 25 July.

Incidentally, the Vishal Bhardwaj directed Ishqiya will also be screened in the ‘Bollywood and Beyond‘ section.

Lamhaa is a story about an army officer and his love interest in the midst of the various issues that Kashmir had faced over the years. Directed by Rahul Dholakia, the film stars Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu and Kunal Kapoor.

The film is set to have its global release on 16 July
 

NEW DELHI: Four films from India will be screened as part of the Travelling Film South Asia programme in Kathmandu later this week.

The Indian films include Lalit Vachani’s The Salt Stories – Following Gandhi’s salt march in our time, which was the joint Winner of the Second Best Film Award at FSA ’09.

The other three Indian films are: Come to My Country: Journeys with Kabir and Friends by Shabnam Virmani; Saamam (The Music) by Ramachandran K which is a homage to Carnatic music and M D Ramanathan; and Out of Thin Air by Samreen Farooqui & Shabani Hassanwalia showing the high energy of Ladakhi cinema.

Films from Nepal , Pakistan , Bangladesh , Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will also be screened in the Festival from 16 to 18 July.

The festival is organised annually by Film South Asia, an organisation within Himal Southasian magazine, set up in 1997 when the first edition of the festival of Southasian documentaries was organised.
 

MUMBAI: Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Vishal Bhardwaj will jointly produce a romantic film, Dreams.

Bhardwaj will direct the movie. Though the cast is yet to be chosen, it is certain that the film will be a love triangle of two girls and a boy.

Kapoor had been toying with the idea of the film for a long time, but wasn’t able to firm up on the director. Once she saw Bhardwaj’s last film Kaminey, Kapoor went ahead and thrashed a deal with the director.

Bhardwaj is on the verge of completing Saat Khoon Maaf, a celluloid version of Ruskin Bond’s book Susanna‘s Seven Husbands. Soon after the movie is finished, he will start work on Dreams.
 

MUMBAI: The screenplay of the Dev Benegal directed Road Movie has been acquired by the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The screenplay of Dev Benegal‘s film was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival (Atelier du Cannes) and was acclaimed for its whimsical tone and its genre bending style. It was amongst 15 best screenplays from around the world.

A magical journey across the mythic landscape of India, the film starring Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik and Taanishtha Chatterjee also made history when it became the first Hindi movie to be acquired for distribution in the US by Robert DeNiro‘s company, Tribeca Films.
 

MUMBAI: Aamir Khan is in the news again. He has gone ahead and convinced the late Bimal Roy’s family to let him use the hit song ‘Dil Tadap Tadap Ke Kaha Raha Hai Aa Bhi Jaa’ of the Dilip Kumar-Vyjayanthimala-starrer Madhumati for his production Dhobi Ghat.

Permission taken, the song will be mouthed by Aamair Khan and newcomer Monica Dogra who plays the female lead.

The film has Khan playing a painter who lives and works from a tiny studio apartment in the noisy and congested Bhendi Bazar.

Oscar award-winner Argentine music composer Gustavo Santaolalla who had earlier scored music for Brokeback Mountain, Babel and The Motorcycle Diaries provides music for the film.

Directed by Khan’s wife Kiran Rao, the film also stars Prateik Babbar.

MUMBAI: Walkwater Media’s Tere Bin Laden is facing pre-release blues these days. The Pooja Shetty owned production house has brought about a change in the title for the film to release in Pakistan.

The title of the film to be shown in Pakistan would be Tere Bin as a precautionary measure. This because the situation in Pakistan is very sensitive and if any terrorists see the name Laden, they might create trouble before screening of the film, feels the distributor Ali Zafar who also plays the lead in the film.

The film’s release in the US has also been pushed ahead. It is slated to release in India along with Pakistan, Dubai, Australia and the UK on 16 July.

Avers writer-director Abhishek Sharma, “We want to see the response the film gets only after which we will release the film in the second phase.”

Tere Bin Laden is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about an ambitious Ali, a young news reporter from Pakistan who is desperate to migrate to the US in pursuit of the American dream. His repeated attempts to immigrate are shot down as his visa is always rejected.

But as things worsen, he comes across an Osama Bin Laden look alike, Ali then hatches a scheme to produce a fake Osama video and sell it to news channels as a breakthrough scoop.

MUMBAI: The ten-day Maine International Film Festival got off to a rousing start in Waterville yesterday. In these ten days, around 100 films from around the globe will be screened.

The festival, now in its 13th year, features screenings of international, independent and Maine-made films at the Waterville Opera House and the Railroad Square Cinema.

Screenplay writer Jay Cocks will receive the festival‘s Lifetime Achievement Award. A two-time Oscar award nominee, Cocks‘ screenplays include in films like Gangs of New York, The Age of Innocence and De-Lovely.

Besides showing films, the festival provides opportunities for audiences to meet and talk with directors, producers, writers and other people behind the movies.