Category: Movies

MUMBAI: The Madhur Bhandakar directed Ajay Devgn-Emraan Hasmi starrer Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji’s (DTBHJ) release date has gone back to its original release date of 28 January.

The producers of the film had earlier pre-poned the release date to 26 January. “We thought Friday is a better day since all releases happen that day. We will now release the film on Friday, 28 January,” says Bhandarkar.

Dhobi Ghat, directed by Aamir Khan‘s wife Kiran Rao, also releases that day.

DTBHJ is a romantic comedy starring Devgn, Hashmi, Omi Vaidya, Shruti Hassan, Shazahn Padamsee and Shraddha Das.

The film has been jointly produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak and Bhandarkar.

MUMBAI: Reliance Pictures will co-produce the remake of the Malayalam film Bodyguard along with Atul Agnihotri‘s Reel Life Production.

The film stars Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

The Hindi remake is not titled My Love Story. Says director Agnihotri in a statement, “Several people in the media are referring to the film as My Love Story when that isn‘t true. As official producer, I would like to clarify that the film is called Bodyguard. Hope this puts an end to the confusion.”

The Tamil version titled Kaavalan starred Vijay and Asin while Dileep and Nayantara were cast in the original Malayalam film.

The film, in its first schedule, is being shot in Pune with director Siddique at the helm. He had also directed both the Tamil and Malayalam versions.

MUMBAI: Multiplex and cinema theatre owners have approached sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports (ESS) to obtain rights for showing the cricket World Cup that kicks off on 19 February.

ESS, the official telecast rights holder of the World Cup, is in talks but is yet to take a final call as several issues are yet to be cleared.

“ESS is negotiating with several parties,” a multiplex chain chief executive said on condition of anonymity.

Last year, many multiplexes had screened IPL matches live. 

Said Cinemax CEO Sunil Punjabi, “We have had talks with the rights holder for live screening for the World Cup. There are issues like commercial rights and delivery that are to be sorted out. We are expecting that by the first week of February, this will be sorted out.”

Leading multiplex chain PVR, which had shown IPL matches live on 18 screens last year, is also working on the gameplan for this year.

“Though talks are on, nothing concrete has come out yet,” said PVR Group president Pramod Arora.

The ICC Cricket World will be played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from 19 February to 2 April.

MUMBAI: The fourth edition of SIGNS, a festival of feature, short films and documentaries, will be thrown open on 12 February by Kerala Culture Minister M.A. Baby at Thiruvananthapuram.

The main focus of the festival will be on the competition section. 57 documentaries, 58 short films and 22 feature films will participate in the competition being organized by the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI).

The best feature film, documentary, short film, ‘cinema of resistance‘ and experimental film will be given awards. The award carries a cash prize of
Rs 100,000 and a citation. There will be a special section on Asian documentaries, featuring seven films selected from the Pusan and Taiwan festivals.

While eminent filmmaker Mani Kaul is the chairman of the feature film jury, Arun Khopkar is the jury head of non-feature films.

SIGNS is organized in association with the Department of Culture, Directorate of Public Relations, Kerala State Film Development Corporation, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation.

The Festival will conclude on 19 February.
 

Producers: Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao. Writer-Director: Kiran Rao. Cast: Prateik, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra, Aamir Khan.

MUMBAI: Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries), as the title suggests, is a personal account and, hence, hard to involve others. It is about discovering a part of the great metropolis Mumbai and being amazed at it. The trick is whether the same thing amazes the viewers as well! Chances are, the exercise may become as exciting as being invited to watch a neighbour’s vacation videos.

Mumbai Diaries here are limited to the protagonist’s exploits through a part of South Mumbai, colloquially called Mumbai 3. However, in its pursuit of weaving the concept together, the film generously takes liberties with the map of Mumbai. While Aamir Khan, a painter, is in Mumbai 3, the two closest dhobi ghats where the central character of dhobi (Prateik) operates are miles away in reality. It can be called cinematic liberty that he delivers clothes where he does and even mixes up clothes to deliver Aamir’s shirt to Monica Dogra who is desperately trying to locate him. There is also a fourth track of Kriti Malhotra, the previous occupant of the house Aamir rents, where he finds her letters written to her brother through a video camera.

Monica Dogra comes to Mumbai, supposedly to work on the marginal businesses like dhobis, fruit vendors and goes on a shooting spree armed with her camera. She opens her Mumbai visit meeting Aamir Khan and spending the night with him. She is very amiable, you see! Because, next she befriends the dhobi, Prateik, is concerned about his feelings but seems oblivious to the fact that the lad has fallen head over heels for her. As for her work, all she has to show are some coffee table book pictures of people on the street. So what’s new?

For most of its part, the film meanders with irrelevant scenes like the dhobi messing Monica Dogra’s wine-stained blouse top and offering to take it back for a rewash; Dogra’s conversation with her mother on phone. And, finally, Dhobi Ghat, so titled, is not about a dhobi ghat at all!

Since the film goes in no particular direction, that aspect speaks for itself. Cinematography is good and background music effective. Editor has no role in this film.

Prateik needs to add a few more expressions to his repertoire. Aamir Khan has a job on hand, not needed to act and just be someone. Kriti Malhotra has a tough job vocalising her video letters home and does a fine job. Monica Dogra is okay.

While the Aamir Khan brand may bring in a few initial viewers, Dhobi Ghat does not offer anything in the name of entertainment and little in the name of cinematic experience.

MUMBAI: In order to make Mantra-Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab an annual event in India, the Mahindra group has tied up with Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.

Scheduled for 2012, the inaugural Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab will provide an opportunity for six-to-eight filmmakers from India to develop their works under the guidance of accomplished creative advisors.

Under the Sundance Institute-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, four visionary filmmakers from around the world will receive a grant, attendance at the Sundance Film Festival for targeted industry meetings, mentoring from Institute staff and creative advisors and participation in a Feature Film Program Lab, along with year-round support. Interestingly, one out of the four directors will be an Indian.

This initiative will extend over a three-year period, benefiting 12 awardees. Beginning in 2012, recipients of the 2011 Sundance Institute-Mahindra Global Film Making Award will be announced on 25 January.

Sundance Institute is a global non-profit organisation founded by Robert Redford in 1981 while Mumbai Mantra is the media and entertainment company of Mahindra, an Indian multinational.

MUMBAI: Zhang Lu’s Dooman River, which recently won the best International film award at the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF), will open the first edition of the Yashwant International Film Festival scheduled to go underway between 20 to 26 Janaury.

The closing movie of the festival will be Babu Band Baaja that won the Best Marathi Film Award at the recently concluded PIFF.

The festival will showcase competition films from the recently concluded Pune International Film Festival in the following sections: World Cinema competition, Marathi Cinema competition, Student Film competition and Short films competition done jointly by Pune and Goa International Film Festival Fest.

Five films of Greek director Michael Cacoyannis will be screened in a Retrospective, while ‘The Focus on Korea’ section will present six acclaimed Korean films from the last 10 years. In a special screening, four acclaimed German Films from recent years will be screened.

The ‘Spotlight on Japan’ section will present classic Japanese films. The section for short films will screen a mix of animation and live action films.

A workshop on “Choose Your Format: Film or Digital” by Ujjwal Nirgudkar will be conducted during the festival.

The festival will be held at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan’s main auditorium and the Rangswar theatre at Nariman Point.