Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Cause Entertainment is co-producing its maiden film, A First Class Man, with UK-based Picture Palace Productions.

Cause Entertainment, a fund established to invest in socially conscious movies, is fully financing the mid-budget English language film. Picture Palace Productions will provide production help for the movie which is being partly shot in the UK.

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, the movie is based on the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Based on the play of the same name by David Freeman, the film follows the life of Tamil Nadu-born Ramanujan (1887-1920), who had no formal education but devised mathematical theories that were years ahead of his time. He was invited to Cambridge by mathematician G.H. Hardy who was astounded by the content of Ramanujan‘s Note books when he posted them from Chennai.

Spottiswoode has directed films like And The Band Played On, Air America and the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. His last feature, The Children of Huang Shi, was a Sino-Australian co-production that filmed in China starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Radha Mitchell.

Ramanujan has already been the subject of several books and plays but this project marks the first time his life has been depicted in a feature film. The film will also be used as a platform for social action initiatives in the area of education that are being devised by the team at Cause Entertainment.

The film, now in the pre-production stage, will start rolling in May. While the first schedule will take place in the UK, the star cast and crew will return to India for the second schedule.

Cause Entertainment‘s Vicky Dhir is one of the three principal directors of the fund along with Aditya Mehta and former Sony executive Uday Singh. The fund also has two advisory boards – a creative board including filmmakers such as Anurag Kashyap, Prahlad Khakkar and Aparna Sen, and a corporate board including executives such as Alex Kuruvilla, Sony Entertainment CEO Manjit Singh, Rajat Jain and Bobby Bedi.
 

MUMBAI: The Quebec Government has tied up with three Indian entities to organise ‘Quebec Films Festival‘ in Mumbai from 28 to 31 January at the YB Chavan Centre.

The festival, organised in collaboration with the YB Chavan Centre, Federation of Film Societies in India (FFSI) and Prabhat Chitra Mandal, will screen a selection of films from that country that include C.R.A.Z.Y. (28 Jan), The Dog who stopped the War, I Killed My Mother, The Fight and Continental -A Film Without Guns (all 29 Jan), I Remember and Mommy is at the Hairdresser‘s (30 Jan) and Seducing Doctor Lewis (31 Jan).

Besides the festival, Prabhat Chitra Mandal will also release a Marathi book titled ‘Satyajit Ray Aani Bhartiya Manvantar‘ written by Dr. Shyamala Vanarase. This will be followed by the screening of two documentaries on the career of Satyajit Ray – Satyajit Ray and Goshta Pather Panchalichi. The event will be held at Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre on 3 February.
 

MUMBAI: The release of Madhur Bhandarkar‘s Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (DTBHJ) has been advanced by two days. Now, the film will release on Republic Day instead of 28 January as originally scheduled.

Kumar Mangat Pathak, the producer of the film, said: “We just thought that this will be a special and a different entertaining treat for our audience on Republic Day. Hence we have advanced the release date.” 

DTBHJ is a romantic comedy starring Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya in the male leads opposite Shruti Hassan, Shazahn Padamsee and Shraddha Das.

It is for the first time that Bhandarkar, who has till yet made realistic, hard hitting films, has ventured into directing a romantic comedy.

Released by Baba Arts, the music in the film is by Pritam and is on T-Series.

MUMBAI: Yamla Pagla Deewana, which was promoted probably as the last hurrah of the family patriarch Dharmendra, manages just about average collections.

With a decent opening, the first weekend ended with Rs 225 million. The movie itself has been sold at the same price as the others in demand. Collections have started dropping further Monday onwards and Yamla Pagla Deewana may settle at being a below average fare.

The other release of the week, Turning 30!!!, is best forgotten. It is a pretentious film aimed at the multiplex auduience but does not really cater to any target segment.

All the other recent releases have been losers including Tees Maar Khan.
 

MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan and Vidya Balan have won the best actor (male and female) awards in the popular category at the Zee Cine Awards 2011, held in Singapore on Friday.

SRK won the award for role of autistic Muslim man in My Name Is Khan, while Balan won for essaying the role of a widow in Ishiqiya.

Meanwhile, Salman Khan starrer Dabangg with nine won the maximum awards in different categories, excluding that in the best actor. Dabangg won Best Film, Best Debut Female for Sonakshi Sinha, Best Debut Director for Abhinav Kashyap, Best Song (Munni Badnaam Hui) and Best Music (Sajid-Wajid) among other awards.

The best actor and best actress awards in the jury section went to Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan both for Guzaarish.

Karan Johar won best Director in the popular section for My Name Is Khan while Vikramaditya Motwane won the jury award for Udaan.

Ranveer Singh got the best debutant male award for his role in Band Baaja Baarat, while Rishi and Neetu Kapoor got Evergreen Couple Award. Shatrughan Sinha was conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award ceremony was high on the star presence. SRK, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Arjun Rampal were all there among others. It will be aired on Zee TV on 30 January at 8 pm.
 

NEW DELHI: The applauded and award-winning biopic “Bose – The Forgotten Hero” will be released as a home video on 23 January which marks the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Produced by Sahara India Pariwar and Sahara Motion Pictures, the film directed by the renowned Shyam Benegal is being released as a home video by Indikino Edutainment in association with Rudraa Entertainment. The film has been specially mastered for the Home Video release and will be available on DVD and VCD at all leading outlets countrywide under the Rudraa Home Video label that is well known for its selection of award-winning films.

Starring the well known character actor Sachin Khedekar as Netaji, the film depicts the last five years of the life of the Indian Independence leader. Starting out at the point where Bose resigns from his position as the president of the Indian National Congress (I.N.C.) to the meeting with Italians by crossing Afghanistan‘s rugged terrains and entering into Europe, his appointment with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, to his inspiring of the Indian P.O.W.s of the ‘Punjab Regiment‘ of the British army for fighting against the British forces in India, to the patriotic speeches, some U-Boat (submarine) scenes and finally the battle in Burma with Japanese emperor Tojo‘s assistance during the Second World War, the film ends with a radio announcement of his death.
 
With music by Oscar award winning composer A. R. Rahman, the film is a testament to India‘s struggle for Independence, and stands out for its scale and magnificence amongst the various films made on India‘s leaders including Attenborough‘s “Gandhi”, Ketan Mehta‘s “Sardar” and Dr. Jabbar Patel‘s “Ambedkar”. The term “Forgotten Hero” in the title is testimony to the fact that people today do not seem to remember that Netaji was the one who came up with the slogan Jai Hind. Netaji chose Rabindranath Tagore’s Jana Gana Mana as his preferred national anthem for the free India he was fighting for, and wanted Hindustani to be the national language. Even while paying ritual obeisance on 23 January each year, people have forgotten all about his real contribution.

Sachin Khedekar, essaying the role of Netaji, is supported by a superb ensemble cast including Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapur, Divya Dutta, Ila Arun, Rajpal Yadav, Lalit Tiwari and Arif Zakaria. With noted nationally and internationally feted director, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee and Dadasaheb Phalke award winner Shyam Benegal at the helm, the film also had a stellar team of technicians working on it, including writers Shama Zaidi and Atul Tiwari, cinematographer Rajan Kothari, editor Sreekar Prasad, sound designer Ashwyn Balsaver, production designer Samir Chanda and costume designer Pia Benegal.

The film has been shot on location in India, Germany, Burma, Uzbekistan recreating how Netaji made his impossible dream come true and bringing to life his incredible journey, his putting together a fighting force, fighting the British, even winning some territory and coming close to actually succeeding!

The film is structured in three parts, named Itmad, Ittefaq and Qurbani after the motto of the Indian National Army. In the first, Bose escapes house arrest and tries to enter Russia through Afghanistan; the second shows his days in Germany, including a meeting with Hitler, and marriage to Emilie Schenkl, the formation of the Azad Hind Fauj made up of Indian prisoners of war in Germany and his journey to Japan in a submarine; the last shows his leadership of the Indian National Army, the battles and that fateful plane trip out of Saigon.