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Category: Movies

  • Zeenat Aman, Raj Babbar reunite after 30 years

    MUMBAI: Thirty years after their appearance in B R Chopra’s Insaaf Ka Tarazu made in 1980, Zeenat Aman and Raj Babbar have reunited in director Raja Bundela‘s upcoming film Dil To Deewana Hai. 


    The film is due for release on 27 August.


    Aman plays a single parent Malaysian woman. Apart from Aman and Babbar, the film marks the debut of Aamir Khan‘‘s brother Hyder Ali and popular South Indian actress Sadaa into Hindi cinema.


    Dil To Deewana Hai is the story about people who migrated from India to different parts of the world by sacrificing their family and culture and their return after a period of 15 to 20 years.

  • B4U to release Mel Karade Rabba on 16 July

    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.

  • Ashok Vishwanathan’s Gumshuda ready to release

    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.
     

  • Swiss govt sets Polanski free

    MUMBAI: The Swiss government‘s reported decision not to extradite film director Roman Polanski has the US government disappointed. In spite of the decision, a state department spokesman said that it would continue to seek Polanski‘s arrest on charges he had sex with an underage girl in 1977.


    Freeing the director,the Swiss justice ministry said the US had not made a convincing argument for Polanski‘s extradition and hence he was being freed. Yesterday Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf announced that “the measures taken to restrict the freedom of Polanski had been lifted.


    Polanski has reportedly left his chalet in the Alpine resort of Gstaad where he was held under house arrest for eight months.


    The Swiss justice ministry said that the US had failed to disprove Polanski‘s argument that he fled before sentencing in 1978 because he believed the judge would renege on a plea agreement.


    Polanski was originally charged with six offences including rape and sodomy over the 1977 case. In 1978, he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex following a plea bargain. He then served 42 days in prison. The director was taken into custody in Switzerland in September while collecting a lifetime achievement award at the Zurich Film Festival.


    Polanski, whose films include Rosemary‘s Baby and The Pianist, was moved from prison and placed under house arrest in early December.

  • Harvey Pekar dies at 70

    MUMBAI: Harvey Pekar, who chronicled his travails as a low-level filing clerk in the comic series American Splendor that was made into an award-winning 2003 film expired at the age of 70.


    Pekar, who had a range of ailments including prostate cancer, high blood pressure, asthma and clinical depression was found dead by his wife, Joyce Brabner in their house in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.


    An employee of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cleveland until he retired in 2001, Pekar became friends with underground comics creator Robert Crumb through their mutual love of jazz and began contributing stories to The People‘s Comics in the 1970s. Starting 1976, Pekar started publishing tales under the title American Splendor, with Crumb serving as the series‘ first illustrator.


    During the ‘80s, the success of his comics as well as his mordant sense of humor brought him close to David Letterman. This association led to a series of appearances on Letterman‘s late-night NBC show where he freely criticised NBC‘s parent company General Electric.


    After he was diagnosed with lymphatic Cancer in 1990, Pekar along with his third wife Brabner wrote the book-length comic Our Cancer Year detailing the grueling treatment.


    Their life was brought to the screen in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini‘s film American Splendor in which Paul Giamatti played Pekar while Pekar made an appearance playing Real Harvey.

  • Hindi movies continue sluggish run; I Hate Luv Stories collects Rs 320 mn

    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.

  • Lamhaa to screen at Stuttgard film fest on 23 July

    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
     

  • Four documentaries in South Asian festival in Kathmandu

    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.
     

  • Top ten films bag $101 million in last weekend

    MUMBAI: Last weekend, the top ten films notched up $ 191 million in the US.


    Topping the list was Universal‘s 3D animated feature Despicable Me that collected $60.1 million, followed by Fox‘s R-rated horror thriller Predators that debuted with an intake of $25.3 million falling into the third place. 


    Footfalls to Summit Entertainment threequel The Twilight Saga: Eclipse fell 49 per cent from its last week‘s haul to fetch $33.4 million and fall in second place during its second weekend. Its cumulative box-office gathering stood at $237 million.


    Comparitively, the first part The Twilight Saga: New Moon had raked in $235.7 million in its first twelve days as part of a $296.6 million domestic run.


    On the other hand, Disney‘s 3D animated feature Toy Story 3 collected $ 22 million and fell to the fourth place. On the whole the film collected $340.2 million in its fourth weekend.


    Finally to round up the top five films, Paramount‘s 3D live-action kids‘ fantasy The Last Airbender registered a three-day drop of 57 per cent collecting $17.2 million in fifth place with a total earning of $100.2 million in 11 days.
     

  • Spanish film director bags Crystal Globe at Karovy Vary

    MUMBAI: Spanish film The Mosquito Net director Augusti Vila has won the Crystal Globe, the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Saturday, The top award carries prize money of $30,000.


    The Karlovy Vary event also awarded Crystal Globes to Russian director Nikita Michalkov and Slovak-born director Juraj Herz for their outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema. 


    Aurora, a German, French, Swiss and Romanian co-production won the East of the West section, while Czech film Kooky roped in the Special Jury Prize.


    Earlier during the nine-day festival that had screenings of as many as 200 films received a special prize awarded by the Festival‘s president.