ITV

Tag: Arya Babbar

  • Zee TV presents unique new show ‘Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah’

    Zee TV presents unique new show ‘Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah’

    Mumbai: Picture this: a newborn baby, just a day old, with tiny fingers dipped in ink, their prints recorded as criminal before they’ve even spoken. This is the harsh reality for the Chitta community, where a child’s fate is decided before they begin life.

    Zee TV’s innovative audience feedback initiative, Hamara Parivar, offers a fresh perspective by highlighting an often-ignored issue. The show ‘Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah,’ set in the fictional town of Mokshgarh in Jharkhand’s Jamtara district, explores the systemic injustice faced by the Chitta community. Children in this community are labeled criminals from birth, denied education, forced into hunting, and exploited by feudal lords who dominate the region.

    Produced by Guroudev Bhalla Productions, Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah follows the journey of seven-year-old Jagriti, a determined girl from the Chitta community who rejects the fate imposed on her. Intelligent and hopeful, Jagriti questions the unfair labeling of her people as criminals. Her curiosity and sense of justice often get her into trouble, but she remains committed to challenging the unjust system. Asmi Deo, who plays Jagriti, has gained attention since the show’s promo aired.

    Aarya Babbar returns to television after an eight-year break, playing Kalikant Thakur, the wealthiest and most powerful man in the village. Kalikant is corrupt and misogynistic, bribing local officials to protect his illegal activities. When his smuggling operations are disrupted, he frames innocent members of the Chitta community. Kalikant’s rule highlights the harsh world that Jagriti is determined to fight against.

    Zee TV chief channel officer Mangesh Kulkarni said, “Having actively listened to our viewers via our innovative audience feedback mechanism – ‘Hamara Parivar’, we are taking them into a very different world rarely seen on television with our upcoming show Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah. The story strikes at the heart of systemic injustice through the lens of a young child belonging to an oppressed community branded as criminals at birth. Her innocent questions demanding only her basic rights will tug at viewers’ heartstrings, making them root for her. As Jagriti gradually evolves into a powerful voice of resistance, the show invites viewers to join her on a journey of hope, empowerment, and the relentless pursuit of freedom. With a gripping storyline and standout performances, the show adds an interesting new flavour to Zee TV’s vibrant content mix.”

    Producer Guroudev Bhalla said, “I’m thrilled to team up with the team at Zee TV yet again on Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah. This gripping narrative delves into a world where a community is unjustly labeled as criminals from birth. Deprived of education and oppressed under Kalikant Thakur’s tyranny, the Chitta people face systemic discrimination. To bring their plight to light, we have some really strong actors on board and they’re packing in impressive performances. If the show sparks conversations about social inequality and its lasting impact on real lives, we will feel truly validated.”

    Aarya Babbar said, “I’m excited to return to television with Jagriti: Ek Nayi Subah after an eight-year break. Working with this talented team has been a joy. I deeply immersed myself in my role, perfecting the dialect and body language. Playing Kalikant Thakur has been my most complex and compelling negative role yet. I’m eager for audiences to experience our powerful story.”

    Asmi Deo said, “Playing Jagriti has been a dream come true. This show stands out, and working with such a talented team has been a rewarding challenge. Jagriti is a girl of my age, but to see her being deprived of all the rights that I enjoy; makes me understand the unfortunate social discrimination in our society. It makes me value the opportunities that education provides. I’ve poured my heart into my character and can’t wait for everyone to see the magic we’ve created.”

    Jagriti – Ek Nayi Subah premieres on 16 September, airing every day at 8:30 pm on Zee TV.

  • ‘Chalk N Duster:’ Insipid tale

    ‘Chalk N Duster:’ Insipid tale

    MUMBAI: Chalk N Duster is an almost all-women game of politics taking place at a school, bearing a traditional old-fashioned name like Kantaben High School. There is a bunch of teachers, dedicated as they can be until an overly ambitious new principal steps in.

     

    Divya Dutta manipulates her way to the position of the principal of Kantaben High School by ousting Zarina Wahab from the post. From there on, she wants to convert this traditional institution into a much-in-vogue “international school.” The overpriced school would automatically render it unaffordable for poor children making it a school only for the rich. The trustee of the school, Arya Babbar, supports her whims.

     

    Now Dutta needs to get rid of the current lot of teachers. To achieve her goal, she starts harassing the teachers, changing the rules hoping this would force them to resign. While she harasses the teachers she wants to get rid of, she also rewards those who follow her line with better positions.

     

    She starts with sacking teachers she does not want. As she sacks veteran teacher Shabana Azmi, there is a reaction but the others know they can’t do anything about it. However, a fellow teacher, Juhi Chawla, takes up the issue and also gets sacked in the bargain.

     

    Babbar is delighted at the events at his school and also challenges the chairman of a rival school, Jackie Shroff, that his school will become more reputed than his. That boast proves costly for Babbar as Shroff does not take kindly to this dare. He decides to involve the media into the matters of Kantaben High School and soon a reporter, Richa Chadha, exposes the deeds of Babbar and Dutta on national television, no less.

     

    Chalk N Duster has a horde of talented actors but this badly written and directed film fails to exploit their worth. It needed the duster right when the first draft for the film was penned.

     

    Chalk N Duster is an insipid film unlikely to attract audience.

     

    Producer: Amin Surani

     

    Director: Jayant Gilatar

     

    Cast: Shabana Azmi, Juhi Chawla, Divya Dutta, Upasna Singh, Girish Karnad, Zarina Wahab, Aarya Babbar, Samir Soni and Adi Irani with special appearances by Rishi Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Richa Chaddha

  • ‘Bangistan’: Just a whimper

    ‘Bangistan’: Just a whimper

    MUMBAI: When a comedy is attempted in Hindi films, one is very sceptical, since we don’t have decent writers in general, let alone humour writers. And, in a scenario where there are no writers for comedy, the inspiration needs to come from other sources, a la foreign films. 

    Bangistan has been ‘inspired’ by a British film titled Four Lions, a crisp comedy about four UK-based wannabe jihadists.

    The land of Bangistan is divided into two parts, North and South, representing Muslim and Hindu dominance, respectively. While Riteish Deshmukh belongs to a jihadi family in North, sports a longish beard and does his worshipping as required, he is also educated and works for a call centre using an English pseudonym. However, when one client calls finds out he is actually a Muslim, he abuses and calls him a terrorist. Riteish is disheartened and gives up his job. 

    Pulkit Samrat represents South Bangistan. He is a staunch devotee of a religious head-cum-political leader who heads a party called Maa Ka Dal. Elections are round the corner and this guru-cum-politico needs some riots, which are not happening thanks to a Hindu and a Muslim religious head, Shiv Subramaniyam and Tom Alter, who preach harmony and peace. 

    There is an international peace conference, which is due to be held in Krakow, Poland, where religious heads of all sorts will gather (there are 4200 religions in the world, it seems). The jihadis and South Bangistan guru-politician may have different ideologies but in this case they think alike. Both want to bomb the conference through suicide bombers. One can’t figure out how a bombing in distant Poland will help a local, small-time politician win an election nor as to how it will help a nondescript jihadi family. And neither side wants to claim credit since the jihadis sends their volunteer as a Hindu while the guru- politician sends his man as a Muslim to blame the incident on Muslims. 

    The Muslim candidate in the guise of a Hindu is Riteish while the Hindu posing as a Muslim is Pulkit. Both end up at the same Polish airport at the same time. While Pulkit is a freewheeling guy, Riteish, though feigning to be a Hindu is a hard-core Muslim at heart. When he sees Muslims, including Pulkit, being taken away from the immigration queue for a thorough search, Riteish reacts as to why only Muslims are considered terrorists. This stand of his continues through the film. 

    Both check-in to a same accommodation, which is supposed to be the cheapest in town at 200 Zloty. Their rooms are separated only by a ceiling with a huge hole. Both have already become friends at the airport (which is the undoing of this film among many other things). As the film progresses, the two bond like childhood friends instead of playing a game of one-upmanship a la Spy vs. Spy (famous MAD magazine strip).

    The rest is not worth telling as the film goes from banal to juvenile. The original, Four Lions was a mere 97 minute while this one stretches to 124 minutes for no reason! 

    The scripting is immature and direction complies (the director, Karan Anshuman, is a former film critic). There is no help from songs and only one song shows money spent with a group of dancers. Dialogue is mediocre. So are editing and background score. 

    While Riteish underplays, Pulkit shines. Jacqueline Fernandez gets about two and half scenes and a song.

    Bangistan is a mess of a film with no hope at the box office. 

    Producers: Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani

    Director: Karan Anshuman

    Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zachary Coffin, Shiv Subramaniyam, Tom Alter, Arya Babbar

    ‘Jaanisaar’: Lifeless

    In his career spanning almost four decades as a filmmaker, Muzaffar Ali has attempted a total of seven films and has four released films to his credit. His debut with Gaman was impressive and the film that earned him laurels was Umrao Jaan. Both boasted of immortal music in lyric and songs. Ali tried to take up a social cause with Aagman, a film about exploitation of UP sugarcane farmers of Awadh, which did not quite work. Umrao Jaan was about that region and now, Ali’s latest, Jaanisaar is also about Awadh. 

    The story goes back to what is now called the first war of independence, in 1857. Among those killed by the British in this war were the mother and father of Imran Abbas. The British and Queen Victoria select Abbas to train him, educate him in Britain to make his a pucca sahib so he does not become another rebel leader like his father! 

    Abbas is now grown up and back in India with a British mindset, to the extent that he even thinks his father was a traitor and served his British masters. He has been brainwashed. He has no issues with that since he plans to do the same. Abbas’s maternal grandfather, Dalip Tahil is taking care of the state while he is away. When he realises that Abbas is totally angrez, he decides to instill some local language and culture in him. To this end, he sends him to a kotha run by Beena Kak where Abbas falls in love with one of the dancers, Pernia Qureshi. It seems to be a norm in Ali’s films, if not in Awadh, for royals to fall in love with tawaifs. Pernia falls in love too without any preamble.

    While, Abbas and Pernia are busy romancing, the shots are called by the local British agent, Carl Wharton, who treats his wife like dirt and the only way he enjoys his sex is through sadomachism, his imagination being limited to almost strangling his wife in the process. She in turn, enjoys leering at Indian royals. Carl, the sadist, loves to kill people and collect his victims’ finger as a souvenir. This has nothing to do with the main plot except to suggest how bad the British were to no effect.

    Abbas’ grand father plots to separate Abbas and Pernia. Some futile emotional scenes follow and both are back together again after Abbas finds her in the care of Muzzafar Ali, who is also a rebel and colleague of his father in the war of independence and a mentor of Pernia, who has been training in some sort of lathi wielding. Ali, Abbas and Pernia decide to take the war to Carl’s door through, which they think they will destroy the British Raj.

    The climax ends in a Wild West sequence where Carl is riding on a train when the duo and Ali along with his gang decide to ambush him. 

    As far as story, script, direction are concerned, this film is a total let down. Even a newspaper report would be more interesting than this 124-minute torturous saga. If music was the heart and soul of Gaman (Jaidev) and Umrao Jaan (Khayyam), here Ali takes it upon himself to compose songs, and it is just another drawback. In nutshell, there is nothing working for this film.

    There is nothing to performances as well since they are all bad, except, to an extent, Kak, who makes an effort. Most don’t even fit the roles assigned. 

    Jaanisaar is poor in all respects and will find it hard to attract the audience.

    Producer: Meera Ali

    Director: Muzaffar Ali

    Cast: Imraan Abbas, Pernia Qureshi, Dalip Tahil, Carl Wharton, Beena Kak, Muzaffar Ali

  • Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola: Bharadwaj fails to enthrall

    Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola: Bharadwaj fails to enthrall

    MUMBAI: Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is a Haryanvi film made in Hindi and English. When the characters don‘t add ‘Se‘ to end a sentence like Hai in Hindi, Aahe in Marathi, Chhe in Gujarati, they are speaking immaculate Hindi or English. This time, the ardent Shakespeare devotee, Vishal Bhardwaj attempts to create his own masterpiece. He has Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma at his disposal but he chooses veteran Pankaj Kapur to be his star attraction.


    Producers: Vishal Bhardwaj, Fox Star India.

    Director: Vishal Bhardwaj.

    Cast: Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapur, ShabanaAzmi, Arya Babbar.

    Kapur‘s character is inspired from a Rajshri film, Sunayana (which was ‘inspired‘ by a Charlie Chaplin classic, City Lights) where a drunkard rich man has split personality, all heart when drunk and a tyrant when sober. The rest is loosely strewn around him.

    Kapur is Mr Mandola, the tycoon in a village populated of 300 farmers. His home is palatial and the village Mandola, district Rohtak, Haryana state, is named after his family. He is a single parent to his only daughter, Sharma, who has been away most of her growing years, first studying in Delhi and later attending Oxford. Since Kapur has this problem where after four pegs he tends to get generous and will donate his fortune, he has employed a retainer, Matru, played by Khan. His job is to drive Kapur around and stop him from drinking after fourth peg. Kapur is bent on quitting alcohol but lacks willpower. He has another problem. His preferred brand of alcohol is Gulabo and every time he tries to go off drinks, he sees a pink buffalo, which only makes him drink again.

    Kapur is a land-grabbing tycoon who has dreams of turning the village of Mandola into another Gurgaon, filled with malls, multiplexes, corporate parks et al. Sharing Kapur‘s dream is the state CM, Shabana Azmi. She is obsessed by Pragati-progress-and has one eye on Kapur‘s estate and the other on Delhi, for ultimate power. To keep Kapur in check, she keeps romancing him and playing footsie with him while planning to marry her son, Arya Babbar, to Kapur‘s daughter.

    So, what does the hero Khan do for there is no romance happening in this film? He plays retainer to Kapur by the day, is his drinking partner by night and also plays a Zorro like character on the side, a saviour of the village people whose land he wants to save.

    Azmi, once she is in Mandola, forgets her state and acts like the CM of the village! Along with Kapur, she tries all sorts of tricks to make sure the crop is destroyed and the farmers are compelled to sell their land. One of the tricks is to invoke the rain gods to flood the village and ruin the harvested crop stored all around the village. The prayers work and crops are destroyed. If this is comedy, it does not work on the audience.

    That is the problem with Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola. Tagged as a romantic comedy, it fails on both counts. There is no romancing at all and the comedy is pathetic and juvenile. In fact, the first time one chuckles is a good 40 minutes into the film. There being no story as such, the film needed gags but they are sorely lacking. The film‘s co-writer, music composer and director fails on all counts. Gulzar‘s lyrics are uninspiring. And why did this charade have to last 150 minutes?

    Nothing much is expected from stars in this kind of film. Still, Kapoor, the veteran master, excels. To pit Khan against him is merciless act. Sharma is okay. Azmi‘s casting raises expectations but the characterisation is too bad for her to deliver. Babbar‘s job is to clown around and he is not good at that.

    Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is poor at multiplexes and very poor at single screens. If it sustains through the week, it is only because the exhibitors have no other option to feed their screens.

     
    Gangoobai: Feel good movie

    Producer: National Film Development Corporation Ltd.

    Director: Priya Krishnaswami.

    Cast: Sarita Joshi, Purab Kohli, Meeta Vasisht, Raj Zutshi, Gopi Desai, Rushad Rana, Nidhi Sunil, Behram Rana, Ankita Shrivastav, Aparna Khanekar.

    MUMBAI: Gangoobai is mostly a Mumbai-centric subject; one which would have had some relevance in 1960s or thereabouts. It is a feel-good film in which there are no grey shades. All are positive, caring and considerate.

    Gangoobai is portrayed by veteran stage and TV artiste Sarita Joshi. She works as domestic help in Matheran, a hill station near Mumbai. Her employers visit their bungalow once a month and are generous. That is except for one young girl, Ankita Srivastava, who stays put in Matheran and is rude and abusive with Gangoobai. But Gangoobai is oblivious to all that because she is nurturing a dream since she saw Srivastava in a Parsi Gara sari. The sari is worth Rs 45,000 but that is no deterrent for Gangoobai; she wants to own one soon. She promises her dead husband‘s picture she will get one. He had wished to gift her beautiful sari but died in an accident before he could. (This should have come in a flashback when she makes up her mind but comes much later in the story.)

    Gangoobai stretches her limits and takes up multiple assignments to collect the money. Finally, when she has collected Rs 50,000, she descends on Mumbai with a plan to visit the shop, buy the sari and return to Matheran by the evening. But what she thought was a shop was actually a boutique where saris are designed exclusively and displayed in live ramp shows to be picked up by discerning and rich clients. With her appearance, Gangoobai is not entertained by the manager, Meeta Vasisht. But after seeing Gangoobai‘s determination and listening to her story, she melts and makes place for her to attend the ramp show.

    Gangoobai chooses her sari and plans to go back. But it turns out that the sari she chose is a demo piece and she has to wait a week before they can have a new one ready for her. Her host for her stay is Purab Kohli, the store cashier. Nidhi Sunil is her escort to his house. While in Mumbai, Gangoobai wins over everybody who comes in contact with her. They all are nice, kind-hearted people and take her as one of them.

    Gangoobai returns to Matheran with her sari to face another twist of fate but the end is very happy for her because the film is all syrup.

    Gangoobai has been given a very limited release with a show a day only in Mumbai and few centres of Maharashtra.