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Tag: Emraan Hashmi

  • Rush: No need to rush to the theatres for it

    Rush: No need to rush to the theatres for it

    MUMBAI: Films on media are a genre that provides some scope since electronic media has mushroomed and the competition is killing. Rush is one such film. However, the story the makers of Rush have chosen is not new.

    Emraan Hashmi is a TV news reporter who is ambitious and wants to make it big but with honesty. That is his self created hurdle and one that costs him his job. He plans to down a couple of drinks before he even starts contemplating his next move. His love life is always in trouble and now this. But, the word spreads fast and even before he can gulp his drink, his phone rings with an offer he can‘t decline.

    Hashmi is not given much time to reflect and has to meet up Neha Dhupia immediately. Dhupia represents a TV channel owned by Aditya Pancholi; she is the facilitator and fixer for Pancholi and her offer includes all that Hashmi has dreamt of: a BMW, a multimillion pay packet and a luxurious apartment besides the attraction of heading the crime news channel Pancholi owns. Hashmi‘s job is to be the first to flash all crime news before other channels even reach the scene and for that he is assured the channel has a computer programme that can intercept phone calls of the police control rooms in 44 cities across India! Hashmi thinks this to be unethical but in addition to the lucrative offer, a little sweet talk from Pancholi convinces him to go ahead.

    Hashmi has a lover but to create scope for a couple of songs, a little flirting, some real some imaginary, has been planted in the script without dwelling on who is seducing who! Guess what, a picture of Hashmi and Dhupia coo-chi cooing makes it to a newspaper front page too! Since when did newspapers start printing about romance of news reporters? Well, that was just to add some drama between Hashmi and his woman, Sagarika Ghatge.

    It is now time to unfold the secret behind the channel‘s lead in reporting crimes before others and the reason behind Hashmi‘s big package. The reason is not simple as Pancholi had explained: a programme that intercepts police calls. It is something very sinister or so it was supposed to be, had the plot been developed properly and dramatically. Hashmi discovers that the channel and its mafia affiliates are the ones who ‘create‘ these news; they commit the crimes and the channels is already present to cover them.

    The idea is rather farfetched in an era when all the channels don‘t really succeed or survive because of TRPs; sucking up to politicians or other such lot is enough. And, who cares for petty crime news anymore? To add to the woes, the narration is straight sans excitement and the climax is lame. The film has some good songs. Performances are generally lacklustre. Hashmi is okay. Pancholi does not bother with expressions. Dhupia has little of substance to do. Ghatge has nothing to do.

    Rush is utterly forgettable.

  • Case registered against Hashmi and Bannerjee for Shanghai song

    MUMBAI: A Jodhpur court has directed the local police to register a case against Shanghai director Dibakar Bannerjee, actor Emraan Hashmi and six others for the song ‘Bharat mata ki jai’ deemed offensive by some.

    The court’s directive came in response to a petition filed by two citizens – Vikas Sharma and Akash Ojha. The petitioners representing a local outfit Parshuram Sewa Dal contended that the song was ‘offensive’ and ‘made a mockery of their sentiments towards the nation’.

    Police officials said that cases have been registered under several sections ranging from promoting enmity between groups to obscene acts and song and statements conducting public mischief of Indian Penal Code.

  • Percept to release Rush on 26 October

    Percept to release Rush on 26 October

    MUMBAI: Percept Picture ‘s Emraan Hashmi-starrer Rush is being readied for release on Bakri Eid on 26 October.

    Percept Pictures MD Shailendra Singh said, “Percept has delivered variety of cinema to the Indian audiences in the past. We are excited to present an out-n-out Emraan Hashmi thriller this Bakr Id with outstanding music from Pritam and T. Series as our music partner.”

    The film will have Hashmi play a morally correct investigative journalist with a top news channel who plunges into a vortex of violence in a deadly game of cat and mouse engineered by those he has trusted.

    Directed by Shamin Desai, the film also stars Emraan Hashmi, Neha Dhupia , Sagarika Ghatge and Aditya Pancholi in a negative role.

    Rush will be Emraan‘s next after Raaz 3.

  • Shanghai is a boring fare

    Shanghai is a boring fare

    MUMBAI: Shanghai is based on Costa Gravas‘ 1969 French political thriller ‘Z‘, which was based on Vassilis Vassilikos 1966 novel of the same name.

     

    Producers: Ajay BIjli, Sanjeev K Bijli.
    Director: Dibakar Banerjee.
    Cast: Abhay Deol, Emraan Hashmi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Kalki Koechlin, Farooque Shaikh, Supriya Pathak Kapoor, Anant Jog, Pitobash Tripathy, Tillotama Shom.

    A dream that the local government was selling to its masses in Maharashtra, that of making Shanghai out of Mumbai, inspires the title of the film without much relevance to the theme. A ruling coalition government plans to build an international business park by destroying poor people‘s slums but, as it turns out, it is just another money making scandal involving vested interests in the ruling coalition. Alas, rather than be a paean to the classic novel and film, Shanghai is rather a dirge for them. The film and its script know not where they are going! Till the film is half way through, you don‘t even know who is on which side! To make matters worse, all secrets are open to public including who could be the real culprit.

    Abhay Deol, an IAS officer, heads an ambitious project for his local government, which is called International Business Park; a project being built at the cost of settlements of poor slum dwellers by grabbing their land and resettling them miles away! The park is a prestige issue for the CM, Supriya Pathak Kapoor, and her coalition partner, Kiran Karmarkar; it is their prized trophy to win the ensuing elections. However, there is an advocate, a crusader, fighting for the cause of slum dwellers in Professor Ahmedi, a professor in the US and an author who has flown down to Mumbai from the US on a twin engine propeller airplane! Mr Ahemdi, played by Prosenjit, may be a poor man‘s idol but, from the looks of it, he is quite a debauch, in that, even as he lands in the city, he happens to have a film starlet for company. He has married one of his students and romancing yet another one, Kalki Koechlin; so much for being an idol of the poor masses.

    Koechlin is a crusader standing by her professor in the US, but her father is behind bars for a Rs 400 million fraud. If he is innocent, she does not care to fight for his cause and if he is guilty, she has no status to fight against government corruption!

    Prosenjit defies all bans and protests to carry on with his rally and address the slum dwellers when he is run over by a vehicle and that is where the other lead actor, Emraan Hashmi, steps in, in the same garb and character he has donned in his umpteen previous films but made to look ugly here for whatever reason. He is a street-smart tapori, a videographer covering political rallies as well as shooting porn videos. It is while shooting a promotional video for Kiran Karmarkar that he has unknowingly recorded a plan to murder Prosenjit being discussed on phone.

    Prosenjit is on death bed and an inquiry commission headed by Abahy Deol is set up. His chief mentor in the bureaucracy, chief secretary, Farooque Shaikh, wants him to wrap up the investigation as a judgment error by the police. The police help is not forthcoming either since the police chief is as much a part of the murder plan as well as because some enmity he has with Deol for whatever reasons.

    While the witnesses, including Pitobash Tripathy, who carried out the plan along with Anant Jog, are killed at random in road accidents, Hashmi realizes he has the proof of the plan on his computer hard disk. Deol is shocked to know who is behind these crimes, viewer is not; the suspense is hardly well guarded.

    The script of Shanghai is patchy with characters poorly etched and a lot of things taken for granted or left unexplained; it is also slow paced. Direction is lacklustre; crowd scenes seem tight and look like shot in one go and used at various places in the film. Musically, the one showpiece song, Bharatmata ki jai…, is a mass number which can‘t be expected to patronise this film.

    Performance wise Deol is restrained in keeping with his character. Shaikh puts up one more of his natural acts. Hashmi is good, Tripathy is excellent. Kiran Karmarkar could do with more expressions. Kalki Koechlin does not quite gel in the set up. Prosenjit‘s character is badly sketched and he is consigned into oblivion after a few scenes. Anant Jog, Tillotama Shom and Supriya Pathak are okay.

    Shanghai is a badly made film which is a boring fare. Having opened to poor response, it is expected to only slide further as reports spread.

  • PVR sells satellite rights of Shanghai for Rs 90 million

    PVR sells satellite rights of Shanghai for Rs 90 million

    MUMBAI: PVR Cinemas has sold the satellite rights of its soon-to-be released Dibakar Banerji-helmed film Shanghai for Rs 90 million. But it has not declared as to whom the rights have been sold to.

    When indiantelevision.com contacted PVR Group president Kamal Gyanchandani wanting to know the details of the rights, he desisted in giving information. “We will be coming out with the information soon,” he said.

    Shanghai is a political thriller based on the novel Z by Vassilis Vassilikos. It stars Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Prosenjit Chatterjee and Amin Raj.

    Gyanchandani confirmed that the cost of production of Shanghai was Rs 125 million, while print and advertisement cost was Rs 80 million. He also confirmed that 20 per cent of the all India theatrical rights have been sold for Rs 40 million and music rights for Rs 27.6 million.

    At this rate, PVR has to recover Rs 47.4 million from 80 per cent Indian theatrical rights, overseas rights and home video rights. “We are keeping our fingers crossed. Wait and watch,” Gyanchandani observed.

    The film is slated for release on 8 June.

  • Do not expect any novelty in the plot

    Do not expect any novelty in the plot

    MUMBAI: Jannat 2 is a cookie-cutter Mukesh Bhatt-Emraan Hashmi film where the hero is lured into petty criminal activities to earn money and aspires to get into bigger crimes to make more money. That is when a woman enters his life and he wants to change for the better.Emraan Hashmi‘s character need not be rewritten since it is the same as the earlier Jannat; he is a petty criminal in Delhi who, under the guise of selling fabric cut pieces, deals in country-made guns. He is picked up by an almost lunatic policeman, Randeep Hooda, who is obsessed with finishing off the business of such guns because his wife, who he loved very much, was shot dead by one such gun.

    Hooda wants to use Hashmi to reach the kingpin behind the origins of this business. Hurt in his encounter with Hooda, Hashmi goes to a charity hospital for dressing; following the cyclostyled Bhatt Brothers script where just names change along with the kind of underworld the film is going to deal with, he falls for the doctor, Esha Gupta. His pursuit finally pays off when she agrees to marry him; now he has to mend his ways, give up illegal activities and make a decent life with her.

    Hooda has different plan. He wants Hashmi to join the arms ring and reach to the top to uncover the ultimate head. As things turn, Hashmi is stuck between two people, the maniacal Hooda and the ring kingpin, Manish Choudhary. While there is no way he can get out of the trap, he also has to make sure his love, Gupta, does not find out the truth.

    Hashmi has to tread carefully within the triangle, a process which lacks twists and turns and often becomes repetitive: his scenes with the cop and Gupta, trying to get free of Hooda‘s grip, dodging the suspicions of the kingpin and balancing his act with Gupta.

    It is during first hour while Hashmi plays the tapori along with a sidekick, Zeeshan Ayub, that the film is fun. It gets predictable thereafter due to which the second half of the film loses pace at many places. His chasing Esha Gupta probably needed some more footage to add to the romance angle.

    What has changed from the formula is the location and the kind of illegal activity the film deals with, so there is no novelty to be expected in the plot. Considering this, the film needed to be a little tauter.

    Direction is copybook style. Music, which has usually been the strong point of Mukesh Bhatt films, is not up the mark here. Cinematography is good. Dialogue is mostly street variety with generous use of Hindi bad words. Emraan Hashmi has to play his usual self being a street smart petty conman. Randeep Hooda goes overboard as a cop gone berserk. Esha Gupta, luckily, does not need to show any histrionics and looks mature. Brijendra Kala impresses with mere expressions having few lines to mouth. Manish Choudhary is passable. Zeeshan Ayub shows promise.

    Jannat 2 has opened to a very good response, thanks to the brand equity created by Bhatt banner-Emraan Hashmi-Jannat success combine. However, to make profit for the distributor, the film will have to do much more business than the biggest Emraan Hashmi hit.

    Fatso is neither a comedy nor a romance

    Original ideas are at a premium and inspiration dignifies lifting ideas from the older movies. Fatso finds its roots in a 1968 Hindi film, Jhuk Gaya Asman, which was copied from a 1941 Hollywood film, Here Comes Mr Jordan, which was in turn adapted from the play, Heaven Can Wait. It has since been made a few more times in film (Heaven Can Wait, 1978, and Down To Earth, 2001 as well as for TV). While Jhuk Gaya Asman was about romance backed up with family wealth, jealousies and treachery, Fatso attempts to make this into a modern youth-centric romance-comedy but emerges as a half-baked product; more like a TV episode.

    Purab Kohli, Ranvir Shorey and Neil Bhoopalam are bum chums. Kohli and Gul Panag are deeply in love and are planning their wedding; Bhoopalam has a relationship going with Gunjan Bakshi while Shorey is the one without any ties mainly because he is big, fat and paunchy.

    Life is all fun until one day the three friends are driving on a foggy highway and meet with an accident, killing Kohli. It turns out that there is no heaven or hell; dead people only go to a department where there are hundreds of people lining up for nobody knows what; files are made on them after which they can then live without sleep or hunger or any human feelings. The place is more chaotic than an Indian interstate bus depot. The department realises that bringing in Kohli is a blunder and it was really Shorey who was supposed to be killed in the mishap. After some supposed to be funny (but not really funny) scenes, it is decided to send Kohli back on earth but since his body has already been cremated, he has to get into Shorey‘s body, who was to die in the first place.

    Wanting to make the most of Kohli‘s death, his friend Bhoopalam wants to win over Panag and dump his own girlfriend. As Kohli, in the form of Shorey, knows he can‘t convince anyone of the reality, he keeps foiling Bhoopalam‘s attempts till finally, Panag sees him filling the void in her life and falls for him. While Kohli in Shorey‘s body gets his love back, Panag has found a new love altogether.

    The problem with Fatso is that, it neither succeeds in delivering a comedy nor the moments of romance. Script is rather loose and direction routine. Performance wise, Ranvir Shorey emerges as the best of the lot. Purab Kohli is good; Neil Bhoopalam and Gunjan Bakshi are okay. Gul Panag is her usual bubbly self. Of the rest, Brijendra Kala makes his presence felt.

    Fatso has been released at limited screens with one to two shows a day but finding audience will still be a challenge.

  • Percept to release Rush in May

    Percept to release Rush in May

    MUMBAI: Percept Picture Company will release the Emraan Hashmi-starrer Rush in May, though the exact date has not been revealed.

    The film has Hashmi playing a charismatic investigative journalist who plunges into a deadly engineered cat and mouse game.

    The film, launched in 2009 as Raftaar24/7, was delayed because of ill health and subsequent death of director Shamim Desai who completed the film except for three songs.

    Creative director Priyanka Desai then revived and completed the crime thriller.

  • UTV signs Vidya Balan for Ghanchakkar

    UTV signs Vidya Balan for Ghanchakkar

    MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has signed Vidya Balan for the quirky comic-thriller Ghanchakkar. The production major had earlier signed Emraan Hashmi and director Rajkumar Gupta.

    UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur said, “It is a pleasure to announce Ghanchakkar, our third film in a row with Rajkumar Gupta. With Emraan and Vidya in the lead roles, we have managed to get our dream cast for roles that were virtually written with them in mind.

    “Rajkumar and Pervez Sheikh have written a fabulously quirky comic-thriller that will surprise audiences with its many twists and turns. We are confident that this explosive combination of Emraan, Vidya and Raj Kumar will take audiences by storm in Ghanchakkar.”

    Ghanchakkar narrates the story of the protagonist (Emraan) who is an ex-conman. He is laid back and has a taste for finer things in life. He has an ambitious wife (played by Vidya) with her own notions of the world and, therefore, gets sucked into a ‘chakkar‘ and has to suffer two thugs in the process – one with a bad ailment and one with a bad sense of humour, leading to madness, confusion and chaos and unleashing some mad cap characters in his life. Will Sanju survive the madness and prevent himself from turning into a Ghanchakkar, is the crux of the film.

    Also Read:
    UTV signs Rajkumar Gupta and Emraan Hashmi for Ghanchakkar

  • Shanghai to now release on 8 June

    Shanghai to now release on 8 June

    MUMBAI: PVR Pictures has rescheduled the release date of Dibakar Banerjee‘s thriller, Shanghai.

    The movie will now hit the screens on 8 June. The political thriller was earlier set to release on 26 January. But the producers, not wanting to have a clash with Karan Johar’s Agneepath, changed the release date.

    Adapted from a Greek novel, the movie is based on the life of politicians and their greed and has been inspired by the Costa Gavras- directed film Z, released in 1969. It talks about the present roller coaster expose of big money politics and how the common man gets his revenge back.

    Talking of the adaptation, Banerjee said, “Adapting a book into a film is not easier as many think. Whether adapted or original, a filmmaker faces the same problems and the same amount of blood and toil goes into it.”

    Talking of how the film has shaped up, the director added: “Frankly I was floored by the performances of our stars and character artistes. With Shanghai, viewers should look forward to taking some revenge…revenge of the common Indian man against the people who have money and who are sucking us dry with their vested interests.”

    The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, and Prosenjit Chatterjee. While Deol plays a bureaucrat, Hashmi plays a roadside photographer and Koechlin plays an expat – a half-British caught in a corrupt society.

  • Jannat slated for release on 4 May

    Jannat slated for release on 4 May

    MUMBAI: Vishesh Films and Fox Star Studios‘ crime thriller Jannat 2 is slated for release on 4 May.

    A sequel of the 2008 hit Jannat, the film is directed by Kunal Deshmukh, and produced by Mukesh Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt under the Vishesh Films‘ banner.

    Jannat 2 is a story about a single man‘s immense desire to make it big in life by any means. Arjun Dixit, the character played by Emraan Hashmi in ‘Jannat‘, was a small time gambler turned into a big shot bookie; this time he highlights the issue of illegal arms in Delhi.

    The film stars Emraan Hashmi and introduces model turned actress Esha Gupta.