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Tag: Esha Gupta

  • Content is supreme, lyrics are vital, says Farhan Akhtar at NDTV conclave

    Content is supreme, lyrics are vital, says Farhan Akhtar at NDTV conclave

    MUMBAI: “If the story is not good, then no matter where you shoot the film it doesn’t matter. Content has to be supreme. There was a time when music became more important than lyrics. Audience would not even remember the lyrics. That is changing now. The thought that if you have one hit number in the movie and that can ensure success of the film is also changing,” said actor-director Farhan Akhtar at the NDTV conclave in New Delhi on Monday.

    NDTV saw the culmination of its Youth for Change Conclave, a day-long event that aims to focus on solutions for challenges that our youth face today. This year saw a host of personalities from diverse fields come together to address the issues that are concerned with today’s youth.

    The sessions also featured celebrities like Kangana Ranaut, Ajay Devgn, Arjun Kapoor, Ileana D’Cruz, Emraan Hashmi, Esha Gupta, Armaan Malik, Neeti Mohan, Irshad Kamil, Sachin Jigar and the stars of the women cricket team – Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami and Punam Raut, among others. The sessions covered issues ranging from Gender divide, challenges of fake news and is social media a bane or boon.

    Ranaut shared the travails of being a superstar: “Big cities are money-oriented, small towns are more concerned about what people – buaji, mausiji – will say. I come from an extreme environment, a conservative background. I felt stifled and just wanted to be free. On being discriminated against as a child: I could never feel pride in my lineage and I don’t feel like I belong when I go home. I want to tell women that they should fight for their own dignity, be it against fathers, husbands or children.”

    Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Punam Raut talked about setting new records against all odds.

    Raj, Captain, Women Cricket Team, said: “PM Modi tweeting about the women’s team was a moment of pride for us. My grandparents did not want me to take up cricket. Cricket is not life to me. There is life beyond cricket too.”

    Goswami, cricketer, said: “”World Cup final defeat will continue to hurt all of us. After beating Pakistan in the World Cup league match, even their fans applauded us. Unfortunately only one day out of 365 is celebrated as Women’s Day.”

    Arjun Kapoor, actor, shared his views on the gender divide: “”I am not very educated. I didn’t clear my Class 11. But, my upbringing has been such that despite this lack of education, I got a chance to move on in my life to do what I wanted to do. I don’t think women get such opportunity. I have grown up among women, predominantly with my sister and mother, and I have seen how strongly women face adversity. We should incorporate it in the syllabus itself how men should treat women. We always hear, ‘Stop crying like a woman.’ We inadvertently are implying that women are the weaker gender. I have a sister and somewhere there is always a concern about her safety. It is not just about urban or rural areas, world over security of women is an area of concern. We are moving forward and progress is everyone’s right. It cannot be gender specific. Gender parity means that both are equal not one is superior to the other.”

    Armaan Malik, singer: “I was a 10-year-old when I got to know that I am from Music composer Hasrat Jaipuri’s family. In my family everybody is a composer, I am the first one to get into singing. My grandmother makes me listen to Hasratji’s music and always asks me if such good music is being composed today as well. I feel good music is still being created.”

    Irshad Kamil, lyricist: “Today the films are closer to reality and so the scope of music in the films have gone down.”

    Sachin-Jigar, music composer duo: “The shelf life of songs have not gone down. Today lot more songs are being made and so audience has a lot of options to keep sifting through. But good songs live on for a long time even today.”

    Ajay Devgn, actor: “Always look ahead and not dwell on the past, just focus on rectifying the errors as we move forward.”

    Emraan Hashmi, actor, said: “If you are from a family connected with film industry then getting a break may be easier but at the end of the day you have to be good in acting. At the end of the day the audience is the decision maker. There is more pressure on ‘star kids’.”

  • Big Life OK Now Awards 3 celebrates the flavor of Independence

    Big Life OK Now Awards 3 celebrates the flavor of Independence

    MUMBAI: The third edition of the Big Life OK Awards is back with a bang after the success of the last two editions. The show that will air on Independence day, celebrated patriotism and saluted the freedom fighters with spectacular performances by some of the biggest names in the television and bollywood industry.

     

    While bollywood and television stars like Kareena Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor enthralled the audience with high energy performances, the anchors for the evening Sunil Grover and Varun Sharma, kept everyone in splits with their gags and comic timing.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Reliance Broadcast Network CEO Tarun Katial said, “After an excellent take off, we are excited to present the third edition of the Big Life OK Now Awards. It continues to remain our endeavour to offer our listeners the choicest entertainment across music and the entertainment industry”.

     

    The evening was filled with power packed performances dedicated to the spirit of patriotism and independence. As the leading bollywood heartthrob Kareena Kapoor set the stage on fire with her splendid performance, Sushant Singh Rajput paid tribute to the freedom fighters through his act instigating the feeling of patriotism in each and every person present in the event. While the central theme of Sushant’s act was independence, the gorgeous Esha Gupta and the bubbly Shradhha Kapoor highlighted various moods of women and issues faced by them respectively. The aerial act by Prateek and Sneha meaningfully depicted the colors of tri-color.

     

    Other celebrities present on the show were Surveen Chawla, Esha Gupta, Vani Kapoor, Jai Kalra, Kiara Advani, Daisy Shah, Mohit Marwah, Rhea Chakraborty, Shraddha Arya, Shaan along with Producer-Director Vipul Shah, RJ Madhurima and Talat Aziz. 

  • ‘Humshakals’…Dumbshakals

    ‘Humshakals’…Dumbshakals

    MUMBAI: In Humshakals, Sajid Khan tries to do one better on the Royal bard, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s one of the earliest plays was Comedy Of Errors, a play about two sets of identical twins. That was a short play about mistaken identity. On a mistaken notion that he can do better than Shakespeare, Sajid makes a film about a set of three identical sets of people who are not related. They are not separated at birth twins or triplets; they are just identical. Having taken this suicidal step, Sajid goes on to create a comedy.

     Sajid has had a successful debut and follow-up in his rise as a director of films from a standup comedian of a kind who regaled in running down film folks on TV. He had a great start with Heyy Babyy! Followed by Housefull and Housefull2. Disaster caught up with him soon after when he delivered a dud in the remake of 1983 Jeetendra hit, Himmatwala; he made the mistake of trying to better it.

    This time he makes the mistake of trying to improve on Shakespeare and that is quite a task. Gulzar presented a fairly decent version of the Shakespeare story in Angoor in 1982 where he had the advantage of two among the best artistes playing lead roles in Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma.

    Saif Ali Khan is Ashok and Riteish Deshmukh is Kumar, both childhood friends. Like Ashok is the ward of a Tata or Birla kind of family whose father is in coma and the business empire is left to him to handle. His hobby is to gather people over free drinks and tell them PJs. It does not matter that he is an heir to an empire, he still wants to be known as a standup comedian. Actually, if that has nothing to do with the film’s script thereafter, nothing or no sequence has relevance. Sajid Khan just tries to put together a feature film of 159 minutes together with whatever content he comes across, relevance being immaterial.

    Producer: Vashu Bhagnani.

    Director: Sajid Khan.

    Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Esha Gupta, Satish Shah.111

    So, Humshakals goes on to being one marathon jamboree of poor jokes, sick jokes, dated jokes and no jokes at all. And, the film is shot in UK where even the whites speak Hindi dutifully, an asylum has Indian attendants and doctors and it is India Raj in UK, a sort of payback for the British Raj in India.

    If Angoor had great talents in Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma handling two roles each, here we have two limited actors in Saif and Riteish trying to better them with three each. Yes, not to forget Ram Kapoor. I mean, how many nails can you add to a coffin?

    Till most of the first half, the film has one Saif and one Riteish after which another pair is added, both with same names and the third comes in the form of a villainous doctor’s handiwork who gives a face change to two of his assistants. Mercifully, the writer director are a easy with three Ram Kapoors, introducing them gradually.

    What do these three humshakals do? They do buffoonery in the absence of scope for showing any histrionics. But, even in buffoonery, Satish Kaushik takes the cake as he excesses by all accounts as even Akash Khurana joins in at the end. The three girls, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta and Tamannaah Bhatia remain at the director’s back and call to make an appearance when he can’t think of anything else.

    There is nothing such a script here but just an attempt to put together gags which, sadly, are dated and PJs. Direction is juvenile. Music is poor with no song carrying appeal. The use of foreign locations is not justified.

    There is nothing that works for Humshakals and, this rather costly film, will be a big jolt for its investors.

  • Saif Ali Khan to speak in Gujarati in ‘Humshakals’

    Saif Ali Khan to speak in Gujarati in ‘Humshakals’

    NEW DELHI: Sajid Khan’s films are always known for their out and out comic content and his spur full wit. His upcoming film Humshakals is just an addition to his list of this condominium films. Based on the concept of comedy tripled, audiences are going gung ho to see the glimpse of this comedy flick.

     

    Humshakals has an elaborate star cast comprising Saif Ali Khan, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta and Tamannah.

     

    What we hear is that, Saif Ali Khan will be seen speaking in Gujarati in the film fluently and some glimpse of it will be seen in the trailer as well. In fact, it was Saif himself who decided to experiment with his accent for his role to add the comic twist in the film.

     

    This is for the second time he will be seen playing a Gujarati in a film. He had played a Gujju boy in Kal Ho Na ho.

     

    “Saif had to learn Gujarati little more fluently, and since it is not that difficult a task he started to talk to everyone on the sets in Gujarati,” said a source close to the production team. 

     

    Produced by Fox Star Studios and Pooja Entertainment, Humshakals is directed by Sajid Khan and is all set to release on 20 June.

  • Chakravyuh: A let down from Jha

    Chakravyuh: A let down from Jha

    MUMBAI: In 1973 Hrishikesh Mukherjee made Namak Haraam, an adaptation of the English film Becket (1964) an all time classic. Namak Haraam was a classic of its time too and since then, every filmmaker worth his salt has dreamt of making his own version of Becket. While many toyed with the idea, no one could put together a script worth half a Becket. Now that Namak Haraam and Becket are faded from memory and unknown to today‘s generation, Prakash Jha has taken the plunge. His latest offering, Chakravyuh, is a rehash of the great classic.

    Earlier, Jha took liberties with three classics: the epic tome, The Mahabharat; the all time Hollywood classic, The Godfather; and Shyam Benegal‘s classic, Kalyug, to make his Raajneeti. This time he tries Becket at his own peril. The film is woven around the Naxal problem in India vs corrupt politicians and trigger-happy policemen. In that, the police have a carte blanche: kill a Naxal when you see one, rape his woman to complete the ‘justice‘. That is how Chakravyuh proceeds.

    Arjun Rampal and Abhay Deol are bum chums. Rampal is one born with the proverbial silver spoon but he uses that spoon to feed his poor, no-background friend, Abhay Deol. No footage or effort is wasted on establishing their friendship, how it happened or the depth of it. The director says that they are great friends who will waste their life on each other so you accept it; period.

    When Rampal joins the police academy (since when did rich boys chose this profession?) he forces his pal Deol to join too. Also in the academy is Esha Gupta, Rampal‘s lady love. They both qualify but Deol is a rebel and is rusticated for attacking an officer. After that, he vanishes from the scene for the next seven years while Rampal and Gupta pass out with flying colours. As the film begins, they are married; he is a super cop now and she heads the intelligence wing! She is in police uniform at all times; he is inevitably in mufti and riding an SUV. That is about as much glamour as you can afford in this kind of a film.

    Rampal and his police keep falling prey to same old ploy where an ‘informer‘ plants the Naxals‘ whereabouts, the police attack and are picked off like sitting ducks by the Naxals. Rampal is hit by a bullet and that is when his bum chum, Deol, suggests he penetrate the Naxals as a police mole to help Rampal defeat them. Deol, having joined the Naxals to help his pal destroy the movement, soon starts empathising with the Naxals‘ problems. He realises that they are the ones denied justice. He takes up the cause of the discriminated and goes on to become their protagonist at the cost of alienating his friend and benefactor, Rampal.

    The equations have changed, friends have become foes. But, sadly, the film has lost its plot by now. There are encounters between the police and the Naxals and the process goes on and on. This film has no story to tell really. From script to execution, everything about it is poor; include the star cast to that which has no draw. What is a principled, educated policeman like Rampal doing protecting his corrupt masters, the politicians? How does the title fit in?

    The cast of Chakravyuh reads like the maker‘s office roll call, consisting mainly of Jha‘s regular faces. It does not matter if they don‘t really fill the bill. Of his main players, Rampal, Deol and Gupta, none has a well-defined role. The only one who steals a march is the little known Anjali Patil. Om Puri and Manoj Bajpayee don‘t help much because of their sketchy characters. And it is high time Murali Sharma changed his expressions and mannerisms. The music is a letdown and the film offers nothing in the name of entertainment.

    Prakash Jha‘s story, screenplay, direction and the very idea of making this film fails to justify why anyone will pay 200 to 300 rupees to watch it.

    Chakravyuh is poor beyond redemption.

  • Raaz3 3-D: Special effects save the day

    Raaz3 3-D: Special effects save the day

    MUMBAI: The Raaz legacy continues even after a decade. But when it comes to most Hindi films, sequels usually don‘t have anything to do with the predecessor except cashing in on the title of a successful film. Raaz3 3-D, like earlier films, is also a supernatural thriller. The story having little new to offer, the film‘s draw is the brand equity of the title, Emraan Hashmi and special effects in 3-D format.

    It is a film awards ceremony and the one who has worshipped all the gods, kept all the mannats and tied all sorts of sacred threads, Bipasha Basu, rises to collect the award for the best actress even before any name is announced. When the name of the winner is announced, it is not her but a relative newcomer, Esha Gupta. Shattered Basu loses all her faith in God and takes to a totally anti-God route, that of the world of the dead, to help her dethrone Gupta and reclaim her top position in the film world.

     

    Hashmi is a successful film director. He is the protégé of Basu, the number one heroine who has taken him from a spot boy and an assistant to the position of the topmost director. She has also been having an affair with him for some years away from the media glare. But while Hashmi is now on top, Basu is losing her ground gradually as Gupta takes over her place. Basu is fanatic about her status and at no cost would she let Gupta take it away. There is a reason beyond professional jealousy: Gupta is her half-sister, being the daughter of her father‘s paramour. Basu feels that Gupta has deprived her of all things that she could have got from her father, things that were rightfully hers. Her view is that Gupta not only took away her father and her benefits but is now also taking away her career.

    Basu is advised that her gods have failed her and the only way she can get at Gupta is through the world of the dead. To execute her revenge with Gupta, she ropes in Hashmi as her accomplice. He is totally under her spell and madly in love with her. She wants Hashmi to cast Gupta in his next film and use the opportunity to serve her water from an evil soul. Every time Gupta is fed that water, she is subjected to bad dreams, hallucinations and other horrific experiences that drive her mad. This is Basu‘s ultimate objective: to convince the world that Gupta is insane so that her producers back out.

    Gupta starts losing grip on her life and is driven to the point where, at one party, she imagines a horde of cockroaches attacking her while she is in the loo. Exasperated, she streaks across the floor, making a dash for the open arena full of invitees; a just case for everyone to brand her as mad. Hashmi sees her plight but he is guilty of being a party to this treatment of Gupta. The inevitable happens and he falls for the vulnerable Gupta, something that Basu had not counted on.

    The story is predictable so it is for the 3-D and special effects to make the difference in this film. And, though Raaz 3 is not really scary, it does manage to give the viewer a jolt a few times thanks to its well-executed special effects. In fact, Raaz3 is a 3-D film with finesse thanks to Prasad and the supervision by the Weta experts. Photography is very good. While the background score by Raju Singh is effective, one can‘t say much about the songs, which have limited appeal. Vikram Bhatt has handled the film well despite having few characters to play with. The film offers the best role to Basu and she emerges tops despite playing a negative role. Hashmi is his usual self. Gupta does a satisfactory job.

    Raaz3 3-D has opened to a very good response at multiplexes and should continue to hold its own to end the weekend on a happy note.

  • 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.

  • Eros International and Prakash Jha sign three-film deal

    Eros International and Prakash Jha sign three-film deal

    New Delhi: Eros International Media Ltd (EIML) has announced it will be co-producing three films with Prakash Jha Productions.

    The first of the films, ‘Chakravyuh’ directed by Prakash Jha, will star Abhay Deol, Arjun Rampal, Esha Gupta, Manoj Bajpai and others. Written by Prakash Jha, Anjum Rajabali and Sagar Pandya, it has music by Salim-Sulaiman. ‘Chakravyuh’ is scheduled to go on floor on 7 April.

    Commenting on the multi-film tie-up, EMIL Managing Director Sunil Lulla said, “It is great to be associated with good cinema and one can expect thought provoking as well as popular film content from the very talented Prakash Jha. We look forward to this association and presenting quality entertainment to film enthusiasts”.

    Prakash Jha added, “Our association with Eros goes back to ‘Mrityudand’ and we are happy to work with them on a regular and long term basis for creating content.”