MovieZen Bollywood Blog

July 4 – The war of the titans?

With big names of the film industry planning a blast (literally) on the 4^th of July, it sure is going to be a war of the titans. The date is fast approaching and Friday is going to see two new youngsters setting foot in the world of Bollywood. Yes, you guessed right it is Harman Baweja and Imraan Khan (actor Aamir Khan’s nephew).

The mega film "Love story 2050" is going to be released on the same date as Aamir’s “Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na”. With promotional activities on in full swing, it is all about reaching out to and appealing to the cine goer. Who would be more successful in driving home the message? Can money power actually be of any help? Would it be the success of the best man, just a few days more…and we have all the answers.

Harry Baweja has left no stones unturned in the film "Love story 2050" for son Haraman. He has used the best special effects…robots and the works. Actors Harman Baweja and co-star Priyanka Chopra are playing their parts of promoting the film to perfection. Their romantic link up too is expected to create some interest in the first film that the couple is going to be seen together in.

On the other hand, Aamir is definitely working very hard to make the launch of his nephew a stupendous success.

May the best man win… being an ardent fan of Aamir and Priyanka Chopra definitely has me in two minds. Which one should I go for on Friday the 4^th of July…..who would ultimately win in the Harman vs Imraan case…..a big gamble.

Vandana
Go Bollywood

Shamita Shetty in 'Hari Puttar'

Is that an Indian spoof of Harry Potter?

Shamita Shetty was recently shooting for the promotional video of Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors...seriously, what's with the spoofing? It's not the best time to shoot outdoors in India, however, since monsoon season leaves the weather a bit temperamental.

This is the first time she's shooting a promotional song (kind of like an item song, except it doesn't appear in the actual movie) and the wind and noise was deafening as Shamita shot the song in a short red dress.

When asked why she did it, she replies,

"Yes, I have never shot for a promotional video where I am not acting in the film. There were two reasons, one that the film's concept and the song is exceptionally good and second that the head of the production, Munish Purii is a dear friend of mine. When he approached me for the song and discussed the details, the way they wanted to shoot it, I was really impressed and readily agreed."

Hari Puttar is Bollywood's first attempt at a purely children's movie, without the adult characters conducting their own romance above (a la Vaah! Life ho toh Aisi). The movie revolves around a 10-year-old boy who suddenly has to deal with an invasion of relatives and a large number of female cousins, who end up kicking him out of his room and bruising his fragile male ego. Doesn't sound like much but it's a start.

The movie stars Jackie Shroff and Zain Khan as Hari Prasad Dhoonda (Hari Puttar).

Tigger
SoggCornflakes - Bollywood

Aamir - Brave Effort & Good Watch!

Hi Folks,

Caught the screening of Aamir and was intrigued prior to watching it. Intrigued because it had no big names, not even small one's, but had as its protagonist, a television actor by the name of Rajeev Khandelwal. There was no love interest for him in the film. This whole set up of experimentation, to me is fascinating.

What immediately caught my attention was the pace of the film. Never a dull moment, coincidently even when a lot is going on in the mind of the protagonist. It was more of one thing leading to another and another. The technical finesse of the film was of the highest order as were the songs.

From a story perspective it was average and in fact the first couple of scenes, gave away the plot to a seasoned viewer like me. Having said that, the execution was still amazing and the pace frantic. Rajeev makes a fine feature film debut and go to enhance my belief that television has a lot of hidden gems that are just waiting to be unearthed. The concept of a helpless protaganist in fact reminded me of seeing Amitabh before he became this larger than life icon. Also Rajeev's vulnerable look was something that the director of the film can take a create deal of pride in, cause that was probably his doing.

While the story was a give away from the first scene, it was not so formulaic, that one got bored. The twists were still of the highest order, without it seeming like "forced climax" or "intensity." The length was just about right and anything longer, would have meant a lost interest and anything shorter, would have meant a "rushed job."

Collection wise, this is one of the few films of recent times, that had a second week box office (in India) better than the first.

I think names like the director, Raj and the DoP, will be around for some time to come.

Sincerely,

Vivek "as mentioned it is the content, not the gizmos that draws audience" Kumar

Passion for Cinema

 

Today’s special – Amisha Patel served “piping hot”

Amisha Patel of “Kaho Na Pyar Hai” fame- the film that provided star status to Hrithik Roshan and so to say, Amisha Patel. However, things haven’t been going her way for some time now with not many good films coming her way. Her recent releases have not managed to have any major impact in contributing to her star status. To add to it, the link up with the already married director “Vikram Bhatt”. The melodrama of publicly accusing parents and splitting up with them have all got her a lot of publicity but none that is positive.

Anyway putting her past aside, looks like the future has lots in store for her and yes, good things so to say. Amisha Patel has undergone a complete make-over and is playing the role of a sensuous young girl in her forthcoming release Kunal Kohli's “Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic.” Her “Lazy Lamhe” is already soaring high on the popularity charts. The film is all set to release on the 27th of June. The children are looking forward to the film for all the magic, the masti and of course Rani. Men too are looking forward to the film for all the magic…just wondering whose magic… Men sure have their plans decided for the June 27 weekend…yes, it is all about spending some “lazy lamhe” at the theatres.

Vandana
Go Bollywood

Shah Rukh Khan is brave. Kids are stupid.

I've always hated kids. They're whiny, small and their eyes are cold and dead. The only time they show any hint of emotion is when someone else gets hurt.

The thing about kids is... they're obnoxious to even a 6'6" palwaan, but put them up against a 2 cm. insect and watch them run! Or alternatively wet their pants with fear.

That's exactly what happened recently, when King Khan went to drop his kid off at school. There he saw a frightened group of school children. When he approached to find out what was the problem, Shah Rukh was confronted by a... cockroach. Dun Dun Dun.

That's right. Just a normal cockroach. Not even an awesome cockroach with frickin' laser beams on his head (I love that movie) but just a normal everyday cockroach.

The Chak De India star, using all the skills he learned from Don proceeded to wipe the cockroach off the face of the earth with his heel, evoking wild shrieks from the excited children.

Shah Rukh went on to explain to them, that cockroaches can't really hurt anyone. But it's in our best interest to squash them just to hear the satisfying crackling of their exoskeleton... Actually he didn't say that. But I think it's true.

Is there a more satisfying sight than a squashed cockroach?

I think not.

Samurai_Sellout
SoggyCornflakes.com - Celebrities

Saif and Kareena fight at IIFA

It seems that all these two seem to do is fight with each other, when they're not declaring their love and commitment however.

Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor were seen fighting after the IIFA awards ceremony, after Kareena had performed during the show, exhibiting the songs from Jab We Met and Tashan. The Omkara stars who like flaunting their relationship to the world, have recently been seen bickering more and more often in public.

Kareena seemed happy before the show, going out with good friend Tusshar Kapoor on an auto-rickshaw ride and didn't seem to miss the company of Saif, who only appeared on the final day of IIFA. The supposed reason for the fight was that Saif did not like the clothes that she wore to the show.

Kareena walked the ramp in a demure desi 'lhenga' and wore a gold metallic dress for the ceremony, not particularly revealing, very Kareena-style, so what's going on?

Hmm, is Saif getting a bit over sensitive? He was recently fighting with sister Soha Ali Khan for her revealing Maxim cover shoot and now Bebo is under fire for her dress. Talk about possessive...and I thought I was bad when I stroke my chocolate lovingly and hiss at people who come too close.

Tigger
SoggCornflakes - Bollywood

Manisha Koirala – all set for a comeback

Remember Manisha Koirala of “Saudagar?” I know it has been really long back since one heard this name. Yes, it is our very own Manisha Koirala who is making a comeback to the silver screen after a longhibernation.

Manisha, who decided to take a break at a time when she had it going good is now all set to come back with a bang. At the time when she left the industry she had quite a few films in her kitty however, also a lot of bad press. She was surrounded by a lot of rumors of heavy drinking and smoking and also link ups with other co-stars. This according to her is what made her close doors to this world.

In her very words, “All that hurt me and I shut myself from the world. I have spent 15-20 years in the industry and still people don’t know me. I am not a newcomer to go around explaining things.”

Manisha Koirala , the bubbly young beautiful damsel made her debut into Bollywood with the hit film “Saudagar” opposite actor Vivek Mushran. Whether mistakes at making choices regarding films or …maybe people …what was the real reason for the bad patch…only she can tell.

She is currently shooting for Parto Ghosh’s “Ek Second Jo Zindagi Badal De.” She has three films lined up for the year and hopes to do her best in this currently booming film industry.

Vandana
Go Bollywood

The LACK of Correlation - Big Stars & Big Hits

So,

One of the myths floating around town is, BIG STARS in Bollywood generate a sure shot hit. Evidence proves that nothing could be further from the truth.

Clearly hit is defined, in my accountancy mind, as "did it recover it's money," 'cause collections can be huge, but so can the cost to get these stars, so what I am talking about here is the NET GAIN, after the cost of paying these huge stars is settled.

Let's analyze by specific cases:

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, Tara Ram Pam, Bhoothnath, Aaja Nachale , Laaga Chunari Mein Daag , Kisna, Marigold, etc -- all of these are just a sampling of big star laden films and small box office results.

Clearly since the stars came at very high costs, this only compounded the losses suffered by the makers. This also breaks another myth that "banner is important." All of these came from big banners!!!

The point is, the audience has smartened up. They cannot be given a weak product laden with gloss and be expected to lap it up....'cause they won't.

And in fact the above is just a sampling. If we take the success ratio of "big star films" we get a ratio of 17% (for the last two years). That's abysmally bad I would think and would want to question how a 17% ratio can be a generally accepted norm.

Now let's take the other end of the spectrum. The movies that were NOT LADEN with big actors and yet did very well at the box office (again as recognized by the fact that they recovered their money by at least 2 X times),

Bheja Fry , Mithya , Black Friday, Honeymoon Travels, Khosla Ka Gholsa, Corporate, Page 3, etc.

The above films represent close to 60% of all the films made in this category, in the last couple of years. Hence this 60% success rate when compared with the 17% rate, goes to prove that Big Stars do not matter at all!!

Also most of the small films came from "classy, but largely start up or semi big banners."  Thus dispelling myth, after myth.

Are there exceptions to this NEW ROLE?

Of course, but by and large, audience take a bow. You have spoken, intelligent and witty movies are what it all is about, not seeing a face or set of faces that you see anyway 10 times a day, on some ad or the other.

Sincerely,

Vivek "it's not necessary that experience is about knowledge, sometime an outside perspective makes experience seem very amateur" Kumar

The 5 Worst Movies of the year (And November/December)... so far

I just finished watching 1-2-3 , which surprisingly wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. This led me to thinking about movies that I've watched this year that have turned out to be absolute turds.

There might be spoilers so... ummm... don't read the part below if you want to watch the movies mentioned... actually you probably should read it. You'll save yourself 2 hours of crap.

However I'd like to iterate that these are movies that I've actually heard of (Or had any interest in seeing) so sure... Hastey Hastey is probably terrible. But y'know... who cares?

5) Jimmy

The movie that was supposed to welcome Mithun Chakraborty's son into the Bollywood fraternity, turned out to be a damp squib.

The thriller would probably have been better served if it had been released as a comedy, especially following the actor's absolute commitment to make it so.

Best (Worst) Part: It's not really the worst part... but it just sets up the rest of the horrendousness (Is this a word?). When you find out the protagonist is a mechanic by day, dancing queen by night you know it's about to go downhill.

4) Saawariya

I had to pull my time period back 2 months just to accommodate this movie. Mainly because of how terrible it was. From Ranbir Kapoor's terrible overacting (Congratulations on the IIFA award by the way), to Sonam Kapoor's terrible underacting to Salman Khan's lack of acting...

This movie was terrible throughout except for the scenes with Ms. Mukherjee in them.

Best (Worst) Bit: The entire color theme of the movie. Mr. Bhansali needs to surf the internet more, if only to realize that movies that have this much blue in them usually end with both protagonists naked on the copier.

3) Welcome

Did it even have a plot? Or was it just a movie in which they tossed together marketable actors and told them to wing it?

Yeah... I thought that too.

Best (Worst) Part: When Ms. Sherawat sings to both her lovers at the same time. Or Katrina Kaif's weird eyebrow thing when she jumps in the pool. Or the stupid contest to make guys look stupid.

Yeah... there were a lot.

2) Race

Abbas-Mustan have always been the master of overrated thrillers but Race has to take the cake. Filled with predictable "twists" the movie got more ridiculous as it went along. It wasn't helped by the stupid songs.

Best (Worst) Part: When Saif Ali Khan challenges Akshaye Khanna to a race at the end. I have a better idea. Shoot him! In the face!

1) Tashan

There's nothing (positive) to be said for this movie.

I think the best way to describe this indescribable piece of trash is: Oh Noes!

Or maybe: LOL

Best (Worst) Part: When Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar fight over the radio. Gangster-y.

Samurai_Sellout
SoggyCornflakes.com - Celebrities

'De Taali' is a feel good, clean comedy

Meaning it is not American Pie, as stressed by actor Ritesh Deshmukh. He recently spoke about his new film De Taali, comparing it with his previous films and indicating that it is a family film.

"Not at all, De Taali isn't set in an 'American Pie' mode at all. In fact it is far away from it."

When asked if American Pie meant sexual innuendo, Riteish replies,

"To a good extent, yes, Not that my films in the past haven't boasted of humor belonging to such genre. Masti, Kya Kool Hain Hum, and Apna Sapna Money Money have indeed treaded this path. However, (director) E Niwas ' treatment here is set differently which places De Taali in a genre different from the films that I mention. "

He continues to say that the film is a thinking comedy, centering on friendship and romance (obviously) but actors don't have to get hurt, maimed or stabbed during the course of the movie to entertain the audience. De Taali relies on witty lines rather than the proverbial pie in the face.

The movie is said to bear similarities to Dawson's Creek and involves Aftab Shivdasani, Ayesha Takia, and Rimi Sen alongside Riteish. It’ll be coming to a screen near you on 20^th June…or never if you live somewhere where they don’t show Hindi movies. In that case, tough luck.

Tigger
SoggyCornflakes - Bollywood