Archive for: March 2007

After delivering hits like Aaankhen and Waqt,Vipul Shah is back with Namastey London. Starring the angelic Katrina Kaif and the dashing Akshay Kumar, Namastey London is expected to be a perfect commercial potboiler. So will Vipul Shah deliver a Hattrick of hits with Namaste London? Let’s hear what the Bollywood critics have to say …

Taran Adarsh — ” To sum up, NAMASTEY LONDON is addictive stuff. You watch it once, you wanna watch it again! NAMASTEY LONDON fits the description  of a true-blue Hindi film to the T. ”

Movie Rating - 3.5/5

Meetu Nair — ” The entertainment in the movie is very sporadic. But it’s the reinforced stereotypes that got tiring. ”

Movie Rating - 2.5/5

Rajeev Masand — “Namastey London certainly has its heart in the right place. But sadly it goes about making its point in the stupidest manner. Namastey London is  sweet and it’s simple but that’s just the question - do we still have an appetite for steamed rice when everyone else is eating biryani?”

Movie Rating - 2/5

Nikhil Kumar — “In a nutshell, ‘Namastey London’ is a well-made film that provides all-round entertainment for young moviegoers and family crowds as well. The film is definitely worth a watch.”

Movie Rating - 3/5

Gaurav Malani —” In one of the dialogues of the film Katrina says, “I don’t watch Hindi films”. If Bollywood continues to churn more films like Namastey London, it won’t be long when we all will be mouthing the same dialogue. ”

Movie Rating -1/5

Mira Nair who gave us such great films like Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding is back with her latest movie Namesake. The Namesake has achieved much critical acclaim and appreciation at various film festivals. Expectations are huge. Infact VERY HUGE. So does Namesake live upto the expectations or like many other films fall flat without a whimper. Here’s what the critics have got to sake about Namesake.

Rajeev Masand — “Despite all its beauty and despite the fact that it’s a warm, poignant and a relatable story, The Namesake does not dig as deep as Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding did.Compared to that film, The Namesake only skims the surface and isn’t quite able to get under the skin of its characters.”

Movie Rating - 3/5

Taran Adarsh — ” On the whole, THE NAMESAKE is a classy product that caters to a niche audience mainly — those who appreciate qualitative cinema. At the box-office, it’s a film for very select multiplexes”

Movie Rating - 3.5/5

Joginder Tuteja — “If you are looking for an entertaining 120 minutes while watching THE NAMESAKE then let’s make it clear at the very onset - the film is hardly entertaining.”

Movie Rating - 2/5

Meetu Nair — “High on emotions and jerking tears along the way, Namesake is worth a watch just for the performances. The beauty lies in the depth of the relationships touched upon. This is one of those rare occasions where how the story is told consumes the audience rather than the story itself.”

Movie Rating - 4/5

Good Boy, Bad Boy is Mukta Arts next film. Ashwini Choudhary who earlier directed smaller films like Dhoop and Siskiyaan will be directing Good Boy Bad Boy. The movie stars Emraan Hashmi, Isha Sharvani, Tusshar Kapoor and Tanushree Dutta in …

1971, Water ,Sarhaad Paar and Red bombed miserably at the box office.

This week’s Just Married and Hattrick promised to reduce the disappointment of last weeks releases. Did the films prove to be successful in providing healthy box office collections or did they add to the previous week’s disappointment? Read onto know….

Just Married begins where most Bollywood films end – marriage. The film is about two strangers, barely on the fringes of familiarity but married to each other and yet are outsiders on their honeymoon.

Actors Fardeen Khan and Esha Deol do not have any chemistry and that becomes the biggest strength of the film .

This film opened only between 15 and 20 per cent at the box office. The two actors are definitely not crowd pullers nor is Meghna Gulzar and with the Cricket World Cup on, it was not the best time to release a film. Also the jarring similarity of the Just Married plot with Honeymoon travels Private Limited did not do any good for the box office collections.

Result : Paisa Barbaad

 Khanna & Iyer is the launch pad for the winners of India’s Best Cinestars Ki Khoj, Aditi Sharma and Sarvar Ahuja,into Bollywood.

“I play Nandini Iyer who loves South Indian food like idlis and dosas and loves Aryan Khanna as much,” says actress Aditi Sharma.

“I play Aryan Khanna who loves Nandini more than aloo ke parathe,” adds actor Sarvar Ahuja.

Khanna & Iyer is another small film from the big Mukta Arts banner, a love story with a comic take on the North-South divide.

The lead actors, Aditi Sharma and Sharvar Ahuja are actually winners of a talent hunt.

Their two year long wait to realise their dreams, has finally ended with Khanna & Iyer hitting theatres, followed by another film Kuch khatta Kuch Meetha.

Aditi Sharma is a determined woman who wants to do “serious cinema which will broadcast a social message”. This makes her equally clear about the type of roles she’ll turn down. “I will never do a film like Murder. After winning the Zee contest I was forced to do a lot of introspection. To that extent the contest was a journey of self discovery. I have become quite clear about what is purposive cinema and what are my values,” says Sharma.

“Good banners, good films and a good storylines are what we need for our careers to take off,”says Sharvar.

The music of Ek Chalis Ki Last Local is not exactly creating waves in the music industry. But one song definitely has the audience dancing to it’s tune. Yes, I am talking about Laree Choote. The song is currently been shown on all music channels to help garner publicity for the movie.

The music of Laree Choote is given by the famous Pakistani Band Call. Beginning with Abhay Deol’s narration of the punch line ”Wo Kehte Hain Na, Jo Hota Hai Acche Ke Liye Hota Hai…Galat Kehte Hain”, the number ‘Laree Choote’ has the sound of a train chugging away in the background. From this point on the theme music begins that has Xulfi of Call The Band writing and rendering the number.

Revolving around how life changes its course with situations and circumstances, ‘Laree Chutti’ is a well orchestrated number with guitar as an instrument which is a steady companion and also a female voice in the background (why hasn’t she being credited?).

Khanna and Iyer marks the debut of Sarvar Ahuja and Aditi Sharma. The two actors had actually been found from a talent hunt competition by Zee Telefilms, namely India’ Best Cine-Stars Ki Khoj. After a rather long wait their film has finally seen the dawn of the day.

Faced with conflicting cultural values and beliefs of their families, Aryan Khanna (Sarvar Ahuja) and Nandini Iyer (Aditi Sharma) have run away from home. While on the run, a series of unforeseen circumstances unfold and unknown to them a CD containing proof of relationship between a known politician and infamous terrorist Donga lands up in their bag. Chased by their parents, cops and terrorists in the jungle of Lal Dora; what ensues then is series of adventures and misadventures.

They made you laugh on the big-screen and it’s time they enter your bookshelves. Munna and Circuit one of the greatest comic pairs Bollywood has seen are soon going to be converted into cartoon characters for the Munna-Circuit comic series.

Director Raj Kumar Hirani and his co-writer Abhijat Joshi have decided not to restrict their two endearing creations - Munna and Circuit - to the large screen. They’ll soon be seen as part of a comic book series.

Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi tickled the funny bone of audiences as Munna and Circuit respectively in the hit movies “Munnabhai M.B.B.S.” and “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”. “And why just comic books? We’ve a large number of offers to turn Munna and Circuit’s adventures into animation films, cartoon strips, you name it,” Hirani told IANS.

Ek Chalis Ki Last Local is a comic thriller about two people who miss the last local train at 1:40 am to Vikhroli and have dhayi ghante (full two-and-half hours) before the next local will arrive. The movie meanders with an intriguing drama with a set of stories intertwined with each other.

The tale revolves around Nilesh (Abhay Deol), a call center executive and how missing the last train home proves to be a significant episode in his life.Nilesh bumps into Madhu (Neha Dhupia) who has also missed her train on the same station and because there is an auto strike, the duo finds themselves getting together and soon seated in a desi bar for some time pass before their next train. One thing leads to another and circumstances spiral off into experiences and events, some bizarre and beautiful whereas others unpleasant and uncanny.

After Bhagam Bhag Priyadarshan’s next film is going to be Bhool Bhulaiya. Previously titled Chandramukhi, Bhool Bhulaiya is a remake of the critically acclaimed Malayalam blockbuster movie Manichitrathazhu. Manichitrathazu was one of the all time hits of malayalam films running for more than 600 days.

Bhool Bhulaiya will feature Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja and Amisha Patel in pivotal roles with Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav in supporting roles. Pritam will score the music whilst S. Theeru and N. Gopalakrishnan handle the cinematography and editing of the film, respectively. Vidya Balan will be seen playing a Kathak dancer, Chandramukhi who suffers from split personality.