Indian Fashion and Bollywood

Nepali beauty Manisha Koirala, the actress who made swashbuckling debut in Subhash Ghai’s ‘Saudagar’ as the ILU ILU girl , and then maintained a very low profile for quite some time and later flopped in her ‘Anwar’, is entering into second innings of her career via ‘Sirf’. This is an urban oriented melodrama unlike his previous movies like ‘Market’ and ‘Tum’ where she suffered major setbacks professionally. She is now all set for a comeback in a film about a metropolitan city and its people. Here, Manisha will play a suave socialite, wanting to rule the world!

The film cast comprises Praveen Dabas, Rituparno Sengupta, Nauheed Cyrusi and KK in lead roles. Rajatosh Nayyar, the director, is optimistic about the film’s prospects in view of the success of such movies in the recent past. This looks that Nayyar is following in the footsteps of Madhur Bhanderkar who made ‘Page 3′ and Anurag Basu of ‘Metro’. However, Nayyar claims that ‘Sirf’ is different from any of these films and promises innovative entertainment for multiplex audiences. Will Nayyar’s ‘Sirf’ hit the box office and thus pave the way for Manisha’s success in her second innings is yet to be seen?

Nisha Kothari

Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Shilpa Shetty, Katrina Kaif
Direction: Anil Sharma

Aging heroes are still heroes . Kyunki , heroism is ageless. And aging heroes still need a dekko. Kyunki , they don’t make them like that anymore. In an industry where stardom has a short lifespan and there is always a bratpack bustling in the wings, it is indeed a heroic act for a has-been star to grab eyeballs and prove that the fire still burns…

This one comes straight from Dharmendra’s heart. You can see his earnestness shine through as he desperately tries to raise a toast for the karmayoddhas of yore. This trend is currently the flavour of Hollywood too, with Sylvestor Stallone re-living his Rocky razzmatazz once more and Bruce Willis reiterating his Die Hard determination to save the world in a stubble and a singlet.

Dharmendra introduces the autumn sonata in desi cinema with his committed act of an erstwhile boxer who tries to fight for honour and country, albeit through his sons.

Having been disgraced and suspended from the world boxing arena due to false doping charges, our hero has aged into a cynical father who cannot forgive his elder son (Sunny Deol) after he abandoned a ‘useless’ career in boxing for family and fortune.

Hope floats when the chhota puttar (Bobby Deol) pledges his punches to papaji and declares he’ll avenge daddy’s dishonour by taking on the world champ. But there’s many a hitch between pledge and performance… Chhota puttar has a weak arm and the world champ’s a cheat.

So no prizes for guessing who actually goes ballistic with his fists, specially since we’ve seen those killer punches create Gadar , time and again.

The film naturally belongs to Dharmendra who goes through the entire gamut of emotions while displaying the angst of a dad who is torn between the love for his sons and the pain of disgrace.

While the first half moves at an agonising pace (too much of pulpy parivaar business in Punjab), the film picks up in the second half when the Deols descend into the ring. After that, it’s the dashing Deol Inc. on display, with papa Dharam proving he’s still quite garam .

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Saran, Mrinalini Sharma
Direction: Mohit Suri

Probably he just got fed up with that faltu title of a serial kisser and decided to showcase his acting skills this time, but Awarapan is Emraan Hashmi’s coming-of-age film.

Sad, that the director failed to match up with a power-packed script, or else, our boy-next-door had a winner up his sleeve. Emraan puts up a riveting performance as a killer with a soul but the plot is too lifeless to carry his angst through.

Director Mohit Suri tries to recreate the dark, brooding canvas which he perfected in Kalyug . Set against the scenic glitter of Hong Kong, the filmmaker builds up sinister frames as he tells the story of a gangster who has been given a special task.

His boss (Ashutosh Rana) wants him to spy on his mistress (Shreya Saran) and find out if she’s cheating on him. Emraan discovers the sordid truth and sets out to avenge the cuckolded man’s honour. But history intervenes and the killer is reminded of his short-lived romance which doesn’t leave him trigger-happy anymore. Time for rebellion, azaadi and end of Awarapan …

The loose story isn’t the only lacuna of the film. We have a problem with Mohit Suri’s celluloid view on women too.

Why are his heroines always exploited women, the quintessential damsel in distress who is either being peddled in a porn film ( Kalyug ) or is a helpless slave in a lusty man’s world? Definitely kinky in a balsy women’s world!

We heard that though all the actors of Gandhi My Father were finalised after the film’s script was complete, Shefali Shah was the only one who was a constant factor right from the beginning.

When everyone was finalised only after several rehearsals and auditions, the makers had only Shefali in their mind to play the role of Kasturba even while scripting the film. Now that must be quite a high!

The 57th Miss World beauty pageant will be held at Sanya, a tropical coastal city in the southern island province of Hainan, on December one, the organisers said.

The pageant has returned to the resort city, after a gap of two years, which played host to the competition from 2003 to 2005.

Chairperson of the Miss World Organization, Julia Morley said her organisation and the vice mayor of Sanya, Li Boqing signed an agreement on Friday.

Sanya is a stop on the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, and together with the return of the beauty pageant can spark people’s enthusiasm for the Olympic Games, Li was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Li said Sanya plans to organise a delegation consisting Miss World beauty contestants to promote the city of Sanya and Olympics.

Miss World pageant is an international beauty pageant founded in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. After Morley died in 2000, his widow, Julia, succeeded him and is now executive chairperson of the organising agency.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (romance)
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta
Direction: Shaad Ali Sahgal

Bunty isn’t bubbly at all. As for bubbly, she’s lost her zing too. With both Abhishek and Preity, the quintessential Ms Bubbly, creating zero masti on screen, it’s left to the next best bakras to juggle up the requisite bedlam that usually forms the bedrock of Shaad Ali’s entertainers. Can Punjabi puttar Bobby Deol and Southall’s sharp-tongued slut, Lara Dutta save the day for our high-profile film production house? Nah! Even Amitabh Bachchan’s attempts to recreate the kaala jadu of ‘Kajra re’ with his Jack Sparrow-meets-desi gypsy jigs fails to give Yash Raj films its next big hit. There simply is no spin in the tale. End result? The bechara viewer keeps waiting — and waiting — to jhoom. To no avail.

So what’s the problem with the film? The confusion primarily springs from the director’s attempts to be oversmart and give a new take to Bollywood romance. One where the story unfolds more through the dialogues than through episodes. But unfortunately, the conversation between the Pakistani girl (Preity) and the chokra from Bhatinda (Abhishek) as they wait for their respective ‘fiancees’ on a crowded London station is mostly inaudible, inarticulate and a load of gobbledygook.

They both talk a lot, yet the talkathon — and their endless tales — fail to make you laugh, even though there is an attempt to create a series of bizarre situations. Zinta tells the story of her romance with the super-rich Deol who saved her from a crumbling Superman and Abhishek weaves a fable about a French kiss with Lara Dutta. But really, the stories aren’t funny at all.

Secondly, there is the hangover of Bunty aur Babli all through the film. Everybody seems to be a con artist here and the truth lies somewhere in between the seen and the heard. But unlike the earlier film which became a metaphor for small-town dreams and success stories, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom shows a great disconnect, both with the cosmopolitan viewer and the mofussil dreamer.

Even the romance seems unreal, minus an emotional core and leaves you cold. While Preity is too plastic as the Paki-Brit girl, Abhishek is absolutely awkward as the downmarket Brit from Bhatinda. Bobby and Lara have little to do while Mr Bachchan gets repetitive as the street singer who sings the same song and dances the same steps, again and again. The only thing that works is the music, another foot-thumping score from Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.
Despair. This one might just end up as the great summer let-down.

Normally, verdicts to movie reviews are given at the end of the review, but with ‘Sivaji The Boss’, one just has to be different. In a nutshell, the movie is superb.

Not just because of Shankar’s screenplay and slick effects – which is all there in skill and abundance. Not just because of how fantastic Superstar Rajnikant and Shriya look – which they do. Not just because of how amazing and beautiful the sets in the movie are, especially in the song sequences – which they are

But because of all of the above and most importantly – Superstar Rajinikanth’s super cool new look, with the same much-loved personality, the hilarious and whistle-worthy humour and punch-dialogues and “semmai” action sequences.

Yes, ‘Sivaji: The Boss’ is a must-watch. Rajinikanth is back with an explosive boom with this movie, which is far removed from the quieter ‘Chandramukhi’. He is everything you want and everything has hasn’t been before in this one film – the same super style, but done differently; the same super action, but executed with more super effects; the same good over evil tale, but one that’s an “athiraedee”!

The story is quite simple – the struggles of a man who has made his millions the hard way outside Indian and now wants to use it for the good of his people back home. Sivaji Arumugam is a poor man’s son who has come up from a very humble life. He has made a fortune in the USA and has now returned to India, to his homeland for good. Here, he wants to put his wealth to good use of the common man and bring about change through quality education, medical services and self-employment – by starting his own conglomerate that makes these happen. His budget is Rs. 200 crores and he proceeds to find out the very hard way, the molasses-like sluggish movement of government procedures and obstacles at every turn. He tries his best to do it the right way, but is thwarted everywhere. His constant companion Mama (Vivek) is the one true friend he has in these tough times.

Adiseshaiah (Suman), a man who he thought was a good man, is his most vile and backstabbing villain. He throws every heavy weight, from government servants severely bribed by him to violent goondas, at Sivaji, only to find that this docile man (dormant tiger?) withstands his assault splendidly.