MUSICALISED

Karan Johar's new flick Dostana. Starring Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra. The teaser is out.

The second half of 2008 is seeing a lot of 'different' movies coming up. Be it Mumbai Meri Jaan, The Last Lear, Tahaan, or even Chamku. The new name in the list is A Wednesday, the directorial debut of Neeraj Pandey with a rock solid cast of Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Jimmy Shergill.

The story revolves around a Mumbai Police Commissioner who gets a call demanding four militants' release in exchange for information on bombs set in the city. And then, events follow, on a wednesday.

I hope the movie is worth a watch. Check the trailor here.

Randeep Hooda is back. The tough guy in D is back with his new movie ru ba ru that is going to be a romantic flick. The movie is directed by debutant Arjun Bali who has previously made a lot of ads and short films. In the movie, Randeep is opposite another debutant Shahana Goswami.

Here is the first song from the movie which I quite liked. Hope you like it too.



Randeep is also coming in Ketan Mehta movie Rang Rasiya or Colors of Passion which is based on the life of famous Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma. In Rang Rasiya, it's Nandana Sen opposite Randeep.

The music is superb, at least those two songs lines of which every channel surfer has learnt by heart now are really wonderful. The promos, at large, are good and indicate the movie might be good too. Most positive point, the movie doesn't seem to be one of Bobby Deol.

Yes, Chamku is no Apne or Jhoom Barabar Jhoom if promos are to be believed. The only doubts are whether the movie will be technically as sound as it seems in the first look? And still bigger question, will it bring about the much needed change for Bobby Deol as an actor?


Though I feel, after seeing the bits of his next movie 'Ek-the power of one' with Sangeeth Sivan, that Bobby will be again Bobby after this movie, I hope there might be some change in his image and serious movie makers might like to take him for 'different' roles. (though I feel Sangeeth Sivan is a good film maker, Ek didn't impress me)

As far as the movie is concerned, I have much hopes from the movie not only because the promos are good but also because of it's director Kabeer Kaushik. Kabeer has to his credit 'Seher' which was an absolutely wonderful movie, while the actors were Arshad Warsi and Mahima Chaudhri, not to forget Pankaj Kapoor.

More will be clear on 29th August now as the release of Chamku has been rescheduled from 22nd August, of course because of 6 movies clashing together. I hope Chamku shines well.

A few months back I saw a short film called Positive, made by Farhan Akhtar, starring Boman Irani and Shabana Aazmi. I loved the film. Later I found there was another movie called Blood Brothers, that was around the same topic, AIDS. And today I found a blog entry on PFC that reviews both these movies along with two more. Here it is:

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, for one of their project on helping humanity, have united with 4 directors Mira Nair, Farhan Akhtar, Santosh Sivan and Vishal Bharadwaj to co-produce 4 short films on issues regarding AIDS education and awareness. These short films are taking the AIDS awareness on more personal level with some beautiful and some incredible journeys involving blood relations, lovers and strangers with urges either sexual or just plain human.

1. Migration (2007).
Directed by: Mira Nair.
Written by: Zoya Akhtar.
Starring: Shiney Ahuja, Sameera Reddy, Irfan Khan and Raima Sen.
URL: MIGRATION

Migration is a set of parallel stories between a husband and his lover, husband’s wife, a mason worker his wife and infants. This short is very well directed, right from the drought death visuals to marine drive tides. The cinematography is eye catching. Thanks to Shiney Ahuja’s speaking eyes and Irfan Khan’s emotions for his lover, one way maybe. The core message of the story is delivered by sex education street actor Vijay Raaz with Beedi song in the background. Its the unconventional migration that is thought and written by Zoya Akhtar gives a different but convincing journey. It was exciting to see marathi stage and screen actress Sulabha Deshpande as Sameera’s mother-in-law, little has she changed from Choukat Raja’s (1991) mother.

2. Positive (2007).
Directed by: Farhan Akhtar.
Written by: Rajesh Devraj.
Starring: Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi and Arjun Mathur.
URL: POSITIVE

Positive is the story of AIDS awareness for a family as one of the members becomes HIV positive. The effects of it in a broad picture and a very tiny extremely personal point of view is very well written by Rajesh Devraj, whose future writings are Farhan Akhtar starrer Fakir of Venice and Shashanka Ghosh project Quick Gun Murugun. Boman Irani is fantastic with his lowering speaking abilities and at the same time with the desires of a young photographer to capture something. But it needed Farhan Akhtar’s trick to bring out the moment absolutely necessary for this story. The moment when Arjun’s character is positioning the rose in the window. This is perhaps the same transformation moment that occured in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) when Akash (Aamir Khan) calls up Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) only to realise subconsciously he dialed Sid’s (Akshaye Khanna) number. Incredible. Shabana Azmi is short but plays the character who has already past previously mentioned transformation.

3. Prarambha (2007).
Directed by: Santosh Sivan.
Starring: Prabhu Deva and Skandhas.
URL: PRARAMBHA

A truck driver (Prabhu Deva) finds an unknown boy Kittu (Skandhas) hiding in the back of his truck. Truck driver finds it unsolvable to get rid of an unknown boy riding with him. Kittu hands him a letter written by his mother with an address. Truck driver agrees to take him there. But then out of humanity he finds himself on a quest to make the people around Kittu realise what he feels for kittu. This movie is a cry out towards those strangers who might have some humanity left in them. Prabhu Deva does a great job. His apological and optimistic smiles are the driving force for the audience and kittu as well. Skandhas as Kittu is nothing short of a applauding performance. He represents the understanding son, rejected school friend and a happy boy. Though there aren’t many opportunities for Mr Sivan to use his lens he still captures the moments that do not need words.

4. Blood Brothers (2007).
Directed by: Vishal Bharadwaj.
Story idea by: Matthew Robbins and Ajit Ahuja.
Starring: Siddharth, Pavan Malhotra and Ayesha Takia.
URL: Blood Brothers

This story brings in the most courageous factor in the AIDS awareness. The point of view of the main victim, the one with the disease. This is the best short among the four. An ordinary man hears his doctor say that he is HIV positive. Devastated by the news he gives up on his life to find something that out smarts him. This is an absolutely astonishing story. This movie proves the fact that you do not need 1000 cuts in a 5 min movie to make it interesting. Though non-linearity exists in the narration it never seems a cliche by the creation of scars on Siddharth’s faces. This short challenges the viewer by putting in the shoes of the protagonist and ask them what if? Kudos to Mr Bharadwaj. This one is a must see.

Overall rating: 8/10.

Original text here. You can also search for these movies on Youtube yourself. They are there too.

If you missed Olympic and wonder how Chinese look, or if you feel bored seeing promos of Singh is Kinng all the time, or if you want to see more stunts coming from Akshay Kumar than he's performing in Khatron ke Khiladi, Chandni Chowk to China may be a good option for you.

Here is the first look of Chandni Chowk to China which is expected to release this Diwali, on 24th October.

It was literary. But now it's about movies. The second bestseller from Chetan Bhagat, 'One Night @ The Call Center' is going to hit big screens as 'Hello'. Salman plays Chetan in the movie and Katrina is in a special appearnce too.

Here is the much awaited first promo of the movie.



The movie, directed by Atul Agnihotri, is expected to release on September 19.

August has been interesting in the movie circle and is expected to be interesting in the coming weeks too. With Singh is Kinng getting the it-had-to-be-like this huge response and Bachna ae Hasino and Rumy Jaffrey's God Tussi Great Ho slated for the next week, the battle seems far from ended.

Ugly and Pagli which came on 1st of August survived well and is expected to work with multiplex audience whereas Singh is Kinng is guaranteed to work well in public theatres, especially small towns and all.

Bachna ae Hasino which is set to see an August 15th release is expected to fare well too. And seeing these two, God Tussi Great Ho may find the going a bit difficult.

The interesting thing is that coming next week, things may get more confusing if movies release as per the dates available now. In present scenario, there are 6 movies that are to release on August 22nd: Tusshar's C Kkomapany, Bobby-Priyanka's Chamku, Rahul Bose-Mallika starrer Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam, Mumbai Meri Jaan, My friend Ganesha 2, and finally, Ram Gopal Varma's Phoonk.

Of these, Chamku, Mumbai Meri Jaan, and to some extent Phoonk look strong, though none of them seems to be a mass movie. My Friend Ganesha may find it difficult to reach their audiences. C Kkompany holds nothing special and should survive somehow for a few weeks. It will be worth seeing also if Rahul Bose works with Mallika as good as did Ranvir Shorey.

End of August brings Hijack which is not looking as strong on promos as it was going on talks, and Rock on!! that may well find it's new base among younger audiences.

Basically, after Singh is Kinng, there is not much that can be said about movies in August, but one thing that is sure is that we can find some good material with Chamku and Mumbai Meri Jaan out there. I wish Chamku is not another movie wasted by Bobby Deol as he's looking promising after a long time. Mumbai Meri Jaan is good on cast too, and the previews have been encouraging.