“Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola” with Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma promises to be a RIOT

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From the versatile director of Maqbool, Omkara and Kaminey, Vishal Bhardwaj, comes a new venture that I am really looking forward to: Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola.

Bhardwaj’s films have always a touch of the unusual. That’s what I love about him.

The Blue Umbrella and 7 Khoon Maaf, those were critically acclaimed films. I found them intriguing. They didn’t fit the typical Bollywood mold. Bhardwaj’s movies are edgy, sometimes uncomfortable, realistic and out of the ordinary at the same time. Très kashyapish, sometimes bordering on the surreal. I love his style.

The script is co-written by his right hand man Abhshek Chaubey, who directed Ishqiya. Don’t know much about him but this creative team has a lot to show for.

 

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is starring Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma and will release Jan11th, 2013 (India).  I get the feeling from the trailer that those two will have a killer chemistry. Imran with beard. hot.

 

story in a nutshell

Harry is an industrialist who loves his daughter Bijlee, and the bond they share with Harry’s man friday, Matru. Bijlee’s plan to wed the son of a politician, however, brings twists and turns in the lives of Matru, Bijlee and Mandola.

Director:  Vishal Bhardwaj

Writers: Vishal Bhardwaj, Abhishek Chaubey

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Vishal Bhardwaj’s Filmography  (IMDb)

Director (10 titles)

2013 Ek Thi Daayan (in production)

2013 Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (post-production)

2011 7 Khoon Maaf

2009 Kaminey: The Scoundrels

2007 Blood Brothers (short)

2006 Omkara

2005 The Blue Umbrella

2003 Maqbool

2002 The Web of the Witch

1999 Gubbare (TV series)

Hide Writer (10 titles)

2013 Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (post-production)

2011 7 Khoon Maaf (screenplay)

2010 Ishqiya (dialogues / screenplay)

2009 Kaminey: The Scoundrels (dialogue / screenplay)

2008 Migration (short) (dialogue)

2007 Blood Brothers (short) (dialogue)

2006 Omkara (dialogue / screenplay)

2005 The Blue Umbrella (dialogue / screenplay)

2003 Maqbool (dialogue / screenplay)

2002 The Web of the Witch (story)

Hide Producer (8 titles)

2013 Ek Thi Daayan (producer) (in production)

2013 Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (producer) (post-production)

2011 7 Khoon Maaf (producer)

2010 Ishqiya (producer)

2007 No Smoking (producer)

2005 The Blue Umbrella (co-producer: VBPPL – as Vishal)

2003 Maqbool (co-producer – as Vishal)

2002 The Web of the Witch (producer)

Hide Music Department (5 titles)

2011 7 Khoon Maaf (playback singer)

2010 Striker (playback singer)

2009 Kaminey: The Scoundrels (playback singer)

2008 U Me Aur Hum (playback singer)

2006 Omkara (playback singer)

Did You Know?

Trivia:

Vishal is known for his collaborations with Gulzar, who opted for Vishal’s music in all his directorial ventures since Maachis. In turn, he has provided lyrics to all of Vishal’s films. See more »

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Trademark:

Frequently uses human vocals as instruments blended with his music.(e.g. the “Tau tau” song in The Web of the Witch, vocals of Sunidhi Chauhan in “Beedi” song from Omkara, the “Dhan-Te-Nan” song in Kaminey: The Scoundrels) See more »

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0080235/#Director

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Abhishek Chaubey

Writer (6 titles)

2013 Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (post-production)

2010 Ishqiya (screenplay)

2009 Kaminey: The Scoundrels (screenplay)

2007 Blood Brothers (short) (screenplay)

2006 Omkara (screenplay)

2005 The Blue Umbrella (screenplay)

Hide Second Unit Director or Assistant Director (4 titles)

2006 Omkara (associate director)

2005 The Blue Umbrella (associate director)

2003 Maqbool (associate director)

2002 The Web of the Witch (associate director)

Hide Director (1 title)

2010 Ishqiya

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1322477/

 

Preity’s Ishq got lost in Paris, apparently. Au revoir so soon?

What Happens In Paris Stays In Paris…

Ishq in Paris, kua hua?  It’s easy to get lost in its Parisian charm and not finding your way back to your point of origin.  Happened to me. We all can relate to it. Love makes you stupid. But for once it’s a movie that got lost. We have sent search troops out…. European trained whatsmore!! Nada.

 

Ishq in Paris could not be found.

Now that’s a real shame

 

because we all love Preity Zinta and she hasn’t graced us with her lovely screen presence for A WHILE!!!

While I suspect that her love interest in the film has not been available for  the100,000 reshoots, necessary to save the film.. well, I am a bit mean here because maybe he’s fantastically underrated as an actor, it could be any other reason too.

Financial, couldn’t find a distributor? What could have been going wrong? Maybe we should put Aamir Khan, aka Inspector  Sekhawat, on the case to scare the ghosts out of this project and get it on screen.

Talaash: the search is on for paranormal activity

Aamir Khan and Kareena give real  powerhouse performances in Talaash. Aamir is fantastic as the dutiful but uninspired cop, Surjan Singh Sekhawat, who battles silently his private demons. And Kareena has never been better than as the enigmatic streetwalker “Rosy”,  who turns up at every corner. or would she be spelled “roz-i”.. Rani Mukherjee as Aamir’s wife, gives a finely nuanced performance as grieving mother, who lost her child in a  freak accident and looks for solace. The movie portrays so accurately what happens in a family where a child dies, it gets deep under your skin.

A movie star dies, apparently a suicide. Search is on for the motive. It gets murky pretty fast and leads us into Mumbai’s underbelly. Simultaneously alluring and revolting. I bet it’s pretty realistic, touching upon the fate of the poor and undeserved. Aging prostitutes, brutal pimps, cripples who haven’t got a fair shot in life. We feel for them, even though not with pity, just as  observers and as we are counting our blessings.

Talaash claws you into your seat without external props which are so popular these days. There are no flying fighting bravura acts, no muscle flexing, no car chases knocking over vegetable charts and mowing into crowds. None of it. Refreshing. (almost none of it…)

And I loved the twist, the brush with the paranormal. The medium was as scary as the aunties in Rosemary’s Baby.  Even though that part lost its luster pretty fast and it felt like gliding back into the familiar: Bollywood’s plot holes. More could have been done with that.

But I couldn’t get over Kareena’s performance, as convincing as streetwalker as she was as a ghost. Her costumes were priceless, vampy, sophistication with a good dash of hood, cheap enough to be making us believe in her metier, but classy nonetheless. Only Kareena can pull that off!

Aamir’s cop is straight-forward, the cop you want to have on your murder or suicide case. I am no friend of the moustache, but it fit his role perfectly.

I think this is one of Aamir’s best performances to date. Good script. Great direction.

Directed by Reema Kagti.

Screenplay: Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti

produced by Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani

Khiladi786’s genius soundtrack

I am going to watch Khiladi this weekend, and I am excited. Not so much because I love bodies flying through the air, car collisions and firecracker-Kung-Fu. Well, I do love Akki, but that’s besides the point.

My autistic and predominantly non-verbal student LOVES Bollywood music, so whenever a new movie comes out I am showing him the trailer and the songs. I show him Stardust magazines with all its glamorous Bollywood stars. When I point and ask him “who is this?” he will identify the star with 100% accuracy. On our frequent walks I may start humming a BW tune and lo and behold he will know one or two lines of the lyrics -without understanding a word. Point in case I was humming after a very long hiatus Chammak Challo and he knew the title and who’s acting in the movie.

Today I was telling him about the upcoming Khiladi and I went on Youtube to show him the trailer and then the songs. I had seen the trailer but I had no idea how many beautiful tunes it had!

From my student’s point of view here are the songs he liked best: (with passionate repeat-listening..)

Hookah Bar

music and lyrics  and vocals by Himesh Reshammiya

in second place came The Lonely Song, credits go again to  Himesh and Yo Yo Honey Singh & Hamsika Iyer
Lyrics by: Shabbir Ahmed

followed by Saari Saari Raat also by the ultra-talented Himeshji, GEE!!

and we liked Long Drive, music Himesh.  sing sing: Mika Singh

for some reason Balmo came last in our favorite countdown:

music Himesh, singers  Shreya Ghoshal and Sreeram

I mean, this movie is a musical treasure chest

and off I go to buy the CD :-)

can’t wait to see these beautiful songs on the big screen!!

– which makes me laugh because before my Bollywood mania days  I DESPISED music and dance in movies. Go figure.  What a turnaround.

Thank you Youtube, Eros Entertainment and T-series for all these great Bollywood video clips

And thanks Bollywood for adding another dimension to my life. With its colors, its music, its stars, it just brings so much joy, not just to me but all the peeps I can share this passion with. Like my wonderful student.

Holla Rani, Aiyyaa!

Dreamum Wakeuppam

 

Rani Mukherjee doesn’t need a comeback – she has never left the stage, but let’s say, if she would need a comeback,  Aiyyaa looks like a slam dunk.

 

Sava Dollar

in love with Deepika Padukone

I know I shouldn’t talk this way, being a woman and all. But I just can’t help myself.  Yesterday I went to see Cocktail, the new movie produced by and starring Saif Ali Khan and Wonder-Women Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty. All eyes were naturally on Penty, who made her Bollywood debut with this movie, an impressive one what’s more, but I couldn’t unglue my eyes from Deepika, who plays Veronica,  and who lives life in London’s fast lane camouflaging wounds from the past by acting out as a party queen, as the It-girl.

As Veronica, she is a tortured soul battling loss and abandonment issues and she hides a great deal of vulnerability under her contemporary, sleek fashionista appearance.  Audiences and critics were surprised that the hi-five feel-good movie morphed into melodram during the second half.  I wasn’t. I thought Deepika’s deeply-layered performance reflected already a storm to come. Not only did I love her character but she made me believe it.  Had Deepika been born roughly two millennia back in Greece or Rome they would have worshiped her as the goddess Artemis or respectively, Diana. Or at least she would have personified them in their amphi-theaters.

I was awe-struck when I saw her first in Om Shanti Om (2007) She showed such confidence and poise already in her Bollywood debut. Deepika puts meat into her roles!

Her performances shoot like arrows. Even in roles that show her vulnerability, she never wants to be pitied. And that’s her.  She can get angry, like any self-respecting goddess, she can charm you, seduce you, she can get hit by life, abandoned by her lovers, but she will not be submissive.  Not Deepika.  So I think she OWNED the movie, talking about Cocktail!

Diana Penty shows great promise and a real knack for acting.  She is doted with a gracious screen-presence and she reminded me a lot of this beautiful actress in Swades, Gayatri Joshi, who to fans’ dismay got married soon after the movie and vanished from the radar. Diana is exquisite, an elegant creature by all standards, but no match to Deepika whose acting skills keep you magnetized and breathless. Anyway, that’s just my five cents.

She could even pull it off making us believe her infatuation with boytoy Saif, who slowly starts lacking the sex appeal as a romantic hero, hmmm. Hrithik might have been better for that role..  but one thing is for sure, the actors seemed to be all very comfortable with each other, which is a strong point in the movie, the triangle story. Diana Penty though couldn’t pull off the falling in love part… hehe.  I didn’t buy it.

I really could relate to the rest of the story.. and I’ve seen more than one cases like these, where friendships are sacrificed for love. One of the hardest lessons to learn in life. Nothing hurts more and I thought that was somehow the more interesting part of the movie.  Again I could sympathize with Veronica, her disappointment and rage, pulling out all the stops to reverse the situation with “I’ll be anything you want me to be, just don’t leave me..FOR HER, Hello, my formerly best friend!!”

It also rings  true that we might go into a relationship thinking we are in control and it won’t mean much at first, but then we open ourselves up to love, gradually and unnoticeably,  and before we know it BANG! it backfires and MrWonderful-oh-so-fullofsh *t moves on to greener pastures. And for some reason they seem to gravitate towards our friends or sisters, as if the world didn’t have millions of other women to choose from…. Out of Laziness?  No, absolutely. Good movie. If you just start out in life, it’s an Education :-)

PS  WHO LOVED THE SHOES??

OMG, Deepika’s outfits? TO DIE FOR!!!

Music was good too.

 

Dee’s Wikipedia page:  Deepika Padukone

Ek Tha Tiger Trouble

 

The fact that the movie could be based on a real life spy makes it even more interesting. But it could mean, godforbid, a DELAY?!!!  I am already so psyched about this movie and have been for a long time that the thought of having to wait is killing me!! Maybe I should relax. After watching Bollywood movies for seven years now I should know better. There has been always SOMETHING jeopardizing a major movie release. .. I can understand the family members wanting to read the script or see the movie first, but hey, even if it should be modeled after  Ravindra Kaushik, they could object to ANYTHING and they could be also CLUELESS… when family members claim to know specifics about an XYZ famous relative, it usually turns out they know NOTHING!  I know fathers who have been in wars, they never ever talk about those experiences! I know soldiers who worked on special missions. Even the family members know better than asking questions!! So, dear Kaushiks, get over it. Let the movie talk… :-)

 

 

 

Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger has landed in trouble. The nephew of real life spy Late Ravindra Kaushik, sent a legal notice to the producers of the movie saying that he wants to see the film before release, as according to him Salman’s character has a striking resemblance with Ravindra Kaushik…..Talking to a leading daily Vikram Vashishtha, nephew of Late Ravindra Kaushik said, “He (Ravindra Kaushik) was my maternal uncle who was with the Research Analysis Wing (RAW). Born on April 11, 1952 in Sriganganagar, he also did his graduation from there. He displayed his talent at national level dramatic meet in Lucknow, which was also witnessed by some officials of the intelligence wing (RAW). He was contacted and offered job for the secret intelligence in Pakistan

 Later he was sent to Pakistan for the purpose.”

The promos of Ek Tha Tiger bear striking resemblance to Kaushik’s experiences in Pakistan and, therefore his family has sought legal help to have a look at the original script or view the film before it releases.

http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood/news/2012/salman-khan-ek-tha-tiger-legal-trouble-097711.html

Jatt and Juliet

I must admit, I’ve been watching Bollywood movies for the past SEVEN years now, but I always passed on the opportunity to watch regional Indian cinema. Jatt & Juliet is a Punjabi movie and as such it doesn’t get much advertisement here in the US. The bigger Bollywood productions will show trailers of upcoming releases months in advance, but regional flicks are treated as the underdogs. They are the side-kicks and I am ashamed to say, I buy into it. Who says these movies cannot be as entertaining?

So I decided tomorrow, before they take it out again, I am going to watch my first Punjabi romcom.  And I will be back, just like Schwarzenegger, not with a loaded machine-gun but with my comments  to the movie.

Starring Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa

Directed by Anurag Singh ( Dil Bole Hadippa!)

my favorite song:

So, I went to see Jatt and Juliet.  The good news, it’s a very sweet movie. The bad news, it was  in Punjabi with no subtitles. Therefore I can’t review it.  However, it’s an old love story formula which never seems to get old. The  story has been retold in variations countless times and yet, this take on it had a fresh feeling altogether. The acting was superb. Scenes of  (a slightly romanticized) rural India were interspersed strategically, which made a wonderful contrast to the narrative which took place in Canada. Without understanding a word of dialogue,  I will still give this movie thumbs up. I shall go on the quest now to find a DVD with English subtitles to see what I missed out on.

Jatt & Juliet was the last night playing and Bombay theater in Queens was almost sold out. I loved the atmosphere. People were whistling in unison,  clapping and enjoying every twist and turn of the story. The reaction of the patrons was just as enjoyable as the movie itself.

I would recommend anyone who loves a good romantic comedy to watch Jatt & Juliet. . And I would like to recommend to the distributors to add subtitles to regional Indian films so it can be enjoyed by firaqi and Hindi speaking audiences.

Golmaal in disguise: Bol Bachchan

Don’t get confused by the trailer, it’s not another Golmaal sequel. That will hit us 2013 if God is willing.

Rumor is that Golmaal’s director Rohit Shetty approached Ajay for Golmaal 4  (for a moment I lost count), who turned it down arguing that it might be box office suicide coming out every year with a new Golmaal.  Amen. But that’s not the end of it. Hey, it made money, didn’t it? So let’s make the same kind of movie with a different name.

Let’s call it Bol Bachchan, so we can rake in a genetically verified Bachchan, and then we come out with Golmaal 4 the year after…(unless the Mayan calendar proves to be legit…and there won’t be ANYmore movies at the horizon after 21 Dec 2012..only dust clouds. Hehe, I don’t think the Mayan calendar took Bollywood into consideration….The Incas couldn’t predict THAT. Golmaal 4 is already in pre-production and will steam forwards through the end of time..)

I hope you haven’t missed the other masterworks:

Golmaal Fun Unlimited, 2006.

Golmaal Returns, 2008.

Golmaal 3, 2010

The never ending Golmaals are a mystery to me. These movies are loud and shrill and silly BUT they seem to make people happy, and mindless fun is king. So off we go, let’s get wasted and check out the Golmaal lookalike feelalike Bol Bachchan to bridge the time.

Hey and we liked the All the Best: Fun begins, which Shetty threw in just for the fun of it in 2009…

Rohit Shetty keeps the industry going and Ajay’s career afloat. If I wouldn’t know any better… isn’t Kajol married to Ajay?

 

 

Akshay turns vegetarian :-) Oh My God, is that true?

Yes, at least for the time filming OMG,  cuz he is afraid Lord Krishna will come down hard on him if he doesn’t.

Meanwhile he has released a poster riding through the sky on a Harley Davidson which Lord Krishna has definitely given his blessing for… (don’t know bikes too well but that’s what it looks like) – that, Iam sure would be his favorite mode of transportation if he were born today…. :-)

I think it’s a nice gesture on part of Akki to turn vegetarian. It’s so easy in India to be a vegetarian. OMG, there are so many delicious dishes to taste, you practically never would have to eat the same meal twice in your entire life time!  I would love to move to India for that reason alone!!

 

The film stars Akki as Lord Krishna  and Paresh Rawal as the challenger of fate.

The movie is based on Umesh Shukla’s Gujarati play Kanji Viruddh. All kind of miraculous things seem to be happening in an ordinary man’s life. The movie is directed by newcomer Ashwini Yardi and is expected to be released in late September.

 

Can’t wait to see Akshay and Paresh battling it out. But wait a minute…. they are also bound to appear together in Khiladi 786… they are filming right now. Exciting.