Sharmila : How public is private?

•January 30, 2010 • 23 Comments

Fab piece from Sharmila…

One thing that has baffled me, is society’s eagerness to all things private about celebrities. Why is it that we are so interested in what they do at their private times with family, friends or with themselves. Is it because they are a celebrity and hence there is an expectation that they absolutely must hang their linen, dirty or not on a public platform. Even the sneeze of a celebrity reverberates loudly in news channels and not just in the regional ones but at times even on the national channels where the Turners of the world control them. The newscast also appear extremely intent, serious and academic when relaying information that a celebrity has sneezed. The audience too lap up this information and admirably discuss it with family and neighbors. Nine out of ten celebrity news is absolute blistering nonsense. The media is one which is largely uncouth in it’s portrayal of frivolity and it is most certainly not getting any better

Read the rest from HERE

Topaz Bol : Ishqiya Review

•January 30, 2010 • 1 Comment

BABBAN-Tujhe yahan pe red light area pata hai

NANDU-Paise lageinge

BABBAN-Mein kaun sa fakir ka katora le ke jaa raha hoon

 NANDU-Main sau rupaiye loonga

BABBAN-Abe teri kaun lega

Above conversation sums up the fun Ishqiya has to offer. Ishqiya is so unabashedly in your face that it stuns you. I felt a constant urge of, please give me more, that when the movie ended I was unwilling to leave the auditorium. Ishqiya is so genuine in its setting and milieu that you wonder how much detailing has gone to make it look perfect. Lead actors mannerism and gait , cheesy/crass dialogues catches your attention from the opening sequence, as the movie progresses you get so glued with proceedings that you don’t any break ,forget an interval ,to break the momentum. This to me is the biggest thing any director can achieve when telling a story.

Rest click here HERE

Rana, Ishqiya or both

•January 28, 2010 • 11 Comments

Rann/ishqiya – Boxoffice Predictions

•January 28, 2010 • 22 Comments

Both are very difficult movies for boxoffice prediction. With moderate release loaded with good reviews spread already, Both movies should open just OK at box-office but with strong WOM, both can do remarkable business at the end of  run. Neither of them will appeal to family audience, Rann look like hard hitting drama and Ishqiya is another take on dark humors of romance. Below are my early predictions:

Rann (2010)

  If Accepted :   

Opening : 18 – 22 Crore
Total        : 40 – 45 Crore
  If Rejected

 

Opening :   10 – 12 crore
Total        :   15 – 18 crore

 

Ishqya (2010)

 If Accepted :

Opening :    15 – 18 Crore
Total      :     30 – 35 Crore
 If Rejected

 

Opening : 10 – 12 crore
Total : 15 – 18 crore

Review – Ishqiya (4/5)

•January 28, 2010 • 8 Comments

Get ready for tangy, pungent, sizzling and spicy stuff. Be forewarned, ISHQIYA isn’t the fluffy, candyfloss, saccharine sweet story of lovers breaking into songs in mustard fields. In ISHQIYA, you just don’t know what turn the story may take next. Not just the story, even the characters here are so impulsive and unpredictable.

The actors enacting the role of Jijaji, the kidnapped victim and Vidya’s husband are all perfect. The child, who interacts with Arshad, is natural. In fact, every performance in ISHQIYA is worthy of mention.

On the whole, ISHQIYA is definitely worth a watch. The film has a riveting plot, great performances, soulful music, an absorbing story and skilful direction to make the viewer fall in ishq with it. It should appeal to the hardcore masses as also the multiplex junta.

Read Full Review HERE

Review – Rann (3.5/5)

•January 28, 2010 • 10 Comments

Amitabh Bachchan is spectacular yet again, especially towards the finale. His speech and the way he delivers it are remarkable. Sudeep is terrific. To stand up to giants like Bachchan and Paresh Rawal is no mean achievement. Riteish is only getting better and better with every film. In fact, he surprises you constantly.

 n the whole, RANN is truly a well-made film. No two opinions on that. The film should be patronised by viewers of serious, sensible cinema. Recommended!

Read full review HERE

Sharmila on – “phir mile sur”

•January 28, 2010 • 3 Comments

The water was calm, placid and still,time moved slowly, all was tranquil
her radiant smile reflected below, her small sighs remained so
The deep eyes set in serenity, time traversed nonchalantly
Her beauty appeared transfixed with fate that never vexed

Her youth beckoned all, she towered proud and tall
Men of honor married , looted and plundered
With no whimper, no tears, she reserved her temper
Her spirit unwavering, her courage enduring

Alas then there was a ripple, her beauty no longer supple
the brows arched, a frown when the troops marched
troubles birthed, they grew, they trebled
the water broke with every stroke

Read the rest from HERE

Praz Gold : THE LOVELY BONES (2009)

•January 26, 2010 • Leave a Comment

I’m a huge Peter Jackson fan, more of the older director of MEET THE FEEBLES, BAD TASTE, BRAINDEAD, HEAVENLY CREATURES and THE FRIGHTENERS than of the director who made LORD OF THE RINGS and KING KONG. THE LOVELY BONES I was dying to see, not only because I’d heard a lot about the novel, but because the story sounded like it had immense potential for Jackson to deliver a true winner, however sadly the movie falls below expectations despite having it’s moments.

Read the rest from HERE

Sharmila on – Bingo for the “aaram” republic…

•January 26, 2010 • 10 Comments

I was more than adequately ready for another reality show featuring yet another Bollywood star on the same channel. Just when I had gotten over the fact that my favorite actor, the God father of Indian cinemas Mr Bachchan has wound up the reality show Big Boss, his son anchors ” Bingo” and serenades this country to play the game on national bingo night. So, the nation tunes into national bingo night like the way we tune in to other national events collectively. As a nation that breathes as one on National independence day, national republic day and other national events, national bingo night is showcased as a national celebration probably creating more euphoria than the former. I wonder statistically how many viewers tune in to national bingo night every weekend night and how many tune into Doordarshan to watch the republic day parade once a year.

Read the rest from HERE

Boxoffice Update – 26/01/2010

•January 23, 2010 • 232 Comments

 

Movie Week This Week Nett Total Nett Final Verdict
Chance Pe Dance 1 8.35 Crore 8.35 Crore Flop
Dulha Mil Gaya 2 88 Lacs 3.78 Crore Disaster
Pyaar Impossible 2 1.19 Crore 5.54 Crore Flop
3 Idiots 4 16.87 Crore 180.71 Crore All Time BB

 

Performance this weekend :

Movie Weekend 4 Days Collection
Veer First 22 Crore Nett
Three Idiots Fifth 5.75 Crore Nett.

– BollyBusiness

25 Years Old Veer – Mard (1985)

•January 22, 2010 • 4 Comments

Release Date : Friday, November 08, 1985

mard

Mard is a 1985 Hindi film, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Amrita Singh and directed by Manmohan Desai. It was Bumper Hit and was biggest hit of 1985. Its collection record was broken after 4 years in 1989 by Maine Pyaar Kiya.

The film was remade in Tamil by Rajnikant as “Maaveeran”and was a huge success and further dubbed in Telugu which itself was superhit. This is only movie in indian cinema which got bumper success in four different versions.

Now VEER can be considered as next version of Mard(However not official, but storyline resembles a lot).

 

Synopsys:

The film opens in India. It is the early 20th century, when India remains part of the British empire. The opening sequence shows a group of British soldiers plundering an Indian fort and taking its riches by air to England. They are stopped by the valiant Raja Azad Singh (Dara Singh). Raja Azad Singh is of immense strength, and manages to lasso the light aircraft, subdue several English soldiers and recover the stolen jewels. Around this time, Raja Azad Singh’s wife Rani Durga (Nirupa Roy) gives birth to a baby boy. The Raja carves the word mard (man, intending to convey strength and bravery) into the newborn’s chest, noting proudly that the baby is smiling throughout, and can apparently feel no pain. (His words, mard ko dard nahin hota, meaning a true man feels no pain, is a tag line throughout the movie.) The British commission conducts an investigation, led by a sympathetic and liberal Englishwoman, Lady Helena; the investigation uncovers the atrocities of the English troops and results in several officers being officially reprimanded. Lady Helena is a close confidant of Raja Azad Singh, and is generally supportive of the Raja and of India becoming independent.

The English officers General Dyer (Kamal Kapoor) and Inspector Simon (Bob Christo) conspire with a sniveling, weak willed local doctor Harry (Prem Chopra) to capture the Raja. Harry sedates the Raja; weakened thus, the Raja is captured and imprisoned in a dungeon. Rani Durga escapes on the Raja’s faithful steed Bahadur. But she is shot, and the horse brings the baby mard to a local orphanage for safekeeping until Rani Durga can recuperate and reclaim him. The wife of a poor blacksmith spots the baby in the orphanage, asks after him and eventually adopts him. When Rani Durga returns, she is shocked to find him gone and she loses the ability to speak. The penniless Rani Durga eventually becomes a washer woman. The traitor Harry is appointed mayor of the town for his part in the capture of the Raja.

Raju grows up to become a strong youth under the care of the loving blacksmith and his wife. His day job is to run a tanga. One day, he happens across an arrogant and oppressive young woman who blithely runs her car over an old lady. Raju gives chase, intercepts the young woman, and compels her to apologize to the old lady. The young woman is of high birth, and her bodyguard Zybisko (Manek Irani) engages Raju, but Raju fends him off quite easily. The young woman turns out to be Ruby, the debutante daughter of mayor Harry and the old woman is Rani Durga. Ruby apologizes. But she is charmed by Raju’s rugged looks and candor. He initially refuses her advances in order to maintain his independence. But she eventually falls in love, changes his heart, and invites him to her birthday party.

Harry and General Dyer continue their relentless quest for power. Their first move is to demolish the basti (slum colony) in front of Harry’s mansion. Raju rallies the basti dwellers to oppose the demolition crew and picket Harry’s mansion. Harry arrests Raju and is about to execute him when Lady Helena and Anurag arrive at the scene promptly. Lady Helena and Anurag stop the demolition, reprimand Harry, and release Raju. Harry tries to buy off Raju, but upon Anurag’s advice and support Raju douses the cases with liquor, sets it afire, and uses the soot to blacken Harry’s face. (No, it is certainly black money, for it burns black, he observes!) A frustrated Harry tries to have him shot, but Ruby intervenes upon Anurag’s insistence, professes her love for the tanga wallah (tanga driver), and threatens to completely disavow her father if any harm should befall him. Unable to subdue or subvert Raju, a frustrated set of cronies (Harry, Dyer, Simon and others) fret and fume, wanting to kill Anurag who, with Raju’s help escapes and soon flees to England, living with a family who provide him with shelter and love in the heart of Harrow.

The film introduces Danny (Dan Dhanoa) the son of General Dyer. Danny is every bit as corrupt, cunning and avaricious as his father and his cronies. Danny runs the nefarious operations beneath the outwardly clean, lordly and manorial life of General Dyer and mayor Harry. There are three such operations. First, there is a secret blood camp; basti dwellers that are infirm, aged or otherwise unfit are secretly abducted and their blood (all of it) is involuntarily extracted to supply British war campaigns elsewhere. Second, there is a slave labor camp where, again, basti dwellers are put to work (with no pay) on various civil and construction projects for the British empire. And finally there is Raja Azad Singh, still imprisoned, and a champion for the basti and for the workers in the labor camps. His primary duty is to turn, by hand, a massive flour mill; this mill is the only source of food for the camps. (Rani Durga, it turns out, is a washerwoman in one of these camps.) The camps grow in size, and Raja Azad Singh secretly plans to have them revolt; this becomes a growing concern for Harry.

Harry and General Dyer decide the best way to remove Raju from the picture is to announce the engagement of Ruby and Danny. Ruby strongly opposes this and runs off with Raju. Danny gives chase with his men, and even tries to kill Ruby, but eventually brings her back to Harry. Harry is truly enraged. He threatens to kill Ruby if she ever disobeys him again. Danny devises a nefarious plot to get rid of Raju.

As the first step in the plot, Danny captures the blacksmith, burns his hovel, murders his wife, and puts the blacksmith in a slave camp. (As she lays dying, she reveals to Raju the story of Raju’s birth. Raju cremates his foster mother and writes out a letter for his real mother, which he immerses into the river along with the ashes of his foster mother. The river carries his note to the camp where the blacksmith finds it and reads it out to Rani Durga, who immediately recalls her story. The blacksmith stages a stick-up to facilitate her escape, and she is ultimately reunited with Raju. The blacksmith, however, is killed.)

Danny learns of Raju’s lineage. Realizing Raju will attack the camp to free the blacksmith and Raja Azad Singh, Danny plays the second step of his plot and lays a trap. Raju enters the dungeon to rescue his father. But it turns out that Raja Azad Singh has been replaced by a masked impostor (Simon), and Raju is captured. At this point, Danny devises a fatal final step. He announces a gladiatorial sword fight between Raju and Raja Azad Singh where the winner will go free. Prior to this fight, he takes steps to ensure father and son are truly bloodthirsty for the other. Raja Azad Singh is brought to a blood camp where he sees Raju (actually a masked impostor) extracting blood from innocent citizens and swearing loyalty to the British; the Raja is incensed and swears to finish him off in the contest. Concurrently, Danny sends word (through Ruby) that the fighter opposing Raju will be a masked impostor and not the real Raja. Raju, in turn, announces he will not let his opponent leave the ring alive. And Danny forthwith arranges to have the real Raja fight Raju.

The contest begins on the next day, and father and son are soon in a crazed sword fight. The duel takes a turn when the Raja spots the word mard on Raju’s chest, and Raju notices one of his blows drew blood from the Raja’s cheek. They quickly discover the truth, and keep up the appearance of a death duel until the Raja hoists Raju off the arena and into the viewing gallery. Raju plunges his sword into General Dyer, killing him instantly.

Danny is infuriated. He orders his tanks to finish off Raju and the Raja. (Lady Helena and Rani Durga are strapped to the tanks, with British soldiers holding them at gunpoint.) Raju and the Raja seize horses and escape, with the tanks in hot pursuit. After a long chase and fight, Raju and the Raja overpower the tanks, rescue the ladies and engage the villains in combat. After a hard sword-and-gun fight, Harry, Danny and Goga are drowned in quicksand, and Raju and his father return victorious.

The film ends with Raju and Ruby coming together and being reunited with Raju’s real parents, on the dawn of India’s independence movement.

Boxoffice :

Mard did exceptional business of 9.25 Crore in 1985 which if adjusted today comes to 90 Crore. It was BlockBuster Hit with 15 golden jubilees. Madhu cinema, Yamuna nagar celebrate golden jubilee (65 weeks) which is highest run, apart from this some significant runners – Golcha- Delhi (45 weeks), Regal – Delhi (26 weeks), Filmistan – Delhi (19 Weeks), Amba Delhi (36 Weeks), Neelam Chandigarh (18 weeks), Apsara – Bombay (34 weeks), Alankar – mumbai (18 weeks), Plaza – Mumbai (38 Weeks), Chitra – Mumbai (19 weeks). All in All Total 15 Golden Jubilees and many silver jubilees with overall 9.25 Crore in hand made this movie a blockbuster. Its record was broken after 4 years by “Maine Pyaar Kiya” in 1989 which collects 15 Crore.

Unadjusted Figure: 9.25 Crore Nett

Adjusted Figure: 90 Crore Nett

Verdict: Blockbuster

– BollyBusiness

Praz Gold : DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)

•January 22, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Sam Raimi, to me, is the god of modern pulp/cult horror! Long before he became famous with the SPIDERMAN series, he did a low-key and very scary horror comedy called THE EVIL DEAD (which later spawned 2 sequels) and that marked the dawn of a new director who effectively knew the confines of the genre remarkably well as well as being a visionary of sorts who managed to capture some of the most stunning camera-work!

Read the rest from HERE

Boxoffice Update : 22/01/2010

•January 22, 2010 • 44 Comments

 

Movie Week This Week Nett Total Nett Final Verdict
Chance Pe Dance 1 8.35 Crore 8.35 Crore Flop
Dulha Mil Gaya 2 88 Lacs 3.78 Crore Disaster
Pyaar Impossible 2 1.19 Crore 5.54 Crore Flop
3 Idiots  4 16.87 Crore 180.71 Crore All Time BB

Veer Opening Note : Delhi  – 63 Lakhs [Up-to 6:00 PM(including advance booking collections)], Mumbai –  89 Lakhs [Up-to 6:00 PM(including advance booking collections)]. Single screens are getting better reception for upto 90% collections.

 

– BollyBusiness

Praz Gold : MOON (2009)

•January 22, 2010 • Leave a Comment

2009 was a impressive year for Sci-Fi. Both DISTRICT 9 and AVATAR blew viewers away world-wide however in amongst the biggies comes a quieter Sci-fi film which is about as humane as the brilliant Jodie Foster film CONTACT.
Set in a future not long from now (2030-ish I think). Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell in a tour-de-force performance) is a astronaut, working on a lunar base of some sort. He is the only person on the entire base, only assisted by an all-knowing robot called GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). He has been stationed on the base for almost 3 years, his contract nearing an end, and with his flight back to earth scheduled only 14 days away, he can’t wait to get back home to see his wife and daughter again. However, suddenly one of the automated moon-vehicles (harvesting rock-samples or whatever) goes awry, and he goes outside of the base to investigate it… but then something unexpected happens, and he has to change his perspective on everything.

Read the rest from HERE

Veer – Initial Reviews and Predictions

•January 21, 2010 • 84 Comments

After super success of Wanted, Veer is no doubt much awaited movie of salman khan in a similar genre (Action). If early indications are something to go by, Veer is highly entertaining and action movie. Few words i heard about Veer is “Movie belongs to salman khan and with high quote of entertainment and action” , “Movie is comeback vehicle of Mithun da” , “Veer is gadar of this decade” , “I am going to watch veer again” , “Veer is to Salman what Gadar is to sunny” , “Veer is not flawless, but solid entertainment quotient in veer make flaws far invisible“.

After getting such positive lines from some trusted source, i am sure Veer will not disappoint at box-office. It’s time for box-office prediction of veer (I know it’s late, but i was waiting for such positive feedback). 

Veer (2010)

  If Accepted :  

Opening : 36 – 42 Crore
Total        : 70 – 85 Crore
  If Moderately accepted (which should likely not the case looking at some feedbacks) : 

Opening :   30 – 35 crore
Total        :   55 – 62 crore