Arjun Rampal: Second and Loved

Arjun Rampal could never find a place in Bollywood, even after having a few good movies to his credit, like Gaurang Doshi's Aankhen. But now, Arjun is having a second lead in most of his movies, and is being loved more than he was as a solo hero.

The best example of this case was Rock On!!, where Arjun was loved by one and all. Even though Farhan Akhtar was the lead of the band and the movie too, Arjun Rampal got his presence felt throughout. In fact, people said it was his best ever performance.

Rock On!! was hardly out of people's minds when Last Lear hit the theaters. And today, every critic is busy praising Big B and Arjun for their performances in the movie. Yet again, this is not a solo lead performance by the model-turned-actor, but Arjun is getting more and more praise.

Last year also Arjun had been good in Om Shanti Om where he played the so-called villain of the movie. It seems it was OSO where Arjun got a kick start. Well, whatever it is that kicked start him, we just wish he goes better every time.

Good Luck Joe! Keep Rocking.

Vinay Pathak: Time starts now!

Vinay Pathak's time has finally come. After playing side roles in various films and getting noticed in every one, Vinay has made a place for himself in the film industry, and now he is getting more from it.

This October can be a wonderful experience for the actor because as per current news, two movies of Vinay are slated for a release on 10th October, both of them having him in the lead!!


Interesting, isn't it? A person who was seen only in comic roles until a few months back, is now going to have two movies of 'his' released on the same day.

The two movies of Vinay are Dasvidaniya and SRK.

Dasvidaniya is a situational comedy in which the hero, that is Vinay, knows that he will die in three months and hence prepares a list of ten things he would like to do before dying. I guess Dasvidaniya might make a wonderful movie.

The second one, SRK, if as interesting as its name, can work wonders too. In the movie, Vinay plays the title role of SRK, that is, Shivaji Ramchandra Khote. In SRK, Vinay has Rituparna Sengupta working with him, who was in Main, Meri Patni aur Woh also, along with Manoj Joshi and Dilip Prabhavalkar, who had played Gandhi in Lage Raho Munnabhai.

Shail Hada: There again

He came in rocking with Saanwariya. He got no acclaim. No awards. And almost no nominations. But he is here. Again.

Shail Hada had a bang with one song, the title number of Saanwariya. But I could never understand why, why didn't he even get a nomination in most of the award functions. Monty Sharma had given him the best and Shail had performed.

But then, there was no name of Shail on the charts where Monty received his due credit almost everywhere.

Now that Monty is back with Chamku, there is a new voice for Bobby Deol that I find different. You guessed it right. It's Shail Hada again. Once again, Monty has shown his belief in the singer and the result is there.

I hope Shail will be having more films in the future. After all, if Ranbeer can get the credit for copying Raj Kapoor, why can't Shail get the same for copying Kishore?

The Big Friday

22nd August was surely a big friday, as there were six movies lined up for a release, though some of have been rescheduled to coming week or other. What 22nd August did not see was Chamku and C Kkompany, but what it saw is no less. It was Maan Gaye Mughall e Azam, an already praised Mumbai Meri Jaan, and a hyped Phoonk.

The results have been quite okay too. While MGMA turns out to be a not-too-bad comedy, Mumbai Meri Jaan is a decent movie for those who like serious cinema. But most important of all, this Friday brings Phoonk, the black magic story, which seems to be the end of the black magic working on Ram Gopal Varma.


Phoonk has been praised by most of the critics and moviegoers are once again finding it possible to go for a RGV movie, which had in itself become a scary thing for past some time.

On the Other hand, there is Mumbai Meri Jaan, a movie that brings in five different stories which center the serial bomb blasts that took place in Mumbai local trains on July 11th 2006. Mumbai Meri Jaan is a fine work on a sensitive subject by Marathi movie director Nishikant Kamat who won Swarovski Trophy in 2006 for his film Dombivli Fast.

Jaago: Small Movies by Big Directors

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.

And the Winner is...

It's not the results of filmfare or national awards, or any other awards for that matter. The question was, who will be the winner of this July 4th. And the results are out now. Well, almost.

The reviews of the two movies, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and Love Story 2050 are not much surprising. Not for me at least. The bottom line goes as, Jaane Tu.. is worth a watch but Love Story 2050 goes only on the shoulders of VFX n all. Though, expectably again, Harman Baweja is considered to be a lambi-race-ka-ghoda by most.

The result of the two movies' battle can be well understood by seeing the verdicts given by the front running reviewers. For example, Taran Adarsh has called Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na a breezy entertainer which will be loved by its target audience, whereas Love Story 2050 review ends with 'Disappointing!' as he finds the movie 'rests on a thin plot'.

Indiatimes says that 'JTYJN definitely deserves a watch... and not just for Imran' whereas it claims Harman would certainly need some luck.

Also, the reviewers have once again made it clear that AR Rehman's music in Jaane Tu.. has given it a certain edge over its rival which seems to have relied too much over technology.

Now, the final verdict will be given by the public. Let's see what the public says. Because 'Public sab jaanti hai.'

Bachchan for Bachchas

Big B is doing it all for smalls. After his Bhootnath, Amitabh Bachchan is appearing in Aladin and the Mystery of the Lamp which is to release in November. And now, the news is that Amitabh is getting a new look for Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 'Talisman', a fantasy flick directed by Ram Madhvani.

The movie was declared by Vidhu Vinod Chopra last year after he finished with Eklavya, but wasn't seen for a long time. Now it seems that the movie is back in action and here is the look of Amitabh Bachchan that we found.

Only Singh can be the King

Salman Khan can be a Hunk. Hritik can have a body that changes the image of Indian heroes, Shahrukh Khan can have a six pack and Harman Baweja can be another Hritik dancing his way to glory. But when it comes to the real thing, it is Singh who is the King.

Yes. It is only Akshay Kumar who can perform those deadly stunts for real. At the IIFA awards 2008 he proved once again that he is the person who dares to do it not just on the big screen but even off the screen, in front of crowd of thousands. It is Akshay Kumar who can reach the stage from the other end of the auditorium hanging on a rope and then perform, that is, sing and dance together. And then, even run into the crowds and stand on the chairs in between while performing.

Akshay, who managed to give four hits last year, is all set to hit the big screens with his next movie 'Singh is Kinng' in August. And though there hasn't been much aired on music channels except for one promo yet, Akshay's performance on 'hun te to mera door jaan nu jee nai karda ni' has made it clear that Pritam is once again going to rock with his music in the movie.

Besides his new movie 'Singh is Kinng', Akshay is also ready to hit small screens with his big thing 'Khatron Ke Khiladi', which is the Indian version of Fear Factor, and will be aired on a new channel called Colors. In the show Akshay will be seen performing stunts and helping contestants perform them.

But Pappu Can't Dance!!

Aamir Uncle's nephew Imran Khan's debut Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na is still awaiting its release which is scheduled for 4th July, the same day when Love Story 2050 will be released, which will be introducing Harman Baweja, son of Harry Baweja.


But both the heroes have already got huge fan followings. At least this is what India's most popular* networking site Orkut is saying.

Now the question is who is the leader.

Any guesses?

Typing Imran on Orkut's search box tells us that the newcomer has a community in his name and the strength of the community is almost 19k, ten days to the release. In fact the guy has first four communities dedicated to him and the member count of the fourth one is 1k. Then only comes Imran Hashmi who has his highest community at 797.

Well, the intersting fact is that Imran has hardly been seen talking by Indian public and it's mostly the songs and promos, and maybe cricket matches where people have seen him.

And now comes Harman Baweja's stats. Well, a community that talks about 'Harman Baweja - Love Story 2050' boasts of 30,000+ members.

And this is not all, there are three communities of Harman Baweja's 'fans' with strengths of more than 16k, 14k and 9k.

Actually, these are stats which have surprised me. After seeing the stats I'm confused thinking what will be the outcome of Friday the 4th as previously I was thinking of Jaane Tu.. as a clear winner seeing the elements attached, especially Rehman's music, which is wonderful in the movie. But now it seems that with the number of Harman Baweja fans out there, it is impossible to guess the final result.

By the way, the main difference in the two heroes is that Imran is mainly popular due to his looks (till date) but Harman is popular for his Hritik like looks, body and Hritik style dance.

And probably that's where Imran is lagging behind.

After all, Pappu can't dance saala!

* : My Own Rating!!

Shahid's Kismat Konnection

If you think Neeraj Shridhar's super title song is the best Kismat Konnection has to offer, you may be very wrong.

Aziz Mirza, who once directed Shahrukh Khan in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and Yes Boss, and later in Chalte Chalte, has finally moved on, and this time, with a bang.

If Shahid rocked you with the first song Kismat Konnection Ho Jaye, Bakhuda Tumhi ho from Atif Aslam is something you are going to fall in love with.

No doubts about it.

The fact that Tips is quite hard on piracy this time has made it possible that all songs are not available online even days after official music release. This has made people more curious about the movie and the songs. Interestingly, till now, the wait has been worth it.

Kismat Konnection is where Pritam has worked with three band leaders in a single movie. Pritam has worked with Atif (previously Jal), Neeraj Shridhar (Bombay Vikings) and Mohit Chauhan (Silk Route) in separate movies to give super hit numbers.

Where Atif sang 'Pehli Nazar Mein' for Pritam in Race, Neeraj has sung two almost similar songs 'Hare Krishna Hare Ram' (Bhool Bhulaiyaa) and Ishq ka Kalma (Goal). Mohit Chauhan's 'Tum Se Hi' from Jab We Met was of course one of the biggest hits of the year.

So after listening to the first two songs, the song I am waiting for is Mohit's 'Is This Love'. Wish it comes soon, and so do other songs. But till then you can sing a few lines with me.

Bakhuda tumhi ho
Har jagah tumhi ho
Haan main dekhun jahan jab
Us jagah tumhi ho
Ye jahaan tumhi ho
Wo jahaan tumhi ho
Is zameen se falak ke
Darmiyaan tumhi ho
Tum hi ho beshubha, Tum hi ho
Tum hi ho mujh mein haan, Tum hi ho
Tum hi ho...
Tum hi...

Summer 2008: Movies to Look For

2008 hasn't seen much in the name of hits. Where IPL became an instant hit with the ball crossing boundary line again and again, there were only two movies in the year, namely Jodhaa Akbar and Race, that crossed the boundary of hit. Nor have there been many movies that claimed critical acclaim, while 2007 had given a number of hits Guru, Chak De India, Om Shanti Om, Jab We Met and of course, Taare Zameen Par. Many of the movies were loved by critics also.

Well, that was the case with the movies released till now. But it seems that now there can be some change in the trends and I really hope for some good movies and hits too. Though Sarkar Raj hasn't brought very good results even after being good, there are a number of movies which must be good. So let's have a look.

Kay Kay Menon, Parvin Dabbas, Prashant Narayanan, Rajat Kapoor, Simone Singh, Sandhya Mridul, Sonali Kulkarni, Vinay Pathak. That's the cast of Via Darjeeling which is scheduled to release on June 20th. Whoever are the other people associated with the movie, the cast is expected to make a wonderful movie, which seems certain on seeing the promos of the movie. Though I do not expect the movie to be a blockbuster, it should be a great movie.



Next Friday, 27th June brings us Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic which is at least expected to fare quite good if not exceptionally well on the box office. The movie has a great soundtrack and the reviews have been good.

July seems to be the best bet with at least one movie every week to watch out for. The first Friday of July will see two long awaited launches -- Imran Khan, the nephew of Aamir Khan, in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, and Harry Baweja's son Harman Baweja in Harry's sci-fi flick, Love Story 2050. Music of both the movies is out and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na seems to be leading the race till now as AR Rehman's music has helped Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na a lot.
The second Friday will be seeing Apoorva Lakhia's big budget project, Mission Istanbul. The movie has Zayed Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Sunil Shetty along with Abhishek Bachchan in an special appearance. Mission Istanbul is Apoorva's most ambitious project till date and Zayed Khan has even gained 11 kg for the movie. So it will be worth seeing if the hard work will result in the mission getting accomplished or not.

Kismat Konnection will be released on the third Friday of July. The movie is in hype since the day the promos have been launched. The first song of the movie has been getting wonderful response even before the complete soundtrack being released and with Pritam bearing the credits of music director, the movie is expected to have some wonderful songs.

The fourth and final week of July will bring hopes with Nagesh Kukunoor's Aashayein which was previously expected in May. Aashayein not only stars John Abraham but it probably has John as a singer too. Nagesh has been reported to have many 'Aashayein' from the movie after his last movie Bombay to Bangkok which was a disaster.

On the same day, there will be two more movies which have been in news a lot. First is money hai to honey hai which is directed by Ganesh Acharya. Second one is Ranveer Shorey-Mallika Sherawat starrer 'Ugly aur Pagli'. Ugly aur Pagli has started showing on TV channels and I must say I loved the first promo. Being a Ranveer Shorey movie, Ugly and Pagli is almost certain to have a certain part of audience but this will be worth seeing what results does his pairing with Mallika Sherawat bring.


The trend may follow for a few days as C Kkompany, Singh is Kinng and God Tussi Great Ho will be hitting theaters in August. So keep watching.

Their masters' voices

If it's the best, it's mine.

It's not a dialogue from Hitler or Napoleon (I don't guarantee though) but it's the policy of the music composers since time immemorial.

When I was a buyer of cassettes, I used to see the names of composers as they were brands to me. And most of the times these brands gave good results, Nadeem Shravan being the most consistent until they gave Jeena Sirf Mere Liye.

But soon the time of cassettes was over and I got digital format, that is MP3 songs. Now I had to find which were the best songs in every album so that I could listen to them first. To remain a leader in the hostel.

And that was when I got my algorithm to find the best songs.

My initial algorithm was made of two standard parts.

1. If there is a song sung by the composer of the album, it should be listened first.
2. The longest song of the album should be listened first otherwise.

The first part is generally applicable to movie albums only but the second one is applicable almost universally.

For those who believe in superstitions, I got a third part that says a song if 3 minutes and 28 seconds must be good. (Dus bahane and One love are examples)

Well, superstitions apart, the first two hold good most of the times and later I realized that it was an old formula that the best songs were always captured by the music composers themselves.

Want some examples?

Let's start with the King of Indian music industry, A R Rehman. Rehman has not sung many songs. But the best of the songs in almost all the albums he has composed are sung by Rehman himself. Be it 'Dil se', Guru's 'tere bina', or Jodhaa Akbar's 'khwaja mere khwaja'.

Other than Rehman, it's been Vishal from the Vishal-Shekhar duo and Shankar from the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio who have given their voices to the best of the songs for the past few years. Both have been quite selective about the songs they sing and such songs have either had the best of lyrics, or something 'different'.

'Aazma le' from Taxi 9211 and Saaiyaan ve from Ta-ra-rum-pum are the best examples of Vishal's love for good lyrics. To some extent, the same can be said about Shankar Mahadevan for his Mitwaa and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom title song.

Even composers who have not been this regular at composing music for Hindi movies, have also tried the same. And succeeded to some extent, at times. Awarapan from Jism and Khoobsoorat hai wo itna from Rog sung by MM Kreem and a try of Adnan Sami at Sun Zara of Lucky have been such examples.

Vishal Bharadwaj has also sung the best of the songs in his previous movies Omkara (O sathi re) and U me aur Hum (title song).

But for a long time I was thinking that it was a new trend and only the composers of this age were trying to keep the best songs for themselves.

Guess I was wrong.

And I got this when I came to know that the song I liked the most in Guide, 'Wahaan kaun hai tera' was sung by SD Burman himself instead of a professional singer.

There were legendary singers like Mohammad Rafi, Kishor Kumar and Mukesh available at that time, but Burman Senior decided to sing it himself. And the result is there. A superb song.

In fact, now a new trend has started where lyricists have started singing their songs. This is about Swanand Kirkire singing Khoya Khoya Chand, even though his voice is not that good and the slow version of the song shows the discrepancies. I don't have any stats on the trend if this too is an old and is being followed since then.

Anyways, next time you see an album for the first time and you have to decide where to start, just pick the number sung by the composer. Hope it will be good.