Forthcoming releases to ring out 2011

Here is what is left for us to view:

Mausam - Pankaj Kapur directs his son and Sonam Kapoor in a love story across time.  Other than a long time in the making, a Veer Zaara hangover, and Shahid's ridiculous mustache, the movie does have some decent songs and curiosity associated with Pankaj Kapur's debut as director.

Speedy Singhs - Akshay Kumar produced this film directed by Robert Lieberman and starring (the only name of note) Russel Peters and many other no names.  All reports say this is a certified dud.

Force - Nishikant Kamath's direction, John Abraham and Genelia D'Souza starring in an action drama that looks like John's muscles are doing most of the acting.  Music is by Harris Jayraj but it has not made many waves yet.

Rascals - David Dhawan directs Sunjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn playing bad boys with teh ever incomprehensible Kangana Ranuat.  Music is by Vishal Shekhar.

Ra.One - directed by one Anubhav Sinha, and produced by Shah Rukh Khan, this one promises thrills and CGI action in 3D. Kareena Kapoor costars as the red saree clad Chammak Challo.  Music is by Vishal Shekhar.

Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl - directed by Band Baaja Baraat phenom Maneesh Sharma, this one stars Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.  Expect fireworks!

Rockstar - Imtiaz Ali directs Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri in this rock music extravaganza.  Music is by A R Rahman, and Sadda Haq and Kun faaya Kun are already making waves.

Don 2 - Farhan Akhtar sheds his actor avatar and dons the director's hat for this sequel to the 2006 remake of Don.  This one promises a unique story and boasts of Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra in the cast.  Music is by SEL, and this will close the year out in a grand style!

Tell us how you think each of them will do critically and at the box office.

Ladies vs Rikky Bahl Shooting pics

Akki tries for his Lagaan moment – Patiala House!

After the box office disappointment of Chandni Chowk to China, director Nikhil Advani returns with a film set in London with full on Punjabiyat and nationalism at its core. Right at the start we see racial riots, skinheads, racially motivated killing of a member of the Kahlon family and are given the back story for why Rishi Kappor is the kind of patriarch he is. He lives in his own little enclave, populated with his extended family that we are never really introduced to, other than to be told that they all have aspirations that do not match the expectations the patriarch has of them.

Patiala House - reviews

Ratings at 2/5 SO FAR!

Anupama Chopra - NDTV 2.5/5 gigantic loopholes hobble Patiala House. As does the lazy writing – none of the other family members make an impression and Bauji is such an exasperating character that even Rishi Kapoor can’t humanise him.
Kunal Guha yahoo movies 1.5/5 what's terribly disappointing for anyone who understands the game even a bit, is that our Punjab express chucks every single time (check bowling action!).
Taran Adarsh bollywoodhungama.com 4/5 On the whole, PATIALA HOUSE is a film about attachments, affiliations and familial bonding. It's a compelling watch, more for its drama and histrionics than anything else.
Sonia Chopra sify.com 2/5 Director Nikhil Advani's storytelling is archaic and simplistic... when Gattu explains .. that his dad's heart would break if he played cricket, you actually hear a thunder-and-lightening sound effect.
Mayank Shekhar Hindustan Times 2/5 To use popular journalese, the peg of this Patiala (House) story is British racism of the early '90s. . . If anything, this is one of the best of recent Akshay Kumar flicks, from a rapidly expanding annual inventory, of course.
Rajeev Masand CNN IBN 1.5/5 Akshay Kumar as Gattu ... it’s a labored performance, lacking the subtleties and nuances that could have made it truly heart-felt.

Khalid Mohamed passionforcinema.com 2/5 They’re U K, you’re not O K. In fact, you suffer in silence as the cliché-drops keep falling on your head
Nikhat Kazmi Times of India 3/5 Every little twist and turn of this self-realisation soap opera is pre-ordained and terribly familiar.
 

From near-demise to resurgence of the romcom – Band Baaja Baaraat!

Band Baajaa Baraat

When I saw the promos of Break Ke Baad (BKB) I knew to avoid it like the plague. No way could I take one more romcom with guys and girls cavorting about in trendy clothes playing at the game of love. Was the romcom as imagined by Bollywood truly dead? But strangely enough, I could pop in the Jab We Met DVD anytime and catch the shenanigans of Geet and Aditya.

Band Baaja Baaraat reviews - 3.3/5 so far

Bhavnaa Somiayya, Lehren ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ – a Lehren Review - 4/5 out of which 2 are for Anushka Sharma, Mogambo khush hua!
Anupama Chopra ndtv 3/5 The love story of two wedding planners in Delhi, Shruti and Bittoo, played by Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh, has a charm and sweetness that's been missing from YRF movies for many moons now.
Rajeev Masand, CNN IBN 3/5 director Maneesh Sharma’s Band Baaja Baaraat. It’s a romantic comedy done correctly. Fun, but with warmth at its heart. Don’t miss it.
Taran Adarsh BollywoodHungama 3.5/5 It has an appealing plot, which has been handled with dexterity and most importantly, it has characters that instantly make a place for themselves in your heart.

Band Baaja Baaraat updated with some numbers

The film is stated to have cost 8-9 crore with another 3-4 cr spent on print and publicity.  As per Boxofficeindia.com reports "The film can easily fetch 7-8 crore for satellite rights today but they have not been sold as yet and if the film does decent theatrical business this figure could go 10 crore. A big run at the theatres then the figure can go much higher. Then you have the music and video rights worth 3-4 crore. Overseas may not give much as the film has a new male lead though the YRF brand name could help."  The film is releasing with less than 600 prints and Friday should give a good idea of whether the viewers will come out for this one or not!

Where are they now?

Sorry for the ominous title. It's usually reserved for finding celebs who've disappeared for the last 20-30 years. It's equally apt, however, for what's happening to some of the biggest female stars of recent times.

On the heels of Aishwarya Rai announcing that she is on the verge of signing films with Shyam Benegal and Raj Kumar Santoshi, one wonders what's happening to the actresses who once used to go toe to toe with Aishwarya. (or beat her, for that matter)

At nearly 40, Aishwarya is going from strength to strength. Most of her movies may flop but then so do the current hotties' films like Kareena Kapoor. Hits and flops have never been a big deal for actresses. Career prospects are determined by the level of films you get and which big directors and male actors are connected to them. With the likes of Mani Rathnam, Ashutosh Gowariker, Sanjay Leela Bhansali all working with her in recent times, she is on a career high.

Badmaash Company - Movie Reviews

Please post all Badmaash Company reviews here..

Rediff.com- Raja Sen

When did Badmaashi get this boring?


Perhaps, like in the one fantastic film he was great in, there really are two Shahid Kapoors. One is a decent actor, the sort of person Imtiaz Ali  can coerce into impressive restraint, and Vishal Bhardwaj can work miracles with.

The other, more frequently seen brother is a talentless hack, one of those young dancing boys who purses his lips to show emotion and wallows in his own smugness.

This film, as you might have guessed, stars the latter. Not that director Parmeet Sethi -- who will forever be known as the man Simran turned down in the biggest hit of our times -- is absolved of blame purely because there isn't a single actor in his film. (Well, there's Pawan Malhotra, sure, but there's only so much that ever-reliable performer can do on his own. Remember Delhi 6?)

Badmaash Company is an unimaginably boring film that is so amateurish it hurts. Peopled entirely by imbeciles, the film is about a bunch of swagger-happy bling-loving scamsters who come up with some mild manipulation with selling sneakers.

So smitten is the director with this plan that he shows the team in action again and again, setting up sequence after sequence first so Shahid can slowly explain his plan and then repeating the shots so they can execute that very spelled-out plan.

Meanwhile, we yawn and wait. Surely there must be more to an entire movie than a group of fools parading around in costumes and selling shoes. There is: they move on to doing the exact same thing with gloves. And we're shown it all again, oh yes. Mr Sethi, looking up the word 'montage' might be a good idea.

And it's all soaked to the gills in cliche. There's melodrama of every kind, as moron by moron develops trouble -- daddy issues, relationship insecurity, alcoholism, overriding ambition, a suddenly stubborn gambling streak -- and all of it is as obvious as it gets.

The two vivacious ladies on either side of me in the theatre today made a game out of predicting what hackneyed melodramatic lines and twists would come next: they were mostly right, and the few times they erred, their predictions were far superior to the directors.

And before you think it's a so-bad-it's-good kinda film, it's not. It's just drab and repetitive and quite persistently annoying, and thanks to every theme being stretched out over and over again, feels absolutely unending.

Shahid, as said, scowls and furrows his brow to look intense, makes puppy dog eyes while talking extra-plaintively to his folks, and raises eyebrows self-appreciatingly when he thinks he looks pretty.

Meiyang Chang of Indian Idol seems to have gotten this gig simply because of his Chinese roots, leading to some weak gags.

Vir Das plays a miraculously inconsistent character, one who starts off frivolous and armed with that Bollywood flavour of the season, a stutter, but loses that and his amorality as he turns into the calm one.

And all of these boys, these boys acting as if in a poor school play, are outdone completely by the girl, who is in a whole different league of awful.

Anushka Sharma, clad in technicolor pants and trying hard to look at ease while showing skin, is painful right from her first shot, where she overacts while chewing bubblegum. And giving her a casually sexy personality -- complete with the most wannabe vocabulary of all time, freakin' screwy stuff, yeah -- doesn't help matters.

It's hard to take this sort of film seriously, a film that lathers on the same lackluster ideas over and over again, expecting us to lap it up but actually beating us into stupor. There's not a single scene in the film that actually works, and there are a couple that just hurt: including a very poorly thought out reference to a music legend.

Nope, all they get right with Badmaash Company are the first three letters of the title.

Rediff Rating: 0.5/5

LINK

Badmaash Company - Movie Reviews

Please post all Badmaash Company reviews here..

Rediff.com- Raja Sen

When did Badmaashi get this boring?


Perhaps, like in the one fantastic film he was great in, there really are two Shahid Kapoors. One is a decent actor, the sort of person Imtiaz Ali  can coerce into impressive restraint, and Vishal Bhardwaj can work miracles with.

The other, more frequently seen brother is a talentless hack, one of those young dancing boys who purses his lips to show emotion and wallows in his own smugness.

This film, as you might have guessed, stars the latter. Not that director Parmeet Sethi -- who will forever be known as the man Simran turned down in the biggest hit of our times -- is absolved of blame purely because there isn't a single actor in his film. (Well, there's Pawan Malhotra, sure, but there's only so much that ever-reliable performer can do on his own. Remember Delhi 6?)

Badmaash Company is an unimaginably boring film that is so amateurish it hurts. Peopled entirely by imbeciles, the film is about a bunch of swagger-happy bling-loving scamsters who come up with some mild manipulation with selling sneakers.

So smitten is the director with this plan that he shows the team in action again and again, setting up sequence after sequence first so Shahid can slowly explain his plan and then repeating the shots so they can execute that very spelled-out plan.

Meanwhile, we yawn and wait. Surely there must be more to an entire movie than a group of fools parading around in costumes and selling shoes. There is: they move on to doing the exact same thing with gloves. And we're shown it all again, oh yes. Mr Sethi, looking up the word 'montage' might be a good idea.

And it's all soaked to the gills in cliche. There's melodrama of every kind, as moron by moron develops trouble -- daddy issues, relationship insecurity, alcoholism, overriding ambition, a suddenly stubborn gambling streak -- and all of it is as obvious as it gets.

The two vivacious ladies on either side of me in the theatre today made a game out of predicting what hackneyed melodramatic lines and twists would come next: they were mostly right, and the few times they erred, their predictions were far superior to the directors.

And before you think it's a so-bad-it's-good kinda film, it's not. It's just drab and repetitive and quite persistently annoying, and thanks to every theme being stretched out over and over again, feels absolutely unending.

Shahid, as said, scowls and furrows his brow to look intense, makes puppy dog eyes while talking extra-plaintively to his folks, and raises eyebrows self-appreciatingly when he thinks he looks pretty.

Meiyang Chang of Indian Idol seems to have gotten this gig simply because of his Chinese roots, leading to some weak gags.

Vir Das plays a miraculously inconsistent character, one who starts off frivolous and armed with that Bollywood flavour of the season, a stutter, but loses that and his amorality as he turns into the calm one.

And all of these boys, these boys acting as if in a poor school play, are outdone completely by the girl, who is in a whole different league of awful.

Anushka Sharma, clad in technicolor pants and trying hard to look at ease while showing skin, is painful right from her first shot, where she overacts while chewing bubblegum. And giving her a casually sexy personality -- complete with the most wannabe vocabulary of all time, freakin' screwy stuff, yeah -- doesn't help matters.

It's hard to take this sort of film seriously, a film that lathers on the same lackluster ideas over and over again, expecting us to lap it up but actually beating us into stupor. There's not a single scene in the film that actually works, and there are a couple that just hurt: including a very poorly thought out reference to a music legend.

Nope, all they get right with Badmaash Company are the first three letters of the title.

Rediff Rating: 0.5/5

LINK

Shahid, Anushka, Meiyang Speak About 'Badmaash Company' Part 1

Shahid, Anushka, Meiyang Speak About 'Badmaash Company' Part 1

Round-up of news for the day!

Anushka Sharma out of Rockstar

We all know that Imtiaz Ali first conceptualised Rockstar with John Abraham. Then, the reworked script worked in favour of Ranbir Kapoor. Well, after John Abraham, it’s Anushka Sharma who gets the axe we hear. The poor girl, who just loves Ranbir by the way, was distraught by the latest developments. The buzz is that Imtiaz wants to cast an unknown girl for the role. Watch this space for more.

This is sad news indeed. Hope Imtiaz is not thinking of foisting another Giselle type on us!


We all knew Jackie Chan was not in Ra.one..
But now we hear that SRK has signed a lesser known martial arts hero from China but presently his name is being kept under wraps.

So we should expect martial arts to play a big part in the film!


John and Tabu's UTV films in trouble
Just heard that UTV has decided to shelve the Tabu-Shreyas Talpade starrer Season’s Greetings, despite it being 80 per cent complete. Earlier, we heard that they decided to disassociate themselves from David Dhawan’s jailhouse comedy Hook Ya Crook. It’s rumoured that the film’s star John Abraham and David Dhawan will now produce the film themselves. The film is allegedly 90 per cent complete. Dhawan wants some scenes with Indian cricketers but the IPL season has kept them busy.

This is a pity - Tabu needs to be seen more in films, such a fine talent!


The English version of 'Kites' will release one week later

Now here's vital info. While everyone knows that the much-awaited KITES will be released worldwide on May 21, its international cut - in English language - will be released one week later, on May 28. It means, the American audiences will get to watch the two versions [Hindi and English] in two consecutive weeks. While the Hindi version, targeted at the Indian diaspora with a running time of 2 hours, will arrive on May 21, the English version, with a running of 90 minutes, will arrive at select venues on May 28.

Here's more on KITES! More than a week ago, a reputed newspaper had done a 'Spoiler Alert' and had revealed the climax of this keenly anticipated film. Expectedly, the news-report sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the film fraternity, since an expose of this kind, much before its release, usually harms the film in question.

While the newspaper tendered an apology the very next morning, KITES director Anurag Basu couldn't hide his anger while talking about it. "The climax mentioned in the news-report is false and fabricated. The sad part about the whole thing is, even if I say it's wrong, people might assume that's how the film actually ends," Basu sounds hurt.

This supremely talented director likes to stay away from the media glare, even though he's helmed one of the biggest movies of this year. Ask him if he had differences with producer Rakesh Roshan and he jokes, "Thankfully, we didn't come to blows." But he gets serious soon enough, "Actually, it took us time to adjust to each other's pattern of working. There were no hiccups once we understood each other," he says.

So will he work with the Roshans again? "You should ask them whether they would like to work with me again," he laughs.

This could be a smart move - Hrithik has enough hard-core fans who might go and see both versions in theaters overseas!!

Round-up of news for the day!

Anushka Sharma out of Rockstar

We all know that Imtiaz Ali first conceptualised Rockstar with John Abraham. Then, the reworked script worked in favour of Ranbir Kapoor. Well, after John Abraham, it’s Anushka Sharma who gets the axe we hear. The poor girl, who just loves Ranbir by the way, was distraught by the latest developments. The buzz is that Imtiaz wants to cast an unknown girl for the role. Watch this space for more.

This is sad news indeed. Hope Imtiaz is not thinking of foisting another Giselle type on us!


We all knew Jackie Chan was not in Ra.one..
But now we hear that SRK has signed a lesser known martial arts hero from China but presently his name is being kept under wraps.

So we should expect martial arts to play a big part in the film!


John and Tabu's UTV films in trouble
Just heard that UTV has decided to shelve the Tabu-Shreyas Talpade starrer Season’s Greetings, despite it being 80 per cent complete. Earlier, we heard that they decided to disassociate themselves from David Dhawan’s jailhouse comedy Hook Ya Crook. It’s rumoured that the film’s star John Abraham and David Dhawan will now produce the film themselves. The film is allegedly 90 per cent complete. Dhawan wants some scenes with Indian cricketers but the IPL season has kept them busy.

This is a pity - Tabu needs to be seen more in films, such a fine talent!


The English version of 'Kites' will release one week later

Now here's vital info. While everyone knows that the much-awaited KITES will be released worldwide on May 21, its international cut - in English language - will be released one week later, on May 28. It means, the American audiences will get to watch the two versions [Hindi and English] in two consecutive weeks. While the Hindi version, targeted at the Indian diaspora with a running time of 2 hours, will arrive on May 21, the English version, with a running of 90 minutes, will arrive at select venues on May 28.

Here's more on KITES! More than a week ago, a reputed newspaper had done a 'Spoiler Alert' and had revealed the climax of this keenly anticipated film. Expectedly, the news-report sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the film fraternity, since an expose of this kind, much before its release, usually harms the film in question.

While the newspaper tendered an apology the very next morning, KITES director Anurag Basu couldn't hide his anger while talking about it. "The climax mentioned in the news-report is false and fabricated. The sad part about the whole thing is, even if I say it's wrong, people might assume that's how the film actually ends," Basu sounds hurt.

This supremely talented director likes to stay away from the media glare, even though he's helmed one of the biggest movies of this year. Ask him if he had differences with producer Rakesh Roshan and he jokes, "Thankfully, we didn't come to blows." But he gets serious soon enough, "Actually, it took us time to adjust to each other's pattern of working. There were no hiccups once we understood each other," he says.

So will he work with the Roshans again? "You should ask them whether they would like to work with me again," he laughs.

This could be a smart move - Hrithik has enough hard-core fans who might go and see both versions in theaters overseas!!

Badmaash Company - Title song promo!!!

Looking good to me. BUT I still feel like it could be Ocean's inspired, and am desperately hoping it is NOT.

Badmaash Company - Title song promo!!!

Looking good to me. BUT I still feel like it could be Ocean's inspired, and am desperately hoping it is NOT.

Are the four characters of 'Badmaash Company' picked from real life?

Not many are aware that Parmeet Sethi, the actor turned director of BADMAASH COMPANY, wrote its entire script with dialogues in six days flat. Yes, you read it right: Six days only. And the four characters in the film - Karan, Bulbul, Chandu and Zing - are known to Parmeet; they're based on real-life characters.

Anushka Sharma, who has a lot of hopes pinning on BADMAASH COMPANY, feels that the film would connect big time with the youth of today, who resort to an easy route to attain name, fame and riches overnight. "That's what attracted me to the film. Honestly, I wasn't even aware that Parmeet had written the script and was supposed to direct it, since Adi [Aditya Chopra] just asked me to go through it. It was much later, when I read the script and expressed my eagerness to be a part of the film, that Adi revealed the director's identity," Anushka tells me.

Parmeet reveals that he got tired of television and was keen on pursuing film direction. "There's a little of me in each of those four characters," Parmeet says, who approached Yash Raj with his script the moment he was ready. The fact that Adi liked it and signed a 3-film deal with Parmeet, says it all.

Parmeet feels that BADMAASH COMPANY offers loads of entertainment, but narrated in a new format. "Even the choice of actors proves that I didn't want to take the predictable path," he says. What about Shahid? He's known to act 'difficult' with his directors. "That's not true at all. Not once did he interfere or throw starry tantrums. In fact, he pushed his father's film MAUSAM ahead to accommodate BADMAASH COMPANY. That says it all," Parmeet refutes the rumour.

LINK

Are the four characters of 'Badmaash Company' picked from real life?

Not many are aware that Parmeet Sethi, the actor turned director of BADMAASH COMPANY, wrote its entire script with dialogues in six days flat. Yes, you read it right: Six days only. And the four characters in the film - Karan, Bulbul, Chandu and Zing - are known to Parmeet; they're based on real-life characters.

Anushka Sharma, who has a lot of hopes pinning on BADMAASH COMPANY, feels that the film would connect big time with the youth of today, who resort to an easy route to attain name, fame and riches overnight. "That's what attracted me to the film. Honestly, I wasn't even aware that Parmeet had written the script and was supposed to direct it, since Adi [Aditya Chopra] just asked me to go through it. It was much later, when I read the script and expressed my eagerness to be a part of the film, that Adi revealed the director's identity," Anushka tells me.

Parmeet reveals that he got tired of television and was keen on pursuing film direction. "There's a little of me in each of those four characters," Parmeet says, who approached Yash Raj with his script the moment he was ready. The fact that Adi liked it and signed a 3-film deal with Parmeet, says it all.

Parmeet feels that BADMAASH COMPANY offers loads of entertainment, but narrated in a new format. "Even the choice of actors proves that I didn't want to take the predictable path," he says. What about Shahid? He's known to act 'difficult' with his directors. "That's not true at all. Not once did he interfere or throw starry tantrums. In fact, he pushed his father's film MAUSAM ahead to accommodate BADMAASH COMPANY. That says it all," Parmeet refutes the rumour.

LINK

Badmaash Company Movie Still

Badmaash Company Movie Still