Friday, February 4, 2011

Should 'Bollywood' be 'Bollywood' or not?


                                   "The above image is the 'photoshoped' image of  the Hollywood banner!!"

In a recent argument instigated by Salman Khan on Twitter, many in the Hindi film Industry  have come to discuss the credibility of the name Bollywood for the Hindi Film Industry. Many years ago the name Bollywood was coined for the Hindi Film Industry  inspired by 'Hollywood' which is the location of American Film Industry. The name "Bollywood” was derived from Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) . But unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place.

 Some  agree  with Salman  Khan and are not comfortable to have an aped name of ‘Bollywood’ like Hollywood;  while some do not want to change the name  having  lived  with it since so many years,  and also because  now its globally popular and recognized name for the Hindi Film Industry!!

This argument was earlier instigated few years ago by Amitabh Bachchan, the biggest star of the Hindi film industry but no change or discussion happened in this context. This time too it may just pass since creating a name change of the film industry is going to be a much bigger campaign than changing names of cities as is the trend in India these days!


Check out details on
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Bollywood-mat-kaho-na/Article1-658568.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood

Twitter:
BeingSalmanKhan Salman Khan
Hate this bloody name , bollywood , koi naam hai kya ? Disgusting .

What is your opinion, should Bollywood  change its name?  Do write your  point of view or at least vote in the  Bollywood poll below.
 

Thursday, February 3, 2011

56th Filmfare Awards 2010 Top Winners – ‘My Name is Khan’, ‘Dabangg’, ‘Udaan’


The 56th Idea Filmfare Awards had three movies winning most awards- 'My Name is Khan', 'Dabaang' and 'Udaan'. Sharukh Khan’s 'My Name Is Khan' got 3 most popular awards - Best Director, Best Actor (Male), Best Actor (Female); Salman Khan starrer 'Dabangg' got 6 awards; ‘Udaan’ got 7 awards-  Best Supporting Actor (Male), Best Film (Critics), Best Story, Cinematography, Screenplay, Best Background Music and Best Sound Design Award.


POPULAR AWARDS

Best Actor: Shah Rukh Khan for 'My Name is Khan'
Best Actress: Kajol for 'My Name is Khan'
Best Film: 'Dabangg'
Best Director Award: Karan Johar for My Name is Khan.
Best Debut Director: Manish Sharma for Band Baajaa Baaraat
Best Debut Actor (Male): Ranveer Singh for Band Baajaa Baaraat
Best Debut Actor (Female): Sonakshi Sinha for Dabangg

Best Supporting Actor (Male): Ronit Roy for 'Udaan'
Best Supporting Actor (Female): Kareena Kapoor for 'We Are Family'


FILMFARE CRITICS AWARDS
Best Actor (Critics): Rishi Kapoor for 'Do Dooni Chaar'
Best Actress (Critics): Vidya Balan for 'Ishqiya'
Best Film (Critics): Vikramaditya Motwane and Sanjay Singh for 'Udaan'


LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Prabodh Chandra  aka  Manna Dey the melodious playback singer  was felicitated with one of the most prestigious award of the night - the Lifetime Achievement award. ( He  had won his first Filmfare Award in 1970 for singing the song 'Ae Bhai Zara Dekh Ke Chalo' from Mera Naam Joker).


SPECIAL AWARDS  were given to Amitabh Bachchan  an award for completing 40 years in the film industry!  And Madhuri Dixit for completing 25 years in the film industry!

FILMFARE MUSIC AWARDS

Best Music Composer: Sajid Wajid won the Best Music Composer Award for Dabangg.
Best Song Composer : Lalit Pandit  for the song Munni Badnam Hui…
Best Lyrics: Gulzar won the Best Lyrics Award for the song 'Ibn-e-Batuta' (Ishqiya).
Most Promising Talent in Music: Sneha Khanwalkar for 'Love Sex aur Dhokha'
Best Playback Singer (Male): Rahat Fateh Ali Khan won Best Playback Singer (Male) for 'Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji' (Ishqiya)
Best Playback Singer (Female): Best Playback Singer (Female) Award was shared between Mamta Sharma for 'Munni Badnaam Hui' (Dabangg) and Sunidhi Chauhan for 'Sheila Ki Jawani' (Tees Maar Khan)

FILMFARE TECHNICAL AWARDS

Best Choreography: Farah Khan for 'Sheila Ki Jawani' from Tees Maar Khan.
Best Dialogue : Habib Faisal for Do Dooni Chaar
Best Screenplay: Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane for Udaan
Best Story: Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane for Udaan
Best Background Music: Amit Trivedi for Udaan.
Best ActionDirector:Vijayan Master for Dabbang
BestCinematography: Mahendra Shetty for Udaan
Best Action Sequence: Vijayan Master for Dabbang
Best Editing Award: Namrata Rao for 'Love Sex aur Dhoka'.
Best Production Design Award : Mukund Gupta for 'Do Dooni Chaar'.
Best Sound Design Award: Best Sound Design Award is shared by Pritam Das for 'Love Sex Aur Dhoka' and Kunal Sharma for 'Udaan'.
Best Costume Design Award : Varsha and Shilpa have won the Best Costume Design Award for the film Do Dooni Chaar.
Best Scene of the Year Award:  Golmaal 3



















Thursday, January 27, 2011

56th Filmfare Awards for 2010 Bollywood movies coming soon!


Who will win the 'Best Actor  Award' ? Who will win the 'Best Actress Award' for 2010 ?  Which Bollywood movie do you think was the 'Best'  in 2010!  Start guessing soon…




The 56th Filmfare Awards 2010  will select the best Bollywood movies, actors, actresses, music and more  on Saturday 29th January 2011.  The event to be hosted this year by Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan is to be held at Yash Raj Films Studios, in Mumbai, India.

 It seems like the game is between Sharukh Khan and Salman Khan  since both  SRK’s My Name Is Khan and Salman Khan’s Dabangg are  nominated for many award categories this year.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTg1kpxdQ9s&NR=1



Here are the nominees for the 56th Filmfare Awards:

Best Film
Band Baaja Baaraat
Dabangg
My Name Is Khan
Peepli Live
Udaan

Best Director
Abhinav Kashyap (Dabangg)
Karan Johar (My Name Is Khan)
Manish Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat )
Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Guzarish)
Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Ajay Devgan (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Hrithik Roshan (Guzaarish)
Salman Khan (Dabangg)
Shah Rukh Khan (My Name Is Khan)
Ranbir Kapoor (Raajneeti)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Aishwariya Rai Bachchan (Guzaarish)
Anushka Sharma (Band Baaja Baaraat )
Kajol (My Name Is Khan)
Kareena Kapoor (Golmaal 3)
Vidya Balan (Ishqiya)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Male
Arjun Rampal (Raajneeti)
Arshad Warsi (Golmaal 3)
Emraan Hashmi (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Manoj Bajpai (Raajneeti)
Nana Patekar (Raajneeti)
Ronit Roy (Udaan)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Female
Amrita Puri (Aisha)
Kareena Kapoor (We Are Family)
Prachi Desai (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Ratna Patak Shah (Golmaal 3)
Supriya Pathak Kapoor (Khichdi, The Movie)

Best Music
Pritam Chakraborty (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Sajid – Wajid & Lalit Pandit (Dabangg)
Shankar Ehsaan Loy (My Name Is Khan)
Vishal – Shekhar (Anjaana Anjaani)
Vishal – Shekhar (I Hate Luv Storys)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Ishqiya)

Best Lyrics
Faiz Anwar – Tere Mast Mast (Dabangg)
Gulzar – Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (Ishqiya)
Niranjan Iyenger – Sajda (My Name Is Khan)
Niranjan Iyenger – Noor e Khuda (My Name Is Khan)
Vishal Dadlani – Bin Tere (I Hate Luv Storys)

Best Male Playback Singer
Adnan Sami, Shankar Mahadevan – Noor e Khuda (My Name Is Khan)
Mohit Chauhan – Pee Loon (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – Sajda (My Name Is Khan)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (Ishqiya)
Shafqat Amanat Ali – Bin Tere (I Hate Luv Storys)

Best Female Playback Singer
Mamta Sharma – Munni Badnaam Hui (Dabangg)
Shreya Ghoshal – Bahara (I Hate Luv Storys)
Shreya Ghoshal – Noor e Khuda (My Name Is Khan)
Sunidhi Chauhan – Sheila Ki Jawani (Tees Maar Khan)
Sunidhi Chauhan – Udi (Guzaarish)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Guzarish- A Review


Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shernaz Patel, Nafisa Ali, Aditya Roy Kapur, Monikangana Dutta, Suhel Seth, Sheranaz Patel, Nafisa Ali
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Producer:  Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ronnie Screwwala
Screenplay: Bhavani Iyer, Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cinematography: Sudeep Chaterjee
Editor: Hemal Kothari
Music Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: ***
Duration: 2 hours 15 minutes
Official Site: http://www.guzaarishthefilm.com/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9QiS6nw1DM

The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. Minor details may have been divulged for proper review!

This movie pulls strings and touches the hearts of  all those of us who have seen people  up-close who are suffering from neurological or nerve damage or paraplegia or partial coma or  are on life support, …………The movie is sad yet beautifully and artistically  made with creative cinematography and  crisp editing.

Though I may not agree with euthanasia or mercy killing, the film is well crafted to not make one condemn the thought but to accept each individual’s personal decisions about life and death.

The story is about  Ethan Mascarenhas ( Hrithik Roshan), an incapacitated paraplegic who has a paralyzed lower body after an accident performing his magic act 14 years ago.  But he lives a soulful life as a radio disk jockey, enjoys books, music, television, and  a window with a view; he is cared for by  nurse Sophia ( Aishwarya Rai) who is in love with him and  has company of good friends, a lawyer (Shanaz Patel) a doctor ( Suhel Seth) and  a student of magic (Aditya Kapur).  Yet he wants to end his limitations and degenerating life and appeals to the court for euthanasia or mercy killing!

The beauty of this movie is its crisp direction, cinematography, and taut editing about a polemic topic and its ability to sensitively portray the life of a paraplegic with pathos but without the melodrama.  The screenplay has some well executed use of humor in banter and repartee slipped in dramatic moments. The cinematography is artistically beautiful, giving each frame and scene a life of its own; and of course the cast and performances of all the characters  is excellent.

Now to detail out the other aspects of the movie:

-    The story seems to have been inspired largely from the movie “ The Sea Inside”, a Spanish movie with English subtitles starring Javier Bardem (  of Eat, Pray, Love) about a paraplegic appealing for euthanasia!

-    The setting  though it says  is Goa, India, it looks old  European settings-  The medieval mansion, the interiors, furniture, grand curtains, blinds, and  walls adorned with photography and art and décor around the home, bedroom, and kitchen, reflects  European style;  Even the 18th century bathing spa machinery for the disabled is from the  old European bath houses.  The director Sanjay Leela Bansali seemed to be captivated with the drama and magnificence the European setting creates in many Hollywood movies and profusely borrowed it.

-      Costumes and jewelry in this movie  also has Spanish and European influence with beautiful long flowing Flememnco dresses with deep necks, scarfs and umbrellas; The nurse’s means of transportation  is  also on a bike or a boat;  Even though Goa was a Portuguese colony, and had some Spanish influences, the  Spanish portrayal in this movie in pretty unrealistic.

-     The relationship between Ethan (Hrithik) and Sophia( Aishwaya) is much more than that of  patient-nurse, and is handled aesthetically with the casual flirting and facial expressions and special endearing  moments. These  scenes show shades inspired from movies like ‘English Patient’ !

-    The story in its later part is introduced with a succession of many characters in small parts trying to tie the loose ends of the story. Though tying the loose ends is good, this could have been handled better by the writer and director.

 Lastly the  performances of  the whole cast in this movie is consistently good. Both Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya give excellent  performances. Hrithik with his expressive eyes and  facial expressions says more than his words. Aishwarya  surprisingly handles the different shades of fiery and tender role of the character pretty well, though her hot red lipstick doesn’t match the tender moments but only the fiery ones! Shenaz Patel and Nafisa Ali have excellent performances too. Aditya Roy Kapur has shades of good and bad while  his character too is not built well into the screenplay.

If one ignores the euthanasia part and  just sees it as a portrayal of  daily ritualistic life of  a paraplegic or a  paralytic or a disabled person,  its creates an  awareness and  understanding of an incapacitated  life and may stimulate some in  improving the conditions of  many lives.  Hrithik Roshan after this movie  is supposed to have invested in a charity to help the disabled to get larger freedoms in life and is advocating ramps in public places for wheel chairs and transportation facilities  with ability to carry wheel chairs etc  in India.