40 Years in the Meeting….Thanks to Chintu JI

Once upon a time there was a film that created buzz in the film industry christened Mera Naam Joker. Raj Kapoor had both directed and acted in this epic film. But this is not the news which is creating a buzz today. The focus is that, one of the leading ladies in the film was Russian artist Kseniya Ryabinkina who played Raj Kapoor's love interest at that point of time. She is back and will be sharing screen space with Rishi Kapoor a.k.a Chintu ji in the forthcoming flick Chintu ji. And to add to the chills n thrills, this is not the first time these two veteran actors are coming across, as Rishi Kapoor played the role of younger Raj Kapoor in Mera Naam Joker. After 40 years these two will reunite and ignite the silver screen.

Chintu Ji is a movie close to Rishi Kapoor’s heart as it is moderately based on his life. The plot of the movie focuses on the rivalry between two villages Hadbahedi and Triphla. Where Hadbahedi is an honest place and Triphla is corrupt. When Hadbahedi is neglected they come to know that, Rishi/Chintu Kapoor was actually born in their village 55 years back. Arun Bakshi their leader sends an invite to Chintu who is aware and wants to get in Politics to make a comeback in a big way and Hadbahedi could well be his constituency. Chintu arrives in Hadbahedi along with Devika Malhotra, a young, dynamic, smart and intelligent executive of the PR agency hired for Rishi’s political dreams. Things change when Chintu meets with an accident and love blossoms between Arun and Devika.

Rishi Kapoor will be playing the lead role in the movie as the movie’s name Chintu Ji resembles his pet name Chintu Ji. Among others, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Kulraj Randhawa and Saurabh Shukla will be seen essaying pivotal roles in the film. The movie is directed by debutant director Ranjit Kapoor, who has not only directed the film but also written the whole script for the same. The film is made under the banner Kaleidoscope Entertainment Pvt Ltd. The music of the film plays an integral part in the film. There are not one, not two but three musicians behind the movie. Sukhwinder Singh, Suhas and Siddharth are the musicians responsible for the music in the film.

Well, the person who is constantly eventful and will be seen more often than not on the silver screen is Rishi Kapoor. After portraying commendable roles in movies like Luck by Chance, Delhi 6 and Kal Kissne Dekha, the actor will be scene essaying key roles in the forthcoming releases Love Aaj Kal and Chintu JI.

Talking about Rishi Kapoor’s Russian co star Kseniya Ryabinkina, it will be a delight to the eyes to see her on the silver screen after decades. Not many know that the Russian is also an ace Ballet dancer. Magic will be created on screen as many are waiting to see the chemistry between Rishi Kapoor and Kseniya Ryabinkina after long gone 40 years….

Raghu Romeo the unusual f

The Indian film industry, Bollywood, makes a few thousand films every year. Most are on a beaten to death track, both in terms of content and the business angle. Among the thousands of films made every year across the world and the few thousand of those made in India, very few stand out. One film came as a breath of fresh air, Raghu Romeo, the brainchild of a professionally qualified director and well recognized actor, Rajat Kapoor. Raghu Romeo is a new film in every sense of the word. Not only is the film reminiscent of the simple, comic timing that some Indian directors excelled in, just a few decades ago, but also it boasts of a unique financial endeavor.

In Mumbai, the film capital of India, a new generation of filmmaking took birth last year. For the first time in India, a film was financed through a website. Innovative requests to like minded individuals to be a part of a trend setting film were posted by Rajat on his website, Rajatkapoor.com, and the response, in his own word, was fantastic.

Rajat Kapoor is a well-acclaimed actor in Bollywood. In his short span of 5 years as an actor, he has done some memorable work. He has also made some short films that have won acclaim.

According to Rajat, this film has been funded by what one may call goodwill. While the script of the film was ready three years ago, Rajat did not have the kind of money needed. He approached business houses and various financiers, but got a lot of empty promises. There were recommendations to change the star cast, perhaps with an eye on the box office, but Rajat wanted none of that interference.

While a part of the finances is from National Film Development Corporation in India, the balance amount came in after Rajat approached film lovers and friends for money. He appealed to people through the website to buy shares of Rs 10,000 for the kitty to be collected, and got a tremendous response. This is the first time in India, and probably in the world, that this kind of a financial arrangement has been done for financing a film. The media took up his cause and an unbelievable number of offers pouring in, those who could, offered money, and those who couldn’t, offered skills. There were any number of talented people who offered their services and the whole en masse movement of goodwill was so touching, Rajat felt its repercussions while actually shooting the film. There were points in time when he felt the film was creating itself, and it almost seemed to have a life of its own. Now, after a whole lot of appreciation across the international film fraternity, Raghu Romeo has come to theatres in India and also some international markets.

This labor of love, Raghu Romeo was showcased in several International Film Festivals. It won the Best Film award at MAMI Film festival and the hero Vijay Raaz bagged the Best Actor Award in Dhaka International Film Festival. The most prestigious achievement was that Raghu Romeo was screened in the fabulous 'Piazza Grande' section at the 56th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. Rajat still hasn’t gotten over the accomplishment. The huge screen, the international audience, the great appreciation…everything seems to him an outcome of all the positive energy of the tremendous goodwill he got.

Raghu Romeo was also screened at Rotterdam, Stockholm, Oslo, San Fransisco, Toronto, Barcelona, Shanghai, Florence, Trivandrum, Calcutta and other international film festivals and received great response.

Raghu’s accolades have not yet stopped flowing in from the global audience. It is not a glamorous or commercially oriented film and now what is to be seen is whether its commercial release across theatres in India and abroad will get Rajat and his Raghu as much adulation. To Rajat, it doesn’t matter. As long as he is satisfied with his work, his accolades are home.

Rajat feels it is committed people like his team who could pull off this feat. And no, he is not looking for established actors with great commercial success tagged to their name, to any of his future projects either … his own dream team will make his dreams true, thank you very much.

The film itself begins with an idea that almost as old as the history of entertainment itself. The protagonist, Raghu, a bartender is completely in love with a screen goddess (a screeching, pathetic excuse for womanhood in real life but a principled, lovable and all Indian housewife in a television serial). Most people with an average intelligent level tend to let an actor’s screen persona take over his real identity in their minds and react to the fictitious person only. Our Raghu is one such man, living in a world of his own.

This phenomenon of falling in love with images, Rajat feels, is the biggest and most Quixotic sign of modern times … when a fictitious character becomes so important that (in this case) she takes even superhuman proportions and becomes an object of adulation. There are, of course, various sub-levels in the story, two other love stories, where the gangster loves his dancer moll and the dancer loves Raghu while Raghu loves the actress he sees on television. It is a quaint situation where all the loves seem unattainable, and brilliant actors who have little or no glamour quotient bring it to life. The story was balancing itself on this fine dividing line between the ridiculous and the sublime. One wrong move and it would have been a complete failure. But there were no wrong moves, so Raghu Romeo got accolades instead.

The actor who plays Raghu, Vijay Raaz, is not a hero in any manner, he looks like what an average bartender in a beer bar in Mumbai would look like, with his little troubles, a nagging mother, a leaky roof, no salary for five months … but he has tremendous screen presence. He has acted in some international films before and Rajat’s confidence in him was complete. In fact the entire main cast, Rajat feels, was incredible. The result was a great team, loads of positive vibes and a great film shot in an amazingly small time frame.

With the success of Raghu Romeo among critics and film community, one can hope that the trend of commercially huge but intellectually meaningless films will change. The golden era of Indian films in which small budget films were not lost in the maze of huge investments, huge promotions, great glitter and blinding glamour, may have a reason to return. It is no secret that the underworld money finances most big budget Indian films, and this exercise in sincerity and the art of filmmaking may just about change that. Let us hope, one man’s honest endeavour to make good cinema will pave the way for more such people, because only that can actually provide life breath to the choking Indian film industry … choking on its own blood.

The Season of Love - Veer Zara

One day in the early morning, sun wake up flinging off its gray blanket down and lifting head from its mountain pillow and saw that ‘The Season of Love’ had arrived in ‘The Valley of Heart’.

Myriad flower buds of past moments on the branches of memories started to odor the air. Voiceless, unheard, partly conscious and partly unconscious desires wake up rubbing their eyes and looking around.

Life flows like waves, wave upon wave, every moment new, but nevertheless always the same. Life folds love and grief & meetings and separation. It flows and ripples. While passing from us, it tells that ‘The Season of Love’ has been arrived in ‘The Valley of Hearts’ where on the branches of memory, countless flower buds of past moments have started to odor the air.

- Yash Chopra (An Film Indian Director and Producer, The dialog is translated from his latest love story ‘Veer Zara’.)

"If so many men, so many minds, certainly so many hearts, so many kinds of love." said Leo Tolstoy. Everything is not followed by logics. In our life we take actions without knowing or expecting results. Love stories are always found on this track. Although starts from mind, reaches to hearts and ends there only. Then whatever you do is only for hearts. Mind will not trouble you.

Nothing else can define ‘The Love’ then what this man has described in his great love stories and again one more effort - ‘Veer Zara’. His speech at beginning of movie says a lot. Love is a season that flourishes hearts. Unfortunately story’s characters again meet in a season of love after nearly 22 years. However the love lived in memories and past movement kept lives alive.

Veer is squadron leader, a rescue pilot with the Indian Air Force. Zara is engaged Pakistani girl who comes to India to fulfill her surrogate mother’s last wish. During a way she meets with an accident where Veer saves her life and falls in love with her. But yet no one realizes. At later stage when Veer finds enough courage to confess his love to Zaara, he comes to know about her fiancé. Was it one side love story?

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. Although Zara returned to her country left her heart in Veer’s country. Probably it is difficult for her to run away or realize love being engaged with someone else. But it is a question of love where you obey your heart.

A shocked Zaara returns to Pakistan and gradually realizes that she too loves him in return. When Veer is made aware of this, he runs to Pakistan to profess his love, a day before her wedding.

To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another. For her family’s respect, he asks her to marry her fiancé. In opposition, her fiancé however demands an imprisonment for Veer if Veer wants to see Zara’s happy life. He suffers there for 22 long years. Reason? As Friedrich Nietzsche says "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." Reason is to see his love’s happy life. Both were now in separation. Does love fail?

J. Franklin comments on failure of love saying, "Love fails, only when we fail to love." Their love was alive even in separation. The soul has now become one looking great lives. He wished ‘Happy Married Life’ for her. She served to complete his wishes.

However Zara spends her later stage life at Veer’s village to serve people and complete Veer’s duties. A young lady lawyer helps both to meet each other again. It proves that ‘Love never dies, it lives for loved one’. In other words ‘With love and patience, nothing is impossible.’

Characters in story do not realize falling in love with each other. In first meeting with Zara, Veer never knew that a lady whom he saved would be his life forever. He saved her life and lost himself. He just walked away after her with no other purpose but to help. We generally deal with first sight love stories. Isn’t it?

Thomas Mann comments on first sight love "This was love at first sight, love everlasting: a feeling unknown, unhoped for, unexpected--in so far as it could be a matter of conscious awareness; it took entire possession of him, and he understood, with joyous amazement, that this was for life."

Well, this is what I found and realized from story. Have a look and watch out movie. Probably I see it as a great story rather just favorite characters those played roles.

I forgot to say something about movie. Nice songs. Listen them to grab story.

Film Review - Lakshya

I just got back from seeing 'Lakshya'. Here at last is an unabashedly patriotic film that one can watch without wincing over the overt jingoism and foolhardy heroism. Here the heroism – marvellously shown in the cliff-scaling sequence – is quite believable and the jingoism is restrained to the bit where one of the Muslim characters, in response to the enemy's query about his religion, answers, "For you, I'm only an Indian!". I have a problem with that – I don't think Muslims in this country should need to justify their Indianness anymore than anybody else. They're part of the culture, the fabric, and that says it all.

Anyway, both Javed Akhtar, who wrote the script, and his son Farhan Akhtar, who directed it, have done a damn good job otherwise. This is Farhan Akhtar's second film. His first 'Dil Chhata Hai' was a smash hit and tremendously enjoyable – it may sound a little snooty to add surprisingly enjoyable, but, actually, given the standard mindless fare from Bollywood, it came as a real refreshing change – a story that for once was intelligent and not just the framework for the overworked boy-meets-girl theme. The characters were very well-etched, had great lines, and were extremely well enacted. The music was so well-composed too, and the songs were logically interspersed. It was a totally impressive debut, so, of course, the expectations were high for this second film. Well, these expectations have been more than fulfilled. It's a totally terrific film. Even better than the first one.

The film attracts and holds from the very first frame. It was shot in Ladakh and the cinematography by Christopher Popp just takes your breath away. The music, as before by the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, goes well with it – just the right sort to swell up in the background when you're contemplating the magnificence of the Himalayas – unintrusively inspiring. Like in the first film, Farhan Akhtar makes use of interesting camera angles and beautiful unspoken moments, both welcome reliefs. Hrithik Roshan, as the main character Karan, is simply brilliant – I had liked him too in Mission Kashmir and Fiza, although his conventional romantic films and the over-exposure had been somewhat of a turn off – you see him everyday, someone told me, just like the milk-man. Well, this shows what he's capable of, given a good script and director. Preity Zinta as Romi and Sushant Singh as the patriotic Muslim Akbar both come across as likeable. Amitabh Bachhan , Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Sharad Kapoor have commendable cameo roles.

The story background is set around the 1999 Kargil war between India and Pakistan, and concerns a rich, never-do-well college undergraduate from Delhi named Karan Shergill. College is drawing to an end, and everybody is making plans for further studies. Everybody except the good-natured, easy-going Karan. He hasn't even given the matter any thought at all, until his girlfriend Romi's father and his own father drop heavy hints. Everyone agrees that Karan is without any 'Lakshya' or definite goal in life. But wait and see, says Romi, who knows him the best, the day he makes up his mind about what he is going to do, he'll make everyone sit up!

Karan talks to his friends and finds that they all have something definite lined up. One is going to study Engineering, another is going for Hotel Management, his firebrand girlfriend Romi is going to be a journalist. Another friend, a soft, lazy chap, surprises them all by announcing that he is going into the Indian Army. My country needs me, he says. Karan goes home inspired by this and wakes up the next morning to see a well-muscled Arnold Schwarzenegger blasting away at the enemy. Suddenly the idea of going into the Army seems even more appealing and he decides, okay, this is what I'm going to do. He sends off an application to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun and both he and his friend receive calls for the entrance exam. And this is when the friend chickens out. What he really wants to do, he says, is go for an MBA in the U.S.A. and earn lots of money. Karan is furious to hear this. How can I go into the Army all by myself, he snaps. He probably would have given up the idea himself, except back home that night he is confronted with his angry father, who is furious that he applied without informing him and moreover thinks it's a stupid idea – you're not going into the Army, he tells him, you're going to do exactly what I tell you. Enraged by his father's clear-cut contempt for him, Karan storms off to Romi's house and tells her that he IS going into the Army and nothing and noone is going to stop him. It's MY life afterall, he says, and I'm going to make my own decisions. And so that decided, off he goes to give the Military entrance test and amazingly enough gets selected. He then asks Romi to marry him in two years time and goes off for the training. His father is not worried. I know him, he says to his wife, he'll be back in four days.

At the Academy, Karan doesn't get off to a good start. He has never had much to do with discipline his entire life and it's difficult to get adjusted. He doesn't jump out of bed the minute the bugle sounds, he can't keep his attention focused on the lectures, he bungles the physical exercises.Consequently he finds himself heaped with one punishment after another. At last, he thinks he's been humiliated enough and runs away home. His unsurprised father gives him a lecture about having a work ethic, his mother says he should start helping his father in the business. He then goes to see Romi. Here he receives a shock. She is totally disappointed in him and not accepting of this latest adventure like his parents. She says, if you can't stick it out, if you can't respect yourself, how do I know you'll respect me? I don't want to have anything to do with someone like you. And she breaks up with him and goes off. Karan, shocked and ashamed, goes back to the Academy and readily accepts the disciplinary actions against him. He is now a changed person. He works hard and eventually graduates with honor. Romi meanwhile has finished her Journalism Course and has been accepted into one of the leading News Agencies as a Television reporter. He calls her to tell her of his graduation and she suggests they meet. But she had hurt him terribly before and he says, you decided about breaking up, so I'll be the one to decide if and when we should meet again.

He doesn't call her for the longest time after this. and, since they're no longer together, she gets involved with a businessman she has met earlier in course of her work and agrees to marry him. Karan, who has been posted to the India-Pakistan border in the Himalayas and has no idea she is getting engaged to someone else , now has second thoughts and returns to Delhi to see her. He is informed about the new state of affairs by their mutual friend Ashu and is crushed. That very night there is news on T.V. about trouble on the border and he receives a call from his Commanding Officer – his leave has been cancelled and he is to return at once.

And so he returns and finds himself in the thick of the Kargil action. He also runs again into Romi, who, as the War correpondent for Global News, is there to cover the conflict. She has broken off her engagment with her Fiance after he reveals a chauvinistic side and high-handedly forbids her from going to the war zone. Now she and Karan rekindle their romance.

This whole second part, in which Karan finally grows up and starts behaving responsibly, is handled extremely well and with sensitivity. The war sequences are shot without any unnecessary glorification – nobody goes down in blazing glory, taking a dozen enemy soldiers with them. The Indian Side is understandably angry with things – Romi receives a tongue-lashing from Sakhet, a soldier who has just lost his best friend in the enemy bombardment, when she talks about peace and compromise as being a better option to war – what should we do, he demands, give up defending ourselves and just hand over our country to them? Amitabh Bachhan, in a cameo role as the CO Sunil Damle, meets with silent displeasure from his soldiers when he orders the dead insurgents to be properly buried - their dead colleagues had been returned by the Pakistanis with their bodies defiled. So he tells them, "There is a difference between them and us – and there should be – just think, what kind of an army is this, that is refusing to take back the bodies of their own men... We are the Indian Army – we maintain a level of decency even in enmity."

In the end, of course, Karan achieves his 'Lakshya' of destroying the last of the Pakistani insurgents and gets the girl too. But he's so deserving of it by then, it's difficult to grudge him such predictability.

India Ver. 2.0.07: Chak De India

If India has one thing it can talk, debate, argue, laugh over, cry over, joke over and feel proud over after religion, politics, movies and burping, it's sports. Goes without saying, sports is also a big cash cow for any Indian businessperson and now, entrepreneurs.

This brings me to that one thing that has been said to have the power to change the mentality of entire societies and generations – movies. One surprising thing is that though sports and movies are the hottest selling vadapaos in India, they have seldom made a good mix. In fact, movie circles used to pooh pooh the idea of a person making a movie on sports. Countless people had failed, until the perfectionist of India, Aamir Khan, came up with the guts of a 'Lagaan'.

As a media professional, I can safely tell you that India's first colossal hit sports movie, 'Lagaan' would have seemed ridiculous to veterans. A movie about cricket? How in this entire seventy mm world were they cramming fifty overs? Who'd take care of the technicalities? And what would the climax be? A man running some yards and throwing a ball at a man standing yards away holding a stump of wood?

Bad Idea. Bad idea turned into a good idea, they just added plain ol' patriotism. However, that's another story for another coffee, this is about another raging sports movie of India, 'Chak De India'.

For those who care, let's go through the script...

Disgraced hockey coach, and a 'Muslim' to boot, Kabir Khan (SRK). Coming back after 'seven years and loose change' to coach the women's hockey team towards the Women's World Cup Hockey Final. Everyone has their own demons in their gym closet, and everyone has their strengths, failures, and all the yabba dabba doo you see in feel good movies.

Simply put, the biggest production house in Bolywood, Yash Raj Films, didn't have anything to lose in the movie. For one, they had Shah Rukh Khan, the Brad Pitt of India. For two, they had a feel good, good wins over evil factor, for three, they actually went in and researched the game and also came up with some tremendous actors for the parts. Were they freshers, were they from stage, were they from the boob tube? You really can't tell. So, them making a movie about sports is not a big thing at all. The fact that they have actually tried to put some life into all the other characters is really good news for the Indian film industry.

Every scene of the movie is a situation. The dialogs are ultra crisp and it has what can be called 'modern humor'. And yes, the movie does have its times of sitting at the edge of the seat.

Maybe I have seen a lot of foreign movies, but if you ask me, I did feel the movie a bit tame. I mean, the movie is good, the acting is superb, and the execution is mind fantastic, but I didn't have anyone to take home with me (from the movie, you devious mind) except myself. Not Kabir Khan (the character, devious mind), not any of the girls(forget it), no one.

Again, for those whom these things matter, the biggest bombshell in the movie, that Sabharwal girl, is a Maharasthrian from Pune. Yeah, my coverts are everywhere.

Shah Rukh Khan rules. Simple. This is another of his roles which make him the icon for the cuddly wuddly college going crowd.

Chak De India can be the best thing happening to India in 2007.

For those who came in late, 'Chak De' basically means 'Give it to Them' in Punjabi. I sometimes wonder why the mainstream media only targets the Punjab or the Gujaratis while creating Indian characters. We do have the Maharasthrians, Parsis, Bengalis, Christians...

Finishing Move:

The next time someone tells you that India has progressed in mentality too, trying making them sit alongside a opposite gender member in a public theater.

Finishing Move II:

I learnt one good advantage over chewable tobacco and smokable tobacco, you can chew it anywhere, but you can't smoke it everywhere.

Chak De!

R.I.P- 3 Idiots

Out of the three idiots, Madhavan seems to be the only true idiot......
It reflects on the length of his role in the movie!
Even 'millimeter' felt that his character was more important to the story!!!

Kareena seems very happy with the above statement....
She at least had a full song to her credit!!!

Apparently, Kareena Kapoor signed the movie even without reading the script properly....
It does reflect on the length of her role for sure!!!

In the movie Boman Irani's character of a college dean is accused of being a 'murderer'.......
Old people are surely having a tough time these days!!!

Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani and Chetan Bhagat will turn out to be the three idiots after the movie......
As Vidhu Vinod Chopra will eventually take credit for the Film!!!

What would Vidhu Vinod Chopra be without Rajkumar Hirani???
ANS. One Idiot!

Vidhu Vinod Chopra deleted the promo of 'Rajneeti" from the film as he thought it shifted people's focus from his movie.....
Guess the ghosts of 'Eklavya' still haunt MR. Chopra!!!!
Don't worry Vidhu, this movie is directed by Rajkumar Hirani and also stars Aamir Khan!!!!

Chetan Bhagat is happy because this time he will not not be hiding his face behind his books after the release of a film based on his book!!!

Mona Singh has exactly 2 and a half scenes in the movie while Javed Jaffery and 1 and a half scene....
They must be holding their hands on their chest and singing "All ijj well" :-)

What is common between 'Hello brother' and '3 idiots'?
Both movies have more 'farting' than songs!!!

Who would have starred in the movie if Atul Agnihothri had made 3 idiots also?
ANS. Salman, Sohail and Arbaaz.... Of course the title couldn't have been more apt then!!!!

All said and done, go watch the movie right now....
or you might just be the only idiot left!!!