Sanjay Dutt pleaded for a lenient sentence in court today - recounting the charity work he's done since 1995 when he was released from his 18 month prison sentence. Sanjay is currently out on bail, but could face up to 10 years in jail on the weapons charges. His sentence will be given early next year. Personally, I think he's sort of being used as a scapegoat here, why not  use the time & energy to go after masterminds Dawood Ibrahim & Tiger Memon?

I was pretty much expecting a really awful movie, but was pleasantly surprised.
The opening dance sequence for the horrendously awful song Dhoom Again was the best of all the movie. Hritik is a really good dancer and I was happy to see that choreographer Shiamak has laid off the pop-n-lock.  Maybe my expectations were really low, so that's why I was entertained? It also helped that the theatre was full of people who were very animated & jeering  at the screen in all the right spots.

In NYC, you can check out Dhoom 2 at the ImaginAsianTheatre.

You think US celebs have it bad with their scandals?
Sanjay Dutt who stars in the recently Oscar nomoinated Lage Raho Munnabhai has been convicted for involvement in the bomb blasts & rioting that rocked Mumbay in 1993.
The courts found him guilty of possession of firearms, but was acquited of all other pending charges.

Sanjay is the son of Nargis & Sunil Dutt, both prolific actors.

The rumor mill is still buzzing about an alleged wedding between Aishwarya Rai & Abhishek Bachchan. They offered prayers at a Hindu temple over the weekend which started the whole debacle. Family friends say they were observing an annual ritial for Amitabh's father & that it was nothing more. Others are saying a prayer was given to ward off the 'evil eye' of Mars. Blah Blah Blah!!
Who cares really? These two are so boring! However, It's just so fun to read all of these crazy tabloid articles that are so fake and outrageous that they're hilarious. Star & US Magazine could learn a thing or too from some of these "reporters".

Allegedly SRK will be the new host of the revival of 'Kaun Banega Crorepati" aka "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". The show went bye bye last January after previous host Amitabh Bachchan became ill. Should be interesting to see SRK back on the tube. That show is totally boring tho, at least the US version is.

In a post customs interrogation interview, Aishwarya Rai was asked about the poor response for her role as Umrao Jaan. She replied: "I am not aware of box office results, but I got many mails from my fans who said my performance in the movie was good."

Well Played!

After 2 hours of interrogation in Mumbai, the customs officials let her go. She denied that the package belonged to  her. She's currently filming Akbar Jodha.

The package contained electronic goods with approx 23,000 Euros snuggled inside. They can totally FWD that package over to my house if she doesn't want it :D

Happy Birthday!

He's joined in on an anti-tobacco initiative to help people stop smoking. The WHO's survey on the use of tobacco in "bollywood" movies demonstrated that more than 76% of films between 1991-2002 had some sort of tobaccco use. Some experts believe that people who watch films where the stars smoke are more likely to start smoking. I wonder if he can get Shah Rukh Khan to quit already?

Mumbai: A three member gang who raced around commiting a rash of cell phone robberies on souped up motorbikes have been caught.  The leader of the gang is a big John Abraham fan and even dresses like him.

PS: the Dhoom II Soundtrack - eww really bad :(

Customs officials in Mumbai are reporting that a package from the Netherlands  containing approx 29,000USD$ was sent to Aishwarya a few weeks ago. Customs officials have asked her to appear before them by this weekend. Interesting...

I saw Umrao Jaan last night & it really stunk. The first have before the intermussion was basically naptime. It consisted of close ups of Aish's face & frames of Abhishek brooding & looking moody. There was no chemistry at all even though they really tried by overacting.

 It picked up afterwards & became slightly more engaging... but still pretty crappy. J.P Dutta wanted to elaborate on Ameeran/Umrao's inner story, but really it ended being more about Khanum Sahib's inner "struggle". What is the point of remaking a movie that was actually pretty good to begin with? 

Pradeep Sarkar & Yashraj Films are saying that they've cast Amitabh,  his wife Jaya & their son Abhishek all together in their upcoming film. The film, still untitled, is set to be resleased late next year. This will be the first time they star together in a movie. Sounds a little strange to me, Bachchan Overload!

Umrao Jaan maybe didn't go over so well in India, but the NY Times gave it a good review. It  grossed $480,000 in its first weekend in North America.

Mumbai: Sippy produced some of the big hits of  the 70s & 80s including Sargam (1979), 'Chor Machaye Shor' (1974), & 'Kalicharan' (1976).

I went & saw Jaan-E-Mann last night. I was pleasantly surprised. It was very theatrical, some very good dance scenes. I like seeing films that are here in NYC, esp since a lot of the shots they use are so touristy. Why do Bollywood films always shoot at south street seaport ? South street seaport sucks. I don't know any NY'ers who go there for fun. It's a tourist trap. Anway, even tho I don't like Salman Khan so much, it was enjoyable.

I was surprised that Don wasn't so horrible. I mean, it was totally cheesy, but overall it was good. I'm glad that they messed w/the plot so it wasn't a cookie cutter of the original. The choreography in Yeh Mera Dil really stunk though as well as the song remake. Oh well.