Best Eye Candy: Dhoom 2
Most Laughs: Lage Raho Munna Bhai
Best Wardrobe: Umrao Jaan
Best Bling: Baabul
Most Tissues Used: Baabul
Most Innovative Song Sequences: Jaan-E-Maan
Most Unconventional Plot: KANK
Most Heinous, Reality Defying Plot: Fanaa
Worst Overall Movie: Umrao Jaan

These are, of course, only from the ones I've been able to catch. Still want to see Guru, I See You, Salaam-E-Ishq, Omkara, Krrish, and a bunch more. So little time to watch movies :( Helen & I wish you a Happy New Year!

I just watched this movie for the first time last night. I was familiar with the soundtrack  &  Nargis & Raj Kapoor are one of my favorite on screen couples so I was excited to finally see it. For me, Raj Kapoor especially looks like Clark Gable in this movie.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is the Jahan Main Jaati Hoon sequence where Kammo & Sagar become puppets. Apparently this scene was inspired from Nargis & Kapoor's previous trip to Russia (Awaara was very popular in Russia) where they were treated to a puppet show. This particular show featured puppets of the actors themselves. That must have been bizarre to watch!

I was a little underwhelmed with the Rasik Balma song sequence. I guess it's because I love this song so much & had huge expectations. This is one of my favorite songs ever. In my opinion it's one of the saddest songs Lata has recorded. I don't need to know exactly what the lyrics are because her voice has so much expression in this song.

I will be watching this one again soon :D
Happy weekend!

'Artiste' Arjun Prajapati has created 25 Idol sculptures of Aishwarya Rai. He says they came to him in a dream. The artist stated, '"Each week I conceived a new pose of Aishwarya in my dreams and I worked on each of them. I would soon complete 25 different poses of the actres..,". He would like to have Amitabh Bachchan be there for the show's opening. Uhm, me thinks that would be a touch creepy. Maybe I'm just sensitive?

Ms Rai also caused a stir today while visiting a temple at Pushkar. Of course, a huge crowd gathered to get a glimpse. Allegedly there was a ruckus between her guards and the priests there.  It's not easy being one of the most beautiful people in the world!

SOURCE

Amitabh Bachchan has been voted "Indian of the Year" by . Apparently he got the most amount of votes from  housewives.  Aww!

It has been reported that Sushmita had fired 8 of her personal staff for stealing from her & misusing her personal property. She stated, "Over the past decade I never questioned any of my staff. People I trusted blindly have let me down,"

Hey Sushmita, are you still hiring?


Source

The rumor mill is saying that Himesh has apologized via text message to legendary playback singer Asha Bhosle for allegedly talking smack about the late R.D Burman's singing abilities. Himesh had mentioned in a previous interview about Burman's 'nasal accent'. Uh dude, you're pretty nasal yourself. I think this is the case of a comment being blown out of proportion by the media. It's just fun to think of Asha slapping him in retaliation.

Wow, it's almost 2007!! I haven't seen any roundups yet for the entire year 2006, but I'm still looking.

Kabul Express has picked up from its initial weak reception. It's now receiving rave reviews.
Dhoom 2 is still bringing in the bucks & the crowds, but Don & Jaanemann are winding down $$ wise.

New flicks Vivah & Bhagam Bhag are collecting steadily.

Oh boy, so many movies & so little time to squeeze them all in!

Urmila Matondkar (remember our friend with the tummy rats from Rangeela?) has recorded a remake of Sholay's classic track Mehbooba with legendary playback singer Asha Bhonsle. The recording is supposed to be featured on Asha's upcoming album Asha And Friends. I wonder if this will be the track used on the Sholay remake? I doubt it, but that would be nice considering Urmila was rumored to be taking Helen's place in the movie. I thought Abhishek was supposed to be in that scene, maybe he can have a really high pitched voice?

I must say, Urmila has the best mid 90s hair as illustrated in this pic.

The Don remake has been chosen for the prestigious Berlin Film Festival. It was chosen out of 400 nominations, which is pretty impressive.

Despite this, the new Don has yet to surpass the success of the orginal Don which won three Filmfare Awards. King Khan cannot top Big B, at least not as Don. No contest.

..today meaning 12/21 (those crazy time changes between here & India). Sanjay was convicted on Nov 28 & given 19 days to surrender. His bail was extended until Thursday 12/21. Dutt had pleaded for an extension so he could take care of some matters with his daughter's education. Sanjay could face up to 10 years in prison!

..mmmkay, maybe not but his new flick Night At The Museum is being dubbed in all three languages for Indian audiences. It has been reported that the script has been "tweaked" for local sensibilities. Hrm, I dunno - this movie looks like a stinker no matter what language its in. After Zoolander (one of my fav movies) I got sort of tired of the Stiller/Wilson combo.

Sometimes just reading the subtitles to movies is more entertaining the the actual movie.
Check out this screen shot from Rangeela (1995):








Rats in your Tummy!?!? What? Maybe you feel asleep at my desk & the office rats ran down your throat causing you to have big rats in your tummy? Interesting. Painful, but interesting.

Sadly, plagiarism is pretty popular in film music as it is in other media. So I wasn't shocked when I heard that the catchy "Kya Mujhe Pyaar Hai" from Woh Lamhe was actually lifted from a a popular Indonesian group called Peter Pan. Pritam Chakraborty who was the musical director for that project is also under fire for  "Ya Ali" from 2006's Gangster. It's basically the same song called " Ya Ghaly" by an Arabic band called Guitara. I've heard "Ya Ghaly" and it's the same song, but a different language :O

You can keep up on all the plagiarism at this site here:
Inspirations in Indian Film Songs!

Kabir Khan's Kabul Express is currently showing at the ImaginAsian theatre for a short time so I thought I'd try to catch it since I'm on a mini vacation.

The song-less film (gasp!) is shot like a documentary. John Abraham's character looked sort of confused throughout the movie - he's basically just eye candy (can't really complain about that). Arshad Warsi is entertaining as usual. The American journalist played by Linda Arsenio was a poor choice. She doesn't seem to be a very good actress & I've never seen her in any movies before - very stiff delivery.

The movie's rather fast, and can be a little confusing at times. First, they're kidnapped by a member of the Taliban, but then he's not really the Taliban? He was really part of the Pakistani army? Wait? Oh, he then turned into the Taliban? Oh Ok? And how on earth does John Abraham keep his hair looking so nice throughout the whole flick? The female journalist even has pink eyeshadow on after days of being stuck in a car in the middle of nowhere. Priorities, I guess.

Kabul Express was a nice try for a directorial debut. It's also only 120 minutes or so which makes it bearable. I appreciated that Kabir doesn't really "take sides" and presents different angles of responsbility for the situation in Aghanistan.


PS: Am I having a senior moment? When I saw previews for this film in the theatres in Oct/Nov the previews suggested they actually encountered Osama Bin Laden himself. Was this scrapped or was I just trippin'?

Salman Khan was recently questioned by the police. His name came up during an interrogation of Anjum Phajalani ( one of Chhota Shakeel's men).

It has been that reported that Khan was pressured by the mafia to lower his asking price to start in 2000's Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. The producer of the film Nasim Rizvi and his  financier Bharat Shah have been accused of pressuring stars to work in films. They used Shakeel's influence to pressure the stars to agree to join the projects. Both Shah and Rizvi have been convicted.

They should make a movie about this, but please get someone other than Salman Khan to star in it!

I saw Baabul this evening at the ImaginAsian theatre. Going in, I was a little underwhelmed with the soundtrack & a little apprehensive because I dislike Salman Khan, but I tried to keep an open mind.

It was actually quite good! It was definitely sad, everyone in the theatre was crying throughout the movie. Amitabh and Rani did a wonderful job. I don't think Hema Malini was given much of an opportunity to shine which was upsetting because I was looking forward to seeing her again on screen. At the finale scene I was waiting for her to grab a whip and beat her brother in law ( a la Jyoti) , but alas my dreams were shattered.

This movie didn't sway my opinion of Salman Khan at all. I just can't stand him, he's the same shallow character in Every Single Movie. Also, who on earth says "Marry me, dude"? Ugh. Can't say I was sad to see him go. Two other things that made me cringe: the MOLTO obvious product placements, and Millie's (Rani's) crappy paintings. Really. Bad. Art.

Go see Baabul why you can, but only good if you're in the mood for a 2 hour weeping session.

Today's the 20th anniversary of the death of actress Smita Patil. She was sometimes paired with Shabana Azmi in such films as Arth, Mandi and Nishant. Shabana stated in a recent interview, "She was a very talented actress and extremely photogenic."

Former Miss Universe & film actress Lara Dutta revealed her experiences with sexism to CNN-IBN.

She stated, "A lot of films that I have done were packaged in such a way that as a woman actor there wasn't much to do," Hrrrm...I can think of many  movies that fall into that category.

She also pointed out the pay gap between male & female actors & 'casting couch' advances from directors & other industry types. Gross!

What I don't understand is that there is so much pressure for there to be young, sexy actresses, but rarely ever do you see any older actors who actually look good. If they're going to be so superficial, it should apply to both to both men and to women.

It seems that  Bollywood actors don't age so well & their female counterparts get pushed into stereotypical parts once they reach a certain age. The difference is, the men get placed with love interests half their age. Meanwhile, the ladies end up widowed or grandmothers or something (see Hema rant from yesterday).

I'm not saying Hollywood isn't guilty of this, but there are a number of over 40 actresses and actors who look good (without surgery!) and have a wide range of roles available to them.

hrm! Just my two cents ;)

In a recent interview with the Mumbai Mirror, Malini complained about the limited roles available to be played by a woman her age. Hema is 58 years old and has been involved in over 130 Hindi language movies in the last 40 years. Her high point was the 70s-80s. It was during this time she was nicknamed "Dream Girl" after she starred in a movie with that name.

It's true - you really don't see more 'mature' women in a variety of roles - mostly just mothers or grandmothers. I mean, just look at Farida Jala. She's been an auntie, a nanny or a mother since the 80s. It must get boring after awhile.

Hema stated, "I keep myself engaged with other creative work and I don't need to do rubbish films." Go Hema! at 58, she still looks great. Must be all the dancing she does.

You can catch her in Baabul which premiered in NYC this past weekend. I'm pretty certain she plays someone's mom in the flick. Whoops!

A  signature  campaign started by the Hindi film industry to show solidarity for Dutt has been cancelled...at Sanajay Dutt's request!

He stated in an open letter, ""I humbly thank everyone and request them to withdraw their signature campaign on 12 December 2006. The rest is in God's hands. Like I have always said and I repeat, I have full faith in our Indian judiciary. The law will take its own course. Pray for me"

The court is expected to begin sentencing next month.

It is rumored that Sanjay & his family will be visiting the  Vaishno Devi temple in Kashmir 'to seek blessings'.

Stay tuned!

Click here to read a long winded and a little self absorbed interview with Rekha about still searching for her "Ultimate Man" at age 51. She does make some supportive things about Aishwarya in the remake of Umrao Jaan. That was pretty nice of her - because that movie was awful. Even Shabana Azmi couldn't save that movie.

Sorry, slow news day today ;)

In an interview with CNN-IBN George Clooney expressed the desire to star in a Bollywood flick. He says he's a big fan of the Indian Film industry. Clooney has been named sexiest man of the alive two years in a row byy People Magazine.

Hmm.. I have an idea..Maybe he and Abhishek (Asia's Sexiest Man) can team up and be some sort of dynamic sexy duo?? I dunno, just an idea :O 

She dropped off the radar after Devdas (2002) to raise her children. However, she's back & will start filming in a Yashraj project in 2007. The project has yet to me named.

I just obtained this the other night. It's not so impressive the first listen especially not that annoying "Come On Come On" track. I will give it a listen a few  more times. Although I am glad to see that Richa Sharma is on the soundtrack. She has a song on the soundtrack. I love her voice, it's very unique.

So apparently this all stems from an on screen kiss between Aishwarya & Hritik. A court will hear the case on December 11. Most legal experts are speculating that the case will be thrown out of court.

To put it in perspective, Bollywood films only started showing quick pecks on the lips in the 1990s. In the past 5 years the films have grown more risque. This has been reflected in the majority of the dance scenes where the item girls look like they stepped off some Hochie Mama train.

To be continued...

It has come out that a lawyer Shailendra Dwivedi filed the petition in Indore last week.

He said, "Bollywood actors are conveying vulgarity in the society...these films cannot be watched with our families, they are so vulgar at times."

Hrm, ok so go see Jaan-E-Maan instead, dude. The movie had a Parental Discretion warning.

I can't recall seeing anything offensive between the too of them. Why not complain about all of the screen time devoted to Bipasha Basu in a tiny bikini?

On December 11 Hritik Roshan and aishwarya Rai will have a hearing on obscenity charges originating from a scene in Dhoom II. The scene is allegedly "vulgar and derogatory to women". There is no further information regarding the scene.

Don't all of these movies have to pass a censor board? I'm a little confused. Maybe it's just a publicity stunt. Also, shouldn't Sanjay Gadhvi be on the hot seat since he directed the flick? The only obscene thing I saw in the movie was the god awful bandana wearing thug w/a bad weave "disguise" Hritik's character wore. Gross.

Suketu Mehta's Maximum City. It's pretty good - lot's of stuff on the mob.It also outlines his process in writing Mission Kashmir.