4.7.08

dasavatharam


Kamal plays US President George Bush, a bumbling RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) operative, a selfless scientist, an old hag, terrorist, Dalit activist, a medieval Vishnu devotee, a cancer-stricken Punjabi pop singer, Kung-fu martial arts expert and a 10-ft tall Muslim - not necessarily in that order.Starting with the drowning punishment of a Vishnu devotee, "Dasavathaaram", for no apparent reason, morphs into an action extravaganza - full of chases over a deadly virus involving a scientist and assisted and hindered in turn by the other characters - all played by Kamal.Asin plays a double role in the film that is a part-comedy-part-tragedy mishmash. Mallika Sherawat flits across the screen in skimpy costumes and ends up dead.While the cinematography by Ravi Varma, background score by Devi Sri Prasad and Kamal's acting are the film's highlights, the Himesh Reshammiya numbers have as much Tamil nativity as George Bush.Dramatic incidents galore are actually one of the minus points of the film, of which there are one too many.Kamal is in every frame of the movie and knowing his methods, director Ravi Kumar's role in the film seems to be seriously limited. The unsolved puzzle as to why there are 10 Kamals when one would have been more than enough remains an unpleasant hangover long after the movie.In all, "Dasavathaaram" is a movie that every Kamal fan would want to watch. As for the rest of the audience, it is the case of a Kamal-overkill

3.7.08

nisha kothari


celina jaitely


lara dutta


2.7.08

Is 'Sarkar Raj' a hit? The debate


Is "Sarkar Raj" a hit? While the movie-going public is not conscerned about its box-office fate after having seen the film, Bollywood trade circles are still debating over claims made by its producers and distributors that it is a "hit".The political thriller, featuring Bollywod icon Amitabh Bachchan along with his son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya, was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and produced by K Sera Sera and Z Picture Company. It is rare in Bollywood that a producer and a distributor reveal their account books, but "Sarkar Raj" producers last week inserted an advertisement in Bollywood trade magazines, revealing the movie's financial details.Generally, the yardstick to judge a movie's performance, is never known to others. Because it is never disclosed how much money has actually gone into its making and how much it has collected at the box-office. So, the financial details of "Sarkar Raj" published in the trade magazine seem a bit intriguing. As per the advertisement, "Sarkar Raj," made at a cost of Rs.250 million, recovered Rs.380 million by selling its world theatrical and satellite rights to Balaji Distributors and another Rs.25 million from the sale of audio and home video rights to T-Series.Thus, the movie accrued to the producer a profit of Rs.130 million even before it was released. Out of Rs.380 million spent for acquiring the rights of "Sarkar Raj", Balaji earned Rs.220 million across the table by selling the overseas rights for Rs.80 million and the satellite rights for Rs.140 million.According to the advertisement, all that Balaji needed to break even was another Rs.160 million from the domestic box-office, which is projected to fetch Rs.300 million, earning it a cool profit of Rs.140 million.In the fourth of week of its run so far, "Sarkar Raj" has yet to touch the magic figure of Rs.160 million. It has just about earned so much as to enable the sub-distributors to earn their commission from the domestic box-office sales."In film parlance, 'Sarkar Raj' can be strictly termed as 'a commission earner'. In layman's language, it is a semi-hit film," Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films, a well-known Mumbai-based distribution firm, told IANS.

mallika sheravat


neha dhupia


ayesha takia


doomdadakka movie


By the time Sammir Dattani and Shaad Randhawa get into drag, this unfunny comedy has dragged on way past 'bad' time.Everyone uniformly hams through this painful piece of cinematic travesty. There is so much screaming and ranting across the length and breadth of this outrageous ode to idiocy that you wonder if the producer-director Shashi Ranjan intended to provide earplugs for all those brave hearts who would sit to the end of this haphazard comedy of terrors.No earplugs, what we get are shrill banshee ring-tones of risqué ragas sung at an ear-splitting pitch, and phallic jokes. If lately you've been wondering where the Bollywood comedy has been heading, here's the answer.Comedies can't get any baser or brainless than "Dhoom Dadakka". The gags make you gag. The items and innuendoes are embarrassing not because they try hard to be vulgar, but because they fail miserably to be sexy.Vulgarity in this comedy of disembodied context depends completely on how many of the characters are crammed in one line of vision in every scene. They all stand making faces and gesticulating as though trying to attract the lifeguard's attention from a sinking boat.The double meanings flow is in abundance mostly from the moist painted trembling lips of Deepshikha, who keeps referring to the size of 'big' things every time she spots a male member of the cast in her vicinity."Dhoom Dadakka" is a jumbo-sized non-event.Before you fall of your creaky bed in comic splendour, let's move on to the main 'coarse' in this pickled over-spiced platter in a hotel that's probably named Romp Teri Giggle Maili. The two guys, Sammir and Shaad grimace and giggle, roll their eyes and suck in their cheeks to indicate lies buried too deep for jeers. Add two girls - Aarti Chabria and Shama Sikandar trying so hard to be glamorous it's pathetic.The characterisations take the cult of one-upmanship down to the level of a 'nukkad nautanki', what with every actor getting lost in the confusion of their mistaken identities. In no time at all, the plot suffers from an identity crisis. Shashi Ranjan, who earlier made us laugh with his supposedly serious study of marital stress in 'Dobara', doesn't know whether to indulge tongue-in-cheek comedy of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee variety or just do the out-and-out no-fools-stops comedy of the David Dhawan-Anees Bazmi variety.Eventually, the confusions that dominate the plot overpower every sense of aesthetic decency. In the end game where the entire cast runs around an amusement part looking for amusement, the two heroes get into drag to tease laughter out of an audience that's long since ceased to be entertained or amused.In one chase sequence Shaad pees copiously on a street of Bangkok. You get jailed for dirtying the streets of Bangkok. Alas, there are no laws for desecrating the rules of aesthetics in cinema

1.7.08

riya.wallpaper


kimshram.wallpaper


Mallika sherawath


jannat.movie review


Jannat is the story of a man caught in a quagmire of crime and consumerism as he struggles to find heaven on earth.Arjun is a reckless young man with an obsession for making money at card games. A chance meeting with a girl in a mall, Zoya gives him the reasons he was looking for to move out of his ordinary life. He steps up from playing small-time card games to becoming a bookie. Stuck in a triangle of sorts between the woman he loves and his addiction to make a quick buck, Arjun moves on from being a bookie to a runner for the mafia. He steps into the world of match fixing. Arjun switches on the limelight to bigger, better, faster, more, until his dizzying rise attracts the attention of the police. Arjun has to now choose between the love of his life, Zoya, and this new found success and power. As Arjun struggles to choose between the two, the Don offers the forbidden apple of limitless wealth in exchange of his soul and draws him into his core entourage of money spinners.How far will the horizon of reality stretch as Arjun and Zoya tread a fine, fast-blurring line between right and wrong to find the heaven they have been looking for? Cricket is a religion in India and that's one of the biggest advantages of Jannat. Cricket will help pull the crowds in. The story is different, interesting which makes it an engrossing watch. The match-fixing and betting world has been scripted and executed quite well too. But unfortunately after a great first half, the movie starts to fall apart in the second. The pace is slow and a few songs just worsen things, they need to be edited off. Music of Jannat rocks! But it's in the performance department that Jannat scores. Emraan Hashmi delivers a brilliant performance yet again; it's really high time the bigger banners start considering him. He is the soul of Jannat and carries the movie on his shoulders. It's actually Emraan who makes Jannat work to a certain extent. Sonal Chauhan is good for a newcomer, looks gorgeous. Vishal Malhotra is just ok. Javed Sheikh is good. Samir Kochar is excellent.

Drugs rocket in AP