News Updates Deepika Padukone, who made her Hollywood debut with the Vin Diesel starrer xXx: Return of Xander Cage, will return to the franchise for its fourth instalment, according to its director DJ Caruso... Read More Not sure what a quintessential Bollywood heroine is: Lisa Haydon
Actor Lisa Haydon, who has featured in films like Aisha, Queen and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, wonders what the typical Bollywood heroine... Read More |
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Baadshaho', which released last week, reportedly opened to double-digit numbers and mixed reviews from the critics and the audience. Starring Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Ileana D'Cruz, Esha Gupta and Vidyut Jammwal, the action thriller is set against the backdrop of the Emergency of 1975. For the makers, it was only gratifying to see a considerably high footfall at both, multiplexes and single screens across the country. In spite of getting mixed response from the critics, the film, produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Milan Luthria, is holding its ground with a decent collection at the BO. Director Milan Luthria says, "The numbers prove that the film has been well-received pan India. Occupancy has been fairly good over the weekend in multiplexes and single screens. Partial holidays on Monday and Tuesday helped the film reach out to more people. I've received satisfying feedback. I set out to entertain, and the film has found its mark across the spectrum. The audience is the best judge and they have delivered their verdict." Producer Bhushan Kumar beams, "Ours is a film for everyone and it's doing well in almost all the markets. We hope this week sees a good turnout at theatres, too."
Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma are playing small town characters for the first time in Sui Dhaaga. In a behind-the-scenes video, Varun narrates how in order to be as real as possible, he suffered injuries and almost fell unconscious. Talking about a scene in which Varun and Anushka are seen traveling in a local, over-crowded bus, the actor said, “We have traveled by bus but never on its roof. When we went to Delhi for the shoot, it was too hot. We shot for the scene of a crowded bus. Sharad’s instruction was that the bus should be so crowded that I shouldn’t be able to enter it. I was pumped. I instructed everyone that no matter what do not let me enter, push if need be. In the process, I fell twice for real. Then in another shot, in order to enter, I had to run along with the bus. The bus was so fast. I kept running. After five to six takes, I got dehydrated and fell.” He added, “The bus scene brings to focus the daily struggles of people living in the small towns of India. It brings to focus their determination and courage and belief. It is one of the most iconic scenes in the movie.” Talking about director Sharad Katariya, Anushka said, “Sharat has an exceptional eye for detail. The scenes of struggle, the spirit of self-belief in people living in such towns in India – these visuals are etched in Sharat’s mind and he wanted to present the everyday life in rural India with perfection and authenticity. He wants audiences to understand the courage that people from such parts of India have. He wants audiences to believe in Mauji and Mamta.” Sui Dhaaga is set to release on September 28.
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After introducing Taapsee Pannu as Rumi and Vicky Kaushal as DJ Sandzzz, the makers of upcoming film Manmarziyaan have shared a video on Abhishek Bachchan’s transformation into Robbie for the Anurag Kashyap directorial. Talking about the character, Abhishek said, “Anurag saw Robbie is just sitting back and conveying a lot by not saying anything. If you read Robbie as a character, he comes across as very staid. There is a dignity about him. He is very reserved and internalised. He doesn’t let out easily what he is thinking. The one thing that I liked about Robbie is that he is very sure of what he wants. He has a lot of conviction in his actions.” In the video, we also see how Abhishek and Anurag would break into conversations in order to improvise a particular scene. Talking about his working mechanism, Abhishek posted a photo with the caption, “We were rehearsing a rather intense scene…. I know it doesn’t show from our body language. But, this is how @anuragkashyap10 approaches such scenes. He makes the environment and atmosphere very relaxed and allows his actors time to just effortlessly slip into the mind space he wants. This was a very new approach for me but I really enjoyed it. He removes the stress and hustle-and-bustle of the set and just gives his actors space and time. A true luxury if you’ve ever been on a film set. And once everyone is at ease and ready he throws you a curve ball!!! “Let’s shoot this entire scene in 1 shot”!!!!.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu actor Shahid Kapoor: My film choices are a little more consistent now
The fame, glamour and adulation may seem like a dream, but an actor is always a loner searching for moments of catharsis, says Shahid Kapoor. The 37-year-old star says the emotional journey he goes through when he is alone contributes a lot in the growth of the performer in him. “As an actor you are always lonely. You are always in spotlight so that’s what people see. But when you are on your own, it’s very lonely. And it’s a journey that’s personal. I believe, at that time, something emotional happens which reflects in my performance,” Shahid said. The actor says he holds these moments of loneliness close to his heart as “that’s when I am being completely honest to myself and probably changing from inside”. “What actors do is, we emote. So, the more there is inside, the more there is to throw out. I have learned to channelise that, which I believe is very important for a long-lasting career. Otherwise, this is a very jumpy job. You are constantly up there, down here. So you try to find that nice place which is your own and just keep that intact,” he adds. Shahid says it is important for an actor to be “selfish” if they want to excel. “If you want to be really good at what you are doing, you need to give it time. And that is essentially your time and it’s your desire to be what you want. I think anything that is a personal ambition has to have some amount of selfishness attached to it. And the good thing is to be honest about it,” he says. The actor, who made his footing in the Hindi film industry as a romantic hero with films like Ishq Vishk, Fida and Vivah, went through a drastic makeover courtesy his mature performances in Kaminey, Haider and Padmaavat. Shahid says his career has had an inconsistent graph, but in the past one decade his aim has been to focus on the content which stays relevant. “When I look back at my career I feel ‘Wow I did some really bad movies’ and ‘Wow I did some really great movies’ and they were all like mixed up and were back to back. It is crazy because it has been little inconsistent. In the last four or five years, the effort has been to try and participate and, create content that is consistent. “I believe I was learning in the first 10 years of my career. I am still going to learn. I will be learning all my life. But I am little more aware now and my choices are little more consistent. It is an important change,” he says. With consistency, Shahid says the fear of failure he had during the initial years of his journey in movies has faded. “I am aware that failure will happen at some point or the other, but the important part is what you are focusing on. My energies are focused on the process and getting it right and being able to do everything that needs to be done,” he adds. The actor says the best part about being in a creative field is that one gets numerous chances to prove their talent. “There are new opportunities every day. One can present themselves many times over. One gets to work with different types of filmmakers. One gets the opportunities to change things that they might have done wrong. “People have been kind to me. There have been times I have given them bad movies, but they have walked out of the theatre with a belief that I will get it right the next time.” Shahid’s next release is Batti Gul Meter Chalu and the actor says he decided to do the film because he wanted to play a real and flawed character after essaying the role of a “proper” king in his last release Padmaavat. “In my last film, I was playing a very proper, very introverted king, which was a rather unrelatable character. Here I am playing a real guy, kind of imperfect. He has a lot of things which are not at all inspirational, which makes him so normal. The film is made for the masses,” he says. The film, also featuring Shraddha Kapoor, releases on September 21.
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan recently revealed that he has never been offered a Hollywood movie unlike his colleagues from the industry, Priyanka Chopra, Irrfan, Anupam Kher and Amitabh Bachchan. The actor told the Economic Times that he wants Hindi movies to do well globally, and wants them to achieve the international standard. On being asked whether he has ever thought of Hollywood as a viable option, the actor said, “They have to look at me; I can’t look at them. I look at the moon every day but I don’t reach for it. It started with Om Puriji and now Priyanka, Irrfan and so many others are doing it. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is getting some films. Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) has done some, Anupam Kher too has and it’s wonderful. But I have never been offered an opportunity,” Shah Rukh Khan said. The actor even made light of the subject as he added, “I don’t even know if I am good enough to do it — I think my English is a little weak.” Shah Rukh said that he one day hopes that Tom Cruise would get a chance to say that he has bagged a Hindi movie. “My own attempt is to make Indian films watched at that level. Again, not taking away from the greatness of anything that others have achieved, I’d like Tom Cruise to say one day that ‘I’ve been given a chance in a Hindi film’. Man, that will be wonderful. Christopher Nolan would say that there is a producer in India who wants him to make a film. Inshallah, that will happen,” the actor told ET.
Over two months after the Mumbai Police Crime Branch failed to respond to a questionnaire sent to it by Bulgarian judicial authorities in connection with actor Saif Ali Khan allegedly failing to make full payment in a wild boar hunting expedition in 2013, the Interpol recently sent a reminder to the Crime Branch, seeking the actor’s statement at the earliest. However, officials from the Crime Branch claim that Khan has sought more time to recollect the incident that happened in 2013. The actor, along with his three friends, had allegedly gone on a legal wild boar hunting expedition in the Carpathian Mountains in Sfantu Gheorghe in Romania between November 29 and December 2, 2013. They had hired services of a Bulgarian company that specialises in procuring the requisite permits and licenses for such adventures. Following a spat over payment, the company had approached Bulgarian authorities. In the first week of June this year, Interpol, on behalf of the Bulgarian government, had sent a questionnaire to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, asking them to record Khan’s statement. Sources in the police department said that after the Crime Branch forwarded the questionnaire to the actor in June, he responded by saying that he was out of the country and needed time to recollect the incident as it took place in 2013. A senior police official confirmed that the reminder was served to the Crime Branch by the Interpol, following which Khan was informed about the same. However, the actor is yet to reply to the questionnaire, said an officer, adding that after seeking his response, the Crime Branch would send his statement to Interpol, which would then forward it to Bulgarian judicial authorities. “The hunting cost them around 24,000 euros, of which 14,000 euros was paid in cash by the actor. However, after he left Bulgaria, the company contacted him again asking for the full payment. He informed that the money was transferred to the agent’s account,” said an officer. As the middleman failed to make further payment, the company contacted the Bulgarian authorities. The agent was booked and the actor, along with his three friends, was served a set of questionnaire through Interpol. There is a set of 15 questions all pertaining to his 2013 trip to Romania and hunting adventure through the Bulgarian company, said police. Khan didn’t respond to numerous calls and messages. His manager said Khan was busy in a shoot and would not want to comment on the matter.
Rajkummar Rao and Shardha Kapoor are extremely kicked about their upcoming release Stree, which will hit screens on August 31. The actors, along with Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee, went live on Facebook to promote their film one last time. During the live, one of the fans asked Rajkummar Rao if the film has a message to which the actor replied, “There is no motto of the film but we are trying to question why only women are given guidelines to live by, like don’t go out in the night and other things. We have reversed the role in the film.” Aparshakti remarked that it was fun to share screen space with such a cast. “I was already extremely excited about the fact that the film had such a good combination of actors,” the RJ-turned-actor said. “I feel it was a big thing for me to be offered such a role. I am blessed that Raj and DK (the producers) thought of me for this role. It is an extremely hilarious and well-written film. As an actor, I felt it is a gem of a film to be a part of. And of course, the cherry on the cake is the fact that we have such an amazingly talented team. To be with such fabulous actors, Pankaj ji, Raj, Aparshakti and Abhishek, I thought will be really good for me as an actor. In that sense, I felt fortunate to have worked with Amar (Kaushik) sir. He might be a debutant director but he is so well-connected to the script. We are sure that you (the audience) will enjoy the film. It is so intelligently written and has come out really well on-screen,” she said. As the live came to end, Rajkummar Rao said, “I have worked in many films but I never had so much fun on any sets before. I hope our fun translates on-screen too.” Directed by Amar Kaushik, Stree is a horror comedy heading for release on August 31.
Deepika Padukone feels there are ‘too many biopics being made’
Deepika Padukone started 2018 with a bang as her film Padmaavat, despite being released amid much controversy, managed to impress the audience. Deepika was all set to share screen space with Piku co-star Irrfan Khan in Vishal Bhardwaj’s next, but due to Irrfan’s health, the film has been postponed for now. Meanwhile, the Padmaavat star is yet to announce her next project. Deepika was recently asked about the changing trends in Bollywood at an event in Chennai. She acknowledged that there is a certain sense of repetitiveness in the scripts that are being offered, and that too, biopics. In an interview with The Hindu, Deepika said, “I feel like there are too many biopics being made. In the last few months, I can’t count the number of biopics that we’ve been offered. And they’re all great; they’re very strong and powerful. But when it comes to a film, after a point, how much are you going to tell me about those struggles? Even a common man on the street has had a similar journey, if you ask me.” Biopics are the flavour of the season. In 2018, the audience has seen quite a few films that were either biopics or based on true incidents. To count a few, Sanju, Soorma, Parmanu, Raazi, Padman, have all released in 2018 and they are all based on true events. With a plethora of biopics in the making, we don’t see this trend dying anytime soon. Among the films that have already been announced, we are yet to watch Manikarnika, Super 30, the Abhinav Bindra biopic and Shakeela among many others. Sanju has broken many records and one can assume that this is certainly a signal for many new biopics as well.
As someone who grew up with a love for the written word, actor Sonam Kapoor believes good literature is the backbone of films and writers should be given their proper due. Early in her career, Sonam worked in Aisha, a story inspired by Jane Austen’s famous novel Emma and the actor, who has been named the brand ambassador for Jio MAMI festival’s ‘Word to Screen’ initiative, says she is always open to good book adaptations. Sonam said the ‘Word to Screen’ initiative can be a great platform for those looking for good content. “Hopefully, we can make content the king. Writers are the rockstars. Technicians in general are not given their due credit because when you are behind the scenes, you are less in the public eye. Writers are the backbone of any film and they should be given more due,” she told PTI. Sonam and her sister, producer Rhea Kapoor, have bought the rights to two books – Battle for Bittora and Govinda. “Both are amazing books. ‘Govinda’ is a fictionised version where Krishna is being superhero. We have not thought about how to get this ahead. ‘Battle for Bittora’, we got the rights three years ago. It will happen next year. I don’t know if I will be a part of it or not as an actor, hopefully. It depends on how it is written.” Sonam believes there is more fun in adapting book to screen as there is a familiarity with the characters but also the scope to interpret and imagine. “I feel sad that younger generation of people do not read many books. We are trying to promote the fact that through books, we get amazing films. Film adaptation is an important market for the industry.” The actor said one of her childhood aspirations was to become a librarian as she thought it was the best way to be surrounded by books all the time. “Words are mightier than sword. Today, when there are polarising views on social media and in media, where people are using words without even understanding the consequences of it, more importance should be given to how words can affect and impact the way people think.”
CAST: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Shatrughan Sinha, Kriti Kharbanda, Satish Kaushik, Asrani
REVIEW:
Punjabis like to get soused. They eat chicken. They do bhangra. They address children as ‘puttar’. And if they happen to be the ‘papa-betas’ trio of Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby, they also star in a franchise which allows them to keep working. Gujaratis are veggie-loving, suspicious of Punjabis and other communities, and constantly saying ‘kem cho’ and ‘majaa ma’. Talk of exhausted stereotypes, and there’s your YPD 3. In this installment, taglined ‘Phir Se’, even the half-hearted guffaws, which we managed in the first two, have dried up. The jokes are so lame that they are practically invisible. How you wish the film was too. The tired schtick of ‘dhai kilo ka haath’ becomes ‘paanch kilo’ when the dialogue shifts to Dharmendra. He plays a pesky tenant, always in the company of two ghostly women. Or should I say ghastly? The house is owned by Pooran and Kaala (Sunny and Bobby respectively): the former is an Ayurveda vaid, a whiz who can cure all ailments, including a girl who cannot see, just by looking at them; the latter is a bumbler. That’s his only job. Sinha shows up as a stentorian judge. He bellows. A priceless Ayurveda formula is up for grabs, and the cast mills about, one half trying to grab it, the other trying to retrieve it. And everyone on screen time passes their time while wasting ours.CAST:Sonakshi Sinha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jassi Gill, Piyush Mishra, Diany Penty, Denzil Smith, Jason Tham, Aparshakti Khurana
REVIEW: One and a half stars A winsome Punjabi ‘kudi’ on the run, with a rag-tag bunch chasing her: this was the premise of Happy Bhag Jayegi, which was some amount of fun. Part two bungs in a new Happy (Sinha) but doesn’t forget the older one (Penty). This time, the girls and assorted characters are dashing around China, a much bigger brother than Pakistan, where the first film was set. That one came with a whiff of freshness. The sequel tries for the same mix of muddled-headed but large-hearted Punjabis, crooked Chinese, a song or two, and a series of sequences which are meant to be funny but are most flat and dull. The new Happy lands in Shanghai only to discover some goons after her. The original Happy is floating around too, along with the love of her life (Fazal). Happy Number Two is on a mission, her backstory involving a heart-broken father, and a fiancé on the lam. Her present slings her towards black-suited slant-eyed characters with guns, and a hare-brained plot which never takes off, barring the few odd moments. New entrants Denzil Smith and Jason Tham, show up as ‘Chini’ baddies, and get a lot of screen time. Familiar hands from the previous film, Jimmy Sheirgill and Piyush Mishra, reprise their Bagga-Afridi ‘jodi’, but even these stalwarts can’t do much to lift the film. The writing is determinedly juvenile (‘Tu Gill hai, taa main Sheirgill hoon’), which would be fine if it were used with flair. But most of it is tired. A set piece which revolves around a guy slipping on spilled noodles you can see coming a mile off. Characters going by the name of Makaju and FaQ. The initial snigger trails off after the nth iteration. The smartest thing you can do with a caper like this, when you are trying to stuff in all kinds of improbable things, is to keep it brisk and pacy. It is two hours and some, but feels much longer. And most of that is down to Sinha. She gets top billing but there’s no sparkle in her performance. The film has just a few places where you crack a smile, especially when you see Jassi Gill as the Chinese-speaking ‘desi’ trying to help his country-folk out. He is about the only tolerable thing in this enterprise. The rest makes you want to run.
CAST: Sanjay Dutt, Jimmy Sheirgill, Mahie Gill, Chitrangada Singh, Soha Ali Khan, Kabir Bedi, Deepak Tijori, Pamela Bhutoria
REVIEW: In the crumbling, amoral universe that saheb and biwi inhabit - Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill reprise their roles - well-past-their-prime royals employ wicked, wicked ways to manipulate each other and their susceptibilities. But do their exertions make for great cat-and-mouse drama? Certainly not quite to the extent, or in the manner, that the first two entries of the series - Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster(2011) and Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns (2013) - did. Pretty much like the political prowess that the film's fading, flailing feudal figures and their cohorts exercise, the potential of the premise to deliver surprises has, on the evidence of this outing, waned significantly. The twists and turns that Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 springs upon the audience have an arbitrary, laboured ring to them, what with new entrant Sanjay Dutt (in the guise of an angry-as-hell Uday Pratap Singh, a man who's made 'bad choices' and has been in exile for two decades) stomping around first a smoky London nightclub called House of Lords and then a palace-turned-heritage hotel back in Uttar Pradesh like a clueless grizzly bear that has strayed out of its natural habitat. It is around this very disillusioned, defiant man's talent for emerging unscathed from Russian roulette face-offs that the plot of this film revolves. But the shots it yields generate more noise - tame clicks and big bangs - than genuine excitement. The blank shots reverberate through the film, robbing it off the gunpowder-dry quality that is of the essence in this dark, bloody, dusty UP milieu where marriages aren't made in heaven and human bonds teeter on a razor's edge. It has taken the third Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster instalment five years to take shape. One had expected time to add value to it. That does not seem to have happened. Devoid of the delirious energy, sly swerves and deeply melancholic core that defined the earlier entries, Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 struggles for the most part to hit the ground and run. Its sparks, too far and few between to form a recognizable pattern, do not yield the expected full-fledged firestorm. The desperate and devious methods that the greedy, going-for-broke men and women take recourse to fall all too quickly into a mechanical rut. One key character asks the 'saheb' of the pack, Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill): Is your blood still royal, or have the years of being in politics turned it into water? He does not answer the question, but taken in the overall context of the film, there can only be one response to that pointed query - royalty isn't just a matter of blood, it is just as much a state of mind. he malevolent characters that screenwriter Sanjay Chauhan and director Tigmanshu Dhulia's script rustle up in addition to Aditya Pratap and his ambitious, alcoholic wife Madhavi (Mahie Gill) exist in a limbo in the absence of the narrative support that could have turned them into meaningful pegs in a larger social commentary on a bunch of people so deeply entrenched in their sense of entitlement that they cannot see beyond their noses - and their guns. A political party is alluded to, workers are addressed from a desk behind which hangs a portrait of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and preparations for an upcoming polls are discussed but Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 jettisons the hurly-burly of political machinations at the altar of perfunctory personal shenanigans. The role essayed by Sanjay Dutt (he comes across as rather rusty, to say the least) is framed against two others - his father Maharaja Hari Singh (Kabir Bedi) and brother Vijay (Deepak Tijori), both of whom are upset no end when the profligate elder son returns to India, deported from the UK following a murderous assault on an Englishman who dares to needle him in his den. Uday Pratap demands his share of the royal property, but there is little left in the family's kitty to spare. So conspiracies are afoot in the palace and elsewhere, endangering the lives of innocents like the courtesan Suhani (Chitrangda Singh), Uday Pratap's mistress. Lives do not count for much in the haveli of Aditya Pratap either. Guns are whipped out and fired at the slightest provocation. While Aditya, convicted for murder, cools his heels in jail, his wily consort merrily plots to keep him there as long as possible. When he returns home, his wife offers truce. He accepts, but with many riders that are left to the daughter (Pamela Bhutoria) of his fiercely loyal retainer (Deepraj Rana, another franchise fixture) to enforce. The performances, led by the ever-reliable Sheirgill's, are all up to scratch, but one wishes the female roles weren't so underwritten. Mahie Gill, playing the woman who cares two hoots about moral niceties, works with a familiar bag of tricks. She still sways in an inebriated state to Lag jaa gale ke phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho and gives no quarters when faced with faced with threats and inducements. Some of the tics come off, some don't. Soha Ali Khan (as Aditya's second wife) has only two and a half scenes. Chitrangda Singh as Uday Pratap's mistress is allowed more but her character does not see much palpable development. One of the actresses in the cast who certainly deserved greater mind space, and not just footage, is Pamela Bhutoria, playing Aditya's tech-savvy protector standing in for her father who has gone into hiding. This bitter battle for fast-vanishing turf centres on the pressing need to protect the family 'reputation'. In this fictional neck of the woods, conventional honour isn't a big deal and the act of flouting laws and norms is worn as a badge of courage. The nautch girl puts the tussle into context when she advises the feckless, untrustworthy Vijay Pratap to tread with care. She says to him with all the curtness at her command: "Jab naam ke alawaa kuch no bacha ho toh naam ko bacha bacha ke chalna chahiye (When nothing but your name survives, do all you can to protect that name)." That statement could well be directed at the makers of Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3. The title has a resonance thanks to the impact that the film's two predecessors had made. Frittering it away on a flimsy Russian roulette-style effort isn't a good idea. So when the team decides to come up with another follow-up - the final moments of this film suggest that the fourth may not be far away - it will have to go all guns blazing. Or not at all.
CAST: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, Ashutosh Rana, Kharaj Mukherjee, Aishwarya Narkar
REVIEW: An attempted makeover of a tested storyline is never more than a handful of missteps away from turning into an outright mauling. The latter is exactly what Dhadak metes out to Nagraj Manjule's 2016 Marathi sleeper hit Sairat. A muddled screenplay, bland storytelling and uneven lead performances leave this glossy Karan Johar production without a proper, palpable heartbeat. With Bittergaon's Parshya and Archi, beleaguered lovers in whom we were deeply invested, giving way to a pair of prettified, pale shadows, it is only sporadically that Dhadak shows any signs of life. The rest of the 137-minute film can bore the pants off even the most indulgent Bollywood watcher. Neither the blossoming of the furtive and risky romance between two college mates nor their forced flight from their hometown when their affair is discovered by the girl's ruthless, class-conscious family springs out of the screen quite in the profoundly affecting manner that it did in Sairat, a film that drew much of its efficacy from casual, confident understatement. The world that Dhadak creates is too synthetic. It lacks the power to evoke empathy. In the original film, an air of dread and despair hangs over the young couple as they try to come to terms with their new life in Hyderabad. Dhadak's many ill-advised detours - narrative, ideational and locational - take the focus away from the plight of the lovers who are never out of harm's way even when they find what appears to be a safe haven a thousand miles away from home. The script by director Shashank Khaitan (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Badrinath Ki Dulhania) may well have been titled Madhukar Ki Dulhania. It deviates in major ways from Nagraj Manjule's trenchant, unfussy narrative built upon a keen personal understanding of the milieu that his film is set in. Dhadak transports the story to Udaipur, gives the two principal characters new names - Madhukar Bagla (Ishaan Khatter) and Parthavi Singh (Janhvi Kapoor) - and reduces to near-irrelevance the class and caste divides that the plot of Sairat swivelled around. This takes the sting out of the film's shocking climax. The problem with Dhadak isn't, however, limited only to a weak ending or to the immediate lead-up to it. From its awkwardly farcical opening sequence in which a bizarre kachori-eating contest replaces the village cricket match with which Sairat kicks off all the way down to the couple's relocation to Kolkata in the second half to escape the fury of the girl's livid father and belligerent brother, nothing that writer-director Khaitan rustles up is able to pitchfork Dhadak out of its comatose state. Just ahead of the first half's principal flashpoint, a stolen kiss that unleashes mayhem, all the principal characters, choreographed by Farah Khan, get together to belt out a robust version of the peppy Zingat. But what about some zing, please? That commodity goes completely missing from Dhadak. The onus is on Janhvi and Ishaan to tide over the film's drawbacks - they do not try - and enliven the wishy-washy proceedings. Dhadak is as dull as ditchwater. So no matter how hard the two actors endeavour to win us over with their vulnerabilities, which they do a pretty good job of harnessing, theirs is an uphill task. Pressed into the service of this enervated remake, their efforts are unable to guide Dhadak away from its inconsistent arc. The film gets neither the love story nor the socio-political context of Sairat right. The script makes too many gratuitous changes for its own good. Udaipur's Lake Pichola and the impressive structures around it add up to a visually striking backdrop, but they cannot compensate for the soulless nature of the narrative. The male protagonist's father, a lowly fisherman in Sairat, is a restaurateur in Dhadak. In one scene refer to the uchhi jaat (high caste) of Parthavi's family and warns him to stay away from the girl. Parthavi's dad isn't a big, thriving farmer like Archana Patil's father - he is instead a big-talking small-town overlord Ratan Singh (Ashutosh Rana), whose ambition is to dislodge a long-serving MLA from her perch and enjoy the fruits of political power. He does have his way but only to lose his seat before the film winds down. His anger shoots through the roof and the reverberations are felt in faraway Kolkata. By this point, the film has well and truly lost its way in bylanes that lead nowhere. The end result is a meandering mess that delivers a feeble statement against the horror of honour killings. But by reducing the socio-political subtext of the tale to a mere footnote, Dhadak deprives itself of the chance of breaking out of its dreary shell and bringing into its sweep the social faultlines that lie at the core of a complex, fragmented society. Sairat's Parshya has two friends - Salim and Pradeep. The former is a Muslim bangle-seller's son who works in an auto mechanic's garage; the latter is a physically challenged young man who walks with a pronounced limp. They are a disadvantaged trio in a rural setting run with an iron hand over by a land-owning, politically connected Maratha family that is acutely aware of its position and power. In Dhadak, Madhukar's sidekicks are Gokul (Ankit Bisht) and Parshuram (television's 'tiny man' Shridhar Watsar), who is charged with providing comic relief. Beyond that, the duo contributes precious little to the plot - the Dalit-Muslim-differently abled axis is done away with, and what is left of it is employed only for a largely superficial purpose. Gokul and Parshuram, in another key departure from the Sairat plot, do make a reappearance in the film's second half to lend moral support to Madhukar and Parthavi in Kolkata, where they are in hiding in a hostel run by a gentleman called Sachin Bhowmick (Kharaj Mukherjee). The name is obviously borrowed from one of commercial Hindi cinema's most prolific screenwriters, whose credits range from India's 1958 Cannes Competition entry Lajwanti to 2006's Krrish, with a wide array of megahits in the interim (An Evening in Paris, Aradhana, Karma, Karan Arjun, Koi Mil Gaya, et al). But that definitely isn't meant to be an inspiration for Dhadak to shrug off its inertia. The film saunters rather than sprints. In Sairat, that strategy clicked famously because that film had its heart in the right place. Dhadak doesn't. The result is a grind that pretty frames and fresh faces cannot mitigate.
Several of his friends and filmi folks, who haven't seen him on the big screen in four years, have been congratulating him for attempting to play a teacher who speaks shudh Hindi, a tribute to his father Dharmendra's character in 'Chupke Chupke'. Now that the film, which centres around vasectomy, is all set to hit the screens, the actor will start looking at the other projects he has been offered. For Bobby, his dad has always been a huge inspiration. He says, "I am hungry for work. I want to collaborate with good directors on interesting scripts. I am happy that Poster Boys has got me back on everyone's minds. I am looking forward to new subjects and roles." The upcoming comedy, the remake of a Marathi film of the same name, also features macho Sunny Deol as one of the victims of a campaign that promotes vasectomy. The reason an actor with a repertoire of action films agreed to be a part of this light-hearted project is that today, meritorious content seems to have outshined big-budget projects. 'Poster Boys', produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions, Sunny Sounds Pvt Ltd, Shreyas and Deepti Talpade, releases on September 8.
Several of his friends and filmi folks, who haven't seen him on the big screen in four years, have been congratulating him for attempting to play a teacher who speaks shudh Hindi, a tribute to his father Dharmendra's character in 'Chupke Chupke'. Now that the film, which centres around vasectomy, is all set to hit the screens, the actor will start looking at the other projects he has been offered. For Bobby, his dad has always been a huge inspiration. He says, "I am hungry for work. I want to collaborate with good directors on interesting scripts. I am happy that Poster Boys has got me back on everyone's minds. I am looking forward to new subjects and roles." The upcoming comedy, the remake of a Marathi film of the same name, also features macho Sunny Deol as one of the victims of a campaign that promotes vasectomy. The reason an actor with a repertoire of action films agreed to be a part of this light-hearted project is that today, meritorious content seems to have outshined big-budget projects. 'Poster Boys', produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions, Sunny Sounds Pvt Ltd, Shreyas and Deepti Talpade, releases on September 8.
Baadshaho', which released last week, reportedly opened to double-digit numbers and mixed reviews from the critics and the audience. Starring Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Ileana D'Cruz, Esha Gupta and Vidyut Jammwal, the action thriller is set against the backdrop of the Emergency of 1975. For the makers, it was only gratifying to see a considerably high footfall at both, multiplexes and single screens across the country. In spite of getting mixed response from the critics, the film, produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar and Milan Luthria, is holding its ground with a decent collection at the BO. Director Milan Luthria says, "The numbers prove that the film has been well-received pan India. Occupancy has been fairly good over the weekend in multiplexes and single screens. Partial holidays on Monday and Tuesday helped the film reach out to more people. I've received satisfying feedback. I set out to entertain, and the film has found its mark across the spectrum. The audience is the best judge and they have delivered their verdict." Producer Bhushan Kumar beams, "Ours is a film for everyone and it's doing well in almost all the markets. We hope this week sees a good turnout at theatres, too."
