Veer- Great Expectations

The year 2010 promises to be an eventful year for Bollywood with quite a number of significant films to be released. Considering the fact that the previous year proved to be a dismal show for the film industry, this year is fairly important as most releases are big budget ones. The first of the lot is Veer the directorial extravaganza by Anil Sharma, who shot to instant fame with a hit like Gadar.
Veer features nation’s heartthrob Salman Khan in lead role with debutant Zarine Khan playing opposite him as his love interest. The movie is being expected with great fervor among the audiences and critics for quite sometime. Everyone is expecting the film to match the box office collections of Gadar which was a runaway hit in the country.

With this movie actor Salman turns to the role of a script writer. Thus, it has been aptly reported many a times that the movie is very close to his heart and he has left no stone unturned to make it a success story. The movie is in news from the very first day when the promos hit the television and theatres across the country. The craze was such that when the promos came, the actress Zarine Khan was compared to Katrina Kaif in looks. The buzz didn’t end there as people went on to say that she was chosen just for her looks as the former was busy shooting another film. Even the other actress of the movie Liza Lazarus resembles Katrina as said in media circles.

The movie is a must watch as Salman is playing the role of a warrior as a patriotic soldier of his community. His looks are being compared with the looks of Russell Crowe in  Gladiator and Brad Pitt inTroy. For these obvious reasons he is the biggest crowd puller of the movie. To back him up, he has one of the biggest hit of 2009 in the name of  Wanted.

The movie has an epic setting and it is quite some time that we have not seen a historical drama on screen. The setting of the movie is in the 18th century India showing the enslaving of countrymen and capturing of territories by the British army and soldiers. The story is of the resilient Pindari tribe of the central India which was encircled and destroyed by British army in early 19th century. The movie is in right hands of Anil Sharma who has dealt with a magnum opus before in the name of Gadar. The look and feel of the film is magnificent and shows the dependability brought by him.

Whatever the expectations maybe, it all started with the music release of the film. The music is already hit and topping the charts across the nation. Lyrics are penned by maestro Gulzar and music is by Sajid-Wajid. The action image of Salman also goes in favor of the movie.

Recently, there was news stating a rift among actor cum script writer Salman Khan and the producers as he wanted to remove certain portions. His suggestions were promptly refused by them and left the actor biting the dust. Whatever it may be the movie is hugely anticipated by crowd and there are eyes gawking for the success of the movie as the film industry is in trouble after disastrous movies of 2009. Let’s hope that 2010 brings luck for the industry in the name of Veer.

Source : http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/741846/Entertainment/11/88/11

Chance Pe Dance : Review

There are many strugglers in the  Mumbai film industry since time immemorial trying to make a mark in the Bollywood, but there has been a steady increase in the number of movies made on this subject these days.  This topic is surely finding appreciation, the success of  Luck By Chance is enough to prove it, but    Chance Pe Dance (CPD) is no way near to it.  Taking the argument further it won’t be apt to mention both the films in same light.   Agreed that the topic is a realistic one but there needs to be a concrete script to support the cause of the director,     Chance Pe    Dance fails on many occasions.


Surely the movie has its moments but they are far and between. There are quite a lot of scenes in the movie that try to make the viewer sympathetic but do nothing better than annoying the viewer.The opening scene of the movie shows the wretched condition of the protagonist Sameer aka Sam who has a loaf of bread and orange juice to survive in this unkind world. There is a usual landlord knocking his door to get his due rent of four months. In the end the same person arrives for the premier of his movie and is obviously a superstar now. There are hardly any scenes in the middle that are able to engage the audience. The comic scenes seem to be strained, the unreal emotions and a jaded script kills the film. The sub-plot that tries to engage the viewer is left to oblivion for the reasons best known to the director.

The movie shows that there is no end to the misery of Sam even after getting a lead role in a dance based film. He is thrown out of his house by his cruel landlord and is penniless to afford a meal. Audience might have empathized with him but his 8 pack abs turn out to be a spoilsport here. It could have been possible only when he was splurging on a protein diet in a costly gym which is not feasible for him as his condition is depicted. Or he might be a god gifted person.

Every scene and situation of the movie appears to be clichéd whatever they may offer. The job of Sam as a dance instructor, him preparing a bunch of kids, his anticipated success, Tina (Sam’s girlfriend) urging him to participate in a nationwide hunt for an actor and he wins the contest. All these moments are too predictable for a viewer and don’t offer anything new to us. In these times when a viewer is so careful while going for a movie and many film makers coming with a novel theme this one surely disappoints.

The music of such a dance based film must have been good enough to play on DJ but the music also contributes in the dampening of this boring and too predictable film. There is not a single chartbuster from the movie and on whole Adnan Sami disappoints. The song‘ Pump It Up’ might be an exception but it comes at the end of the movie and audience is bored of this predictable dancing extravaganza, so no one cares for it. On a whole the songs are not the one we will remember for longer.

The only thing that works for the movie is the dance steps by Shahid Kapur which are beautifully executed by him. He surely makes them entertaining but they can hardly save the film. He has again shown his excellence in dancing and is the only positive in this film.

Performance wise Shahid tries hard and his act is not so bad but he should choose films that can do justice to his talent. He has done movies like‘Kaminey’  in the past which are a treat to watch but here one wonders what was going in his mind while signing this film. Genelia looks adorable in the movie and her pairing with Shahid looks pleasing to the eye. The scenes between them give some respite to the viewer. As far as director Ken Ghosh is concerned he could not have done anything with a film whose script and story was insipid.

In short, Chance Pe Dance misses its target audience by quite a margin. The viewer knows the end of the movie in the first half itself and does not want to wait till the end of the movie. CPD can be viewed only by a die-hard fan of Shahid Kapur (which is quite a lot after Kaminey) , otherwise it is hard to tolerate its entire duration of 2 hours and some odd minutes.

Source : http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/742004/Entertainment/11/88/11

I want a Break from Music : Beyonce

R&B diva Beyonce Knowles wants to take a six-month hiatus from music.

The' Crazy in Love' singer, who is married to hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, thinks she worked too hard last year and needs time off to focus on her personal life, including spending time with her five-year-old nephew Daniel, USA Today reported.

"It's definitely time to take a break, to recharge my batteries. I'd like to take about six months and not go into the studio. I need to just live life, to be inspired by things again," Beyonce said."I'm going to do random things. I want to go to restaurants, maybe take a class and see some movies and Broadway shows,"she added.

"I'll spend more time with Daniel. He's a wonderful kid, amazing, so smart. And I spoil him, so it's a lot of work. He's a 24-hour job,"the star said.

However, the 28-year-old star admits she will find her music sabbatical tough."It will be the hardest thing in the world for me to make myself not do an album and shoot a video and turn it in and say,'I'm ready!'. I already have all these melodies and ideas in my head. I have to tell myself,'Sit down! Sit down!' ,"the singer said.

Jennifer Lopez wants to be in Showbiz till 71

Hollywood diva Jennifer Lopez wants to defy age and is determined to be in show-business even when she is 71 years old.

The' Maid In Manhattan' star said that despite becoming a wife and mother in recent years, she was defined by her career and would never let it go.

"I'll be doing some form of this when I'm 71. This is what I do What, because I have kids and a husband I'm not supposed to be me? I'm hyper JLo,"said the 40-year-old singer and actress.

" Everything I wanted before, I want twice as much now. Not material things but to explore and think more. Being an artist doesn't start because you're 21 and it doesn't end because you're 51,"she added.

Lopez also insisted she was not afraid to be away from the limelight because she knew she had a long career ahead of her.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra apologises for his 'shut up'

'3 Idiots' producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra today apologised for shouting at a media person when questioned about author Chetan Bhagat's allegations that he was not given proper credit in the film.

"I really think it was silly. I was provoked as you guys know but I should not have done that. It does not befit me. What I did was silly and I am really sorry," Chopra told reporters today. The press meet of the film crew in Noida turned ugly last night when a journalist said the film was similar to the book. When Chopra asked the scribe whether he had read the book, he replied in negative after which the producer asked him to"shut up".

Chopra's outburst was objected by the media. Actor Aamir Khan, who was also there in the press conference, tried to pacify the producer and asked him to apologise but he refused. Chopra said he realised his mistake after watching the TV footage of his outburst and decided to apologise. When asked whether he would like to clear the issue with Bhagat, an angry Chopra said,"I don't want to see his face for the rest of my life. He did what he did with very bad intentions."

The whole controversy started when Bhagat, the author' Five Point Someone', the book from which the film has been adapted, accused the film-makers for not giving him due credit in the movie, which was released this Christmas.

Aamir, who plays the lead in the movie, reacted sharply to Bhagat's allegations, accusing him of being hungry for"cheap publicity".

Aamir accused Bhagat of trying to take away the credit from the scriptwriter Abhijat Joshi, who the star said was working on the story for three years.In his response, Bhagat called Khan and the film-makers"uncivilised people" and rejected allegations that he was hankering for publicity." They are making a fool of themselves," he said.

Source : http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/730663/3/30/20/30

Facial expression can tell thousand words.

If you believe only words can communicate, think again, for scientists have claimed animated facial expressions may be more worthy.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen, Germany, found that humans are able to recognise facial expressions in motion -- for example, in a movie -- far better than in a static photograph.

"A facial expression can state a lot and we are able to classify an expression much better when it moves naturally rather than when it is frozen in a photograph," they said.

According to the researchers, one needs to see the expression at least for 100 milliseconds to understand it properly. If the visual sequence is shorter, our brain is less capable of interpreting the facial motion.

" Facial expressions, like gestures and body motion, are a dynamic phenomenon and need to be investigated with the help of video sequences in order to get a better understanding of the dynamic information that is being processed," Dr Christian Wallraven, co-author of the study, was quoted as saying by ScienceDaily.

According to the study, some expressions rely on changes in head orientation, for example, a nod or a shake of the head, others on the complex deformation of facial parts, such as wrinkling our nose to signal disgust or a frown.

The scientists showed pictures of humans with different expressions to the participants in order to examine to what extent we are able to recognise - the mood of a person with whom we are interacting - based on facial expressions. Among them were simple, emotional expressions, such as happy and sad, but also more complex ones such as agreement, confusion, or surprise, which are usually used to emphasise or modify statements in a conversation.

To investigate whether these expressions are recognised more easily in motion or in static pictures, a short video sequence of various expressions was shown to the participants and then asked to identify the expressions.

In further experiments, the video sequences were converted to a series of photographs that was shown to the participants. Nevertheless, the expressions were still recognised more accurately in the video sequence.

The results show that neither pictures, nor motion alone are of importance, but that we need a combination of the correct temporal sequence and the correct facial motion to reliably interpret facial expressions.

"Our results also have implications for the area of computer animation, since its goal is to create artificial avatars and facial animations that are able to communicate realistically and believably," Wallraven added.

Upset Aamir Khan hits out at novelist Chetan Bhagat

An upset Aamir Khan has spoken out against author Chetan Bhagat, on whose novel the star's latest blockbuster'3 Idiots' is based, accusing him of trying to take away the credit from the film's scriptwriter.

"He is trying to take away the credit from the film's writer Abhijat Joshi, which I am very upset about. It is an attempt on his part to try and take the credit away from the person who has actually worked on the script. It's very unfortunate. There should not be any confusion to anyone that Abhijat is our film's writer," Khan told reporters here last night.

Bhagat had earlier accused the film makers of"playing" with him and not giving him adequate credit in'3 Idiots'based on his bestseller' Five Point Someone'.

The actor said the film makers were honest in their agreement with the novelist and had given him his due credit in the film."But in my opinion the credit should be given to Abhijat. For three years, this man has worked on the script. Nobody knows him, but Chetan is a big star," he added.

" Abhijat has written the script and Raju Hirani worked on it. Raju and Abhijat took the idea from Chetan's book. The starting point is' Five Point Someone', but after that the script has changed entirely," he said.

In his blog yesterday, Bhagat had written that he had been silently grappling with the issue for the past two years."I knew they had played with me, and that based on a novel by credit, which they were legally bound to give would be hushed away at the end with the clear intention of making sure people miss it," he said. The novelist has alleged that, contrary to what the makers have said, much of the film is from his book.

"The setting, characters, plot, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners, theme, message– almost all aspects that make the story are from FPS. Yes, there are some changes, any adaptation requires that but it is no way an original story," he claimed.

Produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani,'3 Idiots' has created a box-office history by collecting Rs 175 crore just days after its release on the Christmas day, making it one of the biggest opening for a Hindi film this decade.

Source : http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/730186/3/30/20/30

I tried hard not to be an actor: Soha Ali Khan

When you are born in a family of actors, you are expected to become an actress eventually. The same happened with    Soha Ali Khan, despite her trying very hard not to step into Bollywood.

With yesteryear's beauty queen Sharmila Tagore as mother and superstar Saif Ali Khan as brother, one would hardly expect Soha to take up any other profession, but she insists that she was initially reluctant to become an actress.

" Taking up acting was never my aim and I have tried very hard not to be an actor. I took up other professions like banking, but then there was a wish to become a part of the entertainment industry somehow," Soha told media.

source : http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/729679/Entertainment/11/88/11