Desi Nuts » Movies

Pussycat Dolls revamp ‘Jai Ho’

Venkat — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:41:22 +0000

The multiple wins by “Slumdog Millionaire” at Sunday’s Oscars have a lot of people buzzing about how the little-movie-that-did might build a bridge between Hollywood and Bollywood. And, with the awards-show hangover just barely wearing off, Nicole Scherzinger has already volunteered to lay the first brick.

The Pussycat Dolls singer has laid down some vocals on a remix of A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning Best Original Song “Jai Ho,” which went up on DesiHits.com on Monday.

“It’s an honor to be able to collaborate with A.R. Rahman and be a part of the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ project in any way,” Scherzinger said in a statement. “The movie, the story and the music [were] a gift and very spiritually uplifting for me. … I can only hope and pray ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ and my version of ‘Jai Ho’ (’You Are My Destiny’) touches and connects people all around the world.”

With the song’s original frantic beats and uplifting percussion in place, Scherzinger’s version replaces the original tune’s Hindi words with English lyrics, including the chorus, “You are the reason that I breathe/ You are the reason that I still believe/ You are my destiny/ Jai ho.”

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Terminator Salvation Trailer - High Definition

Venkat — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:57:02 +0000

Trailer after the jump…

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And the Oscar goes to… “Slumdog Millionaire”

Venkat — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:55:47 +0000

“Slumdog Millionaire,” the little film about a poverty-raised teaboy who goes on a game show as a way to find his lost love, leads all films at the Oscars with eight Oscars at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

As the stage filled with the film’s huge cast, producer Christian Colson talked about “Slumdog’s” “extraordinary journey.”

“Most of all we had passion and we had belief, and our film shows if you have those two things, you have everything,” said Colson.

“Slumdog Millionaire” got on the board early, with an Oscars for adapted screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), best picture, director (Danny Boyle), cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle), score (A.R. Rahman), song (”Jai Ho,” co-written by Rahman), sound mixing and film editing.

Boyle literally jumped up and down as he accepted his award, saying that if he ever won he’d bounce like Tigger from “Winnie-the-Pooh.”

Rahman was equally appreciative as he accepted one of his Oscars.

“All my life I’ve had a choice between hate and love, and I chose love, and now I’m here,” said Rahman.

The movie, which has dominated this awards season and received 10 Oscar nominations, is considered the favorite to win best picture.

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - High Definition

Venkat — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:35:12 +0000

Trailer after the jump…

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Backview Bollywood | 45 Pics

Venkat — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:54:11 +0000

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If Movie Posters Said the Truth | 11 Posters

Jeewan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:12:13 +0000

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Slumdog Millionaire wins 4 Golden Globes

Venkat — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:03:59 +0000

The prestigious Golden Globe Awards ceremony to honour the best in the world cinema began in Los Angeles.

India-based story of an underdog, the Danny Boyle-directed Slumdog Millionaire in on a winning spree, first bagging the award for the Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Screenplay category (Simon Beaufoy), the Best Original Score (A R Rahman), and the Best Motion Picture - Drama.

“Your mad, pulsating affection for our film is much appreciated,” said director Danny Boyle.

The story of a slum kid who participates in popular reality game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to be a Millionaire) and ends up winning Rs 2 crore, the protagonist Dev Patel won the most promising newcomer award at the British Independent Film Awards recently as well as the Best Young Actor Award at the Critics’ Choice Awards.

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Slumdog Millionaire Review

Admin — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:09:38 +0000

I am normally skeptical of raving movie reviews. I’m also wary of European or American filmmakers who set their stories in the shantytowns of the developing world because they tend to romanticize backwardness and peddle stereotypes. And I am suspicious of soap opera themes because they can be too syrupy. All of which made me scared to watch “Slumdog Millionaire,” British director Danny Boyle’s movie recently released in the U.S.

But this is indeed the masterpiece that some of its early viewers in various film festivals have been proclaiming.

As is usually the case with great narrative, what makes the story important is not what it tells us but how it is told.

The “Slumdog Millionaire” plot is a rags-to-riches love journey set in the slums of Mumbai. It hinges on Jamal Malik, a resourceful orphan who endures a series of extreme experiences and eventually becomes a successful contestant in the Hindi version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” But Boyle turns Simon Beaufoy’s script, based on Vikas Swarup’s novel “Q&A,” into a hyperkinetic phantasmagoria that alternates between the present, with the protagonist violently interrogated by the police because any slum kid who has enough knowledge to make it to the latest stage of the TV game show is suspicious, and the past: successive episodes of survival amid a world dominated by abject misery, criminal lords, a treacherous brother, and the protagonist’s impossible love for the bewitchingly beautiful Latika (Freida Pinto).

All of this leads to the happy ending that the audience has been expecting—and to which the movie hints subtly with the mesmeric use of color by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, the controlled humor behind the drama, and the affirmation of life implicit in Jamal’s Obamaesque poise in the midst of harrowing adversity.

That Boyle managed to tell a Bollywood story without falling into any of Bollywood’s conventions—except for a musical number during the final credits that comes as a summation of the narrative’s uplifting spirit—is one of his extraordinary achievements. The film is due for a January release in India, and may be a test for the country’s notorious cinema censors. I cannot think of a movie that the residents of Mumbai, traumatized by the recent series of terrorist attacks, would find more inspiring than this one.

The way to pay homage to Mumbai, a city that has one foot in the Third World and another in the First, is not to sanitize or glorify its poverty, nor to denounce globalization. The way to expose cruelty and exploitation—those time-honored human institutions overly present in any country where the rule of law is weak—is not to create Platonic stereotypes. The way to do it is to tell an honest story and to tell it well.

Latin American soap operas and oldish Indian melodramas have many things in common. One of them is a fascination with victimhood and a redistributionist idea of wealth: In those stories, the heroes are forever attempting to recover something that someone has taken from them. By contrast, the hero of “Slumdog Millionaire” never complains, never suggests that others owe him something, never envies what he sees. And he is relentless in his determination to go on, and on. Every little victory—and the final prize, which is not the money—is the result of ingenuity meeting opportunity.

Boyle and Beaufoy did not set out to make any of these points, of course. If they had, the film would have been a disaster. They simply set out to tell us, in a series of flashbacks that echo Jamal’s tale to his interrogators at the police station, the experiences that have formed his identity. And herein lies another of the film’s great merits. Unlike so many tales of the developing world in which a character’s identity is often expressed through groups—social, political, religious—that find themselves at the losing end of society, this one reminds us, by reconstructing the unique fragments of Jamal’s tortuous existence, that every identity is profoundly individual and that destiny is what you aim for, not what you wait for.

If there is any justice, “Slumdog Millionaire”—a $15-million movie that the distributors were dubious about, and a third of which is in Hindi—will be nominated by the Motion Picture Academy for Best Picture. And go on to win.

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Ghajini release in a tug-of-war

Admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:28:25 +0000

With just two days short of release, it looks like the release of ‘Ghajini’ starring Aamir Khan and Asin is in a tug-of-war kind of situation. At one side the Madras High Court puts the release “on hold” and on the other side the Bombay High Court allows ‘Ghajini’ to be released on Dec 25 (Thursday) even though the case filed against its producer for alleged violation of copyright is still pending in the court.

Madras High Court puts ‘Ghajini’ release on hold

The Madras High Court has stalled the national and the international release of the Aamir Khan starrer ‘Ghajini’ which was supposed to release on 25 th December.

Ghajini being a remake of a Tamil film, the Tamil producers of the film have objected to its release.

‘Ghajini’ is one of the most awaited movies of this year. The movie has Aamir Khan in the lead role and Asin plays his love interest.

The story of ‘Ghajini’ is a revenge saga, one ingredient that has been the staple diet of Hindi films in Bollywood since time immemorial. It is, apparently, a powerful film. It has the power to sweep you off your feet from the word ‘go’ and the reviews of the movie have been excellent till now. It has a riveting story, which has been told with flourish by director A.R. Murugadoss.

Bombay High Court allows ‘Ghajini’ release

The Bombay High Court has allowed ‘Ghajini’ to be released on Dec 25 (Thursday) even though the case filed against its producer for alleged violation of copyright is still pending in the court.

A little-known production banner, KBC Pictures, had filed a case in the court Monday, claiming that producer Madhu Mantena had infringed upon its copyright as it had acquired the right to re-make ‘Ghajini’ in Hindi.

Asking for the court’s stay on the movie’s scheduled release Dec 25, the counsel for the banner told the court that his client’s re-make version of the movie was already on the floors under the title ‘Kahani Ghajini Ki’.

The sudden litigation involving the movie will have little impact on its promotional campaign, says the producer.

According to Mantena, various brands being endorsed by actor Aamir Khan have joined hands to start a Rs.140-million promotional campaign, the costliest marketing campaign ever to promote a Bollywood movie.

‘This kind of promotional campaign is necessary to create a hype around the film, so that more people become aware of its release,’ Mantena said.

So, let’s keep our fingers crossed and wait till the movie actually hits the screen.

The reviews of the movie can be found here.

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Ghajini Movie Review | Aamir Khan Ghajini Movie Review

Admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:06:35 +0000

The wait is finally over! An Aamir Khan film is nothing short of an event. The supremely talented actor acts in one film a year and no two films are ever identical in terms of plotline.

Don’t miss: Aamir’s painful injury during shoot | Play the Ghajini game, win prizes | Interview with Asin | Preview, stills, videos and more on Ghajini

Ghajini, the Tamil version, has been a massive hit and so was its dubbed Telugu version. Will the Hindi adaptation live up to the humungous expectations? The hype is unmatched and you expect no less than a present-day masterpiece.

Now the good news: Ghajini demonstrates how strong film-making can enhance and elevate an already solid concept.

Ghajini is a revenge saga, one ingredient that has been the staple diet of Hindi films since time immemorial. It is a powerful film. It has the power to sweep you off your feet from the word ‘go’. It has a riveting story, which has been told with flourish by director A.R. Murugadoss. And, of course, it has a knockout performance by Aamir Khan.

The flaws? Running time [almost 3 hours]? Not at all! There’s so much happening in every scene and the screenplay is so gripping that you don’t feel the need to look at the auditorium ceiling or at your watch at brief intervals. You aren’t restless. As moviegoers, we’ve watched countless good versus evil fares over the years and although Ghajini belongs to the same family, not once does it take the beaten track. The story has been told differently and most importantly, the story offers so many twists-n-turns that you just can’t guess what would unfold next.

Is it violent? It is, at times, but the violence here is justified. In fact, every time the protagonist bashes up the evil-doers, you clap and root for him. The climax is jaw-dropping — dissimilar from the original, but it’s an out of the world experience nonetheless.

To sum up, Ghajini is commercial Hindi cinema at its best. The film has ‘Hit’ written all over it. Let me put it this way: Cancel whatever you’re doing today and go watch Ghajini instead.

Aamir Khan is suffering from acute short-term memory loss set off by the violent murder of his girlfriend Asin. He’s got to work around this handicap, but with methodical and meticulous determination. Aamir etches a path of clues that lead him on his road.

To aid him in his quest, he carries around a sheaf of Polaroids and when he is really sure of a piece of information, he has it tattooed on his body, which stands in for the damaged part of his mind. His indelibly marked torso is the repository of his grief, his rage and his reason to go on living. Any more revelation would do gross injustice to the film and to its viewer.

First things first! Ghajini is not Memento. There’re minor similarities, but Ghajini takes a completely different route to tell its story. Director A R Murugadoss tells this one differently. It starts off with what happens in the past, comes to the present-day, goes back in time again and returns to the contemporary again. This is a breathless, exciting story, heart-breaking and exhilarating at the same time.

Hindi movies have often depicted people suffering from amnesia/memory loss, but Ghajini is poles apart because the protagonist recalls events only for 15 minutes. The story is its USP, without a doubt. But what adds sheen and glory to the story is Aamir’s portrayal of a man suffering from short-term memory loss.

Aamir hardly speaks. In fact, the leading lady [Asin] speaks more than Aamir in the film. But Aamir speaks volumes with his eyes, he conveys whatever has to be conveyed through his body language, he says it all with his facial expressions and that only makes Ghajini a memorable, never-seen-before experience.

Director A.R. Murugadoss deserves brownie points for not just coming up with an interesting story, but also presenting it [refreshingly] differently. The storyteller balances the light moments and the ones demanding intensity with expertise. There’s dum in every sequence. Even if the director has to depict violence, he doesn’t resort to blood-n-gore or knives-swords-pistols for effect.

A R Rahman’s music is top notch. At least three numbers have the unmistakable stamp of a genius — ‘Guzarish’, ‘Behka’ and ‘Kaise Mujhe’. Ravi Chandran’s cinematography is stunning. The film bears a stylish look all through. The action sequences are brilliantly executed. The Hindi moviegoers haven’t seen such scenes ever.

Aamir delivers his career-best performance. In the first place, it requires courage and maturity to name the film after the villain. Knowing how egoistic our stars are, something like this is next to impossible in Hindi films.

A lot has been said and written about the Ghajini look — Aamir’s hairstyle and his dream physique. As far as his acting is concerned, he’s natural as the tycoon, but like a wounded, ferocious tiger when he goes on an avenging spree. Without doubt, it’s a concentrated, layered performance. He acts with his entire being. His body movement, the details of his performance, everything rings true. He is both vulnerable and hard. The pain in his face when he can’t remember, is palpable. It’s not only the plot that carries Ghajini. It’s also the mood and the expression on Aamir’s face that makes Ghajini a treat.

Asin is fabulous. To share the screen space with an actor of the stature of Aamir Khan and yet remain in your memory even after the show has ended is no cakewalk. She looks fresh and photogenic and acts her part brilliantly. Pradeep Rawat, the villain, is first-rate.

On the whole, Ghajini is a winner all the way. The film will set new records and has the merits to emerge one of the biggest hits of all times. The weekend business should be historic, the Week 1 business should be unparalleled, the lifetime gross should be amongst the biggest of all times. In short, Ghajini has ‘Blockbuster’ written all over it.

By Taran Adarsh/IndiaFM

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