The noted Indian theatre personality says that Arts should be taught to the school students in India more seriously.

“Arts, be it visual or performing,  should be included in the school curriculum rather than just be treated as a mere hobby”, she added.

“We need institutions to nurture talent. There are children who are talented and look forward to a career in creative arts”, she said.

Sanjana worked with stubborn dedication at Prithvi theatre for about 21 years to restructure it into a vibrant professional theatre venue to nurture talent.

The lady has now reinvented her popular summer workshops for children under her new banner, Junoon.

This programme called Arts at Play is the maiden venture of Junoon which will continue till June. A list of 45 workshops and 18 plays has been prepared for this.

Theatre personalities like Nadira Babbar, Naseeruddin Shah and Makarand Deshpande are participating in this special programme for kids.

While designing the programme Junoon has ensured that children enjoy in creative and non-competitive environment. (Courtesy: Pratirodh)

‘Shahrukh has always told me that physical abuse is the worst way to sort out a problem, and that it means the person who’s hitting has either a personal or professional crisis going on. So it saddens me to see him doing the same.’ -Farah Khan, Mumbai Jan 30, 2012.

The lover boy of mushy Karan Johar movies seems to be becoming desperate. He resurrected himself as a larger-than-life action hero in Ra.One.

The Rs 150 crore film was a super duper disaster, despite the last minute Rs 50 crore marketing promo blitzkrieg. Clearly, ageing superstar Shahrukh Khan, on whom billions ride in Bollywood, is beginning to get stuck in his own repetitive mediocrity.

Towards the end of Ra.One, there is a scene in which Shahrukh is dying: he resorts to a gesture fans recognise too well from his romantic films – arms stretched, eyes crinkled, head raised. At a screening, some people started laughing” “Can a Shahrukh movie be complete without this,” they said. This moment must come in every star’s life when they start appearing as caricatures of their own manufactured self-image. What was liked once, now begins to be made fun of. Recently, Naseeruddin Shah, great actor but not a star in Bollywood language, remarked that “big stars have to be predictable”.  That seems to be both their doing as well as undoing.

All his life, Shahrukh has played different versions of only two roles – the too-much-in-love lover, and the ordinary simpleton bordering on being a buffoon. With changing times, these characters too changed – getting tamed, altered, commercialised.

For those of us who grew up on mid-1990s Bombay movies, Shahrukh was fundamentally Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge’s (DDLJ) Raj, or Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’s (KKHH) Rahul. He seemed attractive, almost charming; there was something about him, what, exactly, we could never say.

Prosperous Raj and Rahul were eternally well-settled with not the slightest worry about how to make a living. Their world and worries merely revolved around finding ‘love’. They were irreverent, but not far-sighted or courageous enough to question basic conventions and traditions. They were mostly happy till love made them sad, though never angry; even that sadness never lasted.

However, the Shahrukh we did not know, occasional glimpses of whom we saw in older movies on TV, had also been other people. Look at the first two films of his career, in theearly 1990s. He was the crazed lover Raja in Deewana, ready to defy social convention for love; also, Raju in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, wanting to become a gentleman in the big, bad city.

Raja and Raju were interesting. In many ways, Raja is an early version of Raj and Rahul.  Like them, he is rich and happy. But these are slightly different times and so, unlike them, he is angry at his wealth, at his father, who, for him, is the symbol of this inherited wealth: “Maine toh yeh nahi maanga tha,” he tells him.

Raja was a heavily ‘overacted’ but interesting character who falls in love with a widow. Not caring for a thing in the world (not even for what the woman feels!), he decides to give up family wealth and works in a garage. There was a mad energy about him, as if he did not know what to do with the emotions evoked inside him. In a melodramatic scene, he carves out the initials of the woman on his wrist. Shahrukh built this obsessive behaviour as a repetitive pattern in the films that followed – Darr and Anjam. He used the same anti-hero streak for a revenge drama in Baazigar.

Raju in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, however, was a different person. A remake of Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420, he was a leftover from the ‘socialist 1950s’, getting a new life in the inherited progressive legacy of Aziz Mirza’s film. Here, too, the antagonism towards wealth and big business was apparent, though there was also the desire to make it big. The city corrupts the small town simpleton, but he is redeemed by the friendships and love that the same city gives. Over the years, Mirza was to revive this character again with Shahrukh, first, in Yes Boss, and then, in Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.

And what if Raju had not left the small town for the city? This question was imagined by Shahrukh’s third film: Kundan Shah’s Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na,which, curiously, the actor calls his “most memorable role”.

Shahrukh won his first Filmfare award for Deewana in 1992. Brought up in Delhi, with no connection to Bollywood, this was no small feat. In the next few years, he won four diverse categories of Filmfare awards – Critics’ Best Actor, Best Villain and Best Actor, with a nomination for Best Actor in a comic role. “The only thing left now is to be nominated for Best Actress,” he remarked at an award function.

Filmfare awards have a culture-specific place in box office Bollywood – something only an insider can understand. It is no secret that the awards have nothing to do with talent, or authentic competition. Once upon a time, they must have been about acknowledging the most popular, which is bad enough, but today they are even worse – keeping everyone happy, ensuring that they turn up for the awards night show. And yet, most aspiring actors desperately want to be a part of this world, despite the predictable dance numbers, and brazenly unfair nominations and winners.

In the years to come, Shahrukh was to become a habitual winner of theFilmfare award, and a favourite at most award functions that propped up. Predictably, this secure position came with a tameness in the characters he played. The mad lover streak had been reigned in, the unconventionalness made conventional and ‘cool’. This was most visible in two big banner films – Aditya Chopra’s DDLJ and Karan Johar’s KKHH.

These films made Shahrukh ‘attractive and lovable’. Playing rich again, the focus now was on playing by the rules. In DDLJ, the conservative parents of the woman he loved had to be convinced that they should accept him, their conservative values intact. Conversely, conservativeness could not be so rigid, could it? In KKHH, the conflict was the confusion between love and friendship. Its great dilemma was whether one falls in love once or twice! Everyone ultimately was won over; the world was a nice place after all.

There was something inherently exhausting about these stories and characters. How long could he go on playing the same person? Perhaps burdened by the expectations generated by their first films, Chopra and Johar took to making too much of everything in their next films, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (KKKG) and Mohabbatain – too many people in love, too many stars and stories. Clearly, the formula had a shelf life.

In the mythology of Shahrukh Khan built on his big banner lover roles, it is easy to overlook how the Raju persona also grew and changed. This was evident in films like Badshah, Yes Boss, Duplicate and One Two Ka Four, to name a few. Except in a film like Yes Boss, he played these ‘ordinary man’ roles by reducing himself to a comic hero, devoid of context or commentary. 

It is interesting, then, that he attempted a return to that context when he turned producer, choosing to set up his Dreamz Unlimited Production company with Aziz Mirza and Juhi Chawla. Together they decided to make not a Chopra-Johar style movie, but a return to the themes explored in theRaju Ban Gaya Gentleman days. Directed by Mirza, this was Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani where Shahrukh is a ‘sold out’ TV journalist, constantly reminded of earlier days of idealism by his father. Eventually, he comes back on the right track.

The movie did not make money. And for Shahrukh, who sought nothing but singleminded populism (and huge commercial success) an average run at the box office meant a path not worth pursuing anymore. Perhaps his biggest problem, apart from his limited talent that restricted the roles he could do, was this obsessive desire for popularity. This inevitably meant that he would avoid making films that might challenge established cinematic idioms, but not guaranteed to be popular.

With the lacklustre response toboth Mohabbatain and Hindustani, Shahrukh went through a vulnerable phase. Ironically, it was a return to the ‘ordinary’ which rescued him and made it possible to retain his superstar image. Swadesand ChakDe! India expanded the idea of what Shahrukh could become, surprising those who thought they knew all his moves. Mixing the ordinary with patriotism, while Swades did not do so well, Chak De! was a hit. It was Yash Raj’s response to the ‘new wave’ that was beginning to emerge in Bollywood with new directors and writers having entered the industry. Roping in Jaideep Sahani, who had written the interesting Khosla ka Ghosla,Chak De!worked where Hindustani had failed.

Shahrukh’s speech at the Filmfare function where he got the Best Actor forChak De! is memorable because it is the last of its kind – in the next few years he was to stop making sense entirely. Perhaps Shahrukh knew exactly what his limits as an actor were: “I pray to Allah to give me the strength, courage and talent to be able to do films like Chak De!. As long as I live, I will not let you down,” he said.

This promise did last for a while. Along with him, Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra, big money kings of mushy designer films, tried to cash in on the contemporary trend of realistic films. Thus, Chopra returned with Shahrukh to make Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi where he yet again played the almost faceless ‘ordinary’ Surinder Sahani. And Johar tackled Islamophobia in a frivolous manner in My Name is Khan. Though both films became popular, they didn’t seem to do anything for Shahrukh, the clichéd actor, or the repetitive star.

Something was not right about these films, and the varied, smaller, intelligent films that were now being made in Bollywood made this even more apparent. Why would anyone watch Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi when they could see a more honest Bheja Fry instead? It was evident that Shahrukh was trying too hard to prove a point that no one was asking him to make in the first place, because everyone already knew the answer.

And even this was shortlived, indicating its hollowness. Since some years now, another process had acquired momentum. Shahrukh was transformed into a brand. We were bombarded by his images, relentlessly and mindlessly selling, breathlessly making money. He became a compulsive seller of miscellaneous products. He was everywhere: IPL, ads, hoardings, TV/music/reality shows/promos, dancing in billionaire wedding parties, T-20 matches, award shows, even inside private management institutes, saying things which no one understood, probably not even himself. Like in a recent Filmfare interview, he said: “I am a feeling no one can resist.”

It was inevitable, then, that this megalomania would get recreated on screen in the easily forgotten Ra.One and Don2. Predictability is now the undoing.

(This article was first published in Hardnews)

Sunny Leone is the leading lady of Jism 2 or not is still not decided, but one thing that the poster of the film yells is that the movie is extremely sensuous. Pooja has not told her audience if she will cast the adult movie star Sunny in her film, but she has certainly given cues about the sensuality factor of the film.

“I ain’t letting my secret out. There’s quite a bit of speculation about Sunny Leone and Bipasha being part of the film, but I haven’t finalised the name yet. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make an official announcement soon. But we had a positive meeting with Sunny,” says Pooja.

And as far as the poster goes, Pooja says that since there was so much speculation, they decided to put a little teaser in place. “However, we must not forget that “Jism” doesn’t really depend on the face. It’s a brand name that works. It is sensual as opposed to “Murder”, which was sexual,” she says.

And quiz her about the male lead in the movie and she says that the film will habe two male leads but Rahut Bhatt is playing none of them. “I’ve also heard the story, but Rahul was never supposed to be part of this. There are two leading men with the lady, but since she’s the most important, we want to finalise her name first.”

Pooja adds “I want to start the movie in the “sizzling summer” of this year so that they can hot up next winter.”

Chandini Mansinghani, BeyondHeadlines

How difficult is it to be satisfied with what we see? When Shah Rukh Khan himself quotes that RaOne was a dream project and this was a step to take Hindi cinema to a different standard and move it close to Hollywood style of movie. It is well understood that this is the beginning. But this could be one reason why Ra One won’t do well! Once people high walk into the theater with high expectations, it’s difficult to walk back being contended with whatever effort is put into the movie. Speaking of efforts, this could be the maximum one could do for his/her movie.

SRK plays two roles one of Shekhar Subramanium, who is a gaming expert and on his son Prateik’s (Armaan Verma) say makes a game in which the villain is stronger than the hero. The two characters of the game are Ra-one, the bad one who can take form of anyone and is as powerful as the hero and G-One the good one who takes the face of Shah Rukh Khan.

Eventually G-One is supposed to protect Prateik and Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) the family of the geeky Shekhar Subramanium. The clashes of Ra One and G One are the main quotient of the movie.

The promos or movie don’t exactly reveal who Ra One exactly looks like as he can take the face of anyone but his character will surely shock the audience. Surprise! Surprise!

Some things that won’t change with Indian movies is the emotion factor, even Robots have emotions and ties with family and relationships. Be it Chitti in Robot or G One here. Speaking of Chitti why won’t Mr Rjnikanth or saying it better “The Thalaivar of South Indian cinema” wish to make it special for SRK in his own dream project?! Yes there is a scene that would catch your eye where both the robots of Indian cinema showing of the googles stunt together!

It almost seems like a perfect movie but the special effects and graphics are yet to be talked about! To rate it as perfect, it would be compared to Hollywood cause nothing like that is done earlier on here. On the other hand it would be wrong to compare it to the same as this is just a new phase to Indian cinema.

But to point out some flaws, things like the local train coming to stop on the main road, a bit more home work to be done on the living of South Indians (not all South Indians these days call keys, kiss) and better finishing to the special effects. The audience at one point of time realizes that there was not much need to add the 3D effect to the movie; it could do the same without it!

The concept, story, casting, stunts, songs are all of their own kind. Not to forget to put to light the character played by Kareena Kapoor, Shahana Goswami, Satish Shah and many more. The amount of work put into the movie is clearly visible. It is a movie of its own kind, however it fails slightly in packaging and at places the script appears to be losing the grip. With so much of hullabaloo through aggressive marketing and promotions, the movie appears to be average and audiences are left with mixed reactions. Take family along, especially children. The movie deserves to be seen!

In this era of remakes one decent try is Force. Tamil movie Kaakha Kaakha by Surya Sivakumar, Jyothika and Jeevan, in the remake are replaced by John Abraham, Genelia D’Souza and debutant Vidyut Jamwal with an amazing director and producer Nishikanth Kamat and Vipul Shah.

This could be one of John’s strongest films, he plays the role of a cop ACP Yashvardhan in the narcotics department, who is strong headed and has no space for relationships but this changes when Maya (Genelia), who is very bubbly and energetic, makes her space in his life. A very common change! The story is very basic and predictable. Yashvardhan accompanied by three others in his team break the drug supplies network; Yash kills Reddy (Mukesh Rishi) a major drug supplier. In turn Anna’s younger brother Vishnu (Vidyut Jamwal) wants to take revenge, their families being his target. But still Yash decides to get married and live a normal life. But this proves to be a wrong decision. Vishnu manages to kill all families.

The music too does not live to its Tamil version, although Khwabon Khwabon by KK and Suchitra Kumar manages to create a slight impact among the audience.

There isn’t anything new in the story line, but Genelia brings some life into the movie! John manages to play his powerful role to perfection. The chemistry between John and Genelia is fresh. The debutant has also done an exceptionally good job.

The much awaited directorial debut of Pankaj Kapoor, movie Mausam staring Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor released this Friday (23.09.2011) after having about four changes in dates due to reasons like delay in obtaining the No Objection Certificate from the Indian Air force or not completing the movie on time.

After getting to see many actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithink Roshan playing roles of officers in uniform, it was least expected of Shahid who is generally known for his chocolate boy looks to play the same. Of course over the years he has been trying to play different characters in films like Kaminay.  In spite of not having the height and the boy next door look, Shahid truly pulled off his character to the best!

Mausam is the love story of Harinder Singh (Harry) who later becomes Squadron leader Harinder Singh and Aayat Rasoo. Both meet in Harry’s (Shahid) hometown in Punjab. Aayat (Sonam Kapoor) being a Kashmiri refugee comes to stay with her aunty and in the course of Harry’s elder sister’s wedding the silent love story begins. Significant events from the Indian history portray the ups and downs in their love life. A lot of other characters that off Supriya Pathak ,Anupam Kher, Aditi Sharma and the entire group of Shahid’s friends make the movie complete.

It is not surely the typical Hindi film romance but much more to just masala. The second half of the movie takes a slow pace which makes it a little difficult to hold the attention of the audience.

The highlights of the movie could be the sets, dialogue delivery and some songs like Rabba Main Toh Mar Gaya Oye, Sajh Dhaj Ke and Mallo Malli by Pritam.

Sonam with her ever stunning looks together with Shahid manage to give an outstanding performance that people won’t forget that easily. But the only question is after all the tries to give a perfect movie will it stay on the box office ¿

Director: Ali Abbas Zafar

Producer:  Adhitiya Chopra

An all new Katrina!  By far her best in MBkD writes Chandini Mansinghani

If you like a typical romantic comedy and wouldn’t mind spending three hours watching it,then this a perfect watch!  As the name suggests, Mere Brother Ke Dulhan revolves around how Kush, Imran Khan falls in love with his brother Luv, Ali Zaffar’s dulhan.

Kush is asked to find his brother a perfect match as their choice is similar. He then finds Dimple, who he knows since a meeting they had on a college tour, to be the perfect choice for his brother. Only when Luv and Dimple, Katrina Kaif get engaged, do Kush and Dimple realize their love for each other.  Katrina Kaif does everything that the actor would in a movie; she plays for a band, she is an open mouth and yes she is the one who suggests that the two should run away! Although they don’t, the movie revolves around how they ultimately get their way without violence and misunderstanding.

For all the Katrina lovers there is much to look for as her role is filled with energy and something different for all viewers. This could be one of the best roles Katreena ever played.  The character played by Imran is nothing new compared to his previous roles, as expected he played it to his best! Ali Zafar with his great comic timing did justice to his role. A lot of effort has been put to make the movie a vibrant and youthful comedy!

May it be the location, songs, clothes or the entire look of the movie is at the right flow. So this week’s Mere Brother Ke Dulhan is a good choice to pass your time with family and friends!

Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Raj Babbar, Mahesh Manjrekar,Aditya Pancholi

Director:  Siddique

Aimed at making a romantic comedy, Body Guard left behind no impactful story but just pure action and excess of special effects. A remake of the Tamil hit Kavalan by Vijay; the movie could not garner any positive response in comparison to the original, or even earlier remakes like Wanted.

The story revolves around the life of a devoted Bodyguard (Lovely Singh; Salman) who is tied to Sartaj Rana (Raj Babbar) and is now the bodyguard to his daughter Divya (Kareena kapoor) and her friend Maya (Hazel Keech). He accompanies them to their college in Pune as there has been a threat to Divya’s life which remains unknown to her. A firm person by nature, he follows the two everywhere; and to get rid of him Divya begins a fake love affair through calls. The story continues with these calls but he doesn’t realize it was Divya, who ultimately falls in love with him. The twist of the typical masala movie is then felt, when Maya is sent by Divya to save him from her father’s gundas. And he takes her to be his phone lover; she continues to act that way.

This twist along with the fashion style (which includes colorful ethnic wear for Kareena and formal wear for Salman) and music (by Himesh Reshammiya and Pritam) could be the only selling factors of the film.

The movie showcased nothing more for regular viewers. It had enough action to satisfy the Salman fans with his six pack abs and regular fight scenes. Salman didn’t have much to offer in terms of catchy or comic dialogues. The so called comic actor of the film was supposed to be Rajat Rawail who played Tsunami as his character did not bring across to many comic strips as expected.

Even those who had not seen the Tamil version too were not satisfied as the movie got a bit dragging towards the end and had not much to attract!

Salman’s topless act nor Katrina’s special appearance would save the movie on Box Office.

New Delhi: Stein Auditorium of India Habitat Center was alive with music of the ‘band called Nine’ Wednesday evening.

The Band called Nine launched its first album ‘Rewind.’

The launch ceremony was organized on the occasion of completion of two years of the Hindi media watch portal –Mohalla Live – a vibrant forum for discussions on several social issues, with focus on media, films, etc.

Arvind Das, a media professional and audience at the concert told BeyondHeadlines, “In these times of ‘Munni and Sheela and Pant Dheela…’ it was good to hear yesterday; Neelesh Mishra and Shilpa Rao humming good words from the Band called Nine”.

Mishra was a journalist in Delhi before moving to Mumbai to fulfill his passion for music.

This is India’s first writer led band and is breaking new ground in the non-film fiction, with unique qissa goi, or story telling style fused into songs and contemporary music.

Lead Bollywood signer Shilpa Rao is its lead vocalist.

Rewind revists the nostalgia of a small town guy who has now made it big in city, but misses home cooked food, family life, streets, etc. but focuses on mundane love story, elopes to marry, troubled relationships, breakup, but meet again.

Mishra’s lyrics, Rao’s voice and the nostalgia of ‘memories from idiot box’, however, made the evening for most in the audience.

Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi, and NDTV’s Dibang were also present on the occasion.

New Delhi: Bollywood mourns the sudden demise of renowned Indian painter Maqbool Fida Hussain (M F Hussain), who passed away in London yesterday at the age of 95. Hussain who started out painting billboards for films, had a deep connection with Indian film industry all through his career as a painter. The industry remembers the spirited person and artist that he was.

Amitabh Bachchan was among the first ones to express his grief.

Madhuri Dixit, Hussian’s muse who also acted in his first film venture Gajgamini, too was very grieved. She told PTI, “It’s a very sad day for me today.” On his forced exile she added, “I think something should have been done in an organised way…But it didn’t happen.” She said she was certain he missed India, “I am sure that he did miss the country…I feel sad that he was born in India but couldn’t breathe his last here.”

“MF Hussain, artist, painter, friend … passes away ! Sad, very sad! Many of his works and gifts adorn my home….Hussain’s best painting gift to me..a Hanuman with ‘jadi buti’ flying… given to me in Breach Candy Hospital, during Coolie episode. Another special painting he did for me… translated my poem I wrote in Hospital, on canvas… very special and most endearing!!” Bachchan wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Celina Jaitley wrote on her Twitter page: “My God what a tragic loss….Hussein saab is no more….I met him last in Dubai at the emirates towers some months ago…just cannot believe it.

Rahul Bose did raise the point that Hussain had to live the last years of his life in exile. He tweeted: “Hussain passes away…we hang our heads partly in grief and partly in shame for not being able to let him spend his last days in this country.”

Neha Dhupia hailed Hussain as a genius. She wrote: “The end of yet another genius, MF Hussain RIP.”

Sophie Choudhry tweeted: #MFHussain May ur soul RIP far away frm the insanities of this oft cruel world & may the sky become ur new canvas.Thank you for your beautiful art.

Mahesh Bhupathi wrote: RIP MF Hussain.. Errrie. We spoke a lot about him at dinner last night and the paintings he gifted Leander and me in ’99.

Photographer Atul Kasbekar wrote: I hope Husain saab can b allowed to finally rest in his homeland. Will miss you sir. U have been a tremendous source of energy n inspiration.