Finally BCCI wakes up..

I just read this news in Indiafm website about BCCI not taking SRK’s appearance for cricket matches in ‘the right sense’. SRK is obviously upset on this comment, but I don't see anything wrong on BCCI's part. Instead I feel they are finally waking up.
This is what they had to say -

" The senior Cricket board officials commented that stars are using cricket matches to promote films. Ratnakar Shetty mentioned that use of the platform of cricket for promoting films by celebrities is "slightly debatable" in the wake of SRK's latest film, Om Shanti Om as it came up for discussion during a chat with TV commentator, Rameez Raja at the recent Jaipur ODI cricket match between India and Pakistan. "

However SRK added that he went to watch the match as a sports lover and that he does not have to depend on other's platforms to push his films. It is because his children are fans of Sachin, Dhoni, and Sourav. Meanwhile BCCI Vice President, Rajiv Shukla said that the Board has no objection to SRK or any other celebrity coming to watch the matches.

We've been seeing Khan off late appearing in matches involving the Indian team. He was there to cheer the team in the final of the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and then again at the Twenty20 match against Australia in Mumbai, where Deepika Padukone ( coincidence ??? ), his co-star in his recent movie Om Shanti Om, was also present. He was also seen wearing a T-shirt which read "Om Shanti Om". He was then seen at the last ODI against Pakistan in Jaipur and talked about his new movie ( obviously) in the commentary box. He wanted to see the Kanpur ODI as well, but the local authorities vetoed the move saying it would be difficult for them to arrange for security and control the crowd.

I read in many other websites that The Star is being considered a lucky mascot for the Indian cricket team. When did that happen ? After India winning Twenty20 ? What happened to the match at Jaipur where India didn't do the victory dance as our 'Men in Blue' lost to the 'Men In Green', Pakistan, by 31 runs ?

I had earlier written an article on this issue in my blog, and did mention that movies shouldn't get into sports.

Click here for my article on this - Cricket and Movies stars

I don't want to see Shahrukh in a sports column of any paper. C'mon.. We go to stadium to watch Cricket, not stars. Its our country playing. I don't wanna hear about OSO in a cricket match. If its about SRK trying to publicize his movie why not do it in an AIDS event, or may be in a no drinking, no smoking event ? Or for that matter in a Ranji Trophy which nobody watches. At least that part of cricket gets publicized.

SRK is a big big star in India. He has the capacity to pull crowds to anyplace he wants. Then why not involve people in places they generally ignore. At least he would do some good to the country instead of doing good to himself.

On the contrary, its also possible that this whole thing is a publicity stunt by Ratnakar Shetty himself. Now then thats a whole different issue. Anything is possible in this publicity and media crazy world.

Om Shanti Om......Dard-e-Mujhko

Like many I watched Om Shanti Om last weekend. I'd have to say that Shahrukh and Farah did an incredible job with the publicity of the movie. I could see it in the long line to the ticketing counter and another very long line to get inside the theater. This might not be something new for Indian Theaters, but believe me, for LA Naz8, its astounding. Also they were practically everywhere, be it TV, internet, newspapers or radio. And they wouldn't have found a better time to release the movie than Diwali. So good job guyz. Ok now coming to the movie, I wouldn't tell the story as its already out in many websites. Infact its an easy one to guess from the theme, but Farah Khan surprises in 2nd half, not in a good way though. There are a bunch of spoilers ahead so read at your own cost.

The things I loved about the movie :

1) Well undoubtedly, King Khan himself. This was the kind of character I was waiting to see for a long time from him. The funnier side of Shahrukh which we saw in Duplicate, Badshaah and Main Hoon Naa. 1st half he was phenomenal. And believe me, its not easy to get a 6 pack guyz..I'm struggling here to get rid of my 1 pack itself. He's given himself to this movie.
2) The picturisation of the 2nd song "Dhoom Tana" wherein we got to see Rajesh Khanna, Jeetender romancing with Deepika (thanks to graphics), and then the magical fairy tale'ish 3rd song "Main Agar Kahoon".
3) Deepika ...who was hot, beautiful, elegant and taller than SRK ;). She brought in freshness on screen.
4) Farah's brilliance in several parts of 1st half of the movie. The way the movie beings, with Rishi Kapoor's OSO song, the Aag scene where SRK shouts "Bhaago", the incredibly hilarious episode with Manoj Kumar, South Indian Om Swaminathan to name a few.
5) The awesome sets and costumes which take you through the nostalgic 70s.
6) The intelligent Filmfare award best movies which included "Main Bhi Hoona Na", "Phir Bhi Dil hai NRI", "Dhoom 5" and "Return to Khiladi".
7) The handicapped role of SRK in a shooting tickled almost everyone's funny bone.
8) The creative end credits.
9) Finally the entire spoof of 70s film industry, like the shooting, dances, acting, almost everything related to 70s was amazingly executed.

And now coming to the part which many are going to hate...the negative points of the movie according to me. And believe me, there were many who felt the same as I did after the movie ended.

1) Lack of chemistry between SRK and Deepika. There was absolutely no love angle between their characters. 1st half atleast SRK was in love, but 2nd half was a disaster in this department.
2) The abrupt realization of Om about his past. I mean c'mon, all of a sudden you see fire and you remember the dialogues of your past, that too when you were drunk saying those????
3) The big time flawed charaterization of Sandy a.k.a Deepika's punar janam. Her indifferent behavior even after realising she has the face of the famous star Shanti Priya. Don't we expect excitement knowing that we have the face of an all time star ??? Here instead we see her chewing on chiclets all the time.
4) The songs. I have to admit that songs were not gripping on screen. Jag soona didnt have any impact at all. The last song "Dastaan" was boring. Except for Dard-e-disco, Deewangee to a certain extent and Main Agar kahoon, rest fell flat. There was no song which I could hum going back home.
5) Farah Khan's sloppy screenplay in the 2nd half. One time she puts in comical twist when you expect seriousness and the next moment you think the scene is gonna be funny and it turns out to be really serious. So in the end there were many parts in 2nd half where audience neither laughed for funny scenes, nor cried for sad scenes.

6) Badly etched Kiron Kher's character. There was some maturity shown in Shreyas character, but I didn't find any in Kiron Kher's character in 2nd half. It was meant to be funny, but she trying to be funny trying to practice her lines, that wasn't really needed.
7) Ajab Si song was shortened, and played in background.
8) In Farah's movies we can't expect villains to be really scary. Same goes here. In fact Arjun Rampal was good in the movie, not as a villain, but as an actor. Even he didn't have any scope in the 2nd half, where in his role was like a man going to the graveyard to dig his own grave.
9) Although my favorite song before watching the movie was Deewangee, I thought it was a bit way too stretched in the movie. It was almost like a 25 minute song which went on and on in a loop.
10) And finally the complete 2nd half itself was a big letdown to a great build up given till the intermission. There were many scenes which could have been really powerful and hard-hitting, but rather they turn out to be damp squibs. There is nobody else to blame other than Farah for whom Overconfidence took over Creativity.

It looked like Farah spent a lot of time paying tribute to the long gone 70s era, which is commendable. But she should have concentrated a bit more on the plot. If she really wanted to make a spoof of Karz or for that matter a bunch of 70s - 80s movies, she should have done it completely, which would have made it a wholesome entertainer like Austin Powers movies which from start to finish are spoofs of Bond movies. Having said this however, there is no doubt that this movie is gonna make loads of money which is good for many people in this industry. But the sad part is that this movie had everything to make millions of people happy and smiling, but in return it has left many unsatisfied. I expected Farah Khan to prove to many that her first movie wasn't a fluke, and that she's capable in giving a total paisa vasool masala entertainer. She tried it with OSO, but I feel she's taken everyone for a ride. In these times when new directors are coming up with novel scripts, innovative ideas giving fresh direction to Bollywood, changing the viewers' perception of Indian movies, Farah Khan has dished out a tried and tested formula film which apparently has put the audience mindset back to where they were couple of years ago.

If you are a SRK fan, you'll love the movie. If you are an Aamir fan, you'll love to thrash the movie big time. If you love Bollywood movies as they were before, you'll enjoy this movie and won't mind the minus points. And if you belong to the group who believe and support the changing phase of Bollywood, you'll be disappointed.

Movie Stars and Cricket..whats up with that ??

Lately we've been seeing ample coverage of movie stars in cricket matches. Whats up with that ?? Do they really love cricket so much ? Or is it for some other reason unknown to us? Some hardcore fans would be excited to see their stars in stadium. Of course they have a reason to be. I mean how often do stars come out in public, and how often fans get to see them in person.

Tamil star Vikram stays very close to my house in Chennai. Whenever my brother sees him going to gym, he becomes so overjoyed that for one whole day he keeps talking about him. Now imagine every person in stadium getting a glimpse of their favorite star. Why just in stadium ? Imagine everyone watching TV getting a glimpse of their star. How about some more...Imagine every paper, every website, including my own blogpost, writing about them...hmmm I see something common in all these...and it sounds to me like a huge.... "Publicity". Ok...now how sure am I on this...am I just being harsh here. They might really love cricket so much that they want to watch it with people. The question is Do they really do ?? I wanna talk about 3 incidents for now, else this post would be never ending.

Shahrukh Khan in SouthAfrica for Twenty20 worldcup :
This act certainly caught everyone's attention. Not only Indians, but even South-African's or for that matter every other country where SRK is famous. Can he get better publicity than this ? I don't think so..but why does he need this publicity at this hour....ohhhhhh his new movie is going to release next month, Om Shanti Om. Fair enough. SRK is known to appear in as many channels and papers as possible, before his movie releases, which also happens to be his home production.

Ram Charan Teja with Chiranjeevi at Ind-Aus match in Hyderabad :
Chiranjeevi ( Annayya for all, meaning big brother ) is the most admired person in Andhra. I don't know if there can be anyone like him in the future. He's like what Rajini is for Tamil Nadu, or Amitabh is for Hindi movies. Recently his son, Ram Charan Teja, was launched in his first ever movie Chirutha. I heard it was a pretty good first movie for him. But whats the norm after launching a new comer in industry ? More public appearances to garner fan following. And its quite natural to expect the respected father to make all his fans support his son. Thats what Amitabh did for Abhishek. And what better place to get attention...well ofcourse you guessed it right...Cricket match. Having said that, I adore Chiranjeevi and wish all the best for Teja's success.

Athidi Poster in Ind-Aus match again in Hyderabad :
Now whats this Mahesh Babu starrer, Athidi movie poster doing in cricket match ?? Ok I come to understand that its the most awaited telugu movie, but whats it got to do with cricket match? If you click on the picture you'll see how much space this cutout has occupied. What bothers me is that there are hundreds of cricket fans standing outside the stadium, unable to get tickets as they are all sold out, and this huge cutout is taking up 5-6 rows of seating space.

At the end of the day, If I look back at these events, I feel its a win-win situation for everyone. The celebrities get what they want, the stadium owners get their pockets full and the crowd and media get what they want. So who's complaining ?? I guess just a very few section of junta like me who follow the rule " Seeing is not Believing ". I see Jack Nicholson in every Lakers match. He sometimes travels to where all the team goes to play. Media doesnt cover him and he doesnt do it for any other reason other than the "Love" for the game. If all of our celebrities who appear in matches do it for the Love of the game, its good. My only request is please don't utilize cricket matches for selfish reasons. Its not entertainment industry for god's sake. Our country is playing with another country. Don't spoil the game's spirit.

Om Shanti Om - Music review

For my view on OSO movie click here. For music review, read on..

Friday's are the best days of anyone's life. I don't have to explain why. But one of the factors surely would be new movies and music which get released. In short entertainment unlimited. So what do we have in store this friday. None other than the Numero Uno star Shahrukh khan's Om Shanti Om music album. The one which everyone have been waiting for both in terms of movie and music. Farah Khan created magic with Main hoon na. Even the songs were fabulous. Good work by Anu Malik. Will the same repeat with Om Shanti Om ?? Will the soundtrack find equal success as MHN or more than that ?? Before I go into reviewing each and every song, I have to tell you that Indiafm has hyped the album a bit too much. I don't know how many times they heard the songs before coming to the conclusion they came to.

'Ajab Si' gives a subtle start to the album. Its a nice melody, although not as lilting and beautiful like Kabhi alvida na kehna's title or Main Hoon na's title track. The flute interlude which comes after the mukhda is very soulful. KK as usual is great in this song. But other than that I didnt find anything special in this song. Needs more listenings.

Moving on...next track is the more popular one 'Dard-e-disco', thanks to SRK who finally thought...enough is enough...every small bacha coming to bollywood is showing off their body and i'm just crying or romancing...lemme show the Manly side of myself :)..the song starts off surprisingly with the same tune as " De de pyar de pyar de pyar de re...humein pyar de " from Sharabi. And then Sukhwinder catches on..Once again not a great track. If it wasnt for SRK, I would just have passed on this song. I thought Kaal Dhamaal was a better item song. The video looks promising though, so we never know..in the theater this song might be rocking.

Now we come to my favorite song of the album 'Deewangi Deewangi'. A very catchy song, it keeps changing genres throughout the song. One time you hear bhangra beats and then you hear qawali. And this is the song which features the words Om Shanti Om. Shaan and Udit have sung very well and the whole arrangement gives a joyous celebration feel to it. This would be the song I'll wait to watch on the big screen ( coz i believe there's also Salman and Saif in this song )...I wanna see what would be the reaction in the crowd when SRK goes "All the hot girls put your hands up and say ...Om Shanti Om "...

Next song 'Main agar kahoon' starts with the bells/crystal tune which comes in the background of the first trailor, a beautiful start which is then followed by a mediocre tune quite effortlessly sung by Sonu Nigam. It felt like Vishal Sekhar wanted to give a retro melody with contemporary feel and ended up giving a song. Once again when related to Kal ho na ho or any other SRK's similar type songs, this one falls behind.

"Jag soona soona lage" starts off with the opening tune of Main agar kahoon. Must be a situational sad song which probably would go on in the background. Rahet Fateh ali khan did a wonderful job in Bol na halke halke from JBJ. And he renders beautifully in this one also. This has to be one of the well composed songs of the album. I've started luving this song more after repeated listenings.

"Dhoom tana" is a tailor made song for Madhuri or Sridevi. This song belongs to the 80s style. Nothing great again about this song, has a heard before tune. Abhijit sings the same way, be it any song. Instead VS should have used Udit...remember Kaike paan banaras waala...what energy he put into that song..I don't see that here. Passable song.

Dastaan-E-OSO is the theme song, where we get to hear the kahani of Om shanti Om..I feel Shaan is a misfit in this song..the words seem like its all about revenge and reunion, while his voice aint that powerful. But in the end the song conveys the message it was supposed to. This must be the first heavy orchestration done by V-S. May be this was the reason Farah wanted ARR to compose music...he would have broken all boundaries with this song.

Then come all the remix versions of which Dard-e-disco and Deewangi remix versions stand out.
The album ends with the beautiful Om Shanti Om theme music. For people who wanna burn cds of this album, my suggestion would be to put this theme music as the first track. Very nice and mellifluous tune. In future when anyone talks about OSO, people would relate to this tune.

So there you go...thats my impression of Om Shanti Om's soundtrack. I had lot of expectations which were not completely met. If ARR or Shankar ehsaan loy had composed the music, they would have taken it to a different level with lot of experimentation. The problem with V-S is their inconsistency. Some songs are very good while some are mediocre. And you don't want mediocre songs for big banner movies like Om Shanti Om. Nevertheless its gonna be a hit album, if not superhit, and I am still excited to watch the movie featuring 70s Elvis styled Shahrukh and the pretty Deepika, thanks to the colorful and vibrant promos.

My meeting with Shimit Amin, the director of Chak De

Date - 08/12/2007; Time - 9:30 pm; Location - Naz8 cinemas, Cerritos.

The moment which i'll remember for a long time.
1) coz i met one of the most promising directors of bollywood and also spoke to the first ever celebrity in my entire life.
2) The moment which forced me to start a blog of my own where in i can share this and many more of my experiences n incidents with all u guyz n galz out there.

I was watching Chak De india on sunday nite 8'o clock show @ naz8 cinemas in cerritos. And before i go further, lemme tell u that its one of the finest movies made in india. It belongs to the category of movies which are deviating from the usual Bollywood ishtyle formula of hero-heroine-song-dance-romance-comedy
-villain-fight-family-happy ending. There used to be a time not long ago when there were few directors who dared to go off-track to make a more meaningful, close to reality sorta movie. A time when audience were totally transported to a world where they r made to believe there is a hero who has strength equal to 30 - 40 well built heavy duty goondas, and at the same time has a heart as soft as a rose petal which can melt anytime. He sings, he romances, and he also fights. woww !!! a feat only achieved by superheroes in hollywood movies. Thankfully audience have become more matured now and are not accepting any shit thrown at them. This is paving way for some realistic, hard-working and passionate directors to showcase their work, of which i met one of them, Shimit Amin,the director of Chak de India.


Come intermission and we were standing in the line to get our masala tea and samosas. My brother-in-law, Anand, had just arrived here from India the day before. So he was all excited to watch his first hindi movie in US. When i was just explaining his excitement to the theater manager, he told me to hold my breath for a bigger surprise. And then he calls over this very shy guy whom normally nobody would notice and tells us to meet Shimit Amin, the director of the film we are watching. And we all were like ....WHAAAAATTTT !! i mean honestly i was taken aback completely surprised. I didnt know how to react...my first words to him were like " R u for real Shimit Amin " hehe...i have to agree that i've never seen his picture before in my life. So i had to make sure they werent playing a prank on me. and he jokingly said " no he's jus kiddin "...and then agreed that he is THE director. the incident is so clear in my head right now that i'm gonna give u a screenplay of our conversations :

Me : i can't believe i'm talkin to the director of the movie i still am watching right now :)
Shimit : how did u like it so far
Me : oh its excellent. I mean i always wanted to see SRK in this kinda different roles. I luved him in Swades and now in Chak de.
Shimit : all credit goes to jaideep, the writer of the movie.
Me : luved ur ab tak chappan.
Shimit : thanks

( here i got a mental block....i was so excited that i forgot wat to ask ...its like when i had the moment, words didnt come out ...ahh i got another question )

Me : how did it all happen..i mean who approached whom first...did u talk to aditya chopra or did he come to u ?
Shimit : nono Jaideep first came up with the story and presented it to Adi. And when Adi finalised it they approached me for directing it.
Me : i'm really happy that yash raj banners r coming up with such diverse movies as kabul express and now chak de.
Shimit : yeah
Me : so was Shahrukh ur first choice or did u go over few other actors.
Shimit : Jaideep wrote the story keeping Shahrukh in mind.
Me : wowww...well u guyz have made a great movie which is so different from the current lot, but seriously when i first heard of this movie, i was wondering who will watch hockey and that too girl's hockey. also no heroines...how wud it become a hit...what a big risk taken here...but now after watching it, i feel so happy and proud that there r people in this industry who really can make the impossible possible.
Shimit : ( got bored at this time i guess..he was looking around to make sure nobody spots him )
Me : wats ur next movie gonna b ??
Shimit : i dunno ...we just finished this movie now...it took 3 yrs to make it...i'll look for a good script.
Me : i'm really happy that we have gr8 directors in bollywood right now like Rakeyesh Omprakash, Ashutosh and yourself.
Shimit : Yeah Rakesh is very good
Me : one last thing sir, do u think u'll make a movie with AR Rahman in the future.
Shimit : ( smiles and says ) ohhh...he's too big for me :)
Me : nono...actually u'll be surprised how humble a man he's. ok how about one autograph and a picture.
Manager: nono he's not gonna take any pictures. sorry guyz intermission is gonna be over..go now...
Shimit : hey its ok...chalo lets take one quick photo
Me : THANK YOU VERY MUCH SIR......all the best for the future projects

and thus ends my convo with Shimit which lasted about 10 - 15 mins...as soon as i came home, i went to the web to see if i'm not fooled by them...but then i was thrilled to see that i had just met one of my first film personalities and even talked to him for 15 mins. A moment which i'll surely remember in the future....and which i hope wud happen again with some other star ( hopefully AR Rahman )...and when it does....it wud strike me as Deja Vu....and thus i got a title for my blog :) ...yayyyy