Indian Movies Thread IV

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Review - Sri Ramadasu </b>
sify.com/movies/telugu/review.php?cid=2430
Movie -
Sri Ramadasu
Director
K Raghavendra Rao
Producer
Aditya Productions
Music
MM Keeravani
Cast
Nagarjuna, ANR, Sneha, Suman, Sujatha, Sameer, Nasseer, Nagababu

Many decades back, films in the mythology genre was popular in Telugu and NTR became the Chief Minister due to the halo around him created by doing the role of Gods! Today our heroes would not dare to do a mythology, can’t blame them as times and audiences preferences have change drastically.
Nagarjuna and veteran director Raghavendra Rao had the guts to come out with a film like Sri Ramadasu which not only touches your heart but also proves the fact that true devotion towards God and your hard work can move mountains. Nothing is impossible and miracles do happen at times. Sri Ramadasu is brilliantly presented by Rao and Nag within the commercial parameters.

Gopanna (Nagarjuna) is a nice guy who is in love with Kamala (Sneha) his uncle’s daughter and later marries her though her father wanted his daughter to get married to a Tahasildar. But after marriage, Gopanna impresses the Nizam (Nasser) who appoints him as the new Tahsildar of Husnabad against the liking of his begum who is not happy with the decision. The reason is that her brother (Jaiprakash Reddy) has to give way to Bopanna and they hatch plans to frame him.

Bopanna is beaten and he is later rescued by Dammakka (Sujatha) who nurses him and he is inspired by the lady’s deep devotion to Lord Rama and the way she protects the idols of Rama, Seeta and Lakshmana. Bopanna is haunted by his duty to build a temple as he becomes a great devotee of Lord Rama. He even gives away all pleasures in life and comes to stay in the forest with Kamala until the temple is constructed.

He collects money from the public and constructs the famous Rama temple in Bhadrachalam with the guidance of his guru Kabir Das (ANR). Kabir Das confers Gopanna the title of Sri Ramadasu on the insistence of Lord Rama. But the machinations of his detractors ends him up in jail for misusing government funds until Lord Rama and Lakshmana comes down to help him.

It is indeed amazing to see Nagarjuna slip into the role of Ramadasu with so much of ease. He has lives the role and so is Sneha who has lost weight and looks pretty. ANR and Sujatha the two veterans are in top form while Suman as Rama and Veda as Sita look too artificial in their gaudy make-up. In these days of blood soaked revenge dramas and mindless love stories Sri Ramadasu is a path breaker with a subtle message.

The last 20 minutes of the film is as good as any racy masala movie with extraordinary performance by Nagarjuna who is simply superb. Technically too, the film is the best mythology made in recent times- the sets, period ambience, camera work, locations and costumes. And what with outstanding music by Keeravani which whips up the right fervour.

Verdict: Good
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[utepian]

Sandeep Acharya crowned Indian Idol 2

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The boy from Bikaner was first noticed for his smile - and his `Udit Narayan style`. But Sandeep Acharya proved he was not just another clone when he moved out of his favourite `Uditji`s` shadow to experiment with songs of all genres. He silenced his worst critics with his enthusiastic performance of the Kishore Kumar hit Eena Meena Deeka.

Sandeep once remarked on the show that it was Karunya who always hogged the limelight. But on Saturday night, it was he who walked away with the glory - And a Rs 1 crore contract, a car and loads of gifts!<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/04/23/storie...42300010100.htm

Squaring the circle

GEETA DOCTOR

The Ramanujan-Hardy story finds a new equation with a film on their relationship.

[Guest]

The Wrath of Khan <!--emo&:rocker--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /><!--endemo-->
from this link
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"Fakhar-e-Alam showed disrespect to my colleague Manisha Koirala by asking a question in an indecent manner. I asked him to be responsible and not ask such questions. I did not use even a single word to disgrace Pakistan, the Pakistani people or my hosts.

Any such story can be concocted. How can a staunch supporter of friendship between two neighbouring countries speak any word that could harm the peace efforts?" he asked.

The entire fracas occured when Pakistani anchor Sakre Aalam asked Manisha Koirala a question. When she hesitated before replying, the anchor remarked in zest, “Madam you are trembling… so let me change the subject.”

<b>The hot-blooded Feroz Khan immediately took up for Manisha and began abusing Aalam. He was apparently heard saying, “I'll bash you up if you don't apologise to Manisha.”</b>
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A blow to TSP H & D ? <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Mumbai Catholics launch campaign against Da Vinci movie
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The press note issued by forum president Dolphy D’souza on May 8 said in the the recent past “there appears to be a conspiracy to denigrate, degrade and deride Christianity especially through the medium of films.”<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Forum members please note that Dolphy D’souza works closely with Anand Patwardhan and Rakesh Sharma who regularly push anti-Hindu documentaries.

[Guest]

Well, amongst America's Protestants (the American kind) there are Christians and there are Catholics. The second not being considered the same as first. Many anti-Catholic movies are made in the west. Then the Catholics come out with Excorcism movies, supposedly based on true stories, in an attempt to scare people into believing their particular nonsense. (Sorry, I have no respect for people who use fear-based methods like the threat of possession, devils, or the like to coerce people into believing.)

At least Dolphin D'Souza can't blame 'the Hindus' for being any part of 'a conspiracy to denigrate, degrade and deride Christianity especially through the medium of films'. He'll have to point his finger at the west, where his religion emanated and where most of the people are apathetic about the religion they shook off. The rest that are Christian, can't agree on which Christian sect gets to go to heaven.

[utepian]

Dolphy had earlier asked for banning a B grade Bollywood flick that featured the sexual escapades of a Padre.

[Guest]

It was Vinod Pande's "Sin"

[Guest]

<img src='http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/He219/AP/more/30319881.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Former Miss World Aishwarya Rai signs autographs as she arrives for the screening of "The Da Vinci Code," at the 59th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Wednesday, May 17, 2006. (AP Photo/Laurent Emmanuel) <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[utepian]

Da Vinci is getting hammered by the critics. Rotten Tomatoes is averaging 17% overall and 11% from cream of the crop critics. Meanwhile our own desi Box Office Guru has predicted a 60 million opening weekend which is so-so.

It'll be interesting to see the weekend figures.

[Guest]

On radio, the critic at Cannes metioned that the movie was deliberately kept as close to book as possible, hence the movie might not be as appealing to those who haven't read the book or familiar with ancient Christian religious orders.

[Guest]

Forwarded to India-Forum by an 'Atlanta Journal and Constitution' reader

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear Editor and Ms..Ringel-Gillespie:

Subject: Gillespie's bigoted bilge

My (Hindu) great-grandma and grandma, both widowed while very young, lived to love us long past 80. Ms. Gillespie commends D. Mehta for enraging Indian audiences with her vicious fiction, and for lying for dollars. She is old enough to know that it is free societies, and religions that abhor violence, that are standard targets of such hate-peddlers. Ignoring the veterans left to freeze to death on park benches in America, Ms. Gillespie wants us to go feel the "emotions" that ebb and flow in Mehta's racist bilge.  Sticking your head in a toilet bowl is as great a way of experiencing "Water" – and stinks less. Do try it.

Thank you.
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[utepian]

<!--QuoteBegin-Admin+May 22 2006, 01:52 PM-->QUOTE(Admin @ May 22 2006, 01:52 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Forwarded to India-Forum by an 'Atlanta Journal and Constitution' reader

<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear Editor and Ms..Ringel-Gillespie:

Subject: Gillespie's bigoted bilge

My (Hindu) great-grandma and grandma, both widowed while very young, lived to love us long past 80. Ms. Gillespie commends D. Mehta for enraging Indian audiences with her vicious fiction, and for lying for dollars. She is old enough to know that it is free societies, and religions that abhor violence, that are standard targets of such hate-peddlers. Ignoring the veterans left to freeze to death on park benches in America, Ms. Gillespie wants us to go feel the "emotions" that ebb and flow in Mehta's racist bilge.  Sticking your head in a toilet bowl is as great a way of experiencing "Water" – and stinks less. Do try it.

Thank you.
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<!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<b>Bookies unhappy with Aamir’s stand</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->With Khan refusing to apologise to the people of Gujarat, the bookmakers have decided to boycott Fanaa, which has run into rough weather in Gujarat and multiplexes all over the country.
...........

Earlier, the bookies had expected a business of Rs 250 crore to Rs 300 crore by betting on the film’s success. The bookies have decided to boycott Aamir till he apologises or backs out of the issue.

Meanwhile, some pirated CDs of the film are said to have reached Mumbai and Gujarat from Pakistan via the Kutch border. Sources in the business said the copies reached Mumbai on Wednesday evening. <b>About 10 to 15 copies with camera prints came to the city and the same were further copied. Those in CD/DVD business said that about 10,000 copies would be circulated in the city by Friday and Saturday</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Here comes flop for Amir. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Fanaa

1/5


See, it’s like this. You have to think before writing a movie script.

Fanaa makes 2 strategic errors. First, its “hero” is a man who is trying to liberate Kashmir, and has no hesitation about killing hundreds, lakhs if necessary, of innocent Indians in the process. It’s not that he is a misguided man who eventually realizes the folly of his ways – he completely believes in his mission and is completely anti-India, till the very end. This is the man Fanaa tries to draw your sympathies toward.

Secondly, this “hero” is played by Aamir Khan. Someone who inspires most of India. Aamir Khan today legitimizes what he does. If he plays a Kashmir terrorist – again, not as a misguided, brainwashed person, but as a man who is completely dedicated to his mission, right till his death in the end – then he frames Kashmiri terrorists, who are waging war against India for Indian land and are killing helpless innocent Indians, in a halo.

We do not care if Kashmiri terrorists who kill innocent people have emotions. We do not care if they make sacrifices. We do not care if they have a justification for what they do. We do not care if they breathe or not. We do not care if they can provide for an interesting movie script.

Oh yes, we do care for the last. If someone makes a movie causing impressionable or uninformed minds in the audiences to feel sympathetic towards them to any degree, we’re going to scream anti-national. 1 / 5 is the lowest it gets on fullhyd.com.

If movie-making is about freedom of expression, then we can invite the ISI to make movies and release them here next.

Hopefully, this was all a plain thoughtless mistake. We do not even want to think otherwise.

Its blunderous script is not the only ill plaguing Fanaa anyway. But first, here is the tale. Rehan Qadri (Aamir Khan) is a Kashmiri terrorist who has masterminded the growth of the IKF (Independent Kashmir Front) from a boutique barbarians’ hut to a systems-driven global operation that is planning to kill everyone in the world to “liberate” Kashmir.

In one of his avatars, he is a guide in Delhi who has to escort the blind Kashmiri girl Zooni Ali Baig (Kajol), who’s come with her friends from Kashmir to perform for the Republic Day in Delhi.

He immediately charms Zooni with his wit and wordplay, and the first half has the courtship waltzing its way through a series of soulful Urdu shers rendered through brilliant performances by two of Bollywood’s best.

Zooni is completely in love, but when she declares it, Rehan tells her that women for him are like cities – he savors his stay in each, then moves on. Zooni is heart-broken, but asks him to spend a last 12 hours with her before she leaves for home.

After initial reluctance, Rehan promises to make these the best 12 hours of her life. This is when the film’s creativity runs dry. You’re wondering how a man can deliver on a promise to give a woman “the best 12 hours of her life”, but Rehan just sleeps with her and then goes to sleep.

His emotions take over Rehan the next morning, and he decides to give in to her. Zooni’s thrilled, and he even gets her eyes operated upon which restores her vision. But when she opens her eyes, she is told that he’s been killed in a terrorist strike, something Rehan plans to get her to get over him.

The movie moves to 7 years later in one unconvincing frame, when Rehan is being hunted down in Kashmir by India’s Anti-Terrorist Squad for stealing a trigger for a nuclear bomb. Severely injured, he coincidentally lands at the door of Zooni’s house, where she’s living with her father (Rishi Kapoor) and kid from Rehan, also named Rehan. She, of course, cannot recognize him.

Hereon, the film is the staple Yashraj diet of mushy clichés, some of which want to make you quickly throw up and come back – like when Zooni puts her hand on the unconscious Rehan’s chest and feels something connecting her with his heart. Or when the kid says, “Can I call him father?”

The second half has zero soul, and zero chemistry between Aamir and Kajol. It was a treat when Shah Rukh got back with Kajol in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. This one totally lacks the situations, the expressions, the energy or the humor.

Besides, it doesn’t help that you want Aamir Khan to die from when you see him ruthlessly butchering the Indian Army’s commados.

Yes, the big problem with Fanaa is that it doesn’t have a hero – it only has a villain, who the makers are trying to pass off as hero. You’re confused about what you should do for most of the second half, then you are relieved when the inevitable happens – i. e. the films ends.

A way to salvage Fanaa would have been Aamir turning against his own tribe and anihilating them in the end. Alas, he just dies a diehard jihadi.

Aside of its existential drawback, Fanaa suffers from poor characterization of Aamir’s role, limited humor, a plot that reeks of tragedy from fairly early on, some cloying senti in the 2nd half, and bad chemistry between the lead pair, even if they are individually brilliant actors. Some dialogues are good, but they can only manage to put the film on life support. There are some magnificent visuals of Poland and even Delhi, and the music by Jatin-Lalit is decent.

This one will only live as long as its star power is still ahead of its reputation.

Ik ben het een beetje met deze review eens, behalve the rating hoor. Ik vond het wel beter dan een 1

[ramana]

For Bangalore members, there is a Kannada flim Ms California produced by NRIs shot on location in the Silicon valley. Let me know how it is? One of my friends produced it.

[Guest]

Recently say "<b>Ankahee</b>" ..staple from the Maulana Bhatt Brothers; Vikram Bhatt this time.

<b>Arth </b>re-done. Ms. Azmi is Miss Patel and Ms. Smita Patil is Esha Deol. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is Aftab Shivdasani (and his dialogues are dubbed by Vikram Bhatt, in his own voice).

Apparently the ladies in my household and extended family loved it <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> . So this is just a male point of view (watched it with my mother). This is egotistical Vikram Bhatt doing a movie on his own life (his extra-marital affair with Sushmita Sen). Just like Senior Maulana Bhatt did a movie about his affair with Parveen Babi.

This is a standard (hindustani) Chick Flick. Must say "All Men are Dogs"...there, got it out of my system.

Cheating hubby is relieved of all his money, his child and finally, even his girlfriend. Returns to wife with tail between his legs and has door slammed in his face. <!--emo&:tv--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tv_feliz.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tv_feliz.gif' /><!--endemo-->

I must say, Esha Deol is willing to do anything to get a successful film ....I think she has never had a hit since her career started. But knowing how she is the (born-out-of wedlock) child of Dharmendra and Hema Malini, I wonder how she agreed to do this role?

[utepian]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Apparently the ladies in my household and extended family loved it Flush.gif .<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The original Maulana Bhatt <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo--> , after the success of Arth had himself admitted that his intention was only to make the distaff run for Kleenex - that keeps the cash register in the BO ringing. So I'm not surprised the redux harnesses the same tack.

[Guest]

Manu: The warning is much appreciated. Just need to make sure that vile movie dosen't make it into our household.

Anyone seen Taxi Number 9-11? Has Nana Patekar, John Abraham. Time pass movie, as usual Nana shines in his role.

[utepian]

<!--QuoteBegin-Viren+Jun 12 2006, 03:53 PM-->QUOTE(Viren @ Jun 12 2006, 03:53 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Anyone seen Taxi Number 9-11? Has Nana Patekar, John Abraham. Time pass movie, as usual Nana shines in his role.
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Yes, that was quite a timepass. A good Indian adaptation of the Ben Affleck-Samuel L. Jackson starrer.