Sunday, March 21, 2010


Film: The Lovely Bones
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Saoirse Ronan
Genre: Drama
Direction: Peter Jackson
Duration: 2 hours 1 minute

Story: Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon dies an untimely death after she falls prey to a psychopath who lives next door. Instead of going directly to heaven, she hovers in-between, unable to break off the ties with her grieving family and friends. Will she be able to finally forgive, let go and leave her family to pick up the strings of life again? Difficult question. 
Movie Review: Peter Jackson presents a totally new perspective on serial killing with this unusual and tragic tale of a bunch of young girls who linger between heaven and earth after suffering brutal deaths at the hands of a heartless psychopath. Unable to cut off their bonds from their families, the hapless souls sail through a purgatory-like world, waiting for deliverance. And while they wait, they try an communicate with their loved ones through strange mediums, hoping to hang on to earthly love, as long as they can.... 
Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is unable to leave her family and her boyfriend, even though she has been brutally murdered by the strange and sinister neighbour (Stanley Tucci) who lures her into an underground entrapment one fateful night while she was passing through the corn field behind her school. She longs for a lot of things. Like, getting back to the warmth of her home, where her parents (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz) and her siblings desperately try to cope with her loss. Like, avenging her death, specially when her killer plans to target new victims. Like, stealing the kiss she never got from her poet boyfriend. But it isn't easy for souls to connect and it isn't allowed for souls to return. So Susie must learn to let go, but before she does, she touches your heart with her moving predicament. Even as Peter Jackson creates his characteristic vistas of visual splendour on screen, once again. 
Quite metaphysical and not quite Lord of the Rings, nevertheless, The Lovely Bones does have a unique charm of its own. More importantly, it is a story well told.

Movie Review: Gamer


Film: Gamer
Cast: Gerard Butler, Amber Valetta, Kyra Sedgwick, Michael C Hall
Genre: Action
Direction: Mark Neveldine, Bryan Taylor
Duration: 1 hour 35 minutes

Story: The gaming industry moves to a whole new level. Real life people are used as avatars by gamers and the violence gets a new high as humans are transformed into killing machines and high security prisoners are promised freedom if they manage to survive the brutal playstation world that now functions on nano chips inserted in the human brain. In such a programmed scenario, will ace assassin, Kabel (Gerard Butler) be able to turn renegade and return to his wife (Amber Valetta) and daughter? 
Movie Review: For all you Second Life buffs, this one's a must, if you really want to see where you are headed. Ever wondered what the flip side of the virtual world can be? Go for Gamer. 
Millioniare Michael C Hall rules the gaming industry with his state-of-the-art game Society, where real life humans end up as sexier avatars for slobs. The couch potatoes can make them function any which way through micro chips which are inserted in the avatar's brains. But this whole make-believe Eldorado is suddenly threatened when high-powered assassin, Kabel (Gerard Butler) convinces his owner to set him free. Kabel needs to rescue his wife (Amber Valetta), a vacuous hottie in Society, from the virtual world and extricate his young daughter from foster care in order to re-build his home once again. And the only way he can do it is through some more killing and blood splattering. 
Meant strictly for action-buffs, Gamer is a timely warning for the gaming industry. Too much virtual violence might just turn the real world turtle.

It was an enthralling finale to STAR Plus' "Music Ka Maha Muqabbla", as popular composer-singer Shankar Mahadevan pipped playback singer Shaan in the mega reality show here Saturday night. 
Shankar's team "Shankar's Rockstars", comprising singers Rahul Vaidya, Sharib Sabri, Sanjeev Kumar and Neetii Muhan, rocked the stage with peppy numbers and won the show by three points. 
They took home a cash prize of Rs.50 lakh (Rs.5 million) presented by sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.
After the victory, Shankar told IANS: "I used to meet with my team members now and then but I never thought that we will make such a wonderful team. Our main motive was entertainment, but along with that we tried giving some message which thankfully reached to the people. I haven't decided what to do with the prize money. Now we will party and hopefully go on a tour."
Shaan too gave his best shot to the show and gave tough competition to Shankar with his team "Shaan's Strikers" that included Harshit Saxena, Anweshaa Dutta Gupta, Debojit Saha and Shadab Faridi.
However, even with a lot of votes, he fell woefully short.
Popular numbers, a lively audience, energetic dancers - the show was a melange of it all.
"Music Ka Maha Muqqabla", which has been on air since 13 weeks, had Mika, Himesh Reshimyya, Mohit Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal in the race earlier.

Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar are at it again. The producer duo, who rocked Bollywood with their mega blockbuster Dil Chahta Hai in 2001, a story about three best friends — Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Saif Ali Khan — have once again brought together three hunks for their next big one.

So there’s Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Farhan himself in this untitled film to be directed by Zoya Akhtar, which has Katrina Kaif, Kalki and another hot babe from London. A road trip to Spain is what the story is about and insiders say, one will get to see places unheard of, afterall, Ritesh and Farhan themselves have gone on a road trip to Spain for the same. Ritesh, who was boarding a flight to Spain, said, “I can’t reveal much about the plot. We begin shooting this summer and the film will release in the begining of next year.”
That’s going to be a long wait for Hrithik, Farhan and Abhay’s fans and besides, there’s also the hot Katz and Hrithik pairing which has never been seen onscreen before. In all of Excel Entertainment’s films, the look of the stars in this film will also be different. 
Working on their looks is stylist Arjun Bhasin. “The film’s going to be shot in one schedule from May to August this year. All the stars have given bulk dates for the same. It starts and finishes in Spain itself,” said a source.

Cinema can go a long way in promoting positive bilateral relations between Australia and India, especially Bollywood films as they are "all about heart", said Rani Mukerji, who was here as chief guest at the 2010 Indian Film Festival - Bollywood and Beyond
"Cinema showcases different cultures and Indian films are all about our culture, our traditions, human relations and all about heart. So when Australians watch Indian films, they will get to know Indians better and that will help in knowing each other better," Rani said. 
So will she act in a film on racism? "As an actor, I would be part of any film that inspires me as an artist. If there is a great character for me to play, if I feel there is something interesting in the film about racism and if there is a positive outlook towards changing the mindset, I would hundred percent do it."
She would like to do diverse, challenging roles. So does she feel socially responsible while doing a movie? Giving the example of her role as a deaf, dumb and blind girl in "Black", she said, "I do expect that people who do not know about the deaf and blind get more aware of people like them. You should never pity them because they are such spirited, lively, fun people and there is so much to learn from them. Michelle McNally did graduate despite her handicap. The sheer fact that if you have the passion, nothing is impossible in life. That is what my character in 'Black' and the film taught me and that is what I would like to portray to the hundreds and millions of my fans who watch the movie".
The festival, which opened with "Black" and "Dil Bole Hadippa" in Sydney, is screening a retrospective of Rani's distinctive films alongside recent Bollywood hits, some regional cinema gems and documentaries. For Rani, every role is a dream role, but the role that debutant director Anurag Singh gave her in "Dil Bole Hadippa" was "wonderful". "It is wonderful being a man and to feel like a man and get attracted to beautiful women. It was a dream role because I could never imagine in my life that I would cross dress as a man. I also got to experiment with cricket, a sport I had never played in my life. I trained for eight months and fell in love with the game. And, of course, being a man and tying your hair up in a turban was the most relaxing part!"
Being a Bengali, was it difficult for her to play the role of a Sardar? "Punjabis and Bengalis make a great combination; even marriages between them are lovely," said Rani, relating an interesting episode about how she was exchanged with a Punjabi baby at the hospital and her mother had to fight to get her back. "I still have to crack the code whether I am a Sardar or Bengali," she said.
Rani also revealed that if she weren't an actress, she would have been "a housewife with my sari tucked in my waist, making chapattis for my husband, raising two kids probably in Allahabad or Kolkata or somewhere where my parents would have married me off!" 
So is she ready to direct films after a career spanning 17 years as an actress? Rani was forthcoming: "I would like to do a lot of things in life, but you never get to do everything that you want to do. When an actor probably completes 10 years, you are often asked would you like to direct or write? I didn't want to become an actress, but I became one and so I have this thing in my head that 'Never say never'. It is not something I have planned, but if I do get an opportunity and have this energy rush in my body to take up the responsibility of a director some day, I would definitely love to direct."
Asked if she dreams about winning an Oscar, the multi-award winning actress said: "I would dream about everything and as an actor our greed never stops for awards, recognition, fame, and love and warmth from people; so it is a never ending process for an actor."
The actress, who chooses her roles with care and takes what inspires and excites her, is looking forward to "No one killed Jessica", a film based on the murder of Delhi model Jessica Lall in which she plays the journalist. "It is a very different film that I am doing after a long time. It is a very different and powerful role; so I don't know how my fans are going to react to it, but I am looking forward to it because it is an interesting movie based on a true life story."

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