Akshay Kumar in Imtiaz Ali’s next

Vipul Shah and Akshay Kumar share a great chemistry. After the success of films like Aankhen, Waqt and Namastey London it is only obvious that the duo will do more films together. Their forthcoming comic flick Singh Is King is being directed by Anees Bazmee. Apart from that Vipul is planning his next again with Akshay.

It is believed that after Singh is King , Vipul will be producing two more films. The first film London Dreams will be directed by himself and for the other film he has signed Imtiaz Ali as the director.

Though script and other important details are yet to be finalized, the director and actor have already been finalized. Jab We Met fame Imtiaz Ali has been signed to direct his next movie that will star Akshay Kumar as the main lead.

Bhoothnath Movie Review

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Akshay Kumar was a very surprised man when he came to know of his honourary doctorate.

The 40-year old actor landed in Toronto, Canada, on Wednesday to receive to his honourary doctorate degree from ‘Assumption University’, which is scheduled to be held on Friday at a special ceremony in Windsor on the US-Canada border.

While staying with businessman Ajay Virmani, President of Cargojet, who nominated Akshay for the degree, Ajit Jain caught up with the very jetlagged star (Akshay flew directly from Bangkok where he is currently shooting his latest film Singh is Kinng) for this exclusive 75-minute interview.

Indicine Review of Bhootnath.

Bhootnath Review

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If the dictionary and the lexicons cannot give the exact definition and description of a workaholic, a better idea would be to take a look at Shah Rukh Khan’s recent schedule.

In less than a week, King Khan cheers his IPL team, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ on two different venues in India and before one can say ‘wow’ he is off to shoot for his home production, BILLU BARBAR and the latest quiz show, KYA AAP PAANCHVI PAAS SE TEZ HAIN.

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Amitabh Bachchan can make faces: fact.

We’ve grown up watching Bachchan do a lot in his own inimitable way, and funny faces — be it as a drunkard, an English-ignorant bumpkin, or a paan-chewing inspector — have been a large part of that repertoire. Therefore, while it is more than a trifle saddening to see him in roles that really demand nothing more than a perfunctory performance — and standard issue face-pulling — the makers of Bhootnath can at least rest assured that they have the best actor for the part.

They don’t have much else, however. Vivek Sharma’s directorial debut starts off ’sweetly’ enough, and once you realise that Bhoothnath is a kids’ film that isn’t even trying to be anything else, the unspectacular first half pretty much works. All is likeable enough right till the third act, where the movie abruptly and unapologetically turns into the kind of handkerchief-friendly melodrama-fest we have come to associate with BR Films of late.

‘I did Bhool Bhulaiya for a reason’

Shiney Ahuja talks to Sandhya Iyer about why some of his recent films and performances have not met expectations

Three years past his spell-binding performance in Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi(HZA), Shiney Ahuja has been in a frustrating search of a role or a film that can match up to the former on any level. Clearly, nothing the actor has done subsequently has come remotely close and Shiney knows it.
“There are two things to consider here. One, am I putting in enough efforts from my side and second, do I realise where I’m going wrong? On both fronts, I’ve been bang on. As an actor, I can only ensure that I’m giving my best. Beyond that, there’s not much in my control. Also, I know when I go wrong as an actor. For example, I’m not very happy with a couple of my scenes in Gangster. I feel I could have done better. But fact is, nothing solely depends on me,” he says.
In any case, he believes that most of his films released so far were personal commitments that he had to honour. “I did Metro for Anurag Basu, who gave me Gangster. Again, I did Kal and Khoya Khoya Chand for Sudhir Mishra -who gave me my first break with HZA. These were films I just had to do.”
Is that why he was so unenthusiastic about promoting Khoya Khoya…? The actor doesn’t deny it. He nods, “I pretty much know the end result of most of my films when I read the script. Sudhir asked me to do the film and I didn’t care about the rest,” he says, adding, “Actually, Bhool Bhulaiya was the only film I chose for myself.”
So are all his commitments fulfilled finally? “I hope so,” he quips.
Talking of Bhool Bhuliaya, the film wasn’t noticed beyond Akshay Kumar and its groovy title number. But Shiney prefers to see things differently. “We do certain things for a certain reason. For me, Bhool Bhulaiya meant wider visibility. The huge reach that films like these bring are important to an actor in terms of his star status. Sure, I would have been disappointed with the film had it not worked but it became a big hit and I was proved right,” he stresses.
Also, it appears as if Shiney isn’t too excited about being recogonised just as an actor. He’s more keen to be a successful mainstream star. Ask him about it and he says, “Actually, from the very beginning, I’ve only done commercial films. Except for a Hazaaron…, all my other movies, including Gangster and Khoya Khoya…have been mainstream ventures. I don’t know why people have assumed that I do niche, hatke films.”
But he agrees that scale matters to him now. “I don’t mind trying something different at all but yes, I would expect the film to reach out to more people.”
Remind him of actors like John Abraham who are supporting newer filmmakers and showing courage to take on risky subjects and Shiney retorts, “Nobody supports anyone here. One goes after what one doesn’t already have. In this case, he’s (John) clearly seeking credibility as an actor. Thankfully, I got it early on with HZA and now I’ve received my share of commercial success with Bhool Bhulaiya,” he says.
The actor’s also a bit tired of being labeled as an intense actor. “I agree most of my roles have been of a thinking man. But there have been nuances even here. In HZA, I play the role of a guy who never expresses himself. Even when he hears that the love of his life is going away, he’s not willing to show his feeling and instead announces that he’s getting married to someone else! On the other hand in Khoya Khoya…, I played a brutally honest man who expresses everything. In fact, he gets into trouble precisely because he speaks his mind all the time.”
But obviously, such layered characters are few and far in between. “The sad truth is that most directors are just followers who don’t want to go beyond the safe image of an actor. It’s only rare directors like Jahnu Barua (with whom I’m doing Har Pal), who are willing to experiment. I’m playing a light character here for a change.”
Shiney’s next is an action packed thriller, Hijack about which he’s pretty excited. “In terms of role, it’s a pretty linear one, but I like how my character behaves. Moreover, I think the film’s director Kunal Shivdasani is awesome,” he says.
Further next would be Sudhir Mishra’s modern version of Devdas, where he will be romancing Lara Dutta and Chitrangada Singh. “As I said, I have a good mix of films for the moment,” he says. Let’s just hope his next few films bring the ‘shine’ back into his career.

As the name warrants, the movie is insipid. There is hardly anything to say about Vijay. The styling and clothes are new, the dance moves are new, the stunts are new, the story is a new version of the current best selling formula … Thats Vijay reinvented just for his fans. Trisha doesn’t seem to be interested in bagging roles with some scope for performance. She darns her best costumes and does the usual heroine stuff to perfection. But her role is so insignificant that she gets sidelined even in songs.

As expeceted, the forgettable songs have incorrigible music and over the top choreography. The first half had some moments, thanks to Vivek’s impeccable comic timing. Apart, from the intentional comedy from Vivek, the whole movie can be taken as an unintentionally funny entertainer. The improbability of the stunts, the absurdity of the story and the hamminess of the villains all are laughable.

The point that worried me the most was the crystral clear support to male chauvinism with repeated glorification of the word ‘Ambala’ (Male). Bravery and Heroism are projected as attributes specific only to being MALE. Every character including the heroine speaks about how much “male” the hero is. Glorification of the ultimate male hero seems to be the trend. “Ambala Singham” (male lion) represents the hero. Saree represents cowardice and anyone who lacks courage gets adviced to start wearing one.

The trend of presenting the heroiene as the half-saree or saree clad, bashful and docile “Tamil Ponnu” is thankfully not used in this movie. Cause, you see the male audience need ‘glamour’ in the heroiene. So, close up shots of Trisha’s various bodily assets are required at times. At other times, the limelight is only on Vijay. The masculine dance moves, digitally touched kicks and punches and jazzy special effects … all gives you the feel that the movie is democratically meant for men.

Big B and Ram Gopal Varma have decided to call off the ‘mock rally’, which was expected to be held on May 25 at the historic Shivaji Park in Mumbai to promote their upcoming film ‘Sarkar Raj.’

The rally was expected to be addressed by Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, who are playing important political characters in this sensitive film. Ram Gopal Varma had even appointed a reputed event management company to organize the rally and had planned to distribute pamphlets and other materials to publicize it like any other political party would have done it.

The buzz doing the rounds in the industry is that Ram Gopal Varma and Big B decided against holding of rally keeping in view the charged political situation of the state. Another point of concern was the security factor, as all the cast members, including Big B, Abhishek and Aishwarya were supposed to be part of the promotional campaign and providing them protection from rampaging fans would not have been an easy task.

It may be recalled that Big B plays the character of a senior politician Nagre in the upcoming ‘Sarkar Raj’, while Abhishek Bachchan essays the role of his son. Aishwarya Rai is playing the character of CEO of a power company, which wants to set up a power company in the state of Maharashtra.

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Kolkata, May 8 (IANS) A true entertainer that he is, Bollywood Superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) owner Shah Rukh Khan enthralled the crowd here reciting Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s poems when the team’s match against Bangalore Royal Challengers was delayed Thursday due to rains.”Tagore has poems for every mood. So, to boost up the KKR morale and their 65,000 supporters at the gallery, I recited ‘Where the mind is without fear’ from the translated version of Geetanjali (collection of Tagore’s poems),” Shah Rukh Khan told IANS.

The occasion was right too: Thursday was Tagore’s birth anniversary.

Earlier, the first thing Shah Rukh said after reaching the city airport was: “I am a blind fan of Tagore! Though I don’t know Bengali, I have read almost all of his translated poems.”