Father Geek reporting in with a new issue of our Asia-AICN Column and Darius25's "Bollywood" report for this Thursday's regular edition. Its the 110th edition of the column helmed by ol' Darius, over 2 year's worth, and that doesn't even count all the special reports that have run outside the normal column. That adds up to a hell-of-alot of hard work on his part. If you're a regular reader, you ought to drop him an E-mail of thanks, because he comes up with items you'll see NO Where Else... at least all in one weekly location.
Well, before I turn you over to him there are a couple of little bits of Hong Kong info that came to Father Geeks PC here at our AICN Headquarters Compound in Austin...
Im a long time reader. This is the first time im sending anything to you guys. I live in L.A and Im watching Access Hollywood. I just heard Jackie Chan say that Rush Hour 3 and 4 were a go. I hope this news is helpful. Thanks for all the info and I'll keep my eyes and ears open.
Sincerly,
Maniax
That's not much I know, but its good news if you're a fan of Chan's series. Now here a bit on HERO...
Some pics from the set of "Hero" the new star-studded film by Zhang Yimou has been posted on the Official Jet Li site.
Daoming Chen, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and Zhang Ziyi. They're all in this thing.
Opps click here: Catch the Action Right Here
You can call me Molly Case.
Well, it was a slim week for Far East News for us here at AICN. Remember, without your input, your leads and scoops we have a hard time hearing about the interworkings of the China and Japanese film industries. Ol' Father Geek sadly doesn't read Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, or Mandaran, soooooo it does no good for me to surf those sites. We need you guys and gals that speak those languages to do that for us and past on the info so we can tell the world all about the latest cinema news from these hot beds of popular film... Now, here's Darius with his report on Bollywood...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you’ve had a great week. We have some great Bollywood news for you in this column, including news on the “Devdas” screening at Cannes, David Dhawan’s “Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (One and One Eleven)”, “Yeh Dil Maange More (This Heart Asks For More)”, “Agni Varsha (Worshippers of Flame)”, and my review of “Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (I am Yours, Dearest)”. We also have some pics from “Agni Varsha” and “Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam”.
INDIA
- Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epic film “Devdas” made its world premiere to a great response at Cannes last week and has generated quite a buzz in the trades. Bhansali was present at the prestigious event along with stars Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, who were heavily promoting the film and Bollywood in general. The film has even picked up international distribution by Focus International, a newly created division of Universal.
Here’s a video link to the film’s press conference at Cannes: See All the Coolness Right Here
And here’s a video link which shows Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali arriving at the screening: http://www.festival-cannes.org/video/video.php?langue=6002&mp=RG2&debit=h&lsttype=31031&uid=68236
- Actress Amrita Arora has been signed by producer Subhash Ghai to appear in his production to be directed by David Dhawan. The comedy, titled “Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (One and One Eleven)”, stars Govinda and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles. One more actress remains to be cast as the film’s other female lead.
- Character actress Farida Jalal will turn producer for her first home-production, which will be directed by newcomer Anant Mahadevan. The comedy, titled “Yeh Dil Maange More (This Heart Asks For More)”, will star Tusshar Kapoor as a bachelor sought after by 3 ladies. The rest of the cast has yet to be finalized and the film is slated to start production in July.
- Columbia Tristar has picked up the distribution rights to the Indian epic, “Agni Varsha (Worshippers of Flame)”, directed by Arjun Sagnani. The film is based on one of the tales of “The Mahabharata”, in which a tribe must perform a human sacrifice to please the revered Indra, the lord of all demi-gods. Tribal politics cause a disruption of the ritual and the practice eventually causes the creation of a great demon. The film stars Jackie Shroff, Nagarjuna, Milind Soman, Sonali Kulkarni, Raveena Tandon, and Amitabh Bachchan as Indra. It will make its premiere at the Commonwealth Film Festival in Manchester in June, and will then be released in August everywhere else. Here are some pics from the film.
Nagarjuna and Raveena Tandon: Click Here Now
Sonali Kulkarni: Click
And here’s a pic of Jackie Shroff, who shaved off his trademark moustache for the role: Just Click Here
- Last week’s new release was producer K.C. Bokadia’s multi-starrer romance, “Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (I am Yours, Dearest)”. The film stars Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Atul Agnihotri, and Suman Ranganathan and is directed by South Indian director K. S. Adhiyaman. Like many of K.C. Bokadia’s movies from the 1980s, this one also features a love triangle amongst a 1980s family setting. The story is really old and derivative and feels like it belongs in the 80s era – it’s very obvious that this film has been in the making for a LONG period of time (roughly 5-6 years).
Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit play childhood friends (Gopal and Radha) who meet after many years and quickly get married right away. Gopal soon discovers that his wife is a little too close to her male best friend, Suraj (Salman Khan). The two friends call each other 5-10 times a day, and Suraj comes over at every given opportunity. This situation is mainly played for laughs, most of it due to Gopal’s growing insecurity and envious behaviour towards Suraj. However things turn serious in the second half when Gopal gets fed up and asks his wife to move out. She goes running to Suraj, which gets the husband even more upset and file for a divorce. This being a comedy-drama though, Suraj realizes the drasticness of the situation and brings the couple back together.
While the story sounds like a heavy handed drama, it’s actually played for a lot of laughs which allows the film some breathing room till the end of the film. Shahrukh’s jealousy is very subtle and his satirical comments bring for a lot of the lighter moments while Salman’s crazy behaviour provides for much of the laugh-out-loud situations. Thank god that Shahrukh doesn’t turn into a full-fledged bastard or Salman into a full-fledged good guy! Madhuri Dixit’s ok, but her role calls just for simply playing off the two male leads, and as such does an amicable job. What I found the most surprising was that how much time was given to Salman Khan (who was rumoured to be in a semi-cameo!) – the guy was given an equal amount of screen-time as SRK, and he actually deserves the higher billing given in the credits. Salman’s antics actually made this a much lighter film (as opposed to many other films with a similar story) and I was pleasantly surprised.
What’s not very good is the uninspired direction. The film is very shabbily told in virtually all stages – from the sets to the costumes to the music. The lighting was very horrid while the film just looked like crap (WAY too soft and very little colours used). There was also no cinematographer on this production as not one scene remained visually memorable after the viewing. The songs ranged from being time-pass to just being downright horrible. And yes, you could obviously tell how old this movie was based on the changing hairstyles of the actors (especially Salman’s hairline) during many scenes.
So is this worth it?? Well, being a diehard Shahrukh fan I would say yes, but it would be very disappointing if you go expecting an A-grade multi-starrer like a Yash Chopra or Karan Johar production. Given the cast, an unsuspecting viewer would expect more, but luckily we knew that this is less than greatness. While it is entertaining (at times) and the cast is pretty good, the low production values combined with a stale storyline and sloppy directing make for a really mediocre film.
Madhuri Dixit and Shahrukh Khan, who will be seen again this June in Devdas: See Them Right Here
Salman Khan and SRK: They're Right Here
