Siddharth –Dil Raju’s new flick with a new director
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Tollywood Trophy T20 Team
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Tarun (vice captain)
Manoj Manchu
Srikanth
Kalyan Ram
Rohit
Adarsh
Kaushik
Naveen Reddy
Raja
Aryan Rajesh
Nara Rohith
Nikhil
Sivaji Raja
Allari Naresh
Chitram Seenu
Venkat
Srinivasa Reddy
Sivaji
Ramana
Ravi Teja
Allu Arjun
Rana
Akash
Ayyappa Sharma
Raghu
Sachin
Vaibhav
Nitin
Raghavendra
Brahmaji
Siva Balaji
Srihari
Madala Ravi
GV
Vadde Naveen
Sandeep
Vishnu (vice captain)
Naga Chaitaya
Sumanth
Siddharth
Ram
Nani
Varun Sandesh
Uday Kiran
Rajiv Kanakala
Ravi Prakash
Taraka Ratna
Khuyym
Allari Ravi
Paruchuri Ravi
Raja Ravindra
Venu
Paramesh
Krishnudu
Raghava
NTR (vice captain)
Prabhas
Gopichand
Rajasekhar
Sushant
Sharwanand
Navadeep
Prabhu
Ravi Sai
Dasari Arun
Sameer
Shashank
Gowtam
Ali
Baladitya
O Kalyan
Kamalakar
Bhupal
It's Boring Yaar!!!--‘Golimaar’ Review--By Venkat Arikatla
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Rating: 2.5/5
Banner: Sri Sai Ganesh Productions
Cast: Gopichand, Priyamani, Kelly Dorjee, Nasser, Roja, Ali, Mukhtar Khan, MS Narayana, Shawar Ali, Jeeva etc
Music: Chakri
Cinematographer: Shyam K Naidu
Editor: Marthand K Venkatesh
Story, dialogues, screenplay, direction: Puri Jagannadh
Producer: Bellamkonda Suresh
Release date: 27/05/2010
- Comedy should be dosed well for this genre of films
- Care should be taken at the placement of songs
- How may times the story of Dayanayak will be recycled? People have watched Ab Tak Chappan and Sidhdham
- Heroine should be glamorous and lovable but not irritable
The film is said to have been inspired by the life of Daya Naik, the famous encounter specialist. However, one can see traces of top cops like Walter Devaram (Tamil nadu), Pradeep Sharma (Mumbai), Aftab Ahmed Khan etc. But then, this is a serious domain that deals with hardcore criminals and life threatening situations.
Vipul Amrutlal Shah gets Akki and Ash together again...
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The gorgeous Aishwarya puts it very simply when she says, “It is a fun-genre romantic film.’’ And her good-looking co-star, the handsome Akshay adds, “It’s a very special film for me for many reasons. This is my tribute to the 70s that was the greatest retro era. I was kicked with the idea because I’m entering the time in cinema where my father-in-law (Rajesh Khanna) was a superstar. It is my fifth film with Vipul and definitely another one to remember. Ash and I had a brief romantic interlude in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Khakee, but Action Replayy is our first romantic comedy together. Believe me, I was blushing through the making and there’s a lot I wish to tell my audience about. But Vipul wants me to keep things under wraps for the moment.’’ Without giving away too much, one can safely say that Action Replayy is all about rewinding your life. It is about Kishen and Mala — two bickering senior citizens who “rediscover romance’’ on their 33rd wedding anniversary, when their son gets them into rew mode. Vipul Shah, who had a blast making Action Replayy, says, “Akki and I have an impeccable box office record. W enjoyed su
Ankhein, W Race Again Namastey L Singh is Kin Replayy is a f two of us retu of almost three years. me, it is a great way to The film is very hip the sensibilities of the young generation. “For me it was an exciting experience because I could bring together Aishwarya and Akshay, a pair I had been wanting to cast for sometime now. They’re both goodlooking, super-talented and what’s more, they’re fashion icons as well. Akki has made an amazing screen pair with some of the existing girls but believe me, he and Ash are extra special,’’ adds Vipul.
20 years later, molester DGP gets 1.5-yr jail .
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JUSTICE DELAYED BUT NOT DENIED
Ruchika Kin Want Him Punished For Abetment Of Suicide Too
Chandigarh: Former Haryana DGP S P S Rathore was thrown behind bars on Tuesday, 20 years after he molested 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra, driving her to shame and suicide, and artfully dodged the judicial system using his office and khaki intimidation. The Chandigarh district court dismissed his appeal against his conviction and enhanced his sentence from six months to one-and-a-half years.Amid high drama, Rathore was whisked away by CBI officers to the Burail Model jail after the verdict, where he was frisked like an ordinary convict. Jail officials said he was strip-searched for concealed weapons and his necktie, wristwatch, sunglasses and wallet were handed over to his wife, Abha, who was his counsel during the hearing.
Rathore, who retired in 2002, seven years after the young tennis player took her life, was put in barrack number 10, meant for undertrials and convicted police officers, to segregate them from other criminals. A doctor was called for and an ECG machine brought in after he complained of chest pain, something that’s become commonplace for powerful criminals to try and slip away to the comfort of a hospital bed.
Gone was the grin on his face, plastered on TV and newspaper front-pages after his conviction last December, drawing the nation’s wrath. However, Rathore told TOI while coming out of the court, “The smile is on my face and it will remain.’’
Ruchika’s family, for whom the trauma of losing their daughter was compounded by police harassment orchestrated by Rathore, is now looking forward to the verdict in the abetment of suicide case. “It doesn’t matter that the sentence awarded is one-and-ahalf years or two years because justice has been delivered. The court has taken the side of righteous people. But the battle will continue for justice in the abetment of suicide case,’’ Ruchika’s father Subhash Girhotra said outside the courtroom.
As police officer,
his role was to protect the public. As president of the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association, his role was to train budding players for India. But he failed in both duties by molesting a minor girl. People are afraid to send minor girls to playgrounds due to the presence of such persons
—Judge Gurbir Singh
Golden Moments at Cannes .
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Cannes Film Festival’s top honours went to Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul as his film, Boonmee Raluek Chat, about human beings taking on animal forms in the Thai jungle and a man celebrating his past lives, won the Palme d’Or (The Golden Palm). The 39-year-old director told the gala ceremony that the experience of winning the award was “surreal”. “I didn’t know the concept of cinema,” he said. “With this award, I think I know a little more what cinema is, but it still remains a mystery. I think this mystery keeps us coming back here and to share our world.”
The Cannes jury, headed up by US director Tim Burton, awarded the festival’s second prize, the Grand Prix, to French director Xavier Beauvois for his movie,
Des Hommes Et Des Dieux (Of Gods And Men). The film is a compelling story about a group of monks living in Algeria during a period of rising Islamic fundamentalist violence.
There was also stiff competition for the top acting awards. Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem and Italy’s Elio Germano shared the prize for best actor. Bardem won the award for his role in Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Biutiful, in which he plays a man in a race against time. With his life coming to an end, he battles to improve the lot for those around him, including those he may have treated poorly in the past.
In Italian director Daniele Luchetti’s La Nostra Vita (Our Life), Germano plays a young father whose life is turned upside down after his wife suddenly dies. The prize of top actress went to French actress Juliette Binoche for her role in Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s bittersweet romantic comedy, Certified Copy. During her speech, Binoche called on Iranian authorities to release jailed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who had been invited to join this year’s jury. The award for best director went to well-known French actor Mathieu Amalric for his feature Tournee, about a group of American burlesque performers touring the French provinces. IANS AND THEY WON...
Palme d’Or (Golden Palm): Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong We e r a s e t h a k u l (Thailand)
Grand Prize: Des Hommes Et Des Dieux (Of Gods And Men) by Xavier Beauvois (France)
Jury Prize: A Screaming Man by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad)
Best Director: Mathieu Amalric for On Tour (France)
Best Actor: Javier Bardem, Biutiful (Mexico) and Elio Germano, La Nostra Vita (Italy)
Best Actress: Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy (Iran) Best Screenplay: Lee Chang-Dong, Poetry (Korea)
Camera d'Or (first-time director): Ano Bisiesto by Michael Rowe (Mexico)
Best short film: Chienne d’Histoire, by Serge Avedikian (France)
MOVIE TIME Entertainers for kids.
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The Great land of the Small is an exciting tale filled with humour and special effects and turns out to be a good entertainer UTV World Movies presents some of its timeless children's classics in this film festival
UTV World Movies presents some C of its best children's movies of all times in a five-day film festival on at the Alliance Francaise of Madras.
The festival started on Monday with the screening of Vojtech Jasný's 1987 film The Great land of Small. The story revolves around the lives of two children David and Jenny who become friends with an invisible being Fritz and travel with him to "the Great Land of Small" where they meet some very strange characters and get into a lot of trouble.
Though the film is slow and at times dragging, it is still a tale filled with humour and special effects and turns out to be a good entertainer. On May 26, Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon will be screened. The story is about a little girl Razieh who wants a fat goldfish for the Iranian New Years celebration and loses the money her mother gives her for it. On May 27, Don Bluth's All dogs go to Heaven will be screened as part of the festival, followed by François Truffaut's The 400 blows on May 28.
The film festival is on at the Alliance Francaise auditorium at 6.30pm every day .
WHAT NEXT IN IPL PROBE?
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PM PROMISES EFFECTIVE ACTION IF ANY WRONGDOING IS FOUND
Prime Minister Manmohan Sing on Monday promised effective action in the IPL issue if any wrongdoings were found during investigations. "There was a discussion on this issue in Parliament and the Finance Minister also gave a reply . He said that the Finance Ministry is investigating the issue and if anything comes out of it, then we will take effective action," Singh said when asked to comment on alleged black money involved in the T20 league. After a public spat between former minister Shashi Tharoor and suspended IPL Chief Lalit Modi, the issue was discussed in Parliament during the second half of the Budget session.
There were allegations that black money was also invested in the IPL teams. The IPL bid for two new teams from 2011 season opened a can of worms, leading to the then Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor losing his job, while IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi was suspended for alleged financial irregularities and bid-rigging. Tharoor found himself in the eye of a storm after it was revealed that his friend Sunanda Pushkar had a `sweat equity' in Rendezvous Sports World which had coughed up Rs 1533 cr to win the Kochi franchisee. Modi, meanwhile, was accused of trying to rig RSW's bid to get another franchise on board.
KILLER INSTINCT BUT NOW!! VISWANATHAN ANAND THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPION.
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NO wonder Viswanathan Anand endured the 40-hour long bus journey to Sofia. He is used to similar road hopping whenever he visits Chennai. So as soon as he landed in Chennai at 11.55 pm on Sunday, the cycle began all over again. He couldn't get into car until it was 12.15 am before spending another 10 minutes autographing and receiving bouquets.
Thankfully , his landing time was innocuous to keep the print journalists in hunt. But the visual media was in no mood to spare him, and some even trailed him to his apartment's elevator. With little fuss he obliged.
It is this magnanimity that deprives his parents--K Viswanathan and Susheela--of spending quality time their World Champion son. "The moment he lands, the visitors come flocking and the telephone never stops ringing. And he obliges, goes for every felicitation," said Viswanathan.
So after hitting the bed, Anand is up at seven. And at exactly 12.30 is at the Chola Sheraton--fresh and fuming. And he spends not less two and a half hours, speaking sane and not going through the motions of a routine press conference.
A brief lunch--he has to wait for a kingsize homemade meal--and he heads home, but not expecting a siesta. Then you can't turn the door at your old schoolmate, relative or colleague, who in all his fervor gives his rib cage a serious endurance test.
It's already 4.30, maybe a few gulps of coffee when the lone chess club in your neighbourhood invites him to a felicitation the next day before a government officer informs him of the chief minister's plans to congratulate him. He stays put at home, plugging his earphones and listening to U2 or Bob Dylan. And if he ever tries to rewind the faces he had bumped into that day , he wouldn't be able to recollect anything but a blur. The break of dusk and beyond, he gets a breather.
And the Viswanathan couple finally gets to see an eyeful of their son.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO CHINA!!
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ALL ROADS LEAD TO CHINA
China set to chart its own GPS course
Beijing: Challenging US monopoly on global positioning systems (GPS), China is set to establish its own satellite navigation system by 2012, covering the Asia-Pacific region. China will become the third country, after US and Russia (it’s system is under restoration), to have its own ‘sat nav’, a Chinese scientist has announced.
Sun Jiadong, chief designer of the Beidou Navigation System, indicated that China was ready to spend tens of billions of yuan, which would translate into several billion dollars, to put up a network of 30 new satellites in the sky. The local government was looking for markets to sell navigational services in order to finance the project, he said.
The NAVSTAR GPS allows US to provide commercial navigational services for transportation, telecommunications and other needs. It also allows the US defence to locate and hit terrorists and military targets with missiles in remote areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Chinese scientists have suggested that the focus of their system, called Beidou, will be on storm and earthquake forecasting and disaster rescue operations among other applications.
“A navigational satellite provides information on distance and time. Using basic triangulation principals, it can compute the distance at which a device, vehicle or person is located. Yes, it has helped the Americans find targets for missile and air strikes,’’ a scientist with the Indian Satellite Research Organization (Isro) told TOI. India does not have a navigational satellite; China has three at present.
The ‘PLA Daily’, a newspaper run by the People’s Liberation Army, quoted Qi Faren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying that China was following a threestep strategy, with plans to complete the second stage by 2012. Its plans include putting up five geostationary satellites and 30 non-geostationary satellites by 2020 to ensure global coverage, it said. This will mean more than an 11-fold increase in the number of such satellites from the present level of three.
The Isro scientist, however, questioned China’s ability to put up several navigational satellites in a short period without preparing the ground for utilizing the new facilities.
The Beidou System, also know as the Compass Navigation Satellite System, will have the Asia Pacific market open and available to exploit, besides reaping military advantage in a region with four nuclear powers without counting North Korea and Iran.
pragyan ojha and his wife at their wedding reception.
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World's Greatest photographs
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And of course the afghan girl, picture shot by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Sharbat Gula was one of the students in an informal school within the refugee camp; McCurry, rarely given the opportunity to photograph Afghan women, seized the opportunity and captured her image. She was approximately 12 years old at the time. She made it on the cover of National Geographic next year, and her identity was discovered in 1992.
Photographer: Steve McCurry
Source: nationalgeographic.com
The last Jew in Vinnitsa [1941]
Picture from an Einsatzgruppen soldier’s personal album, labelled on the back as “Last Jew of Vinnitsa, it shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D is just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1941. All 28,000 Jews from Vinnitsa and its surrounding areas were massacred at the time.
Photographer: Unknown
Source: USHMM
Palestinian martyr [2000]
Today we break a little the site’s pattern showing you not a photo but an image captured from a film showing the Palestinian father, Jamil ad-Durra, trying to protect his son from israeli gunfire moments before the boy was shot dead, the father wounded and a Palestinian ambulance driver who came to rescue them, also killed.
Reporters watched helplessly as the boy and his father became trapped against a wall with nothing but a small concrete block for cover as bullets rained around them on a road near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. Mohammed crouched weeping behind his father, who tried in vain to shield him with his arms and body. At one point, the father raised his head and wagged his finger, as if to scold. Some time later, both were shot and Mohammed slumped into his father’s lap.
Fire on Marlborough Street [1975]
On July 22, 1975, photograph Stanley J. Forman working for the Boston Herald American newspaper when a police scanner picked up an emergency: “Fire on Marlborough Street!”
Climbed on a the fire truck, Forman shot the picture of a young woman, Diana Bryant, and a very young girl, Tiare Jones when they fell helplessly. Diana Bryant was pronounced dead at the scene. The young girl lived. Despite a heroic effort, the fireman who tried to grab them had been just seconds away from saving the lives of both.
Photo coverage from the tragic event garnered Stanley Forman a Pulitzer Prize. But more important, his work paved the way for Boston and other states to mandate tougher fire safety codes.
Photographer: Stanley J. Forman
Source: bbc.co.uk
Burning Monk - The Self-Immolation [1963]
June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from Vietnam, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon to bring attention to the repressive policies of the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government at the time. Buddhist monks asked the regime to lift its ban on flying the traditional Buddhist flag, to grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism, to stop detaining Buddhists and to give Buddhist monks and nuns the right to practice and spread their religion.
While burning Thich Quang Duc never moved a muscle.
Photographer: Malcolm Browne
Source: wikipedia.org
The Power of One [2007]
This picture won the Pulitzer Breaking News Photography 2007 award. Photo’s citation reads, “Awarded to Oded Balilty of The Associated Press for his powerful photograph of a lone Jewish woman defying Israeli security forces as they remove illegal settlers in the West Bank.�?
Photographer:Oded Balilty (Associated Press)
Stopping Time [1964]
Source: stanford.edu
HOLLYWOOD CURRENT TOP 10 MOVIES.
9:04 PM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow
Studio: Paramount Pictures
ROBINHOOD.
Stars: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Macfadyen .
Studio: Universal Pictures
Letters to Juliet. |
Director: Gary Winick
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave .
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Just Wright |
Director: Sanaa Hamri
Stars: Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patton .
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
How to Train Your Dragon |
Director: Dean DeBlois Chris Sanders
Stars: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse .
Studio: Paramount Pictures
A Nightmare on Elm Street |
Director: Samuel Bayer
Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner .
Studio: New Line Cinema
Date Night |
Director: Shawn Levy
Stars: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg .
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Film CorporationThe Plot: In New York City, a case of mistaken identity turns a bored married couple's attempt at a glamorous and romantic evening into something more thrilling and dangerous.
8.
The Back-up Plan |
Director: Alan Poul
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Alex O'Loughlin ..
Studio: CBS Films
Furry Vengeance |
Director: Roger Kumble
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields .
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Clash of the Titans |
Director: Louis Leterrier
Stars: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes .
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
kites review.
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IS it possible to fashion grand opera from a libretto based on a Mills & Boon paperback?
Anurag Basu, with Kites, hurls himself ill advisedly into this undertaking. He has material for a goodish soap opera (and this is not a snide dismissal; in the right hands, soap opera can certainly become goodish entertain ment) -he strives, instead, for Great Art. Scene after overstuffed scene is modelled after a soaring aria when the more sensible approach might have been to locate the pop heart at the centre of the pulpy story , about a very pretty couple on the run across very pretty countryside. The opening frames set the tone. Two (very pret ty) kites flutter against the sky , as Hrithik Roshan (who plays an alphabet named J) expounds very poetically (and rather needlessly) on the titular metaphor. His voiceover, here, is muted, but else where he's this opera's full-throated tenor. The veins in his mammoth neck pop out like founda tional pillars, pill upon which he builds his perfor mance. He belts out each emotion as if playing to an attention-deficit attentio audience in the back rows in the lunar craters.
c Subtle, this isn't.
that's hardly the issue, that this isn't a good And that film. The vexation with Kites is that it doesn't stretch far enough in the opposite direction, that it isn't a bad-enough bad film. This could have been a de liriously deranged d mishmash of Ek Duuje Ke Liye (cross-culture (cross-cult lovers) and Dil (who run away) and Bonnie and a Clyde (and begin to rob banks, and escape to the accompaniment of a furiously twanged twan banjo) and Romancing the Stone (and hav eye-poppingly energetic escapades, have leaping lea upon trains and into rivers and onto hot air balloons) and, especially on , the commensurately overblown Written on c the Wind.
th From the latter is derived the dominant love quadrangle, with the spoilt rich sib lov lings Gina and Tony, played by Kangana ing Ranaut and Nick Brown, and with Barbara Ranau Mori as Tony's fiancée Natasha, whom J falls for. And there are certainly instances of soapy sentiment that are almost worth the soap price of admission, if only to witness the se riousness with which they are brought to life.
riousn purrs, "You added colour to my life, my (J pur black-and-white black-a life." Natasha subsequently hints at exactly which colour he was alluding to, as she croons, cro "You are bleeding, my love.") To qualify qua as a campy hoot, Kites needed more li these, and more scenes like the one lines like where Kabir Bedi, hamming it up in his pat ented silken style as a Las Vegas casino ty ente coon, urges J to gun down a poor sap who's coo being suspended by the ankles. Or the one where a kindly old man extracts a bullet from J's back and sends him on his way , across the desert, with a fond farewell wish ("Hope you find the love of your life") and without bothering about tiny practicalities like , thrusting a canteen filled with water in J's hands.
Intentional or not, these laughs are welcome in a film whose pulse is as parched as the environs it's set in. The culprit is the romantic track. Kites wants us to revel in the amoral adventures of J and Natasha, but when it comes to their love, the film turns utterly (and fatally) moral. J is not interested in Gina and he throws her out of his house when she slinks in to seduce him. But when he realises she's rich, when he lights up upon sighting her limo, he reconciles to a life with her. So too Natasha -she's with Tony only because he has money .
You'd think that two mercenaries like these would circle warily around one another before falling in love (or at least, that they'd be in lust first, before it transmogrified into something else). In a nicely observed scene, J and Natasha compare the "gifts" they've received for selling out -like kids at an orphanage stumbling into presents beneath a Christmas tree, they delight in her $12,000 neckt lace and his $40,000 automobile. A little later, as t they kiss, Natasha's eyes wander to a photograph on the wall, of her impoverished Mexican family , and she breaks off the kiss. She knows what's important, and it's not the penniless J. And yet, we're asked to believe that theirs is a true love, when we're not even shown the falling-in-love part. (All we get is an unexplained, and hardly convincing, initial attraction.) A little more plot and a little less poetry may have salvaged this gorgeous mess -but then Basu wants his shots of slo-mo wipers pacing across a windshield in the midst of a downpour, so that he can film a conversation inside the car as the water makes lovely translucent patterns. At least, it's pretty.
The men who fascinate Lata mangeshkar.
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“I don’t know where to start when it comes to Bachchan saab. Jiss qadar woh zor se wapas aaye… amazing! (I marvel at the way he bounced back after severe setbacks.) When it comes to perfection as an artiste, he’s 110 per cent perfect. Give him any role, and he slips into it effortlessly. I’ve never seen him repeat himself. He made me cry in Baghban. I recently saw Black and can’t get over his performance. Kamaal ke actor hain…(He’s a fabulous actor). And he sings well too! I’ve listened carefully to Holi khele and Tu kahan main yahan in Baghban. They are in sur. Singing in sur is far more important than maintaining taal. His voice is God’s gift to him. His performances are impeccable. On a social level, we meet once in a while. He’s charming and always talks with restraint. His pedigree is unquestionable. When I started singing in 1947, I began reading up on Hindi litterateurs including Premchand, Mahadevi Varma, Jaishankar Prasad and, of course, Harivansh Rai Bachchan. I’ve read Madhushala several times over; also his bulky autobiography which is a unique work of self-revelation. I don’t know whether Bachchan saab knows this, but I truly respect him and Jayaji. Mere dil mein unke liye khaas jagah hai. (They hold a special place in my heart.)”
“I first saw Shah Rukh in a serial called Fauji. There was something special about him. Then I saw his film Chamatkar and later Deewana and Baazigar, in which he played a negative character. It was quite evident that Shah Rukh could play any kind of role. I remember him saying somewhere that he had no sense of rhythm and dance. But I saw him in Ruk ja o dil deewane in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Chaiyyan chaiyyan in Dil Se. Ussmein itna sahi dance kiya tha unhone. (He danced so well in these songs.)”
‘I was a woman within’ India’s first transsexual celebrity rose.
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India’s first transsexual celebrity talk show host tells about her journey from Ramesh to Rose.
When I turnedfeminine…
I was born and raised as a boy named Ramesh Venkatesan. This March, I became Rose Venkatesan. I’m curvaceous, with wild curls flowing down my delicate back and love dressing up like a girl. I became aware of my femininity when I was around five; I felt uncomfortable being a boy. It was traumatic for me when I couldn’t dress up like a girl. Painting my lips and nails crimson red was okay till I was a child. I would spend hours with my sister’s dolls and mom’s make-up. In a conservative Tamil household, I was considered weird but cute in my girlie get up. But all hell broke lose when I reached puberty and still didn’t give up my feminine traits. I used to dislike cricket and other ‘boy’ sports. I was more interested in p a i n t i n g and cooking. I was s e e t h i n g with frustration for not being able to express my f e m i n i n e side. I walked that extra mile to look like a boy, talking in a husky voice and letting that stubble grow. But s o m e h ow bullies in s c h o o l wo u l d smell my secret, that I was a woman from within…
The big
confession… I vividly remember the day I decided to call up my parents from the US and told them that I wasn’t a man but a woman. My heart broke into pieces when I heard my mom sobbing over the phone. Dad’s silence killed me…. I was close to my brothers but they never interested me. I knew they were more worried of the immediate repercussions. Ours is a middle class family, the society would ostracise us. I could understand the pain I caused them, but certain things have to be done, that’s the way of the world. I decided against staying back in the US, where I was pursuing my masters degree in biomedical engineering at Louisiana Tech University. American society can be violent when it comes to transvestites.
The return of the prodigal…
When I returned home, I was aware of the backlash, sniggers and hurtful remarks. My family was ashamed of me. Yet, I returned, because I didn’t want to run away from the life I knew. I was ambitious and wanted to make a name for myself in the media or by starting up a business. I’m lucky to be in Tamil Nadu, because here, unlike in the north, religion doesn’t have a sway over politics. In Kerala, I would have been stoned to death!
The man of my dreams…
I don’t talk to my relatives and stay away from social gatherings. I don’t keep in touch with my old friends, I know their mentality. They are sick men who might end up harassing me sexually! People ask me if I’m hundred per cent woman after the sex change operation. I ask them, “What’s a hundred per cent woman like?” Yes, I’ve female genitalia now, people say I’m pretty and I love saris. Besides this, what matters is who I really am. I have a boyfriend who loves me and he has stuck to me through bad days, but he’s also dating another girl. I don’t think this relationship will last, although I want it to. I’d like to marry a man who’s well-educated and settled in life. I want him to be sensitive, caring and bold enough to take me to his mother. I’d like to adopt children, as I’m very fond of them. My guy has to have the nerve to marry me in a media-crazy ceremony, which would be covered live on TV!
There’s light at the end of
the tunnel…
I’m a skeptic. I don’t believe in God. But I always knew that when you want something badly, a higher power helps you. The best moment of my life was when I stood in front of the mirror in a Bangkok hospital after I became a woman in the true sense of the term. I looked so beautiful, it was like living a dream… My advice to people like me would be, embolden your spirit, educate yourself and have a roadmap in life. Knowledge helps open doors; prove to the world that not all transvestites are dirty, evil prostitutes. Only you can break the stigma of being ‘different’!
‘Love should strike and devastate’
8:23 PM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
Simbu, hero of the superhit Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, is ready for romance. But it’s his work that’s taking a new direction and keeping him busy now
IT took just one film for Simbu to break free from the rest and race ahead. All without performing a single eye-popping stunt, spouting a smart line that would become common parlance, or changing get-ups. He just played Karthik, boy-next-door, uncertain at first, then ecstatic and, finally, tormented by his love.
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa by Gautham Vasudev Menon didn’t just buck the trend of potboiler films that were mere showcases for superstardom — it gave Simbu new direction and, by the star’s own admission, has set him on a different path. “Thanks to Vinnai..., I now have an elite audience,” says Simbu, who, until then, was known mainly for his action flicks directed at the masses.
He now wants his roles to go beyond dishum-dishum and exaggerated style. He’s currently working on Poda Podi with Vignesh Shiva, who’s also a school friend. “And the project with Lingusamy will also be a more balanced film — by which I mean a more sensible mix of commercial elements and sensible art,” he says.
He has known for a while the direction he wants to take. When he sat down to discuss a movie with Gautham, he was, indeed, looking for something different. “I was beginning to fear being typecast,” Simbu says, “But when I heard the story of Vinnai..., I knew that this was it.”
His instinct proved right for it went on to become a blockbuster. “Of course, you
can talk about the various elements that made the movie work — the story, the performances, the songs — but I’d say it’s entirely a Gautham creation. I owe it all to him,” he says.
Willing as he is to hand over all the credit to Gautham, there’s no denying that the palpable chemistry between Trisha and Simbu was one of the winning aspects of the film. “Yes, it was there,” Simbu says. “Ever since we worked together in Alai, we’ve been friends and the rapport spilled over to the sets of Vinnai....”
There was a realness to the way the two actors translated their emotions on screen. “Perhaps, if I were to see a girl and fall in love in an instant, that’s the way I would’ve expressed myself,” Simbu says. And, no, it’s not happening in real life right now for him. “I’ve been single for the past three years or so, waiting to discover that moment,” he says.
“After Vinnai..., I see girls who would earlier just watch Simbu, the actor, from a distance, now come up and approach me. It proves to be a problem at times,” he says, “Because I don’t believe it’s about meeting someone, getting to know them and falling in love. Love has to strike you, hit you, devastate you, all in a flash.” Just the way Karthik in the movie experienced it.
And yes, he says, he believes in eternal love even in this age of speed dating and when it’s an online status message that announces it’s over.
Chronology of air crashes in India.
10:31 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
January 1, 1978: AI-XY5 flight crashed into Arabian Sea, killing 213.
June 21, 1982: AI-403 flight crashed at Mumbai airport, killing 17 out of 111 passengers and crew members.
October 19, 1988: IC-113 flight crashed at Ahmedabad, killing 124 out of 129 passengers.
February 14, 1990: AI flight IC-605 crashed at Bangalore, killing 92 out of 146 passengers.
August 16, 1991: IC-257 crashed at Imphal, killing 69.
April 26, 1993: IC-491 at Aurangabad airport in Maharashtra, killing 55 of 118 passengers.
November 12, 1996: Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight collides midair with Kazakhastan Airlines Flight 1907 near Charki Dadri in Haryana, all 349 on board killed.
July 17, 2000: Alliance Air flight CD-7412 crashed at Patna Airport, killing 60 passengers .
September 4, 2009: One of the engine of AI-829 caught fire at Bombay airport, 21 received minor injuries.
THE GREAT TELUGU CINEMA LYRICIST VETURI SUNDARARAMA MURTHY PASSED AWAY.
10:24 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
Famous tollywood lyricist Veturi Sundarrammurthi died at around 9.30PM today (22 may 2010) with a cardiac arrest.
He worked for many notable and memorable songs and his last cinema is 'Varudu'.
May his soul rest in peace.
Air India Plane Crash: Read the Detailed Latest Description over the Accident .
12:30 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
Venice honour for Mani .
3:48 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
Celebrated Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam will be honoured at the 67th Venice International Film Festival
In recent years, the award has honoured other major world filmmakers like Takeshi Kitano, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnès Varda, and Sylvester Stallone. The Venice Film Festival Director Marco Mueller says, “Mani Ratnam used to make movies only in his native tongue, Tamil, but has been one of a handful of filmmakers to successfully handle the transition to the all-India market. One of the great innovators in contemporary Indian cinema, he helped introduce the auteur concept to contemporary Bollywood. His movies display precision and poise, and have always been removed from the bombast and bluster of massproduced regional cinema. The lavish musical numbers in his films, some of the best-tailored in Mumbai and Madras in recent years, have influenced the style of many others (as well as the design of commercials and music videos). Ratnam’s most celebrated films have become part of the cinematic imagination of the sub-continent.”
On the occasion of the award ceremony, the Mostra will present the festival premiere of Mani Ratnam’s forthcoming film Ravaan will take place. It will be attended by the director and Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram and AR Rahman
“Ravaan will enchant audiences with its stirring drama and entrancing musical sequences. We are proud to be hosting the festival premiere of this wonderful film, which will be presented at the 2010 Mostra in both the Hindi and the Tamil version,” says Mueller.
‘BARBARA’S THE BEST ACTOR I HAVE WORKED WITH’ "Hrithik"
3:41 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
South American-born, Mexican actress Barbara said that she actually baulked when Rakesh Roshan showed her Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Jodhaa Akbar in Los Angeles. “Hrithik was so stiff. I thought, ‘I don’t want to do a film with an actor like that.’ I hated Hrithik in it,” said the actress whose magical green eyes have a searing honesty in them. But Barbara told Rakesh and director Anurag Basu that she would give Kites a serious thought because she loved the script. And she was excited about a prospect in Bollywood.
Like most love stories that start with indifference and go on to passion, the Barbara-Hrithik saga, too, took a similar route.
When she saw DVDs of his Kaho Na... Pyar Hai, Koi Mil Gaya, Lakshya and Dhoom2, she fell in love with his screen persona. “Those are movies I could relate to,” she admitted. “I couldn’t take my eyes off Hrithik and I was excited about doing a film with him.” And now that Kites is all set to soar, Barbara said everything about the film is exciting to her. “I have my fingers crossed the film becomes a huge hit,” she said.
Does Hrithik believe Kites is the most passionate Bollywood film ever made? “This is the result of two-and-ahalf years of my heart and soul’s investment,” he said. “Physically, too, a lot of my blood and sweat has gone into this film. I am sure everyone will take back something from the film.’’ Thanking Anurag, he added, “I had seen his films. They are my kind of films and I knew he had a vision that I would connect with.’’
And, of course, Kites wouldn’t be the enjoyable journey had it not been for Barbara, Hrithik admitted, “Barbara’s conditioning has been from another world. And her approach to her art is different. There is no manipulation when she caters to the camera or to the audience concerned. I think Barbara is such a mature performer. She is the best actor I have worked with.’’
MORNING LAILA.
3:37 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
SHE'S a twisting, turning, raging, moving, speeding circle of winds.
She's Laila, severe in her intensity, a cyclonic storm that's lashing Andhra Pradesh and districts along the Tamil Nadu coast from the wee hours of Thursday, after lying low, centred in the Bay of Bengal, for most of Wednesday. Authorities in Andhra Pradesh had by Wednesday evening evacuated thousands of people to safe locations.
Oil rigs and ports were on high alert.
Disaster management teams had been called in. Two oil refineries and India's biggest gas field besides coal ports were also on alert, including the Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd.
"Sea conditions will be high to phenomenal along and off Andhra Pradesh coast and very rough along and off north Tamil Nadu coast," the weather office said on Wednesday.
Fishermen were advised not to go out to sea. According to reports, cautionary signal No.7 (the highest intensity) has been hoisted in Kalingapattinam, Gangavaram, Kakinada, Visakapattinam, and Machillipattinam ports in Andhra Pradesh and No.3 (medium intensity) at ports in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Scores of boats, an Indian Coastguard vessel and two boats of the Coastal Security Group of Tamil Nadu Police, sustained heavy damage as strong winds lashed the Pamban and Mandapam Coast on Wednesday night and throughout the day.
A Soft-Centred Tough Guy.
3:01 AM, Posted by Mahy Pallav, No Comment
National Award winner Atul Kulkarni on his latest flick Bumm Bumm Bole
HIS character as C Shriram Abhyan kar, a Brahmin who is part of a Hindu militant group determined to fight the Muslims' malice in Hey Ram cannot be forgotten. Pothya Sawat in Chandni Bar too remains memorable. Both these roles won him the National Award. Atul Kulkarni, the man who has played critically acclaimed roles in films like Rang De Basanti, Mansarovar and Page 3 was born in Karnataka. He has acted in almost all Indian languages. After some rave reviews, Atul Kulkarni, who plays Darsheel Safary and Ziyah Vastani's father Khogiram in Bumm Bumm Bole says, "This is the first time I am working with Priyadarshan, and it is like a dream come true. I often feel that he ed its the film even before the shooting is over (laughs). An actor feels at ease when he is working with Priyadarshan, be cause he does nearly 80 per cent o f a n a c t o r 's job."
Speaking of Darsheel Sa fary he smiles, "Kids these days are very talented. The exposure they get is tremendous. Darsheel Safary is one such boy . At this age, he has got the exposure of working with a great actor like Aamir Khan. Even as I observed him, I went on a flashback mode and compared my childhood with his and wondered whether I had the same maturity. And I rea lised that he knows so much.
I like his innocence," he says.
Atul has been seen in Kollywood flicks like Padikath Aruvadai, Kedi, Manavan, Aruvadai madhan and Run. Elaborating on his experience he says, "During Hey Ram I realised what a great actor and human being Kamal Haasan is. I admire him and am looking forward to doing more projects with him."
What next? "I am doing two films in Hindi called Blackboard and Chalees Chaurasi and a couple of projects in Kannada.
Atul has been also doing theatre since high school. He later joined Natya Aradhana, an amateur theatre group. "I have taken great pride in acting in plays penned by Gulzar, Kharashein. I have especially Kharashein not been able to do justice to theatre for quite some time owing to my film com mitments. I must make a special mention of the characteristics of theatre in Tamil cinema. And I earnestly wish that even Marathi cinema attains that level someday ."
Commenting on the trends in parallel cinema he says that the discrimination hardly exists. "In the last six years, the discrimination has disappeared completely."