Aiyyaa : Movies Review

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Prithviraj

Director: Sachin Kundalkar

Rating: **1/2

To enjoy a film like 'Aiyyaa', logic and rational definitely have to be left behind. Sachin Kundalkar creates a funny, slightly eccentric, filmi protagonist but he expects her charm to carry a film that is saddled with a ridiculous plot and side characters who are intended to be amusing but border on the annoying.

Meenakshi (Rani Mukerji) loves melodrama and is crazy about typical Bollywood films and music. Needless to say she also aspires to have a classic Bollywood romance rather than settle for an arranged marriage. Coming from a typical middle-class family, she has no choice but to go through the routine of meeting prospective grooms with their families, complete with a tray of poha and sreekhand. Despite several rejections, Meenkashi manages to find a perfectly eligible candidate. However, she is not too keen about the alliance because she finds herself insanely attracted to a very intense-looking Tamil college student (Prithviraj), who saunters around with blood-shot eyes and is rumoured to be an addict.

The plot might sound perfectly plausible but the narrative soon veers out of control. Too much time is spent in building up the intrigue around Surya (Prithviraj). The sub-plot about the weird, oversexed colleague is completely unnecessary and not even remotely entertaining. I understand that the director wanted to create a family that is completely eccentric but the gags associated with them are so bad that the humour repeatedly becomes slapstick. Meenakshi's hopeless pursuits get tedious beyond a point and her scene with the drug peddler should definitely have been chopped off at the editing table.

Despite the loopholes, Rani Mukerji's performance rises above the disappointing script to create an endearing character who is hopelessly in love with a man who seems completely wrong and shows no interest in her. Prithivraj has little to do but does complete justice to his image of the brooding, tall, dark and handsome heartthrob.

Watch it if you can overlook the flaws, Rani's fun side promises some genuine laughs.

Manav back in Sushmita's life?

The year was 2006, Sushmita Sen was dating Manav Menon, the ad film maker. It was no secret. It was a fairy tale love story – with a small glitch. Manav could not really understand why Sushmita was keeping in touch with all her old boyfriends. Adding to the troubles was Renee, Susmita's daughter who did not get along well with Manav. Even though the chemistry between Sushmita and Manav led to speculations that marriage may be on cards, they broke up.

So, why are we bringing this up all over again? Well, here is the latest. Sush has been seen with Manav; and that too very often. The Times Of India quotes "Manav is suddenly back in Sush's life, although one is not sure if he is just there as a friend, or more."

The source also adds that Manav has gone out of his way to make up with Renee and the two share a good friendship. Is this an indication that Manav wants to make it work with Sushmita this time around?
Let's wait and see.

Khiladi Akshay Kumar to portray a marriage counsellor in his next movie

Mar 11, Mumbai: “Thank You”, an upcoming romantic comedy movie, has got Akshay Kumar in the lead. But Akki will be seen in a different role this time. He won’t be flirting with heroine, or will not be having a Romeo like image in this film. Instead, he has become a marriage counsellor in Anees Bazmee’s “Thank You”. He will be helping out all married women to find out if their husbands are cheating on them and having any extra-marital affair.

The character which is played by Akshay is named Raj, a marriage counsellor, who helps out the ladies to insure their marriage. Akki who is generally seen romancing with the female lead in a film, with his lover boy image, when first approached by Bazmee for this hatke role, was astonished! But later, Akki affirmed that he will be enacting the role of marriage counsellor Raj. Now, whether this marriage counsellor is married or not, and what is his motive behind such a good act of helping married women is yet unknown. Obviously, women are fond of him for his behaviour, while the men, whose extra-marital affairs are found out by Raj, can hardly put up with this man.

This film also features Bobby Deol, Sonatina Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Irfan Khan, Rimi Sen and Celina Jaitley. The movie will be released in April 2011.

By Kreation Guru.

Salman Khan to romance beauty queen Navarrete in Partner 2

Mumbai: The latest buzz in tinsel town is that Miss Universe 2010 Ximena Navarrete, who is a die hard fan of Salman Khan will make her debut opposite Salman in David Dhawan’s upcoming film “Partner 2”.

salman-khan-to-romance-beauty-queen-navarrete-in-partner-2

The Mexican model who has come to India for a noble cause to promote designer Sanjana Jon’s Celebrate The Girl Child Campaign stated in an interview her desire to act in Bollywood movies.

A reliable source from the industry stated “Ximena will romance Salman Khan in the Partner sequel. The makers were looking for the female lead in the film and felt that Ximena fits the bill but she will have to learn Hindi and some Bollywood dance moves for her role.”

The source said further, “The model recently met Salman and has already started taking lessons in Hindi.”

Source said, “The New York-based fashion designer Sanjana Jon will style her clothes for the film. Sanjana, who is close to both Salman and Ximena, has been instrumental in making this happen.”

Salman Khan and David Dhawan were both however unavailable for any comments.

Review: Patiala House

Patiala House is the best work director Nikhil Advani and Akshay Kumar have done recently. It is an old-fashioned Hindi movie with big drama, solid dialogue-baazi and moments that are genuinely moving and rousing.
 
Akshay as Gattu, a forlorn man who has watched his dreams die, is effectively restrained and refreshingly sincere. But all of this is servicing a story that is so silly and strained that it’s hard to get swept up in the histrionics.
 
The central conflict in the film is between Gattu and his father, Bauji, played by Rishi Kapoor. Bauji seems like a long-lost sibling of Chaudhary Baldev Singh, the stern patriarch from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jeyenge.
 
Bauji also lives in London’s Southall area and has never assimilated into his adopted country. He suffered racial attacks, was jailed for violence against ‘goras’ and now hates them with such a passion that he prefers that his son, who is a cricket prodigy waste his life running a convenience store than play for the English team.
 
Honestly, I couldn’t make sense of this. If Bauji dislikes everything English, why doesn’t he move back to the motherland? And if he persists in such borderline-psychotic behavior, why doesn’t the gigantic joint family of Patiala House, which includes his wife, played by Dimple Kapadia, various aunts, nephews and nieces, stop him.
Instead everybody in the family follows Gattu’s dreary example and throttles their desires.
 
Each one has ambitions to be something suitably different – chef, filmmaker, rapper – but each one stays quiet until the fiery Simran, played by a hyper Anushka Sharma, prods Gattu and eventually the family into rebellion.
Advani who co-wrote the screenplay with Anvita Dutt, works hard to invest plausibility and emotional heft into the tale. But the plot just gets more and more far-fetched.
 
At one point, Gattu is the cricket team’s most valuable player – a man celebrated by the entire country but Bauji or the Sarpanch of Southall, as Gattu calls him, doesn’t have a clue. These gigantic loopholes hobble Patiala House.
As does the lazy writing – none of the other family members make an impression and Bauji is such an exasperating character that even Rishi Kapoor can’t humanise him.
 
As a result of which, Patiala House never soars but it is a notch better than the mediocre fare that we see every week. If you have patience and not much else going on, check it out.

Revealed: SRK's Don 2 look

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's guarded look for his much-awaited Don 2 has been revealed. According to reports his look was leaked on internet by people in the production.

King Khan is set to surprise his fans by a macho and rough look in the film.

The film's lead pair have already shot a part of their film in Berlin and are currently shooting in Malaysia.  Hope his fans like SRK's new look.

7 Khoon Maaf premieres at Berlin Film Fest

 At the press conference, Bhardwaj was all praise for Chopra. "When I cast her in Kaminey, I didn't know her work that well," the director said. "But soon I realised that she is a very intelligent person, she has talent and the hunger to work. So when I was looking for an actor for the role of Susanna, I wanted to work with someone who was hard working but would also let the Bollywood people who surround her, be away for some time."

"Priyanka wanted to take chances, otherwise it would have been very difficult for another mainstream actor to play this role," he added.

The Berlinale is the first major international festival of the year and a good indication of the films to open during the year.  This year's festival featured nearly 300 films in three major sections -- Competition, Panorama and Forum, plus a complete retrospective of works by Swedish master Ingmar Bergman, as well as a special presentation: the 35th anniversary restored version of Martin Scorsese's 1976 classic Taxi Driver, shown in 4K digital projection.

Pix:Priyanka Chopra's lethal V-Day!

Priyanka Chopra kicked off Bollywood's most 'lethal' Valentine's Day celebration, as she enumerated seven ways to lose one's Valentine.

"There are seven ways to lose your Valentine, in this box," Priyanka said, after unveiling the press kit, which contained a rope, a syringe, a knife, a bottle of 'poison', a sachet of 'potassium cyanide', an ice pick and a strip of Viagra tablets, used for treating male erectile dysfunction.

"This is a gift, which you, as a boyfriend, can give your girlfriend, if you want to," the sultry actress said at a promotional event for Vishal Bhardwaj's 7 Khoon Maaf.

7 Khoon Maaf is based on Ruskin Bond's short story Susanna's Seven Husbands and releases this Friday.