Knowing

Director : Alex Proyas

Starring : Nicolas Cage

Tagline : Knowing is Everything…

Plot : A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son’s elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions — some that have already occurred and others that are about to — that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

Knowing is Everything...

Duplicity

Director: Tony Gilroy

Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts

Tagline: Outwit. Outspy. Outsmart. Outplay. Then get out.

Plot: A pair of corporate spies who share a steamy past hook up to pull off the ultimate con job on their respective bosses.

Outwit. Outspy. Outsmart. Outplay. Then get out.

Subhash Ghai’s Yuvraaj shoot was apparently cancelled for the umpteenth time. The reason this time as well, was Salman Khan. The actor was to shoot for Ghai in Panvel yesterday when he called to cancel the shoot.

Salman’s girlfriend, Katrina Kaif, who stars in the film, got so irritated that she told the production guys that next time she would not be able to adjust her dates. She then took off to Ajmer with Salman’s sister Alvira. Katrina later said that she went to the dargah to pray in the morning and came back in the evening. But she refused to reveal whether she had gone to pray for the success of her film Race, saying it was very personal and between her and God. Talking about the cancellation of the Yuvraaj shoot, she said that it had got delayed and not cancelled. She also said that it was happening just the second time and not the seventh as is being written. Salman had to complete the shoot of Boney Kapoor’s film. She also laughed off rumours that she had refused to adjust her dates next time. Director Subhash Ghai took pains to stress that the shoot had been delayed and not cancelled. He said that it had been postponed by three days from March 16 to 19 as Boney’s Pokhiri shoot got extended and he requested Ghai to allow him to shoot with Salman for a few more days. Ghai also said that Yuvraaj was about 75 per cent complete. Three songs and the climax need to be canned according to the director.

The cast of Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra’s Dilli 6 had a tough time shooting in Sambhar, Rajasthan braving temperatures of -5 degree Celsius.

Reveals Kamlesh Pandey, writer of the film, “I had stayed over there for almost a week and it was great fun to be the part of the team. But I remember it was winter and right from Abhishek Bachchan to Prem Chopra everyone was working whole night in chilling temperatures. The funniest part was Abhishek shivering and asking me, ‘why is your script so good?’ Rishi Kapoor, who never works beyond 9.30 pm, was also shooting the whole night. I was really amazed with their dedication towards their roles.”

Interestingly, Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman and Rishi Kapoor, who starred together in the 1976 classic Kabhi Kabhie, will be seen in Dilli 6.

About it the writer says, “Rishi Kapoor plays the surrogate father of Abhishek Bachchan and a family friend of Amitabh Bachchan and Waheeda Rehman.”

Elaborating on the film, he adds, “The story of Dilli 6 is not the typical hero-heroine one. It is about every character who was a part of Old Delhi. Mr.Mehra has chosen perfect actors for the respective roles.”

Pandey has visited the sets only once but is all praise for the art director. “I was amazed to see the sets erected by Samir Chanda. He has studied everything minutely – from the signboards to streets of Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi has been replicated beautifully,” .

Summary of the K M Music Conservatory press meet – A R Rahman who recently launched his KM Music conservatory has stated that he would be commencing his new venture with 150 students in his institution. These students were selected as the best talented ones specialized in various aspects in the field of music.

K M Music Conservatory started up in collaboration with Audio Media Education, an Apple Authorized Training Centre has its entire concern on instrumental and vocal along with the latest developed music technology. These entire packages will make the young talented ones into transformed great musical professionals.

As an initial course, A R Rahman will have the institution installed in Chennai and later after couple of years, he has plans to open a new branch in the outskirts of Chennai, preferably a hill station.

A pic from the Press meet:

The first time we heard about LONDON DREAMS was way back in 2006, when the first shot of the film, featuring Salman Khan, was canned at Amritsar’s historic Golden Temple. At that time it was Rajkumar Santoshi who was the director of the movie and the cast comprised Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan, with Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra being discussed as the female leads. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of who did what and joining the blame game band, the result was that the project was put on the backburner.

However, there have been some positive developments on the LONDON DREAMS front and the latest on the subject being that the producer of the project P.J Singh has moved on with the script/story of the film to Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The cast too has undergone a sea change and LONDON DREAMS is now expected to feature Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. But that will happen only and when all the legal issues relating to the film are sorted out.

For now let us talk about more pleasant and melodious things! Good news is that the project seems to be really happening. The super talented trio of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendosa, better known as S-E-L, have been officially roped in to compose the rocking tracks for the movie (instead of A.R. Rahman), which is based on the life of two London based rock stars!

This is the latest buzz in Kollywood. One of India’s premier filmmakers, Mani Ratnam, joining hands with the talented Vikram.

Reliable sources indicate that the duo will come together for a project that will be unique and special. Vikram is currently shooting for Kanthasamy which is directed by Mani Ratnam’s protege Susi Ganesan. He is expected to do Mani’s film after completing Kanthasamy. The fact that Vikram has postponed his film with Bhoopathy Pandian, which he was supposed to do after Kanthasamy, adds credibilty to the news.

Mani Ratnam, who struck gold in Bollywood with Guru last year, was supposed to do Lajjo with Aamir Khan. However, the project has fallen off the tracks as Aamir is busy with his Ghajini. Hence, the maker is planning to make a Tamil film with Vikram in the lead.

Meanwhile, there are also reports that Mani is planning to repeat the lead in his previous film, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, in a breezy romantic film on the lines of his Alaipayuthey. The reports say that the film will be in Hindi but will be dubbed into Tamil.

The report also says the director met up with top actors to start the casting for his next film. He has already finalised Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan for the lead pair and is in talks with other actors for the supporting cast.

Well, we expect the director himself to put an end to such conflicting reports.

53rd Filmfare Award winners:
Best Actor: Shahrukh Khan for Chak De India.
Best Leading Actor (Female) Kareena Kapoor for Jab We Met.
Best Director Aamir Khan for Taare Zameen Par.
Critics Best Film Shimit Amin for Chak De India.
Critics Best Actor Darsheel Safari for Taare Zammen Par.
Critics Best Actress Tabu for Cheeni Kum.

Lifetime Achievement Award Rishi Kapoor.
Power Award Yash and Aditya Chopra.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role Irrfan Khan for Life In A Metro.
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) Konkana Sen Sharma for Life in a Metro.

Best Music A. R. Rahman for Guru.
Best Background Score A. R. Rahman for Guru.

Best Male Singer Shaan for ‘Jabse Tere Naina’ from Saawariya.
Best Lyrics Prasoon Joshi for ‘Ma’ from Taare Zameen Par.
Best Female Singer Shreya Ghoshal for Barso Re’ from Guru.
Best Story Amol Gupte for Taare Zameen Par.
Best Screenplay Anurag Basu for Life In A Metro.
Best Dialogue Imitiaz Ali for Jab We Met.
Best Male Debutant Ranbir Kapoor for Saawariya.
Best Female Debutant Deepika for Om Shanti Om.
Na-Real award Vidya Balan for Hey Baby.
Fresh Face of the Year Award Deepika Padukone for Om Shanti Om.
Best Editing Amitabh Shukla for Chak De India.
Best Action Rob Miller for Chak De India
Best Art Direction Samir Chanda for Guru
R. D. Burman Award Monty Sharma for Saawariya.
Best Sound Leslie Fernandes – Johnny Gaddaar
Best Special Effects Red Chillies Entertainment – Om Shanti Om
Best Costume Award Sujata Sharma for Gandhi My Father.
Best Cinemtography Award Sudip Chatterjee for Chak De India.

Some Pics fom 53rd Filmfare award ceremony:

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Suhasini Mulay, Ila Arun, Digvijay Purohit, Shaji Chowdhary, Nikitin Dheer, Visswa Badola, Pradeep Sharma, Raza Murad, Yuri and Others.
Choreography: Chinni Prakash-Rekha Prakash-Raju Khan.
Cinematography: Kiiran Deohans.
Co-producer: Zarina Mehta-Deven Khote.
Costumes: Neeta Lulla.
Dialogues: KP Saxena.
Editing: Ballu Saluja.
Executive Producer: Sunita A. Gowariker.
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar.
Music: AR Rahman.
Production Design: Nitin Chandrakant Desai.
Screenplay: Haidar Ali-Ashutosh Gowariker.
Sound Design: Stephen Gomes.
Sound Re-recording: Hitendra Ghosh.
Story: Haidar Ali.
Stunt Co-ordinator: Ravi Dewan.
Direction: Ashutosh Gowariker.
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala-Ashutosh Gowariker.
Banner: UTV Motion Pictures-Ashutosh Gowariker Productions.
Release Date: 15th February, 2008.

Times now————————–Good
CNN-IBN—————————-4/5
Times Online————————4/5
Mynews——————————Masterpiece
Xpress-life—————————A clear winner
Filmicafe—————————–A must watch
DNA———————————-3/5
Mumbai Mirror———————–4/5
Passions for cinema—————-Great
Sify———————————-Go for it !
Movietalkies————————-4.5/5
Indiaglitz—————————-Great
NDTV——————————–Strongly recommended
Glamsham—————————A must watch
Indya.com —————————Opulent masterpiece
Merinews—————————–4.5/5
SAWF———————————3/5
AOL India—————————-Good
Radio Sargam———————–Good
Music and Movies——————–3.5/5
BBC———————————–4/5
Desihits——————————-3/5
Smashhits—————————-One cannot afford to miss the movie
Nowrunning————————–3.5/5
ApunkaCHoice———————–3/5
The Telegraph————————Long but Lovely
Deccan Herald————————Bad
Subhash Jha————————-3.5/5
New York Times———————Good
Times Now—————————3/5
CineGoer —————————–3.75/5
Behindwoods————————A true form of richness
Hindustan Times——————–Poor Laughing

With over 50 per cent of the film having been completed and three songs shot, the director can’t seem to hide his excitement about the manner in which the film is taking shape.

The director has, in a fairly short span, worked with top heroes in Tamil and Telugu such as Vijayakanth, Suriya, Chiranjeevi and now in Hindi with Aamir Khan. He is easily among the more accessible directors in the industry.

Music director A. R. Rahman’s music for the Hindi version of ‘Gajini’ has come out really well, he says.

“I am truly amazed at Aamir Khan’s dedication. His passion comes across evidently. You know he’s thoroughly enjoying himself while at work,” the director says.

Another news which is going around is that Aamir Khan may not be the only top star wooing the audience during the bountiful weekend. News is that Akshay ‘Khiladi’ Kumar, whose movies have become a constant feature during the ‘Eid’ period, is likely to give him company. The series of Akki films that released during the ‘Eid’ period goes something like this- AITRAAZ (2004), GARAM MASALA (2005), JAAN-E-MANN (2006) and BHOOL BHULAIYAA (2007). The current year is likely to see Akshay’s action extravaganza CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA (with hot new sensation Deepika Padukone), release during the festive occasion.

The film has already raised expectations of movie buffs due to several reasons. For Aamir Khan, this film follows his mega hit — the critically-acclaimed ‘Taare Zameen Par.’ Fans would also be more than eager to listen to Rahman’s music after listening to his compositions for ‘Jodhaa Akbar.’ For Murugadoss, too, this project follows Telugu film ‘Stalin’ starring Chiranjeevi.Some scenes are said to have been modified and visually enhanced in the remake, which is expected to hit the cinemas in October.

Shankar’s next science fiction project ‘Robot’ started rolling amidst much fanfare yesterday. The film’s team started shooting the scenes in an air-conditioned room in AVM studio.

The Robot shoot was a hush –hush affair, as Rajinikanth arrived on dot of time in his Chevorlet Tavera, Shankar drove down in his new black BMW car with the trademark registration number 8 and producer Karunamoorthy of Ayngaran International came in his Honda-CRV.

Cameraman Venket Ram had set up his camera and other equipments early in the morning itself. Nearly a dozen wigs were flown in from US by hair dresser Bhanu to be tried out on the superstar who shot in various blazers. The look of Robot is one of the most important aspects of the film.

Shankar and his young team have also roped in an international consultant to give a new look to Rajinikanth as Robot. The final look will emerge after matching the photo shoot pictures with a computer generated look, which will take about a month.

Many fans of the superstar were very eager to know the start of shooting of ‘Robot’ and within minutes of the news reaching them many fans of Rajinikanth thronged at AVM Studio to get a glimpse of the superstar.

But since the rules of AVM studio restricts the entry for the public the fans had to leave the scene disappointed.

This big-budget (125 crore) film sees superstar Rajinikanth and the film is directed by one of the most flamboyant directors of the country, Shankar, and the music of A.R. Rahman will grace the film.

Now that Aishwarya Rai has denied the rumours of her exit from the film as rubbish, the rest of the casting of the film is going on. Three top characters from Tamil have confirmed that they are willing to shoot for the film as and when Shankar wants.

Meanwhile Nirav Shah has decided to quit the project, due to personal reasons. So now, noted cameraman Thiru has been roped into the project

Rajinikanth will soon be shooting for P. Vasu directed ‘Kuselan’ the tamil version of Malayalam super hit ‘Katha Parayumbhol’.