Aakrosh theatrical to come out with OUATIM

As the gangster movie Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai hits theatres on July 30, the audience will also get to see a glimpse of Aakrosh directed by Priyadarshan.

The theatrical promo of the film Aakrosh will be shown on the same day along with OUATIM. Aakrosh is a hard-hitting film about love across caste barriers and honour killing set in Bihar.

Starring Ajay Devgn, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Raima Sen, Amita Pathak, and Paresh Rawal, the movie is produced by Kumar Mangat under the banner of ‘Big Screen Entertainer’.

The soundtrack of the movie has been composed by Pritam and the lyricist is Irshad Kamil.

The film is slated for release on October 1, 2010.

Priti Shahani to join Reliance Big Pictures

Priti Shahani is joining Reliance Big Pictures as Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer. She will be a key member involved in planning the overall strategy of the company along with handling the worldwide marketing campaigns of all films Reliance Big Pictures releases. She will start in her role in mid-June.

Priti recently resigned from Studio 18/The Indian Film Company, where she was Sr Vice President Marketing, Distribution & Syndication. During her tenure here, she oversaw the aggressive marketing and distribution campaigns for blockbuster films such as WELCOME, SINGH IS KINNG and GHAJINI and also unlocked hidden revenue for films by introducing the Satellite Rights syndication model with JAB WE MET [the first Hindi film to be syndicated across channels], which has now become the norm within the industry.

Gulzar gets unique gift from Mani Ratnam, Raavan gets new song in return

Mani Ratnam’s Raavan has just been given a new song, thanks to that poet par excellence Gulzar who saw the film and suggested the embellishment. The director, always open to fresh ideas from his team, readily agreed. Composer Rahman was informed and that’s how Raavan got a new song.

Gulzar Saab, who just back from Goa after participating in the stage rendition of four of his plays, says the song was almost a gift he owed Mani Ratnam for gifting him something that he, Gulzar, had never received in his entire 47-year old career as a lyricist.

Mani sent the poet-lyricist a note after the release of the Raavan music congratulating Gulzar Saab for the songs.

Says Gulzar Saab, “In my entire career I’ve never received such a heartwarming endorsement of my work. I received a note from Mani Ratnam congratulating me and saying he’s very proud of the music. And look at the humility of this genius. No filmmaker has ever sent me a note like this. Mani is the only one. And this one gesture has enhanced my respect for him even more.”

Not only this gesture, Gulzar Saab also received an invitation from Mani to see the film at a special screening for which the poet flew down to Chennai recently.

It was there that the new song suddenly happened.

Recounts Gulzar Saab, “After editing Raavan, Mani wanted me to watch the film. No filmmaker invites even the technical crew for a preview, let alone the lyricist. I flew down to Chennai to watch the film. I’d never do something like this for anyone else. This is how strongly I feel about this man’s humility and greatness.”

As the end-credits rolled and Rahman’s music began, Mani Ratnam and Gulzar Saab thought there ought to be a song at the end.

That’s how Gulzar Saab wrote an additional number for Raavan… ‘Ab Iss Shareer Ke Sirey Khol Dey/Aur Goongi Aatma Ko Bol Dey’.

Says Gulzar Saab, “Both Mani and I felt the music that Rahman had composed for the end titles was too beautiful to go wordless. We decided to give words to Rahman’s creation.”

Rahman was then given the task of turning the music piece into a song. Interestingly neither Mani Ratnam nor A. R. Rahman fully understands Gulzar’s Urdu poetry.

Defends Gulzar Saab, “But they are never short of questions. Never does a word go in until Mani is fully convinced of its relevance. He’s never hesitant about asking. I would be appalled if my words were accepted blindly by a director. Even if his Urdu is weak, Mani has a terrific sense of poetry and images.”

Chase marred by another controversy

Chase has released and if the ongoing tussle between director Jagmohan Mundhra and producer Anuuj Saxena wasn’t enough, there is more addition to the drama. One of the lyricists in the film, Prashant Vasl, is miffed with the makers since his name has gone missing from the credit details on the music album. Worse, his name has been replaced by a much established Jalees Sherwani, something which continues to puzzle the lyricist who has been knocking the doors of Bollywood for some time now.

“I have written the much talked about song ‘Raat Ki Sanson Mein Uljhi Hai Koi Baat’, a song of seduction picturised on Udita Goswami. However, to my shock, the crediting has gone to Jaless Sherwani. The song is a turning point in a film but on the contrary it has turned out to be a sad point for me”, says Vasl.

The song plays in the film when Udita comes up with a sensual song and dance performance to confirm if the character played by Anuuj Saxena is indeed in a comatose state as projected by him.

Incidentally, it was Sherwani himself who informed Vasl about the error. “Yes, it was Jalees who informed me about it. He was extremely shocked & embarrassed to see his name in my place. Jalees bhai assured me that he is ready to tell the truth and do all that was required”, says Vasl.

So what did the miffed lyricist eventually do?

“Well, I spoke to Jag Mundhra, Executive Producer Krishna Banerjee and music composer Udbhav Ojha about this”, says Vasl, “They all are quite concerned about it. I also sent a SMS to Anuuj about this, bringing to his knowledge ‘the error!’ Soon after that, Pooja Kashyap, COO, Maverick called me and said she was quite sorry for the mistake (!).”

This was not an error which was noticed by all only last week. In fact it was way back on 16th April when Vasl had brought up this topic at the music launch party of Chase.

“I had observed then itself that my name didn’t appear amongst lyricists. Udbhav took up the matter with Pooja Kashyap to which she told him – ‘I will make the corrections immediately’. When Udbhav suggested that it could be announced from the stage that ‘by mistake’ Prashant Vasl’s name has been omitted, she told him – ‘In that case Anuj will be very angry as he isn’t aware of this’. I took her point & despite being called on stage, I never mentioned anything about it. Even when I was leaving, I didn’t say anything to Anuuj who came to see me off. I did all this just to save Pooja of any embarrassment”, says Vasl in a hurt tone.

Later, Pooja and Vasl did have a conversation where the latter advised her to take care of the error by way of the production house publishing ‘the unintentional error’ and regretting in trade magazines and internet. “Yet again, Pooja assured me that she would do the needful. I hope she does it now”, signs Vasl.

When informed, Anuuj regretted the episode. He apologised to Vasl for the mistake and assured him that this would indeed be taken care of. “Yes, I am aware about these proceedings”, says Anuuj, “I apologised to Prashant for this glaring mistake. I have committed to issue a note/release to all the trade papers. Also, the next lot of CDs will also carry the corrected crediting. I am feeling quite bad for this mess up.”

Hope this should keep Vasl happy and settle the controversy once for and all.

Dil Bole Hadippa Movie Review

Dil Bole Hadippa: Hadippa!
Genre: Romance, Sports, Comedy
Director: Anurag Singh
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Music Director: Pritam
Lyricist: Jaideep Sahni
Banner: Yash Raj Films
Star Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Shahid Kapur, Anupam Kher, Sherlyn Chopra, Dalip Tahil, Raakhi Sawant, Vrajesh Hirjee, Sri Vallabh Vyas
Release Date: September 18, 2009
Ratings: 3 out of 5
Dil Bole Hadippa Review
Dil Bole Hadippa is yet another film from the YRF’s kitty based in Punjab. This too represents the stereotypical culture of Punjab with swaying yellow fields, flashy celebrations, desi lassi and chomping sugarcane.
The film is the story of one such village of Punjab located at the Wagah border that has its own cricket team and plays match with the local Pakistani team for the Aman cup and have been losing in a row from past eight years. The team’s owner (Anupam Kher) turns to his son Rohan (Shahid Kapur) who plays county cricket in England to take over as coach and the captain to strengthen the team. A village girl Veera (Rani Mukherjee) though works with a local theatre group in village, treasures an unusual dream of playing a cricket in the big league with the star cricketers Tendulkar and Dhoni. She gets an entry in the men cricket team by disguising herself as a man. Here comes the twist in the story, Veera Kaur becomes Veer Pratap Singh sporting a turban and a beard. And thus it bears out the purpose of Veera living with a nautanki company called Jigri Yaar Dance Company, adept at costumes and disguises.
Her journey in the cricket arena leads to lot of humor, romance and on and off manifests the spirit of India for the sport. It ensembles all the superhit ingredients of the Yash Raj films like situations evoking patriotism, feel of DDLJ and loud Punjabi dialogues like main ek Punjabi baap ka Punjabi beta hoon. In the climax, when Veera’s speech about allowing girls to dream freely will certainly move the audience. Unarguably, Rani is looking better than what she has in years and Shahid too looked dashing. The only two spoilsports in the sporty film are Sherlyn Chopra and Rakhi Sawant.
By the way DBH is the Punjabi version of the 2006 high school rom-com “She’s The Man’ in which a girl disguises herself as her brother to get in a soccer team.
Catch up DBH to see the fiery chemistry between first-time paired Bollywood ki rani Rani Mukherjee and Kamine star Shahid Kapoor.
-Sampurn Media

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Dil Bole Hadippa Movie Review was first posted on September 18, 2009 at 6:24 pm.
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