Tag Archives: India

Coke Studio India

Posted by sudeepshukla on

Great News for the Coke Studio fans in India who was waiting to hear this. Coke Studio starts its India Chapter. After wooing the audience worldwide with the original Coke Studio (Pakistan), the first season will begin with Shafqat Amanat Ali’s “Aakhyian”.  Other confirmed artists includes Shruti Pathak, Shankar Mahadevan, Advaita ,Kailash Kher, Raghu Dixit  Wadali Bros, Sabri Bros, Shaan, Papon, Sanjeev T & KK and may be Ali Zafar.

The India Chapter known as Coke Studio @MTV is produced by Leslie Lewis. The show;s recording has already started with Episode one shot on April 30th. It is tipped to be aired in June. Can’t wait more now. Check out Their Facebook Site for more updates & Sneak Peaks’s - http://www.facebook.com/cokestudioatmtv?sk=photos

 


Photo Courtesy Mtv India

Bollywood’s first 3d- Haunted 3D- First Look

Posted by sudeepshukla on

After the Chillers like Raaz and 1920, Vikram Bhatt goes 3D with India’s first Stereoscopic 3D film- Haunted 3D , starring Mahakshay (Mimoh) Chakraborty & Twinkle Bajpa. Rumors are around that  Mahakshay’s voice is dubbed by Vikram Bhatt. Haunted is the story of a man (Chakraborty) who has been given the responsibility of selling a mansion in the hills. When he goes to the house, he realizes that it is haunted. He cannot do anything with the property until he gets to the bottom of this issue. The rest of the film seeks to unravel the mystery.

Doesn’t look interesting to me. Lets see if it proves me wrong. Check out the trailer here-

 

Phans Gaya Re Obama- FIRST LOOK & Official Trailer

Posted by sudeepshukla on

So news about this is out. I was waiting to hear about this movie and here it is.

Here is Phans Gaya Re Obama. Movie  directed by Subhash Kapoor starring Rajat Kapoor, Neha Dhupia, Amole Gupte and Sanjay Mishra. Now that is a good gang of actors which makes this movie more interesting to me. And I have heard that Neha Dhupia has sung a song in this. Apparently this is a comedy during the time of recession and traces a journey of a man who loses all his wealth overnight due to the recession & needs to vacate his home because of the $100,000 (mortgaged amount) he owes to the bank within 30 days.

Out of option he comes to India and like everybody in US he has a land in India and he comes to sell his ancestral property. But things are not so easy here. He gets kidnapped by an underworld gang. Now how he struggels and how everybody comes out of the this is the real questions and that’s what the movie’s surprise is. Now where does Obama fits in will still be disclosed post the release. For the time being we can be happy with the trailer-

India & Oscar- Always about Stars & Indian Poverty???

Posted by sudeepshukla on

So Peepli Live is the Indian’s official Oscar nomination but now again as always it makes me question if it’s the right choice. This is not new that every time a movie is nominated for Oscar there are questions, but I feel these question are valid. Why not movies with less star power gets nominated. But I feel there were other good films also running for the same position. Apparently Vasanthabalan’s reality film ‘Angadi Theru’ was the closest competition.

Then why did it lose?? because it didn’t had backing of Aamir Khan.  Aamir Khan produced ‘Peepli Live’ was chosen saying “the film is a reflection of India’s culture and ethos, even as it highlights the burning problem — farmer suicides.” But don’t we think we want to win and show the world only the poor side of the country??

This year too like every year there were better movies ready to go but didn’t get recognized because of lack of star power. This year there were five Tamil films out of the initially shortlisted 27 Indian films. Singam, Angadi Theru, Madrasapattinam, Raavanan and Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya. Notable other language films were Paa, Raajneeti, My Name is Khan, Three Idiots and Pazhassi Raja.

Atleast in among the Hindi movies Udaan according to me was the best to be nominated. The issue the movie raised are not only valid in India but surely global too. The movie was nominated for Cannes which shows its appeal to the world cinema. It did won applauds at various film festivals worldwide. But just because they couldn’t market itself the way Aamir does they lost the spot. If they want to represent India then I don’t think Udaan falls short anywhere.Udaan is about dreams of the young and the innocent and that also form the perspective of the dreamers. Rebellious, impatient boys, relationships people share, tussle between parents and the children, the movie had what it required according to me.  India is known for relationships worldwide. Farmer suicides are also there but its our internal apathy. Why do we want to show our carelessness to the world and how our media and politicians behave or how poor we are if we are?? Why can’t we show how creatively and nicely we can portray a other sensitive matters like relationships. These relationships can be between anybody. Relationship is the only one thing required worldwide today.

Lets see at some movies gone to Oscars which had big names and got DUD -

  • Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard was chosen, after a huge controversy, in 2007. But not surprisingly it failed to make it to the next round.
  • Rang De Basanti- Aamir Khan has a history with the Oscars. Despite being a success in India and wining applauds, it was eliminated out of the Oscar race at early stages only
  • Lagaan became the third Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film after Mother India in 1957 and Salaam Bombay! in 1989
  • 1947 Earth- Another Aamir movie which was considered as a powerful reminder of how a civilization cracked under certain pressures. But despite all such rave reviews, the film couldn’t crack the Oscars.
  • Hey Ram- Another  failed attempts of Indian films at the Academy Awards
  • Devdas & Paheli – Both were good success in the country but failed to impress the Oscar judges
  • Jeans- Held some record for a Tamil film with the maximum number of prints but was it a Oscar material..god and selection committee only knows…or may be Aiswarya Rai
  • Hindustani- Won 3 National awards, this Kamal Hassan starrer couldn’t win anything forget nominations or applauds
  • Henna- How many of you know that The Rishi Kapoor starrer  was India’s Oscar nomination
  • Parinda- Vidhu Vinod Chopra had Parinda besides, Eklavya, for Oscars  but as usual it was also disqualified at the 1990 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
  • Saagar – Ramesh Sippy’s movie starring Kamal Hasan & Rishi Kapoor starrer was also sent for the Oscars.

I can still name out a few more but then result has been the same. The only movies I don’t question has been Salaam Bombay & maybe Bandit Queen.  Our Nominators think that of all the movies from India that has been nominated in ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category – Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan are based on people with impoverished/rural background & they may have been trying to bank on the success of Slumdog Millionaire and the various discussions on poverty-porn.

I believe now its time for our Jury to give some rest to our “Stars” and “poverty” and see beyond them. Indian Cinema is growing and going places. Its time for us to think beyond few cliche’ and show what more we can give. I still say Peepli Live is not a bad story or not a god movie but Oscar material?? Doubtful.