After many troubles Ae Dil Hai Mushkil finally released this weekend and we’re joined by Anisha Jhaveri (@Jhavanis) writer for Indiewire, to talk about Karan Johar’s new movie starring the all star cast of Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Fawad Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
We talk about:
Our expectations walking into a Karan Johar movie
Some alternative theories on how to view the ADHM
Deal with some of the major criticism the movies has faced
Is Ranbir Kapoor’s shtick getting old?
Is Anushka Sharma a new version of Geet from Jab We Met?
The wardrobe of ADHM: sneakers and red pocket liners on a pea coat
Was Aishwarya’s role over sold in the promos?
Aishwarya and Anushka straight out a magazine cover
Pakistan’s most famous Qawwali singer Ustad Rahat Fateh Khan, the nephew of the late, world-renowned singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, will perform his greatest hits live for the first time at The O2 on Sunday 14 August 2016.
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 22 April and are available at AXS.com or by calling 0844 856 0202 or from www.theo2.co.uk.www.theo2.co.uk.
But we have a pair of tickets to give away for Free! and it couldn’t be easier.
Just click on the banner below and sign up with your email adress, and the lucky winner will be randomly drawn. Deadline for the the competition is 8th of August! So sign up ASAP!
Click on the image to enter the competition!
The performance will coincide with Pakistan and India’s independence weekend celebrations and will be Ustad Rahat Fateh Khan’s only London show this year. Discussing his forthcoming show Ustad Rahat Fateh Khan said; ”I’m very excited to be performing at The O2, London, for the second time, following my sold out tour in 2013.
“Coming to the UK is always a thrill for me and my performance is timed to fit the Independence Day celebrations for both Pakistan and India. I have a fantastic team of musicians joining me and will be performing my greatest film hits and new material, as well as my esteemed Uncle, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s popular Qawwali numbers, to rock the arena.”
Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was chosen at birth by his uncle Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for tutoring in the traditions of qawwali music, a form of Sufi devotional popular in South Asia. Six weeks after his uncle’s death in 1997, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan took his position as leader of the group and has since become one of the most talked about Pakistani artists in the world.
Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has performed on a variety of recordings, and his songs and vocals have featured in numerous hit Hollywood and Bollywood films including Bodyguard, My Name is Khan, Dabangg, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Drishyam, the Hollywood film Apocalypto and many more.
The maestro has released over 50 albums with over 100 hits in Bollywood and has been presented with numerous awards including Star Screen Awards for Best Male Playback 2010 and the IIFA award for best male vocalist 2011. He has also been a judge on top TV shows in India such a Chhote Ustad and Junoon, Kuch Kar Dikhaane Ka. He was the headline performer at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2014 and recently performed at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in March 2016.
In 2014, Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan released his latest album ‘Back 2 Love’ which sold millions of copies worldwide.
The ticket will also include access to a variety of free live events and activities including Bollywood dance workshops, DJs, specially selected street food stalls and more.
For this week’s major Bollywood release Sultan, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and starring Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma, we are joined by Sujoy (@9e3k) and Anisha (@jhavanis) to break down a myriad of topics:
We gingerly discuss the topic of “Bhaicot”
The stand out supporting characters
Diversity and inclusion in Bollywood
We discuss Pradeep Menon’s article about Anushka’s feminism which you can find here
Ali Abbas Zafar and the stable of YRF directors
Sultan’s soundtrack
Spoiler section
What are hopes are for Dangal
The cruise liner of Bollywood Podcasts is back, this time joined by our friend Anisha Jhaveri, to break down the ups and downs of Zoya Akhtar’s dysfunctional family drama Dil Dhadakne Do.
Now that she’s 3 movies in, we can discuss:
What the characteristics of a Zoya Akhtar joint are
How succesful she is in combining content with entertainment and her place in the gaggle of nouveau Manmohan Desai film makers
What the movie would have felt like with the initial cast
The baggage of narrative devices
Beside the ins and outs of one of the most hyped movies of the year.
To anyone who has listened to our Jab Tak Hai Jaan Review (If you haven’t you should by clicking here) you can safely say that we are quite enamored by Anushka Sharma, I mean she could be reading the ingredients off a can of kidney beans in Binary code and we would listen with bated breath.
With the first song promo released of her forthcoming Vishal Bhardwaj directed Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, we see her singing and dancing and pretty much stealing the show from Imran Khan.
Now dancing may not be the man’s forte but the ability to grow quite impressive facial hair does seem to run in the family.
We’re quite looking forward to this movie although Vishal Bhardwaj rustic taste might not be for everyone’s taste buds.
Here is the poster, the first song promo and a synopsis of the movie.
Anushka Sharma and some other dudes
Set in the rustic surroundings of a village in Haryana in India, Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola is a comedy-drama about Harry Mandola (PANKAJ KAPUR), a wealthy industrialist who loves his drink, his daughter Bijlee (ANUSHKA SHARMA) and the unusual bond they both share with Harry’s man-Friday, Matru (IMRAN KHAN). Much to her father’s delight, Bijlee is all set to marry Baadal (ARYA BABBAR), the son of a powerful politician Chaudhari Devi (SHABANA AZMI). This alliance which is far from just being a simple union of two young people becomes the seed for a story that brings twists and turns in the lives of Matru, Bijlee and Mandola.
Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola releases on 11th January 2013 by Twentieth Century Fox.
This week we dissect Shah Rukh Khan’s latest movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan where he starts along side Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma (After Rab Ne Banadi Jodi).
Unfortunately this became legendary film director Yash Chopra’s final movie.
So does Jab Tak Hai Jaan still weave that classic Yash Chopra magic?
Does his cocktail of pathos laden, eternal love still work in todays Instant Noodle Age?
Can ShahRukh still romance a tree?
And can Katrina Kaif carry the mantle of legendary YRF heroines before her?
The trailer for the most looked forward to movie for the rest of the year is finally out after so much teasing and marketing strategizing. And when you finally watch it, you wonder, why didn’t they just show us the trailer straight away without all the ridiculous “We don’t have a title yet” strategy as the trailer really does stand on it’s own.
Lush visuals of Ladhak, the famous SRK arm stretch in London, a bubbly Anushka Sharma in booty shorts, Katrina Kaif playing the lover lost who you danced with in the rain in a bikini top laced over Shahrukh’s voice over of the poem written by producer Aditya Chopra that was released a couple of weeks ago with the poster, accompanied by the guitar of an AR Rahman soundtrack.
First some quick thoughts before I get into a bigger talking point:
I think my eyeballs might pop out from all the beautiful images on screen and I don’t just mean the lovely ladies but the locations (London hasn’t shot so beautifully in ages and hey I live here), the Royal Enfield and Harley Davidson bikes, even SRK scruffy beard. (Not such a fan of the cut off gloves)
Doesn’t that Free coffee sign behind Katrina Kaif ruin a bit of the visual? Even more so as the wafting of her hair feels like someone just opened the door to the local Starbucks.
The trailer is pretty spoilerific: You can figure out much of the storyline with this trailer alone and especially the yearning way the Katrina shots are taken.
I don’t want to see SRK wear a fedora. Fedora’s are for douches, period.
I’m calling it now; this will be my favorite soundtrack of the year. No one does what AR Rahman can do musically, I will fight people if they claim differently
Still not too sure about the poem itself, but this might be because of the horrible translations SRK was tweeting which made me unfollow him.
Cool Guys don’t look at explosions indeed
I think I’ve cracked the ShahRukh Khan mystery to a certain degree after watching this trailer.
Like most of us he has 2 distinct sides to his personality. The first is the ambitious orphan underdog/outsider that came to Mumbai to chase the love of his live (Lets’ call him Scrapper ShahRukh) and the other is the guy that became the biggest superstar in the Indian Film Industry after a certain Big B (AKA Superstar SRK).
Scrapper ShahRukh takes chances, give us an abundance of emotions, can romance a tree and make us believe that his mom did actually say that there are 2 paths in life, one good and one bad, the bad one is easy, the good one is hard but the only right one. (Darr, Baazigar, Swades, Chak De India)
Superstar SRK on the other hand has grand ambitions as a producer is cockier, loves his action mixed with his own brand of smarmy charm and wants to create the biggest film and effects studio in India. (He also wears Fedora’s and makes gay security guards think he’s wearing a Prince Albert)
In the past few years Scrapper SRK didn’t want to get bogged down in Raj/Rahul roles and after loosing some of his long-term collaborators, his inherent competitive streak mutated to Hulk like proportions making him implode into Superstar SRK what seemed like a permanent transformations.
Even working with Karan Johar and to a certain degree Aditya Chopra, we end up getting disjointed movies that never find a compromise with that internal tug of war. (Rab Ne Banadi Jodi almost being a play by play of this theory)
When Superstar SRK takes over a project (as the superstars doesn’t star in movies but projects), he will include in the package a blitzkrieg media campaign; an oversaturation of “I am the best and the rest is shit” quotes, and promote the movie in every village, country, city and social media platform until he wears himself out physically and emotionally.
I strongly believe most people don’t like this Shahrukh. (not including fanboys and girls as they are crazy loons)
Only the relationship people that knew him from way back when (Farah Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Aziz Mirza, Juhi Chawla and Yash Chopra) can tap into Scrapper Shahrukh again and when he let’s go of the reins, cinematic magic happens.
All that to say, I’m really happy we seem to be getting scrapper Shahrukh as I’ve really missed him.
Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma and director Maneesh Sharma come together once again under the YRF banner after their sleeper hit of last year Band Baaja Baarat, Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl is called a Rom-Con puntastically and banks heavily and is pretty much built around the popularity of the leading man, after Ranveer’s debut which almost ecplipsed his co-star unfairly.
Here we follow grifter Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) under his different guises as he cons Daddy’s Girl Dimple in Delhi (Parineeti Chopra) as a gym trainer, no non-sense business lady Raina in Mumbai as an art critic (played by former model Dippanita Sharma) and before that as shy garment manufacturer from a small village so where he duped the innocent Saira played by Aditi Sharma in Lucknow (Probably the most “evil” of cons).
The swindled ladies want to get back their money, respect or “boyfriend” back and hire salesgirl Ishika (Anushka Sharma) to con the “conner”.
Up to this point in the story (which is pretty much the interval) the movie is a joyous ride of the different cities, accents, get-ups, cultures and each of the different scams of which especially the one in Delhi is fun to watch. We see firecracker Ranveer proving his debut was not a fluke and he truly is a guy to watch out. Anushka makes an energetic introduction in Jazba, shaking her behind in front of dubbawhala’s in a station and Parineeti has us pretty much cracking up in every scene she is in almost playing a spoilt version of Shruti Kakkar, or is just that no nonsense Delhi accent she puts on? It makes certainly makes us look forward to her forthcoming movie Ishqzaade with Arjun Kapoor.
But then things start to go downhill as soon as the focus shifts to the duped trying to get back at Ricky.
As we discussed during our Matchstick Men Upodcast about con movies, a con movie is only as good as the con, and here there is not a moment that you truly believe that these girls will be able to have the upper hand on Ricky. What remains is the love story, which is underdeveloped, and when it does pop up, it comes out of nowhere.
If the pacing of a movie engrossing you don’t realize some loopholes but this is not the case in Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and the pace actually drops in the scenes were Ranveer isn’t present.
Although the supporting actresses are talented, and Saira was channeling a bit of Yasmeen from Dhobi Ghaat)
Both Anushka and Ranveer look great but as an audience member you almost feel cheated as I didn’t feel there was enough of them in the 2nd half of the movie. We never really get to understand Ricky and in a very “500 Days of Summer”- way we only see the version of Bloody Kamina that the victims of his cons show us. Making it that even the climactic scenes of character growth feel like they materialized out of thin air. I do think Ranveer was trying to channel a bit of Tanni from Rab Ne Banadi Jodi (before the reveal) looking at everything with mysterious glances, is he aware that he is being conned? Or is he just playing along? But this is probably just the performance trying to add more to an underdeveloped script.
Anushka is radiant, and there was lots of talk of her weight loss, some going as far as to shout anorexia but she manages to fill the screen with a positive energy that no other contemporary actress has. Some actresses ooze class, some sensuality, Anushka manages to do both and adds a girl next-door charm.
And god that smile… too bad Ishika, the character, doesn’t live up to the talent of this amazing performer.
The visuals are glossy as Christmas ornaments; every scene has the popping energy that we are used to YRF studios (I do wonder if this is a look that will translate to the US movies they are now producing)
The songs are mediocre although choreographed marvelously. I did feel that the undershirt dance in title track was reminiscent of the studios massive hit Dhoom 2′ s “Dhoom Machale”. The song placement is balanced and the performances by the leads against are so energetic they are enjoyable even though you wont be buying the soundtrack anytime soon (something I haven’t done either, although that jazz sample in the title track is pretty awesome)
Every close up is shot with lots of fans so hair is always flopping around, something I might have found more annoying as I was sitting super close to the screen. (I could actually see a couple of nose hairs poking out of Ricky’s pulling me totally out of the moment, I hope I didn’t spoil any moments)
All in all Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is quite fun and enjoyable even though I don’t imagine it ending up on any best of 2011 lists. Something I am preparing for a future Bollywood Upodcast so keep checking us out. Maneesh Sharma needs a better screenplay next time but it’s quite tough to capture lightning in a bottle. If you don’t go with the expectations of another Band Baaja Baraat, you will have a great time.
Something more:
I would love to see what Ranveer can do coming out of the YRF banner. The guy has such a screen presence and could totally take on more challenging and edgier roles if given the chance.
I would like to see Anushka Sharma in pretty much everything, she s such a delight to watch.
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is another in a long line of Yash Raj con after Bunty Aur Babli, Badmaash Company, the Dhoom series and in some ways even Rab Ne Banadi Jodi. Maybe Band Baaja Baraat connected more with audiences, as it was a movie about hard work and graft? Something we don’t seem to get as much in contemporary Hindi cinema.
It seems that Yash Raj studios have no idea how to portray the business world actually works. Salesmen are equated with con men (something that was also raised in last years Rocket Singh-Salesmen of the Year) and seem to be proud of duping their customers, something I inherently disagree with. Even Raina’s who’s supposed to be a hardnosed corporate manager also has to deal with interior decoration and also being a part time art critic
