Ra.one Game, Cinthol Deo, King Khan Film Festival

Shahrukh Khan will launch UTV Indiagames Social Game for Ra.one in Bombay on Monday Oct 3. On Oct 4, SRK will launch Cinthol Ra.one special edition Deo. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) have partnered with Ra.one to make a game based on the film for the Playstation platform. There's an event in Bombay on wednesday Oct 5 for its launch. Shahrukh will be present at the event. We at Bollywood Hungama are starting a 'King Khan Film Festival' beginning from the middle of October. The 60 second promo of this Festival is kick-ass. Will share soon.
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Force: An Impactful Masala Entertainer

At the early morning show of 'Force' at a suburban multiplex here in Bombay, the almost-full-hall reverberated with occasional whistles (specially in the first half) as John Abraham put his mutton-shop-muscles to good use in decimating whatever opposition that came his way. Director Nishikant Kamath, after the superb 'Mumbai Meri Jaan', is back with action drama 'Force' (remake of South import Kaakha Kaakha) that carries his intelligent stamp (and yes the shortcomings can be blamed on the 'commercial compulsions'). Smart back-n-forth switches in storytelling and a studied attempt at showcasing 'Masala' in a realistic manner makes 'Force' interesting watch.

ACP Yashwardhan (John) is spearheading the Narcotics Control Bureau. He along with his 'Force' aim to wipe out the drug mafia. One of the kingpins Reddy (Mukesh Tiwari) is killed by the 'Force'. His maniac brother Vishnu (Vidyut Jamwal) goes after the four good men. Action director Allan Amin has a crucial role in the film. His kick ass action ensures the fast paced narrative pumps in pounds of adrenaline. John Abraham, with his beefed up persona is sincerity personified. This is arguably his best performance. Action or emotion...John packs in a solid punch.

Ayananka Bose's cinematography is competent. The songs have been shot beautifully. Khwabon Khwabon is a fine song. In fact Harris Jayraj's music is consistently good. But the songs tend to drag the film and deviate from the fast flow of the story telling. Mohnish Bahl's wife Sandhya Mridul is stopped by Vishnu and suddenly John-Genelia go in a romantic mode killingly delaying the suspense and needlesly alter the mood.

Ritesh Shah's writing is inconsistent. The scene where John confronts his senior Raj Babbar after a colleague's death creates an impact but when Sandhya Mridul tells John on phone, "now go lose your virginity" one gets a corny feeling. After causing colossal damage, Vishnu, in the climax scene gives ample time to Yashwardhan to brood over his loss. Why give away your life on a platter dude? Aarif Shaikh's editing boasts of cool editing chops. If only he was given the luxury of chopping a couple of songs or at least reducing their duration, he'd have been on a sound wicket.

Genelia Dsouza has a cute role and she does full justice to it. The romance between John-Genelia is endearing to start with but the extra footage given to the blossoming mohabbat derails the narrative of the film. Mohnish Bahl is good. New boy Vidyut Jamwal is quite a find. 'Agneepath' director Karan Malhotra at the promo launch had said, "bigger the villain, bigger the film". Vidyut proves the statement right. He is mean, deadly, uncharacteristiscally good looking, suave and has a terrific solid body. John's aide Kamlesh is a super find as well. He brings in some lighthearted comic moments in the film.

Nishikant Kamat's 'Force' is a full on masala action flick that entertains and amuses. Yes, there are shortcomings too. But, if you are a sucker for full on commercial entertainment, 'Force' won't disappoint you.

Star Rating: ***
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Hum Tum Shabana: A Disaster-Comedy

Minisha 'Shabana' Lamba is a beauty queen contestant. In spite of her puffy face and exercise-deprived-flab, she wins a couple of coveted titles. Not because she deserves it. Rather, two changu mangu hyperventilating managers of the Contest firm, Rishi (Tusshar Kapoor) and Kartik (Shreyas Talpade) are besotted by her. And obviously, their 'free advice', aided by some listerine induced bad jokes ensure that Shabana's dreams coast along merrily bouncing on some listless party tracks. As you may have understood by now, Sagar Ballary's 'Hum Tum Shabana' is a silly attempt at comedy that tests your patience. Unimaginably.

Rhea (Pia Trivedi) throws caustic verbal volleys to bring Shabana's winning wagon to a halt. Changu Mangu, smitten by Shabana, jointly propose to her. Enter Panju Don (Satish Kaushik), Shabana's Chacha with a strange fetish for Kaaju, Kishmish, Badaam and Akhrot. If you wanna win over Shabana, then you gotta participate in Panju Don's Alsatian-dogs powered reality show that 'tests' your capabilities or rather 'grooms' the prospective groom for the tough-road-ahead.

Rhea is kidnapped. She grooves to a sexy number with Changu Mangu in Don's Den. Ridiculous lampooning of a Janaaza procession adds to the absurdity. When Panju Don is upset, he slaps himself and when he is happy with someone, the dude gets slapped. The audience, I guess is expected to laugh which sorely doesn't happen. Munna Military (Sanjay Mishra) tries to breathe in some life in this high decibel, tacky madness. Farhajaan Shaikh's story/screenplay and Sharat Katariya's dialogues doesn't give him much scope. Shabana goes missing in the second half except for a token Kheer-ka-dabba moment (Jhagda with director behind this Shabana?). Screwless-Folks finally enter a Horror House and the most bizarre gesticulations follow. At this point, I lost it. Ran out of the theatre gasping for breath, climbed down the seven stories staircase in an animated state and heaved a sigh of relief on sighting normal civilisation on the road. I guess I didn't miss out much by not waiting to witness the (anti) climax. You won't either if you stay away from this disaster-comedy. Phew!

Star Rating: 1 star (The one star is for Pia Trivedi's hot dance number)

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SRK At GQ Awards, Salman-SanjayMagic...

Shahrukh Khan, Gauri Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Imran Khan, Sushma Reddy, Yuvraj Singh, Karan Johar, Freida Pinto, Deepika Padukone, Neha Dhupia, Sameera Reddy, Anushka etc are present at the ongoing GQ Awards here in Mumbai tonight Sept 29. Our reporter Zoheb Jamadar is present there right now.

Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt were quite a laugh riot at the Bigg Boss 5 Press Conference at Mahboob Studio today evening. Our cameraman Alok Dubey was present there. We shall be featuring the video of this event tomorrow morning. Alok says that the bonding between Sanjay-Salman is extremely entertaining.

At another event, 'Delhi Belly' DVD was launched at a Mall in Bombay. Apparently both the Hindi as well as the Hinglish versions are there in this DVD along with the uncensored version of the film as well.

Shahrukh Khan was also present at the Just Dance finale today as well.

I saw two films today. Saheb Biwi aur Gangster is a well written, engrossing film while Hum Tum Shabana can be dubbed as Disaster Comedy. Worth staying far far away.

Good night folks.

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster: Gripping Saga Of Sexual Politics

So true a fool is love, that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, justifies Shakespeare's wisdom. Once again. This Macbeth-revisited lust-stained-love-story is credited with some superb performances, great dialogues and a highly under promoted yet gripping soundtrack. Writer-Director Tigmanshu Dhulia is in full form and its apparent that he has enjoyed himself tweaking the trajectory of his characters at will, igniting quirky situations and absorbing responses.

Dhulia goes back to the brilliance of his directorial debut film 'Haasil'. The setting is Uttar Pradesh. Coloured language is seeped in the context of the conflicting royalty and rusticity. And there are many dialogues which are clap-n-whistle worthy. It is also a film that showcases explicit sex scenes in an attempt to justify the sexual politics that decides the fate of its characters.

The performances are top notch. Be it the main lead, the supporting cast and even minor characters (Mahi's deaf n dumb confidante for example) play a pivotal role in making the film an engrossing watch. Jimmy Shergill internalises the cynicism, natural royal appeal and the licence-to-be-an-ayyash persona expertly. He has some of the best lines in the film. Mahi Gill dabbles with madness and smartness with a calculated ease. Randeep Hooda displays loutish body language that goes right with his rogue character. When he coaxes Mahi to massage his legs, the aspirational designs of his character filters through subconsciously. Vipin Sharma as Gainda Singh is very good and so is the guy who plays the minister.

Music is the surprise package of the film. Especially because it has not been promoted that well. Saheb bada hatela, Chu Chu and Jugni are special numbers and add value to the narrative of the film. Aseem Mishra's camerawork is very good. The pace of the film slackens at times though the climax more than makes up for it.

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster is a fine piece of cinema. But, since it is inspired from Macbeth, one can't help but recall Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Maqbool' which had the same plot. Dreaded don, his cheating wife, the confidante-turned-enemy aided by sexual jealousy. All said and done, Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster has enough merits to earn your ticket. Try it out.

Star rating: 3 1/2 stars.
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Big B Honours Abba With Jnanpith Award: Video And Pics

September 18, 2011 will be a special day for my family. My father Prof Shahryar received India's highest literary honour from the hands of Mr Amitabh Bachchan. I along with my wife Aarefa and daughter Insha reached Delhi on Sept 17. We stayed at the India International Centre. Abba joined us in the afternoon and was staying in the room adjacent to us. It is good to see his health improving somewhat. Hope it improves further. Inshallah. He had the option of having lunch and dinners with the biggest of dignitaries who had been calling him non stop. But he preferred a quiet meal with us rather than getting carried away by the humungous fan fare. He loves to have ice cream after food. He ensured that he has it anyway. I ensured, the quantum of ice cream is kept under check :)

My brother Humayun along with his wife Tina came from Dubai. Tina is from Germany and this was her first visit to Delhi. On September 18 afternoon Abba wore his plush suit looking radiant and very happy. Mashallah. We were happy to see him in this state. The Jnanpith Award function was held at the Indian Air Force Auditorium. Mr Bachchan said some wonderful things about Abba. It was obvious that Mr Bachchan had done his research and tried his best at understanding Abba's poetry. A book edited by Gulzar sahab, 'Shahryar Suno' was also unveiled at the function. Abba's speech as always, was precise and to the point. He speaks softly but what he says, carries a lot of weight. We celebrated with a lavish family dinner in his room later that night. The trophy presented to him is very heavy. The sentiments attached with the honour are even heavier. As I said earlier, September 18, 2011 will always be special and memorable for us. I am sharing the video and a few pics from this function. Hope you like it.

"Katrina Shouldn't Have Apologised...": Gul Panag

An interview with Gul Panag has been pending for many months. We've interacted on twitter. And it was fun. Finally, we met today at the Bollywood Hungama Meet N Greet for Visit Finland. It was an intellectually stimulating interview. The best part about Gul is that she doesn't shy away from speaking her mind bluntly. Almost always.

Panag said that Katrina shouldn't have apologised on her Rahul Gandhi statement. She would want to join politics at some stage but acc to her one party is very corrupt while the other is communal. A strong feminist, she is trying to make a difference through her social work in creating awareness about problems faced by women.

Gul feels that the film folks are generally not taken seriously by the media or the politicians when it comes to raising voice on serious issues as the tweets or statements issued by film guys are an attempt in tokenism and little else.

She emphasised that she is more than an actress. Her pursuits like travelling, social causes, biking are very dear to her as well. On being asked why she did silly films like Hello Darling, she said that there was a difference in what was offered and what finally transpired on screen. Her next release is Fatso starring Ranvir Shourie and Purab Kohli. Like her character Naina in Turning 30, Gul would like to write a book at some point too.

It was a pleasure interacting with Gul Panag today. She talks a lot and talks fast. But chatting up with the girl with the most adorable dimples in the country was a sheer delight. And yes, there's much more to her than a very attractive personality. Her head strong nature can be a bit intimidating but there's a genuine warmth and honesty that stayed on in my mind for quite a while as I walked away..... More power to you Gul Panag.
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