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Posts tagged Zakir Hussain
Soha Ali Khan gets roughed up
09 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Parag Maniar (BOMBAY TIMES; August 11, 2012)
While shooting for a brutal scene in her new film, Chaarfutiya Chhokre, Soha Ali Khan didn’t allow any still cameraman be on the sets. “Usually there’s a photographer present on the sets clicking pictures for continuity’s sake. But we had to do away with them for this particular scene,” revealed a unit source. Apparently, the scene, a crucial part of the film, required the villain (played by actor Zakir Hussain), rip apart her shirt in a disgusted manner exposing her. The source said, “In the scene, Soha is thrown in front of Zakir who starts to beat her and humiliate her and in the process has to tear off her shirt completely. She felt uncomfortable doing the scene in the presence of the photographers. But once they were off the sets, Soha, like a thorough professional, played the victim and allowed the villains to be their most evil selves.” Soha was manhandled and pushed and in the bargain landed up getting badly bruised. “Despite injuries, she continued to shoot and refused to use a duplicate. The manhandling caused red patches and marks on her arms and the back. There were places she was badly wounded too and had to be given medical aid,” concluded our source.
Movie Review: SHOR IN THE CITY by FENIL SETA
02 years ago
2 years ago, there arrived a small gem of a film, 99. Directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, it was a terrific roller-coaster ride and showed how one can come up with a gripping and funny tale based on a true incident. And when the director duo announced their next, Shor In The City, naturally I was waiting for it with bated breath. The film is ready since months but couldn’t release as it was touring festivals, wowing the audiences worldwide! This further upped my curiosity by many notches! Finally, Shor In The City has released and thankfully, meets all the expectations! It is quirky, engaging, completely absorbing and gives a paisa vasool time to the viewers!
The story of the movie: Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor) is newly married to Sapna (Radhika Apte) and runs an illegal book printing house alongwith his rowdy buddies Mandook (Pitobash Tripathi) and Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi). A routine robbery in the train results in their world going upside down. Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is an NRI who has come back to India to start a new business. As news spread that a rich NRI has arrived, the local goons (Zakir Hussain, Suresh Dubey) threaten him to pay ‘protection money’. Sawan (Sundeep Kishan) is an aspiring cricketer who wishes to get into Under 22 Mumbai Cricket Team. But he realizes that won’t be possible unless he coughs up a huge amount of money, something which he doesn’t have. On the other hand, his girlfriend Sejal (Girija Oak) is pressurizing him to act More >
Movie Review: SHOR IN THE CITY by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, April 25, 2011 – 11:50 IST
A major chunk of the film industry is under the misapprehension that when a film makes it to the festival circuit, it holds zilch prospects at the box-office. It isn’t for the aam aadmi; these films are sans entertainment. Tags such as offbeat and unusual are attached to it, even before the audience can give its mandate. But the perception has gradually changed with time, with more and more people getting cinema literate. These films have been successful in striking a chord with the festival crowd as well as passionate moviegoers. Most importantly, these films have quashed the notion that they aren’t commercially viable.
SHOR IN THE CITY, which won tremendous acclaim at various international festivals, takes this legacy forward. Like some striking films in the past, this one has the power to mesmerize and fascinate the festival crowd as well as those looking for an intelligent film while planning a trip to cineplexes. Yet, it is not one of those regular entertainers that we churn out with amazing regularity and which insult the intelligence of the viewer.
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMGet ready for a film that keeps you on the edge, but at the same time is one helluva entertaining film. As a film, SHOR IN THE CITY absorbs you into its world in no time. It is slick, has a lot of nervous energy and also has its share of fun moments. This one actually stands out in the crowd due to its unconventional plotline as More >
Movie Review: SATRANGEE PARACHUTE by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, February 25, 2011 – 16:45 IST
We keep harping that we need to make films that cater to not just adults, but also kids. We make films keeping this segment of movie-going audience in mind. We even cast kids in stellar and pivotal parts. But we misfire most of the times. So what are the ‘golden rules’ that make a perfect, compelling kiddie film?
- One, the maker ought to opt for a theme that would depict kids as kids, not as super-heroes fighting a battalion of baddies.
- Two, the child protagonist should come across as a hero/winner towards the end. We want our protagonist to succeed, don’t we?
- Three, a good kiddie movie should not only entertain, but also enlighten the young minds. Also, the plot should be simple, unfussy and uncomplicated.
- Lastly, the subject material should be treated/executed with dexterity, with utmost sensitivity and a certain maturity.
Unfortunately, SATRANGEE PARACHUTE makes no impact whatsoever. It is childish and amateurish!
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMPappu [Siddhartha Sanghani] flees his home in Nainital with four other friends, leaving their parents angry and worried. Pappu plans to buy a parachute for one of their friends Kuhu [Rajvi Suchak], which explains why the kids decide to flee their homes. The kids face obstacles in Mumbai as they are mistaken to be accomplices of four terrorists, who have also arrived in the city with nefarious plans.
SATRANGEE PARACHUTE lacks an interesting concept and also a convincing More >
Movie Review: PAYBACK by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, December 17, 2010 – 12:00 IST
Recall IS RAAT KI SUBAH NAHIN. The turn of events in a single night kept you on tenterhooks all through the film. PAYBACK has a different plotline, but like IS RAAT KI SUBAH NAHIN, the story unfolds in one night. But the similarities end there. Frankly, PAYBACK had the ingredients to be a riveting fare, but the mundane writing plays the spoilsport.
I’ve often said that most Hindi films sound damn interesting on paper. I am sure, the concept of PAYBACK must’ve come across as fresh and innovative during story discussions, but the film comes down like a house of cards because the interesting idea becomes an uninteresting and unexciting screenplay, which tells on the film eventually. In fact, the film falls prey to predictability as it progresses.
Write your own movie review of PaybackKunal [Munish Khan], who works for an insurance firm, loves Ishita [Sara Khan], an architect. One fateful night, Kunal meets with a fatal accident. While he lies in a pool of blood, no passerby cares to stop and attend to him. Kunal, still conscious, is losing hope, when Raghu [Zakir Hussain] stops to help him. Raghu admits Kunal to a hospital and disappears into thin air. For Kunal, Raghu is an angel.
Three months later, Kunal accidentally meets Raghu and invites him over to his place. The next night, when Raghu appears at Kunal’s doorstep with a bullet shot in his shoulder, Kunal impulsively decides to help him out. But as More >
Movie Review: ALLAH KE BANDAY by TARAN ADARSH
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in External Reviews
By Taran Adarsh, November 26, 2010 – 08:55 IST
“ALLAH KE BANDAY pays homage to all the kids exposed to offense, misdeeds and crime,” debutant director Faruk Kabir announced to me when he screened for me the first promo of his film. In times when senseless comedies, rom-coms and thrillers are being lapped up at the box-office, here comes a director telling a realistic story of a bunch of bad young men taking up guns when they are preordained to take up education, taking up abhorrence when they are meant to take up love. The consequences are drastic, with these kids turning into negative forces, taking up crime as their mission as grownups as well.
Now this is a parable most directors would fear to make in their debut film, but Faruk seems on a mission to make ALLAH KE BANDAY watchable not only for its genre. The question is, does his statement that ALLAH KE BANDAY isn’t a film about crime, but our society in general come across effectively? Does ALLAH KE BANDAY have the power to magnetize the viewers all across or does it cater to a miniscule audience? Let’s analyze…
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COMThe Indian social order is evolving and so is Indian cinema. More and more directors are coming up with fresher ideas to tell tales that highlight and also influence changes in the fabric of our society. Faruk Kabir also seems like a youngster brimming with ideas, having a lot to tell in his own individualistic style. However, ALLAH KE BANDAY is not without its More >
Explore unconventional sources of film finance-Sona Jain
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Sona Jain, director of the critically acclaimed ‘For Real’ is a one woman army
Satyen K Bordoloi (MUMBAI MIRROR.COM; September 27, 2010)
Writer, director, producer Sona Jain’s exceptionality is not that she has articulated urban angst so maturely in For Real, or that she is a rare Indian ‘English’ filmmaker in recent past to have won so many awards, or that she indeed proved to be a one ‘woman’ army filmmaker.
Sona JainHer greatest achievement is that she toiled eight years with a good script without a godfather in the film industry, and proved that anyone with a good idea, skill and a good dose of guts and determination can do it. Few men have survived such odds pitted against their cinematic dreams. Finding a woman is rarer. That she did it with such sensitive, restrained panache catapults her to the top of indie filmmakers of India.
And she has advice that will ring music to the ears of aspiring filmmakers. “Don’t just focus on the known sources of money for your film. Venture out, look for unconventional ways,” she says. She would know. After being rejected by innumerable producers in India for years, she found the money in an IT fund in the US. “I raised the money myself. Partly it was venture capital, partly interest funding. There was a technology fund that wanted to venture into media and they found my film just right.” And she says she has been “extremely responsible” with their money. “You won’t believe if I More >