International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2006

December 5, 2006

International Film Festival of India (IFFI) At the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) which recently concluded at Goa, invitees lived up to the flavour of celebration in more ways than one. While some took to the merriment by indulging in the Mid Eastern, German and Goan cuisine, others got into the Hippy movement by sporting bell-bottoms, love beads and the happy-go-lucky look of the 60s.

INOX, one of the official venues of IFFI 2006, celebrated its hosting this awards ceremony for the third consecutive year by throwing a Flower Power themed party. Black Dog scotch was the official spirits partner of the evening. As the evening progressed, people took to dancing on the tunes of some golden tracks.

On the beach front lawns of Cidade De Goa, the theme of the party was specially chosen to reflect the unique chilled out vibe of Goa and to give everyone the opportunity to let their hair down and party. Peace, love and freedom were the pillars of the hippy movement where INOX and
Black Dog attempted to recreate that very special era. Done up like a Goan flea market; stalls of trinkets, artifacts, wooden carvings, papier-mâché, antiques and fabrics were up on display. Here, actors Revathi and Suhasini Maniratnam showed keen interest in the future-telling sessions by the in-house tarot card reader and astrologer.
International Film Festival of India (IFFI)
The Chief Minister of Goa, Pratap Singh Rane along with Alok Tandon, COO, INOX Leisure Ltd gladly greeted celebrities including Manisha Koirala, Deepti Naval, Atul Kulkarni, Suresh Oberoi and Nafisa Ali Khan.
Singer Raageshwari kicked off the party with a neat performance and people took on to the numbers with much gusto. The Boney M troop members were also present and grabbed much limelight. With so much happening all around, many guests were seen enjoying a bit of the performance, palmistry and warm togetherness.

‘Flea’ for all !

As the party was done up in a Goan flea market look, Manisha Koirala took ample time off to admire the papier-mache handicrafts and got some trinkets to take back home too.

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Shahrukh Khan in his royal buggy at Delhi

December 5, 2006

Shahrukh Khan The world has known him as King Khan for long. On Sunday, Shah Rukh Khan proved once again that he was way beyond the blue blood. SRK couldn’t have been more at ease, waving to Delhi’s adoring crowds astride a horse-drawn carriage with a cavalcade of horsemen accompanying him, like the Badshah that he is. And Delhi just couldn’t stop applauding. But then, style and royalty are not the only things Khan is known for. There is charm to boot as well. A smile here and a wave there, and the pretty young things and their mothers were all left gasping.

But trouble began when the screaming crowds wanted to get up, close and personal. That was when SRK’s security guards got to work. So, a request for an autograph meant asking one securitywallah, who then asked another, who then checked with SRK. But was Delhi complaining? Nope. In fact, one pretty lady was heard telling another, “Everybody seems to be talking about his walking the ramp. Wow!”

But then, SRK has always been a style icon. Good friend and haute designer Manish Malhotra has declared Shah Rukh to be the best dressed star in the country — which was further accentuated by the black bandhgala suit that the actor wore — while another designer friend Rohit Bal waxed eloquent about Khan’s off-screen presence and style quotient. However, the star’s pronounced limp throughout had many guessing why. “I hurt myself recently while shooting for a film in Australia. The pain is very much there,” was all that he said.

Well or not, Khan hogged all the limelight even as his colleagues from Bollywood stepped back. Saif Ali Khan, on his part, sat in the second last row along with his abba, keeping a low profile. But that did not stop SRK from walking to Saif and giving him a bear hug. Or saying a hi to Arjun Rampal.

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Item Girl Rakhi Sawant’s first love

December 5, 2006

Rakhi SawantThe firebrand Rakhi Sawant is back, and how! After a month of confinement in Sony’s Big Boss (BB) House, Rakhi recently stepped out after being voted out much to the shock of audience who felt that there’s something fishy going on. “I’d like to tell the audience that there is nothing fishy about the SMS voting system. It is the other members of the BB family who are to be blamed for my getting thrown out. I went into the house without knowing that I would have to put on an act. I behaved totally naturally, unaware of the scripted moves, politics and groupism going on behind my back; which is what led to my getting thrown out. But it’s ok. I have my hopes pinned on the Wild Card entry round, which I hope earnestly to win. And trust me, if I go back, the others will run for cover. They will not know where to hide their face after all the things they have done to me” fumes the actor who however adds, that her revenge will be sweet and not aggressive. “I have learnt from my past mistakes and now, if I go in, I’ll play my cards very safely,” says Rakhi.

Despite her ouster, Rakhi feels that BB is one of the best experiences of her life. “Firstly, it came at a time when my image had gone for a complete toss after the Mika scandal that had completely broken me down. I used to cry myself to sleep every night due to the ignominy that I was being subjected to. That apart, the stint helped discover the woman in me. After I came back, I have mellowed down a huge deal. I have learnt to adjust with diverse kinds of people. I came in touch with my feminine side that had been hidden for all these years beneath the tomboyish image that I had to nurture, in order to survive in this industry. But more than all that, thanks to BB, I found my true love!” says Rakhi, even as she quickly adds, “No, not Amit Sadh! I am talking about Abhishek Awasthi, my friend and choreographer, who had stood by me through thick and thin in the past two years and had proposed to me 25 times till date, only to be snubbed every time. After going through the bitter-sweet experiences with the matters of the heart at BB, I have fallen in love for the first time in my life!” But what does Rakhi have to say to the buzz that this is yet another publicity stunt? “My God, please spare me this time! Let me enjoy my first brush with romance, happily.”

But while on that, can we please have the truth about Amit Sadh? “See, I admit, I went to befriend Amit but that was because I was looking for a friend of my age, and who shared my likes. Amit fitted the bill and I only wanted to become a friend. But he started looking at me with a lovey-dovey nazar. I know, he was missing Neeru and did not intend to do so, but asar toh ho hi jaata hain na? Why did he start looking at me in that way, in the first place? But anyways, after whatever has happened, he has gone down completely in my eyes. I can never forgive him for accepting my friendship first and then acting like a coward and behaving meanly with me. He is such an arrogant and mean natured guy, I will never befriend him again even if he comes to me for the same.”

However, Rakhi has forgiven Kashmira after whatever she did to her. “With Kash, I have let bygones be bygones. I found it easy to forgive her. Woh naadaan hain. In fact, I had even called her up last night since it was her birthday. She has not responded till now but she will.”

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Subhash Ghai approaches Salim Khan for price cut

December 5, 2006

Salman KhanSalman Khan is a man with a big heart. Word has it that he’s buried the hatchet with old-time dushman Subhash Ghai to work with the showman again. According to the grapevine, Ghai suddenly decided to cut the movie’s budget and thought of many ways by which to trim the financials.

The difficult part was approaching Salman to reduce his price—who would bell the cat? Buzz has it that Ghai decided to approach Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan for counsel. He apparently wanted to ask him to request Salman to ‘consider’ a pay cut. Mr Khan, is supposed to have told Ghai that he would revert the next day.

When D-day arrived, and Ghai called, Salimsaab is reported to have said, “I thought about it. And I’ve reached the conclusion that Salman has charged too little, going by his market standards. You should consider a ‘pay hike’!’ Now we know where Salman gets his business acumen from!

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Bollywood Babe Priyanka Chopra plays a wondergirl in Hollywood

December 5, 2006

Priyanka ChopraThe buzz is that Priyanka Chopra (whose Bollywood career graph is soaring at present) is all set to play Wondergirl in Hollywood.

But ask her about the offer and she stays tightlipped, “Till something happens, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m not confirming the news or denying it right now.” Spoken like a veteran — she’s learnt the tricks of the trade pretty well, our worldly wise woman?

“Rubbish! I’m hardly worldly wise. As for the career graph, it’s just that destiny has been on my side so far.” Speaking of which, doesn’t she need an ideal man to ‘protect’ her? “It’s not about a man. It could be a mother too. A woman just needs someone,” Priyanka confides, and then adds, “I’m a very confused person. I think most women are like that. But the whole world thinks I am worldly wise, so I’ve kept the façade going,” she laughs.

“I’m completely clueless. I haven’t learnt anything. I’m really scared of being part of such a huge world and totally alone. I’m still very scared and at the beginning of the learning curve. I’m just grateful that good things have happened to me so far.” After all those ‘good things’ in the form of hits, does she consider herself a good actor? “I don’t think of myself as a great or even a good actor,” confesses Priyanka. “I don’t even think of myself as average. I have a lot to do. I am not a trained actor and I don’t come from the film fraternity. I really think I need a lot more experience to reach the top actors of today. Today’s newcomers are trained in their fields. I had absolutely no training.” But Priyanka seemed to be pretty good at comic roles going by her films so far. “No, I am not tilting towards comedy. Don was a complete action film. Aap Ki Khatir was a romantic comedy, and so is Salaam-e-Ishq, but I took up the films because I loved the roles, not because of the genre.”

Is she dying to do another genre right now? “I haven’t done any tragic or drama based films. I’ve done a negative character, and comedies. I want to do a real film. I don’t know what it will be, but when it comes along, I’ll know.”

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With Love Tumhara

December 3, 2006

With Love TumharaStarring Nakul Vaid, Preeti Jhangiani, Parveen Dabas, Sharat Saxena
Directed by Kamal D Nathani
Rating: * ½

Love is …an unread diary. War-widow specialist Preeti Jhangiani (didn’t she play one in her debut film Mohabbatein) gets down to read her dead soldier-lover’s diary.

Half a sentence later, there’s an electricity failure. The diary never returns…Neither does a mellow momentum that the narrative so desperately seeks to generate through the cold climes of Himachal.

With Love…Tumhara is not so much a film as a television soap about two solidiers, Vaid and Dabas, apparently bonding during the Kargil war, in a makeshift barrack that looks like a a set for a warehouse off-season sale.

Cut to another location. Soldier No 2 stands at Soldier No 1’s papa’s doorstep with the dead man’s things.

Remember that moment in Rang De Basanti when mother Waheeda Rehman received air squadron Madhavan’s things in a suitcase?

Films with an army backdrop always have a very humane tale to tell. So does this one. Lamentably director Nathani doesn’t go beyond the ambience of a neat soap opera. The pacing is sluggish…. A kind of soap on a rope with no hope to whip up a lather.

The film does have a sweet timbre of romance trickling through its veins. But the atmosphere never develops into a likable triangle among a man woman and the ghost of her lover which comes in the way of her right to renewed happiness.

Nakul Vaid has a charming aura to support his sketchy now-you-see-him-now-you-don’t role. Parveen Dabas in the much meatier role has to go from soldier to lover to martyr….The transitions are undertaken in the spirit of a television mini-series with the commercial breaks replaced by sporadic soporific songs that tell us nothing about love and romance….except that they can be mighty boring for onlookers. Who says all the world loves a lover?

The girls are specially at a loss in the romantic cul de sac. Anupama Verma plays the rich bitch with a whining insistence that takes us back to her stint in the reality show Bigg Boss where she just goes on and on complaining.

Preeti Jhangiani in her author-backed role of the soldier’s beloved who chooses to live with his memory, offers plasticity in place of passion.

She has some terrific moments of emotion with her screen father-in-law Sharat Saxena who wants her to marry his son’s friend..Sadly noble intentions do not make a watchable film. With Love…Tumhara makes you weep more for there isn’t than what is.

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