Dil Chahta Hai
The Film: Dil Chahta Hai
Cast: Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna and Preity Zinta
Producer: Ritesh Sidwani
Director: Farhan Akhtar
Music Directors: Shankar, Ehsan, Loy
One more story about relationships and love. The movie originally titled "Hum Teen", "Dil Chahtai Hai" deals with three friends and their impact on each other's lives. The story shows different perpective on love.
Akash (Aamir Khan) is a casanova and doesn't believe in love. To him a relationship should be pure fun. Sameer (Akshaye Khanna) is a true believer in love. He believes that someone somehwere is for made just for you, you just have to look for her. He falls in love with an older woman, Dimple Kapadia (Tara). Siddharth (Saif Ali Khan), also does not know what is love and does not understand true meaning of love. He loves every girl that comes on his way. Sonali Kulkarni (Pooja) There's no real establishing of her character. Preity Zinta (Shalini) believes in love and is as usual beautiful and vibrant.
Aamir Khan is excellent in the movie. It seems that 2001 is the year of him. First his home production Lagaan and now this. He was always good looking and a great actor and he once again proves it in this movie. He has done comedy and dance sequence very well. Saif Ali khan is also good. Akshye Khanna is seen after soo long.. I guess after Taal. It seems that he has started losing his hair. He is okay, not good. In close up scenes something looks wrong with his lips. Priety Zinta is excellent. She looks pretty and charming as usual.
The production values of the movie are pretty high, right from the clothes (Aamir, Saif and Akshaye's college wear, Preity Zinta's summer dresses) to the sets -- bright reds, deep blues, and rich greens including the art deco furniture. The entire look is very vibrant and colorful. The camera-work is wonderful too - from sweeping aerial shots of the Sydney Opera House to tight close-up in emotional scenes.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music's was also good. The best of all is 'Woh ladki hai kahaan' - excellent and hilarious picturization. Farhan Akhtar has an impressive debut. The film being his own script, he has developed his characters very well.
This movie cost 15 crores to produce. It was shot in Sydney (Australia), Goa, and Mumbai.
The film is inspired loosely by Hollywood flick Reality Bites.
Overall it is the good different movie which does entertain you. What more do you want from movie :)
Rating: ***** Must see movie.
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Movie Preview : Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat
Yash Sabbarwal (Sunil Shetty) is an enterprising billionaire who excels in business strategy. He is smitten by the brilliant and lovely Isha Nair (Kirti Reddy). She is a brilliant medical student and her idealism wants to lead her to Scotland for advance research. Yash himself sends her away by giving her a scholarship for further studies in Scotland!
In Scotland, Taj Bharadwaj (Aftab Shivdasani), an endearing and loveable guy, falls badly for Isha. Born and brought up in a royal luxury, Taj is a perfect NRI gentleman, ever ready to lend his shoulder to a damsel in distress. He has only one problem and that's a major one. Isha, the girl he adores, treats him as her best friend. And nothing more!.
And then comes Gaurav (Arjun Ramphal), a good looking model who enjoys playing the most dangerous game of all - the game of love. He has an ability to cast a spell on any woman. He takes on a dare devil challenge to win and then break a girl's heart. The girl? The innocent and lovely Isha!. Who has given him the challenge and why?
Also meshed in this story are Rubaina (Isha Koppikar), a young charming girl who is the leader of Mini India - her NRI group of friends and Maya (Monica Bedi), a talented and a creative advertising film producer who has heartbreakingly discovered that love is an illusion in the most uncertain world of relationships.
So in the grand finale, who lands with up whom? Who will succeed in winning Isha's heart?
Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat is an enchanting love story of three young men and a lovely girl. The movie will make you laugh, cry and make you believe in the magic of love...all over again.
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Astitva, Lagaan among others for IIFF
Come October and it is time for the 32nd India International Film Festival. This year the venue is Bangalore and Oorku Nooruper a film by B Lenin will inaugurate the feature film catergory at the Indian Panorama Section. The panel, headed by Shahji N Karun, has selected thirty films to be screened at the festival. Among regional language films to be selected are Astitva by Mahesh Manjrekar, Deham by Govind Nihalani Bariwali by Rituparno Ghosh, Dhyaas Parva by Amol Palekar, Munnudi by P Sheshadri, Uttara by Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Mansur Mianr Ghor by Nabyendu Chatterjee. Lagaan, Zubeidaa and Bavandar will be among the Hindi films to be featured.
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Indian corporates target Bollywood
The Indian corporate world is waking up to the power of cinema to push sales
and capture the attention of the consumer.
Up until now Indian businesses typically considered sponsorship deals with
sports such as cricket.
But the huge box office success of some recent films have made them sit up
and take notice of Bollywood as a business and sales promotion avenue.
The theme song from the recent Bollywood blockbuster, Lagaan or taxes, will
now be used as a promotional jingle for one of India's largest consumer
goods companies, Brittania Industries.
Film memorabilia and signed posters of the stars of Lagaan will be
distributed to consumers as part of the $1m sales promotion campaign
launched by the company on Monday.
And since the period film is all about a cricket match between Indian
villagers and a British eleven, the final prize for the lucky winners will
be a cricket match with the Lagaan eleven.
Sunil Alagh, managing director of Brittania industries, said: "I see this
trend growing substantially...what we are doing more in India, and we have
been amongst the lead in this, we are trying to get the characters of the
film involved, rather than the actor."
"The two things people in India love are films and sport and here we have a
combination of both," he added.
While this may be the first instance of an Indian company tying up with a
Bollywood hit to push sales and generate awareness about its product range,
other corporates have also begun to use cinema as an advertisement medium.
A film released earlier this month, Yaadein or memories, in fact looked more
like an ad as the film's producer-director seemed to concentrate more on
promoting a cola, a mouth freshener and even a popular bicycle than bother
about the storyline.
But while the critics did not like what they saw, the film's financiers
pocketed nearly $1m.
While warning against overkill, analysts say this new relationship between
cinema and industry is likely to become stronger as both sides realise the
benefits.
The Indian corporate world is waking up to the power of cinema to push sales
and capture the attention of the consumer.
Up until now Indian businesses typically considered sponsorship deals with
sports such as cricket.
But the huge box office success of some recent films have made them sit up
and take notice of Bollywood as a business and sales promotion avenue.
The theme song from the recent Bollywood blockbuster, Lagaan or taxes, will
now be used as a promotional jingle for one of India's largest consumer
goods companies, Brittania Industries.
Film memorabilia and signed posters of the stars of Lagaan will be
distributed to consumers as part of the $1m sales promotion campaign
launched by the company on Monday.
And since the period film is all about a cricket match between Indian
villagers and a British eleven, the final prize for the lucky winners will
be a cricket match with the Lagaan eleven.
Sunil Alagh, managing director of Brittania industries, said: "I see this
trend growing substantially...what we are doing more in India, and we have
been amongst the lead in this, we are trying to get the characters of the
film involved, rather than the actor."
"The two things people in India love are films and sport and here we have a
combination of both," he added.
While this may be the first instance of an Indian company tying up with a
Bollywood hit to push sales and generate awareness about its product range,
other corporates have also begun to use cinema as an advertisement medium.
A film released earlier this month, Yaadein or memories, in fact looked more
like an ad as the film's producer-director seemed to concentrate more on
promoting a cola, a mouth freshener and even a popular bicycle than bother
about the storyline.
But while the critics did not like what they saw, the film's financiers
pocketed nearly $1m.
While warning against overkill, analysts say this new relationship between
cinema and industry is likely to become stronger as both sides realise the
benefits.
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3-D mythological film, now at a cinema near you
Chariots thundering through the sky, bows and arrows piercing your heart,
well almost, and light bathing you in divinity. And that's what Dheeraj
Kumar's Creative Eye Productions proposes to do. Through its first-ever 3-D
mythological film Shivshakti.
The film, based on the story of Lord Shiva and Goddess Durga, will be
launched next month and should be ready in less than a year, says Dheeraj
Kumar, who will also be directing the movie.
It was his high success-rate with mythological TV serials that prompted him
to take up a mythological subject. "The audience loves mythologicals and, as
we see, every TV channel across the country has a minimum of two programmes
of the sort. My mythological serials - including Om Namah Shivay on
Doordarshan earlier, and now Shri Ganesh on Sony TV and Jap Tap Vratt on
Star Plus - are doing well."
Kumar chose 3-D because he believes only 3-D can do complete justice to the
movie. "The actions in a mythological film are very different from a regular
commercial film and I really think a 3-D film can bring out the best.
Whether it is the chariots in the air that the audience will feel are
zooming right for them, or the divine light falling on them, it will be a
great experience."
The failure of previous films too does not deter the film-maker. "A 3-D
film, if well-made is a viable proposition. I am looking at children, as
well as people, from other age-groups as my target audience."
The star-cast for his film is being finalised, but no big stars will play
the lead roles. "I will have two new-comers playing the lead roles because I
want two fresh faces and not actors who already have an identity. Of course,
for the rest of the cast we will have established actors."
The sets for the film will be created by Ratnakar Phadke, who created the
sets for J P Dutta's Border.
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Films of Pakistan and India wage war by celluloid
LAHORE, PAKISTAN - for decades, Indian and Pakistani movie audiences have
demanded basically one kind of film: sweet, song-and-dance tales of
star-crossed lovers who somehow live happily ever after.
But there has been a noticeably darker movie formula in recent years, and
two of the biggest films in each country today speak volumes about how these
South Asian neighbors see each other.
Consider the current Indian blockbuster "Gadar: Ek Prem Katha" (literally,
"Commotion: a Love Story"). It's a Romeo-and-Juliet tale of a Sikh boy and a
Muslim girl who fall in love in India during the bloody Partition period of
1947, a time when Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan were
separated by the stroke of a British pen. The Muslim girl travels to
Pakistan to visit her parents, and her Sikh husband follows her there and
fights off the Pakistani Army to get her back.
In Pakistan, meanwhile, the latest hit is "Tere Pyar Main" ("Your Love is
Mine"). In its plot, set in modern times, a Muslim boy falls for a Sikh girl
who is visiting Lahore. He follows her back to India, but is branded a
Pakistani spy and must fight off the entire Indian Army to bring his girl
back to Pakistan.
Two films don't make a trend, of course, especially if they are flops. But
films that make the amount of money these two have - Gadar could become the
top-grossing Indian film of all time - can be indicators of public attitudes
on both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border.
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Heavier fare
Some film critics say audiences in both India and Pakistan are simply hungry
for something more meaningful than the usual syrupy romance. Others say
filmgoers are seeking a kind of catharsis, particularly at a time when the
decade-long Muslim separatist movement in Kashmir has killed 34,000 and
brought India and Pakistan repeatedly to the brink of war. But whatever the
reasons, film buffs from Karachi to Calcutta are likely to see many more war
films in coming months.
"Patriotism was always there in the movies, but even 15 years ago, you could
not name Pakistan as the enemy. It was always the neighboring country that
was the one causing trouble," says Shubhra Gupta, a film critic for the
Indian Express newspaper in New Delhi.
Censorship rules have loosened over the years, allowing many Indian films to
specifically name Pakistan as an instigator. But the driving force for the
current spate of political movies is the changing public mood, says Ms.
Gupta.
"People have grown away from these bubble-gum romances that were dreamed up
by some airhead," she says. "What do the people of India see in everyday
life? They fight wars, they don't have enough to eat. So the mainstream
movie industry is being forced to look into more meaningful subjects."
Such meaningful movie subjects can spark occasional communal unrest,
including riots inside and outside of cinema halls. But filmmakers in the
Pakistani cultural capital of Lahore argue that their movies simply provide
what people have always wanted: entertainment.
It is in Lahore, jokingly called "Lollywood," where the virulently patriotic
film "Tere Pyar Main" was produced. While the 200 million rupee ($3,123,000)
Pakistani film industry is dwarfed by the 2 billion rupee ($42,500,000)
Indian film industry, Lollywood still has a powerful effect on Pakistani
society, particularly on the working-class folks who fill this country's
run-down cinema halls.
Sajjad Gul, owner of Pakistan's largest film studio, Evernew, in Lahore,
says that no film could make money if it were simply political.
"Ever since the inception of the film industry in Lahore, there have been
only three subjects: women, money, and land," says Mr. Gul, whose company
released the political thriller, "Tere Pyar Main."
"I think the reason 'Gadar' is doing so well is because it was a good
movie," says Gul. "Even 'Tere Pyar Main,' it's an excellent movie by our
standards. And it is essentially a love story."
Indeed, the most striking difference between "Gadar" and "Tere Pyar Main" is
not just their respective budgets and song-and-dance sequences, but their
tone. In the Indian film "Gadar," the only positive Muslim character is a
longtime friend of the hero; all others, including the heroine's Muslim
family in Pakistan, are stridently anti-Indian. The Pakistani film "Tere
Pyar Main," is tame by comparison. Most of the Indian characters are
sympathetic. The lone exception is Narayan, a jealous childhood friend of
the heroine who is now an Indian soldier based in - surprise! - Kashmir.
On a dusty backlot at Bahri Studios in Lahore, director Syed Noor admits
that Pakistani audiences are demanding more films that paint India in a
negative light. But he explains that Pakistani censorship rules specifically
forbid Pakistan-based filmmakers from making anti-Indian films.
"I'm going to make movies about India and Pakistan, and also love stories,
but I try to give a solution. Why this hesitation and bad reaction about
each other?" says Mr. Noor, taking a break from filming "Behram Daku"
(Behram the Thug), a low-budget action movie about a criminal gang in the
wilds of Pakistan.
Babar Ali, a handsome young superstar with a sinister role in Noor's film,
says he has seen a change in the kinds of movies being made in Pakistan.
Whereas he once used to get many romantic leading roles, lately it's been
thugs, ne'er-do-wells, and scoundrels.
"I'd say 98 percent of the movies are based on action these days," he sighs,
while pasting on a Pancho-Villa-style mustache before his next scene.
But most Pakistani film critics note that the Pakistani film industry will
always exist under the shadow of the larger Indian film industry, where the
average cost of a single song-and-dance scene can be twice the budget of an
entire Pakistani film. Indeed, even though Indian films are banned from
being shown in Pakistan - as a way to protect the struggling Pakistani film
industry - most Pakistanis end up seeing the latest Indian hits on pirated
videotapes, which are often available the same week of their release in
India.
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Govinda receives Rajiv Gandhi award
Bollywood star Govinda, renowned model Aditi Govitrikar, industrialist Kumarmangalam Birla and former BCCI chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur were among those who received Rajiv Gandhi awards for 2001 on Sunday, instituted by the Mumbai Pradesh Youth Congress (MPYC). Miss World Priyanka Chopra, playback singer Anuradha Paudwal, journalist Barkha Dutt, Marathi stage artist Prashant Damle, President Medal winning singer Prasad Gandhi and Bhushan Mahadik, who won a prize from NASA, USA, were the other recipients of the award given to individuals for outstanding contribution in their respective fields. Except for Barkha Dutt and Anuradha Paudwal all recepients were present to receive the awards, carrying a citation and certificate. The award ceremony coincided with the 57th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, AICC leader Gulam Nabi Azad and MPYC chief Charanjeet Singh Sapra were among those present at the function
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