Dream Girl 2, Trailer launch: Meet Ayushwomann, the body behind the voice Meeting Dream Girl 2 was not easy. In fact, it was 3 times as difficult as one would have imagined. First hurdle was the location hunt, as the invitation just said Meta Office, BKC. BKC is a huge settlement, and it took us (me and my friend Prasad Sovani, who had come down from Pune) a while to locate the venue, though we still managed to arrive on time. Secondly, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get identity badges a...

Made in Heaven, Season 2: "Marriages are made in heaven, so are thunder and lightning" Although the quote comes from Clint Eastwood, you can say it again, for this is Season 2. And unlike most marriages in real life, on OTT you get a second chance, to revisit heaven. After a successful Season 1 (2019), the team from Excel Media and Entertainment, and Tiger Baby Films, is back, with Season 2. Many characters are retained, and a few are added, to make these marriages work, I presume, ...

Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, Review: All rhyme, no reason When a film tries too hard to please too many viewers, it shows. When it has too many stars, including stars of yesteryear, predictably, its length grows. When the maker goes back three generations and sets one chunk of the story in 1978, the public knows. When a layman at a bus-stop on a rainy night tells you lots about a film he has not seen because, perhaps, he has seen the trailer and read stuff about the movie, you know that&rs...

72 Hoorain: Untouched, heavenly virgins, 72 of them; go, have a blast! That is what the title of this film means. It is derived from the preaching of some misguided Muslim religious leaders, who brain-wash impressionable Kashmiri youth into becoming terrorists, and set-off bomb-blasts, in the hope that 72 hoorain will be waiting for them in the hereafter. It is not a documentary, but claims to be inspired by true incidents. The makers describe it as a tale that delves into the depths of the h...

Satyaprem Ki Katha: Tittleation A title like this would be an anachronism, had it not been for the surfeit of ‘shudhha’ (pure/chaste) Hindi that can be heard in most places, of late. Be thankful! The film was originally titled Satyanarayan Ki Katha, which is a religious ritual among the majority community. But move a little eastward and you will find a film called Ballabhpurer Rupkotha (ignore the o in kotha, please). So, if they can get away with it, why can’t our guys? To ...

Tiku Weds Sheru: A ‘Senior’ artiste weds a ‘Junior artiste’ By all s, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a senior artiste. He ranks on the high rung and is 49 years old. That he started as a junior artiste is now stuff that legends are made of. Avneet Kaur is said to be 21, though I find that hard to believe (17-18 is more like it), did a couple of film roles and a couple of cameos. By comparison, in of age and experience, she is a ‘junior’ artiste. In th...

Chidiakhana, Review: Of all the animals in the zoo… Made under the Children’s Film Society masthead, now merged with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Chidiakhana is not a zoo story. It won’t do much good to the reputation of NFDC. Stretching logic a bit too far, the makers justify the title by having the lead character imagine human beings as animals. And the animals talk with human voices. Guess what the core subject is? Football. And when you are making a...

Aazam, Review: “I want to be the next Don, and stop me if you can” Ministerial power often stems from a ‘healthy’ give and take with underworld Dons. There is a popular belief that legislators play one gang against the other, and like to work with just one Boss, rather than a multitude of Mafiosos. Then, there is the power and succession struggle between gang , often resulting in brutal killings. Choosing these elements as its theme, Aazam builds a narrative th...

“On Matriarchy Lake” is a romantic drama about star-crossed lovers in an isolated village in China. The lovers are Li Fei, a young worker stationed in the village and Na Zhu, a local Mosuo woman. The Mosuo are a matrilineal ethnic group with a tradition of ‘walking marriages’, in which husbands visit their wives at night, but live apart during the day. What starts as a sweet love story about cultural differences becomes tragic when Li Fei is forced to return to the c...

8 am Metro, Review: One train, many tracks Firstly, it is not about a train. Secondly, the journey of the lead characters changes so many tracks that it ultimately derails, and it takes a long-drawn climax to get it back on track. Even then, it ends on half a track. And yet there is something about 8 am Metro that is endearing and fresh. Coming not too long after Pierre Filmon’s French film, In Between Two Trains/Long Time No See (2019), it is likely to have been inspired by the French ...

Chatrapathi, Review: Axe Rated Should have been spelt Chhatrapati, buy never mind. As a remake, it has carried over the spelling of the Telugu original. The title is a reference to Shivaji, the Maratha King of the Bhosle clan, who fought invaders and rulers and lived from 1630 to 1680. Honoured as a local hero, he was given the title Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and continues to hold a high place in the hearts and minds of many Indians. The Mumbai airport and the biggest railway terminus in t...

Mother Teresa & Me: A stunning Swiss portrait of an Indian Saint He comes across as a youngish, genial uncle, with a deadpan sense of humour. Answering to a name like Kamal Musale, he had to be at least part Indian. This Swiss-Indian film-maker’s Swiss company – Les Films du Lotus Sàrl – and his Indian company – Curry Western Productions Pvt Ltd – produce movies with Indian content, for western taste. Mother Teresa & Me transcends any such boundari...

UnWoman, Review: What if the bride turns out to be a eunuch? Sounds far-fetched and implausible, but if you watch UnWoman, it seems possible and even probable. A taboo subject, made by an unknown/little known unit, UnWoman raises your curiosity by the title itself. Grammatically incorrect, UnWoman makes sense in the context of the film. In spite of the gender-related story, it shows practically no nudity, leaves a few questions unanswered, yet gets a Censor rating of A (for adults only), with...

FICCI FRAMES III: Arunabh Kumar spreads The Viral Fever Its fever. Its viral. And it was started by a man called Arunabh Kumar. Shortened to TVF, the company produces content and is made up of several IITians, among others. A magazine wrote in January 2015, “The Viral Fever (TVF) team reminds me of film school grads — shaggy beards, ruffled hair, all bent over laptops, waiting for Premiere Pro to render videos. Most of the team is ex-IIT and was brought together by the owner, Arun...

Netflix’s Kathal: The curious case of the two missing jackfruits and its serious, very serious ramifications Firstly, it was not discovered by a man named Jack. Secondly, it is not a fruit, but a vegetable. Writer Ashok Mishra spent many years in north India and developed a taste for Kathal, which is the Hindi name for jackfruit. Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is an evergreen tree (family Moraceae), native to tropical Asia and widely grown throughout the wetland tropics for its la...

FICCI FRAMES 23, 02: Minister Piyush Goyal lauds Naatu-Naatu, The Elephant Whisperers and Woman Power Day 2 of FICCI FRAMES 23 had Mr. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India, ing in via video conferencing/ZOOM. “The Government is ive to all the efforts by the media & entertainment industry to expand the frontiers of the sector, globally.” Mr. Goyal added th...

FICCI Frames 23: Thinking out of the frame Returning to its ‘base’ at Hotel Renaissance, Powai, Mumbai, now renamed Marriot Westin, the annual conclave of the Media and Entertainment (M & E) industry, hosted by the New Delhi-based M & E Division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), FRAMES is the generic name given to the event that dwells on all current and emerging media. Quite logically, it is known as FICCI FRAMES. Usually held in March...

Yeah! At the Alternative Film Festival in TORONTO Canada our film was nominated in the category BEST DIRECTOR! We would like to thank our team and our ers for making this film happen together. ☞ Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oXuEJiN3rD0 ☞ Watch the music-clip: https://youtu.be/sDsy_MdP4gE ☞ More information: https://heidelerche-film.cittador.com/festivals/ ...

Azamgarh, Review: Saving the honour of a city, and a religion Quite often, the religious minority of Indian Muslims is targetted for producing and harbouring young men who terrorist groups, both within and outside India. While maybe a hundred or two hundred such misguided souls are either killed in encounters or found guilty of terrorist attacks and accordingly punished by the law of the land, there are an estimated 20 million Muslims whose motherland is India and who live in peace. That...

Singers and music labels come together for long-awaited agreement on royalty The Indian Music Industry (IMI), the apex body representing all music labels in India, and the Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA), the apex body representing all singers in the country, have signed an agreement between member labels of ISRA and IMI. As a result of this, pact, all record labels, singers and musicians will be greatly benefitted, at pan India level, and get royalties at much higher levels than at ...

Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award goes to Asha Bhosle Instituted in the memory of the late great singer, Lata Mangeshkar, on whom the highest civilian honour of India, the Bharat Ratna was bestowed by the Indian government, this is the second such annual honour that her family awards. The first one, given last year, went to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Lata Mangeshkar, who sang thousands of songs, from the 1940s into the new millennium, ed away on 06 February 1922. She sang i...

Guru Indrajeet Keisham’s mission: Learn music, perform music save music Hindustani music, like other forms of traditional Indian music and dance, could face extinction over the coming decades. Already, many Hindustani musical instruments find no players, proving the late maestro’, music director Naushad’s prediction true. Obviously, this is happening because of the times we live in, the electronic era, where music can be ‘sampled’ and then played according to the...

IRDAI Chief, Debashish Panda, calls insurers to achieve ‘Insurance for All’ by 2047 Even as preparations are afoot for the media and entertainment industry conclave, FRAMES, to be held during 01-03 May 2023, FINCON 2023, the 22nd annual insurance conference, organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), was held yesterday at the ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai. The day-long event saw a host of speakers, comprising the who’s who of the insuranc...

Breaking News: Watch the exploits of Suniel Shetty in Hunter Tootega Nahi Todega, for free In a guerilla marketing move, Amazon miniTV and Suniel Shetty have come together to goad viewers to watch Hunter Tootega Nahi Todega for free!       Hunter- Tootega Nahi Todega is streaming live and exclusively on Amazon miniTV within the Amazon Shopping App, and on Fire TV, for free. Who grudges a free lunch? And there are free lunches on offer, if you know where to find them. The...

Bicycle Days, Review: Going round in circles A realistic village setting, a bunch of child actors picked from local schools, working together with adults who have theatre/film experience, concerns and issues that could easily be part of the life of inhabitants of this milieu, and yet they do not all add-up. Bicycle Days is a children’s film, with children being its primary audience. But children will be escorted by adults, when they go to cinema halls, and even if it is a children&rsquo...