Sorry Bhai - Movie Review

By Deepa Gahlot

It's not exactly shocking or path-breaking, the story about a man falling for his brother's fiancée—over 20 years ago, there was the sensitively made Panchvati had the same plot, only Onir's Sorry Bhai is light (not enough) and shallow (very).

Siddharath (Sharman Joshi) is supposed to be a scientist, who is working on a project to "make a toy dog fly" and seeking a grant for that. Could anyone take a man like that seriously? His redeeming feature is that he plays the saxophone and has all the time in the world, when his older brother Harsh (Sanjay Suri) is a busy stock broker in Mauritius (which is a pretty location, but hardly such a major financial hub!)

Harsh is to marry Aliya (Chitrangada Singh), which for some reason annoys his mother Gayatri (Shabana Azmi), and she is reluctantly dragged by husband Navin and Siddharth to Mauritius for the imminent wedding.

Gayatri's persistent queries about her parents, irritate Aaliya (she could have just told her the truth right at the start, which she does later) and the family gathering is not a success.

While Harsh and his boss are battling a market crash, Aaliya and Siddharth fall in love. He has some scruples about it, she behaves as if it's quite alright and goes to the extent of seducing him.

Onir has been borrowed the plot from Dan in Real Life, which had characters with some depth and scenes with a lot more humour (those who have seen the film would remember the shower scene and smile). Sorry Bhai is just flat and mostly humourless – Siddharth and Aliya's attraction involves silly gimmicks like sliding down a banister.

This kind of no-substance, fluffy film needed style, great acting and an ability to pull off melodrama—all of which Sorry Bhai lacks. And what is one to make of Navin's outburst at his wife—in which he makes accusations at her, which are not quite substantiated with what is seen of their relationship all along.

Shabana Azmi, who can be depended on to lift up any role, cannot do much with one so banal; it is Boman Irani's vivacity, that somehow makes their scenes together work and get an impromptu quality.

Chitrangada Singh looks sultry, but doesn't bring much to the role—not the strength the character needed, or even any jagged edges. Sanjay Suri and Sharman Joshi do their parts with plodding gravity, without any flashes of fire. You suspect everyone went to Mauritius for a holiday and came up with a film while they were at it.

Onir has made the heartfelt My Brother Nikhil and the ponderous Bas Ek Pal before this, and must have wanted to do a romantic comedy-drama for a change, but maybe this is just not his genre.

Source: India Syndicate, entertainment.in.msn.com

'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!' - Movie Review

By Deepa Gahlot

It takes some time to set aside misgivings about a film that seems to say "crime pays." When the eponymous Lucky of Dibakar Banerjee's Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is first seen, he is a media star and a battery of cops is fetching and carrying for him.

But once you are swept into the flow of the crazily unfolding story, Lucky's 'profession' doesn't matter. In a flashback he is a cheeky teenage Sikh boy (Manjot Singh) in one of Delhi's out-of-a-mould, lower middle class colonies– with untidy houses, wires crisscrossing, all over and Hindi-speaking boys ogling snooty English-speaking girls and beating up a boy from a rival school, just because he is rich.

Lucky starts by stealing greeting cards, and a scooter to take a girl on a jaunt, and by the time he is grown up (Abhay Deol), he pretty much steals everything, using his brains, charm and chutzpah. He has a sidekick called Bangali (Manu Rishi) and a flamboyant fence Gogi (Paresh Rawal), who protects him.

However amoral he may be in other ways Lucky is loyal to Sonal (Neetu Chandra) and is never seen using guns or violence—his only weapons are his quick thinking and glib tongue.

Reminiscent in tone to Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, and closer home to Bunty Aur Babli, the film is marked by Banerjee's eccentric crafting and funky wit (evident in his first film Khosla Ka Ghosla). He also maps a grungy side of Delhi, seldom seen in films—while many directors have gone into the nooks and crannies of Mumbai. The dialect, speech, slang and body language of working class Delhi are so perfectly captured, that you suspect the actors attended workshops before shooting.

Banerjee's whimsical style is demonstrated by his arbitrary assigning of a triple role to Paresh Rawal (excellent), when none of the characters he plays have any connection to each other. The performances by some new actors are also exceptionally good – Richa Chadda who plays Sonal's shrewd sister, Manu Rishi, the young Lucky and Archana Puran Singh as a wily housewife. Abhay Deol, of course, makes a marvellous Lucky with deadpan humour—the actor has consistently shown an adventurous streak in his choice of films.

The director—reportedly inspired by a real life thief—has his sympathies lying with Lucky; even as he steals from Delhi's rich, he is exploited by everyone from a potential business partner (Paresh Rawal) to Sonal's mother (demanding a toaster) to the hypocritical girlfriend, who accepts his money, but won't "touch" it.

The boisterous music (Sneha Khanvalkar) plus retro kitsch look and feel, make it worth a watch. Banerjee is clearly not a one-film wonder, but a director who stands out in a crowd with a style that's quirky and individualistic.

Source: India Syndicate

'Yuvvraaj' is a beautiful film: Zayed

Zayed Khan may still be loved as the lovable Lucky of Main Hoon Na, but the actor has experimented a lot over the past few years.

Whether it was trying his hand at comedy with Shaadi No 1, or playing the charming art professor in Shabd, Zayed has done a bit of everything. His last outing — Mission Istanbul — may not have worked wonders at the box office, but Zayed proved that he could play characters that went beyond being cute or goofy. And now with Yuvvraaj, he’s rubbed shoulders with actors like Anil Kapoor
and Salman Khan. Here’s what the actor has to say about his new role...

Tell us something about your role in Yuvvraaj...
When Subhashji offered me this role, he told me that I have to bring a lot to the role because this guy belongs to the generation that he had lost touch with. He tried to put the goals, fears, values and concerns of the present generation in this character. We went along building the character as the movie progressed. I play Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan’s younger brother. This guy knows what he wants and can do anything to get it. It’s a different role, but it takes a good guy to play a bad guy!

This sounds a lot like Lucky of Main Hoon Na...
Not at all! They may belong to the same generation, but Lucky was innocent. Lucky just talks big, but this guy knows what’s happening around him. His methods of proving himself right are wrong . He is ambitious, but gullible.

Apparently, there were some problems between and you and Ghai during the shoot...
There was no issue really. There were some hassles with the dates. I had a whole crew waiting for me in Bahamas for Blue. At one point, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to do Yuvvraaj. I called Subhashji and told him that I had doubts whether I can go ahead with the movie. Even he was wondering whether I would be able to be a part of the film, but then he asked me to finish my work and then start shooting for Yuvvraaj.

You have worked with Shah Rukh and now with Salman. What’s the best thing about working with them?
Your movies get a very big opening (laughs). They both have different ways of working, but both are great to work with. I am fond of both of them and it’s unfortunate what’s happened between them. They come from different schools of acting but they are very dedicated to their work.

Are you expecting Yuvvraaj to be the big film in your career?
It’s a great film, but for me every next film is my biggest film. It would be unfair to say that I have all my hope pinned on this film alone. Yuvvraaj is a beautiful film and I hope it sees that kind of glory.

So, what’s next after Yuvvraaj?
There’s Blue, which has lots of action. It has a lot of underwater action sequences which are very thrilling. Car chases, jumping from high rises, deep sea diving... it has all the works. We have attempted seabobbing, which is a lot of fun, but a little scary too.

Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Deepika Padukone Wallpapers, Pictures, Pics, Photo Gallery

Bollywood Actors & Actress Birthday List

Celebrity Birthdays

January :
01 January : Asrani , Nana Patekar, Sonali Bendre, Vidya Balan, Minissha Lamba
03 January : Sanjay Khan
05 January : A R Rehman, Deepika Padukone
07 January : Bipasha Basu, Koena Mitra
10 January : Hrithik Roshan
27 January : Bobby Deol

February :
01 February : Jackie Shroff
03 February : Deepti Naval, Waheeda Rehman
04 February : Urmila Matondkar
05 February : Abhishek Bachchan
08 February : Jagjit Singh
09 February : Rahul Roy, Amrita Singh

March :
07 March : Anupam Kher
14 March : Aamir Khan
18 March : Shashi Kapoor, Alisha Chinai
20 March : Alka Yagnik, Akshay Khanna
21 March : Rani Mukherjee
23 March : Kangana Ranaut

April :
02 April : Ajay Devgan
09 April : Jaya Bachhan
10 April : Ayesha Takia
11 April : Rohini Hattangadi
13 April : Satish Kaushik
19 April : Arshad Warsi

May :
11 May : Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Pooja Bedi
15 May : Shiney Ahuja, Madhuri Dixit
17 May : Pankaj Udhas
24 May : Rajesh Roshan
29 May : Pankaj Kapoor
30 May : Paresh Rawal

June :
04 June : Neena Gupta
05 June : Mukesh Bhatt, Viju Shah
06 June : Sunil Dutt
07 June : Ekta Kapoor
08 June : Dimple Kapadia, Shilpa Shetty
09 June : Sonam Kapoor, Celina Jaitley
16 June : Harry Baweja, Mithun Chakarborty
20 June : Neetu Chandra
22 June : Amrish Puri
23 June : Raj Babbar
25 June : Karishma Kapoor
27 June : Kunal Kapoor

July :
10 July : Aloknath
11 July : Kumar Gaurav
13 July : Madhu Sapre
16 July : Katrina Kaif
20 July : Rajendra Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah
24 July : Manoj Kumar
25 July : Rajeshwari
26 July : Jugal Hansraj, Kalpana lyer
27 July : Rahul Bose
28 July : Ayesha Jhulka
29 July : Anup Jalota, Sanjay Dutt
31 July : Sonu Nigam, Mohan Bandari

August :
02 August : Vinod Chopra
05 August : Kajol
07 August : Suresh Wadkar
10 August : Ajit Vachani
11 August : Sunil Shetty
13 August : Sridevi, Vyajantimala
14 August : Mohnish Behl, Johnny Lever
16 August : Manisha Koirala , David Dhawan, Saif Ali Khan
18 August : Aruna Irani, Gulzar
23 August : Saira Banoo
28 August : Deepak Tijori

September :
03 September : Shakti Kapoor
04 September : Adesh Srivastava, Rishi kapoor
06 September : Rakesh Roshan
08 September : Asha Bhosle
09 September : Akshay Kumar
11 September : Aditya Pancholi
12 September : Ranjeet, Vinod Rathod
13 September : Mahima Chaudhary
17 September : Shabana Azmi
20 September : Mahesh Bhatt
21 September : Gulshan Grover, Sudha Chandran
22 September : Kumar Sanu
23 September : Prem Chopra
25 September : Divya Dutta, Feroz Khan
26 September : Dev Anand, Chunky Pandey, Archana Puran Singh
28 September : Ranbir Kapoor, Lata Mangeshkar

October :
02 October : Asha Parekh
06 October : Vinod Khanna
07 October : Renuka Shahane
10 October : Rekha
11 October : Amitabh Bachchan, Ronit Roy
13 October : Ashok Kumar
16 October : Hema Malani
17 October : Sanjay Kapoor, Simi Garewal
18 October : Om Puri
19 October : Sunny Deol
21 October : kulbhushan Kharbanda, Shammi Kapoor
22 October : Kader Khan
24 October : Mallika Sherawat
26 October : Raveena Tandon
30 October : Vikram Gokhale, Dilip Tahil

November :
01 November : Padmini Kolhapure, Aishwarya Rai
02 November : Shah Rukh Khan, Anu Malik
03 November : Laxmikant Berde, Swaroop Sampat
04 November : Tabu
13 November : Juhi Chawla
19 November : Dara Singh, Zeenat Aman
20 November : Shilpa Shirodkar
21 November : Helen
22 November : Saroj Khan

December
01 December : Udit Narayan
03 December : Konkona Sen Sharma
04 December : Javed Jaffri
06 December : Shekar Kapoor
07 December : Shekhar Suman
08 December : Dharmendra
09 December : Shatrughan Sinha
10 December : Rati Agnihotri
11 December : Dilip Kumar
12 December : Rajnikant
17 December : John Abraham, Suresh Oberoi
21 December : Govinda
24 December : Anil Kapoor

Arjun Rampal Pictures Gallery, Wallpapers, Photos

Preity Zinta - Filmfare November 2008

Preity Zinta is particularly known in the Indian media for her straightforwardness and for honestly expressing her outspoken views and forthright opinions in public, be it about her on-screen or off-screen life or raising a voice against any social injustice. Photoshoot with Preity Zinta can be quite something. And when it’s a FilmFare cover shoot you can just expect that little bit more. The shoot breezes by with preity’s wit and humor. She looks beautiful and graceful all in the click.