Manisha may bring Bollywood to Nepal

Kathmandu, Nov 21 (IANS) Almost two decades after she left Nepal to carve out an illustrious career in neighbour India's film industry, Bollywood diva Manisha Koirala is now seeking to bring Bollywood to Nepal.

Manisha, who will be returning to the Nepali film industry with the winter release of her new film, 'Dharma', is now working on a new script that will have three Bollywood stars acting in it - Danny Denzongpa, her close friend Jackie Shroff and the favourite bad man of Bollywood, Gulshan Grover, the Nagarik daily reported Sunday.

The 40-year-old actor is said to be working on a script that is based in Nepal. Shooting with the Bollywood stars is expected to start from next month in Kathmandu and sunny city Pokhara, where Manisha herself did a couple of sequences for Dharma.

Meant for an international audience, the yet-to-be-titled film will have English subtitles and is also intended for international film festivals.

Bollywood made an earlier arrival in Nepal this year when Manisha tied the knot with Nepali entrepreneur Samrat Dahal.

Jackie, who wowed guests and the media alike by wearing a traditional Nepali suit, Grover, Govinda and Deepti Naval were among the Bollywood stars invited to the three-day wedding in June that was also attended by Nepal's deposed king Gyanendra Shah and Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda.

It was Grover's first visit to Nepal and he was struck by the beauty of the Himalayan nation, expressing a desire to invest in a film made here, Manisha said.

Jackie had also told her in the past that he wanted to act in a Nepali film but till now, she had not been able to do anything about it, the petite actor said.

This year, besides Manisha, Nepal has welcomed two more acclaimed Bollywood stars.

Nandita Das, chair of Children's Film Society of India, came down to Kathmandu to attend an Indian film festival while Irfan Khan, who has begun his conquest of Hollywood with his roles in 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'A Mighty Heart', came to take part in an international theatre festival

I'm consciously breaking away from serious image: Irrfan Khan

Irrfan Khan,

Irrfan Khan, who played an inspector in Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire and an FBI agent in New York, says he has always been making a conscious effort to break away from his serious image.

"I'm consciously breaking away from an image since the day I started my acting career," said Irrfan.

"When I was working on TV, everybody used to make me a doctor. Then I was sick of playing a doctor. In films, they used to cast me as a sober and sensitive guy. But that wasn't exciting because playing filmy 'shareef' (innocent) is so boring.

"Then they gave me villain's roles. Then I did comedy. So it's a continuous effort not to get typecast. So I have been fighting from getting typecast since the beginning and I will continue doing it," he added.

The seasoned actor, who has done movies as varied as Salaam Bombay, Maqbool, Life In A Metro, The Namesake, Dil Kabaddi and New York, says he loves to do action adventure movies because they don't typecast an actor.

His forthcoming releases include Acid Factory and Paan Singh Tomar, which are both action-based movies.

Slumdog Millionaire

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
Director: Danny Boyle
Rating: **

Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" makes Mumbai look like a sewer. The film takes nasty below-the-belt potshots at the underbelly of the city, portraying Mumbai as the armpit among the metropolises.

Mira Nair once paid a warm endearing homage to the street children of Mumbai in "Salaam Bombay". Long before, Satyajit Ray in "Pather Panchali" portrayed rural India as poor, but never as a gutter of misery.

It's now Boyle's turn to do a 'Slam' Mumbai. The coming-of-age tale about three orphaned slum kids bears just a passing resemblance to Boyle's rightly-celebrated "Trainspotting" where he trailed a bunch of misfits through the streets of Edinburgh.

"Slumdog Millionaire" is "Trainspotting" on steroids. It's a beefed-up look at the scummy side of Mumbai, bewildering in its obsession with discovering life in the slums of Dharavi as being a facsimile of that drain-inspector's report that Mahatma Gandhi had discovered in American journalist Katherine Mayo's account of India in "Mother India".

"Slumdog Millionaire" is worse. It looks at Mumbai as a swarming slum of sleaze, sex and crime with characters who seem to have jumped out of Rakesh Roshan and Manmohan Desai's cinema bruising their deep-focussed emblematic quality while making this huge global leap from Bollywood to Hollywood.

After seeing Boyle's much talked-about film, it's crystal clear why this murky and squalid portrait of Mumbai has the Americans preening in delight. At one point after being thrashed mercilessly, our hero Jamal tells American tourists, "You wanted to see real India? Here it is."

"Now we'll show you the real America," the American lady replies handing Jamal a $100 bill. This, without any apparent sense of irony.

There is a very thin line dividing slick from scum. "Slumdog Millionaire" doesn't stop to make those subtle distinctions. It moves at a frenetic pace creating a kind of sweaty energy that one sees in marathon runners in the last lap of their journey.

Boyle is constantly busy whipping up a hysterical banshee of sights and sounds in Mumbai denoting the embittered angry generation of the underprivileged class that grows up in the slums dreaming of the good Life.

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shoots Mumbai with a gun rather than a camera. Every frame conveys the killer instinct. Every shot ricochets across eternity solidifying sounds and feelings that are otherwise intangible.

Yup, this is a film on a mission. It wants to exploit the Mumbai slums as a hotbed of tantalising images conveying the splendour of squalidity. And to think every prominent member of the cast and crew went around proclaiming "Slumdog Millionaire" would do wonders for Mumbai's tourism industry!

Yeah, right. It does as much for the cause of Mumbai as Roland Joffe's "The City Of Joy" did for Kolkata. That much-vilified film at least secreted a core of humanism under its pretentious surface. "Slumdog..." doesn't even pretend to care for the city that it so unabashedly cruises in search of imperialistic tantalisation.

From frame one Boyle goes for the jugular. Every scent and stench of the city is converted into a liquid asset. Groups of defecating young boys running out in otherworldly ecstasy when they spot Amitabh Bachchan's helicopter hovering above head becomes a celebration of lowly life.

Our protagonist Jamal dunks himself into excreta from head to toe and wades through the disgusted crowd to get Mr. Bachchan's autograph. The star signs calmly, as though exceptionally smelly young boys covered in human waste are the odour of the day.

Such moments define Boyle's attitude to Mumbai. He sees it as city where humour emerges from human waste.

But who's laughing? Even communal riots are not spared of this tantalising trivialisation of abject misery. Rioters descend on a Muslim locality like bandits attacking a village in the Chambal valley. A mean Mumbai Mafioso (Ankur Vakil) gouges out orphans' eyes and makes them beg on the streets singing what appears to be his favourite bhajan - "Darshan do ghamshyam".

Even Madhur Bhandarkar got it better in "Traffic Signal". There's absolutely no sense of historic sensitivity in the narrative.

"If it was not for Ram and Allah, my mother would be alive," says our regretful hero Jamal after the riots.

Such corny dialogues, so much a part of Vikas Swarup's novel, is minimised in the film. But not enough. Some of the outrageously filmy plot manoeuvrings from the novel like the game show host (played in the film by Anil Kapoor) turning out to be Jamal's illegitimate father, are done away with.

But the film nevertheless remains as wedded to kitsch and as ridden with coincidences and implausibility as any formula Hindi film.

In fact, the two runaway brothers from the slum being called Salim and Jamal seems like a backhanded homage to Salim-Javed, the pair that wrote the hit films of the era that "Slumdog Millionaire" adopts.

Each time game show host Anil Kapoor has to provide our callow hero Jamal a clue, a flashback highlighting the theme of the quiz-question is conveniently arranged in the plot.

Squalour never appeared designed than it does in "Slumdog Millionaire". Bollywood has never been more audaciously honoured. This over-hyped and disappointing film that insults Mumbai, culminates with a Bollywood-styled item song on a railway platform.

Soruce: http://www.bollywoodworld.com/reviews/reviews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1232968546&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&

I want an Oscar for my 'Slumdog Millionaire' score: Rahman

Mumbai, Music composer A.R. Rahman Monday became the first Indian to win a Golden Globe award and is already looking forward to bagging an Oscar for his soundtrack for British filmmaker Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire".

"For the people of India to get an Oscar is a big thing. So for their sake, more than mine, I hope my song 'Jai ho' and my music score in 'Slumdog Millionaire' win the Oscar," Rahman told IANS on phone before the Golden Globe Awards ceremony.

Hollywood music composers like Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and Danny Elfman have been impressed by the score Rahman has composed.

"They made genuinely warm comments about my music in 'Slumdog Millionaire'. I think they love the Mumbai that they have seen in the film and Danny has made terrific use of my music. The way he has mixed my songs, they are full on, like in a discotheque," the 43-year-old music maestro said.

"If my music has made an impact in the West, it is because it has been projected so effectively in 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Though some of the songs like 'Jai ho', 'O saya' and 'Ringa ringa' are in Hindi, the Americans love them," he added.

Excerpts from the interview:
Q: I don't think any Indian musician has won the Golden Globe award?
A: I see it as an honour for India, not just for me. More to come, hopefully.

Q: The Golden Globe is seen as a precursor to the Oscars.
A: Let's hope so. I've my fingers crossed. When a film and my music get acceptance, it's the equivalent of an Oscar for me. For the people of India to get an Oscar is a big thing. So for their sake more than mine I hope my song "Jai ho" and my music score in "Slumdog Millionaire" win the Oscar.

Q: "Slumdog Millionaire" star Freida Pinto says of the four Golden Globe nominations for the movies, yours makes her the proudest.
A: That is really sweet of her. I was in Los Angeles to have lunch with all the panel members of the Oscars as well as to do press meets and promotion for "Slumdog Millionaire". Some critics in the US say it's one of the best films they've ever seen. It's not just about my music. It's the way Danny has put together the film.

The throbbing pulse of Mumbai has been superbly captured in the film. "Slumdog Millionaire" is about suffering, hope and redemption. If my music has made an impact in the West, it is because it has been projected so effectively. Though some of the songs like "Jai ho", "O saya" and "Ringa ringa" are in Hindi, the Americans love them.

Q: Were you in the US to lobby for an Oscar award for "Jai ho"?
A: It's not about lobbying. It's about letting the jury members meet you, get to know you and decide if the person behind the creation is worth putting a vote for. As an artist, I need to be recognised on a human level. So I needed to go to Hollywood with my song. I met top Hollywood music composers like Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore and Danny Elfman.

Q: And what did they have to say about your music?
A: They made genuinely warm comments about my music in "Slumdog Millionaire". I think they love the Mumbai that they have seen in the film and Danny has made terrific use of my music. The way he has mixed my songs, they are full on, like in a discotheque.

Q: Has Mumbai's image suffered a setback in the US after the Nov 26 terror attacks?
A: Everyone is a bit shaken. Security has been tightened even more in the US. But the way they look at India, our music and cinema is very positive. The image of Mumbai is still intact. I got the right vibes in Los Angeles. A lot of people want to come to India to collaborate in our entertainment industry. Akon and Nelly Furtago are interested. We just need to carry it forward.

Source: http://www.bollywoodworld.com/news/bwnews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1231853056&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&

Slumdog Millionaire jumps back into North American Top 10

Washington, British director Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" has jumped back into the North American Top 10 with an 11 percent increase in weekend sales despite no increase in the number of theatres showing it.

Its per-theatre average of $7,794 over the Jan 2-4 weekend was the best among all films in the Top 10. Now in its eighth weekend of release, the award-winning film has seen its weekend gross increase every single week.

Running in 612 theatres across US, the film registered a weekend gross of $4,770,000 taking its total gross to $28.78 million.

Shot in Mumbai, the film tells the heart-warming story of an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who goes on to win a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" game show. Dev Patel plays the protagonist Jamal as a teenager.

Source: http://www.bollywoodworld.com/reviews/reviews.php