Santosh Sivan's Urumi in Tamil

One of the finest cinematographer and director's in Indian cinema Santosh Sivan is all set to release his magnum opus Urumi in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and English.

The film is being simultaneously made in the English under the title Vasco Da Gama.

Sivan the internationally reputed filmmaker who has made film like Terrorist, Asoka and Navarasa in Tamil, is all excited about his first full length commercial film Urumi which will be known as Pathinaindham Nootrandu Uraivaal (PNU) in Tamil.

The film boasts of a truly national star cast of Prithviraj, Prabhu Deva, Arya, Genelia, Vidya Balan, Tabu, Nithya Menon, Jagathy, Amole Gupte, Chandan Roy Sanyal and others. It has some lovely melodies by Deepak Dev, a former Keyboard player with ARR.

Santosh Sivan, Prithviraj and Shaji Natesan are making it under the banner of August Cinema.

PNU is releasing worldwide in four languages on March 31, 2011 as the big summer release.

Star-studded wedding reception of Imran-Avantika

The newly-weds Imran Khan and Avantika Malik had a dream wedding reception hosted by Aamir Khan and his wife Kiran Rao. The who's who of Bollywood attended the event.

Aamir made sure that all the big names in Bollywood attend the wedding reception of his nephew that was held at the Taj Land's End, Mumbai. As expected, veteran film personalities like Dev Anand, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan, Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Prem Chopra and Shammi Kapoor graced the event.


The big film personalities who attended the fucntion include Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Karan Johar, Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Katrina Kaif, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Ranvir Singh, Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Tusshar Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukherjee, Juhi Chawla, Vidya Balan, Gracy Singh, Govinda, Genelia D'Souza, Gul Panag, Shyam Benagal, Anu Malik, Bappi Lahiri, Imtiaz Ali, Ashutosh Gowarikar - the list goes on.

The wedding reception was also graced by big personalities like Sachin Tendulkar and wife Anjali, Mukesh and Nita Ambani, Raj Thackeray and his wife, Praful Patel, Ajay Bijli and Siddharth Mallya.

17th Star Screen Awards: The Countdown Begins

With the Karbonn Mobiles 17th Annual Star Screen Awards set to celebrate the best of 2010 on January 6, here’s a look at how its last edition hailed diverse talents and stories that came out of Bollywood

While the rest of the world begins its countdown to the New Year, cinephiles in India will be counting down to the first film awards ceremony of 2011 — the Karbonn Mobiles17th Annual Star Screen Awards on January 6. With the Bollywood landscape having evolved further since the last Star Screen Awards — meatier plots, unusual casting decisions and a steady inflow of new blood — hopes are high that this edition will prove to be just as exciting as the last one on January 9, 2010. Bollywood’s increasing appetite for drama and experimentation was rewarded on this glittering platform, which sets the tone for other such events to follow.

In many ways, last year was a landmark year for the Hindi film industry. Ordinary people, their struggles and aspirations, found greater space than ever before on the celluloid screen. This was reflected in the words of director Rajkumar Hirani when he picked up his Best Director trophy for 3 Idiots. “I dedicate this award to those teachers who teach from the heart rather than from the book.” As the 16th Star Screen Awards proved, this was a sentiment that had the movie-going public’s wholehearted approval. The biggest winner of the evening, 3 Idiots, with 10 awards, was a movie that discussed the average Joe’s struggle in a world that defined happiness in terms of material success. Paa, which won major acting honours, celebrated the joie de vivre of an ailing child, and the dark horse, Kaminey, pitted two brothers — a stuttering social worker and a lisping goon — against each other and some truly random twists of fate. None of these movies had a larger-than-life hero figure who could show the way or rescue the distressed. As Shahid Kapur pointed out, it was the end of the Perfect Hero. Clearly the public thought so too, as it rewarded Kapur with the Best Actor award in the popular category.

Paa Movie Review

Film: Paa
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Harman Baweja
Director: R. Balki
Rating:

When a director takes a road less travelled, it means risk and challenges. Director R. Balakrishnan’s “Paa” journey was difficult but he achieved what he had set out to do — Amitabh Bachchan’s not recognisable in the role of progeria patient Auro, his character is not over the top and the director has managed to convey the message about the disease without much fuss.

Auro’s character is well-etched and Amitabh has certainly presented a new challenge for his colleagues by slipping under the skin of a 13-year-old with wrinkles, cataracts and no hair so convincingly. Not even once does his megastar image overshadow his character.

Big B has an author-backed role and his oneliners are the best — if he tickles your funny bones with his comments in one scene, in the next Auro tugs at your heart strings with his emotional paradoxes.

Amitabh’s make up is such that it doesn’t give him much room to use his facial muscles. Despite that he conveys every emotion he is going through and as the movie progresses one feels a connect with Auro.

In the performance department both Amitabh and Vidya Balan, who plays his single mother, complement each other.

Vidya has given a power-packed performance as a woman who single-handedly raises her progeric child and try to give him a normal life — she is never shown over concerned or fussy.

Amitabh and Abhishek’s scenes together are both funny and emotional.

These are the finer points of the film.

But the film has flaws too. Abhishek is portrayed as an ambitious young politician, fine! But his media bashing spree is annoying!

Balki takes a pot shot at the media by showing that TV journalism is manipulated, but it doesn’t look convincing at all. Abhishek’s dialogues lack substance.

Except his sequences with naughty Auro, most of his scenes don’t fit in the scheme of things.

But laudable parts of the film are P.C. Sreeram’s cinematography and Ilaiyaraaja’s music.

Paresh Rawal is wasted in the film. One wonders why he accepted such a role.

Jaya Bachchan is the surprise package of the film. She appears on the screen to introduce the cast and the crew.