Mumbai, May 10 (PTI) Shashi Kapoor’s family members including nephew Rishi, grand-nephew Ranbir and other Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan today expressed happiness over the veteran actor’s Dadasaheb Phalke honour.
Kapoor was today presented the award at the landmark Prithvi Theatre here by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley.
The 77-year-old actor could not travel to New Delhi because of his ill-health when the award ceremony was held in Delhi on May 3.
Rishi said, “We are thankful to the government for conferring this award on Shashi Kapoor. It’s the third time in our Kapoor family that we are getting this award.
“I am happy that I got the opportunity to act with him and to be directed by him. He is the only director who used stick on the sets,” the noted actor said.
Bachchan, who starred with Kapoor in blockbusters like “Deewar”, “Kala Patthar” and “Kabhie Kabhie” said, “Prithvi Theatre is a wonderful place to honour him. I had the privilege to work with him in films… he is very caring, compassionate, generous person…keep going.”
Noted actress Shabana Azmi, who was also present on the occasion, said, “Honouring Shashi Kapoor means we are honouring ourselves. He is our treasure. He is the first actor who entered Hollywood many years ago. He is a great actor.”
Ranbir said, “It’s a big day for us. He truly deserves Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He has done great work.”
Actress Karisma Kapoor and younger sister Kareena’s husband Saif Ali Khan too seemed happy with the honour Kapoor received today.
“His contribution to cinema is incredible. He has acted in commercial, alternate and even international cinema, which is great. In the 60s he did path breaking work… he is the maker of modern Indian cinema,” Saif said.
Karisma said, “It’s a great feeling. He deserves it and we are happy he got it.”
Several members of the Kapoor family, including late Raj Kapoor’s wife Krishna Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor’s wife Neila Devi, Neetu Kapoor, Babita, Shashi Kapoor’s son Kunal and daughter Sanjana were present on the occasion.
Kapoor’s co-stars Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini, Asha Parekh and Zeenat Aman also attended the event.
Kapoor, son of legendary actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Kapoor, started his film career as child artist.
His notable films include “Aag”, “Aawara”, “Samadhi”, “Dharamputra”, “Jab Jab Phool Khile”, “Pyaar Kiye Jaa”, “Kanyadaan”, “Pyaar Ka Mausam”, “Trishul”, “Namak Halaal”, “Junoon”, “Utsav” and others.
Jamshedpur, May 2 (PTI) Following the success of the recently concluded sixth Santali and Regional Film Festival-cum-Santali Cine Award here, All India Santali Film Association (AISFA) decided to organize the 1st All India Indigenous Short Film festival here in November.
15-minute-long indigenous short films made in tribal languages only will get entry in the festival, AISFA president Ramesh Hansdah said here today.
Addressing a press conference here today, Hansdah, accompanied by his director-producer brother Dasrath Hansdah, said the motive behind organizing the festival is to promote and attract tribal youths towards their languages.
Hansdah said movies that won awards in the 6th Santali and Regional Film Festival that concluded last week will soon be screened in various places across the country like Mumbai, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
Hansdah also appealed the Regional TV channels to spare sometime for the Santali and other tribal language.
Oye Teri
It’s a normal day in the life of this man when he wakes up. But when his wife is miffed and says nothing he begins wondering what’s wrong before realising his mistake. Will the couple have a happy ending? This short film by Anand Tiwari starts off on a promising note and will keep you interested right until its unpredictable end.
Salt ‘n’ Pepper
We aren’t exactly pumped up about this short story but the leads feature Tejaswini Kolhapure (who did a stellar job in Ugly) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Just discovering the many roles Siddiqui has done before sharing screen space with the Khans of Bollywood makes this a worthwhile watch.
Anukokunda
Not many times do you get to see a short movie that gets shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival. Scripted, shot and edited in a mere 48 hours, Anukokunda (Unexpectedly) was made by Hyderabad-based engineers-turned-filmmakers. The short story is a sweet love story backed by an effusive score and good performances.
Arranged Marriage
Areesz Ganddi’s Arranged Marriage is a short film that tackles the subject in a mature way. There is none of the soppy first-meeting coyness or shy moments when the two protagonists meet for the first time. Instead, the questions are direct, firm and even too personal for a first meeting. A headstrong woman and a confident man answering questions truthfully makes for a good short story.
Inbox
Finally, we have an impossible story to warm your heart. Inbox is the story of two people who get the wrong bags while shopping at a store and start exchanging messages through the bag. Actually we don’t want to say much.
Mumbai, Apr 27 (PTI) Twinkle Khanna’s tongue-in-cheek response about Chetan Bhagat’s stint as a judge on a dance reality show to an user fuelled a debate on Twitter between the former actress and the author.
The online feud started when a user complemented her writing skills and wrote, “You are an amazing writer, you don’t need to change your name to Chetali Bhagat.”
To which, Twinkle wrote, “I do! He gets to judge Nach Baliye and I get to judge if that gross thing on my floor is dog puke or poop #SuchIsLife.”
Chetan, who is the new judge on “Nach Baliye 7”, taunted the “Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai” actress and tweeted, “Well, I’d say you have the bigger challenge girl.. By the way, how do you tell the difference between the two anyway?.”
Twinkle came up with an interesting reply, saying ,”It’s a short life-if lucky enough to get opportunities to do diverse things then one should @chetan_bhagat write a bestseller about it too.”
Chetan was quick to point out Twinkle’s acting efforts, “You nailed it.. It is YOLO.. Nobody offered me Barsaat, or Baadshah… Else you know..”
The witty war of words took an interesting turn when Twinkle commented on his appearance.
“Well if you were taller, had more hair you could have got Bobby Deol’s role & if were way cooler, than SRK would be jobless,” Twinkle wrote with smiley.
The recent Miley Cyrus television special on NBC was a vivid indicator of how far the 21-year-old pop singer has traveled. Watching it, it’s hard to process that a mere three years ago this was the star of Disney’s successful tween TV show Hannah Montana.
You’ve got to sympathize with the shenanigans of Cyrus if you — a presumed adult — ever sat through 30 minutes, let alone a Montana marathon, of Miley playing a “regular” teen by day who’s secretly a mega pop star by night. Like most Disney shows aimed at pre-adolescents, it’s remarkably goofy. And it gives an eye into the brand challenge that Cyrus and her team faced in trying to get from there to where she is now.
Cyrus elicits eye-rolls but she is certainly, if one is being honest, a talented, brazen performer who’s comfortable onstage.
If you’re 16 or under, you are likely already familiar with Hannah Montana. It made Cyrus‘s name and following. And if you’re the parent of a 16 or under, you too know the show and might have been pulled in when you realized, “Wait, isn’t that Billy Ray Cyrus playing Miley’s father?” But only for a few minutes.
Surprising to many, the two-hour special on NBC drew a lukewarm 2 million viewers despite plenty of promotion and a prime time slot. Maybe it would have done better on a Disney station. Cyrus elicits eye-rolls but she is certainly, if one is being honest, a talented, brazen performer who’s comfortable onstage. At least one longtime observer Sandra Graham, who’s worked with the likes of Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez and who owns Graham Communications, said she reminded her of Madonna.
Two hours of Cyrus “just going in her own direction,” as she said back in 2011 when she quit HM, was enough to make us think about how she took hold of our collective consciousness in the first place — pre-twerking, pre-nudity and pre-wrecking ball.
Read more: www.ozy.com
Returning writer-director Joss Whedon definitely does so, but takes a lazy approach to it by including thrills that his superheroes make light weight of. To be sure, ‘Age Of Ultron’ conveniently assumes that you have seen all the previous Marvel movies and jumps straight in to fictional East European country Sokovia where the sceptre is hidden. At this point, it would worth mentioning that inter-galactic gemstones and sceptres feature in the movie merely as catalysts to help our superheroes get into ‘avenging’ mode. The snow-caped landscape also provides the money shot of the movie featuring all the avengers in a single frame pretty early in the film.
There are also two new additions to the world of Avengers in the form of twins Piedro and Wanda Maximoff / Scarlett Witch (Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen) who are blessed with powers of super speed and telepathy and telekinesis respectively. When an entire army is given chase by the Avengers but these two twins are enough to hold them back you know worthy adversaries have been found.
But that’s before Ultron is born. According to Iron Man, Ultron is meant to be a shield for humanity from aliens who almost destroyed the world in the first part but a thinking droid can make his own choice of deciding how humanity needs to be saved. Ultron, thus, goes rogue in an effort to end humanity to make them evolve. However, Ultron also suffers from a complex and needs a body to be accepted by himself and by others. Voiced brilliantly by James Spader, Ultron is a rare anti-hero with his Frankenstein origins and twisted logic.
Whedon also repeats the best part of Avengers in the sequel – the witty banter between superheroes – and introduces new twists that fanboys will lap up greedily. It helps that aspects like Iron Man’s alter ego Jarvis and Thor’s hammer step up from being just accessories and play an important role in the film. Jarvis, especially, comes to represent all the positive traits of humans who are always looking to play god (here depicted by the mad genius of Tony Stark). It’s an interesting comparison because Ultron is the exact opposite of Jarvis as the movie’s climax makes amply clear.
Some might find the action in the movie excessive but the superheroes get down-time as well. Whedon skilfully peels the layers off his superheroes, revealing their frailties and making them more intimate with their fans. A surprising reveal is made about Clint Barton/ Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) while Natasha/ Black Widow’s (Scarlett Johannsson) origins are shown as well. Natasha’s efforts to kindle a romance between herself and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) while trying to keep the Hulk in check forms is noteworthy as well. Actors such as Samuel L Jackson, Don Cheadle and Stellan Skarshard appear in short cameos to reprise their roles from previous Marvel movies.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean drama “Haider” emerged as a big winner at the recently announced International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) technical awards, after bagging six honours including costume designing for Dolly Ahluwalia.
Bhardwaj won the best background score honour. The film’s other wins include sound mixing (Debajit Changmai), sound design (Shajith Koyeri), production design (Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray) and make-up (Preetisheel Singh and Clover Wootton). Shahid Kapoor-starrer “Haider” is leading the nominations list at the main awards with nine nods.
Other winners in the technical category were Kangana Ranaut-starrer “Queen” and “Kick” with two awards each. “Queen” took home the award for best screenplay (Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar, Parveez Shaikh) and best editing (Anurag Kashyap and Abhijit Kokate), while “Kick” walked away with best choreography (Ahmed Khan) and best special effects – visual (Reupal Rawal).
“Ek Villian” won for song recording (Eric Pillai) and Aamir Khan’s “PK” walked away with an honour for best dialogue for Abhijit Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani.
“2 States” won the best cinematography honour and Hrithik Roshan-Katrina Kaif’s “Bang Bang” took home an accolade for best action (Parvez Shaikh and Andy Armstrong).
The IIFA Rocks and Technical Awards are set to take place on June 5 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The main award ceremony will be held on June 7
ce director Anurag Kashyap always seems to be at loggerheads with the media. So much so that he is referred to as the new ‘Angry Young Man’ of Indian cinema. Sometimes it’s uncalled for but mostly he’s right on point. This time it was no different either. Anurag gave it back to a journalist who tried putting words in his mouth by taking his statement ‘I’m not a big fan of Indian writers’ in a totally different context. Even after explaining it to the said journalist, he tried asking Kashyap some non-relevant questions from the book-launch event which further irked him
The journalist in question did not have seemed to have read the book. Kashyap accused the journalist that he would make a controversial headline out of Kashyap’s comments.
Most people think buffed up girls look ugly. Well, if you think so, meet Julia Vins. She can break your perception as fast as she can break your bones! This 18-year-old Russian girl has a face of a porcelain doll but a physique like that of a female hulk. Julia blew up on the Russian Instagram a few months back and now she is all over the internet. Ask why? Credit her beauty and brawns which usually don’t come easy to female bodybuilders. Julia has over 40K followers on Instagram and the number is still surging. She already holds three world powerlifting records and says that she wants to grow bigger.
In True Story, the type of drama for which the expression “stranger than fiction” was coined, James Franco finds a creepy new application for his signature sleepiness, that narcotized daze he usually reserves for stoner comedies and award-show appearances. Franco plays Christian Longo, an “intelligent and sane man” arrested, in December of 2001, for the suspected murder of his wife and three young children, all of who were found floating in the shallow waters of an Oregon slough. Awaiting trial behind bars, Longo didn’t confess to the heinous crime, but he didn’t express much grief about it either, and Franco—clad in a bright orange jumpsuit, his limbs in chains—wears the man’s eerie calm like a mask of false civility. The actor never raises his voice, only an eyebrow or two. Skin nevertheless crawls.
It’s unnerving to see the star of Pineapple Express play his heavy-lidded stupor for basically the opposite of laughs. And the disorientation is only enhanced by the sight of Jonah Hill, Franco’s on and offscreen buddy, doing his own straight-faced routine across the table from him. Relying less than ever before on his comedic chops, Hill has been cast as Michael Finkel, the disgraced New York Times reporter who became Longo’s unlikely confidante. The two met after Finkel discovered that Longo, then in custody, had used his name as an alias while laying low in Mexico. The journalist was doing some low-laying of his own, having recently lost his job after fudging crucial facts in a cover story about child slavery in Africa. Smelling a big scoop—and maybe a shot at professional redemption—Finkel arranged a meeting with the accused, which turned into a regular correspondence. Did Longo do the deed? And if so, what game was he playing by submitting himself to close scrutiny?
True Story, adapted from Finkel’s memoir of the same name, chronicles the unusual bond these two pariahs forged, touching on the notoriety that linked them and the moral dilemma that grew out of their conversations. The first feature from Rupert Goold, artistic director of London’s Almeida Theatre, the film owes a dramatic and stylistic debt to Capote, another stage veteran’s big-screen debut about the complicated relationship between a prisoner facing a murder rap and the writer looking to capitalize on his experiences. (There’s certainly a touch of Bennett Miller in scenes of Hill trekking through the snowy woods of upstate New York, standing in here for Montana.) But True Story also fits—neatly if by happy accident—into the current true-crime craze. Like Serial and The Jinx, it draws some fascination from the distinct possibility that the suspect it studies may be guilty as charged.
Of course, in this case, the answers are just a Google search away. Counting on his audience going in blind, Goold builds his dramatization around the all-but-solved mystery of what really happened to Longo’s family. Stylized flashbacks, including one of a pint-sized body being dumped and discovered, carefully obscure the pertinent details. The goal is a “satisfying” arc: True Story, true to its source material, adopts Finkel’s blinkered perspective; we’re meant to share his shifting opinion of Longo. Fittingly, perhaps, the movie also bends the truth to fit its storytelling needs, in ways not so different than the ones that got Finkel fired. Interactions that occurred by letter take on the new form of in-person confrontations. Did Finkel’s wife (an overqualified Felicity Jones) really visit Longo in prison to deliver a scathing coup de grâce? Did Longo really turn and wink at Finkel in court, as Franco does to Hill during the obligatory trial scene?
True Story isn’t a documentary or a news piece, so its dramatic liberties and strategic withholding of info are permissible. As a portrait of modern journalism, though, it leaves quite a lot to be desired; this is the kind of film that has characters trade grandiose talking points about the ethics of reporting, but can’t be bothered to show its reporter hero—still recovering from the damage factual inaccuracies did to his career—using a recording device during interviews. The meat of the movie is the behind-bars rendezvous between Finkel and Longo, whose interactions raise questions of journalistic responsibility and the banality of evil. But when a closing block of text announces that the two men still talk on a semi-regular basis—a surprise, given the finality of their last on-screen meeting—it’s hard to shake the feeling that a truly complex liaison has been reduced to an acting exercise for a couple of moonlighting funnymen. Neither cracks a smile, which is its own kind of victory, but nor do they crack the code of these “characters,” two men united by circumstances that look, in movie form, not so stranger than fiction after all.
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