Delhi 6 is a tribute to the never-say-die attitude of Delhi’s inhabitants. It is a story of ordinary people with extra-ordinary dreams. The flick catches some rare glimpses of an old, forgotten city of the past. Somewhere, the rest of us have left it behind. The old structures in the film speak of an era of virtue, tradition, morals and old-age myths, contrasted against the highrises, symbolizing a cultural deviation towards sleaze, slime and a dark future. The poverty inherent in the shots talks of a city left in the lurch by the onward reign of material progress, where still pigeons fly and girls blush at the prospect of love. The household belies the deprivation and pangs of poverty, set in the modern age, contrasting darkly against the abundance and lucre of modern day life.  

It is a traditional family, still grappling with the onslaught of modernity and singeing in the failure of having lost out to forces out of their control. A family that has lost, stagnated in the hurry of modernity and losing its hold in the hustle-bustle of development. The characters say it all. Sonam Kapoor, the doe-eyed ancient beauty (she actually has long hair!), still talks of virtue side by side with the mention of burgers. The family members eat, sleep and talk animatedly and spend a life full of contentment, celebration and the small pleasures of a joint system, where members pledge their unity and live in unhindered honesty and virtue. Hard to digest? But that’s the truth! There is still a place on earth where a family of 12 can live in unity, and it’s right here in Delhi! 

The title soundtrack sets the mood of the visuals. The crooner hoots out in utter passion the disposition of Delhiites. They have nothing else to trouble them except ‘Ishq, Muhabbat and Pyaar’. No wonder they are still languishing in the old by-lanes of a forgotten era. You wish you could dismiss them as easily, but no, you have to bear the dramatics of a ladies man, an over ambitious village belle and a whole family that thrives on their histrionics, Ugghh, right? Well, brace yourself, there’s more!! The soundtracks except the title track are mediocre. They actually got an ‘Angrez’ to sing in Hindi, that is quite an achievement in itself. It speaks loads about Bollywood going global and the script by Prasoon Joshi is inexorably native. Should we call it a return to our roots? But who wants to go back, certainly not I!! The only thing contemporary in the movie is the free running by Abhishek. Run from it, if I were you!!!

 Neha Singh

Click here to Listen to Delhi 6 Songs including Masakli

Bollywood Blogs: Listing of our Bollywood Blogs

Roadside Romeo and Heroes are releasing today and if news stories are to believed, they are garnering a cheerful response in terms of advance bookings despite releasing just three days before Diwali. However, some reports say, “Reports are not good for both ‘Roadside Romeo‘ and ‘Heroes‘ and there are less expectations as these are releasing just days before Diwali which is not a normally good period for movie business,”. The trade feels that they haven’t even been promoted well so their chances are slim for faring well at the box office. Also next weeks big releases of Fashion, Golmaal Returns and EMI will impact these movies. Fashion, Golmaal Returns and EMI hit the screens a day after Diwali and have been promoted aggressively as per the trade.

However, given that last weeks release Karzzz is not doing very well at the box office, Roadside Romeo and Heroes will get some advantage. Written and directed by debutant Jugal Hansraj, Roadside Romeo is India’s first ever three-dimensional (3D) mainstream animation project being co-produced by Yash Raj Films (YRF) Studio and Hollywood studio Walt Disney Co. It has been visualised, executed and delivered by a 150-member team of Tata group’s Tech arm Tata Elxsi and has voiceovers from Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Javed Jaffrey among others. The movie narrates a light-hearted tale of a pet dog named Romeo (voiced by Saif) who is left by his owners on the mean streets of Mumbai where he meets Laila (voiced by Kareena) and encounters with Charlie Anna (voiced by Javed).

Heroes, on the other hand, is a multi-starrer big film co-written and directed by Sameer Karnik and Aseem Arora. Loosely based on the cult classic “The Motorcycles Diaries”, the film is about a road trip of two guys - Sohail Khan and Vatsal Seth with patriotism as the theme. Other big stars in the film include Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Dino Morea, Mithun Chakraborty, Amrita Arora and Riya Sen. In terms of budget, where in producers Samir Karnik, Bharat Shah and Vikas Kapoor have, reported, invested around Rs.20 Crores in “Heroes”, YRF refused to divulge any details regarding Roadside Romeo. Jugal Hansraj is having butterflies in the stomach as the release date is approaching as he is quoted in some interviews but is sure people will like the movie. According to Jugal, We haven’t made this film to teach or preach anything or to compete with anyone. It’s a fun-filled movie for both kids and adults and has been made for them to have a good time. Jugal, lets hope this experiment with animation works and the magic of Walt Disney impacts us Indians also.

Heroes, we hear, will be a completely different movie. In an interview Samir Karnik says Talking about the film Samir said, ” Heroes is a road trip movie which is a journey of certain characters. It takes them from place to place and formulates the story of the film. There is a hero inside everyone. It is only one moment or experience that makes us realize how we can make a difference or think about our country. Heroes is not a war film. It is not even a patriotic film. It is a fun and entertaining film.” Also, watch out for the music of Heroes.

Watch the trailers of RoadSide Romeo and Heroes here:

Not sure if this happens every year but this year August seems to be Bollywood’s favourite month. Is this something to do with a huge IPL and Champions Leagues 20-Twenty Cricket tournaments coming up. Bollywood will not forget the beating a lot of movies got during the 45 day 1^st IPL in March - April.

So lets have a look at some of the Bollywood hindi movies coming up this next few weeks.

Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif starrer, Singh is Kinng released in August and seems to have done fairly well. Its and loud but entertaining movie in the rustic genre mastered by Akshay.

Bachna Ae Haseeno released this week and if you read the reviews its given a mixed rating to the movie. Lets see what the box office says and that would take a few days. Bachna Ae Haseeno stars Ranbir Kapoor, Dipika Padukone, Minnisha Lamba and Bipasha Basu. So will Bipasha get upset that I put her name last in this list even though she is the senior most actress among this gang.

God Tussi Great Ho: This movie also released this week with some poor reviews. Also, it will share the long weekend crowds with Bachna Ae Haseeno so Im not sure how well this movie will do. This Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan starrer seems to be a rip off of Bruce Allmighty. At least that’s what it looks from the posters. It probably has Amitabh Bachchan as God (Morgan Freeman), Salman Khan as the loser protagonist (Jim Carrey) and Priyanka Chopra as the girl, who chooses the loser (Jennifer Aniston). Best wishes guys and I hope Bandra boy Salman and Bandra man Shah Rukh Khan can make up. They have too many good things going for them to fight about….isnt it?

CKKompany is a Balaji - Ekta Kapoor Movie slotted to release on 22^nd August. The cast features Tushhar Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav and Mithun Chakraborty. This seems to be a comedy and im not much of a fan of Tushhar but hopefully Anupam Kher and Rajpal Yadav can salvage the movie. Also, how come this movie is not starting with “k”.

Chamku set to release on 22^nd August is the journey of a boy Chamku (who names someone Chamku - sounds like a soap ad) whose family had been murdered and was brought up and trained by Naxalites in Bihar. He was later picked up under some Governmental plan and is trained to kill. Like a ‘normal’ Hindi film hero he is good at his job even if that involves killing and soon becomes the blue-eyed boy of the police. Champu is played by Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra is the lady in his life that shows him that that there is more to life than killing. Priyanka and Bobby both need a hit desperately and would be praying this movie works for them.

Another August 22^nd release is Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam staring Mallika Sherawat and Rahul Bose along with Kay Kay Menon and Paresh Rawal. MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM looks like a crazy Contemporary Comedy about how a small town Drama Company gets involved in a deadly mission to save the country. Seems to be a fun movie but will it be able to draw crowds? The star cast looks good and the plot seems original so maybe.

Mumbai Meri Jaan also releasing on 22^nd August is all about Mumbai and the much talked about spirit of mumbaikars. Nishikant Kamat, who directed the very successful Marathi film, Dombivli Fast, directs his first Hindi project with this film examining the impact of the blasts on a cross-section of Mumbaikars of varied strata. The cast of this movie is also good. They include Kay Kay Menon, Irrfan Khan, Madhavan, Soha Ali Khan, Paresh Rawal and Vijay Maurya. Obviously Nishikant loves topics related to Mumbai Trains. I just hope it’s a positive movie that brings out good feelings at the end of the movie and does not open a pandora’s box.

My Friend Ganesha 2 is the sequel of a fairly successful movie and hopefully live up to expectations. Another release scheduled for an August 22^nd. The first part was obviously a hit that the producers decided to make a sequel. Not sure if sequels are a sure shot way to success but given that Part 1 has been shown 50+times on TV there is obviously a decent fan following. One of the highlights of My Friend Ganesha II is the bhangra pop singer and actor Mika who features in the film. Besides the animated Ganesha, the cast of My Friend Ganesha II includes Master Ali, Harsh Chhaya, Bhairavi Goswami, Suhasini Mulay, Sulbha Deshpande and Upasana Singh.

Phoonk is RGVs next big horror movie and this one is supposed to be really scary. Ram Gopal Verma loves to make horror movies and also does it well. I hear he has put some sort of reward if you can watch this movie alone. The trailers for this paranormal chiller do look good, and the concept of a rational man’s belief system shattered by paranormal phenomena can potentially be fascinating. I just hope this movie does not scare his financers. Can you believe that Phoonk is also slated for release on 22^nd August!!!

Hijack is an action thriller set to release on 29^th August. This Shiny Ahuja and Esha Deol movie is an action thriller around a hijack as the name suggests. The film revolves around Vikram played by Shiney Ahuja who is a ground maintenance officer at the Chandigarh airport. His social life is limited to one friend, Rajeev, who is the Security Chief of the same airport. As luck would have it, the flight in which Vikram’s daughter was traveling to Amritsar from Delhi, is hijacked. Obviously as a hero, Vikram is the only man who can sneak inside the aircraft to save his daughter Priya. So he gets into the aircraft with the help of the airhostess, Saira (Esha Deol), he starts plotting and killing the terrorists one by one. And like most good movies the stars, Vikram and Saira manage to save the day.

Rock On!! is the much awaited Farhan Akhtar starrer movie set to release on 29^th August. Rock On!! is the story of 4 friends who put together the greatest rock band this country has ever seen, but never become successful. Years later, fate conspires to bring them together again and set them on a journey back to where they left off… a soul-searching pilgrimage into their past. This 2 stage life story sounds a bit like Dil Chahta Hai but I hope it would be very different and fresh.

So happy viewing and keep sending us you comments and reviews of these movies.

Leena

Other Interesting Blogs:

Previous Bollywood Blogs

Reviews of some nice eating joints in and around Bandra

Its that time of the week when we all compare our notes on the new releases for the weekend. This weekend is the release of Kismat Konnection starring Shahid Kapoor and Vidya Balan.

As we are no experts at reviewing movies we will try and put some of the reviews together:

Rajeev Masand of IBN says That’s two out of five for Aziz Mirza’s Kismat Konnection. Believe me the best thing about this film is Himani Shivpuri and her fabulous comic moments. That should tell you all you needed to know about this film. Read More….

Rating: 2 / 5

Deepa Gehlot of MSN.in calls it “Phooti Kismat” and “Traces of Raj Kapoor’s ‘Shri 420′ are still found in Aziz Mirza’s films - the hope for idealism in an increasingly corrupt world is a recurring theme in ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’, ‘Yes Boss’ and ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’.

They were fairy tales rolled into cautionary fables for modern times. His latest ‘Kismet Konnection’ also follows the Mirza formula, but now a bit of commercial compromising has crept in, which is why the film falls flat like a soufflé with some important ingredient missing.” Read more….

Subhash Jha of IndiaFM.com seems to like the movie and says “In one of the gloriously gossamer moments in the film, the ‘hero’, a harassed working-class entity and the kind of bereft soul you would immediately recognize if you’ve grown up watching Aziz Mirza’s working-class romances, with one of his shoes in hand looks up in the sky and says with a stifled sob, “I give up.”

Fortunately God isn’t listening when Raj Malhotra wants out. Imagine what we would do if the working-class hero stumbled and fell. Kismat Konnection is one of the sweetest and most endearing romantic comedies in recent times.” Read more…..

Udita Jhunjhunwala of DNA gives it a 2.5 stars and calls it “The connection is a tad hazy” Read more….

Mayank Shekhar of NDTV Movies says “Aziz Mirza’s Kismat Konnection is not even remotely connected to your entertainment needs.” More….

Elvis D’Silva of Rediff.com gives it 2 stars and says ” I suppose, as a one line pitch, this movie sounded really appealing – a man with a really ugly string of luck is made whole by the arrival of a walking, talking, opinionated good luck charm, who just happens to be opposed to the very job he’s working so hard to land.

Sadly, neither the film nor its leading pair delivers on the promise of that premise.” And calls it Kismat Disconnection!! Read More…..

Here are some images from the movie and the trailer. You decide if you want to go at your own risk :-).