Posts Tagged ‘Yashpal Sharma’
After closing the year with films such as PAA and 3 IDIOTS, the year 2010 sure looks bigger and brighter for Reliance BIG Pictures with a mixed bag of films ranging from mainstream and masala to regional and art house.
With maverick directors such as Shyam Benegal, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Basu, Shaji N Karun, Rituparno Ghosh and Buddhadeb Dasgupta bringing the best out of Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mamootty, Boman Irani, Jishu Sengupta, Indraneil Sengupta, Kangana Ranaut amongst many others the Reliance BIG Pictures slate is sure to watch out for!
Have a sneak peek into Reliance BIG Pictures’ slate of films for the year 2010:
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| KITES |
KITES:
A truly international film KITES tells the story of a young con-man who lives ‘life’ in Las Vegas, always ready to make fast money in any way possible, always looking for the big score. Directed by Anurag Basu and produced by Rakesh Roshan the film stars Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut and Kabir Bedi. It is shot in Mumbai, New Mexico, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. The film will have and Indian and international version which will release simultaneously. Brett Ratner, best known for the RUSH HOUR series, FAMILY MAN starring Nicholas Cage and X-MEN THE LAST STAND is currently at work on the English version of KITES and tailoring it to appeal it to an international audience.
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| WELL DONE ABBA |
WELL DONE ABBA:
WELL DONE ABBA is the story of Armaan Ali, a driver working in Mumbai. He takes leave for a month to find a husband for his teenage daughter, who lives in a small locality close to Hyderabad. Armaan Ali returns to work only after 3 months. His young employer wants to sack him but is persuaded to listen to the reason why Armaan got so delayed.
Directed by Shyam Benegal stars Boman Irani, Minissha Lamba, Sammir Dattani, Ila Arun, Sonali Kulkarni, Ravi Kishen, Rajit Kapur, Ravi Jhankal and Yashpal Sharma.
RAAVAN:
Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan come on screen together in Mani Ratnam’s RAAVAN – a modern day adaption of the epic Ramayan, being readied in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
MIRCH:
Directed by Vinay Shukla MIRCH revolves around the protagonist Maanav, a committed struggling filmmaker whose girlfriend Ruchi, a successful film editor, arranges for him to meet film producer Nitin, who is not very convinced about Maanav’s script. Maanav then suggests four stories on infidelity, woven together by a common story.
The film stars Konkana Sen Sharma, Raima Sen, Shahana Goswami, Shreyas Talpade, Rajpal Yadav, Boman Irani, Sushant Singh, Arunoday Singh and Prem Chopra with special appearances by Saurabh Shukla & Tisca Chopra.
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| CHALOO MOVIE |
CHALOO MOVIE:
The police raid a theatre where movie tickets of a very successful film are being sold in black. When Police Inspector Sher Khan interrogates Khoji, a man in his 20s, he claims that he is the director of the very film whose tickets he is selling in black. The cynical Sher Khan puts Khoji behind bars after which he receives two phone calls – one from the Police Commissioner and another from the dreaded don ‘WC’, both of whom support Khoji’s detention. A hilarious turn of events reveal who Khoji is, whether he is really the film’s director, why is he selling his film’s tickets in black and what do the Police Commissioner and don ‘WC’ want from Khoji.
Starring Rajpal Yadav, Shekhar Suman, Divya Dutta, Hrishta Bhatt and Sayali Bhagat, CHALOO MOVIE is directed by Vinod Pande.
Reliance BIG Pictures, the most committed motion picture company producing regional films in 8 Indian languages is working persistently towards taking them beyond the conventional Diaspora
The slate of films includes:
KUTTY SRANK: Shaji Karun’s Malayalam film KUTTY SRANK starring Mamooty, Kamilini Mukherjee, Padmapriya and Meenakumari brings out three distinct personalities of a dead boat-man from the perspective of three women each of whom claims to be his wife.
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| ABOHOMAAN |
ABOHOMAAN: Rituparno Ghosh’s Bengali film ABOHOMAAN starring Dipankar De, Mamata Shankar, Ananya Chatterjee, Jishu Sengupta and Ria Sen brings to the screen a sensational relationship between a film-director, a young actress and a wife who swears to ruin her husband’s life and career and a son who gets caught in the cross-fire in this extravagant drama.
JANALA: Buddhabed Dasgupta’s Bengali film JANALA starring Tapas Paul, Swastika Mukherjee and Indraneil Sengupta is the journey of a solitary man against the wrath of circumstances when he decides to pursue his little impulsive dream.
IJJODU: by the maestro M S Sathyu is a film about a photo journalist who finds an interesting girl who has been exploited on the name of religion. He succeeds in breaking her blind belief but fails to accept her to give her an alternative life. This Kannada flick stars Meera Jasmine and Anirudh.
GLAMSHAM.COM
In Bollywood nowadays, we normally get to see right scripts falling into wrong hands. Or we see wrong scripts falling into wrong hands (classic eg: Kambakkht Ishq!). But very rarely, we get to see right scripts reaching the right hands! Sankat City, the new small movie with entertains big time, comes in this category. It comes under the category of all the madcap comic capers that we are exposed to since years. Yet, it stands out due to its treatment which makes it ‘a masala entertainer for the classes’!
The story of the movie: Guru (Kay Kay Menon) is a petty thief who is an expert in stealing cars (and even towing vans!). His modus operandi is excellent-he steals a car, takes it to his partner-in-crime, Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar) who repaints the car and Guru then sells it to Sharafat (Shri Vallabh Vyas) and makes a nice profit. Unfortunately, one day, Guru steals a swanky Merc which was parked outside a brothel. In the dikky, Guru is pleasantly surprised to find a bag containing Rs. 1 Crore. The money belonged to Fauzdar (Anupam Kher), a gangster-cum-moneylender and the money was to be sent to Gogi (Manoj Pahwa), a financially crippled film producer. Mona (Rimi Sen), Sikandar Khan (Chunky Pandey), Pachisia (Yashpal Sharma), Philip (Hemant Pandey), Guruji (Virendra Saxena) and others are the rest of the characters of the film. How the characters are inter-connected with each other forms the rest of the story.
Sankat City has a fast-paced narrative and doesn’t waste unnecessary time at all. The characters are quickly and wonderfully established in the first 10 minutes itself. The film excellently scores in the writing department. In most comic flicks, the situations and the humour are senseless and completely illogical most of the times. In the case of Sankat City, comic situations arise in situation which looks realistic and justified. And that’s one point where the film scores big time!
One gets the feel of the power of the script when it’s revealed how all the characters are wonderfully connected to each other. There are ample moments where the film would have fallen like a pack of cards but writer/director Pankaj Advani holds the script amazingly and doesn’t let it go on the wrong path.
There are numerous humour sequences in the film. The conversations of Guru and Ganpat were fabulous. Ganpat getting injured and the bomb blast sequence were the funniest scenes of the first half. In the second half, the scene shot inside BEST Bus was undoubtedly the best scene of the film! Hats off to the director for thinking something like this!
Now to the flaws. The film is perfectly executed. However, the scene where Guru makes a bomb hoax call and the sequence that follows looked a bit unrealistic, although it will be wrong to say that it wasn’t funny. And secondly, the film was very badly promoted. A film with such a fabulous cast would have easily attracted audiences if it was well publicized. It’s unfortunate that a big producer like Moser Baer failed to arouse curiosity for its own film.
The film has more than dozen characters and it’s impossible to say who performed the best. Kay Kay Menon was as usual in full form and it was great to see him in a comic role after a long time. Same for Anupam Kher who was seen in a negative role after years. Rimi Sen looked charming and gave an excellent performance. I wish we get to see more of her. Chunky Pandey irritated a lot in Paying Guests but was terrific here in Sankat City. He was there in a double role and did complete justice to both the characters. Dilip Prabhawalkar was totally hilarious. Yashpal Sharma also managed to raise quite a many laughs! Virendra Saxena does the most unique role of his life and performs perfectly. Manoj Pahwa also did a good job. Hemant Pandey, Shri Vallabh Vyas, Sanjay Mishra, Jehangir Khan, Rahul Dev and Gurpal Singh were good.
Ranjit Barot’s music suits the movie well. Best song was without doubt, ‘Ghoom Ghoom’. All those looking for some hatke music should listen to all the 3 songs of this film! Chirantan Das’ cinematography was flawless.
Finally, the winner of the film is Pankaj Advani, who wrote the story, screenplay and dialogues and also directed the film. It seems he is inspired by Phir Hera Pheri, One Two Three and other such mindless comedies but yet he managed to come up with such a fine, rich product. He used his brains creatively and did complete justice to all the numerous characters that were there in the film. And although he came up with an excellent script, he executed it wonderfully and that’s where he won completely! Hats off to this person and let’s hope he comes up with such great films in future too!
Some of the best scenes of the film:
1. Guru’s entry
2. The bomb blast sequence
3. Mona wooing Pachisia
4. All scenes of Virendra Saxena
5. Gampat getting injured
6. Mona in the BEST Bus (marvelous!)
7. Guru making a hoax call and the scene that follows
8. Guru and Mona in the dumping ground (fabulous scene!)
9. The climax
On the whole, Sankat City is a brilliant entertainer. With so many mindless entertainers nowadays, a film like this brings a welcome change. Watch it if you are starved of entertainment. Or at least, recommend it to as many moviegoers as possible. This film needs or rather, deserves to be watched!
My rating-**** out of 5!
This post first appeared on MouthShut.com: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Sankat_City-171023-1.html
By Taran Adarsh, July 10, 2009 – 10:09 IST
Sometimes, big things come in small sizes…
SANKAT CITY may not boast of stars to lure the audiences, it may not have a colossal canvas [on the contrary, the making is very basic], it may not have a terrific musical score to act as a hook [there are hardly any songs here], but SANKAT CITY succeeds, and succeeds largely, in its endeavour: Make the viewer laugh at the right places.
One walks in with zilch expectations [the promos don’t do justice to the product], but when you make an exit from the audi, it’s with the feeling that the 2 hours were well spent.
| By BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM |
Comedies, today, can be segregated into two categories — Brain-dead entertainers and intelligent comedies. Films like JAANE BHI DO YAARO, BHEJA FRY and SANKAT CITY fall in the latter category.
Let’s be honest. Not all of us can think whacky or come up with a crazy madcap comedy like SANKAT CITY. It requires a wild and imaginative mind to come up with one and most importantly, execute it with panache. Debutante director Pankaj Advani gets its right on both the counts. Sure, there are glitches in the narrative, but Advani compels you to sit and listen to the story he intends narrating.
Final word? Don’t give SANKAT CITY a miss just because the film doesn’t star the Khans or Kumars. This ‘City’ is worth a visit!
Guru [Kay Kay Menon] is a small-time car thief. Ganpat [Dilip Prabhawalkar], who owns a dilapidated garage, is his partner-in-crime. Guru robs cars and Ganpat gives them a make-over in order to sell them for tidy profits.
One night, Guru chances upon a swank Mercedes parked outside a brothel, unattended. He steals the car and takes it to Ganpat. While working on the car, they discover a sum of Rs. 1 crore in it. They are delirious with joy at the unexpected turn of events. Little do they know what’s in store, for the car and the money belong to a gangster/loan shark called Faujdaar [Anupam Kher]. What happens next?
It takes time to get a hang of things, but once the characters and their traits are introduced at the very outset, the goings-on become one joyride. The assorted characters and the way they are integrated in the storyline, as also the way they’re inter-connected, makes the film stand out.
If the first hour is akin to a roller coaster ride that you enjoy to the optimum, it’s the middle of the second half that bothers you. That’s because things stagnate and even get monotonous for a few minutes, before the climax strikes again.
SANKAT CITY is more like a relay. One incident leads to another, so on and so forth and it keeps you involved and entertained for most parts. But the most stunning sequence is reserved in the pre-climax when a bulldozer runs over a bagful of currency. A brilliant sequence!
SANKAT CITY is embellished with super performances by each and every member of its cast. Anupam Kher [terrific], Kay Kay Menon [excellent], Rimi Sen [first-class], Dilip Prabhawalkar [splendid], Chunky Pandey [very good], Manoj Pahwa [effective], Yashpal Sharma [first-rate], Hemant Pandey [perfect], Rahul Dev [good], Virendra Saxena [wonderful], Srivallabh Vyas [nice], Sanjay Mishra [decent]… every actor deserves praise. It’s as if the roles were tailor-made for them.
On the whole, SANKAT CITY is a small little gem that deserves a watch. Yes, there’s a bombardment of new films week after week and chances are that this film may get sidetracked thanks to the invasion of biggies, with the multiplexes sidelining it to embrace the biggies. But here’s a request to all cine lovers and also multiplexes, from this writer. Give this one a chance. Let’s nurture it well, so that genuine efforts like SANKAT CITY don’t go unnoticed
BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM
First look: SANKAT CITY
Posted on: May 15, 2009
Cast: KAY KAY MENON, IRRFAN KHAN, ANUPAM KHER, RIMII SEN, RAHUL DEV, YASHPAL SHARMA and others
Produced By: MOSER BAER & SEVEN ENTERTAINMENT
Directed by: PANKAJ ADVANI
Source: BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM
Arshad Warsi’s film dares to release amidst multiplexes v/s producers stand off
Posted on: April 9, 2009
By Joginder Tuteja, April 9, 2009 – 12:16 IST
Even though bigwigs like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan are coming together in their stand with the producers, there are some filmmakers who are defying the strike and going ahead with the release of their films. One such film is Arshad Warsi starrer Ek Se Bure Do which is silently arriving in theaters (including multiplexes) this Friday i.e. 10th April in spite of majority of Bollywood fraternity choosing to do otherwise.
However, it isn’t too much of a worrying thought though. The film belongs to ‘stuck in the cans’ variety and was actually launched 5 years back. There has been no promotion of the film during its making and is now seeing a near ‘dead’ release due to scarcity of releases in multiplexes. Even though everyone associated with the film would know that it’s a loose-loose situation for all, they are rightly going ahead with the release to get rid of some backlog.
The film sees Arshad Warsi as a hero along with Rajpal Yadav who plays the second lead in the film. A comedy, it stars Natassha as the female lead whose last major release as a heroine was Koi Aap Sa (2005). Ever since then she has appeared in only film, Just Married, and that too featured her only in a cameo. The other female lead of the film is Tusha who makes her debut with the film.
In a way, release of this film would be a relief for Arshad Warsi who has moved into A-grade films in the years gone by. Ek Se Bure Do is the second in line for an old film of Arshad to be hitting the screens. A few weeks back it was Kisse Pyaar Karoon that had arrived and disappeared in a matter of a single week. That film too was years in the making and was a ‘let’s get this one out of the way’ release.
Coming to Ek Se Bure Do, the film boasts of a heavy supporting cast comprising of actors like Govind Namdeo, Yashpal Sharma, Virendra Saxena, Vijay Raaz and Razzak Khan. In fact the biggest draw for the film could be well through an item number that has been picturised on aiming-at-being-an-item-girl Brinda Parekh whose claim to fame has been a short appearance in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Corporate. However, the song (which also features Arshad Warsi) hasn’t been promoted at all; something that has hardly helped the film’s cause.
Produced by Suresh Seth, Ek Se Bure Do is directed by Tarique for whom this will be his first venture behind the camera. Arriving with zero publicity, the film would be lucky to survive a single weekend at theaters!
For Arshad though, it could well translate into good news. With Kisse Pyaar Karoon and now Ek Se Bure Do being finally out of his way, he would certainly be hoping that his other stuck films like Jeetenge Hum and Zamaanat are released soon as well and clear his backlog releases.
BOLLYWOODHUNGAMA.COM
