Dream Girl 2, Trailer launch: Meet Ayushwomann, the body behind the voice Meeting Dream Girl 2 was not easy. In fact, it was 3 times as difficult as one would have imagined. First hurdle was the location hunt, as the invitation just said Meta Office, BKC. BKC is a huge settlement, and it took us (me and my friend Prasad Sovani, who had come down from Pune) a while to locate the venue, though we still managed to arrive on time. Secondly, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get identity badges a...

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2-Song launch at Imagicaa: How far will you go to watch a film song? Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is the second part of the franchise, the title of which means Maze or Labyrinth. Imagicaa is an amusement park situated at Khopoli, some 80 kms from Mumbai. The invitation from the Public Relations was tempting: 1.00 pm - Media assemble time at T-Series office, Andheri West   2:00 PM - Departure For Imagicaa, with Media   - Media to be segregated in 2 buses   5:00 PM - ...

An Actor’s Actor-Sanjeev Kumar: The Authorised Biography of Sanjeev Kumar A riveting black and white picture of the late actor, in mid-close, looking a little to his right, greets you on the cover of this eminently readable biography of the actor, who, arguably, was an actor’s actor. And so, the authors, Mumbai-based Hanif Zaveri and Delhi-based Sumant Batra, are not exaggerating when they give him that exalted title. As far as the ‘authorised’ bit is concerned, the du...

Babloo Bachelor, Review: Bachelor and the marriage lure Of all the themes that have been chosen for making Hindi films over the last several decades, marriage is the most common. Till the dawn of the 21st century, a host of film scripts were woven around the boy-meets-girl, they cannot marry due to a plethora of reasons, the most common being inequality of status, a villain was added for effect, and it all ended well. Now, with mobile phones, social media, so many mixed marriages and live-ins...

Yamla Pagla Deewana--Phirse/3, Review: YPDP 3, Y indeed? Is good judgement failing the Deols? And did any well-wisher not bring to their notice that the story and screenplay of Yamla Pagla Deewana Phirse/3 is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? Or is it both? Whatever the reality, fact is that we have the Dharmendra Deol, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol starrer released this week, a weak exercise in futility. He Man Dharmendra, probably the first hero to show off his rippling muscles bare-...

Aamir, Nasir, Tahir, Tariq, Mansoor, Amjad: Movies, Masti, Modernity, Flashback 5 To remind you, Aamir is indeed Aamir Khan, Amjad is definitely Gabbar Singh, and the triple M above is to acknowledge that it was Akshay Manwani’s biographical book on the cinema of Nasir Hussain that got me delving into the period of about 15 years, when I interacted with the Hussain Khans (first five) and the bare Khan (last, but the most imposing personality). Actually, Mansoor did not use his middle na...

Gour Hari Dastaan/The Freedom File, Review: His-story Described in the press as a Kafkaesque black comedy when it was launched in 2011, Gour Hari Dastaan is based on a true story, of Gour Hari Das (now 85), with some Kafkaesque undertones, but very little or no black comedy. It cannot afford to be a comedy, let alone a black one, since it deals with the sensitive subject of the neglect and disregard suffered by those who participated in the struggle to rid India of British colonial rule. Brit...