Rahman after Oscar nominations : I'm on top of the world

Music maestro Alla Rakha Rahman, who has become the first Indian artiste to get Oscar nomination in the main category for his score in Slumdog Millionaire, says he is very excited and thanks the nation for its best wishes.

"I love this film. The nominations have given me a great feeling. My inspiration to compose the music was the movie itself, its thought and the message in the film," Rahman told a TV channel after the nominations were disclosed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, US.

"Everyone has worked very hard for the film and I am actually feeling on top of the world right now. I want to thank everyone for their wishes," he added during a chat with Times Now TV news channel.

Rahman has three Oscar nominations, including one for best original score and for two songs in the film - Jai ho and O saya.

Directed by British filmmaker Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire got seven more nominations including for best director, best picture and best adapted screenplay.

"The beauty of music is that we don't think about awards while creating it. I'm very happy that I'm with my family at the moment. All members of the film are very excited. It will surely be a great energy booster for all the musicians in the country," said Rahman, whose latest offering Delhi - 6 is ruling the charts.

Read More......

Oscars Awards - Slumdog Millionaire scores 10 nominations

The romantic fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button led Academy Awards contenders on Thursday with 13 nominations, among them best picture and acting honors for Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson, and a directing slot for David Fincher.

Other best-picture nominees are Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire, with 10 nominations.

As expected, Heath Ledger had a supporting-actor nomination for The Dark Knight on the one-year anniversary of his death from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. But the Batman blockbuster was shut out for other top categories such as best picture and director.

Slumdog Millionaire lived up to its rags-to-riches theme, coming in second with 10 nominations, including a directing spot for Danny Boyle and two of the three song slots.

Real-life couple Pitt and Angelina Jolie both will be going to the Oscars as nominees. Jolie had a best-actress nomination for the missing-child drama Changeling.

The acting categories were loaded with surprises. Kate Winslet won two Golden Globes, best dramatic actress for Revolutionary Road and supporting actress for The Reader. But she was nominated for lead actress at the Oscars for The Reader and shut out for Revolutionary Road.

Actors considered longshots also sneaked in, among lead-actor nominee Richard Jenkins for The Visitor, best-actress contender Melissa Leo for Frozen River and supporting-actor pick Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road.

Winslet reunited with her Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio for Revolutionary Road, but he also was shut out for a nomination on that film.

Other best-actress nominees were Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married and Meryl Streep for Doubt.

Joining Pitt and Jenkins in the best-actor category were Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Sean Penn, Milk; and Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.

Other acting snubs included Clint Eastwood for Gran Torino, Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky and Kristin Scott Thomas for I've Loved You So Long.

But perhaps the biggest surprise overall was the so-so results for The Dark Knight, which had been picking up momentum as one Hollywood trade guild after another picked it as one of the year's best films.

The largest blockbuster in years, The Dark Knight had eight nominations, but other than Ledger's honour, its scored only in technical categories such as cinematography, visual effects and editing.

Read More......

Kollywood Pongal release Movie Review

1. Pirivoam Sandhipoam: Directed by Karu Palaniappan, the film deals with the bonding of a woman with the new relations she finds after marriage life. She gets more and more attached to them and it’s a topsy-turvy situation when she along with her husband has to move for a different place. Cheran and Sneha on the lead roles have done a wonderful job and Jayaraman does a cool job…

2. Pidichirukku: A low budget movie making good results among the audiences who liked this movie. The film has a simple storyline of romance genre but that’s quite entertaining.

3. Pazhani: Bharath comes up with a different action role and credits goes to Perarasu for depicting him differently. Kajol Agarwal doesn’t make up to the expectations while Kushboo wins the laurels. The film has all entertaining factors and this would be a movie to kill your time.

4. Bheema: Vikram starrer Bheema has been of great expectations right from the beginning movie was launched before couple of years. The film brings us with new dimension of action stunts and spine chilling climax. Two best reasons why you should watch this movie is the excellent performances of Vikram and Prakash Raj along with good direction by Lingusamy. On the other hand, we have two reason why you shouldn’t watch it, the story and more violence….

5. Kaalai: Tarun Gopi had raised great expectations with the success of his previous flick Thimiru, but its disappointing when you watch the movie. Simbhu tries to make good presentation and succeeds in it. The film could have fetched good credits if it had been shaped with better handling of script and powerful screenplay.

6. Vaazthugal: Despites sharing same backgrounds of family set-ups as that of Pirivoam Sandipoam, Vaazthugal fails to top the chart with dragging screenplay. Madhavan should now stop coming up chocolate-boy roles and opt for some unique roles as he had done in Evano Oruvan. Seeman does a good job in direction, but few dialogues were excellent and that others were annoying….

Read More......

Shriya returns the compliment to Nayantara

Nippy heroine Nayantara did a song sequence for the Rajnikant starrer Sivaji in which Shriya played the female lead.

Now, it is Shriya's turn to return the compliment to Nayans, according to the grapevine.

Well, the tiding from Tollywood is that Shri has agreed to do an item number for the Nayantara- Venkatesh starrer ‘Thulasi’.

She has been paid a tidy sum for doing the song item, it is learnt.

Ever since ‘Sivaji’ was released, Shriya has been going from strength to strength.

More Actress Gallery

More General Info

Her next films due for release feature Vijay and Vikram in the lead roles. She has also been snapped up to star against Ajith in another Tamil film.

No wonder, saucy Shriya is in the seventh heaven these days!

Read More......

Victoria no 203

Masala movies of the 70s had a kooky charm of their own. They had a weird logic, an eagerness to please and entertainment-at-any-cost credo. Considering most of them were made without written scripts and strung along from day to day as the shooting went, they came out looking remarkably coherent — but also over-dependent on stars.

Today, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan gets a readymade script of a successful film, and can’t do much with it. Something like an ordinary cook trying to recreate a haute cuisine recipe from a book. The ingredients can be assembled, but how to mix and match, that’s where the expertise lies. Or you get an undercooked or charred (like this week’s other release RGV Ki Aag) inedible mess.Rich Bobby Bombatta (Jaaved Jaaferi) and his moll (Preeti Jhangiani) are offended when his offer to buy diamonds worth Rs 100 crore is turned down, so they plan to steal them. His partner in crime Ranjit (Kamal Sadanah) gets an acrobatic Tora (all cleavage no expression) to grab the stones from a high-security cell (the same old dodging laser beams sequence), but she has ideas of her own.

Ranjit stabs the double crosser, but not before she has hidden the diamonds in Victoria No 203 and arranged to get the locker key to her brother. The victoria driver is arrested for the murder, and the key reaches the hands of two old crooks Raja and Rana (Anupam Kher-Om Puri).The Victoria driver’s daughter Sara (Soniya Mehra) takes up her father’s work disguised as a boy and also tries to find the real killer. An undercover cop (Jimmy Shergill) falls in love with her, but otherwise has little to do.

The highlight of the 1972 film was Saira Banu’s dance in a towel. Soniya Mehra does it too, without a fraction of the sizzle and an embarrassing product placement for a towel brand on full display. So tacky! Pran and Ashok Kumar as Raja and Rana had a genuine chemistry and sense of comedy. Om Puri and Anupam Kher look ill at ease. The climax at a South Indian film shoot, with Mahadeven himself playing a caricature ‘Madrasi’ director is dreadful. Better to get a DVD of the old film instead!

Read More......

Nisha Kothari says no superstition

No, I’m not adding an extra ‘a’ and ‘k’ to my name. Nor am I visiting a dozen deities for my well being,” says a laughing Nisha Kothari, denying rumours that she is getting progressively religious and superstitious to salvage her career. “My parents and I just visited one temple. In any case, I’m not answerable to anyone except my family,” she says. Crying foul against charges of misconduct on the sets of Aditya Dutta’s Good Luck, Nisha says, “I’ve never abused anyone. Stories of my bad behaviour on the sets are growing. I no longer find these rumours funny. I’ve not shot for any film called Good Luck. I couldn’t give them the dates they wanted. I said no to Good Luck, and maybe some people didn’t like that.”About her role as Basanti in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay, she says, “I just finished dubbing for my role. I have seen Hemaji in the earlier Sholay but my character Ghungroo is not like Basanti. We dress, speak and behave differently. Ghungroo behaves like a man but she’s all woman inside. She’s a bundle of contradictions. There are different emotions to express in one character.”

Read More......

No exposing or lip kisses says ayesha again

For Ayesha Takia, the right to not kiss on screen is unquestionable. She says her values don’t allow it. In fact, Ayesha has said a no to a kissing scene in Nagesh Kukunoor’s film. Is it because of boyfriend Farhan Azmi?"The actor says, "I never said no to the film. I only refused to do the kissing scene. I can’t say no to Nagesh. After Dor, he is a friend and a director I respect immensely. I still think we can work our way around the scene.""But Nagesh is adamant. So I guess... You know Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking had a kissing and lovemaking scene. Anurag altered the script for my sake. However, Farhan or any other member of my family has anything to do with my decision. My values make me uncomfortable with such a scene. If I go to a premiere with my family, and that includes Farhan, and see myself kissing on screen, I’d be very uncomfortable," she adds.

Read More......

Bipasha Basu will announce the 7 wonders at Lisbon

Ah all the Bollywood beauties have determined to rule the world! First it was Ash, then Mallika, later Shilpa and now it is Bipasha Basu. The lady who avoided stage anchoring due to her short-sight, which causes trouble for her to read the teleprompter, is now ready to take up the job for history’s sake. “History beckons me! I have been given the honour of hosting the official declaration ceremony for the New 7 Wonders of the World in Lisbon on July 7. So, I’ve got myself contact lenses.

All these years I stubbornly resisted them and risked losing friends after looking through them in public. But now that I will be hosting this event with the likes of Ben Kingsley and Hillary Swank, and at which Jennifer Lopez will be performing, I’d be foolish not to correct my eyesight. I can see everything so clearly now!” said the ravishing Bipasha. She exclaimed, “I don’t know what made them choose me, maybe it was my appearance at Cannes last month. But I’m deeply honored and flattered.

This is the first time that the 7 Wonders are being reconsidered. To be part of this is to be part of history. And I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in world, certainly not for being short-sighted. It would be my friend Rocky S for the Indian outfit, and that’s a saree. Armani will do my western outfit.” So all the people out there who have problems with their eye sight should do the same and should not miss the chance of seeing the hottest Bollywood celebrity with her Hollywood counterparts. The event will be held in Lisbon.

Read More......

Introducing Deepika Padukone

She is the queen of Indian fashion arena; Deepika Padukone has taken the fashion world by storm ever since she was seventeen. Deepika is the daughter of the world’s 1980 badminton champion, Prakash Padukone and Ujjala Padukone. She became known internationally after her brief stint with Maybelline.

Now that she has achieved quite good success on the runway, Deepika is doing her first Bollywood film with none other than Shah Rukh Khan in Om Shanti Om. This Farah Khan movie is her first in Bollywood but not her debut in films; she just finished the film-‘Aishwarya’ in Kannada. So what does this much talked about new comer has to say regarding her talents and assets, “I don’t mind wearing a bikini because I know that I can carry one off well. As long as I am enjoying, I have no qualms whatsoever.” Wow what a surprise for Bollywood! Surely no lead lady apart from Mallika Sherawat came with such bold statements in Bollywood.

Read More......