Synopsis :

Vishnu (Abhay Deol), a restless young man, itches to escape his father's faltering hair oil business. An old truck beckons, which Vishnu sees as his ticket to freedom. He offers to drive the antique Chevy across the desert to the sea, where it has been sold to a local museum. As he sets off across the harsh terrain of desert India, he discovers he’s not merely transporting a battered vehicle but an old touring cinema. Along the way, Vishnu reluctantly picks up a young runaway (Mohammed Faizal Usmani), a wandering old entertainer (Satish Kaushik) and a striking gypsy woman (Tannishtha Chatterjee - Brick Lane). Together they roam the barren land, searching for water and an elusive fair. The journey turns dire when they are waylaid by corrupt cops and a notorious waterlord. The key to their freedom is the eccentric collection of films and the two forty-year-old film projectors in the back of the truck. As in 1001 Nights, if the films are good, they live and move on. If the films are boring, they face death in the outback. The journey proves transformative for each of the travelers especially for Vishnu who discovers life, love and laughter on the Indian highway.

Cast

Cast:

Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Virendra Saxena, Yashpal Sharma

Crew

Story Writer:

Dev Benegal

Director:

Dev Benegal

Banner:

Indian Film Company, Studio 18

vpost :03

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Rann is a forthcoming Bollywood film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, focuses on Indian media.

Cast

* Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Harshwardhan Malik
* Sudeep as Jai Malik
* Ritesh Deshmukh as Purab Shastri*Paresh Rawal as Mohan Pandey
* Mohnish Behl as Amrish Kakkar
* Rajat Kapoor as Naveen Shankalya
* Rajpal Yadav as Anand Prakash Trivedi
* Gul Panag as Nandita Sharma
* Suchitra Krishnamurthy as Nalini Kashyap
* Neetu Chandra as Yasmin Hussain

Rann Movie Rating : 3/ 5

Rann Movie Review :

Ramgopal Varma is itching to tell a new story in his movies. You may garland him for his efforts or loathe him if you feel letdown, but you need to hand it to him for picking up stories that defy stereotype.

This time, in RANN, the maverick film-maker does an expose on the games the heavyweights in the media play to further their interests. RGV goes into the newsrooms and also behind it and throws light on the politician-industrialist-media nexus. Also, it’s an insider’s account of how news channels that are greedy for ratings sensationalize stories to grab eyeballs.

On surface, you don’t want to know what goes behind the scenes and how, at times, news are ‘created’ by vested interests. But RANN scratches the surface and opens a can of worms. RANN also mirrors the fact that just like there are good and bad people in every field, there’re some rotten ones in the media too who succumb to temptations and create news to climb the ladder of success.

vpost : 01

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Neha Dhupia took time out from her busy schedule to spend some time with children who suffer from hearing difficulties.

'Deeds' - an organization that works with these children invited Neha Dhupia to give away the trophy for a quiz titled 'Quest 5'.

Impressively enough 'Quest 5' was a quiz for children with hearing difficulties from among 12 special schools. And Neha Dhupia was present to award the winners of the quiz.

Reveals a source "Neha spent some time interacting with the children and distributing gifts to them. The kids enjoyed having her"

Neha Dhupia has always been one do her part for social causes. She recently shot for a 'go green' calendar to promote the cause of conservation of the environment and now she's doing her bit to support 'Deeds' in their endeavor to work for children, those of whom live with hearing difficulties.

"Neha has always been an actress to openly speak about the causes she believes in. Deeds thought of her as the most apt person to promote this cause" adds the source.

vpost : 07

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Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a new creative honcho in his 'Guzaarish' team. It's an uncredited honour, though. The passionate filmmaker has found a friend, philosopher and guide in his old pal Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Known to be insanely possessive about his projects, SLB is famed for taking all the creative decisions himself. Not any longer. An insider on his set whispers, "Sanjay consults Aishwarya on everything connected with 'Guzaarish'. Her words really matter to him and he asks her to be present on the sets even when she is not required for a scene."

Apart from her stunning physicality and talent, what has earned respect for Ash in the eyes of Bhansali is her unstinting professionalism. After co star's Hrithik's recent b'day bash, when everyone partied till the wee hours of the morning, it was only Ash who reported on time for next day's shooting.Point noted. Ash Bhansali likes it!

vpost : 07

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Last week's three releases - RAAT GAYI BAAT GAYI, BOLO RAAM and ACCIDENT ON HILL ROAD- fared as expected. And one does not have to be a Nostradamus to have predicted that! To sum it up in one sentence; despite all the merits/demerits of the three mentioned movies, they were all washed aside by the 3 IDIOTS tsunami!

This Friday's three main releases are - Yash Raj's PYAAR IMPOSSIBLE!, the Mudassir Aziz directed DULHA MIL GAYA and Emaar Film International Unit's HELLO...HUM LALLAN BOL RAHE HAIN. It is obvious that PYAAR IMPOSSIBLE! is going to be the next setback for Yash Raj Films after their last disappointment, ROCKET SINGH...SALESMAN OF THE YEAR. Even the presence of Shah Rukh Khan (in an extended special appearance) is not going to achieve anything significant for producer Vivek Vaswani's DULHA MIL GAYA. And lastly, the bleak prospects of projects like HELLO...HUM LALLAN BOL RAHE HAIN are crystal clear from the day of announcement. A factor that is also going to be taken into consideration is the still very strong run of Rajkumar Hirani's 3 IDIOTS.

The Christmas release, 3 IDIOTS, as predicted in our last column, has set new and insurmountable box office records. In fact, in the first week itself 3 IDIOTS has surpassed the total business of Rajkumar Hirani's last blockbuster, LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI. Checking out the phenomenal numbers, the film collected 17 crores from Bombay (collections from 2 cinemas unreceived), 6 lakhs from Lonavala, 3 crores from Ahmedabad (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 1 crore from Surat, 15 lakhs each from Nadiad and Valsad, 25 lakhs from Anand, 1.20 crores from Baroda, 9 lakhs each from Navsari and Bharuch, 42 lakhs from Rajkot, 18 lakhs from Jamnagar, 4 lakhs from Bhuj, 13 lakhs from Gandhidham, 4.20 crores from Pune, 75 lakhs from Nasik, 67 lakhs from Goa, 7 lakhs from Hubli (6 days), 3 lakhs each from Belgaum, Bijapur and Dharwad(6 days), 7.15 crores from Delhi city, 1 crore from Noida, 75 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1 crore from Lucknow, 21 lakhs from Agra, 15 lakhs from Allahabad, 4 lakhs from Bareilly, 9 lakhs from Aligarh, 60 lakhs from Gurgoan, 50 lakhs from Faridabad, 10 lakhs from Kurukshetra, 6 lakhs from Panipat, 3.50 crores from Calcutta, 15 lakhs from Darjeeling, 7 lakhs from Siliguri, 5 lakhs from Guwahati, 1.20 crores from Nagpur, 22 lakhs from Jabalpur, 10.35 lakhs from Akola, 45 lakhs from Raipur, 2.35 lakhs from Gondia, 4 lakhs from Chandrapur, 2 lakhs each from Sagar and Bhandara, 1.60 crores from Indore, 18 lakhs from Gwalior (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 34 lakhs from Bhopal (collections from 2 cinemas unreceived), 4 lakhs from Ujjain, 2 crores from Jaipur, 42 lakhs from Jodhpur, 25 lakhs from Ajmer, 40 lakhs from Kota, 2.10 crores from Hyderabad, 11 lakhs from Aurangabad (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 33 lakhs from Bangalore (6 days), 4 lakhs from Davangere (6 days), 7.45 lakhs from Vijaywada (6 days) and 4.40 lakhs from Madras (collections from 6 cinemas unreceived). In it's opening week (with an additional half day), the Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor starrer has netted an unthinkable and unimaginable 79 crores from India. The blockbuster hit has also set new records in the Overseas (US) grossing and#163;1,115,530 from UK and $4,757,078 from US, both till the second weekend (1-3 January).

Meanwhile, Yash Raj's Shimit Amin directed ROCKET SINGH-SALESMAN OF THE YEAR seems to be on the last lap in just its third week. During the week the film collected 10 lakhs from Bombay, 1.50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 6 lakhs from Delhi city, 2.15 lakhs from Noida, 1 lakh from Gurgoan and 1.35 lakhs from Calcutta. Netting another 50 lakhs, the Ranbir-Shazahn starrer has 20 crores to show from India after 3 weeks. The below average fare has also been rejected in the Overseas grossing and#163;123,569 from UK up to the fourth weekend (1-3 January) and $164,649 from the US till the end of its run.

Moving on to Balki's Amitabh, Abhishek and Vidya starrer, PAA, manages some more decent collections. The film collected 42 lakhs from Bombay (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 9 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.05 lakhs from Surat, 3.35 lakhs from Baroda, 8 lakhs from Pune, 1 lakh from Goa, 15 lakhs from Delhi city, 2.25 lakhs from Noida, 1.05 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.10 lakhs each from Lucknow and Gurgoan, 6 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.35 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.15 lakhs from Jabalpur, 1.50 lakhs from Raipur, 1.75 lakhs from Indore and 4.25 lakhs from Hyderabad (collections from 5 cinemas unreceived). With an additional 1.75 crores, PAA has netted a good 30.75 crores in four weeks from India and is a semi hit. The double Bachchan starrer, unfortunately, has not appealed to the overseas audience grossing and#163;160,296 from UK up to the fifth weekend (1-9 January) and $199,228 from US at the end of its run.

Our last entry for this week is once again Priyadarshan's DE DANA DAN, which is breathing its last. The film collected 5 lakhs from Bombay and 1.10 lakhs from Aurangabad. Adding another 35 lakhs, DE DANA DAN has netted around 49.60 crores in five weeks from India. The Akshay, Paresh, Suneil and Katrina starrer is more than an above average success from India. The film is already a good success for its overseas distributor, EROS International, having grossed and#163;560,380 from UK up to the sixth weekend (1-9 January) and $944,979 from US at the end of its run.

vpost : 06

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London Dreams: Salman – Ajay rock! Rating: 3 out of 5*
Starring: Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Asin and Om Puri
Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Arjun (Ajay) and Manu (Salman) are childhood buddies living in a Punjab village. Arjun passionately loves music and dreams of becoming a musical sensation like Michael Jackson and perform at London’s Wembley Stadium but his family hates music as it was the reason for his grand father’s death. But as after his father’s death, Arjun’s uncle (Om Puri) brings him along with him to London, he runs away to pursue his dream. Mannu grows up in the village turning out to be a good for nothing bloke who makes money by playing his band at marriage ceremonies. Meanwhile Arjun chases his dream and forms a band with two Pakistani brothers (VJ’s Aditya and Ranvijay) and Priya (Asin). When he realizes he is getting attracted to Priya he decides to hide his feelings and focus on music and only reveal to them when he fulfills his dream. He gets Mannu to London to join his band. But that he realizes turns out to be his biggest mistake. The naturally talented Mannu scores over Arjun in every department unintentionally and goes on to become a bigger sensation that a dedicated and hardworking Arjun. Jealousy starts creeping in for Arjun but the final nail in the coffin comes when he sees even Priya falling in love with Mannu. What sinister plan Arjun throws on an unsuspecting Mannu to destroy his musical career and what it all leads to forms the rest of the film.
Vipul Amrutlal Shah has delivered his technically best product till date with London Dreams. But apart from the technique its high on emotions as well. Vipul gives apt time for character development for each of his main protagonists. Devoid of unnecessary melodrama he captures the emotional moments with aplomb. Sejal Shah’s camerawork is of international standards. The night scenes are superbly lit.
Amongst the flaws, the climax is overstretched and the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music not really up to the mark, especially the climax concert numbers. The song that comes after everything is over is too slow and a rousing number would have made for an apt grand finale.
Ajay is excellent in his part and one can see the best villain awards coming his way at the awards for this year. Salman seems to be enjoying himself and is extremely likeable. Though Asin is most of the time relegated to the background she puts up a nice act. Her chemistry with Salman works. Popular VJs Aditya and Ranvijay of Roadies fame make a good debut. Om Puri in a small part impresses as usual.
This film was originally planned over a decade back to be made by Rajkumar Santoshi with SRK and Aamir. Well, it may not star them now but makes for an excellent musical journey worth an experience in the big cinema hall.
indianachu : 01

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