Father Geek here to wish you all a happy holiday between now and next Thursday, and to post up another cool colorful Asia-AICN column from Darius25 and AccSpy. Buuuut before I turn you over to them there is this interesting bit that arrived on my desk here at Geek Headquarters earlier today...
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is being released this weekend and is the second feature by director Karan Johar who in 1998 made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - which is possibly the most successful Bollywood movie ever.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham stars just about everyone in the top echelon of Bollywood stardom and is the most awaited Bollywood release of recent years. I saw the film on Wednesday at a preview screening in London and it is fantastic.
rana
Now here's Darius25...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, hope you’re enjoying the holiday season.
We have a pretty packed column for you this week, with info on “Jaane Hoga Kya (What Will Happen?)”, “Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche (Someone Ask My Heart)”, “Love Galaxy”, “2002”, and “My Life as McDull”.
We also have some new pics from “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sorrow)”, “2002”, and “My Life as McDull”. Now here’s the latest from Asia.
INDIA
- Actor Aaftab Shivdasani has signed on as the male lead for directors Glenn-Ankush’ “Jaane Hoga Kya (What Will Happen?)”. Preeti Jhangiani, Bipasha Basu, Rahul Dev, and Paresh Rawal also star in the film. It will start shooting this winter for a release late next year.
- Director Pankuj Parashar’s next film will be “Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge (Won’t Forget You)”, starring Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen and Diya Mirza. The film has rushed through principal photography and will be releasing early next Spring.
- Producer Boney Kapoor’s “Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche (Someone Ask My Heart)” has been postponed yet again. The film was originally scheduled to release last summer but settled on a Dec. 28 release date. Now it has been pushed back to Jan. 11 in order to provide some “breathing time”, caused by a flood of new releases during the holiday season. The film marks the debut of Esha Deol, who co-stars opposite Aaftab Shivdasani, Sanjay Kapoor and Jaya Bachchan.
- Boney Kapoor’s wife, actress Sridevi, will make her produce a new film under her banner, Sridevi Productions. Titled “Dil Chor (Heart Thief)”, the film will star Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor in the leading roles, and will be directed by family friend Satish Kaushik. Two more male leads have yet to be cast while other supporting cast members are still being finalized. It has already started shooting and is expected to release late next year.
- As you already know, last week’s new release was the highly anticipated “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sorrow)”, directed by Karan Johar. The film focuses on the trials and tribulations of a wealthy family, headed by Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, and Hrithik Roshan. Much like the recent family dramas from the last decade, the plot mainly deals with “traditional” family values and how they proceed to tear members apart (and bring them back together again). Yet despite many clichéd-ridden moments, the film still manages to overcome the hype and proves to be a first-class entertainer.
The plot is rather simple. Yashvardhan and Nandini Raichand (Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan) have provided their two sons, Rahul (SRK) and Rohan (Hrithik), with all the luxuries of life yet also bestowing a good sense of morals and values. This holds even more true with Rahul, as he knows he’s adopted and he appreciates (and respects) his father even more than ever. For Yash, Rahul is the perfect son and heir in every single way. Problems arise when Rahul falls in love with a middle-class girl named Anjali (Kajol), and marries her despite his father’s wishes. This creates a tension in the family and eventually results in Rahul leaving the family home. The story picks up 9 years later, when a grown up Rohan decides to bring his brother back after learning the true reasons behind his departure. I won’t give away the second half of the movie, but you should know what to expect. Just know that the film is not as heavy as it sounds and there’s plenty of comic scenes in both halves (especially the scenes involving Hrithik-Kareena in London), along with the more dramatic scenes.
As expected, Shahrukh Khan has the meatiest role in the film and has supposedly given his all-time best performance. His character has shades of the role from “Mohabbatein (Love Stories)” and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something is Happening)”, but is still highly original and manages to deviate (if only a little bit) from the usual rebellious son role. Amitabh Bachchan is also very good in the father role, but he’s not given much to do. Where as he was a major player in “Ek Rishta – The Bond of Love” and “Mohabbatein”, he’s really reduced to a bit player in this film. His character isn’t really defined enough and this may be the script’s biggest flaw. Despite the long running time, we still don’t know why he got so upset with SRK, and then why he suddenly changes at the end. Hrithik Roshan brings some humour into the film with his role (of the younger brother) and is very good with the amount of time he was given. The guy’s role gets a major boost in the second half and one wishes that he was in it for a longer period of time. His comic timing is perfect and the romantic scenes (with Kareena Kapoor) are brilliantly executed for the teenybopper crowd.
Out of the female leads, Kajol is being mentioned to rule the award functions early next year, and well, she doesn’t disappoint. Her obnoxious portrayal is just dead-on perfect and her major scenes (all in the first half) show off some really good comic relief. Yeah, she doesn’t really get to act serious in this film, but it doesn’t matter. Jaya Bachchan is also being touted for some major supporting awards and shares most of her screen time with Shahrukh and Amitabh. The chemistry between the Amitabh-Jaya pair is still being felt after a gap of twenty years and the critics state that the actress still manages to hold her own against the two titans (in fact, she has the second biggest role after SRK!!). Kareena Kapoor shares most of her screen-time with Hrithik, and delivers a likeable performance. She doesn’t have a big role, but still delights in some of the lighter moments and looks SEXY as hell.
The film’s running time is rather long – 3 hours and 27 minutes to be exact – but it still manages to hold attention all the way throughout the film. The dramatic scenes are quite powerful but are really few and far between. One of my main problems with the film was its paper-thin story – there’s no MAJOR conflict and we don’t really feel any tension (or sympathy) for any characters. I sure as hell didn’t care for the fabulously wealthy family. The main reason behind this could be that the characters weren’t explored too deeply – there were simply too many people and the audience would be overwhelmed if all the characters were given their due time. Yet, I prefer that the film remains the way it is – a light, comic entertainer with an AMAZING cast, some really good songs, and breathtaking locales (particularly a song in Egypt). Karan Johar still hasn’t got the dramatics right, but I liked this better than his previous effort (“Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”), and he IS improving as a director. In the end, I do want to see K3G over again, and most likely, so would you.
The magical pairing of Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, yet again: Go Here To See
A really HOT Kareena Kapoor: Click To View Her
SRK and Amitabh Bachchan – laughter before the tears: Click Here
Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor: They're right Here
Here’s the entire family (SRK, Kajol, AB, Jaya Bachchan, Kareena, and Hrithik): Click Right Now
CHINA / HK
Here’s the latest report from “AccSpy”:
- Nicholas Tse and Karena Lin will star in Universe Pictures' "Love Galaxy (lit. title). Karena Lin is the current "it" girl in HK showbiz, who has been paired up with Jacky Cheung in "Men at Forty(lit. title)" and Leslie Cheung in "Ghost Dream(lit. title)", both of which come out next year. Lin has also auditioned for the part of Tsui Hark's "The Death Duel" re-make, which was initially going to Zhang Ziyi.
- You've seen the poster of "Running out of Time 2", now be prepared to watch the film on Dec 27th, 2001. Sorry, only in HK though.
- Jessica Alba and James King have now joined Chow Yun Fat in Bulletproof Monk. It seems like the monk will recruit MANY students when he comes to US…
- Two new animation features, one Japanese and one local production, ruled the box office in HK last weekend. The record-breaking Japanese animation film "Spirited Away", finally arrived HK, striking a no.1 debut with $3.40 million grossing in the first two days. Also opening on Saturday was popular comic strip character McDull’s first movie, "My Life as McDull". The film debuted solidly at no.2 with a $3.20 grossing. Nicholas Tse and Stephen Fung teamed up for the nth time in director Wilson Yip's "2002", landing at no.3 with $2.3 millions. "Avenging Fist" dropped to no.4, while "Spy Game" held up nicely at no.5. Here's some images from "2002" and "My Life as McDull”.
"2002" poster: Its Right Here
Nicholas Tse is the one man army in the police special unit responsible for the unsolved mysterious case code named "2002", but he has a partner - Alex Fong as the "Water Ghost": Click Now
Stephen Fung and Rain Lee : Click
The famous HK family in "My Life as McDull", voice performers include Anothny Wong, Sandra Ng and Jan Lamb: Here They Are In Real Life
A pig doing homework (!?): Go Here
Another pic from the film: Just Click
The animation seems to be very interesting: Click To See
