Father Geek here with this Thursday's edition of our regular weekly Asia-AICN Report from Darius25, the column's writer for two years now. But as we usually do I have a bit of info that arrived here at World Geek Headquarters directly...
Haven't seen anything on the site about this, so I don't know if you know about it or not. But the old Windsor Park Mall Cinema in San Antonio, Texas, which has been closed for more than a year, reopened last weekend as the MoviePlex 5 showing nothing but BOLLYWOOD films exclusively. There was a pretty groovy article about it in The Express-News, which can be found online here: Just Click To Find It
It sounds like things are starting slow for them, but I hope they pull through and establish themselves. Diversity in the movie viewing is always a very very good thing!
Jayme Lynn Blaschke
www.exoticdeer.org
Hey Geeks, if you live within a couple of hours of ol' San Antone hop in your car and drive over for an exotic and different film experience, can't reccommend it enough as an extended date. Combine this with some nice Indian buffet fare and I promise you you'll want to thank me 10 times over. Do it now!
Now here's Darius with more Bollywood news and some coooool pics...
Asia-AICN
Hey all, I hope you’ve had a great week. There is no HK news this week, but I still found some pretty interesting Bollywood news. We have info on director Tinu Verma’s next film, “Pinjar (The Cage)”, “Raja Bhaiyya”, and “Aankhen (Eyes)”. There’s also pics from “Aankhen (Eyes)”, and “Jeena Sirf Terre Liye (Living Only for You)”. Enjoy!
INDIA
- After directing the somewhat-average hit “Maa Tujhe Salaam (A Salute to Mother)”, Tinu Verma has finally settled on his next project. Titled “Baaz (The Confinement)”, the action thriller will star Sunil Shetty, Karisma Kapoor, and Dino Morea. I’m surprised to learn that Sunil has been signed for this movie as he was literally kicked out of Verma’s last film and was replaced by Arbaaz Khan. Shooting on this film will begin this summer, once Verma finishes doing the fight choreography for Sunny Deol’s “Shaheed (The Martyr)”.
- The shooting for “Pinjar (The Cage)” is now in full swing, as the film is heading into its second schedule this week. Directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, the film stars Manoj Bajpai, Urmila Matondkar, Sanjay Suri, Priyanshu, Sandali Sinha (the last two from “Tum Bin – Without You”), and Isha Koppikar. The film is scheduled for a winter release.
- Director Aneez Bazmee has left the production of “Raja Bhaiyya” due to a scheduling conflict. Bazmee was signed by producer Maan Singh Deep for the film, but is currently busy with the last schedule of his latest film, “Deewangee (Craziness)”, to start this new project. Bazmee is replaced by first-time directing duo Rajiv Kaul and Praful Parekh (writers of “Dil (Heart)”, “Beta (Son)”, and “Ishq (Love)”). “Raja Bhaiyya” stars Govinda in the titular role, along with model Priyanka Chopra.
- Producer Vashu Bhagnani recently launched another new film, this time titled “Jeena Sirf Terre Liye (Living Only for You)”. The romantic comedy reunites the stars of Bhagnani’s 2001 hit “Mujhe Kuchch Kehna Hai (I have Something to Say)” – Tusshar Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor. Here’s some pics from this new film’s launch.
Tusshar Kapoor (left), Vashu Bhagnani, and Kareena Kapoor: They're All Right Here
Tusshar and Kareena: See Them Here
Kareena: Click Now or Be Sorry
- Last week’s new release was the highly-anticipated blockbuster, “Aankhen (Eyes)”, directed by Vipul Shah. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan in an INCREDIBLE role, along with Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Paresh Rawal, Sushmita Sen, and Aditya Pancholi. Bachchan stars as Vijay Singh Rajput, an extremely aggressive bank manager who’s rapidly suffering from schizophrenia. After being fired from his stable position, Rajput finally loses it, and starts to hatch a plan to rob his own bank. He blackmails a teacher, Neha (Sushmita Sen), to train three blind men – Vishwas (Akshay Kumar), Arjun (Arjun Rampal), and Ilias (Paresh Rawal) – to do the dirty work. Neha effectively prepares the three men while Rajput hovers silently, observing all from the background. Everything is set in motion for the major heist, but of course things don’t go as planned. To reveal more, would be to seriously ruin most of the fun from this movie.
Amitabh Bachchan has again donned the role of a heavy, this time with absolute no justifications what so ever. The guy’s a psycho, and his motivations are all clear. The idea of training blind men to pull off a complicated task is extremely absurd – but it makes absolutely sense to him (as it should be). His mannerisms, and his dialogue delivery are superb. The guy has major charisma, and he hovers over the entire cast like a deity-like figure. You’ll fear and hate him, but you’ll be hotly anticipating his every single move with much interest. Akshay Kumar is also very good in his role. He is probably the only sinister-looking member of the blind men, and as such, you’ll never really understand his motive until the very end. His scenes with Bachchan are executed in an awesome manner, given that his character doesn’t even know that Bachchan exists for most of the film. Of course, since Akshay is in the movie, there has to be atleast one exciting stunt, and the actor pulls this off with ease. Paresh Rawal is the comedian of the trio and the guy doesn’t disappoint. He makes fun of practically everyone in the cast, and provides many of the film’s lighter moments. Sushmita Sen is decent in her role as Bachchan’s cohort and does not overact while Arjun Rampal is kind of wasted. He’s ok, but there really was no need for his character – it was just like having another star in the film just to boost its star value.
The film is stylishly directed with many awesome camera angles, and some clever cinematography. The film is really fast paced, and for once the training session actually managed to be entertaining. The actual heist is executed in a really confusing manner (which makes sense as it’s pulled by blind fools, not professional thieves), but the sequences afterwards are really taught and suspenseful. The ending here is the best part of the whole movie, and is a rare treat for Bollywood fans – it will make you wanting for more!! The music is also superb – there are only three songs but they are placed in all the appropriate moments. The background score is very, very good and fits perfectly with the film’s stylish manner. To sum it up, “Aankhen” is an excellent thriller that manages to outshine most of this year’s new releases (except for “Blade 2” of course). Good acting, suspenseful plot and an excellent ending – what more do you want?
Amitabh Bachchan – you wouldn’t want to mess with him: He's Here
You wouldn’t wanna mess with Akshay Kumar either: See Why Here
Sushmita Sen, looking pretty nice, as always: WOW!!!
The comedic team of Paresh Rawal (left) and Arjun Rampal provide some of the more lighter moments in the film: They're Right Here
The sizzling Bipasha Basu makes a special appearance for a song with Akshay Kumar: See Her Here Now
And lest we forget, this is a VERY serious film: Just Check This Out
