Father Geek here with ol' Darius25 and this Thursday's edition of our Asia-AICN column, buuuuut before we get into all the Bollywood news I have this for you...
Hey Father Geek, long time, first time, yadda yadda blah, anyway, just wanted to give you a heads-up on a great movie that I caught last night in big, bad Bangkok called The Eye.
I believe it's a Hong Kong movie, and you can find out some info about it at This Cool Site
It tells the tale of a young woman who gets a cornea transplant, and soon after starts to 'see dead people' to quote another movie. Her visions eventually cause her to travel to Bangkok to track down the family of the girl whose eyes she was given, and to find the answer to why she sees what she sees.
The movie was beautifully done, well acted and had several moments that made me jump fairly high off of my seat, not to mention doing a few double takes at the shadows when I turned off my lights when I got home.
Much like Volcano High and Battle Royale, this is a new Asian film that deserves to be seen. Check it out if you get the chance.
Call me..
Sir Greg
Father Geek back... Our very own Head Geek, Harry Knowles will be in China from the 22nd of this month (August, 2002) until the 30th. Why? You ask...
Well, you see Harry's a USA Wushu competitor competing in China late in August in a tournament hosted
by Wu Bin, the former coach of the Beijing Wushu team...where Jet li, Donnie
yen and tons of others got their beginnings... NOT!
No, seriously Harry is going to Beijing and the old Shaw Brother's sets to spend several days playing witness to Quentin Tarantino's directing style (s) on KILL BILL. He'll be filing many longwinded reports like he did from New Zealand and the LOTR sets in December of 2000. Soooooooo make sure to stay tuned. He will be putting to rest all those especially nasty rumors you've been hearing from the wicked tabloid press about QT's latest effort...
Oh yeah... The big International Wushu Tournament is for real and it will be happening in Beijing while Harry's in town. He's going to try to make it by to watch some of the competion... "you enjoy the competion... No, the winning!" Just look for the salva drooling Sumu shaped red head, that will be Harry... "and I was going to ask you to join us."
Now here's Darius and what's happening out in Bollywood...
Asia-AICN
Hi all, hope you guys have had a great few weeks. We're back after a short hiatus due to some technical problems here at Asia-AICN headquarters. Not much new stuff has emerged since our last report, but we do have some great Bollywood info for you, including news on director Subhash Ghai's upcoming projects, actor Akshay Kumar's new film, and director Esmayeel Shroff's new film. We also have my review for the latest Bollywood release, "Mujhse Dosti Karoge (Want to be Friends?)", along with pics from the film.
INDIA
- Subhash Ghai’s upcoming production, “Majnu (Foolish Lover)”, has now been officially put on hold. The Arjun Rampal-Aishwarya Rai starrer was in trouble earlier this year when the director Satish Kaushik had to leave due to delays in his own film (“Badhai Ho Badhai – Let’s Celebrate”). Kaushik was replaced by Anubhav Sinha, who reportedly had some quibbles with Kaushik’s original script. The script was reworked upon, but then eventually thrown out in favor of a new one written by Sinha. The producer and director were debating over some issues in the script when it was decided that the film be put on hold. Sinha is too busy with his next release to even think about working on this script at the moment.
- More on Subhash Ghai – after announcing a bunch of films from his production company, the director has finally settled on a script for his own film. Ghai is going all out to avoid the debacles of his last film, “Yaadein (Memories)”, and is attempting to obtain what could be the biggest acting powerhouse cast since K3G and Line of Control. All of this is strictly rumours right now, but currently the word is spreading that the director is aiming to reunite Amitabh Bachchan and acting legend Dilip Kumar for the first time in 20-something year!! And if getting the original Devdas wasn’t enough, the director has gotten the new one as well – that’s right, Shahrukh Khan is part of the cast aswell!! And get this, there’s apparently one more hero to be cast to be followed by 3 leading ladies. Now let’s see who Ghai signs next!
- Director Suneel Darshan has announced his next production, to be directed by Raj Kanwar (“Farz – Duty”). The action film, titled “Andaz (Style)” will star Darshan-regular Akshay Kumar and will feature not one but two supermodels – former Miss Universe Lara Dutta and former Miss World Priyanka Chopra. The film will go on the floors this fall and will be released next summer.
- Producer Ramoji Rao has announced a new film titled “Thoda Tum Badlo Thoda Hum (Maybe We Should Change)”. The romantic drama will be directed by Esmayeel Shroff and will star Arya Babbar in the lead. The film goes into production next month and will wrap by December.
MUJHSE DOSTI KAROGE (Want to be Friends?)
Last week’s new release was the highly anticipated new release from Yashraj Films. Even though it does not star Shahrukh Khan or Amitabh Bachchan, nor is it directed by a member of the Chopra clan, the film has all the makings of the commercial Bollywood blockbuster. Starring the ever popular Hrithik Roshan, along with the double whammy of Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor, “Mujhse Dosti Karoge” is lavish film which doesn’t break new ground, but fits perfectly in the grade A blockbuster category.
The story is nothing new – Raj (Hrithik Roshan), Pooja (Rani Mukherjee), and Tina (Kareena Kapoor) are childhood friends who get separated when Raj moves away to London. The three meet as young adults and Raj has to vie for the affections of our two leading ladies. Raj immediately takes a liking to Tina, the more sociable and prettier of the two, while Pooja decides to keep her feelings hidden from everyone. However, in a strange twist of events, Raj does find out Pooja’s feelings and reciprocates them in return. But Pooja is not happy on the thought of breaking Tina’s heart and decides to back out of the relationship. Tina and Raj get engaged, but only on Raj’s condition (unbeknownst to Tina) that Pooja has to marry someone else on the same day. Things get complicated when Raj’s best friend, Rohan (Uday Chopra in the obligatory Yashraj cameo role) takes a liking to Pooja and starts to woo her. Things keep on plodding along until the final scene where Tina finds out the truth and reunites Pooja and Raj.
The acting is very good for the most part. Hrithik Roshan once again excels in a lightweight role (very similar to his role in “K3G” or “Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (Neither of Us Know)”). He doesn’t do anything spectacular and does an amicable job like the rest of his films – naturally the girls will go wild! As for the guys, well we have plenty of eye candy in the form of Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee. Kareena is her loud, obnoxious self just like her character from “K3G” – if she annoyed you there, she’ll definitely annoy you here. However, her performance comes off very naturally and I actually bought her as the bubbly Tina. Rani Mukherjee’s the real actor of the trio and her performance is just fabulous. The girl’s a MAJOR BABE, but she lets Kareena flaunt her body while she impresses with her acting. Her simple looks and cute mannerisms definitely won me over, and she’ll probably have the same affect on you aswell.
The direction is typical Yashraj stuff. Personally I can’t tell the difference between the various directors anymore – the pacing, the dialogues, the acting and the music all seem the same to me now. This is not a bad thing – every technical aspect is of the highest quality like you would expect – but there is nothing here that separates newcomer Kunal Kohli from any of the other good directors in the industry. The music is of the typical soft-rock/sappy variety but is pleasing to the ears and the songs are well executed (in the context of the film). The editing is fast-paced and makes the film (which is already shorter than most) go by incredibly fast.
The film marks all of the bearing of a Yashraj film – fresh young cast, gorgeous scenery, lavish sets, great music, and heck even the obligatory cameo of a major star. There is nothing provided here that you wouldn’t find in any other big film like “K3G”, “Mohabbatein (Love Affairs)”, “Dil To Pagal Hai (The Heart is Crazy)”, and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something is Happening)”. However Indians, especially those living overseas, are crazy about this romantic popcorn fluff and as long as they’re profitable, these kinds of movies will always be made. If you like this stuff then you’ll really enjoy it.
The gorgeous Kareena Kapoor: Simply Incredible
The equally fine Rani Mukherjee, with Hrithik Roshan: Just Click Here
The two babes together: Double Your Pleasure... Double Your Fun...
And here’s a pic of the three leads: See Them All Right Here
