Ramya to flaunt her curves again for an item song

Ramya is all set to shake her legs for yet another item song. The actress, who flaunted her curves and gyrated to the sexy beats of 'Urigoble padmavathi...' in Johny Mera Naam, is reportedly doing the special number in Kavitha Lankesh's forthcoming Kannada film Crazy Loka.

Reports say that Ramya has given the nod for the raunchy item number. She has okayed after reading the lines of the song penned by Kaviraj. The special song starts off with the line 'Galabe galabe....', says a source.

However, it is not sure when the Sanju Weds Geetha star will participate in the shooting, as she is busy in politics. Imran Sardaria is choreographing the item number for the number composed by Manikanth Khadri.

Crazy Loka, which is being produced by Confident Group, features Ravichandran, Harshitha Poonachcha and Surya in the leads.

Bharat Salim Kumar

To tell you the truth, we are not big fans of Salim Kumar the comedian. Before the arrival of Suraj Venjaramoodu, we thought he was simply irritating. After watching amazing comedians like Jagathi Sreekumar and Innocent, Salim Kumar was a let down. In fact we will be snobbish and say that there is not a single Salim Kumar comedy we liked.
But there is a different Salim Kumar who has acted brilliantly in two movies we have seen. One is Achanurantha Veedu and the other is Kerala Cafe. Both movies are heart wrenching and Salim Kumar simply ceases to be Salim Kumar and becomes the character. You see a side of him you have never seen before. He is involved and is able to trigger various emotions inside the viewer. The 10 minute role in Kerala Cafe is particularly hard to see as he toggles helplessness, sadness and cruelty all together. Any lesser actor would have botched it up.
We have not seen Adaminte Makan Abu. Apart from the jury members, we don’t know who has. But from the trailer it looks like a deeply sad movie. When even Suraj Venjaramoodu is serious, you know it is not an ordinary movie. Here is the story in a nutshell from Wikipedia.

The film is about Abu (Salim Kumar), who has been dreaming of performing the holy pilgrimage to Mecca , despite severe financial constraints. Abu is an old vendor selling Yunani medicines and Athar, roaming around the streets of  Malabar. The film chronicles the difficulties that the old poor couples of Malabar encounter to go for a much hoped Hajj pilgrimage.

Now if you look at the three movies, Achanurangatha Veedu, Kerala Cafe and Adaminte Makan Abu, Salim Kumar portrays a single emotion. He is helpless and sad. Is that the range emotions he can portray? Is that narrow range of emotions sufficient to win the national award or the state award? It looks like if you portray sadness, your performance is considered better than those who have not. For example, look at the state awards for Kavya Madhavan and Mamta Mohandas. Both depict unhappy people. Note that while Salim Kumar has won the national award, an actor with infinite range like Nedumudi Venu has never won it. And that is exactly what ticks us off.
That said, we completely disagree with these lines which were reported today :

Salim Kumar has lashed out against Ranjith’s comments and said it is just sour grapes. Meanwhile there is a feeling among certain section of the industry that those who do comedy roles should not be equated with Mammootty and Mohanlal. This has led to a division in the industry.

There is nothing called Comedy Actor. In Malayalam, all comedy actors do character roles as well and that is their strength. Going by this logic, even Mammotty and Mohanlal should not be considered for awards because they do comedy movies like Pokkiri Raja and China Town.
Tags: Adaminte Makan Abu, National Award Salim Kumar, Salim Kumar

Indecent Behavior

In the finale of Munch Star Singer Junior Mr. Jagathi Sreekumar made a speech in which he came out against the anchor Ranjini Haridas. Mimicking her style of speaking, which is Malayalam with an English accent, he said that the anchor should just do anchoring and should not have any opinion on the singing. You can see the video to realize the scorn he has for this anchor.
We have watched many finale episodes of Idea Star Singer and Munch Star Singer and never have seen a guest speak like this. Usually people come and say a few mild words of encouragement, show some stardom and go away. Jagathi instead gave a speech in which he went on and on and defined how people should behave. He praised Sujatha and Venugopal and ranted on Renjini who was standing next to him. In her own words:

Just the other day I was the victim of an individual who took advantage of his right to freedom of speech to publicly embarrass and ridicule me. Moreover, all this happened on national television! The man in question, who from now I shall refer to as Mr Moon, clearly overstepped the limits of what to say when and where, and to my agravation, had no regard or respect for the event at hand or the people concerned

Now you may like or dislike Renjini’s style of compering or her way of talking or having her own opinions. She is a very competent compere very able to handle any situation thrown at her. When some singers stop singing or have trouble, she very ably handles it. She is very opinionated and if you have watched her retorts at Sharath and ‘Sree Kuttan’, you will know she can handle herself quite well. It this personality that makes her a memorable compere compared to others who just utter what is told or do the bare minimum as Jagathi wants.
What Jagathi wants is not her to stop such things, but to stop passing judgement on the songs. He says only judges can pass judgement. Why? As someone who does not know to sing and is not musically trained, she is just like us. She is the common man. Her opinion is from that side and so far we have not found it ‘arochakam’. It never felt odd to us. So why this outburst? Is there another story we are missing here?
Now if she wanted to retort, Renjini could have said that Jagathi should stop acting in all those semi-porn movies, but she did not. She in fact wrote a weak piece in Deccan Chronicle. It is not for her to suggest what Jagathi should do, but such basic courtesy was not extended to her. This is a new low for Jagathi in the past year. We saw this is a new low because this is a man who wallows in the depths of civil behavior. To give another example, last year he was on television talking about his marriage to Mallika Sukumaran. At some point they divorced and he explained that the divorce ‘may’ have been due to their caste.
So the anchor asked once more if she ever mentioned anything like that and he said she did not. So in reality, he still has no idea why she left, but by throwing a caste issue into the mix he muddied the water. You can say, he did a Thilakan at that moment.
So we have few options for analysis. We can do the whole ‘savarna-avarna’ thing. Or we can notice that Jagathi rants mostly against strong women and dump some anti-feminism on him. But then this would be like trying to write a review of ‘Pokkiri Raja’ or ‘Sagar Alias Jackie’ when in fact there is a simpler explanation.
Nelbin raises an interesting point:

It was absolutely a scandalous behaviour from Jagadhi to say scathing comments about Ms.Haridas and the program she is hosting at such a big ceremony watched all over the world .Jagdhi managed to pull in great crowd support for his outrageous remarks on Ms.Hardis as they booed and jeered at her with the every word he uttered. Sadly Jagathi and those guys represent the last generation of malayalees with parochial attitude who take pleasure in taunting others in public

Yes, Jagathi does have the right to express his views and no one can blame him if he believes that Renjini and co are abusing our mother tongue with her ‘manglish’ but is this the way to show his disapproval? Shouldn’t he had shown the courtesy to tell her his views in person?
At this point, let’s look how Ms Renjini reacted to this insult. She could have easily retorted to him in the same manner or could have even did a ‘Sreesanth’(remember the bhajji-slap-incident?) but the brave girl that she is,maintained her calm and carried on with the show as if nothing had happened..!(C’mmon,thats’ what we call dignity,isn’t it?.)Mr. Jagathy instead of blessing and enlightening the ‘junior star singer’ winners about the potential film offers that could come their way(whom in all probabilities will be forgotten by every one,including jagathy by the next season of the show) chose to play it to the galleries and win himself some cheap publicity by dissing Ms Haridas in national television.
Jagathi is one of the greatest actors of Malayalam cinema on par with Nedumudi Venu, Thilakan, Mohanlal and Mammotty. But that does not make him a great human being. During the time of Prem Nazir, Jayan and Sathyan we did not have this much media coverage and we did not know how they were in real life. Now thanks to the 24 hour media and due to the willingness of these stars to throw up whatever comes to their mind on TV, we know what kind of scumbags they really are.

If kissing is a way to remember me, so be it

Mumbai: Poor Emraan Hashmi! There seems to be no getting away from the "serial kisser" tag despite his many protests and he's back to locking lips in his forthcoming film "The Dirty Picture".

If people wish to remember him for his on-screen kisses, so be it, says the somewhat exasperated actor who has for long been looking for an image change.

The 32-year-old actor came to be known as Hindi cinema's serial kisser after numerous lip locks in films like "Murder", "Zeher", "Aashiq Banaya Apne", "Gangster" and "Jannat".

"The tag would never go. I tried to get rid of it, but it follows me everywhere. I have done so many films with it (kissing) and so many people went and watched those films. So probably they want to remember me for that. And if kissing is a great way to remember me, I have no complaints! My audience base is there and I can't change overnight," Emraan told IANS in an interview.

"I am trying out different things in my forthcoming films. Hopefully it would be another dimension, which would change people's perception about me," he added.

"The Dirty Picture" is said to have Emraan in yet another kissing scene, this time with actress Vidya Balan. He however stresses that the film, based on the life of the late southern sex icon Vijayalakshmi aka Silk Smitha, takes sexuality to a different level.

"It's a different take on sexuality. Sexuality in my films was shown differently before this. 'The Dirty Picture' takes it to a different level," said Emraan.

The first trailer of the movie has already created a buzz, with Vidya in a bold new avatar. Emraan plays one of the three men in her life, while the other two male characters have been essayed by Tusshar Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah.

"I play a movie director who believes in artistic cinema. He is one who doesn't really give a damn about commercial viability of a film. He would rather make a film, which critics will appreciate; he sticks to his guns creatively, never budges from his creative instincts of a film and the content the film. It's a very different character that I haven't played before," said the actor.

"The Dirty Picture", produced by Ekta Kapoor, and directed by Milan Luthria, will release Dec 2, which happens to be Silk Smitha's birth anniversary.

Even though the movie is being promoted as Silk Smitha's biopic, Emraan says it has been spiked with fiction for commercial value.

"It's basically a fictional film. It might have been taken from different sources and it's about the southern film industry, about the actress, her rise, her stardom and her relationship with these three men...Eventually, lots of comparisons can be made but lots of things have been added for commercial effect. So I wouldn't say it's truly a biopic," he said.

This is the first time that Emraan has teamed up with the critically acclaimed Vidya. "Vidya is a great actress. Our combination is new. It's a great experience working with her. Every character in the film is very intriguing and interesting; so we share a very different kind of chemistry on screen."

He is also in awe of veteran actor Naseeruddin.

"Naseeruddin is god of acting. I did a couple of scenes with him, which was a great learning experience," said Emraan.

Hrithik had to change his workout, diet for Agneepath!

Actor Hrithik Roshan's look in the movie Agneepath made jaws drop and inspired men and wooed women all over the world. But it was not at all easy to get the look and physique in place as per the requirement. Hrithik had to completely change his workout routine and work extremely hard to get that shape which is now called as god made.

His trainer Satyajit Chaurasia, who has been Hrithik’s trainer for 9 years, explains how Hrithik had to go into an extreme regime to get his muscles extremely toned for Vijay Chauhan’s role in Agneepath. His diet was a super protein diet with 12 egg whites, 2 loafs of brown bread, a protein shake, nuts, corn flakes with milk and fruit platter for breakfast. Two roti, green vegetables, 1 whole chicken (during the day), dal, caesar salad, fish platter for lunch.

’TGIYB’ good news for Indian cinema

That Girl In Yellow Boots"; Cast: Kalki Kochelin, Prashant Prakash, Naseeruddin Shah; Director: Anurag Kashyap; Rating:

The 1960s were a wonderful time for Indian cinema. The government set up the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to impart cinema education and FFC (Film Finance Corporation) to fund creative cinema. The result - beginning 1969 India saw what is today called 'The New Indian Cinema' that resulted in some of the greatest films ever made in the nation.

Recently, with the advent of digital filmmaking, little droplets of creative cinema have been foreshadowing another cloud-burst of creativity. However, it needs patronage. Perhaps NFDC (National Film Development Corporation), transformed from FFC, would provide that shot in the arm to extremely talented, but unfinanced filmmakers in India. And "The Girl In Yellow Boots" (TGIYB), co-funded by NFDC, could be that game changer.

A British national of Indian origin, Ruth (Kalki), is in India looking for her dad who had left her when she was young. To fund her trip, she works in a shady massage parlour charging Rs.1000 to give 'happy endings' to her customers. She is caught up in her druggie boyfriend's mess but a greater mess awaits her in the discovery of her father.

TGIYB is good news for Indian cinema for many reasons. Firstly, it is perhaps India's first commercially released film to be not just entirely shot in digital (LSD was the first) but also shot on cameras that are usually used to shoot stills. Seeing what digital can do on big screen, like LSD, is an experience and lesson in filmmaking.

Secondly, it will perhaps become the second innings of NFDC. The brilliant films produced by its precursor FFC in the 1970s and 1980s will vouch for the veracity of how much creative cinema needs and deserves governmental patronage. In a few months' time NFDC will also release Dibakar Banerjee's "Shanghai".

Shot in 13 days, TGIYB is spot on in almost all departments. It is carried forward by a stellar performance from its cast, especially Kalki Kochelin, who's also the co-writer.

TGIYB is a statement on modern life and society. The character of Ruth, despite her seeming loss of innocence and purity, is the purest character in the film. Yet, like a beautiful flower in full bloom, she is trampled upon by a ruthless society that ceaselessly uses her. Her yellow boots becomes a metaphor for the beauty and cheer that is stolen from her.

Violence, though rarely physical, is inflicted upon her till she becomes insensitive to the innocence of another like her. Her trampling seems complete, till in the end she redeems himself, by refusing to act as per her impulse.

This is a typical Anurag Kashyap film as it returns us to the themes that form the backdrop in many of his films - sex, drugs and violence. The quirky characterization and the pun of language is all there. Who else can pun a name 'Chittiappa Gowda' and pull it off or juxtapose the banal telephonic conversation of a chatty woman and serious confrontation on phone between mother and daughter at the same time?

Yet, the film is also atypical of Anurag for unlike his other film he exercises great restraint. And it is in this control, of not ending the film in violence, lies its greatest power.

The time is ripe for another cinematic revolution in the country, where filmmakers are not shackled by nepotistic and uncreative production houses and corporate houses married only to profits. Hopefully, TGIYB will prove to be the first, in the many to follow.

A sequel to The Dirty Picture?

While Milan Luthria is all ready to wrap up shooting for The Dirty Picture, he is open to the idea of making a sequel to the film. The Dirty Picture, one of the most anticipated Bollywood film for the year, will show Vidya Balan essay the role of late South siren Silk Smitha.

Milan Luthria will soon get into the post-production of The Dirty Picture to ensure that the film releases on December 2, which is the birth anniversary of the late south siren Silk Smitha. Speaking about a sequel to the biopic, Luthria said, “It's a bit early to think of a sequel. If people find it uplifting, then I'll be the first to jump at the opportunity. Balaji and I are not closed to the idea.”

Speaking about the first look of The Dirty Picture to a leading website, Milan Luthria said, “We worked incredibly hard on the first look of the film. As the film is mainstream and commercial in every respect, that had to come through in the poster and trailer.”

As The Dirty Picture is a mainstream film and traces the controversial life of Silk Smitha, it is packed with music, humour and not to mention many intimate scenes involving Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Tushaar Kapoor.