Shilpa's Feed
Jul 7, 2011
via India Masala

Murder 2: The bad guy makes it good

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Mohit Suri’s “Murder 2” may sound like a sequel to the Mallika Sherawat starrer “Murder” but believe me, it is nothing like the earlier film.

While that one had what was at best a wishy-washy murder, this one goes all out — there is blood, sadism, a twisted mind and one of the most sinister villains you have seen in Bollywood in a long time.

Jul 7, 2011

Inspired by Hollywood, Bollywood flirts with technology

By Manasi Phadke and Shilpa Jamkhandikar

MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) – Don’t look for an Indian “Avatar” anytime soon, but Bollywood, inspired by the success of blockbusters such as “Transformers,” is starting to take special effects seriously.

Up until five years ago, producers were unwilling to embrace technology, preferring instead to spend millions on expensive outdoor shoots and sets.

Jul 5, 2011

A fake Tomatina festival just for Bollywood

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Spain’s Tomatina festival has been re-created on celluloid for the Bollywood film “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”, with filmmakers importing several tonnes of tomatoes to shoot a five-day song sequence.

The annual Tomatina festival is held in Bunol on the last Wednesday in August, and involves the town’s population pelting ripe tomatoes at each other. Re-creating the scenes was no easy task for the crew of the Bollywood film.

Jul 1, 2011

A Minute With: Mahesh Bhatt

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Starting off with movies like “Saraansh” and “Arth”, Mahesh Bhatt has seen Bollywood move from the angst-ridden 80s to the flashy films of today. He has also moved from being a well-known director to a producer of films like “Jannat” and “Murder”.

Bhatt’s latest production “Murder 2″, directed by Mohit Suri, is set to hit screens next week.

Jul 1, 2011
via India Masala

Delhi Belly: You need to have the stomach for it

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Abhinay Deo’s “Delhi Belly” isn’t your average Bollywood film. For one, it can hardly be called a Bollywood film, because the primary language isn’t Hindi, it’s English. Like most Bollywood films, this is also not a “family film”.

All those cuss words and toilet humour would be tough to endure with your parents or kids sitting next to you — with friends, it might be funny though.

Jul 1, 2011
via India Masala

Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap: Sometimes old is not gold

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Anyone who has grown up watching Amitabh Bachchan during the 70s and 80s will either go all nostalgic on watching Puri Jagannadh’s “Bbuddhah Hoga Terra Baap”, or will cringe at the way your memories have been distorted with this new, technicolour version of the angry young man. In my case, it was the latter.

During one of the funnier scenes in the film, Bachchan tells a character that he’s the ‘original”, and that kids today are doing nothing but imitating him. He then proceeds to sing a medley of most of his hit songs, including “pag ghungroo” and “mere angane mein”, except this new modern version has English rap songs, skimpily clad foreign extras dancing around him and Bachchan himself dressed flamboyantly (some would say garishly), gyrating to the song. At that point, you wonder, should you really mess with a classic, even if it’s your own?

Jun 27, 2011

Fame-hungry children driving India’s reality TV boom

By Shilpa Jamkhandikar

MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) – It is 5 p.m. and Rima Chakravorty has not eaten her lunch. Dressed in a shiny pink and green dress with gauze and sequins, her face heavy with make-up, the 14 year-old sidles up to her father and complains that she is hungry and feeling feverish.

Rima has just finished a grueling shoot for an Indian song-based reality TV show, and will soon change her outfit to sing again in front of a panel of judges and a studio audience during filming that will last for five to six hours.

Jun 24, 2011
via India Masala

Double Dhamaal: Twice the agony

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Indra Kumar’s “Double Dhamaal” is a sequel to the 2007 comedy “Dhamaal” and tells the story of four men whose plans to make a quick buck are foiled by their arch nemesis.

The story takes off from where the four, after having donated all the money they won to charity, are back to being jobless and penniless. But when they come across their arch nemesis Kabir Nayak (Sanjay Dutt) and see that he’s rich and successful, they decide to feed off his wealth. Riteish Deshmukh, Ashish Chowdhry, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaafery play the roles of the four friends.

Jun 16, 2011

Salman Khan and the art of making a hit film

MUMBAI (Reuters) – After going through a tough phase, Salman Khan at 45 seems confident in the knowledge he knows what will make the world’s biggest film industry dance to his tunes — literally.

The star, one part of Bollywood’s trio of Khans delivered last year’s biggest hit, “Dabangg”, and his latest film “Ready”, a comedy that was universally panned by critics is well on its way to netting a billion rupees at the box-office.

Jun 10, 2011
via India Masala

Shaitan: The devil is in the details

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Director Bejoy Nambiar’s debut effort “Shaitan” is not your typical Bollywood film, so if you are the kind that enjoys that kind of fare, let me warn you at the outset this may not be the film for you.

However, if you keep an open mind and go into the theatre, believe me you will be rewarded. Here is a film that is unabashed, cool and made by a director who knows his craft.

    • About Shilpa

      "Shilpa covers Bollywood and entertainment for Reuters India since 2008. She has previously worked with DNA and the Press Trust of India, covering train blasts in Mumbai, a constitutional crisis in Goa and protests in New Delhi. On Twitter, she's @shilpajay."
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