London Paris New York : Music Review

Catchy title track has that Vishal-Shekhar flavor. Starting off with piano piece, however it is addictive. Next Woh Dekhne Mein - is absolutely lovely. Ali Zafar croons with his typical ease with the notes, add wonderful minimal piano led sound in background - fantastic. Punjabi flavored Ting Rang works as a regular foot tapping 'dhol'ed track. Thehree Si Zindgi 's 'stadium' like sounds and soft rock base with (debutant) Aditi Rao Hydari's voice - makes a fine listen. (Surprise, I am that Ali himself has penned all songs !) 

The track I was waiting for - just because of the list of singers credited - Sanam Marvi, Hadiqa Kiani & Ali Zafar - turned out to be least liked - trance sound of Oo La La is just another 'play it loud on dance-floor' track. Aaja starts like a ghazal, A standard Ali Zafar stuff, that all of a sudden changes track and visits Bulle Shah's poetry. In a fast paced mood. Interesting. But my most favorite is the last one. The female acoustic version of Woh Dekhne Mein - sung by Aditi Rao Hydari. Loved loved it. And when she giggles and ''oo oooo"s , oh man ! Drool !! 

Music, lyrics and singer - the multi tasking Ali Zafar is the one to watch out for, in coming days. 

My Picks : Woh Dekhne Mein, Aaja.

Tags : London paris newyork music review, movie review, new york, ali zafar, anu menon, goldie behl, srishti arya, fox star studios, rose movies 

57th Filmfare Awards 2012 : Winners

BEST FILM - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST ACTOR MALE - Ranbir Kapoor, Rockstar

BEST ACTOR FEMALE – Vidya Balan, The Dirty Picture

BEST DIRECTOR - Zoya Akhtar, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST DIALOGUE – Farhan Akhtar, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST SCREENPLAY – Akshat Verma, Delhi Belly

BEST STORY – Sanjay Chauhan, I Am Kalam

BEST EDITING – Huzefa Lokhandwala, Delhi Belly

BEST ACTOR MALE (CRITICS) - Ranbir Kapoor, Rockstar

BEST FILM (CRITICS) - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST ACTOR FEMALE (CRITICS) – Priyanka Chopra, 7 Khoon Maaf

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR MALE - Farhan Akhtar, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR FEMALE – Rani Mukherjee, No One Killed Jessica

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Aruna Irani

SCENE OF THE YEAR – The Dirty Picture

RD BURMAN AWARD - Krsna, Tanu Weds Manu

BEST MUSIC – AR Rahman, Rockstar [A special 47 ct diamond studded 2500th trophy presented]

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER FEMALE – Usha Uttap & Rekha Bhardwaj, Darling, 7 Khoon Maaf

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER MALE – Mohit Chauhan, Jo Bhi Main, Rockstar

BEST LYRICS – Irshad Kamil, Nadaan Parindey, Rockstar

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY – Bosco-Caesar, Senorita, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE – Ranjit Barot, Shaitan

BEST SOUND DESIGN - Nakul Kamte, Don 2

BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR – Abhinay Deo, Delhi Belly

BEST DEBUT MALE – Vidyut Jhamwal, Force

BEST DEBUT FEMALE – Parineeti Chopra, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

BEST VFX – Red Chillies, Ra.One

BEST ACTION – Don 2

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Carlos Catalan, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN – Shashank Tere, Delhi Belly

BEST COSTUME - Niharika Khan, The Dirty Picture

Partho Gupte gets a Special Jury Certificate mention for his sensitive performance in Stanley Ka Dabba.

Tags : Filmfare winners list, 2011, 2012, idea filmfare awards, filmfair awards, pictures, videos, stage, dance, award nomination, nominees, list, srk, ranbir, host, rahman, 2500

Kaafiron Ki Namaaz : Teaser

If done honestly, confession is nothing but subtle poetry.
If committed passionately, poetry is nothing but a subtle crime.
Does that mean confession is an impression of crime?
Srinagar.
One fine Christmas Eve.
Two guns in the room.
Three extra-ordinary faces of the society.
Soldier. Writer. Bandwalla.
They talk chips and chocolates. They sing fairy tales. They play dumb charades.
A human drama which eventually turns into a thriller - Kaafiron Ki Namaaz.

This is the synopsis of upcoming indie-movie Kaafiron Ki Namaaz. Have a look at this awesome pre-teaser. Piercing aalap sung by Nazim Arshad, instantly gave me goosebumps when I saw the video for the first time. Can't wait for the soundtrack to come out. 

Tags : Indie films, kaafiron ki namaaz, lourien motion pictures, indian small film

Agneepath : Movie Review

First, let me make it clear - I haven't seen the original Agneepath, so the 'inevitable comparisons' are not here [for a change]. Agneepath that I watched, has those perfect Bollywood acts, colorful dances with huge chorus, looong long shots and silhouttes for gloomy scenes. Welcome to the world of Karan Johar. Welcome to new Agneepath. 

To put it short - I loved it. The Vijay Dinanath Chauhan saga is refreshed with few new twists and new characters [like a menacing Rishi Kapoor, can you imagine him that way??!!] but still it makes an absolutely engaging entertainer. Everyone was murmuring about Hrithik playing the legendary the Vijay is the biggest risk, but no. I think he was the safest bet to play this character. Even in his silent expressions, he moves the audience. Add his remarkable screen presence, and I am totally drooled over his stupendous performance. Though there was a glitch, that I did not find the chemistry of him and Priyanka upto the mark. Actually, Priyanka herself wasn't upto the mark here. She seemed lost at many places. Or maybe, in this revenge revenge talk, the female characters are under-developed? [ditto with Zarina Wahab].

By the way, the one guy who surprised me was Rishi Kapoor. Man oh man, I've never seen him playing a bad guy. And here he was. Menacing, someone whom you'll hate immensely and at the same time-like too [while watching him dance, in a superbly choreographed Shah Ka Rutba]. Also the kid who played young Vijay - Arish Bhiwandiwala, superb act I must say. Om Puri is good, better than his Don avatar. Sanjay Dutt - I didn't liked him much. No. Or may be, it is a must that if one did not liked villain's performance, he has done his best work. But seriously, why did they put age old dialogues from Bhagvad Gita?? The dialogues given to him are so typical that sometimes it seems amusing. But thankfully, his screentime is lesser than what I had expected. But whenever Kancha and Vijay clashes - there are sparks. Literally. 

Technically the film is perfect. From gloomy dark moments to the cheerful larger than life Ganesha scenes [outstanding chorography in Deva Sri Ganesha and Shah Ka Rutba], everything is too good. Brilliant cinematography. And backed by thumping score of Ajay-Atul, the sound creates a great impact. Also, the two lovely tracks Abhi mujhe mein kahin and Saiyaan, moves you. Despite the face the movie is quite longer than recent usual movies, one don't feel its stretching or lagging at any place. What do one need else, but a perfect entertainer like this?

Dear 90s, welcome back. 

Tags : Agneepath review, movie review, agnipath, vijay dinanath chauhan, suhasini chauhan, mandva, mandwa, chikni chameli, priyanka chopra, katrina kaif, om puri, zarina wahab, child vijay, child artist name, young boy, Arish Bhiwandiwala

Zee Cine Awards 2012 : Winners

Best Actor (Popular) – Ranbir Kapoor (Rockstar)
Best Actress (Popular) – Vidya Balan (The Dirty Picture)
Best Director – Imtiaz Ali (Rockstar)

Best Actor (Jury) – Shah Rukh Khan (Don 2)
Best Actress (Jury) – Vidya Balan (The Dirty Picture)
Best Film (Jury) – The Dirty Picture

Best Debut Female – Parineeti Chopra (Ladies vs Ricky Bahl)
Best Debut Male – Rana Daggubati (Dum Maaro Dum)
Best Debut Director – Siddique (Bodyguard)

Best Supporting Actor – Farhan Akhtar (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)
Best Supporting Actress – Swara Bhaskar (Tanu Weds Manu)
Best Actor in a Negative Role – Prakash Raj (Singham)

Best use of Media – RA.One
Best Marketed Film – RA.One
Best Action Film – RA.One
Song of the Year – Chammak Challo (RA.One)

Lifetime Achievement Award – Jeetendra

Best Choreography – Ooh La La (The Dirty Picture)
Best Lyrics – Irshad Kamil (Rockstar)
Best Song – Ishq Sufiana (The Dirty Picture)
Best Singer (Female) – Shreya Ghoshal (Saibo from Shor In The City)
Best Singer (Male) – Mohit Chauhan (Jo bhi main from Rockstar)
Best Music – AR Rahman

International Icon Female – Katrina Kaif
International Icon Male – Farhan Akthar

Best Sound Design – Resul Pookutty (RA.One)
Best Cinematography -  Carlos Catalan (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)
Best Editing – Aarti Bajaj (Rockstar)
Best Story – Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)

Tags : Zee cine awards 2011 winners, zca winners, zee cine, macau, awards, winners, ranbir, salman khan, shahrukh khan, priyanka chopra performance video, pictures

Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya : Music Review

Atif and Shreya kick start the album with lovely Piya O Re Piya, this is something that Atif does the best. Track repeats as a sad version too   Next one is again a kind of track that Mohit Chauhan excels in. Jeene De  with Qawwali arrangements, sounds pretty good. And the, a punjabi track comes in the picture- Pee Paa Ho Gaya (!). [not my favorite genre, repeating again] is as foot tapping as a punjabi track should be.

Atif comes back with Monali Thakur & Priya Panchal, in Tu Mohabbat Hai, yet another mushy track, not as impressive as Piya, yet charms. And after all this, what's left? Yes, an item number. Sunidhi and Kailash Kher's Fann Ban Gayi is nothing special to go ga-ga about, except the fact that it must be good fun sequence in the movie.

Composer duo Sachin-Jigar who gave some commendable tracks in 2011, starts off 2012 in a pretty mixed mode. Lets see whats ahead in store.

Tags : Tere naal love ho gaya movie, review, genelia desouza, d'souza, riteish deshmukh, ritesh, tips films, atif aslam, benny dayal, Priya panchal, kailash kher, item song

Jodi Breakers : Music Review

Kunwara has hangover of Band Baaja Baarat, but still-a groovy one. Bipasha is a passable one except the 'qawwali'ish part sung by Shadab (?). The next three tracks are something worth. Darmiyaan starts with aalap exactly same as an Atif's solo, and have traces another film song of him- though Shafaqat & Clinton makes us fall in love with the track. Also the reprise by Shreya is lovely. Mujhko Teri zaroorat hai and Jab Mein Tumhare Saath Hoon both has that mushy flavor, a Salim-Suleiman trademark.

Overall, an average fare, makes one wonder what has happened to the duo who gave some fabulous tracks in past. The sound is getting repetitive these days.

Tags : Jodi breakers review, kunwara, bipasha basu, r madhavan, maddy, irshad kamil, salim merchant, suleiman merchant

18th Screen Awards - 2012 : winners

The award season has started. First one, is as always - SCREEN awards. Though I have stopped believing in any of the awards cause most of them want to keep everyone happy and nothing else. Screen awards were looked the same even by the nominations. Here are the winners for the year 2011 :

Best Background Score: Ranjit Barot [Shaitan]

Best Special Effects: Red Chillies VFX [Ra.One]

Best Sound Design: Kunal Sharma [Shaitan]

Best Editing: Huzefa Lokhandwala [Delhi Belly]

Best Production Design: Shashank Tere [Delhi Belly]

Best Action: Ra.One

Best Cinematography: R Madhi [Shaitan]

Best Costume: Niharika Khan [The Dirty Picture]

Best Story: Akshat Verma [Delhi Belly]

Best Screenplay: Akshat Verma [Delhi Belly]

Best Dialogue: Farhan Akhtar/Javed Akhtar [ZNMD] and Rajat Arora [The Dirty Picture]

Best Ensemble Cast: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Best Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi - Accha Lagta Hai [Aarakshan]

Best Music: AR Rahman [Rockstar]

Best Playback (Male): Mohit Chauhan - Sadda Haq and Phir Se Udd Chala, Rockstar

Best Choreography: Bosco Caesar - Senorita[ZNMD]

Best Child Artist: Partho Gupte [Stanley Ka Dabba]

Ramnath Goenka Excellence Award : Aarakshan for 'having made a difference'

Best Supporting Actor (Female): Aditi Rao Hydari [Yeh Saali Zindagi]

Best Supporting Actor (Male): Saif Ali Khan [Aarakshan]

Best Actor for a Negative Role (Female): Priyanka Chopra [Saat Khoon Maaf]

Best Actor in a Negative Role (Male): Prashant Narayanan [Murder 2]

Most Promising Newcomer (Female): Parineeti Chopra [Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl]

Most Promising Newcomer (Male): Divyendu [Pyar Ka Punchnama]

Most Promising Debut Director: Bejoy Nambiar [Shaitan]

Best Actor in a Comic Role: Pitobash [Shor in the City]

Best Actor (Female) Popular Choice (by public voting): Deepika Padukone [Aarakshan & Dum Maro Dum]

Best Actor (Male) Popular Choice (by public voting): Shah Rukh Khan [Ra.One & Don 2]

Favourite Jodi: Priyanka Chopra & Shah Rukh Khan [Don 2]

Best Performer of the Year: Ekta Kapoor for "shaking the box office"

Best Director: Milan Luthria [The Dirty Picture]

Best Film: The Dirty Picture and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Best Actor (Female): Vidya Balan [The Dirty Picture]

Best Actor (Male): Ranbeer Kapoor [Rockstar]

Thanks @Mittermaniac on Twitter for live updates.

Tags : Star screen awards, colors screen awards winners, 2012, 2011, screen award winner list

Ekk Deewana Tha : Music Review

Jazzy Kya Hai mohabbat works well just because of Rahman himself behind the mic. Lyrics by Javed Akhtar are good, but thats it. This reminded me the track-Meherbaan [Ada], in terms of the treatment of the song. A sure to grow on multiple listens. 

Dost Hai Hum Toh gets 'hip' English rap, in its hindi avatar. And a slower tempo, with shorter Mukhda. Naresh Iyer's croon though easily gets stuck in head. But with just one line, it leaves us with feeling of 'i want more'. 

Aaromale - [there was no chance this word could be translated ;)]. Alphonso Joseph sings some tricky pure hindi lines here. Wish they had retained the Tamil interlude instead of Shudh Hindi lines that sounds out of place [shubh shubh ghadi shubh shubh lagan].

I've already said a lot about the [epic] Hosanna. About how it lacks that madness, desperateness of [Tamil] Deewana. But, comparisons aside, now I'm actually humming it. Flavor of the song is totally changed to a sweeter one in hindi. But yes, it works. Except that accented English part. 

Omanna Penne - Clinton Cerejo croons dreamy love ballad Phoolon Jaisi Ladki, that loses grip at places because of [ofcourse] lyrics. The Malayalam part though is retained, for good. Somehow I liked this one. 

Sharminda Hoon - 'the' Mannipaya is lost in translation. The words are forcefully placed on this beautiful tune. The most annoying part is the interlude [Sitaron se aage jahaan aur bhi hai !!] and the lines that Rahman sings [Auns ki boond...]. Madhushree is refereshing change though [Shreya was in Tamil original], but the urge to paste the words on the tune kills the song. 

The Only hindi version I found quite well done, is Sun Lo Zara. [Anbil Avan in Tamil]. Shreya sounds strangely different, yet good. And with Rashid Ali, this fast paced song works well. 

Dreamy, Guitar'y tune of Zohra Jabeen has its own power - its composition. One can easily get lost in beautiful tune without caring about lyrics. ;) [Just don't want to compare but, happens - the deep meaning of the original is missing here in 'zohra jabeen' !!]

The real treat comes towards the end of the album. A 4:32 Min long Aaromale by Shreya Ghoshal [Broken Promises] is still as haunting as it was in 2010. Instrumental Moments in Kerala is lovely piano piece by Prabhakar. And Jessi's Land still takes us to the land of beautiful backwaters - Kerala. And finally, the madness returns in Jessi's driving me crazy. This time with Hindi lines. Desert, never tasted so good. :)

So, full marks to singers and composer. But seriously, lyrics messes it up. I love the original tamil album [Vinnaithandi Varuvaayaa] more than anything else. Say, I lived the album since I heard it first in 2010. So naturally, the anger of doing injustice to its hindi version, will be there. Naturally, I tend to compare the songs with Tamil ones. It happens, as the Tamil tracks are in my veins now. And they certainly had more meaningful meaning [!]. Know, Javed ji had this tough task of writing words for already epic songs. But the problem here is 'tod marod ke fixed' lines. We heard such thing in a original hindin score by the duo too [Dekho Na-Swades]. But, still, I am annoyed. Maybe it will take a thousand listens to remove the grudge. And still, I will love the original score. Sorry Javed saab, U no Gulzar saab. EDT-is no Saathiya. 

Tags : Ek deewana tha music review, Ekk deewana tha review, Diwana, Pratiek Babbar, Emy, Amy Jackson, Gautham Vasudev Menon, A R Rahman, Rehman, Leon D'souza, Javed ALi, Chinmayi, Javed AKhtar, Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya, YMC, Ye Maya Chesave, Mayya, Simbu, Trisha, movie, Download.