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“Pranali - The Tradition”- a movie that highlights the ills of the temple dancer custom still prevalent in some parts of the country,a never ending journey of a devdasi released last week. The movie released without much promotion or hype under Nikhil Mathur’s Harward Entertainments banner , on May 2nd.
The movie marks the solo debut of Nargis .Nargis of “Garam Masala” fame plays the main lead in the film that is directed by Hridesh Kamble, the erstwhile assistant of John Mathew Mathan, Mahesh Bhatt and Vikram Bhatt.
Harward Entertainment’s maiden venture will be released simultaneously in four languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.
Through a dramatic story, the movie bares the thin dividing line that exists between the temple dancer tradition and the profession of prostitution among devdasis.
According to this custom, virgin girls are married off to the presiding deities of some temples in the name of service to the god. There they become temple dancers. Far too often, the dancers are forced into prostitution.
The movie takes a stand on the stigma attached to the temple dancers (devdasis). It tries to make people aware of how low caste vulnerable village girls are forced into this in the name of religion only to be exploited by influential upper caste people.
The story of the movie starts as a foreigner Judy is searching for a prostitute Pranali and the husband of Pranali is writing a book on her life. Then the movie goes into flashback -In a famine hit poor village, the parents of a little girl, Pranali get convinced by a priest to allow their daughter into the system of Devdasi where in the name of god little girls are forced to carry out prostitution. Many rich class people and famed men are afflicted to the Devdasi system.
The movie revolves round a village girl called Pranali (Nargis), a girl born in a small village who soon falls prey to the downtrodden systems of society.On the account of serving God, the child is offered as a Devdasi to the high priest in the village and soon becomes an object of lust. Forced into being a devdasi, she fights to free herself from the shackles of the vested interests who want to perpetuate the tradition in order to serve themselves.
After a sequence of incidents, Pranali reaches the Mumbai red light area decides to give birth to a baby .Though, by custom, she is not allowed to rear children, Pranali vows to bring up her illegitimate child like a normal child. Life becomes much tougher when Pranali gives birth and soon struggles to educate her child seeking a normal life for her. On grounds of being a sex workers daughter, the girl is refused admission in school. How she takes up the battle against the custom and how her fight inspires other devdasis to liberate themselves is what the movie is about.
Soon comes in an NRI (Raman Trikha) to do a research on Sex workers in India and soon engages Pranali and the gang of sex workers including Kanchi (Rohini Kapoor) , Salma (Vaidehi Singh) ,Chanda (Dipsshikha) and Akka (Sudha Chandran) into the battle for legalization of prostitution by the government.
Sounds interesting huh? Hmm!!! Well , that’s what many believe and expect it to be one of those hard-hitting films. Though the movie tackled relevant issues, the execution and direction by Hirdesh Kamble is pretty poor. The story, screenplay and dialogues by Hirdesh Kamble and Manoj Pandey literally kill the entire film.
The movie is tremendously vague and the so called journey of the devdasi leads you nowhere. The movie starts off with the little Pranali and her encounter with the high priest , minister and from there to being a sex worker and from there moves to being a mother and then fighting as a social worker etc and finally the book release makes it a complete boring and vague mix of events.
To add to it all is the boring and dull Bhaigiri sequences including Upendra Limaye as the taxi driver which makes it completely pathetic. Upendra tries to carry the film off as the solo made lead in a film overloaded with women. Upendra even gets to swing to a song sung by Kailash Kher being a complete out sync track.
The movie keeps on dragging and truly becomes a never ending journey for the audiences. On the performance scale Nargis does show us that she has immense potential but the script in this case makes us overlook all performances even that of Sudha Chandran and Dipsshika.
Bollywood singer Kailash Kher makes his debut as music director with the movie and collaborates with composers Paresh and Naresh.Music of the film by Kailash Kher and his Kailasha band members Naresh and Paresh is such a letdown and the addition of songs in the film make you yawn. No comments on the other aspects of the film.
Dance plays a key role in “Pranali” and well-known exponent of Kathak dance Pandit Birju Maharaj has given dancing tips to choreographer Saroj Khan for the film. He had earlier supervised a part of the choreography in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Devdas”.
Upendra Limaye, Raman Trikha, Sudha Chandran, Dipshikha, Vinay Apte and others are part of the cast.
The movie Pranali has a socially awaking script that gets irreverent, because of the way it has been made. The movie has the biggest disadvantage that audience cannot identify with whatever is shown onscreen. The movie tries to talk about legalizing the profession of prostitution in a very unconvincing way. The debuting director Hirdesh Kamble lacks precision in implanting script onscreen and the performance of the actors (except Nargis) is unsatisfactory. Screenplay and music are equally ineffective in bringing out anything from the movie.
Performances of almost all the stars are below average except Nargis. Upendra Limaye, Sudha, Deepshika, Vinay Apte had low scope roles.
To conclude, Pranali comes across as a very poor launchpad for Harward Entertainments. With a movie being tremendously a never ending dull, boring journey; let’s hope that their next few ventures are worth a watch. Nargis no doubt is talented but needs to select her flicks carefully.
The movie is based on a theme that is anti social in current scenario and the movie even doesn’t match the taste of family audience.
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The multiplex chains Inox and Fame have finally started screening Yash Raj Films’ (YRF) latest offering “Tashan” here after receiving a written assurance from the banner that it will give prints of their other four releases of this year from the first-day-first-show.
Released last Friday, the Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor starrer, was not screened in these multiplexes for a week because of a dispute over high revenue rate. After getting a discouraging response at the ticket window, the producers have now agreed to cut the revenue share as a result of which the multiplexes have started showing it from May 3.
“We refused to play ‘Tashan’ in Kolkata because YRF hiked the revenue rate by 12 percent and asked for 60 percent revenue collected in the first week. But now after the film crashed at the box office, the YRF officials have agreed to cut the revenue rate to 50 percent in the first week and 45 percent in the second week,” Vikas Syal, general manager of Inox (Forum) in Kolkata told IANS Monday.
“Besides we are getting a package deal of four forthcoming films under the YRF banner. This will save us from the hassles of renewing agreements and debate on negotiations before every YRF release,” Syal added.
The four forthcoming films of YRF are Kunal Kohli’s “Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic” starring Saif and Rani Mukerji, Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone’s “Bachna Ae Haseeno”, Walt Disney co-produced animation film “Roadside Romeo” and Aditya Chopra’s third directorial venture “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”, which will have superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role.
“Only for ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, YRF has asked for 35 percent revenue share instead of the usual 30 percent and we have agreed to the terms,” Syal said.
However, PVR Cinemas hasn’t started screening the film yet
The magic of Guru is on yet again…. or so it seems. Post marriage, we will be seeing more of the duo, not that anybody is complaining.
According to the buzz, after being offered Mani Ratnam’s Lajjo, the husband-wife duo will star in Chennai-based director Rajiv Menon’s next flick. Titled Dhun, it is a music-based love story with none other than A R Rahman roped in as music director. Obviously, the lovebirds are more than pleased to do another film together. After all, they can barely stand separation, even if it’s for work.
On her first wedding anniversary, Aishwarya flew all the way to Miami, to spend some time with her hubby who was shooting for Dostana with John Abraham and Priyanka Chopra. Now, Abhi-Ash will get to spend more time together thanks to Lajjo and Dhun. However, before it gets all hunky dory, they will have to bear some more months of separation.
Abhishek’s Dostana and Aishwarya’s Robot opposite Rajnikant are yet to be completed. Hence, the shooting of Dhun will begin only sometime in February 2009. Let’s hope we get to witness the beautiful couple’s awesome chemistry once again.
Govinda lost eight kilograms while in Bangkok thanks to Suniel Shetty, who is known not only to be fiercely health conscious from long before physical fitness became a fad but also to make his colleagues lose weight at the drop of flab.
“I’ve already lost 8 kg, thanks to Suniel who put me on a fat-free no-oil diet while we were shooting in Bangkok,” said Govinda who has since returned from the shooting of “Loot” in Bangkok.
The film is being produced by Suniel and also stars Mithin Chakrbaroty’s son Mimoh.
“And if you think that’s a miracle let me tell you, young Mimoh Chakrbaroty, who’s my co-star in ‘Loot’ lost 18 kg in Bangkok because of Suniel,” said Govinda.
Govinda elaborates on his do-or-diet regime in Bangkok saying: “The food was specially prepared by Suniel’s cousin. And we were not allowed any carbohydrates for dinner at all. I quickly began to feel lighter and healthier, so much so that I did the unthinkable.”
Govinda felt so light enough that he agreed to perform an intricate heart-in-the-mouth action scene.
“It was a chase sequence where we had to climb down from the 20th floor to the 17th with a rope. I never thought I’d have the courage or the physique to do it. It was Suniel who provided the inspiration. He took the initiative and I took the plunge after him.
“It was very risky, no doubt, but the action director Allan Amin had taken full precaution. Rest it is all fate. I’ve never done anything like this in my life. I’ve always been known for my dancing and comedy, though I’ve done a lot of other things.”
The face of Vijay Mallya’s Indian Premier League (IPL) Bangalore Royal Challengers cricket team,Britain-born Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif, missed her flight to Bangalore for the IPL match. But the business tycoon’s jet came to her rescue.
“I was shooting in Goa and had to catch a flight to Bangalore for the IPL match on Saturday. But I missed my flight. Fortunately, Vijay Mallya had me flown in his jet or I wouldn’t have been able to make it,” Katrina said.
“That’s one of the advantages of being the brand ambassador for Mallya’s team. You know they’ll make sure you’d reach where you are required to, in spite of maddening schedules,” added the actress.
Katrina Kaif is a Cricket Fan and so enjoys her role as a brand ambassador for Mallya’s Royal Challengers in the IPL !!!!
“Everyone in London is crazy about the game. So I kind of grew up with the game. Here in India too it’s a passion. So when Mallya asked me to be their brand ambassador, I agreed. I’ve known him for years and can’t say no to him. We shot the music video with Sanjay Gupta and it was great fun,” she said.
She loves watching the IPL games and cheering for her team
While India in general and Goa in particular, especially the law and order infrastructure of the state is still reeling from the sensational murder of British teenager Scarlette Keeling Bollywood director Prabhakar Shukla is planning to make a film about the same.
The rape and murder in Goa this year became a global story, when the bruised and semi-naked body of Keeling, a 15-year-old girl who was holidaying in Goa with her family, was found on the Anjuna beach on Feb 18. An initial ruling of accidental death prompted her mother Fiona MacKeown to call for a second autopsy.
Her allegations of a nexus between drug barons, politicians and the police in Goa were denied by the local administration but highlighted lapses in investigation.
The second autopsy returned a verdict of rape and murder. A third post-mortem conducted in Britain showed that Indian doctors had removed Scarlette’s kidneys, stomach and uterus without informing Mackeown.
In an interview with The Times newspaper,Shukla said that he would start filming ‘Rave Party’ in Goa in July and had already approached Katrina Kaif, a Bollywood actress who was brought up in London, to play the teenager.
“The whole film is against drug abuse and the exploitation of tourists,” said Shukla, whose last production “Kahani Gudiya Ki” (Story of a Little Doll) was released in 2007. It was based on the true story of an Indian prisoner of war in Pakistan.
“Not just in India, but all around the world, real-life cinema is attracting curiosity. Film should be a mirror for society and people should get some inspiration or precaution from it,” said Shukla .
He had not yet contacted Scarlette’s mother, but said he hoped to meet her in Britain next month, adding: “I have great sympathy for her”.
Fiona MacKeown , however, said she had reservations about the proposed film, which she feared would portray Scarlette in a bad light, rather than her killers and the police who tried to cover their tracks.
“I’d like to know how they’re going to portray it, or I won’t approve it,” she told The Times. “I’m not sure about calling it ‘Rave Party’. Scarlette was not at a party. She was raped and murdered on the beach.”
Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan is over the moon at becoming father for the second time.We had earlier reported that his wife Susanne delivered a baby boy Thursday. Weighing 3.3 kg, the baby was born at the Lilavati Hospital.
“It feels wonderful!” a jubilant said Hrithik ,from the hospital. Hrithik’s voice brimmed over with paternal pride as he said “I never thought fatherhood the second time would be so special, so exhilarating. I can’t take my eyes off the baby… He is soooooooo beautiful!!”
On being asked if he was disappointed by the fact that the second child wasn’t a girl as he wanted, Hritik said,“Earlier, before the baby came, I did want a girl this time, yes. To complete the family picture. But the minute I saw my new baby’s face I was as content as I could be… In fact he has already had his first photo-session, ha ha. The entire family of about 35 people except my dad is here. So we all gathered around the baby and the photographer went click click click. He seemed to really enjoy it.”
So now there is yet another star from the Roshan family said Hritik.
Hrithik chuckled happily. “All of us are here at the hospital. Only my dad is missing. He’s in Santa Fe (US) hunting locations for our film ‘Kites’. But we just e-mailed him a picture of the baby.”
“Right now we haven’t thought of any particular name. We’re just so happy to see him healthy and happy. Both mom and child are fine. Susanne will be home in a day or two.”
This is the couple’s second son. Their first son, Hrehaan, is two years old. Their mothers - Pinky Roshan and Zarine Khan - are ecstatic and making elaborate plans to welcome the baby to the Roshan House and then to the Khan villa in Juhu, a short distance away.
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