Luxury Liner sinks in Italy 200 Indians abroad too

Khichdi Makar Sankranti 2012

Tiger lurking in Lucknow Suburbs

Kissing a Snake was better than kissing Emraan Hashmi says Mallika Sherawat

Oprah Winfrey in India

Agneepath (1990) : Comparison with new,appreciation and review

The best thing I liked about the film was the classic Neelam song inspired on lines of "Ek Duje Ke Liye" sung by Alka Yagnik and S.P.Balasubramaniam  filmed on her and Mithun."Kisko tha Pata Kisko thi Khabar We are made for each other".This song and choreography and the way its Pictured does not seem dated at all.In late 80's Alka was in top form and she sings marvelously on Laxmikant Pyarelal's music,its a song you hum after you leave theater or after end credits if watching on DVD.In the new movie there's no nice romantic song like this or like Karan Johar's films earlier used to have.Also the Background Music in Agneepath (1990) is quite exciting and fresh.

DVD on Sony is grainy in the beginning but after first hour or so the picture quality is as good as new.Mukul S. Anand directed this movie who died in 1997.Direction isn't what you can call deft its more like as it was with most movies in 80's."Agneepath" poem seems quite meaningless here and deliberately thrust upon.But the dialogues of Kader Khan are definitely better than its remake.Here Vijay's father is played by Alok Nath fresh from his success on small screen with Ramesh Sippy's "Buniyaad".Vijay of childhood is played by Master Manjunath who had done great recently in "Malgudi Days" T.V. series on Doordarshan.Alok Nath is definitely much better than the person who plays Vijay's father in the sequel.

Though Amitabh won Best Actor National award for this movie,he looks pretty aged and tired here his eyes are deliberately made to look red which gives him a more haggard appearance.Hrithik is definitely much better.Rohini Hattangadi who was 13 years younger than Amitabh played his mother,she gives a controlled emotionless performance.Zarina Wahab is definitely better in the sequel,though her screen time is lesser.Neelam does a wonderful job here lifting up the spirits of the film and definitely thousand times better than the girl that plays sister in the remake,who is completely ineffectual.Krishnan Iyer MA is an iconic character in Agneepath played by Mithun Chakravarthy who was then in his top form giving 11 films in 1990 including Agneepath.In the sequel this character is removed.

 

Madhavi plays Amitabh's love interest and gives a wonderfully controlled performance.She does seem a bit better than Priyanka.She also turned up 7 movies in 1990 including this one.Danny plays "Kancha Seth" here and is incomparable with the new one,he is quite classy.DVD is of 167 minutes and seemed to be heavily edited lots of scenes unscrupulously edited out,Madhvi's scenes do seem abrupt and some others too.Movie does not seem to be professionally made.

Tinnu Anand is in great form here and plays a drunkard,lots of laughter as he hurls choicest obscenities on villains.He had just directed Amitabh in "Shahenshah".Vikram Gokhale is good enough with so proper Hindi.Archana Puran Singh is in a cameo as Danny's mistress and is shot dead as she was going into witness against him in court.Sharat Saxena is funny and wonderful here as the villain named Terelin.Shakti Kapoor too is in cameo in song "Alibaba".Asha Sachdev gets good dialogues to speak as she plays the village "Tawaif".Bob Christo too comes good he gave 11 movies in 1990.Goga Kapoor with his booming voice is so good here.

Pravin Bhatt's cinematography is just marvelous as evident by beautiful scenes shot in Mauritius.The whole drive scene until Amitabh's ship gets bombed is wonderfully executed.Beautiful trees in full bloom with red blossoms flank the road,lush green fields and clear blue skies and lively dancing going around near Danny's hideout on a lovely beach with sparkling sea waves make this scene a joy to behold.


I had watched few scenes from the movie earlier over the years and had found Amitabh not at his best here.Watching this movie now in entirety one can say its flawed but at least I found a lovely song like "Kisko tha Pata" to hum and this wonderfully beautiful drive scene.Though many consider it a classic and Amitabh must have impressed people for he won many accolades for this movie.There's this story too how he altered his speech or accent during dubbing,think it was changed a second time.Mukul S.Anand's direction too is more like those commercial revenge pot-boilers we had then.For me I think the remake is surely an improvement over this 1990 film.

 

Agneepath (2012) Review

Saw it today at PVR Phoenix 10:30 show,it was Housefull.Movie is shot like a Hollywood Classic and personal charisma of Sanjay Dutt and Hrithik Roshan add to the over-all effect.Hrithik reminded me of Charlton Heston as in "Ben-Hur" and Sanjay Dutt reminded me of "Mogambo" from "Mr.India" and also of Anthony Hopkins from "Hannibal".Its a long film about 3 Hours 30 minutes or so.Arish Bhiwandiwala plays Vijay of childhood,and he is really wonderful here.A good portion of  first half is dedicated to Vijay's time in Mandwa and Arish excels in every scene.After a long time you hear Udit Narayan in a movie song on a major star and reminds you of his "Swadesh" days.A scene in the film where Hrithik sits on the roof reminds you much of "On the Waterfront" which it share some similarities with.Agneepath's Background music by Ajay-Atul Gogavale duo is just excellent which is always a intrinsic part in making audience feel the emotions depicted on screen.Kiran Deohans brilliant cinematography is another plus point of the movie.Art director Sabu Cyril has done a wonderful job in creating marvelous sets of village island Mandwa.The introducing scene of Hrithik treats him as a Greek God where he breaks the "Matki",his face sparkles like gold dust.

Fist half is so engrossing you never know how the Two Hours pass,second half is equally good except some cliche traces of fast-forward quality scenes and some regular stupidity found in Hindi movies and also Amitabh's famous dialogue said by Hrithik does not sound much.There's a very stupid first in a movie every time some one smokes a cigarette there is a subtitled message "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health",especially in song "Puvva Chada Ke Aayee" ,why they never show a message on bad effect of alcohol on health is another question.Audience was mostly quiet throughout the movie except some whistles now and then,at the end when audience was coming out of the theater no body was saying anything either,generally they say whether they liked or disliked it.May be because movie was so impactful and so long.In a Cinema-Hall people's reaction is so euphoric and spontaneous compared to audience who behave themselves in a multi-plex.Several people have came to see the movie with their whole family.

Katrina Kaif's eagerly awaited item number is saved till last.Mandwa island sea side locales,the den of "Kancha" Sanjay Dutt is quite haunting and very effective in creating the overall atmosphere for the scenes.Rocky mountains splashing sea waves and a Banyon Tree on the cliff where Kancha hanged Vijay's School Teacher father.Their are lots of scenes filled with blood and gore and some terribly heart rending and heart wrenching scenes,not a film to see with kids but a film to take twelve hankies to if you are a emotional sort.Zarina Wahab does well here as Hrithik's mother.Their's a classic Bollywood cliche scene done really well here of Zarina being pregnant after her husband is hanged,she goes into labour in the Mumbai red light area.Her son Vijay somehow fetches a prostitute for help who arranges for the delivery their on the road.Women folks spread out their sarees to provide cover,while Vijay tries to peep and see why his mother is shouting so much in pain.Then they bring out a baby girl and hand it to Vijay telling him its her sister.Its a joyful scene after all the mayhem and very emotional too,bound to bring tears to eyes.Also there's a very sentimental scene where Vijay is called in inside the house by his mother who had till now disapproved of his anti-social activities.He had came to leave his sister to her home and Priyanka too is along.Both come in and Zarina brings food for them.Then somehow in conversation they have disagreements,as he rises from the table he takes a "Thali" and put some food on it,then he goes out on the steps and eat the food hungrily.Priyanka comes out and he tells her between sobs and munching how he had missed his mother and her food.A real heart tugging tear-jerker of a scene. Priyanka Chopra too does well here.

Rishi Kapoor and Om Puri ably support the movie.Rish Kapoor who plays Rauf Lala Vijay's mentor at first then his enemy.Their's avery profound and funny and desperate scene in the climax where he tries to sell of Vijay's sister as a sex slave,talking in lustfilled words about her body and features etc. to lure customers and continues to do so when Vijay comes and kills of his men one by one.He continues and drives Vijay into a mad frenzy by talking dirty about his sister until Vijay  suffocates him underneath water.Rishi Kapoor really made this role worthwhile.Sachin khedekar is in a tiny ineffectual role blink and miss kind.Similarity with Shahid's "Kameenay" too could be found here.Karan Malhotra directs so well in his first film. 

 

Christopher Reeve Tribute in Times of India

Ashok Kumar Tribute in Times Of India

George Harrison Tribute inTimes of India

Celebrity Birthdays in January

1 st January Nana Patekar
                    Sonali Bendre
                    Dana Andrews
                    Asrani
                    TunTun

2 nd January Sally Rand
                      Anna Lee

3 rd January Sanjay Khan
                     Mel Gibson

4 th January Issac Newton
                     Nirupa Roy
                     Pradeep Kumar
                      Anjan

5 th January Uday Chopra
                     George Reeves
                    Gopal Das 'Neeraj'
                     Mukri

6 th January Kapil Dev
                     A.R.Rahman
                     Loretta Young

7 th January Reena Roy
                     Butterfly McQueen
                     Supriya Pathak

8 th January Elvis Presley
                     Nanda
                     Saeed Jafri
                     Wilkie Collins
                     Stephen Hawking

9 th January Gracie Fields
                     Bob Denver
                     Susannah York

10 th January Ray Bolger
                       Paul Henreid
                       Hrithik Roshan

11 th January Anu Agarwal
                       Rahul Dravid

12 th January Jack London

13 th January Durga Khote

15 th January Martin Luther King Jr.

                       Margaret O'Brien

16 th January Kabir Bedi

17 th January Muhammad Ali
                       Anne Bronte
                       Jim Carrey
                       Anton Chekhov
                       Javed Akhtar

18 th   January Oliver Hardy

                         Cary Grant

19 th January Martin Luther King
                       Edgar Allan Poe

21 st January Kim Sharma

22 nd January Namrata Shirodkar
                        Ritu Shivpuri
                        Vijay Anand

23 rd January Humphrey Bogart
                       Subhash Chandra Bose

25 th January Virginia Woolf

26 th January Paul Newman

27 th January Lewis Carroll
                       Bobby Deol

28 th January Lala Lajpat Rai

29 th January Oprah Winfrey

30 th January Franklin Roosevelt

31 st January Preity Zinta
                      Tallulah Bankhead
                     Jean Simmons

Katharine Hepburn (30 th June 2003) Times of India Tribute

I did not knew she was beautiful until I saw Holiday where she is so elegant.Before I had seen her in African Queen and "On Golden Pond" ,I knew she was a great actress and when I see her work in 1930's to "The Philadelphia Story" I came to know she was strikingly beautiful too.

Over the years I have seen her in many films and she was great in "Guess who is coming to Dinner" too,read her Biography too and saw her in the 1980's documentary giving tribute to Spencer Tracy.She came out as a wonderful human being who always spoke out what ever was in her mind.Lots of witty saucy and quotable quotes are credited to her as she never hid her feelings and would call a spade a spade.I always admire her in movies and in real life and think I or any of us can learn a lot from her and how to live life in general.I had a documentary on her where she talked about exercising simple common sense in day to day affairs.People like her inspire us even when they are no more with us.

Strange case of Husband spreading malicious lies about his wife

Husband imprisoned for 2 years for spreading false rumours by distributing pamphlets advertising his wife's alleged sexual relationship with her own brother.Distraught wife files defamation suit against her husband and wins.

Bank Robbery

Robbers attack a bank in broad daylight throw red chilly powder in Guards eyes and kill him.This happened the same day of Shahrukh's visit in the city for Don2 Promotion.

Ajit Mausa's death 25 th December

Ajit Mausa(mother's cousin's husband) worked as a postman,everybody knew him well.He was quite social and spoke well,because of his short height he was always mistaken for a young boy when he got married in the early 90's.He did had a drinking problem and had recently brought down his alcohol intake.On 20th he had vomiting and concussions in his office then he went into a Coma.Doctors at PGI declared him dead on 25 Th Dec,his family brought him home in the morning where mourners thronged to pay their last respects.It was out of the blue for me,really unexpected for I had recently spoken with him on phone for his son Suraj's LIC Policy revival,he seemed fine then.I was present at his wedding and now attending his funeral really sad end,his son and daughter too young.

Here Ajit Mausa(Uncle) is with our Badi Mami(His Siter in Law)

Our Mama (left) Vinay Mausa (middle) Ajit Mausa (right) at my brother's reception

Ajit was married to our mother's cousin Abha in 1990.I was seldom allowed to attend weddings,this was the one I attended from morning itself at a guest house near K.K.C. .Their was a nasty dust-storm at noon,but thankfully it passed away quickly.Abha's hair had all turned to white at a young age,the beautician came and put dye into her hairs but she foolishly oiled her hairs soon after,somehow they managed up her hairs.When their was this "Jaimal" ceremony where bride and groom garland each other,Ajit being of short height barely could manage it and Abha had to put the garland somehow around her neck herself.It was funny when a bride took matters in her own hand and everybody laughed.Met Hemu our mama's son their who had recently seen "Bahar Aane Tak" movie and told me its whole story.Met Jagendra too their.Guddu my cousin and I and other people carried Rasgullas (sweet-meat) in big Bhagonas(utensils) to the place where Janvasa(Light Lunch) was being held for the Bridegroom and party.

Ajit was very friendly and quickly became the part of our greater family.He was at all the weddings and ceremonies.In my recent interactions with him over last three years I have found him an engrossing person to talk to who had a clear knowledge of topics he talked upon,and had a good understanding of of people in general.He did had a drinking problem till now though in last few months he had brought down his alcohol intake drastically.His death by brain-hemorrhage came as a shock as alcohol affects liver not brain,what goes on in different parts of your body you may never know.

                                         Suraj on his Father

                                        Himanshu on his Uncle

  

Anjali and her Cousin Palak

                                            here is his little daughter with her adorable cousin