DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with Onir, director of My Brother Nilkhil at a coffee shop in Versova. Onir, (who goes only by his first name), arrived a little late and wanted to wrap things up in fast. So without much ado, I went right ahead and asked the first question.

Please tell us something about your creative background?

I always wanted to make films, the only thing I can remember wanting to do is make films. When I joined college I took up literature parallel with film studies. Literature I think is very closely related to films and in India you don’t start with film studies after school, you can only after graduation. And then I got my scholarship for Training in Film Making for which I went to Berlin.

Continue reading ‘Interview : Straight Talk With Onir’

I consider myself as a 28 year old with an equally active testosterone and other such related hormonal behaviour as any 18- or 20-year-old. And yet I don’t get the fascination (some) youths have developed for an ongoing reality show called Splitsvilla aired on MTV India.

In a nutshell Splitsvilla consists of 20 women vying for attention of two young men. The folks behind this reality show would like us to believe that the concept of the show is the search for True Love (along with a fetching sum of Rs 5 lakh.) Each week one girl’s fate rests in the hands of the two men, who have the power to vote her out of the show.

Reality Shows today are the “in-thing” and like others, I too immensely enjoy(ed) watching many of them. However I fail to see the point behind a show such as this and that too being heavily promoted by a channel responsible in so many ways for shaping the minds of our youth.

Continue reading ‘Splitsvilla Or Shamesville?’

Formula for a successful reality show? Simple - Hire a celebrity. But not just any celebrity, a Bollywood superstar. Really, it’s that simple provided you have the monetary means to do so.

And to mark their entry into the competitive Indian television industry, COLORS has managed to just do that. Box-office action hero, Akshay Kumar is all set to make his small parda debut with reality show - Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi. If I am not mistaken, this is basically a revival of desi-Fear Factor, which once upon a time was aired on AXN and hosted by what’shisface Mukul Dev.

Continue reading ‘The Khiladi Factor’

It was a though choice - Will Smith’s pout or Imran Khan’s?

Ultimately what tipped the scales was that I was getting to see the newbie’s pout for only 70 bucks. So even if I didn’t it, I could have easily walked out and not felt that my day was gone, as the show was one of those illegallyhoured - 8.00 Am ones.

And guess what - I liked it. Not just the pout, but the whole movie. The cast was fresh, each character well-etched out and played equally convincing. Although it did look as though Aamir mamu has sat bhateeja down and rehearsed each dialogue/scene/cut/frame/shot/flick of the eye a million times.

Continue reading ‘Pehle Ka Naata‘

*Not for the faint hearted.

Anything and everything you look here is wrong. Catastrophe, I say. Okay maybe they got the wind factor but that’s about it. As a complete Superman buff I am appalled. But then one glance at ex hero no. 1 cum once-upon-a-time politician’s past-present fashion taste (if one may call it so), the above disaster isn’t all that surprising.

And for Ms. Katkar, anything said is less. Well that’s cause there isn’t much to say about her Bollywood career at least. Her stint in the industry was much like blink-n-u-miss kinds but role playing seemed to be her forte – She started off with playing desi ape man’s very much desi Jane and signed off with as the Jhuma Chuma aunty.

BTW I am most offended by the ‘side hip thrusting’ movement in scene 1.01 and ‘I am a bird’ bit in scene 3.16 and the ‘hop-n-squat’ movement in scene 2.36 and, uff dunk it me too grumpy to write further.

[Ps – On a similar note, check out apna Southie version of Thriller. Scary shitts no doubt.]