Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai’ (Rajjo, Ram-Leela and Insidious Chapter 2) that was published in Newsband

New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Rajjo

Rajjo is a 2013 Indian romantic musical produced by Four Pillars Entertainment and directed by Sahitya Akademi Award winning writer Vishwas Patil. It stars Kangana Ranaut and Paras Arora in the lead roles and its supporting cast includes Prakash Raj, Mahesh Manjrekar and Jaya Prada.

A romantic musical, Rajjo is the journey of a Nautch girl in the most extraordinary circumstances. It tells the love story of Rajjo (Kangana Ranaut) and Chandu (Paras Arora) set against the backdrop of the dying Kothas of Mumbai that nurtured the traditional art of singing and dancing for centuries.

The story’s central characters are Rajjo, a Muslim girl and Chandu, a young Brahmin boy. When Chandu helps his team win a cricket match, the team decides to celebrate the victory by visiting the Kothas of Nagpada. This is where Chandu meets Rajjo who mesmerizes him with her elegant Mujra dance and it is love at first sight for him.

Chandu belongs to a family of music lovers; he is a very good harmonium player, his mother is a Bhajan singer. Rajjo is trained under Kothewali Amma; she is naughty, sweet and quite attractive. Music is the common thread between them, as is the strong attraction that draws Rajjo and Chandu together and seals their love. Simultaneously the Nagpada area goes under the clutches of re-development and all the dancers and singers are under the shadow of this potential danger. Amidst these circumstances, Rajjo and Chandu have to deal with Begum (Mahesh Manjrekar) who runs the Kotha and Hande Bhau (Prakash Raj), a corporator with powerful political connections who has his eye set on Rajjo. With everything working against them, will Rajjo and Chandu’s love be able to triumph against all odds?

The film has Kangana Ranaut as Rajjo, Paras Arora as Chandu, Mahesh Manjrekar as Begum, Prakash Raj as Hande Bhau and Jaya Prada as Jankidevi.

The film has music and background score by Uttam Singh, lyrics by Sameer Anjaan, Dev Kohli and choreography by Ganesh Acharya.

Ram-Leela

Ram-Leela is a 2013 Hindi romantic-drama film directed and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It stars Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone as the eponymous leads. The film is said to be an adaptation of Shakespeare's epic love story Romeo and Juliet, set in violent times.

This movie will portray Ranveer-Deepika's violent and passionate love story, at the backdrop of the rural Rajasthan.

Ram, the local village Romeo, is a colorful, charming yet dramatic vagabond whereas Leela is an unbridled and passionate village Juliet. The only thing in common between these two strangers is their families’ hatred for each other.

The two communities have been sworn enemies since the past 500 years and their own kin falling in love with each other is worse than any storm that could have ever come. When Ram and Leela see each other for the first time, their worlds collide, wars are fought and destinies are written in blood, forever.

Set in a land of guns, vengeance against a magnificent musical backdrop, Ram and Leela fight the world to live their own dreams. What will happen when they declare their love to the world? Will their families relent or will Ram and Leela carve their own destiny?

The film has Ranveer Singh as Ram, Deepika Padukone as Leela, Richa Chadda as Raseela, Supriya Pathak as Leela's Mother, Gulshan Devaiah as Bhavani, Barkha Bisht Sengupta as Kesarr, Sharad Kelkar, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, Priyanka Chopra (Special appearance in the song Ram Chahe Leela) and Anshul Trivedi (Ram's brother).

This is the second time Sanjay Leela Bhansali will compose for a film, the first being the 2010 film Guzaarish. The lyrics are penned by Siddharth - Garima. The film has songs like Ang Laga De sung by Aditi Paul, Shail Hada, Dhoop by Shreya Ghoshal, Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun by Aditya Narayan, Laal Ishq by Arijit Singh, Lahu Munh Lag Gaya by Shail Hada, Mor Bani Thanghat Kare by Osman Mir, Aditi Paul, Nagada Sang Dhol by Shreya Ghoshal, Osman Mir, Poore Chand by Shail Hada, Ram Chahe Leela by Bhoomi Trivedi and Tattad Tattad by Aditya Narayan.

Insidious: Chapter 2

Insidious: Chapter 2 is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. It is a sequel to 2011's Insidious. The film stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne reprising their roles as Josh and Renai Lambert, a husband and wife who seek to uncover the secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.

Insidious: Chapter 2 picks up where the first movie left off. We once again come across the unlucky Lambert clan. Mom and dad (Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) have rescued their son from a demonic netherworld thanks to Lin Shaye's smilingly spooky medium, Elise. The voyage back from the beyond cost Elise her life and also seems to have let another evil genie out of the bottle. Could that be why Wilson's Josh is acting so strangely? It turns out that he has a haunted past of his own. So his mother (Barbara Hershey) calls in Elise's old ghost-busting partner (Steve Coulter), who uses a set of what looks like old Boggle dice to communicate with the spirit world in an attempt to get to the bottom of why this family is such a juicy target for unhappy souls on the other side. A pair of nerdy paranormalists, straight out of a lesser Scooby-Doo episode, lend a hand.

Thus Patrick Wilson is again Josh Lambert, the husband and father whose trip into another realm to retrieve his son’s spirit marked the conclusion to 2010’s Insidious. Josh and his son Dalton have the ability to “astral project” into a place between life and death. It’s filled with otherworldly spirits, including a ghoul who wants a healthy body to live in. In the previous film, the fiend was a frightening old woman; here we learn she’s, well, something else. But first Josh’s wife Renai has to find out where the new bumps and creaks in the house are coming from. She also wonders what’s making Josh act so strange and why their infant baby seems to be a target for evil poltergeist. While we wait for the inevitable, the movie lets us spend some time with the various other characters as they try to track down the history of the creature which seems hell-bent on destroying their lives.