Thursday, March 6, 2014

Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai’ (Gullab Gang, Total Siyapaa, Queen, Dhag, August – Usage County and 300: Rise of an Empire) that was published in Newsband

New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai
By Dinesh Kamath
Gulaab Gang

Gulaab Gang is an Indian Hindi film centered on the struggle of women in the country. It is presented by Sahara Movie Studios and Bharat Shah, directed by a debutant director Soumik Sen and produced by Anubhav Sinha, starring Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla as leads.
The film has Madhuri Dixit portraying the lead role – Rajjo, Juhi Chawla portraying the antagonist - Sumitra Devi, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Divya Jagdale, Priyanka Bose as Sandhya, Lata S. Singh as Tara, Vinitha Menon as Vinita, Rani Patel as Khushboo and Tanvi Rao.
The film tells the story of a gang of Indian women dressed in pink coloured saris, fighting against social injustice, operating in Bundelkhand Uttar and Madhya Pradesh (central India). Juhi Chawla is playing her first role with the negative shades. She is playing a powerful, infamous and villainous Politician.
In the movie, Madhuri leads a group of women fighting against social injustice, while Juhi is seen in a negative role as a politician. Gulaab Gang is about a society where women are in power. The movie does not aspire to fight for women. It is a masala potboiler - only both the protagonist and antagonist are women.
The film has a subtle version of rural abuses. Things like 'chappal faad ke' convey the abuse. There is not a single cuss word in the movie. The movie proves that you can be powerful and show it without using very colourful language.
Thus the film is just about two strong female protagonists fighting for/against social injustice and the main issue that has been at the centre of focus in Gulaab Gang is girl-child education and making them self-dependent and financially independent. It's about woman empowerment through their own hard work and self-belief.
The women in films are not caricature-ish where they are either victims or avengers. The film is not about a woman who is victimised and then she takes revenge and then there is end of film. This isn't the case in this film.
It is a battle of supremacy between two gang leaders, lead actress Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla who plays the antagonist. There is a scene where Madhuri takes on Juhi's goons and fights hard.
While Madhuri impresses with some high-octane action sequences, Juhi amazes with her cunning politician avatar. With bold dialogues and rustic lingo, the film depicts the battle between the 'good' and the 'evil'.
The film has seven songs: Akhiyon, Dheemi dheemi, Gulaabi - Title track, Jaiho - sung by Soumik Sen, Rang se hui rangeeli, Rangi saari gulaabi - sung by Snehlata Dixit and Madhuri Dixit and Sharam laaj.

Total Siyapaa

The movie Total Siyappa is about Aman (Ali Zafar), who is in London, and who hopes to marry Asha (Yami Gautam), an Indian girl, also in London. He visits her parents' house to seek their permission to marry her. However, his plans to impress the family start failing when they discover that he is a Pakistani. Total Siyapaa (Total Chaos) is about a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless Pakistani boy while visiting his girlfriend's parents, leading to some of the funniest, chaotic and outrageous situations
Total Siyapaa (earlier titled Aman ki Asha) is a Hindi romantic comedy film directed by E. Nivas and written by writer of much-acclaimed films A Wednesday and Special 26 - Neeraj Pandey.
Film stars Chashme Baddoor, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Tere Bin Laden famed Ali Zafar and Vicky Donor famed Yami Gautam in lead roles. Veteran actor Anupam Kher and his real life wife and Veteran actress Kiron Kher are appearing together for the first time in a movie.
The movie has an interesting plot. Aman (Ali Zafar), who is in London, hopes to marry Asha (Yami Gautam), an Indian girl, also in London. He visits her parents' house to seek their permission to marry her. However, his plans to impress the family start failing when they discover that he is a Pakistani. Total Siyapaa (Total Chaos) is about a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless Pakistani boy while visiting his girlfriend's parents, leading to some of the funniest, chaotic and outrageous situations.
Thus the film has Ali Zafar as Aman, Yami Gautam as Asha, Anupam Kher as Asha's father, Kiron Kher as Asha's mother, Sara Khan as Asha's sister, Barrie Martin, Vishwa Badola as Asha's Grand father and Anuj Pandit as Asha's Brother
Music composer of the film is Ali Zafar. The film has songs like Siyapaa          Ali, Palat Meri Jaan, Nahi Maloom, Asha and Chal Buleya.

Queen

Queen is a Bollywood film by Viacom18 Motion Pictures & Phantom Films. Directed by Vikas Bahl, the film stars Kangana Ranaut, Lisa Haydon and Rajkummar Rao in lead roles. The film’s story is about a small-town Indian girl, who decides to go on her honeymoon alone.
The film has an interesting plot. Rani is a 24 year old Punjabi girl staying in Delhi. She is from a very conservative family; her brother escorts her everywhere for her safety. It’s when her wedding gets called off because her fiancé gets killed in a car accident (Rajkummar Rao), Rani gets the biggest shock of her life and is totally confused. But instead of crying or lamenting about her current situation, she decides to move on. She goes for her honeymoon alone. The film focuses on Rani growing up as an individual, and her journey of rediscovering her own identity while on her honeymoon alone.
The film has Kangana Ranaut as Rani, Rajkummar Rao as Vijay, Lisa Haydon as Vijayalakshmi, Vinay Singh, Bokyo Mish as Olik, Jeffrey Ho as Taka, Joseph Guitobh as Tim and Canadea Lopez Marco as Marcello.
The film's soundtrack is composed by Amit Trivedi while lyrics are by Anvita Dutt. The film has songs like London Thumakda sung by Labh Janjua, Sonu Kakkar and Neha Kakkar, Badra Bahaar by Amit Trivedi, O Gujariya by Shefali Alvares and Nikhil D'Souza, Taake Jhanke by Arijit Singh, Jugni (Queen) by Amit Trivedi, Harjaiyaan by Nandini Srikar, Kinare by Mohan Kanan and Ranjha (Queen) by Rupesh Kumar Ram.

Dhag

Dhag (meaning Blaze) is an Indian Marathi film directed by Shivaji Lotan Patil. The story of the film is of a young boy wanting to break the successions of traditional jobs in his low caste family.
The film Dhag is the story of Krishna, his mother and their seemingly ambitious aspirations for Krishna, against the backdrop of their socio-economic standing.
Raised by a father who cremated people for a living, Krishna’s mother always wanted him to pave a path for himself that takes him away from the sorrows and hardship of his legacy. While his father’s untimely death opens the gates of opportunity for young Krishna, the plight of his widowed helpless mother reels him back to his origins. Dhag captures the moments, trials and tribulations of young Krishna along the journey.
The film has Hansraj Jagtap as Krishna, Usha Jadhav as Yashoda, Krishna's mother, Upendra Limaye as Shripati, Krishna's father, Nagesh Bhosale, Suhasini Deshpande and Neha Dakhinkar.

August – Osage County

August: Osage County is a 2013 American black comedy-drama film written by Tracy Letts and based on his Pulitzer Prize–winning play of the same name. The film is directed by John Wells and produced by George Clooney, Jean Doumanian, Grant Heslov, Steve Traxler, and Bob and Harvey Weinstein.
The ensemble cast is led by Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, with Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Juliette Lewis, and Benedict Cumberbatch in other lead roles.
This movie tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them.
Streep plays Vy Weston, who along with her husband Beverly raised a house full of daughters. Barbara, played by the savage Julia Roberts, married and headed for the hills. The more flaky Karen (Juliette Lewis) also left but still desperately seeks her mother’s approval. Last but not least, there is Ivy (Julianne Nicholson). She stayed local and took care of her parents, a mother addicted to pills and a father who drank just to try to deal with the life he’d built.
Vy is a hateful shrew of a woman, the kind you’d find it easy to hate, honestly. She belittles those around her, whether it be the nurse hired to help or her own children. No one is safe from her biting tongue.
Her daughters haven’t fared much better - Barbara in an unhappy marriage, Karen willing to take any man who came along and Ivy even more desperate for someone to call her own.

300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire is a 2014 American fantasy action film directed by Noam Murro. It is a follow-up to the 2007 film 300, taking place before, during, and after the events of that film. Zack Snyder, who directed and co-wrote the original film, acts as writer and producer on Rise of an Empire.
The cast includes Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, David Wenham, and Andrew Tiernan reprising their roles from the first film, alongside Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, and Jack O'Connell.

The movie has an interesting plot. The movie is a theatrical, romanced, highly graphic view of Greek History under the second Persian invasion of Greece (480–479 BC). It centers on Themistocles of Athens and Artemisia I of Caria, as well as Xerxes I of Persia, and Gorgo, Queen of Sparta.[9] The Battle of Artemisium was a naval engagement, concurrent with the battle of Thermopylae previously displayed in 300, and was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BC, in the straits between the mainland and the northern tip of the island of Euboea. The film also focuses on the naval Battle of Salamis (480BC), just south of Athens, in which Artemisia played a major role, as well as possibly the much earlier Battle of Marathon (490 BC), from the first Persian invasion of Greece. The Battle of Salamis (home of the mythical hero Ajax) was fought after the Persian Empire had advanced into southern Greece and occupied Athens. The film will also cover some of the back story of Xerxes.

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