Archives for June 2016

Ms. Mrunalini happens to be a Bollywood producer. She also happens to be a doctor by profession. Ms. Mrunalini nay Dr. Mrunalini also happens to be a wife of a small time Bollywood actor Amitabh Dayal who had made his debut as an actor with a film called Kagaar which was of course produced by his wife Dr. Mrunalini. Incidentally speaking Dr. Mrunalini is separated from her husband Amitabh Dayal since the last 7 years. Dr. Mrunalini is staying alone & away from her husband Amitabh Dayal since then. Just last week Dr. Mrunalini had called for an urgent press conference for an important issue to be revealed to the print media as well as the electronic media. The press conference was held at Raheja Classic Club on 27th Jun, 2016 at pm. It was organised by Dr. Mrunalini’s PR Manager Mr. Raju Kariya. Present herewith is the gist of the press conference as revealed to both the print media & the electronic media in a first person account of Dr. Mrunalini hereself. A xerex copy of Dr. Mrunali’s complaint letter to the police against her husband was also handed over to the media at the end of the press conference.

“Actually speaking I had no intention to wash the so called dirty linen in public but now I am helpless and I have come here to reveal to the media that I have a complaint against my husband Amitabh Dayal who has been mentally and physically torturing me and asking me for extortion, blackmailing and even resorting to physically abuse. He is also threatening to defame me and kill me. He is even luring my mentally troubled daughter to defame in the media. I have all the proof with me to prove my point.”
“I am married to Amitabh Dayal since the year 2000. On the day of our wedding reception itself in Bilaspur he drank, abused, spit on me and even beat me up in front of his relatives. Finally his cousin brother Ajay Najat came to the hotel and threatened him to be given to police. Next day he said sorry in front of the whole family and I forgave him and came back to Mumbai. Things were normal for some day.”

“But again in the month of Jun that year when we went for our honeymoon, he drank again when we were in Delhi. Here too he beat me, abused me and even kicked me in my stomach. Once again he said sorry, but he was drunk.”

“After marriage he started physically torturing me and asked me to make a film for him. So to avoid family quarrels I formed a film company called Amruta Films Pvt Ltd and produced a film called Kagaar, I am still paying the debts of this film. I did this to calm him, thinking now he will stop torturing me.”

“But the physical violence & mental torture continued. He was even admitted in Holycross Hospital’s physchiatry ward under Dr. Rajan Prabhu and was treated for maniac depression with paranoia and also chronic alchohol deaddiction.”

There were dozens of other incidents mentioned in the press statement but I am now presenting the current situation in Dr. Mrunalini life.

“The same situation continued for years on end so much so that even his own relatives namely his nephew Gaurav Henry and others friends too, told me time and again that he was a big womaniser and a chronic alchoholic. They cautioned me to be aware of him and keep my daughter away from him. So finally 7 years ago I decided to stay away from him and severed all ties with him like his own relatives.”

“But as of now he has lured my teenage daughter and making her meet the media mainly to defame me. He is also exposing her to a lot of unmentionable things. Finally she ran away from home on 9th May, 2016 and her father brought her back on 16th May, 2016. But her attitude towards me had changed by now and she walked out again with bag and baggage on 29th May, 2016 and he is once again using her against me to defame my name in the media. As I mentioned earlier my daughter is a mentally troubled child and she needs at least 2 years of extensive therapy session to cure her, but her father is refraining her from doing so. I am only worried about my daughter’s well being. So as a last resort I will be going straight to a magistrate to seek her judicial custody and the police officials have also assured me that they will take a due course of action and will also file a proper FIR against my husband Amitabh Dayal. A point to be noted here is that we are still not legally divorced but I was ready to grant him a mutual divorce on grounds of 7 years of separation.

Salman Khan is endowed with an enigmatic persona. He may showcase his toughness on the exterior but “Being Human” he is also warm & a soft hearted person. There is that tender spot within him which is still craving for a lot of love, caring & soothing. Of late on the professional front, as per his own recent confession especially after finishing his work on Sultan, he really feels exhausted time & again. But he is not Salman Khan for nothing to give up so easily. To say that he has already carved a niche for himself by now would be an understatement. Actually speaking Salman Khan has undoubtedly cast his magical spell over his fans, that too in the last 2 and a half decade and they still seem to be under his magical influence. Yet carrying his bachlorhood on his lapel is the only thing that has started bothering him lately. And the thing that bothers the media a lot is Salman Khan’s elusiveness with them. But when he finally meets them he is a sheer delight which was evident last time during the promotional event of Rajshri Productions Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and this time during the promotional event of Yash Raj Films Sultan. Both the events were coincidentally held at the same venue namely Mehboob Studio at a stone’s throw distance from his abode.

Sultan has been the most talked about film of Yash Raj Films ever since it was launched. Comment!

I know what you are hinting at. And maybe that’s mainly because of the similarity of the subjects between my film Sultan & Aamir Khan’s film Dangal.

So Sutan wins the race as it is coming first and Aamir Khan’s film is coming only by the end of the year. What say?

Let’s not be judgemental as every film has its own destiny as to which film will be accepted by cine goers and which film will be rejected by them. Even otherwise there was no decision of winning the race. We were rushing up Sultan only to make it a Ramzan Eid release as I am very keen to release at least one film coinciding with every Ramzan Eid for everyone and as a special Ramzan Eid gift for all my Muslim fans, and Aamir Khan is working at a leisurely pace as he always tries to release his film during christmas.

You succeeded in avoiding the clash with Aamir Khan’s Dangal but the clash with Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees was avoided in the nick of time. Right?

Yes! You can say that. But then Shah Rukh Khan himslf bowed out at the last minute only because his film Raees was not completely ready to be released. Just imagine what would have happened in case the alter ego of our producers had clashed. Naturally we both would have ended up making a dent in our individual box office collections at the turnstiles. In fact we both would have had no choice but to share the collections and be at a loss. As was evident when both Ranveer Kapoor’s Bajirao Mastani & Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale were released on the same day and in the same week. Even otherwise the days of Aamir Khan’s Dil & Sunny Deol’s Ghayal hitting the marquee on the same day qnd in the same week and yet being declared super hits all over are definately over.

Ok! So let’s move on to the the topic of Sultan which is on the verge of release on the D – Day of Ramzan Eid. So tell us what is Sultan all about?

Sultan is basically about the sport of wrestling and I enact the role of a sports person to be specific a wrestler who starts from the village level akhada to the mat based ring and then into the MMA arena. And giving me company was Anushka Sharma who has her own aspirations as a sportswoman nay a women wrestler.

Now that you have made a mention of Anushka Sharma, tell us how apt was she as a woman wrestler and as your co – star too?

Anushka Sharma had come on board of Sultan at a much latter stage that too when I was rigorously training for my role in Sultan. But indeed she is a lovely girl and a good actress too. Its such a pity that I discovered this lovely girl only towards “The End” of Sultan. Even otherwise Sultan was a very demanding film physically. So we could only see our beds post pack- up. In fact it was unlike our other films where the colleagues from the same film hang around together at least during the breaks to get familiarised with each other.

Now tell us how tough was it to enact the toughest role of your career in Sultan?

It was toughest beyond my imagination. You need a perfect, appropriate & sufficient training like a wrestler in real life. In fact the intense & the gruelling training sessions that I underwent for Sultan and for that matter even Aamir Khan underwent for Dangal for reel life was similar or even a little more than what the real life wrestlers undergo in real life. Suppose if we both had not undergone such intense & gruelling training than perhaps we both would not be able to fight it out convincingly enough in the wrestling ring.

Would you like to describe in brief about your intense & gruelling training session that you underwent for Sultan?

I shot for Sultan for 6 hours every day and while shooting there would be so much of lifting and even thrusting on the ground involved and now this lifting & thrusting in itself was very tough for me because if I was lifting I would have to lift the same 120 kg guy at least 10 times for 10 different camera angles and for 10 differrent shots. And similarly I would get thrown down on the ground for the same number of times and this particular acts of lifting & throwing are not repeated that many times in real fights that are held in the real wrestling ring. Now coming to your first question of the training session part I would say or rather admit that it was the most toughest part of my career as an actor. I totally agree that you need solid training like the real life wrestlers if not more. So to cut the matter short I did undergo weight training in the first session. Then in the latter sessions I perfected my moves and in the subsequent sessions I used to spend at least 2 to 3 hours in a day for the intense & the gruelling training sessions. So in those training phase my daily routine was almost like eat and then head right back to the training session and than that would just not stop. And this was mainly because my director Ali Abbas Jaffar who knew nothing about the training part. So every 20 days or so he would need me to look different and have a different body type depending entirely on his whims & fancies on the sets. As a resultant effect sometimes I was bloating and then again going ahead and losing the excess weight only to pile it on again. The point is that I don’t think my director has ever seen the insides of a body building gym in his entire life. On the contrary I think it was more easier for Aamir Khan for his role in Dangal as he use to bulk up, shoot for Dangal and then relax for a longer period of time. Whereas in my case I just used to shoot, diet, eat, shoot, diet again and this used to just go on and on.

And now tell us how will both the films on wrestling namely Sultan & Dangal be beneficial in the long run to the sport of wrestling in general and the wrestlers in particular?

First of all I hope it changes the over all opinionated perception of all the concerned people including the concerned Government officials. That apart its like a blessing that the idea of scrapping the sport of wrestling off from the Olympics has been called off. I think in my opinion the wrestlers deserve much more respect than they get. Besides I believe that even the prize money they receive should be even more bigger for such a taxing sport. Moreover it is an expensive thing to maintain, I mean the body & the fight.

To wind it up tell us how important is it for an actor to hold on to his limelighted stardom at this age & stage of his career?

By the way was it necessary to rub salt on the wound. You see sir, stardom is not something like a game that you can keep holding on or keep playing on. Frankly speaking every actor wants to be in the limelight for as long as he or she can. Again honestly speaking everyone is scared of losing his or her limelighted stardom and I would be lying through my teeth if I say no. Besides its not just the stardom, its that love, its that respect of the fans that one keeps receiving and suddenly one fine day everything is over. That is specifically one thing, I mean one quality that you are working so hard for and all of a sudden something happens and you are not the liked person anymore and that particular aspect bothers and hurts everyone and then you need to be a strong man who can amicably adjust with that part of his life too.

Before parting I would like to make one more query. Can I?

Yes! You can. And I know that even you too would like to know about the latest on my matrimonial status. To tell you the truth I am desperately trying to get married. In fact main mara jaa raha hoon, But saamne wali ladki bhi toh raazi ho mujhse shaadi karnne ke liye. Boss it is no longer luck or destiny that works in case of one’s marriage but it is the girl power, and in my case it is the women power that will work. Let’s see ultimately who would agree to marry me. That’s it.

Producer: Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Aman Gill, Vikas Bahl & Sameer Nair
Director: Abhishek Chaubey
Star Cast: Shahid Kapur, Karina Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, Diljit Dosanjh, Satish Kaushik et al
Music: Amit Trivedi, Benedict Taylor & Naren Chandavarkar

Director Abhishek Chaubey in his hat trick offering Udta Punjab has dealt with , a film belonging to the intensely dark & extremely serious genre, almost or more or less like his 1st outing (Ishqiya) & his 2nd outing (Dedh Ishqiya). Nevertheless the film Udta Punjab is mainly about the drugs abuse menace which is still existing in Punjab. But it looses its focus with varied sub – plots running parallel with the main plot. Besides the entire film sounds like a pure Punjabi film, because of the extensive use of the Punjabi lingo throughout the duration of the film.

The scripted scenario of Udta Punjab starts off with a scene at the India -Pakistan border wherein a Pakistani man throws a mysterious drug packet onto the Indian side. This is followed by a rocking introduction of rockstar Tommy “Gabru” Singh (Shahid Kapoor) and a glimpse into his addictive lifestyle. One day, Tommy Singh gets fired by his producers for delaying their recordings. If that wasn’t enough, Tommy Singh also gets arrested by the Punjab police amidst his birthday party, on grounds of drug abuse. When he gets released from jail, despite the jitters, he somehow manages to gear up to perform before an eagerly awaiting audience. Just before the performance, he does something extremely awkward that irks a handful of audience, who, then, run after him baying for his blood. On the other hand, Pinky Kumari aka Mary Jane (Alia Bhatt) migrates from Uttar Pradesh to Punjab. Her background reveals that, she was an exceptional hockey player, who, because of lack of financial support, landed up becoming a labourer. And since then, she is trying to find her place under the sun in Punjab. One day, when she finds a 3 kg drug packet, she tries to sell it off to make a fast buck. While doing so, for reasons best known to her, she dumps the whole 3 kg of drugs into a well, thus invoking the wrath of the drug peddlers, for whom, the entire packet meant heavy profits. Angered by her action, the peddlers not just end land up raping the helpless Pinky Kumari, but also keep her as captive with them. Repeated attempts to run away from their clutches, yields no results for Pinky. The 3rd angle to the story is that of Dr. Preet Sahani (Kareena Kapoor – Khan), under whom Balli Singh, the younger brother of Inspector Sartaj Singh (Diljit Dosanjh) is getting treated for being a victim of drug overdose. Amidst the course of Balli’s treatment, Sartaj Singh analyses & realises the harm that these banned substances cause to thevpeople. He, then, joins Preet Sahani in her crusade against drugs and exposing the drug mafias.

Director Abhishek Chaubey has picked up a very topical subject in Udta Punjab but mid – way he seems to have got totally confused by attempting to make amends with varied sub – plots thereby completely loosing his grip on the main plot of the substance abuse and in the process the film becomes too sluggish and just about moving with a snail’s pace. That apart his directorial skills are seriously let down by his entire technical team barring all the actors who have delivered a mind blowing performances.

Performance wise Shahid Kapoor leads the brigade with his brilliant act to say the least. And he is simply outstansding in his newest avatar of a rockstar. In fact Shahid Kapur & Satish Kaushik bring in a little bit of comic relief with their humorous banter in the film at regular intervals. Alia Bhatt is just superb in her de-glam avatar of a Bihari girl, she has surpassed her own role of Highway. The next in line restrained performance comes from Kareena Kapoor – Khan. That apart debutant Punjabi star Diljit Dosanjh steals the cine goers heart by delivering a very heart warming performance. Just watch out for his comfortably sterling act in his future Bollywood movies.

Tail Piece: Lack of entertainment value is the biggest drawback of Udta Punjab thereby stamping the film totally as an art house cinema which will indeed garner a lot of critical acclaim as well as rave reviews in the global film festival circuit.