Poet Tanveer Ghazi seems to be over the moon these days. The highly coveted shayar can’t seem to get over the appreciative phone call he received from Amitabh Bachchan himself for his work in Pink. “It’s like a dream come true. I still pinch myself sometimes,” says Ghazi jubilantly.

Tanveer has been a writer all along, mostly famous for his verses, poems and what not. So much so that the Maharashtra Government has awarded him with the famous Sahir Ludhianvi award for his contribution to shaayri. Being a person who refused to go through the grind to get big projects Tanveer took his time to make a mark in the industry. “I am not a person who would want to go through the typical Bollywood struggle to get work. I write because I enjoy writing and I am thankful to Allah – The Amighty that whatever I have written till now has been appreciated by people,” avers Tanveer who has 2 books Ehsaas & Samundar, a collection of his poems in Hindi & Urdu respectively, to his name. “I was recognised in the space I belonged and that’s what matters most. But I did do some work in Bollywood like the critically acclaimed film Manthan. I started off with writing just 1 song in that film and Ravindar Jain ji was doing the music of that movie around that time but slowly song after song I took over the writing work because the director liked my work so much.”

“I faded into my homeland again but then I kept being called back for more & more work. My last film before Pink happened was Hate Story 2,” he adds.

So how did Pink happen? “Shantanu Moitra Sir was looking for a writer and since I had worked with singer Harshdeep Kaur for her album, she recommended my name. The 1st time he called he gave me 10 minutes for dummy lyrics. It was too little a time but I had to gave my best shot, in my record time, I wrote the final lyrics. Surprisingly, the work I sent was liked so much that it immediately got finalised and that’s how the song “Kaari Kaari” happened in Pink,” and while talking about his experience of having worked with Shantanu Moitra he starts gushing about his Amitabh Bachchan experience, “I was called once again for a verse that Amitabh Sir had to recite during the climax of the film. It was a herculean task to come up with something for him and I gave it all to it. My verse was liked by Amitabh so much that he personally called me up to applaud me for it and that was the best day of my life.”

Little do many know that apart from Tanveer Ghazi there are only 4 other lyrics or poets or writers who’s works Amitabh Bachchan has recited in films 1st one being Sahir Ludhianvi’s works in Kabhie Kabhie, then it was Javed Akhtar’s verses in Silsila, his own father Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s works in Agnipath, Gulzar’s verses in Aks and eventually came Pink.

Well Big B’s words have surely encouraged Ghazi to venture full fledgedly into film industry. In the times of meaningless songs, Ghazi will truly be a breath of fresh air!

Two power house personalities namely actor -director Sajid Khan and actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh have joined hands together recently to host a celebrity talk show named Yaaron Ki Baraat on Zee TV Channel. The show premiered on 8th Oct, 2016 and it will be telecast in the prime time slotting of 9 pm every Saturday and Sunday. Yaaron Ki Baraat will span 10 weeks of rollercoaster joyride. This unique albeit first of its kind talk show will focus on Bollywood star pairs who are friends. It borders on their friendship over the years. It will be layered with wit and humor including anecdotes from their personal as well as their professional life. Caught up with Ritiesh Deshmukh, to get more info about the show in the Press Conference held at Studio 8 in Filmcity.

How did the idea about the celebrity talk show Yaaron Ki Baarat germinate?

The show Yaaron Ki Baraat has been conceptualized by Esselvision and Sajid (Khan) was roped in before me and it was Sajid who had asked them to contact me and ask me if I was interested in hosting the show along with him and most important if I would be able to spare time for the show amidst all my over busy schedule. But the moment I met them, including Sajid, and heard the concept of the show I was like game for it and gave my instant nod of approval.

Whose idea was it to have Amitabh Bachchan & Shatrughan Sinha as the first long lost Bollywood friends to appear on the show?

Once Sajid and me were up for the show. We had a sort of many joint meetings with Esselvision guys to discuss further about the game plan of the show. It was in one such meetings that both Sajid and me sounded off the idea to have both Amitji and Shatruji on the show and the moment we made this suggestion everyone in the meeting had this zapped up expression on their face and even we both were shit scared and nervous on how are we were going to achieve this impossible feat.

And then?

Then we just cooled down and we both decided to meet Amitji and Shatruji and convince them to be the first ever guests on the show. So I met Amitji and Sajid met Shatruji and narrated the concept of the show to them and once again we were shocked and surprised when they agreed to be the first guest on the show. Later on even Shatruji’s better half Poonam Sinha and his daughter Sonakshi Sinha informed us that Shatruji was too excited to be on the show with Amitji, as it was almost three and a half decades that both of them were appearing together on one platform. Yet we both could not believe that it was possible till their car reached Filmcity Studio, till they settled down in their Vanity Van and till they donned their make up. Finally we heaved a sigh of relief when we actually started shooting with them. Of course we were both nervous thinking that anything could have gone wrong and the shoot may have to be cancelled at the last moment. But thankfully everything went right, just as we had planned it. After the shoot there was appreciation galore even with a snide remarks that perhaps Amitji – Shatruji episode should have been a curtain’s down grand finale episode. But we promise to bring more excitement in the grand finale episode. In fact having both Amitji and Shatruji in the curtain raiser of Yaaron Ki Baraat was our trump card.

Maybe Sajid and you can bring together the jodi of Salman Khan – Shah Rukh Khan for the grande finale episode!

We both can’t promise the viewers on that score but we give our full assurance that we will try our level best to bring them together on the show at least in one of the episodes if not for the grand finale episode.

What exactly is the concept of the show?

We all have a Best Friend in our lives and we celebrities are no exception. Despite constant comparisons, constant cut throat competition, hectic schedules and frequent travels some of the Bollywood star friends have still managed to hold on to their friendship over the years. So for the first time ever on Indian Television, Zee TV Channel brings to the viewers this fun filled chat show Yaaron Ki Baraat.

Please Continue!!!

First of all this show will put celebrity friendships to test through a series of fun challenges and tasks. The guests will also share sepia toned memories including heartwarming anecdotes from their friendship over the years. They will also recreate the magic of their professional as well as personal lives and sometimes even spill the beans on each other. They will sportingly take on dares, parodying the most iconic scenes from their cult films and also reminiscing the good old times with pictures and videos. We will also put their compatibility to test over fun games. In fact they will let their hair down and have a good time. Our idea is to let spontaneity take over and reveal their fun sides to the viewers who will also participate with their rare Q&A sessions.

By the way who christened the show as Yaaron Ki Baraat and why only this name?

The show earlier had another working title but it was not jelling well with the real concept of the show. So on an impulse I suggested the name Yaaron Ki Baraat and it had an instant Bollywood connect with the superhit Bollywood film Yaadon Ki Baraat and the show is also about Bollywood star friends going down the memory lane and also getting nostalgic about it.

What are the exciting line – up of star friends for the show and will you both bring together even female star friends?

We will bring 20 pairs of star friends on the show in the alloted 10 weeks and if the show goes well then we may also have a second season as for now we are having a line – up of Karan Johar – Farah Khan, Sania Mirza – Pariniti Chopra, Harbhajan Singh – Yuvraaj Singh etc etc etc. Maybe we will try to bring even the current Bollywood actors like Ranveer Singh – Arjun Kapoor. We will try to bring other good friends from Business as well as Political arena and of course even other female star friends like we brought together Sania and Pariniti.

Will you also have Bollywood stars who were thick friends earlier and cannot see eye to eye now?

Sorry to say but this is not a reconciliation show. It is very difficult to make them friends again, at least not on the show. But on second thoughts you have sounded off a very good idea. Maybe we can work on it in the second season that is, if there is a second season and if we will still be hosting it. You see there are sometimes a lot of slip between the cup and the lip.

How was your experience of hosting the show?

While I have already hosted award ceremonies, Yaaron Ki Baraat will be my first time as the host of a chat show on a Hindi GEC. So to host a show celebrating friendships with a very close friend like Sajid feels apt. He has a great sense of humor, an impeccable sense of timing and together we hope to create the light hearted kind of atmosphere for the celebrities to open up and share things they have never ever spoken of. We look forward to entertaining audiences and letting them experience the friendships of their favorite stars. As for my personal experience of hosting Yaaron Ki Baraat I would say that both Sajid and me are like two old buddies who just got together for this show and had a lot of fun. In fact to be very frank we both had a real BLAST!!!

Producers: Wave Cinemas & Crouching Tiger
Director: Sanjeev Sharma
Star Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Aditi Sharma, Aparshakti Khurana, Nitin Bhasin, Vipul Vig, Jatin Sarna, Annu Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Vijay Raaz & Kay Kay Menon
Music: Bapi Tutul, Abhishek Ray, Jaidev Kumar, Vivek Kar, Saket, Niranjan & Sanjoy Chaudhary

In the history of Bollywood, rarely has a debutant director ever garnered so much praise for his directorial debut film. And this rare debutant director is none other than. Sanjeev Sharma who makes his directorial debut with a quirky & funniest to the hilt film namely Saat Uchakkey.

The scripted scenario of Saat Uchakkey reveals that it is a situational comedy about 7 losers in life, but who just like anybody else, wants to get rich quick. So Saat Uchakkey kicks off with the introduction of Bichhi (Annu Kapoor), who is a hypnosis expert, who manages to escape from a mental asylum and sets himself free in the world where also exists Pappi (Manoj Bajpayee) & his lady love Sona (Aditi Sharma). In order to win over Sona & her concerned mother, Pappi tries his hand at many things to make quick money, but, somehow success eludes him every time. One day, while eating snacks at a roadside stall, he overhears a discussion about the hidden treasure inside the mansion of the eternally gun wielding old man Diwan (Anupam Kher). In no time, Pappi gathers his team consisting of Sona, Khappe (Aparshakti Khurana) & Haggu (Nitin Bhasin), who, then, join hands with Jaggi (Vijay Raaz) and his gang Ajji (Vipul Vig) & Babbe (Jatin Sarna). As a part of the masterplan, Pappi fakes his death after being shot by Jaggi, so that the righteous police inspector Tejpal (Kay Kay Menon) will never be able to suspect him after Diwan’s hidden treasure is stolen. Amidst all this, it is also revealed that the police inspector Tejpal is madly in love with Sona and wishes to marry her at any cost.

Debutant director Sanjeev Sharma already seems to have proved that he is indeed a director par excellence and being a writer and an actor are his plus points to keep the cine goer’s hooked & glued to their seats.
But the subject he has chosen may be interestingly entertaining but its highly explosive lingo laced with colorful expletives galore may certainly not go down well with the niche audiences of the multiplex category. But for the common audiences of the interior’s single theatres it will prove to be a delight. That apart all its behind the scenes man like Sandeep Saket & Sanjeev Sharma (screenplay), Sanjeev Sharma again (dialogues), Bapi Tutul, Abhishek Ray, Jaidev Kumar, Vivek Kar, Saket, Niranjan & Sanjoy Chaudhary (all for music), John Jacob Payyapalli (cinematography) & Shree Narayan Singh (editing) deserve a left handed complement for excelling in their respective arenas.

Performance wise all the actors right from
Manoj Bajpayee, Aditi Sharma, Aparshakti Khurana, Nitin Bhasin, Vipul Vig, Jatin Sarna, Annu Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Vijay Raaz to Kay Kay Menon are in two words “simply brilliant” and there are just no two ways about it.

Tail Piece: All said & done Saat Uchakkey is an outrageously funny situational comedy which will leave the audiences in splits even in the darkened aisles of the auditorium and they will carry forward this joi de vivre spirit even after leaving the theatres. So guys don’t miss this opportunity to get entertained to your hearts content.

Producer: Rajeev Chaudhari
Director: Rajeev Chaudhari
Star Cast: Rajniesh Dugal, Sunny Leone, Yuvraj Singh, Rajiv Verma, Avtar Gill et al
Music: Ankit Tiwari, Kanika Kapoor, Raghav Sachar, Sanjeev Darshan, Asad Khan, Asees & Aniruddha Kale

What happens when a media guy jumps the fence and willingly enters into the arena of filmmaking? Naturally the expectations from him rises sky high. One such media guy is none other than a media coordinator turned a filmmaker namely Rajeev Chaudhari, who had earlier made his directorial debut film namely Gunah. In his 2nd directorial outing Beiiman Love, released this week, he has committed one more “Gunah” of offering nothing new in Beiimaan Love.

The scripted scenario of Beiimaan Love is a story of 2 lovers, both having their own hidden agendas against each other. The film’s flashback states that, after Sunaina Verma (Sunny Leone) gets insulted & blamed by her boss K. K. Malhotra (Rajiv Verma), she plans to take a revenge against him and his empire. She, then, with the help of Monish (Yuvraj Singh) sets on the financial demolition spree of K. K. Industries, which is owned by K. K. Malhotra. On the other hand, K. K. Malhotra’s son Raj Malhotra (Rajniesh Duggal) lays a bet with Monish for a mere one rupee that he will have Sunaina as his girlfriend, after Sunaina slaps him publicly. In order to win the bet, Raj pretends to fall in love with her and makes her fall for him. But, gradually, he starts developing real feelings for Sunaina, who, simultaneously goes all out to finish of K. K. Industries. On the day of the engagement of Raj & Sunaina, K. K. Malhotra discovers a harsh reality about Sunaina’s mother’s past, which leads to the engagement getting called off. This hurts Sunaina’s mother so much that she commits suicide. Meanwhile, K. K. Malhotra’s “richie – rich” best friend Amarnath Kapoor (Avtar Gill) strikes a deal with him stating that, in exchange of Raj marrying his, untamed & wild daughter, he will make K. K. Industries totally debt free and back the business. Immediately after Raj’s engagement with Amarnath Kapoor’s daughter, Raj sees something very unsavoury about his would – be wife. Shattered to the core, he hits the bottle and goes back to Sunaina.

Sadly enough everything seems to have gone wrong for director Rajeev Chaudhari, in his 2nd directorial film Beiimaan Love, right from the word go. There is not even a single redeeming factor in Beiimaan Love for which he can at least earn one Brownie point. I wish I could rest my case at this juncture.

Performance wise it is Rajniesh Dugal & Sunny Leone who try their best to rise above the cliched & totally disoriented albeit routinely scripted scenario. Of course in case of Rajneish Dugal too, the script plays the villain by not allowing him to do anything out of the box. While the other senior cast members too have enacted their respective roles in a terrible manner which does nothing but tests the audience’s patience.

Tail Piece: Rajeev Chaudhari’s Beiimaan Love does a full on “beiimaani” with the audiences. So don’t you even dare to go anywhere near a theatre screening Beiimaan Love.

Banner: Shashiraj Films & Canam Movie Production
Producers: MIke Verma & Shashi Pal (Shashi Raaj)
Director; Shashi Pal (Shashi Raaj)
Star Cast: Gurtej Teji, Tina Rathod, Komal Dillon, Pooja Thakur, Shakti Kapoor, Dinesh Hingoo, Vikram Jhakar, Amritpal Kaur, Gurmail Gill, Santosh Kumari, Pallu, Aman Soni, Vicky, Anju, Ravi Sarin et al
Music: W. G. Records

The scripted scenario of Delhi Mere Baap Ki kick starts with the introduction of a rich spoilt brat (Gurtej Teji ) of a leading business man from Delhi (Shakti Kapoor) who befriends a young model (Tina Rathod) and ends up raping her. He is not afraid of the consequences as he feels that his influential father will bail him out of the mess he has created with his life. But a press reporter (Komal Dhillon) who was her best friend finds the incident fishy as she thinks the reported suicide of her friend could not be true and she does a sting operation. She is helped by her friend (Pooja Thakur) in this mission. Komal Dhillon manages to trap the guy who now tries to rape her but she makes a great escape from his clutches and her honor is saved. Ultimately, the father (Shakti Kapoor) shoots his own son.

It seems like director Shashi Raaj has made Delhi Mere Baap Ki on a shoestring budget. The film has been well – scripted, based on a true incident & interestingly directed by him. Musically, the dance number is very enjoyable. A word of praise also goes for Pali & Ravi for action, Rajesh Kanoujia for cinematography & Amit Raj for editing.

Performance wise surprisingly it is Komal Dhillon who steals the limelight with an extremely sensitive enactment of a great friend who solves her dead friend’s case. Next in line Pooja Thakur is perfect in the role alloted to her. But on the other hand Tina Rathod disappoints big time and the same can be said about Gurtej Teji. While the supporting cast comprising of veterans like Shakti Kapoor, Dinesh Hingoo, Vikram Jhakar et al and debtant actors like Amritpal Kaur, Gurmail Gill, Santosh Kumari, Pallu, Aman Soni, Vicky, Anju, Ravi Sarin et al who are mostly new talents from Mike Verma’s Canam Film Institute (Chandigarh) are just about ok.

Tail Piece: At the Box Office turnstiles Delhi Mere Baap Ki has its own merits but will attract the masses mainly from the B & the C centres, especially from the North.

Producers: Kethan Mehta, Deepa Sahi & Anish J S Menta.
Director: Suhus D. Kadav.
Narrator: Niraj Vikram, Suhab S. Kadav & Dheeraj Berry.
Genre: Animaton Comedy
Rating***

The title of the movie Motu Patlu King of Kings is taken from the kids cartoon show Motu Patlu, which is on air since the year 2008 on Tamil channel. It has now been converted into a movie story and the makers have made it more unique by animating the movie. Besides adding a tagline to the movie as well namely, “Yaaron Ki Yaari…. Action Safari”.

This is a story of 2 friends Motu & Patlu hailing from Furfuri Nagar. Their 1st enconter is with a Circus lion, who wants to leave the Circus. So Motu & Patlu offer to take him to the forest. Once they reach the forest the lion runs away on his own. Motu & Patlu now come across another lookalike lion who rules the jungle as a king. There is also an evil man who cuts down the forest in his quest for a hidden goldmine. From this point onwards there is an uproar in the jungle, literally!!! There are situation and how Motu & Patlu land on them is hilarious. In the end they always rescue themselves with their ideas & their unique thinking.

Director Suhus D. Kadav has done full justice to this Children’s entertainment but with a slight hangover of Hollywood film The Jungle Book. The main message of the film “Save The Forest” is perfectly driven home. Technically also the film is far more superior than previous such films especially the voice overs which are perfectly in sync.

An ideal entertainment for one and all during this festive season of Diwali.

Producer: Vinay Waman Ganu
Director: Shailesh Shankar Kale
Star Cast: Aroh Velankar, Amey Wagh, Saksham Kulkarni, Shivani Surve, Anuja Sathe, Kishor Kadam, Pushkar Shrotri, Viju Khote, Murli Sharma, Bhau Kadam, Kanchan Pagare, Vijay kadam, Ganesh Mayekar, Mayur Khandge etc
Genre: Comedy
Rating One and a half

Ghanta is a story about 3 friends, who have just passed out from college and try their hands in betting to earn money. Further on the film showcases about how the trio of them get into big time trouble because of betting and also comes across 3 Villains in their life and from there on they constantly struggle to get out of this uncalled for situation.

Director Shailesh Shankar Kale has presented a very far fetched and totally confused story and moreover the title Ghanta has no relevance at all to the main plot.

Performance wise most of the debutant actors have tried their level best to live up to their alloted roles. Besides even the veteran actors have failed to salvage the film.

Even at the Box Office turnstiles the prospects of Ghanta seems nil.

Producers: Manindra Jain, Shobhit Kumar,
Shekhar Kumar, Uddipt Jain & Aniruddha Gaikar
Director: Shashank Udapurkar
Star Cast: Shashank Udapurkar, Tanishaa Mukerji, Govind Namdeo, Rajit Kapur, Sharat Saxena, Kishor Kadam etc
Genre: Biopic
Rating***

Anna: Kisan Baburao Hazare is a biographical film based on the life of an extremely popular Indian social activist namely Anna Hazare (Shashank Udapurkar). It encompasses Anna’s life right from his childhood till recently. Anna was a crusader par excellence and followed Mahatma Gandhi’s idealogy. Like Bapu he also chose the path of “Fast Unto Death” to win many social causes. He not only fought for the upliftment of his village in general but also for the betterment of the nation in particular. His fight against “Brashtar” is still going strong.

Director Shashank Udapurkar has brilliantly sketched the life of Anna Hazare. Besides he has done a perfect job by also enacting the role of Anna Hazare. But the lapses are seen in his writing with many loopholes which is evident in the slowly dragging pace of the movie. A special worthy mention should also go for the musical score by the Late Ravindra Jain which is apt for such biographical film. The rest of the cast is also good by lending an able support in carrying the narrative of the film forward.

But sadly enough one can’t expect the film to create wonders at the Box Office tunrstiles. Having said that it will certainly earn rave reviews & critical acclaim in the Indian as well as the global film festival circuit.