In an interview with the TOI, Sanjay Dutt revealed his ancient thought process, when he made statements like “No sister gets along with her brother’s wife”, and also,

That’s a message not just to my sisters, but to all girls who hang on to their parents’ surname. It’s become fashionable these days. But I strongly feel that doing so disrespects the person they’ve married. This may sound harsh, but if Manyata had said that she wanted to retain her father’s surname, I would’ve felt offended.

A true blue MCP,  Dutt seems to have gone off his rocker on this one or he’s travelled back in time.

 If he’s even mildly aware about some of the bureaucracy that surrounds identification and address related documentation needed nowadays, he will realise how difficult it is for a girl to practically recreate a whole new identity for herself, starting from a change of name, marriage certificate,  PAN card, passport, credit cards, phone bills, address proof, bank account details etc.

It is no longer that easy to simply change the name as each set of documentation requires some or the other proof and you just can’t get one created without having another in place. I’ve seen several friends and colleagues go through this process and it is harrowing to say the least. Of course, Manyata Dutt need not go through all this !!

There are a huge number of women who’ve retained their maiden names purely for the sake of convenience, and disrespect to their husband or his family has absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s time Dutt took a reality check and stopped feeling so bloody offended !

By the same token, I guess we can also say,

That’s a message not just to Dutt, but to all wannabe politicians who are ex-convicts in cases related to murder, kidnapping or abetting terrorists. It’s become fashionable these days. But I strongly feel that doing so disrespects the Indian people. This may sound harsh, but if Dutt actually becomes an MP, I certainly will feel offended. :-p

Ditto to Amar Singh, who says if Dutt can’t contest, his wife Manyata will.. Crap ! More offence ?

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After the stupendous success of ’Ghajini’, get set for a game by the same name.

They’ve tried to mimic the “15 minute” funda in the game, which means a player has to crack the game in that time, else start all over again. The plot is borrowed from the time Aamir is hit on the head to the time he catches and kills the first villain.

The game is desgined by Shashi Reddy, chairperson of FX Labs and Ghajini’s co-producer Madhu Mantena. Originally scheduled to be released a month before the film, the makers wanted to spruce it up a bit and let people play it after having watched the film.

Let’s see how it turns out to be; I’m expecting that it will be like any other timed FPS kinda game with the Ghajini aspect and plot thrown in as a novelty. Beyond that, it’s hard to see much repeat value in it, at least on the basis of initial reports.

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Had a fun day at office today as everyone was expected to dress up as a character or a “personality”. There wasn’t enough time to think of a character or to dress up as one, but the creativity of two colleagues was just too good.

Both had chosen characters from the two hottest movies to hit theatres recently; one had come as SRK’s character Surinder from Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, with oil-slicked hair and a pencil moustache, but what took the cake was the other guy who came in a black ganji with “marker pen” tattoos all over his body a la Ghajini !! As if his look wasn’t enough, the stuff written all over his body was a source of great entertainment and amusement for the rest of the day.

And what about yours truly? Well, the time was too short to really come up with some ideas, so the simplest was to don a bright orange and black flowery shirt and present myself as a young Vijay Mallya, the King of Good Times. Nice, huh? Missed the Kingfisher beer though !!

Well, 2008 draws to a close and as usual the year seems to have passed damn quickly !! Here’s looking forward to a healthier, and hopefully more peaceful New Year 2009…  See you’ll next year !

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I was surfing channels when I chanced upon the reality dance show, “Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena”, which showcases the dancing skills of Indian cricketers. While some of the performances were ok, what took the cake was the outfit worn by the host of the show, Sandhya Mridul.

Gosh !! What a sight ! While I could understand the contestants being dressed to suit their roles, her attire was mind boggling. Firstly, she’d changed her hairstyle and reminded me of those Mata Hari’ish kind of babes around the 1930s and 40s. She had worn some golden shimmering outfit that at first glance reminded me of a maternity gown for some reason !

 As the camera zoomed out to show her standing on the stage, her dress sense or lack thereof was plainly visible. She’d also worn some garish footwear, with enormous heels and the dress….. oh boy.. oh boy.. what an eyesore.. it was an extremely short Roman-style number, with a couple of straps, which seemed draped over and did nothing for her chunky legs.

Wondering if designers use such shows to show off their “horror” creations !! :-p

Update: Her sense of style is going from bad to worse, as seen below (from the episode on 18-Oct). The hairstyle is awful (a hideous bun to the right) and a most unsightly frock !!

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Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors has been given the go-ahead by the Delhi High Court for public release. The film is a story of a 10-year-old boy who moves to England with his family and gets involved in a plan to save the world.

Warner Bros had sued the film makers, their contention being that the name was too phonetically and structurally similar to Harry Potter.

Justice Reva Khetrapal, in an interim order, said, “Harry Potter films are targeted to meet the entertainment needs of an elite and exclusive audience the cognoscenti-an audience that is able to discern the difference between a film based on a Harry Potter book on one hand and a film which is a Punjabi comedy on the other. In my view, the cognoscenti , the intellectuals and even the pseudo-intellectuals presumably know the difference between chalk and cheese or at any rate must be presumed to know the same.”

Originally set for a 12-Sep release, the movie is set to premiere this Friday.

The court also took issue with the fact that Warner Bros was aware of the title since 2005 but waited till the last moment after completion of the film and filed a case just before its release. Sounds like a familiar situation, right?

Yup, maybe Warner Bros was hoping to do what Ram Sampath did to the Roshans !!

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Why must the Bachchans’ and MNS continuously keep baiting each other?

Firstly, while speaking at a function, Jaya Bachchan had every right to speak in Hindi. However, what I couldn’t understand is the need for that tongue in cheek statement she made, saying she was from UP and asking to be excused for speaking in Hindi !

This whole controversy was dying down and she needlessly stoked the ‘marathi-manoos’ issue all over again. If she had not made that stupid remark, events at that function would have gone by unnoticed. The MNS of course, was waiting to pounce, and immediately went on the rampage, tearing posters of Amitabh’s latest film along with those of Abhishek’s ad hoardings for Idea Cellular. The MNS also threatened to prevent any Bachchan film from being released or screened in Maharashtra.

Now, of course, it is apology time for the Bachchans along with declared love for Maharashtra and the marathi language but I’m wondering about the fate of the film makers and sponsors who have several crores riding on the backs of the Bachchan father-son duo. Each time this controversy erupts, multiplexes and now even advertisement hoardings are facing the wrath of the ‘marathi brigade’.

While Raj Thackeray has every right to voice his opinion, it’s high time he and his party stop using their brand of hooliganism to put their point across.

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Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, one of India’s hottest radio stations, in association with Mirchi Movies, has announced a novel concept called ’Listen to my movie’, the novelty being that it is an audio movie.Hari Puttar – A Comedy of Terrors is a 90 minute film, with a few bit of animation thrown in. Aadesh Srivastava is the music composer and Kuldeep Sood has mixed the film.  

A nice concept, aimed at bringing joy to the faces of countless visually impaired children in India.

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It is a known fact that advertisers have been getting more and more “innovative” in their desire to churn maximum publicity for the product they had to peddle, whether it was a consumable, a movie or any other event like a product launch. 

The latest shocker comes in the form of rumours floating around regarding the purported “divorce” between Bollywood actors, Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora, with both of them giving ambiguous comments to the media to sustain the suspense.

It later transpired that the whole thing was nothing but a gimmick for the launch of a skin cream !!

This is a pretty pathetic state of affairs we’ve descended into. So far, divorce had not been used as an “advertising tool”, but with this product launch, even that is now history. I wonder if they realize the effect such announcements can have on people, for instance, their son or other relatives being asked this question by friends and well wishers, and being completely bewildered at the turn of events.

There have been precedents in the past where imaginary scenarios have been conjured to sell a film (for eg. a rift / affair between co-stars), and even occasions when film producers have actually hired local gangsters to “open fire at them / their vehicle”, leading to hype and publicity surrounding the release of their new film.

As long as the ”aam junta” doesn’t wake up to these capers, I guess these ad guys will continue on their merry ways. Personally, I find this form of advertising quite disgusting.

What is your take on this ?

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In a landmark judgement, the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of a composer, Ram Sampath, who alleged that film maker Rakesh Roshan plagiarised the music score for his latest film, Krazzy 4 from an ad jingle he composed for Sony Ericsson.

According to the court;

“Ram Sampath has proved that he is the owner of copyright and that the four tracks in Krazzy 4 are a copy of The Thump (the music he created for a television commercial for Sony Ericsson)… None of the Roshan’s defence arguments has any merit.”

Though plagiarism and being “inspired” by other’s work has been rampant in the industry, it is rare for someone to actually take the legal route against the established pashas of Bollywood, and even more importantly, succeed while doing this !

The score that was lifted is quite similar to an advertisement for “The Thump” by Sony Ericsson, and ironically, stars Hrithik Roshan

The Roshans’ tried to defend themselves first by denying they copied the tunes, then by saying they obtained an NOC from Sony Ericsson, who were the producers of the ad. The Court found the Roshans’ guilty of dishonesty after this about-turn.

Sampath received a cheque for Rs.1,77,34,600 (post tax), and with the film scheduled to hit the screens today, this was the only way out for the Roshans.

The ultimate comment came from Virendra Tulzapurkar, counsel for Sampath;

“We are eager to encash the cheque and they (the Roshans) are eager to release the film”

Watch both the videos and enjoy Hrithik at his scintillating best.

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