The Common Man Speaks

Making of a Bhojpuri movie

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Even a layman (someone who is not exposed to filmmaking) would know the basic process of making a movie – writing the script, shooting and lastly, post production. But recently when I got a firsthand report on the making of a Bhojpuri movie, I was stunned to say the least. I am eager to share this as I am sure most of you would react in a similar way.

Father of my friend’s friend is a Bhojpuri movie producer. Last year, he co-produced a Bhojpuri film along with Bollywood’s one-time star, who also played the central character in it. Since the son of the producer is a close friend of my friend, the latter got to know about the making of that film. Stunned and bewildered, my friend excitedly narrated their movie-making process to me. It is as follows: –

  • First and foremost, they signed the leading lady and few other actors. Since one of the producers was playing the main lead, there was no need to hunt for a ‘hero’. I also came to know that the actor handled most of the scenes as a ghost director.
  • As strange as it may sound, they started off by shooting more than 10 songs for the film! It was then that I was enlightened that it is a must for every Bhojpuri movie to have more than 10 songs. In most films, songs are a mixture of romance, dance, tragedy and lastly, item numbers.
  • Here comes the most shocking part. It was after finishing off the songs that they started writing the proper script for the movie! Yes, you read it right. Earlier, they just had a rough idea of the subject. While writing the film, they just fitted those songs wherever possible!

There is more surprise in store. This is not the only Bhojpuri movie that was made in such a weird manner. I was then told most of the Bhojpuri films are made likewise! If the film has the same masala elements of action, songs and dance and most importantly, those heroic dialogues, it is liked by all. Needless to say, the film which I am referring to also became a superhit!

Student Of The Year Box Office Prediction

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Direction: Karan Johar

Production: Dharma Productions

Writers: Rensil D’Silva and Niranjan Iyengar

Cast: Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhavan, Rishi Kapoor, Manasi Rach

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Genre: Romance

Release Date: October 19, 2012

Analysis:

Star Value: There is no star value in Student Of The Year as all three of the main characters are played by debutants. But due to a good marketing strategy, Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhavan are slowly becoming known among the youth.

Hype: The promos of the movie are well received by the youngsters. The makers have succeeded in creating some excitement among the college students, its target audience.

Music: Vishal-Shekhar’s music has helped a lot in promoting the film. ‘Velle’ became a known track instantly. ‘Ishq Wala Love’ and ‘Radha On The Dance Floor’ are not far behind either in terms of popularity.

Prediction:

Student Of The Year will get a decent opening at the box office. If it manages to impress initially, it will fetch good numbers even after the first weekend, since college students like visiting multiplexes on weekdays. However, due to the urban, modern genre, it will appeal more to the urban youth. Hence, it has better chances at the multiplexes of metros. It won’t fetch good collections at the single screens, mostly the ones in the smaller cities and towns.

Picture Courtesy – Indiatoday.in

Law Minister endorses lawlessness: Kejriwal hits at Gadkari

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If there is anyone who is expected to safeguard law and order in India the most, it is obviously the Law Minister of the country. However, the whole of India was in for a shock today when the Law Minister Salman Khurshid himself openly endorsed lawlessness by threatening to physically harm anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal.

Trying to hit back at allegations made by Kejriwal, Khurshid openly told a news channel, “Let Kejriwal come to Farrukhabad. Let’s see whether he succeeds in returning back.” Through this statement, Khurshid clearly indicates physical assault on Kejriwal, which definitely amounts to breaking law.

Picture Courtesy – Deccanchronicle.com

The statements give rise to a number of serious questions. – How can a Law Minister openly endorse breaking of law? Do you have a right to punish a criminal when the Law Minister himself encourages crime? The ruling party has to answer these questions and the only option they have is to remove this person who calls himself the Law Minister. But after a huge number of anti-national actions and statements by the ruling party itself, I wonder whether it has any right to continue to stay in office. The feeling that the British have started ruling India again is produced by the UPA government time and again.

Khurshid’s open dhamki however didn’t deter Kejriwal to name BJP President Nitin Gadkari in a scam where he grabbed land allotted to poor farmers of Vidarbha. Of course as expected, the party has rubbished off all allegations. I don’t know whether the allegations are 100% true but like numerous other instances, BJP or the government won’t even order any kind of probe in the issue. After Anjali Damania’s experience with Gadkari, it is clear all parties are unofficially united when it comes to corruption.

It appears weird to many including me that Kejriwal isn’t going to court against Kejriwal or Vadra. But after he highlighted today how these court cases and probes account to nothing, I am slowly starting to agree with him. If you look back at history, you realize these big shots always get away even after committing the most heinous of crimes. Forget politicians, even a hardcore terrorist like Ajmal Kasab is enjoying his stay in India even four years after he openly killed innocents in Mumbai!

So it is up to the people of India to realize how all parties are together involved in money grabbing and then punish them with the power of their vote. Of course, it would be great and ideal if law punishes them but I hardly have any hope for it considering India’s current scenario.

Awareness needed ASAP, say Fibromyalgia patients

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By: Keyur Seta

Twelve years ago Sagarika Chakraborty, then in her teens, started suffering from a terrible headache which refused to subside even after undergoing medical treatment. Due to this, it was concluded she has Migraine. She started medication for that as well but to no avail. Later on, she developed a whole lot of other health issues that just wouldn’t get cured. She underwent tests after tests without any conclusion. “In fact, there is not a single test I haven’t undergone,” she said at The World Arthritis Day meet in Mumbai recently. The event was an initiative by rheumatologist Dr Shashank Akerkar.

Since she was appearing absolutely normal with the tests showing no signs of any illness or disease, people started believing she is faking an illness just to stay away from studies. Worse, questions were even raised about her psychological wellbeing. Sagarika lived with such physical and emotional baggage for 12 years until she came to know from a doctor in Hyderabad that she is suffering from a rare condition called Fibromyalgia. And it was only a year back when she was able to start proper treatment for the disease from Dr Akerkar.

“For 12 years I suffered mis-diagnosis and took over 36 medical opinions. God forbid this should not even strike my worst enemy. I suffered but pledged that others around me shouldn’t. So I am here to talk,” she said.

There are only a handful of people in India who have heard about Fibromyalgia. In fact, people might take some time before even pronouncing or spelling it properly. Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculo-skeletal pain, stiffness and tenderness of muscles and joints without detectable inflammation. But that is not all. Patients suffering from Fibromyalgia also experience sleep disturbance, fatigue, irritable bowel movements, depression, anxiety, stress, hypersensitivity to light, sound, heat and cold, etc.

Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli speaking about Fibromyalgia at the World Arthritis Day

Some patients also show symptoms of Parethesia (feeling pins and needles), cognitive dysfunction and memory problems (known as Fibro Fog). Sadly, the symptoms are not reduced to these. While revealing few other symptoms, Sagarika says, “I can’t move for a few seconds after I sit for long. Sometimes, a thousand pins prick my body and my eyes. It locks my jaws and dehydrates me. I have nerve pinch in seven parts of my body. There are mornings when my fingers won’t move. My nostrils hurt and a certain nerve throbbing is almost visible through the skin.”

Needless to say, emotional trauma goes hand in hand with Fibromyalgia. It is been found that a very high percentage of Fibromyalgia victims are females. In fact, the female to male ratio for this disease is 9:1.

What is worse is that there is no sure shot cure for Fibromyalgia. There is treatment available but it can only help in reducing the symptoms or controlling the disease. And since there are a wide range of symptoms, undergoing a single treatment doesn’t work. A patient is prescribed medical drugs but at the same time, it is vital for him or her to undergo physical exercises as prescribed.

As patients suffering from Fibromyalgia appear totally normal, the disease is also known as ‘Invisible Illness’. “If an employee is suffering from Fibromyalgia, he or she has to often take leave from work. This becomes difficult because the patient looks physically normal. Hence, most of the patients quit their jobs to work part time as working full time becomes extremely difficult,” said Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli, another patient suffering from Fibromyalgia, at the meet.

It is due to total lack of awareness that Fibromyalgia has derived the nickname of ‘Invisible Illness’, especially in a country like India. This was enough to prompt Anuradha to launch an awareness campaign for the disease in the form of a website called – http://www.fibromyalgiaawareness.com/. The website provides complete information for a layman on Fibromyalgia including its meaning, symptoms, tips on how to live with it and most importantly, comments from patients. The website also has a Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/fibromyalgiaawarenesspage.

Anuradha and Sagarika along with a group of individuals are also all set to start a non-profit organization called The Purple Pact which will aim at setting up centers with specialized facilities for chronic pain patients. But for that, one needs awareness.

“There are around 3-6 % of world population suffering from Fibromyalgia. But the percentage of patients in India is just unknown! Due to the lack of awareness, naturally people won’t understand what a patient goes through.”

Both Sagarika and Anuradha are thankful to their doctor Shashank Akerkar for creating awareness on Fibromyalgia through World Arthritis Day. “It is vital to create awareness. If people start accepting the disease and the problems associated with it, it will certainly make life better for us,” sums up Anuradha.

Dr Shashank Akerkar (Click to enlarge)

Aiyyaa Box Office Prediction

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Director: Sachin Kundalkar

Producers: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and AKFPL Production

Writer: Sachin Kundalkar

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Sobodh Bhave

Music: Amit Trivedi

Genre: Drama

Release Date: October 12, 2012

Analysis:

Star Value: Rani Mukerji’s star status and fan following is enough to create excitement for Aiyyaa, although she won’t pull huge crowds to the theaters initially. Due to her presence alone, the star value for the movie is quite high.

Hype: The promos of the movie have impressed the audience and managed to create a lot of buzz. Apart from the humour, Rani’s crazy antics have made the audience curious for the movie.

Music: The song ‘Dreamum Wakepum’ has become instantly famous. Other songs like ‘Aga Bai’ and ‘Sava Dollar’ are slowly becoming popular. The music has had a big hand in popularizing the movie.

Prediction:

Aiyyaa will get a good opening at the box office but only in the multiplexes of the metros. After OMG! Oh My God and English Vinglish, this is the third film in three weeks that shouldn’t be judged by its collections of the first weekend. It should earn around Rs 20 crore or more in the first weekend if it manages to impress initially. If that happens, Aiyyaa will continue to do well after the first three days. It will face competition from Sridevi’s highly impressive English Vinglish which is expected do well in its second week as well.

Kismet Love Paisa Dilli (KLPD) Box Office Prediction

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Director: Sanjay Khanduri

Producers: Invincible Entertainment Pvt Ltd

Writers: Sanjay Khanduri

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Mallika Sherawat, Ashutosh Rana, Anshuman Jha

Music: Amjad Nadeem and Santokh Singh

Genre: Thriller, Comedy

Release Date: October 5, 2012

Analysis:

Star Value: Both Vivek Oberoi and Mallika Sherawat are famous actors but they are no longer crowd pullers. Hence, the star value for Kismet Love Paisa Dilli (KLPD) is just average.

Hype: The promos of the film have failed to create any major buzz or excitement. The makers have promoted the film well but that has not helped much. Hence, there is hardly any hype for KLPD.

Music: The song ‘Dhishkyaon’ is a good peppy number which has become somewhat known. The rest of the songs have hardly succeeded in making a mark.

Prediction:

Kismet Love Paisa Dilli (KLPD) won’t get a good opening at the box office. If it manages to super impress, it will get an average response, mostly in the single screens. Overall, it looks difficult for the film to succeed at the ticket window.

English Vinglish Box Office Prediction

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Director: Gauri Shinde

Producers: Eros International and Hope Productions

Writers: Gauri Shinde

Cast: Sridevi, Mehdi Nebbou, Priya Anand, Sulbha Deshpande, Amitabh Bachchan

Music: Amit Trivedi

Genre: Drama

Release Date: October 5, 2012

Analysis:

Star Value: Sridevi, one of the most loved actresses of Bollywood, is making a comeback after 15 long years. This has created some excitement for the movie although she won’t be a crowd puller by any means.

Hype: The unusual first teaser of the film (where Sridevi reads a censor certificate) made heads turn. The main promos have received a decent response. The overall hype is good although not as high as one would expect from Sridevi’s comeback movie.

Music: Only the title track has become somewhat popular. ‘Navrai Majhi’ is also slowly becoming known.

Prediction:

English Vinglish will get an average to decent opening at the box office. The film will score more at urban multiplexes while it will struggle at single screens and small centers. But like last week’s OMG! Oh My God, this film too relies more on word-of-mouth and it shouldn’t be judged by its’ first weekend collection, especially the first day. It should earn around 15-20 crore in the first weekend. If it impresses initially and gets a strong word-of-mouth, it might surprise us and earn more.

OMG! Oh My God Review

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Director: Umesh Shukla

Producers: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Ashvini Yardi

Writer: Umesh Shukla (Story, Screenplay and Dialogues)

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Govind Namdeo, Poonam Jhaver, Nidhi Subbaiah

Music: Himesh Reshammiya, Anjjan-Meet Bros, Sachin-Jigar

Rating: * * * *

Plot: A complete non-believer, Kanji Mehta (Paresh Rawal) earns great profit by taking advantage of people’s blind religious faith. He sells random idol of Gods and attaches false mythological history with them which obliges people to buy them at a giveaway price. One day, Kanji goes a bit too far by halting a Dahi Handi festival by spreading a rumour.

Just then, his shop is destroyed in an earthquake. Worse, he is unable to recover losses as the insurance company regards earthquake as an ‘act of God’. Hence, Kanji sues God in the court of law. His argument is simple – If there is God, He will appear in court!

Review: In order to please and worship God, a number of religious rituals are followed in India like pouring hundreds of liters of milk on a Shivling, offering many chaadars in a dargah or offering lakhs of candles in churches. However, Umesh Shukla’s OMG! Oh My God rubbishes off all these rituals while stating that all one needs to do is be a good human and help the needy in order to impress Him. It also gives a moral slap to those who carry out business in the name of God. The powerful message presented in an entertaining manner makes sure the film is worth watching more than once.

Like all well made films, OMG! Oh My God has a very meaty and a fast moving script. Umesh Shukla succeeds in narrating the tale at a steady pace, defining characters clearly and at the same time providing some quality humour. The first twist in the story, which comes very early, gives rise to a number of powerful and entertaining scenes. A human lodging a court case against God is never seen before in a Hindi film. Of course, Akshay Kumar’s arrival provides the icing on the cake.

Picture courtesy – OMG Facebook page

Thankfully, unlike a number of Hindi films, OMG maintains momentum in the second half too in terms of story development and the script. It is during this period where there a number of clap-worthy scenes which are enlightening and a real treat! Some further interesting twists ensure a heartwarming as well as an eye-opening climax.

The whole team of OMG deserves applause for daring to give such a bold message in a country where people are obsessed with blindfaith which certainly doesn’t do any good to them or the society.

If one tries to find flipsides, one can include some scenes showing miracles and also the fact that Kanji’s original mission goes off-track in between. But since these points also help in bringing the final outcome, you don’t really mind. However, there are chances of some over-sensitive God worshippers might get offended by some scenes and dialogues.

Talking about the technical departments, the cinematography, background score and editing are fine. Two songs ‘Go Go Go Govinda’ and ‘Mere Nishaan’ suit the situations while ‘Ji Ji Ji’ is superb due to the lyrics.

Paresh Rawal’s performance deserves a standing ovation. He gets into the skin of the character and displays every emotion with ease. This will surely be one of the talked about performances of his career. It is risky to play a character like God but Akshay Kumar manages that easily and gives a lovable act. However, Mithun Chakraborty’s act as a gay swami wasn’t amusing. There was no need to include such feminine mannerisms in the character.

Govind Namdeo is effective as a short tempered priest. Nikhil Ratnaparkhi does very well as Rawal’s loyal friend. Murli Sharma, Lubna Salim, Poonam Jhaver and others are not bad.

Overall, OMG Oh My God shouldn’t be missed for it gives a great message while providing quality entertainment. The film needs word-out-mouth to succeed at the box-office.

Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal Box Office Prediction

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Director: Priyadarshan

Producers: Percept Pictures

Writers: Neeraj Vora (Story, Screenplay and Dialogues)

Cast: Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Shreyas Talpade, Madhurima Banerjee, Asrani, Rajpal Yadav

Music: Sajid-Wajid

Genre: Comedy

Release Date: September 28, 2012

Analysis:

Star Value: Due to the presence of some quality veteran actors like Nana Patekar, Paresh Rawal and Om Puri, the star value is quite high, although not as high as is needed to attract large number of audiences.

Hype: Although the promos have received a decent response, the hype is missing. The makers have failed in promoting their film. But this is not the first time that Percept has done such a thing. It is not known why the banner fails regularly to market its films.

Music: None of the songs of the movie have become known.

Prediction:

Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal will at the most only get an average opening at the box office. This is surely disappointing considering it’s another crazy entertainer by Priyadarshan. The reason for this is its low key marketing. It’s only hope is to impress supremely at the onset. Else, it will be very difficult for it to make a mark at the ticket window.

OMG Oh My God Box Office Prediction

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Director: Umesh Shukla

Producers: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Ashvini Yardi

Writer: Umesh Shukla

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Govind Namdeo, Nidhi Subbaiah

Music: Himesh Reshammiya, Anjjan-Meet Bros, Sachin-Jigar

Genre: Drama

Release Date: September 28, 2012

Analysis:

Star Value: Although Paresh Rawal is a character actor, he has succeeded in gaining mass appeal through some fantastic performances over the years. And Akshay Kumar’s presence, despite a second lead, adds more star value for OMG Oh My God!.

Hype: Since OMG Oh My God! is based on superhit plays in Gujarati and Hindi, the film made news since it was announced. The makers’ idea of bringing out a teaser explaining Paresh Rawal’s character should be lauded for it made the film known much before the release. Later on, when the full-fledged promo was released, it helped the film further as it turned out to be very impressive. However, the excitement for the movie is not as high as it should have been.

Music: Prabhudeva and Sonakshi Sinha starrer song ‘Go Go Go Govinda’ became instantly popular. Although the rest of the songs aren’t famous, they will slowly gain acceptance if the film does very well at the box office.

Prediction:

OMG Oh My God! will get a decent opening at the box office. The first weekend collections should be around Rs 20-25 crore. It will be affected by the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match on Sunday and Ganesh Visarjan in Maharashtra. However, it shouldn’t be judged by its first three days’ profits. This is a type of a film which will slowly climb the ladder at the box office provided it manages to impress initially. Due to its genre, it has a chance at both bigger and smaller centers.