Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Band Baj Gaya Dubai mein!


Shaadi Aapki, Kharcha Hamaara Contest was also held at Dubai.

Yogesh and Betcy were the winners for the Band Baajaa Baaraat wedding Contest conducted By YASHRAJ Films in "Band Baaja Baaraat" Ishtyle in association with 105.4 Radio Spice , Fulltoo Twisted ,and Dream Advertising.

The whole wedding was Sponsored by Radio Spice.

Grand Wedding was on a Dhow Cruise on the Creek side of Dubai , with all Band Baajaa and BAARAATI ,mehendi and Pheras . well attended by over 250 guests.

A free wedding reception was given to the couple and an after party at the Keva Lounge on 10th december 2011

Ranveer says - Everybody should get a supportive co - star like Anushka!

Thank God, no one says any more than my debut was financed by my father. That to me is my biggest victory," says Ranveer Singh.

Ranveer Singh is spoil for choices. "I think after Band Baaja Baaraat, I need to do completely contrasting character. Someone who is not loud, opinionated and unsophisticated."

The suffering of waiting is over for this debutant who came in from the outside. "Not since Akshay Kumar and John Abraham has there been a male lead from outside the industry getting such positive reactions. I just hope my example encourages talent from outside. Because right now the perception is outsiders don't stand a chance. I had no reference like mine to give me hope when I was going through my struggle period."

One call from Yash Raj changed Ranveer's life. "It was completely out of the blue from the casting director Shanu Sharma. I remember I was out on date when Shanu kept calling. I avoided her calls for as long as I could because I had other things on my mind at that moment. Imagine if I had not taken the call from Yash Raj for a fling that lasted exactly ten days! Anyway, the next day I was at Yash Raj doing two scenes. I got called back in three days. Later Adi Sir (Chopra) told he had made up his mind immediately..."

Ranveer is pleased he didn't get a conventional romantic debut. "The story in Band Baaja Baaraat is terrific. And my character Bittu was so much fun for me to play because he's so far removed from my own world. It was more than I could ever ask for. I was more than happy to be a simple character in a simple story. Not too many newcomers can dream of a break like Band Baaja Baaraat, certainly not someone unconnected with the film industry."

Catty elements within the industry had spread the rumor that his father, a prosperous business man, had financed the film.

Confesses the young polite actor, "Yes that hurt on several levels. Such ugly rumours took away from my pleasure at being the first solo-hero to be launched by Yash Raj. Ya…it was upsetting. My father and my family's pride that I had made it on my own got blunted when it was said that they financed my debut film. It was like taking away from my little achievement. I was upset more for my parents than myself. I was also upset for Yash Raj. Did they need my father's money to make a film? The entire film industry knows Yash Raj doesn't need to do all this. It's absurd. They don't need anyone's money to make films. Certainly not my father's."

Ranveer maintains he is "very good friends" with co-star Anushka Sharma, though they bickered non-stop like their characters in Band Baaja Baaraat. "She and I are very good friends. How can I change that truth just because it sounds clichéd? Neither of us is bothered with what people say."

Says Ranveer, "We came from two different schools of filmmaking. I'm a trained actor. She never attended any acting school. As a model she had faced the camera before acting and had already done two films before Band Baaja Baaraat. She is a one-take actor. I believe in lots of rehearsals. And that was very annoying for Anushka because her first take was the best. We had to reach a middle ground before we could get along. In hindsight I feel I was rehearsing more than necessary because it was my first film. I learn from her to be spontaneous. But the fact that we had to be at loggerheads on screen was certainly helped by our constant friction in the sets about our approach to acting."

Ranveer hopes every newcomer gets a supportive co-star like Anushka or else he is "screwed".

As for the rumors about Ranveer and Anushka, the promising newcomer says, "I was too much into my work to even think about those rumors. I just wanted to perform well. That was my only concern. I've never been in a serious relationship so far. And now my career has just started."

He sighs and says, "It feels cool. I had told my father a long time ago that I'd be an actor. My dream has come true. But my family is not used to the gossip and rumors."

And to think Ranveer thought of changing his name because there was already a Ranbir around. "I am glad I didn't. This is my name. This is my destiny. I'm just so happy."

He's signed for three films with Yash Raj. "But it is non-exclusive. I was waiting for my first release and so was the industry. Now they know I wasn't signed because my father paid for my dream. Adi too has plans for me though I don't know what they are. He loves playing poker with people."

Source: Bollywood Hungama

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Sukanya Venkatraghavan says, "Band Baaja Baaraat" is real, racy and fun loving Movie.


Rarely do you find a love story that is so full of life and bouncing off the walls. Band Baaja Baarat is one of the freshest cleverly written films in recent times. It has an energy about it that makes you want to do the balle balle. So Shruti (Anushka Sharma ) and Bittu (Ranveer Singh) meet and then decide to start a wedding planning business sorry biness as Bittu might say. There is definite attraction and Bittu tries to line maro initially but Shruti will have none of this love shove. It’s too complicated. And the first rule of partnership – No mixing business with pleasure. And what are rules if they don’t get broke, really. So when Bittu and Shruti realise that, things go awry. Very. And then there is heartbreak, havoc, shouting, lots of shouting and ultimately a climax where the guy does get the girl. Obviously yaar!

The fun of BBB lies in its robust dinchak Delhiness. The colours, the language, the people, even the way relationships are played out. Shruti is go-getting, no nonsense and a firebrand and you cant but love her. As Bittu says turn her inside out and maybe some heavy limbed himbos will tumble out because she is so not just your average girl next door. Bittu is street-smart, endearing, exasperating, can’t pronounce ‘business’ but knows how to run one with brilliant instinct. He also knows that he may not be as smart as his partner but he plays a perfect foil and is there for her in the most heartwarming fashion.

The first half is stupendous, with some fast racy writing and even though the story is fairly pat down and predictable you enjoy the telling of it. The second half dips in comparison and there is too much of band baaja baarat before these two impetous very similar yet so unlike soulmates actually get together. But they are so likeable you don’t mind the wait.

Debutant director Maneesh Sharma creates such real and spontaneous characters that they prop up his occasionally bumpy narrative with the same cleverness that they run their shaadi ka business. The dialogue by Habib Faisal who also wrote and directed Do Dooni Chaar another Delhi based film is crackling, insouciant and full of life. The styling of the film is unapologetically riotous and vibrant.

Anushka Sharma is awesome to simply put it. She is ‘theeki’ and right there in the moment at all times. This is an actress to watch out for. Ranveer Singh makes a marvelous debut. His Bittu really works. Ranveer has a comic and emotional timing that cannot be ignored. There is tremendous potential here and one that has been tapped rightly in this film. Watch out for the outstanding chemistry between these two in the scene where they have their showdown and in the earlier scenes when they are getting to know each other.

BBB scores on many levels. It has a very real quality. There is no posturing at all. If the characters are eating Chinese food from a local fast food joint then the sauce does come in those little knotted up sachets and that’s just one of the many things that are authentic about the film. This is undoubtedly your best watch this weekend. Movie mubarak ho sabko!

Sources: FilmFare.com

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Wonderfully scripted romcom of this Year!


The inherent flaw with the Bollywood rom-com template is that it doesn’t bother fleshing out characters and making them real, relying mostly on music and chemistry to do the job instead. Which is why we mostly end up with vacant films about pretty people conveniently positioned close enough to fall in love, which they do over several cutesy montages?

Why does she love him? What are they talking about, or bonding over? Who cares, say the filmmakers, see how great they look together as they laugh, as we fade from her punching his shoulder playfully to him making a silly face, all as the music takes turns being playful and mushy and nostalgic. Clearly, the film tells us, these people are in love – ‘oho, why else would they have a song?’ – And we’re just supposed to accept that and see what happens next.

This is why it’s wonderfully refreshing to discover a film as solid as Maneesh Sharma’s Band Baaja Baaraat, a seemingly simple romance which actually makes us care and root for the protagonists. Where the boy is mongrel-rough and the girl is perky-plain, but the relationship they share is relatable and real and worth many a smile. It’s a full-blown Bollywood entertainer, sure, but one with as much smarts as it has heart.

Writer Habib Faisal impressed earlier this year with Do Dooni Chaar, and here as screenwriter he strikes again, creating a flavourful slice of Delhi that makes up in sheer earnest enthusiasm what it lacks in accuracy. Yet the milieu isn’t the film’s strength – clearly Dibakar Banerjee has inflicted a Sai Paranjpe-like love for the capital city among current filmmaking brethren –nor is the story, though it does have some neat little nuances.

The decidedly irresistible characters meet at a buffet line in a shaadi – him scavenger, her custodian – and it is initially impossible to imagine a girl so incontrol even entertaining conversation with a lout so scruffy. She seems inappropriately uppity, he overtly out-ona-limb. And yet they both make sense, as people. As a couple of unlikely, ambitious nuts with enough can-do to make it big. Romance is the last thing on their mind as they share a bed, him watching late-night TV, her coiled comfortably into herself.

There is a hair-saloon style painting of a Bollywood actor outside their office, Amitabh Bachchan’s Vijay looking more dour than usual. Sometimes in the dusk-stretched shadows, he looks almost like Hrithik. Neither looks like Ranveer Singh, who plays Bittoo Sharma, a wonderfully unsmooth leading man. He isn’t in any way traditional, but it’s hard not to get swept up by his dogged, unpredictable enthusiasm. You root for him, hard.

Anushka Sharma, harmlessly likeable in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and atrocious in Badmaash Company, is perfectly cast here as Shruti Kakkar, creating a character with both pluck and pout. They are smashing protagonists, and while each gets some photogenic time, that’s not the point. It’s about love, not the stars, as Bittoo tells a bride sobbing over SRK unable to dance at her wedding finale.

That this message comes from the country’s starriest banner is welcome news indeed. As is the fact that it has churned out a bona fide romance, a realistic tale of ambition and rules and morality, one that is both progressive and modern but intelligent enough to not rub our noses in it.

Even the final speech – that staple of romantic comedies worldwide, the maudlin soliloquy that redeems one protagonist while showing the other the light – is here handled deftly, talking about love as lifeforce, as spirit, as enjoyment. As mauj.

When things look bleak for our heroes in BBB, actor Manish Chaudhary conveniently comes to the rescue, like he did almost exactly a year ago in another great early-December YRF release, Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year. Now, the Manish Chaudharys of the world might not be as easy to stumble upon, and business might not be quite as easy to excel in as YRF shows us, but at least the dream they conjure up is one worth fighting for.

Source- Raja Sen's Editorial in Mumbai Mirror.
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