stills from rgv's new movie 'rann'

New Game Show : Abhishek Bachchan's Aaram Classes

Now that Big Boss is over, Abhishek Bachchan will be seen on the same channel at the same time from 23rd Jan, hosting a new TV show. BigB will be replace by his son AB Jr. The show is called Satruday Night Bingo and will be played in great leisure. A regular game of "housie" will just become a little more fun with celebrities and of course the common men. Watch out!

You can catch up with AB on facebook

Checkout the website of colors channel to play this game.

mere paas 'PAA' hai

When I first saw the trailer of the movie, I was a bit surprised as to why BigB's get-up was made to resemble a zoozoo. That bulbous head was a bit of a turn-off. But on further read-up I found that the character was suffering from a rare ageing disorder called 'progeria'

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCCk8VZaEb0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

The word is now out that the movie is inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's movie called 'Jack' which starred Robin Williams. Here too, smallB is married to Vidya Balan and they give birth to a baby who suffers from genetic disorder. Enter BigB, a kid who ages at four or five times the pace at which normal humans age. So, at age of 10 he would look 50.

But unlike 'Jack', where Robin Williams longed to live a normal life, earn his pride and place in society and graduate from college just as Rani Mukherjee did in 'Black', this movie is very different. Only the premise of the rare disorder is the common thing between 'Paa' and 'Jack' but both movies have been taken to different logical conclusions.

This disorder can throw new light on the research of ageing, to find factors as to how and why people age. Hayley Okines, in 1999, was diagnosed to be having this condition and she spread the awareness. Just as TZP created huge awareness about dyslexia, hopefully this movie will do the same to progeria.

Wish all the best to the movie makers that it does well. Special wishes and prayers to Amitabh Bachchan, as he is producing the movie under ABCL banner. More power to him, amen! And hoping to see some great acting from the father-son duo, who play a father-son relationship, but its reversed role-play. Cheers!

London Dreams : Khuli Ankh Ka Sapna

The dope is that the premise of the movie is based on Abhimaan, except that instead of a couple we have two friends. Ajay and Sallu are both friends in different parts of the world. While Ajay, just as BigB, is popular in London as a singer of a band, Sallu plays at weddings in his hometown. But Sallu, just as Jaya Bachchan, was much more talented than Ajay.

And Ajay makes the mistake of inviting Salman to join his band. What happens next? Salman is an instant hit and a crowd puller; and nobody wants Ajay anymore. Ajay is consumed by this jealousy and big ego hurdle. He plans a vice to cut down Salman's grwoing stature. He pushes Salman into hedonistic liefstyle with booze and babes, just before a crucial concert.

While the troop movies from Paris to Amsterdam and other places, Salman slides further into this couldron of sleaze. Will he recover? Even if he does, will Ajay realise his follies? Will Salman forgive Ajay and will their friendship hold them together?

That's what the movie is about. Oh! I missed out on Asin. She is the lead dancer of the band. Ajay loves her, but she falls for the rural innocence of Salman Khan. That adds to Ajay's woes, first Sallu steals his limelight and then his ladlylove. So, who finally wins over Asin!

Kamal Rashid Khan : Son Of A Gun

No, I am not referring to the gun locket that hangs around his neck. I am really pissed off by this guy who comes with loads of attitude. Wonder where he got that kind of arrogance and the delusions of being a star.

Anyone watching Big Boss 3 will recognise this stubborn cranky man as the main attraction/distraction of the reality show. He is foul-mouthed and short-tempered and his tall claims would leave the biggest of braggers to shame. He claims that his drinking water comes from France and milk from Holland, what hogwash! He claims to be a multi-millionaire but his comfort level in the confines of Big Boss jail was admirable. He felt so much at home in the jail, he just rolled on the raised platform like a dog rolls on the ground.

But what I found most disconcerting was the fact that he was bullshitting in front of BigB, one of the most humble men on Earth. He felt no regret about his outburst on Rohit Verma and his brutal attack on fellow inmate, he definitely needs some therapy. He also had a war of words with Raju Shrivastav, a guy who usually is cool and composed, but noth this time. Raju gave it back to KRK which he could not handle. Even on previous occasions he misbehaved with other inmates like Claudia and Tanaz.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poe3p9P_lp8&hl=en&fs=1&]

What was worse was that, he was justifying himself in the eviction episode. He was showing as if he made a sacrifice for Sherlyn Chopra. He was the most-hated character in the house, he did not perform any task and he had a bad attitude. No wonder all housemates voted him out last week. But the rising TRPs lured the producers in duping the voting public and retained him for another week, hoping that he would reform. Yeah! jerks like these never change. He just kept revealing his character flaws one after another.

The truth is that, he came to Big Boss home only to create ruckus and generate some publicity for himself. He was successful initially, in grabbing eyeballs. But later we all realised that he is not just putting up an act, he is truly full of shit. I even doubt he has a fan base that he keeps bragging about. Anyways, good riddance to bad rubbish.

Much to BigB's credit, he played the tolerant and forgiving father so well. Long live BigB and goto hell KRK!

Aladin : Make A Wish

There is a lamp, there is Aladin and there is a genie. But that's about it. He has grown up in a very timid, weak not really a nerd but just a weak, timid person in the college. He keeps getting bullied by all his seniors and people who are tougher and stronger than him. So he has always led a very reticent, reclusive, reserve life. Then he sees this girl in college whom he falls in love with at first sight and he needs to communicate with her. But he does not have enough courage and energy. The gang that teases him in college is always teasing him because his name is Aladin. They convince the girl to give a lamp to him as a present all as a joke. It turns out that this lamp is indeed 'the lamp'. He has to rub it in front of them because they are making fun of him. And a man appears who is a genie. He says I am a genie, I have three wishes, I am 5,000 years old, I am due for my retirement and these are last three wishes so would you please hurry up and ask them because I need to get back.

source : ibn

BigB Gets Big Bucks For Hosting Big Boss

Its stale news that BigB will be anchoring Big Boss. The fresh news is that, he is commanding a whopping 1.5 crore per episode. That's like, 126 crore for the 84 episodes that he will anchor.

While SRK got paid 1 crore per episode for Panchvi Paas, which of course failed, both Salman and Akshay charge around 80lakhs per episode for 10KaDum and Khatron Ke Khiladi, respectively. But BigB, being the Big Boss gets the biggest pay packet.

All said and done, the man has some screen presence. His latest ads on tv, for the promotion of Big Boss, looks fabulous. He brings so much grace to the nauseatic reality show, in just the ad; wonder what's gonna happen in the show. Looking forward to the evictions in the show!

Hero Hiralal : A Reality Show Ahead Of Its Time

The advent of cable-tv happened in India in the early 1990’s when foreign channels were beaming in the houses of the privileged upper-middle-class. A decade later came the age of the reality shows with Channel V running a contest to form a girl-band on the lines of Spice Girls; and in 2002 Viva happened.

But much before cable-tv was introduced and much before reality shows made an appearance, came the movie Hero Hiralal. It was the vision of Ketan Mehta that he weaved such a tale which seemed pedestrian to begin with, but ended in a crescendo. It was a reality show of high-voltage drama and very much ahead of its times, when nobdoy had come-up with such a concept.

The movie released in 1988 and I saw it a couple of years later in DD. The movie starts in a typical boy-meets-girl format. We are introduced to Naseeruddin Shah as Hiralal who drives an auto in Hyderabad. He is a big film buff and that’s how gets the title Hero. His friend Mohan Gokhale plays a movie-poster-painter and one of the landmark dialogs of the movie was ‘phata poster, nikla hero’.

A film troupe arrives in Hyderabad to shoot a movie and Roopa, played by Sanjana Kapoor in her debut movie, is the lead actress of the movie. Hero falls head over heels for her, he takes her round the city in his auto. Kiran Kumar plays the lead opposite Roopa in the movie that’s being made, and Hero keeps landing up during the shooting. He whisks her away and they spend a lot of time together, exploring the city in his auto. Roopa is just being friendly but Hero mistakes her overtures for love.

The movie shooting is complete and the entire cast moves back to Bombay. Hero, in his desperate bid to announce his love to Roopa, reaches Bombay. When Roopa dispels all his notions and feelings of love, Hero decides that life is not worth living and he wishes to end his life.

That’s when Sitara Devi, a publicity agent, enters his life. She does not want Hero to end his nondescript life in such anonymous fashion. She wishes to make his death a mega-event, to announce to the world about the pain and subsequent death of a lover and thereby make him a love-martyr. She turns, what would have been an incident [his suicide], into an event.

Huge hoardings are drawn-up all over the city, declaring this reality show as a must-watch. Lots of publicity is done and people queue-up to buy the tickets. There is media frenzy and reporters scamper to Roopa and and Sitara Devi for exclusive interviews. People on the streets start discussing this event and Roopa starts questioning herself whether she loves Hero or not; and what she can do to stop him from sacrificing his life.

Meanwhile Roopa is being closely guarded so she does not escape to meet Hero. Kiran Kumar and Rohini Hattangadi, playing Roopa’s mom, keep a vigil on her. The talk of the town is Hero and his game-of-death, the tickets are all sold out. People are for the first time going to witness a volunteered death in broad-daylight amidst public eye, and all for love. Hero’s unrequited love has brought him so close to death.

The day of the event has finally arrived. People and media throng the venue and Hero is tied in a glass tank and water starts filling into the tank. Roopa flees from her home, and helping her cause is Amitabh Bachchan, in a special guest appearance who drives Roopa to the venue of the event. Can Roopa stop Hero from giving away his life? Will she stop Hero by declaring her love to him so he has a good enough reason to live for? Will Sitara Devi let someone disrupt the show? Will love triumph?

Naseeruddin Shah was marvellous in the movie, he displayed great restraint. Sanjana Kapoor in a debut performance was good as well. Rohini Hattangadi as Roopa’s mom was just about ok. But Ketan had kept the most important role for his to-be wife Deepa Sahi who played Sitara Devi with lot of strength and vigor. She brought the shrewdness and wile into the character, she was fantastic. And of course, Ketan Mehta as a film-maker, excelled in his artistic vision.

The movie’s unique concept of exploiting people’s emotions for commercial gains is much like the reality shows of today; where behind-the-scene activities, emotional outbursts, minor squabbles and disappointments, impoverished backgrounds are highlighted for higher TRPs. Every incident is micro-managed to gain maximum publicity. Curiosity is generated and the public is made to wait for days together for the events to unfold. The media/event-managers are desensitized and they neither care for the trauma and desperation of the participant nor for the consequences of such unethical event management, much like Sitara Devi in the movie.

In 1988 we had one Hero Hiralal, but in 2009 we have hundreds of Hero Hiralals on every show in every channel. What was a figment of Ketan Mehta’s imagination is now unfolding in every drawing-room with people glued to their couches waiting for their Hero Hiralals to appear on-screen. Phata poster, nikla Hero!

This post was first published on PFC

BigB Wax Idol In Madame Tussauds NYC

Amitabh Bachchan's wax idol now makes its debut in the Madame Tussauds Museum in New York.

The backdrop of the statue is a replica of the Taj Mahal.


In fact, this idol is much better than the one which they had put-up in London. The previous idol seemed amateurish, while this looks fine; they got the proportions right and the face is much-much better. So, do rush to NYC and photograph yourself with BigB.