Marriage time in bollywood: Isha Koppikar weds Timmy Narang

It’s wedding season in Bollywood. A week after Shilpa Shetty tied the knot with Raj Kundra, it was the turn of actress Isha Kopikar to exchange nuptial vows with her longtime beau Timmy Narang on Sunday.

The two got married at the ISKCON Temple in Juhu in a private ceremony that was attended by close family and friends. It was a traditional Maharashtrian style wedding that reportedly lasted for about four hours. Since the auspicious time scheduled for the wedding was 11am, it was a daytime wedding.

“I am very excited and I can't wait to get married,” Narang, a restaurateur, told reporters before entering the temple.

33-year-old Isha wore a red and yellow sari while the groom was dressed in a cream sherwani.

An official from the temple is quoted as saying: “They brought their own priest and we just provided the hall and the food. They had a booking here from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.”

A reception was later held at night at Narang’s residence.
 

Amir Khan so selective: won’t sign films for a year

Since the release of Ghajini in December 2008, Aamir has not signed on the dotted line for any project. In fact, Aamir had decided to take one full year off after Ghajini to rejuvenate himself .After the tough physical and emotional preparation for Ghajini, Aamir just wanted to relax and spend time with his wife and children.

That’s precisely what he has done for the last one year. But now Aamir would be taking one more year off. This next one year would be devoted to putting his three home productions in order. Says a source, “Aamir had earlier decided to take one year off. But now he has decided to extend his sabbatical by one more year. Filmmakers who have approached him with projects have been told that Aamir intends to take approximately one more year to supervise the post-production and final look of the three films that he has produced in 2009, namely Abhinay Deo’s Delhi Belly, Anushka Rizvi’s The Falling and Aamir’s wife Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat.”

Aamir feels all three projects need serious fine-tuning and have been delayed because he has been busy finishing and promoting 3 Idiots. Says the source, “The only way Aamir feels his three productions can be completed and released in 2010 is if he sets aside all his own acting assignments to look into them. So he isn’t signing any films in 2010 either.”

One more honour for Rahman, Gulzar

After winning accolades around the globe for their Oscar-winning exploits, the Slumdog Millionaire trio A R Rahman, Resul Pookutty and lyricist Gulzar will be facilitated at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), where veteran actress Sharmila Tagore will be the guest of honour.

They would be honoured on December 11th at the coveted event in which retrospectives of Mexican director Arturo Ripsten, Japanese director Mikio Naruse, French filmmaker Jacques Tati and Malayalam director Lohitadas will also be held.  

The other highlights include commemoration of 50th year of Cuban revolution with a package of nine movies from the Caribbean nation in the 'country focus' segment.

Bollywood hit maker Karan wants to work with Shahid, Deepika

Karan Johar is one among the young breed of filmmakers who has set a new trend in Bollywood. His movies be it those directed by him or produced by him have always been entertaining and enthralling.

Karan Johar, who worked with the likes of Shahrukh Khan, is a great admirer of the entertainment medium. His recent co-production venture Kurbaan starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena is making right noise at the box office.

But Karan has a desire. In his Twitter page, the young film personality said, ' I have been inundated with tweets to make a film with Shahid and Deepika...they both are great! and would love to work with them'.

Shahid Kapoor is the latest sensation in Bollywood thanks to hits in Jab We Met and Kaminey while Deepika is going gaga with her success.

Chemistry malayalam fim review:A confused subject

Producer- Kasthuri.J
Director- Viji Tampy
Cast- Sharanya Mohan, Shilpa Bala, Mukesh, Vineeth etc.
Music- M.Jayachandran, Vinu Kiriyath
Lyrics- Bichu Thirumala
Cinematography- Sanjeev Shankar
Story, Screenplay, dialogues- Vinu Kiriyath


Director Viji Thampi seems to have forgotten the chemistry to venture into his viewers hearts, in the short interval that he had kept away from films. Here in the movie ‘Chemistry’ (written as Che-Mystery), he tries all sorts of genres often as a spine-chilling thriller, even as a horror movie and at times as a suspense movie. But every attempt in this messy palette appears muddled, as the movie fails to entertain, in most parts.

The movie is remotely based on a real life event, of the death of three plus-One students, which happened a few months back in central Kerala. But here the students are placed in a convent school, Mount Academy School, where they are found dead inside the laboratory, attempting to drink poison. SP Sreekanth (Mukesh), who is in charge of the investigation goes through the proceedings, but in the next session also enroll his niece Parvathi (Saranya Mohan) in the same school. The girl brought up in the US, shares the hostel room where one of the dead girl was in. And she starts behaving oddly as the ghost of the dead girl ‘Gowry’ (Shilpa Bala)’gets into the body of Parvathi to solve the murder mystery and to take vengeance.

In the end, we are perplexed to think why we were subjected to all those tantrums on screen, which could have been easily cleared by the handling over of a simple laptop of leads. Together with it, are the clichéd Manthravaadi and the old colourful ‘kalam’ sequences coupled with the poor dialogues. And the promised suspense and the culprit can be spotted light years away, giving all the direct clues for an observant viewer even before the half way. With no revelations in store and silly attempts to shockers with inane graphics and comedies; a potentially tremendous message oriented plot is lost completely in transition.
Inspired from the scenes of every possible horror and psychoanalysis films, Vinu Kiriyath and Viji Thampi maintains to keep the happenings racy enough to the extent that they keep on bombarding with great pace, but with little to no logic. And to maintain a comic track, Vinu has even borrowed that F’ for S’ trait of Shahid Kapoor in ‘Kaminay’ for the character of Jagathy Sreekumar, which even doesn’t entertain as the original.
And in the casting side Saranya Mohan definitely had a role of promise at her premise, but with little author backing and uniformly uneven direction, the chances goes astray though the actress had been well, all through. Shilpa Bala, Mukesh, Vineeth, Suresh Krishna and Lakshmi Priya are good in their roles while Harishree Ashokan and Jagathy, are once again wasted in unwarranted sequences.

The technical sides are better with Sanjeev Sankar's fine visuals but songs are presented in the most inappropriate places and even on silliest lyrics.
All in all, this Chemistry, failing to find the right combination to connect with the heart of the viewers, remains as another confused movie that could have been better, if the central concept had been used and presented wisely. Now it’s all up to you, whether to have a reaction of this Che-Mystery.

Jyothirmayi's answer is big no

Denying reports that she has decided to bid adieu to acting career, Jyothirmayi says she very much wants to be part of film industry and there is no questing of quitting movies.

"There is no truth in reports which claimed that I am planning to say good bye to acting. It is just a rumour. I love this profession and would like to make a mark before I quit," says the actress from Mollywood.

She adds: "It is true that I am not acting in any Tamil new film after 'Vedigundu Murugesan'. That is because I have not come across any interesting offer after that. Many offers are coming way. But I want to be part of an engrossing film which has enough importance to my character."

Saying that she is currently acting in two Malayalam movies besides a Kannada project, Jyothirmayi adds: "I am also getting ready for an abroad trip to take part in a couple of stage shows."

seetha kalyanam Movie review:jayaram,jyothika,indrajth,geethu mohandas

T K Rajeev Kumar’s much delayed movie ‘Seetha Kalyanam’ will finally see the light of the screen. The movie which was in the making for the last six years, have Jayaram and Jyothika in the lead. Produced by Revathy Kalamandhir, the movie is set in the backdrop of a Brahmin marriage that extends for many days.

The big question is how does 'My Best Friend's Wedding' look like, in a Brahmin household? It looks like 'Seetha Kalyanam', with classical music blaring in the background, plenty of laddus and jilebis being served around and marigold garlands adorning every nook and corner of the screen. 

As for the theme and the plot, ‘Seetha Kalyanam’ has nothing new to offer. It’s all simple. Sreeni (Jayaram) is a software professional working in Bangalore and having a nice time with his colleagues, especially a few girls, of whom Nimisha (Jyothika) is his close friend. His marriage is fixed to Abhirami (Geethu Mohandas) in the traditional way and he travels home, to get married in the traditional Brahmin manner, in a marriage ceremony spanning seven days. His colleagues, Nimisha and her gang, reach Kerala to be part of the ceremony. As the marriage ceremony goes on, Nimisha begins to realize that she loves Sreeni. She tries not to tell him, but at last, unable to help it, she reveals it all to Sreeni. It’s then that Sreeni too realizes his love for her. The marriage ceremony is half way through. It’s from here that the plot develops.
Hey, this is ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’, you may say. It sure is, if you look at it that way. So what? There is no rule that a film should be 100% original. (How many are, these days?) Well, the ‘My Best Friends’ Wedding’ thing apart, ‘Seethakalyanam’ is just a so so kind of film with more of flaws than merits. The proceedings seem to lag a bit or maybe too much at places and there are many things that seem unconvincing. There are some scenes well shot and some poorly executed. A couple of songs stand out in rendition as well as in picturisation while the others are unimpressive. The comedy track goes all out of control. The ambience of a traditional Brahmin marriage is partly felt and partly not. The frames are all colourful and the presence of the big mirrors works on a symbolic level too, to an extent. Too many characters, but the characterization aspect fares too poor. So, in short, ‘Seethakalyanam’ goes wrong to a great extent and the plusses don’t work out favourably either.

Performances
In the lead role, Jayaram is of course OK. His performance anyhow doesn’t stand out and the role could very well have been handled by anyone. Jyothika is good and does justice to her role. Indrajith and Geethu Mohandas are OK with their roles, though they have nothing much to do, performance-wise. Siddique does a good work of his role and shines well, but the others don’t get much to do. So many popular faces in the cast is a good thing and it’s to be mentioned that everyone does justice to his or her bit, in their respective styles. But it’s real sad to have veteran Tamil actress Manorama and the late Oduvil Unnikrishnan sans their respective voices and styles of dialogue rendition, which form part of their identity. (Well, technical reasons, quite understandable ones).
Technical aspects
Rajiv Ravi has done a great work of the cinematography, composing the frames as colourfully as possible. Art-work by Prakash Moorthy and Rasi and editing by Arun Kumar is good.
Music
Background score by Sharath jells well with the mood of the film. Of the songs, set to tune by Sreenivas, ‘Ragasudharasamayi pranayam…” stands out and is picturised well too. “Doore Doore…” is OK.
Script
Director T.K.Rajeev Kumar, who has penned the script too, has tried to do a good work of it all, but there are times when he seems to fail utterly. While some of the scenes are well-written, some of them fail to make any impact. The comedy track, woven around Janardhanan, Kalpana, Bindu Panicker, Jagadeesh and Bheeman Reghu, fall short of all standards and don’t evoke laughter at all. He has also failed on the characterization side.
Direction
There are plusses as well as minuses to speak of, when it comes to direction. The theme, though not new or different, could have made for a good, enjoyable movie, had Rajeev Kumar paid more attention to things. As of now, the minuses outweigh the plusses and the film goes all wrong.

Producer : G.Suresh Kumar
Director : T.K.Rajeev Kumar
Cast : Jayaram, Jyothika, Indrajith, Geethu Mohandas etc.
Music : Sreenivas
Lyrics : Beeyar Prasad
Cinematography : Rajiv Ravi
Story,Screenplay,dialogues : T.K.Rajeev Kumar