Images Gallery: July 2011

Bubble Gum: An 80s film released in 2011

MUMBAI: Bubble Gum is about a troubled teenager, his perceived insecurities, infatuation, rivalry and, finally, his coming of age. With growing star prices, different genres are being tried along with some which don't easily fit a genre.

Bubble Gum is about a middle class housing society in 1980s Jamshedpur when there was no net or cell phone and life's aspirations were simpler and pace leisurely.

The society has its bunch of young boys and girls, one of whom is Delzad Hiwale, a 14-year-old lad. Delzad has a few issues but he has found a purpose in his lonely life in a 13-year-old girl, Apoorva Arora, who has shifted to the same complex. He has fallen in love. However, as at home, here too he has a hurdle to face.

At home Delzad feels neglected since his older brother, who is deaf and mute, is sent away to a hostel, for such students get more attention while he is just taken for granted for being normal. Similarly, in his pursuit of love too he has a competitor with all the traits of a '80s film villain in Suraj Kumar, a year older than him. The boy is Reggie Mantle to Delzad's Archie, only more sinister and devious.

Delzad's troubles mount when his deaf and mute older brother, Sohail Lakhani, comes home for Holi vacations and not only gets all the attention from the parents but is also responsible for Delzad having to stay at home all the time, forced to keep his brother company.

Delzad's so called social life comes to standstill as does his pursuit of love. His arch rival, meanwhile, uses all the ploys and plots to get ahead in the race. The centre of all the activities is the Holi festival while the favourite pass time of the girls as well as boys is playing kabbadi, something that may seem out of sync to today's generation. After all the enmities and family misgivings, the spirit of Holi prevails and each realises his/her own misplaced priorities.

The best part about this film is its casting, gathering raw, young talent from across India; all the actors give natural performances with the prototype villain, Suraj Kumar coming tops closely followed by Sohail Lakhani and Delzad Hiwale. Apporva Arora and Azeen, along with veterans Sachin Khedekar and Tanvi Azmi, are apt. The director has stuck to exploring the innocence of that era which today's parents may identify more with than the children. Music is situational.

Bubble Gum has its few cute moments but it is not the kind of venture to sustain at the box office.

Issue-based films tend to get themselves into trouble. And we don’t mean just the trouble caused by disgruntled parties, political or otherwise.

The balance that needs to be struck between headlines and their cinematic interpretation often tends to get lost thereby defeating the noblest of purposes and the best intentions of conscientious filmmakers who look at the cinematic medium as more than just entertainment.

Ajai Sinha who has his roots in meaningful television entertainment , boldly takes on the theme of khap (community) justice in rural Haryana whereby any marriage between two individuals of the same gotra (clan) is punished by local village panchayats. It’s a powerful subject that needed a singlemindedly uncompromised treatment.

Sadly Sinha dilutes the theme with dollops of formula-baazi. There’s a teenybopper love-angle featuring two relative newcomers who need a crash-course in basic acting and grooming. The young love-birds chat online with what they feel are sweet cute and funny lines.

If only they knew! The entire treatment and development of their romance is redolent of amateurishness. Precious time is frittered away in gawkily composed and choreographed song and dances where the love birds coo sweet-nothings into one another’s ears.

You feel like pushing these two campus wannabes out of the way to watch the impending drama in a village of Haryana where the panchayat is a law unto itself.

The interweavement of characters into a dramatic circle embodying outdated customs and their clash with contemporary mores, could have acquired a greater validity if the narrative had focused more on hardhitting rural prejudices rather than jejune urban affectations.

Om Puri as the village sarpanch is the pick of the plot. He gets the meatiest part with the best emotional graph. He doesn’t need to make much of an effort to make the part his own, and he doesn’t even try.

Nowadays a kind of laziness has crept into distinguished actor’s repertoire. It’s wonderful to see the talented Manoj Pahwa grab a pivotal role. Pahwa was hilarious as Ayesha Takiya’s delusional suitor in Wanted.

Here he sinks into the role of a village elder who once watched his daughter being slaughtered for the village honour.

Ajai Sinha’s antecedents from television make themselves evident in the way the drama unfolds in episodic overtures covering huge time-frames with soft punctuation marks.

The film would have worked better with a more confident cast of younger plays. The elders can only take the drama so far. Khap is finally betrayed by the wimpish and awkward portrayal of the urban young and by too many attempts to draw out a soap-opera-styled drama from situations that seem to plead for more finesse in presentation.

Nonetheless Khap should be commended for attempting a socially-relevant theme with some amount of detachment and equanimity. Should love between cousins or people from within one family be sternly discouraged just because the village panchayat feels it is damaging to the social framework?

Looking as fabulous as ever at the age of 38-years-old, Cameron Diaz

The blonde beauty gracefully posed for the French magazine's front page while churning out a too-hot-to-handle swimsuit spread adorning the pages of the European publication.

Photo Credit: Madame Figaro

Arnold Schwarzenegger's son Christopher has said that he is feeling much better in the wake of his recent accident.

The 13-year-old was admitted to intensive care after breaking several bones and suffering a collapsed lung while surfing in Malibu earlier this month.

Christopher was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and has since been seen driving around Los Angeles with his big sister Katherine.

While out on the town, Christopher took the time to tell TMZ that he is feeling "excellent" following his stint in the intensive care unit.

Arnold and his estranged wife Maria Shriver released a statement earlier this week in which they revealed that their son will make a full recovery.

The couple announced their separation in May after 25 years of marriage.

Katie Price has announced that she has moved out of the house she shared with ex-husbands Peter Andre and Alex Reid.

The glamour model turned businesswoman declared on Twitter yesterday that her £3m Surrey home had been tainted with "not good memories" of her failed marriages.

"Finally said goodbye to the house I lived in for 3 years," she wrote. "Onwards and upwards from here. Not good memories there! New house, new start. Wooo hooo!"

Price celebrated the move to her £2m abode in West Sussex by spending a "cosy night in" with friends, family and boyfriend Leandro Penna.

"Cosy night in sitting next 2 new log fire with@leandro__penna, my mum and dad, Harvey, 4 dogs, 7 cats," she tweeted. "Love this house. So happy, I'm a lucky girl."

Price sold her mansion for £250,000 below its asking price after deeming it to be "cursed".

The 33-year-old purchased her West Sussex home last year and has spent the last eight months renovating it.

Penna is said to have given up his own apartment in Argentina in order to spend more time with Price.

Actress Madhuri Dixit won the Bollywood Beauty Legend Award at the Vogue Beauty Awards functionon 2011

Madhuri will also be seen on the cover of the next Vogue magazine called the 'Age Issue' On receiving the award, she told reporters "I have a long way to go before I become a legend, but it is an honour for me to accept this award. Beauty for me is not what is from the outside, but what is in the inside." Actress Anushka Sharma won the award for the Fresh Face of Bollywood. She said, "I hope I receive the Fresh Face award every year, though that does not mean I am scared of ageing. Beauty is a very subjective aspect. What is beautiful for me, might not be beautiful for someone else. For me beauty is how one does things based on their comfort level." Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the award for the Global Beauty Icon.

Vogue Beauty Awards honour the best beauty products, services and professionals across 54 categories like skin care, make up, hair and many more. It is the second year of the Awards.

The winners were chosen by a jury, comprising of Dia Mirza, Adhuna Akhtar, Simone Singh, Priya Tanna, Mickey Contractor and others who tested the products nominated personally. The jury members were present at the award ceremony.

Priya Tanna, Editor of Vogue India, said the second edition demonstrates the commitment towards beauty. She said, "The overwhelming response we received last year from our readers, industry professionals and experts has encouraged us to further expand these awards, adding a new category to recognise individual talent and celebrate the stunning faces of Bollywood. It's only going to be bigger and better."

Thirteen items belonging to the late kung fu legend Bruce Lee, including a 1966 letter he wrote and a fur-lined coat will go under the hammer in a Hong Kong auction next week, a report said Saturday.

The sale, which could raise up to HK$880,000 ($112,900), is believed to be the largest-scale auction of his memorabilia in the southern Chinese city, where Lee was raised before moving to the United States in his late teens.

Items to be sold from his estate include a letter he wrote 45 years ago to a friend in which the martial arts specialist talked about the television series The Green Hornet, in which he played Kato, a confidant of the superhero.

"The item is meaningful in the sense that it can allow us to understand more about Bruce Lee's views and what he thought about his work at that time," Wong Yiu-keung, the Bruce Lee Fan Club chairman told the South China Morning Post.

Other items to be sold at the August 6 auction include a dark-blue fur-lined coat which was made around 1973 for Lee's film Game of Death, a membership card for his kung fu institute, and a name card of Lee.

The sale is jointly organised by auction houses America's Kelleher Auctions and Phila China of Hong Kong. Bruce Lee Fan Club and Phila China could not be reached for immediate comment on Saturday.

The Hong Kong government said last month that it has shelved a plan to turn Lee's old home in the southern Chinese city -- which later became a rundown love hotel -- into a museum, citing differences with the property owner.

Fans of the icon, who died in 1973 at the age of 32, have long called for museum dedicated to Lee in the city.

Lee -- credited with catapulting the martial arts film genre into the mainstream with films including Fists of Fury and the posthumously released Enter the Dragon -- died after a severe reaction to medication. (AFP)

Leather-Clad Lady Gaga Struts Her Stuff In NYC

Back in the States after spending time in traveling through Asia and Australia, Lady Gaga was spotted heading off to work in New York City on Sunday .Enjoy the pictures of Lady Gaga strutting her stuff on the streets of sunny NYC (July 17).

Photo Credit: SplashNewsOnline.com

Actor Salman Khan has now moved ahead in becoming the highest paid star in the industry with an increase in his fees.

With his recent hits at the box office, Salman, just like co-stars Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan has now decided to demand a whopping Rs 50 crore for his next project.

So far, Salman used to charge nothing less than Rs 40 crore but now with his current position at the box office he too has plans of making more big bucks.

Two filmmakers who have recently signed on Salman have confirmed the news of the hike in his fee. Sources say that along with hiking his fee, the star also recommends directors for these films. He also has insisted on casting Sonakshi Sinha for ‘Kick’.

But filmmaker Bhushan Kumar said that the star re-negotiates and restructures his price. "When Salman bhai did Ready, the film industry was facing a huge financial crunch. But he agreed to cut down his price from Rs 40 crore to Rs 17 crore”, he said.

Rihanna has insisted that Lady GaGa, Katy Perry, Beyoncé and she are the women who are currently dominating the pop music scene. The singer, who finished up the US leg of her ‘Loud’ tour on Sunday, said that it is “exciting” so many female stars are topping the charts and selling more records than their male contemporaries.

‘’There’s a pack. It’s me, GaGa, Katy Perry, Beyoncé... who else? Ke$ha for sure,” she told Glamour magazine. “Women are definitely dominating music right now, and that’s because we are competitive beings. I feel like music hasn’t been this exciting in a while.” She added: “All my friends are guys, to be completely honest. But when I met [Katy Perry], it was such a breath of fresh air.

I just couldn’t believe this chick had no edit button... Katy and Lady GaGa came out of the gate exactly the way they think, the way they wanna dress, the way they wanna speak.’’ The 23-year-old recently revealed that ‘Cheers’ will be the sixth single to be lifted from her multi-million-selling Loud album.