Nominations for 55th Idea Filmfare Awards 2009

BOLD: The Ones that Might Win.
Underline: My Picks.

Best Film
3 Idiots
Dev D
Kaminey
Love Aaj Kal

Paa

Wake Up Sid

Best Director
Anurag Kashyap - Dev D
Ayan Mukerji - Wake Up Sid
Imtiaz Ali - Love Aaj Kal
R Balakrishnan - Paa
Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots
Vishal Bharadwaj - Kaminey

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Male
Aamir Khan - 3 Idiots
Amitabh Bachchan - Paa
Ranbir Kapoor - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Ranbir Kapoor - Wake Up Sid
Saif Ali Khan - Love Aaj Kal
Shahid Kapoor - Kaminey

***Please don't give this award to Aamir Khan!***

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Female
Deepika Padukone - Love Aaj Kal
Katrina Kaif - New York
Kareena Kapoor - 3 Idiots
Kareena Kapoor - Kurbaan
Priyanka Chopra - Kaminey
Vidya Balan - Paa

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Male
Amol Gupte - Kaminey
Boman Irani - 3 Idiots
Neil Nitin Mukesh - New York
R Madhavan - 3 Idiots
Rishi Kapoor - Luck By Chance
Sharman Joshi - 3 Idiots

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Female
Arundhati Naag - Paa
Divya Dutta - Delhi-6
Dimple Kapadia - Luck By Chance
Kalki Koechlin - Dev D
Shahana Goswami - Firaaq
Supriya Pathak - Wake Up Sid

Best Music
A R Rahman - Delhi-6
Amit Trivedi - Dev D
Pritam Chakraborty - Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Pritam Chakraborty - Love Aaj Kal
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy - Wake Up Sid
Vishal Bharadwaj - Kaminey

Best Lyrics
Gulzar - Kaminey - (Kaminey)
Gulzar - Dhan Te Nan - (Kaminey)
Irshad Kamil - Aaj Din Candya - (Love Aaj Kal)
Javed Akhtar - Iktara - (Wake Up Sid)
Prasoon Joshi - Masakali - (Delhi-6)
Prasoon Joshi - Rehna Tu - (Delhi-6)

Best Playback Singer - Male
Atif Aslam - Tu Jaane Na - (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Javed Ali-Kailash Kher - Arziyan - (Delhi-6)
Mohit Chauhan - Masakali - (Delhi-6)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - Aaj Din Chadheya - (Love Aaj Kal)
Sonu Niigaan-Salim Merchant - Shukran Allah - (Kurbaan)
Sukhwinder Singh-Vishal Dadlani - Dhan Te Nan - (Kaminey)

Best Playback Singer - Female
Alisha Chinoy - Tera Hone Laga - (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Kavita Seth - Iktara - (Wake Up Sid)
Rekha Bhardwaj - Genda Phool - (Delhi-6)
Shilpa Rao - Mudi Mudi - (Paa)
Shreya Ghoshal - Zoobi Doobi - (3 Idiots)
Sunidhi Chauhan - Chor Bazaari - (Love Aaj Kal)

I wonder who the host(s) will be this year...

Saif + Shahrukh

 Imran + Ranbir

February Is Upon Us...14 Days of Pyaar...Filmi Style (Day 1)

So today is the first day of February and in honor of this month I plan on posting several of my favorite romantic songs from films that I have seen.  So hopefully I will be posting one song per day...leading up to the release of My Name Is Khan and Valentine's Day on Sunday.  But since there's just so much romance in Hindi films I'll try to post one for each 28 days of February.  I hope you guys enjoy them and at the same time discover new songs to love!

Day 1:  Tum Se Hi --- Jab We Met

*Kareena Kapoor

*Shahid Kapoor

So I've already gushed about this film enough in one of my last posts, so just enjoy the video.

I also found this video with the Hindi lyrics and English translations, which I thought I might add, in case anyone was interested in knowing what the song says.

I know Karate...So there shouldn't be a problem... A Review of Jab We Met

Ok!...so I know this review will be a little biased, on account that this is my all time favorite Hindi film, but whatever. So, the story of Jab We Met is that of Aditya Kashiap, played by Shahid Kapoor *sigh*, failing business industrialist, who decides to get on a train to escape his troubled personal life in Mumbai. During his train ride he meets the very talkative {and I really mean this, she talks even when she's sleeping lol} and bubbly Geet, played beautifully by Kareena Kapoor.

Eventually the trip consists of Geet missing her train, not once but twice, and needing to stay at a Hotel {Hotel Decent} with Aditya while at the same time being mistaken for a call girl {3 hours ;-)}, and having to warn Aditya that she knows Karate so there wouldn't be a problem. Eventually they reach Geet' home in Bhatinda, where her entire family is there to greet her. She immediately finds out that her family has arranged her marriage to long time family friend Manjeet Mann, but Geet's only reason for coming back home was to later run away to elope with her boyfriend Anshuman.

I don't want to say much more...I really am not good at recommending films but this one is just so good!!! I believe this to be one of Kareena Kapoor's most strongest roles to date. I think that one of the best moments in the film is when Geet misses the train for a second time...her expression is just priceless!

The ending song that seems to be an Imtiaz Ali trademark in his films worked so much better in this film than it did in Love Aaj Kal. Mauja Hi Mauja integrates itself into the wedding ceremony, unlike Aahun Aahun whose sole purpose is just to be an ending song. Don't get me wrong, I freaking love Auhun Aahun...I just feel that it didn't fit as well as the song in Jab We Met.

16th Annual Star Screen Awards!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen....


16th Annual Star Screen Awards
Here are the nominations:

Best Film

3 Idiots

Dev D

Kaminey

Love Aaj Kal

Paa

Best Actor
Aamir Khan (3 Idiots)
Amitabh Bachchan (Paa)
Ranbir Kapoor (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Ranbir Kapoor (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)
Saif Ali Khan (Love Aaj Kal)
Shahid Kapoor ( Kaminey)

Best Director
Rajkumar Hirani
Vishal Bhardwaj
R. Balki
Imtiaz Ali
Anurag Kashyap

Best Actress
Priyanka Chopra (Kaminey)
Priyanka Chopra (What's Your Rashee?)
Vidya Balan (Paa)
Kareena Kapoor (3 Idiots)
Katrina Kaif (New York)
Deepika Padukone (Love Aaj Kal)

Best Supporting Actor
Rishi Kapoor (Love Aaj Kal)
Rishi Kapoor (Luck By Chance)
Abhimanyu Singh (Gulaal)
R. Madhavan (3 Idiots)
Sharman Joshi (3 Idiots)

Best Female Supporting Actor
Arundhati Nag (Paa)
Divya Dutt (Delhi 6)
Gauhar Khan (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)
Neha Dhupia (Raat Gayi Baat Gayi)
Shahana Goswami (Firaaq)

Best Actor in a Comic Role
Om Vaidya (3 Idiots)
Paresh Rawal (De Dana Dan)
Sanjay Mishra (All The Best)
Vinay Pathak (Raat Gayi Baat Gayi)

Best Actor in a Negative Role
Boman Irani (3 Idiots)
Kay Kay Menon (Gulaal)
Mahesh Manjrekar (Wanted)
Manish Chaudhari (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)

Best Music
Pritam (Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani)
Pritam (Love Aaj Kal)
Pritam (Tum Mile)
A. R. Rahman (Delhi 6)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Kaminey)

Best Background Score
Amit Truvedi (Dev D)
Shantanu Moitra, Atul Raninga and Sanjay Wandreker (3 Idiots)
Vishal Bhardwaj (Kaminey)
Illayaraja (Paa)
Salim Suliaman (Rocket Singh Salesman of The Year)

Best Female Playback Singer
Kavita Seth (Iktaara, Wake Up Sid)
Rekha Bhardwaj (Genda Phool, Delhi 6)
Shreya Ghoshal (Zoobie Doobie, 3 Idiots)
Shilpa Rao (Mudi Mudi, Paa)
Sunidhi Chauhan (Mere Sang Chal Zara, New York)

Most Promising Debut Director
Ayan Mukjerjee (Wake Up Sid)
Nandita Das (Firaaq)
Pankaj Advani (Sankat City)
Zoya Akhtar (Luck By Chance)
Shivajee Chandrabhushan (Frozen)

Most Promising Newcomer Male
Amole Gupte (Kaminey)
Chandan Roy Sanyal (Kaminey)
Navin Kaushik (Rocket Singh Salesman Of The Year)
Om Vaidya (3 Idiots)

Most Promising Newcomer Female
Mahie Gill (Dev D)
Kalki Koechlin (Dev D)
Jesse Randhawa (Gulaal)
Gauhar Khan (Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year)
Giselle Monteiro (Love Aaj Kal)


*** I must point out that Ranbir Kapoor should have gotten his nomination his outstanding performance in Wake Up Sid and not Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.

***I also feel that Abhay Deol really got snubbed for Dev. D ...this was one of the best performances of the year, at least in my opinion, and he received no recognition for it.  {I mean, Ranbir is great but he did not deserve to get 2 nominations}

I really hope that Filmfare does a better job of nominating those performances that truly deserve it...

Swing Batter Batter Swing... A review of Dil Bole Hadippa

Swing Batter Batter Swing....

The story of Dil Bole Hadippa is of Veera Kaur, played by the stunning Rani Mukherjee, who has a dream of becoming a professional Cricket player. Her dreams almost come to an abrupt halt when she is not allowed to try out for the men's Indian team. In the meantime the coach of the team Vikram Singh, played by Anupam Kher, desperate for an Indian victory tricks his son Rohan Singh, played by Shahid Kapoor, to come back to India and coach his team. Rohan already a professional Cricket player for the UK team is emotionally blackmailed, and helps coach his fathers team. Back to Veera, after being rejected she comes up with the brilliant scheme of becoming Veer Pratap Singh, in order to join the men's team.  Trouble ensues when Rohan starts to have feelings for Veera.  This is just a quick summary of the film.

When I first heard of a Rani + Shahid pairing I thought to myself, WoW!, that's new. I personally would have never paired them together, not that I didn't like them together, I LOVED them! It worked very well in the film, I just would have never pictured them together. Even though I enjoyed their chemistry, I felt as though it just happened too fast. She started to like him after she knew that he liked her, but more on this later.

And yes I know I'm very late on reviewing/commenting this film, since it came out in Sept. '09, but there is just so much to discuss. I don't think I've ever been so fascinated with a film like I was with this one. This is not to imply that it was a great film, because sadly...it wasn't. I think that what first drew me to this was first and foremost Rani {Yay! My Rani is Back!}. Sorry for the praise.

I'll start by pointing out what worked for me in the film:

First: the music, Yash Raj always has a tendency of having fantastic soundtracks, and this one is no exception. I loved the whole Punjab feel of it, it just worked so well, It gave the whole album a very upbeat/happy feel to it. My favorite tracks were Discowale Khisko and Ishq Hi Hai Rab.

 *********************************************************************

Second: Rakhi Sawant! Need I say more...she was a nice treat. Known only for her item numbers, she performed spectacularly well, I must say that she did only have like 3 lines in the whole film, but she did well. The item number in this film was Bhangra Bistar, which was one of my favorite music videos of this year. I loved the whole concept of gender bending, this always makes for an interesting show. Veera as the 'man' and Rakhi the 'woman.' In the words of Filmi Girl , "Dil Bole Hadippa gives us a healthy dose of lesbian kantaben-style romps...Rani [Veera Kaur] gets in some relatively steamy scenes with Rakhi Sawant...].

Lastly: the Veera + Rohan aspect of the film, was by far the best thing of the film. Yes, their love blossomed very fast, but when doesn't love 'just happen' especially in a Bollywood film??? Given what they had to work with, they did a pretty good job. I think it was the way Rohan would look into Veera's eyes that would just make anyone melt *sigh*

There's a specific scene where this is perfectly shown, during the picturization of, “Ishq Hi Hai Rab,” where Rohan walks through these blue silk sheets, in what I think is called a kurta, {looking quite sexy, I might add}. The moment he locks eyes with Veera is just beautiful, you really fall for it, you just know it's pyaar.

This was pretty much what I loved from the film. Like I said earlier, it wasn't a great film but it wasn't horrible, there's a reason as to why I've seen this film over ten times since I bought it.

Finally, My Introduction...

...I realize that I have started this blog the wrong way, but I was just way too excited about MNK trailer I just felt that I had to share it with the world!  Let's see...how to introduce oneself to the world and no one at the same time.  I'll start off by discussing my future plans for this blog and although my intro says i'll talk about everything, it'll most likely {about 99%} consist of Bollywood goodness.  I started this obsession a little more than a year ago, I was flipping through the channels one Saturday morning and I stumbled across Channel 18, and a show with people dancing in strange costumes and singing in a language i was very unfamiliar with.  At first I dismissed it as one of those boring music specials they have on public access television, but I decided to stick with it, and boy was I in for a lovely surprise.  I was sucked into this world I had never known to have existed, I started to listen and really pay attention to the song, but then the show was over.  The next Saturday I was determined to find out what I had seen a week ago, thankfully with every music video that is played the title of the film and song is listed and so I wrote both down {Mauja Hi Mauja, Jab We Met} and began my research.  I found out that these were not just music videos but songs in films.  And my first dose of Hindi Cinema came from the film Jab We Met, {which thanks to YouTube} became the first ever Bollywood film I ever saw.  And still, to this day remains one of most treasured films in my DVD collection.  This was my introduction into what has now become one of the most important aspects of my life...Bollywood!