RANBIR’S ‘SANJU’ ACT IS SHORT OF BREATH

Everything seems to be a joke in the eagerly awaited trailer of Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju, based on the life of troubled actor Sanjay Dutt. A cruel joke told in the form of a psychedelic fable replete with visuals of Sanju baba aka Ranbir Kapoor, high on drugs, so high that he can’t tell the difference between a laugh and a cry, or a mangalsutra and a toilet seat.

In a sequence meant to be deafeningly shrill in its hysterical repudiation of a traumatic marriage, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja shrieks for her missing mangalsutra, and her high-as-a-kite husband drapes her neck with a toilet seat.

Toilets occur twice in the longish trailer. Next we see Sanju in a dingy prison cell panicking as the inbuilt toilet vomits yellow liquid excreta in nauseating bubbles.

Realism during the times of surrealism.

The atmosphere is light, uffy, woozy and jokey even in the scenes of horri c torture where Ranbir’s Sanju cracks up after a resounding slap from a policeman interrogating him for his alleged terror activity. It is again an unintentionally funny moment because the real Sanjay Dutt must have cracked up so many times under duress without looking like he has just been caught eating an extra gulab jamun for dessert.

Sanjay’s saga is a chronicle of self-abuse and voluntary destruction. Neither of these aspects is highlighted or even mentioned in the trailer. Barring the small glimpse of Manisha Koirala as Sanjay’s legendary mother Nargis, every actor seems to be in this for the fun of it. Vicky Kaushal, so majestically restrained in Raazi, is specially annoying as Sanju’s sidekick smirking about “say-ex”.

And Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt behaves as if his son is an angel targeted by all the devils in the world. This is so wrong. I remember how troubled Sunil was by his son’s antics. Speaking to me, he had called his son a “bigda beta (a brat)” spoilt by his mother. The trailer makes it seems the father blames the world for his son’s troubles.

Everything in the trailer seems to be done for effect. Anushka Sharma (with a specially-cropped haircut to look the part) asks Sanjay how many women he has slept with besides his girlfriends. (Which journalist asks such questions in Mumbai?)

“Does that include prostitutes? 308... no make that 350 just to be on the safe side,” Ranbir’s Sanju deadpans.

The overweening cuteness of an incorrigible hedonist is unbearable to digest.

The only moment that actually had me laughing was when director Mahesh Manjrekar calls Sanjay Dutt, saying the shot is ready. Sanju pretends to be stuck in the traf c.

“But I’ve called you on the landline,” protests Manjrekar with a laugh. That’s it. Everyone - from mum Nargis to friend Manjrekar - laughed off Sanju baba’s wrongdoings.

Judging by the trailer, it seems we’re supposed to do the same.

Subhash K. Jha

Basically, it has been decided that Agra would beat plastic pollution by ending disposable, or single use plastic around the Taj Mahal and make up to 500 metres around the historic monument plastic-free. It’s being called the Taj Declaration.

To which, Dia said, “Taj Mahal and Agra as a city attract tourists from all over the world. As a world heritage site and symbol of love, what we witnessed and we hope (is that) we will convert action on the ground to a signi cant change in the human behaviour.”

Dia added that the pledge is a “powerful example” to the entire world and that she can’t wait to come back and see how it all pans out. We’ve got our ngers crossed too!

SALMAN KHAN: MR CONGENIALITY

No other Khan comes close to the kind of popularity Salman Khan enjoys –neither Shah Rukh nor Aamir. The secret to this popularity is his apparent heart of gold. He is ‘bhai’, after all, and at any given point of time, you will always nd at least one celeb gushing over Sallu. In this case, two of them, Saqib Saleem and Jacqueline Fernandez (his co-stars in Race 3).

While Jacqueline says she feels so intimidated by his aura sometimes that she even forgets her dialogue, she adds, “Once you know him, you realise he is really a nice man with big heart”.

Saqib says Salman has the earned the greatest power there is: the power of people. “I think, as a public gure, I wish to achieve that,” said the actor, talking about how Salman treats everyone with the same respect – whether it’s the director or a spot boy. It’s not easy to see why Salman Khan is Mr. Congeniality.

SWARA BHASKER: HATERS GONNA HATE

She’s pretty much the most talkedabout celebrity out there currently– and why shouldn’t she be? Swara Bhasker always has something to say, but full props to her for always taking it on the chin and giving it back to internet trolls.

The latest uproar around the actor seems to be about her masturbation sequence in the recently released Veere di Wedding. She responded, “I have been targeted by paid trolling in the past and I’m used to it. Many twitter- users and some prominent comedians and commentators have turned the ‘I took my Grandmother to watch VDW’ into very funny satirical comments. I’m grateful both for their support and their humour.”

She also said that she prefers to ignore people who are petty, hypocritical or those who slut-shame. “Currently I am ignoring these people and feeling very happy with the rest of the team of ‘Veere Di Wedding’ about the success of the lm.”

You go, girl!

VEERE DI WEDDING: NEXT BIG THING?

Veere di Wedding was possibly one of the most highly-anticipated lms of this year, and although it’s too soon to tell whether it’s a commercial hit, one thing is for sure: everyone’s talking about it. Whether it was Bebo’s return to the big screen after turning mum, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja’s return after her wedding or Swara Bhasker’s drastically different character from her usuals, everyone was curious about it. Producer Rhea Kapoor, in fact, believes that it has the potential to break the glass ceiling. “Calling the lm a chick ick would put it in a bracket. At a juncture where we are trying to break away from labels, it’s high time we had a lm that doesn’t judge women and at the same time is aspirational,” Rhea said.

Yes to that, Rhea. Our recent review, however, suggested that it’s a fun lm to watch with your girlfriends, but misses some much-needed depth in some places. So it may not be a chick ick exactly, but… glass ceiling? Ho-hum.

SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT: THE REAL BAAZIGAR

We all know that dialogue, don’t we?

Haar ke baazi jeetne wale ko baazigar kehte hain. Well, guess who loves to fail? Sushant Singh Rajput, that’s who! Ok, not exactly. Apparently, Sushant loves to take up roles that he thinks he’ll fail. Why?

“It becomes like a challenge for me to outdo myself. My philosophy of success in life is to nd different ways of failing, I would fail three to four times but the fth time when I succeed it would be my personal experience, it would help me emerge as a person,” says the actor. Well, perhaps there’s some logic to this.

SUSHANT SINGH-RAJPUT

After all, he’s had to really work for his career – his lms like Kai Po Che! and

M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story didn’t really break the box of ce (they did get him plenty of critical acclaim, though).

“Bollywood has taught me a lot, mostly that failure is just a way of pushing myself to do more and more and better myself with every new project that comes my way,” he said.

And one can’t deny it, the lad’s getting better with every lm he does.

State Of The Industry Report

Ask Big B and he will tell you, the state of the nation, er industry, is strong.

He’s talking about the lm business of course. And the rest of the industry wallahs, as well as the rest of the nation, will take his word at face value.

In a recent blog entry, the 75-yearold cine icon ruminated about current trends, and gave it all a considered highve.

“Story telling is so impressive these days that never before has there been such an acceptance to the variety of lms being made today,” he wrote.

There are large budgeted lms, small lms, fantasy lms and real lms, he listed, and observed that they all have a value at the box-of ce.

The audience has matured, he said, having developed a discerning attitude towards good and bad lms, and are not afraid to express themselves “in volumes”.

As for the current crop of lm-makers, “Competition is strong, (processes) are tedious, and the creative ideas are the very best.”

He concluded, “A moment of pride in our little world - a world that has always been the horse to be whipped but we are a strong world and we shall continue to survive and ght.”

He should know. At his age, he has just come off a major hit 102 Not Out and is working on two other big ones, Ayan Mukherjee’s Brahmastra and a Sujoy Ghosh project.

We hear you, Amitji.

Nickelodeon, Sony, Universal, BBC, and Paramount.

Here’s hoping some wonderful stuff comes out of the collaboration.

WORTH WAITING FOR? YOU DECIDE!

Haathi Mere Saathi, an animal drama featuring Rana Daggubati, Pulkit Samrat, Vishnu Vishal, Zoya Hussein and Kalki Koechlin, is currently in production

The lm is a trilingual, lmed simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil (as Kaadan) and in Telugu (as Aranya). A different cast features across languages.

NAMASTE,

INDIA: YELLOW WIGGLE GREG PAGE

Yellow Entertainment, the company of Wiggles founder Greg Page will soon be producing kids’ entertainment in India. In a partnership with India’s Toonz Media Group, it will co-develop and coproduce a preschool animated series for global distribution.

Yellow Entertainment will handle preproduction, including IP creation, scripts, and music, while Toonz will lead all other aspects of production.

Headquartered in Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, Toonz, through its state-of-the-art animation studio, has produced numerous successful kids and family entertainment brands through its global production partnerships with companies including Disney, Turner,

The movie highlights man-animal relationship is a story inspired by true events and a tribute to 1971 classic lm Haathi Mere Saathi starring Rajesh Khanna and Tanuja.

“The movie brings me back to one of my favourite subjects – elephants,” director Prabhu Solomon said about the lm.

The lm is currently on location in Thailand and Kerala.

Meanwhile, director Sujoy Ghosh reunites the Pink pairing of Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan again in his tentatively titled Badlaa. Apparently a murder mystery, it was meant to have had the Ghosh favourite Vidya Balan in it…. Oh, and a second major male lead, possibly Naseeruddin Shah!

On Twitter This Week

Match the stars to their tweets: Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Swara Bhasker, Farhan Akhtar

There are heroes in this lm. They are female. It’s unfortunate that the word ‘hero’ evolved to be masculine given that it’s actually gender neutral.

N this is my childhood frnd Iqbal, as a teen he was my bank, I still owe him 2011rs . thnk God he did not take interest.

My regard for & goodwill towards the people of #Pakistan remains unchanged. Some of my closest friends are Pakistani. Lahore remains one of my soul cities.

Love you so much Dugu!!!! You will always be so special to me in so many ways! I have the best memories of our times together specially on the sets of K3G !