John Abraham shows off girlfriend Priya Runchal officially!

John Abraham shows off

girlfriend Priya Runchal

officially!

The beefy actor who has guarded girlfriend

 Priya from the media until now finally takes it 

easy

John Abraham wasn’t so protective when he was seeing Bipasha Basu. That was probably because Bips was used to handling the media.Or, more importantly, it did a whole lot of good to their brand value! But after the hunk started dating the non-filmy Priya Runchal, he has been quite protective, at times even physically guarding the poor girl!

However, this week at the GQ awards, the actor was spotted showing off his pretty partner and blushing uncontrollably in front of the shutterbugs! And the couple looked like a million bucks – John all bulked up while Priya looking elegant and slender in a bright red dress.

Makes one think, why was he hiding her all this while! Obviously, the hoopla around his break up and the controversy surrounding his relationship with Priyanka had to die down before he could come out in the open, right?

And, although the duo made an appearance together, he did not let Priyanka speak with the media. When the time came for media bytes, John quietly told Priyanka to leave! Sneaky, eh?

We wonder what gave John the new found confidence to go all out to declare his love? A little birdie told us the couple has quietly tied the knot in a temple and are keeping it under wraps.

Anyway, after this week’s appearance, it is clear that John is slowly becoming comfortable appearing in public with Priya.

 Well, keep it up John. In any case, you can run but you can’t hide! Guess we’ll just have to wait a little longer before we can get to speak to your special girl!

Shahrukh Khan-Katrina Kaif-Anushka Sharma starrer Jab Tak Hai Jaan: What’s the story of Yash Chopra’s forthcoming film?

We combined our fertile imaginations with our zany sense of humour and cooked up a story for Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan. It may be or may not be true, but this is our interpretation of the new romance!

When the man (Yash Chopra) who has made the best love stories ever teams up with the man (Shahrukh Khan) who looks best making love onscreen, we expect to see a crackling, mind-blowing epic romance. 

And since Jab Tak Hai Jaan will be the YRF founder’s last film as a director, the SRK-Katrina Kaif-Anushka Sharma starrer has to offer audiences something more than two good-looking people singing and dancing in the Swiss Alps, the woman in a Manish Malhotra sari and the hunk in an Ed Hardy jacket.

What do we know for sure about this one? For starters, JTHJ is set in London, Ladakh and Kashmir.

But Aditya Chopra‘s poetry as narrated by SRK, the film’s trailer, the three pivotal characters and some old and new, some original and some clichéd aspects of the plot that we can deduce are enough to conjure up a slightly crazy, modern-day love story that could be senior Chopra’s last ode to romance. 

And as we listened to the poetic creativity of Aditya Chopra in SRK’s mellow voice, we let our minds come up with some magic that could unfold onscreen…soon.

Will Barfi! be disqualified from the Oscar race?

The film might find passing the originality test of the Academy Awards jury next to impossible. Is there still any hope for it to win a trophy? Read on to find out…

Insiders say that when Mani Ratnam’s Nayagan starring Kamal Hassan was sent as India’s official entry to the Oscars in 1987, it was disqualified by the jury and did not make it to the nominations for Best Foreign Language Film because one scene in the film had uncanny similarities to the classic Hollywood flick The Godfather. But some believe that cannot have been the only reason.

This makes us wonder if Barfi which clearly has copied several scenes from classics like Singin’ In The Rain (1957) and Charlie Chaplin’s short The Adventurer (1917), should be sent for the Academy Awards, considering there is a big chance that it will not make it to the nominations.

Irrfan Khan has been quite vocal about how the Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra-Ileana D’Cruz starrer is the wrong choice, for the same reason. “How can Barfi! stand a chance of making it to the nomination list of Oscars? In spite of knowing that few scenes from Barfi! have been copied, our film federation chose it over original. Only original films should be sent to the Oscars,” said Irrfan in an interview.

And Irrfan is probably right. The Academy Awards selection committee in India has chosen Barfi! as this year’s official entry from India, but it stands a great chance of being thrown out at the start because of the plagiarism charges that have already been heard dogging it. The negative buzz back in India won’t help it either.

What could probably save the movie is a written clarification at the beginning which says ‘Inspired from classics like Singing In The Rain, Charlie Chaplin’s The Adventurer and City Lights and The Notebook‘ or ‘A tribute to great cinema made by legends like Charlie Chaplin, Gene Kelly and Nick Casavetes, which inspired me to make Barfi! –Anurag Basu’.

But there are several more copied scenes, including from Mr Bean’s Holiday, Back To School, The Goonies, and more. So how many clarifications will UTV Motion Pictures manage to put in? And even if it is done, there is no guarantee that the film will pass the jury’s originality test.

On the other hand, there is still some hope for the film. Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist, which won the award for Best Picture this year is said to be inspired from several sources. The breakfast table montage in the movie was clearly lifted from Citizen Kane and the music took inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In fact, The Artist is said to be a remake of the 1954 musical A Star Is Born, directed by George Cukor.

Leaving the objective principles of fair selection aside, if the jury believes that the artistic inspirations ofBarfi! are appropriate and the end product is marvellous, these copied elements may be condoned.Barfi! is definitely walking on thin ice. Perhaps that coveted statuette can save it from breaking through and drowning.

ENGLISH VINGLISH movie review: Sridevi’s rockstar comeback!

 The actor delivers a power-packed performance and leaves an indelible impression – and that, after a 15-year vacation from Bollywood!

Is Sridevi on her way to becoming India’s Meryl Streep? Or Susan Sarandon? Seriously, we don’t know if such comparisons are valid, ‘coz Sridevi is our very own Sridevi, so let her be her. Yes, those are the kind of reactions she would draw from audiences when they watch her new film, English Vinglish, which is also the directorial debut of Gauri Shinde.

Everyone knows the story of English Vinglish from the trailer.

So what is it that makes it special? Good performances, delightful dialogues and some scenes which both make you laugh and feel some dil ka dard. But at the same time, the film does not overwhelm or make you cry or think too much. Its beauty lies in its subtle messages and hints.

Sridevi plays Shashi Godbole, a typical – if we may say so – Indian housewife from Pune. Her world revolves around her husband, two kids and her laddoo ‘business’. She also has a mother-in-law (Sulabha Deshpande), but thankfully who is not the wicked saas-bahu kind. Shashi is overworked and under-estimated, and often overlooked for the kind of love and effort she puts into the family. She is also ridiculed for being a ‘vernac’. Familiar? Everyone will find one woman in their family like Shashi, I’m sure. And therein could lie the formula for the success of the film!

Shashi’s life is mundane but stable, and there’s panic when she has to leave for New York alone to help her elder sister with her daughter’s wedding. Hesitant to go it solo, Shashi finds that NY actually opens up a whole new world for her, when she musters up the courage to join English classes and attends them without letting anyone know. This portion of English Vinglish might remind you of the classic Mind Your Language, or its Indian version Zabaan Sambhalke.

Thankfully the proceedings are lightened up by the possibility of a romance between Shashi and her classmate Laurent (Mehdi Nebbou). So, kuch kuch hota hai or no? Watch the film to find out!

As Shashi’s English classes slowly wind up, her family joins her in NY and she is confused whether to carry on with her lessons or not. She questions her existence, her choices and her driving force and chooses a path. Which path? Go see the film to find out!

Sridevi’s comeback after 15 years is rocking with a role that suits her age and her experience. She is completely in character, knowing just when to hold back and when to emote. However, there could’ve been more scope for her to show her range of that incredible talent she has. Even her well-known dancing skills were not put to good use in the wedding song. But then, that’s demure Shashi for you who’s dancing, and not Sridevi! Kudos to both director and star for that restraint.

French-Arabic actor Nebbou plays a French cook who falls for the sari clad Indian damsel in distress – in this case, a married one. He is hot and his scenes with Sri are most natural, as he communicates with his eyes. Maybe we can see him in another Bollywood film? Sigh…

Bollywood’s legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan is loud and funny in his cameo in the film – hamming for some but likeable anyway.

English Vinglish loses pace in bits and pieces, which is unfortunate considering that it’s just over two hours long. Also, the climax is at a great Indian wedding, as it almost always is.

 But nevertheless, this one’s a one-time must-watch with the family and touches on old-fashioned values like love, respect for one another (gays included, it insists), courage and determination to get out of a rut and brace for a challenge, loyalty to a partner and confidence in the self. It also tells you to finish what you have started – whether it’s an English class or taking care of a family.

A sari-draped Indian housewife, who seems boring and old-fashioned to her Westernised Indian family, could be considered a stereotypical portrait. But the same sari-clad woman is seen as an exotic and charming lady from a foreigner’s point of view. And that, anyone who has travelled abroad will recognise – charming vignettes like these make the film real and rooted.

Director Shinde brings experiences from her surroundings on to celluloid in a nice way. A lot of the emotions have been depicted in movies and TV shows before, but it still seems new and the credit to that goes to Gauri, Sridevi, the other actors and the production team including Shinde’s husband, filmmaker and ad man R Balki.

Kudos to the music by Amit Trivedi and lyrics by Swanand Kirkire that seem so much a part of the film.

Nevertheless, in the end, Shashi chooses to ask for a Hindi newspaper in her flight back to India, almost as if she is dying to go back to her pre-New York life with her family. But her hubby (played naturally by Adil Hussain) looks on knowingly.

So will Shashi embrace English and balance her old life with her new experiences? Or will she be content with the fact that she has been able to communicate her feelings to her loved ones – to tell them that she needs respect and not just love? That’s for you to interpret, but the film’s messages stay with you when you leave the theatre. And that’s a winner for Gauri Shinde and Sridevi!