KARAN AND HIS SENA

movies,sports and politics this is the golden triad of the indian media. the moment any two of these crosses paths that makes the news even more engaging . this is what an intelligent producer like karan johar banks on to get free publicity for his movies . every time any of his movies are to be released there will be some sort of controversy to propel it to the national headline and all the time he uses the senas of mumbai for that.

first it was WAKE UP SID then KURBAAN and now MY NAME IS  KHAN the common thread in the publicity campaign for these movies are the protests from mns or shiv sena .lets recap the promotion strategies for all these movies

scene 1 WAKE UP SID

this was the third movie of the kapoor kid where he was paired opposite konkana sen sharma. due to the low market value of  the lead pair at that time the buzz surrounding the film was  nil.though  its another fact that the movie did good business in urban centres due to its fresh content , mr johar and party took some bizarre steps in its publicity. on the day of the release we saw mns protesting the use of Bombay rather than Mumbai in the film. the news channels ran breaking stories of mns ‘threats’ to halt the screening of the movies unless bombay was replaced by mumbai , by evening as the story had its blockbuster sales at the news channels we saw mr johar going up to raj thackrey to apologise and said he would beep it out. every thing was fine from then on – no protests, no threats  and surely no breaking stories. what this whole incident did was to give free publicity to the movie.

if this issue of mumbai and bombay was serious why wont mns attack the BBCs mumbai office as they still uses bombay or the Bombay stock exchange. and why did karan johar apologise to a person like raj thackrey?. did n’t you get the script?

scene 2 KURBAAN

a movie publicised for the kissing scene than its decent content. the publicity team took the help of the women’s wing of the sena, we saw live picture of them covering kareena kapoor’s bare back with saffron saree. the incident took place just a day before the release though the same poster was there for weeks.

think about this in a country where cleavage in movie posters never make heads turn these days how could a bare back make such furore. even   in a conservative place like malappuram I have seen more provocative posters than that. why this ? why then?

scene 3 MY NAME IS KHAN

this movie is karan johars directorial venture after the disaster that was KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA . I still remember the buzz surrounding the film and how eager i was to see it , but after seeing the never ending torture that was the movie i vowed never to see another kjo movie. i think there will be millions like me who would kill themselves than sit through another of his sagas. so to create buzz he have teamed up with his old friend the ” sena”. after the whole ipl- pakistan fiasco we had srk saying some thing what mr chidambaram told a few days back that it was shameful to exclude pak players. this ignited the indianess in the sena which said they were ashamed of srk and he must have  taken birth  in pakistan than india. will they say same about chidambaram no – thats the trick  now the media comes, they interprets the senas outburst and gives explanation that srk was targeted as he was a”KHAN” . I think this whole controversy is baseless

firstly shahrukh is the owner of kolkatta knight riders he must have forced his team to buy a pak player which he didnt

secondly shahrukh always proudly says about his origin and being a pathan or from what now is pakistan then why is sena bashing him now for some thing which is not at all relevant as no pak player was bought  in the auction.

so we have the only indian newspaper which cares more about  news than sensationalism ‘the hindu’   writing   on its front page

“stepping into the city in the midst of raging controversy over his ipl statement and the apprehension over the release o his film my name is khan ….”

even a journalistic gem like hindu could not escape the lure of the pr hungry johar camp .

AJAB PREM KI GAZAB KAHANI

the box office success of ajab prem ki gazab kahani(apkgk) re instills my faith in Indian public.though the movie had nothing new, its success is remarkable as the movie is Indian to the core.a pure masala movie where the hero had no Grey shades and is interested in making others happy,a heroin who don’t have multiple layers which are difficult to interpret or with  any unnecessary intimacy.

for the past four or five years the films have become more inclined to hollywood movies that it has become difficult to differentiate between them.the stories are set in places outside india and have situations we cannot even relate to.dostana showed priyanka chopra in a bikini and shilpa shetty in even smaller clothes ,in one of the promotional interviews priyanka told that the character was in miami and it was the requirement of the charecter.i would like to ask her whether her target audience are from the us or from cities like lucknow,surat or nagpur.how many of her audience could relate with that.

this mimiking of the western movies is the main reason for the bombing of movies like dostana,blue,london dreams,and many others(though dostana broke even from the foreign markets).iam not arguing in favour of the movies of the past but for modern movies with an indian soul,which we can all enjoy.rang de basanti,jab we met or tare zameen par were such movies with an indian soul and surely hindi names.though late our producers must wake up to this truth and make movies for indians than NRIs.

update- this week boxoffice saw the bombing of kurbaan, a nri film set in u.s that deals with terrorism.this again proves my theory that Indians want their life to be potrayed in their movies not someone from the suburbia of new york,for which they  can watch US  tv shows or films.

TAYLOR SWIFT

the graph showing my interest in american music have always had its highs and lows(most often).during my early teens when mtv used to show english videos i liked to hear the BACKSTREET BOYS,BON JOVI and to a lesser extend JLO and BRITNEY SPEARS.then suddenly MTV became all hindi,so i lost touch with the western pop scene and Bollywood music filled its space. i became a Bollywood junkie

taylor swift.

last year we started getting vh1 , zee cafe and trendz.while changing channels i stumbled up on a country song called love story .this was by TAYLOR SWIFT the melody in the song caught hold of me.as our internet connection switched to broadband i  heard other songs of her  including tear drops on guitar and you belong with me.she is such a talented singer ,it is soothing to hear something like that when every one is turning rock.it is a misconception these days that we the young people in their twenties only like rock and hip hop. so,INDIAN movie  music is trying to copy from the west (its hilarious to hear MALAYALAM songs with yo and yea) to please its so called target audience .

i recently read an article about the revival of country music brought about by singers like ms.swift and CARRIE UNDERWOOD in america,why can’t we have such a movement in india.the sufi tunes (like the one from kurbaan)and Carnatic based songs which was the signature of  south indian must be given more importance.i certainly think that there is space for every genre of music and opportunities must be given for all to flourish.

RANBIR DEEPIKA BREAK UP-REAL OR FAKE

RANBIR KAPOOR and DEEPIKA PADUKONE  have been dating for the last two years and it seems now that they have split up.some blame it on deepika’s POSSESSIVENESSand others on ranbir’s PLAYBOY nature.all these have been discussed a lot.but i would like you to think for once that whether they have really broken up.
lets bring into perspective all of the happenings in the past month.
just before the release of WAKE UP SID deepika was told to have thrown a party for ranbir and presented him with a lap top.then suddenly we hear of fights between them due to the alleged closeness of ranbir with KATRINA KAIF .then the last week we hear of the breakup and deepika’s efforts to save the relationship by an unprecedented visit to Bhopal at sets of a Katrina- ranbir movie.
meanwhile during the promotions of the movie AJAB PREM KI GAZAB KAHANI , the so called fabulous chemistry of Katrina and ranbir was markedly absent.all the promotional events showed ranbir being not at ease with Katrina’s presence.
from this i can make out only two inferences
1. deepika and ranbir where never a couple or
2 they are faking the breakup
what ever the reason may be bollywood again has shown that money comes far ahead of relationships in their priority charts