Andhranews

Shiva
Cast: Mohit Ahlawat, Nisha Kothari, Upendra Limaye and others
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Rating: **

Ram Gopal Varma’s latest Shiva is neither a remake of his old film of the same name, nor is it a remake of James as was the rumour. It is a new film about a cop turned vigilante, but everything about it has such a been there-done-that look. It doesn’t have that slightly provocative effect that all RGV films do. It’s as if the enfant terrible of Hindi films was trying to become teacher’s pet, but not doing a very good job of it.

Varma’s earlier films made heroes out of men like Bappu (he is a much less classy Sarkar), now Varma tells us that men like Bappu ought to get whipped. In a touch of irony, all Bappu’s men die violent deaths in the film, but he lives to tell the tale (pretty much like Arun Gawli on whom the character is allegedly based). Shiv Kumar (Mohit Ahlawat) joins the police force as a sub-inspector, and is annoyed by his superiors’ open camaraderie with Bappu and his bunch of thugs.

Varma adds some quirkiness to Bappu’s (Upendra Limaye) character — he rules from a swing, drinking nariyal pani, and asking peremptory questions to a near-comatose old woman. Shiva falls in love with a courageous crime reporter (Nisha Kothari) and marries her when she is attacked by Bappu’s men out to get him. When the home minister (Dilip Prabhavalkar) also turns out to be corrupt, Shiva and a few good cops quit the force and turn into independent crime fighters. Not clear what the film is getting at, but Varma has said in interviews that he was inspired by the films of Amitabh Bachchan. If an under-developed (but technically polished) Shiva is the result, then it’s back to school for Mr Varma.

Bas ek pal
Cast: Juhi Chawla, Urmila Matondkar, Sanjay Suri, Jimmy Shergill, Rehaan Engineer
Director: Onir
Rating:**

Onir has been inspired by Pedro Almodovar’s Live Flesh, but his turgid melodrama Bas Ek Pal is far from being a masterwork. He has created a bunch of sophisticated urban characters, whose lives intertwine in destructive ways, but his story-telling is too heavy-handed. During a nightclub fracas, Rahul (Jimmy Shergill) is accidentally shot by his friend Nikhil (Sanjay Suri). The former ends up a cripple in a wheelchair, the latter goes to jail for three years and has a hellish time.

When he emerges from prison on bail, with the help of Ira (Juhi Chawla), the wife of their alcoholic, wife-beating buddy Steve (Rehaan Engineer), Nikhil finds that Rahul is engaged to Anamika (Urmila Matondkar), the girl over whom the barroom brawl had taken place. The characters go from antagonistic, to confessional, to accusatory, to suicidal mode, as the film, in the style of a stage play engineers conversations between the five characters in various permutations and combinations. Then, it goes on long after the audience’s patience over this endless emotional wrangling and self-flagellation has worn out. And you can’t sympathise much with any character, though feelings for them swing from mild sympathy (for Rahul) to rabid dislike (for Ira).

Sanjay Suri and Jimmy Shergill are the best of the lot, natural and restrained. The film may have started out as a study of relationships under conditions of sturm and drang, but all it does is tire the audience with its relentless grimness.

Pyaar ke side effects
Cast: Rahul Bose, Mallika Sherawat, Sophie Chaudhary and others
Director: Saket Chaudhary
Rating:***

Pyaar Ke Side Effects tries to take a witty, urbane look at modern relationships, but first-time director Saket Chaudhary achieves a juvenile, but intermittently funny, comedy inspired by Trust The Man, Meet the Parents and other such Hollywood romcoms. Sid (Rahul Bose), a DJ, meets runaway bride Trisha (Mallika Sherawat), and falls in love with her. They squabble good-naturedly in a pub, sure that they will never date, but three years later they are together. Sid is absorbed in a cricket match when Trisha proposes to him (in three years she doesn’t know about his passion for the game?) and finds that he doesn’t want commitment.

But on the verge of a break-up, he says yes, and has to suffer her nesting instincts that include cooing over kids and avid shopping. There’s also the gargoyle of a father-in-law to please, who doesn’t think a bandwala is a suitable match for his daughter, particularly when she is taller than him and earns more than him. (You’d also think the same, but then it’s just a movie, anything is possible).

Sid keeps sharing his anguish with the audience looking straight at the camera and listing various “pyaar and engagement ke side-effects.” It’s all out of joke books and the internet-forwards kind instant research that passes off for psychological insights into the behaviour of males and females. The supporting cast consists of nitwits also having relationship problems — like Sid’s sexually frustrated flat mate Nanoo (Ranvir Sheorey— hilarious), and his more experienced brother-in-law (Aamir Bashir), who is not ready for fatherhood. On Trisha’s side are her frighteningly outspoken friend (Suchitra Pillai) and her rejected groom (Jas Arora) now back in her life. Even as she moves on smoothly, Sid’s potential romance with a sexy ‘item girl’ Tanya (Sophie Chaudhary) never takes off.

In the film’s funniest scene, the four meet for dinner, which of course, goes terribly wrong, as neither Sid nor Trisha can avoid jealousy. After all the complications, if the film actually had headed for an offbeat end, its many faults would have been forgiven, but no, the ending is as predicted. Rahul Bose, scruffily dressed, tries too hard to be cool, Mallika Sherawat doesn’t get to turn on the heat (no push-up bras and micro minis), so the comedy turns out to be tepid at best.

Kate Moss’ earnings have rocketed to £30 million since her cocaine scandal last year. Speculation was rife that the catwalk queen’s career could be finished after pictures of her snorting the Class A drug were published last September. The supermodel was immediately dropped by a number of top fashion houses, including H+M and Roberto Cavalli, in the wake of the scandal.

However, Kate has managed to bounce back from the incident with vigour, tripling her salary to £30 million. She is now the face of 14 brands, including Versace, Calvin Klein and Stella McCartney, and has even set a new record for having the highest number of advertising deals at one time of any celebrity. Advertising expert Francesca Newland said, “I can’t think of any other celebrity who has been the face of so many campaigns at once.”

Sheryl Crow says the spirit of her dead dog is “still with her”. The singer had her pet Labrador mix, named Scout, for a decade until his death last April. She revealed to the USA Today newspaper, “It was devastating but he’s still with me in spirit. We still call our tour company Scout Tours, and my dressing room still has his name.” She added, “Scout and I used to stare into each other’s eyes longingly, it was like a sick love affair.”

Sheryl, who is currently in the middle of a tour, also insists she is back on top after her split from her cycling legend fiancée Lance Armstrong and being diagnosed with breast cancer. She said, “I feel the best I’ve felt in a long time, mainly because I’ve changed the way I treat my life. I needed to feel like things were getting back to normal. A tour is a reminder of what my life is about. This one’s more celebratory than other tours have been, and at the same time it’s gotten me back to a sense of normalcy.”

The singer has also explained how a key part of her new life was a healthier diet. Sheryl revealed, “I’ve been eating plain, organic food. I probably haven’t had a doughnut for eight months. That’s a big thing for me, since those were the only sweets I would really eat.”

Heath Ledger has revealed that he hates comic book movies, just weeks after signing up for the Batman Begins sequel. The Brokeback Mountain star, who has a daughter with his actress fiancée Michelle Williams, has been cast as super-villain “The Joker” in the follow-up to the 2005 blockbuster, entitled The Dark Knight. He is quoted by website darkhorizons.com as saying, “I actually hate comic book movies. They bore me and they’re just dumb.”
Ledger claims he only agreed to star in the sequel because he liked director Chris Nolan’s work.

The actor explained, “I thought what Chris Nolan did with Batman Begins was actually really good, really well directed, and Christian Bale was really great in it.” Ledger insists his portrayal of “The Joker” was going to very different to Jack Nicholson’s critically acclaimed interpretation in the original 1990 movie Batman. He said, “My Joker is going to be less about his laugh and his pranks and more about just him being just a sinister guy.”

Mariah Carey solves all her problems with a little help from God. The millionaire pop star, famed for her outrageous diva-like demands, claims her entire life has been a “struggle” but insists her faith in the Lord has helped her overcome any adversity she has experienced. She said, “My whole life has been some form of struggle that I’ve had to go through. And I think the main thing is if you’re in a good place, you put your trust in God and focus on your spirituality, everything will turn out the way it’s supposed to.”

Although she has seemingly enjoyed a charmed life Mariah has suffered some upheaval. She has often described her marriage to Sony records boss Tommy Mottola as a “disaster”. The singer was 23 when she first met Tommy, then 43, at a party in 1988. The pair eventually wed in June 1993. They separated in 1997 and divorced a year later. After their split, the Butterfly singer complained her husband had been so possessive and jealous during their marriage he would even spy on her when she had friends over to their house.