Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite Indian films of 2021.
'I am a spontaneous actor. I follow what works for the character.'
'For the longest time, he was not an activist.' 'He was just trying to build his own self-identity, self-respect and ambition.'
'If you watch songs like Acha Ji Main Haari Chalo Maan Jao Na, Lag Ja Gale or Jhumka Gira Re, you'll notice they're not just a distraction. There's a story unfolding within them.'
Aseem Chhabra picks his favourite films from MAMI.
Analysts estimate that Pushpa 2 (in all languages) will become the fastest film to cross the Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) mark.
'I promise you, you've never seen her do anything like this.' 'It is a complete reinvention of Janhvi Kapoor.'
'The moment a movie was declared a hit, he would immediately start planning his next.'
'Parvin Dabas, Bollywood actor and co-founder of the Pro Panja League, has been hospitalised and is in the ICU at Holy Family Hospital Bandra following an unfortunate car accident in the early hours of Saturday morning.'
Rediff's film critic Sukanya Verma lists her top best actresses of 2015.
Aseem Chhabra picks the finest Indian films in the 2010-2019 decade.
Vanraj Bhatia, the creator of unforgettable music, hated the fact that the 'New Wave' directors did not respect Hindi cinema's multi-song format.
'In Mumbai, isolation is a very different isolation.' 'It's not about actual physical loneliness.' 'It's the loneliness in the company of others, and I felt that that is a very Mumbai thing.' 'You can be travelling in the ladies compartment squashed against everybody's armpits and still be really, really sad and alone.'
'It's a tremendous accomplishment to have a father like Amitabh Bachchan and still be so sorted, to not taste the kind of success that he should have and yet be so balanced.'
'Panchamda created an exclusive theme music for Gabbar Singh, which is used throughout the film every time the dacoit makes an appearance, and in both concept and sound, is so eerie and evil.'
'I was a nobody when I came here, and now I've become something.'
'Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam films are rooted in their culture.' 'Hindi films are not rooted.' 'English-speaking people are making Hindi films.'
'Or because I am getting a s**tload of money.'
'This is the best time to do a pan-Indian film.'
'They are clueless about the man on the currency notes.' 'They have been fed with WhatsApp forwards, so either Gandhi is vilified or deified. There's nothing in between.'
'Bappi Lahiri was looking for a break so he and his father would meet me.' 'I told Director Bhisham Kohli about this promising young boy from Kolkata, and Bappi came over with his harmonium.' 'Bappi played this composition and Bhisham liked it immediately.' 'As we were discussing, I said I would give the words, and that's how I wrote this song.'
'I was completely in awe of him. After the shot was okayed, I would quickly run back to my chair and sit quietly till I was called again.'
What keeps the momentum going is Kajol's fully committed performance that elevates this generic material to a surprising degree of watchability, feels Mayur Sanap.
Film stars from Hindi cinema as well as the south came together on a common platform, where they were honoured for their work.
'Mr & Mrs 55 was breezy, romantic and so Hollywood.'
Mithun Chakraborty started from scratch in bit roles and had no Godfather backing him. Yet, remarkably, his career now straddles six decades and he continues to win acclaim, observes Dinesh Raheja.
What grabs your attention is the end credit which has a montage of BTS pictures of Sangeeth Sivan from the sets. He is smiling, chatting, laughing with his team
'Not many films have a reference to a creature who talks, emotes, acts in a film. And Munjya is doing all of it.
It means more tickets sold and therefore more revenues and hastens the recovery of the devastated-by-the-pandemic film business.
At many stages, it has appeared as though Sunny Deol's career was running out of steam, but each time he has risen Phoenix-like from the ashes. Dinesh Raheja gives us a closer look at the man on his 67th birthday on October 19.
'What is fascinating about Aamir sir is that the audience in him is still alive and throbbing.' 'He still cries. He still laughs.'
Aseem Chhabra tell us how he watched 302 films in 365 days on airplanes, on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google, Hulu, DVDs and even on YouTube.
With Vinesh Phogat's heartbreaking disqualification over discrepancies in weight at the Paris Olympics just when India was keeping its fingers crossed for a sure shot victory at the finals, spirits have hit an all-time low. Art mirrors life and it won't be a surprise if our sports biopic obsessed film-makers turn this dramatic change of events into a movie one day.
Shaheed was Manoj Kumar's first patriotic success. This small-budget black-and-white film had enormous impact, besides laying the foundation for Manoj's famous flag-waving Mr Bharat image that was strengthened by a string of subsequent films like Upkar, Purab Aur Paschim and Kranti.
'Dharmendra was paying a little extra attention to me and she didn't like it.'
'Your family doesn't want you to come to this field because there's no direction, no formula.' 'It's not as if your career is settled and you will get work consistently.'
Swaroop Kanchi, the Bangalore-based film-maker tries his hand at Hindi film, Yeh Dil Ramta Jogi.
'If there's something that is more progressive and more modern, I would love to do it.'
'I felt awkward pairing with Anushka Shetty on screen because she had played my daughter in a film.'
