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Directed by ace comedian Kunal Vijaykar, Fruit And Nut boasted of a talented star cast but unfortunately it leaves a lot to be desired. Released this Friday, movie stars Cyrus Broacha, Boman Irani, Dia Mirza and Mahesh Manjrekar.  The biggest drawback of this movie is it is supposed to be an out and out comedy and yet it makes you laugh only intermittently. No doubt, star cast is talented but they definitely needed a strong story line to act and perform but that’s the tragedy of this comedy. Comedy is mostly senseless and all the absurd gimmicks shown in the movie are much better avoided that accepted. This movie was supposed to be first full-fledged comedy movie of Dia Mirza who is trying to stage a comeback but unfortunately for her, it has failed miserably.

The movie revolves around Jolly Maker (Cyrus) who though is a simpleton and hard working is looking for success, money, fame and love. He loves to create disastrous scenarios and is quite a goofy character. He works for a corrupt builder. Then one day, his sexy and beautiful colleague Monica gets mysteriously kidnapped and thereafter it becomes the responsibility of Jolly to find Monica amidst all the goof-ups. That’s what the rest of the movie is all about.

Debutant director Kunal Vijaykar tries really hard but then he needs the support of a strong script and screenplay. Some of the jokes and situations are funny but they tend to get repetitive and lose shine. Most of the comic situations are not funny enough. Cyrus tries hard to save the movie but to no avail. All in all, star cast has performed reasonably well but it’s the script that acts as a letdown.

Featuring the real life couple, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Kurbaan is a film set against the backdrop of global terrorism which is directed by Rensil D’Silva and produced by Karan Johar. The film also features Vivek Oberoi who is a journalist and Dia Mirza who is a reporter.

 Avantika Ahuja (Kareena Kapoor) lives in the US but because her father has a cardiac arrest she returns to Delhi where she meets Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan), a Delhi University Professor. They fall in love, get married and move to the US.

 After moving there, Avantika realizes that Ehsaan is a terrorist who married her only to cover his identity. Avantika finds out that Ehsaan plans to hijack a flight and one of the passengers on that flight is a journalist (played by Vivek Oberoi). Kurbaan becomes an important film for Kareena Kapoor because after Main aur Mrs Khanna’s poor box office collection, she needs a hit to maintain her position which this film can provide her. Saif also for a change would be seen in a different avatar and not playing his usual confused but cute kind of character.

 This movie is shot in Philadelphia and in Brooklyn. Kurbaan has some refreshing sound tracks. The music is given by Salim – Sulaiman. I love all the songs of the film which are Shukran Allah sung by Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Salim Merchant, Dua by Sukhwinder Singh, Kailash Kher, Marianne D’Cruz Aiman , Ali Maula by Salim Merchant, Rasiya by Shruti Pathak, Kurbaan Hua by Vishal Dadlani and the remixes as well.

As mentioned in the first post of this ‘wonderful site’, Hindi cinema started its journey with the release of movie ‘Alam Ara’ in 1930s. What sets this period apart is emphasis on social themes. These themes were represented as a voice against the regressive norms and culture of soicety. Alam Ara was followed by several socially relevant themes like Damle & Fatehlal’s Sant Thukaram, Mehboob’s Watan, Ek hi Raasta and Aurat, V.Santharam’s Duniya Na Mane, Aadmi and Padosi and Franz Osten’s Achut Kanya. The last one mentioned was against the caste system starring Ashok Kumar and it was a mega hit.

Next decade had the same nucleus of socially relevant themes but with expanded focus on entertainment as well. Technology was a constraint and yet bollywood gave viewers many movies to cherish and rejoice. Some of the famous ones were, Mehboob’s Roti, Sohrab Modi’s Sikander, Pukar and Prithvi Vallabh, Shantharam’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Abbas’s Dharti Ke Lal, Uday Shanker’s Kalpana, J.B.H. Wadia’s Court Dancer, Vijay Bhatt’s Bharat Milap, S.S. Vasan’s Chandralekha, and Rajkapoor’s Barsaat and Aag to name a few. The legends of Indian cinema like Raj Kapoor, Mehboob, Shantharam etc arrived with a bang. But it was just the beginning of a great period of amazing movies.

One great talent was also making a silent entry into the mesmerising world of Indian cinema. He was none other than Satyajit Ray who single-handedly gave a new direction to Indian cinema. His biggest contribution was to make Indian cinema knonw to the world. He gave classical ones in 1950s and the themes were based on neorealism. 1950s also witnessed cinemas like V. Shantharam’s Do Aankhen Barah Haath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Rajkapoor’s Boot Polish, Shri-420 and Jagte Raho, Mehbood’s Mother India, Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin, Devadas and Madhumati, B.R. Chopra’s Kanoon and Gurudutt’s Pyaasa and Kagaz Ke Phool.

Indian thrives on its two passions; movies and cricket. Now, it seems movie stars are also doing their bit to promote other non-movie related causes. The recent news is bollywood heartthrob Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif are going to promote upcoming 34^th National Games to be held in Jharkhand. The Games will be organized from the period of 21^st November – 5^th December 2008. Earlier, movie stars have promoted cricket, football and hockey. For example, Akshay Kumar was the brand ambassador of IPL Delhi team whereas Salman Khan was presented during Nehru Cup Football tournament.

Choice of Akshay and Katrina makes sense because of their popularity amongst youths and additionally they are a hit couple as well. The plan is to get these two opular actors meet the press in metros like Bombay, New Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore and many other Metros and try to get attention of the people towards the National Games in Jharkhand. Along with these two superstars, Daler Mehndi will also be participating in a cultural program, to be held on 12th October 2009, in Hotwar’s (Ranchi) Gymnastic stadium for promoting the event.  Hope, efforts of these stars manage to bring crowd to the stadium.

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Recently, India Youth Icon Awards was announced. This award is basically a platform to identify and honour young Indians for their significant contributions across various fields. There is also a category of Entertainment and the winners are

India Youth Icon award for Entertainment:

Actor Hrithik Roshan in Male category

Actress Priyanka Chopra in Female category

There were awards in other categories as well like Entrepreneurship, Sports, Global Face, Fashion Icon, Community Icon, Politics, Youth Icon for Arts, Youth Icon for Media, and Youth Icon for Technology. We congratulate Hrithik and Priyanka for their contribution and awards.