Jumbo's Story

As a young elephant, Jumbo is taunted by the other elephants because he is fatherless. Naturally, Jumbo is curious about his father, and he's told that his father is a war elephant for the king.
So Jumbo wants to find his father. Still a young elephant, he wanders off in search of his father.
He is soon captured by a raiding party. In trying to escape from the camp, the young elephant is befriended by a boy prince, who has been ransomed to his foes. The prince has the ability to calm Jumbo into thinking clearly, and Jumbo makes his escape.
A weakened Jumbo then comes upon a village where humans and elephants are working together. He is befriended by a beautiful young elephant cow, but is then chained up until he is tamed. Jumbo soon learns to value the humans who have captured him. Under the training of a wise, old mahout, he becomes bigger and stronger.
A local warlord comes around annually to collect tax from the village, and his taxes have become greedier each year. The village rebels, and with the humans and elephants working together, the warlord and his beasts are defeated.
The call then goes out from the king for elephants for his army. Jumbo is taken to the palace. There, he is seen by his mother, who calls out to him. Jumbo goes wild in trying to break free from his chains to meet his mother. The King notices this, and remembers Jumbo from his childhood. The king is able to calm Jumbo, and from then on Jumbo serves as the personal war elephant of the king.
In battle, Jumbo meets a giant war elephant with fiery eyes that was responsible for the death of Jumbo's father, and Jumbo gets a chance to acquit himself in battle for the glory of the kingdom, and take revenge.

Aryan Vaid to tie the knot soon?

Aryan Vaid who became popular after his romancing act in Big Boss -1 with co contestant Anupama Verma and was seen sobbing in the first season of Big Boss is going to settle down in life after a stormy affair with Anupama Verma.

The model turned actor will be tying the knot with American photographer Alexandra Copley early next year. The actor was spotted hand in hand with his lady love at a recent television awards event. Aryan, known to be a ladies' man has hung up his Casanova boots and is ready to settle down.

When asked about her affair with Anupama Verma, he said "It was sad that the relationship didn't work out but sadder that she went around talking negative stuff against me for publicity. Even I could have done that but I chose not to."

Aryan confirms the engagement and adds, "It's too personal to disclose any details."

Ghajini: Movie Review

Aamir Khan, the actor, has the habit of springing surprises. Post TZP, one had assumed that he was now onto meaningful, serious cinema. Then he springs his surprise by working in AR Murugadoss' Ghajini, a true blue masala film. But what Aamir manages to do, is retain his seriousness. He brings a rare maturity and seriousness into his portrayal of the character of Sanjay Singhania, the protagonist of Ghajini. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Aamir's performance in Ghajini gives the good old masala potboilers a muchneeded shot in the arm. Like all formula fare, Ghajini's story is, in a certain sense, predictable, but what raises the bar here is the manner in which the movie has been shot, its screenplay, and its rivetting performances by the lead pair of Aamir and Asin. The point really to note here is how good intentions, backed by a perfectionist streak, can transform even the most done to death revenge formula into such a rivetting movie.

The film's USP is naturally Aamir Khan and quite deservedly so. Except for Asin, none of the other characters are worth more than a mention. A lot of that, of course, has to do with their relative importance in the general scheme of things. But the only flaw in the film which stands out glaringly is the lack of a suitably menacing antagonist. Pradeep Rawat's Ghajini is hardly menacing enough to create the perfect counterfoil to Aamir's Sanjay Singhania. Also the clash between Asin's Kalpana and Ghajini, is weak and seems more like a rushed job, as if the director and storywriter, could not wait to get on with the blood and gore portions.

Despite the film's running length of some three odd hours, director Murugadoss manages to hold the attention of his audiences, as the narrative moves back and forth, into the past and then back into the present, never once losing the thread. There has been much speculation about whether the film is based on Christopher Nolan's Memento or not. But that fact hardly bothers one as Murugadoss's protagonist and his tale has the audience glued to their seats.

Ghajini is the tale of a cell company head honcho, Sanjay Singhania, a shy, diffident tycoon, who finds love with a smalltime model and good Samaritan, Kalpana (Asin). Love blossoms between the two with Kalpana never realizing that Sanjay, who she thinks is Sachin, is actually a tycoon. She mistakes him for a struggling model and tries to help him out with a break for an underwear ad. However, Kalpana's clash with Ghajini (Rawat), brings their love story to an end. All that Sanjay is left with, is a mind that has a memory span of only 15 minutes, a diary which details his life until that fateful day when Kalpana was killed by the goons, some photographs and the various tattoos on his body, which give his life a purpose and mission, which is to find Ghajini and kill him.

Aamir's transformation from the shy, diffident, mature lover boy to the superbly beefed up, revengehungry Sanjay, is remarkable. The surprising thing about this film is the fact that actually Aamir does not speak much. He has very few dialogues, but what he does do is speak volumes with his eyes and his body language; even his silences are more eloquent than the spoken word. That is what makes Ghajini stand out, even from those early Rajkumar Santoshi collaborations with Sunny Deol. As the narrative alternates between the dark present and the warm memories of yesterday, one finds oneself almost missing the shy lover boy. In fact, it's probably been ages since Aamir has played the conventional lover boy and he is so convincing and pleasing that one is loath to let go of him. His stark portrayal of the revenge driven Sanjay is of course masterly, giving as it does a neat touch to the archetypal action hero of yore. The action sequences are deadly and have been executed with clinical precision.

Besides Aamir, the other loveable factor about the movie is Asin, who makes her Hindi film debut with Ghajini. She breezes her way through the role of Kalpana, with a spontaneity and simplicity which is quite captivating. She more than manages to hold her own opposite Aamir and excels in the scene when she is hounded by the goons. As for the rest of the cast, Jiah Khan as the helpful medical student and Rawat as Ghajini are just about competent.

AR Rahman's music is the other highlight of the movie. Two numbers, specially, 'Behka, Behka Sa' and 'Guzarish' really stand out. The numbers have also been beautifully choreographed and captured on camera by cinematographer Ravi Chandran, who does agreat job with the rest of the film as well.

Murugadoss reveals his hold over the cinematic medium as he retells an oft heard tale in a fresh and innovative manner. Ghajini is a commercial, masala film and it makes no bones about it. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that the film celebrates the return of the commercial potboiler. This formula works.!

Ghajini's release for Hearing Imparied People

BIG Cinemas will screen 'Ghajini' with English sub-titles in selected cinema halls here from next Friday. This will be done so that hearing impaired and all those who don't understand Hindi can watch the Movie.

'We have decided to do this especially for the benefit of the hearing impaired and those who don't understand Hindi. The idea is to ensure that the movie is viewed by maximum number of people,' Tushar Dhingra, COO of BIG Cinemas, said in a press statement.

The sub-titled digital prints of 'Ghajini' will be screened at BIG cinema's property at Vadala in central Mumbai and at the Metro Big Cinema in South Mumbai.

Don't compare me with Priyanka:Deepika

She is beautiful, hot and taller in person. Actress Deepika Padukone earned large fan following just after her first release Om Shanti Om. Within a short period of time, she acted with some of the top heroes of Bollywood like Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. But the talented actress doesn’t like to be compared with anybody. First it was Sonam Kapoor with whom she compared, now she is being compared with Priyanka Chopra.

Deepika said, “I am different. Don’t compare me with Priyanka Chopra just because she’s done stunts in Drona and I’ve done action sequences in Nikhil Advani’s upcoming movie. Each person is unique and so am I. I worked hard for six months to learn those stunts and was specially trained by experts from Hong Kong.”

Who will be New Age Madhubala ?

Director Milan Luthria is all set to make a film on the life of underworld don of 60’s to 80’s Haji Mastan named 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai'.

Haji Masten was in love with the bollywood queen of that period, Madhubala and so the director Milan is currently confused about who to choose to play the role of Madhubala.

The bollywood actresses who are being considered to play this role are Katrina, Kangana and Priyanka. The final decission about who will the lucky one to play the role of legend Madhubala is yet to be taken. No doubt all the three glams gals are excited to play Madhubala.

Most likely, Ajay Devgan will be playing the role of Haji Mastan and Emraan Hashmi will be playing the role of young Dawood.

Akshay Kumar and Priyanka together in HongKong

Earlier Akshay Kumar-Priyanka Chopra were considered a hit jodi in Bollywood. But for many reasons they had stopped to work together inspite of the success of Suneel Darshan’s Andaaz and Abbas-Mustan’s Aitraaz. Therefore Priyanka Chopra decided to team up with others Bollywood actors.

Akshay Kumar did the movies like Bewafaa, Talaash, Tashan with Kareena Kapoor but these films could not do well. After that she worked with Katrina Kaif and both of them gave some good films to Bollywood. Now it is said that.

Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra performed together on stage on Thursday for Christmas at the Convention Centre in Hong Kong for a show known as ‘From Chandi Chowk To Hong Kong.’Priyanka Chopra said, “I performed on stage with Akshay Kumar in Hong Kong.

It was a great experience for me. Akshay is a very nice person and and has a charming personality.” Bollywood hot actress Bipasha Basu joined them. In Hong Kong people were desperately craving to see Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopara together.

Britney's new Indian boyfriend

27 years old pop diva, Britney Spears  who is currently at the top of the world after her new album ‘Circus’ has brought her success all over again after a low patch in her life, is all set to visit India on December 27, 28 for "rehearsals" (read as 'to meet her new boy friend'). 

The rumor is that Britney has received a lot of bad press in recent times over her slightly inappropriate dance steps and wants help from the Indian master Sandip Soparrkar, so that she can connect with the humane side of her. She  has decided against continuing her relationship with Wade Robson and Andre Fuentes, who were hired to choreograph 

Britney's new album 'Circus' earlier. 

After rehearsals she will reshoot the hit track 'Womanizer' from her latest album 'Circus' after the first video leaked on the Internet.

The pop diva will vist Jodhpur where Sandip and Britney will be doing a bit of rehearsals on rumba, the dance of love. After that Sandip will be showing Britney around Mumbai, which was recently the scene of terrorist attacks, when she arrives in the Indian city. 

According to a British newspaper, Britney's India trip is just a hush-hush affair, an excuse to be with her man and work is used as a smoke screen to throw media off her scent.However Sandip is denying the rumours of being involved and is saying, "I'll meet her for work only, when she visits Jodhpur. We'll just be doing a bit of rehearsals."

Sandip Soparrkar has earlier choreographed gorgeous women like Madonna, Beyonce and Shakira, it is now time for US pop singer Britney Spears to dance to his moves.

It was Madonna, who introduced Sandip to Britney at her 50th birthday bash in London this past August. In fact, sources reveal that Britney was quite impressed with Sandip’s Salsa act at the party.

Sangeeta Ghosh debut with Bhanvraa

The hottest face of small screen, Sangeeta Ghosh, would be seen flaunting her body in the beach in her debut movie "Bhanvraa".

Dharmesh Darshan directed this movie "Bhanvraa - Love in Aggression" will have Manav Gohil and Shweta Salve and Eijaz khan from the small screen.

 

Aamir's Ghajini faces copyright violation

Just before the much hyped movie Ghajini's release on 25th Dec, Madras HighCourt has stalled the release of the movie.

The KBC Pictures, which claims to have possessing the rights of remaking the Tamil version of 'Ghajini', accused the producers of 'Ghajini' of copyright violation.

According to the KBC Pictures, they are producing a film titled 'Kahani Ghajini Ki', which has an Amitabh Bachchan lookalike in the lead role. The Madras High Court's decision to put a stay on 'Ghajini', has come as a shock for producer Madhu Mantena and Actor Aamir Khan. They however, put up a brave face, saying they are hopeful that 'Ghajini' will be released as per the schedule.

Saif flies back to join Bebo

Saif Ali Khan flies from Philly to join girlfriend Kareena Kapoor and her family for Midnight Mass at Mt Mary's tomorrow. Saif Ali Khan will be escorting the Kapoor women Babita and her daughters Kareena and Karisma to the Midnight Mass at a Bandra church tomorrow. The Kapoor girls have been attending Midnight Mass for many years as their mom Babita is half-Christian. Bebo and Lolo's grandmother was British national married to a Sindhi (Shivdasani). 

Says Kareena, "Mom, Lolo and I believe in the power of the Mt Mary's Shrine. I am very religious and Christmas has always been huge in the family. We decorate the Christmas tree, attend the Midnight Mass and then have a Christmas dinner on December 25 replete with roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables and plum pudding for dessert and the traditional goodies that come with it. I am not non vegetarian so I won't be able to have the roast turkey but I can have the side dishes." This family orders their plum cake from Harrods in London as Babita loves it. 

Britney Spears in India soon

Famous pop diva Britney Spears is coming to India for a short hush-hush trip.

Britney is set to fly to India for a two-day practice session with renowned Indian choreographer Sandip Soparrkar for the new video of her hit track ‘Womanizer’. She will be reshooting the video of the hit single from her latest album ‘Circus’.  The song’s first video was recently leaked on the Internet.

 

If reports are to be believed, Britney was pretty impressed by Soparrkar’s choreography with his partner Jesse Randhawa on Madonna’s 50th birthday recently.Soparrkar has confirmed to an Indian newspaper that the curvy popstar is set to arrive in Jodhpur, in the royal state of Rajasthan, for “rehearsals”. 

 

Namitha caught nude on camera?

The buxom babe Namitha and the most searched babe in south India, has been caught on the camera. A video clipping is now doing the rounds on the internet. In the video, a buxom lady is seen changing her clothes.

The video first shows the heroine from the back and later as she turns around, the camera captures her with her top completely exposed. She is seen with just a panty and her heavy twin assets fully exposed.

The hidden camera could have been placed inside a caravan. Some of the top actors are provided with a caravan by the film makers to enable them to relax in between shots and also for changing their costumes.

Kareena Kapoor:Saif is the best phase of my life

Kareena Kapoor is all time high in her life. She is floaded with film offers. The actress admits that her career has started looking up ever since Saif Ali Khan entered her life.

'Saif is extremely loving and supportive. In fact, the best phase of my career started when Saif came into my life. Now he's enjoying this phase in my life along with me. That makes this phase even more special,' Kareena told IANS.

Many people gave up their relationship with Saif no more than six months. Reacting to that, Kareena said: 'There's absolutely no room for such negativity in my life. I only have place for people who are positive and who make me happy by sharing in my happiness.

'This is the best phase in my life. And I feel I'm in a place where I've never been before.'

Salman proposes to Asin

Popular south Indian actress Asin is defintely having the time of her life.  After her first bollywood success in Ghajini opposite Amir Khan, the lady luck is shooting in Paris for her upcoming film "London Dreams" opposite another popular Khan of bollywood, the lover boy Salman khan.

It is belived that Salman Khan convinced filmmaker Vipul Shah to shoot the most important scene of the film London Dreams in Paris — just because his co-star, the beautiful actress Asin, had always wished her dream man would propose to her beneath the Eiffel Tower. What a caring our Sallu bhai is specially for his beautiful co-stars.

Asin's wish came true while shooting for the film when Salman went down on his knees and proposed Asin, though She wanted the real man of her life to propose her beneath Eiffel Tower.

As a matter of luck, France was celebrating its presidency of the European Union that day and had illuminated the Eiffel Tower in the colours of the EU flag, blue and golden. Despite the celebrations and the high security in the vicinity, Vipul managed to swing the permission to shoot there because London Dreams is an Indo-European co-production.

Micheal Jackson invites Shilpa Shetty

Shilpa Shetty recently received a personal invitation from Mikaeel Jackson for his brother Jermaine’s birthday bash. Jermaine was one of the contestants of Big Brother along with Shilpa Shetty. However along with Shilpa Shetty, the Jackson also had invited Jade Goody. We learn that these two rival of each which now turned as friends had been specially invited as chief guests for Jermaine’s birthday.

It was a moving experience for Shilpa and why not because after all it’s the king of pop who invited her.

Sahid Kapur's secret-look for Kaminey

Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur has got a new look for Vishal Bharadwaj's Kaminay, but he is keeping it under wraps.

Shahid has been so particular about not revealing his new look that he has stopped making public appearances - the actor missed the trial show of Dostana because he wanted to avoid media there. He will continue to do so till the promos of the movie are released.

Giving a sneak peak of Shahid's look in the movie, a source revealed: "The actor has a tanned look in the film. He has literally soaked himself in the sun for the bronze look. He has kept different haircuts and has gone in for

Chandni Chowk to China Town

Priyanka's first Kiss in Kaminey

After breakup with bebo, Sahid has been a free bird and has been linked with lot of females in bollywood and sports ( how can we miss Sahid'd linkup news with tennis sensation Sania).

And looks like, it's the turn of Priyanka Chopra. Sahid and Priyanka, shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey these days, have been reportedly seen bonding a big time, both on the set and during off-shooting hours spending time together.

They live in the same apartment complex and have been reportedly sharing the car to come to the sets of Kaminey ( huuh...not too bad...car pooling is a good habbit...save fuel for the country)

And if you thought this was enough to give you hint about whats brewing, the sensational news is that, Priyanka Chopra will be shooting for her first on screen kiss with Sahid Kapur in the sets of Kaminey. Is Harman reading this out?

Kaminey starring Priyanka Chopra and Sahid Kapur is directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and is scheduled for a release in March next year.

John Abraham strips?

Bollywood star John Abraham is going to bare his bum in new film, "New York".

Director Kabir Khan, who made his debut with critically acclaimed film "Kabul Express", is all set to release his next film "New York" in 2009 and if sources are to be believed then the heart throb of girls John is going to strip in the movie. The strip comes in a prison scene, set in America, where John plays a terrorist suspect.

John apparently agreed to the scene without any hesitation but was left quite traumatized by the scene.

The dude has already pulled his pants halfway down in Dostana and it was the next logical step for him to take. Go John!!! Go get the world.

We must say, girlfriend Bipasha Basu and John makes a "made-for-each-other" couple.

The film "New York" has John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irrfan Khan in lead roles and is all set to release in 2009.

Katrina - Ranbir - Deepika a Triangle?

Lover birds Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone have ended up having their first major fight since the time, Ranbir proposed Deepika during the Filmfare Awards Nite, earlier this year. The reason for this fight has been Katrina Kaif!

Sources inform, "Deepika had heard from her sources about Ranbir's growing comfortability on and off the sets of Rajkumar Santoshi's Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani during the two month long shooting schedule in Ooty.

While Deepika never confronted Ranbir over it, she got very insecure when her sources from the sets of the same film reported fresh news about what was happening between the two in the Goa schedule.

It is learnt that during the Goa shoot both Ranbir and Katrina appeared more than comfortable (Vijainder-read physical) with each other than before even in front of the unit members on the sets.

Deepika headed to Goa straightaway after hearing from her source. During her one day trip she met her source and headed back to Mumbai after hearing it all in person.

When Ranbir came to know about it, he called Deepika and they both had a huge argument over the phone which ended up in Deepika hanging up on him. Since that day, Deepika has been avoiding picking up Ranbir's calls."

No we gotta see how Salman Khan reacts to this one! Ranbir calls Salman, Sir on and off the sets since the time they did Saawariya together. Katrina had earlier expressed to us her views on Ranbir as, "A very witty co-star and fun to be with on sets."

$76 million divorce of Madonna

In the largest-ever divorce payment from a wife to her ex-husband, Madonna will pay Guy Ritchie at least USD 76 million, her spokeswoman in New York said Monday.

The couple still has to settle custody arrangements for their children eight-year old Rocco, and three-year old David. But the deal gives film director Ritchie the couple's English country estate, west London pub and a reported cash settlement of USD 53 million, Madonna's representative Liz Rozenberg told the New York Daily News. They were married for eight years and granted a preliminary divorce last month. Madonna, 50, is worth an estimated USD 450 million while film director Ritchie's assets are valued at about USD 45 million. IANS

Akki lends his voice for 9 Crore

The remuneration being paid to superstar Akshay Kumar has been the favourite subject of discussion all over. The prices being speculated vary from Rs. 31 crores to Rs. 70 crores! While we will explain the truth (if any!) , here is something much more interesting!!!!

As per trade sources, Akshay Kumar has been paid a whopping Rs. 9 crores for dubbing the dialogues and participating in the picturisations of two promotional songs for Percept Picture Company's animation film, JUMBO. What is amazing about this deal is that Akshay Kumar does not have a deep baritone voice and it is not one of his strong points!

For the information of the fans of Akshay Kumar and all others, the upcoming JUMBO is all set to hit the screens on 18th December 2008, a week before Aamir Khan's GHAJINI.

Monica Bedi: My Romance with Abu Salem

How she started off:

I'm actually from Norway. I was born in Punjab but my family shifted to Norway when I was just one year old. I came to India on a holiday. I never planned to become an actress. But I was very inclined towards Indian classical dance. I was on a two-month holiday so I decided to learn some Kathak. I joined Gopi Kishan's classes and then I started getting offers.

How she met Abu Salem:

One day, I got a call from a guy in Dubai saying he was organising a show where he wanted me to do a stage performance. I said okay. He said he would get back to me after all the formalities were done.

Then, a few days later, he called up again and we talked for some time. A couple of days later, he called again. I began getting friendly with him over the phone. At that time, he gave me a different name. I didn't know he was Abu Salem. Actually, even if he had told me he was Abu Salem, I would've had no clue. I had only heard about Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel. I'd never heard of Abu Salem.

How he hid her real identity from her:

After being to Dubai twice, when he invited me for the third time, I asked him to come to Mumbai instead. But he always kept giving me some excuse or the other.

He had introduced himself to me as Arsalan Ali -- that's the false identity he used often. Even the case that was going on or is still on is with regard to the same thing. He got caught in Portugal too over this identity. If he had used his real name, he would've been caught a long time back.

Finally, on my third trip to Dubai, he told me his real identity. He said his real name was Abu Salem and that he had a past. He said he wanted to change all that and start afresh. By that time, we were in love with each other.

The other side of Abu Salem -- According to Monica:

See, for me, he was always a normal guy. He was very nice to me. I never saw the grey side of him. I always saw him helping people. He's a kind-hearted person. I don't know about his past; I don't know what wrong he's done. I can only talk about what I saw of him. He was very possessive of me and he really respected me a lot. It wasn't a time-pass kind of a relationship, neither from his side nor mine.

We went to America; we both had never been there earlier. We thought we'd start all over again. His idea was to start organising shows over there legitimately. That was his dream. Believe me he was working really hard at it. He tried his best. But his past was something he couldn't erase and it always caught up with him.