Shilpa Shetty,Raj Kundra Indian Wedding Reception Pictures - Marriage Reception Photos

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Mumbai: Shilpa Shetty and his hubby Raj Kundra threw a lavish reception party on November 24 evening at hotel Grand Hyatt.
The glittering reception party was attended by several Bollywood personalities, politicians and cricketers.

After a royal wedding on Nov 22, Shilpa and Raj threw a grand reception to make it memorable one.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan his wife Gauri, Hrithik Roshan and his wife, Fardeen Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Amisha Patel, IPL chief Lalit Modi, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and many others were present on the occasion.

The newly married couple made all efforts to please their guests in a star-studded night.

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In real life, if you feel your colleague is far more superior to you in intelligence, talent, charisma, efficiency, chances are you might feel the heat. Jealousy, generally, stems from there. In the process, the best of relations get strained. LONDON DREAMS, directed by Vipul Shah, talks of two musicians, thick pals actually, and how jealousy drives a wedge in their friendship.

Let’s clear a few myths before discussing the positive and negative factors of this film. LONDON DREAMS is not BAIJU BAWRA. LONDON DREAMS is not ROCK ON!!, ABHIMAAN, YAARANA or SAAJAN either [a section of the industry wants us to believe that]. The truth is, LONDON DREAMS borrows from Milos Forman’s brilliant film AMADEUS [1984], which was based on Salieri and Mozart’s life. In fact, Suneel Darshan too had made a film based on AMADEUS called SHAKALAKA BOOM BOOM [2007; Bobby Deol, Upen Patel

LONDON DREAMS is a complete departure from Vipul Shah's earlier outings, AANKHEN, WAQT, NAMASTEY LONDON and SINGH IS KINNG [produced by Vipul, directed by Anees Bazmee]. This film is about relationships and tends to get very real and intense, in the post-interval portions specifically. The scale of LONDON DREAMS is gigantic and the execution of concerts [it's about a band] sweeps you off your feet.

In terms of execution, it wouldn’t be erroneous to state that LONDON DREAMS is amongst Vipul Shah’s most accomplished works to date. Also, it boasts of incredible performances by Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn. But there are hiccups too and it’s these deficiencies that bog the film down!

They were childhood friends. But they had little in common except their family’s connection with music. While Arjun’s [Ajay Devgn] life was consumed by a passionate drive to get on stage and realize his grandfather’s unfulfilled dream, Mannu [Salman Khan] was content with remaining a child at heart with no higher ambition than enjoying the good things in life.

As Arjun forges a band with Zoheb [Rannvijay Singh], Wasim [Aditya Roy Kapur] and Priya [Asin], a music enthusiast from a conservative South Indian family, far away in Punjab, music becomes a survival tool for Mannu, who takes to playing in wedding bands in his village.

Arjun gets Mannu to London and makes him a part of the band, but soon realizes he’s created the biggest threat and obstacle to his own ambitions.

Mannu, with his inherent musical gift, becomes an instant darling of the crowds. Arjun’s unbearable pangs of jealousy and insecurity only worsen when Mannu also unwittingly woos and wins his secret love, Priya. As he battles his inner demons, Arjun slowly devises a sinister plan to destroy his best friend.

It takes time to get into Ajay’s world [its Ajay who's narrating the story here]. The film moves back and forth and it’s only when the two buddies, now adults, meet that you realize where the story is headed. The first hour depicts the two extreme characters – Ajay, who’s an introvert and who cannot think of anything but his goal and Salman, a happy-go-lucky guy, laidback and fun-loving, least focused.

The narrative has some interesting moments in the first hour, but the actual story unravels only towards the second half. The first half, frankly, only sets things up for the explosive drama that is to follow. The wheels start moving when Ajay plays a vicious game and hatches a conspiracy to ruin his buddy’s career.

It’s the second hour that does the trick. You can’t help but carry several sequences in your heart, even after you’ve made an exit from the auditorium…

* Note the scene when Salman makes four different tunes from the original tune created by Ajay.

* Note the scene when Ajay meets an inebriated Salman and professes revenge, while Salman is completely clueless about Ajay’s sinister plans.

* Note the scene when the band arrives in London after a 3-city concert and they’re received by aggressive mediapersons.

But there’re roadblocks too. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is a downer. LONDON DREAMS is about a rock band, about music, about concerts and the music had to be the soul of the film. Unfortunately, it’s not! The songs have been filmed in the most energetic fashion, but how one wishes the music was one of the strengths of the film.

Also, the film could’ve concluded when the two friends re-unite at the station. Adding one more song thereafter only dilutes the impact of the emotionally correct sequence that has just been witnessed. Besides, the song in question hasn’t been promoted either, so it only comes across as an aberration.

Prior to that, Ajay’s outburst at the end of the concert is far from convincing. The film has a real feel, real characters and real situations, but the outburst looks unreal and is one of the drawbacks, from the writing point of view. It’s just not convincing!

Besides, Ajay’s childhood character is shown fleeing from the airport and making it big in a foreign land [London], without any support whatsoever. It’s unpalatable!

Vipul Shah has handled this intricate subject well, but the writing could’ve been tighter. Sejal Shah’s cinematography is super. Brownie points for capturing the concerts brilliantly. Salim-Sulaiman’s background score matches international standards.

Both Salman and Ajay vie for top honours. Salman has a role that the junta would take to instantly and the actor too endears himself to the viewers. He’s stupendous. When it comes to displaying intensity on screen, very few can live up to the standards set by Ajay. To state that he packs in a power-packed performance would be an understatement. They, in fact, compliment each other wonderfully well.

Asin is admirable and pairs off very well with Salman. She is sure to have a new name after this film – Chennai Express [that's how Salman addresses her affectionately, all through the film]. Om Puri has a brief role. Aditya Roy Kapur is very good and registers an impact. Rannvijay Singh doesn’t get much to do, except throw nasty looks at Salman. Manoj Pahwa provides some funny moments. Brinda Parekh is okay.

On the whole, LONDON DREAMS has superb performances from its principal cast and several emotionally-charged sequences as its two trump cards. But its biggest drawback is its climax and also the music, which is the weakest link of the movie. At the box-office, the film should appeal more to the multiplex audience than the masses. Business at big centres, especially at metros, should be better, but mini-metros and towns will be a contrast.
Rating : 3/5

Review By : Taran Adarsh / BollywoodHungama

It’s good to see that P.Sukumar, who has for long been associated with films, first as an actor and then as a leading cinematographer and who is the younger brother of two directors (P.Gopikumar and P.Chandrakumar) makes his directorial debut with a film that’s not trash. In fact, for those who are looking for a feel good movie that tells of our land and our lives and things that concern our lives, ‘Swa Le’ should not come as a disappointment.

‘Swa Le’, as the name itself suggests is the story of a newspaper reporter (‘Swa Le’ is the short for ‘Swantham Lekhakan’, meaning ‘Staff Correspondent’) and is set at a time when there was no mobile phone and other modern technologies. Unni Madhavan (Dileep) works as the staff correspondent to a newspaper named ‘Janachintha’. He works hard day and night and in fact gets a meagre salary and finds it really hard to make both ends meet. He is not even able to take care of his wife, Vimala (Gopika), who is pregnant. His news editor Kaimal (Innocent) behaves rather harshly to him at times and doesn’t give him peace for even a single hour, always sending him on assignments, one after the other. In the meantime, an eminent writer Palazhi Sivasankara Pillai (Nedumudi Venu), who is a Jnanpith recipient and one of the doyens of Malayalam literature, is reported to be critically ill and expected to die any time. Unni Madhavan is sent to report the developments from the writer’s house and he spends most of his time there, with many other journalists, all of them waiting for the writer to breathe his last. Anyway, for Unni Madhavan, it’s different. He prays for the writer’s long life as he has been close to him even as a child and it was Palazhi Sivasankara Pillai who had taught him to love letters. At the same time, Unni Madhavan is torn between his duty as a journalist and his anxiety for his wife, who is all alone at their small rented house and that too by a river, a house where one can reach only by crossing a river. It’s from this point that the story develops.

On the one hand ‘Swa Le’ presents before us the story of a young, struggling journalist and his hapless wife. At the same time, on the other hand, with some strokes of satire, it also etches the apathy shown by the media to the sorrows and sufferings of the mass of humanity surrounding them. The way people tend to commercialise the imminent death of an eminent writer too is presented in a rather satirical manner. The way the film ends, portraying the protagonist too eventually turning part of the mad race after news, is good, though it may not impress average viewers much and could definitely have been handled better.

‘Swa Le’ is a welcome change from the many meaningless movies that are churned out by many other directors and should also be appreciated for having in it things that reflect our lives and our social set-up. It’s rooted in our soil and is a real ‘Malayalam film’, in essence. Hats off to P.Sukumar and crew for coming up with a good film, which may not appeal to the average viewers of today who are after star oriented films rather than subject-oriented ones. It may also not appeal much to erudite critics who may prefer a more intellectual kind of treatment for the subject. But it cannot be denied that ‘Swa Le’ is a good movie that conveys many things and is good for being viewed with the family.

Performances

Dileep does full justice to his role, that of Unni Madhavan. He plays the role in his characteristic style, but there is of course not much of the usual Dileep brand of comedy that his fans may be looking forward for. It’s good to see Gopika back in the role of Vimala, Unni Madhavan’s wife. She is the very same person whom we had seen in ‘Veruthe Oru Bharya’ and fits into the role perfectly well. Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Ganesh Kumar, Ashokan, Jagathy Sreekumar, Salim Kumar etc do justice to their respective roles. Harisri Ashokan provides some lighter moments by way of his usual brand of comedy.

Technical aspects

There is nothing outstanding to mention about the technical aspects, though cinematography (by director P.Sukumar himself), art-direction (by M.Bawa) and editing (by V.Saajan) have all been handled in a very good manner as is demanded by the subject.

Music

Background score jells well with the mood of the film while the songs, one of them a piece of poetry rendered by Nedumudi Venu, have come out well and have been filmed well too.

Script

Kalavoor Ravikumar, who has scripted movies like ‘Ishtam’, ‘Nammal’, ‘Manjupoloru Penkutty’ and who has directed ‘Oridathoru Puzhayundu’, does a rather good work of the script, banking obviously on his experiences as a journalist, especially the struggling phase in his early journalistic career. He has tried his hand at some brilliant bits of satire too, like the scene in which the doctor examining Palazhi Sivasankara Pillai states that there is nothing to worry and the scribes get disappointed or the one in which Dasappan (Harisri Ashokan) lashes out against journalists. The scene in which Unni Madhavan asks news editor Kaimal, “Aren’t you a human being?”, to which Kaimal answers, “No, I am a journalist” too is good. The scene in which photographer Chandramohanan (Salim Kumar) makes fun of the necessity of an exclusive crime story or rape story in the paper too is interesting. ‘Swa Le’ also tells us the story of a whole generation of journalists who had fought all odds and worked amidst all kinds of hassles and inconveniences and kept things going and who never got to enjoy the luxuries that many journalists of today are enjoying. Kalavoor Ravikumar needs to be appreciated for having done a good work, remaining within the parameters of commercial cinema.

Direction

P.Sukumar is in full control of things and does a neat work of the direction. He deserves appreciation for having chosen such a subject for his debut film rather than go for some flashy, meaningless stuff.

Overall verdict- Feel good movie, got things to convey.

Rating: 3/5

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Producer : Ranjith
Director : Ranjith
Music : Bijibal
Cinematography : Manoj Pillai
Banner : Black Water Media Entertainment

Seeing ‘Kerala Café’ was like reading an anthology of short stories, ten short stories written by ten different writers. ‘Kerala Café’ presents a compilation of ten different short films directed by ten different directors. For those who like short stories, the film is a treat to watch; for the people of Kerala, this is a new kind of film-viewing experience. Of course anthology movies from Bollywood, like ‘Dus Kahaniyan’, ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’ etc have come to theatres here and our own Adoor Gopalakrishnan has given us anthologies of short films in ‘Naalu Pennungal’ and ‘Oru Pennum Randaanum’ (and the IFFK has had anthology films from different countries being showcased), but these films have all had limited viewing in Kerala. This is the first time an anthology kind of movie is being attempted as part of mainstream film making in Malayalam, with popular stars being in the cast.

‘Kerala Café’ begins and ends in Kerala Café, which functions in a railway station. It is from here that we move on to the first story, and it’s here that it all ends, thus weaving a connection of sorts between the ten shorties. ‘Kerala Café’ comprises of the following ten short-films:

Nostalgia: Directed by Padmakumar, ‘Nostalgia’ has Dileep, Navya Nair, Babu Namboothiri, Sreelatha and Sudheesh in key roles. This is about Johnny (Dileep), who works in the Gulf and who loves to wallow in nostalgic memories about his homeland. But when he reached homeland with his wife (Navya) and daughters, he is a totally different man, behaving contrary to what his words have been suggesting.

Island Express: Directed by Shankar Ramakrishnan, ‘Island Express’ has Prithviraj, Jayasurya, Sukumari, Rahman etc in key roles and tells about these people traveling from different places to one common point. The film is all about life and death- death giving a new meaning to life itself and life going on despite death taking away near and dear ones.

Lalitham Hiranmayam: Directed by Shaji Kailas and with Suresh Gopi and Jyothirmayi in key roles, the film is all about the web of complex human relationships focusing on a man and two women in his life.

Mrithyunjayam: ‘Mrithyunjayam’, directed by Uday Ananthan, is about a young media guy (Fahad Fazil aka Shanu) who ventures to unearth the mysteries surrounding an old, desolate house that’s ominous and from where no one has come back alive. Thilakan and Rima Kallingal too play key roles.

Happy Journey: Directed by Anjali Menon, ‘Happy Journey’ is about J.K (Jagathy Sreekumar) and his meeting a mysterious young girl (Nitya Menon) in a bus-journey.

Aviraamam: Directed by B.Unnikrishnan, ‘Aviraamam’ has Siddique and Shwetha Menon in key roles and tells the story of Ravi (Siddique) and his wife Devi (Shwetha). Ravi, who runs his own IT business, is in a hurry to send off his wife and kids to his wife’s place. He has got some plans to carry out once they are gone.

Off Season: Set against the famous Kovalam beach and directed by Shyamaprasad, ‘Off Season’ tells about the friendship developed between a tourist guide (Suraaj Venjaramoodu) and a Portuguese couple.

Bridge: Directed by Anwar Rasheed, ‘Bridge’ has Shanta Devi, Salim Kumar and Kalpana in key roles and tells about the complexities of human relationships and the plight of the aged and the unwanted.

Makal: Directed by Revathy, ‘Makal’ tells the story of what happens when the young daughter of a poor Tamil couple is adopted by a rich couple with no children. It’s a story of our times.

Puramkaazhchakal: Directed by Lal Jose and with Sreenivasan, Mammootty and Manikantan in key roles, ‘Puramkaazhchakal’ is all about a bus journey and what happens when a rather unfriendly guy (Mammootty), who tends to quarrel with almost everyone clambers into the bus.

These ten stories have a culmination at the Kerala Café, an ending that speaks of life going on and on despite all odds and also about those who are destined to be left behind with no one to care for them.

A main highlight of ‘Kerala Café’ is that the film tells stories of our times. The numbness that has crept into our relationships as we go on with the rat race for money and material pleasures, the way the recession has affected lives, the warmth of human relationships and friendship, the shams, hypocrisies and betrayals surrounding relationships, the understanding that we develop with fellow human beings and with those whom we love and also with those whom we meet maybe once in a lifetime- all these and much more get discussed in the movie, or rather the compilation of short films that stands apart from what we get to watch in the name of cinema.

Of course, just as in any anthology, not all stories are equally good. ‘Bridge’, ‘Puramkaazhchakal’, ‘Island Express’, ‘Lalitham Hiranmayam’ and ‘Makal’ stand out as the best. ‘Aviraamam’ too is good. ‘Mrithyunjayam’ may not be liked much, but still, as said earlier, it’s an anthology and hence it’s OK for an anthology.

Performances

The directors have managed to get their key players give the best of performances. There is no point in mentioning names specifically as almost everyone has done his or her job convincingly.

Technical aspects

Coming to the technical aspects, it’s all top-notch. Of course the respective directors take the credits for bringing in the best of technicians for their short-films, but Ranjith too has to be given the credit for ensuring that the over-all quality of ‘Kerala Café’ is maintained on the technical side.

Music

Music plays an important role in the film. The background score has been worked out well.

Script

The script writers, ranging from B.Unnikrishnan to Joshua Newtonn to Didi Damodaran have all done a good work of their respective scripts, paying attention to all details and taking care that the essence of the stories are all retained.

Direction

The ten directors and Ranjith too have to be appreciated for having come up with such a different and marvelous kind of film. Hope ‘Kerala Café’ contributes its share towards changing the face of Malayalam Cinema.

Overall verdict- Short stories on celluloid; excellent.

Rating: 4/5

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Cast : Mohanlal,Santhanu Bhagyaraj,Nitya Menon,Mamta Mohandas
Banner : Creative Team Productions
Director : S.L. Jayasurya
Producer : K. K. Narayanan
Music Director : Ouseppachan
Lyricist : Subhash and Saseendra Varma

Someone told me, after seeing ‘Angel John’, that the problem was with the story, the concept of the angel coming to help the young chap. But that seemed no problem at all for me. There was nothing wrong with the story, the concept. But it was the scripting, the direction, the over-all treatment and the packaging that has gone all wrong, eventually making ‘Angel John’ a mess of a movie.

The plot of ‘Angel John’ is simple. A spoilt youngster Maradonna (Shanthanu Bhagyaraj), who never pays heeds to the words of his father Joseph (Laloo Aalex) and whose mother Mary (Ambika) pampers him like anything, creates all kinds of troubles for his loving parents. And then one day, when things cross all reasonable limits and Joseph ends up in the hospital following a minor heart attack, all because of Maradonna, Mary gets irked and asks him to get lost. Maradonna gets drunk and climbs on to a lighthouse, all decided to end his life. As he gets ready to take plunge to death, there appears an angel, who introduces himself as Angel John (Mohanlal), who not only saves the young chap from committing suicide, but gets ready to give him two choices. He tells Maradonna that he is destined to live a normal life till the age of 66, with all the fortunes and woes that are part of human life. But at the same time, he is ready to give him a life of happiness alone, sans all woes, but he would be able to live only one-third of what is destined for him. So, if he chooses the second option, he will have to bid adieu to the world at the age of 22. Maradonna chooses the second option and wants to live a life of joys and blessings till the age of 22. So, the angel, Angel John, stays with Maradonna, all set to grant his wishes. (Hey, does that remind you of Dr. Faustus and Mephistopheles?). What follows forms the rest of the plot.

Till half-time ‘Angel John’ goes on, like a mediocre flick that can be tolerated; and then, just before interval, as the angel comes in, things start getting out of control. It all seems ridiculous and rather poorly executed. Even ardent fans, who give out a loud applause as the superstar makes his entry, tend to stand up and boo loudly the very next minute. And post-interval, it all turns into a dull affair, with people even getting impatient and some even on the verge of murmurs and yawns. The climax, which is treated shoddily, kills it all.

Performances

Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, who makes his debut in Malayalam playing Maradonna, is just about OK with the role and doesn’t do anything spectacular. Mohanlal seems to be doing the angel part in a rather detached and disinterested manner, for there seems to be something rather cold, rather uncomfortable about his performance. The others in the cast- Laloo Aalex, Ambika, Jagathy Sreekumar, Vijayaraghavan etc are all just so so. Nithya Menon impresses us as Sophie, the girl next door to Maradonna whose heart is full of love for him.

Technical aspects

Nothing in fact is there to mention about the technical aspects of ‘Angel John’. Of course the subject, if handled well, had enough scope for all kinds of technical brilliance, including graphic work, which however hasn’t been made use of. The talent of Ajayan Vincent, the cinematographer who gave us dazzling frames in ‘Bhramaram’, seems all wasted here in a ‘neither here neither there’ kind of film.

Music

The background score by Ouseppachan is not bad, but the songs are very much unimpressive.

Script

It’s the script and the dialogues that play the villain in ‘Angel John’. The scenes are conceived in the least convincing of manners. The problem is that even kids won’t like to suffer such a badly written movie these days.

Direction

S.L.Puram Jayasurya, the son of noted theatre-personality and scenarist, the late S.L.Puram Sadanandan, had made a rather impressive debut with ‘The Speed Track’. The film was rather well-made and that justified expectations about ‘Angel John’. But it seems Jayasurya had got carried away with the presence of a super-star and presumed that things would be OK and in place with Mohanlal playing the angel. He could have made it into an enjoyable movie if he had done it all in a better manner. Of course the film has messages to deliver, but the sad part of it all is that there are not many takers for the messages, as the poor turn-out at the box office at all centres indicate. The director has to take the blame, since the movie becomes rather insufferable and the messages thus remain undelivered. Poor show, Jayasurya. And better luck next time!

Overall verdict- Poor scripting and inept direction kills the fun.

Rating: 2/5

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Adoor Bhavani ( 1927-2009) is an Indian actress in Malayalam movies. best-known appearance was in the national award winning film Chemmeen, directed by Ramu Kariat. She also performed in Mudiyanaya Puthran and Thulabharam. She is from from Adoor in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala state. Her sister, Adoor Pankajam, is also a Malayalam film actress.

In 1969 Bhavani won the Kerala state film award for the second best actress. She was awarded the Chalachithra Saparya Lifetime Achievement award by Mathrubhumi-Medimix in 2002.In 2008, Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy honoured Bhavani and Pankajam for their overall contributions to theatre and drama

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