IBLOG SPACE

Raavan is not a story, it is a world. Beera Munda - Undisputed, Unlawful, Untamed Dev Pratap Sharma - The Punisher; the Law, the Righteous Ragini - Conscience, Beauty; Music Dev falls in with Ragini, a spunky classical dancer who is as unconventional as him. They get married and he takes up his new post in Lal Maati, a small town in northern India. A town where the world of law is not the police but Beera, a tribal who has, over the years, shifted the power equation of the place from the ruling to the have-nots of the area. Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is not to vanquish the big fish; in this case - Beera. In one stroke Dev manage to rip open Beera's world, and set in motion a change of event which will claim lives, changes fortune. Beera, injured but enraged hits back starting a battle that draws Dev, Beera and Ragini into the jungle. The jungle which is dense, confusing, scary. And in this

"The Gala opening of the festival with our film at Los Angeles was a smashing success." So says Dilip Mehta, the director of Cooking With Stella . Speaking from LA, Mehta says, "It was a sell-out screening and the party that followed at the Cabana Club was unbelievably riveting. The entire venue was packed to full capacity with great India cuisine and the bartenders kept every glass brimmed." The response to the film at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles was overwhelming. Says Mehta, "The huge theatre was packed. The audience was enormously supportive and so fully understood the many layers of our film. Even in the darkness I could make out the smiles and hear the laughter!" After the screening there was chaos. "We were mobbed by strangers following the screening. This is always gratifying because they give honest opinions since they don't have an axe to grind with you. The verdict was that they loved the film; they loved th

Who says the film industry lacks a spirit of generosity and solidarity? Ask John Abraham. Super-keen to do Suriya's role in the Hindi remake of Gautham Menon's 2003 Tamil blockbuster Kaakha Kaakha , John to his dismay discovered that the Hindi remake rights of the film about a cop on a vendetta trail was with Fardeen Khan. John was very keen to do the film. When he saw the film he immediately asked his new director-pal Nishikant Kamat to make the film in Hindi. Kamath was busy scripting another action-masala film for John to be produced by UTV. But when he saw how keen John was to do Kaakha Kaakha in Hindi before anyone else did including Salman Khan (who apparently was very eager to do the film), Kamat agreed to do Kaakha Kaakha first before the other film with UTV." When it was discovered that Fardeen Khan had the rights to Kaakha Kaakha , John didn't even think he would ask Fardeen to part with the remake rights. This is where Vipul Shah stepped in.

EXPECTATIONS When it is difficult to find an album on stands even till 10 days before the release of the film, one thing is quite possible that even the makers aren't quite looking forward to music being the selling point here. This is why getting hold of songs from Chase doesn't quite make you jump with joy as you don't expect anything to begin with. Add to that the fact that there are just three songs in the film with not one notable name on the credits as far as composers are concerned and whatever little hope that one has entirely diminishes. MUSIC Title song of Chase was meant to be an adrenalin raising experience but except for the line ' Chase Kar Le ', there isn't much to look forward to in this Jalees Sherwani written ' Get Set Go '. This Wajid sung song appears as totally wannabe and though the sound is vibrant here, it is not consistent right through its four minutes duration. A theme track which is about racing ahead in life

By now, the famed confidence of Sajid Khan is known across the industry. In fact as the release date of Housefull comes closer; there is an increased sense of confidence in his tone. No nervous pangs here, no butterflies in the stomach, no 'oh I am so excited that I haven't slept for 4 days' quotes are coming from him. Instead, he is breathing and eating Housefull even as expectations have soared by many multitudes. As the film is close to 100 hours away from its release, Sajid Khan converses with Joginder Tuteja on record breaking business that Housefull is expected to create, the coming together of a huge cast and his lack of fear when comes to critics amongst other topics. Housefull will be the first real biggie that would arrive after 3 Idiots. There was My Name Is Khan and Veer which were solo starrers but this one is a quintessential masala multistarrer. You must be aware about huge expectations that people would have from the film. Doesn't it

'Wild Birds Don't Belong in the Circus', says the Bollywood bombshell Malaika Arora Khan, better known for her meteoric rise from MTV VJ to supermodel to Bollywood star, the sultry beauty might be flying higher now than ever before. That's because Malaika whose warm heart matches her mesmerising good looks features in a brand-new ad for her friends at PETA India, which was shot by ace photographer Atul Kasbekar. Khan poses in a formfitting white macaw ensemble created by top designer Wendell Rodricks. The tagline reads, "Wild Birds Don't Belong in the Circus. Boycott Animal Circuses" "Robbing birds of flight, forcing them to live in tiny, filthy cages and tormenting them into performing silly tricks are acts of cruelty to animals", says Khan. Malaika is calling out to all her fans to support the cause. "I ask all my fans to boycott circuses which use animals," says the sultry actress.

Prateik has gotten over his chicken pox attack. The young actor is back on his feet. And how! Back from the shooting of Rohan Sippy's Dum Maro Dum , he's busy being rigorously trained in Western dance forms under Sandip Soparkar. Prateik goes on stage for a charity show in aid of destitute kids this week where he'll dance like there's no tomorrow. Confirming these developments, Prateik's aunt Manya Patil says, "Prateik has been practising hard in all the Western dance forms... the Salsa, tango, waltz, you name it. Filmy dancing was one area he was weak in. Now he's making up in that area." Continues the proud aunt, "When Prateik did Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na , he wasn't sure if he was going to be an actor. The aim now is to be a full-on Hindi film hero. But at the same time Prateik is very much grounded to a reality beyond cinema." Says his proud and protective aunt, "I take him with me to travel all over the country a