'Happy New Year' team thanks fans with personalised poster

To thank fans for their support, the first poster of Shah Rukh Khan starrar "Happy New Year" was not only released on social media sites Thursday, but each fan was also rewarded with a personalised poster online.

The makers tied up with American company Digigraph for a special application for the fans. Any Twitter user who is a fan of the movie or the cast as well as the director has received a personalised poster signed by the artist of their choice. 

The posters is specifically addressed to the fan in the artist's own handwriting.

Farah Khan, who has directed the film, promises it will be one of the most entertainting of the year.

"My dream project 'Happy New Year' takes another step towards realisation with the first poster being launched today. I believe in cinema that entertains and with a dream cast like this we hope it will be the most entertaining film of the year," said Farah.

The film has been produced by Shah Rukh's Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt Ltd, whose last film "Chennai Express" was a huge hit.

"Happy New Year", a musical hiest, also stars Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood and Vivaan Shah.

SRK took to Twitter to share his happiness on the launch of the poster.

"I hope you like the poster for the film 'Happy New Year'. All that begins this year or ends this year for you, may it be the best for each one of you," SRK tweeted Thursday.

The film is slated to release this Diwali.

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Movie Review: 'Mr Joe B Carvalho' is a piece of insipid buffoonery

Star Cast: Arshad Warsi, Soha Ali Khan, Jaaved Jaaferi, Himani Shivpuri, Vijay Raaj, Ranjeet, Karishma Kotak

Direction: Samir Tewari 

Story: Mahesh Ramchandani

Rating: 1/2

When American actor comedian, WC Fields, propounded the famous quote that "Comedy is a serious business. A serious business with only one purpose- to make people laugh", probably he intended to communicate it to the following generations, that you really need to be zany enough to make someone laugh by your buffoonery.

After saying a hearty good-bye to 2013 (of course because of Mr Perfectionist's 'Dhoom 3') now Bollywood has once again geared up to take on the 2014. But it looks like, by now it has become a trend in Bollywood (except a few years when movies like Agneepath rocked the first quarter) to have a lean business in the first few months of the year.

Anyhow, marking the onset of movie release calendar of 2014, cine venture of Samir Tewari, "Mr Joe B Carvalho" featuring Arshad Warsi, Soha Ali Khan and Jaaved Jaaferi made it to cineplexes today. Because of a less glittery star-cast and a somewhat moderate promotion, the movie could not fetch a good foot-fall at its opening, and opened with an average occupancy of around 8 percent at the multiplexes.

After witnessing some of the low budget cine flicks like, "Jolly LLB", "Mere Dad Ki Maruti" and "Fukrey", in 2013 belonging to the ilk of comedy genre, it was expected that despite being a low budget affair "Mr Joe B Carvalho" may emerge as a surprise package of 2014. But unfortunately nothing of that sort happens from beginning till culmination of the movie.

Although, with a somewhat suggestive title (Mr Joe B Carvalo), the movie somewhere down the consciousness makes you feel that it is going to be a joyride full of toilet-humor and double entendre, but smashing and thrashing all your expectations "Mr Joe B Carvalho" turns out to be a wishy-washy affair with some extremely bland dialogues, pathetic jokes and one liners. 

Well, as far as giving a sneak peek of "Mr Joe B Carvalho" is concerned, then literally it is one of the most tedious task. And tedious because, it is a bit difficult to present a poppycock affair in a discernible manner. Anyhow, as soon as the tangled narrative of "Mr Joe B Carvalho" unfurls it showcases the story of a Mama's boy kind of a detective, Joe B Carvaloh (Arshad Warsi), who is assigned with a task of foiling the marriage plans of a run-away couple by girl's father, Khuranaa (Shakti Kapoor).

Whereas on the flip side of the tale is, Joe's ex girlfriend (who is now a cop) Shantipriya Phadnis (Soha Ali Khan) who is delegated with a task of nabbing an international assassin, Carlos (Jaaved Jaafery) who is roped in by General Kopa Kabana (Snahal Dhabi) to kill his (Kopa Kabana's) ex, Gehna (Geeta Basra). But this entire mess gets even messier when, Shantipriya mistakes, Joe for Carlos and from there takes off a tiring cine jaunt, knitted around the core of "comedy of error".

In the past we have seen so many movies circumscribed around the conceptual core of "comedy of error" do well at BO. But unfortunately "Mr Joe B Carvalho" is an exception to the rule. Although the script writer, Mahesh Ramchandani has tried his level best to concoct the narration of "Mr Joe B Carvalho" with the spices like "double entendre", "comedy of error" and a a bit of "Chaplinistic humor" too. But regrettably this entire exercise of, Mahesh went futile with the end product emerging as bland and unchewable chow. From the very first frame entire premise of "Mr Joe B Carvalho", starts looking like a directionless yarn made just with an intention of testing the tolerance of the viewers. 

Although without a firm foundation, it is somewhat asinine to hope for a brawny structure, but in cine world we have seen number of times that, despite a flimsy script a sinewy screenplay has done wonders for some of the movies. But no such miracle happens in the case of "Mr Joe B Carvalho" which further submerges into the trench of absurdity due to its patchy and indiscernible screenplay.

Coming to the direction and other relevant (or rather irrelevant features), which were assembled together by, Samir Tewari in order to dish out this torturous cine fable. So starting with the man in director's chair, with "Mr Joe B Carvalho" being his first cine outing, Samir certainly deserves to be given a benefit of doubt, but at the same time it is hard to believe that a man who is piloting a cine venture can be so oblivion about quality of entertainment that needs to be offered to the audience in the form of a movie. If we go by the contribution (if any) which Samir would have have made as director, then it looks too paltry. Besides that even efforts of editing and cinematographic team comprising of Dharmendra Sharma and Aseem Bajaj have looked so halfhearted, that you nowhere feel like devoting even minutest part of your attention to the onscreen proceedings. 

Quite in accordance with over all appeal of the movie, even the music of "Mr Joe B Carvahlo" will disappoints you till limits.

Well, before coming to the performances it is pertinent to mention here that, through this grueling cine experiment, makers have thoroughly ruined the performing potential of each and every protagonist who had been part of it. After seeing Arshad excelling in diverse range of roles, in "Mr Joe B Carvalho" it was to excruciating to see this otherwise talented actor wasting his acting adeptness. But another fact which can't be overlooked about Arshad's performances is that his was the only performance which looked honest, but because of highly ill-defined character even this attempt of Arshad could not emerge as the grace saving feature of the movie. 

On the other hand another character which was inaptly used by the makers was that of Jaaved, and probably it was because of the the oblivion of director about amply utilizing the potential of his protagonists that talent like Jaaved seemed to be totally wasted through out movie. And as far as "Dabangani" avatar of Soha is concerned then even this gorgeous dame belonging to the royal lineage and a family of actors seemed to be completely ill-informed about the personality traits which she was expected to flaunt while performing her character.

Even the rest of the cast comprising of versatile talents like Himani Shivpuri, Vijay Raaj, Ranjeet and Shakti Kapoor looked somewhere stuck into the swamp of under utilization. 

Keeping in view the fact that "Mr Joe B Carvalho" didn't have even a single coefficient of entertainment in the offering, all that can be said about its BO potential is that, at best it may manage to survive for a week on the big screen. And besides, if it succeeds in recovering its cost of production then it is going to be an achievement in itself for this otherwise bland cine account.

To sum up, decorated with some very talented actors, "Mr Joe B Carvalho" could have been an above average cine yarn, if its maker would have deployed even an iota of intelligence and cinematic sense. So after seeing so many "not so worthy" components assembled together, I am going ahead with just a half star for this insipid piece of buffoonery called "Mr Joe B Carvalho".

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Movie Review: Watching 'Jackpot' is severely traumatic

Cast: Sunny Leone, Sachiin J Joshi, Naseeruddin Shah, Makrand Deshpande, Bharath Niwas,Elvis Mascarenhas

Directed By Kaizad Gustad

Rating: 1/2

In addition to mainstream genres of movie making, over the years numerous sub-genres have emerged in Bollywood further extending the scope of mainstream movie. One such approach which is yet to take a full-fledged shape in Bollywood is "Noire cinema" or Hollywood styled crime dramas. And as our tinsel town cine wizards have by now become habitual of trying their hands in other's fiefdom, hence they don't let go any effort of getting inspired from the western cinema. So seems to be the case with Kaizad Gustad's recent cine tryout "Jackpot". 

Any how so far we have seen that mere mention of Sunny Leone and her prurience is potent enough to make anything pertaining to this sensuality icon a talked about affair. Be it her Bigg Boss stint her maiden cine jaunt "Jism 2" or her item numbers, everything associated with this gorgeous damsel has conveniently managed to stir the grapevine thoroughly. 

After so many big and small showbiz stints this time Sunny has teamed up with maverick cine wizard Kaizad Gustad, who is making a comeback of a sort and has casted former with with Sachiin Joshi and magnificent thespian Naseeruddin Shah in his so called fast paced crime thriller "Jackpot". At its opening despite the presence of sultry damsel Sunny Jackpot could not pull many on the ticket idow and could only open with an average occupancy of 15 %.

Painted on the backdrop of coastal state of Goa, plot of "Jackpot" narrates the story of, Boss the owner of a boat casino, his casino manager Maya ( Sunny Leone) and three small time swindler, who call themselves the con artists, and their boom-ranged con plan. 

As soon as the premise of "Jackpot" takes off it showcases that how Boss, Francis (Sachin Joshi), Maya, Anthony (Bharath Niwas) and Kirti (Elvis Mascarenhas) hatches a plan to win a Jackpot worth 5 crore from the casino of Boss by unfair means and have the prize money robbed subsequently, in order to claim a pay back from the insurance company. 

Soon after Anthony wins the prize money, Francis flees away with the same from the boat casino, but to everybody's surprise briefcase turns out to be empty, when Francis opens it. And from there begins a game of doubt and blaming each other for the disaster.

Undoubtedly Kaizad has always tried to make the movies with somewhat "out-of-the-box concept beneath them, but at the same time there is no denying the fact that this ace cine-magician has many a times failed in his efforts and movies like "Boom" are few of the conspicuous examples of the fact. Besides this there is another factor which delineate routine cine affairs from elite league of "out-the-box" cine delights is captivating coefficient of the latter ilk, but unfortunately in "Jackpot" nothing of that sort comes into play.

As far as script of "Jackpot" is concerned then the movie's completely an ill tailored saga which firmly keeps on oscillating between the poles of confusion and ambiguity. Although in his writing attempt Gustad has tried to craft "Jackpot" as a fast paced suspense thriller, but this effort of Gustad, where he has tried to sew so many flavors in one thread has gone in vein, which leaves viewers in the quagmire of confusion, from which audience through out the run-time of the movie attempts to escape. 

In fact it won't be wrong to say that while penning the narration of "Jackpot" Kaizad has not deployed even an iota of intelligence in developing a captivating premise. And the thing which adds to the ongoing disaster is the shabby premise which from the very first frame starts nosediving towards a disastrous end. Even the flow of narration of "Jackpot" keeps on badly crumbling through out the run time that it completely fails in keeping viewers attention glued to big screen. 

Although in the screenplay by embedding the one-liners, Kaizad has tried to make "Jackpot" an engrossing cine saga, but even this endeavor of Kaizad makes "Jackpot" even a more complicated cine tale swamped in the morass of confusion.

Or in other words it won't be wrong to say that, despite deploying so many cine skills Gustad has thoroughly failed in communicating his frame of mind to the audience. And besides this another thing which emerges as an embarrassment for the writing domain are dialogues which methodically lacks expressiveness, so no words of praise for Kaizad and Amol Parashar for writing such bland dialogues.

But yeah, the thing which up-till an extent had been a "grace saving" component is DOP, which captures the milieu of Goa with thorough adroitness. And in the absence of a captivating screenplay and clumsy script even editing of Yasser Abbas fails in doing any miracle for the movie. 

As far as music of "Jackpot" is concerned then except "Kabhi Jo Baadal Barse" entire music bunch of Jackpot is totally tasteless. 

In the performance department despite being the main lead of the movie Sachiin fails miserably in creating the aura of leading protagonists around him. If we compare sensual seductress Sunny's performance in "Jackpot" with her previous cine stint, then certainly she has improved up-till an extent, but she still needs to swot a lot if she really wants to keep herself surviving as the mainstream actress in the Bollywood. 

But the man whose proved acting fineness seems to be getting wasted in "Jackpot" is that of ace thespian Naseerudding Shah, who through-out the run time of the movie tries to save this otherwise sinking ship by his acting prowess. In nutshell, it was only Naseeruddin Shah who emerges as an stand out performer. As far as supporting cast is concerned then except, Makrand Deshpande who succeeds in registering his presence, rest of the cast comprising Bharath Niwas, Elvis Mascarenhas looks no less than a liability for the movie.

Talking about the BO potential of "Jackpot" is something too peculiar to discuss, but as it is customary part of movie reviewing then all that can be said about the the earning potential of "Jackpot" is that with nothing great in the offering the movie is expected to badly crawl on the BO before reaching its calamitous end. 

To sum up, with not even a single grace saving component assembled in it, "Jackpot" is one of the biggest disaster of 2013, which has kicked aside all other disastrous movies of the year to emerge as the topper of the league. And for all those who somewhere down the line foster a wish to watch "Jackpot", it is suggested that if you are eager to torture yourself, then there are numerous other ways of traumatizing to do so, hence try them instead of watching "Jackpot".

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Whoa! After 200 crore, now 'Dhoom 3' races for Rs 300 crore mark

The makers of 'Dhoom 3' have found the pot of gold with the fast-paced action thriller

The Hindi box office business of the Aamir Khan-starrer has reached Rs.211 crore and, looking at its pace, trade pundits predict it will soon cross the benchmark set by Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Chennai Express', which became the biggest grosser by earning Rs.216 crore.

Also starring Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra, 'Dhoom 3' came out on December 20 on around 4,000 screens in the country. Estimated to be made on a budget of about Rs.100 crore, the film has been produced by Yash Raj Films.

Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines said, "'Dhoom 3' has collected around Rs.211 crore only in Hindi all over India. In other languages, the film has collected around Rs.10 crore."

The overseas collection of director Vijay Krishna Acharya's offering is also overwhelming.

"As far as overseas collection is concerned, the film has almost collected around Rs.100 crore, so in totality 'Dhoom 3' has collected over Rs.300 crore, which is terrific in nine days," Thadani said.

If 'Dhoom 3', the third successful film in the 'Dhoom' franchise, maintains its collection, then it will break the record of 'Chennai Express', according to Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts.

"Today is the ninth day and 'Dhoom 3' has collected Rs.211 crore, which is outstanding and it was the same with 'Chennai Express'. And if the film maintains (the collection), then tomorrow (Monday) it will break the 'Chennai Express' record," he said.

"I am confident it will cross Rs.300 crore in India, provided the film doesn't show any dip in the collection," he added.

Thadani too predicts the same.

"I see the film anywhere in the range of Rs.250 to Rs.300 crore as it's doing exceptionally well."

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Shot in the dark: This actress feels cheated by her buddy filmmaker

Things are not exactly the same between this A list actress and filmmaker.

Though the two may be the best of buddies, recent developments have caused a dent in their friendship. 

Buzz is that the star feels cheated. She was blindly trusting him and agreeing to be in his films even without reading the script. But after their last film proved to be a dud, she has learnt a lesson.

Second thoughts

For starters, she will not give her approval before knowing exactly what the script and character demands. She is clearly in no mood to mix friendship with work any longer. No wonder, the actress who considers him as a brother, has refused to be part of an upcoming production of this filmmaker.

Though the producer-director has been saying that the project has been delayed, the truth is that the star is demanding her moolah and will only sign on the dotted line after she is convinced about her role.

The actress has been voicing her fears and apprehensions to her close pals about being taken for granted by the filmmaker.

Taking for granted
On the other hand, the producer-director feels because of their bonding the star is taking him for a ride. During their last film, she would arrive late, change shoot schedules according to her whims and fancies.

She knew fully well that she would not be pulled up by the director and unit due to her proximity to the filmmaker. He has been voicing her tardiness to his clique. Their bonding may remain on the personal level, but on the professional front are not like before.

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