Trust me, my way is definitely better than their way.

Abbasbhai and Mustanbhai are veteran practitioners of the fatafat produced thriller, but this — their biggest budget effort by far — tries to be slick and stylish while actually trying to cling on to a plot. Therefore we have pointless, and constant, changes of direction to the story, at every given opportunity. There’s nothing wrong with unpredictability, but it needs to be thought through. A-M bhailog, these many twists suit jalebiwallahs better than filmmakers.

Our film opens with horse races, but aside from having a few whinnying stallions in the background every now and then — largely to frame a shirtless Saif — there’s really not much about that world in this film save for a couple of races, fixed with painful, amateurish obviousness. This is Durban and our top horse owners are archrivals Saif and Dalip Tahil, the latter again forced into an inconsequential, villain-caricature role.

Anyway, Saif plays a gruff and stubbly millionaire not given to much emotional expression, hiding most of them behind his big sunglasses. He does, however, intensely love his stepbrother Akshaye, a good-for-nothing drunk with a hipflask surgically attached to his palm.

Saif’s sexy secretary Katrina is in love with him, we are informed by Anil Kapoor’s voice in the sort of inconsistent know-it-all narrative that smells fishy, rather like scarlet herrings. Kapoor also tells us that Saif is quite hot and heavy with Bipasha, who models Provogue garments for South Africa.

And now begins the carnival of twists, with each character stripped bare to show money-lust where some shred of morality would usually lie. Here, it is only the characters that lie, throughout the film.

And while it’s perfectly acceptable for a thriller to be dark and cynical and let the characters chart their own sordid course, it is vital to either a) have somebody in the whole film who actually has a code of ethics, or b) create characters compelling enough to root for, despite their hardcore darkness.

Here, the directors take route ‘c,’ the one that presumably stands for the all-important word ‘commercial.’ This is a simple route: it asks to focus on the stunts and the skirts, and let the twists lie there just for impact. Unfortunately, unlike the Dhoom 2 [Images] that this film is desperately craving to be, Race can’t go all the way into the insubstantial and gets caught up in actually trying to tell a story — and it’s a helluva loopy tale. And it’s nowhere near as slick as it needs to be.

Saif Ali Khan is completely wasted in the film, his apparent preparation for the character being not to shave for a while, and to perhaps trim a few kilos so that the immense suspension of disbelief doesn’t seem as abrupt. Not that it helps. He grunts mannequin-like through the motions, mostly looking like he wandered on the sets from another film.

Akshaye Khanna has the film’s main role, and while his smirk and his shrug manage a couple of lines alright, this really isn’t a performance to talk about. Never convincing, the otherwise competent Khanna too seems to be phoning in this role, more at ease grimacing behind the wheel than actually delivering his constant, overwritten punchlines.

The girls? Bipasha Basu looks visibly uncomfortable in the part, squirming from one inappropriate costume to another, and really needs to work on her ‘casual’ English. Katrina Kaif looks significantly hot dressed in raunchy secretary gear, but the more she’s kept away from the dialogues the better. Sameera Reddy plays Kapoor’s bimbette assistant, and perpetually wears the disbelieving grin of a girl who can’t believe she’s getting to share screen space with Saif and Anil.

Kapoor, despite being armed with nothing but fruits and groan-provoking lines, emerges as the only character to like in this vague mess. Not only does the actor carry off a horseshoe moustache like it’s nobody’s business, but his post-interval entry into the film injects some life into the random ‘thrills.’

All in all, it’s a rank amateur effort. The actors do their bit, but they too are mostly detachedly going through the motions hoping the camera and the cool moments would carry them through. They don’t. This is a boringly shot, shabbily edited film, and it’s hard to imagine anyone watching it and actually feeling the twists without laughing at them.

Watch it if you must; it’s not objectionably bad. But there really is nothing at all good about this Race either. Heck, even the horses seem sleepy.

Altogether 150 prints will be shown in multiplexes and single screen cinemas, which is an unprecedented record for a dubbed movie.

“Though Rajnikanth has stopped acting in Bollywood films because of his preoccupations in his home state, his magical popularity outside South India has not yet diminished. The Hindi film audiences still remember his acting style and dialogue delivery. I am sure, they will like him in Chandramukhi,” which was a big hit in the south,” Dhanwani said.

In anticipation of the release, Mumbai has already been plastered with 30-feet cutouts of the actor in full regalia, looking at Mumbaikars at strategic points all over the metropolis.

It remains to be seen if the ageing south Indian star manages to cast his spell on the new generation of Hindi movie audience grown on movies featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and other Khans. But Dhanwani is confident about the Tamil superstar’s pull at the box-office, despite the fact that Akshay Kumar starrer Bhool Bhulaiyaa was loosely based on the movie.

The film also casts Jyothika, Nayanthara, Vineeth and Malvika in key roles. Written and directed by P. Vasu, the original Tamil movie has been produced by Ramkumar Ganeshan and was released in Tamil Nadu in 2005.

It ran for three years before it was voluntarily withdrawn from cinemas recently to make way for other movies waiting to be released.

Made on a budget of Rs.220 million, the Tamil version grossed Rs. 1.5 billion (Rs.150 crore) in Tamil Nadu and it also bagged five National Awards in 2006. The movie has some fast numbers composed by Vidyasagar.

The Tamil version of Chandramukhi in fact, is based on a Kannada movie called Apthamitra which again is based on Manichitrathazham in Malayalam. Chandramukhi was earlier dubbed in Telugu and also in German. The movie also had a Bengali version called Rajmahal starring Prasenjit Chatterjee.

“My attitude to my career remains unchanged. I remain the same. It’s people around me who imagine I’ve become a different person. They insist on portraying me the way they perceive me in their minds,” Aishwarya said.

“Never mind if they’re way off the mark. One report says I’ll be performing a salsa in a soap-sponsored event. Does that look anything like me?” she added.

A source close to her said, “Even about Pink Panther she wasn’t sure, with Mrs. Teji Bachchan being so critically ill. Aishwarya didn’t want any distraction from her family duties. It was Abhishek who urged her to take up the offer. Now she’s ready to sign a couple of films. But she will choose very carefully.”

Producer Rohan Sippy’s film, which is supposed to bring the never-before pair of John Abraham and Aishwarya together, is awaiting the leading lady’s approval.

Though director Sriram Raghavan has started the shooting for the untitled love story with John, Aishwarya’s nod is still awaited. And the only reason why she hasn’t given the green signal is because the director hasn’t come up with the script yet.

“Ash has always been very close to producer Rohan Sippy. After all she met and got to know Abhishek on the sets of Rohan’s Kuch Naa Kaho. Since then she and Rohan have always been close.When this project with Sriram Raghavan came up, Aishwarya’s dates were a problem. Rohan flew down to Boston where she was shooting for her Pink Panther to convince her. Touched by Rohan’s sincerity she immediately said yes. However, she made it clear that she would like to see the script,” said another source close to the project.

However, months have passed, no script has reached her because Raghavan was busy finishing Johnny Gaddar and then sorting his future projects.

“Though Ash has heard Sriram’s idea and loves it, she has always insisted on a script. Remember, how years ago Indra Kumar was angry with her because she had asked for a script before saying yes? Ash remains unchanged in her professionalism. Whether it’s a completely professional arrangement with Indra Kumar or a friendly producer like Rohan Sippy, she wants the script,” added the source.

Poohpoohing stories of how she was distracted on the sets of Jodhaa Akbar, the source said, “Ash is today even more professional than she used to be before marriage. Forget about causing distractions by bringing guests to Karjat where Ashutosh was shooting, or not giving Hrithik Roshan his cues while he was emoting, Ash wouldn’t even speak to her husband on the phone while shooting.”

Raghavan’s film is crucial to Ash because after Jodhaa Akbar and Pink Panther, this would be the only film she’s signing.

“Some people are suggesting that Aishwarya’s dates for Raghavan’s film are uncertain. Not true. She has already set aside a large chunk in the first quarter of 2008 for the film. The problem is the script. She’s still waiting for it,” said the source.

“I’m anchoring a music show called Dhoom Machale, which starts in February and goes right up to April. It’s a weekly and doesn’t require me to take too much time off my domestic duties,” Malaika told IANS.

So what’s the new show about?

“It’s a music contest where the contestants are all professional singers like Sunita Rao and Kamal Khan. I agree I’m not a singer. I’m a dancer and therefore more qualified to judge Nach Baliye. See, here we’ll be judging the overall package and not the nuances in the singing.

“All the contestants are people I’ve known earlier. So it’s more in the spirit of fun and leisure,” said Malaika who was one of the first VJs on TV.

Malaika says she’d never do anything that would neglect her son or make her feel less than comfortable.

“I’m very comfortable with the home medium. I don’t think about a big or small medium. For me the important thing is to do things that don’t interfere with my son’s upbringing. To catch him smiling and playing when we go to our farm in Panvel is far more important than anything I do professionally.”

“I was a judge on Nach Baliye. Why not Nach Part 3? NDTV made me an offer and
I couldn’t resist. Besides, all my friends from Nach Baliye moved on to NDTV. I had a whale of a time working with them.I believe not in working relationships but working with people with whom I share a lasting relationship. That rapport shows in my work,” said she.

Malaika had judged a music contest called Cine Stars Ki Khoj.

The community says Gowariker has distorted facts in his magnum opus which is to be released Feb 15.

Narendra Singh Rajawat, head of the Rajput Sabha, said Gowariker is presenting Jodhabai as Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar’s wife, which is factually incorrect.

He also said that Jodhabai was not the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber near Jaipur as shown in the film.

Jodhabai was the daughter of Motaraja Udai Singh of Marwar and was married to Akbar’s son Salim alias Jehangir. And Mughal king Shahjahan was her son, he added.

Rajawat said such distortion of historical facts had hurt the feelings of the Rajput community. He urged the courts to restrain Gowariker from showing Jodhabai as the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber.

He said the name of Raja Bharmal’s daughter was Harkabai alias Heera Kunwar.

“You cannot make your own history and Ashutosh Gowariker is making his own history. He is projecting Jodhabai, who is Akbar’s daughter-in-law, as his beloved and making a love story out of that. He is totally distorting historical facts,” Rajawat said.

He said that the community would boycott the film.

“We are also approaching the high court against this,” informed Rajawat.

The president of the Rajput Karni Sena, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, is also up in arms against the director.

He said the Sena had apprehended the distortion of Rajasthan’s historical facts in Jodhaa Akbar , which is based on the Jodhpur royal family.

“The Karni Sena would watch the movie when released and, if required, it would not allow the screening in the state,” said Kalvi.

Mahaveer Singh Sarwadi, a leader of the Shatriya Yuvak Singh, said: “We would oppose the release of the film if it shows the community in bad taste.”

A number of scenes for the film, which features Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles, were shot in and around Jaipur. Gowariker has consulted several eminent Mughal historians for his movie.

The hunt for the leading lady for Hrithik is getting more intense. Several names had been put forward. Apparently Rakesh Roshan who is very close to Anil Kapoor and very fond of Sonam wanted to cast her. But Sonam, frightfully conscious of her conservative image, begged off.

The role requires the girl to get seriously sexy with Hrithik.

“I’d love to work with Sonam. But not on this project. The role doesn’t do justice to her. We’re looking at someone from abroad, someone Latin American or Brazilian. So yeah, in that sense this would be my first international project,” said Hrithik.

Director Anurag Basu also feels Sonam doesn’t suit the role.

“We’ve looked at many names, known and unknown in Bollywood. But that ‘it’ factor eludes us. I am getting quite jittery. The girl’s role is extremely bold. Actually we’ve decided to cast someone international, preferably Brazilian, because that’s the personality and profile of the leading lady in my film.”

According to reliable reports, the girl chosen for the part is the Channel V model Bruna Abdullah.

Daughter of an Arabian mother and Brazilian father Bruna has been stationed in Mumbai waiting for Bollywood to happen. She performed an extremely bold item song for Anubhav Sinha’s Cash recently.

However, the director denies Bruna has been penciled in for the Hrithik project.

“I don’t deny meeting her, like we’ve met so many other girls for the part. But Bruna hasn’t been finalised. But it’ll surely be an international face.”

The movie is about the West’s perception of Muslims following 9/11. The movie’s take-off point is the order London Police passed to shoot suspected terrorists after the July 7, 2005, London subway bombings.

The story penned by Mundhra himself, revolves around the life of Tariq Ali (Naseeruddin Shah), a Lahore-born Muslim officer of Scotland Yard and the perplexities he is thrown into when tasked to investigate a police shooting of a suspected Muslim terrorist.

“Ali finds himself in a tight corner as he is not trusted by his superiors in the force and by his fellow Muslims as well. How he confronts the truth is what the movie is all about,” Mundhra told IANS.

He said though the subject is sensitive he has tried to provide a balanced view of it, taking into account the points of view of the Muslims and the common perception of the Muslims in the West at present.

“But Shoot On Sight is essentially a thriller,” Mundhra stressed. Produced by the New York-based businessman Aron Govil, the film’s screenplay is written by Carl Austin and the music set by John Altman.

The cast also includes Om Puri, Gulshan Grover, Pakistani actor Mikaal Zulfikar, Laila Rouses, Greta Scacchi, Brian Cox, Sadie Frost, Clemency Burton-Hill, Taru Devani, Clifford Samuel and Arrun Harker.

First-time producer Govil said he would release the film himself in March the world over.Mundhra, who thrives on controversies as all his movies have so far stoked debates in varying degrees, said his next venture would be a song-and-dance commercial Bollywood-type masala movie with Govinda in the lead.

“People go crazy over lobby cards (showing photos of actors and actresses). But the prices have gone up. What you could buy 10 years ago for Rs.25 in Chor Bazaar (Mumbai) now costs $25,” he said.

Ciancia found some good sources for old posters on eBay, the online sell-anything website. He estimates he has over a thousand subjects with him.

He scans the posters, makes a paper copy, and puts them through matte lamination after painting the original.
“Some tourists, like the Russians, love that tarty lady,” he points to one poster. “Bollywood has some beautiful old movies too. Now, Bollywood makes a lot of films. Maybe, it could make less but of better quality,” he added.

Calling his collection an outcome of a passion for art, he said: “It’s primarily not a business. I’m not here to become rich.”

The collection has made the couple celebrities in Goa. “We’re featured in an article on ‘Goa’s best kept secrets’,” Ciancia said.

In his house one can find the posters of yesteryear stars like Helen, Junior Mehmood, Fearless Nadia, and an Australian woman who married an Indian producer in the 1940s and became prominent in Bollywood.

Ciancia has been collecting the film posters for long, working on them, getting artistes from Milano and elsewhere to do them up, and then sell copies to tourists visiting Goa who are keen to have a brush with India.

What he offers for sale also includes old Indian photos, Japanese ones and Bollywood pictures from the 1940s. There are originals too, while others are printed on paper, canvas or big-size posters.

On his first trip to Rajasthan nearly a decade ago, he discovered there were a huge number of old photographs still available in some places.

He toured all over India and started to buy. His dealer, based in that legendary used-goods market with the suggestive name of Chor Bazaar in Mumbai, used to come to Goa once a month with offers.
“It’s now getting difficult to find good photographs. But there are interesting things from Bollywood. They’ve tried everything (in the Indian film industry). From a remake of Jurassic Park to old movies; they’ve even tried Frankenstein and Robin Hood.”

Sometimes, he said, there are “too many Kapoors and too many Kumars” in the Indian film industry, making it a bit difficult for him to keep track.

“Over the years, the price of photos has become so high. Good classic subjects sell for 10 to 20 times more over seven years.” Sometimes, the price asked for in Mumbai today is comparable to what is being sought in prominent auction houses like Christie’s in London, he said.
Ciancia discovered that there is a “huge market” for copies of such photographs and posters. He sells at the Saturday night markets held in Goa, at Arpora village itself, during the tourist season. Foreign tourists visiting Goa find the Bollywood posters a suitable souvenir. Colonial India does have a desi market too, with some going in for the maharaja (king) pictures. He also collects such pictures and advertisements.

Ciancia pointed out that some of his black-and-white photographs have been re-touched and coloured in the fashion of the 1930s. One of the posters from Bollywood is of the indigenously shot film Johar Mehmood in Goa.

The 2007 edition of DIFF will see a separate section on Indian cinema called A Celebration of Indian Cinema that will showcase lesser-known cinematic traditions from different parts of India.

According to DIFF artistic director Masoud Amrala Al Ali, the eight-day festival will offer filmmakers from other centres in India such as Chennai, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram a bigger platform to showcase their work.

Internationally renowned Indian director Mira Nair will be here for her ensemble film AIDS Jaago, which comprises four short narrative films about HIV/AIDS. For this production, a joint effort between Mirabai Films and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nair hired four of India’s ace directors.

Nair will be accompanied by Raima Sen who features in Nair’s segment of the ensemble called Migration, and Farhan Akhtar, who directed the segment called Positive, according to the Gulf Today newspaper.

Acclaimed director and cinematographer Santosh Sivan will also be here with two projects. One, his segment in AIDS Jaago called Parambha and the other is his English language debut Before the Rains.

Set in 1930s India, Before the Rains portrays the dilemma of a married British colonialist in India who is caught having an affair with his beautiful housemaid. According to the newspaper, Rahul Bose, who stars in the film along with Nandita Sen, has confirmed his participation in the film fest.

Naseeruddin Shah will be here for the world premiere of Shoot at Sight, a political thriller by Jag Mohan Mundhra set in London. The film features Om Puri and Shah, who plays the central role as a police commissioner torn between loyalties while investigating the killing of a terrorist by police. Shah’s co-star Laila Rouass will also be here to promote the film.

The legendary icon of Malayalam cinema, Adoor Gopalakrishnan will be here with Naalu Pennungal (Four Women), which was released recently in Kerala to an enthusiastic response. The film, the director’s 10th feature, portrays the struggles of women in a male-dominated society. With power packed performances from Padmapriya, Manju Pillai, Geetu Mohandas and Nandita Das, the film depicts the subjugation and undermining of Indian women of the southern region of Kerala. Padmapriya will also attend the festival.

Kabir Bedi will be here for the revised international director’s cut of Taj Mahal. Manisha Koirala and Pooja Batra, who also star in the film, will join Bedi.

Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty will attend the festival for the world premiere of Lal Pahare’r Katha (A Story of the Red Hills), in which he plays the role of a tribal dancer whose innate love for the art form helps him overcome a failed relationship.

Among other Indian films to be screened at this year’s festival are Frozen, starring newcomer Shivajee Chandrabhushan and seasoned actor Danny Denzongpa and Manish Acharya’s Loins of Punjab

Indian cinema is indeed rich and diverse and we particularly thought it deserved its own section in the festival because of the large and enthusiastic Indian public here in Dubai,” said Simon Field, artistic director of DIFF’s international programming, while announcing the launch of the new Indian segment in the festival.

A large majority of this city of 1.4 million people are Indian expats.