Ritam Banerjee bagged the Best Cinematography award at Tenerife film festival for the Movie SandCastle

Sandcastle’s Director of Photography Ritam Banerjee won the Best Cinematography award at the London International Film Festival. Movie was also screened at LA Femme Film Festival in Los Angeles on Sunday, 20th October, 2013.

‘Sandcastle’ was nominated in four categories at the film festival – Best Actor (female), Best Supporting Actor (Male), Best Cinematography and Best Feature Film. It has also been nominated for Best Foreign Language Feature Film at the International Filmmaker Fest of World Cinema.

Directed and written by Shomshuklla Das, ‘Sandcastle’ also has dialogues written by her. The name, she says, is a metaphor for the film, which revolves around the journey of a young woman to find her inner calling. It stars theatre actors Sahana Chatterjee and Malvika Jethwani.

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Music: Ram-Leela’s Song Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun

Ram-Leela’s Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun Song is a nice song, sung by Aditya Narayan and the music is by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone have shown some fun moves in the video. Song’s lyrics are penned by Siddharth – Garima.
Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun Lyrics:
Dil ki ye goli chale nainon ki bandook se..
Bam bhi girenge ab pyaar ke sandook se.. -(3 times)

Ishq ye tera mera ishquan ke dhishqyaun ke dhishqyaun!

Yahan ishqyaun re wahan dhishqyaun.. -(2 times)

Ladaaku vimaan hai, par tu meri jaan hai

bistar ye tera mera, arey jung ka maidaan hai – (2 times)
Jo tu trigger dabaye, toh main chumme chalaun -(2 times)

Ishq ye tera mera ishqyaun ke dhishqyaun ke dhishqyaun!

Yahan ishqyaun re wahan dhishqyaun – (3 times)

Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun

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Review: War Chhod Na Yaar

Rating: 2.5/5 (Two & A Half Stars)

War Chhod Na Yaar, a war comedy, is nothing like what we have seen before. A fine comedy with a decent message to go along with it. We have seen soldiers fighting with their guns but in #WarChhodNaYaar, you will see them fighting with their tongues. Director’s presentation of two countries going to war and in between sharing their thoughts through their witty humor is refreshing. First half of the movie comes as a surprise and totally entertaining but the second half is confusing and biased. The on-going war between Indo-Pak is hilarious but with the entry of other countries, it loses the charm of being a war comedy. It seems more like as if they are on a mission to throw chinese products out of India.

The movie take us to the time where the war is about to get declared and Defense Minister (Dalip Tahil) visits border along with a national news channel reporter Rut Dutta (Soha Ali Khan) to shoot the war efforts in advance. He instructs Captain Rajveer Singh Rana (Sharman Joshi) to help reporter shoot the hostility at border to motivate the country. Now starts the funny ‘war of words’ and a show which has never been performed in Bollywood before. By the time Rut Datta’s shoot is over, she decides to tell about the war to captain Rajveer. India and Pakistan both the countries are bribed and pressurized by China and America to attack and get engaged in a nuclear war. Captain Rajveer and Rut Dutta plans with Pakistani army to overthrow the war. They also reveal the corrupt minister’s plan on national tv. It helps them to cease the evil plan and finally both armies celebrate peace.
Movie has some of the best comedy actors on board. Sharman Joshi, Sanjai Mishra and Javed Jafri have given their best performances in War Chhod Na Yaar. Sanjai and Javed shows some witty sense while impersonating Pakistani army soldiers. Sharman is in a new avatar and doesn’t disappoint at all. Soha Ali khan has very limited role to show her moves, she is just average and more or less just the filling the gap of a required female face in an Indian movie.
Movie’s music is average and has nothing special to talk about.
War chodd Na Yaar is Director Faraz Haider’s first venture. He has done a good job with the subject. On top of everything, he has penned down the script, most of the dialogues and song lyrics. It seems too many responsibilities made him lost focus and finally he presented us with a confused and half baked script.
First half of the movie is way too entertaining but second half has too many flaws. Movie’s twisting climax saves the day and makes War Chhod Na Yaar a good watch. If only director would have concentrated a bit more on humor and entertainment till the end, he would have provided us with another masterpiece like Hera Pheri. Some dialogues are going to be remembered as popular jokes for years. If you really want to laugh your hearts out and get entertained till the intermission and then leave the theaters.. then War Chhod Na Yaar is your cup of tea.

Overall Ratings : 2.5/5 (Two & A half Stars)

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Review: Sandcastle (2013)

Sandcastle is not just any random movie. It talks about the struggle to find your own identity, it’s about freedom, and it’s also about independence, which isn’t easy. It leaves you on a positive note that we all are unique in our own way. The movie has some loopholes, but the spirit of the movie and the closely captured emotions are worth a watch.
The entire movie is played in chapters and showcases some real life scenarios. Relationships, Independence, Expectations and the rest.. all captured beautifully. The movie is about genuine issues and is close to real life, not a spicy mix of old classics.
Shahana Chatterjee and Malvika Jethwani have performed well whereas the guy playing Sheila’s friend is very fake and breaks the flow of the movie. There are certain other characters in the movie not worth a mention except Sheila’s husband Vikram (Rajat Sharma).
Sheila is an aspiring writer, wife to a rich husband, and an ideal daughter and mother. From an outsider’s perspective, her life is perfect. Like it’s said, what is perfect to one, could be abject misery to another. In the process to launch her first book, she faces the hard reality of life (focused on women of urban India). Everything starts slipping from her hands. Would she be able to speak for herself ? Would she be able to build her own dreams?
She found the answers to all those questions in becoming a perfect and independent woman; there she meets Maya, her own perfect image. She learns to be free from Maya and starts to enjoy life from a new prospective. Later, when her family gets to meet the new Sheila (through Maya), they accept her but refuse to replace her with old Sheila. Will she go back to her old persona or will she adopt maya’s personality? Will she learn to be happy with her old self or change everything to become a perfectionist?  Watch it to know more.
The initiative to expose the common topic is very uncommon. Fiction is easier but to research, understand and portray the reality is an achievement already. Direction is good whereas the screenplay is average. Script and the concept of the movie are the winners. A little more efforts collectively would have taken the movie to another level. Movie’s dialogues and situations are placed intelligently.
The starcast could have been better. Maya as gypsy could have been more attractive and the character of Sheila’s friend could have been played by a better artist. Also, though the climax was a clever choice of action, it wasn’t executed with perfection. In some parts you are totally confused about what’s happening. 
If you can ignore some parts of the movie with flaws and would like to enjoy a genuinely intellectual movie, witness the struggle of women of Urban India in Sandcastle.
Overall Rating: 3/5 (Three Stars)
Directer: Shomshuklla
Producer: Tina Sen
Technical Director: Abraham Cherian
Director of Photography: Ritam Banerjee
Story: Shomshuklla
Screenplay: Shomshuklla
Music: Ankur Mukherjee
CAST:
Shahana Chatterjee
Malvika Jethwani
Rajat Sharma
Uditvanu Das
Iti Pawar
Sagnik Mukherjee
Aindrila Mitra
Vaishali
Himangi Mahabaleshwarkar

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Bigg Boss Exclusive: Season 7 Supposedly Contestants Names Leaked

Bigg Boss 7’s leaked list of final contestant is out. Bigg Boss’s season 7 is to go live today with Salman Khan as its host. The show is know for its controversial and bold statements in the past. 15 contestant will join the show today and will live in the Bigg Boss‘s house for 104 days, this season’s theme “Jannat Ka Wow and Jahannum ka Aow” is very close to the actual ambience of the show. Many unknown became known and many known lost their names in the previous seasons of Bigg Boss.

Last year’s runner’s up Imaam Siddique came out of nowhere and became a celebrity in a matter of few days. He endorses and hosts a couple of shows and known for his bold and controversial statements. Whereas the wild cat Urvashi Dholakiya (reel life komolika) was declared as the unexpected winner of the season with maximum votes.

This year Bigg Boss’s guests have a good number of known and unknown names among its list. First name is of Anita Advani known to be the live-in partner of late Rajesh Khanna.

Second and Third contender Shilpa and Apporva Agnihotri are known faces of Indian Television and known for their tv shows Kyunki Saan Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi.

Another contender named Hazel Keech is known for her presence in the movie Bodyguard. Hazel Keech is a British actress who has been associated with Bollywood and Indian arts, first as a classical dancer and later as an actress.

Producer and Director Rajat Rawal is another known name among the contenders. He is known to be close to Salman Khan and has produced films like Ready and No Problem casting Salman Khan. Rajat Rawal is also know for his comedy act in Movie Bodyguard as Tsunami Singh.

Another TV personality Kushal Tandon is also a part of Bigg Boss 7. Kushal is known for his roles in Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai as Virat. Kushal is from Lucknow and was a runner’s up of Grasim Mr.India contest.

Balika Vadhu’s Pratyusha Banerjee is famous for her role as Anandi and known for her shyness and simple attire in Indian Television industry. Pratyusha Banerjee is from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. She was also a contestant on Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5, on Colors TV and was later eliminated because of some undisclosed health issues. As per B-Town’s gossips she is signed by Vikram Bhatt for his next film.


A very known face for his role as host for some popular Generation ‘Y’ shows VJ Andy (aka Anand Kuma) is another contender of Bigg Boss season 7. VJ Andy has hosted some very famous tv shows as Dare to Date, Get Gorgeous 3 and Beauty and the Geek.

Arman Kohli, an ex Bollywood actor was last seen in movie LOC: Kargil and after that disappeared from the tinsel town. He is mostly know for his movies such as Jani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani, Dushmani, Veer, Kohra and Virodhi.

Another contestant Gauhar Khan known for her role in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year is also participating. Gauhar Khan is from pune and is the sister of Nigar Khan. She has also participated in In Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5 and was paired up with Gurmeet Choudhary. She was praised for her latest role in movie Ishaqzaade with Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor.

With the promise of something different this season,parts of god and devil are being played by Salman in the advertisement. Let’s see what Bigg Boss season 7 has to offer !!

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Box Office India: Shuddh Desi Romance Second Weekend Collections

Parineeti Chopra and Sushant Singh Rajput’s Shuddh Desi Romance seems to be the new talk of B-town. After a good business of Rs 36 Crores in its first week of release, Shuddh Desi Romance managed to do a good business on its second weekend and collected Rs. 1.2 Crores on Second Friday, Approx Rs 1.95 Crores on Second Saturday and Rs. 2.25 Crores on Sunday.



Shuddh Desi Romance is all about love, commitment and the new age romance. It talks about new culture of living together in India. It talks about the issues Indian youth faces and feels in day to day life. They fall in love instantly and get out of it even faster. Parineeti Chopra and Sushant as an on screen couple was the right choice for such a role. Parineeti has already earned a bold image at the box office and Sushant seems like a boy next door. This pair is competent to tell the story of modern India living in urban cities and small towns. They have to face their emotions and fight through older generation’s rules.

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Review: The Lunchbox

Rating: 4/5 (Four Stars)

After touring the world, Irfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur’s ‘The Lunchbox’ is finally in India. It is being called ‘dabba’ (Lunchbox) in India. Movie has generated some buzz in different film festivals and won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award at Cannes Film Festival, France.

Director Ritesh Batra has done a marvelous job in terms of research in dabba industry, Mumbai and has invented a beautiful love story around their way of working. The lunchbox’s script is entertaining and gripping till the very end. I just had a disappointment in the climax. But overall, the movie experience is satisfactory and despite being a offbeat film, movie has its moment of unexpected laughs. According to the research done by Harvard University, only one in a million lunchbox is delivered to the wrong address and ‘The LunchBox’ movie is the story of that one LunchBox.

Movie is about an old widower Sajjan Fernandez (Irfan Khan) who is taking an early retirement (claims deptt.,Government office) and a married woman Ila (Nimrat Kaur) in her late thirties. It’s an unusual story of their falling in love where the lunchbox is their way of communication and their daily life problems become the subject of talking. Without meeting each other in person, in no time they come close and starts talking about a real relationship and plans about moving to Bhutan. Movie also revolves around two more characters, which are connected to Mr. Fernandez and Ila. Mr. Fernandez has a trainee Shaikh (Nawajudin Siddqui) in his office and Ila depends too much on her Neighbor Deshpandey Aunty (Bharati Achrekar) for advice of general life and food recipes. Shaikh is an orphan and has got a government job after a long struggling life. He lives with her muslim girlfriend and plans to get married as he will get promoted after Mr. Fernandez’s retirement.

Deshpandey Aunty has a paralyzed husband, whose life depends upon the room’s ceiling fan. She taught Ila some mouth-watering recipes to make her husband happy. A sumptuous dish (made by Auntyji’s recipe) reaches Mr. Fernandez by the mistake of a Dabba wala and this becomes the foundation of this amazing love story. They start exchanging notes about food and later the discussions becomes personal and finally they start sharing their day to day events and problems and motivate each other. Ila finds some clues about her husband having an affair and she shares her doubts with Mr. Fernandez. Ila tells Mr. Fernandez about her thought of leaving everything behind and going to Bhutan, as Bhutan has no GDP but a better life. Mr. Fernandez, who earlier planned about taking a premature retirement, suddenly starts feeling alive and discusses his new plans with Shaikh. Will he take a retirement or run away with Ila is the real suspense.

“Its well said that – sometimes a wrong Train gets you to the right destination. ” This is what exactly the movie is about. The destiny, the coincidence and the decision.


Irfan Khan is an award winning seasoned actor. He took a risk of playing the role of an old man and the risk paid off. He has done an outstanding job as an actor and managed his character pretty well. On the other hand, Nimrat is a stage actor and knows very well how to step in the shoes of a character. She was the perfect choice for the role. Nawajudin Siddqui has proved his worth in his previous movies and won a good number of awards for his dynamic performance. He didn’t have much of a role in ‘The Lunchbox’ but he is visible throughout the movie because of his character and substance. Fourth and final character of Bharati Achrekar (Aunty) is not visible at all in the movie, but her voice is quite recognizable and you will feel her presence in your mind. Lillete Dubey too has a very small role in the movie, but as a good actor she did her job as per the requirement.

Though there would be other movies displaying the life of ‘dabbawalas’ but this movie has captured their moments close and clear. Their way of working, transportation of dabbas through local train and lastly the deliveries by cycle. It’s not the story on the criticism that dabbawala delivered on the wrong address but it’s a story where the dabbawala serves as a messenger of god and changes the life of two people with a mere ‘Lunchbox.’

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