First Look Poster of Rush starring Emraan Hashmi & Neha Dhupia

Anushka Sharma, Emraan Hashmi, Ajay Devgn, Shriya Saran, Bipasha Basu, Sonali Bendre, Rana Daggubati, Ranveer Singh on the Cover/scans of Filmfare – July 18, 2012

Emraan – Vidya to romance in Mumbai monsoon!

‘Ghanchakkar’ starring Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi, has been preponed by a month. The director of the film, Rajkumar Gupta, is presently on top of the world as his wish of capturing the two actors romancing in the Mumbai monsoon, finally comes true..
Initially, due to Emraan’s time constraints, the shooting was supposed to begin in September.
Gupta narrated: “I had originally planned an August schedule. And Vidya, who is at the moment doing no other film, was completely one with my film’s schedule. But Emraan was busy promoting Raaz 3 in August as the film was supposed to release at the end of August.”
“But now I believe ‘Raaz 3′ has been pushed forward, so I got the window to shoot the scenes that I wanted. I guess I am just lucky
The whole idea is to capture Vidya and Emraan with secret cameras, on the rain-soaked streets of Mumbai. However, this requires a lot of courage.
“I agree. But both are used to shooting in the crowded outdoors. If Vidya could brave the Kolkata crowds in Kahaani and the Delhi crowd in my film No One Killed Jessica, then Mumbai would be a cakewalk in comparison.”
“The important thing is god has been generous. Thanks to Emraan’s reshuffled appointment diary, I’m able to shoot as and when I had originally planned,” he said.
The film is most likely to release in the first quarter of 2013.

Deepika-Emraan in Dharma-Balaji film…

Deepika Padukone is on a roll. After Bebo rejecting Ekta Kapoor – Karan Johar’s film, it is heard that Deepy has taken Kareena’s place and will be seen opposite Emraan Hashmi.
It is heard that Kareena said no to Ekta-Karan because she wasn’t comfortable working with Hashmi. However, Deepika, who is known to explore the Bollywood industry, has no problem working with Emraan.
A source close to the Balaji- Dharma project revealed, “It is strange Kareena was not happy with her role. She also told Ekta and Karan that her wedding would be around the same time they wanted to start shooting for the film. It’s a heroine-oriented film and Emraan is not the mainstay of the project. Deepika was so excited about her role that she agreed to it a couple of days before boarding the flight to Turkey, where she is currently shooting for Race 2.”
If sources are to be believed, it is said that after giving ample thought, Kareena decided to return to the project.  “It would have been unethical to show Deepika the door then. Moreover, they were unanimous in their opinion that Deepika could pull off the role as efficiently as Kareena would have,” added the source.
“The film is an urban take on love – it is quirky, edgy and dramatic,” says an insider.
The film will go on floors by end of this year.

‘Shanghai’: Movie Review (2012)

Movie Review (2012)
 Film: “Shanghai”
Cast: Prosenjeet Chatterjee, Abhay Deol, Emraan Hashmi, Kalki Koechlin, Supriya Pathak and Farooque Shaikh
Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Rating:  3.5/5

Watching “Shanghai” is revisiting your daily local newspaper, full of scams, conspiracies and crime stories. In short, the film is a slice of today’s India.
Adapted from “Z”, a 1966 novel by Vassilis Vassilikos, Dibakar Banerjeer brilliantly exposes the reality behind the irony of India Shining.
The scenes are verbatim daily newspaper briefs.
Set in present day nondescript shanty called Bharatnagar, it sees Dr. Ahmedi (Prosenjeet Chatterjee), a US-based professor and activist, visiting Bharatnagar to enlighten its inhabitants about ‘pragati’ (progress).
He opposes the transformation of the shanty town into a zany township, a la Shanghai. But he is murdered by the opposition who try to pass off his death as an accident.
After that the story moves ahead with Shalini Sahay (Kalki Koechlin), Ahmedi’s besotted student and daughter of an ex-army general who is involved in a scam, IAS Officer T.A. Krishnan (Abhay Deol), videographer Joginder Parmar (Emraan Hashmi), Ahmedia’s wife Aruna (Tillotama Shome), chief minister (Supriya Patak) and her PA (Farooque Sheikh).
While the film grips you, it’s the system that gets to you.
“Why did you do commit the murder, when you knew it is wrong,” Shalini asks the murderer.
Another dialogue – “Jeene se haraam lagta hai. Par marne se darr bhi lagta hai…” clearly shows the hunger for survival. It’s a sorry state of affairs, where the common denominator is the victim.
There is a simplistic nature to the narrative and archetype.
The performance of every character is realistic and matter-of-fact. Emraan impresses with his rustic portrayal, quite different from his usual flamboyant characters. Abhay Deol, as the IAS Officer, bowls over the audience with his grit and, of course, unmistakable Tamil accent. Kalki slips effortlessly into the character, yet again, revealing her versatility.
However, what you take home is not the memories of a character well-performed, but the story.
The film is frighteningly true.
The strength of “Shanghai” is its tight screenplay by Urmi Juvekar and Dibakar Banerjee and the meticulous details leave no scope for arguments.
What adds to the flavour is excellent cinematography by Nikos Andritsakis and the marvellous use of sound, both ambient and otherwise, to build up the tension in the political drama.
The controversial song “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and the item number “Imported Kamariyaa” are well-picturised and the latter is on the way to become the next favourite numbers at all ‘basti’ celebrations.
Despite its simplistic and down-to-earth locations, “Shanghai” has a nice hard-boiled vibe and a sense of semi-exotic danger. Definitely gives you a lot to ponder about.
Don’t miss this one.

Mumbai Congress asked ban on ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ song

The Mumbai unit of the Congress party Tuesday called for a ban on the song ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ featured in a forthcoming Bollywood movie “Shanghai”, saying it hurts patriotic sentiments and degrades India.
In a letter addressed to union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Ambika Soni, Mumbai Congress vice-president Charan Singh Sapra has contended that the content of the entire song is an insult to all countrymen who respect India as their motherland.
Hence it is very likely to inflame the feelings of all Indians, resulting in disharmony, rioting, breach of peace and tranquility within the country, Sapra said.
The song contains controversial words like Sarkari Hathiyaar, Dhandha, Chanda, Dengue, Malaria, Gobar (cowdung), which Sapra alleged are deliberately used to defame the country.
Such defaming language has been used despite the full knowledge that the same shall definitely wound the patriotic feelings and sentiments of the people, besides ridiculing and degrading India in the eyes of the world, he urged.
Sapra has sought an immediate and total ban on the song from being broadcast/telecast in any manner, deleting it from the movie and to fix accountability and initiate action against the concerned censor board officials who cleared the offensive number.
Based on the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos, “Shanghai” is a political thriller directed by D. Banerjee and stars Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol and is slated for release this Friday (June 8).

Emraan Hashmi, Priyanka Chopra, Gul Panag,Imran Khan and Sanjay Dutt on the cover/scans of Cineblitz – June 2012