Shah Rukh Khan undergo for surgery at Breach Candy Hospital

Mumbai: Done with all the hustle-bustle surrounding the release of his flick ‘Billu’, Shah Rukh Khan will undergo the much needed shoulder surgery at the Breach Candy hospital on Monday.

The actor, who has been in severe pain since November, had put the much-recommended surgery on hold for the promotion of his home production ‘Billu’. The actor had apparently injured his shoulder badly on the sets of his upcoming venture ‘Dulha Mil Gaya’.

Speaking to reporters the actor had said, “I hurt myself and tore a tendon about four years ago. That time it used to hurt when I danced or worked out. Recently, while doing a scene in ‘Dulha Mil Gaya’, I fell on my shoulder and hurt myself again. Not realising how serious it was, I shot for and completed ‘My Name is Khan’. By then the pain was excruciating and the doctor said I must go under the knife within 21 days. Post surgery, my arm will be in a sling for six weeks.”

A hospital spokesperson told Spicezee, “There is a surgery scheduled for today on Mr Khan. A few days after he fell while shooting, he came to us and we recommended him to go in for an immediate surgery.”

Talking about the reason that delayed the surgery, the spokesperson said, “Shah Rukh needed to finish a few assignments before the surgery. He told us that he could bear pain and has made no special demands from his end”.

Here’s wishing King Khan a safe surgery and fast recovery.

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Delhi 6 Not A Autobiography: Mehra

Ace filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has dismissed the hearsays that his upcoming film starring Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor “Delhi-6” is an autobiography.

At the same time, Mehra accepts that the movie is based on his growing up days in Delhi’s Chandini Chowk.

Rakeysh said, “Delhi-6 is not an autobiography at all. I’ve just delved into my childhood memories and my youth in the film. I’ve only used what I observed when I was growing up in the backdrop. It’s more of the colour of that life that has been used in the background than anything else.”

“It’s the story of an Indian origin American boy Roshan Mehra who comes to India to drop his ailing grandmother…like taking a fish back to water. It is the journey of this man and his search for his roots,” he said.

After the immensely successful ‘Rang De Basanti’, which was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign film category, Delhi 6 is Rakeysh’s third directorial venture.

The star cast of the film, which is slated for a release on the 20th of February, includes Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Om Puri, Gulshan Grover, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Waheeda Rahman, Rishi Kapoor, Om Puri, and a dove. Big B will also be seen in a small role.

While discussing the symbolic meaning behind the film’s unusual title, Mehra said, “Delhi-6 (the walled city) is a microcosm of India. It symbolises all the small towns of the country where the heart of a city resides and the walled city of Delhi is an attempt to represent that.”

Though the film revolves around Delhi-6, which is the ‘PIN code’ of that part of the city, what shows up in the movie’s poster is the “Statue of Liberty” in Chandni Chowk.

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He explained, “The Statue of Liberty will mean a lot to the people when they watch the movie as it has multiple symbolisms. India today is a melting pot of cultures, religions and castes and now is also finding its place in the global arena. Thus, the Statue of Liberty would signify that and also the land from where this boy (Roshan) comes from.”

Mehra said that while shooting the movie, he had the “time of his life”.

“Every day was an anecdote for us. Basically, we shot with a lot of chaos but with balance and that’s what personifies India. That is the basic energy of the film. We recreated Delhi in Sambhar (Rajasthan) and about 75 percent of the film is shot there, and the rest in Chandni Chowk,” he said.

A big portion of the movie was shot in Rajasthan as the director didn’t want to disturb the people living in ‘Chandni Chowk’.

Mehra directed ‘Rang De Basanti’ in 2006 after his directional debut ‘Aks’ in 2001.

When asked about the lengthy breaks between his projects, he answered, “That’s because of multiple reasons. Cinema is very personal for me. I need time to unwind before I can recharge my batteries. I need time to express myself and that takes a lot of time.”

“I write, produce and direct. While production takes close to Rs.500 million in a film, getting the screenplay and the cast right, pre-production and then to post-produce - it all takes a lot of time.”

Now caught up with promotional work for ‘Delhi 6’ and interviews, Mehra said he has planned to go on a holiday once the film releases.

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Preity Zinta Nominated For The 29th Genie Awards

Preity Zinta nominated for the 29th Genie Awards for her performance in Heaven on Earth Preity Zinta is carving a niche for

herself globally. After winning the Best Actress Award at the Chicago Film Festival last year for her portrayal of a battered Punjabi wife in Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth, Preity has now earned a nomination at the 29th Genie Awards.
She has been nominated under the category, ‘Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role’. What makes this nomination even more special is that Preity is the first Indian actress to have earned this nomination. The Awards will be held on April 4 at Ottawa in Canada.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (ACCT) announced the nominations recently. This year, other nominees in the same category are Susan Sarandon for Emotional Arithmetic, Marianne Fortier for Mommy is at the Hairdresser’s, Ellen Burstyn for The Stone Angel and Isabelle Blais for Borderline.
The call from the official representatives of the 29th Genie Awards informing about her nomination caught Preity off guard. A source close to the actress said, “The news took Preity by surprise. She is delighted.”
On a high after being nominated, Preity said, “I am super excited. I have crossed my fingers and toes and everything else. I cannot stop smiling as Susan Sarandon and Ellen Burstyn have been nominated under the same category as me. They both are Oscar winners. It is an absolute honour for me to find myself amidst such achievers. I cannot stop thanking Deepa (Mehta) for making me part of Heaven on Earth.”

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Billu Barber: Movie

Priyadarshan decides to make (rather remake) another film. Perhaps his criterion for remake depends more on the ease of adaptability, over appeal in the original source. That leads to bland attempts like Billu .

Irrfan Khan is given the onus to act while Shah Rukh uses the attempt as a testimonial to himself. The curvaceous profiles of Deepika, Priyanka and Kareena are supposed to make up for the flatness of the plotline.

Billu (Irrfan Khan) finds it difficult to make ends meet by working as a barber (oops, is that a derogatory term? At least the multiple mute punches in the film imply so). He doesn’t earn enough to pay his children’s school fees or ensure daily bread for the family. He has less customers and more cash-crisis.

Abruptly enters Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), a Bollywood superstar who shoots for item songs while his film’s script is still being randomly written. The script is supposedly futuristic in genre but Sahir strangely insists on shooting it in a village. The unit ends up in Billu’s backyards.

Word spreads that Billu and Sahir were childhood friends following which the star-struck village lends liberal support to the poverty-stricken barber. Everyone from the village moneylender (Om Puri) to the school principal (Rasika Joshi) wants to have a glimpse of Sahir Khan through Billu. But Billu is too hesitant to approach Sahir due to the vast difference in their social status.

Priyadarshan and Mushtaq Sheikh take credits for the screenplay, though ironically they only snip out scenes from the original Malayalam film Katha Parayumpol . The retained portions are a frame-to-frame replica of the original film with no novelty. Nevertheless the storyline of the primary source in itself is one-dimensional throughout and only stressed and stretched on the barber’s starry influence with no twists or turns whatsoever.

One doesn’t expect the sensitivity of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi with the film-inside-film setting. But the story is neither intricately woven around the film industry like in the recent Luck By Chance nor is the format entertainingly-exploited like in Shah Rukh’s own Om Shanti Om . All that the Bollywood backdrop does is make way for some superfluous item numbers or formulaic action sequences, unconnected to the core plot.

There are those regular glitches galore – like the village belle Lara Dutta is always decked up with eyeliners and lip-gloss though there’s no food for the family. The scenes shot in Sahir’s film hardly need a village setting. It’s never explained how the villagers know of Billu and Sahir’s friendship when Billu never makes it public. And perhaps the term barber and hajam sound offensive only when sung, since they are muted in songs but oddly retained in dialogues. What’s the logic? You don’t ask that question in a Priyadarshan film, even if it’s not his fault.

The director continues his brand of loud comedy though Manisha Korde’s figurative dialogues come to rescue at some instances. Finally the film attempts to reconcile its patchy plot with an emotionally driven climax but it only turns out to be an end of too much coincidence and convenience. However the culmination could still work for all those who get touched by the likes of Shah Rukh’s emotive outburst in Mohabbatien . The friendship between Billu and Sahir is never established throughout the film and only surfaces in the last scene. Some flashback account of their childhood companionship could have helped. Sadly after all this, the film doesn’t even end on a moral tone, though it had ample scope for it.

Irrfan Khan is aptly cast in the role of Billu and carries off his character effortlessly. But we have seen him play such roles so often that there remains no uniqueness in his act. Shah Rukh Khan has to just play himself which brings no challenge to his character. The onscreen and offscreen mass hysteria of his Southern prototypes, like Rajnikanth in Kuselan , is so colossal that SRK comes nowhere close in making his character ‘hero’ic. Rajpal Yadav, Om Puri and Asrani are so common to Priyadarshan films that it becomes difficult to differentiate them from their earlier works.

Reportedly, Priyadarshan plans to attempt a horror film next but the hair-raising effect has already started. That’s because you would rather want to skip visiting Billu barber’s parlour. This one’s certainly not worth letting your hair down.



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