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Tomorrow, we will witness one of the biggest box office clashes of 2022 as Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan starrer Runway 34 will lock horns with Tiger Shroff's Heropanti 2. The promos of both the films have garnered positive responses from the audience and trade experts are hoping that these two films will end the dry spell of Bollywood films at the box office since no Hindi movie has worked after The Kashmir Files. However, Heropanti 2 is expected to take a lead at the box office due to its mass appeal and franchise value. As per film distributor and trade analyst Akshaye Rathi, both films have the potential to become box office winners. Will this clash affect the business of both the films? I don't think the clash will in any way affect the business of both the films. A lot of factors at play, right? I mean, if you look at this week, there'll be a very interesting study in the context of cinema showcasing in terms of the number of shows that are given to each film and in...

Moushumi Chatterjee was a hit actress in her heyday, churning out one smash after another and not in the least disposed to nurture the egos of directors and filmmakers. It's no surprise that she's been cast in more films than one can count on one hand. Moushumi, whose true name is Indu, couldn't care less. In an interview with Firstpost she says, “I was very clear about what I wanted from my career. And it wasn’t money or fame. I was in this for the fun of it.” Moushumi's career began with Tarun Majumdar's superhit Bengali film Ballika Badhu. She was 19 at the time, but in this lovely story based on Rabindranath Tagore's short work Samapti, she played a much younger child-bride. Later, Jaya Bhaduri played the same role in Uphaar. In fact, Moushumi’s fate seems inextricably linked to  Jaya’s. Moushumi tells me that she was signed on to do Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi, the 1970 film with which Jaya became an immediate and endurable cine icon.  According to Moushum...

Shahid Kapoor's Jersey has released today at the box office. The sports drama is the remake of Nani starrer Telugu movie of the same name. So which is better? Don’t try answering that trick question. Remakes never stand a chance, no matter how effectively they capture the essence of the original, and God forbid, if the remake tries to tweak the original, you are guilty of unforgivable trespassing. Director Gowtam Tinnanuri, who has directed both the versions of Jersey in Telugu and Hindi, has stuck to the original blueprint in Hindi, except of course where the cultural conversions are required. Hence Arjun, the fallen cricketer who rises above his destiny so that his son would be proud of him, is relocated from Hyderabad to Chandigarh. His wife is no longer Sarah. She is Vidya, well played by Mrunal Thakur. But the emotional core of the two films is unchanged. Jersey in Telugu as well as in Hindi is one of the quietest achievers in recent times. It’s a film you want to protect from...

 The Beatles and India review: Ajoy Bose's documentary is a tender exploration of band's time in the country What drew me in was Ajoy Bose's exploration of the cultural encounter between East and West – neither a clash, nor a picture of harmony, but fun, messy and real Did you know that George Harrison, lead guitarist of The Beatles, was introduced to the sitar much before Pandit Ravi Shankar came into his life? The guitarist’s mother, Louise, used to listen to the sitar on her radio when she was pregnant. The sounds of the strings helped her calm down. No wonder then that Harrison was fascinated by the instrument when he encountered it in his adult life. He had not seen it before but it seemed intimately familiar.  This is one of many delightful anecdotes that emerged when author-filmmaker Ajoy Bose was in conversation with cricket commentator Gautam Bhimani at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata in the last week of March 2022. The event was part of the Kolkata Literary ...

One must commend Taapsee for taking a chance on this film and giving it her all albeit in a small role. Unfortunately, Mishan Impossible fails to launch. Taapsee Pannu’s career has been going great guns in Bollywood in recent years where she has played an interesting array of roles from small town girl to sportsperson to downtrodden and abused women. Her return to Telugu cinema comes in the form of this small film directed by Swaroop RSJ. The award-winning actress has always been proud of her repertoire of work but her latest release is a surprising choice. Taapsee Pannu has always rooted for small films as she believes they have a ‘big heart’ but one wonders whether this Telugu flick does. In Mishan Impossible Taapsee Pannu plays investigative reporter Sailaja who takes on a mission to bring down a well-connected businessman/gangster Ram Shetty, who is in the business of child trafficking. Meanwhile, three kids from Vadamalapeta, Andhra Pradesh - Raghupathi (Harsh Roshan), Raghava (Bh...