You Don’t Have To Be A Cricket Fan To Love The Sachin Bio-Pic
Directed by James Erskine
Rating: **** ½(4 and a half stars)
There is something about Sachin Tendulkar,something so correct and so innocent you want him to win in life even when you know he is no more the ‘God’ of the cricket field.
The rousing farewell speech that Sachin gives at the end of this astutely emotional journey into the heart and mind of India’s most celebrated Bat Man ,left me dewy-eyed. This, when I know zilch about cricket and practically nothing about Sachin’s exploits on the field.What I do know—and what this film is able to tell us in comprehensive strokes of revelation—is that greatness is not thrust on the great by chance.
One has to break bones and crack ribs to get there.
Sachin A Billion Dreams is the story of a national hero who sails through every crisis with his simple philosophy of good existence and hard work.Sachin’s life is blameless. He has never been in any controversy and he doesn’t incite scandalous thoughts. This film could’ve easily been the opposite of what the Sanjay Dutt biography would be, given the man’s colourful lifescape. Instead the director unfolds a treasury of memories and anecdotes in which the aroma of ambition is mingled with the flavour of yearnings.
Sachin Tendulkar’s wife talks about how he would clam up after every defeat on the field. Does that make him a difficult man to live with?She doesn’t say. Dissent is not an option that people close toTendulkar would want to exercize.What I gathered after watching Tendulkar’s tale being tossed into a cauldron of exploratorychannels all leading to a glorious exposition on heroism,is that every great life has a very strong support system behind it.
The documentary, dotted with a smattering of fictionalization from the protagonist’s growing years, constructs an extremely strong case for the joint-family system. Sachin’s closeness to his father and brother and the singleminded focus that his wife Anjali has in ensuring Sachin’s ascendancy into cricketing stardom, are milestones in the cricketer’s life that get a pride of place in the narrative.
This brings me to the other hero in Sachin: A Billion Dreams. The hero beyond the one whom the film celebrates,is the film’s editorDeepa Bhatia who has done a stupendous job of assembling all the footage from old television interviews, Sachin’s home videos(truly rare footage of the cricketing legend playing with his two little children) and his precious time with family and friends.
None of the raw material that serves as the backbone of the Tendulkarsaga is randomly placed.Director James Erskine plunges deep into the cricketer’s heart even while maintaining a certain distance from the cult of hero-worship that Indians subscribe to when it comes to film stars and cricketers.Sure, there is footage of crowds cheering and mobbing Tendulkar. But the man himself is shown to remain blissfully distanced from the adulation.
A simple man whose phenomenal achievements do not influence his behaviour on the field or in the family fold, Tendulkar comes across in the film as guileless and driven.
We get to see Sachin Tendulkar talk directly into the camera . Again it’s not about how he throws words or pauses between them. It’s about telling the world that his heart beats for cricket.Everything else, including family, must wait.
For telling it like it is,for giving the national hero a befitting cinematic homage and for opening up the vistas of dreams that everyworkingclass youngsters lives and dies with , Sachin A Billion Dreams deserves a standing ovation.For giving us a documentary that is neither dry nor pedantic nor over-eulogistic ,the entire team of this film deserves a ‘We Love Sachin’ sweat-shirt each.
Signed by the man.

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Aamir Khan’s Sister Plays Shah Rukh’s Mother In Pathaan

Ever since Pathaan released on Wednesday, audiences have been curious to know who is the woman who plays Shah Rukh Khan’s adoptive mother in Afghanistan. The stately lady with royal looks is none other than the late producer Tahir Hussain’s daughter and Aamir Khan’s elder sister Nikhat Khan.
Nikhat has been closely associated with the film industry and has helped her father in the production of his films like Dulha Bikta Hai and Tum Mere Ho.
Nikhat has acted earlier in the Akshay Kumar starrer Mission Mangal , Ajay Devgan’s Tanhaji and in Sandh Ki Aankh(as a Maharani).
For Pathaan, it was Shah Rukh Khan who suggested Nikhat Khan should play his foster-mother in Afghanistan who names him ‘Pathaan’. It proved to be an inspired piece of casting, as audience have loved Nikhat Khan’s cameo.
It is heartwarming that all three Khan superstars are associated with Pathaan in one way or the other.
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Anurag Kashyap’s New Film Is About Love Jihad

Love Jihad, whatever that means, is the theme of Anurag Kashyap’s new film Almost Pyaar With D J Mohabbat.
Debutant Karan Mehta plays a Muslim boy in an intense relationship with Alaya F who plays a Hindu girl.Kashyap has spared the audience none of the ugliness that such a relationship generates among social-media bouncers, the self-styled guardian of morality .
In the hardhitting powerful and pertinent film a bigot is heard commenting snidely, “These people first talk about Mohabbat. Then they talk about Mohammed.”
Happily and surprisingly, the Central Board Of Film Certification gave the film a ‘UA’ certificate with no cuts: a rare non-‘A’ film of Kashyap.
So far Kashyap and his team have kept the Love Jihad part of the plot out of all media interaction.
But the cat is now out of the bag.
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Samantha Ruth Prabhu to Star Alongside Varun Dhawan in Prime Video’s Indian Original Series , Samantha Speaks

Samantha Ruth Prabhu will be starring alongside Varun Dhawan in the Indian installment of the Citadel universe, the global-event series from Prime Video and the Russo Brothers’ AGBO. The untitled Citadel series based out of India is being helmed by renowned creator duo Raj & DK (Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), who are the showrunners and directors.
The local installment is written by Sita R. Menon, along with Raj & DK. The streaming service also confirmed that the production is currently underway in Mumbai. After this, the unit will head to North India and then onwards to international locales like Serbia and South Africa.
Richard Madden (Bodyguard) and Priyanka Chopra Jonas will star in the first-to-launch series within the Citadel universe, which comes from the Russo Brothers’ AGBO along with David Weil (Hunters) and is set to premiere in 2023. Alongside Madden and Chopra Jonas, the first-to-launch Citadel series will also feature Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games saga). Additional local-language Citadel productions are also in the works, including an Italian Original series starring Matilda De Angelis (The Undoing).
Speaking on her participation in The Citadel franchise for the first time,Samantha says, “When Prime Video and Raj & DK approached me with this project, I decided to take it up in a heartbeat! After working with this team on The Family Man, it is homecoming for me.The Citadel universe, the interconnected storylines between the productions across the globe, and most importantly, the script of the Indian installment really excited me.”
Samantha says she is looking forward to working with Varun Dhawan . “I am thrilled to be a part of this brilliant universe conceptualised by the Russo Brothers. I am also looking forward to be working with Varun for the first time, on this project. He is someone who is full of life and cheer when you’re around him.”
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Bollywood’s Achche Din Have Come

All you doomsday prophets, the booms-day profits are here. Pathaan has opened the floodgates again for Bollywood’s bumper bonanza at the boxoffice.And now there is only the achche din ahead for Hindi cinema.
In the next two months there are three sureshot blockbusters coming up, beginning with Shehzada. An astute devilishly impish adaptation of Allu Arjun’s 2020 Telugu blockbuster Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.The super-popular Kartik Aaryan gives his own spin to the character. This performance will take Kartik to the next level of stardom. Kartik’s version of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo is radically different from its Telugu version. Shehzada takes the core idea of the Telugu original and turns it into a something completely different. Kartik’s co-star in Shehzada is Kriti Sanon with whom he earlier shared superhit space in Lukka Chuppi.
Then there is Luv Ranjan’s ravishing rom-com Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar. The director’s male viewpoint on the chaos of love relationships crests to a comic high in his latest. Ranjan for the first time, collaborates with Ranbir Kapoor for the first time collaborates with Shraddha Kapoor who badly needs a hit.This film should do the trick. The winsome lead pair tries to do one another in a game of Luv This is Luv Ranjan’s Hum…Aapke Hain Con. Ranjan has in the past used the romcom space to entertain his audience to the hilt, he says this time the stakes are different. It is not something we’ve seen before.
Finally it is Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Karan Johar’s first directorial in six years(not counting the one segment each in Ghost Stories and Lust Stories). This time he has assembled a dream star-cast of Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Ranveer Singh and the boxoffice darling(s) Alia Bhatt. But trust me, this one is not about assembling stars into a complacent plot. The writing in this zany Romeo & Juliet is so crisp and engrossing, the experience is likely to be the visual version of a multi-flavour icrecream cone. Colour, choler and karma collide in this tragic-comic love story . Let the box office dhamaka begin from the house of Dharma.
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