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The Fame Game Will Leave You Gasping For Breath
The Fame Game(Netflix, 8 Episodes)
Starring Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Kapoor, Manav Kaul, Rajshri Deshpande
Directed by Bejoy Nambiar
Rating: *** ½
Rarely do all the components of a webseries, creative and otherwise, come together as fluently as they do in The Fame Game, earlier title more appropriately as Finding Anamika. This IS a series about searching for the superstar Anamika Anand played by superstar Madhuri Dixit, the last of the iconic Bollywood actresses who emerges from her cocoon of self-exile with a performance suffused with subtle flourishes which tell us why she is Madhuri Dixit.
Call her by any another name, Anamika Anand will do. She is still that consummate superstar with that enigmatic smile which tells us everything and gives away nothing.
The other star of this intriguing often enchanting thriller is Sri Rao’s writing. Across the 8 episodes Rao leaves not a single loose end for us to mourn and carp over . Nothing happens here without reason. Least of all, Anamika’s disappearance at the beginning of the show.
As the skeletons from the cupboards of all those who are ostensibly close to her come tumbling out in no hurry and in undulating waves of tempered revelation, the full picture of the consummate superstar’s persona comes together…or does it come undone at the end? We really can’t be sure. Because finally what we are left with is more questions than answers. We really don’t know Anamika Anand any better at the end than we did at the beginning.
Is that the show’s fatal failing or biggest triumph? Is that Madhuri Dixit or Anamika Anand? Iconic songs like Channe ke khet mein and Maar dala are referenced to create a deliberate confusion between the superstar we see on screen and the one playing her.
This is a very strong role for a female hero.Madhuri Dixit does full justice to it. She merges the public diva in the private persona of the unhappy wife(married to a jerk played with conviction by Sanjay Kapoor) , and concerned mother of two growing children who have their own very difficult issues as celebrity kids.
Muskkan Jafery and Lakshvir Saran are excellent as Madhuri/Anamika’s troubled children Avi and Amyra. While one is wrestling with his sexuality the other is trying to prove she is more than star kid.
The are actually two strongly-etched female heroes in The Fame Game.While Madhuri’s Anamika Anand goes missing the compelling Rajshri Deshpande steps in as Shobha Trivedi the investigative office. I wish the writing had not gone into the cop’s personal life .The subplot of Shobha’s love life is reminiscent of ACP Khan’s closeted crisis in Ram Madhvani’s Aarya.
Writer Siri Rao understand the pain behind the sham of the entertainment business. He never judges his characters, no matter how deeply and fatally flawed they might be. Even Madhav(played with chilling deep-focus by Gagan Arora) , Anamika’s fanatical fan who claims she is his long-lost Aaai(mom), or Anamika’s self-serving brash mother(Suhasini Mulay with a gorgeous collection of sarees) , or Billy (Kashyap Shingari) her faithful but slippery hairdresser who finally turns out to be not so trustworthy after all, and Manish Khanna(Manav Kaul), her favourite costar and long-standing love interest, are never scrutinized for their spineless action.
Things sometimes get really ugly in The Fame Game. At a press conference ‘superstar’Manish Khanna slaps a reporter and all hell breaks loose. If this incident reminds you of a certain actress’s run-in with the press, then hang on. This is not the series about film folk that cannibalizes Page 3 gossip to titillate . Its motives in digging out the grime behind the glam are far less salacious . It digs deep into the dirt drawing out dark secrets that are not the least seductive. Just tragic and saddening.
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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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