Coming up

Was chatting with my sister this morning and we decided that nothing in particular was coming up in B land that could be labeled really exciting. If you take a look at the trailers or posters of the big budget Bollywood releases, like the really big budget classical Bollywood naach gaana style ones, that are doing the rounds, not one makes me want to jump in my chair which I generally do when I am excited. However, I am very very glad that Himmatwala has come and gone. I will not have to sit through its trailer again. Mega feeling of stabbing self with a blunt spoon would wash over me and I would turn glassy eyed having to sit through it for the umpteenth time in the theater. I felt the same feeling of relief when ABCD and Jayantabhai ki Love Story were released. I happily loped over to watch Kai Po Che for the second time since the sibling was visiting. Secure in the knowledge that these trailers won’t be screened, I settled down with the popcorn, but they annoyingly popped up right on cue for some reason as if their express purpose on still sticking around was to troll me. Arrrgh. But I digress.

First up is Ek thi Daayan, not really a big budget release, not even something I think I will watch because I don’t have the stomach for horror, but how can you ignore something that has Konkona in it and I quite liked Huma Qureshi in Gangs of Wasseypur. Hence a hat tip. A joint production between Vishal Bharadwaj and Ekta Kapoor. I think I just succeeded in convincing myself to watch this after all.

The biggie though is Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani that will hit the screens on May 31st. It invokes way too many tropes from DDLJ for any special kind of looking forward to, but the sibling and I both are because of course we want to see Deepika and Ranbir together. Like everybody else. They are both such gorgeous creatures.

So, lets see. Nerdy girl, railway platform, running to catch train, best friends, outgoing playboy hero who dislikes the ghisi pitti life. There is even a glimpse of a scene with Kalki Koechlin that invokes DDLJ’s morning after the drunk Kajol night. And is it only me hll bent on drawing parallels or does Badtameez Dil remind anybody else of Ruk ja oh dil deewani? How different is this one going to be?

And then there is Lootera in July. Ekta Kapoor again this time with Anurag Kashyap’s team. It has been a while since Ranveer Singh has been seen. The trailer seemed to cut too close to the Barfi imagery with its sepia tinted period drama feel so I felt a teeny bit meh about the overall look. Even its setting with Kolkata and Dalhousie is the same as Barfil so there is no novelty in the visual language of the trailer at least. However, the music is scored by Amit Trivedi and the ears are straining for more than what is on offer in the trailer. And is it only me or does Sonakshi Sinha look lovelier by the day? It was quite horrible that she was nicknamed Jumbotron owing to her weight issues and also her broad forehead. I can raise my hands on both those counts too, so when I see her photographs on the fashion blogs these days, I am quite pleased to see how nice she looks. I wonder what led to the change, but even the reviews she gets for her overall fashion choices have vastly improved.

I love Ranveer and Sonakshi’s voiceovers in the trailer though and the suspenseful story that they hint at. So here goes.

What is not suspenseful however is Arjun Kapoor in Aurangzeb. This is going to be the lad’s second release after Ishaqzaade that I loved mainly for Parineeti Chopra. The trailer seems to reveal the whole film. Very meh. A tad disappointing because Arjun Kapoor makes me want to root for him so let’s hope he delivers on the performance front even if the film does not seem to ring many bells as of now. This is out in May too before Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

And then there is something that seems like a absolute fun mad caper of a film with Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi. Ghanchakkar is slated for a June release. Not in the league of the big budget naach gaana, but this is one film that had my antenna waving away wildly in eager anticipation. Watch.

Lastly, there is Gippi brought to you by Karan Johar, but miles away from his usual sensibilities. It is nice he is plugging ventures like this too maybe in tribute to his own angsty growing up days. Seems like a neat little coming of age tale and I want to watch this so I hope it releases in Austin. So that is all. I just realized that this post has two Karan Johan productions and both are out in May. Dekho dekho. Timed for summer vacations as they are.