ShahRukh Khan- A terriorist?????????? March 10, 2008

After seven years, Shah Rukh and Kajol would once again appear on the silver screen together in an emotional love story directed by none other but Karan Johar.

SRK, Kajol to recreate magic yet again!

They have made you cry, laugh and watch bedazzled as they unleashed their magic in films after films like ‘Karan- Arjun’, ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’. We are talking of Bollywood’s favourite onscreen couple, Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan.

Well there is some good news for their fans. If reports are to be believed then director Karan Johar, would cast the two of them opposite each other in his next film. SRK and Kajol would face the camera together after seven years. They were last seen together on screen in Johar’s ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’. Before leaving for New York for location hunting, the young director confirmed the news. He said that Kajol and SRK would be in his next film, which is an emotional love story being penned by Shibani Bhatija. He had wanted to recreate the ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ magic. Kajol did admit on the television chat show, ‘KoffeeWith Karan’, that SRK was mad at her for making her comeback with Aamir Khan in ‘Fanaa’ and not him.

Source: MovieTalkies

Ranbir and Deepika its Official now March 10, 2008

The truth is finally out, Ranbir Kapoor has finally accepted dating Deepika Padukone. The Kapoor scion admitted that he and Deepika are going around for the past couple of weeks. Ranbir added that both of them had serious liking for each other and fell in love on the sets of Siddharth Anand’s Bachna Ae Haseenon in Australia.

Ranbir however said that he and Deepika have no plans of marriage in the near future and are concentrating on their respective careers. He is said to have met Deepika’s parents and liked them very much. Recently the couple also featured in a a Pepsi ad along with Shahrukh Khan. Ranbir also added that both of them were planning their career individually and had no plans of signing films together.

The two were involved in a short term relationship before the release of Om Shanti Om and Saawariya but had broken up as Deepika could not impress Ranbir’s parents Rishi and Neetu. Rumours then flew about Deepika going around with Indian vice captain Yuvraj Singh and Ranbir dating Saawariya co-star Sonam Kapoor. All those rumours have been laid to rest as Ranbir has finally revealed the truth. Well that adds Yuvraj Singh and Sonam Kapoor to the list of celebrity singles.

Souce:http://entertainment.in.msn.com/bollywood/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1221306

Atif gets candid March 10, 2008

Atif Aslam is a mega star and no one knows this better than the crooner himself. He descends Brando style from his heavy bike to meet for this interview. While I couldn’t take my eyes off his tan suede boots lined with fur, Atif took off his gear in slo-mo, savoring the buzz his arrival was causing. Riding high on the success of Doorie, Atif is still upset as to how his Doorie effort has been inviting brickbats from music critics in Pakistan. Even though Pakistanis love all things Bollywood, our alternative music scene is a different ball game altogether. Atif Aslam, for his Pakistani music fans will always be the definitive voice that made ‘Aadat’, ‘Woh Lamhay’ (as he sang it on Jalpari) and ‘Mahi Vey’ songs an entire generation continues to sing. To his legions of Pakistani fans, Doorie remains a wishy-washy Bollywood juke box churn (which we will dance to, nonetheless).
Ultimately, Doorie is not what die hard Jalpari fans expected from Atif. While his powerful vocals make the album a chart topper on both sides of the border, his cult following here at home feel betrayed by Atif’s switchover from his classic raw sound to club remixes. Then there are the terrible videos directed in India which have done nothing to aesthetically project Atif’s potential. He is our soft rock wonderboy and the Indians have reinvented him as a chocolate hero. Give us the edgy Atif any day! Atif insists that Doorie isn’t exactly targeted for his fans who know him even before Jalpari but is rather the launch of Atif on an international (read Indian) level. Released worldwide by a telecom conglomerate, Atif has made a conscious effort to establish himself as a singing sensation for a wider audience. But why not be true to his original sound? “I started off when I was 17 and I never thought I would be this big,” Atif confesses. “When Jalpari came out, its raw sound was revolutionary. When I was in India, I received a fantabulous response performing in cities like Pune, Mumbai etc which was a great experience. They (the Indians) respect talent but they cannot understand what I had been doing here. Even here, only a select audience actually understands what I am singing, not the masses. Touring internationally made me think that I should take my music global by releasing it worldwide. I collaborated with a lot of people and thought up a plan for a commercial album, which is not my type of music; which is not ATIF. I just wanted to explore that side of the music. When I composed and wrote these songs for Doorie, I kept in mind that this album has to be commercial,” he explains with the ease of an artist genuinely hungry for a wider audience. Atif strived for mass appeal and recognition and via Doorie, that is exactly what he got.
“Doorie is a commercial hit in the UK, Canada, and USA; it’s everywhere now. So the first Pakistani artiste is basically out there in the world. Not just in India,” he says. And then abruptly he remarks, “I knew that people were going to criticize me like anything. There was this journalist, who wrote a critical review about my album Doorie. That what is this album and why is it like this? I felt glad about that, because she was so concerned about my album. She criticized it completely and the next week Channel V declared Doorie the best album in India. I want to tell my critics that I’m doing it my way,” he insists. Atif is averse to criticism, because to him, the success of his plan to make it big is perhaps bigger than his music integrity. In that, he speaks more like a manager than a musician.
“Doorie has brought along an international change and Aadat was limited to Pakistan and to a small circle of people at that. After Doorie, I am getting offers from places like South Africa. No Pakistani artiste has ever been called to South Africa.” However, Atif with all his stardom, could not gain complete control over his album or the way he was projected and he admits this readily. “When the album Doorie was released I was consulted on all the inlays, on what picture should be there, the designs etc. The write up however wasn’t to my temperament at all. And if you see the heart-shaped logo with the caption ‘In this lifetime or the next’ that was so cheap! I wanted the logo be removed, but it wasn’t. Even in the video, there was a girl and you can put her in a sensuous way but at the end of the day you can’t tell the director what his job is!” Atif’s volcano rumbles, but he is still proud that he played the game and got what he wanted out of it. The director Kuki Gulati may have extremely poor taste, so ditch him! Why go along, make C-Grade music videos, hug the girls, or did the editor morph those scenes? “Yes, I was hugging the girls,” Atif admits. “I think that was a requirement because the Indian audience can never accept my ’stupid’ ‘Mahi Vey’ video or my ’stupid’ ‘Rangoun Mein’ video. They have a different concept about a pop or a rock icon. He has to be a heart throb. Girls here can’t sit on motor bikes, in India girls ride them. It’s a different culture altogether. They (my Indian videos) are for an international audience. However you can see the weird expression I had in the last scene of the song ‘Doorie’ when I’m hugging the girl. People have said that it looked like I had played an Inzamam innings and was run out.” Atif laughs, then sighs softly, “Personally speaking I don’t want to associate myself with any of the people out there. But eventually if I don’t put in a girl in my videos, people would think something’s wrong with me.” This hasn’t been the first time that Atif has been singed by the Indian entertainment industry. Atif’s credits were chopped off the soundtrack of the movie Zeher for the song ‘Woh Lamhe’, and the movie’s music director and lyricist went on to bag an award for the song. “Eventually I had to pay the price,” Atif admits. But has he learnt a lesson? Judging from his recent Doorie, it seems not. India is too viable a market. “I personally think that is the market. Honestly speaking there was a slump here- that there was no label here; and that was intentionally done. My move was to release Doorie internationally, so that I could tell people that this is the first album that has been released all over the world. All the artists who are going to India will definitely boost other artists. I have referred a few Pakistani singers myself. The Indians don’t have the melodies or original music coming out. There was a time when R.D. Burman had such good melodies, lyrics and arrangements, that’s not happening now. Everything is run of the mill as they have to produce and produce that there is no original music anymore. That is why they are more interested in the original music coming from the Pakistani side- from Pakistani boys who are picking up their guitars.” Atif adds, “Indians don’t have a market for pop songs. They don’t have any band. Bollywood markets so much for one movie that there is no space for any other type of music. But after my album became a best seller, a lot of people especially companies are interested in releasing new talent.” Atif’s eyes beam with delight. He has successfully marketed himself as a pop idol in India, when even Indian idols have burnt out shortly after their debut on the touted show. When speaking of companies, could corporate sponsorship be far behind? Do we really need paan masalas to promote and brand music? He shrugs and replies, “In Pakistan, corporate sponsorship is really important, because the artiste cannot sell his album on his own. You need to be on the billboards, unless and until you product is very very big! Nowadays people believe that a song should have a good video; the guy should have a good presentation. You have to be on the boards to let people know that the album is out! You have to be on screen 24/7.” If that is the case then why was Doorie out without so much as a whimper? With a mischievous smile, Atif confides, “Whenever there is a controversy there is hype and I love controversies. People will ask what the hell is happening; what is he doing? Why did he do this in this video and that video?” Atif begins to swing to the next extreme, “Other than that, like I said that this wasn’t my kind of music so I wasn’t interested in giving interviews or coming on TV for it. Now my second album basically is an ATIF style album and I am planning to release it. For that I will be giving interviews and press conferences. Because for that album, people themselves would create the hype. I want to do interviews for that album not for this. The Pakistani nation is such that which ever side you push them they go. If they see a song on B4U, they will say kia baat hai yaar! Eventually this is what has been happening, I have been their artist-of-the-month on Channel V, B4U, MTV and it was a record that when I went to India, I did 16 interviews for TV channels.” But then why is Atif reclusive whenever it came to interviews of any sort especially in Pakistan. “Everywhere in the world, the artists get royalties for their videos. Here the channels ask the artist to come and do their show – a show which is branded. The channels are paid, who tell the corporations that they will provide the artist and pay the artist who actually doesn’t get a paisa. I’m strictly against this. I’m not doing TV shows. If my fans want to know why this is so, then they should know that there should be at least one to say that unless and until the artist is paid, we wont do your bidding. We are not just entertainers.” Atif has more on his chest and he warms up to let it off. “A lot of changes are needed in Pakistan. There should be a Copyright Act that is actually implemented. And then people here need to open up their minds. There is so much criticism that it’s unbelievable. If someone is doing a good job, let him be.” Switching gears, we turned towards to his new ventures. If Atif oscillates from disinterest to pride on Doorie then he is definitely passionate and focused about Hungami Haalat, his next album- the Atif style album. “It’s entirely different from Doorie. It has no commercial aspect. It’s just Atif, and I have sung my heart out. In Doorie I couldn’t be myself, except for certain minute areas like the song ‘Kuch Iss Tarha’ which is very close to my heart. With regard to the new album, I know how much hard work has gone into it, how much I’ve learnt and only I know how I wrote and composed the songs.” Atif sums up his strategy again, “I will be doing more commercial music because my aim is that people be excited about my commercial side and then also lend an ear to my style of music too. I want an audience to my voice and then mould them to my style of music. And then let them know that listen this is me- and introduce my music all over the world.” Atif vrooms off with his words ringing in my ears. He wants the world and India is his platform to get there. He may have sold himself short and stooped to Bollywood standards doing videos that have even made him cringe, but then again, he is hellbent on not being a flash in the pan alternative artist. He wants to sing his heart out, but he won’t settle for anything else than the world listening to him.

Qadir in his blood March 10, 2008

That action, that guile: just 14, Usman Qadir is a chip off the old block and looks set to go far Shahid Hashmi March 9, 2008

His father’s action: Usman Qadir © PCB   Fourteen-year-old Usman Qadir makes the expression “like father, like son” seem an understatement. In his bowling he is the spitting image of his father, the legendary legspinner Abdul Qadir. Amazing it is for one so young to bowl six accurate deliveries across 22 yards; more so for him to not just bowl an immaculate length but also have all the tricks a leggie can boast of. Usman was one of the star attractions in the recently-concluded PCB Under-16 regional competition. He took 5 for 37 against Karachi to anchor Lahore’s win in the semi-final, and then two wickets in the win over Islamabad in the final, finishing with 13 wickets – second-best in the competition. More than his figures, it was the unmistakable Qadir action that caught the eye. It is not strange for little boys to want to grow up to be like their fathers. And in this case, a whole generation grew up on Qadir’s legendary bowling in the 1980s. But with his peculiar action, Abdul has always been tough to imitate. Usman, though, has the bloodlines. At eight he began to copy, frame by frame, his father’s bowling action from videos. He now possesses the sharp look Abdul used to give batsmen, and the same sharp disguise in his bowling. “People say that I have taken a leaf out of my father’s book, and they are right,” says Usman, who would sit in front of the television for hours, watching his father’s matches, etching the pictures into his memory. He would even dream of his father bowling. “The basic lesson I got was to bowl an off-stump line so that I could perfect the googly, which is always dangerous if a legspinner maintains the off-stump line,” he says, giving an imaginary ball a rip. Abdul was a hard taskmaster. “I invited his wrath whenever I bowled the wrong length,” says Usman, who is in the seventh grade at the Cathedral School in Lahore. “My father helped me develop a bowling action, but he always told me that education came first.” Before he took the youngest of his four sons under his wing, Abdul initially tried to dissuade him. “Yes, I did try to stop him from playing cricket,” he says. “I would call it my bad luck that all my sons took to cricket despite my advice, because cricketers’ sons have never been treated properly in Pakistan.” Rehman the eldest, was a better batsman than he was a legspinner. He played for National Bank but failed to make it to the top. Imran then followed in his father’s footsteps, and almost filled his shoes as a legspinner, before a dust allergy impeded his career. Both Rehman and Imran feature in league cricket in England regularly and earn their livings there. Next came Sulaman Qadir. He was different in style and better in achievement. An offspinner and combative batsman, Sulaman was the vice-captain of the team that won the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2004. He didn’t get a chance at national level, though, which irks his father no end. “Sulaman hit a hundred on first-class debut, and despite Shaharyar Khan promising to give him a side match, he was overlooked.”     I don’t exaggerate, but in his early days Shane Warne didn’t bowl a googly as perfect as Usman does Abdul Qadir   More than his sons’ talent or lack of it, it was perhaps Qadir’s propensity for calling a spade a spade and rubbing the establishment up the wrong way that damaged the boys’ prospects. Usman is yet to reach the stage where his career could be halted in similar fashion, but he is aware of what befell his brothers. “Dad told me that he would only help me master the art and would never go to anyone to beg for a place for me,” he says. Abdul for his part is full of praise for his youngest. “It is not that he was dearer than other sons, but his devotion and ability to pick up a lesson amazed me,” he says. “In a short time Usman has learned all the three frames [according to Qadir senior, every batsman has three frames of motion which bowlers identify and exploit] of a right-hand and a left-hand batsman. I don’t exaggerate: in his early days Shane Warne didn’t bowl a googly as perfect as Usman does.” The boy has progressed in leaps and bounds. His father had him play three games for the family club, Dharampur Gymkhana, where, bowling to batsmen twice his age, Usman bagged five wickets in each match. “Everyone was amazed at his bowling,” Abdul says. “Without my permission, Usman took the LCCA [Lahore City Cricket Association] trials and was picked for inter-district Under-19 matches. He took five wickets in each of the two zone matches. Then he shone in the Under-16 competition, and I felt so proud when some of my Habib Bank colleagues phoned to tell me that they saw the Qadir of the 1970s in Usman.” Unlike Abdul, who never paid much attention to his batting, Usman is determined to contribute in both departments. Already he is a bit of a dasher who can slog to good effect, and his batting idol is Adam Gilchrist. Bowling remains his top priority, though. Usman’s sights are set on making it to international cricket first. After that, the first target is to go past Warne’s tally of wickets and then Muttiah Muralitharan’s world record. His other dream is to bowl at Sachin Tendulkar. That would be a sight to behold: memories of a 16-year-old Tendulkar launching Qadir for sixes during his 18-ball 53 on the 1989 tour still remain fresh in the mind. How would the son fare? Shahid Hashmi is a senior cricket writer based in Karachi

Upset for ruling coalition in Malaysia elections – 08 Mar 08 March 10, 2008

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi appears to have been returned to power in general elections, but there have been major swings against his ruling coalition.

Significantly they have come from the minority ethnic Chinese and Indian vote. The Indians had staged rare protests in Malaysia over what they say was discrimination.

The result will severely dent the ruling coalition’s majority in Parliament, and could change forever the dynamics of Malaysian politics.

Detailed report click here