Neuigkeiten

The first time I spoke to Abhishek was also the first time he spoke to the press. “You’re the one person Dad asked me to speak to,” he told me. There was no trace of nervousness in his voice, no tentativeness, and certainly no fear of the unknown.

This was a week before the release of J.P. Dutta’s Refugee. Much water has flown under the bridge since then.

Abhishek and I share a very special bond.

Chronologically, I come right in the middle of Abhishek and his Dad. So I am able to share a warm bonding with both.

Abhishek is hard to beat in arguments. He talks you down with such intense velocity that you are left looking helplessly around for help. The last time it happened, I looked pleadingly at his Dad for help. Ab Sr smiled and shrugged, like a referee who had left the fighters to their own devices.

Kareena Kapoor is currently enjoying an exotic vacation in London with her husband Saif Ali Khan and their children, Taimur and Jeh. She has been actively sharing snapshots from her trip, offering fans a glimpse into their getaway. In one of her recent posts, Kareena is captured by Saif’s lens, enjoying a serene evening with a beverage in hand. She is seen in a comfortable yellow shirt with her hair tied up in a bun, and she credited Saif for the candid shot with a sweet “Sak” followed by a heart emoji.

Earlier, Kareena posted a series of photos on Instagram, where she looked stunning in a teal monokini. One of the images featured Saif, whom she humorously referred to as the “photobomber” in her caption. These vacation pictures reflect her taking a well-deserved break from the busy Bollywood scene.

On the professional front, Kareena Kapoor’s recent projects have been quite successful.

Shah Rukh Khan’s Darr ( Photo Credit – IMDb )

The first time Shah Rukh Khan worked with Yash Chopra in a Yrf movie was in 1993 for Darr. The superstar, who’s called the King of Romance and has given such romantic hits for the production house, started his journey with them in a negative role. In Chopra’s film, Srk played Rahul, an obsessed, one-sided lover who would go to any extent to win a girl. The movie also stars Sunny Deol and Juhi Chawla.

When one thinks of Darr, one will never forget the chilling scene where Rahul craves Kiran’s name on his chest with a knife. The bleeding chest and the madness and rage in his eyes are what make the scene stand out. We cannot imagine anyone else except Shah Rukh Khan playing the obsessive lover. But did you know another actor was offered the role? And...

Ted Lasso season 3, episode 7 seems to be basing its fictional Home Secretary, Brinda Barot, who tells Sam Obisanya to "shut up and dribble", on a real-life politician. Ted Lasso season 3 has thus far maintained the series' incredible popularity, though the show's creators have insisted Ted Lasso season 3 will be the end. Even so, this Apple TV+ original's ascendancy in pop culture could lead to spinoffs once the main series has concluded.

Ted Lasso season 3, episode 7 follows Sam Obisanya's outrage at the UK's refusal to allow refugees into the country. Sam tweets his disappointment to the fictional Home Secretary, Brinda Barot, who responds by rudely telling him to "shut up and dribble". Sam, however, refuses to shut up, meeting her hateful messages with calm and reasoned pleas for her to open the country's borders to the desperate refugees. This episode encourages athletes and other people with platforms to speak up against...

Bring up Golden Age Hollywood filmmaker Busby Berkeley, and most people conjure his staging of elaborate, kaleidoscopic dance numbers in such films as “Dames” and “Footlight Parade,” Ginger Rogers singing “We’re in the Money” at the height of the Depression in “Gold Diggers of 1933,” or his sinuous camera weaving through dancer’s legs in such hits as Oscar-nominated “42nd Street” (1933).

A three-time Oscar nominee (for Best Dance Direction), Berkeley’s musicals were credited with saving Warner Bros. from financial collapse before he became a key player in Arthur Freed’s unit at MGM, where he propelled the careers of numerous stars, including Rogers, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and Gene Kelly. Behind the scenes, Berkeley’s life was darker and often tragic — beset by scandal and numerous brushes with the law.

Arguably, Berkeley’s Hollywood artist’s journey is the untold story that “Babylon” wasn’t — and it coincides...

Bollywood A-lister Kareena Kapoor Khan is marking a new phase in her glittering career with a brace of films that she terms as “shockingly different.”

Kapoor Khan has wrapped a project that shot in the U.K. under the working title “The Buckingham Murders,” directed by Hansal Mehta (“Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story”). The actor plays a detective and mother who investigates a murder in a sleepy little town in Buckinghamshire. Kapoor Khan said that her character is inspired in part by Kate Winslet’s role in “Mare of Easttown.”

“I love ‘Mare of Easttown’ and when Hansal came to me, I said this is something that I’ve really been dying to do. So we’ve molded a little bit on those lines, she plays a detective cop in that,” Kapoor Khan told Variety. “It’s the first time that I’ve dabbled in that.”

Some 80 of the...

The Intl. Emerging Film Talent Assn. (Iefta) returns to the Cannes Festival for the 12th year with film programs, panels, awards and cocktail receptions.

Iefta, with the U.N. Refugee Agency and its Telling the Real Story program, will present the fifth edition of Refugee Voices in Film beginning at noon on May 21 and May 22, both at Palais 1.

For the fourth year, Iefta also will sponsor a cash award of 10,536 to one of the 32 docs-in-progress from eight presenting partners participating in the Marché’s Docs-in-Progress Showcases at the May 24 Cannes Docs program headed by Pierre-Alexis Chevit.

Third, Iefta, in conjunction with Arab Cinema Centre and Mad Solutions, will present the Critics Awards for Arab Films ceremony, including a special honor to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) at the Carlton Beach.

The annual Refugee Voices in Film honors filmmakers — many of whom are refugees themselves — who document people enduring irregular migration,...

No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.

Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.

See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

—

3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926

Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...

Mike Campbell has been a professional musician for over 50 years, but the former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist never had to chance to launch an actual solo tour until earlier this month. He’s playing clubs and theaters across America with his longtime band the Dirty Knobs supporting their 2020 disc Wreckless Abandon and their new LP External Combustion.

Their set is heavy on original compositions from their two albums, but near the end of the night they dip a bit into the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers catalog. At...