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#PicksAndPiques #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #BollywoodFilmReview #JohnsonThomas #TAGProductions #SaranshFilms Film: #Azamgarh #MaskTV @everyone #SanjayBhushanPatiyala #HungamaPR Cast: #PankajTripathi #AnujSharma #AmitaWalia #SusainBarar #SudarshanBhatt #AdilShekh #VivekJaitely #RamjiBali #ShrikantVerma #NareshGosai Director: #KamleshMishra Rating: * 1/2 Runtime: 90 mins This controversial film was in the news for all the wrong reasons much like Azamgarh the district in UP now infamous as a hotbed of terrorism. Mishra’s film attempts to save the reputation of Azamgarh, which has forgotten its rich heritage of poets, academicians, and artists. Set in 1999 the film tries to expose the perception bias that the media and general public have towards a district largely populated by Muslims. Pankaj Tripathi plays the rather thankless role of a Maulvi who indoctrinates gullible youth and transforms them into jihadi terrorists. The central thread is about ...

Kamal Musale and Team recieved a Standing ovation at the Mumbai premiere of their wonderful new film #MotherTeresaAndMe #CurryWesternMovies #KamalMusale #MotherTeresaAndMe #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #ZariyaFoundation #FriendsIncorporate #DeeptiNaval #BanitaSandhu #JacquelineFritschiCornaz #Heer #LesFilmsDuLotus #JohnsonThomas #SwissCounselGeneral #KavitaTeresaFilm Everyone @everyone

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #TheatrePlayReview #Theatrewala Johnson Thomas Title: As Bees in Honey Drown Cast: Aditya Rawal, Shikha Talsania, Tavish Bhattacharya, Ashwin Mushran, Meher Acharia Dar, Chakori Dwivedi, Zeus Paranjpe Director: Anahita Uberoi Producer: Devika Shahani Playwright: Doughlas Carter Beane Indian Adaptation: Akarsh Khurana #AadyamTheatre #TheDragonRoseProject #AdityaBirlaGroup #InterrobangCreative Light Design- Arghya Lahiri & Gurleen Judge Sound Design: Kaizad Gherda Sund Engineer: Varrunn Bangera Asst. Director: Rhea Amin Costume Design: Pallavi Patel Hair and Make-up : Anisa Uberoi Projection Design : Percival Crasto Production Manager: Spriha Nakhare Rating: * * * Runtime: 150 mins Set in the contemporary world, this play adaptation by Akarsh Khurana from Doughlas Carter Beane’s original dark comedy about celebrity, is a glib, fast-talking work that mixes visual imagery, fast moving set-changes and fluid acting to convey it’s point. Bean...

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews Film: #Chengiz #Hindi #Bengali Cast: #Jeet #RohitRoy #SusmitaChatterjee #ShatafFigar Writer/Director: #RajeshGanguly Rating: * * Runtime: 152 mins #LMadnani #MalayLoha #ManasGanguly #NeerajPandey #Tseries #CommuniquePR #JeetzFilmWorks @everyone There’s is a ‘Don’ in every city and Kolkata is no different. We’ve seen most Bollywood and South stars donning the mantle and now it’s the turn of Bengali star Jeet who has partly bankrolled this effort, playing the underworld Don thirsting to wipe out his father’s ( a cop) killers. This unappealing attempt at gangster thriller revolves around the underworld in Calcutta from the 70s to the mid-90s. Supposedly Chengiz ruled the streets then and this film chronicles his life journey in an uninteresting way. There’s really nothing distinctive about this effort. It’s just run-of-the-mill passionless stuff with Jeet ( who looks like he botoxed his c...

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews Film: #KisiKaBhaiKisiKiJaan #SalmanKhanFilms #SpicePR #SpiceBhasha @everyone Cast: #SalmanKhan #PoojaHegde #ShehnaszGill #RohiniHattangadi #BhumikaChawla #VijendraSingh #Bhagyashree #Himaalay #AbhimanyuDasani #VenkateshDaggubati #SatishKaushik #SiddharthNigam #RaghavJuyal #JagapathiBabu #RamCharan #PalakTiwari #VinaliBhatnagar #AbhimanyuSingh Director: #FarhadSamji Rating: * Runtime: 144 mins …aur kisi ka Delusion. The star is gone. This is probably ‘the End’ of Salman Khan as a star. He looks old, wooden, and stiff as a rod, and even Antiques restorer Bhagyalaxmi (played by the lissome PYT Pooja Hegde) can’t hope to restore his mojo. His taking his shirt off act and showing off his Digitally dusted physique won't buy him any brownie points. Bashing up an innumerable number of baddies just won't do the trick anymore either. Venkatesh, Ram Charan, and Vijendra Singh devalue themsel...

RVCJ Originals Announces Launch Of “FRIEND REQUEST SEASON 2” April 2023, Mumbai: Web Series have become one of the most popular sources of entertainment today. Looking at the enormous viewership that these web series enjoy, several production houses have released their original projects that have seen massive success among viewers. RVCJ Originals witnessed similar success with “Friends Request”, a 3-episode mini-series launched on Youtube in 2021. Exciting news for all the fans, RVCJ Originals has finally announced the “FRIEND REQUEST SEASON 2” which will be a 3 episodic series and a continuation of the previous season. The gang (Vikram, Munni, Dheeraj, Aditi & Juhi) is back with a drama full season two. Expect nothing less than a laughter riot with many new friends this year! The second season introduces “Reyansh”, their rival, who is going to bring a lot of challenges in their lives. Tensions are at their peak as they compete against each other in the college elect...

Sony LIV’s 1st Malayalam Original - Jai Mahendran, goes on floor Sony LIV has carved out a niche for itself through its rich Indian content and compelling Hindi and regional language narratives. After introducing critically acclaimed originals in Tamil and Telugu, Sony LIV ventures into Malayalam with Jai Mahendran, an exciting political drama. The show focuses on the life of Mahendran, a manipulative officer who believes in getting things done through powerplay and by use of his influence within the system. However, his freedom within the office comes to a halt and his ideologies get challenged, as he becomes the victim of the same powerplay. In an attempt to safeguard his job and restore his reputation, he plans to sabotage an entire system to his advantage. Will Mahendran succeed in pulling off his master plan? Jai Mahendran is helmed by the National and State Award-winning filmmaker Rahul Riji Nair as Writer, Producer and Showrunner and the show is Directed by Srik...

Award-winning filmmaker Kanu Behl’s next Hindi feature ‘Agra’ produced by Saregama India Ltd, UFO Production and O28 Films to have its World Premiere at the prestigious Directors’ Fortnight, a parallel section at the Cannes Film Festival, 2023 ~It is the only Indian feature film in the lineup this year ~ ~Agra is Kanu Behl’s second film to be having its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival after his debut film Titli (2014)~ -The film also marks the comeback of Aashiqui actor Rahul Roy and also features Priyanka Bose (actor of the Oscar-nominated film Lion) Award-winning writer-director Kanu Behl’s next Hindi feature film ‘Agra’ produced by Saregama India Ltd, UFO Production, and O28 Films is to have its World Premiere at the upcoming Directors’ Fortnight, an independent section of the Cannes Film Festival, 2023. Agra is the only Indian feature film in the lineup this year. The festival will be held from May 16, 2023 – May 27, 2023. Agra is Kanu Behl’s second f...

IKSA’s ‘Save Hindustani Sangeet’ Nite, a memorable and melodious one ! IKSA, the brain child of Guru Indrajeet Keisham Singh better known as I.K.Singh to his dear friends like Udit Narayan and Prasoon Joshi, has been consistently organising musical evenings for the last 7 years in Mumbai and these events have been graced by the biggest and most famous celebrities in Bollywood as well as the corporate world. The event I am writing about is the most recent one held on 14th April 2023 at Nehru Centre Auditorium, Worli. The main motive and aim of IKSA - to keep the tradition of rich Indian melodies alive for the generations to come, got another shot in the arm with a serenade of able performances by amateur well-trained shishyas of Guru Indrajeet Keisham, as they brought alive the songs originally sung, composed and written by legendary artistes who have left behind a legacy that is so rich and varied that even a new gen upstart would be forced to acknowledge its power. The collect...

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #AshwaniShukla #AltairMedia @everyone Film: #BicycleDays Cast: #MuditGunhere #DarshitKhanwe and #SohamShah. Director: #DevyaniAnant Rating: * * Runtime: 90 mins Confused, pointless, and rather boring, this film delineating childhood dreams and the pressures of growing up doesn’t do much to engage. As a result, there’s no attachment to be had. The characters involved and the scripting fails to give the audience something to latch on to. The helming also feels rather directionless. Growing up is definitely hard to do and more so in impoverished rural India but neither the struggle nor the positivity that follows that effort comes through here.

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #UniversalCommunications @everyone #DilRajuProductions #SriVenkateswaraCreations #GunaaTeamworks Film: #Shaakuntalam (3D) Cast: #Samantha #DevMohan #PrakashRaj #Madhoo #KabirBedi Director: #Gunasekhar Rating: * * Runtime: 110 mins When a director chooses to append his name to the title of the film there’s obviously a whole lot of ego involved. Ego though is not a bad thing if you have something distinctive and individualistic to show for it. The 3D depth of field and the stunning backdrops are the only aspects appreciable here though. Attempting to fit in Hindi lyrics into an original south India language song is a thankless one as always.Gunasekhar’s Shakuntalam is just a bland, uninviting recant of #Kalidasa’s mythic love story. And he sidetracks the main story with meaningless battles that fail to augment the experience in any way. Samantha doesn’t look the part, Dev Mohan doesn’t have t...

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #RomanaPR Film: #PinkyBeautyParlour Cast: #SulagnaPanigrahi #KhushbooGupta #AkshaySingh #VishwanathChatterjee #JogiMalang Director: #AkshaySingh Rating: * * 1/2 Runtime: 100 mins The trailer was deceptively inveigling and I say this because the film just did not have the raw power of attraction that the well-cut trailer suggested. A suicide is conveniently described as a murder just so that the story could get prolonged. The constant harping on skin color ( dark vs fair) makes the effort rather obvious and the attempt to decry the obsession for fair skin comes unstuck because the storyteller decides to do away with the dark-skinned character. While the writer/director might have meant this as a sincere effort, it doesn’t come across as one potent enough to attract an audience. Purposeless flashbacks make the narrative seem rather convoluted and unappealing.

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #Zee5 #JadugarFilms #KnightSkyMovies #ChaseIndia #B4UMotionPictures @everyone Film: #MrsUndercover Cast: #RadhikaApte #RajeshSharma #SumeetVyas #LaboniSarkar #ShahebChattopadhyay #BiswajeetChakraborty #AmanVerma #RoshniBhattacharya #AnganaRoy #AkshayKapoor #ManavSachdev Writer/Director: #AnushreeMehta Rating: * * Runtime: 102 mins A sloppy, uninteresting secret agent misadventure, this one banks on contrivance and convenience to validate its lead character, a homemaker’s undercover arc. It comes across as rather silly and unbelievable - even though Radhika Apte and Rajesh Sharma do their best to squeeze out some likability from this disastrous effort. Sumeet Vyas is rather too casual to curry favor.

Director Ram Kamal Mukherjee's film Ek Duaa won Best Social Cause Film at Indian International Film Festival of Boston. Bollywood filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee with leading lady Esha Deol bagged the prestigious Indian International Film Festival of Boston Award (IIFFB) for their Hindi film Ek Duaa. Produced by Esha Deol and Bharat Takhtani, the film deals with the social cause issue of gender inequality. Written by Avinash Mukherjee, the film is directed by Ram Kamal Mukherjee. Unfortunately Ram Kamal and Esha Deol couldn't attend the award ceremony in Boston because of their work commitments in India. "I was busy with pre-production of my Bengali film Binodiini-Ekti Natir Upakhyan in Kolkata, while Esha was shooting for her web series Hunter in Mumbai. Though we both wanted to attend the screening of the film, somehow due to our prior commitments we couldn't make it," says director Ram Kamal Mukherjee. The film was received with thunderous applause from int...

IRDAI Chief Calls for Roadmap to achieve ‘Insurance for All by 2047’ MUMBAI, 12 April 2023: Mr Debashish Panda, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), today called upon all stakeholders to come together to help achieve the nation’s aspiration of providing insurance to every person in India by the year 2047, which marks 100 years of our Independence. He was delivering the inaugural address at FINCON 2023, the 22nd annual insurance conference organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). While the insurance industry in India is more than 20 years old with a total premium of more than Rs 10 lakh crore and an AUM of Rs 59 lakh crores in FY 2023, the industry had registered 16 per cent growth in both life and non-life products in February 2023. Calling upon the gathering that comprised representatives of all major insurance companies to help in driving penetration, he said, “This is a big responsibility which lies...

22nd Annual Insurance Conference - ‘FICCI FINCON 2023’ 10:00 AM, Wednesday, 12th April 2023 at Ball Room, Hotel ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai FICCI organized the 22nd Annual Insurance Conference – ‘FINCON 2023’, on the theme ‘Winds of Reform’, on 12th April 2023 at Hotel ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai. Mr Debasish Panda, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to deliver inaugural address Mr Siddhartha Mohanty, Managing Director & In-charge, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) delivered the keynote address The program was held as follows Day & Date: Wednesday, 12th April 2023 Time: 10:00 AM onwards Venue: Ball Room, Hotel ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai Other key speakers slated to address the day-long event include: Mr Bhargav Dasgupta, Chairman, FICCI National Committee on Insurance and MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited Mr Satyajit Tripathy, CMD, United India Insuranc...

Sony BBC Earth celebrates Earth Day with an exciting line-up of shows Come Summer, Sony BBC Earth has planned some amazing line-up of shows making the vacation season merrier for its viewers. The channel has curated a special Earth Day line-up under its campaign ‘Care For Earth, Care For Life’. The shows aim at raising awareness about pressing environmental issues and encouraging viewers to protect the planet. The content line-up includes four thought-provoking and informative shows, each highlighting the various challenges that our planet is facing today. ‘Water Brothers’ takes viewers on a global water adventure, showcasing the threat to our water sources and making people realize the value of water. ‘Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline’ sees Ade Adepitan travel to the frontlines of climate change to understand its impact on people's lives and search for solutions. ‘Ocean Rescue’ provides a worldwide perspective on humankind's changing relationship with the sea, an...

McDonald’s India ups its spice quotient with the new Piri-Piri range of McSpicy Burgers and Wraps Brand unveils new TVC featuring Rashmika Mandanna Mumbai – April 03, 2023: To infuse fun, excitement, and newness to the signature McSpicy range, McDonald’s India (West and South), has launched an all-new limited-time assortment of Piri-Piri McSpicy Burgers and Wraps. With an unbeatable blend of two iconic flavours – McSpicy and Piri-Piri, the brand has spiced up its menu with four new products namely Piri-Piri McSpicy Paneer Burger, Piri-Piri McSpicy Chicken Burger, Piri-Piri Big McSpicy Paneer Wrap and Piri-Piri Big McSpicy Chicken Wrap. The brand has also launched a single-take film conceptualized by DDB Mudra that showcases an explosion of Piri Piri spice. In this new TVC, Rashmika Mandanna is seen feasting on a Piri-Piri McSpicy and conveniently ignoring the surrounding sea of Piri-Piri spice trickling down a giant hourglass, signifying the limited-time nature of the assor...

#PicksAndPiques #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #TSeries #PenIndiaLtd #Cine1Studios #MuradKhetani @everyone #UniversalCommunications Film: #Gumraah Cast: #AdityaRoyKapur #MrunalThakur #VedikaPinto #RonitRoy #NavneKaurThind Director: #VardhanKetkar Rating: * * Runtime: 150 mins A nice concept goes awry as the official Hindi language remake of Tamil film #Thadam has neither nuance, smarts or thrills. The first half plays out in a rather tedious, flat, and uninteresting manner and by the time the ‘reveal’ is done in the second, it’s already too late to salvage interest in the whodunit with Aditya Roy Kapur looking washed out and rather gaunt in the double role envisaged to enhance the mystery and create doubt in the minds of the cops and audience. The characters are presented rather poorly with the director deliberately attempting to play hide and seek with the audience and as a result loses out on interest completely. Mrunal Thakur’s att...