Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Happy 21st Anniversary Shah Rukh!

After my good friend, Ikra, reminded me through her blog post that today happens to be Shah Rukh's 21st anniversary in Bollywood...I immediately thought to write this post! It has been 21 royal years for Shah Rukh, who has been royally serving us with his innumerable talents.

On this very day, 21 years ago, Shah Rukh made his debut in the film Deewana. If you have watched Deewana, then you'd know that his entry in the film happens in the second half of the film. He is the second hero in the film. He enters the screen singing "Koi na koi chahiye". Although he was looking for one girl who would die on him and love him...he found an army of girls with that song instead! Be careful with what you wish for Shah Rukh :P

I think I watched the whole film once or twice, like from beginning to ending because like any other Shah Rukh fan, I also like to start the film from the second half. Firstly, that's when Shah Rukh comes and secondly, cuts the length of the film very short :D :D

He plays a crazy lover, and the title seems to suit him the best. His name in the film was Raja who falls in love with a widow, Kaajal. Raja's actions get Kaajal's mother-in-law to convince her to marry him but she doesn't love him. A couple of days pass and Kaajal slowly realizes Raja's love for her. Raja left his rich father for Kaajal so he starts a mini car workshop with his friends. A small accident of Raja can no longer hide Kaajal's feelings for him. And they unite finally. But unfortunately...yes unfortunately, Kaajal's first husband comes back because he didn't die. He is a nincompoop who gets in a fix with some goons when Raja saves his life in that fix. Raja considers him a friend from that point onwards and even invites him to a party. In the party, Ravi meets his wife and mother. After this, Ravi and his mother decide to leave Kaajal and Raja alone.

After going away, Ravi's Uncle, the one who tried to kill Ravi, sends kidnappers to Raja's and Kaajal's home to kidnap them! Ravi comes and saves them both and decides to kill himself with his Uncle. And the movie ends.

From Koi na koi chahiye to 1, 2, 3, 4 get on the dance floor...it has been one helluva journey for Shah Rukh.  On this sweet day, I would not like to divulge on negative problems but highlight the best things instead. He has won many awards and recognitions, not just from India, but worldwide. The amount of fans he has, numbers in millions across the globe. He is in fact, the identity of Indians in places where India itself is alien to the people of those places.

He charms with his quick wit, dimpled smile, husky voice, signature dance steps and a broad knowledge on numerous topics. Besides making films, he loves to read books and spend time with his two lovely kids. Shah Rukh has seen perhaps all kinds of shades of life which an average human might not be able to witness in his/her lifetime.

The best thing about him is that he still preserves his middle class roots in spite of so much fame and wealth. Shah Rukh is King whose feet are always on ground yet he still aims highly. He taught me that the best shot can be executed from the ground as you can view the sky better.

He is a gracious competitor who competes only with himself. Shah Rukh defines the phrase "I, me, and myself" the best. The man doesn't know of any limits, any stops or any barriers.

See, this is my problem...I can't praise him enough because words fall short but okay, 21 years, 21 words for him -->

1. Loveable
2. Hero
3. Inspiration
4. Magical
5. Crazy
6. Regarded
7. Hilarious
8. Adorable
9. Handsome
10. Determined
11. Perfect
12. Important
13. Memorable
14. Precious
15. Sophisticated
16. Intelligent
17. Vibrant
18. Warmhearted
19. Energetic
20. Enchanting
21. Delightful


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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Get on the train baby!

Well well well...I never imagined that I would be writing this post when there is less than 70 days left for Mr. Khan's upcoming release. Either I was hibernating or it's been a very eventful year so far. Well who cares anyway, it's party time!!! I'd like to jump start this party with a short recap...yes I have a pretty good memory.

On the day of late Yash Chopra's 81st birthday, the shooting begun. Sarita was kind enough to share the picture of the clapboard
Then the shooting continued. Shah Rukh tweeted often about it as well. It seemed like he had a lot of fun working on this film. Did you know that Rohit Shetty is the 58th director that is working with Shah Rukh? Yeah he is.

 After a short schedule in Mumbai, the train shifted to Goa, followed by a long schedule in Wai, then Munnar, and Hyderabad. During the shooting, Shah Rukh also injured his right shoulder while doing some high octane action, resulting in surgery that he went through just a few days back. He is still recovering although highly in pain. :(

Of course we had enough pictures from the sets to cherish while they worked hard day and night to complete the film. My personal favorite happens to be this one.
The shoot fully wrapped up on May 30th, 2013. Wow, impressive huh? From September 27th to May 30th. That's a long time. You can imagine the amount of hard work put in this film!

So when did the official promotional campaign start? On January 2nd (as in 1st for me), we got a few posters of the movie. It was a bloody slow day. At first, my friend shown me the official twitter of the film at about 6 in the morning my time. I was too excited but I didn't follow them because it seemed like a freshly made account, a chuck of gold in a public gold mine. So I eagerly waited and waited until people started following it. But no one knew about it. Oh God I couldn't hold on anymore and I pressed the damn follow button. Then my other friend sent me the Facebook page for them, LIKED THEM LIKE A BOSS!

At 9 in the morning, the genie came out from the lamp! OMG! I mean a tweet from the account


Now the fun began on twitter, the news spread like wildfire that first look of CE is gonna be released!!  The waiting game had officially started. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tring! It is midnight! The poster is coming just about now....now...now...now...oh wait -_-

Hahahahahaha. We forgot this is not Subway or Bullet train we are talking about, this is Chennai Express! Train is bound to be late. How can we forget the stereotype about Indian trains being late? Ehm...anyway. After dozing off here and there and plenty of curses later, the first poster was out!
 O_o looks fun! That was my first reaction seeing the confused-shocked-cute-hot expression of Mr. Khan who seems to have found the South Indian pit of hell. But this was not it. We met Yo! already but where is Aiiyo? O_O
 Ah there she is.  This poster seems to have a lot of symbols of this film. It looks like mad fun. I am starting to like it now. I love these kinds of film and I can feel there is a sweet innocence in it too. Hold on buddy, there is M.O.R.E.
 The damsel and hunk in lungi. Wow, from somewhere I could feel a cool breeze flowing in the lower part of my body. Besides the lungi, they both look like gangsters. You know as a child, I loved wearing a lungi although I am a girl then pose like a dirty villain, not knowing how DIRTY my expressions were. Growing up kills innocence. So where were we? Oh yeah the last poster of the day! Not much different than the first one, except this is more kid friendly, meaning they are not holding guns.

After that day, a long holiday for us fans started. Until March when we got to know about the touching gesture from Shah Rukh. If you read the beginning credits when you watch movies, most of the time, the male actor's name is put first then the female and the rest of the cast. So Shah Rukh has decided to put Deepika's name first then his in the beginning credits. Deepika herself is quite excited about this. While it is not a huge change but it is nevertheless special. I felt proud of Shah Rukh and extremely happy for Deepika.

In between all this, we obviously had plenty of rumors. Especially rumors about the trailer. The trailer was attached with Kai Po Che, Himmatwala, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and maybe more films I am forgetting. The rumors of the trailer were so strong that media decided to write articles based on a few tweets of dumb fans that the "Extraa Innings" show where Shah Rukh made an appearance for the promotion of the film was a flop. Whereas it was quite a good hit. People were in splits over Shah Rukh's numerous jokes on Siddhu Paaji and Shah Rukh's camaraderie with Srikkanth Sir. The show was on May 26th, during the IPL final. On the same platform, Shah Rukh confirmed the release date for the film. It will be releasing on Eid of this year, meaning August 8th. Well for once, the "sources" were right.

This show also had promos. In the promos, we heard a bit of the title track as well. The title track being sung by the legendary, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, who has sung his first Hindi song in 15 years, has caught on with many of us. I loved it. I cannot wait for the full song to come out. The music for the film has been composed by Vishal-Shekhar. God, I love those two so much!!

Oh yeah, although I said so much, I forgot to mention what CE is about. Chennai Express is about a man's journey from Mumbai to Rameswaram and what takes place throughout the journey. Quite interesting right? But don't expect it to be a documentary obviously. This is a romantic comedy. Have heard from Deepika that she is romancing Shah Rukh a lot in the film. Now that makes me far more excited. I was upset while watching Om Shanti Om, SRK-DP's last film together, as they didn't have too many romantic scenes. I'm nuts for romance. 

Hope you enjoyed this short rewind of some of the major events surrounding CE. Less than 70 days to go and we all board the Chennai Express at our nearest theater! :D

Before I sign off of here, just a small request. I enjoy waiting for things when I know the real date and I love waiting with my friends as well. But I do not like waiting based on rumors. In recent weeks, I have noticed numbers of rumors spreading online that have come from, as alleged, RCE employees. Please rather than speaking about your information from RCE in public, keep it private because we'd all like to avoid disappointment. Hardly many can keep the disappointments to themselves, so when you write about you being disappointed, haters read it and curse the film and its actors. Let us peacefully and lovingly wait for August 8 because Rohit, Shah Rukh, Deepika, the whole team have made a sweet film for us, we should respect it. Please. Thank you.
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