From Agneepath to Dance India Dance: The "Legend"ary Re-Union of Big B & Mithun Da

History was made on the sets of Dance India Dance on Zee TV when Big B and Mithun Da caught up with each other after a hiatus of almost 20 years. The duo had several beautiful memories to choose from and got very nostalgic as they shared anecdotes with the audience from the good old times - be it their bonding on the sets of the blockbuster Agneepath or the time when Mithun Da had slashed his chest and offered his blood to Goddess kali praying for Bachchan's speedy recovery post his much-talked-about 'Coolie' accident.

A source on the sets revealed that the three mentors - Remo D'souza, Terence Lewis and Geeta Kapur had choreographed some out-of-this-world dance acts to the evergreen songs from Amitabh Bachchan's films to delight the superstar. Master Geeta Kapur put together a thrilling "aerial cube" act with her talented contestants Binny Sharma, Kishore and Dharmesh "Sir" to the theme song of the film 'Black'. 

The act beautifully captures the struggle of a blind girl to dance and how she finally thrilled the audience with a spectacular act mid-air hanging from a cube. Binny Sharma is said to have been blindfolded for this daring, inspiring act. Terence Lewis's interpretation of the song Main Yahan Tu Wahan from Baghban where he had two passionate lovers dying to break down a wall separating the two of them left the Big B choked and speechless. His Bhojpuri Salsa to Dilip Kumar's evergreen Nain Ladh Jai Be stumped Big B who said, "Wow! I've never seen anything so innovative, so inventive."

The audience was left begging for more when Big B gave in to their demand and sang Mere Angne Mein Tumhara Kya kaam Hai and went on to recite a couplet from his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan's poem 'Agneepath'. Adding to the frenzy surrounding Big B's presence on the sets was the dress code of the mentors for the episode. While Terence Lewis turned up bearing Big B's trademark Deewar look, Master Remo aped Bachchan's killer look from the film Kaante.

The series of spectacular performances to the songs from Bachchan's films in a "Amitabh Bachchan special" episode of Dance India Dance was aired on Friday, 29th January at 20:00 hours

National Film Awards 2008 Announced

Anthaheen (Bengali) directed by Anirudha Roy Chowdhury won the Best feature film award and will receive the Swarna Kamal and a cash price of Rs 250,000. South Indian director Bala won the Best Director award for the film Naan Kadavul (Tamil). 

Naan Kadavul

Upendra Limaye bagged the Best actor award for his performance in Jogva (Marathi) directed by Rajiv Patil. Priyanka Chopra fetched the Best actress award for the film Fashion (Hindi).

Bala

Antaheen

Avit Mukhopadhyay bagged the Best Cinematography award for Anthaheen and the film also won the best lyrics award. Kangana Reanult and Arjun Rampal won the Best supporting actress and supporting actor award for Fashion and Rock On respectively. Nandita Das’s maiden directorial venture Firaaq based on the 2002 Gujarat riots won the best editing (Sreekhar Prasad) and art direction (Gautam Sen) awards.

Antaheen

Hariharan won the Best male playback singer award for Jogva (Marathi) and Shreya Goshal is the best female playback singer for the songs in Anthaheen and Jogva. Jogva also won the award for Best film on social issues category and Music composers Ajay and Atul won the best music direction awards for their songs in the film.

The Best popular film is Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (Hindi) directed by Dibakar Banerjee. Sooni Taraporewallah’s Little Zizou (English, Gujarathi) is the best film on family values and Kannada film Gubbachigalu was adjudged as the best children’s film.

Shreya Goshal 

Shams Patel won the Best Child actor award for the film Thanks Maa (Hindi). Mumbai Meri Jaan won the award for Best Special effects.

Marathi film Gandha bagged the best screenplay and best audiography award for Sachin Kundalkar and Pramod J Thomas respectively.

Priyanka Chopra

National Film Development Corporations (NFDC) Bioscope (Malayalam) directed by K Madhusoodhan won the Special Jury award. Thirakkadha directed by Renjith is the winner of Best Malayalam film, Mon Jei (Assamese), Shob Charitro Kalponik (Bengali), Vimukthi (Kannada), Harishchadrachi Factory (Marathi), Vaaranam Aayiram (Tamil) and 1940 Lookagramam (Telugu) are the winners of best feature films in regional languages. Neeraj Pande bagged the debutante director award for A Wednesday.

Kangana

Yash Raj films Road Side Romeo bagged the best Animation film and Little Zizou is the best film on family values.

Unlike previous years the Malayalam films and technicians has not won major awards in the main category of 56^th National Awards. Malayalam films bagged good number of awards in previous years National Awards like the best director, editor, music director etc. The jury of the feature film was headed by National Award winning Malayalam director Shaji N Karun.

Hariharan

Prathibha Patil, the President of India will distribute the awards to the winners on March.

Pongal Attractions

Kutty, Aayirathil Oruvan, Porkkalam and Naanayam are the Tamil films releasing on this Pongal, writes KK Moidu.

Kutty

Dhanush once again teams up with Mithran Jawahar after the success of Yaaradi Nee Mohini in Pongal release Kutty. The actor is climbing the ladder of success after delivering consecutive hits after Thiruvilayadal Aarambam. Dhanush romances Shriya Saran in Kutty. Shriya was his love interest in earlier hit Thiruvilayadal Aarambam. Devi Sri Prasad composes music for the film produced by Gemini Film Circuit.

Kutty is a remake of Allu Arjun starrer mega hit Telugu film Aarya. The film tells the story of a lively boy, who enjoys every part of life in his own terms, without harming others. He also had the charm to attract people from all walks of life. The family entertainer has no heavy violence and indecent love scenes. Shriya is a college student in the film and her role has enough scope for performance.

Aayirathil Oruvan

After two-and-a-half years of cautious refinement director Selvaraghavan’s Aayirathil Oruvan will finally see the light of the day on this year’s Pongal. Selva’s 15^th film Aayirathil Oruvan is one of the much awaited and biggest releases of the season. The makers also hopes the fantasy-adventure will take Tamil film industry into a new horizon.

Karthi Sivakumar, who won the hearts of audience in his maiden venture Paruthiveeran is the male lead of the film. Reema Sen and Andrea Jeremiah are the heroines of the film. Parthipan plays a pivotal role as Chola King in the film.

GV Prakash Kumar composes the ten songs in the film and Vairamuthu pens the lyrics for the first time for a Selvaraghavan film. R Ravindran produces the big budget film.

Porkkalam

A team of beginners joins the Pongal race with Porkkalam directed by debutante Bandi Saroj Kumar. Polladhavan and Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu fame Kishore is the male lead of the film. Sathyan, Smitha, Lal, Biju Menon and Tinnu Anand plays other important roles in the film. P Bhaskar Rao for Bharani Minerals produces the film. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is the highlight of the film.

The high voltage action thriller has seven villains. The dark story of love and revenge has certain elements, which are not tried in the Tamil cinema earlier.

Naanayam

Prasanna and Sibiraj, son of Sathyaraj plays the lead role in the crime-thriller Naanayam based on a bank robbery. Sibiraj plays a negative shade character for the first time in his career. Debutante Sakthi K Rajan, an earlier assistant of Mysskin, Nasser and Venkat Prabhu, directs the film. The film is produced by SPB Charan’s Capital Film Works. SP Balasubramaniam plays a bank officer role in the film. Subramaniapuram and Pasanga fame James Vasanthan  tunes music for the first time for a thriller film. Actor Silambarasan and Devisri Prasad have crooned together for a song.

Ujala-Asianet film awards 2010 announced

PV Gangadharan has been selected for the life-time achievement award. ‘Pazhassiraja’ produced by Gokulam Gopalan and directed by Hariharan has won the award for the best film while Ranjith has been selected as the best director for his film ‘Pallerimanikyam.’

Mammootty has been selected as the millennium actor for his performances in various movies. Mohanlal has won the best actor award for his performances in the films ‘Bhramaram’ and ‘Ividam Swargamanu’ while Kavya Madhavan has won the best actress award for her role in the film ‘Banaras’.

Prithviraj has been selected for the Youth Icon of the year. Lakshmi Rai has been selected as the popular actress. Sreenivasan has won the best character actor award for his roles in ‘Passenger’ and ‘Makante Achan’ while Swetha Menon has won the award for the actress in this category for the film ‘Pallerimanikyam’.
The performance of Lalu Alex in ‘Ividam Swargamanu’ won him the best villain award while Jagadeesh has been selected as the best comedian for his performance in ‘2 Harihar Nagar’. Ranjith Shankar who had scripted for the film ‘Passenger’ have won the award for best script-writer and Vayalar Sarath has bagged the award for the best lyricist for the film ‘Neelathamara’.

Deepak Dev has won the best music director award for the film ‘Puthiyamugham’. Shankar Mahadevan has been selected as the best male singer in the film ‘Puthiyamugham’ while KS Chithra has won the best female singer award for the film ‘Pazhassiraja’. Niveditha has won the best child artist award for his roles in ‘Bhramaram’ and ‘Kanakkuyil’.
The award for the best cinematographer goes to Ajayan Vincent ‘Bhramaram’.  Vijay Shankar who edited the film ‘Bhramaram’ has bagged the best editor award. Jayasurya and Bhama were selected as the best star pair for their performance in ‘Ivar Vivahitharayal’. Actor Nishan (Ritu) and actress Archana Kavi (Neelathamara) have won the awards for debut artistes.

Oscar award winner Rasool Pukutty won the special Award in recognition of his overall contribution to the Indian Film industry. Manoj K Jayan,  Sarath Kumar and  Kaniha  won the special jury award for their performance in ‘Pazhassiraja’.