Noddy comes to India

New Delhi: Noddy fans in India have a reason to rejoice. The popular cartoon character and his best friends Big Ears, Tessie Bear, Bumpy Dog and the Tubby Bears are set to perform here live.

The much-loved cartoon character and his friends will perform the stage show "Noddy in Toyland" in English at the Siri Fort Auditorium here July 18-22. The hour-and-a-half-long show will be enacted by real life people dressed as the cartoon characters.

The cast of the show, produced by Premier Productions, will fly from from Britain. The team will put up 12 shows in five days.

"'Noddy in Toyland' is a complete innovation in its genre. Noddy is loved by old and young alike," Harshad Jain, business head, radio and entertainment, Fever Entertainment, said in a statement.

"He has been a part of the growing up years for most of us. India at present, has limited options when it comes to family entertainment. By bringing a concept like this to Delhi, we aim to provide a platform where families can be a part a world class experience," he added. 

The show tickets, available at a starting price of Rs.750, can be bought online through www.bookmyshow.com.

Noddy, the character created by author Enid Blyton, will also visit a popular south Delhi mall to meet and greet its fans.

’Cocktail’: Tale of ennui told well, sparkling performances by cast

Film: "Cocktail"; Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diane Penty; Directed by: Homi Adajania; Rating:***

Out of the three protagonists in this wacky menage a trois, two people are not as beautiful inside as they are from the outside.

Gautam and Veronica are deeply flawed characters. He, a certifiable jerk who thinks of women , good times and partying, in that order, all the time. She, Veronica quite like her name in the Archies comics, is a sexy, naughty, loud siren But then what happens when the party ends? What happens when the constant search for that elusive state of being known as Good Times bores you to death?

Veronica soon finds out. In painful revelations of the darkness under the neon.

It's a dream role for any actress.And Deepika Padukone, facing the biggest challenge of her career, sinks her beautiful teeth into the role with the hunger of a tamed tigress who has been let loose in a jungle for just one romp. She gets out of her comfort zone and lets the mascara run down her distraught face with a couldn't-care-less gusto that glamour girls don't generally adopt. It's a performance to be admired.

In truth, Deepika would have been far more comfortable playing the butter-won't-melt-in-the-mouth Meera (a hugely impressive debutante Diane Penty). Deepika has apparently chosen to play the fun-loving bitch who somewhere down the line, realises she wants all the things that he had so far scoffed at.

Not surprisingly, the film is written by Imtiaz Ali in whose "Socha Na Tha" and "Love Aaj Kal" we met the commitment-phobic hero. In fact, there is really no difference between Saif Ali Khan in "Love Aaj Kal" and in "Cocktail". Except that the womanizer in the new avatar makes a lot more faces. Experience makes for expressiveness. They both shun true love when it stares them in the face. And then of course, the rest that follows is predictable.

"Cocktail" is not high on surprises. The two main characters are prematurely jaded, bored out of their wits by an excess of hedonism. Into their lives arrives the timid golden-hearted jilted bride who needs a home and a place to call her own. The film is really about three unmoored characters finding their bearings. That it has been shot in London is a happy circumstance for the characters. Cinematographer Anil Mehta makes them look ravishing in their rain-washed lives with glimmers of sunshine peeping out in tantalizing scoops.

Unfortunately Saif silhouetted against the London's quaint bustle is a bit of a cliche. He brings nothing new to his role, and he isn't entirely to be blamed for it. Saif's is a thankless part. He moves in with the vixen Veronica where Meera is already ensconced after being deserted by her caddish NRI husband (Randeep Hooda, struggling to impart substance to his wafer-thin role).

By the time the triangle concludes everyone is in love with Meera. Audience included. Diana as the angelic girl from Delhi who is left bereft on foreign shores (many shades from Aishwarya Rai's Aa Ab Laut Chalen) is the discovery of the year. She stops her Good Girl's role from becoming sickeningly sugary. And that's no small achievement for a newcomer.

"Cocktail" is not quite as intoxicating as it sounds. But it's a heady brew about beautiful people trying to find themselves in places where life is an endless party.The music is effective in conveying the pseudo-euphoria of people who drown their solitude in noise. Saif is likeable when he doesn't try too hard to be the roving-eyed rogue. His performance in drag to "Sheila ki jawaani" is brave.The performance on the whole is more smug than brave.

Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia playing siblings are brilliant, specially the former who seems incapable of giving an under-done or over-done performance. Like Deepika, Dimple is remarkable for getting out of her comfort zone and doing a role that would traditionally go to Kirron Kher.

Deepika and Diane are gorgeous in their respective spaces. "Cocktail" is a very good-looking film about people who constantly seek a good time and then realise what they thought to fun was a farce. The emotional transitions are achieved with a fair degree of smoothness. You kind of grow to like all three protagonists, blemishes and all. 

Director Homi Adjania who made the eccentric "Being Cyrus" shows a casual familiarity with the realm of the rom-com. He takes the basic ingredients of the genre and plays around with the components, to emerge with a concoction that is quite appealing in its self-deprecating humour and a rather unusual appetite for partying.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9FfBzyiU0ZU

Oprah Winfrey explores India in two-part series

US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey's experiences on her maiden visit to India, connecting with people in the country right from slum-dwellers to the elites, will be shown as a two-part series on Discovery. The two part series will be aired on July 20 and 21. As part of her show Oprah's next Chapter, the 58-year-old TV mogul captured real India when she visited the country in January end.

Upon arrival in Mumbai, she visited the slums and met a family of five members living on a meagre salary. She was moved by the aspirations of the family which lives in a 10-foot-by-10-foot concrete room. Winfrey was also enthused by the close-knit Indian families when she visited an upper-middle-class family, which had four generations living happily under one roof.

Oprah Winfrey had her brush with Bollywood as well, attending a party people by Mumbai's glitterati including Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan and others. She also met Aishwarya Rai and the Bachchan family. In the second episode of the series, Winfrey travels to Taj Mahal in Agra.

Her next destination was Jaipur, where she was invited to the Palace walls by the Royal Family. She also visited a shelter run by V Mohini Giri's Guild for Service in Vrindavan, which provides safe haven, job training and dignity to more than 100 displaced women.

Tom Cruise's lawyers threaten National Enquirer for spreading damaging lies

Tom Cruise's lawyers have threatened the parent company of the National Enquirer with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit for claiming that they have details of the actor's recent split with wife Katie Holmes.

Hollywood Reporter posted a letter from Tom Cruise's Los Angeles attorney, Bert Fields. The three page letter blasts American Media Inc, parent of the Enquirer, and term their claims as "vicious, hurtful, damaging lies." The lawyer added that this will cause damages worth hundreds of millions of dollars!

The Enquirer's issue hit the newsstands on Wednesday. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, whose split is the talk of town are going through a very bad patch. It is being said that both Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes had an out of court settlement last weekend in which Holmes was granted primary custody of their six-year-old daughter Suri with generous visitation by Cruise.

The rumour is abuzz that the reason for the split between the two is centered on Cruise's membership in the Church of Scientology. Neither of the couple has confirmed this.

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Is Vineeth Sreenivasan getting married?

Vineeth Sreenivasan, whose recent film Thattathin Marayathu is the talk of the town, is reportedly getting married on August 18th this year to his long time girlfriend in Kannur.

Treading on the path of his father, noted veteran actor Sreenivasan, Vineeth too has established himself as a singer, actor, script writer and director. If sources are to be believed, Vineeth Sreenivasan will tie the knot with his girlfriend whom he has been dating since his college days. It is learnt that the girt in question was his junior during his Engineering College days in Chennai. The marriage is likely to take place in Kannur on August 18th.

In an interview held some time back, Vineeth had mentioned about this love for lady love and said that he is madly in love with her and shares all his feelings and thoughts with her.

Well, let's hope this good news is true! Meanwhile, Vineeth Sreenivasan's just released film Thattathin Marayathu has got rave reviews from critics and the film is already declared a hit.

Freida Pinto takes New York by storm

New York: Actor Freida Pinto took New York City by storm with a glamorous red carpet premiere of her new film "Trishna" which released Friday at the IFC Centre and Lincoln Plaza in New York and The Landmark in Los Angeles.

Other guests attending the July 10 premiere at the IFC Centre in downtown Manhattan included actress Meg Ryan, music mogul Russell Simmons, actor Billy Connolly, and fashion designers Calvin Klein and Rachel Roy. The after party was held on the rooftop of the Jimmy at the James Hotel in Soho.

The popular actress was invited to appear on the hit talk show Late Night With Jimmy Fallon where she spoke about the meaning of her name, what she did for the 4th of July holiday, and what her dad thinks about her films.

Pinto also visited the top morning news programme The Today Show for a live interview with Matt Lauer and his team.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom and co-starring Riz Ahmed, the Rajasthan-set drama which won acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival will release July 20 in additional US cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, and Washington DC.