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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s harmonious relationship with her in-laws will not make for a saas-bahu soap opera with TRP’s hitting the roof simply because there ain’t any drama or strife in the Bachchan fold. Aishwarya’s equation with the family is as good as it gets. She’s just the ideal daughter-in-law they had in mind for their son Abhishek. If that’s not all, she’s in the process of announcing her film production company, called Aishwarya Productions soon. And the Bachchans support her move all the way, husband Abhishek included.

Earlier in the year, Amitabh purchased a 10-bigha plot of land from various farmers in Daulatpur village in the Barabanki district of UP to build a higher secondary school. But it came as a surprise to most that Bachchan Sr had decided to christen the school, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Girls’ Intermediate College after his glamorous daughter-in-law. This was after he had decided earlier on to name the school after his renowned poet father, the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Aishwarya certainly is a family favourite and why shouldn’t she be.

Jackie Shroff is shooting in Malaysia with one of his favourite actresses and close friends, Manisha Koirala for Partho Ghosh’s film Ek Second. The film also stars Rozza Catalano. “I am working with Manya (Manisha) after a long time. The last film we did together was Yugpurush which was a while ago. It’s always a pleasure to work with her. We are shooting this film in a start to finish schedule from March 25 to April 3,” says Jackie from Malaysia.

Love songs: yesterday, today and tomorrow
Cast: Jaya Bachchan, Shahana Chatterjee, Om Puri and others
Director: Jayabrato Chatterjee
Rating: **

What’s with Kolkata filmmakers and their penchant for English films! If Jayabrato Chatterjee had made Love Songs: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in Bengali or Hindi, he might have been able to salvage it. But trite English lines, stiffly delivered, make even the few sensitive moments there are in the film, sound fake.

The plot isn’t much to begin with. A  Bengali woman’s (Jaya Bachchan) long-ago romance with a Muslim intellectual (Om Puri), refuses to leave her psyche, affecting her daughter (Shahana Chatterjee) and eventually disturbs her grandson (Prithviraj Choudhary).

It seems like too much emotional mayhem for nothing, and all rather contrived. The woman, Mridula, is a widowed social worker, whose daughter Palaash screeches accusations at her all the time, as if she is the only working mother in the world. She also expects her mother to pick up the pieces, every time she messes up her marriage.

For all her severe dignity, Mridula is prone to sudden and pointless revelations. When the mysterious Aftab Jaffrey appears, he hardly seems like he was worth all the turmoil — a glum kurta clad homeopath in a village, married to a bizarre alcoholic (Mallika Sarabhai), who looks like she escaped from a 50s Muslim social.

Lovesongs tries to evoke a story of grand passion, but it’s hard to sit through without either squirming or tittering. Even  with a cast like that, there’s isn’t one noteworthy performance. Not even Om Puri who looks lost.

Neetu Chandra is playing the role of a Jat cop, inspector Mayawati to be precise, in Ashwini Dhir’s film, One, Two, Three, which was originally offered to the Queen of Jatland, Mallika Sherawat.  Naturally, the director was quite worried about the fact that Neetu would not be able to get the diction and accent right as she hails from Bihar.

“I went back to my college years, when I studied in Delhi University. Almost the entire population spoke the Haryanvi dialect there and my director was pleased with the results,” says Neetu.  And the ultimate compliment came from Suniel Shetty who actually thought she was a originally a Jat girl! Just goes to show that hard work always pays off.

Madhur Bhandarkar, the director, who has made hard-hitting films like Chandni Bar, Traffic Signal and Page 3, has now turned to co-producing his films with UTV. His latest and most  most talked about venture is Fashion. Madhur believes that with the increasing number of corporate houses venturing into films, there has been a boom in filmmaking and hence the interest. “I want to co-produce all my films and hence I decided to launch my own banner Bhandarkar Entertainment. Every film that I direct will be co-produced under my banner,” he says.

With Fashion almost 70 per cent complete, the director refuses to divulge much about the movie. All that he says about is, “I have made my stars undergo strenuous workouts because they had to look fit on the ramp. I can’t reveal much about their roles. I want my audience to see my film and then react. There have been too many speculations on characters based on Geetanjali Nagpal and Carol Gracias in the film. But I would like to add that Kangana Ranaut and Priyanka Chopra have performed brilliantly in the film. It will be another landmark among their landmark films,” he remarks.

hat Hrithik Roshan did a fantastic job as Akbar in Ashutosh Gowarikar’s period epic Jodhaa Akbar is a well-documented fact by now. And if you thought Hrithik was used to such adulation and praise for his prowess as an actor, forget it! He is as modest as it gets, despite delivering super whammies at the box office like Krrish and Dhoom 2 in the past. “I have never been this satisfied, in fact I should say I am rather pleasantly shocked with the feedback for my character Akbar,” says Hrithik, when asked how he felt about the tremendous praise still coming his way after the release of Jodhaa Akbar in February. Some people just never change… Guess that’s what keeps them way ahead of the competition.

Rahul Bose, who has just completed a comedy called Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam with Mallika Sherawat, is puzzled by rumours that the director Sanjay Chhel shot the Lata Mangeshkar-Madhubala classic Pyar kiya to darna kya from Mughal-e-Azam with Mallika Sherawat.

“That”s completely untrue,” says Rahul. “It’s not the Naushad-Lata Mangeshkar composition at all. It’s a totally fresh composition by Anu Malik. I mean, how much further can Mallika and me move away from Madhubala and Dilip Kumar? I don’t think Malik has sought any inspiration from the earlier film and song at all.”

Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam is about a theatre group that performs various plays. One of them happens to be the love story of Salim and Anarkali.

“Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam is a spoof, a black comedy. If we look for a genre it would have to be the Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron kind of cinema.”

This is Rahul’s second film with Mallika. And he enjoyed her company thoroughly. “She’s just not the person she’s made out to be. I’m happy that both the films she has done with me Pyar Ke Side Effects and Mughal-e-Azam take Mallika very far away from her image. It’s also my first full-on masala film and I had a blast.

What’s your role in The Last Lear?
Rituparno Ghosh and I were meaning to work together for many years. Finally we both zeroed in on a subject we liked. The film is inspired by a play by Utpal Dutt. I play a theatre actor who had excelled as King Lear on stage. I’m a fading actor who gets a film offer in the twilight years of his life. I like the subject because there has constantly been a friendly friction between theatre and cinema. Theatre actors feel cinema to be a compromise. Some actors like Utpal Dutt, Naseeruddin Shah and Paresh Rawal have been able to bridge the gap between cinema and theatre. Not every actor has the guts and guile to do both. This is the dilemma that Ritu wants to bring in. My character has to contend with going from theatre to cinema. Interestingly, I play a Shakespearean actor.

Did you enjoy your shoot in Kolkata?
I loved shooting the film in Kolkata. The last time I shot there was for Dulal Guha’s Do Anjane nearly thirty years ago. I also shot one of my first films, Saudagar in Kolkata and also a song for Yaraana at a stadium there. It was indeed a joy to be there, to drive past the streets that filled me with nostalgia. At a function I met up with my old colleagues from the company where I worked before I left for Mumbai to become an actor. To just drive past the place that I used to stay and where I worked was such an emotional experience. Kolkata has always been very special. I came back to Kolkata after quite a while to shoot. There seems to be a general upliftment in the city. The roads are wider and cleaner. A lot of new buildings have also come up. The city has changed, but the people’s enthusiasm has not. Their passion enthusiasm and love are so invigorating. I’ve never witnessed such enthusiasm in any part of the world.

How is Rituparno Ghosh as a director?
It’s wonderful to work with someone who’s so creative and intellectually-equipped. It’s rare to come across a filmmaker so steeped in cinema, history, aesthetics and culture. I thought the budget constraints would cramp the production values of this film. To my surprise, there are no compromises on that score. I’m so happy to see that there’s no end to the technical finesse in the end-product even if the budget is a fraction of what we generally spend on an average Hindi film.

What do you have to say about your friendly ghost and genie roles in Vivek Sharma’s Bhootnath and Sujoy Ghosh Aladdin respectively?
Both the ghost and genie roles require me to tap the child within me, who is never very far from the surface in my personality. A lot of my interaction in Bhootnath is with a child. I’ve had a child as my co-star years ago in Do Anjaane and more recently in Black and Ek Ajnabee. But these were films for a grown-up audience. Bhootnath and Aladdin are my gifts to my young audiences.

Does the question about my involvement in Taare Zameen Par really matter? Aamir was on the shoot with me for 109 days and he has acknowledged I was there throughout. Now let’s leave the controversy behind,” says Amol Gupte, the creative director of the film. Amol responded supporting the speculation that Aamir took over the direction of the film from him.

Anupam Kher’s statements in London last week, that through his acting school he wants to change the “hammy” style of Bollywood acting, has raised quite a few hackles in Mumbai’s entertainment industry. But Anupam is unfazed. “Isn’t it true that a lot of us ham in Indian films, and not because it comes naturally to us? Often we’re asked to perform that way. And the Indian audience to this day reacts more favourably to broad performances as compared with the more subtle ones,” he says.