Rani Mukerji had wowed us all with her brilliantly feisty performance in the super-hit Mardaani. She played the role of a daredevil Senior Inspector, Crime Branch, Shivani Shivaji Roy and took on the kingpin of a child trafficking racket. It is official now that Yash Raj Films is making the sequel to this much loved movie and starting the Mardaani franchise. Over the years, YRF has excelled in discovering talented directors and Mardaani 2 will see the company launch Gopi Puthran, who incidentally was the writer of the first film. Produced by Aditya Chopra, this will be Rani’s next release after the worldwide blockbuster Hichki that was hugely acclaimed by audiences and critics alike and marked her return to acting post pregnancy.
Rani, whose performance in Mardaani Made it a cult film, says, “Mardaani is and will always be extremely close to my heart. Right since its release, everyone has asked me time and again when I would be doing Mardaani 2 and I’m sure this announcement will come as a pleasant surprise to them all. Gopi has written an extraordinary script that we all love and I can’t wait to start shooting this film soon.”
She also gives a sneak peek into the character of the chilling villain who she will have a big face off with. “Shivani will face a cold, merciless villain who has no empathy, no fear of God and is pure evil. The character has been written superbly and I’m excited to find out who the actor will be,” Rani adds.
YRF’s edge-of-the-seat entertainer, Mardaani 2, is set to go on floors next year and will release in the later half of 2019.
Stay tuned for more!
Superstar Arjun Rampal announced his digital debut with ZEE5, India’s largest multilingual entertainment destination. Titled ‘The Final Call’, the web series which is an adaptation of renowned author Priya Kumar’s book ‘I Will Go With You’, is slated for an early 2019 release.
Literally meaning beans and rice, Rajma Chawal is a new movie in Hindi directed, produced and written by Leena Yadav. Rajma Chawal is a staple of many middle-class households throughout north India, but as a title it belies the underlying web of weirdness that makes this film a 6/10 on IMDb. Starring venerable actor Rishi Kapoor as well as Aniruth Tanwar and Amyra Dastur in the lead roles, this is a simple story that quickly goes sideways.
On the other hand, meeting up with family and friends in Chandni Chowk, Raj is very happy to be back at home and wonders why he left in the first place. They hit upon an idea to create a Facebook account of a girl under the name Tara. Once Tara connects with Kabir, communication is flowing and constant. Background music here builds both joy and tension as Kabir starts to find his feet in his new home and Raj finds a way to speak with his son.
The songs throughout these parts are all songs sung by Kabir as part of his band, some of which occur because they reinforce an emotion the dialogue has recalled or as a way for him to remember his mother. Since it was his mother that encouraged this way for Kabir, this is not a surprise, but they don’t do much as music on their own as they are completely tied to the story. 
In today’s Bollywood there is only one star of rap “Raftaar”. A man whose lyrics are clear, but not clean. Whose powerful versus strike at the heart of all listeners while his beats entertain on the screens of streaming media platformers. When music director Sneha Khanwalkar wanted a title song for her latest album Manto, she turned to him to bring his talents. What Raftaar delivered was Mantoiyat: an idealisation of the man behind the story. 
Directed and produced by Nandita Das, this film digs deep into Manto’s struggles to portray the raw and naked truth about human emotions under stressful and painful situations. Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s acting as Manto, was without compare in every scene and he was able to bring out the great frustration that the writer must have been feeling at the time. There are great scenes of worry when he crosses boundaries between Hindu and Muslim settlements. Even more so for his friends, some of whom are magnanimous, using their fame to show that even the new India is one land. Others show the beginnings of division that survives even today and gets stirred up when convenient. Supporting him is Manto’s wife played by Rasika Dugal who plays the ever supportive and loving partner, trying her hardest to forgive him for his trespasses and encouraging him on with his work. She stands by him even when he must face courts and all the way till his demise at the young age of 42. Even though she always takes the role behind-the-scenes, her character is determined and powerful in her own right and the actress delivers when it counts.
The music used within the film feels like an LP record had dropped out of the 1940s. All the big names of the microphone are involved with references to Shamshad Begum, Noor Jehan, K L Saigal and Shyam Sunder. While there are only 3 songs each is used to perfection to counterpoint difficult parts of a complicated story, one to give a light opening to the film, one to celebrate independence but remember the cost of it and the final one in the days of Manto’s demise brings his life to a sad but soft end. For those who have been privileged to listen to these greats, whether by having been around at the time or having heard it on their parent’s laps, these songs do the period credit but also find a way to be sufficiently modern as not to bore the modern audience.
