It has been some time since we’ve mutinied over Ms. Aishwarya Rai, the Bollywood bombshell who in her past couple of film ventures hasn’t had too much luck conquering the western film market. Rai, who made her Hollywood debut in the somewhat successful English ode to Bollywood, Bride and Prejudice and flopped in the poorly executed (yet visually exciting) Mistress of Spices, may have scored a nice role and hopefully a better foray into the west with her role as Mira, a sword-wielding warriorete, in Doug Lefler’s, The Last Legion. The film, which stars Sir Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth –Rai impressively receives third billing — is the story of twelve-year-old emperor Romulus Augustus, who in the midst of the fall of the Roman Empire, escapes to join up with a small band of survivors who make their way to Britain in search of the chotu ruler’s ultimate legion, one of which I take is Miss Rai.
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I have to say after seeing the trailer (I know, it is just the trailer) Aishwarya’s performance looks quite good (link). The role is completely different than anything she has been in before, the cast is stellar (Ben Kingsley was Gandhi!), and Ash as an ass-kicking, sword handling fighter is a nice contrast to the usual, happy-go-lucky, Bhangra-circle dancing Ms. World that we are used to seeing. It can only be a good thing that she is moving away from doing the strictly desi themed film and towards playing a non-ethnic role. A well-received performance here, in an actual mainstream film, has the potential to really catapult her to the Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz levels, and on top of all that, Rai has extra incentive for this film to be successful, she bought the Indian rights. The Last Legion rated PG 13 is being distributed by MGM and the Weinsteins, and is set to release sometime in 2007 (I’ve seen both January 19 and April 27 as potential release dates).
hey jeet … i beg to differ … hindi movies are da bomb man… i got lagaan last night – yea i know, i lag the times by a few years – and i have an ear to ear smile – it’s such a delicious pleasure – … plan to stretch it out over a few days of 45 minute sessions each- like a hot cup of chai with a masala aamlait – my lunch btw just to keep with tradition 🙂 – and gracy singh is qutie easy on the eye i have to admit. i love her dilated pupils – i’ll take your tip though and get rang de basanti next.
my only prob is that i have language trouble when walking away from a hindi movie – i need a cognitive shake-up to get my gears untangled – do any of you have the smae prob?
dont know about dhoom 2 though – doesnt look like my cup of chai – but then i avoid the overproduced, gadgetcentric hollywood as well – havent seen any of the M.I.’s f’rinstance – I might catch rocky balboa this year tho’ – but rocky’s desi yaar.
Hairy,
I am not saying that ALL hindi films are bad, but most are…and i still love them! Anything that Aamir does is always a quality product and you just picked Lagaan, a powerful story told with brilliant direction and excellent acting from the whole cast. Even Oscar recognized it by nominating it in the foreign movies category.
After Rang de basanti try Dil Chahta hai, you’ll see what i mean when i say that an Aamir film is worth a watch
ps def waitin for ROCKY
thanks for the tip Jeet, will do as you say. so far i’m just loving lagaan – got a little cringey around the ‘i am in love’ bit – but on the whole it’s been good – and i checked the credits – ammir khan productions. good for him. i totally believe that when a guy puts his name to his product, it’s more than a biz – he wont let his name be linked with stinkers.
hairy_g: do try Omkara as well. Brilliant take on Othello. Was also in the running for India’s entry for the Oscars in Feb 2007.
Omkara ROCKED. Excellent use of contemporary cultural and political references (especially the MMS clip!) while retaining the theme. Kareena Kapoor actually acted (as opposed to her more normal pouting and flouncing) in that one, and she was perfect for the role.
A propos the original topic, new reports today say that Ash went to offer prayers at Banaras with the Bachchan clan, and some of the prayers were reportedly meant to overcome “difficulties” in her horoscope for the impending marriage…so you can shake your booty all you like but you gotta have the kundli right for the in-laws.
A post all about Aishwarya on the one weekend I had no time for SM? You guys need to send me advance notice when you do something like this!
Signed, Obsessed with Aishwarya
Dudes – what’s with all the “aishwarya the ice pricess who’s never kissed a guy”
This looks like a kiss to me!
And oh my God! Amitabh Bachan is still going to let her marry his son even though she had a boyfriend before and kissed him on screen! What is this world coming to!!
Do some research before you diss my Aishwarya =)
I was wondering where you were! 😉
OMG. That’s SO WRONG. 🙂
So!! TMBWITW is going to marry Amitabh’s cow son (i just envy silverspoonedkids majorly). good riddance.
you pulled an all-nighter, didnt you?
If I’m correct Ash has kissed three times on screen (Taal, Kyun! Ho Gaya Na and now Dhoom 2)
And on her acting abilities: I think she has performed very well in a number of movies (Devdas, Raincoat, Shabd, Choker Bali, Umrao Jaan, Iruvar, etc). Apparently her performance in Provoked is very good and it is a no brainer that she will shine in Mani Ratnam’s Guru. On the other hand she has made quite a number of stupid choices, especially when choosing pure commercial projects. And that is one where one begins to question her acting abilities, in roles where she has very little to do and the director can’t help her in lifting her poorly sketched charecter.
“Times of India: An onscreen kiss has sent Bollywood’s hottest romance tumbling into rough weather. The year-long Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai relationship recently hit turbulence when the Bachchans were invited to Yashraj Studio for an exclusive preview of Dhoom2 . Aishwarya too had flown down from Jaipur where she is shooting for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Akbar-Jodha with Hrithik.
Sources said Aishwarya’s liplock with Hrithik in the film didn’t go down well with the Bachchans. And the entire family of actors was not appreciative of Ash’s acting prowess in the said scene. Until now Aishwarya, despite offers from Hollywood, had steadfastly maintained a no-kissing policy. “
I think the story is a marketing gimmick. It creates a decent amount of hype for Dhoom 2. Especially when you think about it, Abhisheik also stars in the same damn movie and he is Yash Raj’s big star, you would think that somebody would have told him at some point before the films promotional campaign began.
This line from the article you quoted just tells you it’s a load of crap that they made up because they had no news =)
I always thought of mis ash rai as a beautiful person. not because she has a pretty face or because of the numerous titles she has won, but simply because of the fact that she always SEEMED genuine when she said she wont kiss a guy on screen- i personally feel that there is NO HARM in kissing on-screen. but the fact that the woman never gave an answer when questioned about this whole kissing on screen stuff, well, many people may have misconstrued that as her not wanting to kiss on screen, and she has a firm standpoint in that . But the truth is, she is a hypocrite. while actresses like rani or preity never made a public thingie about not wanting to kiss their actors @ co-stars, ash rai generated a lot of publicity by not giving an answer when asked if she would kiss a guy on-screen , and hence this drew a lot of curiosity about her- indirectly increasing her ‘popularity’. and then comes dhoom 2 where she FINALLY kisses hrithik.. well she sure is one cunning woman.. at the end of the day people finally see her kiss her co-star, and it becomes talked about a hell of a lot, and guess who becomes more famous?Hint: Miss Ash Rai.. Definitly gets u thinking about her stand, and what kinda person she is.. So all u Ash Rai fans out there, face it, ur miss rai is after all just a cunning business woman..very limited talent in acting, and nothing great about her …the woman is more famous for her alleged romances , and strives to remain in the news for petty issues like these(kissing scene) etc..coz as Oprah herself had said..shes an astute businesswoman.. I think actresses like rani and preity are of more substance.. loved rani in KANK and Black, and preity in salam namaste..
To be fair Raj Singh, I think that she had kissed in Taal before a no kiss stance from her was taken. I have no idea when she took such a stance myself, and the possibility is that it could be entirely media made. Or perhaps she said that she would never kiss in a Hollywood movie (ie she will not kiss a white man). Or perhaps she said that she will not kiss unless a situation depended on it, and maybe she felt that it was required for her charecter in D2 to kiss as it would undoubtably help the movie.
The thing is Jaz, why keep people guessing? u have listed out many possibilities as to what she “MAY” or “MAY NOT” have said.And because of this, people may misconstrue what she means , and hence all the unwanted speculation. And as always she blames the media for it . True, i agree that the media tends to blow things out of proportion, but she could have had a little more control over (even if not full control)anything negative being written about her. She really cant blame media for labeling her icy or manipulative coz she kinda is actually. problem is as simi garewal had told her in her show, ‘ in the absence of confirmed fact and truth, gossip and rumours are sanctified as the truth, and history is recorded’. If she really wanted to not generate so much of ‘unwanted’ publicity, she shoud be more clear with what she says . after all, she is a public person, as she herself has said. Her 60 minutes appearance was prove of this. apart from the ridiculous giggling for almost every question the guy asked her,her answers were vague and totally ‘correct, proper, and so very boring. I can honestly imagine people like sushmita sen speaking on shows like this, and she being her exotic articulate yet less misleading self could have done a better job .. honestly.. aishwarya rai has a very plastic style of acting. very doll-like and i cant see any romance between her and her co star. she does however have just a handfull of movies where she acted well, such as Iruvar, Hum dil de, kandukonden etc. she is of no competition to rani or preity, or kajol as far as acting is concerned.. The chemistry kajol shares with shah rukh is AMAZING. heck, ash rai couldn’t even generate chemistry with her then- boyfriend Vivek Oberoi. so i think she is honestly highly overrated. the only thing she is clinging on to tightly is the ‘ I am the most beautiful woman in the world’ title- something which i think is nonesense.besides, how long she can hold on to that absurd title? it ‘so happens’ that the ‘most beautiful woman’ is an actress, and not a simple girl in one corner of the world. how absurd is that?total rubbish.. she has stood with other actresses in photographs in the cannes film festival, and its so visibly clear that those girls are prettier than her. Of course she’s pretty, but as overated as her acting is, i think her beauty is too.. its hight time people realize what a conniving shrewd woman she is.. 🙂
Raj Singh: I do see where you are coming from when you say that Ash has the “power” to dispell all these rumors. She sure does, but who knows why she doesn’t come out to do so?
Regarding comparing Ash to the likes of Rani, Preity, Kajol, lets just say that I have a very different view point from you. I have always believed that Kajol goes down as one of the worst actresses to have commercial success in Bollywood (Salman Khan wins this award from the male side by a landslide). She has very little in the department of talent, although I must admit she has charisma. Preity is a bit better but I’d take Ash over her. If I were to rank the star actresses I would go Rani, Kareena(she has huge potential to do something big as long as she makes the right decisions ie. never work for the Karan Johar types again and stick to Ratnam and Bhardawaj), and then Ash. Actresses like Tabu, Konkana Sen Sharma, Urmila, etc. are way better then her but in no way near as succesful.
Yup..well, i think kareena is hot, and acts fairly well. rani is numero uno in acting. kajol is not a good actress? Ya must be living in lala land jaz.. to pick ash over kajol.. hm weird as hell.. Kajol is good, but i dont like aish’s acting.i totally agree with Raj Singh..aish is overrated on all levels.She’s very very very plastic (of course with exception for a few movies.) cheers 🙂
I must admit that I have not seen everything Kajol has been in. In K3G she was bloody damn annoying that it felt like she was competiting with Kareena to see who could piss off the audience the most. Films like DDLJ and KKHH she was strictly ok, but not enough to convince me that she can pull off a Paro in Devdas. The only film I think she was very darn effective in is Fanaa, but then again this just might be due to the talented Aamir carrying her in every scene.