Akshay kumar l AKFC- Please join! - Page 37

really yaar? 😕 ..ahh i added him but no wonder why he is has't added me yet..btw u can add me on facebook if u want.. my ID is fizza tafzeel.. 😃

hi Fiza & Yosh...happy new year to everyone at AKFC...yup I added his as well, but haven't gone back to check if he accepted my request 😕 & Fiza yaar u don't have to ask to add me!!!!just do it!! 😉 😛

Is Chandni Chowk To China Akshay's real story?



By Subhash K. Jha, December 31, 2007 - 12:46 IST

It looks like Delhi and Chandni Chowk have become a favourite haunting-ground for self-searching explorers of the film industry. Is Akshay Kumar finally getting a dream to come true? For long he has felt that his own success- story has the potential to be made into a movie. And now it looks like he's getting his way.

Nikhil Advani's new action-adventure-comedy weirdly entitled Chandni Chowk To China (yup, that's the title which has finally been chosen) has distinct shades of autobiography in its plotting. The film's nimble-footed hero is a cook who goes to China and encounters further adventures. By now it's part of Akshay Kumar's folklore that he served as a cook in Bangkok and earned his way back to Mumbai to make cinematic history.

The rasoi-angle isn't the only similarity between the guy from Delhi (Akshay still has his father's family in the Capital) and the hero from Chandni Chowk. Both are also martial-arts practitioners.

Also if you look at the film's leading lady Deepika Padukone she's tall, slim and regal looking…like Akshay's wife Twinkle. A coincidence? Akshay has always liked women who are tall and in-charge.

One reason why China was chosen for Nikhil's film is to tap Akshay's long-cherished yearning for a full-on martial arts film. Not having done a full action film for over seven years, Akshay has undergone training on a form of martial arts known as Wushu for Nikhil's film.

"It's a very intricate art practiced on screen by Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Everyone knows Akshay is a big Jackie Chan fan. This is his chance to get even. Akshay plays a cook who goes to China. But I can't say if Chandni Chowk To China is autobiographical. My writer Sridhar Raghavan (Johnny Gaddar director Sriram's brother) wrote an original screenplay. If he was inspired by Akshay's life he'll know better," laughs Nikhil on his return from China where he was recently finalizing the locations.

Chandni Chown To China starts shooting on 22 February in various parts of China including Shanghai. Nikhil wraps up by May. About the corny title, the director laughs, "We earlier called our film Made In China. But we all felt Chandni Chowk To China suits the mood better. We've a song with that title in the film. So why not?"

Blockbusters 2007

By Subhash K. Jha, January 2, 2008 - 14:10 IST

If the truth can be told about 2007, then, let's begin with saying that it wasn't a bad year at the box-office at all. There were biggies and semi-biggies knocking at the turnstiles beginning with Guru, Mani Ratnam's bio-pic based on the life and times of a Gujarati textile businessman who climbs all the way to the top of the tycoon's tower. A well-carved performance by Abhishek and the Abhishek-Aishwarya alliance helped cement the film's fate. There was nothing synthetic about this polyester yarn…

Next came Madhur Bhandarkar's Traffic Signal. Though this story of street people caught on candid camera wasn't another Page 3 in the director's life, it left the producers smiling. Debutant director Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd was the first real surprise success of the year. No one thought that this quirky comedy about an assorted bunch of honeymooners would even get an opening. Honeymoon Travels with endearing performances by an enchanting ensemble cast especially K. K. Menon and Raima Sen, rocked. It proved to be a lucrative beginning for Farhan Akhtar as a producer.

Vipul Shah's Namastey London, a feisty funny and feelingly rendered portrait of NRI blues with shades of Manoj Kumar's Purab Aur Paschim, was the next big one for 2007 and the first of Akshay's four hits during the year. Next was Anurag Basu's Life In A Metro. Though not quite the follow-up to Gangster, it had outstanding performances by Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen and was also Shilpa Shetty's career best performance. And a rather unorthodox musical score and music placement, a trendsetter of sorts. After Metro, came Apoorva Lakhia's Shootout At Lokhandwala, a gritty hard-nosed look at a real-life cops-terrorists shoot-out which showed Lakhia's command over the language of violence and redemption. Again, a path breaking stuff. Himesh Reshammiya's acting debut Aap Ka Surroor was easily the surprise success of the year. If music is the food of love, then this was junk food at its 'junkiest'.

David Dhawan's Partner in mid-2007 was a Salman-Govinda farce fest with nothing new. But this chemistry clicked big time. The audiences just couldn't get enough of this Hitch remake. Partner was amongst the biggest moolah-rakers of the year, thus confirming the fact that the audiences in 2007 just wanted to laugh with the movies. Shimit Amin's Chak De India was amongst the few serious-toned films of the year with the message (female identity, Muslim identity, media identity) just flowing out in an entertaining stream. Wow's the word!

Akshay Kumar hit No.2 Heyy Babyy followed Chak De …. into the theatres. Sajid Khan's directorial debut worked wonders at the box-office. In a year where rip-offs were rare (the best films of the year from Chak De India to Saawariya to Taare Zameen Par were originals), Sajid happily adapted Three Men And A Baby. And no… Vidya Balan was certainly not the baby of the show.

Eid this year brought loads of luck for the prolific Priyadarshan. He scored a hit in the Hindi remake of the Malayalam blockbuster Chandramukhi. Oh yes, Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met which came jab Kareena and Shahid parted. But who cares? Audiences don't go to see Page 3 gossip come to life. They want their money's worth. Jab We Met was classy paisa vasool from the first frame to the last.

Diwali had its dhamaka when Farah Khan, the only female director with a hit in 2007, delivered SRK's second hit of the year with Om Shanti Om, a film that was all about films, fads, fashions, farce rebirth and a recycled Karz. The year-end audiences proved the trade pundits wrong by making hits out of two films on the same Friday. But of course Anees Bazmi's Welcome was a far bigger hit than Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par.

You can't compare the sales of a pav-bhaji at a roadside stall with a cuisine dinner at a 5-star hotel! Can you?

yay guys!!congrats on 50 pages!!! 👏 keep it going!!

yay guys!!congrats on 50 pages!!! 👏 keep it going!!

Top-10 soundtracks of 2007

By Joginder Tuteja, December 31, 2007 - 14:08 IST

Wish I could get to choose Top-15 albums of the year rather than conventional Top-10; but then one has to live with the constraints! So here we go.

Note: Guru and Salaam E Ishq do not find a place in the list since the soundtracks released in 2006 and had found a mention in 'Best Soundtracks' feature last year. The Top Ten albums are listed alphabetically.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa (Music: Pritam)

2007 was clearly Pritam's year. Period. From January to December, across the charts, Pritam has dominated the music scene. Rightly labeled as a 'hit-machine' even by his contemporaries and rivals, Pritam made the entire nation sway to the tune of 'Hare Krishna Hare Raam'. Rest of the album was quite good too but songs like 'Labon Ko', 'Allah Hafiz', 'Sajda' and 'Lets Rock Soniye' got sidelined due to entire focus resting on Akshay's promotional video. Music lovers weren't complaining though!

Dus Kahaniyaan (Music: Gourov Dasgupta, Shafqat Ali Khan, Anand Raaj Anand, Bappa Lahiri)

This was one soundtrack that deserved to go an extra distance but lost out due to non-performance of the film. It was always a risky preposition to have number of songs in a single album knowing very well that except for a song or two (Title song, 'Jaaniye'), most of the tracks would be relegated to a line or two as a part of background score in each of the 10 stories. New composer Gourov Dasgupta dominated the album with Shafqat Ali Khan, Anand Raaj Anand and Bappa Lahiri also pitching in. Gulzar's poetry was an added bonus too, hence making Dus Kahaniyaan one of the most versatile albums of 2007.

Jab We Met (Music: Pritam, Sandesh Shandilya)

To think about it, this soundtrack didn't even have a name till around 3 weeks before it's arrival on stands. A surprise super hit, both when it comes to the movie as well as the music, Jab We Met has made history in the last quarter of 2007. Each and every song from the film has achieved a chartbuster status and while 'Mauja Hi Mauja', 'Nagaada' and 'Yeh Ishq Hai' are the songs blazing strong up North in all celebration events, 'Aao Milo Chalo', 'Tum Se Hi' and 'Aaoge Jab Tum' (Sandesh Shandilya) were for the hearts truly in love. Jab We Met would easily stand as one of the Top-10 soundtracks ever by Pritam!

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy)

The film may have been one of the strangest of 2007 but no one complained when it came to music. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom featured a rocking soundtrack by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy which had an intrinsic Indian feel to it, in spite of high-on-western-orchestra arrangements. Title song featured on Amitabh Bachchan was a clincher though 'Ticket To Hollywood' and the climax medley of 'Jhoom' were popular too. One wishes though that 'Bol Na Halke Halke' should've got the kind of recognition it truly deserved.

Life In A...Metro (Music: Pritam)

Pritam rules from the top in 2007! He was one composer who took up the challenge to do something different from the routine and combined with film maker Anurag Basu to not just create an entire soundtrack based on rock genre but went ahead and even created a band. Result was astonishing to say the least as lovers of new-age music feasted on 'Alvida', 'In Dino', 'Baatein Kuch Ankahee Si', 'O Meri Jaan' and 'Rishtey'. Cynics may have termed the soundtrack of Life In A...Metro to have sounded same from start to finish but this exactly was the beauty of this Pritam album. It maintained a similar style throughout and still conveyed different emotions through each of the tracks. Truly, the album of the year!

Namastey London (Music: Himesh Reshammiya)

'Himesh Reshammiya in one more project' - and so one thought! But the album turned out to be surprisingly refreshing for the worst of Reshammiya detractors. Along with Javed Akhtar saab, the composer/singer came up with some of his best tunes that were quite un-Reshammiya - a compliment for the team associated with Namastey London. 'Chakna Chakna' may have been purely for the masses but songs like 'Main Jahaan Rahoon', 'Viraaniya' and 'Yehi Hota Pyaar' touched hearts across segments.

Om Shanti Om (Music: Vishal-Shekhar)

Vishal-Shekhar were consistent throughout 2007 with music from Cash, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd and Ta Ra Rum Pum gaining good popularity. However, when it came to their positioning in the charts, they got a great thrust with Om Shanti Om making a huge dent on the stands. The album rose to the top position the moment it arrived and ever since then has been registering great sales. Though SRK's six-pack abs made 'Dard-E-Disco' most popular song of the album, it was 'Deewangee Deewangee' which was the best composition of the lot. Vishal-Shekhar were uniquely different from what they had done in the past, as demonstrated though songs like 'Aankhon Mein Teri', 'Dhoom Taana', 'Main Agar Kahoon', 'Jag Soona Soona Lage' and 'Dastaan-E-Om Shanti Om', Yes, they all have been hits!

Partner (Music: Sajid-Wajid)

Re-discovery of 2007 was the composer-jodi of Sajid-Wajid. They came up with the biggest project of their career and result was for everyone to see. They stuck to the formulaic soundtrack that had made many a David Dhawan films successful in the decade gone by. Presence of songs like 'Do You Wanna Partner', 'Dupatta', 'Soni De Nakhre', 'You'Re My Love' and 'Maria Maria' may have been questioned by many who were looking for some unique sound in this part of the century but hardcore music buffs and Salman-Govinda fans were willing listeners!

Taare Zameen Par (Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy)

A late riser, Taare Zameen Par finally got it's due at just the right time - Thankfully! Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy forgot all about the work they had put in their 'dhin-chaak' soundtracks for the likes of Johnny Gaddaar, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Heyy Babyy, Salaam E Ishq and many more and concentrated on telling stories through a child's point of view. The result is for everyone to see as there no audience who didn't weep when songs like 'Maa', 'Mera Jahaan' and 'Taare Zameen Par' were heard along with the narrative.

The Train (Music: Mithoon)

The Train heralded the arrival of a new composer who made his presence felt in a big way with songs like 'Woh Ajnabee', 'Mausam' and 'Beete Lamhein' turning out to be chartbusters. Though Mithoon got into the thick of things last year too with songs from Bas Ek Pal and Anwar becoming popular, it was The Train which announced his arrival loud and clear. Presence of a certain Emraan Hashmi in the film helped too!

Other notable mentions:

While music of Johnny Gaddaar defied norms, Heyy Babyy stuck to the basics and came up with an entertaining massy soundtrack. Saawariya worked in a major way with the class audience, while 'Aap Kaa Surroor - The Moviee targeted just the opposite side of the fence. Awarapan had a couple of superb tunes too whereas Khoya Khoya Chand succeeded in getting one nostalgic about the era gone by. Number of singles worked too, with 'Chak De India' [Chak De India] sitting at the top followed by 'It's Rocking' [Kya Love Story Hai], 'Kitni Der Tak' [Delhii Heights] and 'Billo Rani' [Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal].

Thanks for all the articles rahila!!..And congrats AKFC members on completing 50 pages! 👏 ..

my story: Akshay Kumar

Congratzzz on 50 pages! and yayy Welcome is a hit! 😃 i LOVED it.. it was hilarious 😆 Ena loved it too 😕 she thought it was a total laughathon 🤣

and and.. Happpy New Year everyone 🤗

wat was ur fav part in Welcome? I loved all those cheesy jokes 😆