Slumdog kids get their own homes

Mumbai: The two child stars of Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire finally have a reason to smile as Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Friday announced Azharuddin Ismail Shaikh and Rubina Ali will get permanent homes.

According to an official statement from the chief minister's secretariat, the homes will be allotted from the chief minister's discretionary quota.

The celebrity kids will be allowed to select their flats in the Malvani area of Malad suburb in northwest Mumbai. The move comes when the children's schools are due to open after the summer vacation and the monsoon is about to set in.

The cost of the flats, each estimated at around Rs 4,00,000, shall be borne by the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC), as per the statement.

Soon after the film bagged Oscars in several categories earlier this year, MRCC chief Kripa Shankar Singh had first requested Chavan to allot flats to the two children, who live in Garib Nawaz Nagar slums of Bandra East.

In the past few weeks, the children and their families were thrown onto the streets after the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) demolished their shanties, terming them unauthorised.

Following the demolition, a shocked Danny Boyle, the director of the movie, and its producer Christian Colson rushed to Mumbai this week to look into the situation and make arrangements for permanent homes for the two children.

While Azharuddin played the role of the elder brother of the movie's central character, Jamal, Rubina played Latika, the female lead in the superhit film which raked in eight Oscars.

After the movie's success, the two children have earned celebrity status and regularly feature in various television shows, advertisements and events.

Spiderman 3 actress commits suicide

British actress Lucy Gordon, who portrayed reporter Jennifer Dugan in Spiderman 3, has committed suicide in her Paris apartment, reports said on Thursday.

Gordon took her own life on Wednesday, just two days before her 29th birthday. No other details were provided.

Since her debut in the 2001 movie Perfume, Gordon appeared in about a dozen films, including French director Cedric Klapisch's The Russian Dolls, American filmmaker John Krasinski's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Spiderman 3.

She had just finished making a bio-pic about the late French singer Serge Gainsbourg in which she portrayed Gainsbourg's ex-companion Jane Birkin. The film is due to be released next year.

ANGELS AND DEMONS - Review

The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard, based on a book by Dan Brown and starring Tom Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, was the 27th highest grosser in film history. Naturally then, there must be a sequel.

Howard, Brown and Hanks reunite for Angels and Demons, which has Langdon racing around Rome, attempting to save Vatican City from vaporizing into smoke. A highly explosive substance known as anti-matter has been stolen from a laboratory and placed somewhere in the Vatican. It will detonate in five hours.

Four cardinals have been kidnapped and are being brutally murdered-one per hour . Meanwhile, a globally televised papal election is underway. This dastardly plot might be the handiwork of an ancient secret society called the Illuminati.

Or someone within the Vatican might be plotting the downfall of the Catholic Church. Only Langdon, the agnostic interpreter of arcane symbols, clues and languages can save the day.Angels and Demons moves at a bristling pace. It is a vast improvement on the mind-numbingly plodding Da Vinci Code.

The action-murders, brandings, ticking bomb, hidden clues-is breathless. And in between the frantic twists and turns, there is lots of chatter.

Everyone talks a lot. Langdon and his side-kick, an attractive Italian scientist, are constantly explaning things. So much of the dialogue sounds like this: An obelisk! A kind of pyramid adopted by the Illuminati! Of course Angels and Demons wants to be more than just a thriller.

The film has pretensions to profundity. It wants to make lofty statements on science, religion, faith. The hitch is that the plot is nonsensical. Several twists and turns will have you asking: what just happened? If you look for logic, Angels and Demons will collapse like a pack of cards.

So, my advice is do what you do for most Bollywood films: suspend disbelief and don't ask too many questions. Just sit back and take in the fabulous sights and sounds of Rome; the stellar star cast; the high-end production values.

For undemanding viewers who have been starved of big-screen entertainment for two months now, Angels and Demons can be a serviceable thriller. Check it out.

Aishwarya to perform at IIFA again

Aishwarya Rai is all set to dazzle audiences with her dance moves at the 10th International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards night in Macau, China, next month - her second such appearance at the glamorous event.

She had enthralled audiences by dancing to hit song Kajra re at Amsterdam in 2005. She will perform at The Venetian-Macau Resort on the night of June 13, an IIFA press statement said.

Aishwarya's father-in-law, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, is the brand ambassador of IIFA. Also performing at the event will be Sonam Kapoor, who will make her on-stage debut, and Kareena Kapoor, who will show off her belly dancing skills.

Bollywood actors Boman Irani and Riteish Deshmukh, who had the audience in splits with their humour at the awards last year in Bangkok, will play hosts to the glitzy cine event again in Macau. Joining the two would be beauty queen-turned-actress Lara Dutta.

The three-day IIFA Weekend will be held from June 11-13 and is expected to draw over 500 luminaries from the Indian film industry.

On why Macau was chosen as the destination for celebrating a decade of IIFA, the orhanisers said they hoped it would "end the deadlock between India and China over the exchange of cinema".

"We feel it's (Macau) the Las Vegas of the East. In this 10th year of IIFA's existence we wanted either the US or China to be our venue," said Sabbas Joseph, one of the directors of Wizcraft, the organisers of the event.

"We chose China because we feel it could be a gateway for Indian cinema to the West. We also hope to end the deadlock between India and China over the exchange of cinema. We haven't come away from one venue without opening up doors for the India film industry. We are confident this would be the case in China," he added.

Married Life - Review

ilm: Married Life (Drama)
Cast: Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson
Direction: Ira Sachs
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Very early in the film, Pierce Brosnan describes marriage as a mild kind of infection, somewhat akin to flu or chicken pox and thanks destiny for never having caught this infection himself. Get the picture. Ira Sach's taut thriller is a no-holds-barred look into the seamier side of this hallowed institution where there's so little that so many people know about their spouses. Psychologists and marriage counsellors mostly ascribe the success of this institution to two main factors: secrets and lies.

Set against the genteel 1940s, this comedy of misdemeanours unfolds through a treacherous web of adultery, deceit and murder. Middle-aged Chris Cooper lives out the American dream with his beautiful wife, Patricia Clarkson, who has proved to be the perfect wife through all the tumultuous years of settling in and settling down. Life seems to be on song for this happily married couple, until Cooper lifts the veils off the chinks in the armour. The hitherto dutiful husband has actually been involved in an adulterous relationship with the gentle and uber feminine widow, Rachel McAdams and wants to opt out of his cold and formal marriage. Now that's not an easy situation for conscience-stricken Cooper who has two problems. First, he respects his wife too much to leave her hurting with the tag of a divorcee and second, he has Pierce Brosnan, a completely rakish philanderer friend who falls in love with Cooper's girl friend and wants her for himself. So, on the one hand, you have husband Cooper brewing a complicated plot which involves killing his wife, to spare her the agony of heartbreak and divorce -- a kind of mercy killing. And on the other, you have Brosnan deviously trying to abort the illicit love story and kick start his own with the platinum blonde widow with the irresistible scarlet pout.

The film is a gripping insight into the evil that often tinges adult emotions and unfolds like a languorous thriller, where danger always seems to be lurking round the corner. While Chris Cooper is always a delight to watch with his ability to touch rare depths in a character -- he retains your sympathy, even while plotting his wife's murder -- it is Pierce Brosnan who boldly walks out of the shadow of James Bond. Another successful attempt to break the Bond-age after The Tailor of Panama.

Hollie Steel wins a place in the final after breaking down on stage on Britain's Got Talent

SRK says sorry to ASH

SRK says sorry to Aishwarya for his past did on the set of home production "Chalte chalte" on the Karan birthday eve. o its happy ending of the war between two stars and Aishwarya accepted the apology. Families of all the stars are present there ASH Abhi, SRK-Gauri and bebo and many more.