Author: #TIPEntertainment

British Actress Emma Watson, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry Potter movie series, has been appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women. The UN Women is dedicated to issues of gender equality and empowerment of women. Watson, a humanitarian and recent graduate of the Ivy League Brown University, will dedicate her efforts as UN Women Goodwill Ambassador towards the empowerment of young women and will serve as an advocate for the body’s ‘HeForShe’ campaign in promoting gender equality, the organisation said. Watson described her appointment as Goodwill Ambassador as “truly humbling” and said she will take up her new responsibility with all seriousness since not everyone gets a “chance to make a real difference”.

“Women’s rights are something so inextricably linked with who I am, so deeply personal and rooted in my life that I can’t imagine an opportunity more exciting. I still have so much to learn, but as I progress I hope to bring more of my individual knowledge, experience and awareness to this role,” the 24- year-old actress said. Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said Watson “embodies” the values of UN Women.

“The engagement of young people is critical for the advancement of gender equality in the 21st century, and I am convinced that Emma’s intellect and passion will enable UN Women’s messages to reach the hearts and minds of young people globally,” Mlambo- Ngcuka said. Watson has been involved in the promotion of girls’ education for several years and previously visited Bangladesh and Zambia as part of her humanitarian efforts. Watson is the first Goodwill Ambassador appointment under Mlambo-Ngcuka’s leadership.

Story: The film adaptation of John Green’s bestselling novel centers around two cancer-stricken teens, Hazel and Gus, who fall in love knowing theirs won’t be a ‘happy ending’. Review: Most love stories end with ‘and they lived happily ever after’. But what happens when you may not live another day? Will you still fall in love, knowing your time is limited? The Fault in our stars Stays faithful to the book. What you see is what you get. When a practical Hazel (Shailene Woodley) meets the charming and cheerful Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) at a cancer support group, sparks fly. He fears oblivion, while she believes it’s inevitable.

In his company, she discovers there’s a world beyond hospitals, medication, pain and cancer. Their shared passion for books, common fears, and heartfelt talks make the two inseparable, until death comes knocking… If you like feel-good, escapist films, this one’s not for you. The Fault in Our Stars is one of the most unpretentious tragic love stories told in a heart-warming manner. ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened’ pretty much sums up the story. Earnest performances lend depth to the characters, making them come alive.

Shailene Woodley is brilliantly melancholic while Ansel Elgort displays the complexities of his character with great maturity. The film is not about crying over what you may lose, but learning to live with what you do. After all, it’s not the fear of death that makes you bitter, lack of love does.

Story: When Guru’s love Aisha is threatened by Rakesh, a villain, the evil within him resurfaces. He too bays for blood and how. Review: Guru (Sidharth) is a gangster who is happy to let his gun speak. Till the effervescent, virginal Aisha (Shraddha), a Good Samaritan, crosses his path. Opposite attract. His gun goes silent as the two of them chase the rainbow together. The texture of their relationship has that fairy-tale quality. And just when they start to build their castle, brick by brick, their life is stopped on the tracks by a psychotic serial killer Rakesh (Riteish). Guru, who had dropped his gun in exchange for a bed of roses with Aisha, rediscovers metal. Inspired largely by Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon’s I Saw the Devil (2010), Mohit Suri’s romantic thriller is Bollywoodised for the desi market.

While the Korean film relied on too much blood and gore, Suri’s film mixes romance and violence in equal measure, letting the plot meander a bit butallowing for some sharp twists as well. So there are those sweet moments interspersed with the melodious galliyan track rendered beautifully by Ankit Tewari. And there are also those look-over-your-shoulder thrills because suddenly, you have not one, but two villains running amok on screen. The cat and mouse game between the two bad men is exciting. However, there is some repeated violence that makes you squirm and wish that the writer had kept the plot tighter.

Sidharth kills with his good looks and delivers an angry man performance deftly; Riteish strikes the right amount of fear in his maniacal gear. Shraddha is bubbly and achingly beautiful. But the supporting cast should have been chosen more discerningly. Aamna Sharif as Riteish’s nagging wife is an irritant and Remo Fernandes as the mafia don should definitely have had more menace. You cannot fault the scale of Ek Villain or berate its lead star cast. But you wish you could celebrate this thriller like you did Suri’s last movie outing Aashiqui 2. This one lacks soul.

Vidya Balan is on a promotional spree and is travelling across India to promote her upcoming Bollywood film ‘Bobby Jasoos’. In her recent visit to Vadodara, she said that she is enjoying every bit of it. She said, “I have got amazing response at every city that I have been to promote ‘Bobby Jasoos and it really feels great. The best part is that whenever I have been to different places in disguise, no one has been able to recognise me. Now, that’s real fun, isn’t it? I have donned as many as 12 looks in this movie and I would say this has been one of those roles that I have enjoyed doing the most in my career so far.

A heroine playing a detective is a really historic moment for Bollywood and I have full confidence in the film’s script. A trip to Charminar in Hyderabad remains an unforgettable experience.” She added, “I sincerely feel that if girls try, they can become very good detectives and outshine guys in this field also. I did some basic research before doing this role and talked to a few detective agencies. And I was amazed to find out that a lot of women actually try their hands at this craft.”

Actress Kareena Kapoor, who has been part of commercial films like the “Golmaal” franchise and “We Are Family”, says even the biggest stars including yesteryear actresses Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman have been part of commercial films and she doesn’t see anything wrong in featuring in such movies. “Even the biggest of stars like Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman have always worked in commercial films.

The biggest superstars (successful female actresses) of this year will be part of biggest superstar films, so it’s fine,” Kareena told reporters in a group interview. The “Heroine” star will now be seen in Rohit Shetty’s “Singham Returns” also starring Ajay Devgn.

Cameron Diaz recently flaunted her sexy figure for Esquire magazine, proving that she has still got it. The 41-year-old actress sizzled in a black leotard dress and white lace undies along with a see through shirt, which will feature on the covers of the August edition of the magazine, Mirror reported.

Diaz also talked about her first nude scene in the new movie ‘Sex Tape’ in which she features alongside Jason Segel, the movie is set to release in July 2014.

Kendra Wilkinson has been spotted without her wedding ring following her husband’s alleged affair. The former Playboy model has sparked rumours she’s going through marital problems with her spouse Hank Baskett after she stepped out in Los Angeles without the band on her finger. Kendra’s missing ring follows earlier reports that she flushed it down the toilet after discovering that Hank had allegedly cheated on her with a transsexual model.

A source told Us Weekly magazine: ”She thought it was ridiculous [but when Hank didn’t try to clear his name] she became suspicious and started snooping.” The 29-year-old beauty – who has four-year-old son Hank Jr. and six-week-old daughter Alijah with her spouse – reportedly ”flipped out” after she found an unexplained charge on his bank statement.

The couple’s marital woes came last week after Ava Sabrina London claimed that Hank had promised to ”take care” of her and visited her just two weeks after Alijah was born to give her cash in exchange for keeping their encounter secret. Ava – who passed a voluntary lie detector test before coming forward to tell her story of a sexual experience with Hank – also confirmed he agreed to pay her $2,000 to deny she ever met with him and he further offered her $5,000 to not talk publicly about their encounter.

Story: The Autobots are in hiding as they’re being hunted down by the CIA with the help of a ruthless bounty hunter Transformer. When a broke inventor accidentally ‘finds’ Optimus Prime, the CIA and the Decepticons make a beeline for them. Review: Transformers takes a little time to really build up, with the necessary character-establishing scenes of the humans. Cade Yeager (Wahlberg) lives in the Texas countryside with his daughter Tessa (Peltz). Struggling to pay the bills, he invests every cent into buying and repurposing what Tessa calls ‘junk’. She is skeptical that the eager Yeager will one day make a game-changing invention. Yet later, when the pace kicks in, Bay ensures that you are blindsided by a juggernaut of metal. CIA agent Harold Attinger (Grammer) finds out that Yeager knows where Optimus Prime (Cullen) is. Attinger gets a Decepticon called Lockdown, whom he has formed a tenuous alliance with, to track down the Autobot leader as well as other Autobots because they are no longer welcome on Earth.

The technology that makes the Transformers is then recycled and reverse-engineered by tech tycoon Joshua Joyce’s (Tucci) company KSI, to create a new breed of Transformers. But does Joshua really understand the alien technology well enough to create and more importantly, control? Prime regroups with Bumblebee, Hound (Goodman), Drift (Watanabe), Crosshairs (DiMaggio) and Brains (Wilson) to fight the Decepticons. Yeager,Tessa and her boyfriend Shane (Reynor) help out.

But while the effects are totally off the hook, the dialogues sound like a random collection of one-liners. Indeed, the machines display a wider range of emotions. But then again, you don’t watch a Michael Bay film for intense dialogues. The idea is, why shoot a person just once when you can take a cannon instead and literally shred not only the person, but the car next to him, the building behind him and a few bystanders, with a few hundred bullets and shells for good measure. Be it fiery photogenic explosions,

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor,
Tamannah Bhatia, Bipasha Basu, Esha Gupta
Direction: Sajid Khan
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 2 hours 39 minutes

Story: Ashok and Kumar are fraudulently declared mad by evil Kans mama – what happens when two more Ashoks, Kumars and mamas show up? Review: A lovely line in Humshakals – “Why’re you making it so aaabvious?” – exemplifies the film. Humshakals features an odd balance between brilliant jokes, followed by a pajama party of PJs. Ashok (Khan) is a London billionaire whose day job is “business umpire sambhalna” but who does cringe-worthy comedy which even his buddy Kumar (Deshmukh) can’t bear.

Fortunately, TV star Shanaya (Bhatia) finds Ashok funny which has him smiling until his wicked mama Kunwar Amar Nath Singh – aka Kans – slips him a ‘Mad – mind-altering drug’, making Ashok and Kumar go doggy-style, landing up in ‘Lord Cray G. Mental Asylum’.

As Dr. Shivani (Gupta) and manager Mishti (Basu) aid them, Kans mama thinks he’s won the corporate board game – but Ashok and Kumar discover helpful humshakals. What happens when mamaji’s humshakal also arrives? With its convoluted plot, Humshakals needs terrific acting – and the actors deliver. As three variants of Ashok – original, insane, effeminate, plus a girl role too – Saif runs away with Humshakals.

Khan surprises with his flair for twinkling-eyed, giggle-voiced, mincing-step comedy, delivering lines like “Shet up, scoundrel!” with liquid ease. As three-Kumar, Deshmukh’s fun, doing a memorable Dilip Kumar over, well, vodka ke paranthe. Playing Kans mama, Ram Kapoor performs with velveteen wickedness, even shaking a waxy leg as a ‘kali-flower’ on a beach.

The boys have a ball but the ladies are as wasted as icing sugar on a layered cake. Meanwhile, with its multi-story story, Humshakals must be tightly told. Here, the film wobbles, its first half distractedly meandering with mindless sequences involving comas, electric shocks and Satish Shah as a Hitler-worshipping warden, tormenting patients by showing them Himmatwala.

The second half gets tauter and funnier with an uncommon House of Commons involving the three duos, Prince Charles and Chunky Pandey as a drug lord. This tootie-fruity climax is clearly Sajid Khan’s revenge for empire – the cut-rate Prince Charles barks, “Kyah baath kar rahe ho?” and bombs tick. The comedy could’ve tickled had the plot not faltered again, throwing in a dull diversion involving dwarves.

The result’s like a minty chewing gum that’s been stretched too long. Shedding 30 minutes and some jaded gags would make Humshakals consistent fun – now, you laugh but also frequently go, ho-hum.

Bipasha Basu is known for her chiseled figure. While women are known to take pointers from DVDs on ways to stay healthy, the actress is now turning personal trainer for her family and close friends as well.

“Bipasha’s hairstylist was so impressed by her love and dedication towards fitness that she took up exercise and lost a lot of weight. Now, Bipasha is encouraging her family and friends to get fit. She calls her mother (Mamta Basu) every morning to remind her to go for a jog. She even coaxes her sister (Bijoyeta) to visit the gym. She also motivates her friends to take up a disciplined fitness routine,” says a source close to the actor.

Bipasha feels that there are more than just physical benefits to working out. “I coax my mother and sister, so that they can have a positive mental outlook besides staying fit. Working out results in relaxation,” she says. Bipasha adds, “My philosophy in life is, ‘love yourself’. Exercise is like an investment; it not only helps you look good and stay healthy, but also improves your efficiency.”

Finally it seems to be a happy ending for the ‘Happy Ending’ team which were left in the lurch when Preity Zinta suddenly left for Los Angeles after filing an FIR accusing her former boyfriend Ness Wadia of abuse. The actress has a cameo in the film which also features Saif Ali Khan, Ileana’D’Cruz and Kalki Koechlin in the lead roles.

Preity shot some of her portions in LA early this year but some of her scenes are yet to be filmed. Revealed a source, “The producers were worried for the actress and also their film as they couldn’t chalk out their next schedule.” But now that she’s back in town, director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK are relieved. Preity got in touch with them a few days ago and allotted a chunk of dates in the first week of July so they could complete the shoot.

For the Arbaaz Khan-produced ‘Dolly Ki Doli’, Sonam Kapoor, who plays a curvaceous Punjabi kudi, had to put on a few extra kilos. But now the actresss has to lose between six-eight kilos before she can romance Salman Khan in Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Payo’.

Fortunately for the actress, she doesn’t have to go on a starvation diet. She can eat everything—chicken, fish and salads—in moderation. She takes small meals ever two hours. And that’s not all. Her personal trainer Radhika Karle reveals that besides doing pilates and 45-minutes of cardio, Sonam is also undergoing ‘interval training’.

“It’s a high intensity workout regime that will tone her down,” she explains. As Sonam starts shooting in July, she will travel with her gym equipment so as not to disrupt her workout regimen. “Soon, we will also begin swimming exercises,” says Radhika who’s trying to fight Sonam’s sweet tooth.

Angelina Jolie insists she has no plans to retire ”completely.” The Oscar-winning actress – who previously hinted she is preparing to step away from her career in front of the camera to focus on her other passions, including her humanitarian work – plans to be much more selective, but will continue to take on roles that challenge her.

The 38-year-old star told reporters at a press conference in Japan ahead of the Tokyo premiere of ‘Maleficent’: ”I’m not retiring completely, but I’m going to focus more on my writing, directing and my humanitarian work, so I will do less films and hopefully that will also make it possible to be very selective and do a few I feel really compelled to do.

But I will be doing much less.” Earlier this month, the brunette beauty, who is engaged to Brad Pitt, suggested her role in an upcoming movie about Cleopatra could be her last. She confessed: ”That’s where you finish, in a great way. You kind of go, ‘What could you do beyond that one?’ Put it all into that one.”

Super model Cindy Crawford will unveil a book, which is not a biography. The 48-year-old’s book will be published by Rizzoli, reports femalefirst.co.uk. She said: “It’s not just a coffeetable book with images, although that will be part of it.

It’s not a biography. It’s sort of a hybrid book.” “It’ll come out in the fall before I turn 50, so it’s kind of a way to celebrate 50 as opposed to dreading it,” she added. She was named as the world’s highest paid supermodel in Forbes magazine in 1995 and has featured in campaigns for brands such as Versace and Omega watches.

She also has a number of her own product ranges, including a skincare line titled Meaningful Beauty.

Cast: Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Dustin
Hoffmann, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Robert Downey
Jr., Scarlett Johansson
Direction: Jon Favreau
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 2 hours

Story: A chef in a fancy restaurant is removed from his job one day and strikes out on his own, on the road, by starting a food truck. And in doing so, he finds his true calling in life. Review: If you’re passionate about food, this movie, replete with its food imagery, will whet your appetite for all things epicurean.

But apart from that, this is a simple story that is simply told, with various food analogies, of a man who breaks a monotonous cycle and follows his instincts. And so we have the portly chef Carl Casper (Favreau) who toils away in a fancy Los Angeles restaurant, under the aegis of the unadventurous owner Riva (Hoffmann).

Casper sweats and fumes about his job and clearly does not get along with Riva. The latter likes to play it safe and have the menu stick to crowd favourites. Casper tries his best to experiment with the food and give diners a taste of more adventurous flavours.

The narrative bubbles its way to a boiling point, when one day a respected food reviewer called Ramsey (Platt) visits the restaurant. Seeing this as an opportunity to try and impress the critic with a special menu, Casper gets to work. But he is told by the boss to stick to the favourites.

Predictably enough, the restaurant is panned and the vengeful Casper’s spat with Ramsey goes viral. The jobless Casper manages to get a ramshackle food truck with the help of his ex-wife Inez (Vergara) and her current husband (Downey Jr.) and goes on a road trip. His old friend Martin (Leguizamo) as well as his son join him as they cook up Cubanos.

Pleasing yet somewhat predictable, this film marks a sharp departure from Favreau’s various blockbuster (*Iron Man*) films into something far simpler. Johansson, however, is somewhat under-used but on the whole, the story is paced nicely. With food remaining the biggest star of this show, the side dishes also include some family-bonding as well. And the result is a serving of something refreshingly original.

STORY: Four fun-loving friends find themselves in the grip of a vicious, blackmailing cop – how f*ugly will this get? REVIEW: There’s a line in F*ugly which mirrors the movie beautifully – “Apne aap ko bara James Bond samajhta hai.” All through its tight run-time, F*ugly struts around with the awareness of being edgy – but falls off the edge. F*ugly had sharp potential – a dramatic story, a fresh cast, a velveteen character actor and gritty city Delhi. But instead of weaving a tightlyknit drama, these become loose threads.

Dev (Marwah), Devi (Advani), Gaurav (Singh) and Aditya (Lamba) are fast friends living life, as Dev says, “on speed and loving it”. Foot-loose and fancy-free, the Delhi foursome drives around town, drinking, partying and cussing. They pop across to Leh where Dev starts a tourist camp, then return home where Devi helps her mother (Kunika) sell papads to the lecherous Nannu (Pravin Singh Sisodia in a strikingly creepy role), Gaurav trains as a boxer under the indulgent eye of his Haryanvi politician father and Aditya learns the family sanitary-ware trade.

Life rolls along in a swill of swearwords and vodka until the four collide with corrupt cop Chautala (Shergill) and a crime occurs. Can the friends survive? F*ugly’s determination to be off-the-wall makes it fall flat. The film gets overburdened trying to capture every Delhi cliche, from Parliament to Paharganj, and show how deep the city’s ugliness has seeped.

The story has its moments – Shergill’s menacing Chautala is etched in iron while Vijender Singh is funny and bright. Marwah’s Dev has soulful presence while Advani’s Devi alternates well between fiery and fragile. However, in trying to present an uber-cool tale, the acting is overlooked and inconsistent.

Similarly, there are striking side-stories here – Gaurav’s family’s internal politics – but the direction fails to fuse together a powerful, coherent film, the distracted screen efforts unaided by forgettable music. The result is like a soggy Delhi chaat where potentially spicy ingredients make a sorry mess. As F*ugly would phrase it, quite a f*waste.

For some time now, speculation has been rife about who the real villain of upcoming film Ek Villain is — Sidharth Malhotra or Riteish Deshmukh? And now, there’s a new twist in the tale. It recently emerged on a blog that Shraddha Kapoor is the culprit. An online video featuring Shradda in a hoodie has triggered the speculation. Says director Mohit Suri, “Little did I know that the hoodie would become such a rage.

I’ve been wearing one ever since we started shooting. People have even asked me if the hoodies are for sale. I guess the intrigue level is soaring.” Tanuj Garg, CEO, Balaji Motion Pictures, which is producing the movie, says, “We’re enjoying the theories around the villain’s identity.

Bollywood diva Deepika Padukone, who got the famous RK tattoo on her nape and DP on her ankle, is planning to get another tattoo on her beautiful body. A Filmfare report says that the actress is keen on getting herself inked again and has been discussing the idea with her friend Homi Adajania.

Will she now get initials of her alleged current beau Ranveer Singh or will she get herself an interesting design? That is something time will tell. Stay tuned for more details

Katrina Kaif is an A-list actress. However with the tag, it seems that she has earned the attitude too. While Katrina was shooting for Bang Bang, the team witnessed one of those starry tantrums coming from her. Bang Bang is being made on a mega budget and the team was in Greece for an exclusive photo shoot with the actress. The team was already stationed there shooting for their high octane action sequences.

According to reports, it was a regular photo shoot, with a local professional photographer coming in for the work. However being the high profile Bollywood babe, Katrina Kaif reportedly asked for her favourite photographer to be summoned for the shoot. Further to reports, the actress had her way, with her favourite photographer but with nature not on their side, the pictures clicked could hardly be used. And apparently the team ended up with video grabs from the shooting footage, while Kat’s tantrums were satisfied with the unit incurring heavy expenses.

Actress Angelina Jolie believes her mother was a far better parent to her than she is to her own children. The “Maleficent” actress, who raises children Maddox, 12, Pax, 10, Zahara, nine, Shiloh, eight, and five-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with fiance Brad Pitt, says her late mother Marcheline Bertrand is her role model and that she couldn’t have done a better job at bringing up her and her brother James Haven.

“It’s hard to think I could be as good a mother as she was. Her whole life was motherhood,” contactmusic.com quoted her as saying. The 39-year-old also admits she prefers to home-school her children because she wants them to have “a bigger picture of life”.

Actress Sienna Miller is set to co-star with Bradley Cooper in an upcoming film titled “Chef”. In the John Wells directorial, Cooper will be seen as a top chef who loses his restaurant in Paris and moves to London to revive his career. Miller’s part in the movie is yet to be announced, reports contactmusic.com.

The project, which has no official production start date, will be penned by Steven Wright and coproduced by Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher and Erwin Stoff. The actors have just finished filming Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper”.

Miranda Kerr wrapped a tight leather jacket around herself for a new motorbike ad photo-shoot, showing her inner biker-chic. The 31-year-old supermodel flaunted her perfect figure while straddling a motorbike in various revealing and skin tight outfits, and had hearts racing as she donned an unzipped swimsuit, revealing her cleavage up to the navel, News.com.au reported.

In an interview for the shoot, the former Victoria’s Secret Angel model confessed that she doesn’t think of herself as a model, and tells people about her skincare line business when asked about profession.

STORY: Hollywood actress Grace Kelly marries into royalty. The film looks at how she manages her own identity amidst a political crisis between Monaco and France. REVIEW: The idea of Hollywood screen legend Grace Kelly (Kidman) marrying into European royalty seems like a fairytale come true. As with most things that are too good to be true, however, all is not well in this royal household. There are murmurs of intrigue, shadows of suspicion and dollops of doubt.

In short, the royal affair seems riven with various undercurrents and enough fodder, seemingly, for a meaty story. Set in the early ’60s and a few years after she gave up her career, Grace has kids and lives the cosseted life of a princess. As she was not born into royalty itself, she faces various difficulties, amidst numerous outfit changes, of reconciling herself with the new life she has chosen. She has people to help her out. There’s a priest called Tucker (Langella) for advice as well as a coach for matters of royal etiquette. Alfred Hitchcock (Griffiths) even tries to lure her back to Hollywood.

The biggest crisis her husband faces is managing relations with France. France threatens Monaco with sanctions unless certain payments are made. However, Rainier, while looking spiffy in his sharp suits, is not played with enough gravitas by Roth. The close-ups, which are meant to convey a sense of emotion, make some scenes look like a superficial soap opera about European royalty and their various petty familial and political concerns. While Kidman puts in her best shot, the other performances are somewhat boring.

Visually, the film looks pretty, no doubt. But that cannot hide the fact that there’s barely enough substance to keep a viewer engaged. Under Dahan’s direction, Grace comes across as a mix of a bleeding heart and Princess Diana-like patron saint of her people. Dahan had got it right with 2007’s La Vie En Rose, which was about the singer Edith Piaf. Here, for a movie that attempts to portray such an interesting life, the result is pretty bland.

Story: A soldier’s holiday turns into a full-time mission to save Mumbai from terror attacks, while only taking time out for his bride-hunt. Review: Gagged men tumble out of his closet. Tied up terrorists and ‘sleeper cells’ too. Hell’s bells, they’re far from ‘sleeping beauties’. But then they have to make our brave-heart Virat Bakshi (Akshay) look good. And he sure does.

In his camouflage suits and his neon bermudas. Whether he’s on a secret mission (as Defence Intelligence Agent), or romancing his boisterous ‘boxer’ belle Saiba (Sonakshi). All the while coaching his cop buddy on how to ‘crack a case’, or saluting his boss sergeant (Govinda, in a cutesy cameo). Virat’s on holiday in Mumbai – ‘ladki dekhne’ – where a terror blast kills school kids in a bus.

A suspect is caught and it leads to series of more suspects who’re part of a devious demolition plan by – Sleeper Cells (trained terrorists guised as common men in society). His holiday turns into havoc and Virat becomes a oneman army – who has to raze the terror outfit and salvage Mumbai from exploding into flames. Nothing can break this lion-hearted soldier who upholds his valour, wardi and values – like a true jawan. Murgadoss’ film (remake of the Tamil ‘Thupakki’) offers an intelligent plot, with blows, blasts and raw bone-cracking action (Greg Powell- of ‘Skyfall’ fame).

It triggers a fear that anyone from your paanwala to pizzadelivery boy could be a ‘closet’ terrorist (Beware!). While the core plot is compelling and finely directed, the side-tracks – like bombs needing to be deactivated and the romantic angle, waste screen-time and the songs infiltrate the plot too often. The film is too long and needs a taut edit.

It has flaws too, but doesn’t fail to entertain. Akshay’s stunts are jaw-dropping; he’s in top form and impressively leads the show without much support from his squadron of actors. Farhad (the lead villain) doesn’t leave much impact; and Sonakshi slides in for the song and dance. This one applauds the jawans who live in the jaws of death, and is a ‘wake up’ call for all the ‘sleepers’ that abound. Bravo!

It seems Deepika Padukone is not yet over her former boyfriend Ranbir Kapoor. After seeing Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif’s public display of affection, Deepika was seen taking a romantic walk with her beau Ranveer Singh. A Zee News report says that Deepika was spotted in Barcelona with Ranveer, spending quality time with him. The two were seen taking a stroll in the streets looking very happy and comfortable with each other.

This news comes as a surprise as just a few days back pictures of Ranbir- Katrina walking hand-in-hand in Cape Town were splashed over the media. It seems Deepika is following her ex Ranbir and is leaving no chance to give him tough competition and to show him that she has really moved on.