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Home , Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Chris Stamp, Kit Lambert, Sarfarosh

lifestyle WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Music & Movies , farmer’s son turned ‘ indie’ star t is a story worthy of a plot: The son of a selected for the Cannes Film Festival, he turned heads in cinema hall to watch his films. north Indian farmer, one of nine children, rising to crime thrillers “Kahaani” (Story) and “Talaash” (Search). He will appear again with in upcoming Ibecome the face of independent Hindi cinema. But He said his family are still surprised by how far he has romantic drama “”, and with Shah Rukh Nawazuddin Siddiqui is still getting used to his success. come. “And you cannot blame them. I am a five-foot six- Khan in “Raees” (Rich Man), in which he plays a cop who “When someone is looking at me, I feel they are looking inch, dark, ordinary-looking man. People didn’t imagine is chasing Khan’s mafia character. Siddiqui says he at someone standing behind me, not at me,” the 40-year- that I would make it,” he said. “It is the mindset of our admires Bollywood megastars for their longevity- old confessed to AFP during an interview at a Mumbai country too, that people like (me) don’t become stars. ”they’re very well-maintained”-and he wouldn’t rule out hotel. Maybe it’s a result of 200 years of colonial rule.” doing a song-and-dance number himself, despite his “I have not got used to it and I won’t allow myself to Industry outsider reservations about Bollywood musicals. He describes feel like a star.” Winning awards for his roles in interna- Being this “ordinary-looking” outsider to a dynastic them as a “borrowed culture”, not rooted in the Indian tionally-feted films such as “” in 2012 industry, Siddiqui struggled to get a designer suit for his tradition of folk music and classical songs and dance. and “” the following year, Siddiqui has first red carpet appearance at Cannes in 2012. But three “However I would do one such formula film to prove become one of ’s most respected actors. It is a long years later he just has to pick up the phone, and when that I can dance and romance a heroine,” he said. way from his humble beginnings in Uttar Pradesh state, he comes to meet AFP he is accompanied by a manager, Siddiqui is also appearing in his first Hollywood film, where he became the first graduate from his village with a valet and a publicist. Despite his success he says “noth- with two scenes in the upcoming drama “Lion” directed a degree in chemistry. After training at ’s National ing much has changed”. He still hangs out with old by Garth Davis, and starring Nicole Kidman and Dev School of Drama, smitten with acting, he landed his first friends “who remind me of our days of struggle”, and Patel of “Slumdog Millionaire” fame. But he is “not dying” film appearance in the 1999 movie goes home to help out on the farm. to do more foreign movies. “I am very proud of the films I “” (Fervour), and moved to Mumbai, the enter- Aside from Talaash and the 2014 action film “Kick” am doing here because they are of an international stan- tainment capital, in 2000. with Salman Khan, he has mostly avoided Bollywood dard,” he said. “I am very confident about my work But he faced years of struggle and bit parts, often blockbusters, tending towards more serious “Hindi indie” because I have worked very hard.” — AFP earning little cash, before he really became established. roles. But his forthcoming features are big budget flicks The year 2012 was perhaps his best to date: along with alongside A-list superstars-much to the delight of his Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui talking in an interview with the Wasseypur gangster epic and “Miss Lovely”, both family, who travel 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the nearest AFP in Mumbai. — AFP

Review Emily Blunt joins animated feature ‘Animal Crackers’ dge of Tomorrow’ star Emily Blunt is the lat- est Hollywood name to join the voice cast of ‘E“Animal Crackers,” an independent animated feature backed by Chinese finance. Blunt will play Zoe, one half of a married couple with John (played by John Krasinski) whose family life is turned upside down when they inherit a rundown circus and a mysterious box of Animal Crackers, which magically changes the person who eats them into animals. Scott Christian Sava is co-directing with Tony Bancroft (“Mulan”) from a script he co-wrote with Dean Lorey. Blunt joins a cast that already includes Sylvester Stallone, Ian McKellen and Danny DeVito. The film is produced by Blue Dream Studios in a partnership with Beijing Wen Hua Dongrun Investment Co. and Film Co. Australian inde- This 1966 photo shows, from left, , of , and Kit This 1966 photo shows, Chris Stamp, left, business manager, and , manager pendent sales agent Odin’s Eye is representing the Lambert, at Windsor Jazz Festival, included in a scene from the documentary film, (producer on the album, ‘’) of the English rock band, The Who, going up to international rights. Release is set for mid-2016. ‘Lambert & Stamp.’ Manchester on the train in England, included in the new documentary film, ‘Lambert & Other key credits go to character designer Carter Stamp.’ — AP photos Goodrich, and Jamie Thomason as voice and casting director. Besides Sava, “Animal Crackers” producers are George Lee and Marcus Englefield from Storyoscopic Films, James Thomason and Leiming In ‘Lambert & Stamp,’ the Guan. Financing the movie are exec producers Mu Yedong on behalf of Wen Hua Dongrun Investment Co; La Peikang, board chairman of China Film Co.; and Sam Chi for Landmark Asia. backstage story of The Who “Animal Crackers” is the first independent animat- ed feature for Blue Dream Studios, which has been he teenage revolution was in full force on the fall 1964 Directorial debut unconventional orchestrators. (Daltrey, Townshend says in a producing animation for TV and film for Hollywood’s night that Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp stumbled into the “I loved them immediately,” says Pete Townshend, the gui- way that could only be cutting, was the only “conventional” fig- major studios since 2000. The company has expand- Railway Tavern, a pub where a band called the tarist and songwriter of The Who, in the film. “They changed my ure of the bunch.) But the film, perhaps inevitably, subsides in ed into publishing its own graphic novels, one of T which, “The Luckiest Boy,” was purchased for produc- High Numbers was playing and mods were gyrating. It was life forever.” Lambert and Stamp would mold The Who (among the second half, as the familiar fallout of fame - drugs, death, London’s Swinging ‘60s, with its subculture explosion and styl- other things they encouraged the songwriting of Townshend) disputes over a film of the “Tommy” - wrecks the tion by Fox in 2014. — Reuters ish youths. Such is the scene, glimpsed in footage shot that into one of the great rock ‘n’ roll bands. And it all started with an relationships. “Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose,” was the night, at the beginning of the riotously entertaining new docu- idea that, as Townshend says in the documentary, was intended anthem The Who sang, and their managers (who signed Jimi mentary “Lambert & Stamp.” Lambert and Stamp were assistant to “blow itself up” in a year or two. Hendrix to a record deal before actually having a record label) film directors, frustrated by not ascending to the director’s chair, “Lambert & Stamp,” the directorial debut of James D Cooper, were perfect representatives of the song. Emily Blunt but full of wild ideas. They wanted to find a band to make a film a veteran cinematographer, is an intimate rock documentary Their genius was in realizing the sea change that was hap- about, but their plans had wider cultural aspirations: “a mad that eludes most of the standard beats of the genre. By focus- pening. “You don’t market TO them. You market THEM,” (expletive) concoction of stuff,” says Stamp in the film. ing on the managers - the band’s so-called fifth and sixth mem- Townshend says of the new audience relationship. Speaking to The frenetic energy and loud rhythm and riffs of the bers, “the shell of the egg” as singer says - the a skeptical news program, in French no less, Lambert predicts High Numbers hit like a thunderclap, even if they lacked in movie takes a wider view, capturing the composite nature of that the ‘60s scene was no mere fad, but a youth move- looks. (Later, some would worry that they were too ugly to creative invention and cultural change. It’s almost all depicted ment that would regenerate with every generation. Indeed, the make it big.) When Lambert and Stamp became their man- in the film in black and white: gritty in period footage, classy in Who got older; the kids stayed the same age. “Lambert & agers, they urged them to take an earlier, abandoned name: contemporary interviews. Stamp died in 2012, but was inter- Stamp,” a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R by the Motion The Who. The infatuation was mutual. Lambert and Stamp had viewed extensively before passing away. Lambert, though, died Picture Association of America for “language, some drug con- zero knowledge of the music business, but they were a capti- in 1981. His presence (the more magnetic and fascinating of the tent and brief nudity.” Running time: 117 minutes. Three stars vating duo. Lambert, the son of a famous conductor and an two) hovers over the film from older footage. out of four. — AP Oxford grad, was posh, erudite and gay at a time when homo- sexuality was illegal in Britain. Stamp, the brother of the actor Fame, drugs and death , was a dashing East End Cockney, the son of a “Lambert & Stamp” hums frantically in the first half with the tug boat captain. Neither cared a lick for convention. spirit of teen rebellion that propelled both The Who and its

Robin Williams heirs agree Iranian filmmaker ‘in good to negotiate over belongings shape’ in Evin prison Canadian-based Iranian writer and tel- “It is accurate that he is in a good physical obin Williams’ widow and his three mitted suicide in August of last year at the evision producer was put into Tehran’s and psychological shape,” said the son. children have agreed to out-of-court age of 63. notorious Evin prison soon after his Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra negotiations in a battle over parts of Schneider’s attorney, James Wagstaffe, A R return to his home country, but is in good Kazemi died in 2003 of a brain hemorrhage the late actor’s estate-including movie told AFP that over the next two weeks he shape, the filmmaker’s son said on Monday. after receiving a blow to the head at Evin. She awards such as his 1998 Oscar for “Good would meet with Williams’ three children Iranian authorities arrested Mostafa Azizi, had been taking pictures outside the prison. Will Hunting.” A judge in San Francisco from two previous marriages Zelda, who has permanent resident status in Canadian foreign affairs spokesman Francois delayed until June a hearing on a suit filed Zachary and Cody Williams-to try to reach , on Feb 1, and charged him with Lasalle said the government was “aware of in December by Susan Schneider, with an agreement. If this fails a mediator will insulting Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali reports” of the arrest of a Canadian perma- whom the comedian and movie star had intervene, he said. The deadline is June, Khamenei, and spreading propaganda nent resident but was unable to provide fur- been married for five years when he com- when the battle could reach court and against the Islamic establishment. ther information. become public. The dispute centers on “I don’t want to speculate as to what evi- He noted that the Canadian embassy in objects related to the actor’s career, his dence is being used against my dad but I am Iran has closed until further notice. “In the childhood and objects from his office, confident he meant no wrongdoing and law- context of heightened regional tensions, except the furniture that was in the house breaking,” said his son Arash Azizi, contacted Iranian-Canadian dual citizens and Canadian he shared with his now widow. by Reuters. Arash, a Canadian journalist who permanent residents with Iranian citizenship The movie awards that Williams won, lives in London, said his father was put into may be particularly vulnerable to investiga- such as his Oscar, would be worth a lot of solitary confinement for the first 14 days but tion and harassment by Iranian authorities,” money to his children, the attorney said. has been able to phone him and his sister he said. — Reuters Schneider said in her lawsuit that the and other people regularly from prison. executors of the fund that the actor created to manage his estate insisted, days after his death, on having access to his home to share out and take possession of some Depp’s ‘Pirates of Mostafa Azizi objects. The widow says all she wants is the suit Williams wore in the ceremony in which he married her and their wedding the Caribbean 5’ gifts. Zelda Williams rejected reports on social media Monday that she and her sib- lings had already removed objects from the home of their late father. — AFP halted in roduction of “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” in Australia has been halted due to the hand injury sustained by Johnny PDepp earlier this month. The film’s star departed Australia for the US on March 10 following an injury that hap- pened in Queensland, though not while shooting. Filming has continued on scenes not involving Depp. File photo shows actor Robin Williams and his But, on Thursday, some 200 crew were told that they wife Susan Schneider upon their arrival for would not be working for the next two weeks, according to the world premiere of the movie ‘Happy Feet multiple Australian media reports. Production is scheduled to Two’.—AFP pick up on April 15. — Reuters