The Law is Right, at least in actor (and now a prisoner) Sanjay Dutt’s nearly 14 years ongoing Trail. Dutt was was found guilty under the under Arms Act for possessing an AK-56 rifle and 9mm Chinese make pistol, obtained from co-accused Abu Salem prior to the blasts. And finally today, The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court handed Dutt his prize punishment for the crime committed - rigorous imprisonment for six years for illegal possession of arms. Surely the actor, his family & close associates must be in a total baffled state of mind; I mean come on, this isn’t some Bollywood production, this is Hard-core reality and 6 years is a pretty long time.

When I heard the news, frankly speaking I was shocked too – not because I didn’t expect him to be thrown behind bars but I was thinking of a more lenient term, 2 to 3 years max. But on reading Judge Pramod Dattaram Kode’s reasoning behind his decision, there’s no room left for arguments.

- Sanjay Dutt was present at a dinner party attended by fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

- Sanjay Dutt had committed a series of offences and that he was mature when he committed these offences.

- Dutt had made co-accused Yusuf Nalwala commit an offence as well.

Plus when you think about the number of people dead & those traumatized by the 1993 Bomb Blasts, 11 convicts handed with Death Penalties and others sentenced to Life Imprisonment – with just couple of years in prison (minus the 16 months off the 6 years), Dutt seems to have walked off very lightly.

Click here to continue reading ‘And Dutts The Way: 6 Years in Prison’

Zaheer Khan was “bean” harassed and many a times sledged by the England team, nothing new I say. I mean we all know the Cricket is no more the gentlemen’s game. And the bottom line fact is, we do love it for many of its non-gentle qualities – be it sledging, arrogance, fights (on field and dressing room), controversies, scandals and the likes.

Yesterday’s play in the on-going Test Series was definitely a fun watch – and not because of the Jelly Beans but the Zaheer Khan’s Balls.

Team England’s attempts to unsettle the pace bowler by tossing jelly beans on to the wicket proved the spur for his five-wicket haul and literally digging the grave for themselves. Zaheer claimed five for 75 in England’s second innings at Trent Bridge to finish with a match haul of nine for 134. India, with all 10 wickets in hand, need just 63 runs to win on Tuesday and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Maybe the English Think-Tank needs a brush through India’s past sledging fire-backs; Venkatesh Prasad dislodging Aamir Sohail, Sreesanth hitting off Andrew Nell and Slater cribbing over Dravid, and countless others.

And one can forget about apologies, the English players take the incident as their basic norm and promise to throw in some more insults fun.

"Zaheer came in and obviously wasn’t too pleased," Paul Collingwood said. "I think he preferred the blue ones to the pink ones to be honest," making further reference to the multi-colored candy sweets.

Well Dude, I am sure by the time we are done with thrashing your team, “red” ones would be your flavor.

On the other hand, kudos to apna Zaheer for making his presence felt with the Bat and the Ball.

Hindi films this year haven’t been too great but on the other hand they haven’t been that bad either – obviously with the exceptions of the Aap Ka Suroor types. However its way too early to write-off the year, with 5 months to go and some of the most promising takes from Bollywood yet to be released, 2007 will continue to be a joyride till the very end.

Here are some of my personal picks, the ones I can’t wait to get eyes on. Yes, I will be there – the first day, the 3rd show and parked butt on the best seats money can buy.

Heyy Babyy

The promos are saucy and peppy with bucket loads of humor thrown in. Sajid Khan’s directorial debut (technically) stars bunch of his close buddies in the industry, plus having Akshay Kumar can only be seen as an bumper lottery ticket. Set in the beautiful Australian city, Sydney (mummy I wanna go back)….the story in more the one way reminds me of an old Hollywood flick, “Three Men and A Baby”.

It would interesting to see whether Farah Khan’s chote bhaiya ends up making a positive impression or not. Personally I think, Sajid though he can be an ass-wipe at times with his sidey (at times insulting) comments on the Industrywallahs but as a director, the dude’s got his heart in the right place.

He’s already got a winner with the title track “Heyy Babyy”, which features tons of Bollywood actresses practically shaking their everything. Though I dislike the bit where the leading lads pour champagne on the ladies’ private assets but it’s only the ‘B’ grade types who allow themselves to be filmed like that – example Celina Jaitley, Sophia, Koena Mitra and company.

Click here to continue reading ‘Promising Bollywood Phillums (?)’