Three years back, Jacqueline Fernandez took a shot at Bollywood with her film 'Aladdin'. The actress in a candid chat talks about her journey On the personal front, the lady learnt to be patient and wiser for her years. As CS completes three years today, we speak to this lady who too began her journey in October 2009.Golden momentsWhile I can't pinpoint at any importance of the number three in my life, I must say that three seems to be pretty lucky for me. It was my third Hindi film Murder 2 that gave me my first hit. I am now in my third year in Bollywood, and it's full of promise. I hope that I get my third hit with my film that's releasing early next year. The biggest highs were when Murder 2 was a hit.
Roller coaster rideWell, my journey's been a bit of a struggle, lots of ups and downs, but I am learning to take everyday as it comes and make the most out of it. Plus, I have learnt through trial and error that patience is the key to surviving in Bollywood. Sometimes, I feel I have aged 30 years in these last three years. I used to live in a lot of fear of what was to come and of people judging me negatively. But I have learnt to let go and living for myself, family, friends and amazing memories are all that matter to me. Also, I have learnt to voice my opinions and not fear the outcomes of being honest.Lessons for lifeThe most important thing about failure or going through rough times is that they remind you of what you don't want to repeat in your life. I look back and say, `Ok, I am never making that mistake again`. It's really important that you learn and move on, but at the same time be adamant and not let history repeat itself. I heal better and faster when I am on my own. I need my space.
Future plansI have no plans whatsoever. I never have. I am compulsive and move ahead with what life throws at me. If it makes me happy that's what I base my decisions on, and that's the way I like it! I am ambitious but I won't kill myself for work. I always like to have a life as well. Courtesy: Mid-Day.com
Ameesha Patel is back in a big way and some critics are shocked. The actress is looking younger and hotter as each day passes and the sexy girl, who recently endorsed a sunglasses brand, had a new photo shoot for the brand that will be revealed soon. According to sources, `This shoot is one of Ameesha's sexiest shoots and also very youthful. The people who are behind this brand are ready to now go out and distribute their products in various stores and expand their business in a big way.` The source further adds, `Their priority was to first get it famous before they actually get it to the market and what better way then having the gorgeous Ameesha Patel.` 
We hear that Ameesha is very excited about her look and is all ready to shock people. As she has been working hard on her body, she is getting ready for her own production Desi Magic as well. According to sources, `Ameesha will start the shooting of her new film Singh Sahab The Great with Sunny Deol which she recently announced. She plays the main lead opposite Sunny Deol also by November. The film also stars Johnny Lever, Prakash Raj, and Amrita Rao in a small but important role.`Ameesha who also just had a photo shoot for both her films Race 2 and Shortcut Romeo opposite Neil Nitin Mukesh is happy with the way both the films have shaped up. 
She is doing another film with Sunny called Superhit Bhaiyyaji, which is also going on simultaneously with her other films With so much stuff happening in Ameesha's life, hope this new innings brings Ameesha all the luck she deserves. Courtesy: Mid-Day.com
By Subhash K JhaStarring Rani Mukherjee, Prithviraj & A Cast Of Certifiable LunaticsDirected by Sachin KundalkarRating: ***Somewhere towards the 'grind' finale, when you are grinding your teeth in exasperation at the banality of the burlesque, a hideous character named Gagabai is seen slithering dancing and cavorting all over a set that looks like a psychedelic nightmare-scape from Anurag Kashyap's Dev D.This Lady Gaga in Aiyyaa sings, 'Do do do me' to a leery lad who has seen better 'daze'. Demurring to Gaga's do-able proposition lanky lad replies, 'I do with my hand. 'Ahem. At this point the director seems to have completely lost the post. Aiyyaa is a film that thrives on the mood of unmitigated zaniness. For those who like their comedy with a heavy layering of wistful fantasy it's quite an experience. Wacky and funny on the top, the world of the protagonist Meenaxi (Rani Mukherjee) is dark and sombre beneath.It's a tough mood creation marred by the director's stubborn refusal to let the narrative make up its mind whether it wants to do a homage or a spoof to the fantasy-cinema of the 1980s. 
So here's the thing. Director Kundalkar who seems to think wackiness is a tremendous cinematic virtue, begins by showing Meenaxi as a middleclass Maharastrian girl constantly fantasizing about being in Madhuri Dixit's and Sridevi's song sequences from Tezaab and Mr India. In case we miss the point there is a Vividh Bharti styled announcement about the source material. But as the narrative groans ahead it gets awed and finally defeated by its own eccentricity. The song sequences sacrifice their spoofiness to let Rani slither in sensuous belly dances and other high-concept gyrations, each of which must have cost more than Meenaxi's fey family's food budget for the whole year. 
Homage or high-definition item songs, Rani, by jove, has a ball dancing to the spoofy and the sensuous beats of Amit Trivedi's mood- perfect tunes. She embraces her character, makes Meenaxi's contradictions and whims her own to the point that we are almost willing to excuse the film's innate discrepancies and annoying goofiness. What a year this has been for the female powerhouse performers! First there was Vidya Balan in Kahaani, then Priyanka Chopra in Barfi. Just last week Sridevi exuded an enduring ethereality on English Vinglish. And now Rani simply wows us with her interpretation of the middleclass dreamer's part. She's played the downmarket dreamer before, in Bunty Aur Babli. Rani lets the workingclass wannabe's imagination takes wings to soar eagle-like in the sky that, alas, gets progressively clouded and murky. 
Very often Meenaxi's home and life would remind you of Ram Gopal Varma's Rangeela while her rapport with her trying-hard-to-be- understanding fiancee (Subodh Bhave, excellent) harks back to Jaya Bhaduri's Bole re papihara days in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi. Subodh Bhave's description of his love for the cinema of Farouq Sheikh and Deepti Naval with Jagjit Singh's Tumko dekha to yeh khayaal aaya from the film Saath Saath thrown in for good measure, and with Rani's character trying hard to follow her fiancee's love for nostalgia, are brilliantly tongue-in-cheek. 
Alas, the tongue gets progressively wedged in the cheek. And finally the film loses any claim to a coherent voice. We are soon looking at characters and situations that belong to a lunatic asylum. Meenaxi's friend Gagabai's overpowering trashiness and the wheelchaired grandmother's excessive exuberance set your teeth on edge. To anyone who thought these over-the-top (and how!) characters would actually appear funny on screen I say, get a 'laugh', guys. What works, and works beautifully, is the central Rani-Prithviraj romance. Aiyyaa is actually a film about a girl who longs to escape her garbage-dump existence, falls in love with a man who smells good and stalks the scented silent sinister stranger to a finale that is tragically far from ambrosial or enigmatic. 
No Hindi film has explored the sensuous aspect of smells so effectively. Every time the South Indian brooder (Prithvi Raj, effectively in -mood) passes by Rani inhales as though she had just felt eternity in her nostrils. There are some interestingly composed shots of Rani stalking her scented lover-boy through a crowded palate of sounds and colours. Also brilliant is Rani's brief attempts to touch her fantasy-man's Tamilian background by taking a crash course in Chennai etiquettes from a cocky Dravidian chaiwalla boy (Pakadi Pandi, superb) and also by gate-crashing into his home to befriend his South Indian mother. 
The director messes up a chance to let Rani's inherent exuberance sing and dance across the length and breath of the film's canvas. He keeps placing the spontaneous actress into ridiculously compromised situations. It is to Rani Mukherjee's credit that she survives all the bumps and bellyaches that this weird yet watchable film serves up.Yes, Rani gets a firm grip on the intriguing flavour of this out-of-the-box comedy. To a large extent she redeems this fatally flawed farce. But honestly you need nerves of steel to withstand those chilling close-ups of Gagabai. 
Don't hold your breath. That sweet smell in Rani's nostrils is not fated to be ours, not in this film.
The actress's snake dance in 'Nagina' is a huge hit with homosexual men, they even emulate her steps on dance floorsHer snake dance in Nagina is a huge hit with gay men, they even emulate those movements on the dance floor and her over the top style, like in Hawa Hawaai, is spot on with themWhen compiling an alternative guide to cinema for Bombay Dost magazine, I had, without much uncertainty, included Harmesh Malhotra's Nagina, a cult classic from the 1980s. It did not have any queer characters, nor was there a homosexual theme, subtextual or otherwise, embedded in the narrative. However, the film did star Sridevi, in one of her most iconic roles, as an icchadhaari nagin (literally shape-shifting snake-woman) who sporadically breaks into an almost infectious dance, writhing on the floor, flashing her imported coloured lenses, and striking like a serpent at onlookers, tantriks and snake-charmers alike.In that moment, so peculiar to Hindi masala cinema, a gay icon was born purely out of the irrepressibility of Sridevi's screen persona.
In Toronto-based writer Vivek Shraya's tenderly crafted homage to his own childhood, God Loves Hair, there is a story called Pervert in which, in a hilarious moment, a young Shraya accosts his cousin with a Nagina hand movement. The story is accompanied by a full-page illustration of Sridevi by artist Juliana Neufeld, and it is like a 'found art' moment in a rather precious little queer book. When he toured India with the book in 2010, Shraya was rather surprised to discover how huge Sridevi was with Indian gay men. `I was so in love with her as a kid that it (was) fascinating to know that this is something that is common for gay brown boys, ` he said.
The guilty pleasure of being in love with Sridevi afflicts gay men to this day. In decidedly bourgeois house parties, where dapper gay men sip chardonnay out of tall glasses, dressed in dinner jackets to fend off the cold draught from the air-conditioning, the strains of the song 'Main teri dushman...' from Nagina are enough to send a quiver down their collective spine. Before long, the straight-acting is given up for some delicious Sridevi-style shimmying on the dance floor replete with hisses, glares and darting hand- movements -a few stolen moments that can be at once cringe-inducing and strangely liberating.Sri-MagicIt's this camp, over-the-top persona that Sridevi brought to her roles that has catapulted her into pole position as one of the more prominent pop-cultural icons of the past two decades. She was unlike the other tragic figures that gay men fawned over, like Meena Kumari or Judy Garland. Her magic lay in her cinematic effulgence.One of her most famous production numbers was a sequence from Mr India. Sridevi's bumbling scribe has penetrated the baddies' den, but instead of sidling away to the sidelines, she decides to take the guise of the most conspicuously flamboyant person in the room, Ms Hawa Hawaai.
She sports ostrich feathers, figure-hugging gold lame, and unflattering make-up that would douse a lesser actress' elfin charm, but here, this sartorial inelegance draws out Sridevi's three-dimensional presence: comic and self-deprecating, but also impossibly alluring. She hobbles across the floor in six-inch heels at first, before the high-pitched strains of Kavita Subramaniam's vocals 'kick' her into her stride as the high-voltage electric diva rising from amidst the kitsch and the corn. Indian drag queens, long accustomed to parley out mujras made famous by the Rekhas and the Madhuri Dixits, find themselves out of their depth when it comes to Sridevi's 'items', because Sridevi brought to her performances an ardent physicality that couldn't be easily replicated.Sri-PhysicalityWhen she is slapped by Anil Kapoor in Lamhe, she doesn't fall simpering at her paramour's feet, instead she breaks into a Jane Fonda-esque exercise video. Constantly harangued by her relatives in Chaalbaaz, she is allowed a moment at the very end of a lengthy tandav, when an adavu gone horribly wrong ends up with her slapping her oppressor. In Naaka Bandi she plays tribute to three generations of actresses, before insouciantly announcing herself as the definite article, `Main lagti hoon... Sridevi lagti hoon.` It's this unbridled chutzpah, and unusual personality that went against the grain of what actresses on the Indian screen have long portrayed, that has endeared Sridevi to people who sought out parallel persuasions themselves.
The adulation continues. In a harrowing episode of his reality show Satyamev Jayate, actor Aamir Khan interviews victims of child sexual abuse. The line-up includes gay activist Harrish Iyer who recounts his own unsavoury experiences and the years of self-doubt and shame that he has had to overcome. As if to ease the unremitting tension, Khan proposes a diversion, a special surprise for Iyer. When his favourite actress Sridevi walks in, in a staid brown sari, the audience bursts out in applause on cue, but Iyer's open-mouthed 'Aiyyo', with its mix of joy, surprise, even instant catharsis, is an unrehearsed expression of this intense identification with an icon he shares with many others.Lines from Sridevi movies continue to be part of the lexicon amongst gay men, even trite phrases like, 'You understand? You better understand!' from a regressive film like Laadla. Her 15 years away from the arc-lights have been like a kind of self-imposed exile, notwithstanding the occasional show-stopper appearances on the fashion ramp. For her fans, it has certainly been a long wait.Sri-winsomeNow, in her new film, English Vinglish, a repertoire of fetching Sabyasachi saris and some pitch-perfect acting help Sridevi create one of her most winsome characters out of the decidedly austere housewife Shashi, who comes into her own when she takes time off from her wifely duties to learn English in Manhattan.There are scenes that still offer us glimpses of the old Sridevi and her larger-than-life turns from the past. When she takes a difficult sip from her first glass of wine and screws her face up, we're reminded of her frizz-haired Chandni as she cavorts drunkenly across the snow-capped Alps even while insisting that cognac is not alcohol. As Shashi sits timidly alongside septuagenarian Amitabh Bachchan on her first international flight, we are transported to the time the two actors roamed Afghanistan on horseback in Khuda Gawah, chasing the coveted prize of a speared goat carcass in a thrilling buzkashi encounter. 
When she breaks into an impromptu jig impersonating Michael Jackson, we remember her production numbers from Chaalbaaz where she channelised much more of the King of Pop than just a chiselled nose.The new Sridevi is more than just va-va-voom. In a particular scene in English Vinglish, students at the language class discover that their teacher hasn't been in for a few days because he has broken up with his boyfriend.It's a Mind Your Language setting and the token Pakistani taxi-driver (played by theatre actor Sumeet Vyas) mouths off on the cavalier attitude gay men have towards relationships before Shashi interrupts him and delivers a homily on inclusiveness.Although it is an unsubtle little scene, it still manages to drive home its point, and certainly, on Sridevi's part, it's almost like a belated nod to the millions of gay men scattered across the globe who idolise her. The gay teacher, who enters at this point, clad in a largish 'grief'coat and dark glasses to conceal days of bawling his eyes out, certainly seems to appreciate the gesture. If you look around, the whooping and cheering gay men in the multiplex audience, some of whom have watched the film a few times already in its first weekend, are testimony to Sridevi's enduring legacy as an alternative icon.The writer is a playwright who runs the theatre appreciation website, Stage Impressions.Other icons > Actresses who captured the gay imagination
MEENA KUMARI: The self-sacrificing persona of Meena Kumari had created a whole new sub-culture in the gay desi ghettos. Her mask-like face in the classic Pakeezah was a doppelgänger for the gay man as eternal victim, and their self-flagellating self- regard. The actress lends astonishing credence to the character of Sahib Jaan, the courtesan in the proverbial gilded cage, at once a young effervescent girl with the right amount of lachak in her stride, and a crushed woman with fragile porcelain-like features provided a specious virginal glow by Lata Mangeshkar's magnificent vocals. Gay men have also appropriated as their own the magnificent mujra set-pieces from the film, which includes the pulsating 'Thare rahiyo'.
REKHA: Her soul diva persona and Asha's assured delivery of Khaiyyam's magical ghazals in Umrao Jaan make this a heady alternative to the tired tales of the courtesans of yore. Umrao (Rekha) is not quite the fallen woman, and not quite the damned one, and in her many mujras in the film, she demonstrates a flair for the most dexterously floral hand gestures that have for long become an essential part of any desi drag performer's repertoire.
MADHURI DIXIT: For some inexplicable reason, Bhansali's shrill calendar-art version of the Sarat Chandra Chatterjee novel, Devdas, has acquired a cult following among not just gay men adamantly spouting its melodramatic lines like it were latter-day Shakespeare, but also with drag performers for whom emulating Madhuri Dixit in 'Maar daala...' is now de rigueur (obligatory).
SMITA PATIL: In Mandi, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, doyennes of Indian parallel cinema, bring in a frisky intimacy to the relationship between two women, one a brothel madam Rukmini Bai and the other, her prized ward Zeenat (Patil), as they take turns doing each other's hair, while humming the film's signature nazm by Mir Taqi Mir, 'Zabaanein badalti hai', while generally sprawled on one another. More than Azmi, Patil is one of the quintessentional fire-in-her-belly performers that gay men are especially fond of.
HELEN: To gay audiences, Helen has always appeared to revel in her 'otherness'. As Suzy, or Lily, or any other silk- stockinged alter-ego, she's always the quintessential bad girl who transgresses, smokes, dances with gay abandon, wearing the most exuberantly mounted costumes you'd want to dive straight into if only to escape into a world where anything goes, where being different is good, and you'd even take a bullet in your heart for that.
KAREENA KAPOOR: Her film Chameli largely takes place on a single set where an investment banker (Rahul Bose) is forced to take shelter from the rain, with only a prostitute (Kapoor) on the prowl for company. Characters arrive and leave as in a play, including the transsexual Haseena (Kabir Sadanand) who is about to elope with a young man. A drenched Kapoor dazzles in a red and blue sari, and makes some positive noises about gay couples, which includes that iconic line, `Apna to ek hi usool hai saab, koi bhi ho, kaisa bhi ho, bas pyar hona chahiye.`Courtesy: Mid-Day.com
Actress Alia Bhatt confesses she has a huge crush on actor Ranbir Kapoor. "I have always loved Ranbir and I love him even more after 'Barfi!'. He is my biggest crush and he will always remain my biggest crush," the 19-year-old said here Tuesday at a promotional event of her forthcoming debut film "Student Of The Year". Asked which Khan would she like to work with from Bollywood's popular Khans - Shah Rukh, Salman or Aamir - Alia said: "These three are such big stars, how can I choose one? I want to work with all three of them." Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt's youngest daughter, Alia, is making her debut alongside two newcomers - David Dhawan's son Varun and model Sidharth Malhotra. The movie hits theatres Oct 19.
Voyager 1 May Have Left the Solar Systemby Nancy Atkinson on October 8, 2012, Universetoday
While there's no official word from NASA on this, the buzz around the blogosphere is that Voyager 1 has left the Solar System. The evidence comes from this graph, above, which shows the number of particles, mainly protons, from the Sun hitting Voyager 1 across time. A huge drop at the end of August hints that Voyager 1 may now be in interstellar space. The last we heard from the Voyager team was early August, and they indicated that on July 28, the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside our Solar System dropped by half. However, in three days, the levels had recovered to near their previous levels. But then the bottom dropped out at the end of August.
The Voyager team has said they have been seeing two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space. In addition to the drop in particles from the Sun, they've also seen a jump in the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our Solar System.
The third key sign would be the direction of the magnetic field. No word on that yet, but scientists are eagerly analyzing the data to see whether that has, indeed, changed direction. Scientists expect that all three of these signs will have changed when Voyager 1 has crossed into interstellar space.
"These are thrilling times for the Voyager team as we try to understand the quickening pace of changes as Voyager 1 approaches the edge of interstellar space," said Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist for the entire mission, who was quoted in early August. "We are certainly in a new region at the edge of the solar system where things are changing rapidly. But we are not yet able to say that Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space."
Stone added that the data are changing in ways that the team didn't expect, "but Voyager has always surprised us with new discoveries."
Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is approximately 18 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) from the Sun. Voyager 2, which launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is close behind, at 15 billion km (9.3 billion miles) from the Sun.
'Gangnam fever' continues with 440,017 likes and 580,756 followers in Facebook
and twitter to make a place in the Guinness World Records
South Korea doesn't boast of a cricket team, but it was the most talked-about nation on Facebook and Twitter after Sunday's action-packed ICC World Twenty20 final.
On a night when the West Indies took home a world title after 33 years, the social media was abuzz not with tales of how the team snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat, but about how Darren Sammy and his men, especially 'Hurricane' Gayle, shook their booty to 'Gangnam style' moves.
'Gangnam style' is South Korean pop culture's latest contribution to an online music phenomenon.
The video by Korean rapper-dancer PSY (originally Park Jae-sang) came out on July 15. By September 17, it was nominated for Best Video at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards.
On September 20, it was on its way to the Guinness World Records as the most 'liked' video in YouTube history.
The rapper can now boast of 440,017 'likes' on Facebook and 580,756 followers on Twitter.
A jubilant tweet from PSY put the YouTube viewings of his video at a record-shattering 400 million. 'Gangnam style' has converted PSY into a celebrity.
Gangnam style: West Indies cricketers celebrate after their victory in the ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup's final match
Players do Gangnam Style moves ahead of their title challenge at the 'CJ Invitational Hosted by KJ Choi' golf event at Haesley Nine Bridges Golf Club in Yeoju
The video shows PSY making fun of the extravagant lifestyle of the residents of Gangnam (a Seoul neighbourhood where the artiste grew up). 'Oppa Gangnam style' translates into 'I live Gangnam Style'.
Apart from going viral on the Internet, the video has also been shared by celebrities such as Katy Perry, Britney Spears and Tom Cruise.
Besides the West Indies team, the addictive tune also got an otherwise staid Google boss Eric Schmidt to shake a leg with PSY during a recent visit to South Korea.
Korean pop, or K-pop, a musical genre that melds dance, electronic pop, hip-hop and rap, has been the country's biggest cultural export to the world. 'Gangnam style' has already caught the fancy of Indian audiences.
MTunes was the first Indian television channel to air it on September 30. 'We have taken 'Gangnam style' dancing to the streets by reaching out to young people in Mumbai to dance to PSY's beats for a video titled 'On The Streets',' said Sunil Sahjwani, group creative director of Pioneer Channel Factory, the parent company of MTunes.
