Aamir Khan Defends PK Nude Poster

Nude PK poster has created furor all over and a case was also filed against him and the makers of the film for promoting nudity and vulgarity and following which the poster of PK was removed from theatres. After maintaining a dignified silence over the matter, for the first time Aamir Khan broke his silence and spoke in favour of the poster.

Superstar Aamir Khan, who has left many intrigued and many ridiculing him over his nude look in the poster of his upcoming film PK, says it's not for publicity. Calling it "key art", he says it depicts the story of the film.

The poster of Rajkumar Hirani's PK features Aamir posing nude with a strategically placed boombox hiding his modesty. While some appreciated the dare bare act, some even criticised it and even called it a "publicity stunt".

Aamir spoke on the sidelines of a screening of Marathi film "Saturday Sunday" here Wednesday.
Citing the example of the poster of one of his past production and directorial debut, "Taare Zameen Par", he said: "In the poster of 'Taare Zameen Par', the child (actor Darsheel Safary) is sitting in the front on the school bench and I am sitting behind him. So it is a kind of key art...the image that tells you much about the story and so is the poster of 'PK'."

Talking about it, Aamir said: "When you (audience) will watch the film then only you will be able to understand the idea behind (the poster). But I would just like to say that the kind of filmmaker, the kind of writer Rajkumar is, he always tries to present the things, his thinking, in a unique way and that's why I am his huge fan."

"This is not for publicity, not for us atleast. Infact, this poster imbibes all the elements of the film."
Meanwhile, a case was also filed in a court in Kanpur recently against Aamir, director Rajkumar Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. They were accused of promoting nudity and vulgarity through "PK" poster.

However, the actor is hopeful that everything will get clear once people watch the film when it releases in December.

"We are getting a mixed response from the people. But I feel that when they will watch the film, their doubts will get cleared," the 49-year-old said.

PK also features actor Sanjay Dutt, Anushka Sharma and Sushant Singh Rajput.

Now a 'Rancho' school comes up in Bihar

Begusarai (Bihar): A school for the poor in Bihar, inspired by Rancho's iconic school in Bollywood blockbuster "3 Idiots", has been opened by a scientist to teach complex science theories through games and interactive workshops.



Sudhir Kumar, a scientist working in the biotechnology laboratory of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Pune, has set up a school in his native village of Mirzapur Chand in Bihar's Begusarai district, about 110 km from Patna.

"Besides formal education up to Class 6, explanation of complex theories of science through fun and interactive workshops conducted by a panel of scientists will be part of the school's curriculum," Sudhir Kumar, an assistant professor at IIIT-Pune, told IANS.



The school, which opened Sunday, has a staggered fee structure -- free of cost for the poor and different slabs for children with different economic backgrounds.

The governing body of the school will verify the family income of each student and will decide the fee accordingly. Richer parents will be charged more so that education of poor children can be subsidised.

"Education will be free for children belonging to families having no farm land or those of labourers, while kids of well-off parents such as landowners, businessmen, transport contractors, builders, government and private employees having regular income will be charged a monthly fee ranging from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100," said Sunil Kumar, the principal of the school.



The school will be financially supported by a panel of scientists, including Naibedya Chattopadhyay, deputy director, Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow; Manavi Chatterjee, senior research fellow, Pharmacology Division, CDRI; and Tanaya De, former research fellow, Endocrinology Division, CDRI.

Besides them, international researchers who are extending support to the effort include Shawon Lahiri, Laussane University, Switzerland; Anchal Gussain, Chicago University; Rajiv Kumar Jain, Tartu University, Estonia; Ajay Kumar Srivastava, Seoul University, South Korea; and Elo Madissoon, a research fellow in Karolinska Institute. They will also conduct regular workshops in the school.

"Lectures would be organised with the help of guest faculty who are experts in different walks of life. Students can also interact with their teachers through video-conferencing," said Kumar.

"The idea of having a school where poor children are encouraged to study science came to my mind many years back. Being a scientist, it is my responsibility to simplify the scientific theory so that they can be utilised by a layman and thus can be more useful for society," said Kumar.



Initially, the school will enrol 50-100 students in the first batch. The number will increase later as per the infrastructure and availability of teachers.

"After Class 6, our focus will be to get the students admitted to high-end schools such as Sainik School, Tilaiya, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalay and Netarhat Vidyalay and avail scholarship schemes offered by the government for high school students," he said, adding: "We are also planning to start classes up to 12th standard in this school".



The classrooms would be equipped with projector screens, computers, internet and all the modern facilities and the children will be encouraged to participate in different activities such as art, music, dance and theatre, he said.

"Before the regular session begins in January next year, classes will be conducted specially for dropouts from September so that they can be registered with open schools," said Satya Narayan Singh, one of the patrons of the school.



The school will be run by around 10 staff members, including retired teachers -- Baidyanath Choudhary and Satya Narayan Singh -- and CDRI's deputy director Naibedya Chattopadhyay as patrons. While Sunil Kumar is the principal, Priyank Kumar, Kundan Sah and Sunil Sharma are teachers. The regular teachers will be paid a consolidated salary of Rs.1,000 per month.

Begusarai is the industrial hub of Bihar. Apart from the Indian Oil Corporation's oil refinery in Barauni, it houses at least 200 small and big industries in an area of seven to eight kilometres. With the population dominated by landowners and farmers, the district also provides livelihood for businessmen, workers and transport contractors coming from other parts of the state.

Source: IANS

Peepli Live - Voice from the Hinterland

Seldom has a movie raised expectations in such a subtle manner as Aamir Khan's latest diatribe on farmer suicides. Right from the motley bunch of stage actors to his tongue-in-cheek television commercial, Khan managed to raise everyone's interest on 'Peepli Live' over the past six to eight weeks.

And make no mistake, the actor, who has been taking up hard hitting themes in two of his last three movies, viz., 'TZP' and '3 Idiots', does it again with this movie that has a heart and soul. And first time director Anusha Rizvi bravely uses biting satire to provide the multiplex audience a glimpse of their own ugly countenance among the many other obvious ills plaguing modern India.

The movie is as much about the growing gap between the haves and have-nots as it is about politicians stooping to win and urban TV channels routinely mistaking the woods for the trees. Rizvi, herself a former mediaperson, has a biting scene where an earnest local reporter takes on a city-bred English news anchor's ignorance and her lack of "news sense".

This is one movie where we found it extremely difficult to list out the five reasons formula that we at MSN India use regularly to share our views about a movie. However, in accordance with our editorial guidelines, we decided to go through with our routine template this time too. Please bear with us in case we seem less than lucid in our views this time...

Review of Peepli Live



Five reasons to watch 'Peepli Live'


1. For the discerning, what stays along after the credit titles rolls in is the vast chasm in the calibre of actors and our stars, not to speak of superstars. The manner in which each of the actors have infused life into mundane characters brings out one of the biggest ironies of Bollywood where stars chop away 70% of a movie's cost only because their audience differentiate style from substance.

2. If Raghubir Yadav's combines the helplessness of a debt-ridden farmer with the cunning of an elder brother manipulating his sibling towards a suicide with the ease of a veteran, Omkar Das Manikpuri as Natha creates a resigned-to-my-fate countenance without having much to say throughout the movie.

3. Even the supporting cast of Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the local journalist who breaks the story, Shalini Vatsa as the wife and Farrukh Jaffer as the beedi-smoking mother of the protagonist are simply effortless. The best turn of them all comes from Malaika Shenoy who does a great take on a well known English news anchor on television without allowing it to become a parody.

4. One of the best scripts in recent times, the movie unfolds as a farmer's problem but slowly encompasses every facet of modern day life that has increased the distance between villages and cities as much as it has made the haves want more and the have nots get less. The tongue-in-cheek references to Lal Bahadur (euphemism for a hand-pump in the movie) Shastri's Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan movement is not lost on the audience.

5. Though the movie tells a serious tale, the element of humour is what director Rizvi uses to capture our attention. What's more, it stays throughout the movie where nobody is spared from the satire - be it the Agriculture Minister, the sensationalism chasing Hindi news anchor or the nose-in-the-air English channel representatives.

Review of Peepli Live


Five reasons to avoid 'Peepli Live'

1. If anyone tried to truly imbibe the soul of the movie, it will leave a lump in the throat and maybe make it that much more difficult to continue living the consumerist culture of a city-dweller. The helpless faces of Natha and Budhia will haunt us forever though director Anusha Rizvi has already announced that she expects nothing like this to happen!

2. While castigating the television channels for routinely missing the bigger picture and chasing sensationalism, the movie raised some uncomfortable questions about viewers like me and you. One cannot undermine the cause-and-effect relationship between TV channels chasing TRPs and viewers like us ensuring that we watch such over-the-top sensationalism.

3. The irony of a politician's one-upmanship is also not lost on us as approaching elections makes politicians swoop down on the otherwise nondescript village of Peepli. The hidden message that politicians have been treating villagers as a votebank only because the urban middle class has not bothered to participate in universal adult franchise is again not lost on us.

4. On the scripting front, perhaps the only flaw is that the movie becomes a tad predictable in the second half... if one can call it that since the entire movie lasts much less than two hours. Like all good things, the movie winds up even as we begin warming up to its protagonists and start enjoying Nathu's predicament and the impact it has on the high and mighty.

5. And finally, as an audience if you are going to spend a weekend at the multiplex, be warned that more than a movie about a farmer's plight it is a movie about the ignorance of the middle class to the farmer's plight. So, if you want to stay happy within your comfort zone, watching the ODI cricket series in Sri Lanka and munching popcorn will be a better bet.

Postscript: Wonder what Amitabh Bachchan, who fought for the right to be called a farmer to own land in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, will do after he was shown the movie by Aamir Khan.

Source: India Syndicate