DAM 999, produced by Biz TV Network and directed by Sohan Roy, is a Classic Emotional Thriller and is an attempt to highlight the unseen beauty of the maritime world in the back drop of rich Indian culture. The movie is a cluster of concepts. DAM 999 intends to imprint the vedic concept of Navarasas and Navagrahas along with the magical curing power of Ayurveda in its characters and situations. It speaks about a colonial dam, its disaster, the 9 characters and their emotions. It will be a second mile stone to Asia after Slumdog Millionaire.

 

Dam 999 attempts to portray on screen the amazement, adventure and the agony that a mariner experience in midst of the vast ocean. It intends to emphasize the concealed beauty of the maritime world. Life in the sea always created inquisitiveness in people to know more about their life and the marine world. ‘DAM 999’ is an answer to all the questions about a mariner; it in fact adds beauty and pride to a mariner and the maritime world.The director has given maximum justification to its character and the situation by shooting it on the longest oil tanker. Most of the movies involving ships fill the reel with graphics to entertain the viewers, but DAM999 left the shore of Fujairah to give the viewers a chance to experience it for real.

 

Navarasa is another concept used in DAM 999. Navarasa is the essence of Dam 999. It is the idea steering its story and the nine lead characters in it. Dam 999 brings into play the long standing concept of Navarasa but in a way that is exceptionally original. The individuality of the characters is the element that each character is the personification of one rasa. Their nature, the intensity of their reactions, their strengths, their failings – all guided by the rasa they represent, which in turn shape the story of Dam 999. This very factor makes the movie the only one of its kind ever made.

The title in itself gives the hint that the movie is about dam. The movie in fact is a tribute to the victims of dam disaster. The story was inspired by the Banqiao dam disaster which took the lives of over 2, 50,000 people. The movie throws light on the consequences of the disaster caused by an outdated dam. There are over 2, 00,000 dams around the world, of which over 4,000 dams have past their useful lifespan. Despite of been warned about the disaster caused these outdated dams, they are not checked and reconstructed due to many political manipulations.
 

The cast and crew of DAM999 include technicians and actors from both Hollywood and Indian Cinema working on it. DAM 999 has Eric Sherman and Rob Tobin. The Indian crew consists of quite a few critically acclaimed names like Ajayan Vincent, Suresh Pai, Padmasree Thotta Tharani, Ousepachan, K S Chithra, P Jayachandran, Shajith Koyeri, Pattanam Rasheed and S. B. Satheesh. A line-up of veteran actors like Ashish Vidyarthi, Rajith Kapur, Gary Richardson along with multi-faceted actors like Vinay Rai, Vimala Raman, Megha Burman, Josua Fredric Smith, Jaala Pickering, Linda Arsenio and Jineet Rath form the cast of DAM 999.
 

All is said to be fair in love and war, but what happens when love enters politics? Mallika Sherawat’s new film, Love, Barack, explores the politics of being in love on opposite sides of the campaign trail.

Starring Sherawat, a Bollywood superstar, Loretta Devine (Dreamgirls, Crash), legendary Oscar nominee Ruby Dee, Brian White (Stomp the Yard, Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad...) and Gerry Bednob (40 Yr Old Virgin), the film revolves around 2008’s presidential election.

Synopsis: Politics makes strange bedfellows, but never stranger than when, a month before the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, Kyle Franklin, a sexy, savvy, African American conservative falls for his Democrat counterpart, Aretha Gupta, a beautiful, idealistic local Obama volunteer coordinator. Sparks fly, tempers flares, heads turn, and romance blossoms for this mismatched pair of campaigners in the frantic and intoxicating days leading up to Election Day. Can the politics of love conquer all?

Mallika says she chose the film because "the script was excellent" and she "wanted to do an American-style romantic comedy that broke boundaries" and "because of all the talented people who were working on the film". She also thought it was "great, that an American movie never had a male lead role as a black Republican before."

The trailer for Love, Barack is out now.


ArtCreative Design and Custom coding

 

'HELP' is a supernatural horror that draws upon the story of a malevolent spirit that refuses to leave the human world. Protagonist Vic (Bobby Deol) is a successful horror film director in Bollywood and is married to Pia (Mugdha Godse). Pia and Vic are having marital problems and in the midst of their troubled marriage, they have to rush Mauritius to visit Pia's ailing father. Little do they know that there's something ancient and dark that remains still, hidden and silent in the old house where Pia grew up. It can only wait, having been concealed in the shadows for years and all it wants to do is to strike again! As the darkness spreads, things start to get worse and the spirit tries to annihilate everything. Now Vic and Pia must race against time to find out the secret which will save their lives. Will their love gather the strength to survive the malevolent spirit or will they witness the most horrifying truths of their lives in a doomed attempt to save everything and everyone that means anything to the both of them.

Khatpanalaya Production, in association with Bagavan Productions, is pleased to announce that the indie drama, 1999, has been officially selected for screening at the 10th Annual ReelWorld Film Festival to be held on April 7 – 11, 2010 in Toronto, Canada.

Inspired by real-life events, independent Canadian filmmaker Lenin M. Sivam's captivating first feature is a sinuously provocative, edge-of-your-seat story of friendship, betrayal and courage. The film will be screened on Friday, April 9 at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 11 at 2:30 p.m. at Canada Square Cinemas on 2190 Yonge St. (at Eglinton Ave. West).

A fatal gang shooting on a quiet suburban street sets into motion a chain of events over the course of a single day in 1999 that changes the lives of three young men forever. Anpu is an intelligent but isolated underachiever whose strained relationship with his strict disciplinarian father forces him to seek out respect and a sense of belonging in all the wrong places. Kumar is a charismatic gang leader desperate to break free from the cycle of violence and code of honour that hold his crew together for the sake of his brash, younger brother. Far removed from this world is the ambitious university student Ahilan who, having overcome enormous hardship, is on the cusp of realizing his biggest dreams. Bearing the unseen scars of Sri Lanka’s devastating civil war, their worlds collide one fateful Saturday that begins like any other day.

Based on extensive research including interviews with youth workers and reformed gang members, 1999 offers a rare insider’s perspective on the wave of gang violence that shook the Tamil community in Toronto in the 1990s. A sensitive yet honest portrayal, the movie delves into the myriad of challenges facing immigrant Tamil youth as they negotiate a new hyphenated reality in Canada while fighting the bitter memories of Sri Lanka’s brutal war from which many of them escaped. A fast-paced story featuring an all-Toronto cast and crew and shot entirely in the city, the film is a seamlessly interwoven montage of sounds and images of the immigrant experience as seen through the eyes of the main characters.

1999 marks the full feature directorial debut of Lenin M. Sivam.

"My team and I are deeply honoured by the invitation to share this story at ReelWorld," said Sivam. "This film is a labour of love that was written, directed and produced on a shoe-string budget with an entirely volunteer ensemble of cast and crew who were passionate about telling a story that they wanted to add to the collective memory of our city .”

Sivam was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and raised in Toronto where many of his own experiences provide inspiration for his work. He has a number of short films to his credit, including the award-winning A Few Good People (2006), the critically acclaimed Strength (2007), and the thriller Next Door (2008).

1999 has garnered critical acclaim since its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2009, where it was selected as one of the festival’s “Top 10 Canadian Films”. It also won the “Best Film Award (Midnight Sun)” at the Oslo Tamil Film Festival 2010 and is now an “Official Selection” of the ReelWorld Film Festival 2010.

Founded by actor Tonya Lee Williams, ReelWorld Film Festival is a five-day festival that screens features, shorts, documentaries, animation, music videos from the Aboriginal, Asian, Black, Latino, Middle Eastern, South Asian and other multi-racial communities. This unique Canadian based film festival truly reflects the racially diverse cultures of the world around us.