'Jai Maharashtra', says SRK's wife after My Name Is Khan release

Source

Mumbai: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's wife Gauri, who is also the co-producer of My Name Is Khan, today said that the film has released all over Maharashtra.

Gauri, who visited the Inox multiplex in South Mumbai with her daughter Suhana told reporters that she was overwhelmed by the response from the audiences.

"What is the better way than saying 'Jai Maharashtra'. We love Mumbai and Shah Rukh is really excited and will be coming to the cinemas tomorrow to meet his fans" she told reporters here.
Gauri also said that Shah Rukh who is in Berlin for the premiere of the film, was excited that My Name Is Khan released smoothly.

She also visited another theatre Metro cinema in South Mumbai and interacted with the audience.
Gauri was quick to put down speculation that the good response received by the film was due to the controversy generated on the eve of its release.

"People have liked the movie not because of the controversy. Karan (Johar) and his team worked hard. The film was in the making for three years. Their efforts have paid off," she added.
Mumbai Joint CP (law and order) Himanshu Roy said that till last night, 40 theatres in the city had begun screening the film.

The release of the film was opposed by Shiv Sena following Shah Rukh's comments favouring the inclusion of Pakistani players in IPL 3.


Source

Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan's wife Gauri defied the Shiv Sena threat and stepped out to see Bollywood superstar's film My Name Is Khan at a local theatre on the opening day of its release.

Braving the threats: Gauri Khan outside Fun Republic on Friday

---

Gauri, 39, who broke her silence in the tense Shah Rukh-Shiv Sena stand-off, said her husband is "very happy" with theinitial response to the film after remaining "sad" yesterday following the controversy over the release of the eagerly awaited picture. A co-producer of the film herself, Gauri urged cinegoers to catch up with the movie saying it is a "beautiful" picture. "He (Shah Rukh) was very very sad yesterday but today he is very happy that everybody in Mumbai and all over India has come to watch his film. Karan (Johar) is with him by his side, supporting him. We are very happy," Gauri said. Karan Johar is the director of the film. "It is a beautiful film and everybody should watch it. At times like these, peace is the most important thing," she added.

Watch Tumbledown or you'll regret it for the rest of yer life.. if you're a Colin Firth fan

I put the link to the uploaded movie in this post.

I also found an old article done around the time the drama-movie was released and it has some of Colin's quotes. There was a picture of him and Robert Lawrence in it. I have to say that the real Robert was quite a cutie. I looked up the Falklands War in wiki afterwards to know what's it about. It's really horrifying to find that Robert Lawrence was just one of the these hundreds of people injured (not to mention, dead) soldiers in battle, but that's the fact of a war anywhere.

I always have a feeling that a war is actually fought in meeting rooms, instead of in the field. Public duties, indeed. Once mobilized, soldiers become just some statistics to be studied... instead of life, breathing humans. And all those magnificent weapons the scientists created, they have to be tested somewhere, don't they? I mean, what would atomic bombs be in history if they had not been dropped on Japan? Just a lot of numbers that didn't make sense in research notes, that's what they'd be. After they'd been deployed... the scientists got their data, the war generals got their glory, and the public got a public service advertisements on the dangers of nuclear weapons. Why are we the ones getting warned off? We're not the ones holding the keys to the armory.


Link to article

"Tumbledown caused a fantastic controversy in Britain, said Colin Firth, who stars as the arrogant guardsman humbled by his experience. The cream of British reactionism came out in force before Tumbledown aired, demanding the film's incineration, repeating every slur you can think of. The Left didn't like it either. There were front-page headlines for months. Then it went on the air and there was another three months of headlines. It was fun to be in the middle of it."

[The film]" is about the creation of a chocolate soldier, a man made to impress tourists outside Buckingham Palace, who turns into a psychotic beast during wartime, as any man must if he doesn't run away. It's not about the suffering war victim; it's about a man who was the perpetrator of his own misfortune. He comes back furious and inglorious, minus 43 percent of his brain, dribbling and incontinent. Instead of being lauded he's relegated to the back of the church during the memorial service, finally given a medal and told to shut up". [Chicago Tribune, May 1990]

Tumbledown, Colin says, changed his career. "Before that I was beginning to slip into a lot of callow youths. If I've got a rather neutral face, it doesn't make much sense to put me in rather neutral roles." [NY Times, January 1996]

"I've never been any good in anything badly written" says Firth, who is known to be highly self-critical, even of acclaimed performances like his portrayal of wounded Falklands soldier Robert Lawrence the award-winning television drama Tumbledown. Indeed, Firth is remarkable for having played three celebrated living characters [hostage John McCarthy, Lawrence and Hornby.]

"Being honest, I didn't think too much of my performance at the time, although a few years have passed now. You know, its that sort of part. He gets paralysed here, he stabs someone there, he cries here. It's straight drama school fare. Robert is a far more nebulous character than that. He's not reliant on his looks or his charisma; when you meet him you realise here's a man who's cracked by his own imagination.

The thing that shocked me most about Tumbledown was I'd got so close to Robert. Here was a guy who was at my side through the whole shoot. And I thought: I'm really like him. I was imagining being him, and then when the thing came out and all those familiar facial gestures appeared, I was physically ill with disappointment. It took years to appreciate what I'd done. It's just an actor and his vanity..." [Time Out, March 1997]



Firth still feels strongly about that role: "It's rather difficult to be objective about it as a drama. I got to know Robert Lawrence very closely and it was a very strange relationship because he's not someone I think I would have become friends with under normal circumstances. Seeing it, all I could think of was 'is that all, is that all that's made it onto the screen?' After what I learnt, what I went through, what we all went through - it's just a film, that's all it is."

Talking about the film, reminds Firth about another subject he's got definite view about scriptwriters: "Tumbledown was the most exciting film script to work on that I've ever had, and Charles Wood is the most underrated screenwriter possibly in the world! It's funny, you know, in the theater you can talk about going to 'a Pinter play', but you'd never talk about 'a Wood script'. And I think that the writer 's position in terms of recognition in this business is just appalling. We're nowhere without them. I've thought of Charles ever since I did Tumbledown. Nothing else has been interesting in the same way." [Film & Filming, Sept. 1989]

Fed up with windbag actors advocating for the poor and needy? Me too. But shutting up is worse

Source: Like it or not, I'm involved

Colin Firth guardian.co.uk, Sunday 5 July 2009 23.00 BST Article history

Why do you have to hear it from an actor? I have a profound dislike of activism. I don't enjoy hearing dispatches from the crisis zone delivered by actors and rock stars. I get no joy from fundraising events, op-eds, posters, speeches, slogans. I'm tired of it. And I'm tired of the crisis in Africa.

If your profession gives you a public voice, you have a new relationship with those who don't. Your voice becomes a cherished commodity. Not for its merits but for its sheer volume. You may have nothing to say, but those who do – the wise, the desperate and the better informed – all clamour to make use of your media connection.

We are not in a position to choose whether or not we have a relationship with our own society or with the world's poorest people. We can choose the nature of those relationships, but either way they're there. We're business partners. If we choose to ignore them we are simply choosing to make that relationship a negligent and destructive one. As voters and consumers we are directly complicit in the misery of the millions we do business with. If we let our governments and businesses think we are indifferent to their cynicism they will go on practising it on licence from us and every cup of coffee we drink and every piece of cotton we wear will continue to be an act of cruelty.

We are involved with Africa, whether we like it or not. Of course, I'm aware of famine, drought, poverty and corruption, but I also see the statesmanship of Mandela, Joaquim Chissano, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf … the works of Achebe, Okri, Soyinka … the music of Fela Kuti, Cheikh Lo and Angelique Kidjo.

My own children will inherit all this together with the children of that continent. Within 15 years they'll be trading or fighting with each other, exchanging diplomacy or whatever other relationship we might have set in motion. They will also share the triple crisis of a global economic slump, high food prices and climate change – all of which will be addressed (or not) by this year's G8 in Italy.

Italy is another relationship I can't wish away. My wife and children are Italian. I am completely in love with that country for better or worse. I was decorated by the Italian ambassador as an exhortation to promote Italy's image abroad; an easy task when it comes to food, wine, architecture, etc … but one which will be made almost impossible if Silvio Berlusconi does not improve his lamentable record on aid. For this reason Oxfam issued me with call-up papers once again. I've held the giddy title of global ambassador for Oxfam for a number of years now.

So, with an all too familiar sinking feeling, the ambassador agreed to go to Italy to try to do something to persuade the G8 leaders to deliver on their aid promises and prevent the overwhelming number of preventable deaths taking place daily on their doorstep. No problem.

It's tempting to look for ways back to a decorous silence. To try to return to a pleasing and well-
argued belief that actors should shut up. But you can't unknow what you know. NGOs have a way of inviting you to be a firsthand witness. And once you've seen what a well-placed or well-timed word (by anybody) can do, shutting up starts to require some painful mental contortions.

I had dinner with Bob Geldof a couple of weeks ago. I explained that I felt I had to be judicious about when and when not to speak out, that I wanted to hold fire and keep under the radar so as not to blow all credibility. He said, "Fuck that, you've got to just go!"

If everyone did that, we could finally do away with long-winded actors.