http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 840728.cms

'Sholay' stars in Manhattan masti

NEW YORK: Hindi movie buffs in Manhattan are in for a real treat as the three day Bollywood festival, which begins on Tuesday will showcase some of the all time favourites of Indian cinema on a gigantic IMAX screen at the Loews Lincoln Square theatre.

According to the New York Post , the Movie bonanza will begin with the screening of the 1975 legendary movie Sholay . Shahrukh Khan's mushy romance drama Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge and classics like Mother India and Chalti ka Naam Gaadi will be the highlights of the second day.

"They depict all the human emotions love, passion, revenge, humour, courage, determination," Abhijeet Sarkar, spokesman for Sahara India Pariwar, which is funding the festival, was quoted as saying.

The festival will close with the screening of the classical epic Mughal-e-Azam and Aamir Khan's Lagaan .

"There's a lot of history attached to these films, a lot of nostalgia." They're all classics," Sarkar added.

I attended the premiere of this fest. We were all stuck outside behind the red rope as security guards spotted people from the crowd that they allowed in. Once we arrived on the top floor, I spotted a DJ spinning Indian trip-hop while bartenders served soda and alcohol in glasses. Before the film started, we had to endure a promotional video for the company that sponsored this fest, Sahara India Pawar, feat. big stars like Amitabh, Shahrukh, and Salman, doing poorly choreographed routines and singing praises to the company. Then we watched for 40 min. as various executives spoke about the importance of Sahara. The cool thing was to see Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta, who both made short speeches and stood there looking completely confused. All this was shown on the big IMAX screen which must've made it more embarassing. To add insult to injury, the print of Sholay that they ended up screening had no subtitles. The point of the fest I thought was to get a crossover audience in there but they totally failed. I ended up leaving since I had a copy at home and couldn't read Hindi b/c I'm not Indian. It's just too bad b/c this looks like the restored print being screened. It still had some negative dirt and splices with a slightly distorted stereo soundtrack, but must be cleaner than any of the DVD versions. There's gotta be another Zulmi who attended and could give a better account of the print.