ChinmayC Blog

First, of course, let’s talk about the cricket star born last night in the match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, the 56 th match of IPL-2023. His name is Yashasvi Jaiswal who raced to the quickest ever fifty in IPL history taking just 13 balls and then going on to remain unbeaten at 98 off 47 balls to help his team RR win in style. Aged only 22, the southpaw opening batsman Jaiswal has humble origins—from a poor family in Uttar Pradesh—coming to Mumbai to train in cricket at the age of just ten and then struggling there for years, with no place of stay and doing gigs in dairies and paani puri shops. To make this cricketing dream come true he then started living in a tent with the cricket grounds men till he was noticed by a Mumbai training academy for his talent. He has several feats in first class cricket as the youngest player ever, playing for Mumbai in domestic cricket and he started his IPL stint from the year ...

Another golden chapter of Hindi cinema has drawn to a close. Dilip Kumar, the legendary hero of the classical era traversing over six glorious decades of providing top-class entertainment to millions of fans the world over, has passed away at a Mumbai hospital today morning. He was admitted in the ICU on 30 th  June due to a prolonged illness, and in fact, for the last more than a month he had been in and out of hospital with constant prayers from his loving wife Saira Banu, one of the most popular heroines of the classical era, family, friends and millions of fans for his recovery. However, finally the doyen of Hindi cinema bowed down to destiny and the will of God, calling it a day at the ripe age of 98, two years short of what could have been the most memorable occasions of Indian film industry.  Dilip Kumar has always been a tremendous fighter, both in his films and in his great variety of roles as well as in personal life fighting serious health issues for several years....

It is not for nothing that Chennai Express has broken all records in Bollywood history and Rohit Shetty has become the most successful director ever of Indian Cinema. Shahrukh Khan’s Chennai Express has crossed Rs.202 crore (2020 million rupees) mark beating the four-year-old record set by Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots . Rohit Shetty has already given three Rs.100 crore club movies namely, Singham , Golmaal3 and Bol Bachchan , and this unique feat has never been achieved by any other Indian film director.   Chennai Express in its third week run has achieved this with loving audiences all over and overcoming quite a few bad reviews. The reasons are not far to seek. You are pleasantly reminded of the Shahrukh Khan of yesteryear when he was superlative in comedy scenes for his immaculate timing, for his sprightful elegance and for his typical gesticulations plus monosyllables. All these qualities of the Bollywood superstar have come back in Chennai Express to regale you yet again and yo...

Shahrukh Khan, the Bollywood superstar, who was recently banned for five years from entering Mumbai's Wankhede stadium during an IPL match then enjoyed the support of Mamata Bannerji, the Chief Minister of West Bengal. Because, Mamata considered KKR, co-owned by Shahrukh, as a matter of pride for her state. And today, Mamata 'right'fully sought to overpower what is left of the 'left' by dancing with the stars and, of course, with Shahrukh amidst pomp and plenty. KKR became the deserving Champions of IPL-5 preventing CSK from running with the title for the third time in succession. The nail biting IPL-5 final was played in Chennai and King Khan was very much there tense most of the time. Finally, when the great moment of victory came he was so overwhelmed with joy that he apologised for his 'misbehaviour' in Mumbai! His 'stakes' with the Indian cricket Board now combined with his 'apology' would virtually force Mumbai Cricket Association (MC...

The murky affairs of the Indian Premiere League-Season Five (IPL-5) Cricket T20 continue abated. Today the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) held a managing committee meeting in Mumbai and unanimously adopted the proposal of banning Bollywood megastar and Co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) IPL franchise, Shahrukh Khan (SRK or King Khan), for five years from entering the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai where the movie-star allegedly misbehaved with MCA officials and security personnel. The meeting was chaired by the president of MCA, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is also a cabinet minister in the Government of India.  The MCA maintained that theirs is an independent body and is empowered to take binding decisions on matters directly relating to them. But as the apex body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is also empowered to take the final decision in this matter and the expected tussle within the cricket bodies is awaited with tremendous anticipation. Apart from ...

As the heat and humidity increase the cricket T20 Indian Premiere League-Season Five (IPL-5) is increasingly getting most of the heat from reasons other than nature. It has already earned the distinction of having the most number of nail-biting matches of all IPLs including a record ten last-ball finishes so far. On the flip side there is the spot fixing menace unearthed by a television channel sting operation recently. Now, Hindi movie mega star Shahrukh King Khan adds to it by one more display of alleged rowdy behavior. It was a crucial match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at the latter’s ‘home’ ground, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai—the venue of the World Cup-2011 final. Shahrukh Khan, the co-owner of KKR, had been very much visible in the crowd waving to the galleries with television cameras catching him every now and then in between the ‘cricket’ action. King Khan, known for his exemplary ‘love’ for cricket , always made it a point to attend matches wh...

Mumbai continues to chill this season. Two days back it was at 10 degree Celsius, lowest of the decade. Met office predicts Mumbai winter to continue throughout February. Great times for Mumbaikars- -getting used to their woolens and warm suits. Plus having the luxury of bonfires. But, as we have said earlier here, some monumental challengers still refuse to admit the chill and go on defying it with their usual casual wear and the ceiling fan   syndrome.  And some hot news from Bollywood. Shahrukh Khan or King Khan reportedly slapped the husband of his best friend for nearly twenty years, Farah Khan. Farah had been a choreographer of Bollywood guiding Shahrukh to dance since the early nineties. Their bond became more closer when Farah was given a break as a director of the King Khan movie 'Main Hu Na' in 2004 and then one more movie in 2007. Both of the movies did quite well in the box office and so Farah wanted to launch her own pr...

Ra.One —Shahrukh Khan’s most ambitious project called a vision written and directed by Anubhav Sinha, the most expensive Hindi movie ever (a budget of over US $30 million), the first Hindi movie at par with Hollywood special effects blockbusters, the first Hindi movie to release in over 4000 screens globally, the first Hindi movie to create all-time overseas box office collection records and top grosser in weekend collections—released on the Diwali day (October 26, Wednesday) all over. It lost out to Salman Khan’s Bodyguard in first day collection, but went on to overcome on the second day and the five-day weekend collections.  But after the weekend the movie’s box office collections started to fall drastically and the trend continued with shows heavily cut down in the second week. The fall continued in the second weekend and the third weekend is tough competition due to the release of  the Ranbir Kapoor starred Rockstar. Ra.One is still far behind all recent blockbusters of...

Amitabh Bachchan, the host of the current version of Kaun Banega Crorepati , invited Shahrukh King Khan for a special show yesterday, the 20th of October, 2011. Running for nearly two hours the show had everything the great Twosome was capable of delivering, acting, enacting and just talking.  Basically King Khan came to the show as a publicity stunt for his forthcoming science fiction movie Ra..0ne (meaning Random Access-Version 1.0). But once on the hot seat one has to play. And, Shahrukh played on with his customary wit and presence of mind matched equally point to point by Big B and won 5 million rupees for charity. The invited audience had a treat of lifetime seeing two huge favorites playing it out right before them.  They taunted each other, made jibes at each other and also exchanged seats for brief while. Shahrukh even walked up to Big B and massaged his back trying to catch a view of the host's monitor screen while telling how the massage eases up tension to play the...

Shahrukh Khan, the superstar of Bollywood. A huge success. And he buys a cricket team. Performance in the first IPL was so and so. But IPL-2 is super duper flop. Kolkata Knight Riders have lost 7 of the 9 games played and is languishing at the bottom of the table. What went wrong? Well it was a leadership crisis. If you did not have faith in Saurav Ganguly you should have just dropped him or put him out of captaincy. But you tried to introduce the concept of multiple captains which meant you had no faith in anyone. Leader has to be one who can lead a team of 11 members and who can inspire them to perform above par. And you dared to criticize Gavaskar, the living legend of Indian cricket. A cricket team can be bought thanks to BCCI, but what is finally played in the field has to be and is cricket. That cricket you cannot buy and manipulate. Despite having terrific players KKR is crying hoarse for a leader. They are just not inspired. They are dropping simple catches regularly and are lo...