Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film “Saawariya” opened the five-day South Asian film festival in New York yesterday (8th november). The Film Festival, organised by the Indo-American Arts Council offered a warm welcome to the actors and directors. Some of the notable actors include Mira Nair, Milind Soman and Konkona Sen Sharma. This film festival is claimed to be one of the biggest film festivals of South Asia films outside India. The event is scheduled to showcase over 50 Independent and diaspora films in its five days.

On the closing night of the festival the awards for best film, best director, best actor and actress will be announced. The films that are nominated for the best film category include “Valley of Flowers” directed by Pan Nalin, “Via Darjeeling” directed by Arindam Nandy and “Manorama Six Feet Under” by Navdeep Singh. Rituparno Ghosh for “Dosar” and Buddhadeb Dasgupta for “The Voyeurs” are the nominees for best director.

Milind Soman for “Valley of Flowers”, Kay Kay for “Via Darjeeling” and Danny Denzongpa for “Frozen” are the nominees for best actors. Best actress nominees include Konkona Sen Sharma for “Dosar” and Raima Sen for “Manorama Six Feet Under.” Directors Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Das Gupta and authors Salman Rushdie and Shashi Tharoor are among the ones that are expected to attend the closing night ceremony.

Sonam Kapoor has been offered the female lead in “Rang De Basanthi” fame Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra‘s new film opposite Abhishek Bachchan. The new actress has made her debut with the film “Saawariya” in the direction of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, one of the finest directors of Bollywood film industry. And now she has got an opportunity to work in the direction of Mr. Mehra, who shot to fame with the tremendous success of “Rang De Basanthi“. The film is probably going to be titled Delhi 6 or Dilli 6. She seems to be very lucky to have got this film opposite Abhishek even before the release of her debut film “Saawariya.”

According to sources Sonam has been offered a handsome amount for the movie. She gave her consent immeadiately after the movie was narrated to her in the presence of her father Anil Kapoor. The male lead was initially offered to Hrithik Roshan but when he rejected the film, the director took his time to consider Akshay Kumar, Siddharth, Ranbir Kapoor and finally settled with Abhishek. Can the director show his magic again and turn this film another huge hit just like his first movie?

“Om Shanti Om” is a movie that deals with a story of 1970′s Bollywood with some reincarnation (punar-janam) touch. The two lead roles are “Om” played by Shah Rukh Khan and “Shanti” played by Deepika Padukone. Om is a junior artist in Bollywood in the 70s, while Shanti is a superstar in the industry. Om adores Shanthi, in love with her, is a big fan of her. Om dreams of becoming a superstar but unfortunately he dies in a mishap. Later, he is reborn into the present time. He tries to discover the mystery of his past life. At this stage you might think of it as a rehashed version of Subhash Ghai‘s “Karz“, BUT IT’S NOT. Although some of the scenes of this film reminds you of the same of some old movies, this movie gives you a new feel with its “1970s Bollywood” look. This film has some traces of Kudrat, Karz, Karan Arjun.. though.

Om Shanti Om has got some twists which take you by complete surprise at some points. At some points people might get confused with the twists of this film, especially when Shanti (Deepika) re-emerges. All in all “Om Shanti Om” is a good entertainer. The performances of the lead actors Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Rampal(who played a negative role), Deepika Padukone, Shreyas Talpade are superb. Vishal-Sekhar‘s music is first-rate. This film may not create new records but this would secure a place in one of the hit movies of the year. But as always it would take one to two weeks to get the verdict of Bollywood audience.