Celina Jaitley As Brand Ambassadress of Egypt

After being made the brand ambassadress of Egypt from India by the Egypt tourism board, Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley took time out from her hectic schedule to make a trip to Cairo. The dynamic metropolis, which is also the largest city in the Middle East, left her impressed.

One of the stops for Celina and her team was Media Production City on the outskirts of Cairo. It’s what Film City is to Mumbai. “They have state-of-the-art studios with best sets which can be used for shoots. I think they are very suitable for our Indian films. A hotel nearby makes it a good option,” said Celina.

The actress and her team then met the minister of tourism, H.E. Mohamed Zoheir Garana, as well as Egyptian Tourism Authority chairman Amr El Ezaby.

His Excellency, The Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr. Mohammed Higazy, said: “We want people to know that Egypt is not just about the Pyramids. We are working strategically on the tourism industry in Egypt.

For its growth, we are offering easy visas, lower ticket rates, various tour packages etc. We hope to double the number of Indian tourists to Egypt by 2009. We are spending half a million US dollars in the next six months to encourage traffic between India and Egypt.”

Celina also met up with a few Egyptian actors, including Dr. Ezzat Abbou-Ouf who is also president of the Cairo International Film Festival. Celina promised them that she would be part of this year’s Cairo International Film Festival, scheduled to be held from November 27 to December 7.

For one, the Egyptian authorities have already found a frequent tourist in Celina. And many more Indians would surely follow.

Movie Review: RED

Stars: Aftab Shivdasani, Celina Jaitley, Amrita Arora, Sushant Singh

Review: She’s a widow, though not the weeping kind. He needs a change of heart, though not in the way you would expect him to.

Aftab Shivdasani, muscles pumped up to the gills, tattoo on forearm and scowl in place, plays a man so out of touch with reality he actually thinks he could woo and bed the widow of the man whose heart has been transplanted into his body.

This is Vikram Bhatt’s rather startling attempt at a noire thriller. Can’t say why it’s called Red unless you’re looking at a man who sees red every time the slinky widow passes by. He grabs her. They cuddle and kiss as the camera caresses the contours of their heaving body in search of erogenous convictions.

Bhatt gets a chance to look into lives that are as star- crossed as they are unable to control their primeval urges. True to its noire genre Red is shot mostly in the rain and in dark interiors lit up with a passion-play that’s largely supported by Himesh Reshammiya’s pounding tracks.

The first - half of this blessedly brief movie moves at a fairly frisky pace. But the nicotined narrative runs out of breath and breadth later on, leaving you looking at a film that’s high on moods but pretty low in terms of credibility.

Sushan Singh as a copy investigating a murder hardly gives the plot the hand-up that he’s expected to. His two buffoon-like deputies seem straight out of Doordarshan detective thriller.

Bhatt aims for a bizarre kind of eroticism where the characters cease to be people and are instead projected as emblems of greed, lust, melancholy and dark machinations that send them swirling into damnation.

There’s just a scattering of characters supporting the lovers at the centre who play a game of hearts and heartlessness with a ruthless ruggedness that makes them as prone to selfdestruction as it makes them impervious to conventional relationships and behaviour.

Tragically the actors fail to rise to the call of the heart’s thundering fall. Aftav Shivdasani takes the fall the hardest. The film is almost a showcase for him to display his variety of emotions. Shivdasani goes through the motions from A to B with nothing more to see.

Celina Jaitley as the fidgety femme fatale seems like a shriller more hyper version of Esha Deol in Bhatt’s last film Ankahee. Poor Amrita Arora is allowed no space in the narrative forever in search of pace and grace. But the slippery world of lust and treachery lets the characters and finally the film down.

What you see is certainly not what you get in this thriller about two people who deserve each other.

We deserve a lot better.

Celina Teaches “The Molester” A Lesson

Celina Jaitely had filed a complaint with Santa Cruz police after a German national, Marcos Fredrick made obscene gestures and passed lewd remarks about her in the lobby of J W Marriott Hotel at Juhu. How dare he did that. *Fuming*

It was only after Marcos Fredrick apologised to model-turned actress in writing she withdrew the complaint. That wasn’t right. She withdrew her complaint too early. Atleast she should let him have some dandas and laddoos in an Indian Jail. Anyways…..

Celina had gone to the pre-release party of her film, Apna Sapna Money, Money late last night at the J W Marriott hotel in suburban Santacruz when the incident happened, the sources added.

“It took me about half-an-hour to make a decision. In fact, I spoke to my father who told me I should take a stand against any kind of harassment. I will not take any injustice lying down. Besides, I also want to set an example for the others. I don’t care a damn about what people think and say about me.” told Celina.

Way to go Celina. You surely set a good example for others. Just don’t ignore them. Teach them a lesson. Well done!