Star Sparkle Blog

Last summer I wrote a post sharing some videos from Bollywood actor and film producer John Abraham's films. You can see it here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2024/07/john-abraham-videos.html I had planned to do a follow-up post because I'd only featured his movies up to 2013. So here it is, although not "soon-ish" as I intended!" lol .   Nas Nas Mein from Welcome Back   In 2015 John starred in crime comedy Welcome Back , alongside Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar as criminals gone straight Uday Shetty and Sagar (Majnu) Pandey. He plays Ajay (Ajju) Ghungroo, a "goonda" (local goon), who falls in love with Ranjana ( Shruti Haasan ), the half sister of Uday. The video for Nas Nas Mein features John and Shruti. The playback singers are sibling music duo Meet Bros Anjaan featuring Shabab Sabri and Rani Hazarika . There's also a rap by Deane Sequiera .      Rehnuma from Rocky Handsome Note: May contain a slight spoiler. The following year, John play...

Halloween (or Hallowe'en, the alternative spelling which I like) is coming up again, so it's time for my yearly post! It's next Thursday (31st October). I also celebrate the pagan festival Samhain on the same day.  In 2022 and 2023 I wrote posts called Selection of Hallowe'en Treats! and More Hallowe'en Treats! , where I shared a variety of past posts and videos related to scary subjects (plus a couple of new videos). This year I thought I would do a post in a similar vein (no pun intended!), featuring music and TV that fits the spooky theme. They are listed by genre. :) Music/Film John Lindahl's CULT CLASSIQUE Last year American singer John Lindahl released John Lindahl's CULT CLASSIQUE, his first independent album and third overall. It's a concept album accompanied by a film/miniseries, which tells the story of serial killer JOHNNY (another, darker side of John). The character is inspired by those from classic horror movies and the project is a ho...

It's spooky season (the lead-up to Hallowe'en), so this week's video fits the theme! It's Taras from the recent Bollywood film Munjya (released in June).  It's a horror comedy about a young man called Bittal (played by Abhay Verma ) who goes to his native village. While there he uncovers a family secret and also comes across the Munyja, a vengeful spirit who wants to get married! The spirit's plan involves Bittal's childhood friend Bela ( Sharvari ), who he is secretly in love with. Bittal must do what he can to stop the Munjya. The film is inspired by Indian folkore and the legend of the Munjya . It's part of the Maddock Supernatural Universe series of movies, which also consists of Stree (2018), Bhediya (2022) and most recently Stree 2 (the Stree sequel which was released in August). Out of those films I've seen Stree so far, which I quite liked.  The Taras video features Sharvari. The playback singers are American singer Jasmine Sandlas...

In the past I've written a few posts featuring Bollywood stars, including Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi . Today I'm sharing some videos from the films of actor John Abraham . I've actually had this post in mind since early last year, I think but hadn't got round to it! John is from Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and  has a mixed family background- his dad is a Malayali Syrian Christian and his mum is a Parsi or Irani Zorastrian.*  He started out in showbiz as a model, after wining the Gladrags Manhunt Contest in 1999 and then coming second in Manhunt International. In 2003, John made his acting debut, starring in erotic thriller Jism , alongside Bipasha Basu .  The stars went on to date for several years and were known as a "supercouple". John's big break came in 2004, when he starred as Kabir, the main villain in the action thriller film Dhoom (the first film in the series ). Since then he has acted in many movies and has become known as an...

Today's video is Manike from the upcoming Bollywood film Thank God . The movie is a fantasy comedy and is about estate agent Aayan Kapoor ( Sidharth Malhotra ) who has a car accident and is transported to an in-between realm, where he meets the Hindi deity Chitragupta (played by veteran actor Ajay Devgn ).  Aayan is told by Chitragupta (who is tasked with keeping score of human beings' sins) that he has to play the "Game of Life" which will determine if he will go back to earth or be sent to hell. All his actions to date will now be evaluated. I hope I have got this right; I'm not Hindu so I hadn't heard of Chitragupta but the concept of sins and an in-between place like purgatory is similar to the ones in Christianity. The plot does actually sound similar to a Western film :)  Thank God is due for release on 25th October, a day after the Hindu, Jain and Sikh festival Diwali starts.  Manike is sung by Sri Lankan singer Yohani and Indian singers Jubin Nautiy...

Today's video is Bansuri from the new Bollywood film Hum Do Hamare Do . It's a comedy about entrepreneur Dhruv (played by Rajkummar Rao ) and social media star Anya ( Kriti Sanon ), who fall in love. Kriti tells Dhruv she only wants to marry a man who has a sweet family and a cute dog. There's one catch- Dhruv is an orphan. He sets out to find some "parents" to make a fake family, enabling him to marry the girl of his dreams! The movie premiered on Disney Hotstar on 29th October, just before Diwali . I've not seen it, but it looks funny. Bansuri was composed by duo Sachin-Jigar and the playback singers are Asees Kaur , IP Singh , Dev Negi and Madhubanti Bagchi . Asees and Dev also sang the new version of Deedar De , from last year's Chhalaang. The video was released on 15th October.      Find the lyrics with an English translation here:  https://lyricsraag.com/translation/bansuri-hum-do-hamare-do-kriti-sanon/ And watch the trailer here (English subtitl...

This week's video is Deedar De from the 2020 Bollywood film Chhalaang . The movie is a a comedy and stars Rajkummar Rao as Mahinder nicknamed Montu, a physical training instructor/PE teacher at a school who is uninspired by his job. When he meets new computer teacher Neelam aka Neelu ( Nushrat Bharucha ), he falls in love with her and things starts to get complicated. Chhalaang (Leap in English) was released last November during Diwali . Deedar De is a remake of the original song from the 2005 film Dus , sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Krishna Beura . I like the original and thought it sounded familar when I heard it! The playback singers for the new version are Asees Kaur and Dev Negi .  Watch the video for the original Deedar De here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zF-yRUdEA0   Want more Bollywood? Check out these posts: More from Rajkummar Rao: Music video for Kamariya from  Stree:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/09/weekly-music-video_5.html The Naari Na...

This week's video is Nadiyon Paar (Let the Music Play/Play Again) from the new Bollywood film Roohi . It stars Rajkummar Rao , Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Sharma , and is a comedy horror film about two men who get more than they bargain for after abducting a girl for marriage who is possessed by a ghost!  Roohi was released on 11th March. Nadiyon Paar is a dance song. The playback singers /music producers are Shamur , Rashmeet Kaur , IP Singh and music composer duo Sachin-Jigar . It's a new version of Shamur's 2008 song Let The Music Play. The video stars Janhvi. Watch the video for the original Let The Music Play here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GZJacBo5YU   Bollywood fan? Check out these posts:  Bollywood Round-up 2019-2020: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2020/10/bollywood-round-up-2019-2020.html Bollywood Playback Singers- Shreya Ghoshal:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2021/03/bollywood-playback-singers-shreya.html

It's almost Halloween! (Or Hallowe'en; since the name comes from All Hallow's Even , "Hallowe'en" is an alternative way of spelling it).  It's  tomorrow (Saturday 31st October) and so it's time for the yearly themed post. :) Back in 2016 I wrote a post called Hallowe'en Faves + Round-up, which was about my favourite Hallowe'en/scary things and also a round-up of previous spooky themed posts on them both (Hallowe'en and scary subjects in general). Check it out here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/10/halloween-faves-round-up.html For 2020 I'm doing another round-up of newer posts, plus featuring some new things. :)   First up here are the posts from 2017 onwards: More Hallowe'en Films + TV (2017): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/10/more-halloween-films.html Features Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark + It: Chapter Two (not a Hallowe'en post): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2019/08/upcoming-horror-films-scary-stor...

A while ago I had an idea to start a series featuring Bollywood playback singers. It's taken me a bit to get round to it, but here's the first one! :) A playback singer is someone who records the music for films. In Bollywood, which is the Hindi language Indian movie industry, most actors don't sing (although some do) so singers provide the vocals for them in the films. Some of the most well-known Bollywood playback singers are sisters Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle , Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik , Himesh Reshammiya , Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal. In this post I'm featuring Sunidhi Chauhan . Sunidhi is from Delhi and began performing at local gatherings at a young age. She made her first start in the Bollywood music business aged around 12, when she was a co-vocalist on the song Ladki Deewani Ladki Deewana (something like "Girl Crazy, Boy Crazy" in English)  from the 1996 film Shashta. The other singers were father and son Udit and Aditya Narayan. She...

Two years ago I did a Christmas round-up post of Christmas themed posts on the blog, plus some  of my festive favourites. You can read that here: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2016/12/christmas-round-up.html This year I'm doing a follow-up post for Christmas 2018. Post contains spoilers. :) First up here are my Christmas posts from the last two years: Lindsey Stirling's Carol of the Bells:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/weekly-music-video_13.html K-pop Christmas! (no Christmas songs apart from TWICE's release, but just some K-pop songs for the holidays):  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/k-pop-christmas.html   Christmas Music and Films: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2017/12/christmas-music-and-films.html Christmas Music:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-music.html Hello! WM- Timing video (K-pop): https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2018/12/weekly-musi-video.html Now here's some more Christmas e...

Sorry the post is later this week; I intended to post yesterday but went to a belly dance event and didn't have time. :) I'm currently working on a Music Index page where you can find posts on Star Sparkle from different music genres. I had the idea a while ago and I decided to go ahead and do it, especially since I changed the blog to a different design/theme   there aren't any tags at the top anymore.The page isn't ready yet but I thought today I'd do a round-up of television related posts. (There aren't as many posts so I'm doing this rather than a page). So here we go. :) Dance shows Dance Moms: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/03/dance-moms.html Dance Moms/Raising Asia: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/09/dance-moms-asia.html Dance Mums UK: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2015/11/dance-mums-with-jennifer-ellison.html Bring It!:  https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/08/dance-videos.html Step It Up: https://starsparklex...