Jubilee series

We all have to agree that Vikramaditya Motwane is a genius, and with his latest series, “Jubilee,” he proves the command he has over the craft and how efficiently he can transport you back in time and give you an immersive and unparalleled experience. A special shout-out has to be given to the entire production design, art direction, and costume design team for paying attention to the smallest of details and recreating the era in an unbelievably realistic manner. If you look at each department individually, you will realize that the entire cast and crew has done a scintillating job, but somehow cumulatively, “Jubilee” falls short of expectations and isn’t able to captivate you in the manner you would have liked. Maybe it’s because of its sluggish pace or the excruciating amount of time the editor and the director give each emotion to establish itself. In the end, you realize that “Jubilee” is a masterpiece from a technical viewpoint, but it still isn’t able to leave the kind of impact that you would have expected from a work of such exceptional quality. Spoilers Ahead Jay’s First Film Gets Critical Acclamation It had been a year since Shamsher Singh Walia decided to fund Jay Khanna’s film, Taxi Driver, but still, the film was under production, and everybody working on the project knew that if they went at the same pace, then they would never be able to complete it. Walia was getting paranoid, and the dark clouds of the film being shelved were looming over the entire projec...

Spoilers Ahead Jay And Niloufer Part 2 of the show begins with Jay Khanna trying hard to begin not just the shooting but also managing the day-to-day crises that he faces. With Madan Kumar walking out of the movie, Jay ends up having to act in his film to sustain and release the film on time, as planned by him and Shamsher Walia. Mr. Walia happens to be the most accommodating producer Jay could have asked for. He helps the man every step of the way and stands by him through all the crises. The first crisis he faces is friction with actress Niloufer, who rejects his love for her. Niloufer, being a woman of her own, has no interest in pursuing any relationship with him, for she is here only to be an actress. This leads to verbal altercations between them, which threaten to stall the shoot. But Jay finds a way to make up with Niloufer so that she is forced to quit the film eventually. The shooting commences, and both of them become good friends as the shooting progresses. Though Jay’s feelings for her resurface, Niloufer again has no plans to pursue any romantic relationship with him. She is a thorough professional who wants to remain like that till the shoot finishes. As the shoot finishes, she goes off to Mussoorie for some quiet time alone when she runs into Madan Kumar and his family. Though initially, both keep a distance, soon attraction takes over, and they can’t seem to stop hanging out, even with Madan’s wife joining him on the trip. The two of them begin an affair, ...

What were film journalists like in the Bombay of the 1940s? We read and hear, of course, about the K. A. Abbases and the Saadat Hasan Mantos of the time. But what about the mere mortals; the hacks and the newshounds? A fascinating answer is provided by the first episode of Jubilee, in which a prying reporter, snooping around for a scoop, gets chased away with a stick by a stern studio hand. An instructive little detail. The indignities of this profession, and its ceaseless hustle, are nothing new. Later in the series, more journalism: the editor of a reputable newspaper fawning over a screen goddess. A radio host peppering his chat with a sensational male star with a set of nakedly flattering fan questions. Or – my favourite – a film review declaiming that whatever a debutant actor-director lacks in technique, “he more than covers up for with sincerity”. And it’s not just journalists talking in dulcet tones. Politicians, diplomats, social workers; everyone is looking to curry favours and gain a measure of influence in the film industry. We’re shown a complex web of interlocking interests, a soft nexus holding up an incipient soft power. Storyline: A low-level fixer becomes the biggest star of a 1940s movie studio, while reeling in paranoia and guilt The series begins in 1947, in the tense buildup to Independence. Binod (Aparshakti Khurana) is a fixer and assistant at the thriving Roy Talkies film studio in Bombay. His boss — the debonair, pipe-smoking Srikant Roy (Prosenji...

“Jubilee” has been touted as an homage to the film industry, but we think it is more about rediscovering the art of good storytelling through great actors. First, we see Srikant Roy sparing no expense with the filmmaking process, and then there is Jay Khanna, who is out to buy second-hand equipment, placing all his faith in the power of his story. We also get a glimpse of the stubbornness of creative freedom intertwined with the economics of being a star versus an actor. It has been a while since we loved a series so much, and the decision to release it in two parts was a wise one, not just because it is kinder on the shorter attention span we have these days but also because this series deserves much more hype and is now going to get that on the merit of the story. This is how “Jubilee” unfolds and wins our hearts in the process. Spoilers Ahead Finding Madan Kumar Roy Talkies, India’s biggest film studio, located in Mumbai, has announced that they will be launching a star, Madan Kumar, with the film they will be producing. It is an ambitious project, but the only problem is that they don’t have a Madan Kumar yet. Srikant Roy, the owner and face of Roy Talkies is desperately going through the audition tapes, trying to find the right person, when he zeroes in on Srikant doesn’t care about the affair as long as he can make the film with the actor of his choice. Now, Binod Das has always been a staunch supporter of Srikant Roy and has risen in ranks to be a part of his inner ...

The Royal Ascot, England’s most elite week of flat Thoroughbred racing, takes on an even more festive air this year, with the meet beginning just days after Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations and more fans in attendance after a very reduced capacity in 2021 and empty grandstands in 2020. Catch all the action from Tuesday, June 14 to Saturday, June 18 on What is the Royal Ascot? The Royal Ascot is one of the most well-known horse racing meets in the world. It’s held at one of the top flat racecourses in the United Kingdom and hosts horses from across the globe in 35 races, including eight Group 1 races, over the span of five days. Racing at Ascot began in 1711 when Queen Anne declared her love for horse racing. The first race was the Her Majesty’s Plate with a seven-horse field. Over a century later, King George IV held the first royal carriage procession on the track to signal the start of the event. The traditions of the royal family, high fashion and elite horse racing have continued ever since. When and where is the 2022 Royal Ascot? This year, the Royal Ascot will take place from Tuesday, June 14 to Saturday, June 18 at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, England. It’s just minutes away from Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth’s primary residence. Unlike tracks in America, Ascot is located in the British Summer Time Zone, which is five hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone in the U.S. How can I watch the 2022 Royal Ascot? NBC is home to the 2022 Royal Ascot, prov...

The series is largely fictional, even though many of its characters and films are inspired by real-life examples. Even actual historical personalities in the film industry like Mughal-e-Azam director K Asif and actor Dev Anand are name-dropped, leaving a plethora of pop culture references for Bollywood buffs. It is highly likely that Roy is directly inspired by Himanshu Rai who founded the famous Bombay Talkies studio in 1934, kickstarting the early Hollywood style of the studio system in India. In Rai’s era, actors were required to sign contracts with studios for doing a specific number of films. While Rai’s public reputation was not as notorious as that of Jubilee’s Roy, he was responsible for launching several stars like Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Madhubala. Even though different visionaries were behind the advent of playback singing in Bollywood and radio countdown shows like Radio Ceylon (that managed to overturn the ban on film songs on public radio in the 1940s), Jubilee shows Prosenjit’s character as the mastermind behind such moves. While the widescreen Cinemascope format was first used for Guru Dutt’s Kaagaz ke Phool, Jubilee again depicts Roy as the man who introduces Cinemascope to India with a fictional film called Kashmir Ke Phool (a reference to both Dutt’s magnum opus and the Shammi Kapoor-starrer Kashmir Ki Kali). When the character Jai Khanna debuts his film Taxi Driver, the CBFC film certificate in the start is an altered copy of an actual ...