Ashdoc's Bollywood movie reviews

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Ram Leela ( Indian version of Romeo and Juliet )---





Ranjar---a town in Gujarat that is India's equivalent to Pakistan's barbaric north west frontier province in the art of violence ; a place with an endless supply of bullets , a place where manufacture of desi replicas of Kalashnikov rifles vies for attention with that of long range sniper rifles with telescopic sights , a place where the population drinks to excess , a place where people are rowdy and boisterous , and a place where they dance with a gusto that can only be matched by the abandon with which they press the trigger of their guns....

Now from where did Sanjay Leela Bhansali get the idea of showing the pacific gujarati who does not even kill animals and eats vegetarian food as a trigger happy desperado who lives and breathes bullets ?? Gandhi must be turning in his grave to see a part of his state shown as a hotbed of such violence....

Fortunately such a place exists only in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's fertile imagination and is not a reality.....

And in such a land are two rival clans who are after each other's blood . Now the question is---how to make the story of a cinema out of this ??
Simple---take one goodlooking person each from both clans and make them fall in love with each other , what else....

.....And to make it more spicy make the two lovers smooch and kiss with intensity and heat , and take two actors ( Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone ) for the respective roles who make the intensity and heat look believable.....
Yeah ,the two do inject some real uninhibited passion into their embraces making them the perfect choice for playing Ram and Leela/Romeo and Juliet---the two star crossed lovers....

Ram is the brother of the head of one clan while Leela is the daughter of the head of the other....
But it is set in the modern age of twitter and facebook---so is it a surprise that it begins more as physical desire for each other ??

But before the lovers can elope , a fight occurs which results in deaths of kin on both sides---a fight which increases the enemity between the two sides....

So the two clans are hardly going to forgive the elopement of Ram and Leela and let them alone....
They are captured and brought back , and the director puts and interesting twist to the story as they become heads of the rival clans....

So do they stop loving each other or they continue to do so....

Can they use their newfound power to bring sanity to the troubled land and make the people of Ranjar believe in peace ??

Or are age old enemities going to crush their lives ??

Go and watch the movie for that ?? It wont be a bad outing....

Sanjay Leela Bhansali does what he can do best---he dishes out a colourful cultural extravaganza that shows people dancing in vibrant colours , the colour red standing out the most....

And when they dance with abandon wearing colourful clothes , it's a treat for the eyes....

Acting by everyone is good , but Supriya Pathak is the one who stands head and shoulder above the others---she injects real evil and menace in her demeanor and voice as she plays godmother called Baa to perfection . Watch the utter ruthlessness as she crushes her daughter's finger with a betelnut crusher---though the camera moves away from the act to her face ( it gets splashed with blood ) at the last moment....

Ranveer looks brawny and muscled and Deepika looks sensous---though she has serious competition from Priyanka Chopra who sizzles in an item number....

Richa Chadda also plays her role with passion---passion in bed with her spouse and even better acting as the grieving widow who bats for peace and love even though she has lost own husband.....one question though---why can't she get remarried , especially because she has no children of her own ?? Indeed Deepika ( Leela ) asks her this very question and her answer is no---even in the age of twitter these people still live by outmoded customs and traditions about hindu widows being unfit for remarriage....

Barkha Bist as the sister in law of the other clan who as also lost her husband does play her role well too---the movie scores in the acting department....
But Gulshan Devaiah as the turncoat villain who tries to kill Baa is only just about okay....

Music is more worth seeing than listening---especially for the energy with which people of Ranjar dance on the music .

What shines through is the hard work that the director , the cinematographer and the choreographer have put to film every scene . But the ending is disappointing---it is deliberately contrived to make the film a desi rendition of Romeo and Juliet and was totally unnecessary....It reduced my verdict of the film from good to only decent...

The posters of the Hindu god Ram and other religious imagery has been excessively used in the film---no wonder the film has been banned in those states where devotion to Ram is greatest.....

Inspite of these faults the film is worth a watch---for the showcasing of real Indian culture Gujarati style and for it's rich and vibrant colourful scenes...

Verdict--decent .



Dhoom part 3 ( Dhoom means uproar )---





Nowadays Yash Raj films seems to have started making films keeping the international audience in mind : ' international ' meaning the Pakistan and middle east audience allied with Indian and Bangladeshi muslims....
.....For almost all the characters in the film are shown to be muslims---including the hero , the heroine , the father of the hero and the sidekick....
Only the cop ( inspector Jai Dixit ) played by Abhishek Bachhan is hindu---that too because his character is a leftover from former ' Dhoom ' films and cannot be changed now....

The villain of course is Bollywood's favourite bogey for international films---a white man who else . He is the banker responsible for the downfall of the hero's father ( played by Jackie Shroff ) and the father's suicide , which is the result of the banker's callous decision of forcing the closure of the magic show called ' great Indian circus ' owned by Iqbal ( Jackie ) for defaulting on debt .

The son named Saahir ( played by Aamir Khan ) grows up to take revenge on the bank by looting it repeatedly ' Dhoom ' style---meaning by the most unbelievable stunts using a rope and a flashy motorbike , and leaving a shower of notes for poor people to pick like a modern day Robinhood .

.....And because he leaves a note in hindi after every robbery , two Indian cops are called in---Jai Dixit and his sidekick Ali ( Uday Chopra ) who else....

With this the chase begins....

The stunts are frankly far far out from what can be attempted in real life and seem too much to believe at times , but do keep the adrenaline pumping in the movie . But it is in emotion that the movie scores !!---and the director surprises us by giving a romantic and emotional angle to the movie that far surpasses the action sequences in making the movie look good .

And where there is romance there has to be a woman---a dazzlingly beautiful one at that . Katrina looks like a dream and dances like heaven . Her introduction in a stupendously muscle arching and body curving dance sequence where she sheds her clothes one by one left everyone in the audience transfixed on their seats in the theater just like it left the hero just watching on his seat in the movie . There was pin drop silence in the cinema hall for 5 minutes....

But the introduction of such a heavenly beauty also shores up jealousies among two men in the movie as to who should romance her , and really gives a kick start to the emotional core of the movie .

But the jealousy is between whom and whom ??
I am not telling---for the movie has a surprise in store at the interval , a trick commonly used in magic shows but something that the common man is unaware of....

Aamir Khan acts well , Katrina looks dazzling and that's enough....
Abhishek Bachhan acts his usual stern self as inspector Jai Dixit and Uday Chopra is more like a monkey with his eyes permanently popped out at any woman....

The action sequences may be unbelievable and the motorbikes which can change shape look frankly unreal , but everything in the movie is on a spectacular scale and that helps in glossing over the unreal parts of the film .
The climax is heart touching and shows the importance of human relationships above all the action and emotion . No sex and lack of blood soaked violence make is suitable for watching by a family crowd .

I didn't see it in IMAX form , but from the scenes I could make out that the motorbike somersaults and chases will look better in IMAX .

Verdict---good .



Ek villain ( One villain )---





This movie had already crossed the Rupees ( Indian currency ) 1 billion mark in money earned when I finally went to see it.....personal events had prevented me from seeing films for a month and a half , and the movie was already out of most theaters near my house . But since it had become such a hit , I was going to see it even if it entailed walking ( actually riding , but I wanted to sound melodramatic ) miles and miles---for I had promises to keep , of writing reviews and entertaining friends . And so off I went , to a multiplex far away from home to watch this movie and write this review....

So was it worth the wait and worth covering the long distance ?? You bet !!

So what's the story ??

Actress Shraddha Kapoor does not have long to live . Some terminal disease ( which is not named ) is killing her slowly day by day . But before she dies , she wants to live out her dreams---and her dreams are the stuff poetry is made of . Dreams of holding butterflies in her hand before letting them fly , dreams of seeing the peacocks spread their wings in all their glory at the first hint of monsoon , dreams of marrying off couples who have pined long for each other , dreams of turning round some lost soul's life....and taking photos of them all , maybe because this is the age of putting photos on whatsapp and facebook !!

And the lost soul she saves is Siddharth Malhotra , who plays Guru---a criminal who was orphaned in childhood and raised by a gangland boss ( played by Remo Fernandes ) .

Guru falls in love with Aisha ( Shraddha's name in the film ) . Who wouldn't ?? For Shraddha looks so delicate and flower like and so lovely and with such soft skin ( even without touching her flesh I could realize that !! ).....only a fool would not fall in love with her !!

And Guru decides to help Aisha ( Shraddha ) in realizing her poetic dreams . And as if poetry would be incomplete without a mention of romance , she begins to reciprocate his love . All her attempts to distance herself from him because of her failing health are useless , and the couple gets locked in holy matrimony !! As if to complete the circle of happiness , her health begins to improve !! Dreams that were seeming like fantasy now come close to reality and the earth seems like heaven....

But on the other side of heaven there is hell , and the denizens of hell consist of villains who don't like the residents of heaven to live peacefully....

And one such resident of hell-on-earth is the villain Ritesh Deshmukh , a man who has failed in life---failed to earn a decent living for himself , failed to give a good life to his child , failed to do his job properly , and failed in the eyes of his wife....

Ritesh can't bear the taunts of his co workers and his bosses , but above all he can't bear the taunts of his wife ( Aamna Sharif ), who henpecks him to no end . Because of this he turns into a psychopath who kills women so that he can get his hands on their expensive jewelry , so that he can fulfill his wife's demands---such is his love for her....

And one of the women he kills is Aisha ( Shraddha )....

This movieshaking event is shown at the beginning of the film , and the rest of the film moves partly in real time and partly in flashbacks....

So what will become of Guru ( Siddharth Malhotra ) ?? Will the power of the violence that Aisha's love had just tamed resurface in an orgy of revenge ??

And will revenge be delivered on Ritesh , who has just committed such a dastardly crime ?? What will become of his wife and son ??

Watch the movie for the answers....

Ritesh Deshmukh has tried to put up a commendable performance as Villain of the movie who is a psycho but loves his wife to no end , but he simply lacks the evil and menace of real cinematic villains like Amrish Puri and Pran....

Siddharth Malhotra looks ruggedly handsome , but his acting lacks the firepower . Of course , he and Shraddha look cute together .

Which brings us to Shraddha . The movie is at it's best when she is around , and the scenes pictured of her reek of cinematic fantasy rather than reality . Which is exactly what I want....

Or maybe I like her so much that I can't bring myself to say anything bad about her . Maybe she's not as good as I say . You decide for yourself.....

Aamna Sharif looks mouthwatering too , and Kamal Rashid Khan plays what he does best---play the role of a loudmouth and braggart....

Music is good enough , and many of the songs are hummable and worth a repeat hearing .

The movie does drag in the later parts as the revenge saga of Guru and the villain has too many twists and turns , but the director still has saved it by giving us a nice tidy ending....

Yeah...a good movie has a good ending , and the director has not only put a twist in the tale at the end , but that twist has a touch of poetic justice . Aisha ( Shraddha ) would have given an approving nod from heaven....while I just sat transfixed on my seat even as the others in the theater left...

The movie is dreamily romantic when Shraddha is around ( and I wished she was always around ) , but otherwise is a thriller with some blood and gore in other scenes .

Verdict---Good .



Hate story---





Its a thriller movie with some body exposure ( by leading lady Paoli Dam ) and some love making scenes---none of which cross the limit but do give some hots along the way.....but people coming with the hopes of an erotic movie will be somewhat disappointed .

But the photography is really good and so are the sets .

.....And actress Paoli Dam looks good as a dusky beauty and acts well---especially in the semierotic scenes . But the acting honors go to the villain ( played by Gulshan Devaiya ) who has put up a really commendable job as a industry magnate showing some mouth watering no-holds-barred cruelty to anyone who dares cross him---like Paoli does.....

She's a reporter who carries out a sting operation exposing a person from his company---its a scandal that might hurt his company bad . But he manages to cover it up and invites Paoli into his company , because as he says---its better to makes friends with those who can hurt him .

And Gulshan then ensnares Paoli with his charm and lands her into his bed---making her fall in love with him left right and center.....

But Paoli soon discovers that its a plot to take revenge on her for the sting operation---as Gulshan reminds her , he screws those who screw with him---and screw them royally too.....

Paoli , who is pregnant is aborted in such a way that she is not able to conceive again , and left on the door of death.....

But Gulshan has made a big mistake---as his father tells him , the sting operation by Paoli was just business , and you should not take revenge for business problems personally.....mixing business and personal issues is forbidden......

And because Gulshan has mixed business with personal issues , indeed taking business personally , he has to contend with an avenging angel in Paoli----an angel who will destroy him in the end.....

And helping Paoli in her quest for revenge is her everloyal friend ( played by Nikhil Dwivedi ) who has put up a fine performance himself.....

So the film has a lot of things going for it.....

But where it does not completely work is in the showing of various plans that Paoli churns out for revenge---they are all corny and unrealistic.....

Is it so easy to sleep with a minister like a common whore and become a director of the bank which finances Gulshan's company ?? That way many prostitutes would be on the board of directors of banks......

And is it so easy to transfer data from mobile to mobile while having sex with the guy ( in woman on top position ) from whose mobile the data has to be transferred ??

And is it necessary to barge into the gents toilet in provocative clothes to give information and cut a deal with the head honcho of a rival company and catch him while he's peeing ??

Yeah , I know about cinematic liberty and all that but this is all too much.....

In the end the movie shows the same age old stereotype from old Bollywood cinema of a woman who sleeps with too many men not being fit to remain alive.....

......Disappointing for those who thought that in this new age such a woman could live again to start a new life after taking lust and sex soaked revenge.....

The more things change , the more they remain the same dont they ??

Verdict---decent enough .



Jab tak hai jaan ( Till my last breath )---



Welcome to the world of superlative romance.....courtesy the greatest exponent of it---director Yash Chopra who else......

The world of making love on satin sheets in luxurious bed......

.......Of wild kissing in telephone booths in blinding rain.....

.......Of motorcycle rides on smooth roads in supergreen countryside with arms outstretched in impossible joy......

........Of romantic confessions in beautiful churches while it is snowing outside.......all picture perfect.....

........Of waiting for your beloved for years without batting an eyelid.....

........Of love between people of different classes---between a rich girl and poor boy.....

Welcome to that world one last time......for the man who made us so familiar with that world is no more.......yes , director Yash Chopra has breathed his last.......

And he has left a void no one can fulfill.....

For no one could make a woman look more beautiful than Yash Chopra.....a fact that you can appreciate when you see actress Katrina Kaif look absolutely stunning......

Yeah , she looks divine in sarees , in nighties , in revealing clothes and also in covering clothes.....

And watch her do dirty dancing in micromini and exposing top---her body exudes fire like no one else......

The antics of the other actress Anushka Sharma pale in comparison with the super beauty of Katrina , the softness of her skin , the smoothness of her white face and the pain in her eyes.....

This even though Anushka has worn what is practically a bikini in her first scene in the film......thats because Anushka's character is a little too talkative and over the top---a little too much.....or maybe thats what the director intended it to be , for Anushka is not the one Shah Rukh is in love with......

He's is love with Katrina , and she is with him to---in her majesty's heartland , London....

But a twist of fate separates the two and he goes to Kashmir to risk his life again and again defusing bombs for a living in order to prove something to himself---where he meets Anushka the chatterbox ten years later when she comes to shoot a film for discovery channel.....

And its upto Anushka to bring them together again.....

And how ?? Go and watch the movie for that......

Its the reason why Shah Rukh and Katrina separate that forms the weakest link in the chain of events that can be called the story......the reason seems to be silly and unrealistic and based on superstition......

And unfortunately , the chain is strongest only as its weakest link.....

Of course , Yash has pulled in all stops to bring in maximum support for his film from maximum audiences---by including too many muslim and Pakistani characters to make the film popular among muslim audiences around the globe......even while dying the old man could not cure his itch to appease the pakistanis......

But from my side all that is forgiven.....after all , it his last film we will get to see and I am a getting a bit senty.........

Music is good , and the photography and colours of the film are stunning to say the least.....so are the clothes worn by Katrina......

The hero of the film ( Shah Rukh ) retains his naughtiness of old times in some scenes and does act well.....

And everything about the film exudes class modernity and forwardness, especially that fact that Katrina smokes and Anushka has had sex with multiple partners ---in fact it is a film that is not for the masses and is strictly for the elite audience and non resident Indians living in the west.......

But still I was not fully impressed by the film---the weakest link in the chain did make things a little unimpressive......

But hey !! Its Yash Chopra's last film.....and he being the badshah of romance........so all is forgiven !!

Verdict---decent .



Supermodel---



Modelling---Glitz and glamour.....

Hot female bodies sashaying in style on the ramp in teeny weeny skirts.....

And showing off their flesh in bikinis near swimming pools.....

Or soaking in their sweat in tight clothes which hug their skin on hot beaches.....

Curving and arching their delicious curves while striking sexy poses in front of the camera.....

Bodies to lust for....

Bodies to die for.....

Bodies that come in your oh so sweet dreams.....

Silken bodies that fuel your uncontrollable desire.....

Desire of making love on soft beds and on satin sheets.....

Bodies that can only belong to supermodels.....

SIGGHHH......I really wish I had gone to see this movie for these reasons ; that the movie was worth saying all the things I said above....

But the actual reasons I went to see this movie are far more mundane.....For it was the only movie that was fitting into the little time I had today---the movie is only 1 and a half hour long , which was the exact amount of time I had in hand.....

So I went and sat in the cinema hall with little or no expectation---because I already knew that the movie was a B or C grade movie....

What else can you expect from a film containing Ashmit Patel and Veena Malik....??

So Monty ( Ashmit ) is a in demand photographer who photographs models to convert them to supermodels.....

And he is a playboy.....So what's new ??

And he is having an affair with a model ( Jia ) with whom he has some mouth to mouth kissing scenes.....

In walks Rupali ( Veena Malik ) with dreams of making it big courtesy Ashmit's photos.....

She is a real lady who isn't ready to compromise on her values to reach the top ; in other words is not ready to sleep with the bigwigs to get success.....

And they all go on a modelling shoot to Fiji....

And in the paradise of sun and sand Monty and Rupali begin to have feelings for each other.....

But what about the jealousy of Jia with whom Monty is having a relationship ??

To complicate matters somebody is killing the models in the shoot one by one.....

So what will happen next....??

Who cares.....the movie is not worth pondering about these questions.....

The film does show some delicate feminine flesh and some love making scenes.....

And Veena Malik exposes upto some extent....

But acting is rank bad....

The romance between Ashmit and Veena lacks soul ; their performance is emotionless.....

The film seems to have been made on a shoe string budget.....

Story is practically non existent.....

Dialogues are of poor quality.....

The murderer of the models is caught too easily without any build up of suspense---for that person talks loudly to oneself and the audience about how the murders were committed.....

After seeing this film I feel that Veena Malik should be paid to go back to Pakistan and the rest of the cast should be paid to retire in order to save audiences from further torture....

Verdict---Bad .



Mardaani ( The 'manly' lady )---



'Mardaani' tells the story of a goodlooking female cop ( played by Rani Mukherjee ) who literally wears the pants in her house and also in the film---for her husband is reduced to a sidekick as far as his role in the film is concerned . From her language at least , she seems to be marathi police officer married to a bengali doctor and living in Bombay along with her niece . Her husband neither has her fighting skills ( she can throw punches and kicks with abandon ) nor does he object to her erratic work schedule which includes the occasional late night out on work .

As expected from a 'Mardaani' ( manly lady ) she can deal with hardened criminals by coming to their own level---and the only level they know is the level of violence....
But a major twist comes into her life as a girl she considers almost to be her daughter ( called Pyaari ) is kidnapped by the sex trafficking mafia and sold to be a prostitute . Shivani ( Rani's name in the film ) is hellbent on finding the whereabouts of Pyaari , and this sets her on track of finding out the kingpin of the sex trade .

As every move by Shivani is followed by the kingpin's countermove , a deadly game begins....
But the kingpin has a major advantage in this game---while Shivani's identity is well known , his own identity is unknown . Because of this , while he can strike at Shivani at will and can target even her husband ( as he does ) she has the onerous task of finding out who he is before she can actually get to him . And even if she does find out who he is , the task of actually finding out proof of his misdeeds seems to be almost hopelessly impossible . Especially because he is being protected by powerful politicians , like these human traffickers always are....

So does Shivani find out who the kingpin is ??
And what is her way of bringing him to justice ??
What has happened to Pyaari ??

The movie has some answers to these questions , and I found myself interested....

The movie does move like a thriller with blow followed by counterblow by the police officer and the kingpin , and punch countered by counterpunch . And in the midst of all this , the kingpin has the chutzpah to phone Shivani to intimidate her regularly--- and the conversation between the two on mobile phone is peppered with some hard taunts and witty retorts .

As the movie moves towards it's climax it begins to get bloody , but that is only to be expected . But it's a movie that takes itself seriously ( a commodity that is becoming rarer in Bollywood , especially among the list of successful films ) , something borne out by the fact that it has practically no songs . Rani Mukherjee playes the role of a dynamic female police officer with confidence , and the villain is played by Tahir Bhasin with sophistication menace and unparalleled ruthlessness in equal measure .

There are some shots of barenaked female backflesh , but the bare backs wont give you the hots unless you are a pervert . For those female backs are uncovered by sex slaves in the midst of the cruelty of force being applied on them , and the circumstances of the body exposure seem gruesome .

All in all---I found myself interested throughout , and there is never a dull moment in the film .

Verdict---Not fantastic but good enough .



Rakhtacharitra ( Rivers of blood )---



Welcome to the world of superviolence .........courtesy the greatest exponent of it ,Ram Gopal verma........

As the name suggests , this film is not for sissys ,kids or vegetarians

........And Ram Gopal Verma himself has gone on record to say that ,as far as this film is concerned ,women should stay at home.......

That explains why the theater was 2/3 rd empty.....on the second day itself....

Because the audience has been cut down to only MEN ,that too the non-veg eating ,blood and gore loving types......

And what a feast for them !!

Rivers of blood flow ,enough to make a vampire overnourished for weeks.......

Women are abducted , literally in daylight ,and raped like sluts.......

Boulders are smashed on peoples heads ,and other innovative methods of killing people like boring holes through their skulls are invented......

The place seems to be alive with rifles ,knives ,pistols ,sickles,and other such weapons.......

And masterminding all the mayhem is Nagamani Reddy ( played by Abhimanyu Singh ) ,the villain of the film......

His performance is the stellar performance of the film ,what holds the film together.....

..........For he plays with with absolute perfection , the role of a sadistic ,savage ,absolute brutal despot of a small town ,with animal-like instincts ,that too the carnivore type............

The small town is in South India, and the film is based on a true enemity.........

Which means that such a person really existed !!

And who's his enemy ??......Vivek Oberoi ,who else ,who also has to murder and kill in equal measure to take revenge........

And he does that with determination and skill........a good acting performance from him too

Shatrughan Sinha does a brave effort to fit into the mighty shoes of late politician N T Rama Rao.........but only a south indian can tell if he succeeds........

And what a south indian can enlighten us is also about the real-life happenings in the small town in the past........since they were considered worth making a film on them......

Verdict--not bad , if barbaric violence is your cup of tea......



Sheen---



In the Kashmiri language Sheen means snow , and it is a popular name given to girls there too---for their skin is as fair and white as snow .

It is also the name of the film's heroine....

And by showing the story of a fictitious beauty called Sheen , director Ashok Pandit tries to showcase the story of the Kashmiri hindus---a minority who have become refugees in their own country . May be the film will confirm to the English meaning of it's name ( sheen means to shine in reflected light in the English language ) and throw some light on the plight of the hindus of Kashmir.....

It's a plight that the nation seems to have forgotten , and is a fitting reminder to the fact that people who are non violent ( like the Kashmiri hindus are ) have no voice or weight in the world....

Those whose voice carries weight are the ones who have taken recourse to the gun , and the booming guns have changed the destinies of the Kashmir valley forever.....or so it seems....

The story begins in the late eighties when our heroine Sheen lives a carefree life in Kashmir valley . Her father is the local school teacher and teaches in an open school set in the midst of a sylvan countryside . She falls in love Mannu who is son of her dad's friend .

And what could be more fit for falling in love than the gorgeous countryside---all magnificent snow capped mountains and stunningly beautiful valleys and superb forests of Chinar trees and rivers and lakes flowing with ice cold water.....not for nothing is Kashmir known as the Switzerland of Asia , a destination for a life long romance or at least a honeymoon....

It seems the rarefied air of Kashmir and the beauty of the countryside can breed nothing but pure thoughts of tranquility ; and the Kashmiri people are indeed a gentle people---a world away from their formidable martially inclined neighbours in Punjab and the Pathan regions .

But the scientific and technological advances of the 19th century brought contact with these very neighbours to the formerly isolated Kashmiris , and the 20th century brought the clash of civilizations---one civilization being hindu and the other being muslim....

And into the vortex of this 20th century clash is caught our heroine Sheen....

Actually she wants to do nothing but lead her life along with her family and her love in the midst of the sylvan countryside , but can an individual resist the tidal wave of history ?? Especially when the history is being created by that scourge of the 21st century called Islamic fundamentalism....

Director Ashok Pandit does make a brave attempt show the world the trials and tribulations of the Hindus of Kashmir valley---a minority driven away from their land by islamic terrorists trained and abetted by Pakistan . Their tragedy is shown in all it's glory and it's pity.... It's a story of near and dear ones killed , of women's honour defiled by rapists , of administrative and police callousness towards them , of homes lost and futures destroyed , and above all of the pain of being driven out of the lands in which their ancestors had lived from thousands of years....

And Sheen has to bear this pain in all it's solitude and with fortitude---She has to bear the sight of her nation's flag burnt by traitors , and Pakistani flags raised in it's place....her lover is kidnapped by terrorists , her father is forced to close down his school to give way for a madrasa ( islamic seminary ) , her brother is brutally killed by militants , and she and her family have to leave the comforts of home to lead a life of destitution in a refugee camp in another part of the country....

Her own Hindu co religionists from other parts of the nation look down upon Kashmiri hindus , and she and her family have to live off packets of food thrown at them from trucks like they throw dog food to dogs . Worse , policemen try to prey upon her beauty with lecherous advances , reducing the life of a lady from a respectable family like herself to a den of dispair....

Yet she remains bold and courageous and outspoken among all her sorrows , just like a her father....and above all she remains a patriot---never loses her love for India....

This very courageousness sets her on a final mission---to try to reach the man she loves and who is in the clutches of terrorists , who are led by his childhood friend Shaukat , a Kashmiri muslim who has turned to the path of revolt against India . It's a mission in which Sheen is about to risk her very life....

So does she succeed in reaching and freeing Mannu---the man she loves ?? Watch the movie for that....

The story of Kashmir is tragic , and therefore the story of the film is bound to end in tragedy ; tragedy above all for the home grown Kashmiri terrorists---who do not realize until too late that those who live by the gun ultimately die by the same weapon , and do not realize that they are just an expendable tool of war for their Pakistani masters .

Music of the film ( by Nadeem Shravan ) is good , and so is the photography . Acting is decent---by everyone . The film has certainly been made with purpose if not passion.....and the purpose is laudable without doubt.....

Verdict---decent enough .



Aurangzeb (' Aurangzeb' was also the name of a cruel Mughal emperor )---





The success of telling a complicated tale on celluloid lies in being able to successfully bring all the complications to an end whether good or bad , and being able to tie up all the loose ends of the story at the climax . The more convoluted the story becomes , the more difficult is this task---and the ability of the director can be judged by his capacity to make the viewers understand the movie amidst the complications .

Aurangzeb is such a film . It does not have a simple plot but unfolds in a complicated way until it feels overstretched at one point , but the director does help us make our way through the story .

So what is the connection with Aurangzeb , the controversial Mughal emperor who still provokes debate among historians as to whether he was good or bad ?? Is the title , grandiose as it is , justified ??

The Aurangzeb connection lies in the fact that some characters in the film are ready to kill even their relatives in their greed and lust for power in a manner in which Alamgir ( as Mughal emperor Aurangzeb liked to call himself ) would have applauded----for he himself killed all his brothers in his bid for the throne.....

So whats the story ?? Aahh !! here come the complications.....

To try to make it sound simple , Arjun Kapoor plays the double role of twins separated in young age . One lives in poverty with his mother and the other is the arrogant heir to his father's multi crore illegal empire . But the enemies of his father plot to replace his heir with his twin who is their agent and will help to bring down the father's empire .

But as expected , the plot loses its simplicity as the replaced twin begins to have respect his father ( played by Jackie Shroff ) and decides to dump his father's enemies for whom he was working earlier . But those for whom he was working earlier ( Rishi Kapoor and Prithviraj Sukumaran ) are no losers either and they are not going to give up on him so easily.....

Another problem is that the heir's girlfriend played by the delicious Sashaa Agha ( Salma Agha's daughter ) falls in love with his replacement and he begins to feel the same for her.....
.......For she is worth it ; all light eyes and pink skin and soft flesh---she has it all....
.....And not only she has it all but she displays it all by going about half nude in sizzling bikinis and revealing clothes , and kissing Arjun and dancing with abandon.....

The list of problems grows as the movie progresses , and new twists and turns are added to the plot.....In the end its time for those who have conscience to stand up for their ideals to confront those who are unscrupulous and fight for what is right.....

All we can say is---may the righteous ones win.....Amen to that !!

So do the righteous people win ??

Go and watch the movie for that.....It does throw up some interesting situations along the way.....

Arjun Kapoor does act well in both roles , but Jackie looks tired in the movie . Rishi Kapoor does a decent job of acting , but what about his expanding girth....
Prithviraj Sukumaran does play his role of an a forever unsmiling police officer in a gritty manner fit for his character in the film .

What I liked was the fact that the name Aurangzeb has somewhat negative connotations in the film---a negativity that is being erased in our history books to appease some ' peaceful ' folk . And coming from Yash Raj films which is a bastion of appeasement , its a feat unto itself....

Verdict---decent enough .



English Vinglish---



Beautiful actresses mature like old wine---they look better as age catches up with them . Just look at Hema Malini.....

But what about acting skills ?? Do they get better with time ?

THEY DO !!!....That is , if Sridevi's performance in this film is anything to go by....

......For not only she puts up a magnificent acting performance but it is she who holds the film together for a whole two and a quarter hours as she takes us through a range of emotions---first mild contempt at her lack of english speaking skills , then sympathy for her plight , then increasing pride at her bravura attempts to learn the language , then the sweet smell of romance as she begins to bond with a guy and then adoration as you sit spellbound in the cinema hall watching her acting prowress......

She's the archetypal Indian woman bound to tradition and family and old customs---to the point of having to bear unquestioningly the taunts from her pesky daughter who forever has a chip on her shoulder about her mom's english speaking skills---or her rather lack of them.....

But freedom comes in the land of the free....!!!

As she lands in New York for planning a wedding without her family she decides to learn english.....

And in her English learning class Its time to meet new friends from different places across the globe---whites , blacks , pakistanis , French and even gays.....

And its time to get attention of a Frenchman ( who else wouldn't leave even a married fortyish woman alone ) and its time to seek success.....

But her world---her family---is not far away.....ultimately an typical Indian woman cannot forget her roots her home and her hearth.....

But when they meet her again---do they meet a changed woman or not ??

I am not telling---go to the cinema hall and find out for yourself.....I did and with happy results....

The movie is full of politically correct messages---friendship between Indians and Pakistanis , beginnings of love between a white gay and and a black gay man....

Now which of the other yesteryears actresses are gonna make a comeback ??---I dont mind having wet dreams ( again !! ) of ladies I used to fantasise about in tenth standard in school.....

Verdict---Nice , real nice .



Student of the year---



Movies for the bubblegum crowd and candyfloss romance---that's the world of Karan Johar.....and that's the only world he knows.....

Or maybe thats the only world he SHOULD know---for he's pretty good at making movies ( and most importantly moolah ) on it.....as this effort shows.....

So lets immerse ourselves into Karan Johar's world.....

.....all designer clothes costing in the several thousands---branded clothes are for only for poor people.....and nonbranded ?? sshh !! those who wear nonbranded clothes dont exist in Johar's world.....

And college proms and games with cheerleaders and girls in bikinis....you might be forgiven for thinking you are in some american college.....

Only problem ?? the characters have to speak not in english but hindi !!
......for Karan Johar may live in his high brow world but his moolah comes from the indian audience !! how sad for poor Karan.....

And into this world of super-rich Rohan Nanda and his girlfriend Shania ( Alia Bhatt) comes Abhimanyu Singh from a middle class family.....
Middle class means he probably wears only branded clothes instead of the designer ones which Rohan and Shania wear.....

Ahh---Shania( Alia )....so how is she compared to her older half sister Pooja Bhatt.....??
Well....Alia lacks the spunk , the verve and above all the attitude of Pooja---the very facts that made Pooja such a hit among the hip crowd before she began to date too many boyfriends and lost interest in acting.....
But for that very same reason Alia has innocence.....and looks like a pretty doll.....in fact I found myself thinking about her on my way home......

Also thinking about her in the movie is Abhimanyu.....for after initially befriending Rohan he falls for Shania ( Alia ).....and worse , she gets attracted to him too---invoking jealousy in Rohan the poor rich boy who has the misfortune to be also hated by his domineering father......

And Rohan and Abhimanyu the goodlooking hunks come to blows over Shania.....and they promise to beat each other in the ' student of the year ' competition of the college to teach each other a lesson....

So who wins the competition ?? and who gets the girl ??
Go watch the movie for that.....

The movie is made funny by some light hearted moments courtesy the gay dean played by Rishi Kapoor.....
In fact too many gay moments in the movie.....is Karan Johar planning to come out in the open about his preferences.....??

This is the kind of movie that will play well in multiplexes and will be liked by classy women.....

And where there are classy women there will also be ashdoc the connoisseur of class.....

So I liked the movie too....

Verdict---decent .



Khubsoorat ( Beautiful ) 2014---



Sonam Kapoor is the perfect material for livening up your dreary life !!

The shot of adrenaline that changes your mundane existence and brings back zest and vigor in your household !!

The livewire that livens up dead things bringing back the energy !!

But you got to be liberal with her to get all this....

For you have to listen to her endless yak yak around you....

And tolerate her bumping into everything in your house....

And also tolerate her unsophisticated behavior Punjabi style....

And also tolerate her Punjabi mom and her aggressive charm....

And also tolerate her boozing and getting drunk and falling asleep in the unlikeliest of situtations....

So what do you get in return for all the toleration ??

You get to watch and see a girl with real joie de vivre , a beauty with no brains but a heart of gold....

A cutie pie with loads of laughter and not an ounce of malice in her soul !!

A girl who may kiss you when she is drunk if she has set her heart on you....

And openly propose you without further ado---not a bashful babe is she....

I am waiting for somebody like Sonam Kapoor to come in my life---where is she ??

Well she is the heroine of this movie and I am unlucky because she has already chosen her hero---Fawad Khan....

And what a hero---all dapper and smart and intelligent and a gentleman....

He is the prince of a royal household in Rajasthan , and his family is the one which needs a desperate livening up....

For his father is grieving for his son whom he lost in an accident and has deliberately confined himself to his wheelchair....

And his mom is a dominatrix who believes in old customs of regulating her daughter's life with rules and restrictions.....

All stiffnecked people with a stiff attitude....

But not bad people really....

Just need someone to kickstart some action in their lives....

And help is on the way---for Sonam is coming as physiotherapist for treating Fawad's father's legs....

And her mother has openly asked her to try to get hitched to Fawad because he is too good a catch---not too coy are we....

So all that you have to do is to sit in your seat and watch Sonam's and her mother's antics in action....

And those antics lead to but one goal---fall in love....

But before that goal is reached we get to see some frivolous melodrama---of Sonam getting kidnapped and her prospective mother in law refusing to accept her and Fawad being forced to choose between Sonam and his soon to be ex fiancee.....all storm in a teacup really....

So is that goal reached ?? Do you even have to ask ??!!

Sonam Kapoor forms the heart of the film---but naturally , for the film is made by her father Anil Kapoor and is vehicle for showcasing her talent.....

And she does prove capable of lifting the entire film on her shoulders without feeling the weight....

Indeed she makes the weight seem so light....

And the whole film is lighthearted and without a touch of seriousness---no heavy dialogues and no real emotional scenes....

But some nice little entertainment....

If your expectations are not too high the film does deliver some timepass and some fun....

No villains come to disturb the fun and indeed there are no bad people in the film....

It's film that will be appreciated by the multiplex crowd....

But the small town audiences may not like the scenes of the heroine drinking and getting drunk....

But I being from the multiplex crowd , I liked it....

Verdict---Not great , but some full to timepass .



Daawat e Ishq ( A feast of romance---2014 )





For the first time I realised that dowry is a pan Indian phenomenon . I used to think that this pernicious custom is prevalent only among the hindu community . But the movie shows even muslims taking dowry from a girl's father in exchange for marrying their sons to the daughter. And it is custom of taking dowry that forms the basis of the story of the movie .

The setting for this feast are the partially muslim cities of Hyderabad and Lucknow---fittingly so , for they are justly famous for their nonvegetarian cuisine....all mouthwatering kebabs and tasty biryanis on which your very own ashdoc has feasted many times.....

And living in Hyderabad is Gulrez ( played by Parineeti Chopra ) , a smart and spunky gal who has a doting father . He allows himself to be dominated by his feisty daughter largely because he is big hearted . Yes big heart and all he may have , but he does not have a big bank balance . And because he does not have a big bank balance , he can't assemble enough a dowry to marry off his daughter . Daughter has big dreams too---of finding her prince charming and living in America , but all she manages to land is a job as saleswoman in a shoe store....

It is at the shoe store that Gulrez falls in love with the handsome man she has been waiting for , but his parents ask for the same old curse---dowry....and the handsome boy turns a wimp as he cannot find the willpower to go against his parents' wishes , leaving Gulrez shattered....

But wait !! There is a very strict law against dowry in the Indian penal code , and other and more smarter and indeed more sinister women have been taking advantage of it to take their husbands to the cleaners by leveling false charges of dowry against them . And an embittered Gulrez decides to use the law to marry a guy and level false charges against him and get rich quickly by getting an out of court settlement .

Here the corniness begins.....the whole plan of posing going to Lucknow and posing as a rich expatriate from some Gulf country by using false passports and taking interviews of prospective candidates for husband material in a five star hotel---this plan is so silly that I wont bother pointing out the loopholes in this plan to you....suffice to say that is it so ridiculously easy to fool people ??

It is while meeting prospective candidates that Gulrez finds the perfect gentleman---Tariq , played by Aditya Roy Kapoor....a man who is open hearted and honest and opposed to the centuries old curse of dowry that is plaguing the land....a man who wants to marry not for money but for love....a man who wants to treat Gulrez like a queen....a man whose rustic charm has the capacity to sweep Gulrez off her feet....a man who not just has bountiful amounts of money but a bountiful heart....and above all a man who can serve delicious melting in the mouth kebabs in his restaurant ; for doesn't the title of the movie promise a feast of food and romance and of love....??

Gulrez has unwittingly stumbled upon the man of her dreams....indeed of every girl's dreams....

But does she have the sense to feast upon the rich pickings of romance lying in front of her ??

Alas !! The director fails in making his heroine do what is just naturally correct for her , and in an unnecessary bid to propel the story forward he makes her do things and take decisions that any sensible girl would reject....

So what are those decisions ??
Does the story end well ??

Watch the movie for the answers....

Some parts of the movie are downright silly , but it does have it's moments....
And some of those moments are provided by Aditya Roy Kapoor , who plays the role of a not so well educated guy having rustic charm with ease---looks like a muslim from Lucknow with kohl lined eyes and half shaven beard and earrings in his ear all too well....
The other moments being provided by Parineeti---all fiery and spunky and booby and busty with her assets jutting like tennis balls inside her top in one scene....

Music is nothing to write home about....

The social message of the film---laudable , and shown in an entertaining manner....

This feast I would say , was sumptuous enough to make me return home a reasonably satisfied man .

Verdict---Very decent .



Desi kattey ( Indian homemade revolvers---2014 )



The state of Uttar Pradesh---rustic heart of the real India....

And at the banks of the Ganges river is a small town which is the center for the manufacture of home made revolvers known as 'kattey' in plural....

......For the 'katta' plays an important part in the politics of the region....

The 'katta' revolver can hold only one bullet at a time , and has to be reloaded to fire again.....but sometimes it gets damaged in one firing itself and cannot ever fire again....sometimes it explodes while firing in the hand of the person holding it.....now isn't that uniquely Indian !!

.....That's what I felt on seeing this film----even though my native state is not Uttar Pradesh , after a long time of seeing films with glamour made in glitzy locations I felt that I was in the real India ; in my land , among my people !!

And the photography made me feel even more so---photography of the river Ganga flowing serenely through the evergreen countryside ; photography of bridges over the mighty river being crossed by overloaded railway trains which are the lifeline of the nation....

In this town are born and bred two inseparable friends---Pali and Gyani....
They learn to live fight and eat together....and naturally they become expert in the art of firing the 'katta' revolver which has made their town both notorious and famous....

And as they grow their expertise in firing guns and fighting foes increases and so does their friendship.....
And they believe they can't do without each other....

Opportunities beckon people with such remarkable skills---for the ganglords of the region notice their talents and give them a chance to work for them.....
And as the ganglords turn into politicians the power and aura of the deadly duo increases....

It's a life of crime---of pumping bullets into their bosses' rivals and punching hard those who offended their masters....a life of deadly games with death and vows of everlasting vengeance....

But somewhere in the heart of one of the two ( Pali ) is a gentleman and a romantic.....for who other than him would dare to fall in love since childhood with an older woman who has been used and abused by a dozen men if not more( played by Tia Bajpai of woman-getting-exploited roles fame )and then proposing her and marrying her.....

It seems life has set a course of violence for the two of them....
.....Until an an army major ( played by Sunil Shetty ) comes to them with the idea of using their astonishing skills with the gun to win medals for India in distant lands and in international championships....a life of respectability and success....a life of firing pistols of international quality instead of inferior homemade revolvers....
And to add to the rewards he has a delicious sister ( played by Shaseh Agha ) with smooth pink skin and light eyes who looks good enough to eat , and who begins to like Gyani....

As hard training using the new high class weapons is being enforced on them by the major , at the same time the gangland boss ( played by Ashutosh Rana ) wants to make the two his partners in his multi million rupee business as enforcers....

So on one side is a life of ambition and normalcy with the major who wants the two to become sportsmen....
And on the other is what the two dreamt of becoming all their life before the major and his delicious sister came in their lives ....
On one side is the glory of triumphing with medals carrying the the nation's flag in the whole wide world....
On the other is the fear and power of becoming crimelords of their own little corner of the world....

And it is left for one of the two friends to choose one kind of life and the other to choose the other life....

So who chooses which type of life ??
What happens to their inseparable friendship ??
Does the underworld let go easily of it's tryst with them ??

Watch the movie for the answers....

The movie has melodious musical score sung well by the redoubtable Kailash Kher .
And it has some emotional scenes towards the end---of friendship , of love ; and of holding steadfast to that love and friendship in the midst of betrayal....

Acting by Akhil Kapur ( as Pali ) and Jay Bhanushali ( as Gyani ) was not good in the beginning and this fact was compounded by their weak voices . But as the movie moved on their acting improved and became better---just in time for the emotional scenes....

And as the scenes turned emotional the movie looked better , because even in the midst of emotion it was never short of some gun toting action....

Stayed true to it's name....

Verdict---I quite liked this story of innocent old fashioned actionpacked friendship set in the not-so-innocent 21st century .



Pizza 3D ( 2014 )



Usually we ( especially the women ) are told to be careful about any kind of courier or delivery boy coming to our house , especially when we are alone . Who knows , the delivery boy may be a thief who may steal things when we go inside to take our wallet to pay the delivery bill , or he may even be more unthinkably dangerous .

But this is the kind of film that will make the delivery boys themselves think twice about delivering goods to anybody's house---who knows , the recipients themselves may turn out to be more dangerous than imagined....

So a pizza delivery boy goes to a house to deliver a pizza , but the house he enters harbours unimaginable horrors….or so it seems….

He and his wife have had a marriage by elopement , and his wife spooks him daily because she is a struggling writer of horror stories and has created a world of seeing horror films daily and being permanently engrossed in the subject of horror . He gets nightmares because of this---of spirits and ghouls . These scenes are well picturised and give you the thrills you need .

The pizza delivery boy’s boss is a superstitious man and believes in ghosts and spirits too much , and his wife gets possessed every once in a while by a ghost named Anjali . He keeps on conducting numerous prayers and poojas all the time to avoid this . But he is not so simple as it seems . His real business is some shady business along with some smugglers , which he conducts in the garb of being owner of a pizza eatery .

So one day the pizza delivery boy goes to a house to deliver pizza , and comes back with this tale of horror…..He says that as he entered the house the door got locked from outside and he got locked into a world of horror…..
This part is the best part of the movie---the spooky scenes give you real chills , and some of them are new tricks . The hostess who welcomed him into the house , her husband and child---all give you the spooks . The scenes of him getting chased up and down the house by spirits , of strange sounds and voices emanating from everywhere , of strange writings on walls , of the TV in the house playing some spooky programs , of the colour of the lights in the house changing to red , of pair of hands rushing to grab him….I found myself getting scared inspite of myself….

When he finally manages to run away his whole behaviour has changed . His wife has disappeared too . His boss investigates about the house and finds out from the neighbours that the owner murdered his wife a few years ago as she was cheating on him and the police officers who went to arrest him were found dead too . No one goes there for fear of the spirits allegedly residing there .

But then who called the pizza delivery joint from such a place for some pizza ??
Why are the pizza eatery owner’s criminal cohorts so bothered about the visit to the house ??
What was in the box that the pizza delivery boy carried with him to deliver ?? Was it only a pizza ??

For answers to these questions , see the movie….

But once the answers to these questions are revealed , the movie fell flat on it’s face at least for me. To me this was true at least as I was already begining to realise what was in store towards the end much before the end itself came . But to some people ( those who are not as intelligent as me---he he he ) the end may give a surprise .
The entertainment towards the end depends on being NOT able to figure out the end before it comes---if you can’t then you will enjoy the movie . So don’t rack your brains too much like I did and reduce your enjoyment of the movie ---like I did .
Acting by everyone decent and the pizza delivery boy’s wife looks good . Photography and special effects are decent enough .

Verdict---Okay .

Full movie in hindi language on youtube---




Bang Bang---





Bang Bang is pure make believe stuff with not an ounce of reality .

Consider this---the villain is whisking away the heroine taking her far away from the hero .
And at that very moment , the hero sees a formula one car being unloaded from it's container and promptly grabs control of it and gives chase....
From where did the car arrive on the scene ??

Another situation---the hero and the heroine arrive at a restaurant but are surrounded by the villain's men . The restaurant is on a snowy mountain and there is no way to escape....
No problem....the hero simply jumps out of the window of the restaurant into the valley dragging the heroine with him and she directly wakens up in a beautiful beach resort with the hero making delicious food for her...
How did they manage to survive such a fall ??

SSHHH !! Don't ask uncomfortable questions !!

And if you don't ask them , then you can relax in your seat getting some frivolous easy-on-the-brains entertainment .

The story begins with the villain ( Danny Denzongpa ) being informed that his stay in a comfortable prison in the UK is being threatened by the new extradition treaty that India and UK are going to sign , and he will have to go to a cell in India where he will have to live in atrocious conditions . But the prison in UK itself is attacked by the villain's henchman ( Javed Jaffery ) and not only the villain flees but he burns alive the Indian officer ( Jimmy Shergill ) who informed him about the treaty , just as the officer is receiving a call on his mobile from that most emotionally important entity of any hindi film---MAA ( mother )....

Considering the fact that the villain can escape from prisons with such ridiculous ease , why can't he simply move to some other country which does not have an extradition treaty with India ??
SSHHH !! Don't ask uncomfortable questions !! Cos then you will ruin your own entertainment !!

So the villain decides to make an Indian steal the prestigious Kohinoor diamond from Britain so that relations between the Indian government and Britain are threatened and no extradition treaty is signed .
And the diamond is promptly stolen !! Just like that !! ( In this film anything happens )
The thief is the hero ( Hrithik Roshan ) and he meets the villain's men in a eatery in Shimla in the high himalayas to give them the diamond for a price . But a fight breaks out and he has to escape....
And the CCTV footage of the eatery is taken to the police and they see the Kohinoor in it---so they are after him too...

While he is escaping from these troubles , the hero sports the heroine ( Katrina ) waiting for her anonymous date in a restaurant---and he decides to pose as the anonymous date !!
Doesn't he have other things on his mind , like all the people chasing him ?? How come he has the absence of mind ( you can hardly call it presence of mind can you ? ) to date a girl and bring her in trouble in the midst of his fights with and flights from dangerous people ??
I TOLD YOU that in this film anything happens !! ( mind it !! )

Then do I even have tell you that the girl then never leaves his side and is with him in every situation and place and falls in love with him and all that....!!
And egging her in all this is her large hearted grandmother who has sent her out on precisely this mission---to find out and date the man of her dreams and love him and romance him kiss him and make love....

But what a man---the hero Hrithik Roshan !! All muscles rippling out of a bronzed body topped by a mane of golden brown hair....a Greek god with slim waist below a super perfect physique covered by fair skin and light eyes....
The perfect man who would ignite dreams and desires and awe struck lust in any female....

And as the story moves on from mountainous Shimla to a beautiful sea side resort to history enriched Prague to an unbelievable palace in the desert , Katrina never ceases to look at Hrithik with dreamily romantic eyes and above all with love....her grandma would have approved !!

But he is thief !! Or is he....??
And how come the two are to escape the police and the villains who are both chasing them ??

Relax....the invincible Hrithik is there to save Katrina in every situation and every place....he never goes wrong anywhere....
And even if he does go wrong , the director is there to help---as I told you , formula one cars appear out of nowhere and jumps from mountains are made risk free by the miraculous opening of parachutes....

And while the whole thing was going on , I was looking at Katrina with love too....could not let go of my attraction for the romantic dreams in her half sleepy eyes and her broken hindi interspersed with english sentences and innocent demeanor and her lovely face....what a cutie pie !!

And I wished nothing bad should happen to my cutie pie....

And I was frankly jealous of Hrithik---for his awesome body and royal looks , and above all for possessing Katrina !!

And I was jealous of him for being in such superb places...or was it the photography that was making the places look extra stunning ??
Is the sea so blue as the film shows it to be , and the sunlight so golden ??
Are the colours so striking when you see those places in real life ??

Indeed , I don't want to see the places seen in the film in real life---for surely they are not so magnificent as shown in the film....
And I do not want to do the stunts that Hrithik has performed too , for they are dangerous even though on camera they looked absolutely mindblowing....

What I wanted to do was to enjoy the cinematography and camerawork and stunning visuals and locales shown in rich colour....and I did that...

What else do you need ??
Well , what the film needs is some proper editing---for in the beginning you are left confused by the pace of events and the disjointed way in which they scenes and situations are presented....

The romance between Katrina ( ladies first !! ) and Hrithik is as unbelievably filmy as hell , and so are the fights....
Music is only okay , and acting is not even needed in such a film....

But who cares....I quite enjoyed the breezy way in which things happened , and liked the fact that there is never a dull moment in the film...
And if enjoyment without coherence is all that matters to you , the movie delivers on that part pretty well .

Verdict---Some real fun .



Antardwand ( Dilemma )---





How would you feel if one day you wake up from a daze to be told that the decked up girl you have never even heard of before ,but sitting on the bed in front of you, is your newly married wife ...........

............and on refusal to sleep with her , are taunted about your ' impotency ',and are drugged and forced to rape her practically at gunpoint.......

And how would you feel if your father is confronted during his morning tea ,by a procession bringing along with it ,a girl 3 months pregnant , whom he has never seen before ,and is told that unborn child in the girls womb is his grandchild........

Thats exactly the situation a handsome and bright young man finds himself in this movie which is situated in .........where else.........the badlands of India.......

It is about the custom known in the hindi language as pakdau shadi , in which if your daughter is not good enough to get a suitable groom , the groom is kidnapped and beaten and forced to marry her in a hooch-drunk stupor.......

And if you feel that its all a nightmare ,you can pinch yourself and find yourself in reality.....

Its a movie that certainly should have been made ,given the awesome reality of the topic........

And happily ,the director has done justice to the topic ,as he has made a movie on a real topic look very very real......

The ending is insipid though , and is the only ' bollywood ' touch in the film.

That should not take the credit away from the performances of akhilendra mishra ( father of the girl and kidnapper ) , and swati sen ( the bride ) ,who put heart and soul in making the film eminently watchable.......

The director keeps the film's twists and turns churning with skill ,and fails only at the end ,as if he does not know how such a sordid tale can be completed.......

Its not regular bollywood fare however ,and is only for the art-movie lovers

And for them , its a must see............



Citylights---





This is truly a sordid tale as tales go , but it does offer a glimmer of hope in humanity as it shows to what extent a man can go for the sake of his home and his family and his hearth....

It is officially a copy of 'Metro Manila'---an english film .

Rajkumar Yadav ( the leading actor's real name , though he goes by the name of Rajkumar Rao nowadays ) and his wife are down in the dumps in the worst way possible---financially of course....
So they decide to try their luck to the only place where immigrants come from all over India for their pot of gold---Bombay , what else...and they travel all the way from their native place in Rajasthan .

The naivety of these simple townsfolk from small places is exposed in Bombay as they get fooled instantly---they are shown an apartment for rent , where they pay money without any papers being signed . Of course , the people who take money from them disappear and Rajkumar's wife is evicted from that apartment in heartless fashion by it's real owners....this scene is truly heartrending , and my father ( with whom I was watching the movie on TV ) walked out from the living room because he could not bear to see the movie any more....

They are helped by a bar girl , who finds them temporary accomodation . But the couple's future seems to be bleak . And desperation because of shortage of money can lead a person down any path....Rajkumar's wife finds a job as a dance bar girl using the contacts of the bar girl who helped them , or rather she is lured by the bar girl into that path....

The scene in which she meets the bar owner for the first time is another cringeworthy scene---a woman like her who comes from a respectable family is forced to show her body parts for visual examination by the bar owner ; the size of her belly and breasts and buttocks are visually eyed by the bar owner who leeringly approves and then forces her to dance in front of him on a bollywood number . She has to dance in front of drunk men who touch her inappropriately when showering her with cash .

Finally Rajkumar lands a job as a security guard who guards boxes of cash being transported for the rich in vans . He is helped by another guard who teaches him the intricacies of the job . The man also gives him an apartment to live . But obviously there is nothing like a free lunch , and the man has ulterior motives in helping Rajkumar Yadav . In fact , Rajkumar is going to be caught in a web which will ultimately lead to his doom....

So what web is Rajkumar going to be caught in ??
What are the motives of the security guard in helping Rajkumar ??
More importantly , will the couple and their daughter who is accompanying them survive in the big bad world of the big city ??

Watch the movie for the answers....

This is one bleak movie , and I fully understand why my father walked out....

Of course , acting by everybody is good . But the proceedings feel as if they are constantly moving towards impending tragedy....
Does not put you in a good mood , this movie....

Some of the scenes are meant to make you cringe , like the scene where the hero is taken by his security guard friends to a dance bar and he realizes that his wife must be dancing in a bar like this in another part of the city---and he begins to imagine her that way among leering drunkards and goes home frustrated and tries to taunt her about that , only to be slapped by her....

Ultimately the hero manages to triumph in the end , and it is the surprising climax that makes the movie a good movie . But the triumph comes at a terrible price for himself....

This movie has some art house movie features , but I found it hard to say whether it is an art film or commercial ; more art house I think...
But the second half of the movie is more like a thriller and the climax is actionpacked , something that would not disappoint commercial cinema lovers .

Rajkumar Yadav is good as usual , and I am now looking forward to see his films in future . He spoke hindi in rajasthani accent all too well , as if he was a rajasthani .

In the end you walk out with memories of how a good but desperate man went to astonishing lengths to secure a future for his family/children and succeeded....but I didn't have to walk out , for I was in my own home watching the film in HD on big screen TV---The experience of watching was as good as watching in theater....

Verdict---sordid but good .