Ashdoc's Bollywood movie reviews

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Girlfriend ( 2004 )



The release of this lesbian movie was opposed by the right wing parties and when I went to the theatre where it was supposed to be shown , I and the mod babes who had assembled to see the movie had to return home disappointed ; screening of the movie was not allowed at least in my hometown Mumbai/Bombay . It was later released on youtube .

The movie shows two girls living together in Goa---Tanya ( Isha Koppikar ) and Sapna ( Amrita Arora ) . They have been childhood buddies . Tanya has physical attraction for Sapna and plainly lusts for her body . She is the 'man' in the twosome and does all the things men do , especially protecting Sapna from men---I mean the real ones . Sapna is not totally unaware of the attraction but seems to brush it aside from her mind . She is more of a 'straight' female and lives happily under protection of Tanya .

One day in a nightclub a guy named Rahul ( Ashish Chaudhary ) takes up a liking for Sapna and dances with her pretending to be gay , but soon drops the gay act and admits his attraction for her . Sapna is outwardly reluctant but soon succumbs to his pressure , and they start dating together . When Tanya comes to know of this she starts warning Sapna about the ways of men---of dropping women like hot potatoes when they have had their fun . When this does not work , she strikes a bet with Sapna that Rahul with drop her soon . She tries to entice Rahul in bed herself so that it can be proved that he is a two timer , but that ploy fails ; Rahul rejects her advances .

When Rahul and Sapna plan a vacation together , Tanya forces the two to make her join it and thus spoils their romantic outing . Rahul has one solution to this---he thinks that Tanya needs a man for herself and tries to play matchmaker between his male friend and Tanya . But Tanya rejects the friend's advances with a sharp kick on his back ; she is an expert kickboxer who has fought in roadside duels and won them against men . But this arouses Rahul's suspicions . He keeps a watch on the two girls and sees Tanya caressing Sapna in her sleep . Next day he threatens to call his relationship with Sapna off and asks her if she is also a lesbian . Sapna tells of her one time sex with Tanya years ago under influence of drugs and alcohol , but denies being a regular lesbian and begs Rahul to continue the relationship . He agrees .

Next night however Tanya has sex again with Sapna after heavily drugging her , and Rahul begins to thinking of ways of weaning Sapna off Tanya . He decides to make Sapna stay with his mother , but Tanya really has fever on hearing this news and Sapna has to stay . Soon heated exchanges of words begin between Rahul and Tanya whenever they meet . Tanya's possessiveness for Sapna reaches unbearable limits and she tries to kill Rahul by attacking him in a mask . But he survives and refuses to identify the attacker to the police . Reason---both he and his friend who had been attacked when he had made advances feel ashamed to admit that they were not able to tackle a woman physically .

When Rahul again makes plans to date Sapna again , they are expertly foiled by Tanya . Rahul follows them and again sees Tanya caressing a drunk Sapna in a discotheque . Next day he confronts Sapna and calls off the relationship . He warns her that Tanya will never allow her to date a man and have a family and children . That she is a lesbian and loves Sapna madly and is in complete control of her life .

But Sapna discovers she is too deeply in love with Rahul to stop seeing him and grieves his absence . Tanya tries all tricks to hold on to Sapna but fails . In sheer desperation Tanya goes to Rahul's house to kill him with a knife . But Sapna follows her and her intervention saves his life . In the ensuing fight it is Tanya who is killed . Both Rahul and Sapna are sad even though Tanya tried to kill Rahul , for she was a true lover who loved Sapna deeply . They go regularly to Tanya's grave to place flowers on it ; so was Tanya a Christian for her to be buried in a grave ?

And I was sad too for Tanya's death , for she looked so hot in the movie that she didn't deserve to die pining for a girl but deserved a man's caresses....mine , to be precise....yeah Isha Koppikar looks hot in love making scenes that are repeatedly shown in the movie , ooohing and aaahing and making moaning sounds....and she moves so boldly in bed and looked so ravishing making love in top position , and I don't mind woman on top position She looked equally sexy wearing hot pants and gyrating in nightclubs in miniskirts . Amrita Arora looks decent as Sapna and also has some body exposure and sensuous dances . Ashish Chaudhary looks like a cool dude .

Songs are decent and background music is even better . Photography of Goa's sun kissed beaches and the blue sea all around is top class and makes the movie a visual treat . Acting is decent by everyone . The movie however will not be liked by the LGBT community for it shows the lesbian to be a villain . Furthermore , Tanya has been shown to have turned lesbian not due to internal sexual desires but due to her past experiences ; she was regularly beaten by her dad and sexually abused by a man in childhood , thus making her hate men . The LGBT community may think this to be the wrong way to show a lesbian .

Verdict ---okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .



A scandall ( 2016 )



The film is set in beautiful setting of the himalayan hill station of Nainital , a great location for photography of a lake surrounded by green tree covered mountains . Here arrive four friends from a film institute in Delhi in search of a topic for filming a film . They are Koya (Reeth Mazumder), Vidhu (Johny Baweja), Prabal (Puru Chibber), Asmi (Vasundhara Kaul) . It is Koya who has given the idea that has brought them here .

Koya's uncle Manav ( Manav Kaul ) has recently lost his only daughter Kuhu to drowning in the Nainital lake . After this he has started claiming that he can make contact with his dead daughter and can feel her presence around him . The four friends feel that this paranormal experience should be filmed by them . So they arrange a planchette in which the dead Kuhu's spirit really arrives and they can feel it .

But Manav's psychiatrist says that Manav is a manic depressive and that he is seeing only hallucinations . Also that Manav has developed a habit of cybersex recently . To film all this the four put cameras in hidden positions everywhere without Manav's and his wife knowledge . Also they have a flying helicopter camera to record in night .

Manav's wife ( Tanvi Vyas ) says that after the accident Manav has not had sex with her . But the helicopter camera shows Manav indulging in sadomasochism during cybersex . Also he forces his wife to participate in sadomasochism . His wife later confesses that she has seen Manav having sadomasochism with another girl recently .

All these revelations force Koya to ask her boyfriend Vidhu to stop the filming because it is having a deleterious effect on her uncle and his wife . But Vidhu sees the chance of a good film in the making and refuses to stop . Angered by this Koya forcibly climbs on top of Prabal to kiss him in order to take revenge on Vidhu and make him jealous . This in turn makes Prabal's girlfriend Asmi jealous and she berates Prabal for this .

But soon Manav too molests Koya like a possessed man . This drives Vidhu to anger . All of a sudden we are treated to a hot sensuous song and dance between Koya and Vidhu . That is what I was watching the film for anyway . Later the whole group minus Manav meet a person ( Vatsaal Raja ) who does seances , and he is able to uncork the truth of the whole matter from Koya . Yeah , it is Koya who is at the heart of the mystery . Just like she is the heart of the film .

But before the mystery is solved , we are treated to one more sexy song and dance featuring Koya . Reet Mazumder does look hot gyrating on these songs in exposing clothes . And the film is part suspense mystery and part chicksploitation flick for sex maniacs courtesy Reet and her hot kissing scenes and her body exposure .

So what is the mystery ? Actually Koya ( Reet ) has had a boyfriend who was into sadomasochism with her during sex . But he started to prey on little Kuhu too , and Koya had to kill him for attempting paedophilia . But after his death his evil spirit now has entered Manav's body and that is why Manav has developed the habit of kinky cybersex and sadomasochism with his wife . So Koya has to kill Manav too , and then she kills herself for hiding this for so long . End of story .

The photography of naturally beautiful Nainital is good , and background music and songs are good too . Acting however is below par and editing of scenes is horrible . Sequence of one scene after another seems disjointed and the two sexy songs appear out of nowhere in between scenes . The idea behind making the film had some real promise but it has not been filmed properly at all .

Verdict---Bad .

One and a half star out of five .



Baaghi 2 ( Rebel part 2 )



Ranveer Pratap Singh also known as Ronnie ( Tiger Shroff ) is a captain in the Indian army . The opening shots establish his nationalistic credentials by showing him tying a Kashmiri separatist to the front of his jeep and driving through a crowd of stone pelters just like the Indian army did recently . But soon it is matters of the heart that attract his attention more .

His ex girlfriend Neha ( Disha Patani ) has called him to help her search for her kidnapped daughter , remembering him after 4 years . As Ronnie remembers their romance , he gets emotional due to nostalgia . Neha had married another guy ( Shekhar ) because it was the last wish of her dying father , but it was only her father's deteriorating condition that had brought her back to him from her planned elopement and marriage with Ronnie . Ronnie had promised to be for her whenever she needed him , and he takes leave to go to Goa to help Neha get back her daughter .

But as the movie progresses , Ronnie cannot find evidence of the existence of Neha's daughter . In fact the opinion of several people whom he meets is that the daughter never existed but rather she is a figment of Neha's imagination . That Neha is suffering from the after effects of an incident where her car was hijacked by goons who beat her as she tried to fight back , and she is imagining the existence of an unborn daughter after waking up from unconsciousness brought about by the beating .

So what is the truth of the matter ? As Ronnie confronts Neha with what he has been hearing and this leads to catastrophic consequences , the baaghi ( rebel ) within him is unleashed . And this leads to some action sequences deep within the heart of the villain's lair in the dense jungle . Ronnie dons a Rambo like avtar and unleashes a storm of bullets firing machine guns from both hands . And deals with armed helicopters and hundreds of armed men alone by using his martial arts skills .

So do we have another Sylvester Stallone in the making ? No we don't . The action sequences are good for some on the spot entertainment but lack the punch and the raw emotion that made the Rambo series such a big hit . Disha Patani looks good and so delicate and lovely . Randeep Hooda plays a Punjabi cop who dons the looks of a hippie . Manoj Bajpai plays the local Goa cop . Prateik Babbar plays a drug addict . Darshan Kumar plays Neha's husband Shekhar . Shifuji Bharadwaj plays Ronnie's superior in the army with the usual bluff and bluster . Deepak Dobriyal plays a good guy who helps Ronnie and gives up his life in doing so . Acting by all these people is okay but no one is really good .

The songs are better barring the 'ek do teen' number of which Jacqueline Fernandez tries to ape the old dance by Madhuri Dixit on the same number but fails . Background music is good . Photography and colours are decent . The director does manage to give us an emotional climax however and it is the emotion that triumphs over the action , thus ending the movie on a high and improving it's rating to decent rating .

Verdict---Two and a half stars out of five .



Strangers ( 2007 )



Two strangers meet in a train in England . They strike up a conversation after realising that they are both Indians by descent . Both have been living in England for quite a long time . They are travelling in business class , so the compartment is most comfortable . They are Rahul ( Jimmy Shergill ) and Sanjeev Rai ( Kay Kay Menon ) . As they begin to unravel themselves , they begin to tell each other their life stories . And one thing stands out in their life stories---they are both unhappy due to their wives .

Rahul is a flop writer who had a romantic beginning to his relationship with his wife Preeti ( Nandana Sen ) . But as his writings began to flop and his and his wife's plans to have a baby began to peter out due to their dire financial position , their marriage began to fail . Preeti began to date strangers making Rahul increasingly frustrated and jealous .

On the other hand Sanjeev is being driven round the bend due to his wife Nandini's ( Sonali Kulkarni ) crazed obsession with her son's death , something that she cannot turn away from even though their son has been dead for long . And Sanjeev comes up with a deadly plan in the train---that of the two killing each other's wives so that both the men are rid of their troublesome relationships . Because they are strangers no one will know who killed their respective wives .

But their is a twist to the plot and another twist . The first twist is that Sanjeev has no intentions of killing Preeti , for he is having a passionate affair with her . The whole journey has been planned and tickets booked so that he travels with Preeti's husband Rahul in the same compartment and provokes Rahul to murder his ( Sanjeev's ) troublesome wife Nandini . That will allow Sanjeev and Preeti to be together with Sanjeev's wife Nandini conveniently dead and Rahul behind bars for Nandini's murder .

However there is another twist to the tale ; Rahul has been keeping tabs on his wife Preeti and knows about the plot to trap him . And he decides to take revenge on Preeti . Instead of killing Sanjeev's wife , he kills his own wife Preeti . And leaves Preeti's lover Sanjeev devastated .

Colours are rich and the hence the look of the movie is beautiful as the train rolls on in the english countryside . Photography is very good too . As the train rolls in the english countryside the two main protagonists tell each other their stories which come out in flashbacks . Rahul knowing about the love affair of Sanjeev and Preeti comes out in flashbacks only . No songs are there but background music is good .

Acting wise Jimmy Shergill scores over everyone else as Rahul . He looks good too with yellowed dishevelled hair . His wife Preeti is played by Nandana Sen who looks good too . Kay Kay Menon is good as usual . Sonali Kulkarni as Sanjeev's ( Kay Kay Menon ) wife has a smaller role than the other three .

But editing of sequence of scenes was not good and some scenes looked disjointed from each other . This reduced enjoyment of the film . Still it is different film with a different ending which comes as a surprise . However more drama should have been created at the climax which looks bland inspite of the shocker in the end .

Verdict---okay .

Two stars out of five .



The movie however will not be liked by the LGBT community for it shows the lesbian to be a villain.
I suppose it would depend on whether her villainy is correlated to being a lesbian. I've seen several films with similar themes and I never felt that to be the case. The ones that are fresh in my mind being Prey (1977) and Richard's Things (1980) but Butterfly Kiss (1995) also.



Raat aur din ( Night and day ) 1967



This a black and white film . Nargis plays a hindu housewife named Varuna who turns into a free spirited Christian woman who smokes and drinks and goes to nightclubs at night . In her nightly Christian avtar she is called Peggy and has a suitor played by Feroze Khan . Her hindu avtar Varuna's husband is played by Pradeep Kumar . Actually she has multiple personality disorder due to an accident which killed her mother in childhood and was blamed on her . She had admired a Christian friend named Peggy as a child and had secret attraction for Peggy's westernised glamorous lifestyle . That attraction manifests itself at night when the multiple personality disorder temporarily changes her personality . In the end it is proved that the accident that killed her mother was not Varuna's fault . She is cured of her MPD and regains her confidence . Good songs enhance the movie watching experience .

Good movie .



Half girlfriend ( 2017 )



Arjun Kapoor arrives from the eternal rustic place shown in Bollywood movies---the rural state of Bihar what else---and he comes to Indian capital city Delhi to study in a college full of the high brow crowd . Coming from this rustic place as he is , his English is not good . But he impresses Shraddha Kapoor who is another student , by helping her with her basketball skills . She comes from a rich family and wears chic clothes exposing her lovely body and Arjun naturally gets attracted to her .

Arjun asks Shraddha out for a movie and she agrees provided he does not treat it as a date but as a friendly outing . But when Arjun tries to get close to her she does not respond . However she does remain his friend . Part of the reason for this is that Arjun is a genuinely nice guy . But why does a rich girl coming from the high class society have to get even friendly with Arjun , who comes from a totally different background ? The reason is that Shraddha's father is abusive and beats her mother , and hence she has no peace of mind in her house . She rather gets peace of mind singing alone in the college auditorium and by getting wet in rain that cools her body and mind .

But the latest thing that cools Shraddha's mind is Arjun's rustic company and his simple nature , and hence she hangs out with him giving thrust to his hopes of a real relationship developing between them . One day she gets emotional and kisses him on his lips . She invites him for her birthday celebration in her posh house . But here the stark contrast between their classes is all too apparent to Arjun and he questions her about the nature of their relationship . She replies that she is his half girlfriend . When he returns back to college his friends say that half girlfriend means that she is going to use him and drop him , and she is playing with his emotions as he is in love with her .

His friends push Arjun to try to have sex with Shraddha and one day in his hostel room he tries to get close to her and she responds , but when he tries to make love she pushes him away . There is a heated argument between the two and in a fit of anger Arjun pushes Shraddha and she falls . He quickly apologises but Shraddha ends the relationship . The next time she talks to him , she has fixed her marriage to somebody else and invites Arjun to her wedding . Arjun is heartbroken and he goes back to his village in Bihar to try to forget Shraddha . He devotes his time to get girls educated in his village and wants to build a school where girls can be educated along with boys , because the pressing problem of Bihar is the lack of interest that parents show to send girls to school there .

But an year later he comes to the capital city of Bihar called Patna for getting a loan passed by the Bill Gates foundation for schooling for girls , and he is confronted by Shraddha's presence . Once more his feelings for her are aroused and he takes her help in getting the loan passed . He asks her to come visit his village and Shraddha readily agrees . At his village Arjun's mother gets introduced to Shraddha . She asks her as to what happened to Shraddha's marriage , and Shraddha replies that she got divorced within a few months of marriage . Arjun's mother , who comes from a very conservation part of India then wonders aloud as to how long a girl who left her husband so fast would stay with her son . Incensed by this , Shraddha leaves the next day telling Arjun that she has cancer and does not have long to live . But she also leaves a letter saying that she loves him .

Arjun goes to Shraddha's house in Delhi to get her back for himself , but her mother tells him that she has disappeared for months . Arjun then remembers that Shraddha's wish was to sing in a bar in New York before she died , and he flies to New York to live in a friend's place . He is sure that Shraddha has taken up a job in some bar in New York , and like a man madly in love he searches for her from bar to bar in vain . His friend tries to fix him up with another girl , but Arjun remains passionately in love with Shraddha .

To be honest I was impressed with the mad passion of Arjun's love for Shraddha and his quest for getting his love ; Arjun Kapoor's acting does turn one notch higher as he remains devoted to the memory of Shraddha....yes memory , for now it is a long time since her blood cancer diagnosis and surely she must have died....

But behold the truth of the saying that fortune favours the brave and luck favours the most persistent !! One day Arjun does find Shraddha singing in a bar in New York....she is fit and fine and she had lied to him about dying due to cancer , for she wanted him to forget herself because of his conservative mother's opposition to her bachelor son's marriage to a divorcee . But his long journey to find her convinces her of his real and true love for her , and she finally agrees to marry him and comes with him to settle in his village . If love is a pilgrimage and his lover is God for Arjun , the pilgrim has found his destination . It's been a long and difficult journey but it has been worth it .

The movie too is worth spending your prescious time watching it for more than two hours , because you too might get impressed like me with Arjun's zeal for love . Acting by everyone is good and the movie has some sentimental and emotional scenes . Colours are good and photography makes a backward place like Bihar look green and attractive . Background music is decent and songs are decent too . Shraddha Kapoor looks lovely as usual .

Verdict---Decent .

Three stars out of five .



October ( April 2018 )



Varun Dhawan plays Dan , which is short for Danish Walia . He is doing internship for getting a diploma in hotel management in a five star hotel in Indian capital city Delhi . He is hot tempered and somewhat rude and over talkative , even with his superiors . In short , he is different . And that difference makes a lot of difference in his attitude to what happens next....

At a party in which his peers are drinking together , one of his female class mates named Shiuli ( Banita Sandhu ) sits on a balcony and falls down thirty feet after losing her balance . She is so badly injured that even if she recovers she won't ever be walking again . And even recovery is doubtful . But Dan is told that she was asking for him just before she fell , and something snaps in his mind ; he begins to go daily to the hospital in which Shiuli is admitted and begins to help her family in taking care of her .

Actually Shiuli was not Dan's girlfriend or even his friend . She was just a colleague . Yet why does Dan get so involved with her hospitalisation ? The director never tells us the answer and we are left wondering in till the end....the only explanation is that Dan is different .

But astonishingly , an emotional bond is created between Dan and Shiuli due to his taking care of her . It is not expressed through words because Shiuli never recovers enough to speak a full sentence . Rather it is expressed through eyes and tears . Somewhere there is a hint of love....and that's what a person goes to a movie in search of doesn't he ? At least I do .

Meanwhile Dan has become an indispensable part of Shiuli's family as they struggle to take care of her . They never ask as to why he is doing what he is doing , but others do . His mother and his other colleagues are questioning his motives for helping out Shiuli's family , but soon begin to co operate with him seeing the sheer intensity of his commitment to helping Shiuli recover .

But Dan has not been regular to training in the hotel , and his superiors are questioning his commitment to his work . Soon he is kicked out from training . His immediate superior in whose bad books Dan had always been , has now developed a respect for Dan's devotion to Shiuli and gets him a job in another town . But Shiuli shows a severe reaction to his departure and he has to quit his job and come back .

Much of the movie shows the hospital atmosphere and is not easy to watch a patient lying in hospital . But as the movie progresses we become more used to the proceedings and watch with increasing empathy as Dan takes care of Shiuli .

Shiuli means night jasmine flowers , which are a favourite of Shiuli . She used to collect them from childhood , and Dan had seen her collect them in the hotel gardens . He collects and keeps them near Shiuli in her early stages in hospital in hope that she would wake up on smelling their fragrance . These flowers blossom in October , and that is why the movie has got the name .

Finally Shiuli passes away leaving Dan free to lead his life . The same hotel that had removed him takes him back for training probably out of sheer respect for the care and devotion he showed for Shiuli , though why he was taken back is not expressly shown . Like much of the movie , what is happening is left unspoken....

This decidedly an offbeat film that won't appeal to the regular Bollywood film buff , and aficionados of masala movies are advised to stay away from it . But for an off beat film lover , the movie grows on you . You begin to slowly like it and it makes an emotional impact only later . I am one of them....

Background music is decent and colours and photography are decent . Acting is good by everyone , including Shiuli's mother played by Geetanjali Rao .

Verdict---Decent .

Three stars out of five .



Omerta ( May 2018 )



Review has spoilers

'Omerta' is a strange name for a film on a terrorist , for it is the code of silence and non co operation with authorities of the Sicilian criminal fraternity . The film's main protagonist is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh , and 'Omerta' rhymes with Omar which is part of the main character's name . Maybe that's why the name was chosen for the film .

Omar was a person of pakistani descent raised in Britain , and was an educated man . His father wanted him to lead a normal life of a civilian , and was bitterly opposed to his radicalisation---something that is brought out in several scenes in the film . Even the neighbourhood maulana ( religious figure ) who was a radical himself , thought that Omar was used to too much luxury to lead the tough life of a jehadi because it is filled with too many privations .

But the scenes shown on television of the war in Bosnia and sufferings of muslims there made Omar choose the path of jehad in order to counter the atrocities that were supposedly being committed on muslims everywhere . Here too he was subject to taunts that he was a softy who had lived too much of the luxurious life in Britain to go on the path of jehad , but Omar showed what a hard individual he really was by savagely beating the person who taunted him .

In fact his education brought him to special attention of the notorious ISI ( inter services intelligence ) that is the spy agency of pakistan and masterminds the training of jehadis . Omar was picked to be future leader of jehad because according to one of the pakistani masterminds of terrorism it is the educated jehadi who instils real fear in his opponents minds rather than an illiterate one .

In pakistan Omar was introduced to every pakistani jehadi's favourite obsession which is Kashmir ( what else ) and his focus turned from Bosnia to Kashmir and the much hyped ( much exaggerated in pakistan at least ) so called sufferings of the kashmiris at the hands of the Indian army . And his attention turned to India .

The training in the jehad factory or rather terrorist training camp shows a scene of a terrorist jumping down from a cliff to his death just to show his readiness to follow his masters' commands , and as he falls everyone erupts in the war cry 'Allah-hu-Akbar' . After his training is complete Omar is sent to Indian capital city Delhi to commit jehad against India .

Here he uses a hindu name , but at a routine road checking the Delhi police recognise him for what he is and call him a ' mullah' . But naive westerners are fooled by his sophistication as he slickly uses his western upbringing to become friends with westerners---two british and one czech male and one american female . And kidnaps them and holds them hostage . But the Indian authorities catch him and put him in jail . He is hung upside down and beaten up .

But what follows is the most shameful episode for India as a nation . Actually it is quite clear that Omar is an pakistani ISI agent . Why is he allowed to live and not put to death by India ? Instead his father is allowed to meet him and he brings a lawyer who tries to extradite him as he is a British citizen . Omar even tries to radicalise the Indian muslim lawyer by asking him if he is happy in India but is rebuffed by the lawyer who says he is very happy . Then an Indian jet is hijacked and the pakistan backed terrorists who hijacked it demand that Omar be released along with others in order to let the hijacked passengers be let free . The Indian government releases Omar and Omar arrives in triumph in Pakistan to be paraded on the shoulders of other terrorists to the cries of 'Allah-hu-Akbar' .

Omar becomes a hero in pakistan and gets married to a pakistani lady . He openly boasts about being part of the pakistani establishment now and his house is guarded by security personnel . Another good point---the film does not shy away from admitting that a large part of the nation of pakistan supports terrorism and does take the usual bollywood hypocritical line that pakistan also equally suffers from terrorism as India . Women of good families are ready to marry terrorists like Omar and one scene has a character saying the Omar will become a hero for millions of muslims .

9/11 occurs ; the twin towers of the world trade centre of New York are shown falling , and Omar's name is linked to the plot . Pakistani authorities assure Omar that he will be put on trial in Pakistan only , but his wife is afraid for him .

The kidnapping and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl is probably the highlight of the film and will interest westerners . Daniel is out in search of story on 9/11 , but asks too many questions and that too recklessly . The ISI wants him silenced before he publishes his story . And the man they turn to do it is Omar . Omar entices Daniel with the hope of getting him to meet some man named Geelani , but holds him hostage . Omar taunts Daniel for being a jew and his people killing muslims in Palestine and torturing pakistanis in Guantanamo bay prison . When Daniel tries to escape he is killed brutally with a knife by Omar himself . The killing is not shown as it is too brutal but the sound effects of the knife attacking the victim repeatedly give it's brutality away as does the blood spattered face of Omar at the end of the scene . Omar is currently in jail for this . But he is unrelenting ; smiles and waves to his followers whenever he is in front of cameras .

Rajkumar Rao has acted the role of Omar quite well . The movie does not show his upbringing at all . It moves at a quick pace with no songs and minimum fuss . Photography and background music is all good though the colours are little bleak due to the dark subject of the film . The film does not glorify Omar and hence is realistic .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .



Dear Zindagi ( Dear Life ) December 2016



Alia Bhatt plays a cinematographer in the film industry . Her career is in Mumbai but she is from Goa . Her problem is that she moves from relationship to relationship but shirks away from commitment because of past psychological issues .

Alia really likes Kunal Kapoor and he proposes to her , but because of her issues she misses the bus---she rejects him , and by the time she realises her mistake it is too late . This and problems with the landlord of the house she stays in force her to shift back to Goa , where her parents try to fix her match with various boys without success because her personal issues are with them . But by chance she meets Shah Rukh Khan who is a psychologist . He helps her deal with her past and look at life with a new perspective . He changes her relationship with her parents as she begins to look at them in a new light . Many of her therapy sessions with Shah Rukh occur in the outdoors , and even those in the indoors mesmerise Alia so much that she again falls in love....

Acting is nice by everyone , especially by Alia , SRK and her best friend ( Yashaswini Dayama ) . Because of the semi westernised settings many of the dialogues are in hinglish ( mixture of hindi and english ) . It is the kind of movie that will be liked more by women , though men won't mind sitting with them too...

Songs and music is decent and photography is okay . Alia looks cute in short clothes . SRK looks mature and wizened with a beard . Some of the conversations between Alia and SRK are endearing and the moments of bonding with Yashaswini are really cuddly .

All in all , a decent movie . I will give three stars out of five . Women will give more .
I saw this film recently. My first Bollywood film. I'll give it a big review on my thread later, but I will say I enjoyed it very much. Alia Bhatt is really gorgeous.



Ek paheli ( A mystery ) 1971



Dr Sudhir ( Feroz Khan ) arrives in Goa after completing his education in a foreign country to take over his dead father's business . He goes to buy a piano for his house . Here he meets a beautiful girl named Maria ( Tanuja ) , who says she would not permit anyone but him to play the piano . When he has paid the money and he goes back to the place where Maria was standing , but she has disappeared . When Sudhir keeps a house warming party , he asks a lady to play the piano but she suddenly collapses and dies while playing it .

One night Sudhir wakes up to see Maria play the piano , but his servant comes with choice words for the noise waking him in the night . By the time Sudhir has quietened the servant , Maria has disappeared . Next day while riding a boat Sudhir sees Maria on a graveyard on a hill . Sudhir rushes to meet her and she is looking so stunning in attractive skirt that he confesses that he loves her . But Maria says that even though she has the same feelings for him she is in a situation from where she cannot unite with him . She also complains about his servant using choice words because he was woken and says that she will not forgive him . When Sudhir goes back home the servant is dead .

The situation is now complicated by Sudhir's father's friend Shankarlal ( Madan Puri ) trying to pin the blame of the two deaths in the house on Sudhir , so that he can take over the father's business after Sudhir is in police custody . But Sudhir's loyal assistants foil the plan . So Shankarlal hatches another plan to kill Sudhir .

Meanwhile Sudhir meets Maria again and she shows him her house in which no one is there . Her hands are so cold . While coming back he is stabbed in the back and awakes in hospital . But is told that there was no stabbing and his car had an accident . He tells Shankarlal of his meetings with Maria in the graveyard .

Shankarlal decides to murder Sudhir when he goes to meet Maria because the graveyard is a lonely place where no one else is there . But Shankarlal is shocked to see a third person there---who else but Maria , and has to change his plans . He hatches another plan to murder Sudhir with the help on another woman who has a resemblance to Maria . The plan is to make her look like Maria and entice Sudhir , and kill him on a lonely railway track by making hi follow her there . But Sudhir's assistants ( played by Rajendranath and Tun Tun ) are too loyal and they foil the plan again and get Shankerlal arrested by the police officer ( played by Sanjeev Kumar ) .

Sudhir goes to meet Maria in the girls college run by a convent , where she has told him she studies . But learns there that Maria was a student who had committed suicide decades ago because her father had sold her only solace---the piano , which he needed to sell to finance his drinking . The same piano that stands in Sudhir's house .

Now the truth dawns on Sudhir , as why Maria meets him only in a graveyard and why her hands are so cold . Why she kills anyone who plays her piano ( like the woman who dies playing it in the house warming party ) or kills the person who gets angry that she disturbed him by playing the piano---like the servant who complained about being woken in the night . She is the ghost of the young woman who died decades ago . A beautiful spirit that has been so hurt in the past that it is capable of murdering people .

But then why does the spirit of the beautiful Maria favour him with her loving companionship and allow only him to play her piano ? Sudhir goes to the graveyard to find out . However he does not see Maria at her usual place , but at some distance calling him to join her . Sudhir rushes to join only to realise too late that he has been enticed to the edge of a cliff . And before he can recover he has been pushed over....he dies after falling off the cliff and getting his head smashed as he falls hundreds of feet below ; the spirit of Maria has killed another victim .

But the story does not end there....Sudhir gets the answers to his questions only after he dies . The reason why Maria favoured him was love . Yes , it was a spirit in need of love and companionship and had selected Sudhir to fall in love . And Maria killed Sudhir because she wanted him to become a spirit like herself and love her and be with her always and forever....in the end she wakes him up from his death slumber and embraces him and holds him in her arms . The two are finally united for all times to come....

Epilogue---I am too willing to be pushed off a cliff if the spirit which pushes me is of a beautiful young woman in love with me and wants my permanent companionship . But , only goodlooking female spirits should apply for this august task

Acting by everyone is okay and so is photography . Both hero and heroine look good and so young . Songs are decent and background music is appropriately mysterious .

Verdict---decent .

Three out of five stars .



Raazi ( All too ready ) May 2018



Raazi is the true story of an Indian female spy who was deliberately married to a Pakistani army man in order to gain military secrets of Pakistan and succeeded in getting vital information about the movement of a Pakistani submarine named Ghazi during the Indo pak war of 1971 . This helped the Indian armed forces counter it's attack .

The big thing about this female spy was that she was a muslim , and that too kashmiri muslim to boot . That itself makes the topic worthy of a film . Her name was Sehmat and is played by Alia Bhatt .

Sehmat's father is spying for India in Pakistan . He belongs to a family of freedom fighters . But he is dying due to cancer and wants to keep the legacy of his patriotism alive . So he selects his daughter Sehmat to carry on the family tradition of spying for India in Pakistan .

This is a life defining decision for Sehmat . She does not merely have to go to Pakistan but she has to live there . Above all , she has to marry a pakistani and to literally sleep with him . And to top it all , she has to give birth to his half pakistani son....

In the midst of all this , Sehmat has to spy on vital documents that contain secrets of pakistani military and pass them to Indian agents . To deal with potential danger , she is trained in physical combat and trained to kill people by Indian intelligence . She has to carry the required equipment for espionage to her marital home .

The film's big concession to filminess is the love story of Sehmat with her pakistani husband played by Vicky Kaushal . He is shown to be a real gentleman and that is too filmy . He refuses to sleep with her until she really falls in love with him and is too nice to her , even when she has been caught spying for arch enemy India . Does not sound like a real character to me . Certainly his oh so nice character has been built up to bring about a romantic angle to the film .

In fact the film shows all pakistanis in the household that Sehmat is married into to be nice people , and one sees the hand of the liberal lobby behind this . The liberals would like us to believe that across the border live nice people without a trace of hate for us in their minds . Inspite of being a pakistani military family , no one among them has really anything bad to say about India in the film . No repetitions of Bhutto's language of thousand year war against India and no mention of jehad . In fact when Sehmat's husband comes to know that she likes hindustani classical music , he brings records of that for her to listen . To a nationalist like me , the whole atmosphere built up in the house of Sehmat's in laws sounds too fake and pakistani appeasing . Pakistanis are jehad crazed barbarians with fanatical hatred for India and that should have been brought out in the film to stay close to reality .

Of course , one person who does not really gel with Sehmat is the family servant Abdul ( Rafiq Zakaria ) . He is the one who finds out about her being a spy and Sehmat has to kill him by crushing him under a truck . Then her own brother in law comes close to finding out the truth and Sehmat dispatches him by hitting him with a poisoned tip of an umbrella . She has a team of Indian spies helping her in pakistan and they help in the second killing . After that she has to live normally with her sister in law whose husband she has just killed , and all this takes a toll on her especially the brutal manner in which she has to kill Abdul .

Finally her cover is blown off and Indian agents try spirit her away . But complications occur and they have to kill innocent people and are ready to kill even her herself , so that she is not caught alive . In the midst of all this , she is confronted by her husband with the truth . But he shows grudging respect for the fact that she is doing all this for her nation India !! No trace of hatred for her inspite of her betrayal of his love !! Way too filmy man and way too liberal !! Such people exist only in films and not real life .

In the end Sehmat is disgusted by the behaviour of the Indian agents in killing innocents including trying to kill her , and does not really appreciate her Indian handler's well meant words that in this sort of confrontation it is winning the war by hook or crook that is more important and not individuals like herself or others who got killed . She gets disenchanted from the whole spy business and becomes lonely and depressed . But the pakistani secrets she gave prove vital for India's war effort , and her son joins the Indian military .

Alia Bhatt is a wonderful actress who brings about every emotion of the character of Sehmat all too well . Background music is good and photography is decent . There are many unknown people who have done countless secret missions with great personal suffering and sacrifice for the country without getting recognition for it and the film will make us remember them all .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .



Sins ( 2005 )



'Sins' movie is based on a real life story of an Indian catholic priest involved in a sexual relationship with a girl . The movie was opposed by the christian community of India as they thought that the portrayal would give a bad name to catholic priests in particular and christians in general . The movie as well as the real life story happened in the southern state of Kerala , which had a large number of christians in the 80s when the story happened . Today the christians in Kerala are dwindling somewhat in numbers .

Father William ( Shiney Ahuja ) begins as a kind priest who helps a girl named Rosemary ( Seema Rahmani ) whose bicycle has broken down to reach her exam centre . She is studying to be a nurse . The girl develops a friendship with him and asks him to help her learn driving a car . Once when she has to push the car stuck in a ditch , she gets dirt on her clothes . She has to remove the clothes in the priest's house and he gets to see her lovely back and body half naked . Urged by uncontrollable lust , William embraces her and takes her to his bed for making love and she responds to his overtures . What we get to see is a love making scene with topless half nudity of Seema Rahmani---the actress playing Rosemary , that gives you the hots . There are other such scenes of love making in half naked form in the film and boy , they do give you the hots .

Soon a sexual relationship develops between William and Rosemary , and her brother and her mother do not object . In fact they want financial favours in lieu of Rosemary's sexual favours for the father . Years pass . But the whole thing becomes well known and Rosemary's reputation is tarred . India is a conservative society and a girl in an unholy relationship with a catholic priest is shunned . People throw her out of gatherings of respectable people and she is greatly disturbed by this .

At first William is disturbed by his own sinful behaviour and repeatedly goes to confess his sins to another priest in disguise . He also does repentance for his sins as prescribed by the priest . But soon lust overtakes him and he becomes unrepentant . Rosemary wants him to marry her by leaving the catholic order so that she gains respectability and is not shunned by society any more . He starts dilly dallying on this point of marriage .

The matter soon escalates when William is about to be promoted to Vicar , which will make him a powerful person . He refuses Rosemary's entreaties to marry her as it will ruin his career . She realises that he has become a selfish person and is disgusted . To mollify her William marries her off to Graham ( Nitesh Pande ) , who is a person indebted to him by some past favour . But Graham and Rosemary are forbidden by William to come close . Rosemary has to remain William's woman and his only according to him .

But Graham and Rosemary soon develop an emotional connection , and they would like to be together as a real man and wife . But Father William employs goons to keep a watch on them and intimidate Rosemary into remaining loyal to him . He becomes increasingly violent and beats and kicks her into submission . Amazingly , the entire local catholic establishment does not censure him for his unethical behaviour . Speaks volumes about the rot in the establishment .

Graham however meets Rosemary in the dead of the night and they make passionate love . The scene is beautifully pictured with emotional music and remains a romantic memory of love making from the movie . I liked the movie best at the point of the scene .

Soon Graham hatches a plan to help Rosemary escape to Bombay---as the city of Mumbai was known at that time . And they escape out of William's clutches seemingly . But her mother naively tells William about the spot where Rosemary used to go alone to reflect on herself . That spot is on a lonely stretch near the sea and has a cross . Rosemary also spent some romantic moments with Graham there . Rosemary used to pray to the cross , which shows that even an alleged heretic like her who was in an unholy sexual relationship with a priest needs God to form a spiritual connection . Even sinners need the almighty....

One day when Rosemary's mother ( played by Uttara Baokar ) is alone at the spot , William surprises her there and brutally kills her by strangling her with his bare hands . His transformation as villain is complete . Meanwhile Rosemary is pregnant with Graham's child and is on top of her happiness in Bombay . The news of her mother's death brings her happiness crashing down and she and Graham have to come back to Kerala . She meets William , who repeatedly kicks her in the abdomen and punches her till she begs for mercy on her unborn child and William then allows her to go .

Rosemary contacts the police because she is suspicious that William killed her mother and the police begin to gather evidence about the murder . The church authorities in Quilon are informed and the noose is being tightened around William's neck . Police guards are posed to protect Rosemary as William is hell bent on revenge for this . But one day tragedy strikes ; William's goons get past the police guards and murder Rosemary by knives .

William is doomed by his acts ; doomed by his uncontrollable lust for Rosemary and his open venture into a life of sin . His sins have caught up with him . He is captured by police and condemned to death by the court , and he unrepentantly tells Graham before his hanging that he killed Rosemary because he loved her and wanted to punish her for her disloyalty . But her forgets that Rosemary wanted to marry him and his own desire to stick to his position in the church was what turned her to the arms of another man .

The light eyed and able bodied Shiney Ahuja doesn't look like a priest , to be honest . He looks like a hero of a film rather than a villain . He later was accused of rape in real life by his maid . Wonder if his role in this film had some mental effect on him....??

Acting and photography is good , and the film is in english language throughout . Seema Rahmani is not goodlooking but her sensuous lovemaking scenes do give you the hots .

Verdict---decent .

Three stars out of five .



Raazi ( All too ready ) May 2018



Raazi is the true story of an Indian female spy who was deliberately married to a Pakistani army man in order to gain military secrets of Pakistan and succeeded in getting vital information about the movement of a Pakistani submarine named Ghazi during the Indo pak war of 1971 . This helped the Indian armed forces counter it's attack .

The big thing about this female spy was that she was a muslim , and that too kashmiri muslim to boot . That itself makes the topic worthy of a film . Her name was Sehmat and is played by Alia Bhatt .

Sehmat's father is spying for India in Pakistan . He belongs to a family of freedom fighters . But he is dying due to cancer and wants to keep the legacy of his patriotism alive . So he selects his daughter Sehmat to carry on the family tradition of spying for India in Pakistan .

This is a life defining decision for Sehmat . She does not merely have to go to Pakistan but she has to live there . Above all , she has to marry a pakistani and to literally sleep with him . And to top it all , she has to give birth to his half pakistani son....

In the midst of all this , Sehmat has to spy on vital documents that contain secrets of pakistani military and pass them to Indian agents . To deal with potential danger , she is trained in physical combat and trained to kill people by Indian intelligence . She has to carry the required equipment for espionage to her marital home .

The film's big concession to filminess is the love story of Sehmat with her pakistani husband played by Vicky Kaushal . He is shown to be a real gentleman and that is too filmy . He refuses to sleep with her until she really falls in love with him and is too nice to her , even when she has been caught spying for arch enemy India . Does not sound like a real character to me . Certainly his oh so nice character has been built up to bring about a romantic angle to the film .

In fact the film shows all pakistanis in the household that Sehmat is married into to be nice people , and one sees the hand of the liberal lobby behind this . The liberals would like us to believe that across the border live nice people without a trace of hate for us in their minds . Inspite of being a pakistani military family , no one among them has really anything bad to say about India in the film . No repetitions of Bhutto's language of thousand year war against India and no mention of jehad . In fact when Sehmat's husband comes to know that she likes hindustani classical music , he brings records of that for her to listen . To a nationalist like me , the whole atmosphere built up in the house of Sehmat's in laws sounds too fake and pakistani appeasing . Pakistanis are jehad crazed barbarians with fanatical hatred for India and that should have been brought out in the film to stay close to reality .

Of course , one person who does not really gel with Sehmat is the family servant Abdul ( Rafiq Zakaria ) . He is the one who finds out about her being a spy and Sehmat has to kill him by crushing him under a truck . Then her own brother in law comes close to finding out the truth and Sehmat dispatches him by hitting him with a poisoned tip of an umbrella . She has a team of Indian spies helping her in pakistan and they help in the second killing . After that she has to live normally with her sister in law whose husband she has just killed , and all this takes a toll on her especially the brutal manner in which she has to kill Abdul .

Finally her cover is blown off and Indian agents try spirit her away . But complications occur and they have to kill innocent people and are ready to kill even her herself , so that she is not caught alive . In the midst of all this , she is confronted by her husband with the truth . But he shows grudging respect for the fact that she is doing all this for her nation India !! No trace of hatred for her inspite of her betrayal of his love !! Way too filmy man and way too liberal !! Such people exist only in films and not real life .

In the end Sehmat is disgusted by the behaviour of the Indian agents in killing innocents including trying to kill her , and does not really appreciate her Indian handler's well meant words that in this sort of confrontation it is winning the war by hook or crook that is more important and not individuals like herself or others who got killed . She gets disenchanted from the whole spy business and becomes lonely and depressed . But the pakistani secrets she gave prove vital for India's war effort , and her son joins the Indian military .

Alia Bhatt is a wonderful actress who brings about every emotion of the character of Sehmat all too well . Background music is good and photography is decent . There are many unknown people who have done countless secret missions with great personal suffering and sacrifice for the country without getting recognition for it and the film will make us remember them all .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .
Saw this last weekend and really enjoyed it. I think I was the only white person in a very packed cinema so...yeah, that was an experience.

It was interesting to read your opinion on how they potrayed the Pakistani's as too nice. I don't know much about the conflict at all, so it'd be interesting to learn more about what happened.

And I agree, Alia Bhatt is wonderful in this film.She's been my main ticket into the world of Bollywood, and I hope to expand onto other films soon after.

Reading your thread is a good idea on what is good and not so good.




Reading your thread is a good idea on what is good and not so good.
Thanks for the appreciation mate



Tum bin ( Without you ) 2001



Priyanshu Chatterjee plays Shekhar Malhotra , a successful MBA in India . One day at a party he is introduced to Amar Shah ( Raquesh Vashisth ) , who is owner of Shah industries in Canada . The two strike up an instant friendship . But that very night Amar is killed when he comes under Shekhar's vehicle , even though the accident is not Shekhar's mistake as he had to suddenly swerve the car to avoid a small girl who had run onto the road after her dog . Shekhar stops to see if anything can be done to save Amar , but suddenly Amar's mobile phone rings . Shekhar picks up the call to hear the voice of Pia ( Sandali Sinha ) , who is Amar's fiancee and is heard singing a romantic couplet thinking that Amar has picked up the call . But Shekhar's friend forces him to run from the spot to avoid arrest . A policeman named D'mello later comes to the spot and vows to arrest the person who caused the accident .

Back home the memory of the voice of the fiancee on phone repeatedly reminds Shekhar of the fact that Amar must be having near and dear ones in Canada , who must be waiting for him and must have been devastated due to the loss . A caring person like him cannot bear to live with the guilt of having taken away someone in the prime of youth from his relatives . So Shekhar goes to Canada to confess his perfidy to them and try to arrange help for them if he can .

On reaching Amar's house in Canada Shekhar sees Amar's dad and confesses his role in the accident to the dad . But someone else comes in the room and tells him that the dad has lost his voice and is in shock temporarily due to his son's loss and cannot comprehend anything . Shekhar does not have the courage to admit his perfidy again to others in the house and retreats from there .

Shekhar soon finds out that Amar's business called Shah industries is failing due to Amar's death and his fiancee Pia is desperately trying to save the business . Shekhar meets her and offers his help for free claiming that Amar had offered him a job in his business when he had met him in India , and he would like to help out in their bad times . Pia is reluctant but allows him to work for no pay in memory of Amar's promise .

Soon Shekhar shows his skills in business and the company begins to revive . Pia is impressed by his abilities and so is the rest of the Shah family . Shekhar becomes an indispensable part of Shah industries and soon begins to frequent the Shah household . His easygoing nature endears him to everyone and he strikes a friendship with Amar's young sister to the point that she begins to feel him to be a replacement for her lost brother .

And Pia ? She and Shekhar are always together to run the business and she begins to like Shekhar . She misses him whenever he is not in the office and this fact is noticed by everyone . Soon her well wishers are after her to strike up a relationship with Shekhar and even the Shah family approves of the idea .

Into this situation comes another young man named Abhi ( Himanshu Malik ) , who promises a bailout that will catapult Shah industries to new heights . He is far richer than them and is also personally interested in marrying Pia . But Shekhar feels that the bailout will make Shah industries lose it's independence , or maybe he is also in love with Pia and Abhi's interest in Pia irks him ? But Pia decides to accept the offer of both the bailout and the marriage in order to take her fiance Amar's dream which is Shah industries to great heights .

When Shekhar comes to know of Pia's decision he decides to walk out of her life and her business and go back to India , but this is to the chagrin of Amar's family and Amar's sister who have begun to feel Shekhar to be an indispensable part of their lives . And when Pia sees Shekhar gone then his true value is realised by her ; she cannot live without him as she is in love....

But as Shekhar begins to board the plane which will carry him to India , the police officer who has vowed to capture the person who caused Amar's accident comes to arrest him . So how will Pia and the Shah family come to terms with the fact that the person they have come to think of as their own was actually the one who killed their beloved Amar ? Will Pia ever have the same feelings for Shekhar after this revelation ?

Relax you all....love will find a way ; that's the motto of the film . And love does find a way , with Amar's father finally opening his mouth and admitting that Shekhar had confessed his perfidy to him on the first day of his arrival in Canada and that he has forgiven Shekhar because he believes that it was not Shekhar's fault in the accident . Shekhar and Pia are destined to live life together , but only after a few more twists and turns along the way .

The film is embellished with superb background music and good songs that enhance our viewing pleasure , and great photography of snowbound Canada makes it a visual treat . The heroine Sandali Sinha and all three of her suitors are all good looking and act appropriately . Filled with many emotional scenes and fine music accompanying those scenes , the film is a must see for aficionados for romance .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .



Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain

May 2018



This is a story of people living in the small town of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges river . They live a simple no frills middle class existence . The husband Yashwant Batra ( Sanjay Mishra ) is a no nonsense person who dominates his wife and does not allow her to do a money earning job outside home . He works in the post office and provides the basic necessities to his family and feels that this much is enough . His wife comes from a higher class than him and has somewhat taller ambitions about lifestyle than him . And those ambitions include more care and attention and love from him---which is not forthcoming . Yashwant feels humiliated at the household functions of his wife's family due to their difference in class and is reluctant to go there .

But the wife named Kiran ( Ekavali Khanna ) is nice and adjustable and has adjusted with this arrangement for 24 years without complaining too much . The couple have daughter named Preeti ( Shivani Raghuvanshi ) , who feels her mother's discomfort and is more rebellious . She is in love with a neighbouring boy called Jugnu ( Anshuman Jha ) who her father dislikes maybe because he has the looks of a loafer from the streets of Banaras . Father feels that he can get a better match for his daughter .

Matters come to a head when father arbitrarily decides the marriage of his daughter without consulting her or her mother and the daughter breaks out into open rebellion by secretly marrying the boy she loves . When her father slaps her for this , she openly chides him for not treating her mother properly for years and says she does not want this kind of life . As the verbal confrontation grows more intense , Yashwant asks his wife to leave him for good . She is shocked but agrees to go if her daughter is married by proper rituals to the boy she loves . Yashwant agrees and the daughter is married again by the parents to Jugnu , the boy she loves .

After the wedding when Kiran prepares to leave , Yashwant does not stop her and she goes to her brother's house . Jugnu's father gets her a job in a college as lecturer and she likes it there . But Yashwant is secretly missing his wife . His daughter , her husband and father in law put pressure on him to woo back his wife . This leads to some corny situations where Yashwant sends roses to the wrong female lecturer by mistake and gets beaten up .

Kiran's brother sends her to a foreign country to start a new life , but she misses her husband there and sends him letters there . Yashwant responds and they have correspondence by letters in which matters are settled between them . Kiran decides to come back and asks for Yashwant to receive her at the airport to take her home .

Meanwhile Yashwant comes into contact with a man ( played by Pankaj Tripathi ) who is trying to save his sick wife's life and cares for her in hospital . He desperately tries to keep the romance in their marriage alive even these circumstances . As Yashwant sees the man's wife die before his eyes , he realises the value of what he had and what he lost . He decides to change himself to suit his wife's tastes . He decides to become more adjustable and flexible and modern and caring and loving and attentive to his wife's concerns .

When his wife lands back in India , it is changed husband she sees . And his daughter and son in law are thrilled to see this . As his scooter takes off with his wife , better days are ahead for this middle aged couple .

It is a simple story and very simply shown on screen , but somewhere there is an endearing quality that you like . This could be the story of normal people who are unlike screen heroes who have larger than life love stories . It could be the story of you and me and countless ordinary people .

Background music and songs are decent and photography is okay . Acting is good by everyone .

Verdict---Decent .





Parmanu

( Atomic bomb ) June 2018



Parmanu is the story describing how India dramatically declared itself as a full fledged nuclear power on the world stage by testing 5 nuclear bombs in 1998 , surprising the whole world . Eventually India's nuclear weapon status was legitimized by a nuclear deal with the USA , which proves the hindi maxim 'duniya jhukti hai , bas jhukane wala chahiye' which means 'the world will bend for you , if you have someone with the will to make it bend for you' . In this case the 'someone' was India's prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee , and the team of scientists which carried out the tests was led by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam .

The story begins with an IAS officer Ashwat Raina ( John Abraham ) suggesting in a high level government meeting that in response to China testing it's 43rd nuclear bomb , India must respond by testing it's own nuclear bomb . This is in 1995 . Against scepticism by others , this plan is implemented by the government but without Ashwat's involvement . Ashwat had chalked out an elaborate plan to avoid the watch of American satellites , but that is disregarded . So the preparations for testing come to the notice of American satellites in space and America raises a hue and cry about the impending tests , due to which they are aborted . Ashwat is suspended from his job and is forced to retire to the hill station of Mussourie .

But in 1998 a new nationalistic government led by the BJP comes to power , and Ashwat is reassigned to the job of leading a team to test nuclear bombs in Pokhran in the desert state of Rajasthan close to Pakistan . His main contact with the PMO is Himanshu Shukla ( Boman Irani ) who is principal secretary to the PM . Ashwat selects a team of military professionals and scientists who are given code names from the hindu epic Mahabharata .

The biggest challenge in front of the team is to make preparations for the nuclear tests without the americans knowing about them . So they have to work in times when the American satellites are not watching them---known as blind spots . Before the satellites see them , the team and the military personnel assigned to them have to cover their tracks . The preparations go on for several days , so this has to be done repeatedly---a challenging task indeed . Sand storms in the desert create their own problems which have to be dealt with .

The other challenge is to avoid being detected by American and Pakistani spies at Pokhran . Here the director takes the cinematic liberty of making the Pakistani spy interfere in Ashwat's personal life by making his wife ( played by Anuja Sathe ) suspect that he is having an affair with a female member of his team ( played by Diana Penty ) . Needless to say , this is all fiction though it does heighten the entertainment quotient of the film . A totally filmy fight is shown between Ashwat and the Pakistani spy . None of this really happened in real life and is shown for increasing the drama in the film .

The last part of the film is like a race against time . The americans are closing on to the reality through the spies and the satellites are putting an ever increasing watch on the Pokhran test site . As the americans come to realise that a nuclear test is imminent , the Indians have to speedily put into action the mechanism for exploding the bombs . Thus the climax of the film is almost a nail biting thriller . Just before the americans put the stops , India manages to explode nukes that shatter the sands of the uninhabited desert and send shockwaves throughout politico-military establishments across the globe . A new nuclear power has been born....

As the Indian flag flies tall in the aftermath of the tests near the test site and the soldiers stand to salute it , you cannot but feel a sense of pride and thrill of patriotism . The emotional music score does heighten your feelings at this point .

Acting is good by everyone and so is the background music . Songs are good too , though they are mostly in the background . Photography is decent and so are the colours .

The movie will be understood mostly by the educated audience and is not for the masses . It is of course a must see for all nationalists of whom I am one .

Verdict---Good .