Ashdoc's Bollywood movie reviews

Dashakriya ( funeral rites ) December 2017




This film is based on the novel written by Baba Bhand a few decades ago . The movie villanises the priests who perform the funeral day rites of deceased Hindus.

The setting is the holy town of Paithan which was the ancient Pratishthan ; the capital of the Satavahana dynasty that produced the famous emperor Shalivahana also known as Gautamiputra Satkarni . It is situated on the banks of the Godavari river and known as dakshin Kashi . Today it is the centre for funeral rites of dead Hindus .

The most powerful priest among the priests doing these rites is played by Manoj Joshi. He is shown always going about town with a goon cum bodybuilder behind him . Now this was a novelty for me . Which priest performing rituals goes around accompanied by thugs ? I have never seen nor heard of such priests.

But the priests do more shocking things . They openly rush like street hawkers at people who come to the bank of the river with dead bodies . And they peddle their skills at performing rites hungrily hounding the people in the hope they choose them for performing the rites . All in a shameless bid to earn money.

During performance of the rites the priests force the persons they are dealing with to cough up more money by claiming that otherwise the souls of the deceased won't be released from their bodies. And the priests come to blows with bamboo sticks over who will do the rites . Manoj Joshi grabs the maximum customers from the clutches of weaker priests who lead a hand to mouth existence.

All this leads to complaints to the head of the town , played by Dileep Prabhavalkar. He insults Manoj Joshi on an auspicious occasion and Manoj Joshi takes revenge by using strong arm tactics to grab a pie from the money of all depending on the last rites rituals for their livelihood. Yeah, all people including the barbers who shave the deceased's son's head ( a Hindu has to shave his head after his father's death) are into fleecing customers but none more than the Brahmins.

When Dileep Prabhavalkar dies in a road accident Manoj Joshi refuses to perform his dashakriya ( funeral rites ) due to the insult he suffered. Then Dileep's wife takes the extraordinary step of doing the rites at the hands of a lower caste boy called Bhanya played by Arya Adhav. He is the hero of the film and a parallel track runs about him in the movie . Bhanya has regularly watched the rites due to his job as collector of coins dropped into water during performance of the rites and knows the rites fully. This bold step of using him to perform the rites was applauded by the audience in the theatre.

The parallel track about Bhanya shows his school antics and friendship with a girl older than him who jokes about marrying him . A large disclaimer about the film not supporting child marriage begins the film due to presence of these jokes . But at the end of the film her track leads to tragedy as she dies in childbirth after marriage with another man .

Bhanya is so poor that he has to make clothes by clothing which had been on the body of the dead person. His father is a drunkard and drinking is common among even the townsfolk. One poor priest also drinks and smokes due to depression over his wife's illness even though such acts are forbidden to his caste . Bhanya dreams of using money he collects to finance his brother's sewing machine but here too Manoj Joshi's goon grabs the money.

So priests are the villains everywhere according to movie director Sandeep Patil who is from another caste . One suspects the hand of the anti priest lobby or leftist/communist lobby that is perpetually ant upper castes in making of the film .

Acting is good by everyone especially Manoj Joshi and Aryan Adhav as Bhanya . I could see the common people cheering the movie in the theatre, but showing priests who perform rituals resorting to outright thuggery and street violence is nothing short of vilifying the priest community.

Verdict----decent .

Two and a half stars out of five .
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Monsoon shootout ( December 2017 )



A newly recruited cop full of idealistic ideas is introduced to the ruthless game of police dealing with criminals when his boss Khan ( Neeraj Kabi ) kills two criminals extra judicially in what is commonly called an 'encounter killing' in Mumbai/Bombay . The new cop Adi ( Vijay Verma ) is the son of a late cop and his mother has told him of three choices in life---the idealistic path of righteousness , the practical path of compromising with your principles for gaining success , and the third middle path .

And he is rapidly called to take a decision on taking one of the three paths on his next assignment , where he chases a criminal called Shiva ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ) to a wall beyond which lies a railway track . As Shiva is about to climb the wall and try to escape , Adi is positioned some distance behind him but in a position to shoot him . This killing too is going to be another 'encounter killing' unapproved by the courts but deemed necessary by the police in order to rid the system of criminals . The monsoon showers have opened up rather heavily drenching the situation in rain and making the potential shootout a monsoon shootout .

But at this point and position the idealist inside Adi crops up and he hesitates to kill Shiva . Instead he ponders the three paths in front of him and wonders how each path will lead to . Each scenario unfolds in front of him one by one and after each scenario the film returns to that moment in time where Adi is positioned to shoot at Shiva . The completion of the three scenarios takes up almost the entire film .

In the first idealistic scenario Adi does not shoot Shiva and is demoted to a desk job as punishment . And Shiva who is an axe welding murderer unleashes such violence that Adi has to take up a gun again to handle him . In the second practical scenario Adi shoots Shiva , but Shiva turns out to be innocent and Adi has to suffer brickbats and curses of Shiva's wife ( Tannishtha Chatterjee ) . In the third middle path Adi does not kill but injures Shiva and takes him to the court disregarding his boss Khan's orders , but Shiva tricks the courts into letting him out on bail . Shiva then kills Khan and Adi has to take bloody revenge for his boss's murder .

During the playing of the three scenarios we are introduced to other characters like Shiva's underworld boss , his girlfriend ( played by Sreejita De ) who shows off her lovely body by removing her scanty clothes and heating up our vitals on several occasions , Shiva's son who spits fire from his eyes , Khan's sleazy subordinate who lays his lecherous hands on Shiva's wife partially undressing her , Khan's and Adi's female superior in the force who is in league with politicians to get herself a promotion , and the corrupt politician himself who is in league with Shiva's gangster boss .

And in showing these characters , the dark side of Mumbai/Bombay is shown as never before . Indeed this is a decidedly unglamorous film that does not glorify the confrontations between cops and criminals but shows them in all their dirt and grime . An art film in fact . It shows a Mumbai/Bombay we don't enjoy seeing , full of seedy and disreputable characters .

In all three scenarios , Adi ultimately returns wounded to his girlfriend Anu played by Geetanjali Thapa , who is a doctor and tends to his wounds bandaging them . Both love each other and in each scenario Anu accepts Adi inspite of his wrong decisions . She is the soothing balm in the troubled mind of Adi , troubled by his indecision .

But at end of this series of events as the film has taken firm grip of our minds , the director pours cold shower on our expectations that have steadily and surely grown about the film . For taking advantage of Adi's indecision and hesitation , Shiva shoots him dead in the manner of the true dreaded murderer that he is . The director's message is that we should be clear cut about our decisions whether right or wrong and too much pondering about them may lead to disaster....

Barring the disappointment of the ending , the film is an engaging and decidedly different film . The music in the background is okay and the two songs in the film are actually good . Photography is decent and realistic and colours are authentic . Acting is decent by everyone except the main villain Nawazuddin Siddiqui whose talents are not used properly .

Verdict---decent .

Three stars out of five .

Sameer ( september 2017 )



This is a film made with a hair brained conception of reality which is really unreal---that the various bomb blasts are sponsored by those in power ; that they keep themselves in power by sponsoring bomb blasts which forces the public to vote for them because they promise to curb those acts . But what the public does not know according to the film makers is the fact that blasts are being funded by those same politicians who rail against them in speeches . Also the public discourse over those blasts is also masterminded by the politicians themselves , as they make the media give wide publicity to the bomb blasts and thus increase their own popularity by taking an official stand against them .

So after a series of bomb blasts in Hyderabad , the police gets a tip off that the mastermind of the blasts is named Yasin Darji who is living in a college hostel in Hyderabad . The police raids the hostel to find only his room mate Sameer ( played by Zeeshan ) . He claims innocence , but the police to capture him and torture him and force him to become a mole among the militants to infiltrate their gang and capture them . His fate is to become trapped between the police and the militants whose gang he is supposed to join inspite of having nothing to do with them initially .

Openly pitted against the police is committed journalist Alia Irade ( played by Anjali Patil ) . She is into searching for missing children of riots . She is so popular among the militants for championing the cause of the underdogs that before every bomb blast she receives a message from them informing her about it , but her attempts to stop the blasts come to no avail . Curiously , the deputy chief of police is in love with Alia . Yes , Vikram Desai ( played by Subrat Dutta ) is in love with Alia. And this gives a bizzare twist to the whole saga as the person who is the sword arm of the establishment is in love with a journalist who is openly pitted against the establishment .

Meanwhile , Sameer manages to get into the house of Yasin Darji by getting close to his mother Khala ( played by Seema Biswas ) . He then manages to win the trust of the brother of Yasin , though a police officer has to lay down his life for that trust to be won .

It is in showing life in the slum in Ahmedabad where Khala lives that the director excels ; he has really captured the sights sounds and smells of that place clearly . A small time politician ( played by Alok Gagdeka ) organises street plays to inform the public in the slum of the government's misgovernance , and Khala gives Yasin's brother lectures on the foolishness of common citizens of different communities to be unable to come together . A small boy called Rocket who had a stammer is the darling of the people in the slum . A minor incident like stone thrown by Rocket and his friends is enough to almost start a mini riot . The movie was gathering steam and I was watching it it with all my attention .

Yasin's brother makes a plan for further bomb blasts in which Sameer is to take a part and the police deputy chief Vikram Desai plans to use his mole Sameer to not only stop the attacks but also capture the perpetrators . But inspite of all best laid plans , the bombs do go off and scores of innocents are killed . Only Yasin's brother is captured and put to death by Vikram .

But what did Sameer do that made the whole set up by Vikram and his police go wrong ? Why did the bomb blasts still happen even though Yasin's brother got captured and killed ? Is Sameer playing a double game of his own ? Who is he really ? Where is the original suspect Yasin Darji ? Why has he not even come into the frame ? Is Sameer himself the mysterious Yasin Darji ? I sure was hooked to the film by this point .

Since this is too small a film and hardly anyone is going to watch it , one can reveal that the movie shows that actually it is the state which is behind the bomb blasts and Sameer is their agent who perpetrates them . That the government is orchestrating the bomb blasts and the mayhem in the media that Alia Irade does too , thus giving wide publicity to the blasts that keeps the government in power by fuelling the fears of the people . In the end the militants are shown to be people scarred in riots and thus the cause for their involvement in blasts is explained . So the director would have us believe that they are the victims of the system rather than the insurgents that we thought they are .

My personal opinion is---The director sure has been smoking a special kind of weed to believe that the audience can be made to believe that the government itself sponsors the bomb blasts that regularly rock the nation .

The ending of the film where the whole premise is explained is sure a surprise at the climax . It raised my rating of the film from three stars to three and a half out of five . I had to admire the director's ingenuity in spinning out such an unbelievable yarn . It was the tallest of the tall stories I had heard in my life .

Acting is good by Zeeshan as Sameer . He has really matured into a fine actor by now . Rest are all okay for their roles . Photography is authentic rather than spectacular . Music is not great but gels with the grim situations properly .

Verdict---worth a watch .

Three and a half stars out of five .

Love games ( 2016 )



Love games is another thriller with bold sexual content from the stable of producer Mahesh Bhatt---called Vishesh films . The film centres around three pained individuals with a scarred past . All are rich with no need for striving to earn money , which gives them plenty of time to ruminate over their past and liven up their future playing love games ( what else )....

It begins with the murder by Ramona Raichand ( played by Patralekha ) of her abusive husband . Even in her childhood she has been sexually abused by her uncle . This has turned her into a woman who just has sex for pleasure with both men and women , but who does not understand love .

Her obsession for sex is Sameer Saxena ( played by Gaurav Arora ) also called Sam . He too has been scarred by his mother running away from his father with another man in his childhood . He too does not believe in love due to this . Ramona invites him for threesomes including another girl . But Sam gets bored of threesomes .

Seeing his boredom Ramona invites him to play love games , a game in which they try to have sex with the people they meet in parties....and the one who gets to be in bed first is the winner . This is as hedonistic as it gets and should be called sex games frankly . Added to this debauchery is intake of drugs . But when Sam wins by using various devious tricks Ramona pulls a gun and fires at him repeatedly though missing him . She is at least exceptionally hot tempered if not a psycho .

Sam is also a bit crazy , deliberately hurting himself by cutting his hands using sharp knives to forget the past of his mother running away . His psychiatrist asks him to find true love in order to escape from this .

And true love comes , with the entry of the third pained individual---Alisha Asthana ( Tara Alisha Berry ) , whose husband is suspicious of her loyalty and physically abuses her . Ramona asks Sam to play love games with Alisha , but Alisha who is a doctor shows Sam her patients---people who suffer real physical pain . And he realises how shallow his pain was . Life then takes a u turn for Sam and he becomes the person who Alisha runs to every time her husband beats her . And the inevitable happens---they fall in love .

But Ramona who desires Sam physically cannot bring herself to let him go to another woman completely , and she forces him to be with both women on pain of revealing about the romance to Alisha's husband . But sex games have turned into pure love for Sam and he wants to break free from Ramona's hold . And dreams of freeing Alisha from her husband's clutches .

So how does the much in love couple of Alisha and Sam manage to find togetherness after extricating themselves of their erstwhile partners ? Watch the movie for that .

The movie is worth watching for the red hot kissing and uninhibited smooching scenes that adorn it at regular intervals . The atmosphere is as modern and westernised as it gets . And the air is heady with sexual liberation and narcotics . The movie moves at a fast pace with quick twists and turns in the story . Only towards the climax does it falter . But people remember a novel's beginning and a movie's ending....and with the movie's ending being not so great you come out with only a okayish impression of the film .

Photography is good , colours are flashy , and clothes worn by the protagonists are dazzling . Background music is superb and songs are worth hearing again and again . The women look good as they should in such a movie and wear revealing clothes . Acting by everyone is decent . But why a hero ( Gaurav Arora ) who looks like cheapo from the streets ? Couldn't they find someone more presentable as male lead ?

Verdict---okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .

Padmaavat 3D ( January 2018 )



Two points are to be made about the film .

For one thing , the film is like a fairy tale because many events in the film seem unlikely to have happened in real life . From the king of the rajput warrior community of Chittod to have gone all the way to Sri Lanka in the 14th century in search of pearls demanded by his first wife only to fall in love with the princess Padmaavat ( who seems to be buddhist ) of that country , to him banishing a priest who goes all the way to Delhi to tell the sultan about the princess' beauty and entices him to invade Chittod to possess himself of her , and the sultan taking the king of Chittod prisoner in a lone meeting and taking him away to Delhi , to the princess Padmaavat going to Delhi to fetch the king back and conveniently being helped by the wife of the sultan---it all seems to be fantasy and legend . Of course , the story is based on a real invasion of sultan Allauddin Khilji on the great fortress of Chittod . But the way the story has been built , it has seems to have many not too real happenings .

The other thing is that the film has been made clearly to make the right wing happy . The movie eulogises the rajput warrior code of chivalry to a huge extent . The rajputs are shown to be noble warriors who never go against their principles and never back stab their enemies . Their bravery is shown to be exemplary even in face of incredible odds . Above all , the courage of their women is the stuff that legends are made of . When the rajput men are getting killed in battlefield , the women wear red dresses and leap into fire to be charred to ashes in order to prevent capture and violation of honour by enemy .

In contrast , the movie hardly shows the invading turks in a good light . Above all , their sultan Allauddin Khilji is shown having an evil gleam in his penetrating kohl lined eyes . He has been acted brilliantly by Ranveer Singh . His roar of laughter is full of fiendish cruelty and his dance is full of mad gusto . He is shown to be mean and treacherous and as crafty as hell . He chomps into pieces of meat like a barbarian and lusts for women like a debauchee . He is bisexual and has a gay lover---Malik Kafur played by Jim Sarbh .

On the other hand Maharaja Ratan Singh of Chittod is a gentleman . This gives less scope and range for acting to the person playing the role---Shahid Kapoor . Compared to Ranveer , his acting seems to be bland . Deepika Padukone pays the princess Padmaavat of Sri Lanka , who quickly upstages the first wife of Maharaja Ratan Singh to become chief queen of Chittod . Her acting becomes better with each passing frame and her last speech before jumping into fire did give me a small lump in my throat . Her beauty is mesmerising too , well worth an invasion or two on her kingdom for capturing her---for Allauddin invades Chittod again for her after she brings her husband back home .

Just like director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's earlier films , the distinguishing mark of the film is great cinematography and rich colours . Great attention seems to have been paid to the clothes of each and every person , from the plain clothes worn by soldiers to the bejewelled and embroidered clothes worn by the noble ladies and the queen . Fire plays an important role in the film ; fire in both hands of the queen of Chittod as she dances on the song 'ghoomar' , fire being drunk by the insulted priest as he is banished from Chittod , torches of fire lighting the walls of the fort of Chittod , and the great fire into which the women are led by their queen when all is lost....

The battle scenes are decent without being too spectacular , with the one to one combat scene between the two kings being good . The stomp of the horses as they gallop on the battlefield pounds the ears in dolby atmos sound . Songs and background music is okay but not memorable . 3D effects are pretty good and add to the depth and clarity of the scenes . The film does drag towards the interval because it is almost three hours long , but post interval it again holds your attention .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .

Souten ( The other woman ) 1983



Set on the beautiful island of Mauritius , which has a majority of Indian descended population , the movie has an interesting and modern take on the relationship between hindu God Krishna and his chief wife Rukhmini and the other woman in their life of whom Rukhmini is constantly jealous . This is Radha , the eternal devotee of Krishna with whom he has a deep but platonic relationship . Unlike Rukhmini and Krishna who have physical relations , Krishna and Radha do not have physical relations but instead a deep love that is so legendary that they are worshipped together as if they are a couple and many times we find idols with Krishna and Radha together....but never is an idol found of Krishna and Rukhmini together . This is of course a constant source of anxiety to Krishna's chief wife Rukhmini , and the film is based on this triangle . But an interesting twist is added in the film---Radha in the film belongs to the lowest caste in Hinduism which is considered untouchable by upper castes ; that is , even touching people of her caste is considered filthy by upper castes .

So on to the story of the movie---Shyam ( another name of Krishna ) is played by Rajesh Khanna who is the Krishna of the movie , and he is a self made man who has risen from humble origins to become a successful owner of fishing ships . One day a man called Gopal ( played by Sriram Lagu ) from the untouchable caste comes to him for a job and begs him to give him the job as his daughter is not even having food to eat at home . Shyam takes him in and soon is impressed by his devotion to his work , so he makes his second in command in his venture . Gopal is so grateful to Shyam for this promotion that he daily tells about the kindness of Shyam to his beautiful daughter Radha ( played by Padmini Kolhapure ) and hearing his stories she soon falls in love with Shyam even without meeting him .

Shyam is ambitious and goes to meet the head ( Raisaheb played by Pran ) of a finance corporation to get a loan for buying more ships . Raisaheb is impressed by his plans and arranges the loan and also invites Shyam to a party , where he is introduced to Raisaheb's daughter Rukhmini with whom he develops an instant attraction . Rukhmini is stunning and stylish and fashionable and hungry for love . Inspite of opposition from her maternal uncle ( played by Prem Chopra ) and her mother , she gets married to Shyam . When Radha hears of this , she is obviously disappointed that she could not get Shyam . But she quickly adjusts to this reality and continues to love Shyam without even having met him once !! But Rukhmini detests these lower caste people and refuses to associate with Radha's father Gopal .

Being from a very rich family , Rukhmini is used to having her way and her passion for gambling brings out friction with her husband Shyam . One day she on the advice of her mother gets herself operated for not having children for a long time because she does not want to lose her figure in pregnancy . But the operation results in her becoming never capable of having children , leaving Shyam devastated . The couple begins to draw apart .

In the midst of all this , Gopal invites Shyam to his house for lunch and Shyam and Radha finally meet . Shyam is instantly drawn to Radha and he begins to meet her regularly to soothe his mind . The much in love Radha gladly obliges . One day a big ship that Shyam has purchased on the loan he got capsizes and loses all it's men and his money . Once more he goes into the arms of Radha to forget his troubles and this time she holds him in her embrace . And forces him to sleep that night in her house because a thunderstorm has made it impossible for him to move out . But there is no sex between them and the relationship remains chaste .

But Rukhmini's maternal uncle seizes the chance to claim that they ( Shyam and Radha ) slept together and rouses the jealousy of Rukhmini . Mad with jealousy , she invites Shyam and Gopal and Radha to a party where she dances with lascivious movements in exposing clothes and becomes increasingly drunk . And at the end she confronts Shyam over his relationship with Radha . Angry and frustrated over her behaviour , Shyam admits to loving Radha and in return gets slapped by Rukhmini . She runs to her father with the news and gives him a heart attack by which he dies . But she continues to love Shyam still . It is upto Radha to clear the misunderstanding and bring the couple she worships ( Shyam and Rukhmini ) together . And to do so , she plays the ultimate price....gives up her own life .

Embellished with beautiful background music and superb songs , the movie was the last triumph of the superstar of yesteryear---Rajesh Khanna . For it was his last hit as hero of a film . His then girlfriend Tina Munim played Rukhmini with aplomb and looked stunning in the latest fashionable clothes and styles . Today when the untouchables have begun to forsake the hindu religion for buddhism , it was nice to see a time when the role of hindu God Krishna's companion Radha was done by a girl shown to be of the untouchable caste in hinduism . And nobody complained . Padmini Kolhapure has done justice to that role .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

Ek baar phir ( Just one more time ) 1980





The Indian star system of Bollywood in the 1970s---full of tyranny of the top film stars . Mahendar Kumar ( played by Suresh Oberoi ) plays just such a film star . He arrives late for shootings keeping his producers and directors waiting even though their precious money is on the line . Sometimes when he does not have the mood he simply skips the shooting wasting the time resources and energy that has been spent creating the movie set . Reason---he is sleeping with some woman . Producers literally have to fall at his feet and beg him to resume shooting . He forces changes in the dialogues of his films to favour himself and sometimes changes entire scenes to suit his star status . No one dare reproach him for his misbehaviour for he is the darling of the masses ; the man for whom people come to watch films .

At home Mahendar's wife Kalpana ( played by Deepti Naval ) is subject to a different kind of tyranny . She has to suffer neglect as Mahendar is away for shooting leaving her alone at home . But many times his keeping away from home for shootings is nothing but an excuse for sleeping with other women . Not that he takes much care to hide his affairs . Women lie half naked on his lap in parties in front of Kalpana and make a beeline for sleeping with him because they want roles in films through his recommendations .

Kalpana who has married him thinking how lucky she is to marry this great film star remembers with regret the carefree days of her youth where she used to frolick with her friends before marriage . She feels humiliated by Mahendar's open dalliances with other women in front of her eyes while she has to play dutiful wife dancing on his tune . But this is India in the seventies and women have to live lives hidebound by tradition . In real life too wives of film stars like Raj Kapoor and Dharmendra had to live long suffering lives where they were not allowed any freedoms while their husbands opening cavorted with other women .

One day on a shoot in London Mahendar as usual neglects Kalpana for shootings and also for other women and the thoroughly bored Kalpana is intrigued by the paintings of an Indian street painter ( played by Pradeep Verma ) called Vimal . Vimal sees her interest and asks her to pose for his painting . But rains pour in and he offers Kalpana a ride in his car . As they strike up a conversation they both realise that their common interest is painting . Kalpana had to give up painting after marriage as part of the sacrifices an Indian film star's wife had to do for her husband's household but she still dreams of painting . Vimal invites Kalpana to the painting class he learns painting at and she agrees . Her husband Mahendar is so distracted by other women that he goes for film shooting in Switzerland with his current girlfriend leaving her behind alone .

At the painting class the two are soon attracted to one another and are going out for outings in gardens . One day Kalpana visits Vimal's house and sees a nude painting of herself . She asks him if he dreams of her like that and the inevitable happens---the two bodies are drawn to each other for making love . But back at home Kalpana is riven by guilt . She after all is not a western woman but an Indian woman kept in chains of tradition and extramarital sex is taboo for women like her . She decides to break off with Vimal that very night and phones Mahendar to tell him that she wants to stay with him in Switzerland . But in the dead of the night the phone is picked up by his girlfriend . It is obvious that they are sleeping together . Sick of Mahender's philandering Kalpana decides to continue with Vimal .

However Mahendar's career receives a further boost as he gets a film in Hollywood . Overjoyed by this news Kalpana decides to give the marriage another chance and decides to accompany Mahendar to Hollywood . But Mahendar throws cold shower over her plans by refusing to take her with him . Angered by this Kalpana gets ever closer to Vimal and dreams of making love with him when her husband is making love to her . She compares the two and finds Vimal to be caring attentive and gentle to her . While the wives of real life film stars like Dharmendra and Raj Kapoor stayed with their husbands for their money Kalpana is not swayed by such considerations because she is made of sterner stuff . She wants a man who is totally for herself and Vimal is not a philanderer like her husband .

But a woman carrying an extramarital affair would have been castigated by the backward Indian society in the seventies and this fact soon weighs on Kalpana . Mahendar as a man was free to carry on his dalliances with many women but Kalpana as a woman was not free to have a single affair . She decides to cut off Vimal....but he has grown too emotionally attached to her . He asks her to meet him just one more time . Actually Mahendar wants Kalpana to come to Bombay because the members of the press are going to interview him there and he wants Kalpana by his side just for photo ops and to present the perfect picture of him as a family man . But Kalpana relents for the sake of Vimal and postpones her flight to Bombay . And she goes to meet Vimal just one last time , to say goodbye . Vimal cries in her lap like a baby and implores her to stay with him for he needs her more than her husband needs her .

Torn between the two men Kalpana is at a crossroads of life . All of a sudden things are made easier for her by a phone call from Mahendar . He is freaking mad that Kalpana had not arrived in Bombay on the day he was to be interviewed by the press and could not give fake photo ops as the perfect family man . And for this perfidy Mahendar howls like mad dog on Kalpana on phone . Thoroughly humiliated by the shouting Kalpana finally does what is right . She tells Mahendar in no uncertain terms that she is leaving him and his life for Vimal .

As Kalpana packed her belongings and went to sit beside Vimal she still was wondering whether she had done right....or so said Vinod Pande the director of the film . But that has never stopped aficionados of true romance like myself and many others from celebrating her liberation....

Background music and songs are most perfect in the film , reflecting the mood of every moment in the movie . Colours and photography are very decent . Acting is good by both Suresh Oberoi and Deepti Naval as star husband and star wife . But Pradeep Verma brings real vulnerability to his role as lover ; he seems so gentle that any woman would find it hard to break his heart .

Verdict---Good .

Four stars out of five .

Aapla manus ( Our man ) Februrary 2018



'Aapla manus' means 'our man' or rather 'our person' in this gender non discriminatory era . It is produced by Bollywood star Ajay Devgan who appears in a very small role in the end . It is his first film as producer . It unfolds as a thriller cum murder mystery but with an interesting angle about the complexities of generation gap between father on one hand and son and daughter in law on the other .

Sumeet Raghavan and Iravati Harshe play a modern couple . But their modern lifestyle has an aberration ; they live with Sumeet's father ( Nana Patekar ) like old style joint families . And the old man worries about the liberties of his daughter in law , just like old fashioned people are wont to do . He dislikes Iravati's coming late from her work and dislikes her having sent his grandson away to boarding school to get educated . He is a grumpy old man who is forever complaining about his daughter in law .

Iravati is hardly a woman who is going to be quietened by this attitude and gives back to her father in law verbally . This leads to a battle of words constantly between the two and caught in between is the son Sumeet . But one day a huge twist to this situation happens ; the father in law is found fallen from their apartment into the ground below .

Into the situation comes police officer Nagargoje , who looks uncannily like a younger and fitter version Iravati's father in law ; indeed he too is played by Nana Patekar . He accuses the couple to have instigated the old man to commit suicide . As the movie progresses the accusations change from suicide to murder charges and the murder charges move from one person to another .

So what game is Nagargoje playing ? What is his personal interest in creating twists and turns that turns the couple's life topsy turvy ? The answers are intriguing . But they are sentimental and emotional too , leaving you with a tear in the eye in the end .

The film is dominated by the formidable screen presence of Nana Patekar , and his sarcastic drawl rings throughout the movie . Without any loud dialogues , his powerful voice and acting create impact in the movie . Sumeet Raghavan and Iravati Harshe act appropriately too . Background music is decent but there are no songs . Photography and colours are okay .

The dialogues of the verbal exchanges between Nana and Iravati have been written by a talented script writer ; every sentence is dripping with sarcastic taunts at each other . Both persons have their good and bad points . But the director does take the old fashioned route ; tilts our sympathy to the old man in the climax . But that is what appeals to our sentiments....Indians are still a traditional people .

The idea of both the police officer and the old person whose case he is investigating being played by the same man does add something else to the movie . Both roles have played with aplomb by Nana Patekar . Without flamboyant drama or sensational background music , the film manages to hold attention due to it's clash of egos and lifestyles .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .

Aiyaary ( Chameleon ) February 2018



'Aiyaary' means chameleon like---capable of changing appearance with every situation . That's what I learnt in the film . But director Neeraj Pandey is no chameleon and his films cannot change in style or appearance . His films from 'A wednesday' to 'Baby' to 'Aiyaary' are all in the same format . But it's a format that that is now running dry of new ideas from Neeraj .

Sure , the dose of high nationalism is there . The army spit and polish is there too . Scenes of crisply dressed people looking serious about their intent whether good or bad are there too . High tech gadgetry and latest guns and devices gives you expectations of a taut thriller . Hardly any scene shows the grime and poverty of India ; everyone has a exceptionally high standard of living .

But beneath the martial sounding music and high minded dialogues spouted from the mouth of the protagonists there is nothing . The manner in which the story has been presented is unduly prolonged and convoluted . A lot of unnecessary scenes shown to establish the strength of character of the heroes keep adding to the length of the film . And the film takes it's lesson of nationalism way too seriously but lacks substance .

Photography is good as always and music is patriotically good . But other than Manoj Bajpayee the others don't act well . Siddharth Malhotra looks too delicately goodlooking for a soldier . Both Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher are wasted . Rakul Preet Singh is gorgeous as eye candy . But she is a misfit for a patriotic sounding film .

Instead of what I was expecting ( tough soldiers killing enemies of the nation ) what I got to see was corruption in the army . Which is detected by a person ( Siddharth ) of a special team that is officially non existent but is for military intelligence . And he is so disillusioned by the corruption that he decides to desert the army and turn corrupt himself . But his superior ( Bajpayee ) is after him and chases him to England . But why does an arms dealer ( Anupam ) take enormous risk to help the superior ? And how come the girlfriend ( Rakul ) of the deserter get ready to give up everything and elope with him even though he has been fooling her by not even telling his real name ? Amazingly for such a clever person , his real name is revealed to her when his I card accidentally drops out of his wallet ; can it get more silly than that ? And the fact that exposure of the whole corruption hinges on the testimony of some obscure watchman ( Naseeruddin ) of a building is something that is unconvincing . Kumud Mishra the corrupt armyman looks like a buffoon rather than a villain and Adil Hussein's character looks like from Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible series of movies . Vikram Gokhale does look convincing as the upright army chief however .

The only thing that is believable about the movie is a media desperate for TRPs . But it will take a lot more than that for a film to impress me .

Verdict---Not impressed .

Two stars out of five .

Kuchh bheege alfaaz ( A few wet words ) February 2018



So now we are in the era of romance through the medium of whatsapp . Though only the heroine lives in the world of social media . Reason being---she is shunned in the real world because she has a disease called leucoderma/vitiligo which creates abnormal white patches on skin due to lack of melanin pigment . Of course , that does not stop her or rather it encourages her to go on blind dates with boys where she wants to see the boy's reaction to her appearance . And the reaction is photographed on mobile camera . If the reaction is funny then the photograph is used for creating branded memes ; yes Archana ( Geetanjali Thapa ) works in a firm creating them . She has a friend called Apu ( Shrey Rai Tiwari ) who has attraction for her . And she does look good wearing tiny shorts that expose her lovely legs .

As opposed to this , the hero Alfaaz ( Zain Khan Durrani ) belongs to the old world . He is a radio jockey who mouths beautiful old world poetry on radio and has a legion of fans among whom Archana is one . But he prefers to remain incognito and has not revealed his name to his fans . His creativity has been stoked by a romantic tragedy in his past , but his present life has the shadow of sadness brought about by the tragedy over it .

And don't you think the two need each other ? The melancholy hero and the girl rejected by many but in search for love....The two are brought in contact by a misplaced phone call and Archana likes Alfaaz's thoughts ( which are remarkably like the thoughts of the radio jockey she likes ) so much that she contacts him repeatedly . But it is only when she begins to use his poetry for creating memes that he gets really interested . For the world of social media is new for him . And they soon plan a date , even though they haven't seen each other yet and she does not know that he is RJ Alfaaz .

But before the two really get together , Alfaaz will have to confront his past tragedy and discard it from his life and move into the present . And so he goes to do that ; goes to the hill station of Shimla to confront and break away from his past .

The movie is produced by leftists most probably . The heroine's mother played by Mona Ambegaonkar has a past history of having studied at a communist university and found her first husband there . And having eloped with her second husband ( heroine's father ) even though she was still married to her first . Is that what they teach you in communist universities ? No wonder I am ideologically opposed to them .

But I was not opposed to the film , which I found to be full of old world charm even though it belongs to the era of social media . Though the touch of sadness was a bit overdone and there is a sad hang to the movie . But the romantic couplets spouted by Alfaaz do compensate for that and we find ourselves rooting for the romance to happen . And when it does , you do feel happy .

Acting by Geetanjali Thapa is good but Zain Khan Durrani is not fully convincing . Others act decently , especially Mona Ambegaonkar . Background music is decent too , and photography and colours of the movie are good .

Verdict---Nice .

Three stars out of five .

Naam gum jayega ( Name will be lost ) 2005



I recently realised that I had not reviewed any movie of the actress whom I had loved during my youth--Dia Mirza . I fell in love with her while watching the movie 'Rehna hai tere dil mey' ( Want to stay in your heart ) and went on to watch that movie several times . But I have forgotten parts of the movie by now and a review of that movie will require me to see it again---a chore too much because I have already seen it too many times years back . Not in the mood to see it again , just like I am not in the mood to fall in love with Dia again .

So I watched 'Naam gum jayega' ( Name will be lost ) , a flop movie of hers ; most of Dia's movies including RHTDM were flops . Now don't ask me why I chose to fall in love with a flop actress . Maybe because the successful ones were all booked !! I chose the movie because it is set in my favourite setting---the high mountains what else , where beauty of nature is abundant and where we Indians rush for vacation to escape the hot climate of India .

So on to the story . Aryan Srivastav and Divya are off to vacation in the mountains . But as they are driving on the winding mountain roads , they see an unconscious girl ( Dia Mirza ) lying on the road . They revive her and hear her story . She says that her name is Natasha and she fell in love with a boy named Vishal on a college hike months ago . But Vishal was not ready immediately to marry her , so she gave him six months to think about it and came back after six months to meet him . But by this time he had sold the house and the new owner was Nalini Sen . Natasha was agonised by the disappearance of Vishal and Nalini kindly agreed to allow this disturbed girl to stay to see if Vishal ever came back in search for her . But whenever Nalini was out of the house an amorous professor used to come in the house to try to force himself on her . It was to escape his clutches that she was running from the house and fell unconscious .

Aryan and Divya take Natasha back to Nalini and tell her that they are occult specialists who investigate the paranormal , but usually find that possessed people are just mentally disturbed . They feel that Natasha is similarly mentally disturbed as no one has seen the amorous professor except Natasha . Soon they track Vishal , but he says that he has never seen the girl claiming to be Natasha !! In fact , he says that his girlfriend Natasha is dead and buried . On the other hand the body of the professor is found too . So who is the girl claiming to be Natasha ? Has she murdered the professor and is living with a different identity to hide that fact ?

But everyone feels that the girl is genuinely mentally disturbed and decide to let her have what she wants---company of Vishal , but without the knowledge of his real girlfriend's death . And the girl claiming to be Natasha is really happy with Vishal near her . And as expected , real love blooms between them as Vishal develops feelings for her .

But Aryan investigates the whole matter of the professor's death . And finds out that the professor had tried to force himself on the girl in the past . So who was she ? Her real name was Geetanjali and she secretly loved Vishal , who was her friend Natasha's boyfriend . But was mentally disturbed by the professor trying to force himself on her . The professor died by another reason however , and Geetanjali is innocent . Aryan uses hypnotherapy to force Geetanjali to come to terms with the truth . And with Natasha conveniently dead in an accident and buried , it is time for Geetanjali to get united permanently with Vishal . Alls well that ends well....except for the audience .

The movie which begins as a suspense thriller soon gets bogged down in too many twists and turns and eventually turns uninteresting . Background music and songs are just about okay , but photography is better due to the sights of the pine tree covered green mountains . Acting by everyone is all right . Dia looks okay in some scenes and not so okay in some . Not as good as in RHTDM....

But critical consensus says that the movie was appreciated by the audience more than I did . Something that gladdened my heart .

Verdict---Not good .

One and a half stars out of five .

Chudail story ( Witch's story ) May 2016





The opening scene shows a car stopping on a road . A man and his friend get out to see an enticing woman with a lantern waiting for them at a distance . As the man follows her like a moth attracted to a flame , she draws him further into the jungle and then kisses him . But his friend follows in the car only to see the man dead and his eyes blackened . The sexy witch has claimed another victim....and I was hooked onto watching the movie . Because the movie raised hopes of getting to see a seductive witch entice more men into having hot sex with her and raising our temperature .

Cut to the present . A car carrying five young friends ( three young men and two young women ) gets stuck on the same road in the same jungle . They decide to go to a huge mansion in front of them for help . But are warned by a crazy old man who suddenly jumps in front of them about the witch . Dismissing him as crazy , four of them go into the house and knock the door . And lo !! The door is opened by a goodlooking woman who totally outclasses the two girls in beauty .

Unsettled by her beauty , the two girls immediately make clear that the two young men are their respective boyfriends so that she does not make a move on them . It's too late , for the two young men are already mesmerised by her beauty . But as the car is not able to move , they are forced to stay for the night in the house .

The girls broach the topic of the old crazed man warning them about her to the woman , but she says that people are prone to say such things about her because she is a lone beautiful woman living alone . But soon she entices one of the young men by appearing wet and half naked in front of him when he is exploring the house and then begins to set him against his friends . He starts acting strangely making his friends uncomfortable .

The mechanic called for repairing the car then arrives and talks of the same story of the witch who never allows anyone who enters the house to leave....and sure enough , he is killed by a pike falling on him as he prepares to go out of the house . Not so subtle in her moves is our witch is she....? Well , I was hoping that she would show the same lack of subtlety in bed with one of the young men so that I could watch and salivate at the scene of her in the heat of passion....And sure enough , she soon entices the other young man and a hot love making scene cum song is showcased in the front of us .

What about the young women ? As expected , everyone in these horror movies is doomed . The other young man left to guard the car then arrives in the house with the same story of the mad old man warning him . The sexy witch then makes the young men fight with each other over the girls by making them believe that the girls are cheating on them with each other . One of the girls then tries to escape but she is dragged by the power of the witch back into the house . One by one each of the young people is killed by the witch , who is taking revenge over society over wrongs committed by her dead husband in the bygone past . She has sex with men and then captures their souls and makes them permanent prisoners of her harem , which is full of souls of dead people left hanging .

Preeti Soni acts as the witch , and does look sexy in backless blouses which she removes to make wanton love on satin sheets with the hero---one of the young men , played by Amal Sherawat . He becomes the prize catch of the witch's harem of souls of dead men she has fuucked and discarded , but his entry in the harem comes at a price ; his girlfriend ( played by Nidhi Nautiyal ) has to be allowed to become the first woman to escape the house ever , the escape being the final act of proving his love for her even though he has succumbed to the charms of the witch . The other girl ( played by Menaka Lalwani ) is not so lucky , and neither are the other young men . This is followed by another hot song with the sexy Preeti Soni enjoying in bed with Amal Sherawat as the movie climaxes .

Acting by everyone is okay , and photography and colours are good . Background music and songs are decent . The movie rests on the sex appeal of the witch , and Preeti Soni delivers on that front very well . Some of the horror scenes are scary , but if you don't believe in ghosts like me you will find the movie more sexy than scary .

Verdict---Okay .

Two stars out of five .

Pari : not a fairy tale ( Fairy ; not a fairy tale ) March 2018



Arnab's ( Parambrata Chatterjee ) life is on the upswing . He is about to be married to the beautiful Piyali ( Ritabhari Chakraborty ) , whose warm outspoken nature seems to promise happiness after a shy withdrawn childhood that has been his lot earlier . But an accident changes his life . His father slams the car they are travelling in into a woman , who dies . The police search her house to find her daughter Rukhsana ( Anushka Sharma ) chained inside .

But the person working in the morgue sees that the dead mother is branded , and contacts the persons who he knows are into branding such entities . Those persons are led by professor Qasim , and their declared mission is to wipe out the cult of satan to which the dead woman belongs . She is a demoness whose mission is to perpetuate the cult of satan . And the professor and his group have destroyed the cult except the dead woman . Now it remains to kill the daughter , who is the last remaining demoness . The members of the cult and the professor are from Bangladesh .

However , the daughter Rukhsana sees the killers come for her and flees from the dog infested house she lives in to find refuge in the place in Kolkata where Arnab lives alone away from his parents . Sympathetic to her at first , Arnab tries to civilise her and give her some normalcy because he has seen her chained in her house . But he is unaware of her demonic propensities .

And do I even have to tell that the inevitable happens , and Rukhsana falls in love with Arnab . But what is important is that the love also makes her more human and turns her away from the demonic path that the ghost of her dead mother is urging her towards . But soon she becomes pregnant with Arnab's child . Will her mother's wish to continue the demonic cult be granted with the birth of the child , who after all will be the child of a demoness ? And what about Piyali , the fiancee of Arnab ? What is her role in all this ? Or will professor Qasim and his cohorts get to Rukhsana and destroy her before she gives birth to the child ? Watch the movie for the answers .

One must say that Anushka has taken a different role in her career with this movie , as she looks deglamourised and unattractive throughout the film . It is Piyali ( Ritabhari Chakraborty ) whose appearances I was eagerly waiting for throughout the movie , for her beauty is like a breath of fresh air in this dark and gory movie .

However the love of Rukhsana for Arnab and the transformation of her character is beautifully built up in the movie . You really feel sad for her , trapped as she is in this demonic form even though her heart is full of love . There are some real jolts of horror in the movie , but all interspersed with the sadness you feel for the souls trapped in this bizarre cult of perpetuating satan . The first half of the movie does not reveal as to who Rukhsana and her mother really are , and what is the purpose of professor Qasim to be after them . So a considerable part of the movie builds up suspense .

Parambrata Chatterjee looks vulnerable in his role as Arnab , and Rajat Kapoor looks coolly menacing as he carries out his rentless task of destruction of the cult . Photography is good , but colours are dark and surroundings dingy . Background music and songs are good .

Verdict---Decent .

Three stars out of five .

I can understand where you're coming from. I think you can feel a strong connection to some films, sometimes through one actor, and it can push buttons. That happened to me recently when I saw a film after a long time with an actress who was one of my own intense crushes.

– I like that.

Prateeksha ( The long wait ) 2006



This was my second attempt to review a Dia Mirza movie , and any review by me of a Dia Mirza movie is a labour of love....The movie starts awkwardly , but soon gets a grip as it progresses .

Kishen ( Jimmy Shergill ) comes from rural state of Bihar to the big city to study medicine . In the medical college he runs into Reena Brown ( Diya Mirza ) , who is a Christian and is beautiful and sophisticated and speaks english very well . She looks down upon Kishen as a rural bumpkin and the two are at loggerheads on several occasions . Reason is that Kishen speaks the hindi language in a rural style , and Reena feels that his English must be even worse . Reena has a boyfriend named John Clayton , and he is more understanding towards Kishen . But Reena tries to make her boyfriend play the game of one-upmanship with Kishen , but totally fails . In the college football game she tries to encourage John to score a goal in opposition to Kishen , but John gets injured instead letting Kishen the chance to score the goal . Reena organises a party where Kishen is not invited , but Kishen disturbs it by singing loudly outside it .

One thing that all this proves is that Kishen is talented in both sports and singing and his popularity rises in the college . Kishen pokes Reena by calling her 'memsaab' ( madam ) , thus making fun of the perceived difference between their status . When John opts out of playing Othello in a college play , it is to Kishen that everyone turns to play that role . Reena is to play Desdemona opposite Othello and detests the idea of Kishen touching her during the play . But Kishen surprises her by playing the role of Othello with aplomb and speaking perfect English while playing it . She is so impressed by his acting and his command over English that she herself touches him during the play and holds his hand in the climax .

Soon Reena and Kishen begin to hang out together and become friends . But Reena's personal life suddenly goes topsy turvy with her boyfriend John ( whom she is hoping to marry ) coming under the pressure of his father to marry Emily who has come from England . John does deeply regret not being able to marry Reena , and is hardly able to blurt out his refusal to her .

Kishen who is attracted to Reena from the start however takes to opportunity to woo her by being the person who comforts her in the midst of her heartbreak . And Reena soon turns to him to soothe her aching heart . She finds Kishen to be jovial and boisterous in nature , with passionate views on some subjects . Reena starts missing him if he does not come to the college on a day and goes searching for him to his hostel . And she takes the lead in proposing marriage to him....love is in the air again for her . The two go on dates together and dream of life in each other's arms .

The issue of their different religions does come up , but Kishen allays Reena's fears by saying that he is an atheist who does not believe in God and will not try to change her religion . They meet her father James ( Anupam Kher ) , who gives his blessings to the marriage . The couple decide to wear each other's religion's clothes for the impending court marriage . And I must say that Jimmy Shergill looks good in dark tie and suit , a far cry from the country bumpkin he started as in the movie . And Dia Mirza in saree looks simply divine....why is it that I was not in that dark tie and suit in Jimmy Shergill's shoes to serenade my darling Dia....?? why ??

But what is a movie without a twist , and the twist comes in due form with Kishen's father Pandit ( Govind Namdeo ) coming from his village to oppose the marriage . He is too conservative to accept a Christian daughter in law , and plainly tells Reena that he will cut off all relations with his son if he marries her . He says that she will be responsible for the breaking of relations between parents and son , and that no hindu will marry Kishen's sister if he marries a Christian girl . He berates Reena's father James for accepting the marriage and James decides to cut off the marriage plans . Reena comes under pressure to cut off the marriage and she has to tell Kishen that he cannot be her husband . Kishen tries to reason with her but in vain .

Devastated by all this , Kishen forsakes his family and goes away to find peace in a small town where both communities live in harmony ; Christians worship hindu saints and hindus go to Christian priests when someone is not well . He starts a clinic there and practices as a doctor . But on his table is a still a photo of Dia Mirza....uh , I mean Reena . Many years pass and one day Reena comes searching for him in a completely drunken state .

She tells him her story . After she tried to reason with her father James to agree to the marriage inspite of Kishen's father's opposition , James told her in a fit of anger that he did not want her anymore because she was brining too much trouble in his life . That she was actually not his legitimate daughter but rather his illegitimate child born of his affair with his maid , the same maid played by Zarina Wahab who had been taking care of the house all these years . The maid is hindu and he has not married her , nor has Reena been baptized . So Reena is neither hindu nor Christian . He then told the mother and daughter to get out of his life . Reena was forced to leave his house and sing in bars and nightclubs wearing exposing clothes and with patrons making advances towards her . She who was once totally against smoking and drinking had now developed habits of heavy drinking and incessant smoking to ward off depression .

But the real depression she had was of having ruined a good man's life....Kishen's who else....for she wanted to see him practice as a doctor in some big city and earn real money rather than waste his life in some small clinic in some small town . And here she is....standing in front of Kishen asking his forgiveness for ruining his life and his career and offering financial help to help him shift back to the big city , for her father James deeply regretted his treatment of his daughter at the end of his life and willed her all his estate and money .

But lo !! Reena is the one who gets helped instead . For Kishen has his own story to tell , of his sister marrying outside their caste and finally bringing his father Pandit out of his religious stupor . And the father contacting him asking to bring Reena as his daughter in law because he can't bear to not be with his son , and can't bear to see his son permanently unhappy and unmarried without Reena . And Kishen is willing to accept Reena even though she has had an unsavoury past and he is willing to be patient till she weans herself off her heavy smoking and drinking habits and does not care if she is an illegitimate child of a servant woman who does know if she is hindu or Christian....for he who was once an atheist has begun to believe in the kind of God that does not reside in temples or churches but instead resides in the hearts of true believers....and believers are those who forgive sins and serve others without caring for their faith .

True love never dies....and for Reena and Kishen , the long wait called prateeksha is truly over . And the long wait called prateeksha was over for me too , of seeing and reviewing a good film of Dia Mirza . For the climax of the movie filled me with emotion . Acting in the film was decent , and colours and photography was not bad too . Background music and songs were okay .

It was nice to see an interreligious love story come to a happy ending . Seen too many such love stories end up not so happy in real life , crushed as they were by the burden of tradition and the ancient religious codes of the land .

Verdict---Very decent .

Three stars out of five .

Fever ( 2016 )



The movie starts with actor Rajeev Khandelwal walking on a mountain road in Switzerland after alighting from a bus , and actress Gauhar Khan following him in a car and offering him a ride to his destination . He recognises her and accepts the offer of a ride . But as she drives further she pushes him out of the car and he falls below the road in a valley . When he wakes up he finds himself in a hospital , where the doctor informs him that he has not been injured seriously . But he himself realises that he has lost much of his memory . He says that his name is Armin Salem and he is from Paris . But can't remember much beyond that . The doctor ( Victor Banerjee ) thinks that his patient is a good man in trouble and gives him money to survive till he regains his memory . Meanwhile he is discharged from hospital and starts staying in a hotel close by .

In the hospital and again in the hotel he finds that he is being stalked by the same woman who tried to kill him---actress Gauhar Khan . She entices him by parading in bikinis when he goes to the swimming pool and soon tries to get close to him . She promises to help him regain his memory and begins to embrace and romance him . Gauhar tells him that her name is Kavya . But does she really want him to regain his memory considering the fact that she tried to kill him earlier ?

Meanwhile Armin does get to remember something in a disjointed jumbled manner and thinks that he may have killed a woman named Rhea Wagner ( Gemma Atkinson ) and that he may have been a professional assassin before he lost memory---a contract killer . When he tells the doctor of this , the doctor plainly tells him that if this is the case then he might have been helping the wrong person and he regrets giving money to him .

Armin remembers Rhea Wagner further in front of Kavya and says that even though his assignment was to kill Rhea , he fell in love with her beauty instead and went on to have an affair with her . At this point we are treated to some red hot love making scenes between Armin and Rhea and boy!!....Gemma Atkinson does really look beautiful and hot with a lovely pink body and superb silky skin . And Armin fell so deeply in love with Rhea that he dropped the idea of killing her and confessed his real identity to her instead . She threatened to go to the police with the truth and in desperation Armin had to kill her to stop her from doing so .

But when he goes to Rhea's place , she is not only alive but says that no affair took place between the two and he had met her only once and later sent her some emails . That his real name is not Armin and he is a writer who writes suspense thriller novels . Meanwhile Armin returns to his room to find a woman murdered there . But Kavya helps him dispose off the body . But Armin is now confused as to whether he is Armin or Karan and wonders why Kavya is helping him .

It is on a car ride with Kavya that he remembers the earlier car ride in which he was attempted to be killed by Kavya and finally everything comes back to him . He is Karan , a writer and Armin is just a character from his novel . He is no contract killer but the contract killer Armin was an identity he picked up after he lost his memory as he could remember only that identity from his novel . And that Kavya is not herself but his wife Pooja . When he confronts Pooja / Kavya with this fact , she admits that she is his wife Pooja . That she left everything including her job for marrying him , but her obsessive love for him began to stifle Karan and he decided to break off from her . But she followed him and in a fit of rage tried to push him into the valley . But when Karan woke up in hospital she could see that he had lost his memory . Pooja felt that she could regain his love in this new condition and hence was helping him . But the girlfriend who he was shacked up with after leaving Pooja had followed him to his hospital and when Pooja saw her she murdered the girlfriend so that she would not come in between them again---the woman whose body was dumped in Karan's hotel room was his girlfriend .

Pooja now beseeches Karan to come back to her , and says that she has the courage to love someone who does not love back . That all's fair in love , and such quotations are made true by people like her who even murder for true love . But Karan can't bring himself to love a killer and once again Pooja pushes him off the car , but this time only onto the road . She sacrifices her life by deliberately colliding with an oncoming truck because she can't bear to be without Karan .

Among all these events I found myself falling in love with Pooja....where are these women who are ready to do and die for love ? I have never found one in real life . If I ever found one I would forsake the world and be off with her in a jiffy !!

Even though no sensational events occur in the movie , the director has kept the suspense running in the movie . We can't figure out what Armin/Karan is going to remember next . The end comes as a genuine surprise , even though some dialogues by Pooja in the movie do give hint that she is a woman desperate in love . Photography of Switzerland is absolutely breathtaking and is given additional lustre by the superb colours of the movie . Songs are really worth humming and background music is nice too . Acting is decent by everyone without being too spectacular . And everyone looks good ; Rajeev Khandelwal as Karan , Gauhar Khan as Pooja and Gemma Atkinson as Rhea . In fact it seems that all actors and actresses in this movie have been chosen for their good looks .

Having completed this review , I am going to be off in search for someone like Pooja for myself . Someone high on the fever of love....that is what the title of the movie meant , isn't it ?

Verdict---Very decent .

Three stars out of five .

Bezubaan ishq ( Voiceless love ) 2015



The movie is set among the mercantile community from the state of Gujarat , many of whom are settled in India's financial capital Mumbai and also overseas.

The movie shows two girls who are opposites , and their opposite personalities are paradoxical . While Suhani ( Mugdha Godse ) lives in Mumbai , she is a westernised free bird who parties in discos regularly , and drinks alcohol with abandon . Whenever some guy tries to get fast with her due to her uninhibited nature and exposing clothes , her guardian angel is her friend Swagat ( Nishant ) who saves her in the nick of time and fiercely guards her .

On the other hand Suhani's cousin Rumzhum ( Sneha Ullal ) is into Indian tradition even though she based in London . She is totally understanding by nature and homely , a total contrast to the outgoing Suhani .

But when Suhani throws a tantrum too many , she is diagnosed with a severe personality disorder . The doctor says that the only solution to her problem is marriage . And who else to marry but her guardian angel Swagat , who is son of her father's friend .

So Rumzhum and her father ( played by Sachin Khedekar ) come down to Mumbai for the wedding , as the father is brother of Suhani's father ( played by Darshan Jariwala ) . But before the nuptials , they organise a vacation to the Indian state of Rajasthan which is full of palaces and forts .

On the vacation Swagat and Rumzhum are thrown in each other's company , and begin to have feelings for each other . This is typical of Bollywood films where the Indian traditional female is preferred over the westernised female . Soon the feelings grow intense and reach full scale love . The lovers burn with the intense burning of those who love but can't be together . Reason---Suhani's personality disorder . She has made clear to Swagat that she will kill herself if she even suspects that he is having something to do with another female , and a girl with her psychological problems is very likely to carry out her threat .

So both Rumzhum and Swagat have to keep quiet over their love for fear of hurting Suhani , and this leads to some emotional scenes whenever they get the chance to meet secretly . Soon Suhani suspects something and goes to commit suicide , and is saved only because she swoons at the last moment . From this moment on , Rumzhum and Swagat have to take extreme care to hide their love . For if Suhani kills herself , her death will be blamed on them.

But why should they waste their lives for someone else ? Why can't they come together like they want to be ? The matter vexes them for long , but in the end they decide to keep away from each other permanently for sake of the extended family's happiness .

During this period , a transformation has taken over Suhani . She no longer parties late night and no longer drinks , and has started wearing Indian traditional clothes like saree , though with the backless blouse showing off her sumptuous back . She has grown more serious in nature and is quieter in nature . A storm is building ; it is the calm before the storm....

One night just before the wedding , Suhani holds Swagat tightly in her arms and cries and says that she will never allow any other woman to take him away from her while she is alive . It is also Rumzhum's birthday and Suhani gives her a gift that she asks Rumzhum to open only next day on the wedding day .

When Rumzhum opens the gift the next morning , she finds a letter from Suhani . Suhani has written in the letter that she has realised Rumzhum's love for Swagat and has gifted him to her as a birthday gift . And because she has sworn that she would never allow another woman to be with Swagat while she is alive , she has decided to end her own life....

As everyone rushes to Suhani's room , she is found dead having cut her veins and lying in a pool of blood . And having done so , her sacrifice has totally upstaged the romance between Rumzhum and Swagat . Because the person who does the act of acceptance of reality is always greater than those who cannot face it . Mugdha Godse's acting also goes one better than anyone else's in this period .

The movie will be liked by women and men will find it corny . Because women have a greater empathy for emotion and love . The emotions are enhanced by some fine emotional songs and good background music . Colours are good and photography is excellent . Acting is okay by everyone .

Sneha Ullal is the lookalike of Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai , but goes on to increase in weight as the movie progresses . Mugdha Godse is slimmer and fitter . Nishant just looks like an immature boy .

Verdict---Okay .

Two and a half stars out of five .

Hate story part 4 ( March 2018 )



Two brothers are heirs to a businessman's empire in London . Aryan Khurana ( Vivan Bhatena ) is the older brother , who is happily married to the sultry Rishma ( Ihana Dhillon ) . Rajveer ( Karan Wahi ) is the younger brother . But their lives are affected by the appearance of the sexy hot Tasha ( Urvashi Rautela ) , who stirs up the hormones of them both . But as the unmarried one , younger Rajveer is the one who has the right to try to get her . And he does , or does he ? For the girl is not what she seems to be and is upto some nasty games of her own....

But is Urvashi Rautela worth all the trouble ? Yes , she is . She has soft big round boobs that part to show ample cleavage in any low cut dress . And she has large fleshy thighs to complement that . And she has worn the right kind of exposing clothes to show off that figure . Ihana Dhillon tries to compete with all this and partly succeeds because she is good at exposing too .

But the problem is , the movie is not the erotic thriller one may have expected from the promos . It is basically a revenge thriller , and has many twists and turns whirling the situation . The two brothers get caught in those twists and turns because they are not good people themselves . They have done some unsavoury things in the past and the past is now coming to catch up with them .

Colours are decent in the movie and photography can be rated as good . Background music and songs are decent too . Acting be everyone is good . What the movie lacks is some thing interesting happening every now and then . The unfolding events fail to hold our interest and seem clichéd .

The 'Hate story' series of movies is based on the premise of a 'hell hath no fury like a woman wronged' and show a woman deeply wronged in the past by men and taking deadly revenge in the midst of hot sex scenes . This movie is no different . But the hot scenes and revenge scenes lack fire . The kind of fire that actress Paoli Dam showed in the first movie of this series . Mere goodlooking women and men and posh sets do not make a good movie . Towards the climax the movie is like an action thriller but even the action lacks fire . Urvashi Rautela is a good find but she will have to search for a better movie for launch of her career then 'Hate story part four' .

Verdict---Okay .

Two stars out of five .

Room the mystery ( 2014 )



This is a small budget horror film with small time actors whom I had never heard of . But colours and photography is good and location is decent . No songs are there but background music is okay . Acting by everyone is okay too .

Kunal ( Atif Jamil ) is the son of a rich politician . He forces his friends including two hot females to come to his dad's posh resort like house outside the city for partying . They agree only reluctantly , but once there they are happy to see such a posh house and start to drink and have fun . The two females are in sexy exposing clothes and their dance arouses the two watchmen who have access to CCTV footage in the guard house ; they talk about how money can buy the attention of hot babes that people in their lowly position can only dream of . One couple soon starts to do hot smooching with the male on top of the female , giving us the hots .

Meanwhile nearby the house a police officer has been called to the site of a hit and run accident , and remembers his own wife killed in such an accident . At the same time a woman comes to the house where the party is going on claiming that her car engine has failed and asking for refuge for the night . She joins the partying people in their room .

However strange things have been already happening in the party . The lights had gone out and one of the girls was being smooched in the darkness . But as the lights came on , she realised that both boys were away from her . So who smooched her in the darkness ?? The ghost has made it's first entry , that too in style . Soon the lights go out again and one guy gets slapped in the darkness . When lights come on everyone is far away from him . So who slapped him ?....the evil spirit has made it's second impact .

But soon the happenings become more sinister and every time the lights go out something bad happens . When they come on , everyone starts blaming the sinister happenings on Kunal . Soon people start getting murdered when the lights go out and when they come on the body is lying on the floor . The desperate group tries to escape from the room but the doors are all locked . So what is the mystery of the room ?

Meanwhile the watchman is seeing the happenings on CCTV and also sees the image of a ghost on his screen . Panicking , he calls the police officer . The police officer and his assistant try to open the door of the mysterious room from outside but to no avail . The watchman is convinced that the evil spirit is going to kill all inside the room and the policemen later have to agree with this .

Finally the spirit manifests itself when all but Kunal have been killed . It is the woman who took refuge for the night . She was killed by Kunal and his friends in a drunken hit and run accident years ago and has returned to take revenge . But Kunal confesses his crime to the police officer on phone and she spares him .

But when the accident is shown in flashback there were only the guys in the car which collided killing the woman . Then why did she kill the two girls ? The director did not feel need to clear that one out....

Verdict---Just about okay .

Two stars out of five .

3 storeys ( march 2018 )



3 storeys is a movie set in Mumbai's ubiquitous chawl system . A chawl is a building that has two room dwellings that open out into a common balcony that spans the entire front of the floor . Mostly lower middle class people stay there and chawls are a hotchpotch of people from different communities staying together . The movie shows 3 stories of 3 families staying on three storeys of the chawl .

The first story is that of Flory Mendonca , a woman who has lost her son and husband long ago and wants to sell her dwelling in the chawl . But she wants to sell at four times the actual value of the dwelling , and hence gets no buyer . But one day a young man ( played by Pulkit Samrat ) comes to buy it and gets ready to buy at the excessive high price . After the deal he asks about her son and his father and learns about how they died . But as the conversation proceeds we are in for a real shock . It's best not to reveal what lies in store for the viewer , but the shock gave a real punch in the face .

The second story is of Varsha Atre ( Masumeh Makhija ) , who is a marathi lady having an alcoholic husband who beats her though he behaves well with their son . One day she makes friends with a newly arrived lady who invites her to her home in the chawl . But as the newly arrived lady tells her about her husband ( played by Sharman Joshi ) , old memories tumble out and Varsha finds herself confronted by her past....

The third story is about love between a young boy and girl of different religions . But as they elope due to the opposition of their parents , they are confronted by a cruel truth about their past that shatters their love story apart....

While this is going on , the attention of all men in the chawl is on the attention seeker of the chawl ( played by Richa Chaddha ) who struts about in backless blouses and with belly chain strapped around her belly having dalliances with men . She is the one who is narrating us all these stories , but when the truth about her is revealed by her we have sympathy for her .

As old secrets tumble out and persons are forced to come face to face with past mistakes , we realise that every building has stories to tell . Of love , of longing , of bad things happening and good tidings coming . It is important that we are listening to a good story teller who makes the stories of ordinary human beings spicier than reality . And in this movie , we are listening to a good story teller .

Background music is good and songs are better . Photography is decent and colours are okay . Acting is decent by everyone . But the movie is for those who like off beat movies and not who like run of the mill entertainers .

Verdict---decent .

Three stars out of five .