Ashdoc's Bollywood movie reviews

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here's my review---

Krishh 3



With this film Rakesh Roshan seems to have the ambition to make an Indian superhero and sci fi film that can match Hollywood .

But can he match Hollywood ??

The answer is---not really....

The only thing Rakesh Roshan can do is---he can copy it....
....For the film's scenes seem to be copied from various Hollywood superhero and sci fi films and do not have anything original in them .

Hrithik plays Krishh---the superhero who doubles as a blue collar worker who gets fired from various jobs because he's too committed to his other self as superhero and arrives late for work . So then how can he maintain his lifestyle and what are his sources of income ?? SSHH....Don't ask uncomfortable questions....

He has a sexy miniskirted wife ( Priyanka Chopra ) who works for Aaj tak TV news channel and knows his secret identity . His father is played by himself and father works for a govt laboratory . The father also is experimenting with using concentrated solar energy to bring back dead creatures to life but his experiment is not successful because too much concentration of solar energy tends to destroy the dead creatures .

Trouble breaks out in this paradise with the entry of Vivek Oberoi who plays the character of Kal---a handicapped villain who can use his enormous mental strength to move and shatter objects and who has created mutant living beings from animals and humans combined ( called maanwars ) to carry out his nefarious objectives....
And his nefarious objectives include creating viruses which kill people in millions and then selling their antidotes to earn huge amounts of money....

So can Krishh and his father stop this villain ??
The most important question is---can the audience get some entertainment while they do the stopping ??

To be honest , some kids might love this film---but only urban kids....
I wonder how people from illiterate backgrounds and rural parts are going to understand the highfundoo terminology and sci fi shown in the film....
Part of the film and the special effects seem like a computer game which is not meant for the common masses....

Acting by Hrithik is good , but Priyanka does not have much to do except look pretty....

Kangana Ranaut plays the vamp who falls in love with Krishh , but she falls for him too quickly and unconvincingly---how come a person who was coldbloodedly killing people just few minutes ago suddenly develop such a loving heart ??

The fighting in the end is more like carnage and it dragged on too much for my liking....

The music by Rajesh Roshan is his worst performance as music director till date---nothing more should be said about the music...

The special effects have been done by an Indian company without foreign help and by that standard they can be called good . But the ideas are all copied from Hollywood . Couldn't they think of some original stunts ??

Verdict---Just about okay . Personally I wasn't particularly impressed....

People who watch the film can be divided into two parts---1 ) Those who watch Hollywood films 2 ) Those who don't watch Hollywood films .
Those who watch Hollywood films will know that they are watching copied scenes from Hollywood and will get bored .
Those who don't watch Hollywood films will be seeing these special effects and stunts for the first time and may like it .



Thank you for your reviews Ashdoc. I've never taken time out to read Bollywood film reviews until now. It's interesting how there's films about love all over the world, but each culture reflects their own concerns.
How is the cinema industry in India? I know films are a hugely popular pastime in India, but has downloading films to watch at home started to take hold in urban areas?



How is the cinema industry in India? I know films are a hugely popular pastime in India, but has downloading films to watch at home started to take hold in urban areas?
in south india people are mad about films and film stars enter politics to become chief ministers of those states . temples are built where people pray to the idol of the film star .

in north india people are less passionate about films .

bollywood is all about promoting children of stars into films . thus several generations of the same family are in films . there is also the infamous casting couch .

yeah , downloading has started to take hold in urban areas .



Shahid---



I had never heard of Shahid Azmi till this movie came along....

Even the media which is neck deep into secularism had not dared to create a hero out if him , which is why I had never heard of him....

Yet the director keeps the tall ambition of painting Shahid as a hero---as a man who stood out for the rights of those who were wrongfully accused of terrorism without caring for his own life....

Problem is , by the movie's own admission Shahid's own past was not anything to be proud about....

He is shown to have been affected by the Bombay riots of 1993 and gone to POK ( Pakistan occupied Kashmir ) to train for jihad .

Now this itself raises controversy in my mind as to how come such a person can be treated as a hero .
question is , why did he go to POK to train for jihad....??

Did he lose any family member in the riots ?? Any near and dear ones ??
At least the movie does not show any such thing....
I would like to ask the director---did those muslims who lost their family members in riots all turn to terrorism ??
The answer is , most of them didn't....
Then why did Shahid , who didn't lose any family member in riots ??

Then how can the director justify Shahid's stint in a jihadi camp in POK ??

Similarly , may hindus are illtreated and subjected physical humiliation in Pak....
How many of them have turned to terrorism against Pakistan ?? Answer is---practically nobody....

Then how can Shahid's stint as a trainee jihadi in POK be treated as ' natural reaction ' to Bombay riots ??

The director wants us to pull off the amazing feat of believing that a would be jihadi is some kind of hero here in India....

Of course , Shahid remains only a would be jihadi....
He becomes disillusioned with the brutality of the training in POK and returns home to India....

Here the police is waiting for him and not only arrests him but also gives him the treatment reserved for jihadis . He is stripped naked and beaten .

Once again , the director makes the perfidy of wanting us to believe that this is a grave injustice , that he is being singled out because he is a muslim....

Tell me , what else do you expect if you go to Pakistani controlled jihadi training camps in POK ?? To be welcomed back in India with bouquets of flowers ??

Then he is misled into signing a confession that he was involved in a terror plot , for which he has to spend years in Tihar jail....

Here he is again tried to be co opted for jihad by terrorists serving time in jail , but is saved by a former jihadi who himself was disillusioned by the jihad and who prevents Shahid from turning again to terrorism....

Instead he is encouraged to take up studies and becomes a lawyer....

The very fact that such a person with such a tainted past is eventually released from jail is testament to the fact that India has an impartial justice system , otherwise how could a former wannabe jihadi be set free by the courts ?? Yet the director acknowledges this fact only grudgingly , making one of the characters say that the justice system does work in India though it works only late....

Shahid Azmi takes up the opportunity to practice as a lawyer , where he is honest enough to refuse to take up cases of people who are real criminals---which costs him his job with a prominent lawyer....

His personal life is a major component of the movie , with his courtship with his wife Mariam leading to marriage . But the marriage turns upside down because he begins to get death threats due to the dangerous work he has undertaken lately....

So what is that dangerous work ?? It's that of taking up cases of people accused of terrorism against India....

Shahid proves to be a brilliant lawyer who is hard to beat in a courtroom debate , and the courtroom debates are filmed brilliantly....
The actor playing Shahid ( Rajkumar Yadav ) has acted all too well putting his heart and soul into getting into the skin of the character he is playing .

To be honest , the real life Shahid looks better than the actor playing him , but Raj kumar has compensated for his lack of looks by his superb acting , which may fetch him awards....

It is his high acquittal rate of those accused of terrorism which turns him into a hero , at least for some....

But he angers powerful people by taking up cases of those accused of being involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and as he begins to get death threats his wife leaves him....
His face is blackened by chauvinists...

Shahid is leading a very dangerous and charmed life....

So what will happen to him...??

To me the bigger question was , is he the hero that the director of the film has tried to make him out to be ?? Considering his past and considering the fact that he fought cases for the people of his own community , that is somewhat of a tall order....

Of course , at least some for whom he fought were declared innocent by the courts . So maybe he really fought for those he believed to be innocent....
And he didnt care about his life or his marriage in his pursuit of saving those people....
You certainly have to admit he had courage of conviction....

But a hero ?? That is for you to decide...to each his own.....

And like him or dislike him , you cannot ignore Shahid Azmi---not after this film , for it's that good....

Verdict---Good .



Chennai express ( means train to the south indian city of Chennai , formerly known as Madras )





The coming together of three people made Chennai express such a much awaited film....

Shah Rukh Khan---The former Badshah of the box office ; his last chance to revive his fading stardom....

Deepika Padukone---The reigning queen of Bollywood....

And above all director Rohit Shetty---The king of the 1 billion rupee ( indian currency ) club , who's name is reputed to spell sheer mindless entertainment....

And when a film has raised the ante this high , the pressure is on the whole team which made the film to match up to the expectations.....

The 1 billion rupees will come , and much more....but does the film really deliver what it promised or does the filmmaking team choke under pressure of expectations like the South African cricket team usually does??

First things first....

This is a film not made to impress the high brow intellectuals or even the film critics....

It's made to appeal to those half literate masses inhabiting a third world country called India---the west would scoff at such a film....

Along the way if the classes do like the film then good for them---but even if they dont then still the movie watching prowess of the masses is enough to propel the movie to the status of a hit....

But belonging to the classes as I do ( I do have an excessively high opinion of myself ) I was not too sure that it would appeal to me and went to see the movie only hesitatingly and because the producers had applied the smart technique of releasing the film in practically every available cinema hall---there was simply no other movie to watch except those which had been released earlier and had been seen by me....

So does the director choke like the South Africans or prove a continual winner like the Australian cricketers who played under Steve Waugh ?

In fact , like Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad who hit a last ball six at Sharjah stadium to silence his critics the director revels under pressure and proves himself to be king---once again....

And amazingly , the classes were applauding too....

As the interval of the film dawned the well groomed people whom I was surrounded by ( they were kind enough not to mind my not so well groomed presence ) took the opportunity of the break to try to speak some broken Tamil ( south indian language ) and mouth and shout some Tamil dialogues....it's as if Tamil had become the lingua franca of the cinema hall....

And as I went to pee in the toilet all that I heard in the toilet was non Tamil men trying their hand at Tamil....
I deliberately prolonged my pee to see if they would stop but the newer ones coming to pee also were trying to master the same language.....

Were they all practicing because they going to catch the Chennai express at the nearest station ??
Or was it the impact of the film ??

The director has pulled a real rabbit from the hat and shown several characters in the film speak only tamil---this has ensured a true blue Madrasi ( south indian ) flavour to the movie....

The jokes are surprisingly intelligent and really funny....

But at some point you are going to get tired of the jokes and feel bored---as I did....

But the director knew the pulse of the audience better than I expected....

As the jokes became boring and repetitive he switched the mood of the movie from comedy to some romance and serious emotion.....and lo !! once again the movie became interesting.....

And you seamlessly and effortlessly understand what is happening even if some characters speak tamil---a real triumph of direction I feel....

Of course , the hero is a hindi speaker of north indian from Bollywood heartland---Mumbai/Bombay what else....

But he wins the heart of a madrasi ( south indian )damsel....

And how ??!! By accompanying her on the Chennai express....

But not so easy !!

At first Shah Rukh's plan to get down at Kalyan and go to Goa from there to immerse his grandfather's ashes gets derailed in his effort to save Deepika from goons....

He in fact is forced to go with her and the goons up to south indian state of Tamil Nadu in the Chennai express....

His dead grandfather would have approved---he actually wanted to get his ashes immersed in Rameshwaram in Tamil nadu anyway.....( Beware !! up there high above the clouds the ultimate superpower is watching---and controlling our actions as he controls our destiny....)

The goons who kidnap both Deepika and Shah Rukh are her father's men---she has run away from home because her father has fixed her marriage with another Don ( her father herself is a Don ) whom she does not want to marry , and Shah Rukh has got unwittingly mixed up in this....

And as Chennai express rolls on and finally halts and even beyond that when the story moves on in Tamil Nadu , we see some breathtaking photography of peninsular India---all evergreen countryside and majestic waterfalls and South Indian temples and sari clad women ( Deepika looks so wonderful in a saree !! ) and bridges crossing the sea and finally the deep blue ocean at Rameshwaram....

But Shah Rukh is not only unwitting but unwilling---why would he help Deepika a complete stranger ??

But Deepika has introduced Shah Rukh as the lover she ran away with to her father escape his wrath ( no she doesn't love Shah Rukh , not so early....) and Shah Rukh is deeper into this mess....

And before he can try to run away he has to confront some tough people---and like the common man that he is he chickens out from the confrontations.....

No wonder---the tough people he has to confront are really tall and superhefty guys ; each guy can be called a man mountain actually.....
Who in his right mind would fight them ??

And as he finally manages to run away he finds Deepika tugging along with him at every turn due to some twists of fate---a headache really.....

And do I even have to say that when two goodlooking people are thrown together constantly in hindi films then they fall in love ??

But to consummate that love the couple will have to turn back to face the DON ( her father ) and his goons who are all man mountains , and the person whom her father has fixed her marriage with---the biggest man mountain of them all....

So does the power of love give Shah Rukh the common man courage enough to fight them all ??

And does his grandfather's wish to get his ashes immersed in Rameshwaram come true ??

I suspect you all already know the answers....

It's the manner in which this all is filmed by the producers so that it is enjoyed by the audience that is important.....

And the filmmakers do this job with aplomb....

Verdict---magnificient entertainment .



The dirty picture---









If Silk Smitha ,the sultry sex symbol of south India of the eighties is somewhere up there in heaven today , then nowadays she must be smiling.....

No , not just because she is still capable of raising the hots of everyone up there , including the gods , like she used to when on earth ( that I am sure she is still capable of ).....

......But because she has managed to do something that she could never even hope to do in her lifetime---become the leading lady of an A grade film !!

Like so many stupendous failures , she's achieved in death what she couldn't achieve in life---reached the pinnacle of success......

For it is certainly the controversial manner of her death ( by suicide ) that has inspired Balaji films to make a classy film on a woman who was branded a slut , if not a whore in her lifetime , and take a classy heroine like Vidya Balan for the role.....

And above all ,they have made a good and different film on Silk Smitha's life---full of some good performances from the cast......

But from amongst the cast , its Vidya Balan who stands out the most---giving a performance of a lifetime ; not just a performance but a role that many top heroines would vie for......( now when I look up into the sky , do I see Silk Smitha smiling again ?? )

What comes to her aid in making her performance more memorable are the razor sharp dialogues written by a brainy scriptwriter, delivered by Vidya with a fabulous sense of timing

She plays---with aplomb---the role of a girl who yearns to be a film star ; who escapes from her home before she is married off , to the big city , in search of a role in films.....

......A girl who is ready to bare all and dare all for reaching the top.....

......A girl ready to take off clothes at the drop of a hat , not just in front of the camera , but off it too , especially in the darkness of the bedroom at night.....

And when a girl is ready to do the latter part , but naturally a line of men is ready to line up to bed her.....

All of whom are ready to fulfill their lust with her in privacy , but none are ready to even acknowledge her existence in public.....

......For the fame and the adulation that she has achieved is of the dirty kind......

She's become a woman who raises the temperature of men , but in this hypocritical society of ours , she has neither respectability nor place.....

She is shunned in gatherings of allegedly ' decent ' people ( the same people who enjoy her at night become ' decent ' in front of their wives during the day ) , and increasingly , this fact begins to bite her.....

But what bites her more are the fickle ways of fame and fortune.....

The same public that lined up theaters to see her movies now moves on to the next sex symbol.....

What saves other people in such situations is family and loved ones.....

But her family she has forsaken long ago in her search for elusive success , and no one wants to fall in love with a slut.....

......Which means she has to lead a life of loneliness amidst failure---and failure leads her to drunkenness and penury......

But the greatest failure is the fact that the person who hated her success and the way she got it now loses that hate he had for her---he has no need to hate someone who's inconsequential , she feels.....

But she is SILK , born to live a life of celebrity and fame.....

.....And if celebrity and fame is going to desert her , she feels no need to live.....

Its time to say goodbye to the world......

A goodbye that fills your heart with pathos for someone who was only supposed to rouse the feelings in your private parts.....

Well ,thats what is called a powerpacked filmy performance , isn't it.....

Verdict---good .



Bandook ( means ' the gun ' )---





'' My gun is not the useless male organ of a eunuch ; not only can it get up , but it can also fire.... '' ---said by Aditya Om playing Bhola Kewat.....

The rural hinterland of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh---heartland of the planet's largest democracy.....

But does democracy really work here ?? No....What works is the power of BANDOOK---the gun.....

The gun decides who enjoys the fruits of power in elections or not.....and it is the gun which gives a man respect and standing in society......

.......For the gun gives power......and in a brutalized and illiterate society a man without power is nothing......

......And not only a man without power is nothing , but he can be crushed and humiliated in a thousand ways.....

Bhola Kewat learns this the hard way......

For he is tied like Jesus Christ onto a cross and physically mutiliated in revenge for a minor misdemeanour.....

But a police inspector waves gun and the crowd which was baying for his blood submits Bhola to him.....

And just as the inspector is about to rape him in the police station ( yeah the inspector is gay ) Bhola is saved by another man with a gun.....

And when Bhola returns home to beat his father to pulp for not having tried to save him , he is told that he is not his son really---he is the son of an upper caste landlord who slept with his mother to produce him , a crime for which the father beat the mother mercilessly to no avail.....

......This is the baptism by fire for Bhola......

And uptil now we have already heard and consumed a mountainload of obscenities that sets the tone for rest the movie.....for this was just the beginning......

Yeah , dont bring a woman anywhere near this theater for seeing this movie unless she is used to being verbally abused on a daily basis and does not mind......

......For the censors have given a real leeway as far as the language in the movie is concerned.....

But all the language and suffering is worth it for Bhola Kewat.....

For having learnt the lesson of the gun hard , he joins a gang and sets about ruthlessly establishing his awe with the help of the gun......

And he shows that he has the brains as well as the brawn to aim a gun , shoot to kill and also to rise in hierarchy of the gang by earning the respect of his seniors.....

Of course , he has to shamelessly eliminate quite a few rivals , but that's part of the game---the deadly game of death.....

......For the rivals are planning to eliminate him......

But he is gentleman at heart really , if anybody can be at all in his situation and place.....

For when he sees a beautiful woman who has been raped , he saves her from further humiliation.....

And lo !! the beautiful woman falls in love with him---springing the most unbelievable romance in the unlikeliest of situations.....

An oasis of peace and tenderness in an ocean of war and cruelty......

And Bhola begins to care for her deeply---his love increased by the fact that she is a deaf mute and cannot tell even her name ( she remains nameless throughout the film )......

But outside the oasis of peace is the strifetorn world.....a world which says that the deaf mute woman has broken all rules of caste by living with bhola.....

And dangerous enemies and even more dangerous friends are plotting and planning to rid the earth of Bhola's burden.....

Its a real jungle out there.....and Bhola knows that there is at least one gun and one bullet out there that is marked for him.....the rule is to live for the moment.....not to worry what is in the future....

So does Bhola get to survive ?? And does he manage to save the woman he loves from the clutches of society ??

Go and watch this movie for the answers......

Part ruthlessly actionpacked and part tragic , the movie is garunteed to make an impression on your heart.....

The performances by all are riveting and the atmosphere of rural India well created.....

.......And even though it has not been flamboyantly publicized like other movies , it ranks no less than the more successful among them in my opinion.....

Verdict---solid .



Aakashvani---





College life---a time to set yourself free....a time for liberation....

......A time to let your hopes rise and ambitions soar.....

......A time for fun and excitement and the heady feeling of youth.....

.....And also a time for romance and love.....

And romance brings with it secret rendezvous in misty hills and secret meetings in corners of college campuses.....

And it brings stolen kisses in unguarded moments and stolen moments away from prying eyes....

But once the college days are over , you have to face the real world.....

And the real world contains parents---parents rooted in Indian culture which frowns upon the notion of a girl going out with a boy.....

Parents who are more bothered about false notions of family honour than the happiness of their children.....

This is the situation faced by Vani , a goodlooking girl in love with Aakash who studies in her college.....

Her dreams of love and romance are shattered as her sister runs away with her boyfriend and her parents are so overcome by shame and by the taunts of neighbours that they decide to marry her off before she apes her sister !!

.....And Vani does not have the guts to break her parents' heart and tell them that she is loves someone else.....

Like an obedient daughter she goes into the home of the boy chosen for her by her parents....

Now things could have gone normally for her after this , like they go for millions of other girls who are forced to accept husbands chosen by their parents in this backward land .

But the director , in typical filmy style , deliberately juxtaposes the husband as a mean and hard man compared to the gentle Aakash . While Aakash is nice and caring and modern in his views , her new husband is orthodox and believes in insulting his wife again and again . Above all , he commits marital rape upon her , forcing himself on her against her will . But his greatest sin is hypocrisy !! He pretends to be liberal minded before the world when in actuality he is the opposite....

It seems fate had destined Vani to be nothing but a doormat of a dictator.....

But this is the 21st century.....and winds of liberalisation have begun to sweep the land.....

And behold the power of destiny......for the paths of Aakash and Vani are destined to cross again.....

And when they do , does Aakash still hold the same feelings for Vani that he did earlier ??

And if he does , then will Vani respond to them ?? And will she have the guts to confront her husband and parents and follow her heart....

Will the winds of liberalism that have begun to sweep the land kiss and caress Vani's life too ??

For answers to these questions , go and watch the movie....

The film is an indictment of those parents who force their children into unwilling marriages and presents powerful arguments against the notion of marriage for the sake of saving family honour .

Above all its a film made straight from the heart.....

And anything made straight from the heart is watchable....

Verdict---watchable .



Not a love story---

Film based on a real life murder ( crime of passion ) in Mumbai/Bombay






One can almost imagine Ram Gopal Verma ( RGV ) rubbing his hands with glee when he heard the story of the murder of Neeraj Grover , especially the fact that his murderer Emile Jerome Mathew and accomplice Maria Susairaj had cut Neeraj's bloodstained body into 300 l-i-t-t-l-e l-i-t-t-l-e pieces before disposing it off .

Here was a story fit to be fit to be brought on celluloid by the badshah of blood and gore !! The king of countless underworld films in bollywood !! Some good , some bad , but all having the trademark RGV style......

But while showing the mayhem unleashed by a crime of passion in a flat in Dheeraj Solitaire building in Malad in Mumbai , RGV surprisingly shows a softer side of himself......

For he shows the three main characters of the film ( the murdered , the murderer and the accomplice ) as the victims of a situation rather than trying to pin the guilt on anyone .

His softest touch is reserved for the woman--Anusha , as Maria is called in the film . She is shown to be the unwitting accomplice who is helpless as Robin ( as Mathew is called in the film ) and Ashish ( as Neeraj is called in the film ) physically tussle it out after Robin suddenly lands into Anusha's rented flat to find a naked Ashish there--and a mere spectator as Robin overpowers Ashish and kills him with a knife .

Ashish is shown to be a nice guy who helps out Anusha in her film career , and is prompted to make love to her only when he lands in her flat in a drunken state and loses control of himself .

To return to Anusha--she is shown to have rejected advances of other film-makers earlier , only to be unable to stop Ashish from making love to her as she has to pay a debt of gratitude . After all , he is the one who has helped her realise her bollywood dreams......

And Robin--he is the one with glazed eyes all through the film, as if he knows that he is going to commit a terrible crime , even before he has commited it .

But glazed eyes and all , nothing has prepared him for the sight of a naked Ashish as he steps inside his girlfriends rented flat one fine morning in Mumbai.....

......A sight which makes him lose control of his mind , and what happens next is just driven by passion , pure passion--a passion which knows no rhyme nor reason......

The rest--sending Anusha out to buy a large knife to cut the body into pieces , then actually cutting it , and putting the pieces into plastic bags , and then disposing them off in a remote area ,then wiping off all the blood in the flat--is something that Robin and Anusha have to do only after realising the enormity of what they have done too late.....

But caught in an impossible situation ,seeing their lives , their careers on the line , what else can the two young lovers dooooo.......??

And seeing such a plot , what does RGV's camera do ??

It moves up and down the heroine's ( what else can we call her , even though she has taken part in such a grisly crime ? ) body like a voyeur , almost licking her at times.....

......And it is never steady , constantly on the move--A reflection of RGV's mind ??

Watching over all this is lord Ganesha ( Hindu God ) , or at least his idol in the rented flat--making us wonder if the lord has any control over what is happening in his universe......

In the end the sheer weight of the situation forces the two lovers to back opposing stories in the courtroom ( as told by their lawyers ) until a moment of passion ( here we go again !!) allows them to reunite for a heartbreakingly brief moment.....but the heartless society is all around to prevent it......

Verdict--watchable.....



Yeh saali zindagi ( This damn life )---





Irfan Khan is hopelessly in love with Chitrangada Singh......in fact so, so, so much that he is willing to do anything for her.......

But alas......she is in love with somebody else !!

Aaaah !! The pains and the heartbreak of one-sided love....

But wait !!.....there's hope on the horizon !!......Chitrangada's lover is a double-crosser who is fooling her .......besides , he's too much of a big-shot to marry a poor singer like her......

But when will Chitrangada realise....... oh my darling darling Chits.......

Meanwhile Chitrangada's' boyfriend is kidnapped , and Chitrangada moves heaven and earth trying to save his life........

.......And who is there ever-ready to help her ??.......to comfort her in moments of despair ??

........Who else but our very own Mr bumbling wannabe hero---Irfan khan !!

And all the time he's hoping ......hoping......hoping against hope , that she will say those golden ......no , no silver words ( speech is silver , silence is golden , remember ) --' I LOVE YOU '.......

But the wait for those words is a interminably long one......

.......but does darling Chits really say those life shaking words to Irfan ???

Go and see the movie for that.......

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Sorry to disappoint you folks , but actually the movie is not so romantic as I made it out to be ........

But the Irfan-Chitrangada plot is the most important one in a movie having many sub-plots......

.......And a movie full of confusion......

The hots are provided by newcomer Aditi Rao , who kisses Arunodaya Singh with abandon , and looks so lovely , so delicate ......her skin seems so white , so soft .......a lot of people in the theater were wishing to be in Arunodaya's place !!

Now enough of daydreaming , and back to reviewing.......

The story unfolds in delhi and its environs, and director Sudhir Mishra does manage to get a grip on the confusion , while the movie goes on with generous dose of real-time uncensored obscenities delhi-north indian style , and doses of shooting and killing .........

All the characters ( and believe me , there are too many ), and even the minor ruffians ,are introduced by their screen names coming on screen , giving the movie a whacky feel as it moves from delhi to georgia in the former soviet union to climaxing in Bombay .......

.........where Irfan is still waiting for darling chits to say those words he's been waiting for all his life......

verdict -- alls well that ends well ( amen to that )



Saheb , biwi aur gangster ( Boss , wife and gangster )---





Looks like the ban on showing smoking in Indian films has been lifted......

And as if to compensate for the lost years when smoking was not allowed to be shown in films , the film shows everyone smoking.....

......Including the women too.....

AAAHH the women......

They form the delectable part of the film......

......Showing off their sensuous curves in backless blouses , deliberately standing in alluring poses , showing desire on their faces , enticing their lovers and audiences with lipstick on oh so inviting lips , making wanton love on the double bed or even on bare rocks in the hills , behaving in a free , almost shameless manner and showing passion in every move.....

Leading the pack is Mahie Gill , a sultry woman waiting , waiting , just waiting for the husband who , quite unbelievably , is always the arms of his mistress !!

Now why would anybody neglect a woman as seductive as that and go into the arms of another woman ??

Thats because everybody , including the boss ( husband ) , wife ( Mahie ) is crazy and eccentric in this crumbling mansion--the ruins of a once powerful royalty , but now fallen on hard times.....

Doesn't matter--the fact that the boss goes into the arms of another woman gives the audience the chance to see another temptress ( the mistress ) in action.....

.....And action she gives--gives all the oohs and aahs while making love , and giving embraces with her lovely arms entwined around the saheb's neck.....

But what about the wife ??

Doesn't a woman filled with tempestous desire need to fulfill her passions , her needs--needs which just cant be fulfilled by whiling the time in smoking and drinking , and waiting for the love which will never come from the erratic husband.....

Enter the sex slave....or , err , gangster--in the form of Randeep Hooda--a person sent by a rival gangster to keep a watch on the boss , waiting for a chance to bump him off......

......Thats because the boss has entered the dangerous underworld of murders and contract killings in order to finance his crumbling monarchy--thereby earning a lot of dangerous enemies.....

But the movie veers off course as instead of concentrating on his job , the gangster becomes slave of the wife's heart.....

Who cares anyway ?? We get to see more passion in action , this time between the wife and the sex slave--on bare rocks in the hills , in secret hideways in lonely mountains ....naked bodies burning in desire....and happily for the audiences eyes ( and other body parts as well---you naughty ) , fulfilling it....

And its passion that counts.....

For who cares for the murder and the mayhem that is unleashed as the rival gangster tries to bump off the boss , the hopelessly in love slave hatches a plot to kill both the mistress and the boss in order to permanently get his ladylove the wife , and ultimately the wife has to choose between killing the slave or the boss......that stuff occurs in all films anyway.....

We had our fun.....now time to walk away from the theater.....its not a fantastic movie anyway.....good for a one time watch.....

Verdict-- not fantastic , but decent enough.....



Talaash ( The search )---





Mumbai......the bustling economic capital of a populous and rising nation.....

But at the heart of it there is a sea of sleaze---a den of prostitution and pimps and whoremongers and middlemen.....

These people lead lives of zero value and emptiness and nothingness....

No one cares if they are alive or dead.....

But what if one of them had the power to reach out and tell us about what happened to that person ??

TALAASH takes us into the heart of the city's forbidden zone---forbidden for those who want to lead respectable lives but a heaven for those freewheeling denizens who lead a bohemian life.....

A zone where the ladies of the night ape the look of New York's streetwalkers---tight tops and miniskirts with highheeled shoes....

And leading our foray into this nightworld is Amir Khan---the maestro of intelligent cinema.....

He is the stern and intense police officer investigating the accidental death of Bollywood's rising superstar---Armaan Kapoor......

And he has a right to be intense---for he and his wife ( Rani Mukherji ) are dealing with personal tragedy in the form of death of their son.....

And taking them into the heart of the investigation and also the heart of the forbidden zone is a beautiful streetwalker---Kareena Kapoor.....

But she's not looking more beautiful than Amir's wife Rani---for the director has the chutzpah to show Rani in low back blouses even in her grief , thus giving us glimpses of her sumptuous back.....

But while Rani is the simple yet elegant wife , it is Kareena who is the glamorous siren---and Amir is the lucky one who gets to spend time with both.....

But as I said , he's a brooding and intense man---and he's more bothered about the investigation than the charms of Kareena and even the pain of his aggrieved wife....

Ahh !! the investigation.....its a case that is hard to solve---a mystery in a riddle wrapped inside an enigma.....

.....And mysteries are what I like....the more difficult to solve the better....

But the icing on the cake is the conclusion---if the real mastery of the director is in solving a mystery in the most surprising manner possible then the film is a work of genius.....

So is it a work of genius ?? Go and watch the movie for that.....

The director's triumph has been in effortlessly blending Amir's personal life in the mystery of the film---and amidst all the tragedies and pain he manages bring both to a successful conclusion.....

Music is good too....

But it is Amir Khan who towers above all others in the film , dominating every scene and every space---once again his acting prowess is in top form.....

And when Amir is in top form the film is a must see.....

Verdict---dont miss it , and above all dont reveal the suspense to others.....



2 states---





Ever since ' Hum aapke hai kaun ' became such a superhit 20 years ago , showing marriage in movies has become the staple for Bollywood entertainment . Endless number of movies are made showing scenes of marriage and the rituals and customs associated with it . Indian audiences simply love the feelgood atmosphere of marriage ceremonies and the feast of colour that is displayed by people wearing extravagant clothes while dancing to loud music in the festivities of marriage . But usually the story has other angles like scheming relatives or villains or some dramatic event that forms the turning point in the movie .

This movie takes the Indian obsession with marriage in movies further by showing the ordinary story of the fixing of a marriage between two lovebirds . Other than the fact that the two lovers belong to different states and cultures in India , there is nothing interesting about the story . Nothing dramatic happens , there is no sudden twist in the story and above all there are no bad people or villains playing mayhem . Even the fact that the two lovers belong to diverse cultures is diluted for me by the fact that I have seen countless such marriages happen in a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai where I was born and raised and this sort of thing is not new for me .

Inspite of this the director does manage to hold your attention especially in the first half when romance blossoms---and it blossoms so effortlessly that you wonder why everybody doesn't have a love marriage....

And the romance blossoms in the rarefied atmosphere of IIM Ahmedabad---the premiere management institute of the country where the people are highly intelligent and their views and attitudes are above the ordinary....
So is it such a surprise that love makes a beeline to the bedroom and soon the lovers are Kissing and sleeping together....
And is it such a surprise that the dress code for the heroine ( Alia Bhatt ) consists of modern western clothes which expose some of her lovely flesh....

But once the education is over and the lovers are out of the hi fi campus of IIM Ahmedabad , they are back in the welter of backwardness that is the real India....
.....And this welter of backwardness contains parents who belong to a different and earlier generation and who are not exactly comfortable with the idea of marriage between different states and different cultures .

The words ' not exactly comfortable ' are important here---for unlike other movies , there is no dramatic opposition to the marriage by anyone . No major battle takes place or any blood is spilled . But there is initial hesitation by parents on both sides and a major culture clash always seems to be on the cards....

To be honest the movie does tilt towards the side of south Indian Tamils ( Alia Bhatt's ethnicity in the film ) by showing the tamils to be more civilized than hero Arjun Kapoor's parents---the Punjabis....
.....For Arjun's father is shown beating his mother like typical punjabi male . And like a typical punjabi , he is forever drinking....
Punjabis are shown to be greedy for dowry and gifts from the girl's side . And they bring racism in by frowning upon the tamilians as dark skinned while they pride themselves on having fair skin .
You almost empathize with Alia's tamil mother when she herself shows some narrowmindedness and scoffs at punjabis as ' uncultured '.....

So how is the culture clash that almost happened is just avoided ??
And does everything end well ??
Watch the movie for that....

The movie has good acting by Alia Bhatt who looks good enough to eat . But her dress code changes from western to ethnic once out of IIM Ahmedabad . Why so ?? Modern Indian women wear western clothes even after marriage don't they ?? Anyway she looks good in both clothes , though do I show typical Indian male mentality by saying she looks better in Indian clothes---I wonder....

Arjun Kapoor is decent and his acting is improving , though it does not match Alia's acting . Music is only so so .

The second half of the movie is less fun filled than the first half and in some scenes is somewhat depressing . The fact that Arjun's father is forever scowling and his relation with Arjun and Arjun's mother is fraught with tension is not a great sight to see . But some scenes in the first half are heartening to watch---especially when Arjun proposes to the whole of Alia's family bringing engagement rings for all of them rather than her alone....

In the end , one must applaud the director for bringing an ordinary love story to life by making it appear more interesting than it actually is....

Verdict---Good .



Lakshmi ( real life story of a young girl who was sold into a brothel )---



Human trafficking---scourge of our time....scourge of all times since the beginning of history....

For human trafficking is what feeds what is reputedly the world's oldest profession---prostitution....
And some of these prostitutes are sex slaves---kidnapped and sold to feed the voracious lust of men....

The story of Lakshmi ( set in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh ) is similar to that of millions of other girls who have met the famous ' fate worse than death ' . Her father sells her off for a sum of money to human traffickers who force her into the world's oldest profession .

I would like to recommend this movie for seeing to the people who help this profession survive and indeed flourish---the men who visit prostitutes....
.....For the movie gives a real glimpse into the sickening life that the prostitutes are forced to lead in order to satisfy lust of men....
Because they are unwilling to become prey of lust , these women are beaten in the most gruesome manner to force them to sell their bodies . Myriad tortures are invented to prevent them from complaining to the police---like burning their private parts with cigarettes....

The men and women who run this profession are worse even than murderers---they are the scum of the earth literally....psychopaths without mercy....
And maybe after seeing this film some of the men who visit prostitutes will stop going there---for they are sure to be appalled by the savage treatment of these women and may realize what hell is the place they visit....

And Lakshmi is in this hell . Her attempts to escape are punished by increasing brutality . The worst part is the role of police in this . When she runs off and complains to the police , the police send her back to her masters !! Obviously the corrupt police is on the payroll of the human traffickers .

Finally a social worker saves her and other girls from the clutches of her tyrants . But to bring her oppressors to justice will require courage of a different kind . For they threaten her with violence and cajole her and try to give bribes to suppress the truth . And their lawyers ask embarrassing questions in court .

So will Lakshmi summon the courage to send the criminals to jail ?? Watch the movie for that....

The acting by Monali Thakur ( as Lakshmi ) , director Nagesh Kukunoor ( as Chinna , the man who pushes her into prostitution ) and Shefali Shah ( the madam of the whorehouse ) is realistic . Some scenes like the scene in which Lakshmi is raped for the first time and other scenes of the gruesome violence that is meted out to her and inmates the whorehouse are too painful to watch .

But the heroism of Lakshmi in court ( she is just 14 years of age ) will make you laugh of the so called heroism of Bollywood heros who beat up 10 men in cinematic unreality . For Lakshmi's heroism is real and not filmy .

The film gets more brutal as it progresses , and the brutality gets more and more unpalatable . Yet one should remember that this is what really happens in these places in real life .

The light hearted musical score is strangely in contrast to the grim proceedings and runs as background music throughout the movie , and sounds ironical to what is happening in the movie .

If you have a yen for realistic cinema , then this film is well worth a watch....

Verdict---Good .



Bullet raja ( king of bullets )---





It has become director Tigmanshu Dhulia's favourite setting , the one he excells in showcasing---the mofussil town of the Indian state of UP ( Uttar Pradesh ) which is bristling with guns , where violence is a way of life and fortunes are created using the power of the gun....

....And lately it has become my favourite setting too , for watching movies at least ; for where guns boom , there ashdoc goes....

Fittingly , the movie is called ' Bullet Raja ' , for bullets are truely the hero's business....

.....Or rather , they become his business after he gets mixed up in violence inspite of his educated background.....

He ( Saif Ali Khan ) arrives at a wedding uninvited , for he is being chased by goons whose anger he has irked....

Why has he irked their anger ?? No one knows and it is not shown....in this part of UP everyone seems to be fighting everyone anyway.....( ashdoc approves )

.....For even in the wedding another fight breaks out ( habit of the townsfolk you know ) and guns boom like celebratory firecrackers....but not before the sultry Mahie Gill has shown her sensuous curves to us in an item dance.....( ashdoc not only approves but salivates and asks for more )

.....And Raja ( Saif ) not only partakes in the fight but outclasses everyone in rifle shooting , due to which he strikes an instant rapport with Rudra ( Jimmy Shergill ) who is present at the wedding....

It's a vortex of violence they can't escape ( ashdoc doesn't want them to escape either---otherwise who will provide the entertainment.....) and they have to go to jail to find safe haven....

Here too they can't run away from violence and have to pair up to take revenge for family members who got killed outside while they were in jail.....

Raja and Rudra---they form a formidable twosome who are practically unbeatable in gun combat....and they get the backing of a powerful politician ( played by Raj Babbar ) who is so impressed by their fighting skills that he ditches his old henchman ( played by bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kisan ) and takes the Raja Rudra combo under his wing....

And the whole of Uttar pradesh trembles at the mention of their name....

Upto here the movie was going well and it seemed to be set up for a wholesome gangster movie....

But the movie veers majorly off course as they take up a quarrel with a super rich businessman ( played by Gulshan Grover ) for the silliest of reasons....the build up of the enemity is corny to say the least and one would be amazed at the stupidity of the duo to fight with such a powerful person for a trivial reason....
This part is the major weak link in the movie and for a time reduces the whole story to a farce....
The phase also brings in the character of the heroine ( Sonakshi Sinha ) into the movie and boy....she is unimpressive even in the backless blouses that I love so much.....

Before the director loses control over the movie he gets Rudra bumped off by the duo's enemies---Jimmy Shergill puts in a fine performance and it's a pity he had to be bumped off to make the story move , for I certainly wanted to see more of his acting....

But this brings the movie on course as a blood and gore revenge saga was what I had come to see , and a blood filled revenge saga was what I got from then onwards....

So can ' Bullet Raja ' take revenge for his partner's murder ??
Can he alone fight his myriad foes without his partner ??

Go and watch the movie for that....

The movie perks up again with the entry of Vidyut Jamwal---our very own Indian Bruce Lee....
Man....even Bruce Lee would have been impressed by the somersaults and stunts that Vidyut Jamwal can pull off--- martial arts chops and flying kicks done in a completely new manner that at least I have not seen in any karate/kungfu movie even of the Hollywood or Chinese variety....

So Bullet Raja and our desi Bruce Lee are at loggerheads , and may the best win in this contest....

Saif Ali khan has put up a good show of acting and has held the movie together . Ravi Kisan holds his own as the gangster who has to act mad and pose in sarees like a eunuch to shake off his enemies . Raj Babbar is decent . Chunky Pandey surprises us with his acting skills .

The atmosphere of small town UP is well created , and more particularly the hallmark of UP---the emphasis on caste....
The hero repeatedly reminds us that he is high caste---a brahmin in fact , and dialogues are mouthed that reinforce the fact that he is a brahmin....
And only a Thakur ( another high caste ) can counter a brahmin---so Vidyut is a Thakur....
Everyone speaks hindi Uttar pradesh style---Mishra is spoken as Missra....

The director does well when he is in familiar territory---that of the badlands of UP/Bihar....
He fails when he tries to make it look like a comedy movie in some parts....

Acting by everyone except Sonakshi is good but the music is not worth listening....

All in all , a one time watch....

Verdict---okay .



Dedh Ishqiya ( one and a half love )---





Dedh Ishqiya seems to be a muslim social---almost....

Dialogues in some parts of the movie are in chaste urdu language that recalls the bygone era of nawabs and begums....

And interspersed in between dialogues are urdu poems delectably chosen by born conneissuers of the language.....

It seems the era of old films like ' Mere mehboob ' is back.....

But alas.....the people inhabiting the film are nothing but crooks and charlatans of the first order....

And crooks and charlatans are bound to come down to street level language every once in a while....

....So the film swivels between the tongue of high class high brow royals in some scenes and coarse abuses in other scenes.....

And the boom of guns and the thud of beatings is heard every once in a while....

Typically , it ends in a free for all between the characters on a railway station where all pretensions of class have been dropped way back and the crookedness of the characters manifests itself....

Yet in the midst of all this , some of the crooks have time for falling in love.....

Yes , true love....

But is it destined to remain one sided love ?? Go and watch the film for that....

Of the two main crooks , Naseeruddin Shah can show class and charm in spite of his crookedness , while his sidekick Arshad Warsi is a street level thug....

And the interesting chemistry between the differing personalities of the two gives rise to a number of comic situations....indeed , the audience was laughing throughout the film....

Mirroring the chemistry between the two male characters is the chemistry between two females---Madhuri Dixit and her confidante Huma Qureshi ; or did I see a hint of lesbianism here.....??

Madhuri is Begum Para , whose husband the nawab ( ruler ) of Mahmudabad died long ago asking her to remarry so that Mahmudabad could have a new nawab---but under the condition that the new nawab must be a born poet who can invoke the choicest urdu verses.....

And Naseer and Arshad arrive at the venue where urdu poets from all over the country have assembled to impress the Begum and win her dainty hand....

Yes , inspite of her years Madhuri looks good enough to eat and so does her confidante Huma Qureshi.....

Not surprisingly , the two crooks Naseer and Arshad fall for the beauty and looks of the two women....

But there are other men in the fray for wooing the Begum---mean and dangerous ones at that , like a fake Nawab played by Vijay Raaz and his goons.....men who are not averse to using violence to get rivals out of the way , and who above all have far more money power and manpower to get what they want.....

As the competition for winning the hand of the Begum hots up , we see shayars ( poets ) trying to excel each other in shayaris and poetry.....

And when the competition hots up further , we see fights and kidnappings and daggers drawn....

So are the Begum and her confidante worth all the trouble ?? That I am keeping in suspense.....

The film has been made on a low budget and the sets are not impressive at all....

But real hard work has been done on the dialogues , both of the finer urdu variety and the gutter level obscenities....

Only one or two songs and only so so music....

But the film does give some entertainment.....

Verdict--- good enough .



Queen---



Kangana Ranaut's dreams of happy marriage and romance on honeymoon are rudely shattered when her fiance Rajkumar Yadav abruptly calls off the wedding . The simple and sweet Kangana breaks down into tears and closes her room for one day while relatives try to calm her down . When she emerges from her room , she has taken a decision---to go on her honeymoon ( tickets have been already booked before ) alone....

What follows is a journey of self discovery in a foreign land . Of course ,the journey of self discovery has to be within limits---there are restrictions placed on the director . Those restrictions are based on Indian culture and upbringing---but of course . Kangana cannot lose her virginity and duly returns back with her virginity safe and intact .

But this is the 21st century and she can have some fun for herself---especially because she is alone . So she gets drunk and does some wild dancing in a rowdy pub . She changes her attire from demure to somewhat more exposing . She sleeps in a room full of boys and hangs out with them . She gets to visit a prostitutes den in the guise of delivering a parcel . And she even gets to kiss a man ( white man of course ) whom she has a crush on....

And all the while she is lucky because she meets sympathetic friends , who do not take advantage of her innocence but help her on the way . The gang of boys she lives with do not hit on her . And she meets a friend of half Indian origin ( Lisa Haydon ) who is wild and sexy and fun loving but has a heart of gold and eases Kangana's transformation from innocent damsel to smart woman . Note---such luck is to be found only in the fantasy world of Bollywood and other girls could find themselves in tougher situations if they try to emulate Kangana .

And along the way Kangana changes from Rani ( her name in the film ) to the english version of her name---Queen.

When she returns to India she is a self confident young woman able to take her own decisions . And decisions she has to take---for estranged fiance Vijay ( Rajkumar Yaadav ) is trying to inch back in her life with a proposal of marriage....

Kangana has done the acting of sweet innocent girl learning to live in the big bad world really well and is heart of the film . The way she remains nice even after becoming smart has been enacted well . Actually everybody including Lisa Haydon have acted well and the film has strong performances from everybody . Music is decent too .

The movie is a women's movie but the director has played it smartly---other than the jerk of a fiance ( Rajkumar Yadav ) no man is shown to be a jerk or to be bad . So hopefully the men will like it too . At least I did....

Verdict---Nice movie .



Mastraam ( story of a writer of pornographic novels )---





OH , The things that man has to do and can do for money and success....

Others cheat people , steal money , borrow and never return money---and still they lead respectable lives....

But when a man writes about everyone's ultimate fantasy---sex....then why does society look down upon him and treat him with contempt and condescension....why....?

He is not stealing or committing a crime or fooling anybody---then why ??

That is the question that must be haunting the writer who writes porn under the pseudonym ' mastraam ' when he is finally caught....

But till then , he is earning real money and having a happy time entertaining everybody by writing novels that fulfill our dreams and fantasies---of pleasure , of physical intimacy , of bodies burning with desire and ultimately fulfilling it....

However it has not been always so in his life.....

Actually he is the young man who begins his career as a person who wants to write real literature , and who is so respectable and shy that he is afraid to touch his wife on the first night after his wedding....

But no one is ready to publish his literature , and he is threatened to be kicked out of his job....

Yeah , the setting is the 1970s in north India and jobs are hard to come by in the stagnant economy of those times....

Yet a man with a growing family has to earn money to take care of his dependents....

And when such a man discovers his hidden talents of writing uninhibited stuff that tickles our pleasurable senses , and further discovers that he can mint real moolah by doing so---then can he be stopped ; can he stop himself ?? Naaaah....

The movie's finest moments are when the hero thinks about the people around him , especially the women---and lets his imagination run riot...just plain riot....

....And do I even have to tell you that the riot that runs in his mind is of the sensuous kind.....

....A riot of the mind that strokes flames in our bodies when he puts his imagination in writing on paper....

.....Papers that when published in the form of novels will be read by people in the thousands , though they will be read in secret....

Yeah , they will be read in secret because in a society full of hypocrisy it is sin to talk or read openly about sex....

But they will be read---by students using torchlight in darkened hostel rooms , in bedrooms away form the prying eyes of family by older people , and by anyone and everyone having ' feelings ' of some sort....

But we are the lucky ones....!!

Because not only we get to know what the hero writes , but we get to see it on celluloid as he imagines it in his mind before writing it....

And what we get to see on celluloid is not just imagination---it's lovemaking shot aesthetically without real vulgarity and nudity but lovemaking nevertheless , of bodies stroking kissing massaging pleasuring each other....

Society's hypocrisy was all around us in the theater too , for the audience was laughing and sniggering derisively at the sensuous scenes....

But even the audience was stunned into silence in one scene---when the hero sees his own wife and his friend talking to each other and begins to imagine them making love ; and we have to see his wife in action with another man as he again lets his imagination run riot....

....Riot that powers our adrenals and vitals.....

Is imagining one's own wife with another man acceptable while writing a novel or has the hero crossed the red line ??

Watch the film before deciding that....

For I found it to be a different and interesting outing well worth a watch....

Verdict---Not great but decent enough .



1920 Evil returns---



The perils of seeing a horror movie in a virtually empty theater......

........No one beside you to hold your hand when you are supposed to shiver in terror......

I experienced that today......

And presumably the producers and distributers are experiencing the perils of virtually empty theaters too.....for it means the movie is a FLOP......

And the joys of seeing vulnerable delicate young girls like Tia Bajpai being persecuted by evil exploitative men.....I experienced that too today.......

In fact this is the third time I experienced the joy of Tia Bajpai being harrassed by bad men after her performance in films like HAUNTED 3D and LANKA.....

.......And I must say she has perfected the act of a cute young girl held in bondage by lusty men or spirits against her will---so much so that I would like to see her being exploited.....err , persecuted by more men in other films in future......

So her cuteness arrives at Aftab Shivdasani's sprawling house near Shimla in the state of being possessed by a spirit that has taken over her body.....

And Aftab falls in love with her much to the chagrin of his sister ( played by Vidya Malavade ) and Tia too reciprocates......

But Aftab is still brooding for the loss of his ex lady love whom he has loved through letters but has never seen---a fact that prevents him from consummating his and Tia's romance in bed ( though it does not prevent him from planting a sumptuous kiss on Tia's lips )......

And Tia's body may have been taken over by the spirit , but her mind and most importantly her heart still beats for a long lost love.....

It is upto Aftab to pull her out of the ghost's malignant influence.....

So can he do that ?? And who are the past loves of Tia and Aftab ? What is their impact on the storyline ?? Go and watch the film for that.......if you can.....for I didnt feel it was particularly great......

The first half is decent with some chills and shocks that make your hair stand on end.....

But the second half involves exorcism of the ghost from Tia's body......and inspite of all the howling and screeching sounds coming from her mouth and all the jumping and pumping up and down of her body , you dont feel terrorised at all......

Aftab looks decent enough with a stubble that makes you feel that he is still pining for his lost lady love of real life---none other that Esha Deol (no , she's not in the film and now she's dumped him and married Bharat Takhtani )......

Photography and the setting of the film in the time of British rule in 1920 is really good---all candlelights in grand and dark mansions and coaches driven by hairyhooved healthy horses.......

But I still was not particularly impressed.....

Verdict---not good .



Raanjhanaa---





Raanjhanaa.....So what does it mean...??

It is nothing but an endearing way of calling someone as Ranjha---the tragic lover of the doomed romance of Heer Ranjha.....

What I did not know before seeing the movie was the intensity with which the title would be justified----both by the director who shows the hero love the woman he loves with a passion rarely matched by anybody even in the mushy romantic movies , and also by the actor ( Dhanush ) who puts up a superlative performance putting heart and soul into his acting .

The movie is tailormade for Dhanush....

.....For he looks exactly like the loafer he is supposed to be---a low life from Banaras who wastes his time pining for the girl he loves rather than make something of his life....

His foolishness does not stop there....The girl ( Sonam Kapoor ) he chooses to love is a muslim---a community that tore the nation apart and created eternal enemy Pakistan and is therefore doomed to be permanently at loggerheads with the hindus , the community of Kundan ( Dhanush's name in the film ).....
Not only that but he also falls in love with someone who belongs to a higher class than himself and is more sophisticated and urbane and classy than a small town bumpkin like himself .

In doing this he overlooks the affection that a girl of his standard ( played by Swara Bhaskar ) has for him---and the fact that Bindiya ( Swara ) looks good enough to eat makes you wonder about his monumental stupidity....

And the girl he loves ( Sonam ).....She is not a bad person but she looks at him with benign contempt as someone who can be a friend at best and someone who is a useful tool to achieve her ends at worst.....

.....And those ends include using him to ward off potential suiters brought by her parents and zero in on what she actually wants in life....

But Zoya ( Sonam ) has colossally misunderstood the madness of Kundan's love for her....

And the madness of his love leads him to do something that shatters her dreams and her life....

Its upto Kundan to make amends for his stupendous perfidy....

And his attempt to make amends for his past takes him in chase of Zoya from his hometown Varanasi to big city Delhi....

And in the nation's capital Delhi big things beckon him....He discovers a new side to himself and can make a success of his life and become equal to Zoya and even better than her....finally !!!

So can he make amends for his mistakes that cost Zoya so dearly ??

Can he become a success in life ??

But the million dollar question ( or should the amount be jacked up to a billion , considering the gravity of the question for Dhanush ) is---can he get Zoya ??

Go and watch the movie for that....

The triumph of the director lies in showing a seamless transition of Kundan's life in Banaras to the college politics of Delhi and from there to the big stage in the capital . The students and politics of Delhi university are well shown , and what is even better shown is small town bumpkin Kundan's effortless blending with city sophisticates .

At long last and after many flops it's a triumph for Sonam Kapoor as well---she has maintained her innocence in the film well even as she makes use of Dhanush for getting what she wants , and has acted even better as the grieving woman with a chip on her shoulder who has lost what she wants and is determined to get revenge in the later part of the film .

But lording over it all is the depth of Kundan's love for Zoya , and it is to the credit of Dhanush as an actor that we begin to have respect for his love as the film progresses---or maybe it is simple respect for his sheer persistence.....

The film goes through several twists and turns but never turns dull throughout ; keeps you interested all along....

Acting by everyone is good , and the atmosphere of Banaras is perfectly created .

Verdict---Really good .