Movie : 'Hello'

Producer: Atul Agnihotri
Director: Atul Agnihotri
Cast: Amrita Arora, Gul Panag, Isha Kopikar, Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan, Sohail Khan
Music: Sajid Wajid, Salim-Sulaiman

Hello, hello, hello? What is this, boss?

Chetan Bhagat's bestseller "One Night @ The Call Centre" is converted on celluloid to 'One Excruciating Night At A Call Centre'.

The six much-loved characters have a past before they gather at a call centre run by boss Dalip Tahil who dreams, sings and performs bodily functions based on his migration to Boston.

The call centre resembles a large Ekta Kapoor set for a saas-bahu serial. Those at least are less dead at the centre.

Crammed into this word space of telephonic babble are a betrayed wife (Amrita Arora), a girl (Gul Panag) who's being forced by her singing-dancing-demented mother to marry an NRI, a mixed-up frazzled neurotic chick (Isha Koppikar), a senior citizen (Sharad Saxena) who's been deserted by his son and two guys -- Sharman Joshi and Sohail Khan -- who don't seem to know what they want.

Frankly, neither does this film. The filmmaker seems to be confused about the characters faster than we can keep up with their mind space.

What works within a novel's format need not work as a film. The characters seem thoroughly scattered and go every which way that the woozy screenplay takes them. After a while, we just give up trying to make sense of the jumble of characters and their problems.

Sohail as always is what keeps us from walking out.

Staging a walkout would be the mildest form of protest for this urbane atrocity. What Anurag Basu achieved effortlessly in "Life... In A Metro" is here reduced to a mocking pantomime of urbane angst.

The film goes from fretful episodes mimicking the saucy witticism of the American series "Friends", to a cheaply ironic shot at "Conversations With God" when our group of muddled call centre suburban nearly topple over and plunge to their death and are rescued by, ha ha, god.

God saves these ginks. But who will save this weird look-see at longings and eccentricities of people who would rather be unhappy than happy?

A few redeeming moments (like the time when Amrita connects with her long-distance husband and finds out about his extra-marital affair) cannot salvage this hip-and-non-happening disaster, probably the worst film you'll see this year.

Movie:'Welcome To Sajjanpur'

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Shyam Benegal
Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Ravi Kishan, Rajeshwari Sachdeva, Ravi Jhankal, Ila Arun, Divya Dutta, Yashpal Sharma
Music: Shantanu Moitra

Welcome to Shyam Benegal's world of enchanting social comment. Every character in this village of the damned, the doomed and remarkably redeemed is a stereotype. And yet, miraculously, every character is an individual, eccentric, quirky, blemished and yet so full of vitality vigour and energy that you wonder which came first...life, or life as seen through the eyes of Benegal's camera of innocence, candour and credibility.

This isn't Benegal's first broadly-designed, warmly-panoramic ensemble film. Earlier, the prolific director excelled in depicting the life of a specific community in 'Mandi' and 'Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda' as a microcosm of a larger reality.

Bad karma nudges delicious satire in 'Welome To Sajjanpur' as a closet-author whiles away his time writing letters for the illiterate, misguided villagers in a sleepy village that comes alive only at election time when a spirited eunuch takes on a local gangster at the elections.

The spirit of the missives, some sad, some satirical, others a bewildering Benegalesque blend of both, comes across in episodic overtures that lead us gently but persuasively from one issue - of widow remarriage (Ravi Kissan giving coy glances to Rajeswahri Sachdeva is a paisa-vasool sight) to another issue of rural migration.

Amrita Rao, in loud parrot-coloured saris and mannerisms suggesting an unspoilt naivete, is the bride-in-waiting whose husband has been gone to Mumbai for four years.

Shreyas Talpade is the letter writer given the task of informing Amrita's husband that the bride can wait no more. In a spurt of blinding self-interest, Talpade goes from detached letter-writer to attached Romeo and then to the penitent martyr with an ease, fluency and sauciness that the actor seems to muster up with a magician's flourish.

In a film flush with accomplished performances, Talpade holds the plot together like a voluminous book's spine - giving his bucolic character heart, charm and chutzpah.

This is Talpade's coming-of-age film. You really can't imagine any other leading man achieving the same level of connectivity with the character, plot and audience.

All the Benegal regulars - from Ila Arun to Rajit Kapur - show up in Sajjanpur with gratifying humility and warmth. Ravi Jhankal as the election-contesting eunuch and Yashpal Sharma as the eunuch's uncouth opponent stand out, if 'stand out' is the right term for a film where the actors become one with the characters in a seamless design celebrating life's most recognisable and basic emotions.

The costumes (Pia Benegal) tend to get a little touristy at times. And the dialogues (Ashok Mishra again) sometimes lean towards the lewd to salute the boorish rustic ambience. These are not traits you would expect in Benegal's film. But then he needs to keep up with the times. A fact that seems to have bypassed the soporific slumber-dwellers of Sajjanpur as they battle between hand-written postcards and sms communications, finally allowing the former to rule the roost until further notification.

This is a film where every character - big or small - stands tall in his or her naive insularity from forces of corruptibility that threaten to break down their doors.

Sajjanpur echoes a 1977 film 'Palkon Ki Chaon Mein' where Rajesh Khanna played the village postman trying not to get too involved with the local people's domestic problems. Talpade doesn't try that hard.

This is not Benegal's most subtle work of his prolific career. But it is one of his warmest, funniest and raunchiest pieces of cinema - where every character is a human being you'd bump into if you visit a Sajjanpur. Not too many films do that these days.

Movie:'Saas Bahu Aur Sensex'

Producer: Jayshri Makhija
Director: Shona Urvashi
Cast: Tanushree Datta, Ankur Khanna, Kirron Kher, Farooq Sheikh, Masumi Makhija, Lilette Dubey
Music: Randolph Correa, Bipin Panchal, Blaaze

To be fair, putting together saas-bahu sagas and the sensex seems a good concept, but director Shona Urvashi fails to use it effectively in her film.

In recent years, Bollywood has been generous to directors who experimented with novel concepts and the audiences too accepted their films. 'Saas Bahu Aur Sensex' dares to be different as it tells the story of middle-class housewives playing the stock market.

The director inter-weaves a love triangle into the main plot.

Nitya (Tanushree Dutta), Binita's daughter, shifts to Mumbai with her mother and meets Ritesh (Ankur Khanna) who helps her in getting a job at a call centre. Ritesh is in love with Kirti (Masumeh Makhija) who lives in the same society. But Kirti has other plans, she wants to marry a millionaire.

Despite the presence of the two veteran actors, Kirron and Farooque, the film fails to hold the audiences' attention. The reason being that the director fails to execute the story deftly and characters aren't properly etched.

Farooque, who had almost disappeared from the big screen, chose a wrong movie to make his comeback. As far as Kirron goes, in the recent past she has chosen all the wrong films and her talent is not utilised in this film either.

Movie:'1920'

Producer: Amita Bishnoi, Bhagwati Gabrani, Surendra Sharma
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Cast: Adah Sharma, Raj Zutshi, Rajneesh Duggal, Vallab Vyas, Vipin Sharma
Music: Adnan Sami

After 'Phoonk', you'd think the possessed woman was a thing of the past. But wait, it's time for another lady to elevate far beyond her bed in a horizontal high that gives you a crick in the neck.

'1920' is 'Phoonk' in Scotland (or whichever foreign scenic spot), where the devil catches hold of the leading lady as she rests her head on the rattling bed, moved back by almost a century.

Screenwriter Vikram Bhatt attempts to thrust a weight over the theme of exorcism by taking the supernatural theme to British India. So we have soldiers, mutineers, rebels and renegades popping into the Scottish scenario like random guests at a outdoor masquerade party.

And then we have a doctor mentioning a certain 'Dr Sigmund Fried' who is doing research somewhere far away from this film's horrific domestic tussles, researching on the human psychology.

There's something terribly artificial about implanting a historical element into a tale that essentially wants to tap the most primitive and primeval fears of the audience. Rather than going into a tale of betrayal during times of cruel colonialism, Bhatt's narrative should have just stuck to its gory guns.

Then maybe, just maybe, the B and C centre audiences who got the jitters watching 'Phoonk' would've trembled at the diabolic toss and turn that the love birds experience in a verdant castle that is supposed to be situated somewhere in India in the year 1920.

So panoramic and National Geographic is the view that we often want the lead pair (both wooden and uninspired even when the ghouls provoke them into animated retaliation) to just move out of camera range.

Alas, '1920' has a scary story to tell.

We are scared all right. Though for reasons other than the ones Bhatt would want us to be.

Movie:'Ru Ba Ru'

Producer: Percept Picture company
Director: Arjun Bali
Cast: Randeep Hooda, Shahana Goswami
Music: Sameeruddin, Satyadev Burman

The most unreliable thing in life is life itself. This, the protagonist of this sweet little concoction discovers when he wakes up one morning to find that his live-in girlfriend, perfect in manner and devotion, might have to die.

A simple premise based on the theory of deja vu, 'Ru-Ba-Ru' derives its slender strength from the conversational tone that the the debutant director brings to the romantic comedy, a genre that remains largely over-used and under-sensitised in Hindi cinema, thanks to the florid dialogues, over-the-top performances and incessant flow of song-dance.

Here the exuberance of the melodramatic melee that crowds the love in our (e)motion pictures is kept at a believable and urbane decibel. The couple, Randeep Hooda and Shahana Goswami look like a well-matched if strife-torn couple. Their chemistry is certainly not strained.

Randeep confers a casual colloquial sardonicism to the role of a man who has seen tomorrow and would rather enjoy today. Shahana, who gets to smile and giggle after frowning and complaining her way through 'Rock On', provides Randeep with ample scope to refurbish and revise the rituals of romance as they go from dream to a nightmarish reality where we know death is the evitable finale.

Though the plot and its negotiation through a labyrinth of well-charted courtship games are interesting enough, the film finally crumbles under the weight of lightness that comes from portraying love as excessively fleeting, fugitive and fragile.

And to believe that the man who knows he'll lose his beloved at the end of the day would go around joking, dancing ang playing the saxophone as the clock ticks away is stretching the frontiers of romance to the brink of parody.

Nonetheless the narration done in that wispy twinkle-eyed tone that suggests a deep bond between cinema and Elizabethan poetry does prod us gently into watching Randeep and Shahana portray a very contemporary couple bustling through a day of seduction and strife, eventually thrown into a situation that psychiatrists would enjoy analysing on the couch.

Borrowing generously from films like Peter Howitt's 'Sliding Doors', 'Ru-Ba-Ru' makes it a notch above mediocrity for its subtly superior performances and production design.

But the second half is too loose-limbed to qualify as compulsory deja vu. The nadir of storytelling occurs when Randeep and Shahana visit the former's estranged mom (Rati Agnihotri) and stepfather (Jayant Kriplani). In about 10 minutes of playing time here the director makes every father-son reconciliatory gesture prescribed in the book of social etiquette.

Still, the Thai locations and the generous display of stealth in the man-woman relationship redeem what would otherwise have been a film that never crosses the realm of sweet possibilities. While Randeep and Shahana hold up the lead with much casual realism, sturdy support comes from Jeneva Talwar as the heroine's best friend and Kulbhushan Kharbanda as a mysterious angel of death driving a taxi.

'Ru-Ba-Ru' has a delicious subtext to its romantic surface - don't leave the task of displaying emotions to a later time. You may never get there. 'Ru-Ba-Ru' barely does. It just about makes it through the 'Sliding Doors'.

Movie:'A Wednesday'

Producer: Ronnie Screwvala, Anjum Rizvi, Shital Bhatia
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Naseruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw, Gaurav Kapoor, Chetan Pandit
Music: Sanjoy Chowdhary

First things first. "A Wednesday" is not about the train blasts that rocked Mumbai in 2005. It isn't so much to do about terrorism and counter-terrorism as it is about making these grim socio-political facts into digestible riveting cinema.

And that's where "A Wednesday" scores over "Mumbai Meri Jaan" and other recent films on the wrath of extremism.

Debutant director Neeraj Pandey turns the grim reality of terrorism into an engaging cat-and-mouse game played between a master blaster (Naseeruddin Shah) and a senior cop (Anupam Kher).

Just the pleasure of watching Naseer and Anupam against the backdrop of a teeming bustling sinisterly jeopardized Mumbai city is ample reason to discard all our other misgivings about the sheer feasibility of the plot.

Cleverly the narration manoeuvres all the physical action away from the two aging protagonists to a couple of hot-blooded young cops played effectively by Jimmy Shergill and Aamir Bashir, who hurl into camera range in a meteoric rush of adrenaline to remind us that the streets of Mumbai have always created a flutter in the clutter in our films. Just go back to every film from "Satya" to "Aamir" and see what we mean.

Cinematographer Fuwad Khan captures the blood on the roads of Mumbai with a disaffected relish. A lot of the film has been shot in stylish top-shots where the terrorists and counter-terrorist manoeuvrings appear larger than life and yet miraculously shrunken in the cosmic scheme of things. Violence in this way is made both comic and cosmic.

By the time Naseer's eruptive enthusiasm climaxes, the narration goes into the realm of the improbable, contriving to create an atmosphere of utter escapism in a film that you thought was stubbornly wedded to reality.

But that's where Pandey has been heading all along. His narrative hurtles towards a photo-finish where the newspaper headlines are swallowed up in a swamp of thriller-rituals that take the plot aback to create an aura of unstoppable suspense.

Sanjoy Chowdhury's background music over-punctuates every sequence. But then that's precisely what this out-of-the-box terrorist-thriller was looking for.

The humour, when it strikes, is like the bomb blasts. Sudden and unexpected, though a little on the grimmer side.

Veejay Gaurav Chopra as a shit-scared film star getting extortion calls is mousy enough to remind us that heroes don't come out of the movies. But heroic movies surely do come along once in a while from the movie industry. "A Wednesday" is certainly one of them.

Watch it to see how cleverly the director subverts the real-life headline-driven genre of cinema into a riveting race to the finish line.

Most of all it's the performances of the two principal actors that holds "A Wednesday" together. Moving away from his recent comic antics, Anupam delivers a controlled performance as a cop who has seen it all. He happily allows Naseer to take over many scenes giving his co-star some riveting reactive cues.

Naseer is back in full form after a rather embarrassing gap of cameo-commitments. Naseer in his element is an experience that needs no definition. He plays the jaded but spirited bomb-planting anonymous caller with a wry blunt and edgy sardonicism creating for his character a space that pitches his angst in the wide open loosely defined crowds of desolation in Mumbai.

"A Wednesday" is not quite the seamless little masterpiece on terrorism that you expected. It resorts to many wild swipes in the plot. Some characters like the dude-like computer hacker and the TV journalist, played by Deepal Shaw, give embarrassing single-note performance.

Watch Naseer and Anupam to know how a one-to-one drama works when two actors provide a psychological and emotional equilibrium from the two ends of the moral spectrum.

Movie:'Chamku'

Producer: Dharmendra
Director: Kabeer Kaushik
Cast: Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra, Arshad Warsi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Irrfan Khan, Danny Denzongpa, Rajpal Yadav, Arya Babbar
Music: Monty Sharma

First things first - what kind of a name is 'Chamku'? Is it the name of a detergent or a whitener? No, it's the name of a Maoist-turned-government-assassin who later becomes an avenging angel.

This is director Kabeer Kaushik's second film and he had raised hopes after his gritty 'Seher'. One went to see the film with serious reservations about the name of the film and really nothing else.

One thought maybe Kaushik could turn around the luck of Bobby Deol, who is desperately in need of a hit. But soon you realise that Bobby, who plays the protagonist Chamku in the film, is luckless.

Then Chamku is encountered and lies in the hospital with the same depressed look as a government agent Irrfan Khan, dependable as usual, makes him an offer.

He's now trained to kill, we're told. So he goes around killing, till he meets lovely Priyanka Chopra, who is wasted in the film.

Here the director lets go of a potential comic sequence when Bobby is about to introduce himself to the girl.

Eventually love happens, songs happen, even pregnancy happens. So much happens and Chamku looks even more depressed. By then, so are you.

It doesn't take you long to understand that the Maoists and the government-assassin- looking-to-get-out angle is just a guise for an often repeated revenge drama.

Danny's character should have been etched out with better imagination. The action sequence set in a train is handled well, but it isn't enough to redeem the film.

Honestly, there's little shine in this 'Chamku'.

Movie : 'Ugly Aur Pagli'

Producer: Rangita Pritish Nandy, Pritish Nandy
Director: Sachin Kamlakar Khot
Cast: Ravir Shorey, Mallika Sherawath, Manish Anand, Tinu Anand, Sushmita Mukherjee, Vihang Nayak, Bharti Achrekar, Sapna Bhavnani
Music: Anu Malik

A romantic comedy that starts with a fart and a puke joke can only get better as it progresses. Sure enough, 'Ugly Aur Pagli' brings us a kind of detoxicated sex comedy where the gender war is telescoped into a vivacious tongue-in-shriek war of words between an outwardly mismatched pair.

Suparn Verma's dialogues have a lived-in quality. Yup, two young people who are in love but don't know it would speak this language and probably feel some of the emotions too.

If 'Ugly Aur Pagli' looks so believably all-there, it's because of Ranvir Shorey's ability to remain normal and wimpish even when the world around him is exploding into little amusing atoms of undefined chemistry between the lead pair.

But lead pair is more like the 'misled' pair. Often you wish Ranvir and Mallika wouldn't get into those sweaty pubs and dance floors, which have become a staple diet of all 'hip' and 'cool' films in recent times.

A lot of the scenes - some clever, others not quite - are held in place by Ranvir's amazing ability to make the mundane look super-interesting.

Here's the ideal effortless working-class hero. An Amol Palekar with a lot of chutzpah and world weary charm. Ranvir steps back to watch Mallika cavort at the highest shrillest pitch and makes sure she doesn't stumble over and fall.

And we aren't just talking about the character's constant state of inebriation. Ranvir holds up a lot more than his co-star's drunken ceaselessly slumping figure.

The film is a series of well-crafted chance encounters between two Mumbaiites who are in search of companionship. The sequences are shot with a kind of unobtrusive flamboyance(if that isn't a contradiction in terms). Mumbai doesn't look different but it sure looks indifferent to the feelings of the sensitive. That's the whole idea of a familiar metropolitan backdrop, right?

Ideally a romantic comedy should converge only on the two love birds. This one takes the rule too its extreme limit. Ranvir and Mallika are so much at the centre of it all, you wonder if the rest of the world is on a sabbatical. But watch out for Ranvir's encounter with Mallika's parents - played by Tinu Anand and Sushmita Mukherjee.

Though this sequence belongs to the two character actors, again, it's Ranvir who gives character to the ambience. Would this sometimes sassy, sometimes sensitive, constantly searching romantic comedy have worked without Ranvir's penchant for producing pyrotechnics out of pedestrian working-class impulses? Hard to say.

But then who can say what 'Ugly Aur Pagli' has in mind? By the end of it all we don't even know who is ugly and who is mad. 'Ugly' Ranvir even wears a petticoat for one sequence and cycles all the way to pagli's home.

Care to solve the mystery of the man-woman equation? This film has a go at it. Albeit in swipes of talkative satire that make the film resemble an American sitcom.

Movie: 'Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam'

Producer: Champak Jain, Ganesh Jain, Ratan Jain
Director: Sanjay Chhel
Cast: Rahul Bose, Mallika Sherawat, Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Pawan Malhotra, Zakir Hussain, Manoj Tiwari
Music: Anu Malik

This film means to be quirky, cute and comical. It ends up being a crashing bore. And the sound of the crash that you hear could be those plaster-of-paris props that adorn the stage where the cast enacts the worst version of K. Asif's imperishable romance 'Mughal-e-Azam' ever conceived.

As often happens, the film must have sounded so much better on paper. All the accomplished actors who constitute the vast cast must have got the joke and agreed to do this intended satire about the goofy adventures of a stage troupe during the week of the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

Alas, Asif weeps in his grave. And so do we.

This is a political satire combined with a naughty comment on theatrical infidelity with Paresh's sexy wife Mallika being wooed by a smitten Rahul (suitably wide-eyed and far removed from his Mallika-driven affections in 'Pyar Ke Side Effects').

Is this a theatrical film on play-acting? Or is it meant to be a cinematic interpretation of theatrical hi-jinks? Be that as it may, while Kay Kay goes from 'Black Friday' to goofy Friday, Mallika (god bless her costume designers) goes from 'Murder' to blue murder. Watching her do a re-mix of 'Pyar kiya to darna kya', Madhubala must be smirking in her grave.

If Mallika's 'Murder' on infidelity was a path-breaker (at least as far as sexual audacity goes) her attempts to flirt from the pokey stage with her besotted spectator right under her suspicious husband's watchful eyes can at best be described as 'Pati Patni Aur Woh' gone to the dogs.

Chhel has always been a capable wordsmith. As a director, he had his polished moments in 'Khubsoorat' where Sanjay Dutt turned ugly duckling Urmila Matondkar into a swan.

One is never sure if Mallika is the duck or swan in 'Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam'. All one knows at the end of this horrifically hammy ode to a hammy theatre company's outrageous attempts to save Mumbai from the underworld (yeah, but who saves us from this film?) is that there is no more than perhaps seven minutes of bonafide humour in the entire tale.

The dialogues are either dreadfully double-meaning or primary school gags. RDX and R.D. Burman are equated for laughs. But the film has neither Burman's melodiousness now the explosive quality of RDX.

Movie:'Singh is Kinng'

Producer: Vipul Shah
Director: Anees Bazmee
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Neha Dhupia, Javed Jaffrey, Ranvir Shorey, Kamal Chopra, Singh, Om Puri
Music: Pritam Chakraborty

Burp re burp! At last a thali filled to the brim with spicy, pickled, 'ghar ka khaana' fried in the sinfully calorie-filled desi ghee prepared in the heartland of Punjab and then imported to the West. Crocodile Pug-Dundee, anybody?

At last, a blast. Dunno if Singh is king with two 'n's or not. But he sure is entertaining. Damn entertaining. This film is one of those feasts of flurry that leave the on-the-run characters and the audience breathless. Chalk up another winner for Akshay Kumar.

As the 'happy-go-looking' Happy Singh who leaves his village in Punjab to look for a colleague who has disappeared into Australia, Akshay is a revelation. He is strong and vulnerable, funny and tragic. He's Charlie Chaplin and Jim Carrey rolled into one.

'Happy' Akshay Kumar's mission is simple. Get Lucky. And boy, does he!

As Lucky Singh, Sonu Sood - all spruced up and dapper-dolled in Australia - has to stay risibly inert for half the film as he goes into a coma and is replaced by fellow villager Happy Singh as the new underworld don.

The film, its plot and characters are a crazy, adrenaline-induced rush of caricatures and other spaced-out creatures.

To his credit, writer-director Anees Bazmi retains the broad raillery of his earlier hit 'Welcome' but abandons the slapstick and ribaldry to style one of most disarming comedies in recent times.

The plot is cluttered with the most elementary action and adventure in the incredulous tone of 'Crocodile Dundee' goes from Punjab to the land of the Aussie-rans. Akshay takes care of the rest.

Adapting his comic stance to a patently comic-book mood and attitude, Akshay swims through the tittering tides of zany humour to emerge with one of his most finely-tuned comic performances in recent times.

It wouldn't be wrong to call 'Singh is Kinng' a showcase for Akshay's vibrant virtuosity. He goes from being a buffoon in a Punjab village to a native-abroad (with a nubile broad as arresting arm candy in the romantic songs) with the cheerful fluency of a trapeze dancer who knows his territory but still manages to make it look challenging for the onlookers.

Akshay's bravura performance is punctuated by moments of bridled subtlety such as the one where our incredulous hero informs Katrina's nerdy suitor (Ranvir Shorey, wasted) why the lady they both adore must be treated in a special manner.

Bazmi treats his audience as special as Akshay's gentle, caring affections for Katrina. The narration is a pulsating patchwork of goofy crime and culturally-challenged adventure where anything can happen.

A 'rose lady' (Kirron Kher as engagingly broad in her matronly ministrations as ever) pops up in the middle of an Australian suburbia offering 'khana' and 'maa ka pyar' to the 'pyar ka bhooka' Sardar hero.

In all fairness, certain portions of the film are insufferably edited. What in the name of maudlinism are those sequences showing the Sikh dons' benevolence and charity towards Black Australians? Post-colonial Asian snobbery at its slapdash-worst.

Keeping the pretensions out of the plot and focusing on the multiple mirthful masquerades that motivate the amusing plot would have done the general health and wellbeing of this pleasantly-diverting entertainer a wealth of good.

The supporting cast, specially Om Puri is in splendid form, adding fuel to the funny-lines with just that right dash of devilish bravado. Akshay is effortless. The film is not.

What we see here is a big, broad Bollywood entertainer celebrating screen heroism in all its giggling, grunting, groaning glory.

Movie: 'Bachna Ae Haseeno'

Producer: Aditya Chopra
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu, Minissha Lamba
Music: Vishal - Shekhar

Let's get real. Commitment phobia is endemic among 20-something urban yuppies, especially in the metros. Siddharth Anand, a master at depicting urban mores - 'Salaam Namaste', 'Tara Rum Pum' - this time pulls out all stops to expose the suave urbane heel who cannot feel above the waist.

Raj (must Ranbir Kapoor be called that every time?) is a man on the path to redemption. That of course comes later, much later in this elaborate but tightly-edited and engaging comment on the prowling dude's demoniacal insensitivity towards girls who give him the chance to dance into their lives.

Ranbir inadvertently turns the whole concept of romantic love as propagated by Shah Rukh Khan in 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' and its zillion spin-offs on its head. Love now can easily be taken to bed. Though no one is thinking of sleep. Not the characters, not the audience.

The first episode with the starry-eyed Mahee (Minissha Lamba, suitably starry-eyed) is a rather diverting homage to Aditya Chopra's 'DDLJ'. That's a pretty auto-erotic thing to do considering Chopra is this film's producer. But then, you win some when you try to be winsome. Ghar ka khana served up with affection is not unacceptable.

Ranbir and Minissha are pretty much taken through the same Swiss terrain as Shah Rukh and Kajol in the earlier film. Even the circumstances created to bring them together can't be told apart. Except that this boy-man is out to have a 'good' time with the girl who lives in a bubble.

Some of the sassiest, sauciest and smartest lines come in the second overture of this anti-romantic comedy when Ranbir, now 20-something and suitably hormone-driven courts and mates Bipasha with ferocious intensity.

Ranbir has been there, done 'em all. He lives the characters to the 'jilt', swathes the character in the cruelly cool quirks that make utter self-centredness a fashion statement in contemporary societies.

One of the film's most stirring moments is when Bipasha is shown sitting on the steps of her marriage venue in her bridal finery waiting for her bridegroom to turn up, her mehndi getting washed in the rain.

A very Raj Kapoor thing to do in a film that's all about being cool and finally falling flat on one's face when the hero meets his match.

Deepika Padukone as the statuesque but spunky cabbie in Sydney has the shortest feminine presence in this made-to-order Ranbir vehicle. She gets to mouth the best throwaway lines and to hit the commitment-phobic hero where it hurts the most. And we don't mean below the belt.

The director has the guts to show his hero as a man thoroughly exposed in his self-seeking egocentricity. Ranbir doesn't spare the character. He penetrates Raj's nerve-centre and portrays him as a smooth-talking charlatan who's looking for trouble in shapely places.

Ranbir plays the Casanova with just the right dollops of dips and curves. The fact that he has already done it all in an abundant flourish in 'Saawariya' doesn't take away from the sincerity of the performance. Watch his surprise when he sees himself cry after Deepika rejects him. No one has done this before.

There are any number of scenes displaying inspired cinema in this work of cyber-art. The characters are etched with a contemporary air without making them overly illustrative. Bipasha's turn as a wannabe supermodel ready to chuck it all for marriage only to be jilted at the altar is notably powerful.

What the script says about a career women is that sometimes male insensitivity forces their true metier out of a woman. An interesting thought, and one that the narrative holds in place with grace on Bipasha's expressive face.

But the most interesting female character is Deepika's. A self-willed, humorous and gritty cabbie, she drives the Casanova round the bend and beyond. Deepika exudes a reined-in grace. She is the future of Bollywood.

Hiten Paintal, playing that age-old thankless part of the hero's friend, joins the ranks of the natural-born scene-stealing supporters like Ninad Kamath, Kabeer Sadnah and Vishal Singh.

The film has been beautifully shot. The azure blue oceans of Italy form a telling contrast to the bronzed, tanned and probably tattooed actors who clutter the Swiss, Italian and desi locales.

Cleverly crafted and structured to contour the severely flawed characters, 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' is not meant to be a mammoth social comment on love and marriage. But in its own tongue-in-cheek manner it manages to say plenty about life in the fast lane.

How Preity Zinta prepared for 'Heaven On Earth'

The spunky and outspoken actress had to do a lot of preparation to play a character that is in contrast to her real self. In Deepa Mehta’s Heaven On Earth , Preity plays a meek, submissive Punjabi wife who is physically and psychologically assaulted by her husband in Canada.

Now, even though Preity is the owner of Punjab’s IPL team, the actress admits she can’t speak Punjabi fluently. But all her dialogues, including long monologues, in the film required Preity to speak the language. So Preity slogged hard, took a crash course in Punjabi, and learnt to speak her dialogues properly after a practice of over one-and-a-half months.

However, this was only half the battle won. Preity, who hasn’t experienced domestic violence in real life, had to get an insight into the lives of wives who suffer violence at the hands of their husbands.

So she read the relevant books (including ‘The Woman Who Walked Into Doors’ by Roddy Doyle). She also saw a documentary by Deepa Mehta in which the director interviews kids that saw domestic violence in their homes.

Preity says going through all this material gave her a reference point for her character.

And Preity’s performance has been so terrific in the film that Deepa Mehta has unhesitatingly said that Preity is the most talented actress she has worked with so far. That’s certainly a great compliment coming from a director who has worked with the likes of Shabana Azmi , Nandita Das and Seema Biswas in her past films.

Movie:'Mission Istanbul'

Producer: Ekta Kapoor, Shabbir Boxwala, Shobha, Sunil Shetty
Director: Apoorva Lakhia
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Zayed Khan, Nikitin Dheer, Shabbir Aluwalia, Shreya Sharan
Music: Anu Malik, Shamir Tandon, Chirantan Bhatt, Mika Singh

Mission Istanbul has some superbly skilful editing. The editor's scissors snip through the material on international terrorism demonstrating a tailor's tight command over size and measurement.

In fact, editor Rajesh Singh's work is so exemplary in the first half, you sort of brace yourself for something grander in the second.

Alas, the pace and sheer velocity of the first half slackens. Post-intermission the plot becomes just another 'two heroes fighting the baddies' film that we have been watching from the time when villains were smugglers and then gangsters. Now they are tycoons in Saville Row suits!

Terrorism goes international with a screenplay that's blessedly free of the amateurism that we have come to associate with cinema on terrorism in our country.

Lakhia and his co-writer Suresh Nair get the politics of terrorism dead-on. And the virility of the Turkish outdoors lends credence to the volatile goings-on.

But one surely can't take such silly liberties in a film that seems to have researched international terrorism with some attention before plunging into the project.

Lakhia knows how to handle vast crowds caught in terrifying insurgent violence. The canvas though crammed with exploding guns and ricocheting power games never loses its vision, momentum and humour.

In a bizarre sequence of comic violence, Vivek Oberoi wrenches off a victim's hands and uses them for hand-print entry into a forbidden area of the terrorist headquarters - the TV channel.

Zayed Khan as a newsreader clearly gets to cross all boundaries of duty. He tackles terrorists and alongside makes room to shake a leg on the dance floor.

The attempt to bring in conventional song-and-dance into a rigorous film on Islamic terrorism is not quite misplaced. Lakhia pulls off the coup with energy and elan. Full credit goes to the film's super action sequences orchestrated by Javed and Aejaz.

Amar Mohile's over-emphatic background score slams in the mood of danger and intrigue.

'Mission Istanbul' works big time as an action thriller. The director creates a mood that swings dangerously between a Hardy Boys adventure and a 'Barkha Dutt in the war zone' kind of news story. That Lakhia pulls it off with a near-effortless outflow of energy is a miracle of sorts.

There is nothing dreamy about this mission. But the subplot about the estranged journalist couple with a romantic song thrown in is as convincing as a devotional song in a beer bar.

There's a time and place for everything and 'Mission Istanbul' gets it right most of the time. The boys are all fully clued into the mood.

Zayed Khan shows remarkable restrain in the most outrageous of situations like the one where Viveik and he share colas and kisses with a 'desi' Lara Croft who may or may not be from the enemy camp.

Vivek Oberoi, with his flowing hair and full-on body language, proves himself a pro at the pyrotechnics. He has a real blast.

Not for the squeamish and certainly not for lovelorn dreamers, 'Mission Istanbul' is a rollercoaster of action, terrorism and revenge that seldom pauses for breath.

Movie: Money HaiTo Honey Hai

Producer: Kumar Mangat
Director: Ganesh Acharya
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Celina Jaitley, Aftab Shivdasani, Ravi Kishan, Upen Patel, Kim Sharma, Govinda, Hansika Motwani, Isha Koppikar
Music: Vishal Bharadwaj

Give this film a chance. 'Money Hai To Honey Hai' has a certain sincerity of purpose and a rather sturdy narrative that serves the comic purpose until interval.

But that's when the pace slackens, the interest-level droops and the chuckles drop drastically to make way for a touching and simple climax that tells us it's okay to be ordinary and that living is about letting your dreams run free.

Choreographer Ganesh Acharya's earlier directorial effort 'Swami' was a well-intended narrative gone awry due to a story-telling inertia. But this time Acharya is on surer ground. And it's got little to with the Mauritian outdoors and the sun-kissed beaches the film boasts of.

'Money Hai...' soaks you in its warmth, but it's finally a failed comedy - albeit an honourable failure.

Seldom have you seen a less noisy comedy in recent times. The background sounds are kept at a minimum and for once the characters don't scream inanities and double meanings at one another.

Hansika's hammy acting is so purposely pitched at an extravagant decibel you can't but laugh.

Upen Patel's toy-boy act with Archana Puransingh is also hilarious. The rest of the comic act swings from rib-tickling to drab.

A remarkable aspect of 'Money Hai To Honey Hai' is the choreography - a field where Ganesh Acharya excels. The music and dances in this film have a frisky and flighty flavour - very outdoors, very sexy and different.

And it's not just Govinda who gets to shake a leg to an original beat. Every actor swings in to a freewheeling groove.

Upen and Hansika pull out all stops. And Celina Jaitley, who plays a fashion designer who dreams of making clothes for the working class, tugs at the heart.

The story is basically of dreamers coming together to assert their yearnings in ways that are sometimes interesting and sometimes listless.

Interview :Vivek Oberoi

Vivek Oberoi is out on a mission! After ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’ he is now set for another action packed thriller’ in which he will don the role of Turkish commander. His new film will be arriving at the theatres this Friday. There are lots more happening in his life.

Excerpts from an Interview:

Shootout at Lokhandwala has bagged you laurels. You must be having high expectations from Mission Istanbul?

That is sure. I am definitely looking forward to the film to succeed. For one year I have been working really hard on the film. I just expect that people like my character like my former film. I hope my fans would go out to watch the film and like the action in the film. It is a whole machismo and attitude loaded stuff.

You’ve been doing lots of action stuff from Shootout at Lokhandwala to Mission Istanbul.

In one year I have just done two films. I am going the slow way as I wanted to do different kinds of scripts. I would prefer doing films that I like. Probably those kinds of offers have started pouring now. Now I’m doing another huge solo film South Africa with Tips. It is also a very different kind of film for me. The film I am doing with Karan Johar is with Saif and Kareena. For the film I have cut my hair. I've been learning a martial arts called Parkour from Dean Alexandrou from London. I'll be doing a lot of stunts, flying through the air without cables for the film. I'm also working with a Thai trainer in Muay Thai, a mix of Thai kickboxing and Akido.

You’ve also signed a romantic film 7G Rainbow Colony, which is a Hindi remake of a Tamil hit.

Mani Ratnam wanted me to see the film.His assistant Selvaraghavan directed the original and will be doing the Hindi remake too for UTV.

Will you ever work with Aishwarya Rai again?

As a professional I have no problems working with anyone. But I work with directors, not with actors and actresses.

You were spotted on the sets of Aladdin. Did you go there to meet Mr. Bachchan?

Director Sujoy Ghosh is a close friend of mine and we have done Home Delivery together. He invited me to the sets. Jackie Shroff and Riteish Deshmukh were there too and we got chatting. Then I heard that Amitji was there as well and I went to his van to say hello.

Interview : Shilpa Shetty

Shilpa Shetty is enjoying a good time traversing into varied things at the moment. While Bollywood films remain her priority, she is also getting into production and has launched her own production house under which she will be making films. Not only her professional life is going great guns, but also her personal life is rocking. In this candid interview she lets out many things that you didn’t know before.

Excerpts from an Interview:

There are talks doing the rounds that you are in a relationship with Raj Kundra. Is it true?

I have never come out in the open about it. How can you assume that I would do that now?

We are optimistic to hear something from you?

You want to hear it from the horse’s mouth? (laughs) Well, Raj is very much a part of my life. And yes, I am in a relationship with him.

That means your personal life is rocking.

Well to say, at this moment I am satisfied and in a peaceful state of mind. There is someone special in my life who also keeps me happy. So yes, I’m happy! Also in the professional front things are going right.

Are you planning marriage with Raj?

The day I decide to get married, I will make an official announcement.

What are the films on floors?

Right now, I am doing only one film, The Man. in the film I have to play the violin. And to make it look real, I have appointed a professional teacher to learn this instrument. It’s a difficult task to play a violin. My hands are totally numb and my neck aches too.

What will you be doing after the film?

I will start my home production with a multi-starrer. There will be two heroes and two heroines. I will play one of the female leads. The rest of the cast is yet to be finalised. Right now, I don’t have much time. I will also need time for the two shows in the UK, a part of The Unforgettables, Bachchan’s upcoming world tour.

Interview:Vidya Balan

It’s hard to believe actress Vidya Balan has been around for three years only since her debut with ‘Parineeta’. Flying high on success, she is today esteemed as one of the talented and most sought after actress in Bollywood. In the meantime she has wooed the audience with her variety and range and can anybody miss that charm on her face. Here she answers question on her upcoming film ‘Kismat Konnection’ making to the theatres this Friday.

Excerpts from an Interview:

What genre does Kismat Konnection belong to?

I would say Kismat Konnection is a love story and not a proper comedy. It’s a very light-hearted film and not emotionally high on content. The romance is very breezy, young and vibrant, and this is a love story that is very different from what I've done so far.

How would you sum up the three years you’ve spent here?

I still feel I am a newcomer. I’m lucky to work with established and experienced people. But there are so many things that still make me feel like a novice.

You started your film career with Vidhu Vinod Chopra doing three films with him. Anything more on the cards?

Vinod Chopra Productions is like a home ground for me. If he finds something suitable he would certainly call me. However it is no so that I’ve to be a part of his every project.

What different are you doing in Kismat Konnection?

Shahid Kapur is a brilliant dancer and I made up my mind while signing the film that I woun’t get nervous thinking about it. It’s not possible to match steps with Shahid and Hrithik ever. The kind of dancing that I do in the film is something I’ve never done before. I enjoyed dancing and hope the audience will like it. When I started with Kismat Konnection, it was a new unit for me and generally we do a short schedule in India before heading abroad for the shoot. But here we directly went to Toronto for two month outdoor. I was wondering how I would get along with everybody. I would listen to my iPod to keep myself busy and by second or third day, everyone had their iPods out and we started exchanging our iPods and sharing the music we were listening to. That helped all of us bond on the sets.

What made you sign a film with Shahid Kapur?

I choose a film by the story, my role, and the director. I had always wanted to work with Aziz Mirza and that’s the reason I signed the film. I believe in his kind of films. Shahid Kapur is such a good actor. Shahid is on his way to become a star. Post Jab We Met, he has become a rock star of sorts. As my co-star in the film was Shahid I didn't think twice. In the future I'd love to work with him again.

The media is agog about some special connection between Shahid and you, is it true?

The story is just figment of someone’s imagination. After listening to it so many times I'm quite used to it. We share a great onscreen rapport and offscreen we get along with each other really well. But still if people are interested in such stuff what can I do. I'm here to build a career and not some relationship.

Love Story 2050

Producer: Pammi Baweja
Director: Harry Baweja
Cast: Archana Puran Singh, Boman Irani, Harman Baweja, Harsh Vasisht, Priyanka Chopra
Music: Anu Malik

A star has most certainly been born. There are no two ways about it. After watching Harman Baweja sing, dance, emote and entertain in this Adlab presentation for a full three hours, one wonders if there is anything that this Baweja boy from Bollywood can't do.

Yes, maybe there is something Harman can't do. He can't make us forget for even a minute that he knows every component of the camera although he has never acted before. The confidence level stops just short of being cocky and overdone. He is never short of a positive and productive attitude.

It is clear that producer-director Harry Baweja has made 'Love Story 2050' as a showcase for his son's aptitudes. To that extent, the film works wonderfully, creating repeated opportunities for the debutant to shine.

The script - sprawling across two time phases and three hours of playing time - is a simple love story of two very good looking people coming together in the svelte, sweltering, simmering climes of Sydney, moving apart and then going into a futuristic mode without alienating themselves from the romantic genre that this uniquely-designed film inhabits.

Harry Baweja happily avoids the pitfalls of pedestrianism even when the boy-meets-girl plot gets into a trite and repeatedly-tested mode.

The protagonists share a precious, fragile and tender chemistry. A butterfly perches itself on the girl's trembling hands and manoeuvres her heart into places where there're no tell-tale signs. The butterfly becomes a likeable leitmotif in the plot. The courtship and romance is done in shades and words that leave us smiling. The initial scenes are actually far more interesting than they appear.

The boy tells the girl to do something that she has never done before. How about shop-lifting? He suggests. She suggests he recite some poetry for her. Javed Akhtar does the rest.

By the time Harman and Priyanka sing their first two duets (Anu Malik at his soft and tender best) we're convinced that they care deeply for each other. It's in their eyes. No kisses and cuddles needed. Only cuddly robots. For the first time in a Hindi film, two robots serving as the protagonists' companions are given prominent places in the plot. And they aren't just props. They are entities with a mind and personality of their own.

The entire courtship game stretching into two time zones is played out with an endearing innocence, and a focus and finesse that re-define the boy-girl formula in a language that's sassy and trendy without ever lumbering into the lurid.

Towards the second half, when Harman flies into a futuristic Mumbai to retrieve lost love, the flying cars, the humane robots and the psychedelic dance numbers tend to overpower the basic romantic structure of the plot.

Harry Baweja could have avoided the extravagant excesses in the sky. How long can you watch flying cars and talking robots? After a while you restlessly begin to search for that romantic core which, blessedly, is never too far away from the narrative's range of interests.

The second half, when a zany scientist (Boman Irani in a weird wig and silly smirk) transports the lovers and the audience into the future, has been done with an elan and flamboyance that leave us enthralled.

Vijay Arora's camera work is extraordinarily rich in colours and style. The same goes for Priyanka's sartorial grace. Her two roles are brilliantly defined by the clothes. Fortunately, Priyanka goes deeper in search of her characters' core. The repressed poetic persona in the first half and the brassy red-haired rock star in the second-half are two different entities.

But make no mistake. 'Love Story 2050' belongs to debutant Harman from first frame to the last. And all his co-stars know it. They all sort of move back to let the Baweja boy take centrestage.

Harman demonstrates an endearing all-purpose showmanship. He dances like a dream and gets gooey-eyed and sentimental in love scenes as though Romeo had just fallen off the balcony while serenading Juliet, bruising more than just his heart. This newcomer is to the camera born.

Wisely, the narrative restricts itself to the 'love' part of the love story, creating pockets of asexual passion (not even a peck between the actors) without making cuteness a fetish and a fad.

A whole lot of visible and intangible effort has gone into building this colour-consumed atmospheric world of sights sounds and melodies that represent the harmony of the spheres in optical splendour.

Finally though, the effort doesn't overpower the heart content and intent of the plot. This is actually a far better film than its genre and lavish budget would suggest.

Avoiding the vulgarity of overstatement but focusing on Harman and Priyanka to the point of making other characters appear largely redundant, 'Love Story 2050' offers a world where dreams and fantasies have a properly-designated place. We aren't in it just for the pleasure-ride.

Interview : Abhishek Bachchan

Abhishek Bachchan has just got back to Mumbai. He has been away for a long spell of schedule in Miami of Tarun Mansukhani's ‘Dostana’. Hereon he goes to resume shooting for Rakeysh Mehra's ‘Dilli 6’. Abhishek winds up telling what’s more happening in his life – there’s lot, with movies and music holding his concentration at present!

Excerpts from an Interview:

How is the shooting of Dostana going?

It is a young and energetic romantic comedy. It is new kind of genre that I’m trying my hands in. Priyanka, John and I had fun filled time. We were off to Miami for work purpose and it held our concentration most of the time. We balanced fun and also did many hours of hard work.

How did the Cannes schedule go along with Aishwarya?

Like always it was very engaging. Last year Aishwarya and I had gone to Cannes for the first time together. This year the whole family was there. It was a delight to be there with the whole family. Most of the time I’m away from home and to be in some other part of the world with your family is a delight. Also we tried to catch as many films as possible.

Wyclef Jean in Miami did a full hip-hop album with you.

I had a great time recording a song with the super-hip hopper Wyclef Jean in Miami. I had already done a hip-hop song before. Aadesh called me one day and requested me to be a part of the song. Aadesh is a close friend and it was wonderful to finally sing with him. Wyclef is a musician I have admired for a long time and have great respect for him. It was a treat to record with the two of them. And loads of fun. When I was recording with Vishal-Shekhar for Bluff Master I was equally petrified. I love to sing. But I'm not a singer and I have only done this track as a personal favour to Aadesh.

Tell us about your non-film album with Vishal-Shekhar.

It is also a hip-hop album. Dad will also be around as a guest vocalist. The album has been delayed. The album with Vishal -Shekar has been in the making for the last two years and isn't released. I'd have loved to have premiered it during our World Tour in July. But it's not ready. When it is ready we'll release it. Dad has a great singing voice. Mine is nowhere near his. I don't think I have the ability or talent to do what all he has done.

Interview : Celina Jaitley

Actress Celina Jaitley is spending most of her time in work. She is shooting for her upcoming film Money Hai To Honey Hai and will also be doing an item track for Ekta Kapoor’s forthcoming film C Kkompany. All the time she has also been busy rubbishing rumours that keep her on her toes all the time.

Excerpts from an Interview:

You’ve not been seen around for sometime now.

I’m not a party animal and don’t get into every parties. I just prefer the music release and premieres of my films. Other than that I prefer to keep myself away from events. Since past few weeks I’ve been working a lot. I have just come from Bangkok and then I’m away for another outdoor shoot. The last couple of months have been very stressful as my brother had an accident. It was shocking for us.

Coming to films, one hears that there has been problem between you and Hanssika Motwani on the sets of Money Hai To Honey Hai because she was trying to copy your costume designs?

There was never an argument about the issue. I got to hear from people that Hanssika's mother was always interested to know what I was going to wear. I had no problems with that and rather it is a compliment that others want to copy what I wear. You know, even if they copy my outfits, they won't be able to carry them off. For that you need a personality, body and height. I had no problems with Hanssika. But I feel that her parents were always nosey about others on the sets. I'm not complaining about such things as I prefer to do my work and leave.

Were you friends with Kareena Kapoor and Amrita Arora on the sets of Golmaal Returns?

I don't have too many scenes with them. My track is different. We did work out together once. Kareena and Amrita are friends anyway. I get to hear that I don’t get along with my female colleagues. But that’s not true. During No Entry, Lara, Bipasha (Basu), Esha (Deol) and I became the best of friends. We're in touch over the phone. Riya (Sen) and Neha (Dhupia) are two of my other friends. In general, I can't deal with the insecurities of women. I'm into gizmos, play stations, the works but not into gossip. I've always been more comfortable with boys maybe because I'm from a family where there were more boys than girls. I've had more male cousins than female. I do get along with girls but when I sense bad vibes I back out. Also I can't handle the mummies and aunties-pressure at work.

Interview : Imran Khan

Imran Khan, 25-year-old debutant is arriving this Friday with his first film ‘Jaane Tu... Ya Jane Na’. He comes from the legacy of films, bring the grand child of Nasir Husain, uncle Mansoor Khan and Aamir Khan. Being Aamir Khan’s nephew it’s a tough task to prove himself in the shoes of his mamu. But this new entrant is confident about his take and has already created a stir even before the film’s release. The film is directed by Abbas Tyrewala.

Excerpts from an Interview:

Your first film is about to release. How are you feeling?

People have set high standards, but I’m not thinking about it because if I do, I’ll get paralysed. The best part is I’m not stressed at all. AK (that’s Aamir) was telling me that during his QSQT days, he too wasn’t stressed.

You are on your way to stardom. Comments.

When I see my promos or read about myself, it seems like I’m seeing someone else. My girlfriend Avantika keeps clippings of my articles but gets upset if anyone writes negative stuff about me. I have to keep telling her, ‘Chill baby, it’s ok’.

Have you made any friends?

I don’t like partying as I’m a very reserved person, but I like to go to friends’ homes and chill with them. My friends are mostly assistant directors and actors like Minisha Lamba and Kunal Kapoor, and there’s Shruti Hasan who is more like my sister. I’m doing Soham’s Luck with her. There is also Sanjay Ghadvi’s Kidnap lined up.

Jaane Tu has been in the making for three years. Did that make you impatient?

It was frustrating but I also learnt in the film industry hardly anything happens on time. From the scripting stage to direction there are always delays.

How much did you enjoy working with co-star Genelia?

Both of us gotalong from day one as we understood our styles of working together.

What about working with Abbas Tyrewala?

He is very cool and doesn’t push his opinions on others. We have become like brothers and have become very close in the process of making the film. Abbas and I went to Aamir Khan Productions to ask them to produce the film. I always thought of myself as Abbas' partner. I would hang around with Abbas, and also learn from him.

How much do you resemble the character of Jai Rathore, your character on screen?

Jai is flamboyant up to a certain amount which I am not. Being a reserved person it was quite a task to appear flamboyant on screen. Abbas suggested me to play Jai as though I was one drink down. He also convinced me to wear a sari and that was really funny.

Interview : Emraan Hashmi

Emraan Hashmi has a penchant of treading the unconventional route. The roles he chooses or the film’s he does are very different from a typical hero’s take. He doesn’t mind taking risks and this is what sets him apart. Many call it arrogance, but he is not bothered as only he can make a film hit during the IPL season when the others faltered.

Excerpts from an Interview:

You did gamble isn’t it with Jannat releasing it during IPL?

But that was because I was confident about the film. Filmmaking itself is a gamble and there are lots of risks involved. The film was minimised by hit music, a topical issue and a modern-day love story. The timing to release the film was risky no doubt, but it paid off at last.

Your upcoming film is Raaz 2, what is your intuition about the film?

I’m as much confident about the success of the film as Jannat. It’ll be a spooky film and the audience will get a treat watching the horror stuff. The film has to live up to the original and expectations are sky high.

You are pricing yourself up in the market.

My price is nothing unreasonable and it wouldn’t burden the project. I come from a film family and have a running production company, I’ve knowledge about the trade.

But you’ve opted out of Bhatts film because of your price tag.

The actual reason that I did not do the film is because Bhattsahab is making films on the lines I’ve already done before. Murder was in essence a love triangle too with a murder thrown in. I prefer not to repeat myself.

Are you doing Kunal Deshmukh’s next?

It will be a bigger film than Jannat. The script is being processed at the moment.

Are you doing the Metro sequel?

I’d love to be a part pf the film. I’ve told Anurag Basu to approach me if he has a role for me. I’m ready to sign the film without reading the script and might also sign it for free. Also I’m working with Subhash Ghai and we’ve a three-film deal. Waiting for a good script to come through.

You are a loyalist of Vishesh Films?

It’s not that. I’ve worked with outside banners too and delivered hits. But with Vishesh Films, it’s not just a professional relationship. I’ll work with anybody who has a good offer.

Movie Review : 'Haal-e-Dil'

Producer: Kumar Mangat
Director: Anil Devgan
Cast:Nakuul Mehta, Tanuja, Sanjay Mishra, Amita Pathak, Adhyayan Suman, Mukesh Tiwari
Music: Anand Raj Anand, Raghav Sachar, Vishal Bharadwaj

First thing first - the film lacks originality as several sequences are copied from the 1990s hit 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'. From the rain song to the train scene, it reminds one of the Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer.

Although producer Kumar Mangat made 'Haal-e-Dil' to launch his daughter Amita Pathak, it is TV star Shekhar Suman's son Adhyayan who takes the cream out of the cake in this badly handled love story.

It is also Adhyayan's debut film, but his performance is being appreciated because of his originality. Usually new actors imitate big stars in some or the other way, but Adhyayan seems to be himself throughout the narration.

As a cute chocolate-boy hero, Nakuul might woo the college-goers, especially the girls. Amita's performance is tolerable, but she fails to strike a chemistry with either of her co-stars.

The triangular love story revolves around Sanjana Sharma (Amita Pathak), Rohit (Adhyayan Suman) and Shekhar (Nakuul Mehta). Sanjana and Rohit study in the same college and are in love. Then Shekhar enters Sanjana's life. The two meet on a train and for Shekhar it is love at first sight. He starts following Sanjana and tries to woo her.

The script is weak and it drags. Despite the presence of Ajay Devgan, Kajol and Tanuja, the film fails to hold the viewers' attention.

One wonders why Kumar Mangat and Anil Devgan chose the two guys who look younger than Amita to play her love interest in the film?

Interview: Mika’s Singh

Singer Mika is more popular for his infamous episode with Rakhi Sawant. However things have started looking positive for him, with Mika delivering hits with the Bollywood tracks. This Punjabu nasal singer is creating furore with hit tracks like ‘Aye Ganpat’ and ‘Mauja Hi Mauja’. After his successful stint with chartbusters, he now changes direction to star in a film. Wanna know more about Mika, read on!

Excerpts from an Interview:

Alike Himesh Reshammiya, it seems that the acting bug has also bitten you.

Films are happening and that’s good. I’ve already completed shooting for Loot. The sequel to Tom Dick and Harry is also on the floors. I’m doing Loot for Suniel Shetty as he is a close friend. When he asked me to do the film there was no question of giving a ‘no’ back. Tom Dick and Harry sequel happened quite interesting. I was supposed to render a track for the film. The director offered me a role and I accepted it.

Will that mean that music has taken a backstage in your career?

It’s not that. My top priority as the shows. Even top actors like Akshay Kumar, SRK, Saif Ali Khan do one or two films a year and concentrate on shows. I’m doing the same. For a role I’m offered Rs 30 lakh for for which I need to shoot for at least 20 days. I can make the same money through five shows, which means only five days of work!

You are all over the place with chartbusters and now your track Saawan mein lag gayi aag has got a second life with Woodstock Villa.

That’s great isn’t it? I remember eight years back, Sanjay Gupta called me wanting to use the song in his film. But he met with an accident and things went haywire. So, again when he made a move on that front, I was floored. He approached the company, bought the rights, made Anu Malek do the music and spent the same amount of money that went into making my whole album! Now, what stands out in the flick is my song. Even if it’s not meant to be, my songs end up becoming the title tracks.

Movie Review: 'Mere Baap Pehle Aap'

Producer: Raman Maroo

Director: Priyadarshan

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Genelia D'souza, Shobhana

Music: Vidyasagar

At last a Priyadarshan comedy that warms the cockles of the heart even as it makes you cackle in glee.

'Mere Baap Pehle Aap' is a deftly-scripted piece of quirky and cryptic concoction on role reversal. And if you take away all the humbug and fringe characters, at the core of this cool comedy is a father-son relationship where the father is often caught behaving like a truant child.

Paresh Rawal's guilt-stricken expressions and Akshaye Khanna's finger-wagging exasperation are simply superb. Hats off to Manisha Korde's wildly witty words that colonize the characters' comic world.

Breathe easy. There are no risque or double-meaning jokes and no vulgar shots of women. Priyadarshan's film is clean and clever in parts and makes you forgive all the excesses of his recent films like 'Bhool Bhulaiya' and 'Malaamal Weekly' where the characters were constantly in a state of distress.

In 'Mere Baap...' we see some restraint and subtlety in the narration and the locales are exquisite and refreshing. Sabu Cyril's art work suggests an endearing link between our cultural heritage and the rituals of laughter. The Kerala sequences are adorably quaint.

Throughout the story of a father and son finding marital bliss at about the same time, we are caught in spaces that are filled but not overbrimming. Like his earlier films, Priyadarshan's people this time go from laughter to a social message with a virile fluency.

Does a middle-aged man have the right to seek a companion when he has a child of marriageable age?

Paresh is at the receiving end of social taboos. After wasting himself in not-so-good comedies in recent times, Paresh comes into his own here as the surly, child-like dad who keeps getting into embarrassing positions for no fault of his.

If Paresh sparkles, it's because he has a screen son who shines with immense confidence. Akshaye's comic timing and his little nuances and gestures bring forceful humour to a film that may otherwise have ended up looking a little limp and unmoored.

The rest of the cast, barring the brazenly over-pitched Genelia, give winsome comic performances. It's a surprise to see the beautiful Shobana show up as the spinster that widower Paresh wants to marry.

The wedding song and dances are almost exquisite. This touch of the quasi-classical, also seen in the closing interlude of 'Bhool Bhulaiya', gives the comedy a touch of refreshing grace.

Interestingly, Mohan Joshi, who's a regular in Priyadarshan films, gives a completely non-comic performance here. And Archana Puransingh, as a brassy lady cop, once again displays a penchant for parody.

Om Puri as a leery, ageing bachelor is appropriately grotesque. But one can't tell whether it's the character or the performance that makes one squirm.

The film works mainly because Paresh and Akshaye look so delightfully compatible as a father and son who have lived so closely together that they don't know which is which.

Another asset is Ranjit Barot's background music, which is surprisingly tender and strong in fits and starts.

Producer: Raman Maroo

Director: Priyadarshan

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Genelia D'souza, Shobhana

Music: Vidyasagar

At last a Priyadarshan comedy that warms the cockles of the heart even as it makes you cackle in glee.

'Mere Baap Pehle Aap' is a deftly-scripted piece of quirky and cryptic concoction on role reversal. And if you take away all the humbug and fringe characters, at the core of this cool comedy is a father-son relationship where the father is often caught behaving like a truant child.

Paresh Rawal's guilt-stricken expressions and Akshaye Khanna's finger-wagging exasperation are simply superb. Hats off to Manisha Korde's wildly witty words that colonize the characters' comic world.

Breathe easy. There are no risque or double-meaning jokes and no vulgar shots of women. Priyadarshan's film is clean and clever in parts and makes you forgive all the excesses of his recent films like 'Bhool Bhulaiya' and 'Malaamal Weekly' where the characters were constantly in a state of distress.

In 'Mere Baap...' we see some restraint and subtlety in the narration and the locales are exquisite and refreshing. Sabu Cyril's art work suggests an endearing link between our cultural heritage and the rituals of laughter. The Kerala sequences are adorably quaint.

Throughout the story of a father and son finding marital bliss at about the same time, we are caught in spaces that are filled but not overbrimming. Like his earlier films, Priyadarshan's people this time go from laughter to a social message with a virile fluency.

Does a middle-aged man have the right to seek a companion when he has a child of marriageable age?

Paresh is at the receiving end of social taboos. After wasting himself in not-so-good comedies in recent times, Paresh comes into his own here as the surly, child-like dad who keeps getting into embarrassing positions for no fault of his.

If Paresh sparkles, it's because he has a screen son who shines with immense confidence. Akshaye's comic timing and his little nuances and gestures bring forceful humour to a film that may otherwise have ended up looking a little limp and unmoored.

The rest of the cast, barring the brazenly over-pitched Genelia, give winsome comic performances. It's a surprise to see the beautiful Shobana show up as the spinster that widower Paresh wants to marry.

The wedding song and dances are almost exquisite. This touch of the quasi-classical, also seen in the closing interlude of 'Bhool Bhulaiya', gives the comedy a touch of refreshing grace.

Interestingly, Mohan Joshi, who's a regular in Priyadarshan films, gives a completely non-comic performance here. And Archana Puransingh, as a brassy lady cop, once again displays a penchant for parody.

Om Puri as a leery, ageing bachelor is appropriately grotesque. But one can't tell whether it's the character or the performance that makes one squirm.

The film works mainly because Paresh and Akshaye look so delightfully compatible as a father and son who have lived so closely together that they don't know which is which.

Another asset is Ranjit Barot's background music, which is surprisingly tender and strong in fits and starts.

Interview: Amita Pathak

Amita Pathak wanted to be an actress from a very young age. Though her father producer father Kumar Mangat never took her aspirations seriously, she was determined about it. She had to wait for it, but her dream is turning true finally. Her first film, ‘Haal-e-Dil’ with newcomers Adhyayan Suman and Nakuul Mehta will arrive at the theatres soon. She talks about the film and more.

Excerpts from an Interview:

What is the film all about?

The story revolves around three people who tell each other their Haal-e-Dil. It’s about their first love and when they get it and they go ahead to prove it. My character in the film is called Sanjana and she is close to both these guys in her own way. But she loves them differently.

When did you decide that you have to do acting?

I was three years old when I watched Khilaaf, starring Madhuri Dixit and Mithun Chakraborty. Fans were going crazy over them, asking for autographs and pictures and I wanted to undergo the same experience. I tried acting in front of the mirror. My dad saw it and asked what was I doing and I told him that I wanted to act. He did not tale it much seriously at that time. After I turned 18 he understood that I was serious about my aspirations. He has been very supportive and got me scripts and read them to me.

What kind of preparations have you taken for your debut film?

I have done an acting course from Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Academy. I have also attended a three-month acting workshop with Om Katare and worked on my dance moves with Shiamak Davar. I know Kathak, western dance, salsa and jive. I've assisted in a couple of movies, like Omkara.

With your dad producing this film, how was the experience?

It is not easy to get a breakthrough in the industry and there are many strugglers out there more capable then me. With my father around I consider myself fortunate. But like all other actors I auditioned for the film in front of all the writers and the director. This film wasn’t specially made for me. I wanted to debut in a romantic comedy. But I did not get script of that kind. I decided not to read any script for a while as I got frustrated. I was in Punjab and my das got Haal-e-dil. My dad told director Anil Devgan that I would be apt for the film. Anil uncle was not sure if I would be interested in the role. He hardly recognised me when I met him at the auditions.