LOC - Kargil
My review of LOC-Kargil can be viewed here.

Munnabhai MBBS
My review of Munnabhai MBBS can be viewed here.

Tehzeeb
My review of Tehzeeb can be viewed here.

Aanch
My review of Aanch can be viewed here.

Kal Ho Na Ho
My review of Kal Ho Na Ho can be viewed here.

Janasheen
My review of Janasheen can be viewed here.

Out of Control
My review of Out of Control can be viewed here.

Jodi Kya Banai - Wah Wah Ramji
My review of Jodi Kya Banai - Wah Wah Ramji can be viewed here.

Waisa Bhi Hota Hai
My review of Waisa Bhi Hota Hai can be viewed here.

Ek Din - 24 Ghante
My review of Ek Din - 24 Ghante can be viewed here.

Kagaar
My review of Kagaar can be viewed here.

Raja Bhaiya
My review of Raja Bhaiya can be viewed here.

Sssshhh
My review of Sssshhh can be viewed here.

Inteha
My review for Inteha can be viewed here.

Pinjar
My review for Pinjar can be viewed here.

Samay
My review for Samay can be viewed here.

MMDBCH
My review of Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon can be seen here.

Khel
My review for Khel can be viewed here.

Baghban
My review for Baghban can be viewed here.

Hi,
My reviews can be seen henceforth at RadioSargam.
Please do visit the reviews for Zameen and Mumbai Matinee on the site.
Thanks for your continued patronage.

Mumbai Matinee
Saw Mumbai Matinee on the first day of its release. Have you ever had the feeling of seeing a movie which started out in a great way, was endearing for most of the part, but the aftertaste due to a poor last quarter left you with very ambiguous feelings. Yeah... I know! You will say you stopped counting at movie no. 1023.

Synopsis
Debashis/Debu Chatterjee (Rahul Bose as usual walking away with the best lines in the film) is an adman(Again after the mildly successful Jhankaar Beats. Seems that's the only cool profession to be in nowadays, where you can be wacky and get away with anything). His problem in life is that he is 32, and still a virgin. He has to contend with a colleague Raakesh Sharma (Kaabir, last seen in Ishq Vishk) who seems to get pleasure in Rahul's discomfiture. The mandatory boss Mahesh Godbole (Amar Talwar with a horrendous wig) and an eyelid batting, scantily clad secretary Monica D'Costa (Sunila Karamblekar.... her clothes are not as big as her surname) step in to provide the filler jokes.
Rahul starts getting obsessed with sex and his desperation reaches such limits as to actually go to a "Hindustani Baba" addressed in a pamphlet. This "Hindustani Baba" (Vijay Raaz in an outlandish role) and his secretary Pyaare Lal(Asraani, now relegated to playing assistant comic to new actors) con him into paying them Rs.5000. Vijay Raaz's office is done up like that of an adman. It has all kinds of furniture which is either antique or wacky.
They give Rahul some miracle tablets and lots of dialogues along the lines of Star Wars (May the force be with you).
Rahul also ends up meeting with a C-Grade movie director Nitin Kapoor(Saurabh Shukla in a very endearing performance). Saurabh is the maker of films like "Thakurain", "Maharani", "Ganga Dacait", "Pyaar Koi Paap Nahi" et al. He has never tasted success, and he beleives that one Friday he will have his due. For his next film, "Sholay Mein Deewar" his distributors want him to include raunchy scenes.
Even though Saurabh Shukla considers Vijay Raaz to be a fraud, he gets convinced by a crony to go over and seek his help. What results is a hilarious sequence where Vijay Raaz and Saurabh Shukla intersperse scenes of Rahul Bose exercising with scenes of a female mouthing some bedroom lines.
These are included in the film, which turns out to be a hit and Rahul becomes an overnight sex star. But the trouble is, he is still a virgin. He gets arrested, and his dialogues with a true blue Bengali who is disgusted to know that Rahul is also a Bengali evoke a lot of mirth.
In steps journalist Sonali Verma(Perizaad Zorabian ravishing as ever and lighting up the screen everytime she comes over) who tries to get hold of him for an interview, and ends up sharing her appartment with him.
There is also an ill-timed single song in the movie, which gets compensated for by the presence of Anusha Dandekar.
Also, Rahul's interaction with a gay guy Roshan Kumar(Bakul Thakkar) result in some poignant moments for the film.

Analysis
Rahul Bose, for a change gets to do a character who is not brash, self-confident and absolutely sure of himself. He also gets to do these Woody Allenesque monologues where he gets to throw some wisecracks and ironical observations at the camera. Perizaad Zorabian has a very short and pivotal role, and she gives it her best shot. Saurabh Shukla excels in his caricaturish portrayal of a C-grade movie director with a conscience. Vijay Raaz gives some good moments to the movie, but is not consistent. Asraani and Kaabir do not have roles to justify any analysis. Bakul Thakkar is appropriate.

Technique
The late Anant Balani has written and directed this movie. He has been successful as far as creating the atmosphere for a black comedy is concerned. The problem seems to be in the screenplay and the abrupt ending, which comes very unexpectedly. There are also quite a few scenes which have been thrown in just to put in some gags that they seem to have thought of along the way.
But, to the director's credit, the movie never gets crass, which was very probable with such a subject.
Music Directors Anand Raaj Anand and Farhad Wadia (Check the number of 'and's in the last fragment) have a miniscule responsibility as the film does not rely much on its music. The snippet of "Sex is Guuut!!(An ode to Freud)" song is an exception. Editor Mohammed Rafique was sleeping on the job, as lots of inconsequential scenes have crept into the final print of the movie.


Sidelights
1) Director Anant Balani disappeared from the Bollywood scene after three movies "Gawahi" - 1989(Zeenat Aman, Ashutosh Gowariker, Shekhar Kapur) and "Patthar ke Phool" -1991(Salman Khan and Raveena Tandon; her debut film). Four years later he directed Jazbaat, starring Rohit Roy and Suchitra Krishnamurthy (Shekhar Kapur's wife). The film, made on money he had inherited flopped miserably and ruined him financially.
He reappeared with a sudden stroke of good luck to direct 4 movies Joggers Park(Perizaad Zorabian, Victor Banerjee), Mumbai Matinee(Rahul Bose, Perizaad Zorabian), Ek Din (Rahul Bose, Nandita Das), and Chameli (Rahul Bose, Kareena Kapoor). But unfortunately he passed away before seeing the release of even one of them.
2) He also directed soaps for the small screen(A Mouthful Of Sky, Kabhi Kabhi).
3) In one scene in the movie, the poster for the movie produced by Saurabh Shukla shows the credits as "Directed by - Nitin Kumar". Saurabh's name in the movie is Nitin Kapoor :).
4) In a scene where Rahul pays Asraani with a credit card, Rahul does not sign any transaction slip after swiping the card. All the best to Asraani to get it encashed.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Hmm... I am a little confused. If you want to listen to some witty lines and a few original jokes, go for it, but move out of the theater about 15 minutes before it ends (its a 2 hour movie). You might end up liking it. If you are going for Perizaad, forget it; she comes in for the last half an hour. If you are going for Rahul Bose, you might enjoy the movie.
Moreover, remember that this is not a family movie, as they already warned in the advertisements. Go with your friends, and you could have a rollicking time trying to relate to the characters.

Boom
Saw Boom on the first day of its release. I wish I had heeded the advice of the many people who had seen it on pirated VCDs and lived to tell the tale.

Synopsis
Boom, as everyone and their second cousin know, is the story of 3 models Anu Gaekwad(Madhu Sapre, looking like something the cat dragged in on a bad day), Sheila Bardez (Padma Laxmi looking delectable half the time, and for the other half, she looks like Madhu) and Rina Kaif (Katrina Kaif, the gorgeous bombshell, who I think will be relegated to bikini roles after this debut), who get into the bad books of the underworld as they make the gangsters lose 50 crores worth of diamonds due to a scuffle they have on the ramp with a rival model.
These diamonds were stolen by Abdul 50/50s or Chotte Mia as he is called (Jackie Shroff in a miniscule role where he fails to impress) men, and were to be sent to Bade Mia (Amitabh looking detestable and acting wacky, but he doesnt seem to enjoy it, and neither do we).
The go between is the very imaginatively named Medium Mia (Gulshan Grover in a baddie role being overshadowed by the Big B). Both Chotte and Medium want to rise a level up to being Medium and Bade respectively.
Alice (Zeenat Aman looking charming, but that's about all I can say) is Amitabh's secretary, and feels that she can actually rule the underworld, if given a chance.
Boom Shankar (Jaaved Jaaferi, hey, that's how he spells his name nowadays, must have gone to that numerologist Jumaani guy. He has a role which is interesting to say the least) is given the responsibility of chaperoning the models, and to take care that they get the diamonds back. Seema Biswas also has a role as Bharti, the models' housemaid, who is smarter than she lets on.
When all these characters come together, it is time for the audience to leave the theater nursing a BIG BAADAA BOOM in your head.
Also thrown in are some real life designers, Wendell Rodricks, Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal. They better stick to their professions, for sure as hell they can't act.

Analysis
For the first time in his life, Amitabh is playing a negative character with no excuses whatsoever (His roles in Aankhen, Kaante, Faraar etc had some justification for his being bad). Is he impressive. Hmmm... the less said about it, the better. I dont want to alienate the Big B fans here. He seems totally disinterested in the proceedings. One of the few scenes he shows chutzpah in, is when he flicks some comic books from his own store. Jackie Shroff and Gulshan Grover have little to do except growl menacingly. Katrina Kaif looks good throughout the movie, but little else can be said about her. She sucks at acting. Even the furniture in the movie is a lot more animated than her face. Madhu Sapre does show a few histrionic capabilities. Padma Lakshmi is passable, but she needs to be consistent with her makeup.

Technique
Kaizad Gustad made his debut with "Bombay Boys". Though this was not a great film, it had its snatches of innovative humour. It was well received, and that escalated the expectations from this flick. He thoroughly disappoints. Considering that this movie was through and through a Kaizad Gustad venture (he writes as well as directs), the blame for it should also squarely land at his doorstep. The movie is so shoddy, that all of the sequences seem absoulutely disjoint. Seems like he just sat down and thought; "Hey... I think this sequence will look cool! Why don't I shoot it and then think where to put it in the film." It seems all the marijuana being smoked around in the film addled his brain cells and gave him delusions of being Quentin Tarantino. Cinematography by Hinman Dhamija, an international cinematographer is okay in parts, but it leaves you completely baffled in places. I always maintain that a good cinematographer is someone who doesn't let on that you are seeing stuff through the eyes of a camera; he actually makes you feel that you are present there. This is where he fails absolutely. His pyrotechnics with the camera leave him completely out of favour as far as I am concerned. The music (Resul, the sound engineer, and music by Talvin Singh, with background music by Sandeep Chowtha) is fine, but I was completely disgusted when the models break into a song in the midst of a bank robbery. That is when the movie went beyond redemption. Editing by Reva Childs makes you wonder whether s/he really knew the language. Most of the scenes are so choppy and come out of the blue, that you start wondering what you would have understood if you didn't know the much publicised theme of the movie.
What saddens me the most is, here you have an example of a producer (Ayesha Shroff) who gave absolutely free reins to her director to translate his vision onto film; and he screws up big time. On the other hand we have the great Sudhir Mishra, who is forced to bring in commercial considerations in his film (Calcutta Mail) due to his producers (Allu Arvind and Mukesh Udeshi) and his lead actor (Anil Kapoor). How I wish these directors had exchanged producers.


Sidelights
1) This film was shot in Burj Al Arab (correct me if I am wrong), which is supposed to be the most opulent hotel in the world. This is the first time that a film was given permission to be shot there.
2) There was a controversy regarding the payments to be made to Amitabh Bachchan for this film. He dragged the producers to the Producers association, where they agreed to pay him in two installments, one before the film's release, and one after. I think Amitabh will have to kiss his second installment goodbye.
3) As a result of this feud, the producers also had to let go of the satellite rights of this film to Sahara Television (with whom Amitabh is associated) instead of it being broadcast by Sony Television(in which Jackie Shroff has a stake).
4) Kaizad Gustad has studied filmmaking at the Tisch school of arts in NY, but after seeing this movie, I think it might be the Kitsch school of Arts.
5) He has also written a book "Of no fixed address", which, though not brilliant, is certainly readable in parts. He has interestingly termed it his fictionalised autobiography.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Forget it! If you want a headache, why don't you play DOOM instead for 10 straight hours. This movie is a no-show right from the beginning. I wish I had watched the other B-Grade release this week, "Miss India". At least Om Puri would have been a treat to watch. My recommendation for this week is "Pirates of the Carribean". Go watch this swashbuckling tale and praise Jerry Bruckheimer for his opulent fairy tales.

Calcutta Mail
Saw Calcutta Mail on the first day of its release.My friend was insisting on Kuch Naa Kaho, but I cannot resist the temptation of seeing a thriller on the first day of its release. I came back with mixed feelings.

Synopsis
Calcutta Mail is the story of a Avinash (Anil Kapoor giving a good performance, as is expected of him) who arrives in the city of Calcutta in search of a Lakhan Yadav (Sayaji Shinde in a very insipid performance. Been there done that, trying to be menacing with a Bihari accent even though his Marathi roots show through in the dialogues.)
He takes a room in a chawl, where he has to share a room with (Rani Mukherjee; looking good, but grating on the nerves). She writes novels, and to get an authentic perspective, lives in a chawl. The goings on start getting murkier by the minute, and blood is shed a plenty before we get to know the reason for the goings on.
By the time the story gets explained, you have lost interest in the fate of Anil Kapoor, and the only person you feel sorry for is yourself to have sat through all of this.
Manisha Koirala makes an appearance in the flashback, and looks ethereal(You might take this with a pinch of salt, as I used to be a big Manisha fan earlier).
Satish Kaushik also shows his histrionic skills as a politician.
Saurabh Shukla does not impress with his here today gone tomorrow Bengali accent.
I cannot give away much of the story in this synopsis, as the way the story is unfolded makes for good viewing.

Analysis
Anil Kapoor does not disappoint in a role that is tailormade for him. His role though reminds you of his recent ill-fated, badly made enterprise "Rishtey". Rani Mukherjee tries to make the best of her half-baked characterisation. Manisha Koirala doesn't have much scope to perform except to look good, which is a gargantuan task for her after she put on so much weight. She succeeds partly. Satish Kaushik is ok, Sayaji Shinde is passable.
Saurabh Shukla does shine through in some scenes, but the overall feel is disappointing.

Technique
When I thought of going for a movie directed by Sudhir (Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi) Mishra, I was absolutely confident of what I should expect. But, unfortunately, the brilliant director seems to have fallen prey to commercial considerations.
The songs come in at alarming intervals, and disturb the flow of the movie. Some of the locales which are tried to be passed off as Bihar seem absolutely unauthentic.
The script has been written by Sudhir Mishra with Ruchi Narain and Saurabh Shukla. The first half of the movie, barring the songs is absolutely relentless in its pace.
Dialogues by Saurabh Shukla are run of the mill.
Cinematography by Ravi Chandran helps to build the gritty story through its claustrophobic view of Calcutta.
I cannot comment without bias on music by Anand Raaj Anand and lyrics by Javed Akhtar as these are unnecessary in the film.


Sidelights
1) Not many know that Sudhir Mishra was the person responsible for co-scripting the cult classic "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron" with Kundan Shah. As a light aside, Ravi Baswani's character was also named Sudhir Mishra in the film. Moreover, the character of Naseerudin Shah was called Vinod Chopra.
2) He has also scripted little known but much appreciated films for Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Khamosh) and Saeed Mirza's (Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho).
3) He has also assisted Vidhu Vinod Chopra in directing "1942 - A Love Story"
4) Sudhir Mishra has also written the script of all his own films (Dharavi, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi)
5) Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit had bit roles in Sudhir Mishra's "Dharavi".
6) He is slated to take over the task of the late director Anant Balani for his Kareena Kapoor, Rahul Bose starrer and Pritish Nandy produced "Chameli"
7) This movie is a remake of a Telugu hit "Choodalani Vundi" starring Chiranjeevi and Anjala Zhaveri. Anil Kapoor approached Sudhir Mishra to direct it, and Sudhr Mishra refused at first, but later relented after he was given the authority to remake it in his own way. So, he kept the basic premise of the film, and rewrote the whole script.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
To tell the truth, I had a headache after I watched the movie. This was due to the incessant blood and gore. Mind this, I am not against such stuff, but it got to a point where the audience went beyond caring about the goings on.
If you are an Anil Kapoor fan, go for it. He has turned in a great performance.
Fans of Sudhir Mishra like me will be disappointed as we expect a stark realistic film from him. It is certainly a let down to see him bow down to commercial considerations and film dream sequence songs in foreign locales.
I would reccomend such people to see "Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi" again.

GangaaJal
Saw GangaaJal on the first day of its release. A trite screenplay which reminds you so much of the other angry cop in Bihar movie (Shool).

Synopsis
Gangaajal is the story of an honest IPS officer Amit Kumar (Ajay Devgan in another one of his intense performances. Lighten up lad, you seem to be bogged down with the singlehanded responsibility of attaining world peace) who gets posted as a Superintendent of Police in Tejpur, a district in Bihar. He meets all kinds of debauched people like Sadhu Yadav (Mohan Joshi acting like in many of his Mithun films) and his son Sundar (Yashpal Sharma, he seems to have perfected the act of the spoilt brat/thakur/goon). His superior DIG Verma (Dr. Mohan Agashe) is a corrupt cop currying favours from politicians. His subordinates DSP Bhurelal (Akhilendra Mishra in a mirth evoking role with his walking style), Inspector Bachcha Yadav (Mukesh Tiwari in a fine performance), Inspector Shaheed Khan (Ayub Khan), ASI Bholenath Pandey (Chetan Pandit) have become impervious to the goings on. They turn a blind eye to the antics of Mohan Joshi's goons.
Due to his diligence and integrity, Ajay manages to woo over Mukesh Tiwari. He makes an honest cop out of him to help him in his fight against corruption and goondaism. This inspires the other cops (except Akhilendra Mishra, who is a Mohan Agashe loyalist).
This leads to a number of encounters between them and Mohan Joshi and Yashpal Sharma, where more often than not, the cops lose.
This leads to a demoralisation for the cops, and then comes the gruesome turning point of the movie pre-interval, where the cops take matters into their own hands instead of resorting to the law. They take their revenge in a devilish manner on some goons of Sadhu whom they have detained. A revolution is brought about in the district of Tejpur, and people start taking similar steps to stop injustice. This weapon, whose metaphor is GangaaJal (the holy water) sweeps across the district as a means of purification of society.
At such a point, Ajay's wife (Gracy Singh in a small role where she fails to impress) acts as his conscience, and makes him realise his duty towards the society, and how he is setting a wrong example for the people.
This makes him take corrective steps to enlighten his colleagues and the populace of Tejpur.

Analysis
Ajay Devgan and Mukesh Tiwari impress with their performances. An ensemble cast of National School of Drama graduates as police officers and important characters in the film give it an authentic look. Ajay seems to be settling in for an intense actor image. This might prove to be his undoing, as he has turned in lousy performances in comic roles, and he might get slotted as a serious actor. Gracy Singh has a miniscule role, and mainly serves an act which anyone could have done. Yashpal Sharma deserves special mention for his act, but even in his case, its a role which he has done an umpteen number of times.
But, the "Been There Done That" award undoubtedly goes to Mohan Joshi. He has done zillions of roles of the corrupt politician/don/thakur to make him forget which film he is in.

Technique
Prakash Jha seems to impress in films which have rural backdrops. He has delivered duds such as "Dil Kya Kare" and "Rahul", where the story was based in an urban milieu. But, when it comes to depicting stories in the rural section of our country, he has given award-winning movies like "Damul", "Parinati" and "Mrutyudand". He seems to be in his element in this movie. Deftly dealing with the story line, and giving a tight screenplay with no room to breathe, which just falters a little towards the end.
Jha has handled the scripting, editing and direction of the movie. Background music by Wayne Sharpe is good.
The movie has no songs (except an item number composed by Sandesh Shandilya), and this is a relief for many. Cinematography by Arvind K. is fine.


Sidelights
This is a new section that I would like to introduce, where I will put in bits of trivia about the concerned movie.
This movie has had its fair share of controversies.
Prakash Jha was the chairman of the board for the national awards, which presented the best actor award to Ajay Devgan for "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". Though Prakash Jha did not vote in the Best Actor category, filmmaker Guru Adoor Gopalkrishnan was not impressed. He thought it was unprofessional of Jha to be on the panel, and cited the exmaple of Amol Palekar, who had bowed out of the panel last year as his film was being screened for the awards.
The movie has been inspired by an incident which became known as the Bhagalpur blindings (1979/80), where 30 men and boys were blinded while being tortured by the police. This incident got the support of the local populace as well as many outsiders who considered that the move was warranted due to the criminal acts of the victims. This also made many consider the moral dilemma of who will police the policemen, and who should judge the validity of such treatment. Similar incidents later occured in Rajkot in Gujarat, where 7 detainees were given an analogous treatment with a balm.
The film, though set in Bihar, has been entirely shot in Maharashtra's Satara and Wai districts, and all the crowd scenes of the movie have authentic villagers acting in them with some basic training they received.
The movie has had disrupted screenings in many parts of Bihar as Mohan Joshi's character shares his name Sadhu Yadav with Rabri Devi's brother, who is a politician in his own right (i.e. Goonda in his own right for Bihar).
Manmohan Shetty, who also produced Ardh Satya (a much acclaimed cop frustrated with the system movie of the 1980's directed by the then uncorrupted Mahesh Bhatt) is also a co-producer of this movie.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Some parts of the movie are gruesome. For those weak of heart, forget it, go watch a "Dil to Pagal Hai" rerun somewhere.
For people who loved "Shool", and thought how it would have been better with a protagonist who had more powers; here is the answer to your prayers.
For lovers of serious cinema, this is a good choice. Some scenes do not pass muster, but the overall effect of the movie is good.

Qayamat
Saw Qayamat on the first day of its release. I hadn't seen a movie last week, and it felt like I was stepping into a movie theater after ages. My friend Harish commented after seeing the tag line "City under threat"; quote I hope it does not turn into "Audience under threat" unqote. Thankfully, that was not the case.

Synopsis
A lift off from 'The Rock' with a lot of Hindi potboiler masala thrown in.
Ali (Arbaaz Khan looking stupid and acting even more stupid than he did when he did the psycho performance in Daraar) and Abbas (Sanjay Kapoor doing the psycho role again after Koi Mere Dil se Pooche and not exactly maturing from the experience) along with Laila (Ishaa Koppikar in skimpy clothes to divert the public attention from these two jokers) are arms dealers and have the implicit support of ISI (Hey, don't underestimate the power of Paki bashing for a movie).
A team of scientists led by Rahul (Ashish Chowdhry, not as irritating as expected) is in the process of creating an antidote for a virus (unfortunately unnamed virus) in case of biological warfare. The virus gets stolen from the CDC (forgot the longform) lab by his colleague (Chunkey Pandey trying very desperately to raise a few laughs and failing mostly).
Arbaaz and Sanjay steal some missiles and arm the warheads with the virus. They hold an entire batch of tourists at Elphinstone jail to ransom and threaten to release the missiles on Mumbai if their demand for 1500 crores and safe passage is not met. The CM (Anjan Srivastava in a caricaturish role) brings in CBI officer Akram Sheikh (Suniel Shetty; the extra 'e' in his name doesn's seem to have improved his pronounciation or his acting skills) to get hold of the criminals and save Mumbai.
Suniel needs the help of Rachit, (Ajay Devgan back in an action role after a long time) a former associate of Arbaaz and Sanjay, who might be able to get them inside the jail as he is the only inmate who is supposed to have escaped from there.
Suniel, Ajay and Ashish with a batch of commandos enter the jail through an underground path, and everyone gets killed except Ajay and Ashish,the odd men out. It is now upto them to save the city and 213 tourists, which they do with a lot of silly action thrown in.
Now, if you are not a regular Hindi movie goer, you might wonder, where the heroines fit into this story. Well, Neha Dhupia comes in as Ajay's former love, who he thinks is dead. Riya Sen comes in as Ashish's female interest with nothing more to do than wear clothes that are barely visible, and act inane in time of peril. Raveena was supposed to have done a cameo in this film as Suniel's love interest, but her role was cut at the editing table.

Analysis
Ajay Devgan, Ashish Chowdhry and Sanjay Kapoor are tolerable. Ishaa Koppikar and Riya Sen provide the oomph factor, and have nothing more to do than wear skimpy clothes, which they seem to do well. Neha Dhupia is a disappointment.
Chunky (Monkey) Pandey tries really hard to make us laugh. I really pitied him. Did you know that he is a big draw in Bangladesh (He is a bonafide superstar there, and actually gets mobbed by people who are not paid to do so). Arbaaz Khan seems monotonous and nearly puts us to sleep. Suniel Shetty should improve his diction and/or acting skills as he is unintentionally funny.

Technique
This is Harry Baweja's best effort to date, not just as a director, but also as a producer. He seems to have spared no expense to give this film a polished look. Nadeem Shravan's songs are good, but come at very short intervals during the first half of the movie, and that too without situations for them. This slows the pace a little, but the pace of the film barring the songs is really good. The underground sets by Nitish Roy are good. Probably for the first time during a Hindi action movie, I did not find the need to crib about the sets.
I do not think I should comment on writer Suparn Verma, who did not have much of a job, except for copying stuff from 'The Rock' and putting in a few romantic scenes.
But, as far as I am concerned, the film in all its totality belongs to the cinematographer Sanjay F Gupta (he of the music videos fame). India's first digitally graded movie (This technique, as you might know, consists of grading the colours of the film after it has been shot. This improves the look and feel of the movie, as lighting defects can be removed, and a consistent look can be given to the entire movie.) is worth a look just for being that.
A little Matrix style cinematography is adopted, but seems they could not afford the 360 degree camera shot (as this requires cameras positioned throughout a 360 degrees circle around the action), as only a 90 degree one is used.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Its a slick movie. Watch it for that. If you need more reason, then the script is well paced, and you enjoy most of it.
You should not see it if you cannot leave reason and credibility at home.
Laugh at the stunt scenes swiped from Mission Impossible, The Rock etc., and have a good time. Don't go if you are in the mood for some serious entertainment.
This is a popcorn movie, and enjoy it for what it is.

Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon
Saw MPKDH on the 2nd day of its release as I had some commitments on Friday. Wished I had got some non-cancellable plans for the whole week, which would have made this review unnecessary.

Synopsis
As has been widely advertised, this is a remake of Rajhsree's Chitchor, and the promos of this film reveal the entire plot anyway.
Sanjana (Kareena Kapoor grating on the nerves as usual, and with a very puffed up face probably due to some late night partying) is the daughter of Satyaprakash (Pankaj Kapoor in a nondescript role) and Susheela (Himani Shivpuri, who has made an art of going over the board). Hmm.. I wonder how a guy like Pankaj Kapoor and a female like Himani Shivpuri can have a daughter who looks like Kareena (Seems one of their neighbour is upto something shady. Cannot elaborate on that one as they did not show any neighbours).
Roopa(Tanaaz Currim), who is Kareena's sister married and settled in the US; chooses a big businessman named Prem for her sister, and informs her family about his scheduled visit to India. Enter Prem (Hrithik Roshan looking great unlike in Mujhse Dosti Karoge) who enters their house and later their hearts. He woos Kareena and turns her scantily clad friends and irritating pets in his favour.
Everything seems to be going hunky dory till one day Tanaaz mails her father saying that Prem's schedule got postponed and he would be coming over in two more days (The way Pankaj Kapoor get excited when he gets mails from Tanaaz seems hilarious. He also seems to be waiting in front of the computer screen the whole day long just so that he could announce a new mail to Himani. I guess he must be excited even by spam. I think I should add him to my movie review mailing list. As an aside, his mail id is shown as satyaprakash@yahoo.co.in and Tanaaz's is roopabeti@yahoo.com :). These are the kind of things you start noticing when the pace of the film falters.). This throws everything out of gear, and Himani starts acting weirdly with Hrithik (who, it turns out is also named Prem, and works for the real McCoy Prem).
Then comes into picture the other Prem (Abhishek Bachchan looking really good and clean shaven for a change) who also falls head over heels in love with Kareena. He comes with a mother (Reema Lagoo) and P.A. (Johnny Lever) in tow. When Hrithik realises that everyone wants Kareena to get wedded to his boss, he tries to move out of the picture.

Analysis
The only person who will probably benefit through this movie is Abhishek. He puts in a restrained performance, and is a pleasure to watch. Kareena looks jaded in most of the movie. Hrithik looks very lean and tries to show off his body a lot, which goes against him. Moreover, his character is supposed to be loud and over the top,unlike any character he has played before. He looks definitely uncomfortable doing this. The computer generated effects for the pet parrot (Raja) and the dog (Johnny) seem out of place and totally unnecessary. They tend to get on your nerves. Johnny Lever is not funny in the short role that he has. Pankaj Kapoor impresses us by his performance. Himani Shivpuri is still in the 1960's age and her act leaves us cold.

Technique
Sooraj Barjatya seems totally out of his element for his first film which is not a family drama. Lots of stuff seems to have been put in just to try all genres. He puts all the cast in scantily clad clothes (except thankfully Pankaj, Himani and Reema :))
New Zealand and Mauritius pass of as Sundernagar. The colleges seem totally out of place, as you can see all the students in the background as Kiwis, and all the cars are models not even available in India. When Hrithik sees the scenery in Sundernagar and comments that he has travelled all over India and never seen such a beautiful place, it seems downright hilarious.
The songs slow down the pace of the movie, which is already too long to be comfortable (3.5 hours). They seem to come in at the most inappropriate times, and except a couple of them, they are all loud and jarring.
Rajan Kinagi's cinematography is good, but when you have such good locales, that is but natural. Bijon Dasgupta's sets are plain bad.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Go in if you are a Hrithik, Abhishek (there aren't many) or Kareena fan. Beware of the hackneyed plot, songs and length of the movie. You might end up liking it inspite of its deficiencies.
Sorry for the length of this review, I got carried away due to the movie's length.

Supari
Saw Supari on the 2nd day of its release as I was busy seeing Jhankaar Beats (read review below) on the first day. I had a splitting headache for one and a half day after seeing Supari.

Synopsis
Aryan (Uday Chopra working outside a Yashraj banner for the first time), Papad (Rahul Dev, he is growing old), Chicken (Purab Kohli, that irritating guy from Channel V) and Mushy (Akash Saigal, not much to go for him) are supposedly good friends. They live beyond their means, and want to continue doing so.
They place a bet on a cricket match, which is supposed to be rigged in their favour. The scheme backfires, and they land up in a debt of Rs. 5 lakhs. They had bet money they didn't have in the first place. This gets them in a fix, and in comes Mamta Sekhri (Nandita Das, looking gorgeous with short, gelled hair) who gives them a chance to repay their debt by comitting contract killings for her. She also has a shady guy staying with her, whom she calls Baba(Irfan Khan must be really short of money to do such roles). All of the studs except Purab (Hey, he is called Chicken, remember. What great depth of characterisation) start loving the thrill of killing and the extra money it offers them.
Dilnawaz (Nauheed Cyrusi, remember the cute girl from the Perk ad) is in love with Aryan, which doesn't say much for her intelligence level, besides making us doubt her eyesight. The cool dudes screw up a hit due to Nauheed and Purab, and are on the run from the police as well as the gangsters. To complicate matters, Nandita falls in love with Uday (Hey, India is running short of optometrists due to the brain drain).
The rest of the movie is about how they get on a shooting spree, killing everyone in sight (even vegetables are not spared).


Analysis
Uday Chopra wont get a break without his father's patronage. Even though this movie is not produced by Yash Chopra, the only reason he seems to be in it is because Yashraj films bought the distribution rights for a number of territories. Arjun Rampal was slated to do Uday's role earlier. Rahul Dev tries his best, which is not much. Purab Kohli has to just act scared out of his wits throughout the movie. No wonder the producer-director had to convince him for a long while to accept this role. Akash Saigal is just present in the frame to fill it up. He is more like an extra without a character sketch. Nandita Das and Irfaan Khan must be really tired of arty films to accept stuff like this for their mainstream staple.
Nauheed makes her presence felt, but she goes over the top most of the time, which might be because she is supposed to play a Parsi, which in Moron's Dictionary of Bollywood Characterisation means she has to be over the top. But she certainly has an endearing presence.

Technique
Padam Kumar comes credits himself as the writer (shared with Mushtaq Sheikh and Anuradha Tiwari), producer as well as director of this movie after his first dud Champion (Sunny Deol, Manisha Koirala).
The movie tries desperately to get into the Satya mould, and fails miserably. Editing by Sanjay Verma is too slipshod to be considered professional.
Music by Vishal-Shekhar (Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi and Jhankaar Beats) is tolerable, as the movie affords just two songs. Though lots of other people are given credits in the movie (like Sutapa Sikdar for dialogues, T. Ramji and Velraj, Farah Khan and Rekha Prakash for choreography), I don't find them worth mentioning as I simply dont want to waste more time in writing this review than they spent on doing their work on this movie.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Forget it. It is too dark and gory without any need for it to be so. The goings on will give you a headache, and at the end of the movie you will have lots of questions unanswered due to the bad screenplay. That gives me an opportunity for a joke. The first scene of the movies shows the four duds standing in a line, where we see just their faces, telling each other about how they have done everything together, and this time too, they won't let each other down, my very dear friend Harish (who has been tortured a lot as he needs to accompany me to many pathetic movies) commented: "Arrre!! Why are they thinking so much when all they want to do is pee". When the movie ended, he left to seek a lawyer, as he thought that he might be able to sue the producers for making such a bad movie. I completely agree with him. Please let us move the consumer court to take care of our grievances.

Jhankaar Beats
Saw Jhankaar Beats on the first day of its release. As I wanted it to see it before Supari. Half an hour before the show started, I was one of just 4 guys out there at the theater. I had made up my mind to smile and bear through it. Boy, was I rewarded; it definitely is one of the funniest Hindi movie I have seen in recent times.

Synopsis
Jhankaar Beats is about two friends, Rishi (Rahul Bose, great as usual as a bratty misogynist) and Deep (Sanjay Suri, charming as usual but getting repetitive in his portrayal of Mr. Goody Two Shoes); who work in an advertising agency and moonlight as musicians at a local club. Their ambition is to win Jhankaar Beats, an annual music competition that they have lost for two consecutive years.
Suri has a wife Shanti (Juhi Chawla as gorgeous as ever; marriage has done wonders to her), who is seven months pregnant. The problem in his life is that his mother-in-law(Shashikala, who has grown quite hefty) is coming to visit them, and they do not exactly share the milk of kindness and love.
Bose is in the midst of a messy divorce with Nicki (Rinke Khanna; she should quit acting now that she even has a reason; that of being happily married); their bone of contention being Bose's obsession with R.D.Burman and Jhankaar Beats.
They have a boss Mr. Kapoor (Vijayendra Ghatge looking good after a really long time) who is after them to get a one liner for a condom ad. This gives them a lot of situations for cracking jokes. Vijayendra has a son (Shayan Munshi seems a complete bozo. Maybe he should get back to modelling, where he doesn't need to open his mouth, as every time opens it, he puts his foot in it) who is in love with Preeti (Riya Sen looking bad in the first half of the movie, and recuperating in the second half). Shayan's only problem is that he can't express his feelings to Riya and keeps following her. But the fact of the matter is, he has not talked to her even once. That makes him nothing more than a stalker in my dictionary.
Lots of characters like Raja Vaid (from SET MAX's Kahaani Poori filmi Hain as a neighbour with lots of mojo), Archana Puran Singh (Miss Voluptous heading a rival advertising agency), Parmeet Sethi (as Nicki's lawyer, he must have come as a package deal with his wife Archana Puran Singh), Dinyar Contractor (As Mr. Roy, the condom company owner), Kurush Deboo (as Bose's lawyer) and Goolistan Gandhi (as Mrs. Pinto, a neighbour who has a problem with Bose's rattletrap car) are thrown in to get a few laughs

Analysis
This movie has an irreverent DCH (Dil Chaahta Hai) feel to it.
Rahul Bose has got the meatiest part, and he does full justice to it. The jokes keep on flowing through his mouth. Sanjay Suri, as always, plays the foil for others and makes a good job of it. Juhi Chawla has got a better part, and she is good in it. Riya Sen and Rinke Khanna don't have much to do.
The chemistry between the actors is good.

Technique
This movie is written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh who impresses us with his debut. Earlier he had stated that he was or rather is a great fan of MAD comics, and he had tried to give a similar feel to this movie. After reading that statement, I was appaled, as for me MAD is like the bible, and anyone even trying to imitate is sacrilege. But though Sujoy Ghosh cannot even get to be even 1/10th as funny as MAD, that is more than enough to enjoy this movie.
Music by Vishal-Shekhar, who had earlier done the music of Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi is passable. The dialogues by Sujoy Ghosh, Milap Zaveri and Suresh Nair are good.
Editor Suresh Pai does a scissor job on the movie, and some pieces seem disjoint, but the pace is maintained.
Though the end product is not as polished as DCH, it certainly is worth more than a look.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Go for it guys. It is a good movie, and funny Hindi movies which really prove out to be funny are very rare to come by in Bollywood. This happens to be a good movie which has come along in a very long time for us. Do encourage such experimental movies, or else we will always get to see movies like Andaaz.

Chalte Chalte
Saw Chalte Chalte on the first day of its release. Hey, Shahrukh normally makes tolerable movies, and I love movies directed by Aziz Mirza. Seems like I was proved wrong.

Synopsis
Chalte Chalte is a story about two people with very different backgrounds falling in love with each other (Oh my!!! How very original!). Raj Mathur (Shahrukh Khan in his umpteenth film as a character named Raj. Hey guy, the films which clicked with SRK as Raj had nothing to do with the character's name!) owns a transport company, and loves to drive a truck at a moment's notice. Priya (Rani Mukherji looking absolutely gorgeous throughout. This coming from a non-fan like me really means something.) is a fashion designer from Greece. They meet on the highway on an acrimonious note. SRK falls head over heels in love with her, and tries to convince her of how he would be the best life partner for her.
Enter Sameer Arora, (Jas Arora, after a long hiatus post Danger; looking good.) a childhood friend of Rani's; wearing Versace suits and moving in the right circles; who is supposed to get married to her. SRK follows Rani to Athens, and she falls in love on the way. After convincing her father Kishore (Rajiv Verma with no dialogues to boast of, and a funny moustache), Rani marries SRK.
They start living together, and get to notice their differences over minor tiffs. Her aunt Anna Mausi (Lillete Dubey doing a Bindu kinda role) tries to show Rani how she has made a mistake by marrying SRK. Things get to a head on when Rani takes the help of Jas Arora to get SRK out of a financial mess.
The last half an hour is about how they reconcile.
Manubhai (Satish Shah) and his wife (Jayshree T) are neighbours who come in to help. Nandu (Johny Lever in a role with depth less than the one given to his dog Moti, whose real name I unfortunately don't know. This dog has acted really well compared to Johny Lever.) is a drunkard in the neighbourhood who is pining over lost love.
The Lillete Dubey Rajiv Verma relationship seems a bit shady, as they go about everything like husband and wife.

Analysis
One of the first movies aping Saathiya is out. Keep waiting for a dozen more to follow.
SRK is in his element, acting both funny, and intense with amazing skills. Rani is looking great throughout the movie; unlike Saathiya, in which she looked good in a few scenes and plain ordinary in the rest. She certainly is the surprise package.
Lillete Dubey, Rajiv Verma and Johny Lever, Satish Shah and Jayshree T have inconsequential roles. The songs come in at normal intervals in the first half of the movie, and do not irritate the viewer.

Technique
Aziz Mirza is a veteran, with great movies to his credit. Even though his movies like Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Yes Boss or Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani were not very big hits (the last two were certified flops in many territories), they were certainly appreciated for being about ordinary people doing extraordinary things under extraordinary conditions. He clearly disappoints in this movie, which has a wafer thin story, probably written on the back of a paper napkin after a couple of beers (Aziz Mirza and Robin Bhatt). Dialogues by Ashish Kariya, Pramod Sharma and Rumi Jafri (David Dhawan fame) are good in the first half. Lyrics by Javed Akhtar, music by Jatin Lalit and Aadesh Srivastava and choreography by Farah Khan are run of the mill.
Ashok Mehta as the director of photography, is as usual great.
The editor Amitabh Shukla was certainly sleeping on his job, as the last half of the movie would certainly have been better if it was pruned by about 15 minutes.
Overall, the first half of the movie impresses by its breezy atmosphere and light banter modelled after DDLJ. Half an hour post interval (Saathiya) is engaging. The goings get heavy after 2 hours (Raja Hindustani), and that's the time when it gets really boring.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Hmmm... Are you an SRK fan? If yes, certainly worth a look.
Are you the kind who can get out of a movie when you start getting bored? Then you should certainly go for the engaging first half, and leave half an hour after the intermission.
Are you the kind who can entertain yourself as well as others when the movie gets to be boring? Then certainly go for it. Hemant, a friend who accompanied me to the movie, aptly summed up my emotions when he said: "Now the onus of entertaining the people is not on SRK or Rani, but on us!" :) .

Khwahish
Saw Khwahish on the first day of its release. This time not due to any personal likes, but because I had lots of requests pouring in for its review. Hmm... the perils of the trade I am in. I would consider Khwahish an occupational hazard for a movie reviewer.

Synopsis
Khwahish pretends to be a modern day look at a couple in love, and their trials and tribulations after marriage. The film is about Lekha Khorzuvekar (Mallika Sherawat, who had earlier debuted as Reena Lamba in Jeena Sirf Mere Liye, the Kareena-Tusshar dud) and Amar Ranawat (Himanshu Mallik, the loser from Tum Bin). Himanshu and Lekha are in love, and Himanshu wants to get laid. Mallika is the modern woman with morals, and is not ready to go the whole way before marriage. So, for the silliest of reasons, they decide to get married; though it looks like Himanshu is doing it to spite his father (Shivaji Satam in a role that does not offer much scope), a rich businessman. Enter the girl's father (Mahamud Babai), a poultry farmer; who after the initial scenes, starts getting on your nerves. Shivaji Satam refuses to toe the line, and tells Himanshu to complete his MBA, and then marry any girl of his choice; which seems logical enough to the lay user.
Hormones win in the end, and Himanshu gets married with Mallika, his father's disapproval notwithstanding. Mahamud helps them through this phase, and gives them money to tide over the time he might need to do his MBA.
After scenes of them living in a chawl, and Mallika taking music lessons to make ends meet, Amar gets his MBA and lands a job. They seem to settle into a life of marital bliss, in a nice home. When they realise that Himanshu cannot spare the time for Mallika, they try to come up with innovative ideas to spice up their lives. They arrange a get-together for old friends, where their joy lasts for one whole song, after which they are at their wit's end again. They think about having a baby, and find that they cannot. Tests reveal a deeper problem, and the last half an hour is about how they cope with it.

Analysis
Mumbai filmmakers should be punished for thinking that different necessarily means great. And, how different is Khwahish really, save the skin show. A supernatural thriller works (Raaz), and half the industry is busy making supernatural thrillers. A skin flick does just about decent business (Jism), and the industry is busy making skin flicks which try to outdo each other in terms of being "bold". Honey, spare me all the thought about those much publicised 17 smooches in Khwahish... they come and go without anyone even noticing them, as they are nothing but pecks (I think they even counted the times that the father pecks his daughter lovingly).
Mallika Sherawat is a female to look out for. She certainly has screen presence, and a great body. The publicity posters and teasers do not do her justice. She looks comparatively ugly in them. Himanshu is too wooden. It seems he hasn't forgotten his modelling days yet. In nearly all the scenes, all that he is aiming for is the right pose, and nothing beyond it. After a point, it gets downright hilarious. I have seen porn actors putting in more emotion in their roles than this dude. Shivaji Satam is wasted in a miniscule role. Mahamud Babai hams a lot.

Technique
Govind Menon had impressed with Danger, a small budget movie (Ashutosh Rana, Tara Deshpande, Jas Arora) which wasn't a hit, but was certainly watchable. In the midst of making that movie, he was kicked out and the producer Vasant Chheda finished it as Chheda said he was disappointed with the way the film was shaping up. Seems like all the credit for Danger should be given to Chheda, as Menon seems to have totally trashed this movie. Producer Vivek Nayak ought to have gone the Chheda way and kicked out Menon.
Music by Milind Sagar is not worth a mention. All the songs in the movie are sung by Asha Bhosle, which might come as a relief to some people going for this movie.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Why not??? I have lots of enemies in this world. In fact, I would be ready to send them free tickets to harass them through the movie.
But for my loyal readers... Stay away from this movie unless you think you are willing to endure 120+ minutes of torture just to see a skin show by Mallika.

Bhoot
Had to see Bhoot on the first day of its release. I didn't want anyone to spoil my suspense, as they did in the case of "Kaun".
Bhoot certainly has its share of chills and thrills.

Synopsis
Bhoot is a supernatural thriller set in Mumbai City. Vishal (Ajay Devgan, looking dapper), a stock analyst is in search of a flat. He likes a flat on the 12th floor of a building. The catch is, the previous occupant, a young woman, had plunged to her death from this flat's balcony. This does not bother him, and he and his wife Swati (Urmila Matondkar in the best performance of her life) move in. They keep a maid (Seema Biswas; giving a good performance) who had served the earlier tenant.
Ajay doesn't bother to tell Urmila about the flat's history, as he doesn't want to trouble her. When she gets to know about it, she starts getting mentally disturbed. She starts sleepwalking, and the situations that ensue are harrowing, to say the least. A murder is comitted in the apartment, and Inspector Liyaquat Qureshi (Nana Patekar; not in his element) enters the scene.
Ajay enlists the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Rajan (Victor Banerjee; in a wonderfully restrained performance) to help Urmila. When this does not help, Ajay brings in a medium (Rekha; looking as beautiful as ever, coupled with a tremendous screen presence). The landlord's son (Fardeen Khan; hamming his way through the role) and the earlier tenant's mother (Tanuja; in a blink and you will miss her role) come in towards the climax to bring events to a head.

Analysis
Short and trite (1 hour 59 minutes), the movie has more than its share of chilling moments. Some scenes make you nearly bolt out of your chair, or clutch at someone. The no-songs, no-foreign locations format impresses you. Urmila Matondkar deserves applause for her role as the possesed woman. One moment extremely vulnerable, and the next violent, she certainly takes your breath away. Ajay Devgan provides ample support as her harried husband.
Nana Patekar's role could have been done by any novice, as it does not require much. Victor Banerjee seems a natural. Seema Biswas does justice to her role. Tanuja and Fardeen Khan are mostly spectators. The scene stealer in this movie without any doubt is Rekha. We feel that age doesn't seem to have touched her, as we see her moving gracefully through her part.
Barring the supernatural part, the movie is a welcome experiment. The goings-on take your breath away on many occasions. A scene to look out for is when Urmila is practising faces in front of the mirror.

Technique
When one goes for a Ram Gopal Verma directed film (notice that I did not mention produced, as some of his productions have been real duds) , they have a certain standard in mind. These standards are maintained; and the film is technically brilliant. Some RGV fans might be dissapointed, as the expectations from him are sky high. They might argue that if the film was from the Ramsay brothers, they would have praised it endlessly but coming from Ramgopal Verma, it is just above average.
The director of photography; Vishal Sinha uses some innovative angles to scare you.
But, what really enhances the thriller feel and the suspense is the background score by Salim-Sulaiman, and the sound effects by Dwarak Warrier. You are instantly reminded of the background score of What Lies Beneath, that used the absence of sound to scare you. Unlike the score of Raaz, which was irritating and screeching, this one is absolutely haunting.
The story is credited to Sameer Sharma and Lalit Marathe.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Definitely not for those weak of heart. For others, who would like to have a spine chilling time at the movies, a definitely watch movie. Moreover, coming at a time when the only other options are either XMen2, Andaaz or Armaan; you should make a run for it.
Important tip for guys: Think of taking along your significant other to this movie with you. Yours can be the shoulder she will cling to when she is scared.
Warning: Do not try this if you are uncertain of your own reactions to the scary moments.
Note: I am sorry if this review seems a little short and superficial. I received lots of mails stating that I should try not to reveal much about the film, as it would spoil the readers' movie experience.

Andaaz
Saw the movie Andaaz on the first day of its release.
Crazy movie. Gets on my list of the worst ever films made in Bollywood.

Synopsis
This movie is about the friendship between Raj (Akshay Kumar) and Kaajal (Lara Dutta). They are childhood friends, and Raj has a psychological problem with his legs, whereby he thinks he cannot walk without braces that he acquired after a childhood accident. In a scene remniscent of Forrest Gump; breaking braces et all, he starts walking normally. Akshay dreams of becoming a pilot as Lara is fascinated with flying. They grow up to be great friends, and Akshay doesnt seem to find the need to convey his feelings about his love towards Lara to her, as he thinks that she already knows about it.
He moves off to train as an IAF pilot (even though all the planes shown are private ones). By the time he comes back, he gets to know that Lara has found her prince charming, Karan Singhania (Aman Verma). After Lara's marriage to Aman, broken hearted Akshay goes over to Europe (he mentions Europe to his brother; but they shot the locales of South Africa).
Here he meets Jiya (Priyanka Chopra), who immediately falls in love with him. He is not so fast to return her affection, but slowly falls in line. When everything seems to be going fine, Lara reenters his life, and now he is in a fix.

Analysis
The first half of the movie breezes along, with some bad songs. Lara looks bad mostly throughout the movie. She reminds one of Sushmita Sen, who looks absolutely gorgeous in Western outfits, and completely pedestrian in Traditional Indian ones. Towards the end of the movie, she looks absoulutely horrible, given the tradition of Hindi film heroines to dress traditionally after they are married. Priyanka Chopra is gorgeous in most of the scenes, but she needs a good director/cinematographer to get the right angles on her face. Akshay Kumar seems to go towards his Khiladi days of a non-actor in the first half of the film. The second half of the film mostly sees him moping.
Seeing the ultra-modernistic ex-Miss Universe / ex-Miss Worlds mouthing dialogues like "Vidhwao kaa shaadi karna aaj bhi bhartiya samaaj me paap maana jaata hai" raises quite a few laughs after seeing them mouth dialogues like "The new Indian woman is second to none..." in various contests.
Johny Lever comes over to try to give some comic relief. The only relief we get is when he actually leaves the scene.
The songs of the movie too come at alarming intervals.

Technique
Director Raj Kanwar, the skipper of the ship flounders amazingly throughout. He should realise that the days of Deewana, Laadla etc. are gone, and he does need actual stories to make a movie.
The story is credited to him, and the screenplay to Robin Bhatt and Shyam Goel. The script is so corny, you feel as if the director was caught in a time warp, and got out at the wrong end.
Cinematography by Ishwar Bidri is good. Jainendra Jain's dialogues need to be heard to be disbeleived. Choreography by Raju Khan and Baba Yadav is no great shakes. Nadeem Shravan's music leaves a lot to be desired except for one-two songs.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Are you crazy. Avoid it at all costs. 25 % of the theater was empty after 2 hours. The last movie that I can remember being so bad is probably "Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya" by the same producer Suneel Darshan. Take my advice, avoid it at all costs. If you want to watch Priyanka wearing some skimpy clothes, go get a film magazine, it would be less taxing to your brain, and you would save on the fees for the shrink.

Armaan
Saw the movie Armaan on the first day of its release.
Well... consider it not to be too disappointing, but not too great either.
Debutant director Honey Irani disappoints, as the expectations from her were sky high.
The movie is set in a hospital that looks like a guest house in some hillstation like Simla. Seems like they went through a lot of efforts to make the jargon sound right. Got a Pune doctor on the sets full time to get the right medical terms in place.

Synopsis
This is the story of Padmabhushan Dr. Siddharth Sinha (Amitabh Bachchan in a stellar performance) and his adopted son Dr. Akash Sinha (Anil Kapoor looking as young as ever), a neuro-surgeon. The senior doctor Sinha runs a hospital, and has a dream of making it state of the art (The promos mentioned a lot about his wanting to have a big hospital that serves the rich and the poor equally. This philanthropic angle is not seen in the movie). They are approaching many financial institutions and the health ministry to make this a reality. Enter Dr. Neha Mathur (Gracy Singh, alternately looking good and bad throughout the movie), a skilled anesthetist, who proves her worth to the hospital as soon as she comes in. Anil and Gracy waste no time falling in love and get over with the basics pretty soon. Amitabh gets to know of his son's love, and gives his approval.
In this made for each other love story, comes in Soniya Kapoor (Preity Zinta with a horrible hair cut that does injustice to her great looks.), a rich spoilt girl, who falls in love with Anil.
Seems like her rich dad Gulshan Kapoor (Randhir Kapoor in the worst performance of his life); who is supposed to be one of the top ten rich people of the world, has fulfilled all desires of his darling daughter. Same old explanation of "Mere paas use dene ke liye time ke sivaa sab kuchch tha"(I could give her everything except my time).
At this point of time, Amitabh conveniently kicks the bucket in a very well shot scene. This brings the burden of refurbishing the hospital on Anil, who soon discovers that his foster father had sacrificed his love to bring him up.
Now, this calls for a sacrifice on Anil's part. The opportunity soon arises when he gets to know that Randhir had given a proposition to Amitabh for marrying off Anil to Preity, which would ensure the fulfillment of Amitabh's life long dream of running a state of the art hospital.
Anil agrees to marry Preity, and disposes off Gracy in a short and sweet scene. After the marriage, Preity gets to know of the affair that existed between Gracy and Anil, and starts getting suspicious. Anil blows off his handle a number of times due to this, and the situation gets out of hand when Preity does not let Gracy contact Anil; resulting in the death of Gracy's mother.
Out to get revenge for Anil's ditching her, Preity gets into an accident, and Anil and Gracy need to carry off an operation to save her.
This entitles a matrix style shot of Anil and Amitabh (Neo and Morpheus) debating the ethics of the operation.
The ending is an "All's well that ends well" kind.

Analysis
The movie has some well shot scenes, notable among them being:
1) The one where Amitabh discovers that Anil and Gracy are in love.
2) Amitabh's deathbed scene.
As always, Amitabh has come up with an amazing heart-moving performance. Ever the dedicated actor, Anil has given him good support. Gracy Singh is okay. Preity Zinta seems to grate on the nerves with her hairstyle and another performance that tries to show her bubbly side. The movie going public will soon get tired of her similar roles. She should utilise her immense talent in a better way with roles which do not require her to do the same act she has done right from her debut film Dil Se to Kya Kehnaa to The Hero.
Randhir Kapoor seems out of his element in this movie. He hams outrageously. Seeing such a great actor play a foolish role really upsets me.
Overall, the movie fails to impress with its long winded script, which gets thoroughly predictable in the second half.

Technique
The director Honey Irani has a reputation of writing storylines of stellar hits or at least well appreciated ones like Aaina, Lamhe, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Kya Kehna, DDLJ (For which she was not credited). This naturally generates high expectations from her directorial debut. Besides this, she has been assisted with the screenplay by none other than the great Javed Akhtar, her ex-husband.
Are the expectations fulfilled? Not exactly.
Editor Shirish Kunder needs to be blamed for a lot of the flak this movie might receive. The film could have reduced its flab by at least 20 minutes.
Choreography by Saroj Khan, Farah Khan and Geeta Kapur is nothing to write home about.
The music director trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are not consistent in delivering good music. Two of the songs of the film are hummable, but none have a lasting value.
One notable piece is the musical duel between Amitabh and Anil, though it is stretched too long to be appreciated.
Dialogues from Javed Akhtar are pretty good, but none of them will probably be remembered beyond a month.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
That would depend on whether you are a great Amitabh Bachchan/Anil Kapoor fan or not. If you are one, this movie has some really great scenes in store for you.
Apart from that, if you want to see a movie which refrains from being overly melodramatic, and has its share of well shot scenes, this movie is for you.
For the rest, its a "watch if you dont have anything else to do" movie.

Special Mention
I would like to thank my friend Mr. Harish Ranganathan for his immense support. These reviews would not have been possible without his help.
I got more than 80 hits on the site within a short span of 4 days. All the credit goes to him to make this possible.

Ishq Vishk

Saw this movie day before yesterday.
Nice movie, though a little crass in some places.
Debutant director Ken Ghosh seems to have a big hangover from his music video days.
The college sets seem out of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Not that I am complaining.
Just waiting for the day when I would actually get to see a realistic college in a movie. Either the college sets are too drab, or too good to be true. Then there are movies where we dont get to see anything of the college besides their gardens and steps.
Well, coming back to Ishq Vishk... The movie has a gloss finish to it, with all the protagonists living in designer homes, straight out of an Interior Design mag, with a huge dose of Neon.
Everyone leads comfy lives, and the only tensions they have in life are about matters related to the heart. Not that I am complaining about that either. If I need to see real life, I dont need to go to the movies.
Cutting to the chase...

Synopsis:
This is the story of Rajiv Mathur/Archie (Shahid Kapur), Payal/Betty (Amrita Rao) and Alisha/Veronica (Shenaz Treasurywala).
A normal Archie, Betty and Veronica triangle, Archie realises the value of true love when he loses it.
Archie and Betty have been friends since childhood, and Betty has always been in love with Archie. Betty is a plain Jane, and is never Archie's 'type' of girl according to him. He always yearns for a girl who would make the others boys in college consider him a stud.
An incident in their life changes their relationship, when Archie tries to get Betty out with him for a group night out, when he wants to lose his virginity. He woos her, and fakes his feelings of love for her. When she gets to know his true feelings, she gets repulsed by him.
Archie later acts like a total ass when she tries to reconcile with him with the total support of the group.
He feels snubbed, and challenges the group that he will get the best girl of the college to be his girlfriend.
Enter Veronica; the undisputed heartthrob of the college as soon as she joins it. Not just Archie, but all the studs in the college can't keep their eyes off her.
Archie seeks the help of a college pseudo stud (Yash Tonk in a great role) to win the attention of Veronica. He succeeds in his ploy, but realises that he loves Betty after he sees his bosom buddy(Vishal Malhotra) with her.

Analysis:
The movie is realistic in the sense that it does not go into overly dramatic situations to explain Archie's change of heart. One can plainly identify a situation where a guy falls in love with an ex-object of his affections after seeing her with another person.
Not enough reason is given for him not liking Veronica. Sundry matter like her wearing short clothes is shown for an excuse.
This movie reaffirms the normal mentality of men for having a sexy kitten Sharon Stone for a girl friend, and a naive and cute Meg Ryan for a wife/life partner.

Technique:
The subject has been handled in a very light manner, which suits the target audience of the film, which is the college going crowd. The film has a very glossy feel to it. The cinematography by Amit Roy is a let down inspite of the awe-inspiring locales. Music by Anu Malik is pretty mundane except for the first few bars of every song. The pace of the film crawls at places due to the placing of the songs. The screenplay (Vinod Rangnath) is mostly racy, and situations are funny if not always credible. The dialogues (Kiran Kotrial) are great most of the time. Ahmed Khan's choreography is plainly a copy-paste job from most of his earlier ventures. Omung Kumar's sets deserve a special mention as they give a surrealistic candy-floss look for the movie. Ken Ghosh, the director/driver of this vehicle deftly handles the important scenes of the movie, without being overly melodramatic, though the situations offered ample scope for it.

Verdict:
A good movie. Seems like a breath of fresh air after seeing endless inane movies. Dont expect too much from it, and you will be pleasantly surprised.