Once again our movies and movie-makers turn out to be ready to take on internationally. Having already made a mark in the international film arena and winning the best feature film award at the South Asian International Film Festival, held in New York, also receiving much praise at the Kara Film Festival, Tanuja Chandra’s ‘HOPE AND A LITTLE SUGAR’ (English) is ready to take on Desi audience. Tanuja Chandra is one of the most promising directors of Bollywood, and I just hate to add woman film director because she proves again that she can give a mighty opposition to even the most able directors we have today. If anyone had a doubt about this Indian woman director, who doesn’t fall in the category of Mira Nair to attain publicity overnight, then just bite your tongue. She has made films with plots raising social awareness with such subtlety that you accept the lesson she teaches and you never seem to realize you were in a class. That is the might of her art. Be it ‘Dushman,’ ‘Sangharsh’ or ‘Sur’, the plots are not mediocre and tend to be on the side of parallel cinema but she makes commercial movies. Her movie with the Bhatts ‘Zakhm’ received two National Awards. She is one of the most striving film makers who have dared to make women-oriented movies and still please the men as well. Now, that is called talent! (more…)

Sanjay Dutt is ready to use his vocal skills in C Kkompany. He will be singing the title song, composed by Anand Raj Anand. The movie will be directed by Rahul Sud. Sanju Baba will not only sing but also appear in the video. (more…)

Mahesh Bhatt, Emran Hashmi launched the documentary Torchbearer: The Story of a Philanthropist in Taj Land’s End on April 5th 2008. Anupam Kher was also seen at the event. The 24 minute documentary, conceptualized and achored by Bhatt, has been directed by well known documentry maker Aajy Kanchan. The documentary traces the vision of one Haji Ajaml Ali, who set up a multi-disciplinary state-of-the-art hospital. (more…)

Mahima Chaudhary, Anupam Kher, Mahesh Bhatt were at film HOPE AND A LITTLE SUGAR Promos at Fun Republic on April 4th 2008. (more…)

Verdict ‘to be strictly avoided’ is written for the movies of this kind. ‘To every man his own’, Director Chandrakant Singh might have tried to take this theme to weave it into his debut comedy movie. Whatever, but the final outcome is a complete baloney! Now how can you possibly miss all the points while making a film that goes for a nation wide release?

‘Rama Rama Kya Hai Dramaaa’ is designed after the so-called comic movies on unhappy husbands (‘No Entry’ types), who try to imagine that every second woman, they meet on the street, is better than their wives. Trying to make anther comedy movie of about unhappy human beings irrespective of gender, the after the genre of searching for lost treasures, has been much used and abused. We are somehow caught in a world which we do not find amusing, always wishing for getting into somebody else’s shoes, without knowing that the person with whom we wish to swipe our fate is also in a similar flux. In this case, not only the husband but also the wife is in search of perfect love in somebody else other than the husband (is this for real? Got to keep an eye on the spouse!). (more…)

I feel Director E Niwas tried to make a mixed curry sort of a thing with this movie. Most of us have seen ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ and have seen quite a number of times to miss the amazing character Anthony Gonsalves, played by Amitabh Bachchan. The similar way, our hero here is rescued from a street and is brought up by a catholic preacher. What I wonder is, its fine if a kid in the late seventies grew up in a church and still go back to business in the slum, however now it is a different world after all. This film has nothing new to boast of, same kind of storyline, mediocre acting and a shabby treatment of the theme. It is too nostalgic to create even a make belief world. (more…)

Is it a horror movie? I doubt. After watching Gauri the Unborn, you will raise the same question. The message that Aku Akbar wants to convey through this movie is anti-abortion. Why couldn’t he get away with the message without adding an immature horror plot in it? By stuffing a socially sensitive issue with an inappropriate supernatural element, the director has spoiled the entire purpose of the movie. (more…)

Pradeep Sarkar gives us another film with a lead female protagonist after Parineeta. Lagaa Chunari Mein Daag is the story of Badki, Rani Mukherji, a well-meaning woman who falls into the world’s oldest profession for the upliftment of her family. We have Badki and Chutki, Konkona Sensharma, two sisters who live with their aged parents, Anupam Kher and Jaya Bachchan, in Benaras. The family has seen better times, but now has nothing to fall back on except the ancestral haveli. (more…)

Today it is so important for everyone to reach for the stars. It does not matter which field you consider; the race to the top lengthens even beyond the sky itself to a place which no one has seen. So involved are we in this race today, that we are unaware of what we are actually running towards. In the beginning, the future seems hazy but we are all sure of one thing-the winner takes it all. This attitude spurs us on for the rest of our lives and we push harder and stretch ourselves more; consoling and pacifying ourselves with the thought that one day the pinnacle will be reached and then we can relax. I personally have to still meet someone who has relaxed. (more…)