The social awakening about the morbid lives of devdasis has been explored in many serials and documentary films and even some films that have not really captured any fancy. Pranali or the journey of a devdasi fails to impress you firstly because it doesn’t really speak about a journey, the growth is only timid and you wonder whether it the story or a woman or the investigation into a bad social tradition. (more…)

Some movies are destined to be tagged as a must miss, which Mr White Mr Black has written all over it. One of the most common factors in many movies which have been released in the past couple of years or even this year, there would be definitely one sub-plot common to them, chase for money. Not talking about the previous years big films, consider One Two Three or Tashan or Mr White Mr Black, the climax will be a treasure hunt and you wonder, how come the film industry, which is producing some amazing films also have directors and actors who believe in such silly plots. A definite taken audience for granted film is what you think Mr White Mr Black is. (more…)

I had read Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca long back in my mid-teens. The book had captured my fancy to such an extent that I didn’t keep it down till I spent some two sleepless nights finishing it. Now, when you see Anamika, which is loosely based on it, you are more likely to sleep over it. Rebecca has been lifted again and again by many directors but the resemblance between it and Amanika is more so during the first half and the second half has been added Indian spices to make it look Desi. Ananth Mahadevan who has been quite a strong story teller by the day has no doubt failed to keep the audience glued to their seats with amazed emotions. (more…)

To everyone his own! This is the very line on which director Rajaatesh Nayar wishes to exploit in Sirf, which has four couples from different strata of life dealing with love and relationships born and breeding in a Metro and none seems to be content with what they have, pining to exchange lives with the other without realizing that life isn’t really green on the other side as well. Sirf, or say only, deals with the dilemma that we all live in, we have something and we lack something else, which keeps us wondering what to do with what we have. We all people who live in the so-called metros will be surprised at the concern the tinsel screenplay writers put on display. (more…)

Now, talking about Yash Raj Films off late, how come such a well-known movie house goes for idiotic plots minus any appeal! The movie was already burdened with a succumbing amount of publicity and hype. Additionally, when you are making a movie that lacks the clarity of the very storyline which is the base for any good movie. You get glimpses of a jigsaw, which are good for being posters that makes a clumsy collage rather than a meaningful picture or even a solved puzzle. The pin-up actors are just too good to look at, but only if looks could win you the world! It seems that Director Vijay Krishna Acharya wanted to make a style statement than a full-fledged movie. To some extent he was right in thinking that movies like Race did click and had a certain amount of style. The con looks did win the audience but it may not work in every movie that comes. (more…)

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…)

The fate of this movie is rather bleak as it has found itself a pretty vulnerable place among the two other releases this week. The box office is busy with KRAZZY 4 and U ME AUR HUM, which are relatively stronger contestant for this movie. When someone questions, why this film ever got a national release before one goes to answer, one thing that comes to mind is that it is no doubt not a fine time for its release. The fairer of the human species somehow, finds to get a voice for herself. As the movie’s name suggests, KAHAANI GUDIYA KI is the true story of a woman. Some time back, the tabloids of regional news channels were floods with news of the ill fate of a woman fighting a silent war between the devil and the deep sea. The story of a young woman in Uttar Pradesh gets a place in the celluloid because of the strange course of actions that fate brought her, the difficult choices she had to face. The dilemma is that of woman caught in the institution of marriage. The society that ruled her life was not answerable to her questions. The name Gudiya means a doll and so is the woman with that name, a mere doll who is played around by the so-called learned elders of our society where even the legal rules are against her wishes with the basic fact of security and stability of her very existence in danger. (more…)

The reason that certain Hollywood movies touch the more intelligent audience is the fact that the dialogues and the screenplay has depth and one movie that shows that we are not lagging behind in such areas of film-making is U Me Aur Hum. Ajay Devgan takes you for a pleasant surprise and proves that he has unlimited potential as an actor but as a director as well. The movie is not really original, which can be accounted for when you remember scenes from some Hollywood movies as you sit watching through it. You would get a feeling of ‘Oh, I know this…’ but what sells about the film is the way it is dealt with, stirring every emotion on you and you come out with a feeling of a proper catharsis. The question that would U Me Aur Hum make the expected impact on the audience is answered with a definite yes. The movie does fulfill you every expectation and in fact gives more than you would have expected from the clumsy promos. (more…)

Hats off the Rakesh Roshan for trouncing over all the confusions this movie created before release. Not only going for a compromise with the music director Ram Sampath but even forfeiting to the quite bunch of physiatrists who cure the insane came out to raise their voice against this movie, the filmmakers went through a lot to provide us with some humor to help us gulp down some cool drinks this summer. I am sure they must have had an equally perplexing time while choosing the name for the movie. While some called in inspired from the English movie The Dream Team, some lingered with a masterpiece by Hitchcock titled Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which is equally absurd as the movie is. None the least, it has been inspired from most masala movies that had anything to do with bringing out a laughter spring but unfortunately, not all movies with spicy themes click. (more…)