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MOVIE REVIEW - LAFENGEY PARINDEY
(WILD BIRDS)
Rating: 7/10  The tile comes from the fact that One-Shot Nandu (Neil Nitin Mukesh, so named because he is a boxer who downs his opponents with a single punch) lives a rough and tumble life with his friends in a Mumbai backstreet neighbourhood. The wild bunch that they are, they keep getting into heaps of trouble and are often exploited by underworld bosses. In one such incident, Nandu unwittingly becomes the perpetrator of an accident that leaves him with huge guilt feelings. To make up, he retrains aspiring dancer Pinky, who has become blind, to achieve her dream of becoming India’s champion reality show dancer, despite his two left feet. In the process, he can’t quite express his feelings for Pinky, who has to actually teach him how to be romantic. But as truths start coming out and Nandu tries to break free of the gang life, the problems start for everyone – taming wild birds is not an easy task. Although director Pradeep Sarkar has largely succeeded in showing the backstreet Mumbai life as realistically as possible, he fails to show Neil in such a way, since he constantly sports designer jeans and a clean-cut look despite his supposed background and living conditions. Deepika shines as she takes on a challenging role, and is the real star of the film. Lafengey Parindey is now showing on the CineCentre and Numetro circuits.
MOVIE REVIEW - PEEPLI LIVE Rating: 8/10
Peepli Live is not your run-of-the mill Bollywood movie with big name stars, but with Aamir Khan as producer, it is easy to see why the film, released worldwide on Friday, won the Best Feature Film Award at the recent Durban International Film Festival. Basically a satire fringing on dark humour, Peepli is a remote village from where all the TV networks of India vie to broadcast live the issue of a farmer’s suicide plans, hence the title of the movie. Debut director Anusha Rizvi pokes fun at the very serious issue of desperate farmers committing suicide in India as they face financial ruin, without trivialising the matter, and also finds a hugely satirical way to address the role of politicians in addressing this situation. Because the government gives the survivors of farmers who commit suicides a grant, Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri), decides to commit suicide so that his family can survive. But with local elections pending, the ever-cunning leaders of various political parties try to manipulate the situation to their advantage, and soon all the TV channels are hooked on the story too, following Natha’s every little move and turning not only his own life, but that of the entire village upside down. The result is a simple yet well-crafted tale that has no boring moment in it. Peepli Live is now showing at select cinemas on the CineCentre and Ster-Kinekor
MOVIE REVIEW - AISHA Rating: 7/10
Aisha (Sonam Kapoor) is an upper-class spoilt brat daughter of a very rich father who indulges her extravagant habit of trying to get her middle-class circle of friend hitched up together. But as her plans keep going awry, and the friends start being truthful on how they really feel about her domineering attitude, Aisha finds herself increasingly isolated. Even her long-time friend Arjun (Abhay Deol) drifts away from her, until she realises her folly and gets back to the real world. Loosely based on the classic novel Emma by Jane Austen, Aisha is very slow initially and then takes off towards the last half hour. A soliloquy by Sonam towards the end shows the versatile talent of the daughter of Anil Kapoor (who also co-produced the film for Sonam), even if she does not have the stunning looks of some of her contemporaries. Watch out also for the scene-stealer newcomer Amrita Puri, playing Aisha’s friend Shefali. Director Rajshree Ojha develops the characters well, but could have made the interaction a little more exciting. Aisha is now showing on all Bollywood circuits nationwide
MOVIE REVIEW - KHATTA MEETHA Rating: 4/10
“I’m allergic to bull***,” Akshay Kumar sings in the closing credits of Khatta Meetha, aptly summing up how this film is a major disappointment after the huge expectations of a creation combining the talents of slapstick master director Priyadarshan and the comic skills of Akshay. It’s as if they could not decide whether Akshay’s character, Sachin Tichkule, should be an action hero, a comedian, or someone making statements about the ills of society, so he does them all in a mishmash of confusion that is not even close to funny. Akshay plays a corrupt contractor, moulded by his corrupt elder brothers despite them all being the sons of a judge who has retired with distinction. But the plot miserably fails them all, as well as new actress Trisha Krishnan who meets her college friend Sachin again after many years in adversarial circumstances. It all makes Khatta Meetha an Akshay film in the same mould as his earlier Chandni Chowk to China, which similarly created huge hype but ended in a gigantic failure at the box office. Although a couple of the comic scenes are funny, they are few and far between, making Khatta Meetha definitely the most missable film so far this year.
MOVIE REVIEW - UDAAN (FLIGHT) Rating: 8/10
The flight of the title is the escape that many seek from a life that becomes just too difficult to deal with. In the case of Rohan (Rajat Barmecha), it is a desire to get away from the tyranny of a father (Ronit Roy) who has not been to see him once in eight years at boarding school. After being expelled for teenage indiscretions, he is forced to work in his father's small engineering firm, but would rather be a poet and writer. He also returns to find that his father has remarried and that he has a six-year-old stepbrother, but the second wife has also left his father, who is planning on a third. The autocratic, violent ways of his father drive Rohan to teaming up with a gang of miscreants, which enrages his father further. As Rohan decides to run away from all this, he realises that he cannot leave his younger sibling to the devices of his father, leading to a happy ending for the two of them, but not for the father. Director Vikramaditya Motwane develops his characters in a simple tale in a very compelling way to make for an award-winning film.
MOVIE REVIEW - TERE BIN LADEN Rating: 7/10
Slithering between slapstick, silliness, satire and cynicism, Tere Bin Laden is a tale of how small chicken farmer Noora (Pradhuman Singh) who bears a remarkable resemblance to Osama Bin Laden becomes a pawn in the aspirations of small-time TV journalist Ali Hassan (Ali Zafar) to make it big in America. Roping in his cameraman, a makeup artist, and a radio presenter, Ali sets about a scheme to con not only Noora but even his own channel boss Majeed (Piyush Mishra) and the entire US into believing that a message they record with Noora is indeed the latest from the most wanted man in the world. But the plan begins backfiring as America sends in top guns to take over the search. At one stage, they are nearly all killed as a missile is launched at their truck. The satire and spoofs come fast and thick in Tere Bin Laden to make for some good laughs by director Abhishek Sharma.
MOVIE REVIEW - LAMHAA (MOMENTS) Rating: 6/10
Sadly, the moments come too often and too intensely in this drama about the politics in war-torn Kashmir. Indian Military Intelligence worker Vikram (Sanjay Dutt) is sent into Kashmir to investigate reports of a planned large-scale insurgency that will disrupt life in both India and Pakistani. Assuming the identity of Gul Jehangir, Sanjay almost single-handedly uncovers one scheme after another as the politicians and businessmen on both sides of the border plot and buy their way with corrupt deals, including some of the most respected leaders in the territory. Among them is the unscrupulous Haji (Anupam Kher), who seems to evade every bombing in which his closest allies are killed. Vikram twice saves Aziza (Bipasha Basu) from death. Aziza is Haji's tough and outspoken step-daughter, but she too eventually suspects that all is not right and teams up with Aatif (Kunaal Kapoor) a former ally of Haji. But Haji appears to be just too powerful for everyone. Except for Anupam, none of the leads are convincing enough in their roles, probably because of poor script development by director Rahul Dholakia in a film that expects audiences to have some background to the Kashmir problem, is just too intense and violent to have a long run at local box offices.
MOVIE REVIEW - MILENGE MILENGE (WE’LL MEET) Rating: 6/10
A date determined by destiny can be as diabolically devastating as it can be ecstatically exhilarating. That is the basic plot of Milenge Milenge which is, as the title suggests, about meetings between Priya (Kareena Kapoor) and Immy (Shahid Kapur). Kareena, initially not believing in destiny, is convinced when a prediction by a tarot card reader that she would meet her Prince Charming on the beach of a foreign country comes true while she is part of a student group visiting Bangkok. But while she is elated at meeting Immy, Kareena is devastated when she learns that he met her under dubious means to impress his friends. Immy wants to make amends because he really falls for her, but Priya will hear nothing of it as they part ways, each trying hard to contact the other only through strange ways that will be decided by destiny, if they are indeed intended for each other. Three years later, with weddings planned by both their families, those steps of destiny are revived for some predictable viewing. The first half is a bit slow, but the second comes to life as director Satish Kaushik, who also plays a bit role in the movie, builds up the momentum. The earlier off-screen romance of Shahid and Kareena, who have since split, is bound to also attract audience interest in their film together. Milenge Milenge is now showing on all Bollywood circuits nationwide.
MOVIE REVIEW - RAAJNEETI (POLITICS) Rating: 8/10 Politics has always been described as a dirty game, and when dynastic political families are involved, it gets even nastier as kin turn on kin in Raajneeti. But while the basic plot of Raajneeti is indeed the wheeling and dealing that goes on as allegiances, loyalties and even family trust change rapidly for the expediency of power, there are also several tales of human drama, love and intrigue told along the way by director Prakash Jha. Prithvi Pratap(Arjun Rampal) is the heir to a third generation political dynasty, but he allows emotions to constantly rule his head, not even letting murder stand in his way. His cousin Veerendra (Manoj Bajpayee) is as determined to rule as well, and when things start getting out of hand, Arjun’s younger brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) has to give up his studies and girlfriend in America to take charge of the family political ambitions. There is also Indu (Katrina Kaif), daughter of a millionaire financier of the political party who ends up married to Prithvi while she actually loves Samar; Brij Gopal, who has manipulated the party fortunes for a lifetime; and Sooraj Kumar, the ambitious young Dalit who wants to seek political office to better the lot of his community but becomes an unwitting pawn in the large political game. Together, the loves and lives of all these characters as they get entangled in the power struggles, dirt and gore of politics makes for a compelling movie for those who love serious cinema. Raajneeti definitely sets a new trend for Indian cinema, with surprises, twists and turns galore as nothing is what the viewer would expect as coming next. Even the cast are in roles which show a good and a dark side to every one of them. While all do their roles very well, Ranbeer is the surprise in the package, showing a maturity well beyond his years that is sure to get him a best actor nomination this year, while Katrina sans the glamorous makeup, hairdo and costumes also excels.
MOVIE REVIEW - RAAVAN Rating: 8/10 Don’t be fooled by the very scary images of both Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on the CD covers and in the publicity for Raavan which creates the impression that is it is some kind of horror-filled movie. It is in fact quite a well-made film by master filmmaker Mani Ratnam, the perfectionist when it comes to backdrops and putting his cast through their paces. Sadly though, Ratnam fails as a story writer this time, as there are several flaws in the storyline. Policeman Dev (Vikram) and his wife Ragini (Aishwarya) end up in a rural village where he is assigned to nab a Robin Hood type dacoit, Beera (Abhishek), whose word is law in the jungle and who commands respect from every single person in the region. Beera kidnaps Ragini but the callous killer in him suddenly takes a different turn. Could this woman he should be exacting revenge on for something we only find out about much later in the film be making him a softie? everyone begins asking of the tough Beera. Dev meanwhile calls in assistance from wildlife caretaker Sanjeevani Kumar (Govinda), in a completely unconvincing role despite being the wild card in the plot. As the cat and mouse game between the dacoit turning lover and the determined policeman who will sacrifice anything for his goal continues, Ragini becomes a pawn to be exploited. The ending, spectacular as it may be in terms of filming, is not convincing enough either in terms of the storyline. Abhishek, who has excelled before with Ratnam in Yuva and Guru, is superb again, showing almost genetic traits of the brilliance his father Amitabh was famous for, and is sure to be nominated for awards for his acting here. Aishwarya is also good as the tormented captive awaiting rescue, only to find that she may well be a rescuer instead. Raavan is now showing on all Bollywood circuits nationwide.
MOVIE REVIEW - KITES Rating: 8/10
The Kites of the title are only seen at the start of the movie as something that Jai, (Hrithik Roshan), a layabout migrant to Las Vegas, envies for their freedom and constant drifting on the wind, vacillating between closeness and forced distance. That is the story of his life, as Jai makes a living by marrying women wanting to settle in America and then divorcing them. But his eleventh marriage of convenience becomes a problem when he sees the woman again underwater while swimming and is immediately smitten. There is just one problem – Natasha (Mexican actress Barbara Mori) is engaged to the son of the biggest underworld don in town (Kabir Bedi). To complicate things further, Jai has become virtually engaged to Gina (Kangana Ranaut), the don’s daughter, whom he sees as an easy meal ticket to a life of luxury. Then starts the tale of two kite-like humans – moving from love and derision to greed and even crime. Sadly, what could have been a great love story is failed by a plot that is hardly plausible in America today, such as the lead pair outwitting and causing the explosion of a dozen high-power police vehicles while fleeing in an old jalopy. There are also other impossibilities in the plot that could have been safely left out to make it a believable tale. Nonetheless, superb performances by both Hrithik and Barbara make for a gripping movie, even if it could hardly be called a Hindi movie – the dialogues are mainly in English, and there is probably more Spanish spoken than Hindi throughout the movie (with sub-titles of course!).
movie REVIEW - BADMAASH COMPANY (BAD COMPANY) Rating: 7/10
Honesty is always the best policy, even if you are using cons that are just about bordering on being illegal. That is the basic story of Badmaash Company, which is not, as the title might suggest, a gangster story. Karan (Shahid Kapur) refuses to lead a humdrum life like his middle class father, played by Anupam Kher, working thirty years for the same company. He wants to get rich quick, so he devises an ingenuous scheme to avoid paying imports on duties in the heavily-government controlled India of the seventies. He ropes in three friends, Bulbul (Anoushka Sharma), Chandu (Vir Das), and Zing (Meiyang Cheng), to form the company of the title, although there is no “Badmaash” part in it, yet. Achieving huge success in India, the four decide to try it in the US as well so that they can rake in dollars. But the US is not as lax as India, as they discover very soon after Karan gets too greedy and starts alienating his friends as well. The storyline is very innovative, although it could have been told a little better by debutante director Parmeet Sethi, and the songs are all very forgettable. The acting by each of the characters is very good though, Shahid excelling as he goes from good guy to bad guy and back again, but it may be just a tad too predictable.
movie REVIEW - HOUSEFULL Rating: 9/10
It’s a houseful of hilariously humiliating humour! That’s probably the best way to describe Housefull as the cast add their own touch to an already very funny script. Aarush (Akshay Kumar) has bad luck wherever he goes, including when he tries to change things by spending some time with his friends Bob (Riteish Deshmukh) and Hetal (Lara Dutta) in London. They get him hitched to Devika (Jiah Khan), the daughter of a billionaire casino owner who will only let her marry “a good Indian boy”. But she really loves a white man that her father wants nothing to do with, so ditches Aarush on her honeymoon for him. Then Sandy (Deepika Padukone) enters Aarush’s life and his bad luck seems set to change forever.
But there are also some emotional instances in between all the laughter, handled very well by director Sajid Khan. The chemistry between all the members of the cast is superb, and even the normally absurd and detestable Chunkey Pandey does well as an Indo-Italian hotel owner named Aakhri Pasta. Housefull is a must see!
movie REVIEW PAATHSHAALA (SCHOOL) Rating: 6/10
Shahid Kapur seems to love doing roles as a teacher. After his recent one as a music teacher in Chance Pe Dance, he again ends up at a private school in India in Paatshaala, albeit as English teacher Rahul Prakash Udyavar this time. But his hobby as a singer and guitar player do not go unnoticed and he does a bit of that too. But the main theme of the film is to prompt viewers into probing developments at private schools these days, where exorbitant fees and business imperatives appear to be overriding the good old values of education that veteran headmaster Aditya Sahay (Nana Patekar) espouses. When the school is forced to resort to business practices to avoid being shut down, Rahul, assisted by school nutritionist Anjali Mathur (Ayesha Takia Azmi) leads the staff and pupils in something that is neither a strike nor a protest action against the Principal, whom they all love, but more a unique way of making the establishment, the public and the government sit up and take note to address the situation. Shahid is good in his role, even if his boyish looks do get the senior girls having a crush on him, although director Milind Ukey does not allow this part of the plot to go much further. In fact he also fails to hold together the plot convincingly except for a few emotional moments, especially those involving children. Nana is lost for most of the film and only comes into his own towards the climax, while some of the cameo cast, especially Anjan Shrivastava, playing the school general assistant, excel in their roles. Paathshaala is now showing on the CineCentre circuit nationwide.
movie - REVIEW : PRINCE Rating: 5/10
This movie was previously scheduled to be released as Prince of Thieves, and perhaps it should have stayed that way - all director Kookie Gulati succeeds in doing is stealing time from the audience with an incredulous plot. Prince (Vivek Oberoi) uses the best technology in the world to break into secure areas all over the world to steal the most valuable artefacts. But after getting a rare antique coin for a client one day, he wakes up with all his memory gone and four different gangster groups and police agencies after him. To confuse matters further, three different girls, all claiming to be his girlfriend Maya (Aruna Shields, Nandana Sen and Neeru Singh), appear in attempts to help him recover the coin, which has a memory chip containing his own memory. The totally absurd and unconvincing script is worsened by a twist in the tale every few minutes, eventually becoming quite irritating as the film progresses. The saving graces of Prince are Vivek’s great performance as an action hero, and the action sequences, many shot in South Africa and especially in Durban. One irksome feature though is projecting the cities of Durban and Cape Town as ideal world hideouts for the top gangsters of the world, something done in previous films as well. Is this really an advantage to the attempts to lure filmmakers to South Africa to showcase its beauty, or do such projections (albeit fictional) override the value gained? Newcomer Isaiah is good in his villainous role as gangboss Sarang and Sanjay Kapoor is wasted as an investigative officer. Prince, now showing on all Bollywood circuits nationwide, will only lure lovers of action movies for the well-directed scenes, and perhaps for the girls who want to see the under-rated Vivek in action again.
MOVIE REVIEW - QUICK GUN MURUGAN Rating: 6/10
Quick Gun Murugan (Rajendra Prasad) is a vegetarian dosa lover Tamil Cowboy with a mission – to fight off the tyranny of Rice Plate Reddy of the McDosa Corporation (see any link there?), whose aim is to force non-vegetarian dosas on the whole world. When Murugan finally meets his match and is gunned down, he gets a second lease on life from the angel of death to return to earth to seek vengeance. That gives director Shashanka Gosh the opportunity to engage his characters in every absurdity that is usually the terrain of silly Indian cinema, but in a way that allows for some very funny satire and parody in this spoof on Westerns of Hollywood, incorporating all the Indian imagery that goes in such situations as well. As Murugan fights off the meat-eaters, he is also torn in choosing between the two loves of his life, both, like him, equally over-the-top characters - Locket Lover (Rambha) and Mango Dolly (Anu Menon). Prasad and his line of “Mind It!” has become a catch-phrase all over India since the film was released there a few months ago already in Tamil and Hindi versions, but the movie, now showing on all local Bollywood circuits, is only for those with a taste for black comedy and the absurd
movie REVIEW - teen pattiRating - 6/10
Prof Venkat Subramaniam (Amitabh Bachchan) is a mathematics lecturer near retirement who discovers a new theory of probability that every scoffs at. But it allows him to consistently win at the game of Teen Patti, a type of poker. A colleague, Prof Shantanu Biswas (Madhavan), who has financial woes to deal with, convinces Subramaniam to test his theories in real life at poker dens run by shady characters, enlisting several students from their classes as well as they assume different larger-than-life roles to that of their normal college lives. But as greed, jealousy and other human emotions take over, blackmailers and gangsters enter the scene, marring an otherwise challenging film for serious movie lovers by director Leena Yadav. The story is told in a historical narrative style by Subramaniam to Prof Perci Trachtenberg (Sir Ben Kingsley) who has summoned Subramaniam to Cambridge University in the UK to receive an award for his research that was previously denied to him. But in another of his great soliloquys, Amitabh’s character refuses the award. The interaction between the two veteran actors is a real treat, and some of the new cast members also perform very well, but overall Teen Patti is drawn out and will not hold the audience’s attention for the nearly three hours before it comes to a conclusion.
movie REVIEW - KARTHIK CALLING KARTHIK Rating - 6/10
The daily caller teaches him how to ooze confidence and take charge of his life, including declaring his love for office manager Shonali Mukherjee (Deepika Padukone). But there is one catch to this whole intriguing mystery – the real life Karthik may never disclose to anyone that he is getting calls from another Karthik. But when he decides to tell Shonali, everything starts falling apart. The tale suggesting schizophrenia takes a new twist when even Shonali and Karthik’s psychologist are present during some of the calls. So what is really happening? Farhan and Deepika are both great in their respective roles, but sadly though, the plot starts falling apart and becomes predictable towards the end, with an unconvincing climax from director Vijay Lalwani.
movie REVIEW - MY NAME IS KHAN
Rating – 9/10
The polarisation of the world today on ethnic, race and especially religious divides is brought to the fore magnificently by director Karan Johar in My Name is Khan (with a guttural “g” from the epiglottis, as Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) reminds anyone who mispronounces his name in the movie) . Khan lacks some abilities to emote naturally because he suffers from Asperger's syndrome, so he can say and do things honestly while others would think twice about it. The main theme of the film is the mission that Khan embarks on after a tragic incident in his life – to meet the President of the US to tell him: “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.” But his life in the US starts much earlier after the death of his mother, who has taught him that there are only two kinds of people in the world – the good and the bad, and neither of them have distinctive racial or religious profiles. Joining his brother in the US, Khan meets hairdresser Mandira (Kajol) and settles down to a blissful life together as a family until a world-shattering event takes place – 9/11. In the wake of the tragedy, everyone’s life would never be the same again, and so too for the Khan family. A beautifully told story and superb performances by the duo that made Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge the longest running film in Indian cinema history stops short of earning a full house 10/10 only for one thing – the rather incredulous scenes before the climax. That deviates from the otherwise very realistic and probable tale too much. Nonetheless, My Name is Khan is set to be in the top three movies this year, and is a must-see for the whole family. Now showing on all Bollywood circuits nationwide
movie REVIEW - RANN Rating: 7/10
The battle of the title is the constant race by TV news networks in India, many run by small families, to secure the greatest number of viewers in order to secure advertising. In the process, some channels will compromise all their principles, but not so for Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Amitabh Bachchan), the most respected veteran newsreader in the country. But then he is duped into airing material that leads to the downfall of the Prime Minister that he had supported because he believed that the PM was just as squeaky clean as him. As those closest to Malik get drawn into the web of intrigue, betrayal, greed and power to win the battle, he decides to make his last newscast. In a typical Amitabh soliloquy way, the camera rarely moves away from him as he makes an impassioned speech rather than a factual news broadcast. This is the kind of role that Amitabh Bachchan should now be concentrating on, as it reflects a character that he could well play at his age. Ably supported by several newcomers, director Ram Gopal Verma, in his characteristic way, delves into the dark side of the human mind, ignoring totally the Bollywood financial imperatives of including catchy songs and glamorous dances as he brings to the audience a new insight into the news behind the news that they watch every day. Unfortunately this is going to be one only for lovers of serious cinema though. Rann is now showing on all Bollywood circuits nationwide – CineCentre, Numetro and Ster-Kinekor.
movie REVIEW - CHANCE PE DANCE Rating: 6/10
As the title suggests, Chance and Dance both play major roles in the life of Sameer Behl, (Shahid Kapoor) a dreamer who leaves his father alone to run a small business in Delhi and comes to Mumbai to become a dancer in Bollywood. But every time that Sameer does get a break, chance decides otherwise and he loses out again, to the extent that he eventually even has to live in his car because he can’t afford the rent. He befriends choreographer Sonia Sharma (Genelia D’Souza), who tries to help him alone as best she can. But Sameer continually waivers between despair and hope. Just as he is about to give up completely, hope appears again in the guise of a bunch of constantly losing school kids who want him to tutor them to show the others what they can do as dancers. Shahid is good in his role and the emotions and dialogues that go with it, while Genelia, more familiar to South Indian audiences, tries hard to make an impression but is somewhat overshadowed by Shahid’s role. But what kills the film is that the first half drags on for too long, and then the last quarter evolves at such a rapid pace that it’s almost like director Ken Ghosh ran out of twists to add to the script or the producer ran out of money! Chance Pe Dance is now showing on the CineCentre and Numetro Bollywood circuits.
movie review - pyaar impossible Rating: 8/10
Love certainly is blind, is what Pyaar Impossible sets out to show in a highly entertaining way. Nerdy student Abhay (Uday Chopra) is smitten by dream girl fellow student Alisha (Priyanka Chopra), but does not have the courage to make a move as he believes that someone as beautiful as she would never even take a second look at someone like him. He bears this burden for seven years, until he meets Alisha again under most unusual circumstances, ending up working for her. As he tries to impress her in various ways, an old enemy, played by Dino Morea, reappears and tries to woo Alisha as well. A simple tale well told by director Jugal Hansraj is sure to be on the top ten list for 2010. Priyanka excels in yet another diverse role, and Uday has emerged from his ever-grinning shell in a nice way too.
Rating: 8/10
Almost halfway through the film, one wonders what debutante director Mudassar Aziz is trying to achieve, and then enter Shahrukh Khan to save the day, albeit in a supporting guest role. Confirmed bachelor playboy Donsai (Fardeen Khan), plots a marriage with Punjabi village girl Samarpreet (Ishita Sharma) to fulfil a requirement in his father’s will to inherit a huge fortune and then drops her. Samarpreet comes to the West Indies to find her missing husband and becomes the modern-day Samara with assistance from top model Shimmer (Sushmita Sen), playing a spoilt, aristocratic diva with a chip on the shoulder superbly. As Samara seduces Donsai, Shimmer finds her own résistance to marriage to businessman Pawan Raj Gandhi/PRG (Shah Rukh Khan) crumbling. As the two couples and a third in a smaller role learn lessons of love and commitment from each other, the director plans it to end in a great climax as the brides-to-be all find their husbands. Watch out for an unexpected memorable scene where Shimmer just drops to her knees in front of PRG.
REVIEW 3 IDIOTS Rating – 9/10
All izzz well! That’s the catch-phrase from the film 3 Idiots that is resounding all over India after it is explained by Aamir Khan in the film as a guiding light in any situation one faces in life. The last Bollywood release of 2009 is also the best of the year. 3 Idiots is an absolute family treat for the holidays with its rollercoaster of emotions that will leave lumps in the throat frequently yet leave you feeling good at the end, rather than sad or depressed. Rancho (Aamir Khan), Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi) are the craziest students at an institution run by the strict disciplinarian Viru Sahastrabuddhe, nicknamed Virus because of his name (Boman Irani). The students are driven by Rancho’s philosophy of always challenging the conventional to lead to disruptive innovative thinking, but it gets them into serious trouble frequently. After graduating, they all go their separate ways, but a decade later Farhan and Raju are led on a quest to find Rancho when they mysteriously find that, even in the graduation class photo that they took, Rancho is someone else altogether. Along the way, Pia (Kareena Kapoor, in a smaller than expected role as one of the daughters of Virus), falls in and out of love with Rancho repeatedly. After the stupendous success of his Munnabhai films, Rajkumar Hirani has directed every character’s role, even the smallest one, superbly. 3 Idiots, distributed in South Africa by the Avalon Group, is a must-see film, now showing countrywide on all Bollywood circuits. REVIEW PAA Rating: 9/10
In an unusual step, Jaya Bachchan sits on a step as the title credits start rolling on screen next to her for the movie Paa, produced by AB Corporation, her husband’s company, and reads them all out aloud. She also reads: “Introducing Amitabh Bachchan”. It’s easy to see why she does so – unless you knew it was Amitabh acting the role of a 13-year-old boy with progeria, a disease that makes him look about 70 and ravishes his body, you would never know it was the accomplished actor of more than four decades. He is absolutely brilliant and is sure to win many awards for his role as Auro, the witty boy who will not let anything get him down as he reasons everything out logically, to the amazement of even the adults in his life. These include his single mother; a doctor played by Vidya Balan, and his long missing father, politician Amol Amte (Abhishek Bachchan – Amitabh’s son in real life). As the complex emotions of their relationship and that between Auro and his friends pan out, Paa evolves as one of the most memorable and innovative films of recent years. Supported by technical experts from Hollywood who design the realistic masks worn by Auro, director R Balki does a superb job that will leave many a tear in viewers’ eyes. Besides Amitabh, Abhishek and Vidya also excel in their roles. Unfortunately, Paa is showing only on the CineCentre Bollywood circuit at Suncoast and Lenasia, so many may be deprived of seeing one of the best movies this year. But kudos to AB Moosa of the Avalon Group for the courage to bring out a movie that might not make a lot of money, but will be appreciated by serious cinema lovers.
REVIEW KURBAAN Rating: 8/10
The one thing that Saif Ali Khan will not be sacrificing this year is nominations for best actor. 2009 is definitely going to be the year of Saif Ali Khan, finally hitting the big time after his namesake cousins Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have hogged the headlines since he started his career. Real-life girlfriend Kareena Kapoor is also now firmly in line toget a nomination for the best actress this year for her role in Kurbaan, after her recent success in Main Aur Mrs Khanna. Still basking in the accolades for his role in Love Aaj Kal recently, Saif is superb in Kurbaan as Ehsaan Khan, a university professor drawn into a terrorist gang and its activities in America post 9/11. He marries American professor Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) to gain citizenship there, but he has his own hidden agenda, as she discovers after they move into a predominantly Indian neighbourhood in a city there. Director Rensil D'Silva develops a plot of religious fanaticism and terrorism superbly, creating a film that can match the best of Hollywood in terms of action sequences. Producer Karan Johar chooses his favoured New York as a backdrop again, though he moves away from his traditional love story themes. Some may argue that Kurbaan engages in too much Pakistani or Muslim stereotyping again as terrorists, but there is also another American Muslim, played by Vivek Oberoi, who balances this somewhat. Every character has a fantastic role in the film, although its appeal will lie more with serious cinema fans because of the theme. There is a lot of blood and gore, though justified because of the nature of the film, so it is definitely not for kids either. The gripping climax, more than half an hour long, is unprecedented in Indian cinema. If for nothing else though, fans are sure to want to see some of the sizzling screen scenes by real-life couple Saif and Kareena. REVIEW ROCKET SINGH – SALESMAN OF THE YEAR Rating – 5/10
Rocket Singh- Salesman of the Year, is actually one of the biggest disappointments of the year. The first half of the movie is so slow that I would not be surprised if people started walking out of cinemas because of boredom. Thankfully the second half does pick up a little, but not enough to make anyone recommend the film seriously to anyone. Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) barely scrapes through college and decides to become a salesman. He ends up as an intern with a computer company, but soon finds that he cannot relate to the unscrupulous methods adopted by the company and its executives to increase profits by effectively cheating companies. As the other sales staff throw paper rockets at him continuously to mock him, Harpreet decides to launch his own company, named Rocket Singh Computer Corporation. He convinces four other employees to join him as they keep their jobs and work at night, rather unrealistically, without being caught out. But they have to be caught out eventually and face serious punishment, including possible fraud and criminal charges, so Harpreet has to make some tough choices. Admittedly Ranbir plays his role well despite the poor script given to him, and some of the newer actors in character roles do reasonably as well, but talented veteran Prem Chopra, playing Harpreet’s grandfather, is completely wasted. With only three instantly forgettable songs in the film, award-winning director Shimit Amin fails to deliver for producer Aditya Chopra, who seems to be wasting his family’s fortunes of Yashraj Films on experimental cinema these days, like Rocket Singh, which can best be described only as a documentary drama on the life of a salesman. REVIEW DE DANA DAN (STRIKE HARD!) Rating: 8/10
Director Priyadarshan, the master of madcap mirth and merriment, is back with probably the best comedy so far this year. Excelling in taking a plot of mistaken identities (not just one, but several) into hilarious situations which result in superb slapstick that is largely believable, except maybe for the prolonged climax, Priyadarshan takes a dozen veteran comic actors along too. Nitin (Akshay Kumar) is a bonded laborer who has to wash, cook iron and do almost everything like a slave for businesswoman Archana Puran Singh because of a debt created by his late father. He dreams of marrying Anjali (Katrina Kaif), so when his friend Ram (Suniel Shetty) hatches a kidnap and ransom plot that will make them rich overnight, Nitin falls for it. Ram in turn wants to hitch up with Manpreet (Sameera Reddy), whose ambitious parents try to get her marriage fixed to someone else. Enter conman Harbans (Paresh Rawal) and his son (Chunky Pandey), who also want a stake of the pie, and the plot is set for the comedy of errors through mistaken identity by call girls, gangsters, wives, husbands, and even the police. The result is a laugh-a-minute rollercoaster of fun that does rely a lot on an understanding of the Hindi dialogues, as the subtitles do not do justice to them. Akshay is wonderful as a comedian and veteran comedians Johny Lever and Asrani make a welcome return. Katrina and Sameera are only there for eye candy, even though Neha Dhupia outdoes them in that department.
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Karthik
Narayan (Farhan Akhtar) is a nerdy, insecure but highly efficient
office worker that everybody takes advantage of, until one night he
gets a call from another Karthik that is set to change his life
forever. 
