Ajab prem ki gazab kahani

My ratings: 3.5 stars.
'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani' is as much Santoshi's film as it is Ranbir's. The actor gets into the goofy character called Prem perfectly and is spectacular in the movie, specially, his charm and the manner in which he manages to turn even a simple scene to something so out of this world, is simply amazing. This is an out and out Ranbir affair and he floors one with his talent. Of course, he finally gets a role which allows him to soar uninhibitedly and he digs into it with relish. Ranbir is only able to take over the movie because of the wonderfully, nonsensical dialogues that he is given and the terrific support that he receives from his director and his co actors. The film has a quaint old world charm to it which coupled with the comic element, makes it a very touching and enjoyable movie.

The story is about a simpleton Prem, (Ranbir), who lives with his parents in a small hill station and is the president of the Happy Club, which consists of other equally, unemployed guys of his age. A chance encounter with Jenny (Katrina Kaif) and Prem ends up losing his heart to her, but lacks the courage to tell her about his feelings till it's too late. He discovers that she is in love with Rahul (Upen Patel) and he now makes it the mission of his life to unite the couple.

Santoshi handles the first half of the film very well indeed, but towards the latter half of the second half, the film seems to have been stretched too long and just about starts to get tiresome. The whole kidnapping angle, which forms the film's climax is a little too drawn out and one would have expected a more creative ending from Santoshi. The transformation in Rahul's character is quite unwarranted. But despite these areas, as a whole, Santoshi manages to keep the laughs going and mood breezy, thus exercising superb control on his actors and the screenplay, which is replete with witty one liners.

Total justice has been done to the wonderful music that has been composed by Pritam and Santoshi has picturised each song with a lot of love and care, bringing out its essence and flavour. In fact, the entire film has been shot wonderfully.

JAIL

My Ratings: 2.5 stars.
The film follows the life of Parag Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh), an ambitious young executive, making his life up the corporate ladder. Just when everything seems to be going well for this young man, his life is turned upside down and he finds himself behind bars, convicted of a crime which he never committed. His room mate turns out to be a major drug dealer and the cops nab Parag and find a bag full of cocaine in his car. The drug belongs to his friend, who is gunned down by the cops and Parag pays for being in the car with him. His girlfriend (Mugdha Godse) and his mother hire a lawyer and try their best to get him released on bail, but the appeals is turned down and Parag is remanded to judicial custody.
Life in jail is really not all that different from life outside. Parag's bail hearing is turned down by the High Court a couple of times, but he finally gets justice and is a free man.
The jail portions are really realistic and one knows that Madhur has shot in actual jails. The research that he may have done for this film, all comes out in the detailed portrayal of life in prison that is shown in Jail. Madhur has to be congratulated on this and also about the different types of characters that people in the jail and their individual stories. The story is well in place, he gets the lingo and look right but fails to inject that x factor into the proceedings. The film has been well shot.

London Dreams

My Ratings: 2.5 stars.
The film is about the friendship between Manu (Salman Khan) and Arjun (Ajay Devgn), one of who loves music, while the other runs away from it. But music remains a part of both their lives, consciously or unconsciously. While Arjun runs away from home to become a musician, Manu, without realizing it has music in his blood. Arjun makes a name for himself in London and forms a band called London Dreams, while his best friend Manu whiles away his time back in the Punjab, chasing women and running up debts. Arjun takes him to London after hearing his voice, thinking that he could be an asset to his band. But little does he realize that the simple Manu would win the heart of millions with his stage performance and totally overshadow him. Having laboured hard for his success, Arjun cannot bear being upstaged by anyone, even his closest friend. To top it, Manu also manages to win the heart of Priya (Asin), the woman Arjun loves. Jealousy takes over and Arjun plots and plans Manu's downfall. But with it, he unknowingly also triggers the downfall of his band and his dreams. A saddened and much wiser Arjun reconciles with his friend and his superior talent and again shares the stage with him.

A very good story on paper and Shah makes a compelling film out of it as well. There are just a few problems with the movie as Shah ventures in to territories which he doesn't intend to explore. The problems arise mainly with the characters of Manu and Arjun.
But on the whole, London Dreams makes for a good one time watch.

Aladin

My Ratings: 2 Stars
The story opens with Aladin Chatterjee (Ritiesh Deshmukh), an orphaned kid who is bullied mercilessly by his schoolmates because of his name and is made to rub innumerable lamps to make the genie appear. Anyway, this Aladin grows up and falls in love with Jasmine (Jacqueline Fernandes) but is unable to tell her about his love. Unwittingly, she presents him with a lamp, this one finally turns out to be a magic lamp and the genie, who calls himself Genius (Amitabh Bachchan) appears and wants to grant Aladin his three wishes. It is with the help of the genie that Aladin manages to win Jasmine's heart and beat the Ring Master (Sanjay Dutt). Genius tells Aladin that he is the chosen one to look after the lamp and also about his parents who died so many years ago in their bid to find the lamp. There is a flashback which shows how Aladin's parents perished in a landslide during their encounter with the Ring Master after they had found the magic lamp. Of course, Ghose again leaves us confused as to why Aladin was the chosen one to get the lamp. Anyway, the film ends happily, like most fantasies. The Ring Master is destroyed and Aladin, Jasmine and the Genie live happily together

BLUE

My Ratings: 1 star
'Blue' is a story of Sagar (Sanjay Dutt) who works with Aarav (Akshay Kumar) for his fishing business in Bahamas and is also a deep sea diver who knows the Pacific Ocean like the back of his hand. The greed and the fight for, in the movie if for the treasure in a sunken ship lady in blue, which is the sole motive of Aarav's existence and the reason behind that, is revealed only in the climax. All is going fine in the life of Sagar and his girlfriend Mona (Lara Dutta), when his younger brother Sam (Zayed Khan), who is a rebel and had run away from home five years back finds himself in a soup in Bangkok and runs back to big bro Sagar for help. Well, nothing new and novel about the story, but the crux is that whilst you are watching the movie you realize that the screen play is very weak and so is Anthony D'Souza direction. The story could have been made into a suspense leaving some space for the audience's imagination, however a bad screenplay breaks the backbone of 'Blue'.
Waste of Money. Just watch National Geographic channel instead for FREE.

Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna

My Ratings: 1 star
The film's story revolves around Mr and Mrs Khanna, that is, Sameer (Salman Khan) and Raina (Kareena Kapoor) and the distances in their marriage which ultimately lead to geographical distances as well. The reason being that Sameer feels that love is not enough and without a job in Melbourne there is nothing which is right in their marriage. Without bothering about what his better half wants, he decides to leave for Singapore and accept a lucrative offer of business and books his wife for a ticket to Delhi, where she is supposed to stay until he makes his fortune. At the airport terminal, he breaks the news to her and they both go their separate ways. Raina thinks differently and decides to stay back in Melbourne, find a job and wait for Sameer to come back. She finds a job as a salesgirl at the airport itself where she meets and befriends Aakash, who is a waiter at a cafeteria. Aakash is totally smitten by Raina and always refers to her as Mrs Khanna.
Aakash hopes to usurp Sameer's place on her life and become the Mr Khanna for this Mrs Khanna. But his hopes are shortlived as Sameer comes back and Raina is all set to leave Melbourne with him.That's when, Aakash and his friends try to create a rift between the couple but all fails till fate deals them a chance. The web of suspicion threatens to tear Raina and Sameer's marriage apart but their love finally prevails. The other Mr Khanna, that is Aakash, is left lovelorn and alone until another Raina enters his life i.e Deepika Padukone in a guest appearance.
Post 'Wanted', Salman is hot property but there is little that even he can do to lift the movie. The pace is slow in the first half, but kind of lifts in the second half once Salman is back. On a final note, 'Main Aur Mars Khanna' leaves one feeling quite disappointed.

All the Best

My Ratings : 3 stars.
It's Diwali time and hence the box office is loaded with movies that promise rocket power but as they rise upwards we realize that the content in them is just thrash bollywood masala and nothing else. Ajay Devgan failed with his previous attempts as a producer but this time he has played safe with just sticking to the basics. The story is about an unintentional wife swapping episode which leads to a series of bone tickling events. Sanjay Dutt is the elder brother who gives monthly pocket money to his lil step brother Fardeen Khan who lies to him about his marriage. Ajay Devgan plays fardeens best friend who gives him ideas about how to fool sanjay and still get the pocket money. One fine day Sanjay comes to their house and mistakes Bipasa for Mugdha as fardeens wife. This leads to one after the other misunderstandings and futher laughter riots. Ajay seems to have lost touch with comedy and his effort makes you feel that there is something artificial about his dialogue delivery as well. Fardeen makes a sincere effort but does not impress much. Sanjay Dutt looks very fat in most of the scenes. But Sanjay Mishra's performance is the one that got the audiences laughing in most scenes and has done a great job
Surely a one time watch.

Surrogates

My Ratings 2.5 stars.
Bruce willis is not at his best in this movie. The theme however is very creative. Here the humans have the option of creating their Robotic avatar that does their daily Jobs like going to office, going places even shopping. So everybody want's the look of their Avatar according to what they feel a perfect look can be. So you have these oldies who make roborts that make them look young forever. Then there is a race of humans who feel that by doing this the Human race is damaging their identity on this planet and these artificial avatars are taking over the world. So they are shown to be at war with this company called VSI which makes and supplies Roborts to humans. The thought is fantastic but the movie fails on execution. Infact for the first 30 mins i was wondering why is Bruce willis walking with a Wig on his head.
You can miss this one for sure even though you are a Die-Hard Bruce fan.

Wake Up Sid

My Ratings 4 stars. KJo's first with UTV is a superb movie. Ranbir and konkona have given a veru sincere performance. It's a very simple story for starters but the treatment and editing packed with excellent production values give it that extra punch making it really supercool. I was not convinced with the pairing of KoKo (konknona) with Ranbir. But the director in one of the scenes has drafted a superb solution for it by letting Ranbir admit that Koko looks older than him....now thats really a smart move. Ranbir (sid) hails from a a very rich family which is why he is never willing to except his share of responsibilities in life. He fails his commerce graduation miserabily while all his gang members pass. This makes him feel vunerable to inferiority complex and starts blaming his near and dear ones for what they have let him become. He fights with his family and leaves the house unknowing that he is worthless without his Dad's identity. Koko yet again plays a Bonk girl (for the 4th time in her bollywood career) and is very determined that she would make it big in Mumbai as a Professtional Writer. Her preferences for a mate do not match the profile of Ranbir and hence she is not attracted to him until the 3/4th part of the movie. She believes that her mate would be matured and responsible with a set career to look upon. Ranbir comes to stay with koko in her house and faces the difficulties of life for the first time. Simple things like managing for his own food become difficult for him. Finally he realizes that he needs to do what is right for him and his life which is leading him no where. He accepts a Job of a photografer is a magazine firm and discovers that this is what he always wanted to do. As time passes by he also excells in his job and gets his due gratification for it. This makes him as well his family really proud and they accept him back in their lives. See even as i am narrating the story to you it would make you feel thats it's such a simple tale of a journey from a Boy to a Man. But hey Ranbir has really excelled to deliver one of his very best performances in bollywood. Must say that the genes speak for him and he has a long way to go in the Film industry......A Superstar in the making folks.

What's Your Raashee?

My Ratings 2.5 stars.
This one is surely a Hatke movie. The career best performance of Piggy chopps. Infact this is one movie that reminds you that Actresses in bollywood movies do exist. Well Ashu has done it again , its his sheer talent that makes this simple Gujrati novel story transform into a masterpiece. But the lenght of the movie makes you feel that Ashu has hired a really bad editor for all his movies. Harman gets his space to break out of the Hritik look-alike frame of mind and plays a boy next door (Yogesh) who's an NRI.Yogesh is a young man who in his heart has always wanted a love marriage. Till suddenly he is told that he must find his dream girl within ten days to save his family from utter ruin. Finding the dream girl is tough enough. Finding her in a hurry is even tougher.
His solution is simple; he will meet one girl from each Raashee , as he feels that is the best way to make sure he finds a suitable wife, while also giving himself twelve chances to fall in love. Two meetings per day gives him six days to meet them, three days to make a final decision and he can get married on the tenth day, or so he thinks.
Well all in all i loved the title track Whats your Raashee's picturization wherein you have Harman dancing with all 12 Priyanka avtars in one screen.
You can wait for the DVD to be released rather than watching this one on the Big screen.

Dil bole Hadippa

My Rating: 3 stars
First Hockey and now cricket. Yashraj seems to be believing that marrying bollywood with Sport is the formula for a superhit. Naaa not really yash uncle.
Dil Bole is about Anupam Kher, one of the rich men of that part of Punjab, has a team of players who play the Aman Cup every year with a team from Pakistan, which is owned by his childhood friend, played by Dalip Tahil. For the last eight or nine years, Pakistan has been thrashing Kher's team. After yet another loss, he calls in his son Rohan, (Shahid) from England, on the pretext that he has a heart attack. He has been long separated from his wife, played by Poonam Dhillon who lives in London with their only son. Rohan learns a little about love and India when he encounters Veera. She, on the other hand, dresses up as a sardar and gets herself selected in the trials for the Aman Cup. She is easily the team's best batsman and has the ability to hammer every ball of an over for a sixer. Day lighting as Veer on the cricket field and Veera in the Sarason Ka Khet, she succeeds in getting Rohan to fall in love with her and India. But Shahid discovers her fraud in the middle of the match and is stung by her deceit and misreads it. He is left with no other option but to allow her to bat when his team is down to nine wickets with only him standing on the other end. After that Veera takes over as Veer and slams the opposition for sixes galore. The film then moves to its logical conclusion and all ends happily.
What I like about the Yashraj movies is their high production values but when u have a not so powerful script accompanied by a debut director then all goes down the drain. Shahid has matured in his acting and you can now see that he is not trying to copy Shahrukh. Rani suits this role completely and is her sheer charm in both the character that really uplift the movie.
Surely a one time watch.

Wanted

My Rating: 2.5 stars
Wanted's story is about Salman Khan, who is a mercenary killer and is willing to give kill for whoever pays him. In the process, he flits from one gang to the other and wrecks havoc wherever he goes. But he has his principles as he does not believe in killing women or children. In the meantime, underworld activity in Mumbai has reached an all time high and the Police Commissioner is out on a mission to eliminate the gangs. But the main controls are in the hand of a Ghani Khan who lives abroad. An elaborate plot is laid out for him whereby he is lured back to India so that the cops can catch him. Of course, this is only revealed in the end. But with Ghani back in India, the cops have their hands full and even when they manage to capture him, they are forced to let him off as he kidnaps the Commissioner's daughters and circulates MMS clips of her being molested. Of course, Sallu comes to the rescue of all, and in the end all sorts itself out as he eliminates all the bad men single handedly. Into this plot are interwoven the romance track between Sallu and Ayesha Takia's character. There is also the track of the sleazy, corrupt cop, played to perfection by Mahesh Manjrekar. The romance is very typically Salman Khan style, with a strong undertone of humour running through it.
This is a full on entertainment masala movie with most elements woven into it. Prabhudeva seems to have done a fairly decent job as a director and the South Indian movie hallo is very evident in every frame

District 9

Alien movie yet again from a small scale Hollywood production house.Hm mm....
Well District 9 is a place in Johannesburg South Africa where this movie is based out of. The movie starts like a documentary on Nat Geo and directly gets to the main point showcasing aliens from the first screen itself. Its about how 20 years ago an Alien spaceship transports aliens to earth and they seem to lose contact with their mother ship leaving them stuck to out planet for a long long time. The look designed for these aliens is something that i have never seen in any of the previous alien movies. They are ugly and look like PRAWNS (sorry fish lovers). They are helped by humans initially to set up a colony (called District 9) which can accommodate them but they soon realize that these aliens are really messy for their neighbourhood due to their acts of violence and slimy presence. Hence they decide to erradicate all the aliens from district 9 and send them back to where they came from. The main character of the movie Vann De Mervee is appointed to lead this team of humans against aliens. What was unique was the way they think of dealing this mission which is by sending the aliens a legal notice to vacate this planet.Wow thats never heard of before. For some strange reason the aliens understand the human language but its not the other way round. Whist in the mission Vann de Mervee gets struck with an alien virus and starts transforming into an alien himself. This is not liked by his group and they decide to showcase him in front of the world as the only Human alien who can operate the alien arms and ammunations. So there is a mafia angle to this movie as well where one of the organization called IMU is interested in figuring out how to master the alien Arms and ammunation technology. They depict the human aspect of greed which is the main sole of the movie. By the second half of the movie the main character almost turns into an alien and his mission is to ensure that the poor aliens are given justice and they reach to their planet. In this process he faces a lot of music from the SA millitary but manages to pull it of for the aliens.
I would not say that this is a avarage movie but if you like alien stuff, then you will not be so disapointed
My Ratings: One and a half star.

YMI.

Ye Mera India story is actually a culmination of seven stories put into one plot just like Metro & Mumbai meri Jaan .It not only deals with the communal issues of Marathi Manoos Vs Bihari but also deals with issues like Muslim fighting for their cause, sexually hungry men in their late 40’s preying on young women, misuse of Secularism in India etc. The characters of the movie are portraying each of the above issues in their lives. And the director has in his own way woven them into one single ending. I must say this is a brilliant movie with proper justification given to each character. Be it Anupam kher or Praveen Dabaas. Sarika plays a rich wife of a husband who is always looking forward to satisfy his sexual desires by catching hold of women working in his call centre. Vijay Raaz plays a protagonist muslim who practices Jehad against hindus due to the injustice done to him and his family in the communal riots. Praveen and Perizad play a muslim couple who find it difficult to find a house in Mumbai as they are muslims. Sayaaji Shinde plays a cop who finds the Bihari community irritatingly polluting Mumbai. Then there is Atul Kulkarni who has a very small role playing a gangster.
With so many characters it was very easy for the script to go haywire but well done Mr Director and script writer the end result was simply Superb.
When I entered the theater I saw only empty seats and I realized that people had many options this weekend with 7 movies on the box office. But Folks this one is a must watch. Yeah it’s a bit heavy for the concept but trust me the money is well spent. There are some fantastic scenes like where the Judge Anupam Kher has to give his judgement against a person who helped him and it also simultaneously goes in the favour of the person who has not helped him. Then there is the scene where Rajpal Yadav finally gets a job after coming to Mumbai from Bihar
Must Must Watch buddy.
My Ratings : 3.5 stars.

Kissan

I wonder the rationale behind making a film like 'Kisaan' which is about farmers being exploited and duped by city slickers. Times have changed but the situation of the farmer in our country has not really changed much. Infact there have been more complications and issues which have cropped up in these years. The film is well intentioned effort on the plight of farmers, but it is the treatment of the script which made me believe of been there done that.

The film is full of violence and only ends up portraying the Indian villager as being quite barbaric. The problem with this movie is that it does not try to move beyond the issues. But, yes, since it is such a rare subject, the film does manage to spark interest. And to give the director credit, he manages to handle some of the sequences quite well. For a director who has made films like 'Jai Veeru', this is definitely a far superior effort
The film springs a surprise in the form of Jackie Shroff. The actor, who had almost disappeared from films, finally gets a role which he can dig into with relish. He makes the most of the role of Dayal, the farmer and delivers an outstanding performance as the ageing Sikh farmer. Sohail, as his son Jigar, seems to be all over the movie. He seems to have improved with every outing and delivers a decent performance. Arbaaz as the slick city lawyer is just about okay. Dia Mirza and Nauheed Cyrusi have little to do and so hardly make any effort. Dalip Tahil essays a role which he has done many times before, hence he is quite at ease.

My Ratings : One Star

Toss

Toss is a story of a group of friends who on their way back from vacation get lucky. They decide to divide the amount equally amongst themselves and go their own ways. But fate as another plans! It turns be a nightmare in disguise for each single one. Now not just the real owners of the money but even the police are behind them. Worse, they start having tussles amongst themselves too over it. Making the point that money is the root cause of all evil.
Nice concept but execution and the screenplay fail to keep your attention focused. Completely unbelievable screenplay from the word go and unnecessary camera juggling throughout the film increases your already spinning head!
Vijay Raaz, Mahesh Manjrekar and Sushant Singh make the film somewhat bearable as they are the only ones who seem to be taking it all seriously.
Toss is a waste of time..just avoid!
No ratings for this one yaa!!!

Daddy Cool

'Daddy Cool' is borrowed from Hollywood's 'Death at a Funeral', and does not seem to do any justice to the Hindi version .The film manages to hold one's attention only in those parts. Actually, the best thing about this movie is the manner in which the screenplay is handled. It’s a series of events and gags, all delivered with a punch. However the film's humor is not exactly of a very high quality, but that is the same with most Hindi film comedies.
The film centers around the funeral of Sharat Saxena, where crowd gathers and the action begins. They are members of his family and consist of his sons, nephews, nieces, siblings and his widow. Into this solemn family gathering arrives a stranger, played by Rajpal Yadav, who drops a bomb when he claims that and he and the dead were lovers. There are a number of subplots in the movie, one which involves the son, played by Suniel Shetty, a struggling writer saddled with a suspicious wife; his niece whose boyfriend (Aftab Shivdasani), accidently consumes some drugs and starts hallucinating and lands up on the roof top in his underpants. Then there is Javed Jaffrey's character, who is saddled with a paralysed uncle (Prem Chopra). There are puns on popular TV shows and cricketers and the male characters in the movie seem to relish in stripping down to their underpants. Of course! This dysfunctional family manages to settle their differences and the curtains go down on a happy family.
Of the actors, Rajpal Yadav, Suniel Shetty and Javed Jaffery have given a sincere performances. All the other actors utterly wasted.
The film is a half baked effort.
Don’t waste your money on this one
Not to be rated.

Quick Gun Murugan

We’ve always had things to ridicule about the Rajnikant movies in the past with his super cool and super human ways of doing things. Well this may be the clear inspiration for this director to pen down a character straight from the Tamil 70 mm into the year 2009. Wow I must say that it’s a superb idea for a start.
He has worked with stereotypes and manages to impart an innovative touch to the entire process. The action, the character of the hero and the situations, are all so reminiscent of the cinema of the seventies and yet it is a film of our times. There is much laughter as he brings alive the mad world of Murugan. It is a clever, innovative effort which is bound to bring in a lot of laughs. The film is ridiculous and so is its premise and the laugh draws mainly from the serious approach of the protagonist to the ridiculous. I, mean, whoever heard of a dosa war? But it is a serious concern for the protagonist. This is a movie which really tickles your funny bone and how!
Quick Gun Murugan is a Tamilian cowboy and the movie deals with his adventures as he goes about trying to save the world His arch enemy is Rice Plate Reddy who is a non vegetarian and is out to try and create the best dosa in the world and hence has started kidnapping women who have the recipie for the perfect dosa. It's an all out war between Rice Plate and Murugan. Adding to the complications in Murugan's life is the presence of two women, one of who is his first love, played brilliantly by Anu Menon, whose character is called Locket Girl, while the second is the lissome Mango Dolly (Rambha). Torn as he is between these two women, Murugan struggles valiantly to do what is right and ethical in the situation. The battle between Murugan and Rice Plate is ultimately a war between the good and the evil. But the characters are so clichéd that one cannot help but laugh at how ridiculous they seem.
The outstanding thing about the movie is the manner in which it has been handled. This is a director who knows his subject well, is fully aware of what he is out to do and goes ahead and executes it brilliantly with hardly any slip up. The screenplay has been perfectly crafted, with full seriousness and it follows the trajectory of the kind of films that were very popular with the masses many years ago. However, instead of making the movie outdated, the treatment makes it contemporary and hilarious.
Even though the cast consists of many more recognizable Hindi film personalities like Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey and Sandhya Mridul, they are unable to take away the gloss from Prasad's performance. Rambha and Menon dig into their roles with real relish and are a treat to watch.
At the end of the day, Quick Gun Murugan is a clever take on the cliche ridden cinema of the seventies. Its mock-serious approach is bound to really go down well with the urban audience at least.
My Ratings : 3 stars.

Sikandar

Director Piyush Jha needs to be complimented for presenting the viewers the scenic beauty of Kashmir. Sikandar is not the usual film on terrorism at the very outset, when a kid kicks a football and a bomb explodes. Sikandar is a 14-year-old schoolboy in Kashmir. who ever since his parents were killed by militants 10 years back lives with his aunt and uncle.. One day, on his way home from a school football match
, Sikandar finds a gun lying on the path. Despite admonishments by his newly-made school friend, the 14-year-old Nasreen picks up the gun and thus begins a journey into the darker side of his nature. The quiet yet strong Nasreen becomes Sikandar's conscience keeper. She tries to dissuade him from giving in to the lure of the gun. He chooses to use it to threaten the bullies at school and to easily get out of every other uncomfortable situation. Soon, the gun becomes a part of his life and then a terrorist sees him as a ploy to bump off a former separatist leader (played by Sanjay Suri). Sikandar is promised a reward in return, which is why he agrees to do it. But Sikandar fails in his mission when Nasreen (his friend) comes between him and his target. Now, the terrorist makes sure that he gets back to Sikandar, and there comes an unwanted twist in the story which apparently takes the film to a completely different genre.

The film appeared to be quite different and sensitive with its human-interest angle in the beginning, but lost all the appeal as it started becoming more of a suspense thriller. This is perhaps why ‘Sikandar’ seems to be just another film set against the backdrop of terrorism in Kashmir. The first half of the movie seems interesting but loses its charm and interest in the second half.
This is not a bad film but a better justice to the screenplay could have made it better than what it looks.
My Ratings : 2 stars.

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Sikandar

Kaminey

Daan-ta-Daannnnnnnnnnnn…. .Oh boy!! Vishal Bharadwaj is a rare talent in bollywood. He proved his caliber with Omkara and now with Kaminey. What makes this movie special is the fact that the story of the film is very basic. But the way Vishal has cracked the story telling part is truly superb. It’s about how a set of twin brothers who cannot stand each others site, cross each others paths in life and eventually help each other. Shahid Kapoor or as he says Fahid Kapoor lisps where the other Shahid stammers. One of them is a Ram and the other is a Ravan who is surrounded by baddies in his life. He dreams of owning his own horse race booking counter for which he doesn’t mind taking a short cut to success. The Good fellow works for an NGO that supports the use of condoms but he himself does not follow the act and gets his love interest pregnant due to this Hmmmmm. The scene involving a steamy kiss between the two is followed by an abortion centre where Piggy chops manages to convince Shahid to marry him. She also reveals that she is the sister of the Bhope Bhau , who happens to hate Uttar Bhartiyas as he himself is a Maharastrian..
Charlee the bad Shahid in a normal todd- phood session with a rival gets his hands on a guitar which happens to contain drugs worth 10 crores. This is where the cops arrest the Good Shahid (guddu) and Bhope bhau ends up catching hold of Charlee. ….Confusing I guess. But the way the characters are defined makes each scene very interesting be it the character of Mikhyle ,Tashi or Lobo and Lele the corrupt Inspectors..
The climax is the best handled in this script which could have taken it to a very lousy affair. The movie has a lot of blood and dead bodies for the light hearted but the soul of the movie is the background score of Daan ta daan which keeps you at the edge of the seat. Shahid has given his best ever performance after Jab we met while Piggy chops has hammed a lot. The surprise package was Amol Gupte who played Bhope bhau has given Mahesh Manjrekar a run for his money. Worth a watch buddy…..
My ratings; Three stars.

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Kaminey

Aagyat-The Unknown

Mr Ram Gopal Verma you need to pay me back the money that I have paid for the cinema ticket. Aagyat is seriously more than a disaster. The RGV slobs have made mockery of the movie THE PREDATOR. Here again the killer in the jungle is an invisible creature; possibly an alien. A film crew decides to shoot their movie in an jungle where this RGV Predator kills almost all of them except for the Hottie Nisha Kothari ….sorry her name is changed to Priyanka Kothari and a new boy (sorry did not get his name).who plays an Assistant Director of that crew. The location used in this movie is a jungle in Srilanka and is extremely photogenic. This is the only cool part of the movie also not to forget the super hot scene where Miss Kothari does a yoga session wearing hot pants.
Well as the movie moves on, the crew gets killed one by one without revealing the form of the killer till the end of the movie. I expected Ramu to at least do justice to the climax but guess what he is a psycho to the core. He has not revealed the killer at all instead the climax ends with the Text COMING SOON on the screen. Now common Ramu you need to understand that people have paid money to watch a movie and not a subscription pack of movies or a television serial.
I am very disappointed with UTV motion pictures that they are associated with a lousy RAMU who has lost it.
Well My ratings are minus five stars

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Agyaat

Love Aaj Kaal

Here comes the movie from a brand new production house. Finally Saif joins the other Khan's in becoming a producer. He has really put in a lot of effort with this Movie which is very evident on screen. Love Aaj Kaal is a love story that is based on comparisons drawn between the lovers of yester years with the new generation. The theme of the movie is that you fall in love only once and hence you need to put your heart and soul to make that relationship happen. Saif plays a brat who meets Deepika in london and fall for each other within the first 2 mins of the start of the movie. The editing pattern is too intelligent for the audiences confusing them between the past and the present. The chemistry between Deepika and Saif looks very refreshing and believe me the age difference which is about 22 years is just not visible. They both have really complemented each other to a great extent. As the story progresses they both mutually split to achieve their goals in life. This is where Rishi Kapoor steps in Saif's life and explains him the importance of Love in his life. He narrates his own experience to make him realize that Deepika is the best suited gal for him and he must get her back in life. Now here's the goof up which the movie suffers, instead of taking an another actor to play the young Rishi kapoor , the director Imtiaz has instead made Saif Ali play the character of Young Rishi Kapoor. Good God!!!.
Saif here is shown as a Sardar from Delhi who falls for a gal that is getting married to someone else. He sets the example for the other Saif by ensuring that he does not give up on her and finally gets married with the same Gal. But the new Saif lets deepika get married to Rahul Khanna and finally realizes after one year of their marriage that he should have not let her go with him. Boy now that's a brain dead concept.
All in all Saif has actually given a very decent performance and Deepika looks very average in this movie. Rishi Kapoor had very little scope to showcase his talent but we find Neetu Singh at the end of the movie serving tea to him.
Well i would not recommend this one to anybody
My rating : One and a half star.

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Love Aaj Kal

Sankat City

I know the title of this movie can make you think that this is a New shopping Mall launched in the city. But thats not the case. This is a story where the money exchanges so many hands and finally rests with someone who anticipates it the least.
Anupam kher plays a DON money lender who has too many creditors in his list who play the central characters of the script. Yashpal Sharma and Manoj Pahawa sail in the same boat where they both owe money to the big Goon. They decide to sell and buy a plot of land for Rs 2 crores which would help them out of their troubles. KK Menon plays a conman who does small time choris to fill his and his pet fishes stomachs. Rimi Sen looks Hot in this movie and has actually managed to act well compared to her previous movies. I attribute this to her bengali dialogs for the same. She helps KK in getting the money to payoff Anumpam Kher. Kher has not managed to convince as a Bad guy infact her almost looks too cute for this character.
Over all the story is interesting but in the later part of the second half the boredom sinks in. Especially the scene where KK and Rimi are trying to find 2 crores in a garbage dump.
Worth a watch however.
My Ratings.: 2 stars

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Sankat City

Kambakht Ishq:

Eheeew......Akshay Kumar Please do me a favour. The Time has come for you to realize that if you appreciate Aamir Khan for his choice of Movies and his judgement on scripts then please emulate at least 10% of the act.
I saw Welcome....some how Tolerated Singh is Kinng, almost threw my shoe on Chandi chok to China and now Kambakht Ishq.
AK plays a Woman Hater while Bebo plays a male hater. It is amusing to see the two clash.
Akshay’s character Viraj does reveal later that his bark is worse than his bite and this could be one reason why Bebo changes her mind about him. Viraj however is shown true to his character and falls for Bebo only when he sees her soft side.Javed Jaffrey is good. He plays a small comic role as a bystander who cons people into thinking that they have done him harm just so that he can sue them. I found his expressions very funny, even though his role is an absurd one. Akshay Kumar looks tired in many of the shots but Kareena looks fresh. They sizzle on screen, although their so-called romantic scenes seemed absurd and artificial. Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards and Brandon Routh were there for nothing. A total waste. Amrita Arora looks attractive. Aftab Shivdasani gives an average performance.This film is not to be taken seriously, and perhaps that is why I didn’t hate it. I actually smiled in some parts, despite myself.
My Rating: 2 stars

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Kambakht Ishq

Terminator Salvation:

This movie has made me realize what can lack of star power do to a movie. Most importantly i never thought that there would be any other sequel made post the Rise of Machines coz there was a Global level destruction indicated with Machines going for the Nuke war. But hey there were many survivors who still made it till Salvation. The head quarter of the human beings fighting for their survivors is deep down the sea in a Submarine. They plan a mass destruction of the machines by formulating a Code which disables their ability to work. The head of the troup is John Connor who is now shown as a really tough guy who values his existance in the black world. Then there is a character who is half human and half machine (reveled only after second half) who extends his help to the Human beings. Its simply boring to know that this plot was almost lacking any sort of exciting action sequences and made me Yawn most of the Time.
Really a waste of Time.
My Rating : Half Star.

Ice Age 3:

I loved part 1 but part 2 was not as i had expected. And here comes part three which is actually nice.
I watched the 3D version of this movie and would recommend that u do the same. The Dawn of the dinos as the name suggests has the Giant introduced. The Elephant couple is expecting their baby in this movie. The Lion seems to be a bit dejected with his hunting skills and hence quits the gang. Sam on the other hand feels that he too needs to move on in life and finds three Dino eggs to parent. Later the eggs hatch and the mother Dino snatches the Eggs and Sam to her Jungle. This leads the heard to find Sam and they enter the Jurassic Park which is an unknown land below the Ice. The writers of the movie have given a lot of time in making sure that ur smile and laughter is maintained thru out the movie. Also there are so many cute moments like the birth of the young baby Elephant makes the screen light up.
This one is a great movie and a must must watch
My rating : 4 stars

New York

Kudos Kabir Khan . This one was surely expected after the caliber was judged in Kabul Express. He has ensured that the message which is very non commercial in nature actually gets delivered with a touch of Bollywoodish malasa.
Its a gripping thriller which gets to the point right away. The American Mentality post 9/11 has been demonstrated where there have been so many suspects who have been detained without lack of concrete evidence. John has delivered his career best performance. Katrina looks hot and the twang suits her character in the movie. However NEil has not lived up to his expectation. The movie failed to get a good start but post where Irrfan Khan integrogates the suspect and makes the scene look a big boring. But the second half of the movie is SUPERB as is the Climax.......Its a Must watch
My Rating : 3 and 1/2 stars

Powered by: Chakpak.com	New York

99

Sorry folks this review comes after a long time , well i was told by 99 people almost 99 times each to avoid watching this movie. But hey this one is not as bad as i assumed. 99 is one of those Bollywood flicks which has an original flavour as well as the HATKE appeal. Its a story based out of the year 1999 and hence gets the said title. Kunal Khemu and Cyrus play SIM card hackers who earn their living by duping people and making a quick buck when one fine day their racket is busted and they land up in Mahesh Mangrekar's lap. Mahesh plays a Vasooli Don who hires the services of these two to join as recovery agents. The story moves to the backdrop of Delhi where the duo (Kunal & Cyrus) go to catch hold of Bomman Irani who is one of the listed defaulters on Mangrekar’s list.
Bomman plays a Forex agent who is addicted to all sorts of gambling and is caught up in deep shit debts that keep crawling into his personal space. Khemu and Cyru while on their recovery mission meet a typical delhi gal Soha who works in the same hotel where these 2 are put up. She has lost a lot of weight and looks stunning in this movie dressed in formals in most of the frames. The story moves at a not so fast pace and revolves around Bomman , Kunal and Cyrus . Vinod Khanna plays a cameo who resembles Vijay Malya (UB Head) is Bommans gambling competitor tips him about the match on which he wants him to bet. Bomman takes the help of Cyrus Khemu and win the bet eventually.
Well this is where the climax comes in and discloses that it is the same match where the famous Hansie Conje Match fixing scandal issue popped up…..Yawwwwwn
Over all I believe that this is surely a very different movie with a superb performance by Bomman …….and only Bomman. Khemu and Cryus have given a fair try and I am sure that Cyrus was not given a any sort of a dialog script coz he is as witty as ever.
My Rating for this movie is ***

Powered by: Chakpak.com	99

Tasveer 8 X 10

Akshay Kumar has finally done something different after many years .i.e a serious role. I was kinda not sure whether he would stop doing the comic stuff but he has managed to pull this one of decently. Tasver is a plot where the main lead Akshay has a gift of picture prediction. He peeps into the past by observing the image of the person and comes out with the hidden secrets that let to the circumstances. The cinematography is truly very Hollywood and is extremely refreshing to see the beauty of Canada.

Ayesha Takia plays his love interest and manages to look not as glamorous as she normally does.

Javed Jaffery plays a special investigating COP and has added the comic presence with a Hyderabadi flavour. His presence on screen was superb but I some how felt that after the interval there was not much scope for him anyways.

The story goes back and forth many a times with Akshay kumar trying to crack the mystery of his Dad’s death. He has to cross check each and every character again and again not face to face but by peeping into the photograph that his mother (Sharmila Thagore) had clicked just before his death on the boat.

The movie moves very slowly and has not managed to keep the viewer at the edge of the seat. However the climax was truly unexpected and almost made me believe that this one could have been handled differently. It happens to be Aky’s twin bro who is behind all the killings and that completely put me off. I thought that they could have spiced up the script with a Split personality concept making it more realistic. But that’s how our bollywood movies are made.

Akshay has tried really hard to make his character look convincing but I some how feel that his serious role effort was not half as good as his comic timing.

Surely a one time watch to see a HATKE movie this summer.

My ratings : **

Powered by: Chakpak.com	8 x 10 Tasveer

Aloo Chat

It seemed like i have ruined my weekend & instead of Watching Aloo Chat i would have been better off Eating Aloo Chat .....
For starters i am not a Aftab appreciator and hence was anticipating a crap movie anyways .But my assumptions certainly came true. Its the modern version of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Kisi say na kehna the 1983 flick staring Farooq Sheikh, Dipti Naval and Upal Dutt. The plot is completly picked from there with some tweaks and a Delhi based background. Here Aftab replaces Farooq and Manoj Pahawa does a Sayeed Jaferry. The movie starts off with a flashback mode along with the Irritating Manoj Pahawa who plays a Narrator or as we call a Sutradhar who keeps talking about his past with this family that was not willing to accept a Musim daughter in law and hence he and the lover boy Aftab decide to have a US brat roleplay his love interest and try to venomize their thoughts against Firangs and show some soft corner for the Muslim girl instead.
Amna Sharif i thought looked far far better in the TV mode but was not looking half as good on the 70 mm. May this could be attributed to the very desi look and some incompetent make up.
She has a long way to go to prove her self in bollywood. Aftab performance was very average not stamping any grip in the script or the screenplay.
I kept yawning most of the time until the Interval and was wondering should i leave the hall.
I would not recommend this movie AT ALL.

My Ratings : *

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Aloo Chaat

Barah Aana

Picture Chalo hone say pehlay Cinema Hall Say Bahar Aana.
Hera Pheri Minus Commercial cinema masala = Barah Aana.
This is the equation that comes to my mind after watching this movie. The director of this movie must be a brave man to have Mr Naserudin shah being completely wasted as a resource. The screenplay moves very slowly making the viewer feel bored.
Vijay Raaz plays a building watchman who has done a fairly decent job and brings some respite to the very bland script. The new actor (sorry could not catch him name) has failed to impress me coz i could not make out his character or his scope in this movie. Naseer has only spoken for about 15 mins in the entire movie.
My conclusion here is that though the script was very promising and could have been made very interesting the dialogs and the screenplay lacked some serious effort in making this half as appealing to the audience. I Loved naseer bhai performance in A WeDNESday but i must say he could have possibly avoided doing this movie.
my Ratings : *

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Barah Aana

Firaaq

Imagine a graveyard where there are only 2 people working in the middle of an afternoon where there are more than 100 Riot affected dead bodies lying to be buried. And suddenly a Dumper truck comes to this place and drops 100 more dead bodies to be buried just like a Cement truck dumps cement on a construction site. This is the first scene of this movie which really shook me to the core. I had so many expectations from this start.... but but but all my thrills were short lived as the movie took off.
The Gujrat riots is the back drop of this movie where how the life of the people especially the muslim community was affected due to the gruesome events. There are many characters in the movie and BOY all of them are HUGE heavy weights of the Film Industry. Paresh Raval and Dipti naval play a Gujrati couple where the house is dominated by a husband and the wife is a traumatized lady after seeing the riots. Paresh has absolutely no sympathy for the Musilim community and shows signs of a fanatic as well. One thing is for sure that if you are not familiar with Gujrati then the impact of these scenes would not hit you as much as if you understand the language. Sanjay Suri and Tisca Chopra play a Muslim couple who belong to the higher strata of the society but are shit scared after the riots and decide to move out of the city. Sanjay's role was too good and so was his performance which actually stood out in the movie.
The most boring scenes in the movie are whenever naseerudin shah comes on the 70 mm. His dialog delivery makes you feel sick and wonder when will he ever disappear from the screen. The role played by a 5 year old boy is unbelievable. His expressions were so natural and i give the credit for this to the cinematographer for capturing them so correctly. Especially the scene where he interacts with Dipti Naval in the Kitchen. The script was very strong and Nandita Das you surely have loads of talent but execution of the same is also extremely critical or else the end product would be as disappointing as FIRAQUE. Not to mention i also loved the performance of Shahana goswami who plays a downtrodden muslim lady who faces the aftermath of the Riots. She maintains the kind of sincerity which makes me believe that this lady has very bright future. I would not recommend this movie unless you are an ART movie magnet.
My Ratings: *1/2

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Firaaq

Gulal

It’s Holi and film maker Anurag Kashyap is back with Gulaal this time. The movie would see a nationwide release on March 13. The movie is based on the current political system of the country.

Though, in last couple of years we saw a number of movies based on the political system, such as Gangajal, Mrityudand etc. Each and every time directors based their movies in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh but this time, Anurag has come up with a Rajasthan based movie.

Colors reflects mood, be it emotional, political or whatever and the Gulaal showcases all. It’s a socio-political film that tells a story of about the member of an erstwhile royal family who stakes claim to his land in Rajasthan and wants to return to the days of royalty.

There are certain values in the film like love, power, deceit, greed and politics. Menon plays one of the protagonists called Dukey Bana, who masterminds a Rajputana movement in order to have a separate state ruled by Rajputs.

The story of the movie revolves around Dilip Singh (Raj Singh Chaudhary) a member of a royal family, comes to Rajpur to study law. In the college he is soon embroiled into local politics. The local kingpin Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon) compels Dilip to contest in the college elections makes him win. Later they plan for a revolution, challenging the democracy.

No doubt, Anurag Kashyap is a master story teller. He’s perfect behind the camera and has got power to nurture all his characters according to his wish. As the story progresses promptly you are bound to stick to the chair waiting for another sensational shot by the director. The movie was written by Raj Singh Chaudhary, Aparna Chaturvedi and Anurag Kashyap itself. It’s a narration of an incident, as a I said earlier that Anurag Kashyap is a master story teller, he never let break of the story. Actors are good on their part. Kay Kay Menon, who played the protagonist (who plans the revolution against the democracy), is indeed a bold actor.

Cinematographer Rajeev Ravi uses red-pink frames to light up scenes to the Gulaal symbolism, at the same time, Piyush Mishra has written some really nice lines for the movie. It can be said the use of poignant poetry while penning the provoking lyrics. Aarti Bajaj’s editing is effective enough.

My Rating :***

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Gulaal

Jai Veeru

This has to be the 'Most Atrocious' movie of the year so far. I mean, it's nice to have those 'leave your brains behind films' where sometimes the maker does entertain you through his product, but this here is plain foolish. I get a feeling that someone wanted to rewrite his account books before the year ending and invested a lot of money to produce this absolute no-brainer! At least some losses could be accounted for. Like the wily producers (Paresh Rawal and Kunal Khemu) in DHOONDTE REH JAAOGE (released last week), who set out to produce a flop film. It's a pity they could not lay their hands on this script, considering Kunal is part of this venture.
My Ratings: bakwas

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Jai Veeru

Dhoondte Reh Jaoge

Call it creative bankruptcy or just another take on creativity. Whichever way you look at it, you cannot help but come out smiling from the theatres. Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge is one such exercise, which I dare say, is not futile. At least it conforms to the basic requirement of cinema, that to entertain. And entertain it does in huge doses. If you are looking to lighten your mood, backed with 'recession rates' at multiplexes, this movie will definitely give you your fix.

It's a spoof all right, but not slapstick comedy. Director Umesh Shukla (who has also written the screenplay) has mixed five hit movies and topped it with the situation of a failed producer who owes his investors huge amount of money. The movie also takes a dig, albeit lovingly, at the workings in the industry with anyone and everyone being qualified to direct a movie. ''He will learn as he makes films along the way,'' says Paresh Rawal's character, Raj Chopra, of his selection of a masseur as a director of his enterprise, which he hopes will flop big time.
My Ratings: **

Powered by: Chakpak.com	Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge

13B

Actor Madavan serioulsly needs to chalk his career now. His performance has not been the best in both Mumbai meri jaan as well as the lasted flick 13B. The story is about a family that moves into a new house that is supposedly haunted (i did not think so). The plot seems to be very interesting but the choppy camera work and jarring edits make the screenplay look very ordinary. Especially the lift situations where Maddy the lil brother spends a lot of time.
The characters have not really done any sort of justice to the script and make me believe that the casting director must have been sleeping while doing this job. Neetu chandra again makes a super flop appearance and her stake in bollywood is now very unstable.
The TV characters apprantly have done a much better job than the actualy ones . But there was a point where i serioulsly was laughing my butt out when the police inspector friend was hamming on the screen. All in All this is a movie that you are better off not watching in case you are expecting a horror flick.
My rating for this movie *1/2

Powered by: Chakpak.com	13B

Elections 09

The most awaited hype of the decade is almost here.
The country is surrounded by unstable neighbors yet our screwedup politicians have their acts still not in place. Mulayam bribing people was the most shameful of such acts.
The country needs the younger generation to seriously act in the correct direction and step up to save the nation.