Welcome

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Paresh Rawal & Mallika Sherawat
Producer: Firoz A. Nadiadwala
Director: Aneez Bazmee

Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar), Majnu (Anil Kapoor) and their boss, Sikander (Feroz Khan), three Hong Kong-based serio-comic mobsters, are keen to get their sister Sanjana (Katrina Kaif) married into a respectable family.

Uday, upon a chance meeting with a handsome bachelor, Rajiv (Akshay Kumar), is convinced that the latter would be an appropriate match for Sanjana. However, Rajiv’s uncle, Dr. Ghunghroo (Paresh Rawal) does not approve of his nephew’s association with a dubious family.

Meanwhile, Sanjana, unaware of her brothers’ contrivances, meets Rajiv on a cruise and the two fall in love. She has the acceptance of Dr. Ghunghroo, who doesn’t realize that she is the sister of the Mafia.

When Dr. Ghunghroo realizes his faux pas he tries escaping the fury of the brothers. Hilarity ensues as each of the diametrically different brothers begins engaging in smart and engagingly comic stunts to get the uncle to agree to the alliance.
This fall-down funny comedy takes another turn when a stunning bomb (Mallika Sherawat) who claims to be Rajiv’s fiancée shows up on the scene and adds to the commotion and mayhem.

From the producers of “Hera Pheri” and “Phir Hera Pheri”, the director of “No Entry” and the distributors of “Jab We Met”, this mega Christmas release boasts of lavish locales, chartbusting music (Himesh Reshammiya, Sajid-Wajid, Anand Raj Anand) and major star power; all making it the biggest knockabout comic caper of 2007.

Showbiz - The dark side of fame

Cast : Tushar Jalota, Sourabh Shukla, Sachin Khedekar, Shilpi Arora, Mrinalini Sharma, Sushant Singh, Jatwant Wadkar, Ehsaan Khan, Gulshan Grover, Delnaazz Paul, Puneet Vashishth, Amin Hajee.
Music : Lalit Pandit
Produced By : Mukesh Bhatt
Directed By : Raju Khan

They are the providers of voyeuristic materials from india’s glitz and glamour scene. Our appetite for gossip and revealing photos of our favorite stars drive their industry. They seem to never sleep.

Hunters who trail their prey-the show business elite-at all hours of the day and night. They are the paparazzi and their weapons of choice-high powered zoom lenses.

They are as much a part of page 3 events as are the bright lights and red carpets,And their photos can make or break a career.

Rohan seems to have it all: a dream career, a beautiful girlfriend and everything else one would want. Life seemed as though it couldn’t be better. But his newfound fame comes with a price.
For rising superstar Rohan Arya, the paparazzi is at first an annoyance, then an ever-disturbing presence. But when they threaten his safety,it will be the last mistake they ever make.

He’s become a target of a team of four paparazzi bent on making Rohan fodder for the tabloids and when they stumble upon a sensitive nerve, all hell breaks loose.

Rohan has been on the lookout for a prostitute called Tara. When he finally find her, the paparazzi trap Rohan and Tara in a high speed chase that ends in a terrible accident and leaves Tara in a coma. The media frenzies with news of Rohan’s accident with a prostitute in his car.Rohan seeks vengeance. But why? What connection does this prostitute have with Rohan?

Rohan is at a crossroad.Does he take the law into his own hands or does he get served justice by the law? Does he succeed in exposing the ugly side of the media or does the paparazzi get away this time too?

Rama Rama Kya Hai Drama

Cast: Neha Dhupia, Rati Agnihotri, Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav, Aashish Chaudhary, Amrita Arora
Director: Chandrakant Singh

This comedy revolves around three married couples - Prem (Ashish Chaudhary) and Khushi (Amrita Arora), Santosh (Rajpal Yadav) and Shanti (Neha Dhupia) and Mr and Mrs Khurana (Anupam Kher and Rati Agnihotri).

Santosh is in search of a 'husband-abiding' wife who will listen attentively and obey all his orders.

He gets married to Shanti, a small town girl but later finds that she is not the one for him.As their relationship gets difficult, Santosh starts day dreaming about other women.

There is also a problem with Prem and Khushi's marriage. Khushi is too demanding and bossy.

How Santosh and Prem realise the importance of their respective wives through life's small experiences forms the crux of this comic caper.

Sunday

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Ayesha Takia, Arshad Warsi, Irfan
Director: Rohit Shetty

Sunday is a Bollywood film revolving around Sehar (Ayesha Takia), a girl who is unable to remember a particular Sunday in her life.

She begins to investigate the mystery of what actually happened on the Sunday she has lost all recollection of.

Sehar's (Ayesha Takia) world is soon turned upside down when she finds a clue about the missing Sunday of her life. But the evidence shockingly points to a possible violent attack on her.Onto the scene enters police inspector Rajveer (Ajay Devgan) who takes up the responsibility of sorting out the complicated and jumbled up threads of Sehar's life.

As Rajeev's investigation intensifies, it comes to light that on that particular Sunday, each and every person who interacted with Sehar is a prime suspect.

These include Ballu (Arshad Warsi), the taxi driver and his friend Kumar (Irrfan Khan), a struggling actor.

There is also Ritu (Anjana Sukhani) her close friend who is a suspicious character residing in Sehar's society.Inspired by a Telugu movie, Anukokunda Oka Roju, Sunday, has two special song and dance sequences.

One musical dance number is performed by Esha Deol whilst the other is performed by Tusshar Kapoor.

Directed by Rohit Shetty of Golmaal fame, Sunday reveals all the twists and turns in hilarious fashion

Coffee House

Cast: Ashutosh Rana, Sakshi Talwar, Aman Dhaliwal, Neha Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee, Vinod Nagpal, Javed Khan, Paintal
Director: Gurbir Singh Grewal
Rating: *

This is actually turning out to be too bad to be true! Week after week, audiences are being subjected to some terrible movies. Now add "Coffee House" to the list.

I have some questions for the filmmakers: Did you really feel that you would be able to find an audience for a movie like this, which not only has a dry subject but a boring narrative? And what is the relevance of a title like "Coffee House"?

Typically, a film takes some time to establish its characters, begin a story and generally ends with some conclusion. In case of "Coffee House", you don't get to see any highs or lows.

It is one flat narrative that stays the same way from start to finish. You see multiple stories running parallel, something which started with "Yuva" and ever since then has been seen in films like "Life In A Metro", "Salaam-e-Ishq", "Hat Trick" and most recently "Firaaq".

In the case of "Coffee House", you get to see the story of Ashutosh Rana who is an idealist and wants to change the socio-economic situation of the country through his newspaper and street plays.



Then, there is a small team led by Vrajesh Hirjee that aims at being desi Robin Hoods by robbing the rich of their wealth. A quartet of senior citizens have their own problems to solve while a couple, which is in a live-in relationship, sees this crumbling right in front of their eyes.

With so many stories running parallel, there had to be some portion of the film that could have been entertaining. However, nothing of that sort happens and you keep wondering where exactly the film is heading.

If this wasn't enough, there is a communal angle that comes in towards the interval, something that diverts the proceedings. Suddenly, Ashutosh Rana gets all charged up, starts delivering fiery speeches, begins a revolution and in no time you find a nationwide protest taking place. Now where did this one come from?

This is hardly a coffee worth sipping even in your house. Just ignore it completely, it isn't worth your time.

Haal-e-Dil

Starring:Amita Pathak, Nakuul Mehta, Adhyayan Suman
Rating: *

A bespectacled 'serious' girl on a rigged rail yatra. She seems to have borrowed her demeanour from Kajol in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Preity Zinta in Kal Ho Na Ho.

You know, studious bookish and grumpy…It takes the exuberant won't-take-no-for-an-answer stranger on the train played by new comer Nakuul Mehta to draw the prissy missy our of her frigid emotionalism. This girl is waiting to be liberated. Kaaton se khinch key eh aanchal.

Enter our modernday Raju Guide with more on his mind than melodious music (considering the sporific quality of the songs, he has no choice). He thinks babbling non-stop is a symptom of joie de vivre. Just because extra-volubility suited Kareena in Jab We Met. I tell you!

Helping the couple to come together is a train compartment filled with stereotypes including one over-acting Bengali housewife (Bharti Achrekar), a kindly ticket collector (who behaves as if he just saw Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met and of course Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Ltd and learnt his etiquettes in station mastery from them ) dancing-singing beggars (in newly –stitched ghagra-cholis) and yes, Ajay Devgan and Kajol who clap a few beats at a railway platform and beat a hasty retreat.
So, I am afraid, should we. Before we swear off romantic film forever.This tedious transperantly derivate romance chugs on and on with no respite in sight. The songs are like opium for the snoring masses. Dope in drag.

As some relief in this snail rail trail, in flashbacks newcomer Adhyayan Suman shows up as the bespectacled girl's college lover-boy. He has a sweet sincere presence and should have had more to do in this loco- motivated talkathon shot most on the train parked at Kamalistan studios.

The least you do in a travel film is to make the transportation and the locations look authentic.

Director Anil Devgan makes this one purely an exercise in self-indulgence for matronly spinsters who still think Prince Charming is a artificially exhilarated dude in designer togs giving everyone in the compartment and in the audience a gala time.

Or so he'd like to believe.

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Amisha Patel
Director: Kunal Kohlil
Rating: ***

TPTM is not a great work of art. It makes you feel warm and comforted about the... Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (TPTM) is not a great work of art. It doesn't cause ripples of revolution across the cinematic stratosphere.It does something even better.

It makes you feel warm and comforted about the quality of contemporary life. No matter how awful things seem, there's always that core of goodness in the human heart to count on.

This one makes you count your blessings.

Kunal Kohli taps that noble core, so elusive in our cinema. The last film which was as nobly-intended as TPTM was Ashutosh Gowariker's Swades. And Gowariker for all his acute sensitivity and storytelling acumen was awfully out of breath dealing with the child actor in Swades.

Kohli is delightly at-ease with his four child actors who have been selected not for their overt cuteness but their propensity to play the characters that they're allotted with restrain and understanding.

Each of the four brats, forced by law to come and live with the man who accidently killed their parents, sparkle with a spontenous credibility. Kohli treats the kids as young adults.

And he treats the audience wuth as much respect. He gives us what we apparently want (emotions, laughter, drama). But he makes sure his plot doesn't become a slave to conventional prescriptions.

It's not easy to desist from using a patronizing tone for the children when they are orphans trapped in an adult situation that they don't understand.
Kohli does a fantasy-spin where the sassy and spiffy words and storytelling offset the quaint arcadian story of the four orphans and a cantankerous tycoon who we soon discover is constantly unhappy on account of a girlfriend who only talks about designer clothes and Sunita Menon.

For enlightened conversation he must turn to a poker- faced butler (Razzak Khan), a business associate on the webcam (who talks in an indeterminate accent) and later the four children who are forced on his life along with a god-sent angel who infuriates him by constantly laughing in his face.

More than Mary Poppins Kunal Kohli is inspired by the Sound Of Music…and I don't mean what Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have created on the soundtrack.

Saif's ceaseless scowl could well be a spillover from what Christopher Plummer wore as a passion statement way back in the 1960s in the Roger & Hammerstein musical.

And Rani Mukherjee could be a desi Julie Andrews popping out of a cottony heaven run by a 'God' who looks a lot like Rishi Kapoor.

The idyllic theme often takes off into a realm of commodious fantasy with children prancing with animals, both real and computerized, in what could happily be seen as a modernday interpretation of Gulzar's Parichay.

TPTM leaves you with a feeling of warmth and wellbeing. TPTM is an all's-well-with-the-world anthem on celluloid sung at a pitch that pointedly avoids the higher notes and scales some sweet tender octaves in tones that sound like paens to heaven.

More than anything else TPTM bowls you over its nobility of purpose. Though inured in the condensed milk of human kindness the narration never plummets into becoming an occasion to flaunt some jaundiced utopia.