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.

Love Story 2050

Starring: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Dalip Tahil, Archana Puran Singh, Harsh Varisth, Mehzabin Sarela and others
Screenplay: Harry Baweja, Rowena Baweja
Music: Annu Malik
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Director: Harry Baweja
Ratings: **1/2

It’s a beautiful dream for those who love living in the dreamlands only; but what about the audience who are quite bored with repetitive Bollywoody love stories!

Karan Oberoi (Harman Baweja) is the only son of famed businessman Mr. Oberoi (Dalip Tahil). Karan is not happy with his father as because his father is more interested in cars, business and achievement than his only son.

Being very lonely and having the thought in mind that his unfortunate accidents would bring no loss to anyone, Karan always prefers to play with danger.

In the course of the mundane story, Karan meets Sana (Priyanka Chorpa) and for obvious reasons (love, I mean to say) they decide on getting married. And here comes the twist. Sana meets an accident and she dies leaving Karan all alone.

On the other hand the Love Story has Karan’s uncle, Dr. Yatinder Khanna (Boman Irani), who by profession is a scientist. Dr. Khanna has been working on a time machine for last fifteen years so that he can poke into the future to how the things will change (obviously).
Karan meets Dr. Khanna and recapping Sana’s dream about entering the year 2050, they go to the year 2050 with the time machine.

Entering the future Karan comes to know that Sana is now the best rock-star of the world living in Mumbai and is named as Zaisha. Ultimately Karan succeeds in getting his love, Sana alias Zaisha, back to the present with the help of QUTY and BOO, two robotic dolls taking care of Zaisha.

Harry Baweja has beautifully taken care of direction as well as the story but at some places the story becomes little slow.

Music and lyrics of the film looks nice but at the same time it appears little difficult to say that songs will look something like that with flying cars in the year 2050. Priyanka has worked well in accordance with her character.

Whether Harman’s resemblance with Hrithik is a bane or boon is a quiz immaterial but his impact on the screen is quite impressive. Boman Irani has depicted his character quite well. Archana Puran Singh looks good in her character of Priyanka’s mother.

The first part of the film is based on the love story between Priyanka and Harman and the funny thing is the second part of the film is also based on their love story. The only difference is the second part happens in the year 2050.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

Starring: Imran Khan, Genelia
Written & Directed by: Abbas Tyrewala
Rating: ***

A blessed week at the movies. If this week we get Harman Baweja as the full filmy package of an all-rounder, we also get Imran Khan…Fesh - faced original and possessing a natural screen presence that immediately connects him with the audience.

Abbas Tyrewala's directorial debut has a certain sparkling spirit, a zest for living life quirk-sized and a certain zing thing about the way the characters look at life and love.

It's not only about the way the characters' exuberant yearnings connect with the audience. It's also about the casual free-flowing downloading of events and dialogues in the narrative that give the characters an edge over other urbane youngsters who have come and gone in the past creating a spirit of lingering joie de vivre.

The bunch of collegians here take their cues from Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai, Rakeysh Mehra's Rang De Basanti and even Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Echoes from these iconic youth -films fill out the outer edges of the 'cool' canvas creating for the characters at-hand a sense of wondrous and informal perpetuity as they go from humorous heartbreak to sober selfrealization in a plot that accommodates both impulse and pre-meditated thought in a mix that is engaging endearing and fairly original in spite of the derivative echoes.

While the supporting cast of friends are both real and tangible, at the core of this romantic musical are Jai (Irfan Khan) and Aditi (Genelia) who are "best friends" in the coolest sense of the term.

Bantering bum-chums at the surface but sharing a much deeper bond underneath, all their friends can see that the twosome is made for each other.But they can't.

t's an exceedingly old formula for a romantic comedy given a fresh new spin by a storyteller who picks on moments from ordinary lives and converts them into a celebration of life and love.

Old songs (R.D Burman mainly) and new original music (A.R Rahman) coalesce with the minum fuss while Jai and Aditi's love story goes through several turns and twists until they arrive at that traditional end-game for romantic films: the grand reunion at the airport seconds before the girl is scheduled to take off for good.

The flurry is charming, though a little to selfconsciously designed at times.

Peep underneath. And you see the narration covering a lot of familiar ground.

The freshness lies in the way the characters respond to the familiar material often exceeding the domain created by the script.

Every actor pitches in at just the right volume of vivacity. There are stand-out supporting performances by Naseeruddin Shah (playing the hero Jai's dead father in a portrait), Ratna Pathak (superbly skilled as Jai's mom), Paresh Rawal (flawless as a boorish cop) and Arbaaz and Sohail Khan (as a couple of outlandish cowboys they supplant the believably urbane love story with a touch of the surreal).

Then there's Manjrai Phadnis as the hero's could-be love interest. Living in perpetual denial she thinks her embittered parents (Rajat Kapoor and Kitu Gidwani) actually love each other under the acrimony.

The characters never claim to be extraordinary in their desires. It's their ordinary dreams and down-to-earth desires which give the narration a spirited spin.

Mehbooba

Starring: Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan
Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali….oops, Afzal Khan
Rating: * ½

Manisha Koirala is the one reason why one would want to brave this prolonged homage to the cinema of Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

This one is a 3-hour long rag-carpet welcome to Sanjay Leela Bhansali Hum…Dil De Chuke Sanam. The plot, ambience, characters, music and even the interactive interludes between the main protagonists are all derived with lipsmacking relish from Bhansali's film.

Why, Mehbooba (no relation to Shakti Samanta's Mehbooba in 1977) even goes to Budapest where Bhansali shot the second-half of Hum….

Except, that Mehbooba goes to Budapest in the first-half and to the bustling screechy noisy food-laden haveli from the first-half of Bhansali's Hum… in the second-half.

Ho hum…. The melodies (if one may call them that) flit in and out like unwanted guests after every ten minutes of dialogue.

If the songs were sacrificed on the editing table, maybe—just maybe—Mehbooba would be more bearable in its old-world love triangle ambience of two brothers (one idealistic and lovelorn, the other unscrupulous and ever-libidinous) who fall for the same girl.
The meat of the métier goes to the majestic Manisha…Still resplendent and lovely no matter where and in what they put her, Manisha never fails to infuse a poetic aura to her character.

Fetchingly photographed by that wunder-lensman Ashok Mehta at times Manisha looks as incandescent as she did in Bhansali's Khamoshi: The Musical.

Alas, like this long-delayed film, Manisha too has gone through innumerable ups and downs in her career.

The inconsistencies in the narration are covered up with a lot of exterior gloss. To the director Afzal Khan's credit the film's scattered pastiche is woven into what can pretty much be described as a seamless 'yawn' about two men and a woman who should know better.

The sets and locations are opulent flamboyant and eye-catching. No subtlety is applied in the visuals or emotions. The song-and-dance numbers that come along with alarming rapidity are shot with an eye for unhampered opulence.

Kismat Konnection

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Juhi Chawla, Om Puri, Boman Irani, Vishal Malhotra, Himani Shivpuri, Haider Ali, Shehnaz Anand, Karnvir Bohra, Amit Varma, Dimple Sharma
Story: Rahila Mirza
Screenplay: Sanjay Chhel, Vibha Singh, Sai Kabir
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Director: Aziz Mirza
Rating :*1/2

Maybe there is on one in this world who doesn’t believe in kismet but for that single reason you can’t blame or over emphasize the issue of kismet. But the story of the film depicts little more.

Just like any other Bollywod flick, in this film also, Raj (Shahi Kapoor) and Priya (Vidya Balan) meet each other. But despite feeling love for each other the only thing they develop for each other is pure hatred.

But see the kismet connection hidden in such a chemistry which turns bad luck of Raj, who has been fighting for getting a better work for last five years in the field of Architecture, into a good one. Raj comes to his fortune teller Hassena Banu Jaan (Juhi Chawla) and describes everything to her.

Banu tells him that Priya is his lucky charm and for a better future he should always take her with him to wherever he goes for his job.

Raj agrees on it and takes Priya to a meeting with Batra & Gill, a company that wants to construct a shopping mall. But soon Raj comes to know that the proposed mall is going to be made by demolishing Priya’s community centre.

Priya helps Raj without having any idea about what’s going on. But as soon as Raj gets the project, the reality comes into open for Priya.

For the sake of love Raj proposes Gill (Om Puri) for building the combination of shopping mall and community center but Gill denies it.

At the end of the story Priya’s kismet helps Raj once again and Mr. Batra (Boman Irani), friend to Priya and partner of Batra & Gill, accepts Raj’s proposal of making the shopping mall beside the community centre.
Shahid must remember that audience’s expectation regarding his characters in films has touched the sky after the success of Jab We Met and he must accept films keeping that in mind only.

At the same time he must avoid playing the stereotype characters. On the other hand Vidya has tried her best to live the life of her character but unfortunately the character, especially her outfits, hasn’t suit her level best.

I guess she must not attempt this kind of characters. Juhi Chawla is excellent in the character of Hassena Bano but the lose bangle in her hand made audience think about possibilities that forced her wearing it.

Few scenes with Vidya made us realize like Juhi’s jewelries are put on Vidya. Om Puri and Boman Irani are good as usual. Himani Shivpuri proved with two scenes that character maybe small but it has to be strong. There is nothing to talk about other characters of the film.

Despite its length of 2 and half an hour, the film seemed longer and unusually slow. Aziz Mirza has chosen beautiful locations but he better has understood that beautiful locations cannot make beautiful films. Music and lyrics are not to the marks.

Expectations of watching a good film may drag a lot of audiences to the theatre but they better know in advance that the film has nothing extraordinary to offer the audience. People will surely fail to connect to the film, if not to the stars. - Rajnee Gupta

Bachna Ae Haseeno

Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone, Minissha Lamba
Directed by: Siddharth Anand
Rating: **

Let's get real. Commitment phobia is epidemic among 20-something urban yuppies and yummies specially in the metros.

Siddharth Anand, a pastmaster at depicting urban mores(Salaam Namaste, Tara Rum Pum) this time pulls out all stops to expose the suave urbane heel who cannot feel above the waist.

Raj (must Ranbir be called that every time?) is a man on a redemptive path.

That of course comes later, much later in this elaborate but tightly-edited and constantly- searching savvy and engaging comment on the prowling dude's demoniacal insensitivity towards girls who give him the chance to dance into their lives.

There's a 'salvage' grace in Ranbir's redemptive journey from cad to closet-saint who wants to set it right in the lives of the women he has wronged.

One of these scorned women makes him her glorified slave in scenic Capri. And boy, does Bipasha pull out all stops. The other hurt lady just makes him dance to a tortuous Bhangra tune in Amritsar. All's well that mends well.

Oh, well.

Playing the jerk with knee-jerk responses to love and sex can't come easily to any actor.

Ranbir Kapoor inadvertently turns the whole concept of romantic love as propagated by Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ)and its zillion spin-offs, on its head. Love now can easily be taken to bed. Though no one is thinking of sleep. Not the characters, not the audience.

The first episode with the starry-eyed Mahee(Minissha Lamba, suitably starry-eyed) is a rather diverting homage to Aditya Chopra's DDLJ.

That's a pretty auto-erotic thing to do considering Chopra's is this film's producer. But then, you win some when you try to be winsome.Ghar ka khana served up with affection is not unacceptable.
anbir Kapoor and Minissha are pretty much taken through the same Swiss terrain as Shah Rukh and Kajol in the earlier film. Even the circumstances created to bring them together can't be told apart.

Except that this boy-man is out to have a "good" time with the girl who lives in a bubble. Koi gham nahin.

There's a bit of Ken Ghosh's Ishq Vishq combined with a dash of Sajid Khan's Hey Babby here. You know the hero who gives the innocent naïve romantic girl a hard kick in her aas(I mean the Urdu word for hopes and dreams) will find his comeuppance. She shows up an hour later.

Some of the sassiest sauciest and smartest lines come in the second overture of this anti-romantic comedy when Ranbir, now 20-something and suitably hormone-driven courts and mates Bipasha Basu with ferocious intensity,

Ranbir has been there, done 'em all. He lives the characters to the 'jilt', swathes the character in the cruelly- cool quirks that make utter selfcentredness a fashion statement in contemporary societies.

One of the film's most stirring moments shows Bipasha sitting on steps of her marriage venue in her bridal finery waiting for her bridegroom to turn up, her mehndi getting washed in the rain. Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex & The City has been there.

A very Raj Kapoor thing to do in a film that's all about being cool and finally falling flat on one's face when Raj/Ranbir meets his match.

In more ways than 'won'.

Deepika Padukone as the statuesque but spunky cabbie in Sydney has the shortest feminine presence in this made-to-order Ranbir vehicle. She gets to mouth the best throwaway lines and to hit the philandering commitment-phobic hormone-driven hero where it hurts the most.

And we don't mean below the belt.

Director Siddharth Anand has the balls to show his hero as a man thoroughly exposed in his selfseeking egocentricity. Ranbir doesn't spare the character. He penetrates Raj's nervecentre and portrays him as a smoothtalking charlatan who's looking for trouble in shapely places.

Ranbir plays the Casanova with just the right dollops of dips and curves. The fact that he has already done it all in an abundant flourish in Saawariya doesn't take away from the sincerity of the performance.

God…Tussi Great Ho

Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Priyanka chopra
Rating: *

Who but a David Dhawan follower can turn Tom Shadyac's Bruce Almighty into 'Bruise The Almighty'.

This unintentional subverted farce insults God and humanbeings alike. It pretends to say something deep and indelible. It ends up being as profound as a bowl of soggy noodles staring at you for eadible nirvana.

Arguably one of the most botched-up comedies in recent times God, Tussi Great Ho takes us into territory that the Khan brothers Salman and Soahil have been together in David Dhawan's Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya.

The cartoon-like cat-and-mouse game between Salman and Sohail to get the perky pretty Priyanka's attentions is completely devoid of zing despite the familiar ring, though admittedly Sohail who's rapidly emerged as one of our most delightful comic actors(see him in Salaam-e-Ishq, Main PyarKyun Kiya and now this and watch him give Bade Bhai a run for his money) takes the lead.

The inhouse channel- war between the two Khans is reminiscent of Shah Rukh-Juhi's comic competitiveness in Aziz Mirza's hugely underrated Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. In fact Sohail is wickedly inventive in a plot that pulls the characters down with each creaking push of the writer's pathetic pen.

Who wrote this garbage? You wonder. And why must Mr Bachchan be subjected to this sort of tripe trip at this juncture of his career?

After Rishi Kapoor in Kunal Kohli's vastly-superior other-wordly satire Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic it's Mr Bachchan's turn to play God on a set that has a cascading waterfall, cotton-candy clouds and Salman suitably dressed in a formal suit.

What's missing is the fizz in this askew cocktail. As a writer Rumi Jafrey is on shockingly shaky grounds. Just like Salman's Volkswagon which changes colours from drab pink to bright red in the second-half when Salman gets godly powers from the 'real' God.
Never mind. Because Priyanka's nose- ring changes from left nostril to right. That's about all that the narrative gets right in the trite second-half.

The post-interval half is so crummy and scattered you wonder what happened to the director.Was he was on leave while God ghost-directed the second-half?

Appalling in structure and abysmal in content God, Tussi Great Ho is somewhat bearable for Sohail's comic aptitudes.

And yes, Priyanka is easy on the eyes.

Watch her in the soap ad on television rather than being part of a film where the characters are nothing more than a prop for the pale parody where all the colours come from the hyper-excited art director who was probably told to pull out all stops.

Wish our directors would know where to stop before comedy becomes a travesty.

Mukhbiir

Starring: Sammir Dattani, Om Puri, Suniel Shetty, Sushant Singh, Raj Zutsi, Rahul Dev, Alok Nath

Written & Directed by: Mani Shankar

Rating: ***

The biggest strength of this gritty espionage thriller is also its primary weakness.

So real and bleak is the world of espionage created by writer-director Mani Shankar, so littered with carnage and catastrophe, that you wonder if the the sheer sexiness of being a spy that we saw Dharmendra and Tom Cruise experience in Aankhen and Mission Impossible was a cinematic hoax created to hoodwink us into believing in the heroic hijinks of people who risk their lives for the sake of national security.

Mukhbiir creates a universe of continual searching and annihilation, where heroes are made and unmade with the passage of one bullet from gun to temple, and God help the temple!

The young protagonist Kailash (Sammir Dattani) in Mani Shankar's film is painfully young vulnerable and so brutally thrown from one ruthless organization to another (legitimate or otherwise) that at the end of his anguished journey in search of a selfidentity we want him to be liberated of the pain that seems to be his only constant companion.

The characters come and go in episodic eruptions. Silence is Kailash's final ally.

What Mukhbiir does to the spy genre is to turn it inside out.

We aren't looking at James Bond's stirred-and-sexy world of the spy who loved the good life.

Mukhbiir takes us into the murkiest depths of the espionage business where survival isn't a craving. It's a fugitive option offered to a few lucky ones.

Luckily for the gripping and gritty script the protagonist is a boy-man constantly thrown into situations of severe uncertainty and terror.The tension never slackens.

The reluctant young spy survives by sheer instinct and guts.The screen time is segregated into various episodes from Kailash's life as a government informer in action.

Luckily the shoot-outs, somewhat amteurish in their chaotic eruptions, do not define the protagonist's life as much the human contact.

Every encounter written for Sammir Dattani's character creates a new level of existential summit in his doomed life until we come to the finale where on Kailash's life (and death) hinges the survival of a city.

The play of the personal and inter-personal is not quite as 'epic' on screen as it would appear in the writing. The director fills up the awkward ill-defined spaces in the narrative with pockets of humour and bridled drama all signifying the dynamics of an individual life's relationship with a troubled and violent society.

The final dialogue on Islam and violence between Rahul Dev (sinister and frightening in his stoic acceptance of violence as a way of life) lingers after the film.

Mani Shankar's storytelling is highly original. There're no false moments in the discursive yet clenched drama of dissociation where Kailash becomes so distanced from his original identity that he eventually forgets who he is.

The impressionable automaton's life is mapped out in ruthless detail.

The powerful script lets us know there's no mercy for the weak in this grim and unsettled world of espionage and extremism. The two fatally- compatible worlds meet in strange eerie places where Kailash's masquerade as a man removed from his natural roots is so complete you wonder if he can ever go back to a 'normal' life.

Hulla

Starring: Rajat Kapoor, Sushant Singh, Vrajesh Hirjee, Mandeep Mazumdar, Kartika Rane, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Dinesh Thakkar
Directed by: Jaideep Varma
Rating: **1/2

Incidents that affect a common man in a metropolis are slowly making their way on the Hindi screen. In Hulla, it's a whistle that blows things out of proportion. Who would've thought of making a film on an uncanny subject? But fresh concepts are always welcome...

Debutante director Jaideep Varma picks up a story you can identify with, especially by those living in Mumbai. And the humour injected in the narrative makes you break into uncontrollable laughter at times. But Jaideep Varma, the director is letdown by Jaideep Varma, the writer.

Here's why! After setting up things so beautifully in the first hour, you expect an encore in the second hour. But it's not engaging at all. In fact, it's a repetition of what you've watched in the first half. The story stagnates and the movie hardly moves. Clearly, the writing in this hour lacks meat.

In a nutshell, Hulla makes you whistle intermittently, not after having watched it in totality.

Raj (Sushant Singh), an aggressive broker in a broking firm and Abha (Kartikadevi Rane), a marketing professional move into a new 2-bedroom flat in a Mumbai suburb. Cracks start appearing in their ideal existence when Raj, a light sleeper, is disturbed by noises at nights.

Finally, one night, Raj goes down to investigate and discovers that it is the night watchman blowing the whistle periodically in the night to scare thieves away. Raj scolds the watchman and forbids him from making any further noise, but the Secretary of the building Janardhan (Rajat Kapoor) insists on the whistling continuing in lieu of the building security.
An issue that starts out lightly and amusingly trivial begins to escalate to take the shape of a serious problem for Raj. Not being able to sleep at night begins to take a serious toll on him, both professionally and personally. At work, he becomes edgy and his usual smart sense of judgment suffers. At home, he becomes obsessed with any loud noises in the environment.

Making people laugh is tough, but Hulla makes you break into a smile, at times laughter, even guffaws at vital points. The sheer novelty of the subject and its execution catches you unaware. While there's consistency in terms of execution, it's the written material that's inconsistent.

The Chief Minister's track is completely unwarranted. Also, there's not much clarity as to how Sushant and Rajat's lives move from bad to worse in the finale. A simpler way to conclude the story would've worked wonders.

Jaideep Varma has the makings of a fine storyteller, although he needs to brush up on technique. Also, the film could've done with better production values. Paramvir Singh's cinematography is strictly okay.

Shoot On Sight

Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Greta Scacchi, Mikaal Zulfikar
Directed by: Jag Mundhra
Rating: ***

In this season of prolonged terrorism both on and off -screen here comes this bit of cold yet compelling candour on film.

Shoot On Sight is a work that works as a wake-up call for those slumbering in their bourgeois belief that terrorism is as far away from home as Osama Bin Laden is from America.

It's a frightening piece of fiction laced with a fair amount of warmth and affection that lulls us into a false sense of wellbeing.

In essence the plot takes us back to the domesticated terrorism of Alan Pakula's The Devil's Own, or more recently Subhash Ghai's Black And White where a young wide-eyed seemingly- unspoilt guest in the house turns out to be a closet-terrorism.

Where Shoot On Sight scores is in laying out the blueprint for global terrorism throught characters who appear real in words, body language and political ideology.

Jagmohan Mundhra has earlier balanced a social cause with a message in Provoked. Here the 'thrill' element emanates far more effortlessly from the characters and their predicament, partly because the theme of terrorism renders itself far dramatically to a cinematic treatment than domestic violence.

London is shot by cinematographer Madhu Ambat with all its inherent buzz and blemishes without fuss or rush. The flow of adrenaline as the British cops zero- in on their distinguished Pakistani colleague's nephew as a terrorist is rather reined-in than rushed.This isn't a film that's in a hurry to get there. But it knows how to value the audiences' time.

And this is where Shoot On Sight scores the optimum impact. Mundhra revels in generous levels of understatement most of the time.

Whether showing the fanaticism in the mosque(Om Puri, aptly extravagant) or the dilemma of the cop's Pakistan-British daughter whose boyfriend wants to go 'all the way' (and come fast)….Mundhra packs it all into the simmering cultural cauldron with dexterity and dignity.

While on the whole the characters in the cop- protagonist Tariq Ali's home and workplace come to life with vigorous fluency, some portions of the storytelling fall flat.

Naseer's assistant played by Laila Rouass (is there a stifled sexual attraction here?) comes to a soggy end in a river with the suddenness of a video-game with its socket pulled out.

The hastily -executed climax in a shoppingmall where Tariq Ali's nephew is shot down with a sweeping-under-the-carpet haste, is a screaming shame.

What happened?!

Mostly, Mundhra uses economy of expression to great effect. Sometimes just one or two scenes are enough to establish the camaraderie between characters creating a crisscross of inter-relations with disconcerting deftness.

Dostana

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra, Kirron Kher, Boman Irani
Written & Directed by: Tarun Mansukhani
Rating: ***

Get this straight. Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham are not gay. They are just happy pretending to be bed partners. In the endeavour they pull put all stops and get into the gay zone with a gusto that stumps all the moralists.

There are butt-and-bum jokes galore some even pointed at the leading lady. But hold that frown.

Auntyji, chill. It's all for fun. Wanna join in?

The theme of heterosexual characters pretending to be gay to get a precious abode in the bustle of the metropolis is pretty cool.

Bachchan and Abraham, both in full form, get into the gay groove without going over the top. They come out with flying colours through most of the material that's provided to them to sink their teeth into.

While John combines terrific body language with some great comic timing (he's come a long way from his thanda GaramMasala days) Abhishek's expressions are a scream in their pitch-perfection.

One of the most brilliantly-written sequences orchestrates all the characters of this gay-play in the same room.

There're the play-acting gay protagonists, a gay magazine editor (a flawlessly wimpy Boman Irani), a gay marriage-bureau official (who just decides to drop in for a quick –check) and of course Abhishek's homophobic mother (Kirron Kher) who screams and rants and then accepts her son's apparent sexual preference.

You could simply marvel at the two principal actors giving so much of heart and others parts to their parts.
After a point you're tempted to stop counting the number of times the word 'gay' gets in the way of the narrative. From 'Mera beta gay hai' (courtesy Abhishek's mom Kirron Kher) to a 'Han main gay hoon' …. Dostana wins the how-to-say-gay-in-every-which-way award of the year.

Sandwiched between the two brilliantly-poised heroes is Priyanka Chopra, glowing like a 1000-watt bulb in her immaculate wardrobe (and out of it…she too gets into beachwear, what did you think?).

So here's the bottom (oops!) line. Hindi cinema finally comes out of the closet. And going by how little John Abraham wears in most of the film. There's very little coming out of the closet.

But there you have it. Bollywood's first beach-bum-chum meri-dosti-mera-pyar dildo-dil-lo preparation done on that slow-burn state of leisurely cooking where the characters get an ample chance to extend the parameters of the conventional cinema without toppling into the abyss of overstatement.

First-time writer-director Tarun Mansukhani has the zing thing in his vision. Miami shot with fetching gusto by Aynanka Bose lifts the luscious locales to more than a touristic paradise. The desi characters seem to belong to this beachside paradise.

Well-toned bodies tanned to the extreme of selfglorification, sinewy movements on the beach and on the dancefloor, songs music and feverish fiesta of sexually- driven people who want it all.And fast. Dostana is the ultimate hedonists' dream.

The narrative pace slackens considerably in the second-half, what with the heroes expanding their homosexual hijinks into a triangle with Priyanka thrown in for good measure.

Then the triangle dilates into a quadrangle as Bobby Deol (looking dapper in his Armanis) makes a belated appearance as the boss who first intimidates and irritates the working girl into motion of anger and submission. And then sweeps her off her feet.

Dasvidaniya

Starring: Vinay Pathak & Friends
Directed by: Shashant Singh
Rating: ***

There's something to be said about this sensitive slice-of-life cinema. And it's this. You really can't keep a good man down.

Returning to the ambit of the dull workingclass protagonist that he almost patented in Bheja Fry Vinay Pathak delivers yet another bravura performance as a man who learns to live only when he learns he has to die.

The premise done to death (pun intended) in films as disparate as Akira Kurosawa's Ikuru and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand, gets its power and glory from the simple yet never simplistic narrative that grows on you… piece by piece….just as the lessons of life creep up belatedly on our hero Amar Kaul.

With every dying day he lives a little more of that life he leaves behind. Though the film's leisurely pace doesn't quite capture the urgency of the moment, Dusvidaniya scores high point for its sincerity of performance reflected in every performance.

The narrative has been patterned prettily as a pastiche of ten episodes each dealing with a facet of Amar Kaul's life that he would like to retrieve from the archives of angst and claim as his own before he's gone.

The pace often drops to a willowy whisper. The tone gets predominantly stifled. The narration is constantly hushed, never rushed even as the shuffling, procrastinating hero speeds through things in his pending file that he needs done before he's through with life.
The beauty and harmony of life's essential core is obtained in passages of relaxed rumination and casual conversations that show us where we often go wrong in our daily dealings. This is done without wagging a dispproving finger at the audience.

Vinay Pathak gets the sur of the tragic hero's comic escapades just right. He's partly Charlie Chaplin, and partly Robert Benigni. But finally this is an actor who does his own thing. Make no mistake about that.

Helping him in his endeavour are like-minded friends like Rajit Kapur, Neha Dhupia, Ranvir Shorey, Sarita Joshi and Gaurav Gera all pitching in with transparently- sincere performances.

There is not one faked moment in Dasvidaniya. You may feel portions of the film (like the Kailesh Kher number Mumma) are manipulative in their intentions. But that's life. You win some. You lose most of it.

Kudos to Pathak for making another winner out of another incorrigible loser's story.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, debutante Anushka Sharma and Vinay Pathak
Director: Aditya Chopra
Rating: **

One often cribs about Yash Raj repeatedly casting SRK in similar roles, in film after film. However, this allegation is far from true. Right from DARR to CHAK DE INDIA, the combination has collaborated on varied subjects. With Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, they take this association to another level altogether.

To start with, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi brings back the golden team of DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE and MOHABBATEIN after a hiatus and the only parallel you can draw with the earlier achievements is the fact that each of them is a love story.

Otherwise, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is truly different. It's not set in London or Switzerland, there's no sarso ke khet, it's not about a good looking couple sporting designer outfits and accessories, there's no parental opposition either.

Set your eyes anywhere and you see countless unknown faces. In markets, malls, streets, airports, stations, just about everywhere. And everyone who walks this planet has a story to tell.

With Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Aditya Chopra talks of one such ordinary person. Living in one of those crowded bylanes of Amritsar, his life undergoes a 360 degree change the moment he sets his eyes on a beautiful girl.

Like SRK does a 360 degree turn in the movie, Aditya Chopra too does a complete turn as far as the story is concerned. Seeped in Indian emotions and traditional values and very desi at heart, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a complete departure from the good-looking, picture perfect YRF movies that sport glam bodies parading designer outfits.

For the present-day generation, a story like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi may come across as an original piece of work, but if you've been a keen observer of films of yore, you can't help overlook the similarities with Dr. V. Shantaram's NAVRANG and more precisely, Raj Kapoor's SATYAM SHIVAM SUNDARAM.

In fact, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi also brings back memories of the low-cost MAIN MERI PATNI AUR WOH [Rajpal Yadav, Rituparna Sengupta], not in terms of story, but in terms of characters
The problem is, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi works in patches. The first 30 minutes and the penultimate 30 minutes are the highpoint of the enterprise, but the screenplay in between doesn't hold your attention. That's the truth!

In a nutshell, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is no DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE. It's not MOHABBATEIN either. At best, it's an average fare that may generate some curiosity initially, that's it. You expect much, much more, but… alas!

Surinder [Shah Rukh Khan], a simple, clean hearted, honest man working for Punjab Power, leads a humdrum life, but the moment he sets his eyes on Taani [Anushka Sharma], his life undergoes a change. She's flamboyant, fun-loving, vivacious, unlike Surinder. But unforeseen circumstances bring them together.

Director Aditya Chopra chooses a desi plot and weaves a story around an ordinary, middle class couple. The story begins with gusto and the initial scenes between Shah Rukh and Anushka are thoroughly interesting.

But the screenplay falters the moment Shah Rukh's character Surinder transforms into Raj and his personality undergoes a sea-change. The first question that strikes you is, why didn't Anushka realize it's him, her husband, not someone else?

Sure, he has undergone a complete makeover, but how can you not recognise your husband's voice or appearance? That's a glaring flaw, it's like taking the viewer for granted!

The sequences thereafter are equally uneven. A few sequences are well executed, but the problem is that Shah Rukh keeps playing the game till the very end. If he had to win her heart, he could've done so by making her realize that it's a mirage, making her realize that the person she loves and the person she's married are the same.

There's a twist in the tale only towards the pre-climax, when Anushka is ready to elope with Raj, her dance partner. The climax, the drama that ensues during the finale of the dance competition, is excellent. Even the end [the honeymoon in Japan] brings a smile on your face.

Director Aditya Chopra is letdown by his own writing. The story is not convincing, the screenplay is not water-tight and therefore, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi does not create the impact it ought to make.

Also, the film is quite lengthy. With a running time of approx. 2.45 hours, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi could've easily done with some trimming. The unwanted flab could've been trimmed for a better impact.

Chandni Chowk To China

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Shorey, Mithun Chakravorthy and Gordon Liu
Direction: Nikhil Advani
Rating: **1/2

A small village in China is terrorized by one cruel gang lord, Hojo (Gordon). Fed up of his tyrannies, the hapless villagers consult an astrologer who tells them that China's most famous ancient warrior Liu Sheng has re-incarnated and he is the one who will kill Hojo.

Two villagers go in the hunt of this re-born Liu Sheng which happens to be one staying in the famous Chandni Chowk of Delhi in India. This bloke Siddhu (Akshay) in real is anything but their warrior they are in the look out for.

Working in a paratha shop, as a vegetable cutter, the portly Siddhu is forever chasing dreams of a luxurious life without wanting to do hard work to achieve it.

His foster father, Dada (Mithun) is fed up of his lethargic ways and always tries to make him realize his hidden potential. The two Chinese villagers finally find Siddhu and with the help of a fraud Chinese astrologer Chopstick (Ranveer) manage to take him to their village in China.Chopstick too tags along as Siddhu's translator. During the journey, Siddhu encounters Sakhi (Deepika) a popular model and falls for her instantly but soon his hopes come crashing as he comes across her lethal side of that of a thief.

But little does he know that its not Sakhi but her long lost twin Suzie aka Meow Meow (Deepika again) whom he has got confused with. What happens when Siddhu arrives in the remote Chinese village and how Hojo reacts to his arrival and what it leads to forms the rest of the film!

There had been lots of expectations raised from the slick promos of the film but unfortunately, the film doesn't really end up being the joy ride it promises to be.

The biggest flaw of CC2C lies in its predictable script which packs in all the 70s masala including lost and found, revenge drama, the triumph of good over evil just that the setting is changed from India to China.

The film begins well with a superbly shot fight on the wall of China but then the pace dips as Siddhu's daily life is introduced.

Slumdog Millionaire

Starring: Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
Director: Danny Boyle
Rating:*

Anil Kapoor stood up and cheered lustily into the camera when Danny Boyle won the Golden Golden Globe last weekend. I wish I could share his enthusiasm for Danny's phenomenal flight into frenzy. After all the accolades and awards Slumdog Millionaire (SM) proves to be a deafening blow to the year that saw Mumbai go numb with terror.

SM takes nasty below-the-belt potshots at the underbelly of the city, portraying Mumbai as the armpit among the metropolises.

Mira Nair once paid a warm endearing homage to the street children of Mumbai in Salaam Bombay.Long before, Satyajit Ray in Pather Panchali portrayed rural India as poor but never as a gutter of misery.

It's now Danny Boyle's turn to do a 'Slam' Mumbai. The coming-of-age tale about three orphaned chawl kids bears just a passing resemblance to Boyle's rightly-celebrated Trainspotting where the director trailed a bunch of misfits through the streets of Edinburgh.

Slumdog Millionaire is Trainspotting on steroids. It's a beefed -up look at the scummy side of Mumbai, bewildering in its obsession with discovering life in the chawls of Dharavi (curiously the protagonist Jamal is referred to as "the boy from Juhu") as being a facsimile of that drain-inspector's report which Mahatma Gandhi had discovered American journalist Katherine Mayo's account of India in Mother India to be.

Slumdog Millionaire is worse. It looks at Mumbai as a swarming slum of sleaze sex and crime with characters who seem to have jumped out of Rakesh Roshan's and Manmohan Desai's cinema bruising their deep-focussed emblematic quality while making this huge global leap from 'Bollywood' to 'Hollywood'.

After seeing Boyle's much talked-of film it's crystal clear why this murky and squalid portrait of Mumbai has the Americans preening in delight.

At one point after being thrashed mercilessly our hero Jamal tells American tourists, "You wanted to see real India? Here it is. ""Now we'll show you the real America," the American lady replies handing Jamal a 100-dollar bill.

This, without any apparent sense of irony.

This isn't the 'real' India. This is India as seen through the eyes of a Westerner who's selling desi squalor packaged as savvy slick entertainment.

There is a very thin line dividing slick from scum. Slumdog Millionaire doesn't stop to make those subtle distinctions. It moves at a frenetic pace creating a kind of sweaty energy that one sees in marathon runners in the last lap of their journey.

Boyle is constantly busy whipping up a hysterical banshee of sights and sounds in Mumbai denoting the embittered angry generation of the underprivileged class that grows up in the slums dreaming of the Good Life.

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shoots Mumbai with a gun rather than a camera. Every frame conveys the killer instinct. Every shot ricochets across eternity solidifying sounds and feelings that are otherwise intangible.

Yup, this is a film on a mission. It wants to exploit the Mumbai slums as a hotbed of tantalizing images conveying the splendour of squalidity.

And to think every prominent of the cast and crew went around proclaiming Slumdog Millionaire would do wonders for Mumbai's tourism industry!

Luck By Chance

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Rishi Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Sharwani, Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Kapoor, Aly Khan

Lyrics: Javed Akhtar

Music: Shankar, Eshaan & Loy

Producers: Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar

Director: Zoya Akhtar

Rating:****

One has often heard, read and seen the positive and negative aspects of Bollywood. It would be erroneous to state that LUCK BY CHANCE does a pol-khol of the glamorous industry.

Let's put it this way: The film mirrors the behind-the-scenes drama and manoeuvring exactly the way it occurs in showbiz. Watching LUCK BY CHANCE is like experiencing it first-hand.

If you're associated with Bollywood, if you know how the machine works, you'd laud and applaud, laugh and smile, identify and understand and at times, empathize and sympathize with the characters in LUCK BY CHANCE. Zoya Akhtar's take on an industry that attracts millions of hopefuls year after year is bang on target.

Almost three decades ago, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's GUDDI depicted a star-struck teenager's [Jaya Bhaduri] obsession for a top star [Dharmendra].

Along with the core issue, the film highlighted the behind-the-scenes hard work and labour that went into making movie
LUCK BY CHANCE taps almost every important facet of Bollywood and presents assorted characters you've encountered some time in life: An over-ambitious aspirant who knows to make the right moves; an actress trying hard to get that big break, even if she has to compromise; an icon of the 1970s who desperately wants her daughter to be a star; a producer who looks at riding on big names, script be damned; a failed actor now looking at direction to redeem his career.

One of the prime reasons why LUCK BY CHANCE works is because the writing [Zoya Akhtar] is simply wonderful.

Right from the characters, to the individualistic scenes, to the way Zoya puts them in a sequence, LUCK BY CHANCE is easily one of the most cohesive scripts this side of the Atlantic.

The verdict? Leave aside everything and hitch this joyride called LUCK BY CHANCE. It would be sacrilege to miss this one!

Sona [Konkona Sen Sharma] arrives in Mumbai with dreams of becoming a film star. She does whatever it takes, to make it.

Vikram [Farhan Akhtar] has just moved to the city leaving the comforts of his Delhi home. He is used to getting what he wants and is smart enough to know when to demand it and when to manipulate it. Gradually, Sona and Vikram develop a romantic relationship.

Rolly [Rishi Kapoor] is a successful though superstitious producer who only works with the biggest stars.

He is making a potential blockbuster launching Niki [Isha Sharwani], the daughter of 1970s superstar Neena [Dimple Kapadia]. The hero of the film, Zaffar Khan [Hrithik Roshan], is the superstar.

Zaffar decides to opt out of Rolly's film and that creates havoc in Rolly's life. Rolly decides to cast newcomers and finally, Vikram is shortlisted for the main role...