U Me Aur Hum - 3/5

Producer , Director and Story: Ajay Devgan
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kajol,Divya Dutta, Karan Khanna, Isha Sherwani
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj


It was a tough choice between Ajay Devgan's "U me aur hum" and the Roshan's "Krazzy 4" for a friday nite show. Thanks to the concluding school and college exams that has lead to the hoard of hindi releases in last couple of weeks. My first choice was "U Me aur hum" as was expecting a refreshing love story after a series of dramas and comedies. Also the return of Kajol to the silverscreen after a long break has built up more anxiety.

Coming to the story, "U Me Aur Hum" starts of with a refreshing love track between Ajay(Phsychiatrist) and Piya(Waitress) who meet each other in a cruise. The love turns to marriage after Ajay's attempts to change himself according to piya's wishlist. Ajay's tough time with his lady love starts after Alzheimer's disease strikes piya which causes regular momentory memory loss.




Ajay and Kajol bring in their intense performances well supported by Sumeet raghavan( doctor friend) and Divya Dutta. The story to some extent has been inspired by Ron Howard's "The Beautiful Mind" and Peter segal's "50 First Dates". The movie has its share of flaws in terms of elongated emotional sequences with extensive use of Glycerine. Except for the exceptionally good title track and "Jee le", Vishal Bhardwaj's music is a loser in comparison to that of Omkaara, Maachis, Satya and Maqbool. The Background score by Monty turns out to be an average work.

Other notable things in the movie worth mentioning are the brilliant cinematography by Amees bajaj and good direction by Ajay Devgan himself.Ajay has shown a high level of maturity with the use of innovative camera angles that are usually seen in RGV's and vishal's movies.

As a whole "U Me Aur Hum" is a good refreshing love story with some great performance by the lead pair.

Jalsa (Telugu) - 3/5

Writer & Director : Trivikram srinivas
cast: Pavan kalyan, Illeana D'cruz, Parvathi melton, kamlini mukherjee, Prakash raj ,Mukesh Rishi and Makrand Deshpande (Guest appearance)
Music and Background score : Devi Sri Prasad
Budget: 30 crores INR



After a delay due to Digital intermediation process the much eagerly awaited movie has finally hit the screens across the globe(India, US, UK, Germany) on 2nd April. Also its been quite a long wait of close to 2yrs for Pavan kalyan fans.



Within no time all the shows for the week in PVR, mumbai were sold out and fortunately i managed to book one for me in advance for the first day evening show. The expectations were high after Trivikram's Blockbuster (Athadu) with Mahesh babu and superb music by Devi sri prasad.

The experiece of Watching a telugu movie in mumbai was no different with crowd whistling and clapping rite from the moment the screen showed the censor certificate. The movie starts with narration of the characters by Mahesh babu ( Now one set of fans start whistling listening to the voice of their favorite star). Continuing from the much celebrated introductory scene of power star, the movie takes a romantic path. Bhagmati (Illeana) and 'Jo' as in Jotsana (Parvathi) fall in love with Sanjay sahu who is a PG student of Osmania University when he rescues the leading ladies from a group of rowdies. Damodar Reddy(Mukesh) a factionist is in search of sanjay and the movie reveals the past life of sanjay.



First half of the movie has a perfect blend of refreshing romance and typical humour of trivikram. The movie tries to bring in seriousness of sanjay's character only to deviate to much from the love track. The second half scores low in comparison as the director tries to give a social, political angle to the story with minimal effectiveness. The comedy tracks of sunil, brahmanandam, prakash and pavan himself bring in laughter at frequent intervals. Coming to the script there isnt much depth or clear direction and lack of detail can be noticed in many scenes during the second half.



Pavan kalyan has done a good job with his humurous accent and is more presentable in the designer attire. Coming to the heroines, Illeana shares majority of the screen time among the three. Parvathi melton adds the extra oomph quotient and Kamileeni has a very brief role.

Coming to the technical department, Guhan(cinematographer) and sreekar prasad(editor) have done a marvellous job which is reflected by the rich and colourful frames. As usual devi sri prasad has maintained his consistency with splendid music. Trivikram has succeeded in his humour magic but could not improvise on the story (where athadu turns out to be better).



'Jalsa' as a whole is a good entertainer and specially a breather to all the pavan kalyan fans. With summer vacations starting and no other major flicks in competition , the movie is going to become a definite commercial success.

Race - 3/5

Director Duo: Abbas Mustan
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy, Dalip Tahil and Johney Lever etc..
Music: Pritam chakraborty
Action: Allan Amin



I know it is surprising for many to see this review being posted before the morning show of friday. And after all the promos and advertising hoardings mention the release date of the movie as 21st March. Its not a premiere show where selected people get invites to watch the movie along with the stars on a thursday night, but its a paid premiere for the general audience at many of the mulitplexes. This time around the venue is Movietime , Goregaon hub. The multiplex is different from others(PVR, adlabs, cinemax, Inox, Fame) in terms of not so good service at the snacks counter , the non AC lounge and yes.. no national anthem.

After few adds of Vicco products.. yes the same ones which i have been seeing since my childhood and couple of trailers , the movie started 20 minutes late. The movie is about an insurace policy of 100 million $ whose beneficiaries are the brothers, Ranvir singh(Saif ali khan) who is a businessman passionate about races and racehorses and the younger one, Rajiv singh(Akshaye Khanna), a spoiled alcoholic. The movie has its share of innumerable twists and turns with many complex relationships between the brothers and the femme fatales in the form of Sonia(Bipasha) and Sophia(Katrina).

Towards the second half of the movie more mystery is added to the plot by RD(Anil) and mini(Sameera) as investigators trying to solve the case. I refrain from giving more details on the plot that might reveal the suspense element of the movie.

The lead actors Saif, akshaye and Anil have done justice to their roles. Among the actresses Katrina does seem to be in need of some acting classes. The lead characters are supported by cameos by Dalip Tahil( after a long time .. thanks to the "Bombay Dreams" stage shows) and Johny Lever.

The Director Duo which has given us hits like Khiladi, Baazigar,Soldier, Ajnabee and Humraaz has done a good job keeping the audience hooked to a fairly gripping thriller. Coming to the technical department Allan amin again steals the show with some good action sequences. Justice has not been done in terms of picturization of some good tracks like Pehli nazar main and the background score of Salim sulaiman is mediocre in comparison to their great work in Chak de India, Bhoot, Aaja Nachle and Ab tak chappan.

To summarize if you dont apply the laws of physics for some of the scenes and digest some minor unrealistic sequences, the movie is going to provide some wholesome entertainment as a thriller with a parallel comedy track ingrained.

Sa Hi Besura (Play) – 4/5

Writer & Director: Makrand Deshpande

Cast: Sudhir Pandey, Vijay Maurya, Heeba Shah and D. Santhosh

Language : Hindi

It’s Friday already and it’s the day of the week when the list of movies is updated on sites like bookmyshow.com, pvrcinemas.com (it’s updated every Thursday... or to be precise after 11.00 hrs :-) ) and adlabscinemas.com. These are the sites which primarily constitute my credit card bills.

Yet again no new hindi movies in the list, thanks to the exams time when producers and distributors are more happy delaying the releases. At this point in time other entertainment options available were, english movie or a play. Yes, plays have caught my attention recently and I am very grateful to Atlee for arranging the tickets to a play titled “Sa Hi Besura” @ SVKM’s Bhaidas hall, Juhu.

I was initially excited about this play because of the director, Makrand deshpande. Makrand is undoubtedly an actor par excellence who has acted in movies like RGV’s Satya(my all time favorite hindi movie), RGV’s Jungle, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Makdee and many more.

The play revolves around the lead character, Saketnath (Sudhir pandey) narrating how he tries to come back to the world of theatre since his last performance in the play “Sa Hi Besura” where he has a nervous breakdown . His daughter Roshni (Heeba Shah) helps him with the rehearsals and Mohit (Vijay maurya) tries to convince saketnath for the role of his son (sagar) in the play. The serious drama between the Saket and his daughter continues till they are interrupted by mohit. The play swings to an utterly hilarious mood when mohit tries to mimic the great bollywood actors to showcase his acting and 'reacting' talent.

Sudhir pandey as a veteran thespian has done a remarkably wonderful job switching adeptly between serious and humorous sequences. The lead role is supported by terrific performance from vijay maurya. Vijay has literally made the audience laugh to death with his versatile histrionics. Heeba has done justice to her role as a helpless daughter. Santhosh has done a great job in a comic cameo.

The riveting background score by shailendra barua and sets add more life to the narration. All in all I would say it’s a must watch play which is bundled as a complete entertainer.

And guess who else apart from me.. :-).. has recommended watching “The Lives of Others”... Its makrand deshpande himself.. :-)

Black & White - 2.5/5

Director: Subhash Ghai

Cast: Anurag sinha, Anil kapoor, Shefali shah, aditi sharma
Music : Sukhwinder singh

There were times when Subhash ghai's movies were eagerly awaited with expectations of a complete entertainer studded with dazzling starcast. Subhash ghai did stand upto the expectations constantly with blockbusters like Karz, Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, saudagar, Khal Nayak , Pardes and Taal. But last decade hasn't been good for him as a director with Yaadein and kisna failing to please the fans and the box office counters.

After 3 yrs of hiatus post kisna Subhash Ghai has again donned the director's hat with a subject which is quite different from what he has done in the past. Black & White is the story of a suicide bomber(numair) from afganistan who plans for a bomb blast on an independence day eve at Lak Quila. Numair tries to take advantage of a well known professor of urdu, Dr. Rajan mathur(Anil Kapoor) and his wife roma, a social activist(Shefali shah) for his mission by taking shelter in their home. In course of accomplishing his mission Dr. mathur and the situations around transform this ardent jehadi.

The movie has some notable performances in the form of the debutante actor Anurag Sinha as a terrorist , Anil kapoor as Professor and Shefali shah as a social activist. But the plot fails to keep up the drama wherein many of the sequences lack depth and seem unrealistic as the movie looses track by deviating to cliched scenes trying to build communal harmony and an unconvincing romantic track of numaid and shegufta(aditi sharma). This movie also lacks the good music which each and every movie of subhash ghai in the past has provided. apart from couple of decent tracks sukhwinder singh's music turns out to be very average.

The movie is a let down in comparison to the dexterity with which similar subjects( Vidhu vinod chopra's Mission Kashmir, Mani ratnam's Dil Se or Santosh sivan's The terrorist) have been handled.

Comments please !!!

The Lives of Others - 4/5

Director: Florion Henckel von Donnersmarck
Cast: Ulrich Muhe as agent, Sebastian Koch as the playwright and Martina as the actress
Special mention: Bharatbala for bringing it to Indian audience as distributor

Come this weekend, and no new Hindi releases again.. But fortunately few english flicks were on screens.. It was a Saturday and yes… I am one day late for this week’s duty :-)… Batty anna called me for a 6.45 show of “Vantage Point” and I had to reluctantly say no.. coz I had to make a small presentation to our super boss … and eventually the day’s work on a Saturday extended till 7 pm.

A Saturday night brings in another challenge of finding a partner for the movie…. that too for a late night show starting at 11 pm.. when already people would have made prior plans for pubs, movies or discos…

So, thr goes my IP message to IM13 batch..” Anyone interested in ‘The Lives of Others.. @ 11 pm ‘ “ … and those lonely souls in hostel on Saturday nite who had the courtesy to open and message would have felt “Ab yeh kaun si movie hai.. naam tho suna nahi”.. and as expected not a single reply :-)

I made my own analysis of the probables who mite be in campus.. and ramesh’s name came to my mind.. But thr was risk involved as some movies can furiate him.. like it had happened with Khoya Khoya chand.. whn he got so frustrated and started commenting that made the people around (many a rows) uncomfortable.. but then I thought.. “I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.”(The famous marlon brando’s quote in ..The Godfather).. and I made him the offer of bearing the ticket expenses.. and also fortunately he was one those very few who knew about this movie and also the fact that it’s a german movie with english subtitles...

To our fortune.. we got a chance to shake hands and talk to Rajat kapoorS who have come to watch the same movie…. and yes both of them (first one of the fame byomkesh bakshi / Making of Mahatma and the other one the unconventional director of Mithya/Mixed doubles/Raghu romeo).

Not very often you get to meet the who’s who of cinema. This incident made us feel that we weren’t the only ones with such interest of watching this academy award winning film in the best foreign language film category.

Coming to the movie … it is about how the lives of a playwright and actress are under the surveillance of State security on the orders of the minister of East german government during the time of 1984 – 89 – 91 (starting from 5 yrs before Glasnost and fall of berlin wall). The lead character is an interrogator (agent code: HGW XX/7) who tracks the conversations of the playwright whose apartment is bugged with microphones.

The playwright wants to publish an article in one of the magazines of west germany about the treatment of government towards the dissidents including one of the directors of the playhouse who commits suicide after he is blacklisted. The political drama depicts how a sincere interrogator empathizes with the playwright and protects him from being arrested by lying the reports.

Watch the movie for its great story and screenplay supported by brilliant performances. The movie has many of heartwarming scenes like the one where the playwright dedicates a novel to HGW XX/7 for his sacrifice. This movie reaffirms the fact that art has no language barriers and some of such good films that I have seen in the past.. with subtitles though were No man’s land, Life is beautiful, City of God, Choker baali etc..

Don’t watch it if you are looking for the technical values or the grandeur of a mainstream English movie.

Please pour in with valuable comments!!!

Michael clayton - 4/5

Call it a competition of critics.. a deal was made between me and atlee (my rival critic @ NITIE).. tht we r gonna see a new movie every friday..and rate it :-) we sound a bit "aidey" rite :-)

So this friday i got a chance to spend a good 2+ hrs watching Michael Clayton at Fun Cinemas, andheri.. now was i biased coz.. already the nominations of academy awards 2008 were announced and i knew it got 7 nominations..

First 30 mins of the movie has the slow pace only to build a well crafted thrilling plot towards the end.. Tony gilroy's narration could be inspired by the quentin's style (pulp fiction) ..present-->flashback-->present..
and yes mani ratnam is also the one who loves this style of narration..(Yuva, Saathiya)..

Michael Clayton is backed up by yet another gripping background scores by James howard(shyamalan's favorite) and the sterling peformances by George Clooney as the "fixer", Tom wilkinson as mentally deranged attorney and tilda swinton as chief of agri products company..

As the mystery unfolds towards the end i felt the worth of every rupee spent on this movie .. jst as clooney did for his 50$ ride...

Go and watch this movie ..and.. ya u do have another excuse... tht none of the hindi movies has released this weekend..