Cast: Himesh Reshammiya, Haniska, Mallika Sherawat
Director: Prashant Chadha

Half of the nation hates Himesh Reshammiya. And the other half is right now in the theatre, watching their hero go full throttle, err, full nasal.

Must say, the man has got guts. He walks and talks like a phenomenon and goes OooOoo at the drop of a hat. Sorry, what lies beneath the cap is still a mystery. He takes it off only for a second and the strategically-placed camera gives a flattering glance of a tuft of hair, as if to “fix” those bald rumours.

There is only one expression on Reshammiya’s face. The diehard fan might cry “macho”, but the others just feel the composer-turned-singer-turned-actor had a bowel movement. Read the rest of this entry »

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Mrinalini Sharma, Shreya Saran, Ashutosh Rana
Director: Mohit Suri
Produced by: Mahesh Bhatt
Rating: **1/2

Freedom is a major driving force behind Mahesh Bhatt’s cinema. Like it or not, Mahesh’s tortured vision colours and complements every frame that his protégées from Anurag Basu to Mohit Suri have created.

In this hauntingly delineated portrait of a woman’s right to self-fulfilment, Mohit Suri steps forward with a tale that tilts its hat to the very best of world cinema.

European in feel, Indian in texture and supremely secular in its view of love, loyalty and other passionate eruptions, “Awarapan” is one of those tightly-wound thriller-dramas where the outflow of emotions is so controlled that you forget the implausibility of the plot.

Emraan Hashmi gets one more author-backed chance to prove his worth. He does a commendable job of creating a young emotional gypsy whose loyalty to his employee (Ashutosh Rana, fiercely clenched in his evilness) is challenged by his conscience. Every member of the vast cast is in character. Read the rest of this entry »

Film: “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta
Director: Shaad Ali
Rating: *

Everybody in “Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom” (JBJ), including the director, is an impossible imposter.

Abhishek Bachchan poses as a small-town guy in love with a very poised and sexy Pakistani-French mademoiselle from Paris. Preity Zinta poses as a modern-day Cinderella with a very posh British-Indian fiancée. Bobby Deol, a nerd-optician poses as a cyber-Superman.

Lara Dutta, god bless her luscious presence, is a tart masquerading as a prima donna.

Director Shaad Ali poses as an auteur with the wickedly audacious sense of humour of a comic-book aficionado. While the audience, not to be left behind, is supposed to pretend that they find the bizarre goings-on hilarious.

But sorry, this is Bunty without bubbly. The joke, if any, is on the creator of this musical travesty where the four main characters behave as though they are so impressed with themselves and their humorous circumstances that they would rather not have the audience along for the joyride, thank you. Read the rest of this entry »

Film: “The Train”
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Sayali Bhagat, Geeta Basra and Aseem Merchant
Director: Raksha Mistry and Hasnain Hyderabadwala
Rating: *Tagline for this week’s thriller - “Some lines should never be crossed”. Sounds familiar. Wasn’t that the tagline for the 2005 cheesy downmarket Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen starrer “Derailed”?

Co-directors Mistry and Hyderabadwala, to whom goes the dubious distinction of being the only directorial duo of Bollywood after Abbas-Mustan, don’t just rip off the fast-paced loco-motivated thriller about the price an adulterous man must pay for biting into the forbidden fruit.

They turn it into a mushy-mushy rush-rush job where the film editor seems as much in a hurry as the commuters in the Thai subway that houses this thriller’s non-existent thrills.

Trust me, Geeta Basra playing Aniston’s role is quite a forbidden apple. She pouts, preens and poses as though Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction” has suddenly got too close for comfort. Read the rest of this entry »