Filmi Review

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao
Director: Shyam Benegal




Director Shyam Benegal, better known for his films like Manthan, Sardari Begum and Zubeida, has decided to venture into a new stream of cinema and make comic satires, as it is one of the most appreciated genres by the audiences today.

His directorial first in comedy titled "Welcome to Sajjanpur", originally titled Mahadev Ka Sajjanpur, is a movie about few characters from the Sajjanpur village with a perfect blend of rustic comedy and drama. Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Ravi Kishan, Ila Arun, Divya Dutta and Rajeshwari Sachdev form the different characters of this small village.

Mahadev is one of the few educated young men from Sajjanpur. His ambition is to be a novelist but finds it easier to make a living by writing letters sitting next to the post office. His ability to write persuasive letters makes him popular with the largely non-literate population of the town. Aware of this power, he soon uses his talent to manipulate people with amusing and sometimes not such amusing results.

With this as the narrative frame, Welcome to Sajjanpur shows in an entertaining, musical and comic way, characters and events that are at once hilarious and poignant. A delightful satirical take on a contemporary Indian village.

I entered the movie hall wondering if a director who has always concentrated on thought-provoking serious movies successfully directs a comedy flick. And as the reels of Welcome to Sajjanpur unveiled I was taken by surprise by the Benegal has handled this movie. His experience and talent as a director is evident in his very first attempt in a new genre.

Welcome to Sajjanpur stands out for its simplicity and its characters with whom you can easily connect and relate to. The movie doesn't have a strong plot, no glam and no action either. But the way each character and the life and sensitivity of the characters is portrayed makes it worth a dekho on the big screen.

No, Welcome isnt without its share of flaws. At many situations the village seems to be quite open minded. The villagers keep their mouths shut when Kamala, a married woman, goes on a cycle with a young and unmarried long lost friend of her's Mahadev who in turn is known for his mischievous nature. When in reality, such things are a taboo in Indian villages. Many such cinematic liberties have been taken which are quite hard to digest.

The songs too act as speed breakers and slow the pace considerably. To be frank, the songs werent great and unnecessarily added to the runtime.

Shreyas Talpade is the soul of Welcome to Sajjanpur. He is brilliant with his comic timing and performs the emotional scenes to perfection. Its hard to imagine anyone, other than probably someone as versatile as Aamir Khan, in the role of Mahadev. Amrita Rao has worked hard for her role, again Shyam Benegal has managed to extract a praise-worthy performance from the beautiful actress. There are so many characters in this character-driven film and almost all have done a comendable job. Except Ravi Kishen, he's over the top throughout.

To sum up, Welcome to Sajjanpur is average. It has its moments, the concept is different. The movie will hold more appeal to the 25+ (age) audience. At the box-office, the only chance of survival is strong word of mouth!

Cast: Kirron Kher, Farouque Shaikh
Direction: Shona Urvashi



Shona Urvashi made her directorial debut in 2003 with Chupke Se. After a long hiatus she makes a comeback with Hollywood giant Warner Bros. Pictures sharing their banner along with PLA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd for her new flick "Saas Bahu Aur Sensex". The movie has a diverse mix of young neophytes like Ankur Khanna, Tanushree Datta & Masumeh Makhija along with seasoned actors like Kirron Kher, Farooq Shaikh and Lillette Dubey amongst others. With an unusual and unique story, backdrop of Sensex running parallel with a love triangle of the young ones, novel treatment and low making cost like 'Bheja Fry' and 'Mithya', does 'Saas Bahu Aur Sensex' work?

After her divorce with her husband, Vinita Sen (Kirron Kher) and her daughter Nitya Sen (Tanushree Dutta) are forced to shift from Kolkata to Navi Mumbai. Nitya abandons her ambition of studying MBA in US and with the help of her newly found friend Ritesh she manages to get a job in a call center. Meanwhile, keen to start a new life for her daughter, Vinita adapts a new lifestyle - she starts going to kitty parties and also takes a plunge into the volatile world of stock markets with the help of a stockbroker, Firoz Sethna (Farouque Shaikh).

Ritesh (Ankur Khanna) is head over heels in love with a colleague cum locality friend Kirti (Masumeh Makhija), a middle class girl who dreams of becoming big in life by marrying a billionaire, Yash Modi (Sudhanshu Pandey) who owns the call center they work for.

The movie is about how housewives indulge in investing in the roaring stock market with an intention to make quick money and the love triangle between Ritesh, Kirti and Nitya.

Shona has the talent but needs to be nurtured. Saar Bahu Aur Sensex has a unique theme, but the pitfalls in the narrative let it down. Any which way, Shona manages to convey the message, the theme of the movie, of encouraging housewives and in general everyone to invest in stocks for the progress of the nation, but also criticizes its monetary manipulation on human mind as the movie nears the climax.

Saas Bahu Aur Sensex has no hero, no heroine, rather a number of characters who come face to face due to some connection that develops with one or the other. The first half of the movie is entertaining and has few comic moments that kindle laughter, but as the reels unfold and the film indulges itself deeply into the share market and the perplexity in the love triangle, the storyline starts dragging and gets tedious to sit through. Not just that, the movie has a lot of dubious situations. How is it possible that everyone from that residential apartment work in the same department of a company? With many such situations and too many fluctuations in the market, the entertainment quotient in the movie goes for a toss. If the narrative was kept short for say 1 hr and 30 min, the movie would have made a better impact. The music is nothing worth mentioning. The only thing good about the tracks is that, no track was longer than a minute, which helps not to break the continuity of the movie.

Amidst all the performances, Udayan Mukherjee - India's most famous financial analyst and television presenter of CNBC, stays back in your mind due to the archived footage given to him by flashing him after almost every scene.

Farooq Sheikh is once again back on the big screen after a long time. He has immense talent, but is wasted in this movie. Kirron Kher is competent but again this role isn't something challenging for her talent. Unlikely, Tanushree Dutta is less glamour but as usual no talent, poor acting. Ankur is okay. Masumeh in a glam role has nothing much to offer. Lilette Dubey and Sharon Prabhakar manage to make their presence felt.

On the whole, investing your time on Saas Bahu Aur Sensex might not reap you huge benefits but few moments of laughter is assured.

With the success of Ram Gopal Varma's 'Phoonk' there is renewed hope for horror movies. In the current decade there have been just a handful of films from this genre that have succeeded at the box-office and the 2 names who have successfully directed horror flicks are Ram Gopal Varma (Bhoot and Phoonk) and Vikram Bhatt (Raaz) who is also the director of 1920 that released today. 1920 features newcomers Rajneesh Duggal and Ada Sharma.

The year is 1920 and the house is isolated in the wilderness has a secret. It is waiting for the curse to come true. For years everyone who has bought the house and tried to pull it down has died under strange circumstances. It is like the house has a will and a life of its own.

Arjun (Rajneesh Duggal) and his wife Lisa (Adah Sharma) move into the house and he has been given the task of pulling it down and making a hotel there. The haunting begins.

Strange and inexplicable events start taking place. The curse says they will not survive. The only thing they have that is true is the love they once shared, which is now under the shadow of doubt. They will have to depend on the love and faith if they are to come out of this alive.

Horror movies must be one of the toughest genres of movies to make. The script has to be tight; execution has to be such that it should succeed in scaring the hell out of the audience. The camera work, background music and dialogues have to be perfect too. Else, the result could well be what I experienced while watching the second half of Vikram Bhatt's 1920. The audience in the theatre was laughing their heart out. The post-interval portions suffer due to its slow pace and bad direction.

Amongst the positives; in the first half Vikram Bhatt did manage to scare, he also succeeds in making the movie unpredictable to a certain extent. The cinematography is one of the best in recent times. The special effects are easily up to Bollywood standards; background music (Salim Suleiman) too is great.

Ada Sharma rocks in her debut with a great performance; she sure has a brilliant screen presence and was a perfect choice for her role. Rajneesh Duggal is good for a newcomer but not very consistent. Raj Zutshi is good.

To sum up, 1920 doesn't manage to hold your attention throughout. It's scary in parts and funny at times. Don't expect much at the box-office.

Ru Ba Ru promises to be a simple love story directed by Arjun Bali starring Randeep Hooda and Shahana Goswami. Randeep Hooda last made an impact in D (2005) in a role of a gangster he excelled. How well does he carry the role of a love boy? Also, the chemistry between the lead pair is so vital in a romantic movie. Shahana Goswami of the recent Rock On fame is Randeep Hooda leading lady.

Ru-Ba-Ru is a modern day story of two ambitious individuals finding their destiny through the greatest human manifestation love, but of course with a twist! The film revolves around a modern couple Tara (Shahana Goswami) and Nikhil (Randeep Hooda) who are in love; Tara wants to cement the relationship by seeking commitment in marriage. But Nikhil, a workaholic, is always pre-occupied with his clients and work and he is happy with the way things are between the two of them. The trouble in paradise starts off with Nikhil constantly forgetting small little things that make a relationship work. He starts taking his girlfriend, her family and friends for granted. And the day comes when Tara cannot take it anymore. As she decides to take matters in her own hand, a strange magical, mystical force intervenes, and the drama unfolds!

Yet another Bollywood film that is heavily inspired by an English movie. The makers of Ru Ba Ru are clearly inspired by If Only (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise). It is unfortunate that Bollywood lacks good original writers.

Anyway, if you're married or in a relationship for quite some time now, you could give Ru Ba Ru a try. The director has skillfully managed to show how some long terms relationships lack love, as other priorities in life have now taken over. The message the movie puts forward is live life for today, not for tomorrow!

But if you expect Ru Ba Ru to be a love story devoid of typical Bollywood masala, you will be sorely disappointed as it suffers mainly due to the over the top and unrealistic masala scenes. The action begins only after the accident, nothing much happens in the first half. The post interval portions are good with Nikhil's (Randeep Hooda's character) desperation convincingly shown. The music is average. None of the songs stands out.

Shahana Goswani who made her debut in Rock On... continues to rock! Her performance itself makes Ru Ba Ru worth a watch in theatre. She is a very talented actress and should have a promising future with the right roles. Randeep Hooda is good, but his body language and looks are better suited for darker roles. Jayant Kriplani is good. Rati Agnihotri is wasted.

To sum up, Ru Ba Ru works to a certain extent if you walk in with zero expectations. A few unnecessary scenes ruin what could have been a much better watch.

Ad Film maker Kunal Shivdasani chose to make his directorial debut in a genre that is presently less seen in the Bollywood movies with senseless comedy flicks taking over the stage. Hijack, an action thriller directed by Kunal stars Shiney Ahuja, Esha Deol and Kaveri Jha in the lead. So does this fully fledged action film succeed in appealing to the masses?

Before we go any further, here's the story in brief:
Hijack is an action thriller that revolves around Vikram Madan (Shiney Ahuja), a ground maintenance officer at the Chandigarh airport. His social life is limited to one friend, Rajeev, who is the Security Chief of the same airport. As luck would have it, the flight in which Vikram's daughter was traveling to Amritsar from Delhi, is hijacked in demand of the release of Maqsood (KK Raina) a terrorists.

Vikram sneaks into the aircraft with the help of the airhostess, Saira (Esha Deol), to save his daughter Priya and others. He starts plotting and killing the terrorists one by one and in this attempt innocent passengers too become victims of the gunshots by ruthless terrorists in the process. How Vikram and Saira manage to save the plane and the passengers forms the story.

Kunal Shivdasani has the talent and the skill but needs to be a little coherent in his subjective decisions. Although the choice of genre is rare for a debutant director, the flaw in the writing lets him down. One man cracks the entire hijack plan and the hijackers remain unaware of their men missing, is something very unlikely and hard to accept. But to keep the verity (fact or reality) essence of the movie alive, the movie from time to time shows the hero's efficient and planned approach to the entire situation. Also just another potboiler kind of ending kills the fervor.

Superficially, Kunal succeeds as a story teller with an equal mix of reality and fancifulness. The first half of the movie is slightly slow paced and meanders unnecessarily around the plot with scenes and songs that are not required. But the pace quickens in the second half suiting the air of the genre. Music by Justin-Uday is average and a romantic song in an action thriller seems completely out of proportion. But the background score is topnotch. Allan Amin's stunts are first class.

Shiney Ahuja fits into the skin of the character easily and put across a wonderful performance. He is the soul of the movie and manages to carry the movie. But his look is inconsistent and completely messed up throughout the movie.

Esha Deol's role is restricted and doesn't require any acting talent. Supporting actors are good in their respective roles.

Overall, Hijack has a slow take off but a swift landing. It takes you on a decent ride and even manages to entertain in parts. The movie definitely is not up to international standards but good enough to appeal to the Indian audience.

Rock On!! Director Farhan Akhtar and TV star Prachi Desai's acting debut is directed by Abhishek Kapoor. Quite frankly I expected nothing from Rock On!! As the director's last movie on boxing titled Aryan (Sohail Khan) was poor. A text message from a friend, who had been to the preview show, came as a pleasant surprise. His message read "Rock on is too good. Must watch!" and fortunately that's exactly what it turned out to be.

Rock On!! is about 4 extremely talented musicians; Aditya (Farhan Akhtar), Joe (Arjun Rampal), Rob (Luke Kenny) and K.D (Purab Kohli). The four friends come together to form a band named Magik and are soon on a look out for that big break. Their dream is to make Magik the biggest band the country has ever seen, but they don't make it and due to a misunderstanding they part. A decade later, they come together and continue from where they left off... Rock On!! is about relationships, dreams, failures, fate and life.

Rock On!! has a few similarities to Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai. A part of the story is similar; a group of friends part ways due to a misunderstanding only to come together years later when their lives have changed. But what works for Rock On!! is it's a simple story with a heart and it connects. A refreshing change from all the masala movies that have been dished out over the past few weeks.

Abhishek Kapoor after the disastrous Aryan, has surely worked hard on Rock On!! His execution of the script and attention to detail is perfect. The characters are real, you identify with them. Emotionally too the movie is strong, there are scenes that make you cry. There are a few hilarious scenes, watch the scene wherein the band group perform dandiya.

The music, so important to a movie like Rock On!! is brilliant. The songs are beautifully placed, a great example of how songs add to the overall experience of a movie. Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy, you guys rock!

Like even the best of movies, Rock On!! is not without flaws. The pace is slow and to a certain extent the second half is predictable.

But the performances more than make up for it. Farhan Akhtar proves to be an extremely talented actor. A great debut. Ditto for Prachi Desai. It should be Arjun Rampal's best performance ever, just cant recollect any of his other note worthy performances. He's good throughout, surprisingly great in those emotional scenes. Luke Kenny and Shahana Goswami are good. Purab Kohli is fine.

Rock On!! is a movie that no one should miss!

Balaji Motion Pictures the producers of C Kkompany promise to entertain with the comedy featuring Tusshar Kapoor, Raima Sen, Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav and Mithun Chakraborty. Sanjay Dutt has a small role; Celina Jaitley has an item number. There are also a host of television actors in special appearances.

Akshay Kumar (Tusshar Kapoor) is a crime reporter, Ramakanth Joshi (Anupam Kher) is a retired accountant trying to deal with his ungrateful son and Lambodar (Rajpal Yadav) are friends. These three share their respective plight with one another and find solace in each other's company. On one occasion, they play a harmless prank to tackle their problems. One thing leads to another, and before they realize, the incident becomes news.

But things don't stop there. They put their new founded fame to good use, and this in turn triggers off a series of incidents, which propel them to such heights that the three become the talk of the nation. Things get beyond their control, and the three are left with no choice but to be mute spectators to their newly acquired fame, especially since no one knows their identity.

Was Ekta Kapoor trying to promote her television soaps through C Kkompany? Quite a few renowned television actors from her serials make an appearance. The movie takes several digs at her K serials and what's more Ekta Kapoor herself makes an appearance. We have an underworld don (Mithunda) who gets all emotional and sheds a bucket of tears while watching Ekta's tele-soaps.

There are spoofs on almost everything. Amitabh Bachchan and his Kaun Banega Crorepati, under world, Karan Johar, Talk shows... the list is endless. Unfortunately though, nothing is funny or entertaining. The dialogues are some of the worst I have heard in recent times. The lesser said about the music, the better.

The only positive about C Kkompany is the performances by a few actors and no prizes for guessing who. Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav and Mithuna stand out but you can't expect them to rise above the below average script. Tusshar Kapoor is poor, as expected. His mannerisms just don't work anymore. It's really high time he quits acting and gets into production.

Raima Sen is wasted. Although she looks beautiful and those super expressive eyes are enough to make you fall in love with her.

To sum up, C Kkompany is poor in every department; except for decent performances by the veterans, NOTHING is worth a mention.

Mindless entertainers seem to be the statement makers for a long time now. Adding to the list is 'God Tussi Great Ho' directed by Rumy Jaffrey. The movie stars Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Sohail Khan in the lead. The movie has been in the making for a long time now. The promotion has been low key, any hopes?

Arun Prajapati (Salman Khan) has been trying to be a successful TV anchor but success has always eluded him. He only blames God for this. Arun is head over heels in love with Alia (Priyanka Chopra), who is a TV anchor and well-known star working in the same channel but he has never been able to express his love for her. Destiny plays a cruel game with him when Rocky is appointed as an anchor for the channel. Arun starts believing that Rocky will win over Alia. Circumstances go out of hand for Arun and he gets thrown out of the channel.

He has nobody to blame but God. And very soon he has an encounter with the God Almighty. An argument ensues between the two. God then decides to give Arun the power to run earth for seven days as Arun claims he can do a better job. After Arun becomes God, he becomes successful. He puts Rocky into an uneasy spot and wins Alia's heart. Also, he grants everybody's wish, and much to his dismay this becomes the biggest problem of his life.

A few moments of laughter and fun is what God Tussi Great Ho is all about. The director has etched in some crazy scenes here and there in a plot line that makes very little sense with few songs attached to add to the runtime of the movie. The first half is spent in telling us about the failures of our hero Arun and how he gets the power of God. After all this, you expect a good second half but it disappoints. The pace is slow and the songs in the later half are bad! A few scenes between Salman Khan and Anupam Kher are good. But that is all the movie has got to offer. As a whole, although entertaining, it fails to hold the viewers attention. It's the script that lets the director down more than anything else.

Cinematography is good. Dialogues are very hilarious at times. Music by Sajid-Wajid is strictly okay, doesn't live up to their usual standard.

Coming to the performances, the movie hardly has any scope for the actors except Salman's character. Salman Khan has the meatiest role and he carries it off like he usually does. His chemistry with Anupam Kher is good. The legendary Bachchan can carry off any role and he suits the role of God. Anupam Kher is great. Priyanka Chopra's role doesn't demand any acting talent. Sohail Khan is okay.

Overall, God Tussi Great Ho is an average entertainer. A few funny scenes make the Bruce Almighty rip-off worth a dekho for Salman Khan fans.

With Phoonk Ram Gopal Varma has promised to scare the hell out of the viewer. The buzz around Phoonk was mainly due to the 5 lakh prize money awarded to the individual who succeeds in watching the movie completely, alone in the theatre. The movie also has a superstar from the Kannada Film Industry, Sudeep.

"Phoonk" is the story of a confirmed atheist whose belief systems are shaken up when his loved ones are subjected to unspeakable horrors by forces whose very existence his rational mind refuses to accept. It is also the story of a fanatical devotee who is forced to turn her back on God in the face of traumatic experiences.

"Phoonk" is also a very scary film, but the fear element is not just on the surface level like for instance in a film like "Bhoot". Here it seeps into you and plagues your entire belief system thereby making you highly vulnerable and will also put you into an emotional state wherein you would start fearing the most inane objects which you would normally take for granted in the daily course of life.

I have always believed the post-intermission portion of a movie is most important, as it makes the last impact on the viewer. An average - above average first half followed by a great second can carry a movie through. Phoonk just falls short in both. The first half is poor. Forget about scaring you it's at times funny. Quite a few people in the crowd were actually making fun of a few scenes, mainly because a few unnecessary scenes in the first half are irritating. The second half is strong, very engaging but falls short of being perfect. 3 - 4 scenes make a strong impact, climax is a letdown.

The camera angles in Ram Gopal Varma movies are really getting annoying now. Also how does the director expect to build fear in a viewer by capturing shots of toys? It's anything but scary. The background music irritates at times.

The performances, apart from Ashwini Kalsekar are decent. Sudeep a veteran actor from down south does well. Ahsaas is fantastic. Zakir Hussain hams in a few scenes. Amruta Khanvilkar is good.

On the whole, the only horror release of the year disappoints. The poor direction in the first half lets the movie down. At the box-office, the movie should recover its investments given its low budget and the curiosity the movie has managed to create.

Maan Gaye Mughall-e-Azam
Cast: Paresh Rawal, Rahul Bose, Mallika Sherawat
Direction: Sanjay Chhel



Probably inspired by Kundan Shah's classic Jaane Bhi Dho Yaaron director Sanjay Chhel who penned movies like Rangeela directs Maan Gaye Mughall-e-azam with an interesting star cast. We have Mallika Sherawat, Rahul Bose, Kay Kay Menon and Paresh Rawal.

Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam is a mad, contemporary comedy involving a drama troupe - Kalakar Natak Company. They produce socially relevant, thought-provoking plays, which no one understands and hardly anyone sees. But the actors of this natak company believe they will change the society one day and everyone will say, 'Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam'. The theatre group gets involved with an undercover agent who is working on saving the country from a bomb blast. One by one they come forward to help and are eventually instrumental in making a deadly game plan to save the world.

From the first few initial reviews, most critics have thrashed Maan Gaye Mughal-e-azam. So I watched it with no expectations and it turned out to be better than it's made out to be. Sure, the sets aren't great and the movie has a B-Grade feel to it but few scenes here and there are rib tickling. The dialogues and performances by the lead actors make the senseless story watchable.

The music by Anu Malik is poor. Seriously, he has been way below average in his last few music albums.

Paresh Rawal, as the lead actor of the theatre group who is married to a hot young babe (Mallika Sherawat) is in top form. The veteran makes you laugh with his mannerisms, expressions and comic timing. Kay Kay Menon for some reason disappoints. Pawan Malhotra is okay.

Rahul Bose can't match Paresh Rawal but does manage to put up a good show. Mallika Sherawat does what she usually does in most of her movies, look hot and flaunt her cleavage to the maximum possible.

To sum things up, Maan Gaye Mughal-E-Azam is not as bad as I expected it to be. There are a few scenes which make you laugh out loud. Performances are decent. At the box-office, the movie could do better business at the B and C centers. It's a movie more for the masses. More of a DVD watch, so wait for the DVD to be available on rent.