A film like MEHBOOBA makes you nostalgic. It takes you back to the cinema of 1990s, when an altogether new breed of film-makers took over Bollywood. Multiple heroes, lavish sets, scenic locations… money was being pumped in from all corners in Hindi movies. MEHBOOBA..

Two decades ago, the Mansoor Khan-helmed QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK, starring two newcomers [Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla], focused on teenage love, with parental opposition acting as an obstacle. The story wasn't new, but the treatment was fresh and inventive. QSQT remains ..

Film: Love Story 2050; Cast: Harman Baweja, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Archana Puran Singh, Dilip Tahil; Director: Harry Baweja;  It’s a beautiful dream for those who love living in the dreamlands only; but what about the audience who are quite bo...

A film like THODA PYAAR THODA MAGIC makes you nostalgic. It takes you back to the light-hearted, feel-good cinema made by directors of calibre like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee. The focus was on narrating a simple story. A movie that put a smile on your ..

VIA DARJEELING follows the format of one story, but multiple versions/endings. The problem here is that the main story [as narrated by Vinay Pathak] is incomplete, so all assumptions and interpretations don't look convincing or cut ice with the viewer. 1/5 Starsome ..

If you've watched the promos of DE TAALI, you'd expect a film with tremendous youth power. You'd expect gags, gimmicks, laughter-n-sunshine and lots and lots of fun. But DE TAALI is anything but this! On the contrary, it's a slow-paced love story, which depicts one..

This common question is addressed to the producer [Kumar Mangat], director [Anil Devgan] and lead actors [Amita Pathak, Nakuul Mehta, Adhyayan Suman] of HAAL-E-DIL: What actually did you see in the script of this film? And the next question is for the writer [Dhiraj..

Cast: Rishi Rehan, Avantika, Ninad Kamat, Himani Shivpuri, Prem Chopra, Raj Babbar, Chunky Pandey, Shakti Kapoor (Guest appearance); Director: Rajesh Ram Singh 2008 seems to be a year for fresh faces in Bollywood. Even the well-known producer Pahlaj Nih...

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Genelia D’souza, Shovna, Manoj Joshi, Rajpal Yadav and Archana Puran Singh; Director: Priyadarshan. Taking care of every minute wish of children has been thought of as parents’ duty but whil...

Mashhoor Amrohi, Vishakha Singh, Jackie Shroff, Shahjad Khan, Kiran Kumar, A K Hangal, Mack Mohan, Prem Chopra and Mukesh Rishi; Director: Mashhoor Amrohi;  Mashhoor Amrohi has attempted real task acting under his own direction in his debut film as ...

Sequels are dicey business. No matter how much you improvise on your new script, you cannot escape comparisons. And when you attempt a sequel of a critically acclaimed film that's a huge box-office grosser as well, it's akin to walking on a tight rope. Most importa..

Sometimes, big things come in small packages. On face value, AAMIR doesn't really look enticing. The director is a first-timer [Rajkumar Gupta], the protagonist [Rajeev Khandelwal] also forays on the big screen with this flick, the film is set in the dingy bylanes o..

The reason why a majority of films go unnoticed is courtesy the weak storyline first. The other factors come later. HASTEY HASTEY - FOLLOW YOUR HEART also suffers for this reason. The story idea, credited to one Rohit Batra, is so tacky, so banal, so obsolete, so li..

Hindi cinema is slowly waking up to hardcore thrillers. Earlier this year, Abbas-Mustan's RACE chartered a totally novel path. The twists-n-turns in the plot moved in a serpentine manner, with the viewer finding it difficult to guess what the outcome would be. WOOD..

Comedies are the flavor of the season and more and more film-makers are following the formula re-invented by David Dhawan and Priyadarshan. Entertainment is the key word, while a logical story goes out of the window. Shashi Ranjan's new outing DHOOM DADAKKA tries to..

The Bhatts never run out of stories. In their new outing JANNAT, Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt have yet another new story to tell. This time, it's all about match fixing and bookies. But wait! It would be erroneous to classify JANNAT as a cricket-centric film. Cricket is ..

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Aman Siddiqui, Juhi Chawla, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Rajpal Yadav, Satish Shah; Director: Vivek Sharma; Ratings: ** 1/2 “Bhootnath” is that rare film set in Goa where you don’t see a single bikini-clad woman. The songs are colourfu...

Cast: Mimoh Chakbraborty, Vivana and Zulfi Syed; Director: Raj N. Sippy; Ratings: * “Do you think I’m a rejected man?” - the villain asks repeatedly after his true intentions are exposed at the end of this tediously assembled pastiche of bad and ugly....

Film scripts are like rubber band. Try stretching the band beyond a point and it's sure to give away. The script of ANAMIKA suffers for this reason! Director Ananth Narayan Mahadevan presents every sequence with utmost care till the intermission point. You're hooke..

It's tough to make a comedy. It's even tougher to make people laugh. With MR. WHITE MR. BLACK you realize that director Deepak Shivdasani's intentions may be sincere, to make a full-on entertainer, but the film fails to transport you to ha-ha-land. It takes off with..

Salaam E Ishq and Life In A...Metro were two major films which released last year and had a common running theme to them. The theme centered on relationship between various couples, a few married and some unmarried, who happened to cross each other's wa...

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan; Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya; Ratings: ** 1/2 The threesome - Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan - on the way to god-knows-where need to escape from the cops. They get into blon...

Good things come in small packages. HOPE & A LITTLE SUGAR [English] is a fine example of this adage. On face-value, you would be least interested in jumping the queue and grabbing its ticket. But once the reels unfold, you realize that sometimes small-budget films ..

Aamir Khan has raised the bar with TAARE ZAMEEN PAR. Comparisons between Aamir and Ajay Devgan, who makes his directorial debut with U ME AUR HUM, would be erroneous, but you can't turn a blind eye to the fact that the viewer would expect an encore with U ME AUR HUM. W..

It would be wrong to slot KRAZZY 4 as a comedy. Sure, KRAZZY 4 remains faithful to the ongoing trend of providing laughs at the oddest of things, but it's more of a masala fare that's reminiscent of the 1980s cinema. Packaged in a modern avatar, of course.A film like...

“Shaurya”; Cast: Rahul Bose, Javed Jaffrey, Kay Kay Menon, Minissha Lamba, Deepak Dobriyal; Director: Samar Khan; Rating: *** 1/2 It takes vision and courage to make a film about the de-escalating valour and plummeting morale of the Indian Army. “Shaurya” i...

123; Cast: Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tusshar Kapoor, Esha Deol, Sameera Reddy, Scipt & Direction: Ashwini Dheer; Rating:** This guy comes into the comedy quite early to serve Sameera Reddy, a car showroom owner, a notice. He smiles and delivers his m...

Post KHILADI and BAAZIGAR, Abbas-Mustan rightfully earned the tag of being the undisputed Badshaahs of Thrillers. They made a series of films thereafter -- of varied genres -- but every time they attempted a thriller, the comparisons with KHILADI and BAAZIGAR were inev..

Film: 'Black & White'; Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Anuraag Sinha, Aditi Sharma, Habib Tanvir; Director: Subhash Ghai Rating: *** A standing ovation for Subhash Ghai for venturing into a territory that would be considered uninviting for an escapist entertain...

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Sonu Sood, Punam S. Sinha, Raza Murad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Suhasini Mulay, Ila Arun, Rajesh Vivek, Pramod Moutho, Surendra Pal, Visswa Badola, Pramatesh Mehta, Shaji Choudhary, Manava Naik, Disha Vakani, Abeer Abrar, Indrajit Sark..

Cast: Kunal Khemu, Tulip Joshi, Zafar Karachiwala; Director: Rohit Jugraj; “Superstar”; Cast: Kunal Khemu, Tulip Joshi, Aushima Sawhney, Reema Lagoo, Sharat Saxena, Darshan Jariwala; Director: Rohit Jugraj; It’s not often that you come away from a ...

Cast: Ranvir Shorey, Brijendra Kala, Neha Dhupia, Naseeruddin Shah; Director: Rajat Kapoor; Rating: **** Sometimes just talking about a film spoils the fun of watching it. It’s true what they say about some films — the less you know about it before you go ...

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Ayesha Takia, Irfan Khan, Mukesh Tiwari; Direction: Rohit Shetty; Rating: **1/2 These two are made for each other in Rohit Shetty’s La-la Land — he is addicted to ice-cream she dubs for kiddie cartoons. He is a cop an...

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Lena Christensen, Vijay Maurya, Naseeruddin Shah; Director: Nagesh Kukunoor; Rating: ** For every one of us who’s come to expect original and sensi...

Rama Rama Kya Hai Drama”; Cast: Rajpal Yadav, Neha Dhupia, Ashish Chowdhary, Amrita Arora, Rati Agnihotri, Anupam Kher, Sanjay Mishra; Director: S. Chandrakaant; You know that feeling you get while undergoing molar read more..

Cast: Nikhil Dwivedi, Amrita Rao, Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Pawan Malhotra, Javed Shaikh, Lillete Dubey, Saurabh Shukla, Mukesh Tiwari, Daya Shankar Pandey, D. Santosh; Director: E. Nivas ; Music: Pritam; Rating: **1/2 Meet young Anthony Gonsalves –...

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Vidya Balan, Pankaj Kapoor; Director:  Rajkumar Santoshi; Music:  Sukhwinder Singh, Vanraj Bhatia; Rating: **  When Sameer Khan (Devgan) refuses to testify in a murder he has witnessed, his conscience begins to prick...

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Paresh Rawal, Mallika Sherawat; Director: Director: Aneez Bazmee; Rating: ** Exit from the hall at the end of the movie was the better part of watching Welcome , director Anees Bazmee...

Cast: Aamir Khan, Tisca Chopra, Darsheel Safary, M. K. Raina; Director: Aamir Khan; Rating: *** Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi (Darsheel Safary) is all of eight and has repeated his third grade already. Papa Awasthi is one angry middle-aged man who wants Ishaa...

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal, Aftab Shivdasani, Viveik Anand Oberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Rohit Roy, Bipasha Basu, Tanushree Datta, Mandira Bedi, Neha Dhupia, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Sammir Dattani, Sudhanshu Pandey, Tusshar K...

Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Soha Ali Khan, Rajat Kapoor, Sonya Jehan, Vinay Pathak, Saurabh Shukla, Sushmita Mukherjee, Dipannita Sharma; Director: Sudhir Mishra; Rating: **1/2 Sudhir Mishra’s ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’ recreates the Bombay film industry of the fifties a...

A ‘comeback’ film always holds significance. Dilip Kumar [Kranti], Amitabh Bachchan [Mrityudatta], Vinod Khanna [Insaaf], Dimple Kapadia [Saagar], Mumtaz [Aandhiyaan] and Kajol [Fanna] are names you cannot erase from your memory since the celebrated actors returned to ..

Cast: John Abraham, Bipasha Basu,Arshad Warsi,Boman Irani; Director: Vivek Agnihotri; Rating: **1/2 Think of sports-based films made in India and visuals of lagaan and chak de india flash across your mind. Will Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal fall in the same league ...

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shreyas Talpade, Kiron Kher, Malaika Arora, Javed Shaikh, Arjun Rampal, Zayed Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Dino Morea, Bindu, Satish Shah, Yuvika Chaudary, Shawar Ali, Asawari Joshi; Director: Farah Khan; Rating: **** A kitsch...

Cast: Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Zohra Sehgal, Begum Para, Achla Sachdev; Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali; Rating: ** First off, using the ever-fantastic words of Pete Townshend entirely out of context, The Kids Are Alright.<...

Cast: John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Paresh Rawal, Ranvir Shorey Director: Anurag Kashyap ; Rating: **1/2 With a rather unusual name, the story is more unusual and is a thriller about a chain smoker (John Abraham). After two highly controversial films...

Cast: Shahid Kapur, Kareena Kapoor; Director: Imtiaz Ali; Rating: *** Who can resist a good love story, and this week’s new release Jab We Met is exactly that – a warm, fuzzy, and for the most part, original love story. Both passengers on a Delhi-bound tra...

Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Konkana Sen Sharma, Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Kunal Kapoor, Anupam Kher; Director: Pradeep Sarkar; Rating: ** So, it is a Yash Raj movie. You have learnt to forgive them for the extra tinge of orange and the sharp sounds, the ...

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja, Amisha Patel; Director: Priyadarshan; Rating: ** Gawk, it must be the world’s largest lock. Quickly, a locksmith bakes a nice, thin, long key. And presto, the door opens up to reveal a chamber of ghungroos, pa...

Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Kim Sharma, Kabir Sadanand, Farid Amiri, Ahmed Khan, Sri Vallabh Vyas, Vinod Nagpal; Director: Dilip Sood If you thought the title Chhodon Na Yaar would dissuade cinegoers from seeing this Jimmy Sheirgill and Kim Sharma starrer, think...

Cast: Nisha Kothari, Gautam Gupta, Rajpal Yadav, Kay Kay Menon; Director: Manish Srivastav; Rating: * When was the last time you saw a film so bad, so bad, that you enjoyed it thoroughly? This week’s new release Go, is exactly that kind of movie. N...

Cast: Neil Mukesh, Zakir Hussain, Dharmendra, Rimi Sen; Director: Sriram Raghavan; Rating: *** Johnny Gaddar isn’t a thriller. Actually the title reveals the mystery. A gang of five semi-criminals hatch a plan to make quick money. The toughest amon...

Cast: Imaad Shah, Shreyas Talpade, Nikita Anand; Director: Manish Tewary; Rating: **1/2 IF Chase was the inspiration for Sriram Raghavan in Johnny Gaddaar , then Satre could be the reason why debutant director Manish Tewary chose to focus on the existentia...

Cast: Om Puri, Tusshar Kapoor, Tanushree Dutta, Arbaaz Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Payal Rohatgi, Sharman Joshi, Kunal Khemu and Murali Sharma; Director: Priyadarshan; Rating: **1/2 With Dhol, Priyadarshan returns to what he does best: comedy. And like all the com...

Cast: Shabana Azmi, Ayesha Dharker, Jameel Khan, Darshan Jariwala, Manish Acharya, Seema Rahmani; Director: Manish Acharya; Rating: *** “Are you ashamed to be seen with me?”, the only white -American contestant in the all-desi US-based music contest asks h...

Cast: Abhay Deol, Sarika, Raima Sen, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vinay Pathak, Gul Kirat Panag, Brijendra Kale, Jogiji; Director: Navdeep Singh; Rating: *** Manorama - Six Feet Under starts on a promising note. Abhay Deol is Satyaveer Singh (SV), a PWD engineer....

Cast: Bobby Deol, Katrina Kaif, child artiste Dwij; Director: Samir Karnik; Rating: ** Nanhe (Yadav) is a precocious ten-year-old who is lives in Rajasthan and is the sole bread-winner for his family. He is also die-hard fan of super star (!) Bobby Deol an...

Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Koena Mitra, Shreyas Talpade, Vikas Kalantri; Director: Anant Mahadevan; Rating: ** Janvi (Udita Goswami) is a woman whose life seems perfect on the surface. She runs a business, is married to a psychiatrist Dr Adi Merchant (Shr...

cast: Irrfan Khan, Shobana, Anupam Kher, Rajat Kapoor, Dhruv Piyush Panjnani, Utkarsha Naik, Nassar Abdulla, Barkha Singh; Director: Kaushik Roy; Rating: *** Watching Apna Asmaan came as a refreshing break from the usual big budget extravaganzas churned ou...

Cast: Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol, Isha Koppikar, Zakir Hussain; Director: Ram Gopal Varma; Rating: * 1/2 A philandering husband Aditya Soman (Fardeen Khan) finds himself in a soup when he accidentally kills his ‘other woman’ Gita Menon (Esha Deol) after a nig...

Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Sharman Joshi, Tiku Talsania, Asrani, Javed Jaffrey, Aashish Chaudhary, Murli Sharma, Sohail Khan, Aftab Shivdasani; Director: Indra Kumar; Rating: *** His Masti and Pyare Mohan were about male bonding, and...

Cast: Om Puri, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Preeti Jhangiani, Sonia Mehra, Kamal Sadanah, Javed Jaffrey; Director: Anant Mahadevan; Rating: * Victoria No.203 directed by Anand Mahadevan is a fun-filled, light comic. The movie is a remake of 1992’s movie un...

Cast: Muzammil Ibrahim,Tulip Joshi,Anupam Kher,Gulshan Grover,Ashutosh Rana,Anupam Shyam,Vineet Kumar; Director:  Pooja Bhatt; Rating: *** Not every potential terrorist belongs to one particular community. Yes, it sounds like a brutally vulgar adage i...

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Mohanlal, Ajay Devgan, Prashant Raj Sachdev, Nisha Kothari, Sushmita Sen, Sushant Singh, Rajpal Yadav, Gaurav Kapoor, Urmila Matondkar, Abhishek Bachchan; Director: RGV; Rating: * Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag tells the story of a certain ...

Cast: Rajveer, Neha Jhulka, Kunal Kumar and Shital Shah; Director: Mohit Hussain; Rating: * Sometimes interesting stories run out of steam if stretched beyond a point. That’s the problem with KAISAY KAHEIN, directed by Mohit Hussein. KAISAY KAHEIN ...

Cast: Vidya Balan, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Boman Irani, Akshay Kumar; Director: Sajid Khan; Rating: *** Heyy Babyy is a comic jape that has been produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by director turned comedian Sajid Khan (Ekke Pe Ekka fame). Th...