While the poster designs of the film with a teenage girl shown pregnant suggests it to be a blatant copy of Oscar winning film Juno, the fact is Teree Sang is not. It is also not really similar to Preity Zinta’s Kya Kehna though it too dealt with a very young unmarried girl getting pregnant. But despite having its heart in the right place, Teree Sang doesn’t really register any impact on the viewer.

Movie Review: Teree Sang (2009)
Rating: 2/5
Starring: Ruslaan Mumtaz, introducing Sheena Shahabadi, Rajat Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Neena Gupta and Anupam Kher
Director: Satish Kaushik

Maahi (Sheena) is the only child of rich parents (Rajat Kapoor and Neena Gupta). She strikes friendship with Kabir aka Kukko (Ruslaan) whose parents (Kaushik and Sushmita Mukherjee) belong to the lower strata of the society. Their friendship turns into love and during a camping on the New Year’s Eve, in a drunken state they end up having sex.

Maahi gets pregnant and all hell breaks loose While Maahi wants to keep the baby, her father opposes it. She then elopes with Kabir so that she can deliver her child. What further complications it all leads to forms the rest of the film.

Kaushik’s direction falls in the category of ‘strictly okay’ but as an actor he has his impressive moments playing a rickshaw driver. Screenplay by Jainendra Jain, Sanjay Chauhan and Anuj Kapoor is plain insipid at times. One wonders why the girl (Sheena) whom you should feel the maximum sympathy for falling in such a mess has been given an extremely irritating childish tone to speak her lines. It starts grating on your nerves after a point of time. The music too hardly has any recall value.

Ruslaan Mumtaz has tremendous screen presence and given a good script and a good director can work wonders. Sheena makes a confident debut but her dialogue delivery needs to improve. Rajat Kapoor is good and so is Sushmita Mukherjee. Anupam Kher in a short role is impressive as usual. Neena Gupta is okay.

Teree Sang is not really a bad film but just that it is not good enough worth an immediate rush to your nearest multiplex.

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The film has been shot in 27 days during Diwali time. And, according to sources despite the tight schedule, Anupam and Anubhav managed to take some time out for gambling, but strangely left another cast member Boman out of the game. So we ask Anupam uncle why such a royal ignore to Boman, that too on Diwali!

Considering Anupam rather enjoyed and also requested several retakes of the shot where he gets to hit Boman, this latest news of Anupam’s bonding with Anubhav, definitely points out that something is wrong between the funny men. Well now, is that an assumption or a hidden truth- we throw the dice oops ball in the court of these two talented actors.

Perfect Mismatch narrates the tale of an architect Aman (Anubhav Anand) who falls in love with Neha (Nandana). But things begin to turn for the worse as his orthodox uncle (Boman) who has brought him up meets Neha’s dad (Kher). Their first meeting itself sets the tone for the things lying ahead.

Movie Review: Perfect Mismatch (2009)
Starring: Introducing Anubhav Anand, Nandana Sen, Boman Irani and Anupam Kher
Director: Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad
Rating: 1.5/5

Now it is up to the two lovers to find a way out to bring both the warring families together. What crazy mix up it all leads to and what pleasant changes it brings about in all the characters involved forms the rest of the plot.

This Indo-American venture doesn’t have a bad plot but just that it doesn’t have anything spectacularly different to offer. The film has its share of genuinely funny moments that one can enjoy with the full family unlike few recent so called romantic comedies. However, the film is held together by the performances of Boman and Kher as one keeps looking out for their next encounter together.

Debutante director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad’s doesn’t impress with his narrative style and his lack of technical finesse shows. Music by Josh has nothing much to cheer about. Debutante Anubhav Anand is likeable and delivers in his maiden act. Nandana is just about passable though. The rest mix of Indian and American actors is just about average.

Boman Irani and Anupam Kher were last pitted against each other in the extremely loveable Khosla Ka Ghosla three years back and they have a wonderful chemistry between them continuing with this film as well.

The show I went to watch for at a suburban Mumbai multiplex for reviewing this film in the morning didn’t take place because of lack of audience and I had to run to another multiplex for a noon show. Now do I need to say anything more about the film?

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If sources close to the cast of forthcoming release Perfect Mismatch are to be believed Anupam did not leave any stone unturned to trouble Boman on the sets while shooting. The story goes like this- Anupam and Boman are playing relatives (samdhi) in the film.

During the shoot of a sequence Anupam asked the director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad to retake the shot several times where he is hitting Boman.

Wonder, why Mr. Kher would do that! And Boman, why did he take the hitting so calmly

Guru (Kay Kay Menon) is a car thief whose partner in crime is a garage owner Ganpat (Dilip Prabhawalkar). Fouzdar (Kher), an underworld don sends his driver to deliver Rs. 1 crore cash to deliver it to filmmaker Gogi (Manoj Pahwa). But Guru ends up stealing this car and is over the moon on finding the cash bag inside.

Movie Review: Sankat City
Rating: 3.5/5
Starring: Kay Kay Menon, Rimi Sen, Anupam Kher, Chunky Pandey, Yashpal Sharma, Dilip Prabhawalkar
Director: Pankaj Advani

But before Guru could savor the money, he is caught by Fouzdar. When Fouzdar sends his henchman Lovely (Jehangir Khan) along with Guru to get back his money hidden in garage, Lovely unintentionally ends up hurting Ganpat’s head. Since Ganpat before that had hidden the money at a different place it gets crazier since Ganpat now has lost his memory with the assault on his head.

Now Guru is given three days by Fouzdar to get back his money or else face death. Guru then chances upon his old partner in crime Mona (Rimi) and both join hands. What helluva crazy ride it all leads as Guru goes on to get Rs. 1 crore forms the rest of the plot.

The film’s biggest assets are the zany humour and also the acting by each and every actor. Pankaj Advani’s narrative style is terrific and keeps you engaged throughout. It is good debut by the filmmaker. While the first half breezes quickly, the second gets a little slow but however the film picks up well during the climax.

Amongst the most hilarious scenes are Anupam Kher’s sequences with a nervous wreck builder played by Yashpal Sharma, Kay Kay and Ganpat’s friendly banter, Kay Kay and Rimi’s theft at Yashpal Sharma’s flat and Kay Kay’s taxi ride with a Sardar taxi driver who is hunting for his lost brother. Ranjit Barot’s background music is impressive.

Kay Kay is simply superb while Rimi gives her best performance till date. Her constant Bengali banter is cute. Anupam Kher is top class. Chunky Pandey in a double role is hilariously good. Manoj Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey, Virendra Saxena and Sunita Rajwar lend able support. Rahul Dev in a short role of a hit man impresses.

Sankat City is a must watch for all those complaining to see something different yet full of fun.

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Professor Joymohan (Kher) stays alone in Kolkata. He is a heart patient and when he gets a severe heart attack on his birthday he realizes he needs to spend as much time with his family in Mumbai as possible. He then goes to Mumbai to his son Indra (Rajat), daughter in law Rita (Divya) and grand daughter Gargi (Avika).

Movie Review: Morning Walk
Rating: 1.5/5
Starring: Anupam Kher, Sharmila Tagore, Divya Dutta, Rajat Kapoor, Nargis, Shayan Munshi, Avika Gor
Director: Arup Dutta

While Indra and Gargi are delighted, Rita is not so happy about his arrival. She makes her displeasure more vocal. Joymohan starts going for morning walks to the nearby park in the mornings. During one such morning walk he meets his old student Neelima (Tagore) and her daughter Anjali (Nargis) who wants to do a doctorate in the US. What secret Joymohan and Neelima share and what happens after it comes out forms the rest of the plot.

Morning Walk offers nothing new. The makers aren’t focused with one issue but try to pack in a lot of things together. Some sequences like those between Anupam Kher and Balika Vadhu girl Avika Gor and between Sharmila Tagore and Kher have been penned and enacted well.

But the displeasure of Divya Dutta about her father in law’s arrival is ditto in the lines of Baghban. Arup Dutta has handled few emotional moments well and is technical sound considering it is his debut directorial venture. However he is failed by a lackluster script. The music by Jeet Ganguly is extremely tuneful and worth a buy.

Veterans Anupam Kher and Sharmila try to rise above the script and succeed to an extent. Garam Masala girl Nargis needs a crash course in acting. Shayan Munshi is passable. Divya Dutta is good and so is Rajat Kapoor. Avika Gor is cute and immensely likeable.

Morning Walk is a movie that doesn’t need a trip to the movie hall, but it wont harm you if you catch it on a lazy Sunday noon on home video.

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Divya Dutta, Avika Gor, Anupam Kher, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Shaan, Ritu, Viren Shah at Morning Walk premiere in INOX on 9th July 2009.

This is the time for monsoon and the word Sankat in Mumbai is on top of every one’s mind. Seems like, it’s a perfect time for the Moserbaer -Seven Entertainment flick; Sankat City, to hit the marquee. The premiere of the film saw the glitterati of tinsel town flock at PVR.

Harish Dayani and G Dhananjayan played the perfect hosts while stars KK Menon, Rimi Sen, Anupam Kher, Chunkey Pandey, Vipin Sharma, Rahul Dev, Mohit Chadda, Manoj Pahwa, Raajesh Tondon, Saurabh Shukla, singer June Bannerjee, Naveen Prabhakar, Prashant Pandey, Makarand Deshpande, Padam Bhola, Kalki Kolchein, directors Pankaj Advani, Yashpal Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Shriram Raghavan, Anirudhya Mitra, Shivam Nair, Karan Choudhary, Imtiaz Ali, Arup Dutt, Bunty Walia, Chirantan Das, Hemant Pandey and a host of others thronged the event.

So it didn’t come as a surprise, when the duo set-up a production company together. But quite a few eyebrows were raised when they christened it with an odd name like Karol Bagh Films and Entertainment.

Apparently, the name carries a nostalgic whiff of parathas, dreams and friendship for Anupam. The mystery behind naming the production house Karol Bagh Film and Entertainment has an interesting anecdote…

Let’s hear it from the horses’ mouth himself.

Says Satish Kaushik, “Anupam and I were doing theatre at NSD. Since I am from Delhi and Anupam hails from Simla; he used to drop in at Karol Bagh and relish the parathas made at my place. We have great memories of our friendship in Delhi.” He goes on to add, “It was Anupams’ idea to name our production house Karol Bagh. It was very sweet gesture and tribute to our friendship.”

All we can say after listening to this; long-live their friendship and Karol Bagh’s famous parathas.

Anupam Kher, Rimi Sen, Yashpal Sharma, Rahul Dev, Ranjit Barot at Sankat City film music launch in Cinemax on 24th June 2009.

Emraan Hashmi, Pooja Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt, Anupam Kher and Kiron Kher, Gauri Karnik, Soni Razdan, Nisha Jamwal at the Launch of Mahesh Bhatt_s book A Taste of Life – The Last Days of UG Krishnamurthi in Crossword Book store on 22nd June 2009.

These school mates are – Anupam Kher, Satish Kaushik, Govind Namdeo, Anang Desai and Suhas Khandke. These five actors were all studying at the National School of Drama in Delhi before turning to Bollywood. Interestingly, even the producer – director of Aagah, Karan Razdan too has been a product of the NSD.

These school mates recently completed Aagah’s first shooting schedule at the famous tourist location, Ganpati Pule near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. A unit source reveals they had quiet a lot of fun together reminiscing their old times at the NSD.

Aagah is a touching tale about a terrorist and his reformation and also stars Rituaparna Sengupta and Ila Arun.

Anupam Kher, Dolly Thakore at Vinita Mirchandani_s art exhibition on 3rd June 2009.

Ferena Wazeir, lillete dubey, Shaad Randhawa, Mohit Suri, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher, Raju Kher, Soni Razdan, Bunty Walia, Poonam Dhillon, Mahesh Bhatt, Kunal Kohli, Yash Chopra, David Dhawan, Perizaad Kolah, Satish Kaushik, Ashok Pandit at the premiere of Saaransh in Metro BIG Cinemas on 23rd May 2009 .

Sonia (Ishita Arun), Tina (Tejaswini Kolhapure), Puja (Gauri Karnik) and Om (Rohit Bhatia) are four home-mates in Dubai. They together share a huge apartment and are platonic best friends. While Puja is a host on an FM channel called Radio Hum, Tina is a stage actress, Sonia runs a boutique, and Om works in a corporate set up.

Rating: 2/5
Starring: Rohit Bhatia, Dia Mirza, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Gauri Karnik, Ishita Arun, Kiran Janjani, Anupam Kher, Om Puri
Director: Ajai Sinha

While outwardly the four appear to live a carefree and modern lifestyle, there are many chinks in their respective armors. Puja wants to be the host of her own show, which she would like to call “Puja at 8″, but for that she may have to compromise and spend a night with her boss (Harsh Chhaya), at the same time she has promised her conservative India-based parents that she will meet the boy of their choice and settle with him.

Tina’s skeleton in the closet contains her alcoholic dad (Om Puri), who is always asking her for money, though Tina would prefer to avoid him and never see him again, she has no option but deal with him whenever he suddenly shows up in their home unannounced; Sonia’s only male client, Rohit (Kiran Janjani) thinks she is hot and wants to marry her, however, Rohit is known as a womanizer and his affairs only last for a few nights.

Om was in love with Shama (Dia Mirza) when he was in India, but then she had got married to Pawan. Now Shama and her daughter are in Dubai and both are about to re-kindle their romance for each other, not knowing that Pawan himself is on his way there. As problems arise, they tend to take a toll in their friendship as they start drifting apart. Finally it all boils down to a climax on the New Years’ Day.

The film attempts to be a modern day take on friendships amongst today’s youth ala Dil Chahta Hai. While the friendship chemistry amongst the four friends has come out naturally well and some small sequences and lines shared amongst them have come out very identifiable, the overall impact is missing.

The comic track between Tejaswini and Ali Asgar also falls completely flat. The culmination of Kiran and Ishita Arun’s story is unintentionally hilarious. Director Ajai Sinha who is a popular name in television circuit as a director who is a master in handling human emotions is let down here with a weak script. He does impress however in handling of some emotional sequences. The production values are fair but costumes especially worn by Gauri and Tejaswini are simply bad. Music by Vishal – Shekhar lacks the zing required for a youngsters flick.

Newcomer Rohit Bhatia makes a confident debut. Tejaswini Kolhapure impresses a lot despite having been badly presented. Ishita Arun and Gauri Karnik barely get scope to showcase their acting talents. Dia Mirza in a small but important part is good. Harsh Chhaya is getting type cast in a lecherous boss roles. He has done similar type of parts earlier in Laga Chunari Mein Daag and Its Breaking News. Kiran Janjani fits the part. Himani Shivpuri, Om Puri and Anupam Kher lend able support as usual.

While the film may not exactly be worth a visit to the nearest multiplex, it isn’t that bad either and can be caught up on home video on one lazy Sunday afternoon.

When the film’s leading man Anupam Kher on completing 25 years in films decided to hold a belated premiere of the film on May 25 at the very theatre (Metro) where it was first released, he decided to regroup the entire cast and crew of Saaransh.

From director Mahesh Bhatt to producer Raj Kumar Barjatya to the film’s romantic lead Mohan Joshi and Soni Razdan(director Bhatt’s wife) to music composer Ajit Varman(the musical genius now lives in anonymity in Andheri)…they all jumped at the idea of reliving what’s unarguably the single-most important event in their life.

Only Nilu Phule, an important theatre and film actor active from 1956, was untraceable.

There began Anupam’s hunt for the missing actor. “There was no way I’d relive Saaransh which today is more relevant as a work of cinema than ever before, without one of its important actors. No one seemed to know where Nilu Phule was.I finally got an address for him in Pune.I drove down personally to the address. But Nilu didn’t live there any more.My hunt began all over again.”

Phule was finally tracked him down to another location in Pune.

Says Anupam emotionally, “It was a glorious revisitation. We both could barely hold back our tears.Unfortunately Nilu’s health does not permit him to make that journey from Pune to Mumbai. He was ready to come. But his doctor advised him against it. We’ll miss Nilu at the premiere.”

Anupam has invited his close friends from within and outside the film industry for the premiere of Saaransh on Sunday. “Naresh Goel and Yash Chopra will be there. But Subhash Ghai can’t attend because he’s in Cannes. I even invited singer Kavita Krishnamurthy who sang an evocative song in Saaransh . But she’s in Poland.”

The actor has also commissioned a half-hour documentary on Saaransh.

“To me Saaransh is the sum-total of my entire career. It voices all the concerns that I hold precious. If I’m even 20 percent of the humanbeing that my character B.B. Pradhan was, I’ve achieved enough in life.”

Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai, Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel, Vidya Balan, Dino Morea, Fardeen Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Satish Kaushik, Hrithik Roshan, Manyata, Ramesh Sippy, Kiran Juneja, Anupam Kher, Simi Garewal, Esha Deol, Farida Jalal, Javed Akhtar, Manmohan Shetty, Sanjay Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Zeenat Aman, Yash Chopra, Tabu, Pooja Bedi, Deepti Naval, Shekhar Kapur, Karan Johar, Jackie Shroff, Nisha Jamwal, Waheeda Rehman, Bindu, Satish Kaushik, Bhushan Kumar, Kishan Kumar, Neelam Kothari, Dharmendra, Aashish Chaudhry, Zayed Khan grace the late Feroz Khan’s prayer meet on 4th May 2009.

Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhadhuri, Sonam Kapoor, Hema Malini, Esha Deol, Sunny Deol, Poonam Sinha, Amrita Rao, Sonakshi Sinha, Anju Mahendroo, Rakesh Roshan, Pooja Bedi, Kunal Kapoor, Govinda, Anupam Kher, Kiron Kher, Shakti Kapoor, Raza Murad, Padmini Kolhapure, Ranjeet, Sanjay Khan, Javed Akhtar, Suresh Oberoi goes to vote on 30th April 2009.

Shilpa Shetty, Jaya Pradha, Anupam Kher on the sets of The Desire in Sula Wineyards, Nasik on 8th Feb 2009.

Vijay Shekhawat (Harman) a Jaisalmer boy after a lot of struggle manages to fulfill his father’s (Anupam Kher) dream of making it to the Indian cricket team. With a great debut he wins not just fans but a lot of endorsement deals and lucrative contracts. Success begins to spoil and distancing him from his lady love (Amrita Rao) back home. Blinded by success and the taste of the high society life he losses both focus and form. He is then understandably dumped by the selectors. Following which, his father gets a heart attack. Vijay then decides to mend his mistakes and fight his way back to the team. In final match, despite a severe head injury he manages to get India a near impossible win.

Rating: 2/5
Starring: Harman Baweja, Amrita Rao, Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover
Director: Ajitpal Mangat

A sports film is always crippled with a same storyline that of a underdog, his rise then fall and subsequent rise back to gain the impossible victory. This film is no different. But one expects atleast some sense of creativity wherein the interest is kept alive throughout. Twenty minutes into the film and one somehow senses whats in store. So full of cliches and melodrama is the film that sometimes you begin to wonder did the makers intend to take the viewers for a ride.

If the melodrama was intended to bring in that emotional connect with the audience then the writer-director have clearly failed as throughout the film the emotional impact is clearly missing. Also nowhere does the lead character’s passion for the game comes across. Also one fails to understand the need of Hurman’s character using swear words for his opponents. Wear is your sporting spirit dude is what we wish to ask him! His character therefore fails to evoke any sympathy from the audience.

The biggest high point of sports films are games shown in the film. But here they are biggest drawbacks. Not only there are just a very few games but also what are shown are simply thanda! There is total lack of edge of the seat excitement which was very much needed. Also homework by the makers is clearly lacking if they intended to show the ‘real’ behind the scenes happenings of the cricket match for example the dressing room interactions etc. Just putting in famous national-international cricketing names don’t necessarily give the film authenticity.

One feels really sad for Hurman Baweja whose tremendous hard work is noticeable in every single scene but is mightily let down by a pathetic script and listless direction by debutante Ajitpal Mangat. Amrita Rao reprises her typical simple small town girl act for the nth time. She looks very pretty though. Anupam Kher after a point of time starts grating on your nerves with his screeching overmelodramatic act. Gulshan Grover is just about okay.

The music doesn’t really register any impact as there are no full songs as well. The Balla Utha number mostly keeps playing in the background during the match sequences. But thankfully the songs are less.

The film is a complete let down in many departments and instead of wasting time on this film it is a better option to watch a re-run of any Indian cricket team match on TV or best spend your time watching the current India v/s Sri Lanka one day series.