Love blossoms between a Delhi college professor, Avantika (Kareena) and her newly joined colleague, Ehsaan Khan (Saif). But as she receives a call to join back her University in New York, Ehsaan proposes marriage. While her father initially disapproves of the match because of Ehsaan being a Muslim, he finally gives his nod impressed by Ehsaan’s approach.

The couple goes to New York and finds a house in an Indian neighbourhood. But soon Avantika realizes her own husband is a major part of the terrorist sleeper cell operating there and is the reason for aeroplane blast that kills 140 people. She also comes to know that the terror outfit’s next plane is something as big as 9/11. How she unearths the plot with a journalist Riyaaz’s (Vivek) aid and what it all leads forms the rest of the plot.

Writer Rensil D’Silva (Rang De Basanti) making his directorial debut with Kurbaan delivers a taut thriller that keeps you engrossed throughout. Despite its long running time of over 2 hours and 40 minutes his gripping narrative has enough twists n turns and chilling moments.

Cutting away from commercial cinema traps and unwanted cinematic liberties, he has made Kurbaan one of the best thrillers to be experienced on the big screen in recent times. Without taking any sides, the film manages to strike an impact leaving you shaken with the full of bloodshed climax. Super aid comes in form of Niranjan Iyengar and Anurag Kashyap’s dialogues. They are precise and to the point without sounding preachy.

The classroom sequence when American students question discuss terrorism and Islam and Vivek Oberoi’s replies to them is one of the film’s most important and noteworthy sequence. Though the place drops a bit post interval, the 35 – 40 minute long climax keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The much talked about love making sequence is very aesthetically shot. Salim Suleiman’s music is good and fits in the movie well with no lip sync songs.

Saif Ali Khan has always been very good whenever he has gone wicked and here as well he comes up triumphs in a grey role. The way he changes his body language and facial expressions from a charming romantic to a cold blooded terrorist is just superb.

Kareena Kapoor proves yet again why she is considered a top rated actress today. However, in many emotional sequences she appears very similar in her act to her elder sister, Karisma. After a really very long time Vivek Oberoi leaves you extremely impressed. His mature act is bound to win him many accolades and awards for sure.

Om Puri as the terrorist sleeper cell head is very good. Kirron Kher after a long time gets a non-Punjabi mom role and she is has delivered one of her career best performance in this one. Dia Mirza and Nauheed Cyrusi leave you impressed despite their short roles.

Hemant Chaturvedi’s camerawork matches international standards and so does Nakul Kamte’s Sound work.

Finally, a big applause for Karan Johar for making under his Dharma Productions, a film which is very unlike any previous film made under his prestigious banner and one which is not only extremely well made but also very topical.

Rating: 3.5/5
Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi and Om Puri
Director: Rensil D’Silva

The film narrates the tale of Mickey (Aftab) a 12 year old kid. He is left heartbroken on realizing he is an adopted child and that the girl he fancies as his angel, the 23 year old Mitika (Aamna) calls him a ‘Kid’. Cajoled by the local street side clown Hitchcock (Johnny Lever), Mickey wishes for a miracle. Voila it takes place and the next morning when he gets up he turns into a young man!

Mickey first has a hard time convincing his best buddy Bonnie that it is no one else but him himself. The best thing about getting older so quick for Mickey is that he gets a chance to come closer to his big crush Mitika. He tries to impress her and she eventually falls in love with him. But things get further complicated as she gets ready to marry him. What happens next forms the rest part of the film.

Clearly inspired by Tom Hanks starrer Big (1988), Aao Wish Karein however is a cute film that somehow fizzles out in the last few moments. Turning producer as well as writer with this film, Aftab Shivdasani has interwoven some really heartwarming moments in the screenplay. Aftab trying to woo Aamna has come out really endearing.

The scenes between Mickey and Hitchcock are very good too. The kiddie portion however could have been shorter in length. The only problem that film faces is once the romance between Aamna and Aftab gets established there is barely any conflict left to keep you engaged.

Aftab and Aamna in Aao Wish Karein

Aftab is very good in his act and never resorts to unnecessary hamming trying to act like a kid locked up in an adult body. Aamna Shariff has great screen presence and shows a lot of improvement in her acting since her debut act in Aloo Chaat. Johnny Lever is fun whenever he is on screen. The kid playing Bonnie is good.

Director Glen Baretto who had earlier co-directed Aftab starrer Jaane Hoga Kya does a fair job in here. He has succeeded in giving the film a very soft romantic feel within a fairy tale setting.

The music of the film credited to three music directors – Ankur Tewary, Xulfi and Mickey McCleary is a pleasant surprise. The best number of the lot being Ankur Tewary’s Sabse Peeche Khade which was incidentally, seen earlier in Let’s Enjoy. The choreography by Longine Fernandes of Slumdog Millionaire fame is very imaginative.

Aao Wish Karein is a cute clean romantic film but lack of imaginative writing towards the climax brings the graph down a bit. However, it makes for a decent watch.

Ali Taha (Emraan) meets Sanjana (Soha) on board of their flight to Mumbai from Cape Town. Here on the film proceeds on and back and forth narrative revealing them being ex-lovers. Six years back then Ali was a art student and had lost his heart to the activist Sanjana. They both had progressed to a live in relationship in quick time as well. But monetary issues leading to ego clashes had broken their relationship apart.

After arriving in Mumbai on the ill fated day of 26th July 2005, they go onto encounter the biggest floods in the history of Mumbai. The rest of the film is about the couple battling for their lives after being stuck in the rain and floods. In their struggle for survival, they learn more about each other and things which they had not known in all those years of being together.

Emraan is only getting better with each passing film and in here as well he is very impressive. Soha Ali Khan delivers her best performance till date going through a gamut of expressions with amazing ease. Amongst the rest cast the only one to leave a mark is debutant RJ Mantra. He is very good playing Emraan’s buddy.

Kunal Deshmukh’s shows technical department improvement after his debut film Jannat. His treatment of the love story though somewhat predictable is good as well. But we most often keep sensing that the flood situation things which appear more thrilling have completely deliberately taken a back seat with the flash back and romance between the lead pair taking more prominence. This all leads to the film being boring at many places.

Emran Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan in Tum Mile

There was a recent news item that Mahesh Bhatt cut short the flood shots to give more importance to the romantic track. Well not a wise decision we may say. The stock footage of the floods and the computer graphics are a let down at many places but the one thing that doesn’t dissappoint is the film’s music.

Pritam deserves full marks for his consistency in delivery great music which is already ruling the charts along with his score for last Friday’s release Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani. Camerawork by Prakash Kutty is very good. The effort gone in recreating the flood situation is commendable as well.

Tum Mile is more of a romantic film with the natural disaster backdrop added for effect. If you are going in expecting India’s first disaster movie then you will be in for a major disillusionment. So choose it at your own preference.

Parag Dixit (Neil) is hard working white collared job employee who is just on the threshold of a great career ahead. He gets a well deserved promotion at his job and is all set to marry his girl friend Mansi (Mugdha). But fate has other plans.

He gets wrongly implicated in crime which he is not part of and is subjected to a police custody first and then Thane jail. Thus begins a nightmare for the innocent Parag. How he faces the problems in a world completely unknown and as dark as he could not even imagine in his wildest dreams forms the rest of the film.

Neil Nitin Mukesh in Jail

The dialogues are razor sharp befitting a Madhur Bhandarkar film and the large number of character actors carefully chosen justifying their parts with their natural act. The film has many characters put in for real life references like for example the infamous drunk and drive incident on a Mumbai road.

Although, it takes a little extra time for the story to build up, after the interval point it packs in a solid punch. Camerawork by Kalpesh Bhandarkar and background music deserve special mention. Sayali Bhagat’s item song will please the front benchers.

Madhur has the knack of deriving award winning performances from his principal cast and in here Neil delivers an award worthy performance as Parag Dixit. The manner in which he has successfully conveyed his anger, frustration and sheer helplessness against the situation that he has been subjected to deserves a bow.

Mugdha Godse in a non-glam part is good. Manoj Bajpai in his intense act is simply superb. His meaningful gaze conveys a lot. Playing jail inmates – Rahul Singh as Gani bhai and Arya Babbar as the underworld recruiter are excellent in their parts. Atul Kulkarni impresses in the two scenes he gets during the climax.

Watch Jail for an experience of a trip to a world which you will wish you never to visit even in your worst nightmares.

Prem (Ranbir) is a happy go lucky fun loving chap staying in a small town. But problems follow him everywhere even when he is all set to do something good for others. Prem along with his friends runs a ‘Happy Club’ which believes in joining hearts of lovers. Following some misunderstandings, Prem loses his heart to new girl in town Jenny (Katrina).

He finds out she is an orphan staying with a heartless family. Prem’s friends motivate him to tell her his ‘dil ki baat’ and he tries all his level best to match Jenny’s choices. After a month long gap of staying away from Jenny he is finally all set to tell her his feelings, he finds her house locked and family migrated to Goa to forcibly marry her to a cash rich idiot.

He goes to Goa to seek her but only to be shocked by her revelation that she loves one Rahul (Upen) and wants to elope and get married to him. Heartbroken but not dejected, Prem decides to bring the two lovers together. But complications arise further. What chaos it all leads to as Prem goes all out to make the Jenny-Rahul marriage happen, forms the rest of this fun filled entertainer.

Rajkumar Santoshi is back in form after a many years. Comedy has always been his main forte as his Andaz Apna Apna has achieved cult status in last 15 years. Here he has balanced both romance and comedy very well. His narrative keeps you hooked right from the word go.

Santoshi has also picked up the right character actors which contribute immensely to the madcap proceedings. Production values are of high standards.

Some scenes that have turned out well in terms of writing, direction and acting are the dance party sequence, Katrina slapping Ranbir after she feels he is aping her stammering only to realize he has the same defect as well, Ranbir masquerading in a girlie top when a girl’s parents come to see him and of course the howlarious climax action.

One of the biggest contributors of the film is its music by Pritam. All the songs are ruling the charts and their positioning in the film and picturisation make them even better.

Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif in Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

Ranbir showcases what powerhouse of talent he is. He is not only loveable in the funny moments but is excellent in the emotional sequences. Katrina Kaif is in top form too. She balances her funny portions equally well with her emotional ones. Both Ranbir and Katrina make a wonderful fresh jodi as they share a crackling chemistry.

Upen Patel fits the role to the T. Pradeep Kharab as Katrina’s suitor is very funny. Darshan Jariwala and Smita Jaykar playing Ranbir’s parents are first-rate. Zakir Hussain and Govind Namdeo are loud but funny. The actors playing Ranbir’s friends are just too good.

After a real long time a good clean hearted romantic comedy has come to the cinema halls which can be enjoyed with the entire family. Go for it guys. Watch it for seeing Santoshi get back in form and Ranbir-Katrina emerge as the new hot jodi of Hindi cinema.

The story is set in a fictitious town called Khwaish. Aladin (Ritesh) is a shy college going bloke who is forever bullied by his college mates lead by big bully Kasim (Sahil Khan). They always force him to rub lamps to get a Genie out of it only because his name is Aladin. He instantly falls in love at first sight when he sees Jasmine (Jacqueline) the new girl in his college.

But then again Kasim always succeeds in keeping him away from her. But one fine day he luckily chances upon a lamp that actually brings out a genie called Genius (Amitabh). Genius offers him three wishes so that after they are fulfilled he can retire. At first Aladin doesn’t believe that Genius is actually a genie but after he is convinced the first two wishes he wastes on getting Jasmine.

Meanwhile Ringmaster (Sanjay Dutt) is hot on trail of the magic lamp is an ex-genie who wants to kill Aladin and get hold of the magic lamp so that he can be come the genie and use the powers to further his own evil interests. In his team are a fire-spitting lady, a clown, a knife thrower and other circus renegades.

On interacting with Ringmaster, Aladin learns of a secret Genius had not revealed to him and he is heartbroken. Anyway, to become a genie once again, Ringmaster has to catch a comet that comes once in a million years. The comet can only be caught with the help of a magic lamp. What happens when Ring master confronts Genius and Aladin and who wins the battle for supremacy is revealed in the climax.

Its commendable that Sujoy has picked up the much heard famous fairy tale and attempted to give it a modern day twist with some amazing never seen before special effects. However, he along with his co-writers have failed to make Aladin a fun filled entertainer. Even if we take into consideration that the film is only aimed at the kids, then too its a challenge for the kids to enjoy it as most of the proceedings are wasted in Aladin wooing Jasmine.

Amitabh Bachchan, Ritiesh Deshmukh in Aladin

The emotional quotient of the romantic story is zero. The script is completely dry and drab. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that just one dialogue stands out because it unwittingly expresses the feelings of the audience watching this film in the cinemas. The dialogue, mouthed by Genius, goes somewhat like this: Abbe, yaar, bore mat karo!? Indeed, that’s the dialogue the viewer keeps muttering to himself while watching the film.

Amitabh brings Genius to life with his excellent act even though it appears over the top at times. Ritesh is perfectly fit for his role and does an endearing act. Sanjay Dutt though saddled with a half baked role is in great form. You can make out he is having a ball playing the fantasy villain. Newcomer Jacqueline has superb screen presence and not only is she very attractive but is very expressive too. Sahil Khan is well casted and his scenes with Ritesh are hilarious.

Vishal-Shekhar’s tunes offer nothing new but gel with the film. Editing could have been better but camerawork by Sirsha Ray and set design by Sabu Cyril is top notch. Even the sound design is of international standards.

If you had been anticipating a great entertainer then Aladin is surely a let down!

Arjun (Ajay) and Manu (Salman) are childhood buddies living in a Punjab village. Arjun passionately loves music and dreams of becoming a musical sensation like Michael Jackson and perform at London’s Wembley Stadium but his family hates music as it was the reason for his grand father’s death. But as after his father’s death, Arjun’s uncle (Om Puri) brings him along with him to London, he runs away to pursue his dream.

Mannu grows up in the village turning out to be a good for nothing bloke who makes money by playing his band at marriage ceremonies. Meanwhile Arjun chases his dream and forms a band with two Pakistani brothers (VJ’s Aditya and Ranvijay) and Priya (Asin). When he realizes he is getting attracted to Priya he decides to hide his feelings and focus on music and only reveal to them when he fulfills his dream.

He gets Mannu to London to join his band. But that he realizes turns out to be his biggest mistake. The naturally talented Mannu scores over Arjun in every department unintentionally and goes on to become a bigger sensation that a dedicated and hardworking Arjun.

Jealousy starts creeping in for Arjun but the final nail in the coffin comes when he sees even Priya falling in love with Mannu. What sinister plan Arjun throws on an unsuspecting Mannu to destroy his musical career and what it all leads to forms the rest of the film.

Vipul Amrutlal Shah has delivered his technically best product till date with London Dreams. But apart from the technique its high on emotions as well. Vipul gives apt time for character development for each of his main protagonists. Devoid of unnecessary melodrama he captures the emotional moments with aplomb. Sejal Shah’s camerawork is of international standards. The night scenes are superbly lit.

Asin, Ajay and Salman in London Dreams

Amongst the flaws, the climax is overstretched and the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music not really up to the mark, especially the climax concert numbers. The song that comes after everything is over is too slow and a rousing number would have made for an apt grand finale.

Ajay is excellent in his part and one can see the best villain awards coming his way at the awards for this year. Salman seems to be enjoying himself and is extremely likeable. Though Asin is most of the time relegated to the background she puts up a nice act. Her chemistry with Salman works. Popular VJs Aditya and Ranvijay of Roadies fame make a good debut. Om Puri in a small part impresses as usual.

This film was originally planned over a decade back to be made by Rajkumar Santoshi with SRK and Aamir. Well, it may not star them now but makes for an excellent musical journey worth an experience in the big cinema hall.

A baseless film with no storyline is what Love Ka Tadka is. What else do you expect from a film that revolves around vegetarian and non-vegetarian food habits? So, it’s definitely not recommended but if you still want to know why, you may read the rest of the review.

The film starts with an item number which brings no joy to the audiences. Anyway, so once the film actually begins, it’s about a guy, Aditya, who works as a small-time executive and is flanked by his bearded best friend and his sick boss who likes chasing after much younger women. Then arrives the female lead, Sheetal, accompanied by her loud father.

Sameer Dattani, Nauheed Cyrusi in Love Ka Tadka

Aditya gets married to Sheetal but that’s not enough. They need to impress her dad for which they need to buy a flat. And you know what’s strange? Daddy dearest is left roaming on Mumbai’s streets and then put into bearded friend, Vicky’s house, while they get a loan for the house. But acquiring a house wasn’t the end of all issues. The couple has now moved into a strictly vegetarian society and it means trouble for the couple that survives on non-veg. food. They somehow manage to get the people from the society to follow their non-vegetarian food habits and preach about tolerance towards all kinds of food.

So, all in all, a pointless script coupled with bad performances makes it very easy for audiences to give this movie a miss. Thus it is absolutely not recommended.

Kunal Vijaykar’s efforts to make a comedy film resulted in – a few funny jokes strung together to make a storyline. It promises to be a senseless comedy that will make you roll on the floor with laughter. Sadly, it only remains senseless and not funny enough to make you smile more than a time or two.

The story is about a simple man named Jolly Maker. He is a hardworking, middle class guy who is on the lookout for money, friends and love. He works for a corrupt builder named Khandar as his accountant. He makes a classic protagonist with being a nerd and un-cool along with being accident-prone.

Dia Mirza in Fruit And Nut

Jolly Maker’s smart, pretty and sexy snob of a colleague, Monica, gets kidnapped under mysterious circumstances. A series of events lead Jolly Maker to a crazy Ex-Maharaja who plans on destroying Mumbai. The film is then all about if Jolly Maker is able to save Mumbai and find love.

While a lot of effort has been put into it by the director, the story doesn’t have a strong base. Performances by all the actors are fitting for the film. Boman Irani and Mahesh Manjrekar have done a good job while Dia Mirza has been unnoticed as ever. And Cyrus Broacha carries on in his own wave, whether people like it or not. This film is not exactly a must-watch but not totally horrible either.

‘Peranmai‘ doesn’t boasts of an exceptional storyline as we’ve already watched similar films based on ‘one-man army’ (more than hundred times over the screens). Aye! Didn’t we enjoy watching Vijayakanth, Arjun and Sarath Kumar saving our motherland from terrorists? Well, don’t presume this film to be much ridiculous as those films. It has got a perfect narration, interesting elements which go along with little illogicality like a puny girl bashing down a goliath.

The film revolves around Dhruva (Jeyam Ravi), a forest officer raised in tribal community has to train NCC girls. He chooses 5 most arrogant girls (Dhansika, Maha, Liasri, Saranya and Vasundhara) for trekking inside a forest, who are unwilling to work with him. Later they venture into the forest only to witness an appalling scenario as they witness 16 aliens from foreign country having reached there to blow up the Indian Spacecraft that is to be launched.

What unfolds next is a series of ‘thrilling’ moments with a much predictable climax.

Jeyam Ravi does a brilliant job in all aspects. He’s extraordinary over performing daredevil stunts. SP Jananathan has shaped his character so magnificently offering him a milestone. All the five girls have excelled with their top-notching performance. Roland Kickinger makes a stunning show with his gigantic physique. But it really looks weird when a guy like Ravi bashes down him easily. The climax portion of saving the spacecraft is quite ridiculous and Jananathan should’ve come up with something innovatively different….

Roland Kickinger doesn’t get enough scope to perform well. It really makes us wonder why Jananathan had to rope in such a great actor and portray him so flimsily.

Vidhyasagar’s musical score fails to impress us while Satish’s cinematography is excellent.

On the whole, ‘Peranmai‘ has got a good interesting storyline, but some of the illogical factors stop the film from getting labeled as ‘excellent’.

Banner: Ayangaran International
Production: Karunakaran, Arun Pandian
Direction: SP Jananathan
Star-casts: Jeyam Ravi, Roland Kickinger, Vadivelu, Oorvasi, Ponvannan, Dhanushika, Liyashree, Saranya, Varsha (Magha), Vasundhara and others.
Music: Vidhyasagar
Rating: 3/5

–R. Richard Mahesh

Make sure, if you’re watching K.S. Ravikumar’s film and don’t give in rooms for any rationality. The filmmaker never cares about logics and makes sure his hero is portrayed in larger than life roles. ‘Aadhavan‘ doesn’t boast of anything exceptional in terms of storyline. Remember Rajnikanth’s ‘Thai Veedu‘ -where the protagonist is misused by baddies to harm his own family members.

Well, if you’re an ardent buff of Tollywood, one can find the traces of ‘Nandhavanam 120Kms’. Indeed, the guy over here has a long term memory loss after triggering bullets into his father’s chest while Surya doesn’t go through this problem.

Let’s start off with the film’s synopsis…

Aadhavan (Surya), a sharp shooter has never missed his target until now. But when he is assigned by Dr. Reddy (Rahul Dev) to bump off a magistrate Subramaniam (Late Actor Murali), ready to unveil the list of culprits involved in organ-racketeering of poor children. Unfortunately, Aadhavan misses his target on magistrate and now hatches plans to get into his house to accomplish this task. But every time, he concocts a fantastic plan to kill the magistrate, he’s fails terribly with it.

Does Aadhavan succeed with this mission or not forms crux of the story with a sudden twist in climax.

Surya plays his part well as directed by Ravikumar. But his dancing style remains the same in all the songs. As well the stunt sequences in assassination drama remind us of ‘Ayan’.

In some comedy sequences, it’s more evident that Surya imitates Vijay. But it’s Vadivelu stealing the show with his fabulous comedy tracks. Indeed, he offers more substantiality to the film with best humour quotients.

Nayanthara has nothing to perform and looks aged. Saroja Devi does justice to the role. Rahul Dev sleepwalks through his role and so does Shayaji Shinde. Late actor Murali excels with his usually seen overpowering performance.

Musical score by Harris Jayaraj fails to live up to expectations. Barring the title song and the final one ‘Hasiliye’, none of the songs seems to be enjoyable. The backgrounds score could’ve been yet better. Cinematography is exquisitely done while Don Max’s editing is sleek and stylish.

The first hour moves around with action, fun ‘n’ frolic while the latter part keeps dragging. Ramesh Khanna could’ve penned a yet more powerful story and the screenplay stumbles down halfway post-intermission.

‘Aadhavan’ is completely disappointing for those audiences who expected a lot from Surya. It’s a film not worth watching. But then, if you’ve already booked your tickets, make sure that you don’t get annoyed with dragging screenplay and insubstantial story.

Star-casts: Surya, Nayanthara, Saroja Devi, Vadivelu, Rahul Dev, Murali.
Banner: Red Giant Movies
Production: Udhayanidhi Stalin
Direction: K.S. Ravikumar
Music: Harris Jayaraj
Rating: 2/5

–R. Richard Mahesh

Settled in Goa, Veer (Fardeen) is a singer by profession and is making a daily living out of his older brother Dharam’s (Dutt) sent pocket money. Veer has even lied to Dharam that he is now married and aiding him in all his lies is his buddy Prem (Ajay Devgan).

Though in reality Veer is in love with Vidya (Mugdha) but her father hates him. Prem however is married to Jhanvi (Bipasha) who is looking after his ancestor’s outdated gymnasium. Things go awry for Prem and Veer as they end up losing a lot of money and are neck deep in debt.

Just then Dharam takes a detour to Goa en route his travel to Lusoto. With his sudden arrival, Veer and Prem don’t get time to cover up their lies and Dharam mistakes Jhanvi to be Veer’s wife and Vidya to be Prem’s girlfriend.

What chaotic situations it all leads to with multiple characters dropping in to make their problems more complicated forms the rest of the film.

All The Best is undoubtedly the most entertaining film amongst the 2009 Diwali releases. Rohit Shetty has yet again got it right when it comes to keeping his audience laughing without resorting below the belt humour and vulgar interludes.

Witty one-liners and hilarious sequences involving Dutt and Johnny Lever have you laughing out loud. However, the first half isn’t that gripping. But the second half covers up for it with confusions multiplying and each actor also contributing his comic best.

Fardeen, Bipasha and Sanjay in All The Best

The length however appears stretched as it runs around 2 hours 25 minutes. Some gags could have been shorter one feels. Pritam’s music is perfect for the film.

Ajay Devgan showcases his improved comic timing and towers above the rest. Dutt too is in top form and entertains. Fardeen is passable. Bipasha and Mugdha don’t have much to do but be a part of the chaos which they do ably.

Johnny Lever finally after a long time gets a meaty funny part and he utilizes this opportunity to the maxim. Sanjay Mishra and Ashwini Kalsekar make the proceedings funnier.

It’s a total paisa vasool entertainer and worth a Diwali outing. Go for it guys and forget your recession worries!

Samir (Salman) and Raina (Kareena) are married and settled in Melbourne, Australia. What started of as a loving relationship which lead to a quick marriage between the two has now turned into a complicated situation what with Samir facing major hurdles in his career to some wrong work decisions that he had taken.

Raina is working as a waitress to support their house. Jobless Samir gets an opportunity to work in Singapore and make a new beginning. He takes Raina along with him but only to tell her at the airport that he has booked her ticket for India to go back to his parents and that he will come back to her once things fall in place in his career.

After Samir catches his flight for Singapore, a dejected and sad, Raina keeps waiting at the airport lounge right till the final boarding announcement for her flight to India comes in. A bar tender at the cafeteria in the departure lounge, Akash (Sohail) sees her plight and offers help. He falls for her instantly but only to realize she is married.

Raina gets confused whether to go to India or stay back in Australia. Just then, help comes in form of her friend Nina (Nauheed) who arranges for a job through a friend (Mahek Chahal) and Raina decides to stay back. Incidentally, Raina gets a job at the jewellery shop situated bang opposite of that of Akash’s café. Gradually friendship grows between the two. But what happens after Samir arrives back to take Raina along with him to Singapore forms the rest of the film.

Debutante writer-director Prem Soni must be called truly lucky to get a top line lead pair of Salman – Kareena and a reasonably good budget basing his film completely in Melbourne. While his film begins well, establishing his main characters and their issues without much deviation to sub plots, he fumbles in the second half.

While there are a few extremely well handled and well penned sequences in the second half, but the points that the film downhill are – unconvincing situations, lack of depth in emotional issues, too simplistic solutions and most importantly you feel zero sympathy for Mr. Khanna (Salman) or Mrs Khanna (Kareena) or even Akash (Sohail).

The drama is just not engaging towards the climax. The actors however have risen above the script and have pitched in wonderful performances.

Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor in Main Aurr Mrs Khanna

Salman looks smashing and shows he can play a serious romantic role extremely well too. Kareena looks WOW and acts superbly, especially in the emotional scenes. Sohail in what one may call one of his career best roles does complete justice to his character and rises much above his written role.

Yash Tonk aids him perfectly. He is hilarious in the second half especially in his scenes with Salman. Nauheed and Mahek Chahal (last seen as the gangster’s moll in Wanted) add glam quotient and act ably. Bappi Lahiri is hilarious as the jewellery shop owner. Deepika Padukone in a special appearance has nothing much to do.

Sajid Wajid’s music is very good and has been well incorporated in the film. Also, the use of RD Burman’s song sung by Amit Kumar – Bade Achche Lagte Hai has been made smartly use of two times in the film.

As you come out of the film, you do keep feeling that film could have been much better had the second half been handled well. But overall its not a bad film and you won’t regret your time wasted watching it.

Sagar (Dutt) and Aarav (Akshay) are good friends settled in the Bahamas. While Sam is a happy go lucky rich businessman, Sagar is down to earth and not as ambitious as him. Aarav on many occasions tries to instigate Sagar on coming out with the secret of ‘The Lady In Blue’ a ship carrying a huge gold treasure that was sunk in 1949 in the Bahamas seas.

Aarav believes Sagar knows the route to the deep sunken ship and they both can benefit from the huge treasure that lies inside it. Sagar however doesn’t like to discuss about the ship nor has any interest for the treasure hunt. Just then Sagar’s younger brother Sam (Zayed) arrives from Bangkok after five years. Mafia boss Gulshan (Rahul) is hot on his trail for an assignment worth 50 million dollars gone wrong.

With Gulshan too arriving in Bahamas and kidnapping his girlfriend Mona (Lara), Sagar has only 24 hours left for paying back the huge money which Sam has messed with. He is now left with no option but face his old demons and plunge into the deep sea with Aarav and Sam for the treasure hunt.

A really interesting premise shot beautifully but messed big time by unimaginative writing and lackluster direction is what Blue shall always be remembered as. The setting is different no doubt, but where are the requisite twists and turns and pace which are a must for this genre of films? The so called major twist that comes out in the end can be guessed quiet earlier in the first half itself.

Also, almost the entire first half moves around with zero grip on the audience with more than enough time wasted on character establishment. The much hyped shark sequences are a big let down what with barring the opening sequence of few minutes (where believe it or not Akshay and Dutt literally ride a shark) there is not a single scene where the sharks are a threat and get you on the edge of your seat.

The bike chase sequences have been shot very well though. The underwater sequences have been superbly lit up and one needs to salute the team of cameramen involved for it. The climax is extremely ‘thanda’ and derives unintentional laughter as well. Songs don’t really fit in well and the Kylie Minogue starring Chiggy Wiggy number doesn’t really work on screen. However, the background music and sound editing is excellent.

Lara Dutta in Blue

Akshay is in his element in here playing the flirty cool dude with a hidden agenda with amazing natural ease. Dutt approaches his part with zero enthusiasm and worse, his paunch is visible in many sequences. But Zayed is good and Rahul Dev impresses too. Lara Dutta is super hot and does ample skin show. Katrina Kaif in a special appearance doesn’t work at all.

Said to be over Rs. 100 crore in budget, Blue doesn’t justify the mega budget it has been allotted and first timer director Anthony D’Souza gets it all wrong mistaking style and extra coolness quotient for substance.

If you want to experience some good underwater photography on a big screen and a few well shot action sequences, then you can go for it but if you are expecting something more then let us warn you that you will be in for a BIG disappointment!

Rahul (Anuj), Rocky (Sameer), Amay (Farid), Priya (Pinky Harwani), Antara (Hrishita) and Zoha (Madhuri Bhattacharya) were best of the friends in Pune University. It’s been three years since they passed out and parted ways…they all were completely out of touch, being busy in their respective careers…Now Rocky is getting married in Goa with his two year old girlfriend Marianne (Sanda Caktas) who is from Croatia and is working as a lifeguard…this is the time of reunion…old friends reunite to join Rocky on his wedding in Goa.

Things are not the same with Rahul, Priya and Zoha…their personalities have changed, their ideologies have changed, their commitments and goals have changed while Amay and Antara are just the same… as they set off on this trip, things start coming out in the form of conversations and activities… they all witness Marianne backing away from the commitment of marriage leaving Rocky bereft. What happens next is what the rest of the film all about.

Scene from 3 Nights 4 Days

A young theme with a young set of decent actors with a plot many youngsters today can identify with makes 3 Nights 4 Days an interesting watch. The dialogues are funny at places. The pacing is even but a few songs could have been done away with in the first half.

Production values are good irrespective of the fact that film doesn’t star big names. Devang Dholakia deserves a pat on his back for making a good film. Daboo Malik succeeds in giving a few peppy numbers. Arvind Singh’s camerawork captures the beauty of Goa well.

Anuj Sawhney is good while Sameer Aftab is extremely likeable. Farid Amiri acts ably as well. Hrishita plays the Page 3 gal to perfection. Madhuri has a good screen presence. Pinky Harwani looks hot but needs to brush up her acting skills. Croatian beauty Sanda Caktas looks extremely pretty and makes a fair debut.

3 Nights 4 Days is a pleasant surprise and is worth a try.

Five guys (Danny, Manoj, Aftab, Dino and Fardeen) wake up in a dilapidated warehouse only to realize that they have momentarily lost their memory due to a gas leak. The exit doors of this factory are locked from outside and there is no way out for them. They get a phone call from a mafia boss (Irrfan) telling them that out of them four are kidnappers while one amongst them is the hostage. Puzzled, frustrated and irritated, the five try hard to make sense of things happening to them and desperately attempt to find their personal identities before the outside who set them up arrives!

Acid Factory is a typical Sanjay Gupta production (means a foreign rip off, sepia tone camerawork with loads of slow motion and dialogues full of expletives) which offers nothing new in terms of treatment, styling and dialogues. Suparn Verma’s narrative tries to be cool by jumping back and forth but ends up fizzling out midway for various reasons.

The over the top action filled climax blows the film out completely. To be fair the film begins well with a superb opening credit sequence and coming straight to the point in the initial scenes itself but then as the suspense gets revealed not much is left to hold your interest till the climax.

Scene from Acid Factory

However the men are presented extremely stylishly and a few sequences, especially in the first half have turned out really well. The Manasi Scott-Vida item number wasn’t really required for the film.

Amongst the actors it’s the veterans who hold fort and make the film more interesting than it is. Manoj Bajpai, Irrfan Khan and Danny are superb in their given parts. Aftab, Fardeen and Dino are well suited to their parts as well and act ably. Gulshan Grover and Neha don’t have much to do. The much talked about ‘hatke’ role of Dia Mirza is a big disappointment. She looks super hot but her role is relegated to the back ground as the men take over.

It is not entirely a waste of time at a running time of just 1 hour and 45 minutes but you just wish had the rip off (from Hollywood film The Unknown) been more innovative with better twists and turns added.

Govinda plays a rich husband married to Sushmita who owns the Saxena Group of industries. On the sly he has been having an affair with Dolly (Lara) an item queen who has dumped her ex (Sohail Khan) for greener pastures. Govinda’s kicked out butler Nandu (Rajpal) in an attempt to get back at him clicks a photo of him with Dolly and sends it to his wife.

When she confronts Govinda over it he manages to escape out of the tricky situation by claiming a passerby who appears unintentionally closer to Dolly in the picture as her boyfriend. Knowing well that she won’t stop at this and try to find out the truth behind it, he starts hunting for the passerby who turns out to be a waiter, Goverdhan (Ritesh).

Govinda lures him into playing Dolly’s boyfriend for sometime till his wife gets convinced about it. But at the same time, she proves smarter by hiring a private detective friend Nunnu (Shorey) to catch them red handed. Add to that Dolly’s hot headed ex desperately wanting to thrash her new boyfriend and win her back What follows next is total chaos!

You know when you enter a film like Do Knot Disturb, logic should be the last thing on your mind considering the names it comprises of but then what you encounter is a huge let down. A two timing hubby is no more a novelty on screen and Govinda and David Dhawan have churned out many films revolving around this theme earlier.

But this time around they fail together. In the name of comedy in here you have actors yelling at the top of their voices or breaking into female tones for no rhyme or reasons, outdated situational jokes about a dead body going around a hotel, slapping spree meant to derive laughs, faulty characterizations.

Govinda and Sushmita Sen in the Still from movie Do knot disturb

The film is supposedly completely set in Delhi and the characters too keep saying this but it appears not a single frame seems to have been shot in the capital city. Dubai-Abu Dhabi has been passed off as Delhi. In fact Ritesh’s hotel is shown at a sea side with yachts parked. The makers seem well prepared to take their audience on a ride it seems.

Nadeem Shravan’s music is dated like the film’s jokes barring the Bebo number. Sets are gaudy and camerawork functional.

Govinda can create a laugh riot amongst the masses if he decides to but here barring a few comic sequences he is mostly resorted to yelling his lines in the name of humour. Ritesh on the other hand is much subdued and likeable as the greedy waiter.

Lara Dutta looks WOW and acts ably and displays good flair for comedy. Sushmita Sen is hardly there in the first half and practically ignored in the second right till the climatic moments. (No wonder there were rumours about Sushmita being pissed about this fact)

Ranvir Shorey is funny but why such a horrendous wig for him that threatens to fall any moment. Sohail Khan’s character could have been developed further as he is genuinely funny in his angry moments. Rajpal Yadav and Manoj Pahwa manage a few laughs. But one wonders why makers feel Rajpal Yadav needs to be whacked around in all his roles to get laughs! Rituparna hardly gets any scope.

Do Knot Disturb is a comeback of the No.1 series trio of producer Vashu Bhagnani, director David Dhawan and Govinda but alas it is no where close to any of their earlier ventures!

Siddhartha ka Sid Mehra (Ranbir) is an aimless youngster just out of college. Laid back Sid is completely disinterested in joining his flourishing family business of bathroom fittings. He continues to enjoy all the perks of a rich spoilt brat thanks to his lenient parents (Anupam and Supriya).

At his college farewell bash, he meets a ‘new girl in the city’ Aisha (Konkona). Around seven years older to him in age, Aisha has arrived from Kolkata to become a writer. They gradually become good friends and he even helps her in settling down in her newly rented flat. However, all hell breaks lose in Sid’s life when he fails in his graduation exams.

He has a tiff with best friend since childhood. When his father confronts him over his rude behaviour with his mom, in a fit of rage Sid leaves his house forever. He heads straight to Aisha’s flat. Both start staying together with an understanding they are just friends and nothing else.

Anyways, Aisha considers Sid not her type since according to her he is still a boy and not a ‘man’ yet. As days pass by Sid’s non disciplinary behaviour starts grating on Aisha’s nerves. But Sid mends his ways faster and thus begins his journey from a boy to becoming a man.

Ranbir Kapoor in Wake Up Sid

Debutante writer-director Ayan Mukherjee in his first attempt has managed to strike a chord with the youngsters and their parents alike. Many wonderfully written, handled and enacted sequences leave you mightily impressed, teary eyed and even laughing out loud at times. Be it Ranbir’s tiff with his mother, his breakdown on arrival at Konkona’s doorsteps, Konkona’s interview with her magazine editor played by Rahul Khanna, Konkona lashing out Ranbir on making a mess of her house and the sequences following it, Ranbir meeting his father after he gets his first paycheck.

There is no heavy duty sermonizing in the film and the lingo used is fairly relatable. Though most of the times the film succeeds in remaining realistic, certain solutions connected to Ranbir appear to simplistic. Also, you sense it from a mile away that the two good friends are finally end up falling for each other even though they keep on denying this fact to themselves and others around them.

Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is fresh but Dev.D composer Amit Trivedi one song in the film ‘Ektaara‘ is the one you come out humming. It has been wonderfully mixed in the narrative.

Ranbir has delivered one of his finest performances and has succeeded in showing the gradual change in his character. Konkona plays the perfect opposite to his character and suits the role to the T. Their awkward chemistry is likeable.

Rahul Khanna in a small role leaves his mark. His expressions reveal a lot when Konkona admits she hates Jazz. The actors playing Ranbir’s friends are very good. Veterans Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak are wonderful. New girl Kainaz Motivala playing Ranbir’s colleague is very impressive.

Watch it for the innovative handling of the subject by debutante director and some really good performances by every single cast member.

Fast Forward narrates the tale of two best buddies Rishi (Rehan) and Sunny (Akshay Kapoor). Both are fantastic dancers. The fun loving Sunny finds dancing a great way to express himself and is in love with Rishi’s sister Jeel (Bhavna). (There is an unintentionally hilarious proposal scene between later in the film).

Sunny realizes Jeel has purposely kept herself away from her biggest passion – dancing. He goes on to rekindle it but it leads to the revealing of Rishi’s dark past. The finale sets up in a dancing competition called Fast Forward (hence the title) amongst many top dancing groups including Sunny and Rishi’s.

Fast Forward is the kind of a film which appears exciting on paper what with all the right ingredients thrown in which many urban youngsters can relate to. But it’s a failure when executed on screen. Neither the script nor the direction nor acting and most importantly neither the music has any fire to keep u interested throughout this 2 hours plus film.

Debutante director Zaigham Ali Sayed also squeezes in an unwanted mafia angle to the film in an attempt to give it a thriller edge. But alas, even that doesn’t leave you wanting for more!

Siddhanth Karnick, Sabina Sheema, Akshay Kapoor, Rehan Khan and Bhavna Pani in movie Fast Forward

Music by Akbar Sami is a mega let down, however the dances choreographed by Jhalak Dikhla Ja winner Sonia Jaffer, Vishnu Deva and Seema Desai are the only noteworthy thing of this enterprise. The film features a heady mix of dance sequences (hip hop, Salsa, Rumba, Samba) also add to that B Boying stunts that are packed with high energy.

Rehan Khan attempts to be an angry young man only to end up looking a wannabe Sunny Deol. However, he is good in dancing. Akshay Kapoor is okay and impresses with his dancing skills.

Bhavna Pani and Sabina complement the boys well with their dancing skills. Mahesh Manjrekar and Vinod Khanna leave their mark as always. Siddhant Karnick needs to improve his acting skills.

Fast Forward is an utterly forgettable experience. Go only if you are a crazy dance freak and can bear bad acting and mediocre direction.

The movie begins at Bardoli village, Gujarat where a wealthy old man decides to write his assets in the name of his grandson Yogesh Patel (Harman Baweja), the only person in the family to remember his maternal grandfather on all occasions (read birthdays).

Yogesh is doing his MBA at Chicago with a rocking life style of a sincere student in the day time, popular guy in the campus and a DJ at a night club. But things are not rosy at home in Mumbai where his elder brother has taken a huge amount of loan and lost it in stock market crash and is not able to pay back to several people including a local bhai.

He is supposed to give attendance everyday at Bhai’s office and he is being constantly threatened by two chelas of the dreaded bhai who has a style of threatening defaulters – he would cut the fingers by using a betel nut cutter.

A family astrologer predicts that within a very short time Yogesh would get married and he would get a fortune on the very same day. Yogesh makes an urgent visit home after learning of sudden ill health of his dad, which turns out to be a false news and he is further taken aback by the ridiculous request made by his family members – he has to marry a girl in 10 days in order to save his family from an eventual complication and disgrace.

After a long phase of jet lag and persuasion and emotional blackmail by family members he agrees to marry and being a principled man he refuses to accept dowry. He starts reading a book which he happens to find at home and what’s that book all about? No prizes for guessing – “What’s your Rashee?” and then starts the poor translation of Linda Goodman’s sun signs book into a loose movie plot. As if it is not enough, there are two additional silly and forgettable sub plots.

What's Your Rashee?

The girls start entering in a random zodiac fashion and each zodiac has a story to tell. Ashutosh Gowariker struggles to stitch a convincing story relevance-wise as well as astrology-wise. Some zodiac signs lack convincing characterization and a few overlap. Only a few succeed in making an impact due to the versatile Priyanka Chopra who delivers every character with sheer conviction and brilliant performance.

Anjali (Mesh) with a slouch and a bad dressing sense,
Vishakha (Vrishabh) with a childish behavior who wants to test the person,
Kaajal (Mithun) a vivacious and bubbly girl who thinks it is a must to give some time to understand each other before marrying,
Hansa (Karka) a traditional girl with a broken heart,
Mallika (Simha) an ambitious and headstrong dancer,
Pooja (Kanya) a doctor who wishes for a husband to support her in every venture of hers,
Rajani (Tula) a dominating business person for whom the marriage is a business contract to save her from an ongoing CBI enquiry,
Nandini (Vrishik) who has a conservative exterior with a diametrically opposite true nature and who is passionate about becoming a supermodel,
Bhavna (Dhanu) an astrologer with seductive charms,
Jankada (Makar) a school going underage girl, Sanjana (Kumbh) a sophisticated and a straightforward girl and
lastly Chandrika (Meen) a filmy kinda person who believes in re-incarnation and second lives….huh

While adapting the extremes of every character to the demands of screen, the story loses it’s plot (if at all it had any) in a big way only to be saved mercifully by the brilliant Priyanka Chopra.

Music has always been a strong point of Gowariker’s films here it’s a downer. Every zodiac breaks into a compulsory song with only very few being catchy. The story becomes so predictable in the second half that you wait for the movie to get over and start counting how many signs are still left and with no interest left to see which sign the protagonist ultimately marries.

From whatever little you showed us (for a fraction of a second) on the screen Mr. Gowariker, I could gather that Yogesh Patel is Mithun moon sign and Scorpio sun sign. But his birth details do not match with the chart generated towards the end of the movie. But you were so busy adapting extremes of Priyanka Chopra’s 12 zodiac signs, you completely neglected the characterization of the main lead.

He is just a foreign returned student with some music knowledge and giving all similar responses, exclamations and surprise reactions to the extreme idiosyncrasies convincingly exhibited by Priyanka Chopra’s characters.

Harman Baweja doesn’t impress overall. However, the rest other cast members have put up a good show.

The film would have been a little more bearable had it been under three hours but a running time of 3 hours and 30 minutes appears far too much. If you may ask whether to check it out or not well there are only two reasons to watch this astrological blunder made by Ashutosh Gowariker – Priyanka Chopra and Priyanka Chopra.