I couldn’t believe I was laughing to tears sitting in a cinema hall while watching a Hindi film. But there I was. My laughter went on when I realised that nobody else in the hall was laughing with me. There was Sumant Mastkar playing an old man whose last name was the same as the producer and co-screenwriter of the film, sitting in a wheelchair and offering some wisdom to the film’s protagonist. But the words he spoke were written... 

Cast: Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Breakfast Tables Director : Siddharth P Malhotra Rating: One star Lookey here, a sauteli maa-to-be makes the mistake of baking peanut butter cookies. A kid is about to crunch one, fire-`n’- thunder, that would have been one helluva blunder. The kid’s allergic to butter – of the moongfali variety – could have gagged and kicked …  Read More →

The world has had the pleasure of two ‘luminaries’ of Indian cinema—Mahesh Bhatt and Amitabh Bachchan reinforce their views on ‘plagiarism’ and ‘originality’. Bhatt saab has long maintained that nobody is original; while the ever gracious Bachchan saab went further “Originality is the art of hiding your source”. With such cocky but effete statements coming from seemingly popular people in the bigger “We are Family” fraternity,... 

Cast : John Abraham, Pakhi Director : Abbas Tyrewala Music : AR Rahman This Abbas Tyrewala movie was earlier titled 1-800-LOVE. The female lead Pakhi is Abbas Tyrewala’s wife. The movie also has Raghu Ram and coincidentally his wife Sugandha Garg played Shaleen in JTYJN. I hope this too turns out as entertaining as JTYJN. Score: 0 (0 votes cast)  Read More →

As soon as the first trailer of Dabangg hit the marquee, Salman entered the ‘cool’ bracket almost overnight. By ‘cool’ bracket I mean the hipsters’ conversations. I’ll give you a better idea. In the mid 90’s when David Dhawan and Govinda were on a roll, the ‘cool’ bunch always derided them. They called them cheap, crass and anyone who…  Read More →

How many times do you get to sympathize with a suicide bomber in movies? Before you can say Manisha Koirala from Dil Se, let me shoosh you by saying that this is intelligent cinema we are talking about here. Intelligence in comedy, or wit, as we call it, is the primary ingredient in a movie that tackles an issue like Jihad or Martyrdom. As a fan of satire and an adversary of shoddy, one-sided American war movies, I kneel before Chris Morris’... 

Jairaj and Renuka Devi in Bhabhi (1938) In Awara (1951), Raj Kapoor famously tells Nargis that it is not her fault that she initially mistakes him for a vagabond—actually, there is something about his face that makes him look like one: “Is mein tumhara kasoor nahin, meri soorat hi aisi hai.” This memorable apology followed by Nargis warming up to Raj is quite the staple of the Raj-Nargis romance. More than a decade earlier, in... 

Fresh from awakening an entire generation, tugging with all his might at our heartstrings with a moving, if simplistic portrayal of dyslexia, and then packing the biggest wallop by patronizingly urging us all to follow our dreams, Bollywood’s greatest purveyor of high-concept trash (“socially conscious, par masala maar ke!”), and arguably it’s most cunning con artist, Aamir Khan fires another shot in that worthy(!) direction,... 

Pandiraj's vamsam Village movies, once a thriving genre in Thamizh films, kinda went out of vogue in 2000s till Ameer’s Paruthi Veeran happened in 2007. Ever since there has been a spate of village ruffian movies making its way to the box office every month. While most of them chased away the movie goers owing to excessive violence, quite a few of them have managed to hold the attention of the film lovers and entertain general public... 

Today I watched Peepli [Live]. Today I froze at the sight of the common man reduced to a non-entity in my great country of India. Today I was shaken at the never-ending height of opportunism, power, and wealth sought by those to whom, ironically, the likes of Natha have given the power. Today I discuss animatedly about the disgusting state of the farming sector; about the dis-connect between the English speaking elite and the back-bone breaking... 

KICK-ASS DIRECTED BY MATTHEW VAUGHN What a kick ass movie. Concept wise this is a bit similar to Defendor. A nerdy looser without any superpowers tries to become a super hero. But it’s miles ahead of Defendor and most other superhero films. A real gem. From the plotting, to the characters to the fights, the violence and the superbad villains. There are just too many cool things here. …  Read More →

Rain can do things to you. On screen it has conveyed the whole range of opposing binaries a la sadness and happiness, angst and love, guilt and glory, solitude and exuberance, death and redemption. And in our depraved cinematic range it has usually made people sing and dance. Apparently, it latches on to any feeling that we can still sense. Maybe it is because it cuts through our city bred closeted humanity trying to restrain itself. But if... 

Pancham Unmixed , the only known documentary on one of the finest musicians ever to walk on earth, RD Burman, is now available in live streaming, in HD on Dingora . This is the only place where the documentary is available in pure HD. Watch why Gautam Rajadhyaksha feels he is one of the three greatest composers of the world in the 20th century, the great Shammi Kapoor’s eyes going moist on remembering many of their times together, how... 

Antardwand Cast: Raj Singh Chaudhary, Swati Sen, Akhilendra Mishra, Vinay Pathak Director: Sushil Rajpal Rating: Three stars It’s nettled with negatives. No hype, no publicity save for scanty newspaper ads, no market-friendly stars, no airplay for its music on Radio Karela, or wherever, no blah-blah about the fact that it has won the National Award for Best Film on Social Issues, no nothing in a week clogged with four – or is it five? –... 

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S…  Read More →

We began our careers together. He was an assistant cinematographer armed with a diploma from FTII, Pune. I was a novice director and a wannabe producer from nowhere. He was appalled by my ignorance and I was shaken by his arrogance. Sometimes life is about the choices that you are forced to make. Sushil Rajpal, WICA, Graftii was one such choice. I owe my craft to this choice. I owe my first television show to this choice. I owe my first music... 

Synopsis: 127 Hours is an upcoming film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Boyle and Simon Beaufoy and produced by Christian Colson who previously teamed up to make Slumdog Millionaire. The film is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, the American mountain climber who amputated his own arm to free himself after being trapped by a boulder in Utah, USA for nearly five days. James Franco stars as Ralston. Background score is provided by Academy-Award... 

Down to the Bone Directed by Debra Granik (2005) Written by Debra Granik, Jean-Michel Dissard, Anne Kugler, Rich Lieske, Melissa Lohman, Alex MacInnis, Joyce Romano I’ll start off by saying that this is a pretty hard film to get your hands on. It released in 2005 and won awards at Sundance and LA Film Critics Association, before scoring a super crap distribution deal…  Read More →

Usually movies come with ratings and reviews which either takes us towards the movie or away from it. But Aamir Khan’s movies come with ‘compulsion’; a ‘must watch’ tag. When Aamir puts himself behind a movie, then all ratings and reviews fly out of the window; and people just want to watch the product at least once. And when that product turns out to be what ‘Peepli [Live]‘ is, we understand what differentiates Aamir from the... 

Pivoting on the motif of smell as epitomizing the joy of the senses, decay of the soul and as symbolic of the irrepressible desires of the heart, Sachin Kundalkar ’s superlative Gandha weaves a ravishing web of three tales, punctuated by striking visuals, and defined by a motley mix of characters, all of whom share the common thread of wanting to connect, to themselves, to their loved ones, and to nature, a thread suggested, in one way...