'Wel' 'Come'

Last Friday saw the release of one of the eagerly awaited films "Welcome", starring some of the degree bearers of commedy like Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar and Anil Kapoor. However, it was no less than a surprise package to watch Nana Patekar, hitting the commedy genre with so much of ease and confidence. The leading lady charmer in the film is Katrina Kaif and among the other screen holders are Feroz Khan and Mallika Sherawat.

Produced by Firoz. A. Nadiadwala and Directed by Aneez Bazmi, ' Welcome' very much seems to be a typical of "David Dhawan types". The film revolves around two Don brothers Nana Patekar as Uday Shetty and Anil Kapoor as Majnu Bhai who are in search of a non criminal groom for their affectionate sister Sanjana, played by Katrina. On the other hand Paresh Rawal(Ghungroo), a Doctor by profession is looking for a cultured girl from a respectable family for his nephew Akshay Kumar( Rajiv).

The above conflicting issues give birth to several situations in the film that try to bring smile on audience's face but ultimately succumbs to forced commedy. The character of RDX played by Feroz Khan proves to be insignificant. Mallika Sherawat in the second half of the film has done justice to her role of Ishika who in the film pretends to be Rajiv's childhood bride.

All in all a average commedy film which has not brought the expected happiness on the faces of the audiences this Christmas. But for all those who have still not seen the film are "Welcome".

Poor Darling!

Audience were still not out of the horror of 'Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag' when on Friday they were again offered with another haunting production by auteur Ram Gopal Verma,"Darling". Neither horror, nor humorous, nor even a love triangle ..of what genre the film was, is yet a big question that only Ramu can answer.

Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol and Isha Koppikar play the lead in Darling. A bit of spice to the entire film was added by Nisha Kothari who appears in an item number and by Himesh Reshamiya's music. In fact it was the trendy and hip hop music that lured me towards watching such a disaster.

The Story says......

Aditya (Fardeen Khan) is married to Ashwini (Isha Koppikar). He is in love with his secreraty Geeta(Esha Deol). Aditya refuses to tie the nuptial knots with Geeta. When refused of marriage and asked to abort the child, Geeta loses her nerves and accidently dies. She then appears as a ghost to take her revenge. Not a tinge of horror I could experience throughout the film. However the giggles of the children and other audience in the theatre could be heard at all the point the ghost of Geeta appeared.

Among all the three leads only Esha Deol could manage to act. Fardeen was too mechanical and Isha was not offered much to prove her calibre. The Direction, story, background score were below average.

Darling doesn't work for me. I am still not able to digest if this was a Ramu's creation. Will someone tell me what has gone wrong with him? Is he the same man who made Vaastu Shastra, Satya, Company, Pyaar Tunne Kya Kiya, Sarkar and Rangeela and set the box office on fire????

Vishal's Blue Umbrella

This rainy season Vishal Bhardwaj brings to us his latest creation "Blue Umbrella". The film starrs Pankaj Kapoor (Nandkishore Khatri ) and Shreya Sharma (Biniya). The film bears no resemblance to any of his earlier films like Makdee, Omkara and Maqbool. This is what we call the mastery of a film maker - a new cheery to every cake.

The film is an adaption of a Ruskin Bond's story and revolves around a blue coloured umbrella, an eleven year old girl Biniya and an old man Nandkishore. Biniya, living in a small village one day discovers a beautiful and vibrant blue umbrella. Its sheer charm takes her by surprise and soon it become her pride possession that she would not let her eyes off. The umbrella also becomes an eye candy for the entire village. Nandkishore, a tea-stall owner also gets smitten by the uniqueness of the umbrella and determines to get the same at any cost.

Unfortunately, the prized possession goes missing one day. For Biniya, this becomes terrible and she turns adamant on finding out the culprit. However she strongly doubts the intentions of Nandkishore. For the time being not only Biniya but also the entire village starts to believe Nandkishore to be the thief of the umbrella and discards him of many society functions mockingly. The story from there takes an emotional touch and unfurls beautifully.

Vishal's glueing direction and script were given an uplift by stupendous cinematography. Gulzar's lyrics added life to the entire film. The background music was also superb. All an all a classic to watch. Performance wise, Panlaj Kapoor as usual is wonderful and so is Vishal's new discovery Shreya Sharma.

It may not be a blockbuster but somewhere you can cherish every bit of it.

Cheers to Chakde! India

Let's raise a toast to Shimit Amin, the soulful director of the week's big release Chak DE!India, for perfectly bringing on screen the true image of Indian women -and this time sans a scoop and other kitchen particulars. Incarnation of women with a hockey stick. Sounds great! so is the film.

"The history of all times, and of today especially, teaches that ... women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves". The film takes a flight with this morale, focussing on what revolutionary changes a woman can bring with her unshaken thoghts.

Starring Shahrukh Khan and a bunch of 16 fresh aspiring young lookers, the film revolves around a disgraced former national hockey team player, who after being falsely accused of cheating on the game, returns after seven years as a coach to the national women's hockey team.

The coach in question , Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) after great efforts succeeds in convincing the hockey association to give his hockey team, comprised of women players from length and breadth of the country, a chance to play in the Hockey World Championship. The Coach teaches his players to play not as individuals but as a team, forgetting their regional differences and thinking solely for the nation.

Initially he faces great oppositions from his players, who find him and his ways too strict but later they co-operate and move with him defeating nation after nation, bringing ultimate victory for India. The hockey scenes are terrific and succeeds in keeping alive the moods of even the non-sports lovers. Shahrukh Khan after Swades, has played a role without any of his typical trappings, without any of his trademark quirks.

The film beautifully highlights the power of women and strongly raises the topic of Equality of men and women. The film doesnot break new technical grounds but succeeds in keeping the viewers glued to the screen. All-n -all a perfect Sports film.

An must watch for all those with sportsman spirit ..............

Phalke For Shyam Benegal

Celebrated film director and Rajya Sabha member, Shyam Benegal has been selected for the honoured Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2005. Mr. Benegal is regarded as one of the finest directors that Hindi film industry has ever produced. The success and glory that New Indian Cinema received can largely be attributed to this veteran director.

Shyam Benegal, a nephew of Guru Dutt, founder of Hyderabad Film Society and a former ad-film maker left an indelible impact on the viewers with his very much feature film, Ankur. Later in his career he made several thought provoking cinema like Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika, Junoon, Mandi, Trikaal, Mammo, Sardari Begum and lot more. Apart from what is called "Good Cinema", he also has made disparate documentaries focussing on contemporary issues of India.

Shyam Benegal has earlier been awarded with Padma Shri(1976) and Padma Bhushan (1991). Heartiest congratulations to Shyam Benegal - for giving strong roots to the Hindi Film Industry and giving the Indian viewers a chance to see real incidents through reels.

Birthday of a Legend

Happy Birthday Kishore Da(4th August, 1929)

Zindagi ka safar, hai ye kaisa safar

koi samjha nahin, koi jaana nahin.......

These lines of Kishore Kumar, till date, unforgotten, stirr the deep emotions within our hearts. He was indeed a man born with a golden voice. An accomplished film & music director, a singer and an actor -name it all and Kishore da was a perfectionist. He gave a new shape to the commedy genre of Indian cinema.

Kishore Kumar was born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly in Khadwa. As a child he was very naughty and spent the early day of his life playing pranks and doing mimicry. Hindi blockbusters like "Padosan" and "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi", established him in Bollywood as a promising actor. In his life time he married some of the most beautiful women of Indian cinema like-Madhubala, Yogita Bali and Leena Chandrawarkar.

After playing a happy innings as an actor, Kishore Kumar tried his voice which went to be a massive success. His songs like saagar kinare, Roop tera mastana, pag ghoongru bandh, khaiyke paan banaras wala are some of his songs that appealed to people of every age group, specially the youth. A heart attack in 1987, took the life of this great maestro and made us aloof of a legend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.....................

Gandhi, My Father

Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhigiri are topics on which anyone can go on and on for days. But how many of us actually know about Gandhi's son Harilal and their relationship?I doubt the number!!!

This week's release, Akshaye Khanna and Bhumika Chawala starrer film, Gandhi, My Father is a lesson from a book called Gandhi. Making a film on real events has never been an easy cup of tea. Due to the lack of much written text on Harilal and Gandhi, a lot of research work had to be carried by Feroze Abbas Khan(Director) and Anil Kapoor(Producer). Anil Kapoor has made a superb entry in te film production department with such an outstanding piece of work.

The film, shifts the focus from Gandhi and his being a crusader of the Indian freedom struggle to his personal life, where a thwarted relationship between Gandhi and his eldest son Harilal has been screened beautifully and authentically. Harilal throughout carried the tag of Gandhi around his neck as a curse and did not agree with the ideologies of his own father, whom the whole of the nation trusted blindly.

The greatest regret of my life-
Two people I could never convince
My Muslim friend Mohammad Ali Jinnah and
My own son Harilal Gandhi.


Gandhi throughout his life failed to convince his son, who drinked himself to death.
In a nutshell, a well produced and directed film, with great performances. If the winds blow in the right direction, chances are that the film can mark an entry to the oscars.