Film Review-Bewafaa

Sushmita Sen, Anil Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Shamita Shetty and Manoj Bajpai in Bewafaa

StarCast: Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpai, Sushmita Sen, Kareena Kapoor, Shamita Shetty.
Director: Darmesh Darshan
Rating:* *

What a great movie! The best way to spoil your sunday. At times I felt even Shabd was better. Here goes the story, Kabir Bedi (a NRI who lives in Montreal, Canada) and his phirang wife (Nafisa Ali) have two daughters Aarti (Sushmita Sen) and Anjali (Kareena Kapoor). Now Aarti lives in New Delhi and is married to busniess tycoon (Anil Kapoor) for the past 10 years but they have no children. Anjali on the other hand is busy romancing a local upcoming musician Raja (Akshay kumar) in Canada. Aarti comes to Canada to deliver coz she discovers that she's 5 months pregnant. Now her baby sis tells Aarti, about her love story, so Aarti decides to meet Raja just to see if her sister's choice is right. Needless to say, she likes Raja and thinks is best suited for her sis. Aarti tells Raja that she wants to visit all those places where love blossomed between her sis and him (wot a kabab me haddi). And wot a surprise they start singing and dancing together.

All's well until destiny takes its toll. Aarti's sudden demise when she delivers girl twins leaves Anjali in a situation where she has to marry here brother in law. They come back to India, but Anil Kapoor is too busy with his work, too grieved by his wife's loss to spare time for Anjali and his kids. Enter Raja, who by this time is a famous Pop star and comes to India for a concert. he bumps into his first love Anjali and ....... Now Anjali has to make a choice between her hubby and her lover, whom she chooses is what forms the climax of the movie. Also there is Manoj Bajpai (Dil Arora) and his wife Pallavi (Shamita Shetty) who are Anil kapoor's best friends and are the only one's who know his wife's secret.

The music of the film is extremely mediocre. Worst being some crappy Kabootar song picturised on Mr. Bajpai and Ms. Shetty. Speaking of the performances, Kabir Bedi and Nafisa Ali are competent. Manoj Bajpai completely goes over the top, one of his worst performances ever. Shamita Shetty is about ok. Akshay Kumar, irritates big time, will always be a non actor. Check out his pop star look and even worse the costumes, Jesus Christ!!! Elvis Presley would thank his stars that he's long gone, otherwise he would have been intimidated by this third rate clone of his called "Indian Raja".Phew. Anil Kapoor does well, actually its just the experience, but the talented actor defenitely deserves roles better than this. Kareena Kapoor has a meaty role, goes overboard at times (check out some hyperactive expressions before the kaise mai piya se kahoo song) but does well overall.

This could have been a sensitive film , but i think the director Darmesh Darshan directed this movie over the phone.

All i can say is you can do bewafaai to this film and give it a MISS!!!

-Sanketh Rao.

Film Review-Shabd

Zayed Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Sanjay Dutt in Shabd

StarCast: Sanjay Dutt, Aishwarya Rai, Zayed Khan
Director: Leena Yadav
Rating: *

What in the gaaawwds name is this one!!! This is a pschyo-illogical drama, where neither the director nor the actors know where the movie is heading. Actually i think the director was in her kitchen, cooking and she got bored, so she thought she should rather make a movie but i am sure after making the movie she realized that she was better off preparing the curry, atleast she could throw it if it didn't taste good!!!

The movie revovles around this writer who goes by the name, Shaukat Vashisht (Sanjay Dutt), his higgest achievement in life being his booker's prize award. But life for him hasnt been easy after this, coz its an elevation from where he cannot descent. Now his critics and his publishers are not as happy with him as they were before. His critics tear his work apart saying that his stories have become too fictitious and there is absolutely no reality left in them. The writer is so obsessive and possessive about his work that he just knows one thaing that he has to write a book which will silence his critcs once and for all. His world, his life are just his books. Whenever he creates a character in his novel, he invites them to his world by saying "welcome to Shaukat's world". Now at the same time he has a caring and loving wife Antra (Aishwarya Rai), who is happy being a lecturer in a college and cooking food for him . She has no regrets whatsoever even though they have such a void in their married life which has spanned for seven years now.

Now in writing his new book, which he has to prove to the world is real, he needs the help of his wife and tells her to stray. And guess what even though she knows its wrong, she just goes with the flow, which is what i fail to understand.

Zayed Khan is the new photography lecturer in the college, who makes her realise that she a woman and she's missed out so many things in life. Shaukat tells Antra to be with him and let go coz he's exactly like the character in his book. All said and done you will be shocked to see how the movie ends.

The music is nothing worth to be spoken about, nor is anything else about the movie. Zayed Khan's jokes are so silly that i have no shabd to describe it and the less said about his performance the better it is. Sanjay Dutt delivers the pschyo character with ease. Aishwarya Rai is for whom you can watch the movie, she shells out a sensitive, matured and subtle performance but even she cannot save this disaster called Shabd.

Even if you have nothing better to do, its advisable that you catch a old movie on television instead of seeing this crappy movie and ending up with a migrane.

Give it a miss!

Sanketh Rao.

Film Review-Black

Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerjee in Black

StarCast: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerjee
Direction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Rating: * * * *

Hindi films are getting different and that too in a big way! Its just the beginning of the year and with movies like Page 3 and Black, Bollywood's rocking. Expectedly, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black leaves you spellbound. This one will stir your soul. If this one doesn't get India an Oscar then who cares, we dont want them.

Michelle McNally (Ayesha Kapur/Rani Mukerjee) is born to anglo-indian parents (Shernaz Patel and Dhritiman Chaterji)in Shimla. Due to some illness when she's an infant she loses her sight and ability to hear. Not knowing the patrician way to bring up such a child and the parents succumbing to the child's stubborness, Michelle is a stubborn, mannerless girl who has no future and is a liabilty to her family.

Enter Debraj Sahai (Amitabh Bachchan), who is a teacher in a school which has students with similar impairments. Now this guy is an absolute whacko, who has dedicated his entire life for such children, he doesn't want to be remembered as a teacher, instead he calls himself a magician. Now he is called to help Michelle, and after working very hard on her, he metamorphoses her into the Michelle of today. Debraj starts to suffer from Alzheimer's disease slowly and now Michelle needs to bring him back to life. The roles are now reversed! And guess what she does the impossible.

The performances are par excellence. Shernaz Patel as Michelle and Sarah's mother is so natural, just exceptional. Watch her sequences with Bachchan, truely awesome. Dhritiman Chaterji is excellent. Nandana Sen (Sarah) as Michelle's sister impresses in a small significant role. Ayesha Kapur is first-rate. This child is something, I have no words to express, for the world class performance that she's delivered. See it to beleive it. Such an angel. If you thought Sr. Bachchan was getting irritating with the umpteen number of ads on television, go watch this one, no wonder he is the best actor there is and the best there ever will be. As for the Rani Mukerjee, she is indeed the reigning queen of Bollywood. Her best performance till date, one thing's for sure, this girl was born to act. But hats off to the director whose execution of the subject, the performances that he's extracted, and the visuals he's captured cannot be described in mere words.

Highly Recommended.

-Sanketh Rao.

Film Review-Page3

Konkona Sen in Page3

StarCast: Konkona Sen, Tara Sharma, Sandhya Mridul, Bikram Saluja,etc.

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Rating:* * * *

Well, this is one of those movies whose occurrence is very rare. It takes a lot of guts and conviction to make a movie like this. One word that would describe this movie is "phenomenal". The director is definitely not a one time wonder, coz now he has Chandni Bar, Satta and this one under his belt and we can forgive him for Aan.
As the title suggests the movie is about the glitz and glamour, the party scene in Mumbai. Actually everyone knows that the things shown in the movie do happen behind the scenes, but we generally have a blind eye for it and convince ourselves that such things don't happen. This movie deals with every facet of life especially around the people who feature in page three articles. There's everything that one can think of casting couch, the plastic smiles, the double standards, bisexuality, child abuse, just about everything.
Its a story about a journalist who reports for page 3, and basically her dealing with her consciousness and her desire to change certain hippocratical values that exist in her profession. But will she succeed, now for that answer, go and see the movie.
The music of the movie is just apt, just perfectly blending with the movie and taking the story forward. "Kitne Ajeeb...." every word in that song is so true with respect to page 3. Even the item number is well placed. As far as the performances go Konkona Sen , Sandya Mridul even Tara Sharma and frankly speaking everyone is first rate. Boman Irani , Atul Kulkarni , Bikram Saluja, and all the others have been casted well.
Full marks for the director for making a film that's just class apart. Impressive. Very Impressive. Absolutely unmissable.

Sanketh Rao.