Produced and Directed by: Raj Kanwar
Staring: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Bhagyashree,

Akshay Kumar's films are becoming classier by the month. There's a certain restrain in his presence here. The way he conveys the pain and hurt of an impossible love, is quite surprising for an actor who until recently was counted among the wooden.

Director Raj Kanwar's recent efforts to polish up his act have yielded tepid results. Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and the boxoffice hit Andaz were louder than the lyrical aspirations of their creator.
Filmmaker Raj Kanwar’s previous movies have bore an indubitable stamp of melodrama and romantic mush. HDKG is no exception. Riddled with by-now-obvious clichés, HDKG tells a tale of romance that keeps simmering between the two protagonists, but finds an expression only after a good number of reels have unspooled. It is about attraction and repulsion, about love and its denial. The end has the predictable union of the lovers, but not before the mandatory tear-jerking moments, punctuated by some over-the-top drama.

The movie tells the story of Aditya (Akshay Kumar) and Jia (Katrina Kaif).

Aditya is an automobile engineer already engaged to Sonia (Bipasha Basu), a fashion designer. But the two hardly look made for each other. For Sonia, her career comes first. She is a hot looking woman with a cold heart. She is put off by crying babies and doesn’t like simple romantic gestures that ought to be natural between any two lovers.
Likewise, Jia is also about to marry Karan (Anil Kapoor), a business magnate. Although Jia has had all the material comforts of life – thanks to her rich business-minded father – but she has never experienced family love. Now she is about to marry a man who thinks very much like her father.
Aditya and Jia meet in Canada. Aditya is there for business reasons while Jia is there to shop for her wedding.
What begins as a series of brief encounters between Aditya and Jia starts cementing into something serious. Aditya introduces Jia to his sister’s family in Canada. It is there Jia finds the familial love that she always longed for.
Just when the simmering love between Aditya and Jia is about to explode, the director introduces the element of misunderstanding between the two. The inevitable parting follows and the lovers drift apart never to meet again.
But fate – yes, the mighty queer thing that plays more important role in films than in real life – intervenes. The lovers meet again. The lovebirds go through the obvious emotional turbulence before they eventually become the ones of the same feather.
Well, HDKG has a few positives to its credit. Firstly, the movie is visually striking. The cinematography is topnotch and adds a considerable sheen to the movie paled by the absence of a gripping story. And there indeed are certain moments in the movie that strike a chord at heart, (Akki-Katrina sequences in the first half), but the second half keeps stretching endlessly towards the end.
The songs, that keep popping up after every few reels, only frizzle a viewer.
Raj Kanwar has apparently taken a lot of inspiration from Hollywood movies. There are certain sequences that look lifted from Hollywood flicks. Sample this – the introduction of Anil Kapoor before the interval when he mistakes Akshay as the room service guy and gives him a tip, bears a non-coincidental resemblance to a similar scene from Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts starrer ‘Notting Hill’. And there are similar noticeable lifts from movies like ‘Forces of Nature’ and ‘Titanic’.
Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif are the only saviors of this movie. Playing a suave and decorous man with a mellow heart, Akshay deftly conveys the intensity of the inner contradictions of his character at several places in the movie.
Katrina Kaif is getting better with every film. She is less wooden and more expressive in emotional scenes. Her natural beauty is beyond question and her styling in the film is just breathtaking. Full points to her on looks, her acting still leaves certain things to be desired. But she is coming around.
Bipasha Basu and Anil Kapoor carry their roles with ease and élan. Bhagyashree as Akshay’s sister gives an adequate performance.
In a nutshell, HDKG is good enough to while away your time. But it offers nothing exceptional.

Saawan

Producted and Directed by: Sawan Kumar
Staring: Salman Khan, Kapil Jhaveri, Saloni Aswani, Prem Chopra,

"You'll die this Friday." No, that isn't a trade pundit predicting doomsday for this hopelessly loopy and washed-out take on the vagaries of life. That's just the 'desi' Nostradamus, played by Salman Khan, predicting sure-death for the film's pert heroine (Saloni Aswani).
The film's feverish take on the matters of fate is so hopelessly out of sync with the times, you feel sorry for the perpetrators of this celluloid atrocity.
Poor Salman. He's given the thankless task of shouldering this creative carcass.
Not one word of the dialogue, one frame in the composition of the shots, or one note in Aadesh Shrivastav's music score serves as an incentive to stay put while Saawan Kumar (the 'Souten' specialist) moves from the 'other-woman' theme to the 'shudder-woman' theme.
At some point in this blessedly short piece of 'karmic' junk, Salman smirks, "Why do you treat me like Einstein?"
Er, fortune-telling and Einstein? A bit far-fetched! Every time Salman talks to 'god' we see a cloud-burst on the screen, which could be that popping sound in our head warning us to leave the theatre before the Friday-calamity gets the better of us.
The series of songs in this supernatural bilge adds to the feeling of a director who lost his way long ago.
This could well be Kumar's last film ever. It's so deplorably devoid of a centre that it makes the average Bhojpuri flick look like a Sanjay Leela Bhansali creation.
The two newcomers (Saloni Aswani and Kapil Jhaveri) struggle to look pristine in their plasticity.
Salman, the backbone and the never-centre of this brain-dead romance, looks more real. You can see the actor making a valiant effort to breathe life into the dead film. But it's a losing battle.
The dialogues seem written on the back of chewing-gum wrappings. The pop-philosophy is so laughable, you wonder why over-the-hill filmmakers don't throw in their towels before they are asked to get off.
The fast-fading Johnny Lever and the cross-dressed Bobby Darling try a bit of the funny stuff in this stiff-and-stolid tribute to the 'karmic' cycle.
Salman's character knows exactly when and where catastrophe is about to strike. Wish he had warned us.
Shaadi Se Pehle

The title SHAADI SE PEHLE gave an impression of it being a sex comedy and Mallika's presence just strengthened the belief. But the motion got wiped off immediately after the movie starts rollin'. This ain't no sex comedy, this is an ex-comedy!
Well, read the story first. Ashish Khanna (Akshaye Khanna) and Rani (Ayesha Takia) are very much in love. Ashish suffers from hypertension and one day he misunderstands it for cancer after overhearing his doctor's (Boman Irani) conversation on the phone. Ashish is devastated and then embarks to turn nasty so that Rani starts hating him and does not have to face the suffering of his death. ....................more




Banaras

Starring: Urmila, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Raj Babbar, Ashmit Patel.
Director: Pankuj Parashar

Ashmit Patel has a problem. It's not that he can't act. Director Pankuj Parashar has taken care of that issue admirably, skirting his skills and asking him to smile vacantly at everyone. This is what Bollywood, bred on a diet of melodramatic histrionics, calls 'subtle.'
No, his problem is peculiar. A shy, silent orphan named Soham, he's a bit overwhelmed by the unashamedly frank proposal come his way from the overenthused Shwetambari (Urmila). The randy little rich girl is thrilled about Soham's music classes, and singing is clearly not foremost in her thoughts. But, Soham asks himself, is this right?...................more

Being Cyrus

With the influx of multiplexes, novel concepts and offbeat themes are being attempted with amazing regularity. The fact that the moviegoer of today is receptive to changes has given an impetus to 'multiplex cinema' that's slowly and steadily taking over India. Think out of the box, is the new mantra!
BEING CYRUS is a sign of cinema that defies the stereotype. It travels a path not many films would dare to venture into. Debutante director Homi Adajania not only opts for a story that may seem bizarre to many, even the execution of the material is innovative and distinguished..................more




UMAR

The plight of senior citizens has been depicted in a number of Bollywood films in the past, but the ones that stand out are ZINDAGI [Sanjeev Kumar, Mala Sinha], AVTAAR [Rajesh Khanna, Shabana Azmi], SWARG [Rajesh Khanna], JAISI KARNI WAISI BHARNI [Kader Khan] and BAGHBAN [Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini].
But UMAR, directed by Karan Razdan, goes a step further. It not only looks at the atrocities committed by their kith and kin during their sunset years, but the story also has a crime angle running parallel.........more

Malamaal Weekly

Malamaal Weekly is about the struggles and survival of people in a small town. Plagued by poverty, bad harvests and a monster of a moneylender called Karamkali, the people in this town are barely able to make ends meet.

What’s it about: When a filmmaker sets his own goals with films like Hera Pheri and Hungama, obviously the expectations are high.
But how can quality control be assured when Priyadarshan resorts to mass production of his movies? ...............more

TEESRI AANKH - THE HIDDEN CAMERA

There's a flip side to almost everything. If technological advancements have made life simpler and easier, there's always a possibility that someone could be misusing it to their advantage. TEESRI AANKH - THE HIDDEN CAMERA looks at the issue of hidden cameras creating havoc in people's lives.

The problem with TEESRI AANKH - THE HIDDEN CAMERA is that the moviegoers have watched a similar theme a couple of months ago, in KALYUG. Besides the concept that sounds similar, even the basic plot -- of the lead man wanting to expose those who made the blue film of his sweetheart -- bears a striking similarity to the Mohit Suri-directed Kunal Kemmu-Emraan Hashmi starrer................more

TAXI NO:9211

A simple cab journey changed their life...

An engrossing rollercoaster ride. That’s what Taxi No 9211 promises to be when its acerbic, witty and very unhappy with the world driver shifts into first gear, even as a well written and delivered commentary by Sanjay Dutt begins the storyline and with deft economy of words defines the characters and puts them in perspective.............more

CHINGARI

Some films just get you interested for all the wrong reasons. Think about it. This is a sex comedy about a bored and boring man who wants to pep up his life with a bit of wife-swapping… hardly the kind of theme and film that would qualify as little more than an effort to titillate audiences with a whole lot of junk feud in the domestic ambience. Some films just get you interested for all the wrong reasons. ........more

FIGHT CLUB

Action films will never go out of fashion. Bollywood has seen a spate of romantic musicals and family dramas in the last few years, so it was getting a little cranky. That's why action flicks come in as a fresh whiff of air. FIGHT CLUB is an action film and true to its theme it quite succeeds in packing the punch! Vikram Chopra here shows that he is adept with the technical aspects of filmmaking. But the script is a let down and hence the execution is hampered. FIGHT CLUB is the story of four friends, ..........more

Mixed Doubles

Some films just get you interested for all the wrong reasons. Think about it. This is a sex comedy about a bored and boring man who wants to pep up his life with a bit of wife-swapping… hardly the kind of theme and film that would qualify as little more than an effort to titillate audiences with a whole lot of junk feud in the domestic ambience.Some films just get you interested for all the wrong reasons. Think about it. This is a sex comedy about a bored and boring man who wants to pep up his life with a bit of wife-swapping… hardly the kind of theme and film that would qualify as little more than an effort to titillate audiences with a whole lot of junk feud in the domestic ambience........more

Holiday

With the influx of multiplexes in India, stories that were considered experimental at a point are slowly finding their way to the big screen. Pooja Bhatt picks up the essence from the Hollywood hit DIRTY DANCING [1987; Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze], garnishes the plot with a dance form [Salsa] and sets her story in the land of sand, sea and surf [Goa].Ideal date movie? Not really... HOLIDAY could've been one enjoyable joy ride. Instead, it turns out to be a bland experience thanks to an ineffectual plot and the sluggish pace at which the story unfolds.............more

Aksar

AKSAR, directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, takes a look at relationships. The story isn't about two men fighting for a woman. This one has a complex theme. In terms of storyline, AKSAR does push the envelope, but the question is, will the orthodox Indian moviegoer digest the theme?AKSAR has an out of the box kind of a plot: A millionaire hiring a casanova to have an affair with his wife, the millionaire-husband then catching the wife red-handed in an uncompromising position in the bedroom, the wife not regretting her decision… the concept, though bold, is extremely modern for the Indian audiences............more



Rang De Basanti

It is rare that such a well-crafted and beautifully told story is seen in Hindi cinema.
Genius Director Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra’s movie ‘Rang De Basanti’ is a must-watch for reasons that the length of this review may not suffice to express. More than just a technically brilliant flick, ‘Rang De Basanti’ has a story that entertains you, makes you think and stirs you deep inside in the end. The director merges two plots in RANG DE BASANTI. The first is about a group of friends, their bonding, and the carefree lifestyle they lead..........more