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Hindi films this year haven’t been too great but on the other hand they haven’t been that bad either – obviously with the exceptions of the Aap Ka Suroor types. However its way too early to write-off the year, with 5 months to go and some of the most promising takes from Bollywood yet to be released, 2007 will continue to be a joyride till the very end.

Here are some of my personal picks, the ones I can’t wait to get eyes on. Yes, I will be there – the first day, the 3rd show and parked butt on the best seats money can buy.

Heyy Babyy

The promos are saucy and peppy with bucket loads of humor thrown in. Sajid Khan’s directorial debut (technically) stars bunch of his close buddies in the industry, plus having Akshay Kumar can only be seen as an bumper lottery ticket. Set in the beautiful Australian city, Sydney (mummy I wanna go back)….the story in more the one way reminds me of an old Hollywood flick, “Three Men and A Baby”.

Continue reading ‘Promising Bollywood Phillums (?)’

A few years ago, Feroz Abbas Khan created a stir in theater circles with his critically acclaimed play, Gandhi Virudh Gandhi. Focused on the largely unknown, tense relationship between the Mahatma and his eldest son, Harilal Gandhi, the play will now make its cinematic debut on August 3, 2007 as Gandhi, My Father.

Produced by Anil Kapoor, the film stars Akshaye Khanna as Harilal Gandhi, the black sheep of the Gandhi family who drank himself to an early grave, Shefali Shah as Kasturba Gandhi and Darshan Jariwala as the Mahatma. And if you put any value in pre-release hype then this is going to be one heck of a movie.

Continue reading ‘Gandhi My Father‘

Indian Television has a very long tradition of detective and crime serials. I must (honourably) mention Marathi serials like “Ek Shoonya Shoonya” (meaning 100, titled for obvious reasons), the serial which started ACP Pradyuman’s career; “Hello Inspector” (had an extremely catchy tune) and “Dhananjay” (don’t remember the actor’s name, though he is a good and famous one), which we used to watch in the days when the prime-time “regional” programmes were limited to 7.15 pm to 8 pm (after regional news to before hindi news) time slot. Perhaps, my fascination with detectives started with these, but my memories of them extend no further than the names (“A long time ago, on a TV far away” and all that you know…)

So, I will get to better recognized names. Byomkesh Bakshi showed us how a great actor backed by great story (and a nice casting) makes for a serial worth watching. There is another detective which confirms this:

Continue reading ‘Television Detectives of India’

If you like subtle humour or more refined humor, then maybe this movie is not for you. The humor is loud, throughout the movie. In addition, if you looking for a fully cogent storyline, then again, maybe this is not the movie for you. But, I liked sections of the movie incredibly. I did not regret the trip to the movie hall to see the movie, although I would not go again. I would not mind seeing the movie again when it comes on TV in a couple of months / weeks.

First of all, this is not an original movie, but is copied from a Will Smith starring English movie, Hitch. Secondly, the movie does not have too much of a story line, but has lots of skin show, including a large amount from Salman Khan. People who like his bare chested display will enjoy the movie. Then, there are some beautiful locations that are displayed in some of the movies.

Continue reading ‘Review Partner: Is A Fairly Enjoyable Movie’

Naya Daur is a movie made way, way back. It was made in 1957, and was made by BR Chopra (directed and produced). Why talk about this now, especially when it is 50 years old. Well, the movie is going to be re-released in color by the BR films banner (interview of Ravi Chopra). After the re-release of Mughal-e-Azaam in color, this is the second movie to be so released.

Converting a black-and-white movie to color is a fairly challenging and time consuming task, and this current effort by BR Films has taken 2-3 years. The projected release is in the next few months (I don’t have an exact date since one place quoted Aug 3 and the other quoted a date in October).

Naya Daur is a very interesting movie. I watched it when it came on Doordarshan a long time back, and it struck a chord in me, and then I was reading about it again, and it is a movie that seems very relevant even now. It was relevant in the time of the industrial revolution 150 years back, and is still relevant in these times of offshoring, and with lots of discussions going on about growth in India not leading to a growth of the labour market.

Continue reading ‘Re-Release In Color: Naya Daur‘