Film Review

By admin • June 18th, 2011

By Subhash K. Jha Director: Ankush Bhatt Cast: Pavan Malhotra, Kay Kay Menon, Prashant Narayanan, Gautam Sharma and Deepti Naval Rating: *** You can take the gangster out of Mumbai, but you really can’t take Mumbai out of the gangster genre of cinema. How many films have we seen where young people from the seamier [...]

By Subhash K Jha Director: Bejoy Nambiar Starring: Rajeev Khandelwal,Kalki Koechlin, Shiv Pandit, Gulsha Devaiya, Kirti Kulhari,Neil Boopalam Rating: *** ½ If there were any doubts about 2011 being the year of reckoning for Indian cinema, Shaitan, with its mounting mood of ricocheting restlessness, puts all doubts to rest. The skilful interweavement of strong storytelling [...]

Cast: Raayo Bakhirta, Nushrat Bharucha, Sonalli Sehgal, Divyendu Sharma, Ishitta Sharma and Kartikeya Tiwari Writer-Director: Luv Ranjan Rating: *** “Pyaar Ka Punchnama” packs in a precocious punch. In telling the story of three friends-cum-flatmates who get into ‘serious’ relationships with three self-serving working-class female monsters of the concrete jungle, debutant director Luv Ranjan gives us [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Nishikant Kamat, Rajvvir Aroraa, Tisca Arora and Imad Shah Written & Directed: Prawaal Raman Rating: **** In one word, stunning! That’s the impact of Prawaal Raman’s supernatural thriller. No creaking doors, no dolby-driven demoniacal sound effects, no half-naked girls running around with banshee shrieks and provocative protests, none of the [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Prosenjit, Jishu Sengupta, Raima Sen, Riya Sen Directed: Rituparno Ghosh Rating; *** How does one go about adapting a popular Rabindranath Tagore novel that’s filled with melodramatic coincidences without making it look like a distant cousin of a Hindi potboiler written by Gulshan Nanda rather than Tagore? Ghosh has earlier [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Tusshar Kapoor, Amrita Rao, Ram Kapoor, Madhoo Directed: S Manasvi Rating; *** Tch tch.Boy is an artiste.He is humble, generous, kind and compassionate. But what the heck! He can’t keep his sweetheart in the lap of luxury. Girl’s Dad makes the Kalaakar, a cartoonist with a penchant for looking for [...]

Cast: Raj Kumar, Kainaz Motivala Director: Pawan Kripalani Rating: ** When Dibakar Banerjee took a previously done concept to make “Love Sex Aur Dhokha” (LSD), he not only created cinematic poetry but its commercial success made its studio greedy enough to replicate the formula. Sadly, what the studio did not realize is that unlike science, [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Nana Patekar, Mohit Ahlawat, Rimi Sen, Anurag Kashyap Written & Directed: Tigmanshu Dhulia Rating: ** ½ There is this utterly delightful action sequence where Nana Patekar, playing a belligerent corrupt but effectual cop in a crime-infested small town of Uttar Pradesh run by the political mafia, barges on to a [...]

Starring: Partho, Amole Gupte, Divya Dutta Written & Directed: Amole Gupte Rating: **** A sparkling gem of a film, if ever there was one, Stanley Ka Dabba is the sort of rare and precious look at the world of the child as seen aeons ago in Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar or Ray’s short-film Pikoo’s Diary. [...]

By Subhash K. Jha Cast: Mahaakshay Chakraborty, Tia Bajpai, Achint Kaur, Arif Zakaria, Sanjay Sharma Director: Vikram Bhatt Rating: *** The best thing one can say about this rivetting romp into the kingdom of the eerie is that it really didn’t need the 3D format to make an impact. “Haunted” works just as effectively without [...]

Starring: Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Sundeep Kishan, Pitobash Tripathy, Nikhil Diwedi, Preeti Desai, Radhika Apte, Girika Oak Directed by: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK Rating: **** I saw the future of Hindi cinema. And it’s got a name. Shor In The City. They say Mumbai never goes to sleep. Catching the restless on-the-edge mood of a [...]

By Subhash K. Jha Starring: Lara Dutta, Vinay Pathak Directed by: Shashant Shah Rating: *** 1/2 Once in a while you come away from a film with a lot more than you expected. Except for a somewhat flabby 15 minutes post-interval, “Chalo Dilli” sparkles with the pleasurable punchy emotions that we seem to have forefeited [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Nandita Das, Purab Kohli, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Suri, Radhika Apte, Shernaz Patel, Anurag Kashyap, Rahul Bose, Arjun Mathur & Abhimanyu Singh Rating: **** How and where does one begin to describe the infinite satisfaction of watching a film that emerges from the closet with some arresting and disturbing [...]

By Subhash K. Jha Film: “Zokkomon” Cast: Anupam Kher, Darsheel Safary, Manjari Phadnis Director: Satyajit Bhatkal Rating: ** Heart-warming performances and noble intentions do not make great cinema. This one falls short of expectations, mainly because of the poor special-effects and the failure of the plot to take off. To imagine a film about a [...]

By Subhash K. Jha Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Pratik Babbar, Anaitha Nair, Bipasha Basu, Rana Daggubati, Govind Namdeo Director: Rohan Sippy Rating: *** 1/2 By the end of it all, only one love story comes to a happy ending in “Dum Maro Dum”. Maybe one is not allowed to say which. What one can safely say [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Om Puri, Deepak Dobriyal, Shreyas Talpade, Ragini Khann, Yograj Singh Director: Mrigdeep Singh Lamba Rating: * 1/2 Some comedies mean well. But they lose their way in their noble intentions. “Teen Thay Bhai” seems like a terrific idea for a comedy. Three brothers separated more at mirth than by birth, [...]

Directed by: Remo D’Souza Starring: Jackky Bhagnany, Pooja Gupta, Angad Bedi, Chandan Roy Sanyal Rating: *** F.A.L.T.U? Not quite. A film that takes stinging swipes at our education system cannot live up to a title as uninspiring as that. F.A.L.T.U turns out to be quite a pleasant surprise. Fresh, feisty, vivacious and vibrant, and with [...]

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Kangna Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Jimmy Sheirgil, Shahana Goswami, Gauhar Khan, Introducing Sarah Jane Dias Directed by: Abhinay Deo Rating: *** ½ “What a story!” Abhishek Bachchan, playing a cross between a fugitive and a guardian-angel, says wrily at the of this elegantly crafted whodunit. What a story, indeed. And full [...]

Starring: Deepti Naval, Rituparno Ghosh, Raima Sen Written by: Rituparno Ghosh Directed by: Sanjay Nag Rating: *** ½ Bereavement and memories are a great high for celluloid drama. Some of the most poignant and memorable films of our times have tapped into the wounds of grief for creative juices and emerged trumps at the boxoffice. [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad, Om Puri, Soha Ali Khan, Mukulika Banerjee, Neerja Naik, Rez Kempton Written & Directed: Sangeeta Dutta Rating: **** One of the many pleasures of watching this supple evocative elegiac family saga is to see the timeless Sharmila Tagore share screen space with her real-life daughter Soha, [...]

Cast: Divya Dutta, Ashutosh Rana, Dadhi Pandey, Rajit Kapur Writer-Director: Sushen Bhatnagar Rating: *** One doesn’t know if the real-life journalist Shivani Bhatnagar was meant to be a kind of promiscuous enigma. But that’s how she is purported to be portrayed by writer-director Sushen Bhatnagar. A kind of Madame Bovary (a novel by French writer [...]

Cast: R. Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut, Jimmy Shergil, Swara Bhaskar Director: Anand L. Rai Rating: ** 1/2 Why should you watch “Tanu Weds Manu”? For R. Madhavan who will win you heart as a sweet lovable NRI doctor Manu who has the misfortune of falling in love with a Kanpur-girl Tanu (Kangana Ranaut) who not only [...]

By Subhash Jha Director: Vishal Bhardwaj Cast: Priyanka Chopra,Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Anu Kapoor, Alexandr Dyachenko, John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vivaan Shah Rating: **** Chalk up an absolute winner for the Vishal Bhardwaj-Priyanka Chopra team. They make a coherent vision out of an inconceivable marital crises. How do you make sense of a woman [...]

By Subhash Jha Director: Nikhil Advani Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Dimple Kapadia, Anushka Sharma, Hard Kaur, Prem Chopra Rating: **** It takes us just five minutes to get the hang of this film’s narrative structure. It is as nimbly-paced as a fast-bowler playing cricket in a wide-open field trying to avoid all the roar [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Dev Anand, Sadhana, Nanda Directed: Amarjeet Rating: *** ½ Abhi na jao chhod kar ke dil abhi bhara nahin…The film’s anthemic love ballad, regarded as one of the finest love songs ever composed for Hindi cinema, rings through your heart after the lengthy film is done—and let’s face it, nearly [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Irrfan Khan, Chitrangda Singh, Arunodoy Singh, Aditi Rao Hydari Written & Directed: Sudhir Mishra Rating: *** ½ Yeh saali picture…badi kutti cheez hai. Dekho tab pataa chale. To describe the rollercoaster ride that is Yeh Saali Zindagi(YSZ) is to attempt to draw the picture of the Red Fort at the [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: James Franco Directed: Danny Boyle Rating: **** ½ Can we, hardened cynical movie-goers and de-sensitized humanbeings of Planet Murder Earth, even begin to imagine the thundering threshold of pain where the man trapped in sure-death actually says ‘Thank You’ to…whom? God maybe?…when he’s able to saw off his trapped hand [...]

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidya, Shruti Haasan, Tisca Chopra and Shazahn Padamsee Director: Madhur Bhandarkar Rating: **1/2 Madhur Bhandarkar has moved out of the hard hitting films and tried his hands for a rom-com Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji. The film revolves around the lives of three guys, Naren (Ajay Devgn), Abhay or [...]

Cast: Aamir Khan, Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra Director: Kiran Rao Rating: **** Every year literally hundreds of thousands throng to the city of dreams, Mumbai. To cover so many dreams in a small span of an-hour-and-a-half calls for some brilliant filmmaking. And watching “Dhobi Ghat” will make you realise that there indeed have [...]

By Subhash K Jha Starring: Gul Panag, Purab Kohli, Sid Makkar Written& Directed: Alankrita Shrivastava Rating: *** Jeez, it’s that sassy spunky urbane chick mouthing that ‘f’ word again! Last week it was Rani Mukherjee in No One Killed Jessica. This time it’s the delightfully spontaneous Gul Panag playing a working-girl in an ad agency [...]

Director: Samir Karnik Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Kulraj Randhawa, Nafisa Ali ,Anupam Kher, Johny Lever, Puneet Issar, Mukul Dev, Himanshu Mallik, Sucheta Khanna, Amit Mistry, Emma Brown, Digvijay Rohildas, Krip Suri, Gurbachan, Lokesh Tilakdhari, Nikunj Pandey In today’s times when films like No Problem and Tees Mar Khan proclaim to be synonym for [...]

Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Vidya Balan, Myra Karn Music: Amit Trivedi Director: Rajkumar Gupta Rating: **** On April 29, 1999 a shot was fired from a .22 bore pistol whose loud reverberations lasted throughout a decade. The shot the present killed a vivacious, aspiring model Jessica Lall was fired in the existence of more than 100 [...]

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Tanuja Director: Kireet Khurana Rating: **1/2 Expectations from the Ajay Devgan – Kajol starrer animation flick was high, but it failed to impress the masses in spite of bringing together the real life couple on-screen after a couple of years and being widely promoted as the first live action animation film [...]

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Akshaye Khanna Director: Farah Khan Rating: ** Farah Khan tried all the industrial tricks to give a real hit during the Christmas with the hit pair Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in Tees Maar Khan. However, all the hype created around ‘Sheila Ki Jawani’ could not safeguard this latest Farah [...]