Bollywood.TV Blog

Madhur Bhandarkar is synonymous with thought-provoking, hard-hitting films. Right from CHANDNI BAR to FASHION, the expert storyteller has made movies that hold tremendous shock-value. In turn, Madhur has cultivated a rich fan-base for his films.

With JAIL, Madhur not only makes you visit a prison, but also makes you peep into the psyche of a prisoner. In the recent past, Sriram Raghavan’s EK HASINA THI [2004; Saif Ali Khan, Urmila Matondkar] and Nazim Rizvi’s UNDERTRIAL [2007; Rajpal Yadav] narrated the travails and anguish of innocents who were falsely implicated in a case. Besides, Nagesh Kukunoor’s TEEN DEEWAREIN [2003; Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Nagesh Kukunoor] too narrated the story of three convicts. But JAIL is different from the above-named films.

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Every kid imagines what it would be like to be an adult. He wishes he could grow up quicker. Of course, once he grows up, a small part of him wishes he could go back to his childhood days. Quite an irony, isn’t it?

There’s a line in AAO WISH KAREIN that goes, ‘If you want to be a part of a fairy tale, it’s important that you believe in it [fairy tale].’ The statement is applicable for everyone desirous of watching AAO WISH KAREIN.

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In TUM MILE, a couple faces two storms. The storm within, when they come face to face after their breakup. The storm outside, when a natural calamity strikes Mumbai on 26th July, 2005 [unprecedented rainfall devastated Mumbai on this date].

After JANNAT, director Kunal Deshmukh [KD] chooses a love story yet again. It’s about an estranged couple, but the wallpaper in TUM MILE is the Mumbai floods. Naturally then, the expectations from TUM MILE are colossal, given the fact that TUM MILE is the first film that attempts to chronicle the natural calamity on celluloid, with seriousness.

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EK SE BURE DO is a classic example of been there, seen that, moved on. There has been a barrage of nonsensical comedies. Now add one more name to the list.

Toti [Arshad Warsi] and Tony [Rajpal Yadav] are two small-time con men who are in debt of a small-time don. The don hires them to find the map to a treasure. They find the map, but decide to con the don [Govind Namdeo]. What ensues is a chase to find Tito and Tony, who are hiding in the house where the treasure is hidden.

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Nagesh Kukunoor enters a new zone with 8 x 10 TASVEER: Suspense-thriller. His choice of the genre and subject material is also right. Yet, 8 x 10 TASVEER goes wrong, horribly wrong.

Now what was that? This is one question that haunts you at the end of the show. And, seriously, you want to direct this question to Kukunoor, who is also credited as the writer of this film.

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EK - THE POWER OF ONE takes you back to the cinema of yore. A criminal gets reformed when showered with love and affection from the parivaar. Recall the Meena Kumari - Rajesh Khanna starrer DUSHMAN. EK - THE POWER OF ONE isn’t DUSHMAN, but it belongs to the same family.

In actuality, EK - THE POWER OF ONE is the Hindi remake of a super-successful Telugu film ATHADU, which starred Mahesh Babu as the criminal and Prakash Raj as the cop.

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An interesting thought may not necessarily translate into an interesting screenplay. AA DEKHEN ZARA is a prime example of this statement.

Think about it… A man inherits his grandfather’s camera and with the camera comes the ability to see the future. What an idea, Sirji… But AA DEKHEN ZARA is akin to a bottle of soda, which starts off with a lot of energy, but the fizz settles down faster than expected.

Write your own movie review of Aa Dekhen Zara

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The promos of Deepa Mehta’s VIDESH - HEAVEN ON EARTH bring back memories of Jag Mundhra’s PROVOKED, which also spoke of domestic violence. Sure, VIDESH - HEAVEN ON EARTH also looks at domestic violence, it’s also about a Punjabi woman who continues to take the beatings silently on a foreign land, but the similarities end there. There’s a twist in the tale in VIDESH - HEAVEN ON EARTH and that makes this film different from films of its ilk.

Partly based on Girish Karnad’s play NAAG MANDALA and perhaps inspired by several true stories, Deepa tries to inject myth into the main story and that’s one of the prime reasons why you don’t take to the film completely.

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Karma Aur Holi: Could have been better
Rating:  2 out of 5*
Starring: Sushmita Sen, Randeep Hooda, Drena DeNiro, Naomi Campbell, Suresh Oberoi, Rati Agnihotri, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Deepal Shaw.
Director: Manish Gupta
Produced by legendary Hollywood actor Robert De Niro’s daughter Drena De Niro, Karma Aur Holi (earlier titled Karma Confessions and Holi) is not your typical NRI flick that tries to force the message down your throat about how better India is than the USA or how one is struggling to find his own identity in the land of Uncle Sam, but then it is again not a very engaging film that can be you focused for its two hour running time.

Meera (Sushmita) is a financial consultant cum yoga teacher and her hubby Dev (Hooda) runs publishing house. They have a great huge house and everything seems to be going picture perfect or is it really? They plan to throw a Holi bash for their friends and relatives at their new mansion and all the guests assemble the evening before the Holi party. Amongst them are Meera’s ever worrying sister Vani (Rati) and her mature hubby Shekhar (Oberoi) and their 17 year old son Vikram (Chandan), there is a male chauvinist Dr. Nimish with his docile wife Sujata (Suchitra) and her sister Preeti (Deepal), there is Meera’s wannabe filmmaker friend Javed (Armin Amiri) and his girlfriend Jennifer (Naomi), Dev’s associate Geentanjali (Maya) and Meera’s tarot reader friend Megan (Drena). As the evening begins to unfold, skeletons start tumbling out of each of these characters’ bags and leads to complicated situations. How those close to them and around them get affected by these and what solutions come out of them when the ‘Holi’ day arrives forms the rest of the film.

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Jai Veeru: Avoid and save your money
Rating: 1.5 out 5*
Starring: Fardeen Khan, Kunal Khemmu, Dia Mirza, Anjana Sukhani and Arbaaz Khan
Director: Puneet Sira

Veeru (Kunal) meets Jai (Fardeen) in a pub when the latter saves him from getting beaten up by goons. Veeru is a small time crook who masters in stealing cars. He convinces Jai, a motor mechanic to join him and Jai does. But little does Veeru know that Jai is basically on an undercover mission to nab underworld don Tejpal (Arbaaz) for whom Veeru works for. When Veeru comes to know about Jai’s reality a scuffle follows. During this, Jai accidentally gets shot by Veeru who manages to escape the country. While Jai thinks Veeru did it on purpose to kill him, a heartbroken Veeru is in double trouble as if Jai’s double game was not enough, he has to save his skin from Tejpal who is baying for his blood as he is having in his possession a special diary that can expose Tejpal. Then there is also Mumbai Police who is hunting for him. What follows next forms the rest of this film.
Ten minutes into the film and you realize it is completely aimed at the interiors of India where multiplexes are yet to make headway. Adding all the masala required for a typical entertainer that once worked in the 70s and 80s, Jai Veeru tries to aim to be a mindless entertainer, yet it fails. That is mostly because there is not a single novel thing in either the presentation or the screenplay. Even the actors playing the parts seem uninterested in their job. Fardeen is completely lackluster while Arbaaz sleepwalks through his part expressionlessly. Kunal Khemmu is the only actor who tries to impress and succeeds sometimes. Anjana Sukhani playing Kunal’s girlfriend is hardly there and gets no scope at all. Dia Mirza as Fardeen’s live in girlfriend looks pretty but again barely gets any screen time. Also her turnaround in the climax appears forced. Govind Namdeo as Fardeen’s boss is his typical self.

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