Review : Shool

Posted on March 25, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Excellent(5/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 1999
Running Time : 2 hours 10 minutes
Cast : Manoj Bajpai, Raveena Tandon, Sayaji Shinde
Running Time : 2 hours, 20 minutes
Director : E. Nivas
Music : Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy

SHOOL : Hard-hitting drama in the common man’s life

Folks, this film is as good as they get. I consider none better (in the drama genre) except “Company” – and that explains my going into raptures over this film. E.Nivas gives us this absolutely amazing movie, complete with drama, awesome acting, and an item number to boot. Here’s the spoiler-free gist :

Samar Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpai) is an honest police officer, and Manjari (Raveena Tandon) his supportive wife. They have a little daughter Sonu. Samar, because of his honesty is frequently being transferred, and has now finally reached the little town of Motihari in Bihar. We see him and his family at the railway station, and subsequently also see Samar upbraiding a high-handed constable for his insensitiveness to ordinary citizens.

Motihari’s lord and master, so to speak, is slimy MLA Bachu Yadav (Sayaji Shinde). The police and most of Samar’s colleagues kow-tow to Yadav . The epitome of corruption, Yadav has been the MLA for 15 years, but loses his ticket as his party opts for someone else. On hearing this ,Yadav makes short shrift of the unfortunate man, and avails himself of the party ticket. Samar, an honest cop, has frequent run-ins with Yadav, to the point where he (Samar) begins to fear for his family. Does Samar manage to take on Yadav and win ? The rest of the movie says it all.

This is an engrossing film, and is pretty violent in content. Bajpai is truly the best hindi film actor in the industry, and Raveena matches him in a low-key, plain, house-wifey role. Sayaji Shinde shines as the absolutely corrupt and moralless Yadav. The only flaw that I could see, in this seemingly perfect film, was that Raveena was too glamorous for the role of Manjari. A docile looking plain-Jane would have been better suited.

Posted in bollywood, drama, outstanding, rating-PG13, recommended, thriller | Tagged | 9 Comments

Review : Rules – pyar ka superhit formula

Posted on March 25, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Excellent(5/5)
Genre : Romance
Year : 2004
Running Time : 2 hours 10 minutes
Cast : Milind Soman, Meera Vasudevan, Tanuja, Namrata Barua
Director : Parvati Balagopalan
Music : Sandesh Shandilya

RULES:Pyar ka superhit formula – This one rocks !

This is a new director debut, and Parvati Balagopalan makes the most of it. Very nicely crafted, this modern-day love story, doesn’t really adhere to the wait-n-watch approach of slow-paced love, but still is a treat. Adding to the charm and general bonhomie, are debut actress Meera Vasudevan as the perky Radha and model Milind Soman as what else – model Vikram Verma.

OK, so we have assistant photographer Radha, silently salivating over model Vikram Verma. Of course Vikram, who already has a girlfriend (Namrata Barua as the perpetually pouting Maggie) is totally unaware of her presence. Hence, Radha is sad and distracted, and silently sighs, and sighs, and sighs… until her sprightly grandmother (Tanuja in an endearing role) notices, and offers her a solution for the problem.

Her solution consists of Radha’s application of 5 rules, with Nirvana i.e.; Vikram’s undying love as the ultimate goal. Radha agrees, of course (duh !). Begin application. End application. Goal achieved ? Watch and find out.

Direction is slick. I particularly liked the “involve the viewer” technique Ms.Balagopalan uses. It consists of little snippets where one of the characters in the film, sort of speaks to the audience – almost like an aside, giving viewers some inside knowledge. For example, Radha’s Nani cooking food (naiappam ??) and talking to the viewer about Radha’s obsession with Vikram. Also, Meera acts well , and comes across as a “real” girl with a natural figure, not one of the unnaturally thin heroines of current hindi cinema.

Tanuja of course takes the cake for her performance as Radha’s loving, young-at-heart Nani. The icing on the cake – Milind Soman looks gorgeous (as usual) and acts pretty adequately actually. There are a few minor characters played by some familiar people – like Pari of “Jassi Jaisi Koi nahin” fame.

And music by Shandilya is fabulous; melodious, with great bits of instrumental music (the veena ?). He’s done a great job of creating a sort of fusion, earthy tradional sounds mixed with modern pop. “Chodo na mujhe” sung by Kunal Ganjawala is a catchy tune. Singer Sanjeevani (her of the soft, sweet, little girl voice) makes a mini-comeback with the song “Uljhano ko de diya hai”, an absolutely beautiful, catch-my-breath number.

Definitely a must-see film.

Posted in bollywood, family-friendly, outstanding, rating-PG, recommended, romance | 1 Comment

Review : Prem Rog

Posted on March 24, 2005 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B000A59QAA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Prem Rog[/amazon_link]Rating : Good (4/5)
Genre : Romantic drama
Year : 1982
Running time : 2 hrs and 51 minutes
Cast : Rishi Kapoor, Padmini Kolhapure, Shammi Kapoor, Vijayendra Ghatge, Nanda, Prem Chopra

PREM ROG : Charming

I was a kid when I saw this (and now I’m a bit older 🙂 , a teeny-tiny bit though ), so my details may not be down pat. This could easily be classified as an “all-in-one” , since it has all the ingredients, but to me this has always been a romance. Why ? Am not sure, but I think its because of the notion of love sustaining over time. Anyway here are the bare bones, and then some :Manorama (a very young Padmini Kolhapure), is the darling daughter of a rich family, whose patriarch is the all-powerful Thakur (an aging Shammi Kapoor). She is coddled, and pampered and her every whim is answered. Deodhar (Rishi Kapoor) is a poor orphan in the village, who is able to further his education in the big city with the Thakur’s help. He returns after his studies, to find that Manorama has grown up into a beautiful young lady, and promptly falls in love with her. He is unable to declare his love for her however, because of the apparent class-distinction (lowly orphan vs. rich nymph – you get ?)

Manorama, of course unaware and child-like treats him as always, as her child-hood friend. Enter the handsome and rich Vijayendra Ghatge (I forget his screen name) as Manorama’s prospective bridegroom. She is soon married and off to her sasuraal, leaving Deodhar in silent despair…

This is a Yashraj production, so very visually pleasing. Add to that Ms. Kolhapure of yesteryear, when she actually exuded innocence, and a young Rishi Kapoor, and you have a sure-fire hit. Remember that the young Rishi Kapoor was minus pot-belly and the ravages of time. Good actors, and good direction and some very nice songs. Plus that unfathomable sensuousness of slowly unfolding important events – something I’ve seen only in older love stories. Nowdays we hurry too much me thinks.

The film is a love story no doubt, but also dwells upon and shown class-distinctions, a feudal society, widow status, and problems faced by widows in traditional India. The writer of this film, Kamna Chandra is the mom of author Vikram chandra. She later also wrote “1942 – a love story”.

Posted in bollywood, recommended, romance, watchable | 6 Comments

Review : Hari-bhari

Posted on March 17, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Good(4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2000
Running time : 134 minutes
Director : Shyam Benegal
Cast : Shaban Azmi, Nandita Das, Surekha Sikri, Seema Bhargava, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Alka Trivedi, Srivallabh Vyas, Meghna Kothari, Murad Ali, Abhay Chopra

HARI-BHARI : Down-to-earth reality

Haribhari can be classified as a drama with a social message. I believe it was made with support from the Govt. of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Planning. Unlike the image which “social message” creates this film is neither drab nor dreary, but a really interesting drama. Hari-bhari means “fertile” and is often used in vernacular terms to indicate the fertility of the womb.It is the story of three generations of women of a Muslim family, living in a village in Uttar Pradesh.The women are the grandmother Hasina (Surekha sikri), her daughter Ghazala (Shabana Azmi), Hasina’s daughters-in-law Afsana (Nandita Das) and Najma (Alka Trivedi), and Ghazala’s teenaged daugther Salma (Sachdeva). Out of Hasina’s two sons, the elder Khaleel (Lalit Tiwari), stays in the village with his wife Najma, and tends to the family land, while the younger Kurshid (Rajit Kapoor) works in Meerut, while his wife Afsana stays with his mother and brother’s family.

The story unfolds episode fashion; we get to hear of first one then another issue, and the whole gamut is weaved into tales, interlinked by the fact that all the women belong to the same family. Each women due to her age and circumstance experiences a different set of problems, and the director deals with a host of issues, like illiteracy, ignorance and superstition, lack of control over their own bodies, and lack of female empowerment.

When the film begins, Ghazala has been married several years to a capricious man, Munir (Srivallabh Vyas), who has once again driven her out of the home, because she hasn’t been able to give him a son. Ghazala comes to her mother’s home, where her brother and his wife take her and her daughter in. Of course, despite the fact that Munir is an evil-tempered man, everyone wants her to go back to her husband’s home.

While Ghazala is at her mother’s home, the story focusses on other problems in her family. We see that Najma wants an end to her perpetual pregnancies, and Salma wants to study instead of getting married. We see how Ghazala and Najma help each other in difficult situations, and how Najma, going against her mother-in-law and religious pressures, opts for a sterilization procedure. In contrast to these two, is the semi-educated (uptil class 5th) Afsana, who is a stickler for fundamentalism and calls down Allah’s wrath on Najma’s so-called wrongdoing. Khallel stands by his wife’s actions, and Khurshid (back from Meerut for a few days)supports them too.

Salma, meanwhile shuttles between her father and her grandmother’s homes, chiefly because her father having driven her mother out, now wants to avail himself of Salma’s house-keeping abilities. So, she’s forced to go to his home to cook and clean for him. She tells her mother of having heard of Munir’s plans to remarry. Khaleel tries then to get Munir to take Ghazala back, and agrees when Munir demands a color TV in return. Ghazala does finally refuse to go back to Munir’s house, and wants to give her daughter a better life through education, but society and circumstances do not make it easy for her.

At the end of the movie, Hasina is diagnosed with cancer, because of problems while having many children. Salma has her problems solved because her mother has dropped the idea of her marriage and has agreed to let her study further.

The movie has an arresting storyline, although it is not outrageously eventful. Life goes on, and there are no instantaneous or easy solutions. The director does a marvelous job of marrying reality and fiction into an entertaining yet thoughtful film. The cast (each and everyone of them) is stellar. So if you want to see a quality film, plain and simple, this one is it.

Posted in bollywood, drama, rating-PG13, recommended, social issues, women | 3 Comments

Review : Kaun

Posted on March 16, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Excellent (5/5)
Genre : Thriller
Year : 1998
Running time : Around 90 minutes
Director : Ram Gopal Verma
Cast : Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai, Sushant Kumar
Music : Sandeep Chowta

KAUN : Kept me on the edge of my seat

Kaun stars Manoj Bajpai, who I think is an excellent actor, and Urmila who has done well enough. The film starts off with Urmila, alone at home with her cat for company, scared and nervous, on a rainy, thunderous night. Her parents are out. You kind of get the feeliing that the home is a little away from other human habitation. Anyway, while listening to the news on TV, she hears about this deranged killer (who kills women) roaming around, and gets even more jumpy.

Enter Bajpai, in the role of a mysterious stranger who attracts attention by knocking on the front door (instead of ringing the door-bell), asking to see a Mr. Malhotra. When she refuses, without opening the door, saying that there is no Mr. Malhotra (he’s apparently got the wrong address), he asks to be let into the house. He’s all wet, he says (he’s got his coat pulled over his head) and promises no harm. Frankly gave me the creeps, and Urmila too by the way she acted. His character is pretty unnerving, in that it is of a patient, polite man, wheedling to be let into the house (the usual belligerent hindi film villains scare me no more).

He tries several times, once saying that he’s locked his keys in his car, all to no avail, making Urmila’s character really nervous. She does provide him food though (a sandwich) but won’t let him in. So he doesn’t leave, hangs around and tries watchin her TV through the door/window grille/glass, all the while talkingto her in placid tones, even trying to joke with her at one point. He addresses her as “Madam” all the while, and after a while the “Madam” grates on your nerves.

The lights go out then, and Urmila notices that her cat is dead. OK, just as I am about to despair for Urmila, enter savior police inspector (Sushant Kumar) who tells Urmila that Bajpai is a killer. So, is Urmila safe ? Does the killer get caught ? The rest of the movie reveals all.

This is one of the few good hindi who-dun-its I’ve seen. Urmila plays her role, with just the right touch of paranoia, Bajpai is superb in his potrayal of the never-lose-his-cool psychotic visitor. Sushant Kumar is adequate. There are no songs here, save the title track which plays in the begining. Chowta’s background score is good, and only serves to heighten the suspense. The whole movie is filmed in and around this one house, with only three main players, and it keeps you engrossed (the director knows what he’s doing). This film is a must-see.

P.S. : A little known fact is that Urmila sang the title track of this film.

Posted in bollywood, outstanding, recommended, thriller | 4 Comments

Review : Page 3

Posted on March 15, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Good (4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2005
Director : Madhur Bhandarkar
Cast : Konkona Sen-Sharma, Boman Irani, Sandhya Mridul, Tara Sharma, Bikram Saluja, Suchitra Pillai, Soni Razdan, Anju Mahendru, Jai Kalra

PAGE 3 : Off-beat story delivers the goods

Page 3 is the story of a journalist, Madhavi (Konkona) who writes the Page 3 columns for a Bombay based newspaper, Nation Today. Deepak Suri (Boman Irani) is her supportive boss, and Tarun (Jai Kalra), an up and coming model her boyfriend.She shares her flat with an air-hostess Pearl (Sandhya Mridul) who is in searchof a rich husband, so that she can quit her job, and live a luxurious life.

Every night, Madhavi hobnobs with the socialites, at various parties around town, to get grist for her journalistic mill. Through regular parties, Madhavi is well-known to most social butterflies, and meets alsmost the same people every day. The viewer thus is introduced to some of the characters which make up Madhavi’s Page 3 world: actors, businessmen, socialites, social workers, artists etc. In one such party, Madhavi meets Gayatri (Tara Sharma), a shy wanna-be actress, who later becomes good friends with Madhavi, and becomes the third girl to shareher flat. And one evening, when Pearl accompanies Madhavi to a party, she meets an elderly businessman, whom she begins to date regularly.

After a while, Madhavi tires of the false glitz and glamor of the night, and ask her boss to put her onto investigative journalism. Suri complies, and details her to work with Vinayak (Atul Kulkarni). Covering a bomb blast, Madhavi finds her niche in investigative reporting. Meanwhile Gayatri is finding a hard time finding roles, without compromising on her principles, since directors and producers she approaches ask her for sexual favors. She meets Rohit (Bikram Saluja) a top actor, and falls in with love with him.

Each girl faces her struggles; Madhavi uncovers a scandal involving the bigwigs of Bombay, Gayatri faces personal and professional predicaments, and Pearl has her share of dissapointments. How the three cope, and whether they stand their ground in the sea of caprice that is Bombay, is the rest of the movie. Do they achieve what they set out to do ? And at what cost ?

This is an interesting movie, touching a subject which is off-beat, and unusual. Bhandarkar, known for his earlier films like “Chandni Bar”, etc, shows his mettle here also. Taking potshots at the Page 3 people, Bhandarkar exposes it as a superficial world, with a slimy and capricious underbelly. Corruption and connections go hand-in-hand, and money talks.

Konkona does an incredible job as Madhavi, and Boman Irani is at his best. Tara Sharma comes across well as a fragile, shy aspiring actress, while Sandhya Mridul shows off her acting skills in a short role. The supporting cast is good too. Although a bit slack mid-way, this is all-in-all, a good worth-your-time movie.

Posted in bollywood, rating-PG13, recommended | 4 Comments

Review : Jurm

Posted on March 14, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Poor (1.5/5)
Genre : Thriller
 Year : 2005
 Running time : 2 hrs and 41 minutes
 Director : Vikram Bhatt
 Cast : Bobby Deol, Milind Soman, Lara Dutta, Gul Panag, Shakti Kapoor, Ashish Vidyarthi

JURM : Hackneyed plot + weak direction = disaster

Jurm is the story of Avinash Malhotra (Bobby Deol), who one morning awakens to police presence in his home. His beloved wife, Sanjana (Lara Dutta) has apparently been murdered (there is no body), Avinash has blood stains all over him, and is arrested on murder charges. Avinash has no memory of the past night, but recounts his past for the benefit of the police inspector (Ashish Vidyarthi). The viewer is made aware of his romantic entanglement with Sanjana and of his subsequent marriage to her, leading to dashed hopes on the part of Avinash’s good friend Sonia (Gul Panag), who is secretly in love with him.

Avinash’s good friend and lawyer, Rohit (Milind Soman) steps in to defend Avinash in court, but doesn’t manage to get him off. Avinash then decides to hunt down Sanjana’s killer, and escapes from jail, only to face 3 bullets from his adversary. Avinash’s questionable survival (oh, yeah, survival of hindi film hero from numerous bullets – that one’s up in the air), and his quest for justice are what make up the rest of this pathetic movie.

OK, so why pathetic ? Firstly, guessable plot, there have been a spate of who-done-my-spouse-in murder mysteries lately. Secondly, lost reality, Vikram Bhatt, takes the viewer on another mindless, predictable hindi movie ride, where not much makes sense, and the laws of medicene (try and survive 3 bullets) and physics are flouted endlessly. Thirdly, actors who can’t act, namely Deol, Dutta, Soman, and Gul Panag. Fourthly, atrocious screenplay.

Music isn’t too bad, but for that you just need a CD, and can spare yourself visual trouble. So, unless you really have nothing better to do (and a dental appointment for a root canal is preferable to this) , AVOID.

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Review : Hum-tum

Posted on March 11, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Below average (2.5/5)
Genre : Romantic drama
Year : 2004
Running time : 2 hours 15 minutes
Director : Kunal Kohli
Cast : Rani Mukherjee, Saif Ali Khan, Kiron Kher, Rati Agnihotri, Jimmy Shergill,Isha Koppikar

Hum-tum : Juvenile fare

This is a Yashraj film production, so WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Lavish locales, beautiful landscapes, and the rich people, hobnobbing on planes, in Paris, New York, Amsterdam … You name it, we got it. Besides that you get Rhea Prakash (Rani) and Karan Kapoor (Saif), two arty profesionals (he a cartoonist and she a fashion designer), with not one brain cell between them. You get Mrs.Anu Kapoor (Rati Agnihotri looking quite beautiful) a wedding coordinator, who has separated from Mr. Kapoor (Rishi Kapoor). And lest I forget, you get these cheesy cartoon characters, one male and the other female (hum-tum – you get it ? Tum in a very short skirt by the way). And really, I mean cheesy (pun intended) ; they reminded me of those cartoon characters in the Amul butter/cheese ads. The story is flimsy, weak but here it is.

Karan and Rhea meet up on a plane, because they happen to be sitting next to each other. For the rest of the journey, they proceed to act like imbeciles and annoy the hell out of each other. Then they get down at a stop-over in Amsterdam, conveniently ditch Karan’s mom and friend who are also on the plane, sing a song, and discuss the physics of male-female chemistry, i.e.; the age old question : What do men/women want from each other ? It ends badly, with Karan kissing Rani to prove a point, and Rani getting upset and slapping him in return. What to do, we are like this only.

Anyway, they part. Only to meet-up again in a New York park. Karan has a girlfriend in tow, but she promptly splits up with him, once Rhea reveals the Amsterdam kiss. So they part again. And …you guessed it, meet-up in Delhi on the occassion of Rhea’s wedding, which Karan’s mom is coordinating. Cut to song sequence, where Rhea pseudo bullies Karan. Anyway, Rhea marries the suave Abhishek Bachhan, who apparently loves her very much.

So, let’s see, the next time the daffy duo meet, its in Paris. Rhea is now widowed, runs a boutique, dresses very chic, and carries an aura of sadness around her. Our good-hearted and altruistic Karan, tries to mend her broken heart, but to almost no avail. Next, he tries to fix her up, with his friend Mihir (Jimmy Shergill), but that doesn’t work.

So, what does happen with Karan and Rhea ? Are they able to find happiness ? OK, no spoilers people, I’ll leave you to guess the happy ending (oh, yeah, and some thinking that’ll take).

The movie is average, direction is good. The cast does a good job. Rani is too good an actress to let a role like this mess her up. And of course, Saif is the consummate joker, so he fits the bill perfectly. Kiron Kher as Rani’s hyper mom, and Rati as Saif’s are adequate. Shergill as Mihir plays his part well. So, what actually was wrong with the film ? The story – very weak, and the inane girl-boy dialogues, which would be better coming from a teenager, rather that two “grown-up” professionals. Honestly, I would have loved this movie, had I been under 21 (Aah, well, that’s spilt milk). All in all a teeny-bopper film, aka juvenile fare. Also a big let-down from ex-film-critic Kunal Kohli.

Posted in bollywood | 2 Comments

Review : Raincoat

Posted on March 10, 2005 by amodini

[amazon_link id=”B0009J93UA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Raincoat[/amazon_link]Rating : Average (3/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2004
Running Time : 2 hours
Cast : Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan, Annu Kapoor, Surekha Sikri, Mouli Ganguly, Sameer Dharmadhikari
Director : Rituporno Ghosh

Raincoat : Could have been better

Inspired from the O.Henry story “The gift of the magi”, this movie is very average, notwithstanding the hoopla around it. The movie begins with Manoj (Devgan) going to Kolkata from his small town Bhagalpur (in Bihar), to meet with his college mates, to garner enough money to start a business. He stays in his friend’s (Sameer Dharmadhikari) house, and is made comfortable by his and his wife’s (Mouli Ganguly) hospitality. As he wanders about Kolkata meeting his friends, he also decides to visit Neeru, his sweetheart of yesteryears. The title of the movie apparently comes from a borrowed raincoat, which he uses to shield himself, travelling around Kolkata on a rainy day.Through flashbacks the director makes it clear to us that Neeru, although in love with Manoj, has married another according to her parent’s wishes, spurning Manoj’s indecision, and lack of resolve. When Manoj finally meets Neeru, he finds her alone in a large house full of expensive, antique furniture, draped in a silk sari. Amid the listless banter that ensues, Neeru explains that her husband, who is of a jealous disposition is on a trip abroad. She has servants, money and comforts, but her servants are out for the afternoon, and hence she is alone. Which is what causes her to borrow Manoj’s raincoat and step out to get him something to eat. During the time she is out of the house, Manoj has a visitor (Annu Kapoor). What the mysterious visitor tells Manoj, causes the story to turn on its head.

Rituporno Ghosh’s direction is average bordering on poor. The storyline is good, but the telling is tame, and drab. There are no sparks to liven up what could have been a great movie. Aishwarya might be gorgeous (even sans makeup), but truly cannot act. She might good for filmi stuff (and I did like her in “Hum dil dechuke sanam”), but when it comes to a role which plumbs the range of human emotions, as this one does, she just doesn’t cut it. Devgan renders his role adequately, and pretty much saves the film from being a complete disaster. The supporting cast is average. The dialogues are inane, and Aishwarya sometimes forgets her Bengali accent (apparently Ghosh didn’t notice). Annu Kapoor in the role of the mysterious visitor is good, and turns in a riveting performance. This film might have been good, had the lead actress been better, and the direction crisper. Lack of depth is another problem, for no scene in the film, actually touches you, and you do not truly feel for either of the main characters.

The music is slow, and adds to the depressive atmosphere of the film. I am no fan of Shubha Mudgal, but if you like her, you’ll probably appreciate the songs.

For all that, this film is worth viewing. ONCE. AT HOME. And when watching it, feel free to multi-task. Do the laundry or look up your stock portfolio; it’ll stop you from falling asleep.

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Review : Haasil

Posted on March 9, 2005 by amodini

Rating : Good (4/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2003
Running time : 155 minutes
Cast : Jimmy Shergill, Hrishita Bhatt, Irfan Khan, Ashutosh Rana,Tinnu Anand, Sudhir Pandey
Director : Tigmanshu Dhulia
Music : Jatin-Lalit

Haasil : When the common man rises

This is a good film, although I don’t think it was appreciated enough. Its a commercial movie, but an off-beat one, with the usual girl-meets-boy stuff taking a backseat to the political/criminal action. Allahabad university forms the backdrop, and dialogues often are in the vernacular. Anirudhh (Shergill) and Niharika (Bhatt) are students studying in the same college, and soon fall in love. Of course, the romance is hush-hush, and the pair meet in secret places. The director handles the initial blossoming-of-romance scenes sensitively, and we are treated to a couple of melodious songs.

The college politics is dominated by two rivals, Gauri Shankar (Ashutosh Rana) and Ranvijay Singh (Irfan Khan). One day, Anirudhh sees Ranvijay escaping (after committing a murder), and helps him evade Gauri Shankar’s goons. Ranvijay is thankful, and Anirudhh gets to know him better. As time goes by, Anirudhh moves closer to college politics, heavily swayed by Ranvijay, much to the chagrin of Niharika and family, who warn Anirudhh against Ranvijay. Matters come to a boil when Anirudhh commits a crime, instigated by Ranvijay, and is forced to flee to Bombay under Ranvijay’s protection. As Anirudhh fumes and festers in Bombay, desirous of meeting Niharika, things take a turn for the worse, as Niharika’s father (Tinnu Anand) promises her hand in marriage to someone else.

The remainder of the movie deals with the resolution of this mess, playing up the strength of the common man when provoked.

Direction is deft, and Dhulia delivers the goods in his debut movie. Shergill delivers a promising performance, morphing from the soft-spoken romantic, to the outraged protagonist. Hrishita is a decent enough actress, and complements Shergill in romantic situations. Both Ashutosh Rana and Tinnu anand churn out good performances, but Irfan Khan takes the cake with his potrayal of the unpredicatable Ranvijay. Ranvijay is a fierce criminal ,and his convoluted criminal mind is potrayed very effectively by Khan in a subtle and understated performance, rather than a belligerent one.

Posted in bollywood, drama, recommended | 5 Comments