Movie Preview: Mittal vs Mittal

Starring: Rohit Roy, Rituparna Sengupta, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy and Gulshan Grover Director: Karan Razdan Rating: ** High flying businessman and casanova Karan Mittal (Rohit Roy) sees Mitali (Rituparna) at a fashion show and flips for her. He strikes a friendship with her. Very aggressive in his approach, he tries to take her to bed in a very short time but Mitali doesn’t allow him to. She also distances herself from him. But then after a few months time he makes re entry in her life and proposes to her. Though she is not prepared for a marriage with him, she eventually decides to get married on her over enthusiastic mom’s (Reema Lagoo) insistence. Her mom doesn’t want to let go of such a big well known business house. But problems crop up immediately after marriage. Mitali’s mother in law (Dolly Thakore) is the typical high society types who looks down on Mitali’s middle class up bringing and leaves no chance of insulting her every day. But Karan finds fault in Mitali for the same and gets abusive. When Mitali resists making love to him, he forces himself on her. From then on marital rape becomes a daily thing by Karan. Finally, Mitali decides to call it quits and leaves his house. Aided by a women’s organization she decides to take him to court for marital rape. She is helped by lawyer Karuna Maheshwari (Suchitra). But their fight is against one of the most cunning defense lawyer, Salunkhe (Gulshan Grover) who on behalf of his client Karan leaves no opportunity to insult Mitali in the court of law. Mitali is almost on the verge of losing her case but finally the tables turn on Karan due to the appearance of Karan’s hideous past. The film may be well intended but it is badly executed by director Karan Razdan. It talks about marital rape but the camera goes voyeuristic during the rape scenes. Instead of making the audience feel angry about the rape, it tries to titillate. However, it is during the court room scenes when the film becomes more serious and bearable. Some important questions are raised and the subject thereon is tackled well. Technically the film appears shoddy as production values are very average. Music by Shamir Tandon is a big bore. Rituparna enacts her part well and brings out her helplessness effectively. Rohit Roy suits the role to the T. He is extremely natural. Gulshan Grover as the cool as cucumber defense lawyer is simply excellent. Suchitra Krishnamoorthy enacts her part well. Dolly Thakore is again a perfect casting. The makers need to be applauded for bringing on screen a necessary subject. However, the film could have been much better and a recommended watch had it not been for the frivolous execution of the marital rape sequences

Movie Preview: Tina ki Chabi

The film tells the story of a group of people who find themselves in situations that threaten their survival, and as they try to get out of their respective messes, greed and karma take over, hurling them together into situations that border on the ridiculous in this caper comedy.

It all starts when “Cochin Hanifa” a Bangkok, Thailand based Indian gangster sends his reluctant gangster son – “Junior Hanifa” to collect unpaid dues from various people in Kolkata, India while at the same time, a young woman, Tina our protagonist, gets news of her father Michael’s untimely death while in hiding overseas.

Michael has left Tina an inheritance: 50million rupees, in the form of raw diamonds, in a train station locker in Bangkok.

These two seemingly unrelated events act as catalyst and set in motion a series of events that will ultimately change the lives of all the characters. Of course, Tina is a gambler and also owes money to the Hanifa’s.

Set in Tangra (Kolkata) the only true “China Town” in India, three people, namely – Tina, Basu & Teddy will soon discover that when you owe money to Hanifa, you can run but you cannot hide.

And when ‘Junior’ comes calling, the wily Basu and Teddy, back-stabbing ex-employees of Tina’s father, Michael, know that there is up and that they better have the money or else!

Tony, a small time crook and gangland “informer” par excellence, informs the dos of Tina’s inheritance and both Basu and Teddy realize that the key to all their problems lies with Tina and the KEY to the locker!!

And thus begins the quest for Tina’s key.

An innocent doctor, Jag Prag Singh, a man seeking answers to add meaning to his otherwise empty life, also gets pulled into the rollercoaster ride and in this riotous and hilarious journey, Tina and Prag’s paths collide.

They find themselves working as a team due to circumstances, dodging not only Teddy and Basu but also the ultimate villain Hanifa to get her inheritance. As well as finding answers to their questions on life in general.

And just when it seems that things could not get any worst, ‘Junior’ is accidentally killed and this males events spiral out of everyone’s and anyone’s control, in a cascading series of darkly hilarious encounters.

Movie Review: Hum Tum Aur Ghost

Starring: Arshad Warsi, Dia Mirza

Directed by Kabir Kaushik

Rating: ** ½

The sheer delight of watching Arshad Warsi play the lead rather the supremely selfassured sidekick gives this otherwise-pale rom-com a cutting edge.

Arshad in his own words plays a guy, who van see dead people. Wish he could see dead plots too.

The screenplay by Arshad Warsi, Soumik Sen and Arshad Ali Syed is a deadweight carried forward not by any inward propulsion, conviction or compulsion but by the producer-leading man’s will to create a slick and cool space for himself within the stifling space allotted to a one-note film about friendly spirits and a disbelieving girlfriend.

The romantic lady Dia Mirza is very adept at expressing energetic exasperation. She is whiny clingy and bossy just like over-protective girlfriends tend to be.

Arshad is very skilled at conveying the killing anxieties of cautious courtship.He reminds one of Saif Ali Khan in Dil Chahta Hai, though we and this baggy film are not even going there.

Warsi is ill- supported by poor writing. His character’s three-layered encounter with ghosts and their pre-burial trauma is at the most, cinematic knick-knack bereft of any subtext or layering.Director Kabir Kaushik was far more successful getting Arshad to play a tough gritty idealistic cop in Saher. Here the bewildered lover-boy with a hotline to the supernatural is just not in his element.

The narrative is so shallow at times that you wonder if there are ghosts of relevances hovering beyond the range of vision. But no. What we see is what we get.

While the plot totters along at a sluggish pace, sporadic moments of humour and warmth creep in willy-nilly. These are too infrequent to sustain our interest.

However the chemistry between Warsi and Mirza is first-rate. They clutch at each other without awkwardness and speak to one another as though the words were not conscious of the camera. Wish this film was just about Hum and Tum. The Ghost could have been left to the Shyamalans and Vikram Bhatts of the cine-world.

Some of the music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is hummably romantic. Ashok Mehta’s cinematography creates a picture-postcard world of over-cute confections. Sadly these are not even true confections, Just artificial chocolates packed into a neat box and gift-wrapped for a unit desperate to do a desi take on the American rom-com.

Arshad gets it right. The rest just don’t get the point.They see dead people.We see a dead film.

Akshay Kumar should get national award

Veteran actress Dimple Kapadia is certain that her son-in-law, actor Akshay Kumar, who has already been conferred a Padma Shri award, deserves a national award too because she believes that he is a great entertainer. "I think he (Akshay Kumar) deserves a national award. Nor for any movie as such but he has really grown as an actor and he is excellent in comedy beside that he is an allrounder, and most importantly he is a great entertainer, " she told reporters at a cafe where she came to promote her upcoming film "Tum Milo Toh Sahi" here Monday. Dimple maintains that getting award is a matter of luck. "Honestly speaking, awards are just luck. Some give brilliant performances but they never get awarded and someone else gets it. I don't think an award is really important. Someone can perform far brilliant than you but you get the award, so it's not big deal, " she said. Dimple is sharing screen space with Akshay in director Nikhil Advani's "Patiala House" where he is again playing a role of a Sardar after Anees Bazmee's "Singh is Kinng" (2008). Long 16 years after "Krantiveer" in 1994, Dimple is paired opposite actor Nana Patekar in Kabir Sadanand's "Tum Milo Toh Sahi" where they play lovers in their 50s. "It was a fantastic experience again working with Nana Patekar. We share a student-teacher relationship where I am a student. I learnt a lot from him. With every film he has given me something, " said Dimple. "The climax of the film is completely dedicated to him and Kabir. The way they made me see it and the way they made me do it... it's completely their baby. I just went and did what they wanted me to do. It's great to get such a co-star and that's what Nana is. He gives you a lot, " she added Releasing Friday, "Tum Milo Toh Sahi" weaves together lives of three couples who connect with one another through a series of touching and funny moments. Dimple essays a Parsi woman running an old Irani cafe in the film.

Cheaper the better for Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif is undergoing a transformation for her role as an item girl in Farah Khan's Tees Maar Khan. She is slowly turning aggressive and loud. She has made sure her manner turns loud even when it's 5am in the morning. She is also making an effort to look strikingly different in each of the item songs, which Farah and her assistant, Gita, have choreographed. To get her character's look right, Katrina has been shopping for clothes and accessories herself. She has been visiting small shops that sell cheap stuff to give her character an authentic look. She feels that it's a bit of a challenge to do a complete look but working in Rajneeti has taught her that every accessory brings the character in. The actress has also been brushing up her knowledge on Bollywood's item girls by going through some of the popular item numbers like Mumtaz's Tik tiki mera dil bole from Humjoli (1970) and Bipasha Basu's Beedi from Omkara (2006). Akshay Kumar, Katrina's co-star on Tees Maar Khan has been advising her to just go wild when dancing on camera as it will help her character.

I've gone from bikini to a burqa: Minissha Lamba

By Subhash K Jha When the buzz on Saturday was that Minissha Lamba was very unwell, one just presumed it was exhaustion after all the promotion work that she did for her new film. But it was worse. The petite actress was down with a violent bout of food poisoning. Sounding pale and out of sorts but jubilant about the fabulous reviews she got Minissha said, “On Friday Boman Irani and I were in Ahmedabad. I had this chaat. It tasted a little funny. But I didn't want to look fussy. So I ate the whole thing. The next thing I knew I was throwing up repeatedly.” On Saturday Minissha was too weak to travel to Pune for promotion. But she was happy about the fact that Well Done Abba was getting her glowing reviews. “For a girl who's come from the outside into the film industry it feels good to have bagged a Shyam Benegal film.I'm proud of girls like Kangna Ranaut who have made it without any help from godfathers. When I was called by Mr Benegal I walked into his office wearing high heels and a chic summer dress. Mr Benegal said he wanted me to play a semi-rural Hyderabadi girl. I was like, do I look rural or Hyderabadi from any angle, Sir?” The scene seems like an instant replay of what transpired between Shyam Benegal and his favourite actress Shabana Azmi when 35 years ago she had walked into his office to audition for the rural Hyderabadi girl's role in Ankur carrying pouty supposedly glamorous portfolio pictures. Laughs Minissha, “Yes there seems to be a karmic connection with Shabana. I've just done a film where I play a Hyderabadi girl like Shabana had done in Ankur. But before that I did Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd where I actually got to work with THE Shabana Azmi. And now I'm doing a film called—hold your breath—Hum Tum Aur Shabana where I actually get to play a girl called Shabana.” She's all praise for her co-stars whether it's Abhay Deol or Sammir Dattani. Chuckles Minissha, “Abhay did a very clever thing when he had to perform the tango with me in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. He declared he was an awful dancer at the start. We soon realized that wasn't true. While I struggled to get the movements right with my two left feet, Abhay was terrific. I've been lucky with my co-stars. I have had to work with anyone whom I didn't get along with. Sammir Dattani and I've done two films together. Look at how he has come into his own in Well Done Abba.” Minissha has been cast as the sweet girl nextdoor being wooed by Tusshar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade in Sagar (Bheja Fry) Bellary's film Hum Tum Aur Shabana. Says Minissha, “That is the only film I'm doing right now. I realized while doing Well Done Abba that the pleasure of doing a substantial meaningful role with actors like Boman Irani is unmatchable. I'm here to be an actress. And now I've decided I won't get tempted to sign any old role that comes my way.” Minissha considers Bachna Ae Haseenon a turning- point in her career. “It put me in a different bracket. When I started my career with Yahan I was raw but I got a kind of break that few newcomers get. Bachna Ae Haseenon put me many steps ahead.” She admits she has made some mistakes, though wearing a bikini in Sanjay Gadhvi's Kidnap was not one of them. “It was a stage in my growth as an actor. I've gone from bikini to a burqa milieu in Well Done Abba and I think I haven't done too badly for myself.” She resents the misconstrued controversies that were created in her career. “It was reported that I backed out of a film with Ram Vilas Paswan's son. They made such a hue and cry over it when it wasn't true. I guess one lives and learns.There are filmmakers like Shyam Benegal in the same industry as the proposal makers.”

Pregnant Kajol dances hard for Karan Johar

She may be pregnant but that hasn't deterred Kajol from working as hard as she does. While shooting for a song for Siddharth Malhotra's remake of Stepmom, Kajol had to do some energetic dance steps. She had to be able to do as fine a job as Elvis Presley did in Jailhouse Rock, seeing as that was the song she was shooting for. The filmmakers have bought the rights to the song. Kajol was a little worried about the dance steps affecting her health. She wasn't too sure about the steps when choreographers Bosco and Ceaser showed them to her during rehearsals. She asked them to tone the steps down considerably. The steps were changed as per her request but as the shoot went on, she started to enjoy it and as it is one of her favourite songs, she danced along with the rhythm of the song. Finally, she ended up doing something similar to what the choreographers had earlier planned. The film team was naturally concerned and was very alert throughout. In one portion, she was supposed to dance on a piano. Though Kajol wasn't worried about it, the unit was very protective. The director even suggested that the sequence could be done away with but Kajol had no qualms doing it. In the film, Kajol plays Arjun Rampal's ex-wife while Kareena plays his girlfriend. Both Arjun and Kareena were part of the song too. According to the director, all of the actors have just put in their best into the song and they enjoyed shooting for it. He hopes that the fun they had while shooting is reflected when audiences see the song.

Music Review: Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge

Singers: Raghubir Yadav, Ajay Jhingran, Rajneesh, Amit Mishra and Sukhwinder Singh

Lyricist: Irshad Kamil

Music Directors: Pritam Chakraborty and Amit Mishra


The soundtrack of "Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?", which stars Ajay Devgn and Konkana Sen Sharma, sounds more like a devotional album with three of the five songs being in praise of the almighty.

The album contains five originals and one remix.

"Aaja aaja" crooned by Raghubir Yadav, Ajay Jhingran and Rajneesh, is an amalgamation of folk influences with western orchestration. The fast-paced number is more of a situational track than something that can be hummed.

The song also has a re-mixed version, which offers nothing great and is average.

Next is the title track of the film, where Amit Mishra steps in as composer and singer. This is the song currently doing the rounds of various TV channels.

Trying to be funny with its lyrics and the way the vocals are presented, the song is a one-time hear. It's an ordinary number with no retention value.

Up next is "Dohay". Sung by Amit Mishra again, it is a soft version of poems and couplets written by well-known poets.

Then there is "Jyoti jalaile", a devotional version of the hit item song "Beedi jalaile" from the film "Omkara". This version too is sung by Sukhwinder Singh. The song is sung in praise of goddess Durga.

Finally, we have another religious offering in the guise of "Sukh Karta", an offering to Lord Ganesh. This one too has Amit Mishra behind the mike.

On the whole, there is nothing much for music buffs in the album. The soundtrack is situational and will not boast of any chartbusters. The songs are very unlike those created by Pritam earlier.