Movies Blogs

MirchRating: ** 1/2

A title like "Mirch" could surely tickle your imagination to assume a lot before you actually watch the film. But pre-conceived notions aside, Godmother director, Vinay Shukla will surely manage to surprise you (if not excite you) a few times, through the 128 minutes you spend watching this movie. The film projects itself as a feminist revolution, by claiming to pack in four stories of female infidelity. But when you watch the film, the stories only prove that the female leads are just taking charge of their sexual destiny which makes it a fair call in most cases.

The plot revolves around Maanav (Arunoday Singh), a filmmaker who takes pride in the two adjectives that define him- idealist and struggler (are the two forever married?). Along with sidekick and successful film editor girlfriend Ruchi (Shahana Goswami), he pitches a film story to producer Nitin (Sushant Singh). This narration comprises four short stories tweaked to match the 'mirch' quotient as prescribed by

KHJJS

Rating: **

The first part of KHJJS (Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey) will make you feel nostalgic. Not because you were a part of the freedom struggle but because you've either participated or witnessed a school skit. Yes! Mr Gowarikar's depiction of 1930 Chottogram (Chittagong) finds everyone excited to get on with this historical costume drama. And the costumes are well researched too.

Only problem, some of the characters seem like perfect misfits in their freedom fighting avatars. Best example, Sikander Kher (Nirmal Sen) who could pass for a Juhu brat in soiled Khadis (can't bring about a revolution in clean kurtas no?). You can imagine, the minute the director calls for a break, he would slip on his aviators and sip on his low-cal cola. It's like casting Antonio Banderas to play a rickshaw driver. Then you have the stunning Deepika Padukone (Kalpana Dutta), who tries hard but fails to de-glam herself. Even in her rural garb, one can't miss her perfectly drawn eyes that seek your

Bipasha and John spotted at Gold Gym

The ex-lovers bumped into each other at the gym they both visit

They may not be together but they still go to the same gym. Ex-lovers, John Abraham and Bipasha Basu were seen coming out of Gold Gym at the same time. It is not known whether, they actually bumped into each other or not but when Bipasha spotted the shutterbugs, she made a dash towards her car. This is not the first time; they were seen together at their gym though they have managed to avoid each other in the past.

Dil Toh Bachcha Hai JiAfter repeatedly attempting realistic portrayals, Madhur Bhandarkar tries his hand at comedy. However, the moral of 'Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji' is - when in love, men are emotional fools and women are manipulative. Bhandarkar's weakness remains the same -blatant stereotyping, the fact that the graph of all the three stories follows the same trajectory just shows lack of imagination.

Naren Ahuja (Ajay Devgn) is going through a divorce and falls for a young intern, June Pinto (Shazahn Padamsee). Pinto seems quite interested in her new boss but Naren decides to wait till his divorce is through to broach the topic with her. But he might just be a little late in disclosing his true feelings.

Milind Kelkar (Omi Vaidya) works for a marriage bureau and romantic poetry is his passion. He falls for a radio jockey, Gungun (Shradha Das) who is an aspiring actress. She uses Milind to bail her out when she needs a script for her radio show after a late night party and sometimes to fund her social

Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar

Rating: **

With Gulzar's beautiful song as its title, "Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji" (DTBHJ) surely gets one curious about what to expect. And while Madhur-reality-Bhandarkar venturing into rom-coms reminds you of the 'stuck-in-the-wrong-job' ad, he just about manages to pass here.

The film, as the promos suggest, is about three guys with varying amounts of testosterone, in search of love and lust. Naren Ahuja (Ajay Devgn), a divorced bank manager is still hopeful for a second innings. Milind Kelkar (Omi Vaidya), a self-confessed virgin is cautious of opening his innings only when he finds true love (yawn!). Abhay (Emraan Hashmi) is like an omnibus of all the characters that Hashmi has played in his previous films (they're all the same-a smooth talking slime ball). Naren invites the other two into his giant family home as tenants and to keep him from sinking into

Cast: Gulshan Grover, Harsh Mayar, Pitobash Tripathy, Husaan Saad, Beatrice Ordeix, Namrata Dixit, Meena Mir, Garima

Directed by Nila Madhab Panda

Rating: *

Films produced with the intention of acquiring leafy film festival logos on the DVD cover, can end up being dangerously pretentious, even if they stick to the formula. And 'I am Kalam' is a perfect example of such a film. A pseudo-intellectual masterpiece that could be revered by those who're connoisseurs of 'I can so feel his suffering' and 'I can so read the subliminal quadruple messages that the director has intricately woven into the screenplay'. As for others, check what else is playing.

I am Kalam (and I am not a scientist?), is the story of a little boy, Chotu (Harsh Mayar), who works with his jolly uncle Bhati mama-sa (Gulshan Grover) at a dhaba in a dusty touristy small town in Rajasthan. The place is embellished with yawning camels and local instruments are blown out of proportion to make for a background score. Chotu's

Much has been written about the famous rivalry between Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi, something which is still hugely debated after their deaths. But Mohammad Rafi's son Shahid Rafi reveals that there was no cold war between the two legends. In fact, whenever they met , they were very warm towards each other. On the occasion of Kishore Kumar's birthday, Shahid shares a picture which has been very close to his heart. "I have this picture hanging on our wall at home. It's a very special picture of two legends getting together," he says.

Whenever he got a break, Rafi would go to his London house for a holiday. "Incidentally, Kishore Da had come to London for a concert. When he got to know that Dad was also there in the city, he took out time from his schedule and came home to meet him," he adds.