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HimmatwalaCast: Ajay Devgn, Tamannaah, Mahesh Manjrekar, Paresh Rawal

Direction: Sajid Khan

Rating: **

The problem with Sajid Khan’s ‘Himmatwala’ is the director can’t make-up his mind whether he wants to make a spoof or whether he wants to recreate the nostalgia of the 1980s. The film thus hangs in a precarious balance vacillating between the two extremes.

Ravi (Ajay Devgn) is a street fighter who discovers that his widowed mother and sister are in dire straits in his native village. He returns to Ramnagar to avenge the death of his father and seek justice for the people of his village. Sher Singh’s (Mahesh Manjrekar) daughter is equally spoiled and walks around the village in very small dresses, brandishing a whip. The spoilt brat soon falls for Himmatwala Ravi and is then swishing around in salwar-kameez plotting her father’s downfall.

A very typical Bollywood revenge saga like this one in the hands of a better director could have become a laughter riot. Sajid Khan however, hopelessly

Read More »from Yahoo! Movies Review: Himmatwala

The rape scene in ‘Damini’ or Gabbar Singh’s attack in ‘Sholay’, here’s how Holi played a supporting role

Compared to Dushera’s good-over-evil theme, the festival of colours is considered less dramatic and more convenient for plot development leading to the most crucial scene in the film. For decades, Bollywood has used the festival to conjure images of passion, love, happiness and even violence to some extent. Indian Cinema’s first tryst with the festival came in ‘Aan’(1950s) when the director went gung-ho about exploring Holi’s cinematic potential. From V Shantaram’s Navrag to Vijay Anand’s Guide, Holi has been evocatively to display the emotions of love and joy. But the festival has also been used to break the stereotypes thereby using the festival to darken the plot. Here’s our list.

Damini: This is perhaps the most disturbing scene associated with the colourful festival. Director Raj Kumar Santoshi uses Holi as the dramatic turning point in his film where the son of a high-societyRead More »from When Holi played a spoilsport

Cast: Bipasha Basu, Nawazuddin Siddique, Doyel Dhawan

Direction: Suparn Verma

Rating: **

Suparn Verma makes sure that he has incorporated every horror film cliché in ‘Aatma’. The film’s linear narrative follows a very predictable plot trajectory that hardly delivers on the thrill quotient.

Maya (Bipasha Basu) is a single mother, just divorced from her abusive husband Abhay (Nawazuddin Siddique). Abhay dies in an accident and his ghost is haunting Maya because he wants his daughter Nia (Doyel Dhawan) back. What follows is a very obvious series of events where anyone who offends the daughter meets a gruesome end. Maya has to battle with not only the cruel intentions of her dead husband but she also has to fight for her daughter’s life.

I understand that horror is a difficult genre to get right but we can’t expect special effects to compensate for the lack of a good script. The story progresses with very little thought to character development, actors are introduced so that they can

Read More »from Yahoo! Movies Review: Aatma

Says Ajay Devgn on why he doesn’t like watching himself in his earlier films. Excerpts

After ‘Rascals’ bombed at the box-office and audience rejected this crude slapstick film, Ajay Devgn came out with a statement that he will never do any film, which has double-meaning jokes or vulgarity. True to his word, he has stayed away from anything remotely corny, making sure that his family audience is happy. Now he is back in the remake of the 80s hit ‘Himmatwala’ directed by his college buddy Sajid Khan. In a candid chat, Ajay Devgn talks about wearing white keds, dancing and his biggest critic.

Excerpts from the interview:

How did ‘Himmatwala’ come about?

Sajid and I are college friends and he has always been a ‘Himmatwala’ freak. Right from the college days, he has been talking about remaking ‘Himmatwala’ when he becomes the director. When he called me up, I knew what it was about. This film is an out and out commercial film with bit action, comedy and melodrama like the 80s. So it was

Read More »from ‘Embarrassed to watch my films’

Movie stills: Jolly LLBCast: Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla

Direction: Subhash Kapoor

Rating:  ***

Subhash Kapoor’s ‘Jolly LLB’ has its heart in place; the plot execution is not flawless but a relevant subject matter makes it worth a watch.

Jagdish Tyagi (Arshad Warsi), struggling lawyer from Meerut, decides to move to Delhi to make it big. Once in Delhi, he decides to re-open a high-profile hit-and-run case, hoping that the case will give his career the mileage it needs.  The defense counsel on the case is the very famous and prominent lawyer Advocate Tejender Rajpal (Boman Irani). Power and money ensure that the rich have gone scot-free and there is no justice for the six pavement dwellers who have lost their lives. Not only have the eye witnesses gone missing, even the car involved in the case is nowhere to be found.

Jolly is initially hesitant to take on the case and ready to take a bribe and withdraw his PIL (Public Interest Litigation). A dose on morality from his girlfriend (Amrita Rao)

Read More »from Yahoo! Movies Review: Jolly LLB

Sajid Khan talks about how ‘Himmatwala’ changed the way he viewed films 30 years ago

When ‘Himmatwala’ released in 1983, an 11-year-old boy would go to one cinema hall every week to watch the film. Once a week, for 36 weeks, he skipped his lunch and used the lunch money to buy tickets. His love for films was so intense that he would enact few scenes from the film at Juhu beach and earn appreciation and money. 30 years later, he is all set to pay tribute to his favourite childhood film with his own version.

It is difficult to not feel the childlike enthusiasm in Sajid Khan as it talks about his latest film, set to be released in two weeks. As he sat smoking countless cigarettes (I have to give up smoking, he says) and talking about his larger-than-life take on the ‘83 hit, Sajid makes no bones about being unfazed by the inevitable comparisons with the earlier film. “When you see the film, you will realize that the script is different. Today, every film is a remake.”

Why the same name Read More »from '100-crore club will be outdated soon’

Photos: Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster ReturnsCast: Irrfan Khan, Mahie Gill, Jimmy Shergill, Soha Ali Khan

Direction: Tigmanshu Dhulia

Rating: ****1/2

Tigmanshu Dhulia had said in a pre-release interview that ‘Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’ is more “opulent and intriguing” than its prequel and he has lived up to his claim. Dhulia weaves a complex tale of love, jealousy and revenge and the taut narrative ensures that it keeps the viewer engaged throughout.

The sequel begins exactly where the first part had ended; Saheb Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Shergill) is wheelchair ridden after he was shot in the last part and Biwi Madhavi Devi is now a MLA but seems to be heading down a path of self-destruction. Enter Gangster Indarjeet Singh (Irrfan Khan) who is looking to settle longstanding scores with the Saheb and is plotting revenge against him. Indarjeet and Princess Ranjana (Soha Ali Khan) are deeply committed to each other but Saheb also has his heart set on the young princess.

It’s an intricate plot but Dhulia never loses the

Read More »from Yahoo! Movies Review: Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns

Aamir Khan is set to attempt the longest kiss with Anushka Sharma in ‘Peekay’. We’re waiting with bated breath

This doesn’t come as a surprise though. Before Emraan Khan created hype and controversies with his on-screen kisses, earning the title of ‘serial kisser’, our Khan had already earned a reputation of having atleast one mouth-to-mouth suction in his films which are a lot more than two flowers caressing each other. Needless to say, the audience isn’t complaining either.

When he debuted with 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak', he became an overnight star and his lip-lock with co-star Juhi Chawla was an instant hit. After shedding their inhibitions in the lip-lock department, they went ahead and shared quite a few in their later films, the last one being ‘Ishq’ in 1997.

But his loyalties didn’t rest with his first co-star only. His pairing with the reigning queen of that time, Madhuri Dixit in Dil resulted in light liplock. Madhuri had already become an expert after her steaming

Read More »from Heard This: Aamir to attempt smooch-a-thon, again!