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Movie Stills: ChakravyuhCast: Arjun Rampal, Abhay Deol, Manoj Bajpai, Esha Gupta

Direction: Prakash Jha

Rating: **1/2

Prakash Jha picks a sensitive subject of social relevance but in his attempt to pander to popular cinema, he incorporates too many Bollywoodisms that prevent 'Charavyuh' from becoming an intense political drama. Jha spends too much time trying to make the film entertaining rather than focus on the nuances that make a coherent plot.

'Chakravyuh' is a political drama set against the backdrop of the Naxal Movement. Jha brings to forth many pertinent aspects of the Naxal ideology — the issue of little or no development for the tribal communities in India, illegal land acquisition from the farmers, the collusion of the powerful (the politicians and the industrialists), police brutality and systematic failure of the law and order system. The intention is good but Jha flounders on the execution.

Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal) is the honest and courageous police officer who has been assigned the arduous

Zhang Yimou, China's most celebrated director received a standing ovation as he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the 14th Mumbai Film Festival. His films such as 'Hero', 'Raise the Red Lantern' and 'Ju Dou' were nominated for Oscars.

Born to parents of 'dubious' background, Zhang brought his first camera by selling his blood and the turbulent times he grew in left an impact on him and his cinema. Growing up in a class dominated China made him work in farms and factories before he plotted his way to the university.  Pictures clicked with his camera helped him get an admission in the cinematography department of the Beijing Film Academy. Despite censorship, Zhang has managed to work around it and has gained international acclaim.

Excerpts from the interview:
How did you get into film making?
I grew up in

What made his films unforgettable was his uncanny ability to create magic on screen. Here's a look

 Deewar: The film contains all the stock-in-trade elements of a Bollywood masala potboiler - Brothers who are poles apart, the wronged mother, a taut script ( one of the best from Salim - Javed), the powerful dialogues and above

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Rishi Kapoor

Director: Karan Johar

Rating: ***1/2

Karan Johar does what he is best at; create a glossy fairytalish world revolving around love, friendship and mush. Infact, KJo manages to steer clear of heightened melodrama and actually packs in a little message, floundering on the logic once in a while but never on the slick production qualities.

The film is quite obviously inspired by Mansoor Khan's classic 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar', where the inter-school competition has been replaced by an intra-school Triwizard Tournament - like (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) contest that will decide on the 'Student of the Year'. Fortunately for us the plot is focused on the spirit of competition with a romantic interlude and keeps manipulation and vindication to the bare minimum. KJo insists on taking a short digression to show a Bollywood-style Big Fat Indian Wedding but we can make allowances for a little indulgence. What will all the

Rani Mukerji and Prithviraj in 'Aiyyaa'Sachin Kundalkar's 'Aiyyaa' is a curious film to review, neither can you completely diss it as a bad one nor can you overlook its obvious flaws. There are moments in the film that will make you smile much after you have left the theatre and then there are others that just had no place in the final cut.

Baradwaj Rangan has titled his review, "Aiyyaa"… Curiouser and curiouser:

Throughout Aiyyaa, we are left turning between a lovably loud Hindi film and a more dreamlike French romance that might have featured Audrey Tautou — and the effect is whiplash. A musical sequence like Dreamum wakeupum — an expertly staged parody of the Padmalaya ethos — belongs in the first kind of a film, but clashes horribly with the sensibilities of the other film. And a song between two supporting characters — Maina (Anita Date, who's made to look like a cross between Olive Oyl and a Folies Bergère entertainer) and Meenakshi's brother Nana (Amey Wagh) — is staged like absurd theatre. It has no business in a

A still from Aiyyaa
Cast: Rani Mukerji, Prithviraj

Director: Sachin Kundalkar

Rating: **1/2

To enjoy a film like 'Aiyyaa', logic and rational definitely have to be left behind. Sachin Kundalkar creates a funny, slightly eccentric, filmi protagonist but he expects her charm to carry a film that is saddled with a ridiculous plot and side characters who are intended to be amusing but border on the annoying.

Meenakshi (Rani Mukerji) loves melodrama and is crazy about typical Bollywood films and music. Needless to say she also aspires to have a classic Bollywood romance rather than settle for an arranged marriage. Coming from a typical middle-class family, she has no choice but to go through the routine of meeting prospective grooms with their families, complete with a tray of poha and sreekhand. Despite several rejections, Meenkashi manages to find a perfectly eligible candidate. However, she is not too keen about the alliance because she finds herself insanely attracted to a very intense-looking Tamil