Blog Posts by Kunal Guha

Cast: Reetu Jain, Naseeruddin Shah, Kay Kay Menon, Atul Kulkarni, Ravi Kissen, Shweta Bhardwaj, Rajesh Sharma, Zakir Hussain, Manoj Pahwa

Directed by Hriday Shetty

Rating: **

Squeezing in a series of events that take place over a night can make for a deliciously pacey watch. But Bollywood’s interpretation of this format hasn’t always managed the meat of the bat. While ‘Ek Chalis Ki Last Local’ had a crisp screenplay, ‘My Friend Pinto’ was an embarrassing take on Chaplin and ‘Chameli’ seemed pretentiously art house. Neither had the gritty zing of an ‘After Hours’ or the shivering tension of a ‘Rope’ and yet, it is refreshing that this one manages very well to keep you awake and interested if not anxious about the what would follow. Somewhere between overwhelming and underwhelming is a slot that is called unobjectionable and that is just where this one-night comic-thriller fits into.

Bollywood has explored themes like cops breaking bad, baddies trying to start afresh and every other one in

How many tomatoes does it take to fix a light bulb?

Directed by Puja Jatinder Bedi

Rating: Full moon, no stars

‘The past never dies, it kills’ is a promise made on the poster of this film and that for one, is well-fulfilled. Step out of the screen and you will find your brain cells ready to be zipped up like a carcass in a body bag. ‘Ghost’ follows the most reliable format for Indian horror films: Bhoot is evil; God isn’t and if you pray hard enough or atleast pretend to believe in good over evil, God will take the time out to smash evil’s nose. And as a bonus, we not only have chalk-faced spirits cackling around noisily, we also have the almighty himself sashaying in his biblical robe through dark corridors, managing very well in not tripping over.

The film begins with a mythological TV show voiceover, announcing the beginning of time or end of good times or something very prophetic that you won’t be bothered to care about. What you would care about is the following unaesthetic potty sex

A still from 'Players'

Cast: Bobby Deol, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Sonam Kapoor, Omi Vaidya, Sikander Kher, Vinod Khanna, Johnny Lever

Directed by Abbas-Mustan

Rating: Game Over

Desi versions of Hollywood thrillers are like ‘first copy’ bootlegs from Thailand. They initially look approximately the same but later the threads begin to wriggle out. So when director duo, Abbas-Mustan took on ‘The Italian Job’, Benny Hill became Neil Nitin Mukesh, everyone double-crossed and obvious lines were exchanged with a grim face. Now, tough guys don’t snigger until they’ve outwitted someone or unless they’re delirious like Mogambo! But our bad boys are, firstly, not all boys and their badness is mostly restricted to the leather jackets rented from MJ’s ‘Bad’ music video. So looking grim is a ritual observed throughout the audience.

Most would vaguely know about the original gold heist comic caper so let’s go straight to the singular flourishes added here. Veteran robber, Victor Dada (Vinod Khanna)