Blog Posts by Kunal Guha

Cast: Deepak Dobriyal, Ajay Gehi, Zakir Hussain, Mahie Gill, Mahie Gill's legs, Mahie Gill's freckles, a goldfish, a fishy perverted neighbour etc

Directed by Ram Gopal Varma

Rating: Gruesome

One of the biggest challenges in filming a real life story is that it has already been told. So, how do you make it exciting, unpredictable or entertaining? Also can you really do any of these things without altering the original story? RGV's 'Not a love story' takes reality, slices it into tiny pieces and serves it with bloody sauce. Based on Maria Susairaj and her graphic encounters, this film provides enough visual distractions to have your jaws touching your feet through most of its 105-minute runtime.

For those who haven't bothered to follow the Neeraj Grover case, here's a quick download. The film is about Anusha Chawla (Mahie Gill), an every-girl from small-town India who migrates to Mumbai, hopeful of cutting it into big-bad-Bollywood. In doing so, she leaves behind her obsessively

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Manoj Bajpayee, Pateik

Directed by Prakash Jha

Rating: ** ½

Films about social issues are like primetime debates on news channels, opinionated yet inconclusive. And even 'Aarakshan' neither takes a firm stand, nor provides the way forward.

The story is about a college principal, Dr Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh Bachchan) who's the 'mai-baap', godfather, Big B of Bhopal. Every second cop, lawyer, bank manager etc falls at his feet, having graduated from his prestigious STM institute. He also believes that charity begins from one's verandah, since his doubles as a free coaching class for weak students who belong to faint income homes. His favourite mentee, Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan), a backward-class individual who owes his education to Dr. Anand, also helps out with the balcony classes, apart from teaching in STS. Anand's daughter, Poorbi (Deepika Padukone) seizes this opportunity to get flirty with her father's obedient disciple

Rating: * 1/2

Watching a 95-minute-break-free movie (no interval here!) means a break from munching, slurping and burping (unless you stock up before you enter the screen). But for 'Dhobi Ghat', unfortunately, this undivided attention was completely undeserved. What was portrayed as a film on Mumbai diaries, came across as obvious lines scribbled on a notepad. Perhaps it would be perceived differently by a non-Mumbaikar, but if you've lived in this city, you don't need to be told why people go to Marine Drive or why The Gateway of India is thronged by click-happy tourists. It's like telling Mary about her little lamb (she doesn't want to know!).

So, the movie is about four unrelated characters, who happen to discover each other accidently and then continue leading their lives just as they were before. So basically, if they hadn't met, the result of this film would remain unchanged (right?). Anyway, Arun (Aamir Khan), a suave smoker and artist (in that order), has an overnight hump and