Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari, Review: Heavy load to carry It is difficult to decide what was more burdensome: sitting through the film or reviewing it for the benefit of unsuspecting prospective audiences. There is just too much happening, a lot of it without logic, over the two hours 19 minutes that Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari spans. In the hands of a competent editor, the two hours would end in the bin and the 19 minutes would then make an interesting TV episode. This is one of the films wherein an item...

The Zoya Factor, Review: Cricket superstitions, and bowling a ‘maiden’ over It’s a romantic comedy about cricket, superstition and finding your soulmate after several heart-breaks. Strange bedfellows? Not if you know your cricket, appreciate the quirky beliefs of cricketers and can empathise with a woman who has been dumped several times, yet dreams of finding Mr. Right very soon. All three angles are developed substantially, yet something is missing. Perhaps, unlike all the...

Parmanu—The Story of Pokhran, Review: More fission, less fusion India has carried out several nuclear (parmanu is Hindi for nuclear) tests since 1975. Yet, the 1998 experiments in the desert land of Pokharan, near Jaisalmer, have remained the talk of the nation. These were the tests that put India squarely in the nuclear power league. Records of such defence-related activities are usually classified. Unless the makers of Parmanu-The Story of Pokharan, have been allowed privileged access...

Tumhari Sulu, review: BALAN sing act An aspiring film-maker was driving back from work one night in Mumbai and caught a late night phone-in show on local FM radio. That’s all it took. His launch feature had been shelved and he needed another project to make the million dollar move, from ad and promo films to the big screen. The writer in him got cracking, working backwards, from the sexy female voice on the speaker to a peppy house-wife alter ego of the self same. The man’s name i...