Dhokha Round D Corner, Review: True lies, deception-perception and betrayal-portrayal Way back in 1940, a British film was made under the title Gaslight. It had an American version in 1944. Since then, it has inspired a lot of psychological thrillers, in India too. In the film, a man plots to convince his wife and all around them that she is mad, in order to recover the jewels that he had tried to steal from her late aunt, who he had just murdered, but had failed by the sudden arrival of the ...

Case Toh Banta Hai, Trailer Launch and Press Conference: Courting laughter Trials and tribulations continue on the web. The genre has attracted Banijay Asia production house to create a show based on weird and ludicrous allegations levelled against film personalities that are debated and judged by TV/film/web veterans. A 'notice' of things to come was served to us today at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, Juhu, Mumbai. Some of the persons associated with the show were present, and many others...

Music Forever: Long performing music duo L-P, alias Laxmikant-Pyarelal Ajay Poundarik is neither a writer nor a journalist. But if he is anything, he is a fanatic admirer of the work of the music composer duo of Hindi films, Laxmikant and Pyarelal, better known as L-P. LP, which, in music parlance, is an acronym for Long Playing Record, is a term that fits them like the proverbial glove. They were indeed a long-playing pair, to be sure. As a tribute to his ‘deities’, Poundarik ...

Pyar Mein Thoda Twist, Review: A sack-full of emptiness A lot of action in the film Pyar Mein Thoda Twist takes place inside a bound sack. It is marked, Lena Hae Lena Hae (have to take, have to take) Brand, and it twists alright. No, not because it is haunted, but because it holds a man captive. This man is supposed to be Mr. Wanted, a dangerous criminal, whose capture carries a reward of Rs. 2 million. While the sack changes hands and locations several times, being stolen or ‘kidnapped...

Baaghi 3, Review: Rebel without a pause Meaning ‘rebel’ in Urdu, Baaghi 3 showcases the muscular machismo, kicking quotient and airborne acrobatics of the loose cannon called Tiger Shroff. He first takes on petty thugs and eve-teasers, then murderers and people smugglers and finally the most dreaded terrorist organisation in Syria, nay, it is claimed, the whole world! His own voice-over at the end credits these escapades as the outcome of being a rebel. And does this rebel have a ...

Har Kisse Ke Hisse Kaamyaab, Review: Many parts, many holes, no whole, no soul In one scene of Har Kisse Ke Hisse Kaamyaab, the protagonist, an actor who goes under the screen name of Sudheer, cannot get his lines right, because he has not had a swig of his favourite brew, and gives retake after retake. We see him do seven/eight retakes, after which, mercifully, the film-maker goes into a montage, with only music, after which it is revealed that he had given as many as 32 retakes. Mercifully,...

Sab Kushal Mangal, Review: Well, well! Marriages at gunpoint are something of a norm in Bihar and Jharkhand, the latter having been a part of Bihar. On the movie screen too, such marriages have provided fodder for a few ventures, very recently in Jabariya Jodi. It is a burning societal problem that joins usually unwilling grooms in married unity, with a girl they have never seen or met before. The practice prevails because parents of educated grooms-to-be demand dowry that runs into seven fig...

Bose Dead or Alive: Rajkummar Rao in thriller take on Indian freedom fighter If you were a patriot and freedom seeker in the British colonial India of the 1920s-1940s, you either believed in non-violent struggle, a movement led by ‘Mahatma’ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or the increasingly violent approach of ‘Netaji’ Subhas Chandra Bose. Mahatma means great soul and Netaji translates as leader. Both belonged to the Congress party, but when Bose called for armed struggle,...

Aamir, Nasir, Tahir, Tariq, Mansoor, Amjad: Movies, Masti, Modernity, Flashback 6 To remind you, Aamir is indeed Aamir Khan, Amjad is definitely Gabbar Singh, and the triple M above is to acknowledge that it was Akshay Manwani’s biographical book on the cinema of Nasir Hussain that got me delving into the period of about 15 years, when I interacted with the Hussain Khans (first five) and the bare Khan (last, but the most imposing personality). Actually, Mansoor did not use his middle na...