Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta, as the title of the film suggests are the names of the leading characters of the film. First-timer Pravesh Bhardwaj’s direction makes sure that you are as puzzled throughout the movie as the title. Do not expect any great work now!
The protagonist of the film, Ashwin Mehta, played by Prashant Narayanan plays the role of a painter. He is such a great painter that more than anything he paints his wife’s toenails more often. His wife Sakhi Mehta played by Lucy Hassan has an extramarital affair with Karan Singh played by Naved Aslam. Karan’s wife Neera Singh played by Aruna Shields finds out about her husband’s infidelity and seeks solace in Ashwin’s company. Both Ashwin and Neera choose not to confront their respective partners and prefer to see the loyal illusions instead.

The screenplay consists of extensive nude footage. For instance its shown that the artist overcomes his block by painting a nude female. The director spends liberal and lethargic screen-time and tries to establish chemistry between Ashwin and Neera. The conversations are corny and they get monotonous after a while. The film gets wrapped up in haste and doesn’t have a clear and subtle ending.

The characters and their co-relations do not have much clarity and you end up doing some guesswork throughout the movie. The performances of the first timers are average and the music tracks do not have any innovation. In fact the ghazal from the film sounds similar to Aye Khuda from Paathshala.

The film is about an artist and sadly there is absolutely no color in the film. The film talks about NRI couples with very little NRI nuances and the London setting of the film also holds no sense.
Overall the film is a sheer waste of money and time.

The leads of the film, Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor have been away from each other for years together and suddenly they start looking out for each other frantically. Sounds familiar isn’t it? Well this is the plot of Milenge Milenge.

This plot has been rehashed many times in most of the Bollywood flicks and Boney Kapoor does it again! The only twist here is that they manage to find each other through social networking sites! Well this is the age of technology you see!

Amit (Shahid Kapoor) and Priya (Kareena Kapoor) first meet at a Youth festival in Bangkok. They get attracted to each other and spend days together roaming around in the streets of Bangkok.  The festival comes to an end and when they plan to come back to Delhi, Amit loses Priya’s trust and she decides to put an end to the relationship. Amit tries desperately to regain her trust and Priya suggests that if they are destined to be together, they will find each other in Delhi again even if they are unaware of each other’s whereabouts.

Years roll by and both of them are all set to get married as usual not to each other but to someone else. Each of them still has this nagging love for each other. And as predicted fate conspires to bring them back after a dozen of interesting near misses. Finally they decide to make one last attempt to find one another.

Now you know what will happen in the climax. Well, Milenge Milenge is just a drab and the comedy doesn’t make you laugh at all. Delnaz Paul’s character is totally wasted.

You may watch it if you wish to see Kareena’s pre-size zero days. Besides this, the film fails to leave a mark and is not worth above a zero.

Direction, Writer – Punit Malhotra

Produced by- Karan Johar, Ronnie Screwwala

Music- Vishal Shekhar

Genre- Romantic Comedy

Ratings- ***

Another one bites the dust. The only highlight of the whole movie was- not the romance between Sonam Kapoor and Imran Khan- but Dharma productions banner. The only reason it hit the box office at the first few days was the excitement that came with the movie name ‘I hate love storys‘. But once the response came from the audience one could see no one was happy with this product except of the refreshing Jodi that is jaunting and jiving on screen.

Basically, this is the same treadmill run romantic story packaged in a different style, and one cannot help but wonder at the hints made on how romantic movies are made. This is a one line movie stretched out for two and half hour. The story line girl loves boys, he says no; he falls in love she says no; and now what? This is what the whole movie revolved around.  Imran Khan and Sonam Kapoor starts on we-hate-each-other note. Imran’s character Jay Dhingra likes girls but also hates girly stuff and surprisingly ends up crying like a girl soon.

The movie starts with all mushy romantic movie scene one can think of and in background Jay (Imran Khan) explaining how he hates love stories. Simran (Sonam Kapoor) is die hard romantic movies fan and enters as her boss. She is having a normal happy life with his fiancé Raj (Sameer Dattani) till she starts enjoying spending time with Jay and realizes something is amiss in her perfect life. She confesses of her love to Jay but he does not reciprocate back. The confrontation seems too silly for such a situation. Before we even digest the fact within end of one song she is back with Raj and Jay who runs away from love is madly in love.

The movie can make seriously romantic hearts cry not with happiness but frustration and confusion created all along. Sameer is wasted as Raj; made to act like a dumb. One cannot help but feel pity for him throughout the movie for being treated like garbage throughout. Karan Johar has made a good character portrayal resembling him in form of Veer Kapoor (Samir Soni).

Still the whole movie is a cliché of every romantic scene one can think about. It lacks freshness but still it is sweet movie with everything you expect in a typical Johar’s movie. But still it could not deliver the height of romance and drama his movies are known for, while at the same time justice was not done giving very less chance for chemistry to develop. The dialogues in the movie are cheesy and corny at times. On a second thought it can work well for references of movies made by Dhrama production.

Punit Malhotra has done a decent job as first time writer and director. The outdoor location in New Zealand is a new venue finally Dharma production has ventured to from their normal second home New York and London. The songs are on chartbuster list. Vishal- Shekhar has done a good job with music composition.

In short it is one time watch; a very simple, uni-layered and highly predictable movie.

Director: Parmeet Sethi

Cast: Shahid Kapur, Anushka Sharma, Veer Das, Meiyang Chang

Genre: Heist/Con

Rating: *

Ludicrous and boring! This is my reaction to the movie. I didn’t find anything worthy of entertainment in this movie. The so-called badmaashi didn’t appeal to me. The content seems to be so ingenuous that I have my doubts!

The narrative is not really innovative. The movie begins with Shahid and his friends making trip to Bangkok for a retailer. This trip frames Shahid’s perception of life and influences him to earn money quickly through unscrupulous means. Meanwhile, our hero has ample time to romance his girl and lead a lavish lifestyle with his bumchums. The screenplay explores Shahid’s rise and fall and then again a rise with hardly a bother from my end.

Here are few reasons why this movie could be in your AVOID list:

• Boring direction
• Dull storyline
• Foolish dialogues
• No solid grounding of the happenings in the movie
• Non-happening music
• Lack of emotions, thrills,suspense, characterization

Everything seems a cake walk in the movie. Having great ideas is not enough; execution matters a lot. The hero travels to US from Mumbai with much ease and elan.  I recollect Meiyang Chang  only indulging in finest liquors. (Hope, I didn’t fall asleep when he came on screen!) Veer Das seems wasted. Shahid acts amateurishly and I have no comments for Anushka. I feel bad that a fine actor like Pavan Malhotra has to play such poorly written roles! How can Yashraj even produce such a movie?

I don’t feel anything for any of the characters. Is this what Parmeet Sethi wrote in six days? True as they say, haste is waste. I don’t at all discourage the director but it’s necessary for the filmmaker to realize that if movie making is meant only to realize creative aspirations then better make the movie for home viewing. Don’t waste the hard earned money of the movie bufsf and scores of Hindi movie fans. Come on man! Deliver something that truly makes me feel that there is enough of true badmaashi and make me watch your movie over and over again!

Movie: Housefull
Director: Sajid Khan
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Boman Irani, Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta
Genre: Comedy
Rating: * * 1/2

Welcome to the world of Arush and his family – a family filled with people who believe that a lie if said for one’s well-being and betterment is not considered one. Yes, that seems to be the theme of the movie.

So, is it just another movie that deals with lies and confusion? In a way, yes, but Sajid Khan renders his magic of goofy, slapstick and witty humour to the movie. You don’t require an IQ of 173 to understand that there is virtually no plot in the movie. The movie has funny situations which at times reach the peak of exaggeration. In the movie, Akshay is one unlucky fellow who is famed for his bad stroke of luck. The movie tracks his stay with his best friend Riteish, his love encounters with Malaika, Jiah and Deepika and the confusion that follows.
Was I disappointed? No! A couple of genuinely funny moments, witty dialogues, goofiness, funny faces to make the children laugh, passable music and good locales made me feel good. Boman, Riteish and Akshay have decent individual screen time. I didn’t expect anything from the leading ladies but style and oomph. Arjun Rampal is suave as expected and Chunky Pandey delivers the goods too!
So you see, I got exactly what I expected. A decent movie featuring a house full of funsters!

Starring: Abhay Deol, Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee

Director: Satish Kaushik

Rating: *

Thinking that the film Road will take you on a roller-coaster ride or maybe it is about touring cinema? Alas, it is neither of the two. The film Road is designed as one of those typical festival films that pretend to be a transformative journey of a character who en route discovers the true meaning of life, love and the rest is history.

In an attempt to escape his father’s hair oil business, Vishnu (Abhay Deol) grabs the opportunity of driving an antique truck across the desert to be stationed in a local museum. Now do not expect any rollicking road adventure since the narrative never picks up pace like the tiresome truck. Along his deserted trip, Vishnu gives lift to a young boy (Mohammed Faizal Usmani), a migrating mechanic (Satish Kaushik) and a gypsy woman (Tannishtha Chatterjee). Vishnu soon realizes that his tattered truck also houses a touring cinema. Again, do not expect any innovative story emerging from the functioning of the transportable theatre. The portable projector hardly plays in the film, out of which one is a part of an extended dream sequence.

As the film ends, Abhay Deol indulges in a tel malish (head massage) act onscreen. One would need an equally stimulating tel malish on watching this drab movie. This film road leads to nowhere. It simply takes you for a ride leading to a need for a good tel malish.

Starring: Sunny Deol, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Koppikar

Rating: *

Generally the one who does the right thing is called a hero! However in Bollywood whatever a hero does is the right thing. Ironical isn’t it? So director Neeraj Pathak makes sure that what is legally wrong is made cinematically right in his latest venture Right Yaaa Wrong.

After one item number, two clumsy fight sequences and Sunny’s shady dance attempt in between, the story struggles to start in the third reel. Paralyzing Sunny Deol before the action starts might not be the sane and safe idea but the director takes the risk and restricts the driving force of the film to a wheelchair. Crawling at a sluggish pace, the narrative ironically traces the route of Abbas-Mustan’s thriller Race.

Ajay (Sunny Deol) is a crippled officer. His wife (Isha Koppikar) is having an adulterous affair with his stepbrother. The duo attempt to knock off Ajay on the undying life-insurance money motive, only to be double-crossed into death. Ajay’s friend and colleague Vinay (Irrfan Khan) suspects him to be a murderer and investigates against him. Vinay’s sister Radhika (Konkona Sen Sharma) feels that Ajay is innocent and decides to defend him in court.

Sunny is neither good nor bad – simply his standard self. Isha Koppikar plays a sketchy role. After giving hits like Wake up Sid, Konkona Sen Sharma here fails to impress in an extended cameo. Irrfan Khan is the only saving person as he manages to induce some lively moments.

Starring: Aanaahad, Farouque Shaikh, Sushant Singh, Mukesh Rishi

Rating: ***

Director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan has the finesse to pack the standard story with a requisite action and the right intensity that a sports film needs. Lahore is a traditionally Indianized film with the revenge-recipe used in desi prototypes ranging from Mithun Chakravarthy’s Boxer to Deol family’s Apne. The sport is altered from boxing to kick-boxing that offers more flexibility with its freestyle fight sequences. A new identity is imparted to the film by garnishing it with the social theme of India-Pakistan brotherly bonding.

The story is about Dheerendra Singh (Sushant Singh) who is selected in the national kickboxing team and is under the guidance of coach Rao (Farouque Shaikh) who represents India at the international kickboxing tournament in Kaula Lampur. In his fight with the Pakistani opponent Noor (Mukesh Rishi), Singh loses his life. His younger brother Veerendra Singh (Aanaahad), a professional cricketer, switches sport to avenge the death of his brother. He gets to participate in the follow up tournament in Lahore in Pakistan where he contends against Noor.

The film works for its skillfully choreographed combat sequences by action director Tony Ching Siu Tung. The kickboxing sequences are extraordinary and highlight the power and aggression of the players.

Starring: Anshuman Jha, Raj Kumar Yadav, Neha Chauhan, Amit Sial, Arya Devdutta, Herry Tangri

Director: Dibakar Bannerjee

Rating: ****

So you thought this is another sex and skin revealing movie! Don’t let voyeurism mislead you into believing that Love Sex aur Dhokha is a cheap gimmickry to titillate your senses. The film is bold, bare, intense, stark and dark but the storytelling is so superlative that it stimulates your senses.

The narrative has three different subplots. The first narrative has a final year college student Rahul (Anshuman Jha) who is gearing up for his diploma film which ends up being a shady spoof on DDLJ. During the shoot, he falls in love with the heroine (Shruti) with whom he elopes and gets married. The second narrative has a tech-savvy store manager Adarsh (Raj Kumar Yadav) who tries to woo the store salesgirl Rashmi (Neha Chauhan) to secretly film her in a sexual act on the store security camera. The third narrative talks about a journalist Prabhat (Amit Sial) who rescues a girl Mrignaina (Arya Devdutta) from her suicide attempt and subsequently prepares her for a sting operation against the country’s top pop star Loki Local (Herry Tangri).

The first story starts on a comical note with a satirical shade and just when you think the entire episode is frivolous, it ends and hits so hard on your senses that you might not want to gulp down anything in the interval. The second story talks about the entire modus operandi and motivation behind the making of a sex clip. The third narrative highlights the regular casting couch syndrome in glamour world along with the equally unethical sting operations devised by the manipulative media channels.

Each episode is derived from sensational headlines of national dailies and is well-sketched. The correlation of each subplot with the other is what needs to be applauded here. The screenplay by Dibakar Bannerjee and Kanu Behl is like a jigsaw puzzle where your excitement rises the more you get close to assembling the interlocking pieces as the final picture becomes clearer at every step.

Think twice before tagging Love Sex aur Dhokha as experimental, offbeat, path-breaking or low-budget. It has a smart story and superlative storytelling which makes it brilliant and an entertaining film.

Starring: Aditya Narayan, Rahul Dev, Shweta Agarwal

Rating: *

Are you ready to face the dreadful fact? In present times, horror flicks are no longer considered as exciting and nerve gripping. In such a scenario, Shaapit is like a formula film which has the tone, tempo and variation of the background score to determine the moment of spook.

The story revolves around Kaaya (Shweta Agarwal) who carries a generational curse. According to the curse, any female in their family would die on marriage. This curse prohibits her from getting married to her love Aman (Aditya Narayan). After enough sobbing and singing songs on her staircase, Aman decides to fight against the curse and win his love.

A standard sidekick friend (Shubh Joshi) introduces Aman to Professor Pashupathi (Rahul Dev) who knows it all. Together they are out on a ’soul’ searching journey. In their journey, they end up in long-lost village Dak Bungla where some Ramu kaka is waiting for them. The girl gets in trouble and slips in coma and now the guys attempt to dig the past.

You are taken into a flashback mode that narrates a raja-rani tale and through tavees , tantra -mantra and Theban language, the spirit is traced.

Vikram Bhatt has his own style of dealing with the spirits. His earlier works included treating the spirit by burning it as it was done in Raaz. Now after using the first element of life, Vikram uses water in this flick. So while the spirit was set afire in Raaz , here the ashes have to be immersed in water.

The end is stretched and could have been made less exasperating. You can still go and watch the flick if you may wish but do not end up cursing yourself for the decision you have made.