The Last Lear

Director: Rituparno Ghosh
Producer: Planman Motion Pictures
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Shefali Shah, Jishu Sengupta, Divya Dutta
Editing: Arghyakamal Mitra
Screenplay: Anjana Basu, Rituparno Ghosh

The story of 'The Last Lear' centers around Amitabh Bachchan who plays the lead character of Harry. He lives for acting, loves theatre, adores Shakespeare and absolutely detests cinema.

Enter Arjun Rampal playing Siddharth, a movie director, who is very smart. After the bonding between the two, Harry is so much impressed with Siddarth that he is pleased to find a cerebral partner in him and wants to work in the latter's movie. Before the bonding turns into permanent relationship, an untoward incident occurs.

The movie's much-hyped publicity has raised the audience's expectations from the director Rituparno Ghosh who chooses a very difficult subject for his venture.

Let's see how far the director has been able to justify his choice. Rituparno, one of few finest storytellers from Bengal, chooses Utpal Dutt's play "Aajker Shahjahan" as the basis for his 'The Last Lear'. Besides, there's too much Shakespeare in the movie, and this is not suitable for each and every audience.

This subject would have been good at the theater but not necessarily in the cinema. Ritu should carefully note this for future guidance. In spite of all this, the movie engrosses the viewer, and the actors have played their characters so well that they forget about the story and watch their favorable actors busy playing their characters.

While Amitabh Bachchan's performance is par excellence, that of Arjun Rampal is not far off; in fact, it's more noteworthy.

The actor has been soaring higher day by day, especially after his performance in 'Rock On'. Preity Zinta has fared very well by staying effective. Shefali performs well though her hatred for Preity remains a mystery. As said earlier, the story takes a turn after an accident.

The movie lacks clarity as to why Arjun wants a retake? More significant is the mystery about Amitabh's death-defying jump all over again? After all, it's known that Amitabh is unable to see without his glasses!

Though Amitabh Bachchan's performance is the USP of the movie, yet it's not his best. In fact, Arjun Rampal steals the show in this movie. We wonder if Divya Dutta had any role to play. While Jishu is impressive, Prosenjit is okay.

In summing up, we may say that the movie in all likelihood could fare very well at the film festivals but it wouldn't do that well at the box office in spite of its much-hyped publicity.

Though Ritu's choice of the subject has been a difficult one, yet all the cast has performed their best. Arjun Rampal shoulders the movie besides Amitabh Bachchan.

Saas Bahu Aur Sensex

Director: Shona Urvashi
Producer: Jayshree Malhija
Starring: Tanushree Datta, Kiron Kher, Ankur Khanna, Farooque Shaikh, Masumeh Makhija, Lillete Dubey, Sharon Prabhakar, Mukta Barve, Seema Azmi, Shahnaz Anand, Anoushka Anand, Farid Currim, Chirjyot Singh, Kiran Yadnopavit, Farrokh Mehta, Kartik Ramachandran, Karishma Chandna, Vidyadhar Karmakar, Rustom Irani, Divyatta, Sumer Arora, Ayan Malik, Khoobad, Shreya Sharma

'Saas Bahu aur Sensex' is a mix of 'Saas Bahu' kind of soap opera and stock market, ranging from the small to the big screen. Kitty party friends who watch 'Saas Bahu' opera come to know about shares and the stock market in this movie.

So, this creates a curiosity among kitty players to participate in share market. Another reason is that one of their colleague turns wealthy by investing in shares. Thus, their kitty party conversations switch from TV soaps to share market and investments.

That's why the director has titled it 'Saas Bahu aur Sensex'. The movie is produced by Jayshree Malhija and presented by the world-famous 'Warner Bros. Pictures'. The music is given by directors - Randolph Correa, Bipin Panchal and Blaaze, to the lyrics of Blaaze, Raqueeb Alam and Shona Urvashi.

The movie begins with a family comprising a mother Binita Sen played by Kirron Kher and her daughter Nitya played by Tanushree Dutta. Binita, who lives in Kolkata, divorces her husband, as the latter wants to marry a younger girl.

She moves from Kolkata to Navi Mumbai along with her daughter Nitya and is lost in the new city. Incidentally, a boy named Ritesh Jethmalani played by Ankur Khanna gets Nitya a job in a call center where he also works. The story takes a turn from here.

While Ritesh is in love with another society girl Kirti Wagaskar played by pretty Masumeh, the latter though from middle-class aspires to marry a millionaire. But, she keeps Ritesh as an alternative. Ritesh believes that one day Kirti would realize the worth of his love and come back to him.

But Kirti has her eyes set on Yash Modi played by Sudhanshu Pandey, a billionaire. Yash's father owns a large share of 'M & M', the financial call centre in which Nitya and Ritesh work. Kirti meets Yash and feels very happy.

However, she soon realizes that Yash is engaged with the daughter of the owner of Macmillan financial group. This wedding proposal promises to be good for 'M & M' and therefore Binita and her 'kitty party friends invest in the company.

After learning about Yash's engagement, Kirti returns to Ritesh and agrees to marry him. Ritesh is too good and is always ready to help anyone. But, he has a weakness - his blind love for kirti. Among other deficiencies of his personality are his fondness for non-vegetarian food coupled with often running late.

At this time, Nitya learns that her father fell for a younger woman and this is why her mother had to divorce him and come to Mumbai. She also comes to know that Binita and her friends have invested in 'M and M'. Binita who inherited shares from her father wishes to sell some and comes across a sensitive stockbroker Feroz Sethna played by Farooq Sheikh.

Farooq, a natural actor, has come back to the silver screen after a long hiatus. He guides Binita into proper investing. Binita turns rich, so her kitty party colleagues want to follow her in becoming neo-rich. They invest in stocks.

It appears that the filmmaker thus succeeds in making the kitty players share savvy! Interestingly, Ritesh's romance moves in sync with a sensex backdrop, taking the movie to a climax. The film turns a satire on daily soaps with initial humor. However, it turns boring later following the introduction of share arithmetic.

The star cast includes Tanushree Datta, Ankur Khanna, Kirron Kher, Farooq Sheikh, Masumi Makhija, Lilette Dubey and Sharon Prabhakar. Each and every actor plays his or her role very well. While Farooq Sheikh induces some funny moments with his pristine Parsi performance, Kirron Kher puts in a compelling act.

Masumeh proves perfect in the role of an urban girl. Lilette Dubey sparkles from amongst the kitty participants. Sharon Prabhakar looks ageing and thus needed help of the makeup department.

Rafoo Chakkar

Director: B H Tharun Kumar
Starring: Aslam Khan,Nauheed Cyrusi,Shakti Kapoor,Sadashiv Amrapurkar
,Tinu Anand,Archana Puran Singh,Meeta Vasisht,Yudisthar
Story Writer: Ikram Akhtar
Action Direction: Bhiku Verma

'Raffoo Chakkar- fun on the run' is another entertainment movie. As said earlier, Bollywood is moving towards either comedies or semi-political themes. Since entertainment is a harmless genre; not evoking any protest as in the case of socio-political movies.

This movie centers around four characters -. Pappu (Yudhishtir), Munnu (Aslam Khan), both known as PM and twin brothers besides Millie (Nauheed Cyrusi) and Julie (Nisha Rawal), MJs as sisters hailing from the upper section of society.

There is one common factor among these characters - they don't wish to marry. However, as the fate has it, circumstances compel them to get married. Hence, they leave their homes. When out of their sweet homes, they come across girls and find them too attractive to miss an opportunity.

Pappu and Munnu meet Millie and Julie, and get involved with them. As in any other story, this takes a turn when Millie and Julie meet Kokila and Koena (KK), two middle-aged sisters who hate men and never want to get married. Here again, the third twist takes place.

KK's father, who wants his daughters to get married, dies, leaving his entire property in the hands of a trust managed by Dilkhush (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) and Hansmukh (Shakti Kapoor).

The father leaves a will with a rider, though. The two PMs resort to robbery, as they have nothing to live on. Ironically, Munnu and Pappu finally discover that their choices are the same with whom their father had fixed their marriages.

Another twist comes in the story when Julie and Millie are saved from hooligans by Kokila (Archana Puransingh) and Koena (Mita Vashisht); both of them being middle-aged sisters.

Like the other four characters in the movie, these two are averse to marriage as they have no love lost for men.

From this point, the fun drama or a laughter riot begins. The director of the movie BH Tharun Kumar has been a well-known choreographer.

The story is funny indeed but the director fails to reach his target of making the audience laugh and laugh until they ….So, 'Rafoo Chakkar' is a very good try, but not completely successful. The first half is full of jokes though not very refined but the second half turns below average!

Among actors, Tinnu Anand is on the top. Ananth Mahadevan performs very well as father. On the other hand , Ikram Akhtar's screenplay falls short of consistency in the sequences . Munnu played by Aslam Khan and Pappu played by Yudhishtir fare very well as spoilt boys.

Similarly, Nauheed Cyrusi as Julie and Nisha Rawal as Millie do justice to their roles. Aslam Khan proves confident. Archana Puransingh is good as always ; she is known for her comic roles. Mita Vashisht has no worthwhile role. Shakti Kapoor and Sadashiv Amrapurkar are there but have no big deal to play.

Welcome To Sajjanpur

Director: Shyam Benegal
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Starring: Shreyas Talpade,Amrita Rao,Ravi Kishan

Shyam Benegal, India's legendary filmmaker and known for his thought-provoking serious cinema, has now delivered a light-hearted delightful tale in the movie 'Welcome to Sajjanpur'. Benegal says that a light man in his production unit motivated him to produce this film.

'Welcome to Sajjanpur' has a talented cast comprising Shreyas Talpade (of the 'Iqbaal' fame), Amrita Rao (the 'Vivaah' girl and the Bhojpuri top star Ravi Kishen. Shantanu Moitra is the music director and Ashok Mishra and Swanand Kirkire are lyricists.

The movie is a satirical comedy on the reality of contemporary rural India, especially on the government's much-talked-about literacy drive. The movie is produced by Chetan Motiwalla and Ronnie Screwvala under the banner 'UTV Spot Boy'.

The film is a mix of sweet and sour comedy. It's story revolves around Mahadev, played by Shreyas Talpade, as one of the few young men in Sajjanpur who are educated. He is employed in the village post office and earns a living writing letters for the villagers.

The convincing quality of his words makes Mahadev and his letters extremely popular in Sajjanpur. So, this film depicts the simple life of contemporary rural India, with a hint of comedy. Through Sajjanpur people, director Shyam Benegal makes a statement.

He points out that there is electricity in Indian villages, but then there is "22 hours of load-shedding" too. Yes, children go to school, but are out on small excuses. The villages are still dominated by superstition and modernism, pitiable conditions of widows, and abuse of power by local politicians.

Mahadev's character is a beautiful and likeable one - he sits down under a tree and writes emotion-packed letters for villagers. Of course, they love him and repose full confidence in him.

His childhood sweetheart is Kamla, played by Amrita Rao, but she gets married to someone else! Among Mahadev's many admirers is a eunuch who wants to challenge Ramsingh, a young man who has fallen for a widow, and a woman (played by Ila Arun) who wants her daughter married to a canine to get rid of her superstition that her daughter is mangla doshi.

The film is light-hearted and aims to make the audience laugh. But very few scenes succeed at that. The one good scene features Mahadev trying to get out of the rut of writing straightforward letters by adding true emotions in them. Yes, there's one more scene symbolic of India's exploding mobile phone population wherein Mahadev writes out a mobile chitti-an SMS!

Shreyas Talpade carries the film with an excellent performance. Amrita Rao has played her role well, just as in 'Vivah'. Yashpal Sharma, Ravi Kissen, Divya Dutta and Rajeshwari Sachdev do their best as supporting cast.

Songs are hummable. Camera work is competent. Writing could have done away with unnecessary, superfluous gags. Editing could have trimmed sub-plots. Dialogue is interesting-the UP dialect may be a trifle challenging to follow at first.

Incidentally, director Shyam Benegal's latest offering is set to be screened at the forthcoming London Film Festival (LFF). It will feature in the competition section on World Cinema at the fortnight-long festival starting Oct 15th. The LFF screening will also mark the movie's Britain and European premiere.

UTV Spot Boy's Chief Operating Officer Vikas Bahl says that the movie's USP is the master director Shyam Benegal's story telling. It is poignant as well as hilarious, he adds. Benegal's 'Welcome to Sajjanpur' is listed for screening along with other Indian movies including Nadita Das' 'Firaaq', Santosh Sivan's 'Tahaan', Ketan Mehta's 'Colours of Passion' and Shashank Ghosh's 'Quick Gun Murgan'.

1920

Director: Vikram Bhatt
Producer: ASA Film Pvt Ltd
Starring: Adah sharmam, Ranjeesh Duggal
Lyrics: sameer
Cinematography: Pravin Bhatt

The Mahesh Bhatt camp is known for a particular genre of films, which are full of love and lust. And, Vikram Bhatt from the same camp had a hit in his 'Raaz', though his later movies flopped at the box office.

This time Vikram presents a different type movie, say, one with plenty of horror. He wrote the script of this movie titled '1920' and looked for a producer. After a great struggle, he found Surendra Sharma of the 'Mumbai Salsa' fame and known for making movies based on music and dance.

Since Surendra's 'Mumbai Salsa' hadn't fared well, he agreed to produce Vikram's film that happened to be a horror one. However, he agreed with the condition of a limited budget and with new faces. Hence, Vikram called fifty new faces for audition to his office to choose the lead actors from amongst them.

'Vikram's '1920' is a new experiment by him in the field of supernatural powers. You have to believe him when he says that he is still afraid of ghosts/ spirits.

Vikram takes us back to the year in India where a young couple has just got married in the face of a severe opposition from the boy's father.

Arjun Singh Rathod played by Rajneesh Duggal is a staunch believer but turns an atheist following his family's resistance, especially his father who threatens to burn his wife Lisa, a Catholic, played by Adah Sharma. Incidentally, architect Arjun gets an assignment at scenic Palanpur to convert an old haveli there into a new hotel.

The newly wed couple moves in this house that is located in wilderness. Though Arjun doesn't mind living there but the bride is seized of something unnatural in the home! By the time Arjun begins to believe her, Lisa is already possessed by a spirit.

Then, Arjun attempts uncovering the secret behind it. Incidentally, this house is waiting for a curse to come true. For years, everyone who has tried to pull it down has died of mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, Lisa already possessed by a spirit, indulges in gymnastics, flying in the air, and even playing a mean hide-n-seek game.

Besides, Lisa is being jostled by an unseen force and then pulled into an opaque black hole of a room. Such strange events start taking place. No one can explain the reason behind these uncalled for incidents. Since the year pertains to India under British rule, the house is located in Yorkshire.

Well, no Bollywood movie would be complete without a love story. '1920' is no exception! Vikram and his co-screen player Dhiraj Ratan have very painstakingly depicted the love story between the couple and the obstacles faced by them.

Now, the movie's story runs too fast since the spirit enters the girl's body. Every event is followed by another strange one. The girl goes to the nursing home, but the spirit, not the girl, talks to the doctor. Then again, the spirit talks to the priest. The poor husband is caught unawares and therefore prays to his favorite God-Hanuman - by reciting the verses in his praise called Hanumaan Chaalisa.

After critically examining, we can conclude that '1920', though a very different genre movie for the Bhatt camp, proves the director's skill to deal with all types of movies. Hopefully, this is Vikram's best movie so far.

The movie was shot in Yorkshire and the first schedule was over in 28 days. The rest of the shooting was completed in 37 days in Mumbai's Film City Studio. There, the director had erected a haveli for shooting. To add masala to the movie, Vikram left no stone unturned, and also included a very bold item song of none other than Rakhi Sawant to the movie to charm the audience.

The movie is released with 35 prints in the Delhi -Uttar Pradesh territory. Both the actors -Arjun (Rajneesh) and Lisa (Adah Sharma) -- are new to films, but not to the entertainment sector. While Rajneesh has been "Mr India" in 2003, Adah hails from the fashion world.

Thus, the director Vikram fulfills producer Sharma's condition of a limited budget movie with new faces. Technically, Pravin Bhatt's camera work is good inasmuch as the scenic beauty of the castle in Yorkshire has been captured very well. Music-wise, Adnan Sami strikes a chord.

And the singers have done a marvelous job. The song "Bichua" sung by Shubha Mudgal and filmed on Rakhi Sawant is sure to appeal to the masses. "Tujhe Main Pyaar Karu" by Kailash Kher and Vaada by Pandit Jasraj touch one's heart, too.

The selection of the cast by Vikram Bhatt is superb. His new faces in films -- Dugal and Adah Sharma prove their self-confidence. Rajneesh has a talent, so a bright future lies ahead for him. The female lead in Adah Sharma is excellent. Anjori Alagh looks beautiful and leaves an impression in the second hour. Indraneel does well. Raj Zutshi plays the priest's role very well.

Overall, the movie is good as it fulfills its promise of providing enough scare. Hopefully, the movie would fare well at the box office.

Ru Ba Ru

Director: Arjun Bali
Starring: Randeep Hooda, Shahana Goswami, Jayant Kriplani, Rati Agnihotri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Lyrics: Soumik Sen
Editing: Sanjeeb Datta

Like many a Hindi movie 'Ru-ba-Ru' isn't an original one, and is entirely borrowed from the Hollywood film 'If Only' (2004), starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Paul Nicholls. Arjun Bali's choice of the subject is debatable, but also commendable as the debutant director has handled it with great skill.

Any other director even though an experienced one may not have succeeded as far as Arjun Bali has. However, we wonder as to why the director has accepted to make a movie as a mere translated script of a Hollywood movie.

Hence, this lacks that the masses need for their entertainment. The movie may gel well with the elite. The director seems to have left the movie to its USP that this contains ten smooches in the movie with, of course, much-hyped intense bed scenes to attract the viewers. Significantly, the director has proved to the Censor Board that his ten lip lock scenes are vital because of the script's demand.

That's why the Censor Board has granted it universal viewer ship certificate and not the category A, meant for adults only. One could have related more to their characters had there been more emphasis on the couple's chemistry over their kisses. At the same time, we congratulate the director for not succumbing to the industry's usual practice of blowing up the smooches.

Let's us look at the story. Though a love tale, but being too hypothetical, it lacks an appeal to one's heart. Until the interval one believes the film to be a psychological thriller but it ends up being an abstract take on fortune. The director needed to be a bit more flexible to have molded into a more imaginative one. Here, Bali has miserably failed.

Tara played by Shahana Goswami and Nikhil played by Randeep Hooda are in intense love with each other. Tara, on her part, wants to firm up this relationship with marriage, but Nikhil is always busy in his corporate work.

Since the latter is an alcoholic too, he forgets even small things and takes Tara for granted. He has no time for his ladylove. Their chemistry seems to be moving the other way as Nikhil takes Tara for granted. As a result, Tara gets frustrated and wants to call it a day.

As and when Nikhil comes to terms with his aloof life and wants to relive one particular day from his life, things go awry. Nikhil tries his best to change events to his convenience, but the destiny has a different plan for him.

A catastrophe overtakes Shahana who meets with an accident making even the alcoholic scream for help for Tara. Had Nikhil cared earlier, both would have lived happily together? However, it wasn't to be.

While critically examining the movie, we find that the story is almost dull and drags on. However acting-wise, both the lead actors have excelled in their performances. Randeep Hooda who is known for his romantic as well as macho roles has proved his credentials once again as a romantic hero.

Similarly, Shahana Goswami has been just natural. Rati Agnihotri and Jayant Kripalani have done full justice to their respective roles. Kulbhushan Kharbanda is good, too. While Andre Menezes' cinematography captures the beauty of Bangkok with finesse, its music by Satyadev Burman and Sameeruddin falls short of any significance.

'Ru-ba-Ru' is a good entertainer but is being crowded out because of the much-hyped two competitive movies - Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'The Last Lear' and Vikram Bhatt's horror '1920'.

Hijack

Directed: Kunal Shivdasani
Producer: Dinesh Vijan,kunal sivdasani
Starring: Shiney Ahuja, K K Raina, Mona Ambegaonkar, Kaveri Jha, Esha Deol
Cinematography: Jehangir Chowdhury

Bollywood doesn't tire of repeating the same subject in movies. There seems to be a terror-centric movies spree. But, everything belonging to art, culture and more importantly, literature, reflects the then prevailing situation in society.

The world is currently faced with the demon of terrorism, and India is affected the most by this evil. That's why directors find it an attractive subject for their movies. In fact, every movie at present has a kind of terrorism in it. Debutant directors lap up with this theme, but in a very different and better way.

Kunal Shivdasani of 'Hijack' falls in the same category. Though this theme isn't just new as this has been the subject in Kuku Kohli's 'Yeh Dil Aashiqana' and Rohit Shetty's 'Zameen', but 'Hijack' appears to be more real.

The movie speaks of terrorism but in another context; of a father crossing any limit to save his child from the clutches of terrorists. A father turns emotional when the matter pertains to his loving child. This is not the case of a state fighting terrorism, and taking the stringiest measures to contain it. Yes, 'Hijack' falls in the category of terrorism prevailing in the sky.

This is more on the lines of Hollywood movies, though. The riveting thriller centers around two important characters played by Shiney Ahuja and Esha Deol. Shiney Ahuja aka Vikram is a ground maintenance officer at Chandigarh Airport.

He has a friend in Rajeev, who is the Security Chief of the same airport. Incidentally, Vikram's daughter travels from Delhi to Amritsar, and her plane is hijacked by a group of five terrorists. They seek the release of Maqsood played by K K Raina, who had been captured by the police in India.

The plane had to land at Chandigarh Airport for refueling. The terrorists seek the release of Maqsood, else threaten to kill the hostages. Vikram enters into the aircraft with the help of the airhostess named Saira played by Esha Deol. He kills the terrorists one by one.

In the meanwhile some innocent passengers fall victims to the gunshots of ruthless terrorists in the process! We have witnessed a story like this in India, so it is real though the director has added some fiction to it as in any movie.

Since Kunal has also edited the movie so there is lack of tight editing of juniors' roles. Music-wise, it is just okay . Justin-Uday has failed in bringing out more than one song. However, the background score leaves a good impact.

Cinematography by Jehangir Chowdhary's is excellent. Stunts by Allan Amin's are brilliant, too. Mushtaq Kak, a terrorist, plays his role very well. Kaveri Jha is photogenic, but nothing more. Satyajeet and Mona Ambegaonkar have fared well.

We wish Kunal had cast senior actors to match his good plot so it could become a real competitor to this Friday's another movie 'A Wednesday'. The latter has excelled the Kunal's 'Hijack' only because of the two very strong actors like Nasseruddin Shah and Anupam Kher in that .

Another weak point of 'Hijack' is that its two lead characters haven't been on good terms for quite some time and therefore didn't cooperate in its promotion.

You may recall that Esha was the second choice after Sushmita Sen declined the offer due to her dates' problem. Even Esha accepted the movie when she was told that she would play many stunt scenes in this movie.

The movie wasn't granted permission to shoot it at the Chandigarh airport because of security reasons. The director thereafter arranged a special set for shooting it in the city. Even in the wake of all these deficiencies, the movie has been completed within 55 days.

To sum up we can say that this Friday has brought good movies for the audiences and 'Hijack' being an engrossing one stands second to 'A Wednesday'. The third movie release is Sangeet Sivan's 'Tahaann'.

A Wednesday

A Wednesday

Directed: Neeraj Pandey
Producer: Anjum Rizvi, Shital Bhatia
Starring: Naseruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir, Deepal Shaw, Gaurav Kapoor, Chetan Pandit
Editing: Shree Narayan Singh
Screenplay: Neeraj Pandey

The movie titled 'A Wednesday' and released all over India today (Friday, Sept 5th) though based on the backdrop of terrorism is yet different from other movies made on this subject.

Not only the movie's theme, but also its star cast is impressive comprising highly experienced and talented actors like Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah along with Jimmy Shergill, Aamir Bashir and Deepal Shaw in vital roles. Debutant director Neeraj Pandey deserves accolades both from the audience as well as the critics for sensitive and deft handling.

Significantly, the movie was first screened for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and then shown to the Chief minister of Delhi Ms Sheila Dixit at a special show in South Delhi on Wednesday (September 3rd) The presence of the two main artists of the movie -- Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher -- along with director Neeraj Pandey lent more importance to the special show.

A Wednesday' has nothing to do with the train explosions or any similarity with 'Bombay Meri Jaan'. In fact, it talks about the status and power of the common man. So, it's likely to rank as the best thriller of 2008 inasmuch as being an educational as well as an eye-opener.

Even though this is a Ramzan month when a large section of the Indian audience, the Muslims, keep a fast, the movie is sure to attract the movie watchers because of being a part of serious cinema. Incidentally, this is the third good movie in a row during the past three Fridays:

The first being 'Mumbai Meri Jaan' and the second 'Rock On' last week, and 'A Wednesday' this Friday. The story is good and brilliantly filmed. The movie tells the story of certain events that take place between 2 and 6 pm on a Wednesday in Mumbai though they are not on record.

In the flashback, Anupam Kher playing Prakash Rathod, the Commissioner of Mumbai Police, receives a strange call from the militants as they seek the release of their colleagues and not informing about leaving a bomb at some place to explode.

Initially, Prakash suspects that to be a hoax call, but soon finds a bomb in front of his police headquarters! He taps all resources, and even hires help to track conversations and also the location of the anonymous caller.

This shows that the director takes terrorism as the theme and gives it a new twist. Beginning with Naseeruddin Shah playing a terrorist and planting bombs in the most densely populated part of the city (police headquarters). Then, he introduces his other characters:

Anupam Kher as police Commissioner, Aamir Bashir as police officer, Jimmy Sheirgill as ATS Officer and Deepal Shaw as television journalist. The director weaves his story around these persons.

We regret that the story suffers from lack of cohesion among subplots and original characterizations. The characters are introduced to play not a big deal and therefore end up just like that. The entire cast comprising Irrfan Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Ritesh Deshmukh and Rajpal Yadav is wasted.

Arya Babbar is relegated to the rank of a junior artist. Danny dies before you notice him. The characters come and go; maybe they mark their presence without much to do. It is wondered if these players were obliged even though they do nothing in the movie.

Yes, there are no sub-plots, no songs, no movie Masala, yet it tells the story. Jimmy Jib's handling of camera is excellent. The cinematographer captures the scenes relating to Naseeruddin Shah brilliantly. . He captures the Mumbai skyline as Nasser places himself on the top of a building. And, this is perhaps one of Naseer's top five movies.

Then, comes the most refined acting of Anupam Kher. These two Bollywood giants have acted together in a movie after a very long time.

How could a movie connoisseur miss watching them together; only they could stand to each other? Jimmy Sheirgill plays a volatile cop but with a very limited role. Aamir Bashir is great and so is Deepal Shaw who shows self-confidence in herself. Chet Pandit plays an effective chief minister and Kali Prasad Mukherjee a terrorist.

Overall, the movie turns out an outstanding one as the theme, its execution and the selection of cast, especially the two Bollywood giants , are likely to draw large rowds for weeks together.

Karzzzz