By Vidya Pradhan

For a parody to work, everyone in the film must play it absolutely seriously.

And this is the basic problem with Om Shanti Om. Like a couple of other over-hyped movies I can think of, (Ocean’s Twelve and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom come to mind), if the cast and crew look like they are having too much fun, the movie-goers begin to feel it is at their expense; they tend to scratching  their collective heads and wondering if they’re also supposed to be in on the joke.

As a lover of mainstream Bollywood, I found OSO incredibly frustrating at times. Continue reading →

By Vidya Pradhan

Subtitled ‘The Journey of a Woman’, LCMD is director Pradeep Sarkar’s second film after ‘Parineeta.’ After that film received critical and commercial acclaim, the director moved up, budget-wise, to helm his second directorial effort under the banner of Yash Raj Films. In brief, LCMD traces the story of a young girl from a small town who is forced to become an escort after her family finds itself in dire financial straits. How her secret life impacts her family and future is the subject of the movie. Continue reading →

By Rohini Mohan

With all the buzz about the en masse US outsourcing effort to India, it’s high time someone made a movie about it. ‘Outsourced’, directed and co-written by John Jeffcoat with George Wing is a warm, funny, feel good romantic comedy set in India and Seattle. Starring Josh Hamilton, a prolific Broadway and TV actor and talented Ayesha Dharker, it is being touted as the next ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ type film to hit the theatres. Continue reading →

By Rohini Mohan

'Gandhi, My Father’ directed by Feroz Khan (not the actor) and produced by Anil Kapoor is based on the play Mahatma vs. Gandhi – 1998 also directed by Feroz Khan. It explores the rather stormy relationship Gandhiji had with his oldest son, Harilal. Naseeruddin Shah and K.K Menon played the Mahatma and his son respectively in the play, while Darshan Zariwala and Akshaye Khanna play the senior and junior Gandhi in the film. Continue reading →

By Vidya Pradhan

“A Shahrukh movie without a heroine?” was the first reaction of everybody I told about ‘Chak De India’. Certainly in recent years the superstar seems to have been stuck in his Rahul/Raj passionate lover persona, carefully crafted by the Chopras and the Johars. Even the negative roles he played early in his career were demented, obsessive, crazy-for-love characters which he performed with his customary flamboyance. Occasionally the star has veered into unfamiliar territory, but these efforts have so often been such resounding commercial failures (Swades, Paheli) that he has publicly admitted his nervousness with Chak De, which has him playing the coach of the Indian women’s hockey team. He doesn’t have one heroine, he has sixteen of them! Chak De is a traditional sports film, dealing with the issues of failure and redemption, team spirit, national integration (versus racial integration in American films), patriotism and girl power. It could have devolved into a clichéd mess, but in director Shimit( Ab Tak Chappan) Amin’s capable hands, it turns out to be a joyride of a film. Continue reading →

By Rohini Mohan

Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching Manoj Bajpai in two movies; Pinjar and 1971. The two were quite different from each other, the characters being portrayed by Bajpai also diametrically opposite. If he is a good guy but somewhat lacking a backbone in one, he is a fearless leader of men, daunted by nothing, in the other. The only striking commonality is the flawlessness of his performance in both. I was watching Pinjar for the second time, so I had high expectations of 1971. I was not disappointed. A low key but powerfully told story of the Indian prisoners of war left behind in Pakistan post the 1971 India-supported struggle for Bangladeshi independence, it is well researched, tightly edited and gripping. Continue reading →

By Vidya Pradhan

You may pooh-pooh directors like Karan Johar and Vidhu Vinod Chopra for pandering to mass appeal but, let me tell you, making an ‘entertainer’ is not easy as it seems. The alchemy that happens when the right story, dialogues and cast come together is elusive to most Bollywood directors, and sometimes even the most seasoned players are left with a product that, like a movie set, has no substance behind it. Continue reading →

By Rohini Mohan

If I were on a deserted island and all I had was a DVD player and a choice of one movie to watch for eternity….. what movie would it be? I don’t need to think on that one. I would pick Sholay every time. Just as I get my son to eat paneer butter masala and acquaint him with Gandhiji, I feel the need to have him watch Sholay – to me it’s an essential part of being an Indian. Continue reading →