Why oh why does Vinod Chopra end his movies the way he does? Mission Kashmir lost a whole lot of its impact when the Hrithik Roshan character survived. Parineeta( which was from his production house)  was a lovely period movie that, to my mind, was almost ruined by the contrived ending where Saif breaks down the dividing wall using a concrete planter( have you ever tried lifting one of those things?). My biggest, and probably only, criticism of this movie is the way it ends.

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Finally, a Bollywood comedy for grownups! Ad film director R. Balki brings the same slick approach to the story of a May-December romance, though in this case the December may be quite a few years apart.

Amitabh Bachchan is the high-strung, temperamental and arrogant chef/owner of an exclusive Indian restaurant in London, who has the unlikely name of Buddha. He meets his match in more ways than one in one of his disgruntled customers, Nina, played by Tabu. The story follows the arc of their unlikely romance and all the chaos that ensues when the news is broken to Nina’s father, who happens to be younger than her suitor.
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‘Provoked’ is the story of soft spoken Kiranjit Ahluwalia who accompanies her Asian- British husband to England, a young bride at the cusp of a new life, with hopes of continuing her education, becoming a mother, maturing as a woman. Alone in a strange country, with below par English speaking skills, she finds herself at the mercy of her new husband, Deepak, a Dr Jekyll, Mr. Hyde kind of character.

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A rags to riches to rags to riches story full of clichés and homilies, Tara Rum Pum is the latest offering from Yash Raj films. Directed by Siddharth Anand of ‘Salaam Namaste’ fame, TRP is a pretty forgettable tale of a race car tire changer RV (Saif Khan) who becomes a champion race car driver, marries Radhika (Rani Mukherjee) and has two kids who, believe it or not, are christened Champ and Princess.

The dream family lives a dream life in a dream house but due to a major accident on the race track they are banished to a classic pokey New York one roomer in “cabbie alley”. The parents tell the kids that the whole “poverty” thing is not actually happening; it is part of a reality show to inspire them to “don’t worry and to be happy”. (an unhappy lift from ‘Life is beautiful’). What happens next is entirely predictable even to very young kids who have watched the Disney movie ‘Cars’.

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My motto is – it is better to watch a good movie again than to put up with the dreck that passes for entertainment these days. I decided on “Khamoshi” – not the Manisha/Salman one, but the old black and white Waheeda Rahman starrer. Not really what you would deem “Bollywood”, Khamoshi is one of those timeless classics in the genre of greats like “A Million Pound Note” or “Madhumati” or “Casablanca” that gets better every time you watch it- and this was only my third time!. With scintillating music by Hemant Kumar and magnificent lyrics by Gulzar, I know it will not be my last.

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I didn’t think I could do the ‘Namesake’ justice as I hadn’t read the book, but hopefully, I am coming from a non- biased position and can see whether the movie can stand alone.

Set in the 1970’s, the Namesake chronicles the experience of early Indian immigrants to this country and their children and how each generation deals with the challenges of assimilation differently.

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