By Vidya Pradhan 

Sometimes it is all about the treatment.

You can have a complex script, big name stars, special effects and professional comedians or you can have a simple love story that is well directed, smartly edited and best of all, well written.

With a plot loosely similar to a Ben Affleck/Sandra Bullock movie called ‘Forces of Nature’, Jab We Met is director Imtiaz Ali’s second movie after Socha Na Tha. His forte appears to be small, intimate, slice-of-life ‘dramedies’, if I may coin a term. SNT was also expertly directed, though I didn’t enjoy it as much as JWM because I can’t stand Abhay Deol( or at least I didn’t, before Manorama Six Feet Under).

Jab We Met has a rather unfortunate title, because it sounds cutesy, pretentious and very ‘desi’ but it is, in fact, one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in a long time. You just have to watch the first few scenes of the movie to make out that this is a classy product and you are in for a real treat. Continue reading →

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 →