Karthik Calling Karthik Release Date : 26,Feb 2010

Star cast: Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone, Ram Kapoor and Vivan Bathena;

Director	Vijay Lalwani
Producer	Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar
Starring	Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone, Ram Kapoor, Shefali Shah

Karthik (Farhan) is timid fellow forever bullied by his boss Kamath (Ram Kapoor) and his workmates. Even his landlord spares no opportunity in pestering him. Karthik is silently in love with the hottest gal in his office architect Shonali Mukherjee (Deepika). But she doesn’t even know that he exists despite working together for years. Karthik keeps getting nightmares of one childhood incident wherein he feels he was responsible for his elder brother’s death. He consults a psychiatrist (Shefali Shah) for the same. One day as his sufferings from the hands of his boss and life in general become unbearable he decides to commit to suicide. Just when when he is about to pop sleeping pills to end his life his landline phone rings. A voice sounding similarly like him tells him its Karthik on the other end and it is no one else but himself. At first Karthik doesn’t believe it and tries to find from the phone company office if such a call actually came. But no such record is shown. Then again same time next day that’s 5 am in the morning he gets a call again with Karthik calling at the other end. Intrigued he gets talking to him. The caller sympathises with Karthik and guides him to become a better and successful person. As Karthik follows the instructions his life changes over night. Not only does he gets Shonali whom he had been dreaming about since many years but also gets a chance to get even with his bully boss and gets a hot shot job profile for himself in the same company where he was insulted. The calls keep coming daily at 5 am and Karthik is happy having found a guide. The caller however cautions Karthik that he should not talk about this secret to anyone. But in a weak moment, Karthik makes the mistake and reveals about the calls to Shonali. He not only stops at that but on Shonali’s insistence avoids picking up further calls. What hell is unleashed on Karthik by the mysterious caller and how Karthik faces his demons forms the rest of the film.

A very hatke concept, Karthik Calling Karthik (KCK) has been stylishly shot like a taut Hollywood thriller. Keeping you much intrigued with what will happen next, the film is a good exercise of the guessing game but up to the last twenty minutes. It derails big time in the closing reels. Since it’s a suspense thriller much can’t be revealed at this point. Certain cinematic liberties taken and a disappointingly predictable climax loosen the final impact. The much needed climax punch is sorely missing. The revelation though interesting doesn’t give you that, “Oh I didn’t know this was coming” feeling! But these things apart KCK is a good one time watch for many reasons. Debutante director Vijay Lalwani shows terrific spark and more can be expected from his future projects. The cinematography, background score by Medieval Punditz and Karsh Kale enhance the thrill. The art direction deserves special mention. The dialogues are very good, in fact the intelligent one-liners will have you in splits.

Farhan Akhtar is only improving as an actor with each passing film. Just when you saw him confidently portray a self assured character in his first two films, in here he oscillates well between playing a meek guy and a super confident person. Deepika fits the part perfectly. They both make an unusually cute pair. Vivan Bathena and Ram Kapoor are aptly cast. Shefali Shah is good in the three scenes that she gets.

Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s music is already ruling the charts and is superbly incorporated in the film with the song numbers being well shot. Karthik Calling Karthik could have been better had there been a cracker of a climax but nonetheless, it’s a good film that deserves one viewing at least.

Teen Patti Release Date : 26,Feb 2010

Director: Leena Yadav

Star Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, R Madhavan, Shraddha Kapoor

This movie is what can be called a really meaty plot. The story is flawless and it has the capability of gluing the viewers to their seats for at least an hour in the first half. This movie is about gambling and ‘probability’ which is a well known term in mathematics. It tells that how probability if implemented properly can even predict gambling and help winning it. Though the plot is good but it will be able to attract only a small mass of Indian audience because of its complex subject. The movie speaks a lot about randomness (a part of probability in mathematics) which is a hard nut to crack for normal people with less IQ .Intellectual group may be able to grasp each aspect of the movie for others be prepared for some facts going above the head.

The first impression for people who have already watched the Hollywood flick ‘21’ is that ‘Teen Patti’ is its Hindi version but, the movie if watched and compared with the Hollywood one it’s completely different though the concept is a bit similar. The movie is starred by two of the most renowned actors Amitabh Bachchan and Academy Awards Winner Ben Kingsley. Though the first half of the movie is very thrilling the second half of the movie is quite slow and the climax is just dragged too far. Some instances like short appearances of Ajay Devgan, Saira Mohan make the script a mingle-mangle. Also, Amitabh’s narration to Kingsley seems to go on and on. The movie at the end could not finish too well. The interest with which the story starts, the more complicated and confusing it becomes at the end.

The story begins when the two geniuses Perci Trachtenberg (Sir Kingsley) invites Venkat Subramanium (Amitabh Bachchan) at Cambridge University. This is where the story begins: Venkat who is an eccentric mathematician narrates his life’s story. Venkat invented a theory of probability which can predict any gambling, though he submitted a thesis on this invention it was not approved by his seniors. One day while playing an online game of cards, ‘Teen Patti’ Venkat realizes that his theory really works. He tells about his findings to Shantanu (R Madhavan) a junior professor. Both of them together starts training three bright students Aparna viz. Apu (Shraddha Kapoor), Sid (Siddharth Kher) and Bikram (Dhruv). Soon each one of them starts gambling in different casinos using the probability theory and successfully starts winning the game. But, then every coin has two sides, money is followed by greed and once that virus called ‘greed’ sets in their whole lives gets messed up. Another character makes an entry as a student Abbas (Vaibhav). Then, suddenly one day Venkat gets an anonymous phone call demanding a big amount of money. Later, that person starts giving instructions about which game should be played. Venkat suspects that the blackmailer is one among the group but at last the mystery unfolds which should be better watched than narrated.

About the performance of the actors the Big ‘B’ is as usual outstanding. The role of Venkat cannot be imagined without him. Sir Kingsley is just superb. Shakti Kapoor’s daughter Shraddha Kapoor debuted in this movie but she is quite talented like her father, the other three debutants Vaibhav, Dhruv and Siddharth have also impressed with their acting. Madhavan’s acting is also superb as he is seen in a different and a grey role. Raima Sen plays the role of his fiancé but, there is nothing much to mention about her role. There are short appearances by Ajay Devgan, Saira Mohan, Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor Mahesh Manjrekar being the best.

Superior cinematography by Aseem Bajaj, decent, appropriate costume designs by Ameira Punvan. Salim-Sulaiman’s music is so-so. The song 'Neeyat' also features a Brazilian hot cake Mariah.

This movie is a must watch for people who love mathematics especially ‘probability’ to sharpen future prospects of using it for gambling. It’s quite a different movie so it won’t be a bad idea to watch it after all.

Toh Baat Pakki Release Date : 19,Feb 2010

Producer Ramesh S. Taurani, Kumar S. Taurani
Director Kedar Shinde
Music Pritam Chakraborty
Writer Vibha Singh
Lyrics Sayeed Quadri, Mayur Puri, Shabbir Ahmed
Release Date 19-Feb-2010

This family sitcom about finding a suitable boy seems like a blast from the past when the Sooraj Barjatyafilms used to invite numerous footfalls into theatres. Toh Baat Pakki, directed by Kedar Shinde, comes a little late in the day. The director adopts a simple, uncluttered approach to tell the story but stuffs it up with unnecessary melodrama at many places, the second half particularly.

So we have Tabu playing an overprotective overbearing elder sister to Uvika Chaudhary. The happily married Rajeshwari (Tabu) wants the most suitable boy as the groom for Nisha (Uvika). He should be a Saxena, should have a bright future, preferably a secure job, should not demand dowry and should have all the qualities to be a caring husband. Engineering student Rahul (Sharman Joshi) seems to fit the bill so Rajeshwari tries to hook him up with Nisha. All is well and love sprouts between Rahul and Nisha and even marriage is fixed.

But then walks in Yuvraj (Vatsal Seth) a junior manager in Godrej with a car of his own. Moreover, he’s a Saxena too. For Rajeshwari he’s doubtlessly a better option than Rahul.

So, a change of plan. Out goes Rahul and in comes Yuvraj as the prospective groom. But in this game of musical chairs, Rajeshwari turns a blind eye to the feelings of Nisha and Rahul who are by now madly in love with each other.

What follows is a Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge kind of drama where Rahul steps in to help in the wedding preparations and makes all the right moves to break off the wedding between Yuvraj and Nisha.

At its core ‘Toh Baat Pakki’ suffers from a mediocre script that’s neither funny enough to tickle your spine nor emotional enough to tug at your heart. Even the wedding jamboree and many songs fail to inject oomph into the flaccid screenplay. Yes, the repartee between Tabu and Sharman in the first half does keep you hooked, but that’s just about it for a film that’s two hours long.

Click Release Date : 19,Feb 2010

Producer Sangeeth Sivan
Director Sangeeth Sivan
Music Shamir Tandon
Lyrics Shabbir Ahmed
Release Date 19-Feb-2010

CLICK lacks substance. It also lacks a credible screenplay and script. It's more like a project put together by students for a college project. To top it, the only actor who plays her part with eerie glee is the lady who plays Sneha Ullal's mother. It's one of those films you would want forget in a jiffy, never mind if there have been a couple of electrifying scary scenes. But a few scenes like these does not a horror film make. And director Sangeeth Sivan should know that.

Avi (Shreyas Talpade) is a fashion photographer and one fine day, whenever he photographs, a female shape appears in the prints. This happens only after he and his girlfriend Sonia (Sadaa) are involved in a hit-and-run one night after partying with friends. While Sonia wants to get out of the car and check the accident, Avi does not want to risk a chance. So off they drive to safety and into an ordeal that begins to unfold.

If the ghost wants to trouble Avi, why does she do so only after the accident? Why not before? This is very strange because as the story unfolds you learn that the two (ghost and Avi) have a past. Also, very interesting is a scene where one of Avi's friend commits suicide and at the morgue, there are three bodies. All his friends. But according to the scene shown, only one committed suicide! There are also scenes with Chunkey Pandey and Avatar Gill, which borders on insanity.

Aakhari Decision Release Date : 19,Feb 2010

Producer A. Singh
Director Deepak Bandhu
Music Hanif Shaikh, Bapi - Tutul
Writer Rohit karn batra
Lyrics Hanif Shaikh, Amitabh Verma, Tripuraranath Tiwari
Release Date 19-Feb-2010

'Aakhari Decision' is an action based romantic flick ready to hit the screens

'Aakhari Decision' is about the last decision that Arjun takes in his career and the first decision to take to start the life fresh

'Aakhari Decision' casts Amar Sidhu, Sumona Chakravarti, Anant Jog, Nagesh Bhosle, Mushtaq Khan, Rio Kapadia, Navni Parihar, Kamlesh Sawant, Ghanshyam, Jeevan Lal, Jaihind

'Aakhari Decision' is directed by Deepak Bandhu and music is scored by Hanif shaikh, Bapi, Tatul. Choreography by Adil Shaikh & Bhushan Lakhandri and lyrics are penned by Hanif Shaikh, Amitabh Verma, Tripuranth Tiwari

Arjun is an assassin trained never to miss, a contract killer, who kills people for money.

Victor a crime lord who specializes in contraact killing raised Arjun like a son. He has been protected from not having any friends in life.

But life smiles at him in the form of Manasi with whom he falls in love. He wishes to start a peaceful life with her leaving all the crime behind.

Struck in between the love and loyalty to his boss Victor 'Arjun' decides to leave Victor for Manasi

The dreaded Orion, a long back fugitive is back to India has come back from Greece after 30 years. In order to take revenge of killing his son, by a police commissioner Shyam Singh 'Orion' gives the contract to Victor to kill commissioner`s son. Victor acceepts the contract of killing the commissioner`s son and recommends his best trained assign 'Arjun' to do the job.

Lost in love 'Arjun' pleads 'Victor' to let him go, to start a new life, but Victor forces him to take up the contract as a last job.

Arjun absorbs the fact that he is to become a father he discovers that he is the one who has killed Commissioner Shyam Singh`s son. The realization of fatherhood with the knowledge of him ripping a son and father apart send Arjun out of control

Life knocks at his door and gives him a wonderful opportunity of choosing the right path

What is the Aakhari Decision that he takes in life forms the rest of the story

Watch 'Aakhari Decision' in theatres near you

My Name is Khan Release Date : 12,Feb 2010

Director Karan Johar

Producer Gauri Khan, Hiroo Johar

Starring Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Jimmy Shergill, Zarina Wahab, Parveen Dabbas, Arif Zakaria, Navneet Nishan, Sheetal Menon, Tanay Cheda, Arjun Mathur, Sonya Jehan

Questions of religious and national identity, of the sense of right and wrong, of combating a certain isolation that comes with a behavioural disorder. But what triumphs over all the complexities unfolding in a tumultuous post 9/11 America is Rizwan Khan and his essential goodness that tells you unwaveringly – his name is Khan and he is not a terrorist.

Director Karan Johar is in unfamiliar territory here. No candyfloss romance, no sweet nothings, nobody breaking into song. Just the super intelligent Rizwan, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, his halting voice with his inability to communicate, and his many relationships – with his mother, his brother, and yes, Mandira, and her son Sam.

Move over Rahul, Rizwan is here. Shah Rukh makes the transition from the eternal romantic to the intense Rizwan who finds love and loses it some years later when his Khan identity becomes all important in a tense, suspicious America. You sit through three hours waiting to get a glimpse of Shah Rukh through Rizwan Khan, but it doesn’t happen.

If Shah Rukh lives and breathes Rizwan in what is one of his finest roles, Kajol as Mandira, the vivacious single mother, is also good – as always. The chemistry between them if not always crackling, then heartwarming.

It’s an unlikely romance, not very easy to portray. But it’s dealt with a light touch. There they are sitting on either side of the bed after their wedding with Mandira telling Rizwan, who doesn’t like to be hugged, that this is something they can’t do without touching. It’s a scene that could quite easily have gone wrong, but it doesn’t.

All credit to Karan Johar for that.

Like a piece of music that gradually rises to grand crescendo, ‘My Name Is Khan’ begins with Rizwan as a child with his mother – so good to see Zarina Wahab after such a long time – in a tenement in Mumbai and ends with cheers from the US’ first African American president in a crowded rally.

It’s from his mother that Rizwan learns his first lessons of humanity; as the 1983 Mumbai riots rage outside, she tells the young boy that the world is divided into good people and bad people.

It is this essential humanism that carries Rizwan through from Mumbai to San Francisco where his brother stays, then to the suburb of Banville where he moves in with Mandira and Sam, and even when he is taken to be a terror suspect.

Sam, his ‘only best friend’, is subjected to a vicious race attack because he takes on Rizwan’s surname. Mandira hits back, saying that the worst thing she could have done was marry a Khan and Rizwan is out on the roads – unable to articulate his feelings but backpacking his way across the US to meet ‘president sahib’ so he can tell him: ‘My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.’

It is a road journey through a troubled post 9/11 America towards humanism and the essential goodness of the human spirit.

This is a US where chanting the name of Allah gets you into trouble, where the word terrorist and Khan in conjunction can put you behind bars. Rizwan moves from being a terror suspect to a nationwide hero who exposes a terror mastermind. And then, the man with the mission who travels to Wilhelmina that is literally drowning in a hurricane to supervise a heroic rescue mission.

There’s Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush and Obama too. The US’ first African American president is voted in and, in that final feel good moment Rizwan meets him in front of thousands of people and his goodness is validated.

Plenty of great one liners. When he is refused entry into a presidential fundraiser for the poor in Africa that is only for Christians, he leaves behind $500 saying: ‘This if for those who are not Christians in Africa.’

The music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is superb. This is not a film without flaws, it is at least 20 minutes too long for one and flags in the pre-interval period, but here is one straight from the heart. It has a message, in these days of tensions over language and religion, one which needs to be heard.

Go watch.

Striker Release Date : 05,Feb 2010

Director Chandan Arora
Producer Chandan Arora
Starring Siddharth, Anupam Kher, Aditya Panscholi, Seema Biswas, Padmapriya, Vidya Malavade

‘Striker’ is another Bollywood tale of an innocent man being driven into the puddle of money-making. The movie is the story of Surya (Siddharth) who happens to be extremely talented carom player. But owing to the circumstances, Siddharth had to give up the passion and move on the conventional path to be the bread-earner for the family. The movie oscillates between the past and present and one gets to see Surya’s childhood and youth simultaneously.

Surya reaches Mumbai after his out of town trip and finds himself in an environment of communal riot. Surya is stopped by the police official, Faroukh (Anupam Kher). He gets trapped in the course of movie and eventually loses all the money that he had collected to go to Dubai. It is at this stage that he is re-introduced to carom but this time it is not just a game. He plays carom for gambling and stands face to face with the dreadful gangster, Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi) whom he hates since his childhood. He had always tried to keep away from Jaleel and his wickedness but ultimately finds himself standing in front of him.

The movie is made with the best of intentions and with a sensible theme. Dialogues are crisp and powerful. Like any other Bollywood movie, ‘Striker’ too has a love plot which never finds scope to grow fully. Noorie (Nicolette Bird), the love life of Surya gives a fresh impact to the audience. Friendship shared between Surya and Zaid (Ankur Vikal) is commendable and forms one of the main veins of the story.

Producer-director Chandan Arora makes a fruitful attempt in story telling technique and manages to keep the audience watching. However, at times the plot weakens and tends to confuse the audience with the introduction of sub-plots. Songs are pleasant to ear and contributes to the progress of the movie.

Coming to the actors, Siddharth poses a natural acting and shows his capability to shoulder a Bollywood movie on his shoulder. His work is highly appreciable and succeeds in maintaining the ‘Rang De Basanti’ magic. Nicolette Bird is pretty but finds no chance to show her acting skill. Anupam Kher and Aditya Pancholi show themselves to be experienced actors. Ankur Vikal, Anup Soni, Seema Biswas and Padmapriya suit their role perfectly.

Though the acting and plot of the movie is good, it fails to leave an unforgettable impact. Probably this is due to the lack of a well-written script. Again, the movie will be acceptable only to limited audience, leave alone the weak hearts. One may feel the smoky atmosphere of the movie repulsive.

To sum up, ‘Striker’ is a one-time watch for sure but whether it will strike or not is up to you!