Krantiveer - The Revolution Release Date : 25,Jun 2010

Producer Mehul Kumar
Director Mehul Kumar
Music Sachin-Jigar
Writer Mehul Kumar
Lyrics Sameer
Release Date 25-Jun-2010

June 25, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Designed as a sequel to the super successful Krantiveer (1994) which got Nana Patekar the Best Actor, National Award, Krantiveer - The Revolution (KTC) is a weak attempt at recreating the patriotic fervor which the original had.

Roshni (Jahan Bloch) is the young daughter of the man responsible for the last revolution, Pratap Narayan Tilak and his wife (Nana Patekar and Dimple Kapadia). She just like her dad wants to rid the nation of corruption, and the evils present in the society. She gets herself a platform by joining a TV channel as an investigative journalist. She is hell bent on exposing all the scams in the country including those involving high profile businessmen and top ministers. Along with her friends Vishal (Samir Aftab), Goldie (Aditya Singh Rajput) and Uday (Harsh Rajput) she takes this crusade forward and becomes successful eventually despite many odds.

The sole reason why Krantiveer was a success was because of KK Singh's dialogues, Nana Patekar's character and Mehul Kumar's direction. Here Singh is not involved with the project, Nana is not acting in the film and the veteran director though having made a sincere attempt, falls short. There is no direct relation of the plot to any of the 26/11 terror attack scenes which come towards the climax. Though Mehul Kumar has tried to show authenticity by using footage of the 26/11 terrorists attacks, he fails to impress the audiences.

His debutante daughter Jahan has been made to rant lengthy dialogues from the word go. While she does it with sincerity, it doesn't really work. Too much responsibility has been given on her shoulders leaving less scope for the rest. New comers Samir Aftab, Adiya Singh Rajput, Harsh Rajput put in their honest efforts too. Senior actors like Ranjeet, Farida Jalal hardly get any scope to perform. Aman Verma playing the corporate head honcho, Mukesh Tiwari and Govind Namdeo playing sleazy ministers act well.

Music by Sachin-Jigar is passable and the songs 'Khuda mere khuda' and 'Chhote tera birthday aaya' work on screen. But the songs 'Firangi paani' and 'Lau jalee' were not needed. Editing and cinematography don't match up to standards.

Though it may not be worth an effort to go to the cinema hall, the film definitely appears like a genuine attempt to awaken the young Indians to come forward and erase corruption from our politics.

Mr Singh Mrs Mehta Release Date : 25,Jun 2010

Producer Tutu Sharma, Manu S. Kumaran
Director Pravesh Bhardwaj
Music Ustaad Shujaat Husain Khan, Shaarang Dev
Writer Ashwin Mehta, Neera Singh, Pravesh Bhardwaj
Lyrics Amitabh Verma
Release Date 25-Jun-2010

June 25, 2010: Aditya Mehta (Prashant Narayanan) is an artist who is more shown painting his wife’s toenails than the colours of the canvas. His wife Sakhi Mehta (Lucy Hassan) is shown to be having an extramarital affair with Karan Singh (Naved Aslam). Now, Karan’s wife Neera Singh (Aruna Shields) discovers that her husband is cheating on her and she ends up seeking solace in Aditya’s company. They get drawn together by shame and anger as they find more comfort in each other’s friendship. But despite bonding well, they try not to have a relationship with each other.

One fails to understand that though the adultery is shown openly obvious since the start, why do Aditya and Neera never try to confront their respective partners over it? Trying to make the film more provocative widespread nudity has been incorporated on the pretext that overcome his block by painting nude female form ala Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Now funnily, Neera is shown to be shying away from posing nude for the painting that Aditya wants to do, despite the fact that she has been shown moving around naked in Aditya’s warehouse for big part of the film. What irritates more are the continually censored blurs that attempt to cover up her nude body. The climax is supposedly symbolic but it is too rushed that you end up feeling there some more of the film left! There is nothing wrong in making a complete art house project but at least let the film connect on some level or derive some emotion out of the viewer apart from frustration!

Debutante director Pravesh Bhardwaj takes his own sweet time to establish the growing proximity between Aditya and Neera but leaves it hurriedly towards the climax. The film’s shot in London but you don’t see much of it apart from some unflattering lanes of London. A wonderful ghazal based track by Shujaat Hussain Khan goes waste in a film like this.

Prashant Narayanan is just about okay but he has done better work before. Aruna Shields is made to expose her body more than her acting skills. Lucky Hassan is passable. Naved Aslam is fair.

The film is a plain bore with nothing good to talk about. Please avoid!