I Am Release Date : 29,Apr 2011

Producer    Onir, Sanjay Suri
 Director    Onir
 Music    Amit Trivedi, Rajiv Bhalla, Vivek Philip
 Writer    Onir, Urmi Juvekar, Merle Kroeger
 Lyrics    Amitabh Bhattacharya, Amitabh Varma, Rajiv Bhalla
 Release Date    29-Apr-2011

Story: The film is a compendium of four stories which have a common theme: the search and assertion of individual identity. Nandita Das is a single woman who wants to experience the joys of motherhood by artificial insemination. Juhi Chawla is a displaced Kashmiri pundit who returns to her homeland to confront the ghosts of the past. Sanjay Suri has yet to bury the shadows of child abuse from his seemingly normal life. Rahul Bose doesn't know if the changing laws in India allow him to come out of closet and declare his alternate sexuality, loud and clear. 

Movie Review: When you take up different stories and juggle with sundry characters, there has to be a string that binds them together and a leitmotif that holds the film. Director Onir doesn't err here. I Am is essentially an affirmative assertion of identity and an appropriation of private spaces in a society that has a tendency to use tradition as the most convenient whiplash to beat any and everyone into disturbing conformity. The film serenades the art of saying `No'.

Of course, everyone is bound to have his/her favourite story in the film, specially since all four aren't evenly crafted. But that's easy to understand why. The women have the softer tales which would necessarily lack the punch. But kudos to Nandita Das and Juhi Chawla for creating two spunky women of substance who know what they want and do not hesitate to acquire it. Again, they too encounter a lot of learning and re-configuring on the path to self-discovery.

Sanjay Suri's tryst with a pedophilic step father (Anurag Kashyap in a great cameo) is sensitive, subtle and truly disturbing, even as Rahul Bose and his encounter with traditional -- and brutal -- Indian scorn for alternate sexuality is chilling and stomach-churning. Put Abhimanyu Singh to play the brute (the typical Indian cop) and you know he'll do a fine job.

Watch I Am for talking unapologetically about real issues in real India. And also, for the performances. 

Chalo Dilli Release Date : 29,Apr 2011

Producer    Krishika Lulla, Kavita Bhupathi Chadda
 Director    Shashant Shah
 Music    Gourov Dasgupta, Anand Raj Anand, Sachin Gupta, Rohit Kulkarni, Roshan Balu
 Writer    Arshad Syed
 Lyrics    Manthan, Anand Raj Anand, Krishika Lulla, Shabbir Ahmed, Nisha Mascarenhas,
 Release Date    29-Apr-2011

Chalo Dilli is  the recent movie of Shashant Shah. Chalo Dilli falls in to the genre of a road movie. A journey that begins with the dynamic Mihika Mukherjea. A strong willed young woman who is a Senior Vice President of a top multinationalFinancial Institution in Mumbai. A jet setter, go-getter, no nonsense woman, Mihika divides the world into losers and winners and knows which side she is on. Mrs Clear Cut!

The premise is simple. Mihika is heading back home from Mumbai to Delhi (to her banker husband who lives and works there), and misses her flight and encounters Manu Gupta, a podgy and loud 'Ladies Cut-piece' merchant who has a small 10 by 10 shop at Karol Bagh Delhi.

Manu is everything that Mihika isn't. Loud. Crass. Obnoxious. Rude. (He is thatguy who talks on his cellphone loudly in the theatre and then spits gutkaa juice in the aisle...). He isn't an idiot. He is very smart. Street smart. But mostly over smart. And boy...do they pay for it!

As fate (and the script) would have it... Mihika lands up in a situation where she and Manu are stuck together for the rest of the journey to Delhi.

A bizarre journey full of adventure, madness and crazy comic moments with the oddest traveling couple ever! (She drinks Evian and while he is cool drinking from a bore well...She smokes Virginia Slims, he chews Gopal zarda)

A bizarre journey through air, road and rail from Mumbai, via Jaipur to Delhi.A journey which along with these two protagonists showcases the real India. Its colorful and funny people and their eccentricities.

But above all it's a journey within for Mihika. Where the real growth happens on reaching her destination of Delhi... (Which is a big moment because getting home turns out to be tougher than she thought).

And once she finally reaches Delhi (in a span of a day and a half), tired, worn out and with enough stories to tell her grandkids someday, the moral of the story dawns upon her...

"Do not judge people by face value.... Including yourself".Come. Be a part of the craziest roller coaster journey of your lives…with Mihika and Manu, and their resounding war cry Chalo Dilli!!!

Watch out and mark till your next journey.  Have a haapy journey ..........

Shor In The City Release Date : 28,Apr 2011

Producer    Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor
 Director    Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK
 Music    Sachin, Jigar, Harpreet
 Writer    Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK
 Lyrics    Sameer, Priya Panchal
 Release Date    28-Apr-2011

Movie Review: Shor in the City may be another dekko at merry, murky, mad city Mumbai but not once do you get a sense of deja vu. And that's because this one's a completely quirky cameo on a city that continues to hypnotize people with its chameleon hues. The film posits the metropolis as a character in the film. One that is as jagged, enigmatic and hysterical as the living-breathing protagonists of the film. And yet, despite the hurtling-towards-doom scenario, there is an undercurrent of hope and innocence which seems to spring from the most unusual places. Like Tusshar Kapoor's character and the diehard aspiring young cricketer's zeal...

The threesome of Tusshar, Nikhil and Pitobash form the central core of the film. It's a tangy desi Reservoir Dog's combo, with Nikhil Dwivedi and Pitobash Tripathi providing the edge and Tusshar pitching in the equipoise. His discovery of Paulo Coelho and his uplifting psy-co-low-gee, as he tries to read The Alchemist, dictionary in hand, is so very funny and funky. All this, while he is also trying to discover the sensual charms of his newly-wedded wife, Radhika Apte, and his friends are trying to distract him with their treasure of AK-47s and 56s.

Senthil Ramamurthy's track is equally spicy too, specially his encounters with gangster Zakir Hussain who can't understand why the oaf can't understand the petty gangster's code that rules Mumbai. Not even, when it's a matter of life and death.

With a zany screenplay (Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), excellent cinematography by Tushar Kanti Ray and peppy music by Sachin-Jigar, Shor in the City is another breaking-norm film from Ekta Kapoor (producer) after Love Sex aur Dhokha and Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai. Don't miss this black comedy that has heart and soul.

Zokkomon Release Date : 22,Apr 2011

Producer    Anil Kapoor
 Director    Satyajit Bhatkal
 Music    Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
 Writer    Satyajit Bhatkal, Lancy Fernandes, Svati Chakravarty Bhatkal
 Lyrics    Javed Akhtar
 Release Date    22-Apr-2011

Child actor Darsheel Safari is three films old now (a big thing for a child actor). He won our hearts in TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, was seen in BUMM BUMM BHOLE, and is now seen as a superhero in ZOKKOMON.

The film is about Kunal (Darsheel Safari), an orphan who is happy playing Basketball in his school. Against his will, he's brought to his uncle Deshraj's (Anupam Kher) small village, which is in a dismal state. The people in the village believe in evil spirits and consult a baba for all their problems. Kunal finds himself ridiculed by his school teachers and Uncle Dashraj's family.

One day, Deshraj takes him to Mumbai for a holiday and abandons him in an amusement park. On returning to the village, he announces Kunal's death so that he can get the money left behind by his parents. Meanwhile in Mumbai, Kunal meets Kittu (Manjari Fadnis) and starts living with her.

All's well until the day he gets estranged by Kittu and somehow gets to his village. To his disbelief, the villagers think he's a bhoot. The little Kunal is helped by scientist Vivek Rai (again Anupam Kher), whom the villagers consider pagal. He becomes superhero Zokkomon, to teach the miscreants a lesson.
Director Satyajit Bhatkal's ZOKKOMON is touted as a superhero film, but the superhero part only comes just before the interval. Major part of the film is a cliched story about a greedy Deshraj who wants all the wealth through wrong means. It's a children's film which gives the message of hope and aims to end superstitions. But it takes a very flimsy route and you lose interest pretty soon. It doesn't consider our kids to be smart, which is certainly not the case. In fact, most kids are way smarter than adults these days.

Dum Maaro Dum Release Date : 22,Apr 2011

Producer    Ramesh Sippy
 Director    Rohan Sippy
 Music    Pritam Chakraborty, R D Burman
 Writer    Shridhar Raghavan
 Lyrics    Jaideep Sahni, Anand Bakshi
 Release Date    22-Apr-2011
There's something about Abhishek Bachchan and his cop act. It always works, unlike most of his other screen avatars. Till date, Dhoom remains one of his most memorable performances, where his savoir faire as the sassy policeman stood up commendably to the charisma of the bad guys, John Abraham and Hrithik Roshan. Dum Maaro Dum reiterates the fact that Abhishek seems to be a natural charmer when it comes to slipping into the shoes of a quintessential somewhat crooked-somewhat straight cop. His body language, his dialogue rendition, his lazy zeal and laidback attitude, adds a cutting edge to the character of ACP Vishnu Kamath, Goa's desi Bruce Willis (Diehard) who plays the game according to his own rules.

And Abhishek isn't alone in crafting a host of riveting characters who lend a special cadence to the film. There is Prateik Babbar and Anaitha Nair's teen love story that goes awry, once Prateik gets embroiled in illegal activities. There is Bipasha Basu and Rana Daggubati's bindaas beach romance that lights up the screen intermittently. There is Mafioso Aditya Pancholi and his mean guy act which flashes fire and brimstone. And there is the cop camaraderie between Abhishek and his team that adds substance to the proceedings. All the characters are credible and immensely watchable.

Further more, there is the stylization of the film and its dramatic narration that makes it a compelling watch. The film slags in places and needs tightening, but the lull is followed by a tangy twist in the tale, which makes up for the occasional yawn. Shridhar Raghavan writes a thrilling cops and robbers tale which has some quirky banter scripted by Purva Naresh. Add to this Goa captured in glowing colours by cinematographer Amit Roy and a peppy music score by Pritam, and director Rohan Sippy gives you a film that keeps the popcorn crackling, till the very end. So much so, you don't actually mind the `potty' lyrics, as Deepika Padukone adds a dusky sheen to them with the Deepika shake. Of course, there's Vidya Balan too, with her winning smiles, in a brief cameo, proving once again that she's the most in-sync co-star for Abhishek Bachchan. Remember Paa?

This one's complete paisa vasool fare.