Main Aurr Mrs Khanna Release Date : 16,Oct 2009

Main Aur Mrs Khanna is heaps of romantic mush that tries too, too hard to pull your heartstrings but fails miserably. PERIOD.

Remember all those romantic dramas from the 1990s that had countless dialogues about bura waqt, farz, pyaar ka ehsaas and more of such romantic guck. ‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’ has tons of it. One such dialogue that Salman Khan mouths more than once in the film is: “Achchey waqt ki ek burai hoti hai: woh badal jaata hai. Aur burey (bad) waqt ki achchayi hai ki woh zyada der nahin rahta”. True indeed. Because the experience of watching Main Aur Mrs Khanna ends after just a little over two hours.

The film tells a story of a married couple buffeted by financial crises. Samir Khanna (Salman) first spots Raina (Kareena Kapoor) at an orphanage in Dalhousie and instantly falls in love with her. After a little wooing, he wins her love and marries her.

CUT…the next thing we see is a pale faced Raina sitting on a couch in a swanky apartment in Melbourne as Samir walks in shaking off his morning sleep and asking for a cup of coffee. The reason why she’s pale is because of Samir’s nose-diving career in financial market. It’s clear that love has fizzled out between the couple. No matter how hard she tries to please or comfort Samir, he has a stern expression on his face, looks in empty space while she talks to him, and walks out of the room even as she longs him to be with her.

The SOLUTION - change the place if you can’t change bad times. The self-centered Samir decides on his own to shift to Singapore and pack his wife off to Dalhousie. In justification he mouths a few lofty dialogues about “financial stability” being crucial for a marriage, and, of course, the aforesaid dialogue about “bura waqt”.

But Raina doesn’t board the flight to Delhi. At the airport she meets Aakash (Sohail Khan) who works as a waiter in a café and falls for her at first site. Thereafter, starts a new track between Aakash and his Mrs. Khanna. He loves her, but she keeps daydreaming about her loveless hubby who’s chalking out a new career for himself in a distant galaxy, it seems. And just when Aakash decides to pour out his heart to Raina, Mr. Khanna walks in.

‘Main Aur Mrs Khanna’ is so very behind its times that it appears that writer-director Prem Soni gleaned most of the scenes from the scrapped scripts of the unmade movies from the previous decade. The worst is its juvenile humour which is supported by background sounds of grunts, growls, slurps and whip lashes. Ouch! To still top it, there’s an overdose of dramatic background score that breaks in every now and then, as if trying to tell the audience how to feel in a particular scene. Hey, Mr. Soni! The audience ain’t dumb. If anything was left, there’s a pointless guest appearance by Preity Zinta, as a Pakistani singer who tries to entice Salman in the song ‘Happening’ that’s clearly inspired by ‘Kajra Re’. The less spoken about the performances the better. Salman Khan almost seems to sleep-walk through his part. He’s uptight, stiff-necked and has an inexplicable beatific smile on his face even in dramatic scenes. It’s a pain to see Kareena Kapoor’s talent being wasted in a role that’s neither properly written nor fleshed out. Sohail Khan capers about as a fun-loving guy for most of his part, but flounders when he has to get emotional. Director Prem Soni gives no reason to look forward to his next work. His writing and style of direction is outdated. Yes, there are some beautifully cinematographed shots where lighting changes in split seconds and there are also some hummable songs, but that doesn’t gloss over the plot holes so wide that a dozen Salmans can walk through them. Sample a few - Mrs. Khanna is dressed in designer outfits but has no cellphone. Within few days of her job at the airport, she’s able to afford a swanky house of her own. Months pass by and Mr. Khanna refuses to take calls from her. Then he shows up out of nowhere one day. The chemistry between the couple revives and just when they are about to jump in bed…wham…they begin to fight again!

ACID FACTORY Release Date : 09,Oct 2009

ACID FACTORY, a nerve-racking hi-octane thriller is an emblematic stylized Sanjay Gupta's adventure movie that rolls out in a mold of psychological thriller. As subject demands, the music of the flick has shady, aggressive and intriguing appeal and so it subjugates into filmmaker's archetypal style of hi-pitched and modish musical works. It follows the similar musical treatment of Gupta's earlier successful musical ventures (DUS KAHANIYAN, ZINDA, MUSAFIR and KAANTE) with comparable style of packaging and presentation. Shamir Tandon, Bappa Lahiri, Gourav Dasgupta, Ranjit Barot and Manasi Scott are the chosen five composers for this ''edge-of-the-seat'' action packed drama. Will Sanjay Gupta be getting pulses racing high with their style and efforts that promises heavy duty disco beat ''dhamaka''? Like all of Gupta's successful endeavors, does this Suparn Verma's directed ACID FACTORY have enough combustible flare of setting floors on fire? Let's visit this ammunition-filled ''factory'' that promises something that is energizing, pulsating and vibrating in its packaging...!

The electronic sounds of absorbing dark noir cinema looms in subtle tones, with heart-piercing vocals of Raaj, echoing loud with trendy paced arrangements in the opening track ''Yeh Jism''. It opens with intrigue mode but enhances with racing ''cardio-video'' type of thumping-pumping disco flavors. Raaj's vocals (...sounding similar to KK) has penetrative splurge in Virag Mishra's daunting wordings and its later Aanchal Dutta's singing that delivers a terrifying ''whodunit'' appeal. Well suited for deadly thriller drama, Shamir Tandon punches hard with his heavily loaded percussions that work in tandem with electronically profound harmonies and guitar riffs to support. Raaj and Aanchal show substantial flair in their remarkable modulating tones, but the ''spur-of-movement'' for all deadly melodic moves comes alive in its ''club-remix'' version. DJ Nawed and Nikhil Chinappa work hard on varied electronic beat structure with funky beats and rhythms that comes bouncing all the way in echoing mode. It's well shot video (in sepia tones) featuring all lead players will be great asset and surely be one rollicking hit to view.

CHECK OUT: ACID FACTORY Movie Preview

Femme fatal goes melodic! Indeed, a thriller like ACID FACTORY possesses space and grace for irresistibly desirable enchantress and so it does when Manasi Scott shows her multifaceted musical attire in ''Khatti Meethi''. Her seductive allure raises ''oomph'' factor with sluggishly punched sounds and rhythms seeping into the beguiling sensuous expressions. Manasi's composition has that ''heard-before'' syndrome but overall packaging of instrumentals, lyrics and music delivers captivating glamour to enamor listeners. ''Khatti Meethi'', a presumably ''eye-candy'' sizzling show, works on upbeat electronic works with slow-pitched sounds and rhythms matching up to the tonality of the situation.

Remembering R.D Burman! ''Panchamda'' brought the ''groove'' in filmdom and till today it has spunk-ed many music-videos with big success. ''Jab Andhera Hota Hai'', an inspired version from 70's thriller RAJA RANI (1973) hit-track with similar title by Gourav Dasgupta mixes all spicy ''masala'' of ''remix music videos'' and piles up DJ's disco thrills to deliver out a accelerating high hip-shaking track. Aanchal Datta maintains top slot again with Shweta Vijay and Saptak Bhattacharya joining the fun and together, it's again like a riot on the floors.

It's ''club remix'' carries extra ammunition of blasting floors and if you are disco-freak, just get yourself ''spin-ned'' into those crashing beat-juggles and scratches that last till the last thumping beat.

Raat gayi baat gayi

Cast: Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Iravati Harshe, Neha Dhupia, Dilip Tahil, Anu Menon, Navneet Nishan
Story Writer: Saurabh Shukla, Rajat Kapoor
Director: Saurabh Shukla
Producer: Rangita Pritish Nandy
Music: Ankur Tewari

‘Raat Gayi Baat Gayi’ is a film about three married couples and provides a detailed insight into the modern day marriage.

Rahul wakes up with a bad hangover after partying heavily the previous night, where he had come across a sexy young woman Sophia. They both got drunk and could feel sparks flying. But, sadly, Rahul couldn't remember what happened after that. Did they do ‘that’ which they might regret later...?

His wife, Mitali, is in a significant bad mood this morning, making Rahul wonder whether she got to know about his ‘escapade’ of the night that had passed by. Rahul scratches his head hard to figure out what in fact happened. Like him, His friends Saxena and Amit are going through their own doses of marital crises. Driven against the wall with not even a hint of the incidents of the previous night, he decides to speak to Sophia herself to find out the truth.

Rahul (Rajat Kapoor) is an ad film-maker who is happily married to the beautiful Mitali (Iravati Harshe) for the past eight years. A chancy encounter with a mysterious woman threatens to change a lot of things that he had assumed as established ones. Mithali is a professional sculptor.

Saxena (Dalip Tahil) is a middle-aged writer whose days of fame and success are behind him now. A hard-core intellectual, he’s the kind everyone wants to be with. Saxena's wife (Navneet Nishan ) has aspirations towards intellectuality who has the habit of dishing out funny instances out of her half-baked knowledge.

Nandini (Anu Menon) is married to Amit. One day, when she catches him watching a porn movie, she develops hatred towards him and construes his act as a sign of his dissatisfaction about her. Amit (Vinay Pathak) is a typical Indian male; he watches porn but is naive enough to have been caught by his spouse.

Sophia (Neha Dhupia) is the ultimate seductress and oozes lot of oomph.. An aspiring actor who makes all the men drooling over her, she keeps to herself at the party. Her character is a real jigsaw puzzle in the film, which slowly unfolds through a series of interesting interactions with the men she meets.

3 Nights 4 Days

Movie Review: 3 Nights 4 Days; Star cast: Anuj Sawhney, Sameer Aftab, Farid Amiri, Hrishita Bhatt, Madhuri Bhattacharya, Pinky Harwani and introducing Sanda Caktas; Director: Devang Dholakia; Rating: *** - pleasant surprise.

Rahul (Anuj), Rocky (Sameer), Amay (Farid), Priya (Pinky Harwani), Antara (Hrishita) and Zoha (Madhuri Bhattacharya) were best of the friends in Pune University. It’s been three years since they passed out and parted ways…they all were completely out of touch, being busy in their respective careers…Now Rocky is getting married in Goa with his two year old girlfriend Marianne (Sanda Caktas) who is from Croatia and is working as a lifeguard…this is the time of reunion…old friends reunite to join Rocky on his wedding in Goa…but things are not the same with Rahul, Priya and Zoha…their personalities have changed, their ideologies have changed, their commitments and goals have changed while Amay and Antara are just the same… as they set off on this trip, things start coming out in the form of conversations and activities… they all witness Marianne backing away from the commitment of marriage leaving Rocky bereft. What happens next is what the rest of the film all about.

A young theme with a young set of decent actors with a plot many youngsters today can identify with makes 3 Nights 4 Days an interesting watch. The dialogues are funny at places. The pacing is even but a few songs could have been done away with in the first half. Production values are good irrespective of the fact that film doesn’t star big names. Devang Dholakia deserves a pat on his back for making a good film. Daboo Malik succeeds in giving a few peppy numbers. Arvind Singh’s camerawork captures the beauty of Goa well.

Anuj Sawhney is good while Sameer Aftab is extremely likeable. Farid Amiri acts ably as well. Hrishita plays the Page 3 gal to perfection. Madhuri has a good screen presence. Pinky Harwani looks hot but needs to brush up her acting skills. Croatian beauty Sanda Caktas looks extremely pretty and makes a fair debut.

3 Nights 4 Days is a pleasant surprise and is worth a try.

Shaabash! You Can Do It

Shaabash! You Can Do It: But you didn’t!

Rating: 1 out of 5

Starring: Hitesh Agrawal, Mansi Dovhal, Sudesh Berry, Nasir Khan, Vivek Shauq, Charu Sharma, Rajiv Verma, Adi Irani, Atul Kinagi, Vedita Pratap Singh, Praveen Singh Sisodia,
 Vishwajeet Pradhan, Rakesh Shrivastav and Aslam Khan.

Director: Shankar Mondal

Shaabash! You Can Do It doesn’t live up to its title et all. There is not even a single good element which one can think of, and gather some guts to watch the film. Poor is synonymous to this film in every aspect. Poor direction, storyline, direction, selection of actors is what compounds to the misery of this film.

The story revolves around the character of Neil and his journey from being an underdog to ultimately emerging as the winner of a dance competition with its protagonist Vikram, who’s a three years champ, by learning yoga.

His journey is facilitated by Professor Siddhant’s encouragement and his newfound love for Mahi. It is a truly inspiring film for viewer of all age group. It also has excellent music, good dance sequences, culminating in breath taking competition and suspense. Also, for the first time yoga has been excessively used as a tool of transformation. Too many actors Hitesh Agrawal, Mansi Dovhal, Sudesh Berry, Nasir Khan, Vivek Shauq, Charu Sharma, Rajiv Verma, Adi Irani, Atul Kinagi, Vedita Pratap Singh, Praveen,Singh Sisodia, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Rakesh Shrivastav and Aslam Khan has added in further disdain of the film.

Highly non-recommendable says it all for this film.

Wake Up Sid Release Date : 02,Oct 2009

Ayan Mukerji makes a solid debut as a director with his maiden venture, WAKE UP SID.

Mukerji is in control of the proceedings right from the word go. There is a level of rare maturity in his handling of the two lead actors so diverse in their approach to cinema. One a bubblegum, chocolate hero; another, a solid performer known more for her intense performances. Mukerji's control comes to the fore in his handling of every scene. He never goes over the top, and even the perpetual 'bunch of friends at college' are refreshingly used.

There is also a smart smattering of an interesting mix of English numbers used to light up certain moods, which works as a stimulant.

WAKE UP SID, is a mature love story. On one hand of the spectrum, you have a mature, older woman in search of her independence and on the other hand, you have an irresponsible, immature lad who is so dependent on his parents and their wealth. One day there is a wake up call from where begins his inward journey to unraveling the man within.

Sidharth Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor) has it easy. He has a rich father, a doting mother and a bunch of friends who he moves out with. Life is set. It couldn't be better. He even has credit cards to fund his extravagant lifestyle. Aisha (Konkona Sen Sharma) comes to Bombay from Calcutta in search of her identity. She has a dream of becoming a writer and she knows this is the city of dreams. Sid and Aisha meet on the last day of college when she comes in with one of their friends. They hit it off instantly and go on to become the best of friends. Sid helps her in her house hunting and even helps her set it up. However, when the final year results are out, Sid is the only one who has failed.

Upset, he insults his mother (Supriya Pathak) and refuses to apologize even after his dad (Anupam Kher) asks him to. Because he does not want to go by the rules laid down by his dad, he leaves home and finds shelter at Aisha's home. Here is where he begins to mature, seeing life from a different perspective. Helping him through is a confused Aisha. Confused because she thinks he is a kid and somewhere deep down she is slowly beginning to look at him 'differently'.

Ranbir Kapoor has the charm of Rishi Kapoor and the sexiness of his mother Neetu Kapoor. He uses this potent mix to deadly effect. A natural with any scene, Ranbir walks into this role with the ease of a pro and comes out trumps. Be it when he is enjoying himself out there with his friends, insulting his mother or even keeping up pace with Konkona, he is perfect.

Konkona, not known for her glamorous image, keeps pace with the cute Kapoor lad. The two look fabulous together. It's only a tight script and a good director that could weave this magic.

Love you, Sid!

Rating - 3.5/5

Do Knot Disturb Release Date : 02,Oct 2009

Sssssssshhhhhhh! DO KNOT DISTURB... This is a knotty affair... Enter at your own risk!

David Dhawan has flopped and flopped miserably. He comes out with no script, creates silly situations and expects his cast to enact with conviction and have the audience in splits. Pity, because he had such a talented line-up of stars that are sadly made to jump around without rhyme or reason. Govinda, Riteish Deshmukh, Rajpal Yadav, Ranvir Shorey, Sohail Khan, Lara Dutta... all are made to do meaningless scenes.

It all starts because Govinda has been caught in a frame with his girlfriend. Fortunately, for Govinda, Riteish Deshmukh wanders into the frame while the photograph is being taken. The said photograph lands on Sushmita Sen's table. She wants to get to the bottom of her husband's affair. She hires a detective to follow Govinda while Govinda tracks down Riteish and pays him to pretend to be Lara Dutta's boyfriend. From one bizarre situation to another, the movie moves on...


Songs pop up at unexpected turns and you end up feeling bad for the director who gave us a few No. 1 hits.

PS: Do Knot be surprised if this film does well in single screen theatres!

Rating - 1/5