The suspicious exercise trails.

The suspicious exercise trails.

Aakrosh Release Date : 15,Oct 2010

Producer Kumar Mangat
Director Priyadarshan
Music Pritam Chakraborty
Writer Robin Bhatt, Akash Khurana
Lyrics Irshad Kamil
Release Date 15-Oct-2010

Let's start with the presumption on how this film would have been conceptualized. Ajay Devgn plans to star in a hardcore action film. He gets his regular writers Robin Bhatt and Akash Khurana to work out a story between some extended action sequences. Bhatt and Khurana visit the DVD library and zero in on the 1988 Oscar nominated film Mississippi Burning (Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe) for the screenplay. To Indianize the plot and make it seem more topical, they refer to newspaper and decide on the social theme of honour killings that's making headlines. So the racism in the original is opportunely adapted to the caste conflicts.

'There's no honour in honour killings' reads the tagline of the film. Sadly there is no honour killing in this film. This three-hour long action-drama merely has a five-minute mention on honour killing that too in a flashback account. And come to think of it, even the supposed honour killing shown in the film is not a premeditated cold-blooded murder but more of an impulsive act. Beyond that the film just squanders in the guise of a CBI investigation on the killings. Be assured that even after watching this film, you won't be enlightened one bit on the issue of honour killings beyond what's common knowledge. Neither will you be moved on the matter.

'From the director of Gardish and Virasat' emphasizes the trailer of the film. What would have been a more apt ticker is 'From the actor of Omkara, Apaharan, Gangaajal and Halla Bol'. It seems like Ajay Devgn essentially wanted Priyadarshan to model this film on the lines of movies made by his favourite filmmakers. So they derive the rustic setting from Vishal Bharadwaj's Omkara and also shoot the film in same locations (Wai). The crude and corrupt bureaucracy is reminiscent of Rajkumar Santoshi and Prakash Jha films. In fact Jha seems to be a prominent inspiration. Ajay Devgn and Bipasha Basu replicate their lost-and-found romance track from Prakash Jha's Apaharan . Further Jha's Mrityudand gives way for the fundamentalist village priest and his radical group who propagate the caste divide. And like in that film, even here a female fires bullets on the baddies in the climax.

Though the film has two heroes and over that as CBI Officers, they still remain powerless for a major part of the runtime because a rural radical mafia is glorified more viciously. Officer Pratap (Ajay Devgn) and his superior Siddhant (Akshaye Khanna) arrive in Jhanjhar village to investigate about three missing students who had last called from there. Nobody is willing to cooperate on the investigation from the cops to the common man. Inspector Ajatshatru Singh (Paresh Rawal) gives them a tough time. Further they face the backlash of the Shool Sena, a hate group that looks down upon the lower caste.

You patiently wait for the film to touch the theme of honour killing but all that you get is an uninteresting investigation escapade. When they are still unable to solve the mystery, Pratap's ex-love (Bipasha Basu) unveils facts in flashback. What is revealed is your easiest possible guess since the villains are clearly defined and demarcated from the start. So the film fails to work both as a social drama or a crime thriller. Rather the only aspect of the film that clicks is its camouflaged but chief genre – action.

The action sequences directed by B Thyagarajan and R P Yadav are compellingly choreographed and there's no denying that you enjoy watching Ajay Devgn chase the villain over rooftops and car-tops. The action varies from an offshoot of Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala to exaggerated ones where Devgn traverses through a running locomotive. Of course there's nothing wrong in making a full-fledged action film. But what's criminal is being pretentious and presenting it as a film with social cause. Actioners like Wanted or Dabanng are any time better for they don't carry false pretexts.

The narrative conveniently credits an extremist village priest for the caste divide but his character is relegated to that of a junior artist. There is absolutely no background account on him or his fanatic group. Further they don't have any immediate connection with the honour killing of the three students in this film. The script fails to explore the theme of honour killings beyond the newspaper headlines. It shows the oppression of the upper caste on the lower caste in the same clichéd mold like cruel thakurs and zamindars were shown repressing the villagers in formulaic Bollywood flicks.

The performances are as much hard-hitting as the editing and sound design. Akshaye Khanna is decent in his part. Ajay Devgn takes a backseat as his subordinate but has more screen presence. This is a kind of role that he always excels in. His action and expressions are impeccable. Paresh Rawal gets back to his villainous roots and reminds of his Dacait days with the viciousness in his character. Bipasha Basu is wasted. Sameera Reddy lacks the sex-appeal to pull off an item number.

Priyadarshan has constantly been arguing that he switched to mindless comedy capers from meaningful serious cinema because the latter has no takers. If this is the kind of serious cinema he has to offer, we are better off with his comedies. This is Aakroshious!

Knock Out Release Date : 15,Oct 2010

Producer Sohail Maklai
Director Mani Shankar
Music Gaurav Dasgupta
Writer Mani Shankar
Lyrics Panchhi Jalonvi
Release Date 15-Oct-2010

Watching Irrfan Khan do the nervous callee in a phone booth, listening to an unsettling self-assured voice - played by Sanjay Dutt - manipulating him, constitutes that half of what Mani Shankar gets right in this ambitious Phone Booth cum A Wednesday mash.

Knock Out is a ride made exciting both by its theme and by the unlikely chemistry of two actors with diametrically opposite performing styles. And yet, it remains a could-have-been, because of little digressions that it makes.

Knock Out deals with Tony Khosla (Irrfan Khan), a sleazy investment banker who is a kind of broker in an all-important deal. Looming in the background are the Swiss banks and nasty politicians, just so we know where the film is headed.

Now Khosla is caught in a phone booth with a caller (Sanjay Dutt) who doesn't identify himself, but who forces him into moral surrender by way of showing him that he can be a mean sharp-shooter if Khosla doesn't do what he tells him to do.

The idea is to get Khosla to set a few wrongs right. In the process, there is a cop (Sushant Singh) determined to get to the bottom of things, and Nidhi (Kangana Ranaut), a frenzied journalist driven to get her "breaking story" first. This gives the film scope for some of the side shows that we saw in A Wednesday.

Knock Out keeps it thrilling for a good part, but digresses into childish fantasy as it gets closer to its logical conclusion. There's silly violence in the end, and a lack of seriousness to the climax.

Also, Knock Out tries to drive home 2 randomly different kinds of moral lessons, which are not even on the same page as each other. This deprives it of the single-mindedness that could have been its strength, given the weighty issue it deals with - that of the thousands of crores of taxpayers' money stashed away in Swiss banks. A few frivolous moments and a couple of loopholes could have been chopped off, and we could have had a tighter, more nail-biting two hours.

Mani Shankar nails it as far as the casting is concerned, though. Part of the momentum built until then is due to the crackerjack performances by both Khan and Dutt. They never share a frame, but they each bring their own kind of finesse to the screen. Irrfan Khan, obviously, puts in the more "intelligent" performance, while Dutt entertains with his brand of raw dialogue-spouting.

Sushant Singh pulls off a neat performance as the police officer, and Kangana Ranaut delivers exactly what you'd expect out of Kangana Ranaut as a dolled-up India TV reporter.

Knock Out starts off with a bang and ends with a whimper, but meanwhile, there sure are some kicks to be got out of the star cast's brilliance.

Ramayana - The Epic Release Date : 15,Oct 2010

Producer Maya Entertainment
Director Chetan Desai
Release Date 15-Oct-2010

Ramayana The Epic is a faithful but dreary retelling of one of our favourite and most familiar stories. Since almost everyone in a theatre knows the plot, the pleasure in this animated version can only come from the telling of the tale.

Debutant director Chetan Desai gives us impressive visuals, grand battles and perhaps India’s first Lord Ram with six-pack abs. But the plodding screenplay undermines these efforts. Ramayana The Epic doesn’t soar enough or arouse the requisite shock and awe.

Thankfully, the animation here is more sophisticated than the average mythological such as Bal Ganesh or Ghatothkach.

Desai and his team of 400 animators have created a richly detailed world – so Ravan is always clad in various layers of gold armour and lives in a golden fortress perched on the peak of a mountain.

There’s also a ferociously etched battle between Bali and Sugreev who try to trump one another in pouring rain. But despite the arduous labour that has so obviously gone into making the film, the characters don’t come alive.

Manoj Bajpai voices Ram, Juhi Chawla voice Sita and Ashutosh Rana voices Ravan but none of these fine actors manage to imbue the drawings with any personality.

Poor Ravan, like any age-old Hindi movie villain, is either snarling or laughing. Desai tries to pack as much of the sprawling epic as he can into a 104-minute film. So, the narrative feels episodic, almost like a best of Ramayana, rather than organic. I also wondered why a film aimed at children needed to have severed heads and why the eyebrows of every character, especially the wicked Manthara, seemed to have a life of their own.

Ramayana is an ambitious step toward better homegrown cinema for children. I just wish it had more crackle. I’m going with two and a half stars.

Read more at: http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_Review.aspx?id=557&cp

Crook Release Date : 08,Oct 2010

Producer Mukesh Bhatt
Director Mohit Suri
Music Pritam Chakraborty
Writer Ankur Tewari
Release Date 08-Oct-2010

Crook scores due to its extreme topicality. Director Mohit Suri picks up a tale drawn straight from the current headlines and narrates it with characteristic grit and edginess. It's a familiar playground for Emraan Hashmi too as he gets to essay the role of the enfant terrible all over again. And that isn't rocket science for Emraan, since ever since he hit the marquee with his maniacal act in Murder, the actor has been antsy on screen in almost all his avatars. Even his last outing on screen was a reincarnation of the grimy Dawood-ish don in Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai.

In Crook, he re-essays a character he's already played earlier in Jannat. Emraan's cabbie-man act in Crook sees him going through the entire graph of a callous bad boy turning good. But before he can set aside his amoral ways, he must take the rough ride on the streets of Melbourne which are buzzing with an underground war between Indian and Aussie gangs, baying for each other's blood. The Indian students find a leader in the hot-headed Arjan Bajwa who is determined to uphold desi culture in phoren shores, even as the Australian goonda insists on protecting his native culture from the foreign onslaught.

It's here that Mohit presents a new take on the issue. He depicts both of them -- the Indian and the Australian -- as equally racist and argues for introspection on both sides. Of course, eventually, it's left to Emraan Hashmi to play mediator between the two warring camps and douse the fire that threatens to burn down the neighbourhood. Time for the crook to change colours and turn hero....

The film isn't a smooth ride altogether. Unlike Kalyug , Mohit's earlier film, Crook begins on an incoherent note and takes time to get its focus right. Most of the first half of the film is spent -- and wasted -- in the romantic escapades of Emraan with the Indian student and the Australian night club dancer. The story picks up mostly in the second half and makes a meaningful noise: integrate or perish.

Do Dooni Chaar Release Date : 08,Oct 2010

Producer Arindam Chaudhuri
Director Habib Faisal
Music Meet Brother, Anjan
Lyrics Manoj Muntashir
Release Date 08-Oct-2010

If you're not a Delhiite, your first reaction on watching 'Do Dooni Char' would be, thank god for that! And this has nothing to do with the questionable infrastructure or the corruption. One of the most important revelations that this film quite unintentionally portrays is the neighbourhood culture of Delhi. This abominable society dictates that your neighbours would always be clinging to your hair, passing judgments on your daily affairs and taunting you on everything (including your rather modest salary). This could lead you to question if man could avoid being a social animal. The film revolves around the middle-class life of the Duggals, who happen to reside in one such neighbourhood. The family includes Papa Duggal (Rishi Kapoor), Mummy Duggal (Neetu Singh), their cocky-yet-upstart son (Archit Krishna) and their brand-conscious-teenage daughter (Aditi Vasudev).

Being a super low-budget project, one can imagine it would be easy to furnish the middle-class-ness required to tell this story convincingly. So Algebra teacher, Papa Duggal's paunch is almost always covered under a filthy sweater and Mummy Duggal is perfectly happy confined to household chores in her simple nighties and salwar kurtas. This is a point worth mentioning as the Kapoors have never been seen in such a light (not even in a fancy dress competition). And both of them are a delight to watch, as they go about coping with their daily adventures of getting past life with limited means.

The plot of the film is wafer thin to discuss. And if you've seen the promos, you know that the film is about the Duggals' journey towards purchasing a four-wheeler. Predictably you know how the film would conclude. But while delving into why it's nearly impossible for Papa Duggal to afford a car, we bump into a serious issue- the state of teachers in our country. Although laced with comical incidents and satirical jabs, this film sensitizes us about the fact that teaching as a profession may offer a bundle of nobility but that's all that it offers. And whether we admit it or not, we've all had one teacher in our academic life who has moulded us into the people we've become. This would, in any society, be the most important function of all. Yet, the deplorable remuneration offered to teachers over time hasn't changed at all. So, despite resorting to tuition classes after school, Papa Duggal is seen struggling to make ends meet. The idea of purchasing a car on account of societal pressures seems too fantastic a dream to him. Yet, he has to give in.

So this film is not just about an everyman quest for purchasing a vehicle. It's about dreaming beyond what life offers you and throwing in the last punch in order to achieve it.

Khichdi Release Date : 01,Oct 2010

Producer Jamnadas Majethia
Director Aatish Kapadia
Music Raju Singh
Writer Aatish Kapadia
Lyrics Aatish Kapadia
Release Date 01-Oct-2010

If you grew up watching the popular Hindi TV serial Khichdi then you are bound to love the movie as well. The Parekh Family is filled with some of the most over-the-top characters that you will ever see and whenever they come together mayhem is not far behind. Most people would expect that a half hour long serial cannot be remade into a hit movie but the ‘Khichdi’ cast proves them wrong.

The story as narrated by the only two members of the Parekh family (Jacky and Chucky), who are well-versed with the ways of the world. Satish Shah plays God and explains how the Parekh family is completely different from the rest of his creations. The story is about Himanshu’s (JD Majethia) search for true love. After initial goof ups the Parekhs finally come across an equally out-of-the –whack family called the ‘parminders’. Peculiarly all the 50 members of the Parminder-family is named Parminder.

The romance between Himanshu and Parminder will leave you laughing hysterically. Now here is the twist, Himanshu always dreamt of having a ‘Legendary Love story’. Since no true love story is complete without a little hitch the parekh family members start disrupting the wedding plans in their own way.

The movie is filled with popular lines by some of the most endearing characters like ‘Babuji Main Hoon Na’. Anang Desai as Babuji is irritated as ever and the rest of the cast provides a superb performance. Our advice , if you are looking for an all-out entertainer then go watch the movie with your friends and you will surely come out of the hall with a grin on your face.