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It seems like lately time just has been getting away from me. Before I blink, a month has gone by. What the heck happened to Spring? Before I know it, school will be out, then back in again and it will be winter. Someone tell Father Time to slow it down a bit please! Anyway, I don't really like doing these condensed mini reviews - I feel like I miss so much, so I'm choosing to think of them as those little bite size chocolate bars you get at Halloween. Small, but still delicious! With that being said, here's a few thoughts on what I've seen lately.

Abhishek Bachchan is the suavest of conmen, but his games end up losing him the love of his life (Priyanka Chopra). What's a guy to do, especially when a newly acquainted doctor (Bowman Irani) tells him he's only a short time to live? What other than take an up and coming grifter (Ritesh Deshmukh), teach him everything he knows and go after the "big one" - one final con, if you will. Maybe while he's teaching how to successfully rip people off, he will earn back the love and trust of the woman he pines for?

Rohan Sippy delivers a fun and stylish film with a nice blend of action, suspense, comedy and drama. The dialogues are first rate, with Nana Patekar hitting home runs every time he opens his mouth. I especially enjoyed him during the film's climax and subsequent resolve at the end of the film. Himmam Dhamjia's cinematography is great, making Mumbai look gorgeous (please can I just go now?), and the music is completely catchy.



The perfect popcorn film.



I arrived at my sister's for our usual Monday movie night late and, with a handful of films, picked the one with the shortest running time. Written and directed by Aparna Sen, the film stars house fav Konkona Sen Sharma as Meenakshi Iyer, a young traditional Tamil Iyer Brahmin mother, on route to Calcutta. She finds a helping hand in Raja Chowdhury (Rahul Bose)and in return, when Hindu extremists board their bus looking for Muslims, she lends him her last name pretending that they are married. The exchange bonds the two throughout the film in some very personal and intimate moments.


In a few words, this film is about humanity, kindness and love. It shows us how love conquers hatred, it shows us that humanity and love know no religion, caste or colour and it is one outstanding picture. The acting was superb, the direction equally so and the film itself is beautiful - especially the scene when the Raja shows Meenakshi how to take a picture. Really beautiful stuff.



Don't ask me how I go from something like Mr & Mrs Iyer to Pyaar Impossible, but I everyone already knows my guilty secret - you know the one - so I felt obligated almost to watch this (and yes, I actually did buy it! I know, I know!)

So, because I'm already hanging my head in shame, I guess I'll just keep on going and say that I actually found this film to be quite sweet. Uday Chopra plays the geeky, but uber intelligent Abhay, whose groundbreaking computer software has been stolen by the handsome Sidhu (Dino Morea). In an effort to find his balls and reclaim what is rightfully his, Abhay follows Sidhu to Singapore and discovers the love of his life, Alisha (Priyanka Chopra), is a public relations rep for the same company who has purchased his stolen software. He mistakenly gets hired by Alisha to be the new nanny for her rambunctious daughter. Will Abhay get back the software? Will he win Alisha's heart? Will he ever get a decent haircut? I dare you to watch and find out.

I hated this dress!
I have to say that I thought Uday was really funny in this. The scene where he's serving Alisha's guests was quite physically hilarious and probably one of the best moments in the film. Priyanka did a decent job as well, though anyone could have really played her role given the depth of the story. There were a couple of things I found quite ridiculous about the film, however. One was how demanding Alisha was. Do people just expect their nannies to be at their every beck and call for their own personal use? Also, oh my God, if my child acted like hers does in this film, they'd be strapped down permanently. What a horrid child! Story aside, the music in the film was also very much below par. I think there was 5 songs or so, each of them had the same recurring Pyaar Impossible theme running through them. One song - 5 variations I suppose. Come on Yash Raj, you can do better than that.

Overall a light, very light, serving of filmi frothiness and a decent attempt by Uday for his first film.



The first time I saw the preview for this I knew I wanted to see it. Even though Deeps hasn't impressed me since Om Shanti Om, I love Farhan Aktar.

Farhan plays Karthik, a bit of a loser at work and at life. His boss walks all over him. Shonali, the girl he adores, doesn't even know he exists. In fact he and Abhay from PI could be the same person (tee hee). One day he receives a phone call from someone who says that he is Karthik and that, if he listens to his advice and follows exactly what he says, making sure not to tell anyone his secret, his life will turn around. Well, if you can't trust yourself, who can you trust? Karthik immediately takes his phone caller's advice, and low and behold, his life starts to change for the better. Things go smoothly along for him until he confides his secret and then the mindgames begin.


I thought that writer and director Vijay Lalwani did a good job of keeping the suspense high in the film, and it kept me guessing until the very end. Farhan is especially good at these subdued roles and amazingly enough, I enjoyed Deepika in it. Another plus for the film is the fantastic music! I love each and every song (with the exception of maybe the opening song).




So that's it for now. I did get a chance to also watch an early Shah Rukh film, but I want to do it justice, so watch for a review of Chaahat coming soon.