Hindi movies | mp3-songs video downloads

Na Tum Jaano Na Hum (2002) [MP3]

2009-05-30T22:06:00.001+05:30

Na Tum Jaano Na Hum is directed by Arjun Sablok and stars Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Esha Deol. NTJNH apparently failed in the box office which is quite surprising considering its great cast, its story which is pretty good, and most of all its great music. It’s very interesting to see the type of movies people respond to.

Anyway, the songs of Na Tum Jaano Na Hum are composed by Rajesh Roshan. As I said before, the music of this film is very good. I personally like all six songs, and I hope you like them too.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aha Aha / Falguni Pathak
Chunariya / Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder Singh
Dil Leke / Udit Narayan, Pamela Jain
Haye Ram / Abhijeet, Pamela Jain
Jaa Sanam / Abhijeet, Pamela Jain
Tum / Kamaal Khan

Gulaal (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.011+05:30

Gulaal is a movie directed by Anurag Kashyap and stars Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, Mahie Gill, Jessy Randhawa, Aditya Srivastav, and Ayesha Mohan. Gulaal has received a lot of positive reviews on the internet. It was released back on March 13, so I hope you’ve seen it. One of the things praised is Gulaal’s well written lyrics, and its music too which are both done by Piyush Mishra. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aarambh / Piyush Mishra
Aisi Sazaa / Piyush Mishra
Beedo / Swanand Kirkire, Piyush Mishra
Duniya / Shilpa Rao
Raat Ke Musafir / Rekha Bhardwaj
Ranaji / Rekha Bhardwaj
Sheher / Piyush Mishra
Yaara Maula / Rahul Ram, Aushim

Ek Aadat (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.010+05:30

Ek Aadat is an upcoming film directed by Prakash Saini and stars Aryeman, Smita and Vijay Raaz (I wonder what the name of the 4th person in the picture is ??). There isn’t much know about the film as it is still under production.

The music of Ek Aadat is alright, nothing special or groundbreaking and not so bad either, which is very understandable. The movie isn’t a high budget blockbuster or anything. And yeah, its music is composed by Sanjay Pathak and Nishad.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Ab Tere Bin Hum Jee Lenge / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Ab Tere Bin Hum Jee Lenge - Remix / Mohit Chauhan, Tulsi Kumar
Ek Aadat / Vishal Dadlani
Ek Aadat - II / Mohit Chauhan, Tulsi Kumar
Kyun Ho Gaya Ye Deewaana / Bohemia
Mere Pyaar Se Gehra Samundar / Mohit Chauhan, Tulsi Kumar
Mujhe Teri Zaroorat Hai / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Mujhe Teri Zaroorat Hai - Remix / Bohemia
Pyaar Kyun Kar Baithe / Vishal Dadlani

Sanam Teri Kasam (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.009+05:30

Sanam Teri Kasam (2009) is an unreleased film starring Saif Ali Khan, Pooja Bhatt, Atul Agnihotri and Sheeba. There isn’t much information around about who directed and produced this film, or when it was shot. The songs are composed by Nadeem Shravan and are very much in the style of the ’90s. All Kumar Sanu fans should rejoice, there’re 6 six songs by him. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Ek Baar Ek Byar Pyar Se Tu Bol / Kumar Sanu, Poornima
Itna Bhi Na Chaho Mujhe / Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu
Main Dil Ki Dil Mein / Kumar Sanu, Pankaj Udas,
Main Pyar Tumse / Alka Yagnik, Kumar Sanu
Sanam Yeh Pyar Hi To Hai / Kumar Sanu
Tum Gawahi Do / Kumar Sanu
Yeh Dil Darr Raha Hai / Sapna Mukherjee

Check out the Songs list for more Hindi songs!

Paying Guests (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.008+05:30

Paying Guests is an upcoming film (to be released in June) by Paritossh Painter and stars Shreyas Talpade, Javed Jaffrey, Ashish Chowdhry, Celina Jaitly, Chunky Pandey, Riya Sen, Sayali Bhagat, Neha Dhupia, Vatsal Sheth, Delnaz Paul, Johny Lever, Asrani, and Inder Kumar (whew… that was a lot of names:D). It’s obviously a comedy movie, most likely a slapstick with lots of cliche scenarios, even though I hope that’s not the case. It’s been a while since I watched a GOOD comedy film.

Music of Paying Guests is composed by the duo Sajid Wajid. Hope you like the songs

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Jack And Jill / Shaan, Earl D`Souza
Jack And Jill - Remix / Shaan, Earl D`Souza
Nazar Se Nazaria / Sunidhi Chauhan
Nazar Se Nazaria - Remix / Sunidhi Chauhan
Paying Guests / Wajid
Ya Rabula Rabbi / Sonu Nigam Earl D`Souza Amrita Kak

Ek Se Bure Do (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.007+05:30

Ek Se Bure Do is a comedy movie by first-time director Tarique Khan and stars Arshad Warsi, Natassha, Rajpal Yadav, Tusha, Govind Namdeo, Yashpal Sharma, Virendra Saxena, Vijay Raaz and Razzak Khan. It was released on April 10th. You’ve got to love a comedy film that has both Rajpal Yadav and Razak Khan in it.These guys are hilarious. Arshad Warsi hasn’t done quite well since his roles as Circuit in the Munna Bhai films.

Music of ESBD is composed by Ravi Pawar. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aaisa Pehli Bar / Sunidhi Chauhan, Suszan
Ek Se Bure Do / Sonu Nigam, Vinod Rathod
Ishq Ki Zaat / Daler Mehndi, Kalpana
Jaana Jaana / Shaan Hema, Sardesai Harshdeep
Meri Har Ada Ke Charche / Sonu Kakkad

Video - Aaja Sanam (Chori Chori)

2009-05-26T20:43:00.005+05:30

Aaja Sanam is one of my favorite old songs featuring the most amazing Indian actress ever, Nargis, and the equally fantastic actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor. It’s from the 1956 film Chori Chori, which I haven’t watched yet even though I’ve listened to this song hundreds of times. I’m sure you’re going to love this song. Here is the MP3 download link, just in case you want it on your iPod/mp3 player

Tera Mera Ki Rishta (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.003+05:30

Tera Mera Ki Rishta is a Pubjabi film starring Jimmy Shergill, Kulraj Randhawa, Anupam Kher, Archana Puran Singh, Raj Babbar, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Dolly Mattoo. It’s directed by Navaniat Singh. It was released back on April 10, and has been pretty successful at the Boxoffice. I hardly understand Punjabi, so I watch movies with 100% Punjabi dialogue. I hope you’ve seen it an enjoyed it.

Music of Tera Mera Ki Rishta is composed by Jaidev Kumar. Now enjoy your dose of Punjabi music!

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Can You Tell Me Sohniye / Mika Singh
Hathaan Diya Lakiraan / Alka Yagnik
Jag Khasma Nu Khaave / Kavita Krishnamurti, Preeti Uttam
Jag To Luko Ke Rakkhi / Sunidhi Chauhan
Play The Dhol / Sukhwinder Singh
Play The Dhol - Remix / Sukhwinder Singh, DJ Sanj
Raunak Shaunak / Wadali Brothers, Lehmber Hussainpuri
Zindagi De Rang /

Taal (1999) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:43:00.001+05:30

Taal is a Bollywood movie directed and produced by Subhash Ghai. It stars Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai, Amrish Puri and Alok Nath in major roles. Also, Shahid Kapoor appears as a background dancer in the song Kahin Aag Lage Lag Jawe. Anil Kapoor won a few major awards for his role in this film, but what’s made Taal so popular is the wonderful music by A.R. Rehman who also won multiple awards, including a FilmFare Award for best music direction. As someone wrote in a comment a few days ago, any AR Rehman collection is incomplete without Taal. So here it is, enjoy another dose of great Hindi music :D!

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Ishq Bina / Anuradha Sriram, Sujatha, Sonu Nigam, A R Rahman
Kahin Aag Lage / Aditya Narayan, Asha Bhosle, Richa Sharma
Ramta Jogi (Mein Prem Piyala Pee Aaya) / Sukhwindher Singh, Alka Yagnik
Ni Mein Samajh Gayi / Sukhwinder Singh, Richa Sharma
Taal Se Taal / Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
Taal Theme - Beat Of Passion
Ishq Bina Ishq Bina / Sukhwindher Singh, Kavita Krishnamurthy
Kariye Na / Sukhwindher Singh, Alka Yagnik
Kya Dekh Rahe Ho Tum / Madhu, Vaishali, Shoma
Nahin Samne / Hariharan, Sukhwindher Singh

Aloo Chaat (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:42:00.010+05:30

Aloo Chaat is a comedy movie directed by first timer Himadri Ghosh and stars Aftab Shivdasani, Aamna Shariff, Linda Arsenio, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Sanjay Mishra. Aloo Chaat is your run-of-the-mill family story: Boy returns from America after finishing studies to his panjabi family. His family wants him to marry but he refuses to marry every girl they pick because he’s in love with a girl in America. That’s what all the comedy and drama revolves around. It was released back on March 20th, so if you’ve seen it, do let me know how it is. It’s been a while since I watched any of Aftab films.

Music of Aloo Chaat is composed by four different music directors: RDB, Xulfi, Vipin Mishra and Mehfuz Maruf. You’d expect the four of them to come up with something worth listening, but unfortunately they fall short of your expectations. The only notable track is the title song.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aloo Chaat / Nindy Kaur
Aloo Chaat - II / RDB, Kailash Kher
Aloo Chaat - Remix / Kailash Kher
Boliyaan / RDB, Nindy Kaur
Boliyaan - II / RDB, Nindy Kaur
Dhadke Jiya / Xulfi
Dhadke Jiya - Remix / Xulfi
Life Is A Sizzling Aloo Chaat / Kunal Ganjawala

Firaaq (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:42:00.009+05:30

Firaaq is a art film directed by Nandita Das and stars Naseruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Raghuveer Yadav, Deepti Naval, Sanjay Suri, Shahana Goswami, Tisca Chopra and Dilip Joshi. The movie deals with friendship, violence and guilt and some very real human emotions. It portrays a more gruesome aspect of life, one that is unfortunately quite real for a lot of people. If you’re looking for glamour and dance numbers, this film is not for you. However, if you love the art of film making and want to see some real acting and good story telling then you will love this film. I’m personally a HUGE fan of Naseerudin Shah, and I’m itching to get hold of a Firaaq DVD.

Music of Firaaq is composed by Rajat Dholakia and Piyush Kanojia with lyrics from Gulzar. On the music front, there Firaaq doesn’t offer much. You might be wondering why am I wasting my time posting it then. Well I didn’t know about it until I was half way through this post. Anyways, stay tuned ’cause I’m about to post something so many of love.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Daag Daag Ujala / Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Firaaq Theme - Instrumental
Gujarat Ke Firaaq Soon - Extract / Jagjit Singh
Meri Gali Mein Andhera / Sukhwinder Singh
Ummeed / Rekha Bhardwaj

Video - Kaun Hai Jo Sapno Mein Aaya (Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan)

2009-05-26T20:42:00.008+05:30

Watch Kaun Hai Jo Sapno Mein Aaya video from Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan. This amazing song is sung the legendary and most loved singer Mohammed Rafi. Lyrics is by Hasrat Jaipuri (see below the video).

Kaun Hai Jo Sapno Mein Aaya Lyrics:

Kaun Hai Jo Sapnon Mein Aaya(2)
Kaun Hai Jo Dil Mein Samaya(2)
Lo Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan Bhi(2)
Ishq Mera Rang Laya(2)
O Priya Aaaa Aaa(2)

Zindagi Ke Har Ek Mod Pe Mein(2)
Geet Gata Chala Ja Raha Hoon(2)
Bekhudi Ka Yeh Aalam Na Poocho
Manzilo Se Badha Ja Raha Hoon(2)
Kaun Hai Jo Sapnon Mein Aaya
Kaun Hai Jo Dil Mein Samaya
Lo Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan Bhi
Ishq Mera Rang Laya
O Priya Aaaa Aaa(2)

Saj Gayi Aaj Sari Dishaye(2)
Khul Gayi Aaj Jannat Ki Raahein(2)
Husn Jab Se Mera Ho Gaya Hai
Mujh Pe Padti Hai Sabki Nigahein(2)
Kaun Hai Jo Sapnon Mein Aaya
Kaun Hai Jo Dil Mein Samaya
Lo Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan Bhi
Ishq Mera Rang Laya
O Priya Aaaa Aaa(2)

Jism Ko Maut Aati Hai Lekin(2)
Rooh Ko Maut Aati Nahi Hai(2)
Ishq Raushan Hai Raushan Rahega
Raushani Iski Jati Nahi Hai(2)
Kaun Hai Jo Sapnon Mein Aaya(2)
Kaun Hai Jo Dil Mein Samaya(2)
Lo Jhuk Gaya Aasmaan Bhi(2)
Ishq Mera Rang Laya(2)
O Priya Aaaa Aaa(2)

Video - Zara Zara Touch Me (Race)

2009-05-26T20:42:00.007+05:30

Zara Zara Touch Me, a great song from Race, features the gorgeous Katrina Kaif and Saif Ali Khan. I can’t help but feel like Katrina lacks the acting skills to express emotions through her facial expression, which makes her whole performance a bit dry. If only she could fix that. Anyway, I hope enjoy the video.

Aa Dekhen Zara (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:42:00.005+05:30

Aa Dekhen Zara is a sci-fi thriller directed by Jehangir Surti and stars Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bipasha Basu, Rahul Dev and Sophie Choudry. In ADZ, Neil Mukesh plays the role of Ray Acharya, a struggling photographer who inherits a camera from his grandfather that has a special ‘power’. That power changes Ray’s life, bringing him love and riches, as well as lots of responsibities and dangers. The film was released on March 27.

Music of Aa Dekhen Zara is composed by Gourov Dasgupta and Pritam. There are a couple of pretty good songs in this album. Gazab is very catchy (… can’t get it out of head!!) and Mohabbat Aapse is good too. I hope you enjoy the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aa Dekhen Zara / Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sunaina
Aa Dekhen Zara - Lounge / Dibyendu Mukherji, Shweta Vijay
Gazab / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
Gazab - Club Mix / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
Mohabbat Aapse / Akruti Kakkar
Power / Dibyendu Mukherji
Power - Club Mix / Dibyendu Mukherji
Rock The Party / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shweta Vijay

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:42:00.003+05:30

Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar is one of the most popular movies of the ’90s starring Aamir Khan, Ayesha Jhulka, Pooja Bedi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Aditya Lakhia. JJWS is a teenage sports drama directed by Mansoor Khan (who also directed Aamir in his previous highly successful film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak). I can’t remember much about the storyline and all since I watched quite a long time ago. But I do remember it was a great watch.

Music of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander is composed by Jatin Lalit. The film is popular even today mainly because of one particular song: Pehla Nasha! It’s a great song, I know you’re going to love it.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Are Yaaro Mere Pyaro / Udit Narayan, Vijayeta Pandit
Humse Hai Sara Jahan / Jatin Pandit, Sadhana Sargam
Naam Hai Mera Fonseca / Amit Kumar, Alka Yagnik
Pehla Nasha / Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam
Pehla Nasha - II / KUdit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam
Rooth Kar Humse / Jatin Pandit
Shehar Ki Pariyon / Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam
Yahaan Ke Hum Sikander / Udit Narayan, Sadhana Sargam, Lalit Pandit

Kal Kissne Dekha (2009) [MP3]

2009-05-26T20:42:00.001+05:30

Kal Kissne Dekha is a film by Vivek Sharma (director of Bhoothnath) and is set for release sometimes in June. It stars newcomers Jackky Bhagnani and Vaishali Desai in their debut roles along with Rishi Kapoor, Archana Puran Singh, Irfan Khan and Javed Jaffrey. KKD is the story of Nihal Singh (Jackky), a very smart college student with the ability to see the future. Bollywood biggies Juhi Chawla, Shahrukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt and Abhishek Bachchan also make special appearances in Kal Kissne Dekha.

Music of KKD is composed by the Sajid Wajid who have been composing music for movies since the late ’80s. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aalam Guzrne Ko / Sonu Nigam, Suzi Q
Aasman Jhuk Gaya / Shaan, Shreya Ghosal
Bin Tere Mar Javan Mein / Shreya Ghosal
Jashn Hai Josh Hai / Alisha Chinoy, Neeraj Shridhar, Wajid
Kal Kissne Dekha / Shaan, Shreya Ghosal
Kal Kissne Dekha - Club Mix / Shaan, Shreya Ghosal
Kal Kissne Dekha - Romantic Version / Wajid
Soniye Billori / Sonu Nigam, Suzi Q
Soniye Billori - Club Mix / Sonu Nigam, Suzi Q
Tere Bina Lagta Nahin Jiya / Wajid

Dev D (2009)

2009-05-08T12:09:00.002+05:30

Dev D is a film by modern day adaptation of the novel Devdas by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (see Devdas). It’s directed by Anurag Kashyap and stars Abhay Deol as Dev, Mahie Gill as Paro and Kalki Koechlin as Chandramukhi. Other cast of Dev D includes model Parakh Madan and Dibyendu Bhattacharya. It was released back February 6, I hope you’ve seen it because I’ve heard quite a lot of praises about Dev D and I’m really keen to get my hands on a DVD of the film.

The music of Dev D is composed by Amit Trivedi who’s come up with some amazing tunes. The songs are quite different from what we’re normally bombarded with. I hope you enjoy ‘em as I much I do.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aankh Micholi / Amit Trivedi
Dev Chanda - Themes 1
Dev Chanda - Themes 2
Dhol Yaara Dhol / Shilpa Rao, Kshitij
Dil Mein Jaagi / Mani
Duniya / Amit Trivedi
Ek Hulchul Si / Joi Barua
Emosanal Attyachaar - Brass Band Version / Rangeela, Rasila
Emosanal Attyachaar - Rock Version / Bony Chakravarthy
Hikknaal / Labh Jajua
Mahi Mennu - Sad Version / Labh Jajua
Mahi Mennu / Labh Jajua
Nayan Tarse / Amit Trivedi
Paayaliya / Shruti Pathak
Pardesi / Tochi
Ranjhana / Shilpa Rao, Kshitij
Saali Khushi / Amit Trivedi
Yahi Meri Zindagi / Aditi Singh Sharma

Roja (1992) [MP3]

2009-05-08T12:09:00.001+05:30

Roja is a multi-award winning film directed by Mani Ratnam and stars Arvind Swamy, Madhoo, Pankaj Kapoor (Shahid Kapoor’s dad), Nasser and Janagaraj. What this film is most known for is it’s amazing music which is composed by A.R. Rehman. I know many of you really like Roja’s songs since so many have requested them. Here they are finally. Enjoy!

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Bharat Humko Jaan / Hariharan
Choti Si Aasha / Minmini
Choti Si Aasha - 2 / Minmini
Roja / Hariharan
Roja - 2 / S.P Balasubramaniam
Rukmani / Chitra, S.P. Balasubramaniam
Yeh Haseen Vaadiyan / Chitra, S.P. Balasubramaniam

Video - Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na)

2009-05-08T12:08:00.004+05:30

Kabhi Kabhi Aditi is a wonderful song from the equally great film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na with vocals from Rashid Ali sung to the amazing tune created by A.R. Rehman. The film stars the newcomer Imraan Khan, but I don’t think I need to tell you who he is. I mean, with the amount of publicity the film received, add to that Imraan’s fantastic performance, everyone should know him by now. Enjoy the video!!

99 (2009)

2009-05-08T12:08:00.003+05:30

99 is a film by first time directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK and stars Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan, Boman Irani, Cyrus Broacha, Simone Singh, Mahesh Manjrekar and Vinod Khanna. It’s a comedy film set in 1999, and one that I’m very much looking forward to. My reasons: a) I’m a big fan of Kunal Khemu (loved his acting in Traffic Signal) and the trailer looks fantastic. It will be released on the 15th of May, so check it out. I’m pretty positive you’ll enjoy it.

Music of 99 is composed by Ashutosh Phatak (a.k.a Ashu) and Sameer Tandon. I haven’t listened to the songs yet, so I can’t give you my opinion yet. I hope you like them.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

99 Theme Song / Bonny Chakraborty
Delhi Destiny / Raja Hassan
Delhi Destiny - Spice Mix / Raja Hassan
Kal Ki Tarah / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
Punjabi Size / Labh Janjua, K.K.
Soch Mat Dobara / Bonny Chakraborty
What’s Up / Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K.
Whats Up - Dance Mix / Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K.
Whats Up - Grooving Blues Mix / Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K.

Video - Bheegi Bheegi (Gangster)

2009-05-08T12:08:00.002+05:30

Here is another great video from Gangster titled Bheegi Bheegi. The movie stars Emraan Hashmi, Shiny Ahuja and Kagna Ranaut and is a fantastic film to watch. I love the film and I love this song too. Enjoy!

8x10 Tasveer (2009)

2009-05-08T12:08:00.001+05:30

8×10 Tasveer is a thriller by Nagesh Kukunoor and stars Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore and Javed Jaffrey. The film is about Jai Puri (Akshay) who has a superpower, and when someone very close to him dies, he uses his powers to unravel the mystery behind the murder. It was released on 3rd April and hasn’t received many good reviews, though trailer looks pretty cool.

Music of 8 x 10 Tasveer is composed by the Merchant brothers, Salim and Sulaiman. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aaja Maahi / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Aaja Maahi - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Haafiz Khuda / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
Haafiz Khuda - Remix / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
I Got The Picture / Bohemia
I Got The Picture - Remix / Bohemia
Kuchh Is Tarah / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
Kuchh Is Tarah - Remix / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
Nazaara Hai / Vishal Dadlani
Nazaara Hai - Remix / Vishal Dadlani

Roja (1992) [MP3]

2009-05-07T14:00:00.001+05:30

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Bharat Humko Jaan / Hariharan
Choti Si Aasha / Minmini
Choti Si Aasha - 2 / Minmini
Roja / Hariharan
Roja - 2 / S.P Balasubramaniam
Rukmani / Chitra, S.P. Balasubramaniam
Yeh Haseen Vaadiyan / Chitra, S.P. Balasubramaniam

Dev D (2009)

2009-05-07T00:06:00.001+05:30

The music of Dev D is composed by Amit Trivedi who’s come up with some amazing tunes. The songs are quite different from what we’re normally bombarded with. I hope you enjoy ‘em as I much I do.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aankh Micholi / Amit Trivedi
Dev Chanda - Themes 1
Dev Chanda - Themes 2
Dhol Yaara Dhol / Shilpa Rao, Kshitij
Dil Mein Jaagi / Mani
Duniya / Amit Trivedi
Ek Hulchul Si / Joi Barua
Emosanal Attyachaar - Brass Band Version / Rangeela, Rasila
Emosanal Attyachaar - Rock Version / Bony Chakravarthy
Hikknaal / Labh Jajua
Mahi Mennu - Sad Version / Labh Jajua
Mahi Mennu / Labh Jajua
Nayan Tarse / Amit Trivedi
Paayaliya / Shruti Pathak
Pardesi / Tochi
Ranjhana / Shilpa Rao, Kshitij
Saali Khushi / Amit Trivedi
Yahi Meri Zindagi / Aditi Singh Sharma

99 (2009)

2009-05-05T20:41:00.002+05:30

Music of 99 is composed by Ashutosh Phatak (a.k.a Ashu) and Sameer Tandon. I haven’t listened to the songs yet, so I can’t give you my opinion yet. I hope you like them.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

99 Theme Song / Bonny Chakraborty
Delhi Destiny / Raja Hassan
Delhi Destiny - Spice Mix / Raja Hassan
Kal Ki Tarah / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
Punjabi Size / Labh Janjua, K.K.
Soch Mat Dobara / Bonny Chakraborty
What’s Up / Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K.
Whats Up - Dance Mix / Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K.
Whats Up - Grooving Blues Mix / Sunidhi Chauhan, K.K.

Video - Bheegi Bheegi (Gangster)

2009-05-05T20:41:00.001+05:30

Video - Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na)

2009-05-05T06:58:00.002+05:30

8x10 Tasveer (2009)

2009-05-05T06:58:00.001+05:30

Music of 8 x 10 Tasveer is composed by the Merchant brothers, Salim and Sulaiman. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aaja Maahi / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Aaja Maahi - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Haafiz Khuda / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
Haafiz Khuda - Remix / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
I Got The Picture / Bohemia
I Got The Picture - Remix / Bohemia
Kuchh Is Tarah / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
Kuchh Is Tarah - Remix / Mohit Chouhan, Tulsi Kumar
Nazaara Hai / Vishal Dadlani
Nazaara Hai - Remix / Vishal Dadlani

Jai Veeru (2009) [MP3]

2009-04-12T23:44:00.001+05:30

Jai Veeru is a film by Puneet Sira starring Fardeen Khan, Kunal Khemu, Dia Mirza, Anjana Sukhani and Arbaaz Khan in major roles. The film was released on March 13. It tells the story of two Jai (Fardeen) and Veeru (Kunal) who were once were once very close friends but are now on the opposite sides of the law. When the gangster Tejpal (Arbaaz) wants to kill them both, they have forced to work together, if they can manage not to kill each other.

Music of JV is composed by Bappa Lahiri (Bappi Lahiri’s son) and the lyricists are Sameer and Omer Inayat. I hope you like the songs.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Agre Ka Ghagra / Mauli Dave, Javed Ali, Raja Hasan
Aisa Lashkara / Hard Kaur, Rema Lahiri
Dhun Lagi / Mika Singh, Raja Hasan
Dhun Lagi - Electro Mix / Mika Singh, Raja Hasan
Dhun Lagi - Remix / Mika Singh, Raja Hasan, Dj Akhil Talreja, Dj N. Y. K.
Sufi / Tulsi Kumar, Saim
Sufi - 1 / Saim
Sufi - Rock / Tulsi Kumar, Saim
Tennu Le / Omer Inayat
Tennu Le - Remix / Omer Inayat, Dj Akhil Talreja

Ek Se Bure Do - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-04-12T07:24:00.003+05:30

Cast: Arshad Warsi, Rajpal Yadav, Natassha, Tusha
Director: Tarique Khan
Rating: *

Time and again one comes across a statement that “this film has been made for single screen audiences in smaller towns and cities”. Well, no audience should be subjected to a movie like this.

Simply put, “Ek Se Bure Do” is a terrible movie. Arshad Warsi and Rajpal Yadav are the two ‘bure log’ (bad people) in the film and honestly, it must have been embarrassing for them to be a part of a movie which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever from the first to the last frame.

The film is said to be a comedy but there is not even a single scene that makes you laugh.

Problems with “Ek Se Bure Do” are aplenty with the biggest being that there is no storyline whatsoever. The director would struggle if asked to give a two line synopsis of the film.

The film has a treasure hunt as the central theme but not once in the film does one see anyone going after the treasure.

Arshad Warsi and Rajpal Yadav are visibly uncomfortable with the terrible state that they must have been in while working in the film - something which reflects in practically each of their scenes.

The film tries to be an amalgamation of quite a few films and in the end the mishmash that is served is so tasteless that you begin wondering who approved the script in the first place.

Arshad-Rajpal antics are straight out of “Jodi No. 1″ while the Govind Namdeo double role act reminds one of “Andaz Apna Apna” where Paresh Rawal was seen in a similar role. Then there is this quintessential “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron” climax, this time with “Mughal-e-Azam” being underway on stage. If Kundan Shah sees these five minutes of the film, he may just get a heart attack.

The film was in the making for five years, something that reflects in each and every frame. Not only does it look dated with extremely poor cinematography adding insult to injury, it also seems clearly disjointed.

Also, you can sense that the director didn’t have any control over the proceedings and shot scenes randomly depending upon availability of any actor, whether lead or supporting. No wonder, “Ek Se Bure Do” turns out to be an extremely poor film.

Coffee House - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-04-12T07:24:00.001+05:30

Cast: Ashutosh Rana, Sakshi Talwar, Aman Dhaliwal, Neha Mishra, Vrajesh Hirjee, Vinod Nagpal, Javed Khan, Paintal
Director: Gurbir Singh Grewal
Rating: *

This is actually turning out to be too bad to be true! Week after week, audiences are being subjected to some terrible movies. Now add “Coffee House” to the list.

I have some questions for the filmmakers: Did you really feel that you would be able to find an audience for a movie like this, which not only has a dry subject but a boring narrative? And what is the relevance of a title like “Coffee House”?

Typically, a film takes some time to establish its characters, begin a story and generally ends with some conclusion. In case of “Coffee House”, you don’t get to see any highs or lows.

It is one flat narrative that stays the same way from start to finish. You see multiple stories running parallel, something which started with “Yuva” and ever since then has been seen in films like “Life In A Metro”, “Salaam-e-Ishq”, “Hat Trick” and most recently “Firaaq”.

In the case of “Coffee House”, you get to see the story of Ashutosh Rana who is an idealist and wants to change the socio-economic situation of the country through his newspaper and street plays.

Then, there is a small team led by Vrajesh Hirjee that aims at being desi Robin Hoods by robbing the rich of their wealth. A quartet of senior citizens have their own problems to solve while a couple, which is in a live-in relationship, sees this crumbling right in front of their eyes.

With so many stories running parallel, there had to be some portion of the film that could have been entertaining. However, nothing of that sort happens and you keep wondering where exactly the film is heading.

If this wasn’t enough, there is a communal angle that comes in towards the interval, something that diverts the proceedings. Suddenly, Ashutosh Rana gets all charged up, starts delivering fiery speeches, begins a revolution and in no time you find a nationwide protest taking place. Now where did this one come from?

This is hardly a coffee worth sipping even in your house. Just ignore it completely, it isn’t worth your time.

Delhi-6 (2009) [MP3]

2009-04-11T05:21:00.001+05:30

I found got around to post Delhi-6, which so many of you kept requested. Sorry to keep you waiting. Delhi-6 is a film Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra who also directed Rang De Basanti. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Om Puri, Rishi Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman. Roshan (Abhishek) who is born and raised in America, brings his grandmother (Waheeda Rehman) as she wants to live the last years of her life in her homeland. Unfamiliar with Delhi and everything there, Roshan comes to learn a lot and in the process falls in love with Bittu (Sonam Kapoor).

Music of Delhi-6 is composed by A.R. Rehman (no wonder why it was requested so much). I hope you enjoy listening to them.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aarti (Tumre Bhavan Mein) / Rekha Bhardwaj, Kishori Gowariker, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar
Arziyan / Javed Ali, Kailash Kher
Bhor Bhaye / Shreya Ghosal, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Gujri Todi
Delhi 6 / Blaaze, Benny Dayal, Vivinenne Pocha, Tanvi, Claire
Dil Gira Dafatan / Ash King, Backing Chinmayee
Genda Phool / Rekha Bhardwaj, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar
Hey Kaala Bandar / Karthik, Naresh, Srinivas, Bony Chakravarthy
Masakali / Mohit Chouhan
Noor / Amitabh Bachchan
Rehna Tu / A R Rahman, Benny Dayal, Tanvi

8x10 Tasveer - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-04-07T17:45:00.001+05:30

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Takia, Sharmila Tagore, Javed Jaffrey, Girish Karnad, Anant Mahadevan
Director: Nagesh Kuknoor
Rating: ***

No wonder the director sent off an e-mail before the film’s release requesting that the suspense not be revealed in the reviews.

The plot of “8X10 Tasveer” unravels with such elegant dexterity that you are tempted to spill the beans. However, doing so would be a crime worse than the multiple murders attempted and achieved in this understated, gently violent and subtly tongue-in-cheek movie.

Normally Indian whodunits are so hysterical in tone you rue the day Dolby sound was invented. But Nagesh Kukunoor’s narrative uses sound to create a delectable and subtle distinction between crime and lyricism.

The characters move through a labyrinth of heightened luxury. Canada’s sun-kissed lakes and valleys open up a vista of narrative possibilities, some realised, many unexplored. Either way, the plot obtains its bridled energy from the director’s clear and present understanding of the danger that could underline the most beautiful and desirable surfaces. All you have to do is scratch.

Kukunoor definitely knows the finest suspense creators of celluloid - from Alfred Hithcock to Brian de Palma to Manoj Night Shyamalan. In these masters, Kukunoor discovers his magic and metier. He converts the history of the whodunit into a crackling currency of characters and plot-twists that make you in the audience touch the goings-on without really embracing them.

A perfunctory attitude underlines the storytelling, creating within the high level of aesthetics a murky interior where knives are used to cut the human body rather than succinct meat on the baroque dining table.

The supernatural element is used with a delicious and devilish delicacy. Believe what you will, says the director. But you have to admit that there are times when logic simply takes a backseat.

Providentially, Kukunoor keeps the supernatural element on a believable scale. Having Akshay Kumar to go into intermittent premonitory bouts helps. Akshay doesn’t fight the tides of improbability. He goes with the flow, riding the waves with a twinkle-eyed, ever-grin, sometimes grim graciousness that allows him to get real without forfeiting his heroic image.

When Akshay is not busy being self-righteous or cocky he is very likeable in this film. Without revealing the climax, it would be appropriate to say here, more than anywhere else, the gripping elements of noire cinema kiss the masala conventions of Hindi cinema in “8X10 Tasveer”. It’s a heady brew cooked at an even temperature that reaches the boiling point without bubbling over.

Kukunoor is unarguably an adept storyteller. His triumph with the whodunit is manifested in delicate details that draw inspiration from the masters of the murder mystery and yet re-define the culture of filmed crime in a language that is derived from the director’s own sensibilities.

The film could have made its end-game a little less wedded to Hindi cinema’s formulistic conventions. But the concession to commercialism doesn’t compromise the suspenseful equilibrium of a canvas where a family photograph speaks a thousand words.

The film’s quiet, restrained rhythm of expression is palpable.

You can’t miss the artery of understatement even when that gloved hand with the knife gleams on the polished exterior. That is when we begin to see what the film wants to do. It takes the whodunit into a land of murderous silences.

Greed underlines the crime. But the director is not greedy. He refrains from reaching out for all the armoury of the suspense genre. For telling us that less can be more even in a whodunit Kukunoor and his leading man must be applauded.

Ek: The Power Of One - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-29T00:36:00.001+05:30

Cast: Nana Patekar, Bobby Deol, Shriya Saran, Khulbushan Kharbanda, Chunky Pandey, Jackie Shroff, Sachin Khedekar
Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Rating: *

Everything that can go wrong in a film does in “Ek: The Power Of One”.

Decades ago Raj Khosla had made “Bombai Ka Baboo” about a man who replaces the missing son of a simple rustic family and learns a few lessons on humanism.

Many years later Manmohan Desai reworked the same theme in “Roti” and in that Rajesh Khanna played the impostor son who takes over an impoverished son’s life.

Now in “Ek…” it’s the ceaselessly-stoic Bobby Deol who takes on the role of an impostor in a Chandigarh-based joint family who seem to specialise in making fools of themselves. The only members of this extended joint family to conduct themselves with dignity are Kulnhushan Kharbanda and Zarina Wahab.

What gives this high-velocity action flick a cutting edge is the fight sequences. Bobby seems to replicate his bade bhaiyya (elder brother) Sunny’s muscle power. When he hits, the earth moves.

Bobby’s character is shown to be a killer from adolescence. In the interestingly-conceived prelude, the child pulls a gun out on a gangster in a car and fires at him with the aim to kill.

Yes, this one learns young.

A subsequent attempt to just hurt a wily politician (Sachin Khedekar) goes horribly wrong - quite like this action-drama’s outdated script. And Bobby ends up hiding in the bustle of a boorish household in Punjab where he’s chased down by a trying-hard-to-be-cool-and-leery Nana Patekar.

There are some arresting moments between the fugitive and the cop. The material is occasionally edited with speedy care by Chirag Jain to bring together various strands of the action in a pantomime of cohesiveness.

Alas, the lose ends shriek out their protest. For Bobby, after “Bichoo” and “Badal”, playing the cold-blooded assassin comes naturally. He could sleepwalk through such a role.

Nana is a live-wire but in the wrong character. The role of the randy cop shooting bullets and making lewd passes at the speed of a gun seems to be a corny carryover of Amitabh Bachchan’s Sexy Sam in “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna”.

Nothing in “Ek…” suggests even a remote connection with sophistication. This one causes a ‘head-Ek’.

Videsh - Heaven On Earth - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-26T18:15:00.001+05:30

Director: Deepa Mehta
Cast: Preity Zinta, Vansh Bhardwaj
Rating: ****

When the first slap comes, it hits the audience hard across the face.

Spousal abuse as a theme is not new to cinema. What sets Deepa Mehta’s “Heaven On Earth” apart from other films including Jagmohan Mundhra’s “Provoked” is the fusion of unspoken unexpressed terror with mythological elements all packed with sardine-like compactness into a small apartment in Ontario, Canada, where Chand arrives fearful and hopeful after her wedding.

What she brings with her is her mother’s tales and homilies, songs and mythology that follow the bride into her chamber of horrors.

What follows in Chand’s new life is a nightmare that could claim the life of any Indian bride transported into a foreign country after marriage.

Absolute authenticity is the hallmark of Deepa Mehta’s vision. Her permanent cinematographer Giles Nuttgens enters Chand’s adopted Canadian home with her and remains by her side, living her pain, experiencing her humiliation and agony, as within no time Chand becomes that nightmarish entity whom we all read about in crime sections of the papers: the abused wife.

The film’s greatest triumph is its economy of expression. The tightly-wound tale of the tormented wife is never allowed to have loose moments. Ironically, outwardly we see a warm home filled with a Sikh family half of whom seem to have absolutely nothing to do. Within their abject nullity lies the secret to the violence that claims, possesses and tries to smother Chand’s domestic dreams.

We know from the start that she’ll escape the nightmare of a brutal marriage. That she lives to tell her tale is self-evident. The magic of her existence in the trap of an arranged marriage lies in the illusion of normalcy and compassion that she creates within the ambience of abject terror by inventing a double for her husband… a doppelganger, a spirit in human form, if you will, who applies balm to all of Chand’s wounds and gives her the courage to survive when the very breath of her existence is being choked out.

The snake-god from Chand’s backyard in human form assuming the physical traits of her violent husband is a metaphor that illuminates the darkest recesses of Chand’s life. Every time she hides in her bedroom for a dialogue with her phantom-soul mate, Preity Zinta’s face lights up with thousands of unexpressed yearnings trapped in a heart that aches for release. Preity lights up the darkest corners of her tortured and frightened character’s heart.

Thoroughly deglamourised and devastated by destiny’s cruel blows, Preity plays Chand with dignity and depth that take us by surprise. She and director Deepa Mehta keep the hysteria completely in check. The drama is generated completely from the normal domesticated sounds and sights.

The film creates the growing claustrophobia of Chand’s marital domesticity with acute austerity. The spurts of on-screen violence are all the more shocking for the way they erupt within the workaday milieu.

The one big sequence of violence erupts in the kitchen when Chand’s somewhat confused and altogether out-of-control husband Rocky thrashes his wife… for his outwardly-stoic mother’s sake of course.

There are no villains in “Heaven On Earth” - not even the husband Rocky (played with understanding by newcomer Vansh Bhardwaj) who hits out at wounds that are never allowed to heal. There are only victims in Deepa’s scheme of presentation. Silently-screaming puppets on a string being manoeuvred into a life of domesticated dereliction by forces that we could designate as fate or just cruel blows of workaday drudgery.

The mythic intervention that creeps into the plot with the appearance of the naag in Chand’s backyard, slithers into the scenario with surreptitious grace, creating for the theme a residue of myth and dream that nourishes the wife’s bereft kingdom.

The borderline between illusion and reality, between Chand’s violent reality and the world of harmony and love she creates in the womb of her heart, is so superbly seamless we never know when Chand’s smothered scream transforms into a silent whoop of triumph.

“Heaven On Earth” is not a film that offers easily digestible solutions to the complex problem of domestic violence. It neither takes sides nor allows the bride to turn into a pitiable victim. Preity standing supremely dignified at the centre of the conflict furnishes the theme with amazing grace. She’s the only known face in the crowded Punjabi home of patriarchs, matriarchs, victims and perpetrators of bitter violence. But Preity never lets it known she’s a star.

She merges into the terrifying domesticity of Deepa’s household. The character steps out occasionally into the workaday world of a migrant job (the friendship with the feisty Jamaican woman at her workplace rings a little hollow when compared with the reality that envelopes the the rest of the plot) and returns to her horrific home space where she creates a mythical merger between illusion and reality.

Finally when Chand says goodbye to a life of married trauma, we see on Preity’s face a mixture of distant triumph and immediate self-realisation. She finally comes home.

Straight - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-23T17:55:00.002+05:30

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Gul Panag, Anuj Chaudhri, Sid Makkar
Director: Parvati Balagopalan
Rating: **1/2

Let’s get one thing, er, straight. Homosexuality is finally out of the closet in our films. Well, sort of. Last year’s naughty blockbuster “Dostana” had two of our most popular leading men pretending to be gay.

Now “Straight” has Vinay Pathak believing he is gay.

There’s a slender space dividing pretence from belief, specially when it comes to matters of human trait. Often what you pretend to be is what you eventually end up being.

Fortunately for serio-comic hero Pinu Patel (Pathak) he’s not sexually attracted to the persistently charming new stand-comedian Kamlesh (Anuj Chaudhri) whom Pinu hires for his restaurant.

The scenes showing Kamlesh insinuating himself into Pinu’s life and place of work are done with a dash of devilish bravado.

Within no time Pinu finds everyone eating not just off his tables, but also out of Kamlesh’s hands.

A triangle of sorts comes up in a queer way when Pinu can’t figure out who he’s more jealous, when the pretty new accountant Renu (Gul Panag) strikes up a camaraderie with Kamlesh.

Confusion of sexuality is a theme yet in its infancy in our films. Director Parvati Balagopalan keeps the going light-hearted and most of the time frothy and amiable. There’s an endearing quality to the way these NRIs in London are seen not in the predictable roles of migrant misfits, but grappling with more personal problems without taking themselves too seriously.

Seriously, being funny about sexual preferences doesn’t come easily to our cinema. “Straight” just about manages it with dignity and charm. The triangular relationship among Pinu, Renu and Kamlesh is punctuated by bouts of laughter, directed more at the way the characters deceive than conduct themselves.

The camaraderie that grows between the male characters is specially likable. Not just Pinu and Kamlesh, but Pinu and his London-born brother Rajat (Sid Makkar) who finally turns out to be what Pinu suspected himself of being.

Through Rajat some groovy rock numbers (Sagar Desai) make their way into the plot to add to the fair casual-fun quotient.

It’s not always that we see a woman director comprehending male bonding without prejudice.

Arranged marriages and unarranged alliances all come under satirical scrutiny under Parvati’s vigilant and vivacious camera range. She gets to the point straight most of the way, thanks to the performances.

While Vinay Pathak brings a characteristic candour and confusion to his character’s personality, Anuj Chaudhri as the endearing intruder Kamlesh plays the character sincerely and honestly. Gul Panag is, as usual, very camera-friendly.

What really works for this film is the uncluttered clean and crisp narrative with London providing a subtly sensuous backdrop to characters who are anything but subtle or sensuous.

Barah Aana - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-23T17:55:00.001+05:30

Director: Raja Menon
Cast: Neseeruddin Shah, Vijay Raaz, Arjun Mathur, Tannishtha Chatterjee
Rating: ***

A mellow, mirthful and at times moving story of three north Indian migrants, “Barah Aana” may not be the ideal idea of an evening out or even an entertainer. But for a discerning audience, this tale of tantalizing possibilities brings in a sense of un-visited surprise.

There are three main characters - a quiet driver Shukla (Naseeruddin Shah), a watchman Yadav (Vijay Raaz) and a waiter Aman (Arjun Mathur) - all driven to the doors of despair but stopped in time by a self-directed sense of humour that saves them from self-destruction.

The story gathers momentum when the trio hit on an age-old formula for survival - crime.

Superbly scripted by Raj Kumar Gupta, who recently directed the riveting “Aamir”, “Barah Aana” derives its strength from the frailties and vulnerabilities of the three migrant characters who seem to be drawn into the dark side of life without knowing where they are heading.

Debutant director Raja Menon seems to view the people in his plot with a reasonable degree of detachment. There’s a sense of riveting finesse in the way these unsophisticated characters chart their course without self-pity.

Of course the film would have never worked without the cast. What does one say about Naseeruddin Shah without sounding completely like a fan? He’s seen in two totally different avatars this week.

Naseer’s bullied, embittered and silently-seething driver’s part in this film is as distant from his disoriented classical maestro’s role in Nandita Das’ “Firaaq” as only he can make them.

Vijay Raaz, always in top form when given to play a man who has seen life without rose-tinted glasses, gives a sly snarling spin to his role. His performance has both bark and bite. Watch Vijay play the watchman.

The youngest and most inexperienced member of the trio Arjun Mathur, seen in a sensitive part in Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance”, has a tough time holding his own against Naseer and Vijay and also holding his Bihari accent in place. But he nevertheless leaves a positive impressive.

Another great performance comes from Tannishtha Chatterjee. As the flamboyant Rani, she shocks you after her quiet performance in “Brick Lane”. She should be seen more often.

With a message on the plight of migrants, “Barah Aana” would hardly appeal to multiplex audiences. Films on lives of migrants usually score high as cinematic works but low on mass appeal.

One must say that Preeti Sethi’s camera goes through Mumbai’s lanes with the least fuss. See “Barah Aana” for its terrific cast, first-rate production values and the director’s firm grip on the grammar of grassroot politics.

Firaaq - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-19T17:55:00.001+05:30

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Raghuvir Yadav, Sanjay Suri, Tisca Arora, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash
Director: Nandita Das
Rating: ****1/2

Nearly flawless, almost pitched perfectly to show the trauma of those who lose limbs, lives, love and faith in a communal carnage, Nandita Das’ directorial debut leaves you speechless.

This is what cinema was always meant to be. But somewhere in its chequered course from information to entertainment, our movies began to feel like vaudeville entertainment meant more for diversion than intellectual stimulation.

“Firaaq” doesn’t aim to be a cerebral treatise on communalism. Nor does it suffuse the narrative with what one may call intellectual masturbation for the sake of creating an aura of socio-political importance.

Non-judgemental and utterly bereft of stylistic affections, “Firaaq” is a graceful and glorious homage to the human spirit. Much of its visual power comes from Ravi Chandran’s articulate but restrained camera work, Sreekar Prasad’s seamless but trenchant editing that leaves nothing (not even destiny) to chance, and Gautam Sen’s artwork which makes the city’s riot-torn colours emblematic of the red anger and the blue despair felt by the characters.

Set in those turbulent tension-filled days right after the Godhra incident in Gujarat, “Firaaq” depicts the loss of human faith and the complete absence of the rules of civilised conduct in the day-to-day working of the administration vis-୶is civilians.

Language, in fact, is an amazing tool of unhampered eloquence in “Firaaq”. The characters in the riot-torn city speak in three languages Hindi, English and Gujarati. They do so without design or selfconscious purpose.

The outstanding words do not stand outside the characters’ ambit of everyday expression (sometimes colloquial, otherwise poetic). Even when the narrative pauses to debate the polemics of communal politics among the characters, we the audience are one with the pause. This is excellence without the silent sound of applause. The spoken words are not designed for the camera. They are said because they have to be expressed.

“Firaaq” first and foremost deserves the highest praise for the remarkably even-pitched writing by Nandita Das and Shuchi Kothari. No character jumps out of the screen in trying to make its presence felt. The people who live in Nandita’s film are the people we know in one way or another.

And yet they are here, special in a very unobtrusive way. The narrative episodes, written with finesse and passion, are constructed to accentuate the post-communal friction among people who till the other day were neighbours. There is a mixed-married Hindu-Muslim couple. Before the day is done the husband (played with silent sincerity by Sanjay Suri) has made peace with his environment and the fact that his name is Sameer Sheikh, not Sameer Desai.

Sameer in the context of the film’s volatile communal statement becomes a metaphor for the Hindu-Muslim divide which is now a looming reality in middle class lives. The tact and grace with which “Firaaq” weaves through the communal tensions of unrelated characters all joined by their collective fear of a communal backlash are signs of a time when cinema and society at large need to do a serious rethink on their responsibilities.

“Firaaq” throws forward an assortment of unrelated characters zigzagging across a domain of doomed conscientiousness. Nandita Das’s narrative doesn’t attempt to unravel the enigma of a disaster-borne civilisation. It looks at the people, even the lowest and scummiest of them (including Paresh Rawal who bravely plays a middle class businessman who happily looted a Muslim shop and shared in his brother’s participative glee in a gang rape) with a kind of reined-in empathy that makes even the seeming perpetrators look like victims.

The villains, if any, are the administrative personnel shown to be running around abetting the violence. If this is a simplification in storytelling then it can’t be helped. Celluloid depictions of troubled times have to somewhere find tangible figures to blame for the injustice. Otherwise we would come away from a certifiable masterpiece like “Firaaq” wondering if there’s any sense of justice left in this chaotic world of self-serving brutality.

Das’ narrative is propelled forward by powerful characters played by actors who not only know their job but also know how to make their jobs look like anything but professional hazard.

It would be criminal to pick performances. Deepti Naval (looking like a ravaged guilt-ridden avatar of the nurturing foster-mom Sharmila Tagore in Shakti Samanta’s “Amar Prem”), Paresh Rawal (as a trashy unscrupulous bourgeois broker) and of course the redoubtable Naseeruddin Shah (as an aged classical singer caught in a sublime time-warp) deliver performances that glisten with glory and sensitivity.

But there are dozens of other known and unknown actors furnishing Das’ gripping drama with an inner voice that screams in protest without overstatement. The interactive drama bringing together people during crises never lapses into hysteria and homilies. The beauty of the drama of the disinherited is never diluted by clinging on to the inherent drama of any given situation.

Like life, Nandita Das’ narrative moves on with confident steps creating for itself a kind of compelling circumstance when crises are a given, compromise a compulsion and surrender to fate the only means of survival.

Haunting and powerful in its depiction of a time when humanity is frozen in anguish and terror, “Firaaq” draws its tremendous strength from the screenplay and characters which seem to observe life’s keenest and meanest blows without flinching.

Here’s a film that must be seen not because it tells a story that touches every life. But because it touches our lives with such persuasiveness without resorting to overstatement.

Gulaal - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-16T21:25:00.003+05:30

Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Mahi Gill, Aditya Shrivastava, Raj Singh Chaudhury, Abhimanyu Singh, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa
Rating: ***

The blossoming of Anurag Kashyap into a formidable storyteller who bends all rules of filmmaking acquires a startling new definition with “Gulaal”, which is about student unrest and intense politicking.

“Gulaal” emblazons itself across the screen as a deft and brutal film on the culture of decadence in a typical north Indian setting. And it spares no room for niceties as it is a powerful portrait of a culture that thrives on bullying tactics.

The homage to the cinema of Vishal Bhardwaj is rampant in “Gulaal”. Somewhere in the brilliantly-cohesive soundtrack we even hear strains of Lata Mangeshkar’s “Pani pani re” from Bhardwaj’s “Maachis” in the film where life is lived by the gun and the mantra for survival is deception.

The world of “Gulaal” is crowded, claustrophobic and potent. The writer-director spares us none of the details in bringing to life a world where unlicensed guns and unchecked lawlessness rule. This is the kingdom of anarchy. Enter at your own risk.

In many ways Kashyap’s portrait of a world on the skids is borrowed from the mafia films of Martin Scorcese. The same disregard for human life defines Kashyap’s collage of queerly egocentric characters in “Gulaal”.

In “Gulaal” human lives get snuffed out with anarchic disdain. The location and mood are perfectly pitched to deliver an ambience of uncouth vigilanteism. Men who are mean because it’s their only trick of self-preservation and women who scheme against unsuspecting men by using their sexuality tumble out of the crowded canvas.

Kashyap’s narrative provides us with no fullstops. The editing by Aarti Bajaj is so relentless in its pursuit of variable moods and situations that the audience is often left behind in efforts to keep track of the goings-on. The soundtrack too perpetually races ahead of the visuals.

Shakespeare meets Quentin Tarantino in “Gulaal”. With “Dev D” and now “Gulaal”, Kashyap has proved himself a master of basic storytelling. He pulls the plug on cinematic pleasantries and takes us straight to the core of the characters, often rotting and evil.

The royal politics of separatism rubs shoulders with the politics of sex and power in a heady brew that the Shakespearean tragedies had patented a century ago. And yet Kashyap’s stimulating cinematic language embraces its literary antecedents without losing focus on ugly facets of contemporary Indian life.

Kashyap begins with college ragging when we are introduced to the callow hero Dilip Singh (Raj Singh Choudhary) who’s locked up by a bunch of bullies with a naked woman(Jesse Randhawa). The two strike an empathetic cord that takes them on a nightmarish journey through the scummy world of north Indian politics where brother kills brother and love gladly betrays love.

“Gulaal” is many things at the same time. As a portrait of small town politics it bludgeons you with its lethal mix of grimy morals, slimy characters and perverted politics. The stench of corruption is conveyed with the same intensity as the odour of sweaty bodies running through dirty gullies in pursuit of the next victim.

At heart “Gulaal” is a portrait of a civilisation that’s rapidly receding into chaos but thinks it’s just karma that propels them into annihilation. At the core there’s an unspoilt uncorrupted relationship in “Gulaal” - that between the aggressive student leader Ranajay Singh (Abhimanyu Singh) and his protege Dilip.

It’s no coincidence that Dilip tells his soulmate Anuja that he feels vulnerable without Ranajay.

Beneath the politics of power and sex, “Gulaal” hides a tender longing for bonds that transcend the barrel of the gun.

“Gulaal” sees an authentic set of actors playing characters who are completely at one with the director’s dark vision. Outstanding in different ways are Abhimanyu Singh as the self-disinherited royalty, Pankaj Jha as the over-age college bully, Kay Kay Menon as the unscrupulous Rajput leader and Aditya Shivastava as the illegitimate heir of a subverted princedom who dotes on his kid sister (Ayesha Mohan).

And then there is Piyush Mishra as narrator, conscience and cynic. In fact Mishra plays many roles and defines the chaos of the plot with songs that sing of old forgotten values in new power-packed parodies.

Jai-Veeru - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-16T21:25:00.001+05:30

Cast: Fardeen Khan, Kunal Khemu, Dia Mirza, Anjana Sukhani
Director: Puneet Sira
Rating: *

“Jai Veeru” is just not cinema at its most appalling low, it is worse than that. It tries to be smart and sassy without possessing the basic writing and speaking material to make its two heroes - Fardeen Khan and Kunal Khemu - look heroic.

One remembers Kunal best as the hot-blooded illegitimate son of a film personality in Mahesh Bhatt’s “Zakhm” who fights a lonely battle on his mother’s behalf.

In the film Kunal grew up to be Ajay Devgan. In real life he grew up to be a promising wannabe superstar in Rohit Jugraj’s “Superstar”. Then Kunal apparently lost his way.

The young actor and his co-star Fardeen end up looking like a couple of morons on the prowl in “Jai-Veeru”. They play guys who have nothing better to do than ogle at idle, rich girls and eye other people’s money and property.

One steals cars and woos Anjana Sukhani on the Goan beaches. The other fires guns, gets hit and lands up in hospital with Dia Mirza playing nurse.

While the characters find their bearings you wonder what the scriptwriter and the director have been doing. Probably checking out the latest DVDs of Hollywood films to incorporate chase sequences and fights into the two-hour “Jai Veeru”.

Why did they bother? You ask yourself after the first hour. By then three-four of Bappa Lahiri’s item songs have swished by in rapid-fire succession.

Bappa is no patch on papa Bappi. His music says nothing to us. But we can’t blame the poor wannabe composer. His songs are part of a film that’s so wannabe it makes the week’s other releases look like major classics in comparison.

It would be foolhardy to even comment on any of the performances.

Dhoondte Reh Jaoge - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-08T21:38:00.003+05:30

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Kunal Khemu, Sonu Sood, Soha Ali Khan
Director: Umesh Shukla
Rating: *

Johnny Lever playing a hardcore Pakistan-loving Muslim screenwriter in Bollywood, sitting on a rooftoop amidst a flurry of green flags and narrating a script that is a sad mishmash of past blockbusters could have been hilarious. However, he was part of a film that attempts to evoke mirth from the whims of the working-class but ends up weak-kneed and washed-out with the effort.

The characters in this quirky, quick-mix comedy try to give you the formula for a flop film. Finally, the characters end up making a hit film. If only the people behind “Dhoondte Reh Jaoge” were that lucky.

It seems they set out to make a hit film by conceiving a plot about a totally zonked-out film unit that has set out to make a flop film. But the idea never quite gets beyond the wish list. The collection of characters who crowd the film’s corny canvas seem to stand uncertainly at the threshold of a spectacular satire that never takes off.

The cast seems to be in the mood for masti. And when you have the redoubtable Paresh Rawal helming the hilarity, what could go wrong?

In theory, nothing. In practice, everything goes wrong in the comic climate of this strange connivance about an out-of-luck producer (Paresh), an out-of-luck charterered accountant (Kunal Khemu) and a struggling actress (Soha Ali Khan).

And if this trio reminds you of Rishi Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen Sharma in Zoya Akhtar’s recent “Luck By Chance”, then blame the Bollywood setting and banish the thought.

If “Luck By Chance” was an insider’s look at the film industry, “Dhoondte Reh Jaoge” is the wacko’s dekko into blunder-land.

No effort is made to understand the workings of the industry with satirical sensitivity. The laughter is the main criteria for entering the dream world of movie making. Sadly, the laughs are few and far in-between. The “Sholay” and “Lagaan” spoofs give the humour an extremely wannabe appearance.

Unintentionally bits and pieces of the satire merge into portions of “Rangeela” (wannabe actress falls in love with screen hero while her lover-boy from the chawls seethes in anger) which in turn merge into an Aziz Mirza kind of scooter-riding dreamers’ part for Kunal.

At the end of the comedy, the Paresh-Kunal intended flop turns into a superhit while the duo lands up in jail.

No such luck with this rather droopy and sad comedy. It tries hard to be funny and original but ends up being neither here nor ‘dare’.

Among the performers, Paresh needs no recommendation. In fact, he says as much in an end-title joke. Kunal reveals some hidden comic talent. Sonu as a somewhat dimwitted matinee idol does a number of get-ups and avatars quite sincerely. Sorry, he isn’t supported by anything much in the plot.

Karma Aur Holi - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-03-08T21:38:00.001+05:30

Cast: Sushmita Sen, Randeep Hooda, Drena De Niro, Naomi Campbell, Suresh Oberoi, Rati Agnihotri, Suchitra Krishnamurthy
Director: Manish Gupta
Rating: *

Let’s play a mind game. What was Sushmita Sen thinking when she decided to work in this tableau of titillating possibilities on man-woman relationships all gone to utter and irrevevocable waste?

“Karma Aur Holi” with huge dollops of confession thrown in with the jerky suddenness of a car that decides to gather speed when the highway has ended, is one of those filmed fiascos that should’ve never been attempted. It’s like a Woody Allen ensemble cast about an angst-filled soiree that comes to a sorry state of spluttering incoherence.

The film does gross disservice to all concerned, including the poor debutant director Manish Gupta who probably thought he was doing a diasporic version of Woody Allen’s cinema but instead ended making up an extended episode of a Doordarshan serial on the vagaries of the Page 3 crowds.

Sushmita and Randeep try hard to look like a couple with serious marital problems. He takes business calls while making love to her. Maybe he likes the phone better than sex. That’s the least of our worries in trying to make sense of the characters’ dissociated sensitivities.

The film is about an outwardly well-to-do couple played by Sushmita and Randeep who are either showering together or shouting at each other, depending on which way their marital mood swings. One fine day the couple invites home a group of people, including a self-absorbed Pakistani filmmaker (Armin Amiri) and his pregnant girlfriend (Naomi Campbell), a bickering couple (Suresh Oberoi, Rati Agnihotri) and their porn-fixated teenage son, a repressed wife (Suchitra Krishnamurthy) and her bullying husband. By the time the day is done the lid is blown off the facade of suburban marriages in the land of dreams.

Sushmita playing a wife who dances with her maid in the kitchen while cooking (menu rab da vasta!) is more bothered about her swanky new dress being crumpled under sexual pressure than the fact that her husband might be having an affair with his over-sized secretary (Maya Lily).

Sushmita shrugs off her sister warning: “Do you think they look like they’re up to anything?”

Frankly no one looks like he or she is up to anything. That’s the saddest part of a film which wants to say so much. But the words perpetually get in the way.

A few minutes into this mish-mash of Woody Allen, George Bernard Shaw, Govind Nihalani and Keshu Ramsay (the horror of course creeps in unintentionally) and you know the narrative is in trouble. The characters who come to Sushmita-Randeep’s home in New York for an afternoon of heavy duty gossiping, bitching introspection and confession seem to be speaking dialogues borrowed from a cheap American soap opera.

The feelings and thoughts are not only assumed they are also devoid of any coherent pattern. The script tries to be sassy without the basic source material to carry off its ambitions.

The narration is tragically chaotic. The characters seem to be let loose in a room constructed for conflict, and left to their own devices. Ideas of communal disharmony (Rati Agnihotri playing Suresh Oberoi’s sourpuss wife refuses to accept a glass of water from a Muslim filmmaker) and inter-racial coupling (the Muslim director has Naomi Campbell as his girlfriend and punching bag) jostle for screen space with musings on a marriage of convenience in a foreign cultural location where opportunities to f…k-up are limitless.

Ironically the film itself becomes one messy f…k-up with the characters unaware of where to go next or what to do with the dubious responsibility of acting like people who care about the goings-on.

There’s a pubescent horny teenager who’s hounded by a nosy girl (Depal Shaw) with a video camera, a buxom single women who confesses she’s more into women than men and a caricatural pair of American boss-and-bimbo cutting a shady deal with Hooda as wife Sushmita makes her displeasure more than clear. She even shuts the door in her guests’ face. So much for reciprocating the American hospitality.

Somewhere along the dreadful and droll storytelling a gangster pops up in the backyard pool with two floozies bouncing by his side as though they had just discovered the reason why they are part of this film.

We of course remain clueless as to why “Karma Aur Holi” was made. Or why the actors who should’ve known better lent their presence to the film.

While the international cast, including Robert de Niro’s daughter Drena, remain supremely oblivious of their utility in the plot, Sushmita tries hard to lend some grace and humour to a character hellbent on self-destruction. Another engaging performance comes from Suchitra Krishnamurthy as a repressed wife trying to make herself heard above her husband’s bullying.

Randeep Hooda carries his American accent and demeanour with a flair that scoffs at the film’s cheerless efforts to portray the Indian diaspora as a chamber piece done on a pitchless offkey scale.

Billu Barber (2009) [MP3]

2009-03-03T11:39:00.001+05:30

Billu Barber is directed by Priyadarshan and produced by Gauri Khan under the Red Chillies Entertainment banner. It tells the story of a barber Bilas Rao Pardesi (Irfan Khan) who lives in his village with his wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) and two kids. When superstar Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) comes to their village to shoot a film, Billas/Billu tells people that he and Sahir are childhood friends for which he is ridiculed. The films also stars Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav and Asrani, as well as guest appearances by Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and Priyanka Chopra in item numbers. Billu Barber was released on February 13, so check it if you haven’t already.

Music of Billu is composed by Pritam. There’s a nice song by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan that I like a lot (Jaaon Kaha). There are a couple of other good songs too. I hope you like them.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Ae Aa O / K K, Rana Mazumder, Suraj
Ae Aa O - Remix / K K, Rana Mazumder, Suraj
Billoo Bhayankar / Ajay Jhingran, Kalpana
Jaoon Kahan / Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Khudaya Khair / Soham Chakrabarthy, Akruti Kakkar, Monali
Khudaya Khair - Reprise / Abhijeet
Love Mera Hit Hit / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Love Mera Hit Hit - House Mix / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Love Mera Hit Hit - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Tulsi Kumar
Marjaani / Sukhwinder Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan
Marjaani - Balkan Mix / K K, Akruti Kakkar
Marjaani - Electro House / Sukhwinder Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan
You Get Me Rockin & Reeling / Neeraj Shridhar
You Get Me Rockin & Reeling - 1 / Neeraj Shridhar, Dominique
You Get Me Rockin & Reeling - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-28T10:30:00.001+05:30

Slumdog Millionaire is the multi-Oscar winning film (8 Oscar, to be exact) directed by the British director Danny Boyle. But you already know that. How could you not! It’s all over the news these days. However, I am ashamed to say I haven’t watched it yet. The film is about Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on “Kaun Banega Crorepati?”. Other major roles in the film are played by Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Madhur Mittal, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail.

The spectacular music of Slumdog Millionaire is composed by A. R. Rehman who won two Oscars (for best music and best song, Jai Ho). I don’t need to tell you how good the music is. It’s so obvious. Enjoy ;D

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Dreams On Fire / Suzanne D’Mello
Gangsta Blues / Tanvi, Blaaze
Jai Ho / A R Rahman, Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Vijay Prakash
Latikas - Theme / Suzanne D’Mello
Liquid Dance / Madhumitha, Palakkad Sriram
Mausam - Escape / A R Rahman, Rashid Ali
Millionaire / Madhumitha
O Saya / A R Rahman, Maya Arulpragasam
Ringa Ringa / Alka Yagnik, Ila Arun
Riots / A R Rahman, Madhumitha

Delhi-6 - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-02-25T20:54:00.001+05:30

Film: “Delhi-6″
Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Om Puri, Supriya Pathak, Pavan Malhotra, Vijay Raaz and Deepak Doriyal
Rating: ****

So simple from above and yet so lusciously layered beneath, “Delhi-6″ does what its director’s last work “Rang De Basanti” did so spectacularly. It pushes the boundaries of cinematic entertainment almost beyond the brink, but catches its breath just in time in an exhilarating exhalation of enchanting thoughts, images and characters that seem to convey the truth about life without obstructing the truth about cinema.

Abhishek Bachchan jumps from one building top to another in the congested colony of old Delhi, as the monkey-man shows up in “Delhi-6″, a mix that’s zingy and intoxicating without trying to be either.

The most cherishable quality of this film, which tries to portray the cultural fabric and its tragic-comic resonances in a society trapped between the machinations of religion and politics, is its transparency.

Even when Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra makes deep comments on the culture and politics of religion in contemporary India, he keeps his narrative liberated of punctuation marks.

The narrative flows in one seamless harmony of characterizations, music and satire bound by a vision that sees the aspirations of an “Indian Idol” contestant (Sonam Kapoor) in the same line of vision as the sexcapades of a wily local photographer and the self-serving pontifications of a Hindu right-wing woman.

The greatest virtue of “Delhi-6″ is its bustling mass of everyday commuters from Chandni Chowk, whose lives converge in routine and not-so-routine ways to create a work of art that pays a heartwarming homage to the spirit of a city without romanticizing the gali (bylane) culture of towns where jalebis are fried by streetside vendors next to kids defecating in open sewers.

As a society based on hierarchical and communal segregation collapses all around us, Mehra portrays this society in a flux with a mixture of pleasure and regret without getting overly nostalgic.

There are lines which openly ridicule the ‘dilli ke dilwale’ who are supposed to be one big happy family. However, the family here - warring brothers Om Puri and Pavan Malhotra - and religious communities fall apart with a heartbreaking thud.

The dynamics of a culturally-decaying society are projected into scenes that come together as vibrant vignettes drawn with sincerity, affection and transparency from the most endearing colours of life.

Binod Pradhan’s cinematography is the real hero of “Delhi-6″. He captures the faded pastels of the crowded gallis of Delhi and the aesthetic garishness of the Ram Leela with the feeling and fervour of a subtle celebration rather than a flamboyant festival.

Mehra’s film completely avoids the touristic cliches that the theme - NRI boy returns to desi roots with dying grandma - could have happily embraced. By the time the narrative reaches a sombre climax, we’re watching a work of art that transcends the power of the visual medium, sneaks into the realm of dark poetry and then re-merges as a socio-political commentary.

Abhishek, who plays a half Hindu-half Muslim NRI returning to his roots in Delhi, essays his role with elan.

It would be unimaginable to think of “Delhi-6″ without the huge cast of players. The cast is so much into the subtle, satirical and profound spirit of the film that you wonder which came first, the characters or the actors.

It would be grossly unfair to single out any of the performances. But mention must be made of Deepak Dobriyal as the innocuous Muslim jalebi seller who’s pushed against the communal wall, Pavan Malhotra as a loud somewhat mean electrician, Divya Dutta as the locality’s garbage collector, Vijay Raaz as the neighbourhood sadistic cop and Atul Kulkarni as the na�ve punching bag.

Waheeda Rehman is so serene yet spirited as the dying grandma, somewhat representative of the world that she comes to inhabit in Delhi with her grandson. But the film belongs to Abhishek Bachchan.

“Delhi-6″ is swarming with metaphors, some of them poetic. Peeling off layers of texts and subtexts, we arrive at a work that exudes the scent of true lived-in and experienced emotions.

The hurt and anger of a socio-political system that has gone from corruptibility to destruction is hidden just beneath a warm, sunny all-is-well veneer so beautifully represented by Sonam Kapoor dancing with the dove perched on her head.

What an idea!

Firefox Search Add-on - How to Install and Use it

2009-02-25T06:42:00.005+05:30

About 20% of people visiting this blog use the Firefox web browser. This add-on makes searching Download Hindi Songs easier for you, if you’re a Firefox user. It’s very easy to install and use. Watch the video tutorial I made, if you already don’t know how to install a search add-on to your Firefox web browser.

So now that you know how to do it, click on the image below or the button in the sidebar to install it. Internet Explorer users, sorry this is not for you.

Jumbo (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:42:00.004+05:30

Jumbo, the animated children movie is directed by Kompin Kemgumnird. According to ScreenIndia.com, Jumbo is actually a 2006 Thai film called Khan Kluay (Wikipedia) and is already released on DVD in the US as The Blue Elephant. It doesn’t really matter, but I don’t see why they’re trying so hard to hide that fact. There’s no information on the creators of the film on any Bollywood website. Anyways, the main character is voiced Akshay Kumar. It’s to be released on Christmas this year, on the same day as Ghajini.

Well, now let’s talk about the music of Jumbo. Can you believe this, the movie may be for kids, but there is not a single kids’ song in this movie! I’m not saying the music is bad, I like the song Everything Gonna Be Alright, but it’s almost gangster rap! Come on, it’s a an animated movie about a cute little elephant who goes searching for his mom. But why the hell are there rap songs in there? When I found out about Jumbo, I was so happy for all the kids but I’m very said right. My complaint is not about the quality of music, but the fact that it doesn’t cater to kids. Btw, the songs are composed by Ram Sampat. To all the children out there, sorry guys, you can stick to that song from Ta Ra Rum Pum for now. They’ll maybe think of you next year.

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Badhte Chalo / Sukhwinder Singh
Chayee Madhoshiyan / Sonu Nigam, Sona Mohapatra
Chayee Madhoshiyan - Remix / Sonu Nigam, Sona Mohapatra
Dil Mera Jumbo / Joi Barua
Everything Gonna Be Alright / Kunal Ganjawala
Jaya He / Krishna

Raaz - The Mystery Continues (2009) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:42:00.003+05:30

The music for Raaz - The Mystery Continues (a.k.a Raaz 2) is released, here are the songs some of you have been wanting so much :D. As they keep claiming, The Mystery Continues is not a sequel to the 2002 film Raaz. It follows a completely different storyline. It is directed by Mohit Suri and stars Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut and Adhyayan Suman in lead roles. I don’t think I need to say this, right?…. that it’s a horror movie?

Music of the movie is directed by new comers Raju Singh, Pranay M Rijia, Toshi Sabri and Gaurav Das who replaced Pritam, who replaced Neem-Sharavan. I haven’t given the songs a listen yet, so I don’t have anything to say except, ENJOY!

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Kaisa Ye Raaz Hai / K.K
Maahi / Toshi Sabri
Soniye / Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
O Jaana / K.K
O Banda Re / K.K
Maahi (Rock With Me) / Toshi Sabri
Soniyo (From The Heart) / Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
O Jaana (Dance With Me Mix) / K.K

Dasvidaniya (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:42:00.002+05:30

Dasvidaniya, which was released in November, is a film by Shashant Shah and stars Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Rajat Kapoor, Neha Dhupia and Saurabh Shukla. The storyline of the movie is similar to that of The Bucket List. The main character lives an ordinary life, without having done much in life. But when the doctors tell him that he is going to die in 3 months, he makes a list of all the things he wants to do and uses the remaining short time of his life to accomplish and fulfill those wishes.

The music of Dasvidaniya is composed by Kailash Kher who has also written the lyrics for the songs. Great songs, sepcially Muskura. But more than all of them, I like the instrumental one. It’s absolutely beautiful.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Alvida / Kailash Kher
Alvida - Remix / Kailash Kher, Paresh, Naresh
Mumma / Kailash Kher
Muskura / Kailash Kher, Sonu Nigam
Muskura - Instrumental

Golmaal Returns (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:42:00.001+05:30

Golmaal Returns is a sequel to 2006 hit comedy Golmaal. It’s directed by Rohit Shetty as well, and stars Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Celina Jaitley, Amrita Arora and Anjana Sukhani. It seems like it did really well at the box-office, both overseas and domestic. Wikipedia says it surpassed Om Shanti Om’s first day collection. I’m really surprised. I saw a little bit of the film, and didn’t like it a bit. And the same goes for the music, which is composed by Pritam. I posted it ’cause so many of you kept asking for it.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Meow / Suzi Q, Monali
Meow - English / Suzi Q, Monali
Meow - Remix / Suzi Q, Monali
Tha Kar Ke / Neeraj Shridhar, Anvesha Dutta, Akruti Kakkar, Earl, Indie
Tha Kar Ke - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Anvesha Dutta, Akruti Kakkar, Earl
Tu Saala / Anushka Manchandani
Tu Saala - Remix / Anushka Manchandani
Vacancy / Neeraj Shridhar, Benny Dayal, Suhail Kaul, Suzi Q
Vacancy - Kilogram Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Benny Dayal, Suhail Kaul, Suzi Q

Meerabai Not Out (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:40:00.006+05:30

Meerabai Not Out a film by Chandrakant Kulkarni and stars Mandira Bedi, Anupam Kher, Eijaz Khan and Mahesh Manjrekar. Anil Kumble also plays a small role in the film. Mandira Bedi plays the role of a maths teacher who is also cricket fanatic and love Anil Kumble. It was released last week on December 5th.

Meerabai Not Out’s music is directed by Sandesh Shandilya. I absolutely LOVE the song O Dil Sambhal and its remix. The title song isn’t that bad either. Check ‘em out for yourself.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Chal De Rapat / Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Prakash
Chal De Rapat - Remix / Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Prakash
Hai Rama / Sukhwinder Singh, Neha Kakkad
Kaisi Yeh Shaam / Kunal Ganjawala
Meerabai Not Out / Neeraj Shridhar, Vijay Prakash
O Dil Sambhal / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
O Dil Sambhal - Remix / Kunal Ganjawala

Video - Chori Chori Dekhe Mujhko (EMI)

2009-02-25T06:40:00.005+05:30

This video of Chori Chori Dekhe Mujhko from EMI features the incredibly sexy Malaika Arora and Arjun Rampal. This song really suits her, except for the chori chori part, I wonder how many stalkers she has

Sorry Bhai! (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:40:00.004+05:30

The music of Sorry Bhai is composed by Gaurav Dayal and Vivek Philip. The songs aren’t rated high on most sites, 3/5 at best, they weren’t liked that much. My personal favorite of the lot is the title song, and I don’t think the rest are so bad either. I just love the composers’ use of the saxophone in songs. If I had rate this album, I would say 4/5.

Sorry Bhai! is directed by Onir and stars Sanjay Suri, Sharman Joshi, Chitrangda Singh, Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi. Siddharth Mathur (Joshi) and his parents travels to Mauritius for his older brother, Harsh’s (Suri), wedding. In the middle of all the family chaos, Siddharth and his brother’s fiance fall in love which adds fire to the flame. Sounds like a good family comedy to me, I just hope it’s executed well.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Jalte Hain / Abhishek Nailwal
Jalte Hain - 1 / K K
Abhishek Nailwal / Jalte Hain - Remix
Mere Khuda / K K
Mere Khuda - Remix / K K
Pal / Sunidhi Chauhan, Chayan Adhikari
Pal - Remix / Sunidhi Chauhan, Chayan Adhikari
Some Times / Nanette Natal
Sorry Bhai! / Abhishek Nailwal, Sunidhi Chauhan, K K

Yuvvraaj (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:40:00.003+05:30

Yuvvraaj was released on 21 November, and it is liked a lot since most of the searches on this site these is is Yuvvraaj. It is produced and directed by Subhash Ghai and stars Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Zayed Khan, Boman Irani and Mithun Chakraborty. It’s about relationship between the three brothers and the issue of inheritence after their father dies. I watched the movie myself, however I didn’t like it much. I guess I was expecting too much beforehand. After it is a Subhash Ghai film and stars all big actors. Music of Yuvraj is composed by A.R. Rehman. I hope you like the songs. Cheers.

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Dil Ka Rishta / Sonu Nigam, Roop Kumar Rathod, A R Rahman, Clinton Cerejo, Suzanne D’Mello, Vivinenne Pocha
Main Hoon Yuvvraaj / Salman Khan
Manmohini Morey / Vijay Prakash
Mastam Mastam / Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik, Naresh Iyer, Benny Dayal
Meri Dost Hain / Benny Dayal, Shreya Ghosal, A R Rahman, Salman Khan
Shano Shano / Sonu Nigam, Srinivas, Karthik, Sunaina, Vivinenne Pocha
Shano - Remix / Krishna Chetan
Tu Muskura / Alka Yagnik, Javed Ali
Zindagi / Srinivas

You Can Rate, Too!

2009-02-25T06:40:00.001+05:30

I just added the rating widget by Spotback.com that let’s anyone rate a post. As you can see, it’s located Right below the post tile. So go ahead and start rating!

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Dostana (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:39:00.006+05:30

Dostana is a film by Tarun Mansukhani and stars Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra, Kiron Kher and Boman Irani. Sameer (Abhishek) and Kunal (John) pretend to be gay in order to rent an apartment. The owner of the apartment wants to rent it to girls only because his niece (Priyanka) lives there alone. The film was released in November.

Music of Dostana is composed by the duo Vishal and Shekar. I hope you like them.

(Direct Mp3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Desi Girl - [Video]/ Shankar Mahadevan, Vishal Dadlani, Sunidhi Chauhan
Jaane Kyun / Vishal Dadlani
Khabar Nahi / Amanat Ali, Vishal Dadlani, Shreya Ghoshal
Kuch Kum / Shaan
Maa Da Laadla / Saleem
Shut Up & Bounce / Sunidhi Chauhan

EMI (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:39:00.005+05:30

EMI is a film by Saurabh Kabra and stars Sanjay Dutt once again as a Bhai called Sattar. EMI also stars Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Malaika Arora, Ashish Chowdhry, Anil Sharma, Neha Uberoi, Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Joshi. It was rleased back in November and hasn’t received as many good reviews.

Music of EMI is composed by Chirantan Bhatt. I really like the song Chori Chori Dekhe Mujhko, and there are a couple of other nice songs too in this album. Enjoy!

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Aaja Meri Jane Ja / Shaan, Suzan, Rishi
Ankhon Hi Ankhon Mein / Mohit Chauhan
Chori Chori Dekhe Mujhko [Video] / Sunidhi Chauhan, Suzan
Chori Chori Dekhe Mujhko - Remix / Sunidhi Chauhan, Suzan
EMI / Sanjay Dutt, Suzan, Earl, Mahalakshmi Iyer
EMI - Remix / Sanjay Dutt, Suzan, Earl, Mahalakshmi Iyer
Roshan Har Dil / Parthiv Gohil, Joy
Vote For Sattar Bhai / Ninad Kamat

Chandni Chowk To China (2009) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:39:00.004+05:30

Warner Bros. Pictures’s second Bollywood film, Chandni Chowk To China, is directed by Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Naa Ho, Salaam-e-Ishq) and stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Shore and famous Chinese actor Gordon Liu. The trailers looks beautiful, check it out. This is something all big budget Bollywood action films should strive for. I’m putting this in the 2009 category because the movie will be released on January 16, 2009. Don’t forget to watch it, it’s going to be great.

Music of Chandni Chowk is composed by a multitude of music directors: the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Kailash Kher and Bappi Lahiri. The songs are im mp3 format so no need convert or anything. Enjoy!

(Direct Mp3 Linka - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Chak Lein De / Kailash Kher
Chak Lein De - Remix / Kailash Kher
Chandni Chowk To China / Neeraj Shridhar, Anushka Manchandani, Shankar Mahadevan
Chandni Chowk To China - 1 / Akshay Kumar, Bohemia
Chandni Chowk To China - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Anushka Manchandani, Shankar Mahadevan
India Se Aaya Mera Dost / Bappi Lahiri, Ravi Khanwilkar
S.I.D.H.U. / Kailash Kher
Tere Naina / Shankar Mahadevan, Shreya Ghosal

Which Are the Top 50 Songs of 2008?

2009-02-25T06:39:00.003+05:30

Update: I’ve made a page on Squidoo that let’s vote songs up and down, and add any song that’s not already on the list. So go check it out. You will a free Squidoo account to vote or add to the list, though. But it’s easy to sign up and it’s free.
The year 2008 is coming to a close, and there have been so many releases this year. Some were really great music and great movies, and I would like to compile a list of the top 50 songs. Please tell me what songs you think are the best from this year.

Last time when I did the “Top 50 Songs of 2007″, there many comments on why certain songs weren’t on the list. The main reason was that I compiled those songs based on my own preferences. That was only ONE person’s opinion. Besides, I put together those songs in a very short time, so I had to constantly listen to all the songs from 2007. When you listen to music for hours at a time, even the best songs will sound bad. Trust me I know that.

This time around I don’t want that to happen, so please feel free tell us what your favorite ones are from this by leaving a comment.

Video - Desi Girl (Dostana)

2009-02-25T06:39:00.001+05:30

Something I found on YouTube. A song from Dostana, picturised on Abhishek, John and Priyanka. They guys are already competing hard to keep Priyanka’s attention when Bobby Deol walks in

Some Bad News

2009-02-25T06:38:00.013+05:30

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since my last post. Actually the news I have is both good and bad. The bad part is that my sources for .RM files are going down. Meaning many servers that hosted the .rm files are down, that’s why you can’t download a lot of the songs from DHS right now.

The good is that I will have to switch to other sources, and since there aren’t any other .rm sources, I will have to post mp3 links. Both for new albums and for ones that don’t work at the moment. Some of you may like this change and some may not. Now, it’s going to take quite a while to replace all dead links because it’s not just one or two links that don’t work. It’s almost all of the recent posts.

That’s mostly bad news I guess. I’m going to be very busy from now both to bring you new releases and fix old ones.

Rock On (2008)

2009-02-25T06:38:00.012+05:30

Farhan Akhtar who has helmed the director’s seat in Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya and Don - The Chase Begins is debuting as an actor and singer in Rock On along with Prachi Desai. Others major casts of Rock On include Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny and Purab Kohli. It’s directed by Abhishek Kapoor. The film is about four friends who put together a rock band called Magik, but never make it big. Many years later, they’re back together and start things where they left off.

Music of Rock On!! is composed by Shankar Ehsan Loy who are I think the best to do a film like this. I love the songs. And Farhan Akhtar is a surprisingly good singer too. I think you are gonna love this one, so ENJOY!!

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Socha Hai / Farhan Akhtar
Pichle Saat Dinon Mein / Farhan Akhtar
Rock On !! / Farhan Akhtar
Ye Tumhari Meri Baatein / Dominique
Zehreelay / Suraj Jagan
Tum Ho Toh / Farhan Akhtar
Sinbad The Sailor / Farhan Akhtar
Pichle Saat Dinon Mein (Live Version) / Farhan Akhtar, Raman Mahadevan
Phir Dekhiye / Caralisa Monteiro

Ghajini (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:38:00.011+05:30

Ghajini is the latest film from Aamir Khan to be released on Christmas this year. It’s directed by A. R. Murugadoss. The other major cast of Ghajini includes Asin Thottumkal and Jia Khan. The film is about a rich mobile phone company owner, Prashanth Pawar(Amir Khan), who loses his memory after being hit on the head in a fight. I don’t wanna give out any spoilers here, so if you wanna know more about the storyline, checkout Wikipedia.

Music of Ghajini is directed by the one and only A. R. Rehman. Absolutely great music. I was kinda disappointed with Yuvraa’s music, but this one is great. I specially Behka and Ghajini and Kaise Mujhe and …. actually I love all of ‘em. But the best has to be Kaise Mujhe, I’m listening to it right now and it’s intoxicating!

By the way these songs are in MP3 format, they’re a lot bigger than .rm files.

(Direct Link - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Guzarish / Javed Ali, Sonu Nigam
Aye Bachchu / Suzanne D’Mello
Kaise Mujhe / Benny Dayal, Shreya Ghosal
Behka / Karthik
Latoo / Shreya Ghosal, Pravin Mani
Kaise Mujhe - Instrumental

Dil To Pagal Hai (1997)

2009-02-25T06:38:00.010+05:30

Dil To Pagal Hai is one of the best movies of the 90s. It’s directed by Yash Chopra and stars Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karishma Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, and Farida Jalal. I’m pretty sure that you’ve already watched this film, specially if you are a Shahrukh fan. If you haven’t, I’m not really sure what to say to you. Really nice movie. I specially like the music of Dil To Pagal Hai, which is composed by Uttam Singh. Some of the best songs of Lata and Udit Narayan are from DTPH. I hadn’t listened to them for years, so I’m really enjoying myself right now. I’m sure you will love them too. Enjoy!!
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Are Re Re / Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan
Bholi Si Surat / Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan
Dholna / Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan
Dil To Pagal Hai / Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan
Ek Duje Ke Vaaste / Hariharan, Lata Mangeshkar
Le Gayi / Asha Bhonsle
Koi Ladki Hai / Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan
Pyar Kar / Lata Mangeshkar, Udit Narayan

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:38:00.009+05:30

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is Shahrukh Khan’s only film for 2008 (not considering his guest appearances in Krazzy 4 and Bhoothnath). The film is about a not-so-happy couple, Surinder Sahni(SRK) and Taani (Anushka Sharma), who find true love while participating in a reality dance show called “Dancing Jodi”. The film is written and directed by Aditya Chopra, and features Vinay Pathak, Anupam Kher and Farida Jalal in side roles. There are also guest appearances by Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta and Priyanka Chopra.

Music of RNBDJ is composed by the Salim and Sulaiman Merchant. I hope you like them, I personally haven’t listened to them yet.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Dance Pe Chance / Sunidhi Chauhan, Labh Jajua
Haule Haule / Sukhwinder Singh
Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte / Sonu Nigam
Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai / Roop Kumar Rathod
Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai - 1 / Shreya Ghosal
Dancing Jodi - Instrumental

Kidnap (2008)

2009-02-25T06:38:00.007+05:30

Also set for release on Eid this year is Kidnap, Imraan Khan’s second film. It’s directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, and also stars Sanjay Dutt, Minissha Lamba, Vidya Malvade, Malaika Arora, Amrita Arora and Rahul Dev. As the name suggests, it’s about a kidnapping case. Seems like there’s going to be an important competition between Abhishek’s Drona and Kidnap. Trying to live up to his great performance in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na could put a lot of pressure on Imraan. I think the trailer is already out, so look it up on Youtube or somewhere. Should be interesting.

Musi of Kidnap is composed by Pritam. I honestly don’t have any comments on the songs, as I haven’t listened to them yet. But Prittam has made some great music in the past, so I have a good feeling about this one too.

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct Link - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Haan Ji / Adnan Sami
Hey Ya / Suzi Q
Hey Ya (House Mix) / Suzi Q
Mausam / Shreya Ghoshal
Meri Ek Ada Shola / Sukhwinder Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan, Akruti Kakkar
Mit Jaaye / Sandeep Vyas
Mit Jaaye (Rock Version) / Sandeep Vyas

Fashion (2008) [MP3]

2009-02-25T06:38:00.005+05:30

Fashion is, as the title suggests, a film about the dark secrets what goes on in the fashion industry. The film follows the lives of Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra), a girl from a small town who aspires to become a supermodel in Mumbai, and Shonali Gujral (Kangana Ranaut), a former successful supermodel who is facing downfall. These characters are based on real life supermodels. The film is directed by Madhur Bhandarkar and also stars real life model Mugdha Godse who was a semi-finalist at the Miss India 2004, Arbaaz Khan and Samir Soni.

The music of Fashion is composed by the Merchant brothers, Salim and Sulaiman. The songs seems to be pretty well liked as so many of you have already asked me for them. I personally only like Fashion Ka Jalwa, I might like the rest after a viewing of the movie. The songs are in MP3 format. Enjoy!

(Direct Link - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Aashiyana / Salim Merchant
Aashiyana - Remix / Salim Merchant, D J Amyth
Fashion Ka Jalwa / Sukhwinder Singh, Satya Hinduja
Fashion Ka Jalwa - Remix / Sukhwinder Singh, Satya Hinduja
Kuchh Khaas / Mohit Chauhan, Neha Bhasin, D J Amyth
Kuch Khaas - Remix / Mohit Chauhan, Neha Bhasin, D J Amyth
Mar Jaava / Shruti Pathak, Salim Merchant
Mar Jaava - Remix / Shruti Pathak, Salim Merchant
Fashion - Remix
Fashion - Theme

Drona (2008)

2009-02-25T06:38:00.003+05:30

Drona is the upcoming film by Goldie Behl starring Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and Kay Kay Menon in leading roles. It’s set for release this Eid, which is I think October 2nd. It’s an adventure/fantasy movie about Drona (Abhishek) who is destined to save mankind. Fantasy movies aren’t ones made by Bollywood very often so I’m looking forward how what Goldie has created.

Music of Drona is composed by Dhruv Ghanekar, and there a couple of nice songs in this movie. The title song for one is quite a nice song. I hope you like them too.

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
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Bandagi / Roop Kumar Rathod, Sunidhi Chauhan, Dhruv
Drona / Sunidhi Chauhan, Dhruv
Drona - Redux / Sunidhi Chauhan, Dhruv
Khushi / Shaan, Suzanne D’Mello, Sunaina, Francois Castellino, Dean Devlin
Nanhe Nanhe / Sadhana Sargam, Nandini Shrikar
Oop Cha / Sunidhi Chauhan, Dhruv, Nandini Shrikar
Oop Cha (Fare Play Mix) / Sunidhi Chauhan, Dhruv, Bob, Nandini Shrikar

Zindagi Tere Naam (2008)

2009-02-25T06:38:00.001+05:30

Zindagi Tere Naam is director Ashu Trikha’s fourth film. It stars Mithun Chakrabarty, Ranjitha, Diya Mirza, Priyanka Mehta and Aseem Ali Khan. I think it was released some time this month. Music of ZTN is composed by Sajid Wajid. I feel like I’ve heard that first song, Tu Mujhe Soch Kabhi, before but can’t quite remember. It’s a nice song, probably nice song of the lot.

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Tu Mujhe Soch Kabhi / K K
Milne Ko Nahi Aaye (Duet) / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
Trishna Trishna Dil / Shafqat Amanat Ali
Milne Ko Nahi Aaye (Male) / Shaan
Ajnabee Sa Lagta Hai / Sunidhi Chauhan, Wajid Khan
Kya Khata Ho Gayee / Richa Sharma, Aftab Sabri
Milne Ko Nahi Aaye (Female) / Sunidhi Chauhan
Tauba Tauba / Sunidhi Chauhan, Wajid Khan

Saagar (1985)

2009-02-25T06:36:00.001+05:30

Saagar is directed by Ramesh Sippy and stars Rishi Kapoor, Kamal Hassan and Dimple Kapadia. Raja (Kamal) is a fisherman and he’s secretly in love with Mona (Dimple). But when Ravi (Rishi), a wealthy man, comes to live with his grandmother, Mona falls in love with him and that devastates Raja. That’s the the setting in a nutshell. I haven’t presonally seen the film, so my extent of knowledge ends there.

Music of Saagar is composed by the legendary R.D. Burman. There’s also a little something for Kishore fans. Yun Hi Gaate Rahoo is a nice song, I don’t think it’s one of his best though.
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Paas Ao Na
O Maria O Maria / Asha Bhosle, S. P. Balasubramaniam
Chehra Hai Ya Chaand / Kishore Kumar
Saagar Kinare / Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Sach Mere Yaar Hai / S. P. Balasubramaniam
Yun Hi Gaate Rahoo / S. P. Balasubramaniam, Kishore Kumar

Billu - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-02-19T03:10:00.001+05:30

Director: Priyadarshan
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Om Puri, Asrani, Mohan Joshi, Rajpal Yadav
Rating: ***

Let’s be clear on one thing. “Billu” is not the film that you wanted it to be. A bitter-sweet portrait of the chequered and troubled star-fan relationship, it falls short of expectations mainly because Priyadarshan fills up the spaces occupying the star Shah Rukh and the commoner Irrfan Khan’s tale with a hefty load of humbug.

The village where the star descends to shoot his latest potboiler with three glamorous actresses - Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra - in tow looks too chaotic to be real.

Priyadarshan saturates the filmy village with his characteristically caricatural actors who have been filling up his villages from the time he made the memorable “Viraasat”. Mohan Joshi, who is brilliant as a boorish politician trying to act nonchalant before the superstar, Om Puri, who cracks vulgar jokes, Rasika Joshi, Asrani and Rajpal Yadav - you’ve seen them all doing their rustic satire for Priyan before. They’ve been there, done it all.

One wishes Priyan had brought in a fresh cast to bolster the film’s fresh look and texture. For all said and done, “Billu” is by far the director’s most sensitive work since “Kalapani” and “Viraasat” despite the film’s extravagant excesses like the three scorching item songs incorporated to counter the rural characters and ambience with dollops of urbane octane. The garnishing revs up the proceedings but slackens the subliminal sensitivity by over-punctuating the narrative.

What works is the star-fan relationship. From the outside the hyper-excitement of a village as it goes into top gear for a star’s visit may appear exaggerated. Priyan plants a train of sequences showing the star in interaction with a star-struck mass of hysterical fans.

For sure the film wouldn’t work without Shah Rukh Khan who brings a sense of autobiographical opulence to the star’s part. He plays the besieged icon like a child let loose in a toy store. Don’t look for the lonely superstar pining for true love over here. This guy enjoys his popularity.

The sensitivity is saved as the end-game when at a school function in the village Shah Rukh (Sahir Khan) breaks down talking about his childhood friend Billu, a barber played by Irrfan.

This is where the crux of the film begins. The two actors at the core of the conflict play their parts with such empathy you forgive and forget the excesses in the earlier parts of the narrative where the star-fan relationship was converted into a melee of caricatural encounters.

The truth of this film, when it emerges at the end, is exhilarating and cathartic. The performances by the two actors carry the film. Shah Rukh Khan extends his real-life iconic status to a role that requires double his usual acting skills because it’s autobiographical. He rocks.

But the film belongs to Irrfan Khan. As Billu he is a portrait of restrained self-mockery and dignity in the face of bizarre demands on him by star-struck villagers. And that includes his wife and children.

Lara Dutta, with her mannequin-like body language and over made-up face, sticks out like a sore thumb. She belongs to another film.

Luck By Chance - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-02-03T17:44:00.001+05:30

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Dimple Kapadia, Isha Sharwani, Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Hrithik Roshan
Writer-Director: Zoya Akhtar
Rating: ****

It is easy to fall in love with every performance in this intimate yet generic insider’s look at the workings of the entertainment industry.

But the one that I carried home with me was Sheeba Chadha. A marvel of subtle writing, Sheeba plays a podgy, cunning but simple-hearted producer’s sister-in-law whose husband (Aly Khan) is carrying on with a struggling starlet right under her nave eyes.

One not-so-pleasant afternoon, Sheeba barges into her husband’s van and sees a red-nosed bleary-eyed Konkona Sen Sharma (who has just been told she doesn’t get a role she has been waiting all her career for). Sheeba senses what’s going on. But she quickly digresses her mind from her husband’s extra-marital affair.

The industry is filled with such deliberately desensitised people who function within the fickle and frighteningly flamboyant film industry with gut-wrenching self-delusion.

“Luck By Chance” — a truly out-of-the-box outstanding work of subtle, sly, satirical and whispering art — is filled with people whom you’re bound to have met in the fetid corridors of Bollywood or the Hindi film industry, as the star-mother Dimple Kapadia insists on calling it.

Never before has the film industry been perceived with such intuitively internalised abundance. A subtle splendour galvanised by performances that range from the credible to the incredible takes the narrative to pinnacles of expressiveness.

The performances help to ignite the characters into states of subtle yet vivid shades. The ambitious mother-daughter (Dimple-Isha Sharwani) pair, the strugglers, wannabes and losers…oh yes, every character in “Luck By Chance” possesses a luminously lived-in quality, bringing to the surface feelings, thoughts and images that are normally not brought out on screen.

Every player — parodic, poignant and pitched perfectly — makes savage fun of the very foibles that they probably practice with masterful manipulative hands in real life.

Zoya Akhtar gets into the star space without a moment’s aggression in her storytelling. The moments that define the relationships are built stealthily. This is a world that every person in the Mumbai film industry (for Dimple’s sake, let’s not call it Bollywood!) knows first-hand.

The debutante director occupies that space with unostentatious spirit, nurturing interludes between characters (the two strugglers Farhan Akhtar-Konkona, producer-wife Rishi Kapoor-Juhi Chawla, ideologically separated co-actors Farhan-Arjun Mathur) with the cautious care of a mother who wants to bring up her child with the right values without drawing attention to her nurturing acumen.

This is a work of tender, subtle care with moments whose immense value strikes you after the wonderfully conversational dialogues (Javed Akhtar at his expressive best) have had their say.

At heart, “Luck By Chance” is a story of one man’s plunge into the morass of compromise as he heads towards his dreams. Farhan gets what can only called another chance to do the histrionic dance. As he goes from wide-eyed wannabe to a morally devalued creature, the narrative charts his course with savage humour.

Farhan’s scenes with the nakedly adulatory star daughter(Isha playing dumb dead-on) are designed as a blend of satirical erotica and ideological annihilation. Farhan gets it right.

This is a work that oozes outstanding acting talent from every nook and corner. Whether it’s Aly as a on-the-move producer or Arjun as a struggling actor who would rather struggle in theatre than compromise, every character plays a person you’ve met if you’ve ever been a part of the Mumbai film industry.

Super stand-out performances by Rishi, Dimple, Sheeba, Hrithik Roshan(as a superstar on the skids) and of course, Konkona, whose best performance this is.

On the deficit side, (yes even a film of such high order must face the music) the narrative with its inbuilt jokes and references is too much a Bollywood insider’s job, largely inaccessible to the common man who wouldn’t know the name of Ranbir Kapoor’s secretary and couldn’t care less.

On most levels, “Luck By Chance” stands tall and luminous, portraying the world of arclights with a synthesis of style, sympathy and substance that is the opposite of the synthetic way the world of showbiz is generally portrayed in cinema.

What stays with you are moments like the one where the struggling hero approaches the once glamorous star mother at a party and wins her over… a moment that builds up into a muffled explosion of ambitious scheming achieved at a place where the sound of broken hearts is inaudible.

Slumdog Millionaire - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-01-26T18:09:00.001+05:30

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto
Director: Danny Boyle
Rating: **

Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” makes Mumbai look like a sewer. The film takes nasty below-the-belt potshots at the underbelly of the city, portraying Mumbai as the armpit among the metropolises.

Mira Nair once paid a warm endearing homage to the street children of Mumbai in “Salaam Bombay”. Long before, Satyajit Ray in “Pather Panchali” portrayed rural India as poor, but never as a gutter of misery.

It’s now Boyle’s turn to do a ‘Slam’ Mumbai. The coming-of-age tale about three orphaned slum kids bears just a passing resemblance to Boyle’s rightly-celebrated “Trainspotting” where he trailed a bunch of misfits through the streets of Edinburgh.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is “Trainspotting” on steroids. It’s a beefed-up look at the scummy side of Mumbai, bewildering in its obsession with discovering life in the slums of Dharavi as being a facsimile of that drain-inspector’s report that Mahatma Gandhi had discovered in American journalist Katherine Mayo’s account of India in “Mother India”.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is worse. It looks at Mumbai as a swarming slum of sleaze, sex and crime with characters who seem to have jumped out of Rakesh Roshan and Manmohan Desai’s cinema bruising their deep-focussed emblematic quality while making this huge global leap from Bollywood to Hollywood.

After seeing Boyle’s much talked-about film, it’s crystal clear why this murky and squalid portrait of Mumbai has the Americans preening in delight. At one point after being thrashed mercilessly, our hero Jamal tells American tourists, “You wanted to see real India? Here it is.”

“Now we’ll show you the real America,” the American lady replies handing Jamal a 0 bill. This, without any apparent sense of irony.

There is a very thin line dividing slick from scum. “Slumdog Millionaire” doesn’t stop to make those subtle distinctions. It moves at a frenetic pace creating a kind of sweaty energy that one sees in marathon runners in the last lap of their journey.

Boyle is constantly busy whipping up a hysterical banshee of sights and sounds in Mumbai denoting the embittered angry generation of the underprivileged class that grows up in the slums dreaming of the good Life.

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shoots Mumbai with a gun rather than a camera. Every frame conveys the killer instinct. Every shot ricochets across eternity solidifying sounds and feelings that are otherwise intangible.

Yup, this is a film on a mission. It wants to exploit the Mumbai slums as a hotbed of tantalising images conveying the splendour of squalidity. And to think every prominent member of the cast and crew went around proclaiming “Slumdog Millionaire” would do wonders for Mumbai’s tourism industry!

Yeah, right. It does as much for the cause of Mumbai as Roland Joffe’s “The City Of Joy” did for Kolkata. That much-vilified film at least secreted a core of humanism under its pretentious surface. “Slumdog…” doesn’t even pretend to care for the city that it so unabashedly cruises in search of imperialistic tantalisation.

From frame one Boyle goes for the jugular. Every scent and stench of the city is converted into a liquid asset. Groups of defecating young boys running out in otherworldly ecstasy when they spot Amitabh Bachchan’s helicopter hovering above head becomes a celebration of lowly life.

Our protagonist Jamal dunks himself into excreta from head to toe and wades through the disgusted crowd to get Mr. Bachchan’s autograph. The star signs calmly, as though exceptionally smelly young boys covered in human waste are the odour of the day.

Such moments define Boyle’s attitude to Mumbai. He sees it as city where humour emerges from human waste.

But who’s laughing? Even communal riots are not spared of this tantalising trivialisation of abject misery. Rioters descend on a Muslim locality like bandits attacking a village in the Chambal valley. A mean Mumbai Mafioso (Ankur Vakil) gouges out orphans’ eyes and makes them beg on the streets singing what appears to be his favourite bhajan - “Darshan do ghamshyam”.

Even Madhur Bhandarkar got it better in “Traffic Signal”. There’s absolutely no sense of historic sensitivity in the narrative.

“If it was not for Ram and Allah, my mother would be alive,” says our regretful hero Jamal after the riots.

Such corny dialogues, so much a part of Vikas Swarup’s novel, is minimised in the film. But not enough. Some of the outrageously filmy plot manoeuvrings from the novel like the game show host (played in the film by Anil Kapoor) turning out to be Jamal’s illegitimate father, are done away with.

But the film nevertheless remains as wedded to kitsch and as ridden with coincidences and implausibility as any formula Hindi film.

In fact, the two runaway brothers from the slum being called Salim and Jamal seems like a backhanded homage to Salim-Javed, the pair that wrote the hit films of the era that “Slumdog Millionaire” adopts.

Each time game show host Anil Kapoor has to provide our callow hero Jamal a clue, a flashback highlighting the theme of the quiz-question is conveniently arranged in the plot.

Squalour never appeared designed than it does in “Slumdog Millionaire”. Bollywood has never been more audaciously honoured. This over-hyped and disappointing film that insults Mumbai, culminates with a Bollywood-styled item song on a railway platform.

Raaz - The Mystery Begins - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-01-26T03:23:00.001+05:30

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Emran Hashmi, Adhyayan Suman
Director: Mohit Suri
Rating: **

A new kind of cinematic heroine was born with Kangana Ranaut in the underrated “Gangster”. Since then, she has played the dark traumatized woman baring her soul for the camera so many times that you fear her forte would burst open at the seams.

Make no mistake…”Raaz” belongs to her. As a woman possessed, she carries on this past year’s horror tradition propagated by Vikram Bhatt’s “1920″ and Ram Gopal Varma’s “Phoonk”.

Admittedly, the horror-fest in “Raaz” is created with more finesse than the other fear flicks that have invaded the large-screen in recent years. But you wonder if this kind of blind faith is not blinding filmmakers to the larger picture regarding the raison d’etre of cinema - to enlighten and educate while entertaining.

Sorry to say but “Raaz” is neither entertaining nor enlightening. And educational? Well to say that spirits exist, and not just in champagne glasses, in this day and age is going a bit too far.

“Raaz” parades a posse of perverse horrors. Often it goes brazenly overboard with faces made-up like over-boiled potatoes and ghouls attacking the horrified heroine in a thick jungle where she, and the director, have no business being.

If in “Gangster”, “Woh Lamhe” and “Fashion”, Kangana was possessed by demons from within, here the demons appear to have invaded her body from the outside, jumping at her from bathtubs and mirrors.

On the whole, the narrative relies too heavily on false scares…hands reaching out and grabbing Kangana that turn out to be known comforting ones, door knobs being wrenched from the outside with banshee-like music to create a frenzy of suspense, satanic rites and occultist acts being performed in the dead of the night.

When it comes to expressing the wages of sin, Kangana remains unsurpassable. She pulls out all stops to deliver yet another fearless performance that’s a treatise on trauma. Unlike her last act in “Fashion”, in “Raaz” she suffers from an ambiguously-written character although she occupies more space than her two leading men. Till the end, we don’t know what her actual involvement with the macabre goings-on is.

We suspect, neither does the screenwriter.

Emran Hashmi, as the sullen painter who paints harrowing scenes from Kangana’s life before they happen, brings a kind of austere urgency to his part. Looking anguished comes naturally to him. Adhyayan Suman as the reality-television anchor, who carries his penchant for staged realism too far, communicates a certain earnestness in his performance. But he has a long way to go.

Alas, “Raaz” isn’t the vehicle to take its actors too far. It’s all about making the audience jump out of its seat in horror rather than with aesthetic delight. Its cumbersome heebie-jeebies punctuated by special effects, which can at best be described as slightly scary, do nothing for the horror genre or for the actors who struggle in ill-written parts.

Director Mohit Suri has done better for himself in “Kalyug” and “Woh Lamhe”, where he addressed himself to the trauma of a woman forced into a life of reluctant disrepute. Perhaps a woman coerced is more Suri’s domain than a woman possessed.

This sequel to “Raaz” is finally worth watching for Kangana’s portrait of traumatized womanhood. An act she has mastered. But it’s time now to move on.

Chandni Chowk To China - Bollywood Movie Review

2009-01-19T20:06:00.001+05:30

Cast: Mithun Chakraborty, Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranvir Shorey
Director: Nikhil Advani
Rating: * ½

This is a film about ‘maar-saala’ arts, not to be confused with martial arts, which Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan practise with such splendid and subtle skills on screen.

Akshay Kumar cannot be accused of the sins of subtlety. Not at all. He goes from a sweaty cook in Chandni Chowk in Delhi (India) to a cheesy fighter in China with hammers, tongs and indecipherable tongues. What lies between the extremities represented by the two oriental cultures has to be seen to be believed… or not.

So go for this one. And find out why Bollywood cannot compete with its technically savvy upcountry cousins from the West, or even China and Hong Kong.

When Jackie Chan kicks ass, man… he really kicks! No two ways about it. Akshay divides his time between being an action hero and a comic virtuoso, tripping over the line that divides the two genres with little or no scope to contain the fall as the screenplay plunges lower and lower into the depths of inanity.

Writer Sridhar Raghavan, known for his smart slick cerebral takes on formulas, spins a web of incidents chronicling the journey of Sidhu (Akshay), a cook in Chandni Chowk to the satirical samurai in Shanghai, which is littered with laughable incidents and episodes that appear more to be part of a clumsy sitcom lampooning the Chinese than a purported large-screen spectacle bringing China to Bollywood.

Director Nikhil Advani takes the hero into what looks like a carryover of the Chambal ravines in China.

Honestly, if this film had been shot anywhere in the world, it would’ve been just as bland and fatuous. What compounds the woefully inadequate narration is the abject lack of connectivity between the protagonist and the audience.

Not even for a second do we feel a rush of empathetic adrenaline for the culturally-displaced Sidhu who encounters all kinds of emaciated goons, terrorised by a suited, booted and largely-uprooted villain named Hojo (Gordon Lieu), who is no Gabbar Singh or Mogambo. Just an ageing goon in a black suit who doesn’t know it’s bad manners to pee in public, specially in the hero’s face.

Brutality when done with grace can be extremely arresting and we saw that recently in “Ghajini”. “Chandni Chowk To China” does the cause of cinematic violence a great deal of disservice.

The internationally-renowned action directors who pool in their might seem unsure of where to position the action. Perched on the Great Wall Of China, Akshay and his fellow fighters - and that includes the desi Lucy Lieu Deepika Padukone - slug it out like drunken revellers on a rowdy spree.

Elegance is in short supply in the film, except when Deepika, playing twin sisters, waltzes in with a light step and twinkling eye. She seems to have fun. We don’t. And that’s mainly because the scriptwriter forgot to include the audience in his circle of entertainment.

Large chunks of this ‘Adventures Of Sidhu in Blunderland’ saga leave us cold and unresponsive. And when the final fight between the hero and the villain occurs, Akshay decides to turn it into a comic romp. We are more dazed than dazzled by the baffling mood swings in the plot.

Yes, there are moments that hold your attention. Sidhu’s martial arts training with twin-Deepika’s Chinese father are superbly orchestrated.

Most of the time you are looking at a film that does appalling things to Indo-Chinese relations. Not to mention our traditional perception of mainstream ‘masala-maar ke’ entertainment.

Martial arts are turned into ‘maar-saala’ arts. And you leave the film wondering what it was meant to be. A bird, a plane or just a pathetic parody of Jackie Chan’s comic vendetta sagas.

“Chandni Chowk To China” isn’t just a no-brainer. Its lobotomised laughter can make you wish for anaesthesia. At least you’d know where the numbness is coming from.

Ghajini - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-29T11:11:00.001+05:30

Cast: Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Pradeep Rawat, Jiah Khan and others
Director: A.R. Murugadoss
Rating: **1/2

“Ghajini” is a simple and straightforward revenge story, but Aamir Khan’s bravura performance makes it an extraordinary watch. The film brings back the popular theme of the ’80s and early ’90s - revenge, romance, action and thrill with a nice touch of humour.

Just like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento”, the past and present are juxtaposed neatly in “Ghajini” that has great action scenes excellently choreographed. Director A.R. Murugadoss maintains the thrill till the end.

After playing a sensitive teacher in “Taare Zameen Par”, Aamir goes for a role reversal in “Ghajini” and impresses as an amnesiac killer. His agility and ruthlessness in the action scenes make it a compelling watch.

Now the flaws.

In terms of script, the film has nothing new to offer. What actually plays spoilsport in the film is the romance sequence. Although love forms the basis of the revenge that the protagonist seeks, the romantic scenes are neither written properly nor executed convincingly.

Also, Asin’s character is not etched out properly and her acting skills are not impressive either. She looks good in a few scenes, especially in song sequences.

Comparatively Jiah Khan, who has a sizeable role, does a better job as a medical student. She looks quite hot in the “Lattoo” song.

Sanjay Singhania (Aamir), a businessman tycoon who owns a cellular phone company named Air Voice, falls in love with Kalpana (Asin), a struggling model who fabricates a story that she is dating Sanjay in order to get big offers though she has never met him. She goes to the extent of giving an interview about her relationship with Sanjay to a magazine.

Irritated by Kalpana’s lies, Sanjay decides to confront her. On his way to meeting her, he sees a young girl (who happens to be Kalpana) helping handicapped children. At the studio he is pleasantly surprised to realise that Kalpana is the same helpful girl he had seen. He chooses to hide his identity.

Thereafter Sanjay keeps meeting Kalpana and their romance blossoms. He never reveals his true identity. The two decide to get married.

Meanwhile, Sanjay has to go to London on some business deal. While he is abroad, Kalpana saves a group of young girls from flesh traders led by the don, Ghajini (Pradeep Rawat). When Ghajini comes to Kalpana’s house to avenge the loss and embarassment, incidentally, Sanjay too arrives.

Ghajini kills Kalpana and injures Sanjay with a heavy iron rod that causes him to lose his memory.

Apart from Aamir’s admirable performance, the film’s editing and music are excellent.

The film is good in bits and pieces. There are several loopholes in the film and scenes that leave many questions unanswered. The director takes an easy way out by not detailing the scenes.

Undoubtedly, Aamir is the highlight of “Ghajini”, and it is worth a watch for his sake.

Dasvidaniya (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-18T10:52:00.001+05:30

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Alvida / Kailash Kher
Alvida - Remix / Kailash Kher, Paresh, Naresh
Mumma / Kailash Kher
Muskura / Kailash Kher, Sonu Nigam
Muskura - Instrumental

Firefox Search Add-on - How to Install and Use it

2008-12-14T11:22:00.001+05:30

So now that you know how to do it, click on the image below or the button in the sidebar to install it. Internet Explorer users, sorry this is not for you.

Jumbo (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-13T22:14:00.001+05:30

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Badhte Chalo / Sukhwinder Singh
Chayee Madhoshiyan / Sonu Nigam, Sona Mohapatra
Chayee Madhoshiyan - Remix / Sonu Nigam, Sona Mohapatra
Dil Mera Jumbo / Joi Barua
Everything Gonna Be Alright / Kunal Ganjawala
Jaya He / Krishna

Jumbo (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-13T22:07:00.002+05:30

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Badhte Chalo / Sukhwinder Singh
Chayee Madhoshiyan / Sonu Nigam, Sona Mohapatra
Chayee Madhoshiyan - Remix / Sonu Nigam, Sona Mohapatra
Dil Mera Jumbo / Joi Barua
Everything Gonna Be Alright / Kunal Ganjawala
Jaya He / Krishna

Raaz - The Mystery Continues (2009) [MP3]

2008-12-13T22:07:00.001+05:30

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Kaisa Ye Raaz Hai / K.K
Maahi / Toshi Sabri
Soniye / Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
O Jaana / K.K
O Banda Re / K.K
Maahi (Rock With Me) / Toshi Sabri
Soniyo (From The Heart) / Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
O Jaana (Dance With Me Mix) / K.K

Raaz - The Mystery Continues (2009) [MP3]

2008-12-13T21:56:00.002+05:30

Note: Download links are updated and working, now in mp3 format!
(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Kaisa Ye Raaz Hai / K.K
Maahi / Toshi Sabri
Soniye / Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
O Jaana / K.K
O Banda Re / K.K
Maahi (Rock With Me) / Toshi Sabri
Soniyo (From The Heart) / Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
O Jaana (Dance With Me Mix) / K.K

Golmaal Returns (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-13T21:56:00.001+05:30

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Meow / Suzi Q, Monali
Meow - English / Suzi Q, Monali
Meow - Remix / Suzi Q, Monali
Tha Kar Ke / Neeraj Shridhar, Anvesha Dutta, Akruti Kakkar, Earl, Indie
Tha Kar Ke - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Anvesha Dutta, Akruti Kakkar, Earl
Tu Saala / Anushka Manchandani
Tu Saala - Remix / Anushka Manchandani
Vacancy / Neeraj Shridhar, Benny Dayal, Suhail Kaul, Suzi Q
Vacancy - Kilogram Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Benny Dayal, Suhail Kaul, Suzi Q

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-13T21:44:00.002+05:30

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak
Director: Aditya Chopra
Rating: *** 1/2

No larger than life character or lavish sets, over-the-board acting or trademark merchandise - Aditya Chopra’s latest offering “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” is an extraordinary love story of an ordinary man and thoroughly entertains the audience.

After the record breaking hit “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” (1994), followed by “Mohabbatein” in 2000, the third much-awaited Aditya Chopra-Shah Rukh venture is capable of keeping the audiences glued to their seats in a mix of emotions.

Shah Rukh proves his mettle once again with his immaculate acting and makes it a treat to watch and appreciate the friendly neighbourhood common man in his geeky avatar and Punjabi dialect.

Massive applause echoed in the multiplex from the scene the superstar made his dramatic entry in the film till the credits.

Carrying both the characters with aplomb, King Khan spells his magic on screen highlighting the flip sides of a person’s personality that every individual would associate with.

Set in modern Amritsar, the film unfolds the story of an ordinary man Surinder Sahni (Shah Rukh) and his attempts at winning his young wife Tani’s (debutante Anushka Sharma) love whom he marries under unforeseen circumstances.

Binding the couple together is a reality dance contest that eventually brings the pair together under circumstances when Sahni goes for an image makeover and participates in the show with Tani as a loud and flamboyant man by the name of Raj Kapoor.

The climax takes a turn with Tani’s realisation of her true love for her spouse.

Like other Shah Rukh movies, the movie also has a special appearance package song “Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke” that features actresses like Kajol, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji grooving to the beats with a jazzy looking Shah Rukh.

However, unlike Chopra’s previous films, “Rab Ne…” boasts of an appealing soundtrack with only four songs in well roped in situations.

Newcomer Anushka complements Shah Rukh despite being years younger to him. She has matched step-to-step with the King Khan in the popular number “Dance Pe Chance”. She has emoted well and holds much promise.

All in all, a complete family package deal worth watching.

Golmaal Returns (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-13T21:44:00.001+05:30

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Meow / Suzi Q, Monali
Meow - English / Suzi Q, Monali
Meow - Remix / Suzi Q, Monali
Tha Kar Ke / Neeraj Shridhar, Anvesha Dutta, Akruti Kakkar, Earl, Indie
Tha Kar Ke - Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Anvesha Dutta, Akruti Kakkar, Earl
Tu Saala / Anushka Manchandani
Tu Saala - Remix / Anushka Manchandani
Vacancy / Neeraj Shridhar, Benny Dayal, Suhail Kaul, Suzi Q
Vacancy - Kilogram Remix / Neeraj Shridhar, Benny Dayal, Suhail Kaul, Suzi Q

EMI - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.012+05:30

Director: Saurabh Kabra
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Urmila Matondkar, Arjun Rampal, Malaika Arora, Ashish Chowdhary, Neha Oberoi
Rating: **

You have to salute the Sanjay Dutt-Urmila Matondkar dinner on the dock in the second-half of this socially relevant in parts, emotionally elevating morality tale where Sanjay’s gloriously goofy and endearing character proposes to the object of his adoration.

The sequence shows great emotional control, comic timing and dramatic subtlety. It builds up splendidly into a spiral of implosive romance. And Urmila skilfully weaves coquettishness into contrivance to show how a lady can manipulate a man without meaning any harm.

The above sequence shows debutant director Saurabh Kabra’s control of the medium. Alas, this control isn’t evident everywhere. This valid tale about loan recovery scampers all over the place, quite like those poor debtors being chased by the loan sharks.

At a time when the world faces severe economic recession, “EMI” sounds a topical alarm bell. Tragically the narration doesn’t follow the golden rule of survival. It stumbles at times in trying to over-reach, moving the body of the plot into positions that damages the narration.

Miraculously every time the four set of characters stumble, director Kabra catches them and puts them back into place. You only wish the characters, lived-in and feeling rather than faking the emotions, would have been located into a more virile and vibrant environment.

Quite clearly Sanjay’s role, personality and performance are a carry-over from the ‘Munnabhai’ films.

The postures assumed by the plot don’t quite match the sincerity of the actors, all of whom perform with gusto.

Arjun Rampal and, surprisingly, Ashish Chaudhary lend a contagious verve to their parts without converting their characters into clownish caricatures. And a word for the seasoned Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Does he ever disappoint?

While the guys take over the show, Urmila and Malaika Arora provide the glamour. But Malaika’s item songs seem forced into the plot.

The sense of segmented satirical momentum is kept afloat through the performances. The dialogues by Nitin Raikwar and T. Govind Rajan capture the desperate energy and the underlining humour of a generation that’s rapidly losing the plot.

Blessedly, the film manages to stay on the right track. Never overwhelming in its social message on middle-class extravagance, but managing to make the ends meet from the beginning to the end.

Ek Vivaah... Aisa Bhi - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.011+05:30

Cast: Sonu Sood, Eesha Koppikhar, Alok Nath, Smita Jaykar, Vishal Malhotra
Director: Kaushik Ghatak
Rating: * 1/2

Nobility as a quality in cinema seems almost the hallmark of Sooraj Barjatya’s cinema. Specially during these times of stress cynicism and violence, any film that doesn’t belch out venomous fumes is worthy of applause.

But wait. Before we cheer “Ek Vivaah… Aisa Bhi” for walking the straight and narrow road, let’s be warned. The route taken by the narration looks like a tepid and technically shoddy facsimile of Anil Ganguly’s “Tapasya”, which was produced by Barjatya, and more recently, the Barjatya-directed “Vivah” that won extra points for its elegant and fluent simplicity of narration.

Director Kaushik Ghatak takes us through Barjatya’s joint-family system. Yes, even the infamous ‘gaajar ka halwa’ (sweet dish made out of shredded carrot) makes its mouth-watering appearance during the first wedding that rolls out at the start.

Yup, the film begins and ends with elaborate weddings replete with the whole cast plus sundry junior artists dressed in garish pinks, mauves and greens prancing to the sound of festivities.

But somewhere this prolonged music-video ‘Vivaah…’ lacks the graceful zing of the other Shahid Kapur-Amrita Rao film two years ago which had enough meals and morning walks to make our digestive system feel balanced out.

“Ek Vivaah…” is lopsided in its fervent festivity. The first-half where a romance grows between two small town singers Sonu Sood and Eesha Koppikhar creaks with monotonous semi-classical songs.

The music composed by Ravindra Jain is simply awful. Jain had done the songs and music in the original film “Tapasya”. One still remembers Kishore Kumar’s theme song “Jo raah chuni tuney” with affection.

The songs and music in “Ek Vivaah… Aisa Bhi” are dreadfully dull. The film gets by on the strength of Bengali litterateur Ashapurna Devi’s powerful story of a self-willed woman who sacrifices marriage to look after her siblings.

Parts of the second-half capture the emotional aroma of the original story. Specially effective is the relationship between the spinster and her devoted soulmate who refuses to marry any other girl.

Suchitra Sen and Ashok Kumar shared a similar platonic rapport in Asit Sen’s “Mamta”. And so did Raakhee Gulzar and Parikshit Sahni in “Tapasya”. They had the spirit.

Eesha and Sonu are sincere, but they lack the gravity and ingrained wisdom and dignity required to portray lives that go beyond self interest.

What works for this “Vivaah…” is its intrinsic integrity. At a time when everyone is making films that either go for the guffaw or head for the libido, here’s a film that tackles very basic traditional values and the feelings underlining the colourful festivities related to the Hindu wedding. The language is often so old fashioned that it borders on the archaic.

But at least nobody is acting oversmart.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.010+05:30

Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Cast: Abhay Deol, Paresh Rawal, Neetu Chandra
Rating: ***

This is one helluva film about a lucky thief named Lucky who nonchalantly enters Delhi’s well-to-do homes, picks up television sets and sound systems, and walks out in broad daylight.

“Oye Lucky…” is a sly, shimmering mirror of a dysfunctional society always craving for more… not knowing where the greed to be upwardly mobile finally ends.

You could look for parallels to Banerjee’s aggressively-original vision in crime capers ranging from Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde to Shaad Ali’s “Bunty Aur Babli”. You may also discern enchanting elements from the quirky crime capers of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers in the relationship between thief Abhay Deol and his mentor Paresh Rawal.

But finally the all-consuming impulses of the Indian middle-class, their craving to be seen on television and their desire to be heard above the daily din is used really well by Bannerje.

The narration is miraculously liberated from the claustrophobia of middle-class ambitions to take us on a joyous bumpy caper ride. Not for a second do we feel the weight of the morality tale that lurks under the crowded front of the middleclass need and greed.

Delhi’s lower middle-class suburbs are used to create a famished environment for our adolescent hero Lucky to be born in a state of abject wanting and craving. By the time Lucky grows up, so does the narrative.

Director Banerjee steers diametrically away from the format he adopted in his first film “Khosla Ka Ghosla”. There’s no room for patience or explanations here.

The director cleverly and wisely reserves all judgement. Lucky’s life on the run is neither glamorous nor too much fun. Nor is it squalid. This detachment from the scenes of the crime is what sets “Oye Lucky…” apart from other crime capers.

Then there’s the casting. Faces that you might or might not have seen before blend into the bristling brew of laughter, lies and betrayal. Take the girl who plays Neetu Chandra’s embittered, excitable sister. She can be anybody or nobody and therefore special to the requirement of the film about trying to stand out in a crowd.

Archana Puransingh and Paresh Rawal as an unctuous Punjabi couple sweet-talking Lucky into investing for a restaurant project are great. Rawal in fact gives three wonderful performances as three different characters who play a part in shaping Lucky’s destiny.

Abhay Deol’s act is constantly laced with a streak of mean wickedness. He doesn’t act. He just lets his character be. Deol isn’t afraid of being embarrassed. Watch how he slobbers all over his kid-brother during a holiday with his girlfriend.

Neetu Chandra, superb earlier as the street hawker in Madhur Bhandarkar’s “Traffic Signal”, gets the point completely. She stays underplayed in an underwritten part.

The bigger picture clearly lies in the honest detailing in this tongue-in-cheek caper about coveting the good things of life.

“Oye Lucky…” gets savagely funny at times. Check out the sequence where Lucky tows a stolen television into a wayward politician’s son’s home, only to find every large corner occupied by television sets.

Look closely into “Oye Lucky…” and you can see where our society took the wrong turn.

Dostana - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.009+05:30

Director: Tarun Mansukhani
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra, Kirron Kher, Boman Irani
Rating: **1/2

Get this straight. Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham are not gay. They are just happy pretending to be bed partners. In the endeavour, they pull out all stops and get into the gay zone with a gusto that stumps all moralists.

There are butt-and-bum jokes galore, some even pointed at the leading lady. But hold that frown. Chill…It’s all for fun.

The theme of heterosexual characters pretending to be gay to get a precious abode in the bustle of the metropolis is pretty cool.

Abhishek and John, both in full form, get into the gay groove without going over the top. They come out with flying colours through most of the material that’s provided to them to sink their teeth into. While John combines terrific body language with some great comic timing, Abhishek’s expressions are a scream in their pitch-perfection.

One of the most brilliantly-written sequences orchestrates all the characters of this gay-play in the same room. There’re the play-acting gay protagonists, a gay magazine editor (Boman Irani), a gay marriage-bureau official and of course Abhishek’s homophobic mother (Kirron Kher) who screams and rants and then accepts her son’s apparent sexual preference.

You could simply marvel at the two principal actors giving so much of heart to their parts.

After a point you’re tempted to stop counting the number of times the word ‘gay’ gets in the way of the narrative. From ‘Mera beta gay hai’, courtesy Kirron Kher, to a ‘Han main gay hoon’, “Dostana” wins the how-to-say-gay-in-every-which-way award of the year.

Sandwiched between the two brilliantly-poised heroes is Priyanka Chopra, glowing like a 1,000-watt bulb in her immaculate wardrobe and beachwear.

So here’s the bottom line. Hindi cinema finally comes out of the closet.

The characters get ample chance to extend the parameters of conventional cinema without toppling into the abyss of overstatement.

First-time writer-director Tarun Mansukhani has the zing thing in his vision. Miami, shot with fetching gusto by Aynanka Bose, lifts the luscious locales to more than a tourist paradise. The desi characters seem to belong to this beachside paradise.

Well-toned bodies tanned to perfection, sinewy movements on the beach and on the dance floor, songs, music and feverish fiesta of sexually-driven people who want it all. And fast. “Dostana” is the ultimate hedonists’ dream.

The narrative pace slackens considerably in the second-half, what with the heroes expanding their homosexual hijinks into a triangle with Priyanka thrown in for good measure. Then the triangle dilates into a quadrangle as Bobby Deol makes a belated appearance as the boss who first intimidates and irritates the working girl into a motion of anger and submission. And then sweeps her off her feet.

Is this to keep the heterosexuals happy?

What keeps the narrative going is the sheer zest for life and the mood of wackiness which Shilpa Shetty sets at the outset with her ‘ooh-la-la’ item song. The gags involve everyone from the caricatured and spinsterish landlady to an incredibly clueless magazine editor (Bobby Deol), who agrees to behave like a moron at our pseudo-gay heroes say-so.

It’s all in fun. Not to be taken seriously. Not even when Abhishek and John lip-lock in mock-ecstasy for a farewell kiss that certainly leaves Priyanka breathless.

Yuvvraaj - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.008+05:30

Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Zayed Khan, Katrina Kaif
Director: Subhash Ghai
Rating: ***

Subhash Ghai’s loveliest film in years has a symphonic texture, feel and movement to it. From the opening shots of Katrina Kaif labouring lusciously over the cello to the montage towards the end when Boman Irani, playing a zany surgeon, hops skips and jumps in the hospital corridor to announce the hero’s recovery, “Yuvvraaj” reworks old themes of family ties and unequal love matches to suit a new clientele.

It says it’s okay to want money. But it’s not okay to sacrifice family for funds. The palate is passionate. The look, feel and flavour of the presentation are near-exquisite. Ghai’s hard-earned reputation as a showman is on show here with shimmering austerity.

Less is constantly more in “Yuvvraaj”. The story of three wealthy brothers battling for the billions after their tycoon father’s death cannot be entirely exonerated of excesses. The supporting characters of ghoulish wealth - gold diggers and cleavage revealing sirens - seem straight out of Ghai’s “Ram Lakhan” and “Trimurti”.

But all said and done, there’s a delicacy to the narration that most cinema today is unable to achieve.

“Yuvvraaj” is not a film in a hurry. Though the pacing is even and stable, and feelings are frequently created out of the background score, it seldom gets cumbersome to watch.

Cinematographer Kabir Lal and art designer Oomang Kumar make sure our interest level in the incidents in the “Yuvvraaj” family never flags.

The performances are frequently charming and at times intriguing in their shadowy suggestions. The writer, played by Aushima Sawhney, flits in and out with stealth and grace, serving as both narrator and equaliser in this tumultuous tale of greed and redemption.

Bala, who plays autistic hero Anil Kapoor’s loyal friend, seldom speaks and remains an innocent mute spectator to the self-serving avarice of the rest of the characters.

After over-the-top performances in some hideous comedies, Anil is in full form as a psychologically impaired musical genius. The character’s vulnerability and lack of man-made manoeuvrings are expressed in the most tender and heart-melting expressions of a mind that doesn’t understand materialism and manipulation.

Anil holds the film and its loose ends together and serves as a reference point for this tale with a moral for our times.

Lower down the cast, Zayed Khan as Anil’s kid brother pumps in the right amount of hedonistic confusion into his spoilt rich brat’s act.

But clearly the stars of the show are A.R. Rahman’s music and Gulzar’s lyrics. Blending into the supremely mellow fabric of the characters’ chaotic inner worlds, the music blends symphonic elements into a big large epic desi sound.

Seamless in its splendid synthesis of feelings and sounds, and avoiding over-punctuation except in the Broadway-like choreography, “Yuvvraaj” catches the characters’ inner worlds in a state of reposeful grace.

The excesses, when they occur, are often doubly embarrassing because of the film’s continually fine structure and style. Often as the narration takes steep cultural swerves from Prague to Austria to London, Ghai puts in interior sequences on bad sets that intrude on the narration’s streamlined motivations.

Moments such as the one where Anil sings publicly for the first time are heartstopping in their sensitivity. But at times, Ghai loses grip over the narration, especially when some of the actors choose to do their own thing rather than remain in character.

But there is so much in “Yuvvraaj” to be thankful for. The splendour of the locales never overpowers the characters’ right to be where they are.

As in “Pardes” and “Yaadein”, Ghai questions joint-family values and the rapidly-changing equations in modern times. While pricking our collective conscience, “Yuvvraaj” rarely throws up a moment when we can’t look Ghai’s vision straight in the eye. It is among the finest films of 2008.

Dasvidaniya - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.007+05:30

Cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Ranvir Shorey, Sarita Joshi and Gaurav Gera
Director: Shashant Singh
Rating: ***

There’s something to be said about this sensitive slice-of-life cinema. And it’s this. You really can’t keep a good man down.

Returning to the ambit of the dull working-class protagonist that he almost patented in “Bheja Fry”, Vinay Pathak delivers yet another bravura performance as a man who learns to live only when he learns he has to die.

The premise done to death (pun intended) in films as disparate as Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikuru” and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Anand”, gets its power and glory from the simple yet never simplistic narrative that grows on you piece by piece, just as the lessons of life creep up belatedly on our hero Amar Kaul (Vinay).

With every dying day he lives a little more of that life he leaves behind. Though the film’s leisurely pace doesn’t quite capture the urgency of the moment, “Dasvidaniya” scores high points for its sincerity of performance.

The narrative has been patterned prettily as a pastiche of 10 episodes, each dealing with a facet of Amar Kaul’s life that he would like to retrieve from the archives of angst and claim as his own before he’s gone.

The pace often drops to a willowy whisper. The tone gets predominantly stifled. The narration is constantly hushed, never rushed even as the shuffling, procrastinating hero speeds through things in his pending file that he needs done before he’s through with life.

The beauty and harmony of life’s essential core is obtained in passages of relaxed rumination and casual conversations that show us where we often go wrong in our daily dealings. This is done without wagging a disapproving finger at the audience.

Vinay gets the flavour of the tragic hero’s comic escapades just right. He’s partly Charlie Chaplin, and partly Robert Benigni. But finally this is an actor who does his own thing. Make no mistake about that.

Helping him in his endeavour are like-minded friends like Rajit Kapur, Neha Dhupia, Ranvir Shorey, Sarita Joshi and Gaurav Gera — all pitching in with transparently- sincere performances.

There is not one faked moment in “Dasvidaniya”. You may feel portions of the film - like the Kailash Kher number “Mumma” - are manipulative in their intentions. But that’s life. You win some. You lose most of it.

Kudos to Vinay for making another winner out of another incorrigible loser’s story.

Maharathi - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.006+05:30

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rwal, Neha Dhupia, Boman Irani, Tara Sharma, Om Puri
Director: Shivam Nair
Rating: ***

“Maharathi” is based on Paresh Rawal’s Gujarati play of the same name. The play, a thriller, has been running for the last 21 years and has already had 700 shows so far.

Though Rawal himself is the director of the play, he backed out from taking the same responsibility for its movie version. So, in came Shivam Nair.

Since much of the drama in the movie takes place indoors, the effect of it is not the same on screen as it has been when played out on stage, so that the movie ends up giving a stuffy feeling.

It rises above the run-of-the-mill thriller primarily because of clever narration of the story designed to keep the audience guessing till the final denouement.

Adenwalla (Naseeruddin Shah), a film producer, who is past his glory days, is married to a young aspiring actress, Mallika (Neha Dhupia). Their married life is far from happy as Addenwalla, having fallen on bad days, takes to drinking heavily. Frustrated, he lives a wretched life and is loathed by his wife.

Subhash (Paresh Rawal), a struggling actor, one day saves Adenwalla from an accident. In gratitude, Adenwalla keeps him as his driver.

Though Mallika hates Subhash for his proximity to her husband, he later becomes her confidant when he gives in to her plan of getting her hand on Adenwalla’s Rs.240 million life insurance payout. Mallika also ropes in the family lawyer (Boman Irani) and the caretaker of the house (Tara Sharma) to execute her plan.

Even as they make their plans, the quartet quietly scheme to double-cross one another. Finally, their greed gets bared when Assistant Commissioner of Police Gokhale (Om Puri) has a whiff of it.

What makes the movie worth watching is that it has many plausible twists and turns, keeping the audience guessing where the plot will lead.

The restrained performances of the actors save it from going over the top. Naseeruddin Shah, as a drunkard, does not rave and rant.

Similarly, Paresh Rawal is not the usual liveried chauffeur seen in umpteen Bollywood movies who is ever so ready to genuflect before his boss and Neha Dhupia, mercifully, is not the fault-finding lady of the house who rides roughshod over whoever comes her way. In short, the cast behaves like normal human beings and not like caricatures.

However, the build up to the drama in the first half is long drawn out and it becomes a bit claustrophobic as everything takes places inside a house. Moreover, it is hard to believe that while Mallika and her cohorts plot and scheme against Adenwalla right before his eyes, he would not have an inkling of their intrigue.

But these minor faults are covered up by the believable performances of the cast and the twists and turns of the drama that keep the audience engaged.

Naseeruddin Shah’s performance, expectedly, is impeccable. Paresh Rawal and Boman Irani, of course, are a pleasure to watch, as usual. Om Puri and Tara Sharma have very little to do in the movie. They provide able support nevertheless.

The surprise of “Maharathi,” undoubtedly, is Neha Dhupia. As a ruthless, greedy housewife, she shows some spark of histrionics one never thought she was gifted with.

Dil Kabaddi - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.005+05:30

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Rahul Khanna, Konkana Sen Sharma, Payal Rohatgi
Director: Anil Senior
Rating: **

This happens in many urban homes. But to say that extra-marital affair is only an urban phenomenon is wrong.

Anyway, “Dil Kabaddi” is about two young urban couples whose conjugal lives have gone a bit awry and they begin to look out to have some flings on the side to keep the flame burning.

Samit (Irrfan Khan) finds his wife Mita (Soha Ali Khan) has got too absorbed in the concept of conventional marriage and their married life has become a routine of sort, a life where there is no scope for thrill and passion, but one which is fraught with marital discord and acrimony.

So, Samit falls for Kaya (Payal Rohatgi), an aerobics instructor.

Rishi and Simi (Rahul Bose and Konkana Sen Sharma) are another disenchanted couple. But, unlike Mita, Simi is too passionately aggressive and possessive for Rishi’s penchant for a carefree life. To Rishi, marriage means togetherness, not bondage. So, he unintentionally gets drawn to a free-spirited student of his (debutante Saba Azad), but succumbs to her passion nonetheless.

Well, Simi, too, is not bound by the marital vow either. She has a crush on young journalist Veer (Rahul Khanna) even as she thinks he would make a perfect husband to her friend, Mita.

The plot however begins to meander, leaving the audience confused and in the maze of relationships everything gets blurred and it is difficult to ascertain who is loyal to whom.

Perhaps, that is what director Anil Senior has intended the movie to be: funny and puzzling. After all, even though marriages are believed to be made in heaven, the gods do not ensure happiness in marriage.

The movie is funny, but much of the fun-filled incidents are borrowed from Woody Allen’s rib-tickling mature movie “Husbands and Wives”. It is incoherent as there is no definite storyline. The fun emanates only from the forays of the characters and that is all about there is in the movie.

The only good thing about the movie is that it has a perfect cast, as all the lead actors fit the respective roles they play.

Irrfan Khan acts out his dalliance with his usual straight-faced style. Soha Ali Khan plays the role of a cantankerous wife without going overboard, Rahul Bose’s sensitivity comes across right in keeping with his role, but one only wishes Payal Rohtagi could have done with screaming in lower decibel.

Meerabai Not Out - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.003+05:30

Cast: Mandira Bedi, Eijaz Khan, Anupam Kher, Mahesh Manjrekar and Anil Kumble
Director: Chandrakant Kulkarni
Rating: ***

What do you say about a comedy that brings cricketer Anil Kumble on screen only to go down with hiccups?

Every time cricket fan Meera Achrekar (Mandira Bedi) remembers her favourite cricketer, Kumble bursts into hefty hiccups. Just goes to show, you can take Guddi out of our films — but you can’t take our films out of Guddi.

Each time Mandira whines about being in love with cricket and cricketer Anil Kumble to the tycoon who falls in love with her (Eijaaz Khan), she reminds us of Jaya Bhaduri in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Guddi”, so obsessed with movies and Dharmendra that she can’t think straight.

Meera can. If you want to play cricket, you have to think straight. To writer Soumik Sen’s credit, he gives Mandira a role to sink her teeth into. Experienced actor and cricket connoisseur that she is, Mandira gets into the groove with lip-smacking relish, abandoning lip gloss and hip-gyrations for rollicking sprints down Mumbai’s lanes with the boys of the colony.

Lamentably she isn’t required to play much cricket, just talk about it.

This either means that the screenwriter doesn’t endorse the zany image of Meerabai as a spunky iconoclast speeding around Mumbai’s crowded highway on a two-wheeler without gender care. Or it just means Mandira didn’t get time to practice her cricket on the field.

Be as it might, even the climactic cricket game in the chawl compound staged between Mandira’s beau and her brother (Mahesh Manjrekar) is perfunctory and more a snatch of a match to bring about the marital match than a breathless display of cricketing skills.

The prevalent mood of “Meerabai Not Out” is one of a plot not fully developed, and yet ripe enough to give out the appetizing aroma of a fruit on the way to ripening.

There is a lived-in flavour of a Marathi household with a harassed brother mumbling curses under his breath at the bus stop, a mother at home who worries constantly about the unmarried and cricket-smitten daughter in the house, a sister-in-law who thinks stealing an evening of paani-puri at the pavement is equivalent to domestic liberation and a well-to-do heart specialist who is so besotted by his cricketer girlfriend that he is willing to forgive her for everything including stealing away from their engagement function for a cricket match.

It doesn’t take too long for us to figure out that there’s more than a touch of Gurinder Chadha’s “Bend It Like Beckham in this instant sporty and sassy version of the inimitable Parminder Nagra’s gender-defying love of football in “Bend It Like Beckham”.

Parminder had Beckham, Mandira has Kumble. The cultural crossover is clever, though not fully realised. Often you feel the narration under-plays the conflict between what a girl does in life and what she should do. Just because it doesn’t want to stretch out its limbs.

Also, there’s the disturbing premise that finally Meera needs a man and in this case the man’s father (Anupam Kher) to see her dreams past the goal post.

As a desi version of “Bend It Like Beckham”, “Meerabai Not Out” is not bad at all. As a showcase for Mandira’s cricketing ambitions the narration brings her just about the best role she’s likely to get on the side of “Chak De! India”.

Golmaal Returns - Bollywood Movie Review

2008-12-11T20:53:00.001+05:30

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Anjana Sukhani, Arshad Warsi, Amrita Arora, Shreyas Talpade and Celina Jaitley
Director: Rohit Shetty
Rating: *

The sequel to the successful “Golmaal” is filled with in-house jokes - for instance when Ajay Devgan weaves the titles of his films into the dialogues. Or the hilarious takeoff by that talented Ashwini Kalsekar on Rani Mukerji’s randy tart’s act from Sanjay Bhansali’s “Saawariya”… it’s a rare moment of genuine laughter in this comedy of earsplitting guffaws, all emanating from the screen rather than out of it.

Fast, furious and fatuous “Golmaal Returns” isn’t quite that Diwali blues-chaser you expect it to be. The comic timing, though skilled, is wasted by the actors in sequences that try to breathe fire into a burnt-out oven.

No wonder the comicality is half-baked and often repetitive. The jokes from the first film are extended to the second, often with far-from-funny results. Many large sections of satire just lack attractive attire.

What was Kareena Kapoor doing in this corny concoction? Playing a fan of the saas-bahu serials, she’s named Ekta, as a homage to the soap queen Ekta Kapoor whose brother incidentally plays Kareena’s brother in the movie.

Tusshar Kapoor is a howl. And a whine. And a whoop. And a snivel. Since he is mute, he sharpens his ability to emote through jungle calls. He’s a revelation.

The camaraderie among the cast is quite evident. The male actors bond with gusto and Shreyas Talpade, who is the new recruit to the revelry, joins in without skipping a beat. His comic timing is delightfully sinewy.

But what happened to Arshad Warsi? His quick entry and exit as cop begins to get on the nerves after a while.

But Tusshar and Shreyas whip up a wacky humour. Most of the material about a suspicious wife and several red herrings strewn across a path that’s self-consciously forged on the grounds of Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City is very old-fashioned in its approach to slapstick humour. Crowds hover around studio-built malls and streets trying to look casual.

They provide a rough and random backdrop to what’s basically material for a sex comedy on stage.

The characters run in breathlessly, say their jokey lines, fall over each other in rituals of suggestive laughter and then fall out of the frames waiting for the next gag to beckon them. It’s all supposed to be hilariously funny. But is often just a pretext for more a pantomime of parody than the real thing.

At the end there’s a threat for a third segment of “Golmaal”.

It would all depend on how much money the part two manages to bring in.

Going by the audiences’ riotous response, it seems no-brainers are eminently fashionable.

Meerabai Not Out (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-09T23:36:00.002+05:30

Meerabai Not Out’s music is directed by Sandesh Shandilya. I absolutely LOVE the song O Dil Sambhal and its remix. The title song isn’t that bad either. Check ‘em out for yourself.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Chal De Rapat / Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Prakash
Chal De Rapat - Remix / Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Prakash
Hai Rama / Sukhwinder Singh, Neha Kakkad
Kaisi Yeh Shaam / Kunal Ganjawala
Meerabai Not Out / Neeraj Shridhar, Vijay Prakash
O Dil Sambhal / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
O Dil Sambhal - Remix / Kunal Ganjawala

Meerabai Not Out (2008) [MP3]

2008-12-09T23:36:00.001+05:30

Meerabai Not Out’s music is directed by Sandesh Shandilya. I absolutely LOVE the song O Dil Sambhal and its remix. The title song isn’t that bad either. Check ‘em out for yourself.

(Direct MP3 Links - Right click and choose ‘Save Target As’)

Chal De Rapat / Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Prakash
Chal De Rapat - Remix / Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Prakash
Hai Rama / Sukhwinder Singh, Neha Kakkad
Kaisi Yeh Shaam / Kunal Ganjawala
Meerabai Not Out / Neeraj Shridhar, Vijay Prakash
O Dil Sambhal / Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan
O Dil Sambhal - Remix / Kunal Ganjawala

You Can Rate, Too!

2008-12-09T23:28:00.001+05:30

I just added the rating widget by Spotback.com that let’s anyone rate a post. As you can see, it’s located Right below the post tile. So go ahead and start rating!

You Can Rate, Too!

2008-12-09T23:26:00.001+05:30

I just added the rating widget by Spotback.com that let’s anyone rate a post. As you can see, it’s located Right below the post tile. So go ahead and start rating!