oney, Greed, Power, Revenge and Deception is what the Mumbai underworld is all about. Like thousands of others VK too has arrived in the city of dreams to make it big in the film industry.

However not all things go as planned and VK is sucked into the underworld which leads to a string of events that would determine his fate.

However an unexpected mishap turns the tables and everyone involved get caught up in the misfortune.

Thus begins the unstoppable chase. VK is excessively drawn into the game to step back. Unintentionally, he has become an impostor who never existed.

The praise for Mithya has spread like wildfire after just a single preview screening of the movie recently. The movie is already making rounds on popular blogs and chat sites. With the likes of Nasseerudin Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak , Neha Dhupia and many others, the movie promises to deliver some shell shocked performances.

Let’s hope that Rajat Kapoor’s most ambitious directorial venture which claims to be a comic thriller gets its due in the time to come.

RAJAN KHOSA's Dance of the Wind gets its due in India after ten years by getting a release, After winning Audience Award - London Film Festival 1997, Public Prize & Best Actress - Festival of Three Continents, France 1997, Gold Plaque - Chicago Film Festival 1998, Critics Week - Venice Film Festival 1997, NETPAC Award - Rotterdam Film Festival 1998, Best Director - British Asian Film Festival 1998, with Official Selection at Venice Film Festival 1997, London Film Festival 1997, Rotterdam Film Festival 1998, Chicago Film Festival 1997, Festival of Three Continents, Nantes 1998, Karlovy Vary Film Festival 1998, Melbourne Film Festival 1998, Vancover Film Festival 1998, Mar Del Plata Film Festival 1998, Bologna Cineteca Film Festival 1998, Jerusalem Film Festival 1998, Istanbul Film Festival 1998, Auckland/Wellington Film Festival, New Zealand 1998, International Film Festival of India 1998, Cinefan Film Festival India 1999, and many others…

The successful career of a young Indian classical singer, Pallavi (Kitu Gidwani), is brought to an abrupt end as a result of her mother's death.

Because of this, Pallavi, who also studied under the tutelage of her mother Karuna Devi (Kapila Vatsyayan), finds that she loses her voice and with it her career and students. But help arrives in the form of young street urchin Tara (Roshan Bano) whose angelic voice haunts Pallavi and leads her on a journey of discovery.

A celebration of classical traditions, set in New Delhi, Rajan Khosa's prize-winning film captures the beauty of ancient Indian music and the culture from which it emanates.

CREDITS

NFDC and ELEPHANT EYE present

Dance of the wind

Director/Original story : Rajan Khosa

Director of Photography : Piyush Shah

Music : Shubha Mudgal

Production Design : Amardeep Behl

Sound Design : Vikram Joglekar

Cast : Kitu Gidwani, Bhaveen Gosain, B.C.Sanyal, Vinod Nagpal,

The Director duo Abbas-Mustan are back with yet another thriller movie titled “Race”. Race is the story of 2 brothers – Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajeev Singh (Akshaye Khanna). They breed horses on their huge ranch houses and are one of the biggest bookies in the horse racing circuit.

The elder brother Ranvir is known to be very smart and aggressive while Rajeev is a constant alcoholic.

Sophia (Katrina Kaif) is Ranvir’s personal secretary and loves him. Ranvir is however ignorant of her feelings towards him.

Shaina (Bipasha Basu) is an Indian Model and shares a beautiful relationship with Ranvir. But fate has some other plans for her. She gets married to Rajeev and her world is shattered when she discovers that he is a chronic alcoholic.

Rajeev is still addicted to alcohol although he promised his elder brother that he would leave it after marriage.

In a moment of truth Ranvir and Shaina come close to each other and an affair begins. All hell is broken loose when Rajeev suspects his wife of double crossing.

A Murder is committed.

Enter Robert.D. Costa(Anil Kapoor), a detective who lives by his values. He is desperate to find out the truth and arrest the perpetrator. He is very clever and has a bizarre addiction to fruits. Mini (Sameera Reddy) is R.D’s personal assistant and is as dumb as sexy she is.

Thus the Race begins as the story unfolds in a series of unexpected twists and turns and a nail-biting climax which is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. With brilliantly executed action sequences and an intriguing storyline, Race is certainly a movie to watch out for.

Director: Ajay Devgan
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Sumeet Raghavan, Divya Dutta, Isha
Sharwani and Karan Khanna

Nothing that Ajay Devgan has done in the past prepares us for the poise, poignancy and sensitivity of his directorial debut. "U, Me Aur Hum" is one of those tender and tactile melodramas that leave you with minty thoughts and dewy eyes.

The heart is completely at the right place as Ajay, turning director with a élan that thumbs its nose gently at all those who scoff at his actioner's antecedents, tells the story of a husband whose gentle ministrations take his Alzheimer's stricken wife from her absentminded youth to blanked-out old age.

The journey gives us insights into the man-woman relationship and the intricate commitments of a marriage as seen through the eyes that go beyond the romance and excitement of courtship to an area where dark clouds gather over a relationship and threaten its annihilation.

The trick, says Ajay's soft but persuasive film, is to hold on, to value the things that make life worth living. There is an interesting reversal of the age-hold cinematic formula where the husband is looked after by the wife through rain and shine.

Ajay plays the caring husband who wins the feisty (if it's Kajol it cannot be any other way) waitress on a cruise that seems to go on and on and on.

Luckily, the narrative doesn't get 'see' sick. To be sure, the film could have avoided a prolonged courtship that tells us nothing more about life than what we don't already know in the first 15 minutes.

Ajay gets to the point halfway through. The narrative quickly comes to grips with the theme as the solemn doctor (Sachin Khadekar) announces the absent-mindedness, which has been stalking Pia for a while, is actually Alzheimer's.

The realisation of the gravity of the illness, coming to terms with it and finally recognizing the reality of an unshakeable love and faith beyond the obvious hardships of a troubled compatibility.... these are themes that are given a surprisingly low key treatment by the first-time director.

Ajay's directorial speciality is the interweavement of the characters through some wittily and cleverly written dialogues (Ashwin Dheer), which always tell us more than what we hear.

The film's substantial emotional impact depends entirely on the performances, not just Ajay and Kjaol but their two sets of friends - Sumeet Raghavan and Divya Dutta as the constantly quarrelling divorce bound couple, and Karan Khanna and Isha Sharwani as the soon to be wed couple.

Sumeet is a special revelation. He's quiet and attentive in scenes that require him to be that.

But of course the chemistry between the lead players guides the destiny of this remarkable film. Kajol's powerhouse performance, punctuated and italicised by moments where she hungrily sinks her teeth into emotional depths seldom afforded to commercial actors, comes as no surprise.

However, her makeup sometimes gives her a caked look. Never mind. This is a film where we can easily look beyond the mask.

Ajay bowls you over. To find him measuring up to his wife's dizzying histrionics is an amazing experience. Jim Broadbent looking after his Alzheimer's-stricken wife Judi Dench in "Iris" couldn't have done better.

One sequence in the restaurant where Ajay is required to give a long, bitter and ironical monologue on man's innate selfishness after he leaves his wife at a care centre, will stand out among the sincerest expressions of the human ego seen in cinema.

Ajay's command over his craft and the language of heart take you by surprise.

Some of the sequences showing Kajol's mental blanking-out are so vivid they make your hairs stand on end. That nerve wracking moment when the mother nearly ends up drowning her baby in the bath tub or that poignant interlude when the husband leaves his wife at the hospital are so wonderfully devised and executed you wonder which came first: the thought to make a film on Alzheimer's or the characters who inhabit this dark yet uplifting theme.

The film has its flaws. It sometimes tries too hard to be trendily philosophical in its dialogues and ends up sounding phoney.

The pseudo-philosophical lyrics for the songs sound like cheap rip-offs of Gulzar. Also, the narrative doesn't seem to follow the linear path.

The back-and-forth editing pyrotechnics where key incidents are recreated in flashy flashbacks are distracting. However, Aseem Bajaj's cinematography does much to create a smooth homogenous look and mood for the narrative.

The film takes us through a world of love pain and acceptance with such transparent honesty of purpose that at the end of it you only wonder one thing... why can't more movies be like "U, Me Aur Hum"?

There are a number of rumours doing the rounds in Tollywood about the story of the film. Some rumours even say the writer Madhubabu (detective Shadow fame) has provided the story for the film. But Madhubabu denied that he has provided the story for the film.

Prabhas has been struggling hard to lay his hands on the elusive big hit for a long time now. He pairs up with the sexy and in form Trisha in the film. Incidentally, this is his third film with Trisha. Their previous films were 'Varsham' and 'Pournami'.

Prabhas plays the role of a hardcore fan of superstar Rajnikanth in the film. There are many scenes that show Prabhas expressing his love and admiration for his idol. Prabhas also speaks with a Tami accent and there are also several Tamil words in the film. It is only natural as the hero is shown as being brought up in the city.

Mohan Babu is one of the finest actors in Tollywood. It is with this in mind that director Puri Jagannath requested him to take up the role in the film. When Puri went to narrate the story to Mohan Babu, asked Puri to sum up his role in one just word. Puri told him that he was a 'rascal' in the film. This was sufficient for Mohan Babu and he readily agreed to star in the film. He is playing the role of Trisha's sister.

The name of Trisha's character in the movie is 'Chitti'. The interaction between Mohan Babu and hero Prabhas and his dialogues are the highlight of the film. Mohan Babu's excessive possessiveness of his sister, Trisha, and the related scenes have also come off very well.

Prabhas is playing an out and out mass hero in the film. His body language, dialogues and action are aimed at establishing him firmly as a popular mass hero. The film has already earned a very positive talk and it is likely to become a big hit.

Superstar Rajnikanth unveiled the audio of Bujjigau at the Andhra Club in Chennai recently. Puri has given several hits in recent times. His last two films, 'Desamuduru' with Allu Arjun and 'Chirutha' with Ram Charan were big hits. He hopes to score yet another big hit with Bujjigadu.

Sanjana, Sunil, Ali, MS Narayana, Jayaprakash Reddy, Sudha, Hema, Ajay, Subbaraju and others are among the star cast.

By all indications, Bujjigadu is a hilarious family entertainer with action, romance, fights and dance in equal measure. Get set to watch Bujjigadu on May 23.

Producer: KS Rama Rao
Director: Puri Jagannath
Music: Sandeep Chowtha

actor like boman irani go overboard. Goal as a movie has no moments and that's surprising coz a sports movie no matter how bad does have a few soul stirring
moments. For all it's worth the only thing goal has going for itself is the songs and john ebrahim who looks as close to a soccer player as any bollywood
star could go.Considering the director's statement about chak de!!! starting a new genre of movies in india goal has certainly not done any justice to it.
Bipasha Basu in the most appalling role of her life acts as the love interest of John Ebrahim. Other important characters include Arshad Warsi who tries his
best but the film has no soul. There are several moments in the film where it shows through that the amateurish sense of the director has put an end to a
scene which could hav been good. The film is shot in a mode where you just cant believe that the players are playing a simple game . One would hav thought
that after a decent enough attempt at copying a hollywood film with chocolate director would do the same and after walking out of the theatre after the film
one could have only wished the director would have done that. All in all a film best left for kids who have recently started playing soccer goal is downright
stupid and senseless. Grab a copy of the THE REPLACEMENTS or our very own CHAK DE!!!!

The Madras High Court has ordered notice on a writ petition seeking a direction to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to remove scenes which offended the sentiments of Hindus in the Tamil film ‘Dasavatharam’ while issuing the censorship certificate.

In its petition, the International Sri Vaishnava Dharma Samrakshanaa Society, represented by its president, Swami Govinda Ramanuja Dasa, said the title ‘Dasavatharam’ was a ruse to criticize Hinduism. It lured Hindus. However, offensive scenes such as clash between Saivites and Vaishnavites formed the theme of the story.

The trailer of the film, telecast on 1 May in Kalaignar TV showed scenes that offended the sentiments of Hindus, particularly Vaishnavites. Vaishnavism preached non-violence, tolerance and humility.

The petitioner submitted that his grievance was restricted to the role played by the actor as Sri Ramanujar and the connected scenes of violence.

Gautham Menon who is currently busy with Vaaranam Aayiram seems to be smitten by the hero Surya. He has been floored by Surya’s dedication and commitment and continues singing his hosannas. While discussing the film, he states that it deals with the life of man in different stages from the youthful days to old age. He further adds that

this could be one of the first films in Tamil cinema which has recorded the events in the life time of a person exhaustively. He says that Surya features as a 30 year and also a 70 year old man. According to the director, the role is not about increasing the brawn or muscle mass but it is all about bringing out the fine nuances which are characteristic of different age groups. Gautham states, “Surya is certainly the next Kamal in the making. I see a lot of work reverence in Surya which is so synonymous with Kamal.” Vaaranam Aayiram features Simran, Divya along with Sameera Reddy as Surya’s screen partners.

In a triangular love story the efficient director Kokila Sadhu comes out with a significant screenplay and in the climax he applies a simple answer. However with good looking faces on screen keeping aside vulgarity and violence here is a pleasant film for the hot summer.

A vibrant youngster Harsha an electrical engineer forced by his father come to the house of his father friend to change the whole electrical wiring of the huge house. Harsha comes with his team but he has to tame the two bubbly Ganga and Thunga along with his professional job. In this house there is another young girl the sick Yamuna is delighted with Harsha's caliber. Harsha brings smile in the face of Yamuna and wins the hearts of everyone in the family. The heart of Harsha has also fallen for Ganga a cool and composed beauty. Ganga although loves Harsha is afraid to express it because of her cantankerous sister Thunga. From the childhood whatever Ganga has liked Thunga has snatched. Meanwhile the arrogant Thunga express her love to Harsha which he is not interested. To the surprise everyone Thunga takes a daring step and follows Harsha after he finished the assignment. Looking for Thunga rigorously the inmates find Thunga in the house of Harsha. Thunga compels her family members that Harsha should accept to marry her. Knowing the hot temper of Thunga everyone accepts and Harsha is given another task to take Thunga to her house. Now Ganga is obviously upset. How Ganga and Harsha get relief from Thunga is interesting part in the climax that is in the marriage of Yamuna.

Prajwal has a significant role to play. He is caught between two lovely looking girls and mother sentiment. He does a fine job in dance, romance and action. He has to further grow in emotional department. Sunaina is the best charmer in her debut Kannada film. She has that daringness to perform on screen with skin tight costumes too. Gayathri is not all that bad. The elders Ramakrishna, Bhavya, Srinath have rendered good support. Bullet Prakash is irritating in the last reel of the film.

Shekar Chandru camera angles are OK but lighting is poor in the first half. The Alcazar song capturing is catchy. There are three songs in this film 'GBTB' melodious scored by director Kokila Sadhu.

It is worth your ticket price.

Many love stories hit the Telugu screen in the past and the trend continued at present and would also be there in future, because love is an eternal fresh subject. Debut director Sriram scripted a love story which is different from routine. Normally, love stories with college backdrop would have a quarrel between the hero and heroine in one or two scenes and they unite later, the story takes a twist with either elders or some villain intervening in their love affair. In this film, the heroine loses her heart and the hero continued to refuse her love till the climax. It is like a parody to Sukumar's film 'Arya' with Allu Arjun as hero, in which the director coined the slogan 'feel my love'.

Siddhu (Paramesh) never believes in love. For him, girls love boys only if he is rich and could take them around to hotels, pubs and films. After his purse turns empty, they don't even look at him. Gita (Sindhu Tulani) is a down to earth girl. She believes in fate and had a strong feel that nothing can stop if something has to reach us. Once Siddhu saves Gita when she met with an accident by donating blood.

However, Gita doesn't know him as she was unconscious. However, she feels that there was some attachment with him as God doesn't send him to save her. After some time, Gita meets Siddhu and loses her heart totally. Both of them become good friends as their mindset was quite similar. On Valentine's day, Gita proposes to Siddhu. Being a person, who never believes in love, Siddhu refuses her. But with the help of Siddhu's father (Naresh), Gita tries to come close to him and tries to impress him in several ways but fails. In order to put a full stop to her advances, Siddhu brings a girl saying he is going to marry her. Even after their engagement, Gita keeps moving around him. When a goon makes a murder attempt, Gita saves Siddhu and the latter serves her in the hospital, making everyone believe that he is loving her. Did Siddhu really love her? Did Gita was able to marry her? What makes him to realise that love is for each other and not exclusively for men? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Sindhu Tulani excelled in her performance. She had got a lot of chance to perform in this film and she utilised the opportunity well. She gave the impression of a girl in the next door in traditional dresses and also looked gorgeous in modern outfits. She showed different emotions like childish, romantic, loving and good at sentiment scenes too.

Paramesh, though a novice, showed some ease in dances, but he needs to improve his glamour. He needs to improve a lot in his body language.

Naresh also gave a very good performance as a person who is young at heart. Though appeared in a couple of scenes in the climax, Nagababu showed a matured performance. Comedy by Brahmanandam, Chitram Sreenu, and Ali is average.

When it comes to behind the screen, debutant director Sriram was sloppy workmanship in certain scenes, which could have been brought out well.

The director should have avoided lengthy dialogues to the hero and instead given him simple one-liners which are the order of the day. The not so gripping screenplay tested the patience of audiences. Despite a good storyline, the director failed to mould it effectively on the celluloid.

Music by RP Patnaik is just okay though a couple of songs were melodious. The item song 'Olammo... Ori Nayano...' shot on Mumaith Khan was remixed from an old Telugu hit song.

But for Sindhu Tulani there is nothing great to talk about the movie. Vasu's cinematography is okay in capturing the beauty of foreign locales and in showing the heroine slim in some scenes. Production values of Viswa Sai Arts are good.

CAST: Paramesh, Sindhu Tulani, Chitram Sreenu, Naresh, Nagababu, Ramaprabha, Brahmanandam, Ali, Lakshmipati, Uttej, Junior Relangi, Ram Jagan, Kadambari Kiran, Tirupati Prakash, Ravali, Archana, Mounika, Silpa, Mumaith Khan, and others.

CREDITS: Dialogues – Ramaswamy, Lyrics – Peddada Murthy, Chaitanya Prasad, Sangu Balaji, Suddala Ashokteja, Music – RP Patnaik, Choreography – Prem Rakshit, Break Sreenu, Nixon, Camera – Vasu, Editing – Nandamuri Hari, Action – Nandu, Producers – Kalavakuri Ankababu and Somaraju Purushottama Rao, Story, screenplay and direction – Sriram.

Banner: Viswa Sai Arts

Released on: April 25, 2008

In maybe the most exciting opportunity of his career Madhavan will work with Amitabh Bachchan that will start by this year end. To be directed by Leena Yadav who had earlier done Shabd with Sanjay Dutt and Aishwarya Rai, the movie is titled Teen Patte. As the title suggests the movie has got a lot to do with playing cards and gambling and Madhavan

is right now preparing himself for the role by learning the nuances of cards. Madhavan was not the original choice for the role, it was meant to be played by Arshad Warsi. But the latter had to withdraw due to certain reasons and the role landed straight into Madhavan’s kitty. Of course, this is not the first time that Maddy will be sharing screen space with the Big B. They had earlier appeared together in Ramji Londonwaley, the Hindi remake of Nala Damayanthi in which Amitabh had made a special appearance at the end. However, this will be Maddy’s first full length role with the Big B. All the best, Maddy.

Giving a message through films is not new. Earlier Bhaskar gave a message through 'Bommarillu' that the parents should understand the feelings of the parents. In his second film 'Parugu' he tries to explain it the other way round. Though the parents love their children very much, the latter were not honouring the love of their parents and are just leaving to their own fate in search of their loved ones, which ought not to be. The film, which came after the unfortunate incident that occurred in the family of Chiranjeevi, gives the audiences a feel that it was the real life story. However, the director claimed that the story was penned long ago before the occurrence of that incident.

Neelakanta (Prakashraj) is a rich man in village. Subbalakshmi (Poonam Bajwa) and Meenakshi (Sheela) are his daughters. Subbalakshmi elopes with her boyfriend Babu, on the day she was about to marry which her father okayed. Irked over the incident, Neelakanta decides to search for his daughter and orders his men to catch Babu's friends (Sunil, Srinivasa Reddy), who obviously helped him. But they plead innocence. There is another friend called Krishna (Allu Arjun) who stays in Hyderabad. It was he who really helped Babu in his love affair.

However, he too did not reveal it. While trying to escape from the village, Krishna accidentally meets Meenakshi and loses his heart. The entire male family members of Neelakanta go in search of Subbalakshmi in Hyderabad. They happen to meet them, only to get a refusal by Subbalakshmi to come with them. Before finding Subbalakshmi, Neelakanta had an encounter with Krishna, where he reveals how bad a father feel when his daughter elopes as he brought her up for more than 22 years and wished her welfare. This makes Krishna to take a decision not to take any drastic step in his love with Meenakshi. Did Krishna able to win the heart of Meenakshi? Did Neelakanta accept the love of Krishna? What is the value of the affection of parents towards their children? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Allu Arjun sheds a lot of weight than his recent film 'Desamuduru' where he appeared in a six-pack body. He is very chivalrous and witty in the first half. He played his role with a lot of ease in the first half. As usual, dances are his forte and he proved once again that he is very flexible in dance sequences. His steps in 'Elagelagaa' song proved his flexibility of muscles. Likewise, the make-up in the song 'Parugulu Teeyake' song was quite different.

Sheela did her job in a neat way. Poonam Bajwa had not much scope to perform.

Prakash Raj once again excelled in his role. Especially he showed good variations in emotional scenes and his expressions are worth watching.

Jayasudha made a guest appearance as a cameo and did justice to her role in a couple of scenes in which she appeared on the screen.

On the technical side, Manisharma gave very good tunes to all the songs. Camera by Vijay K Chakravarthy is okay. BVS Ravi penned good dialogues that evoked good comedy in the first half. Some of the dialogues which are one liners got an instant response from the audiences. Editing by Marthand K Venkatesh reflected his seniority. Production values of Sri Venkateswara Creations are adequate.

Though the director gave his best in the first half, he trembled in the second half as he doesn't know how to continue the story further. Most of the scenes are very boring and the audiences were seen moving impatiently in their seats in the absence of enough comedy relief. Too much of emotional scenes in the second half tested the patience of audiences.

The entire first half gave the audiences an impression that Bommarillu Bhaskar is all set to continue the magic which he did in 'Bommarillu'. However, the director's inability to run the second half leave a question mark in the face of audience.

This leaves the success of the film in a limbo. If you are a hardcore fan of Mega family, the film is okay. Otherwise, the second half would be boring, especially when the expectations on the film were high right from the day one of shooting in view of the successful combination of the hero, director and producer.

Cast: Allu Arjun, Sheela, Prakash Raj, Poonam Bajwa, Sunil, Srinivasa Reddy, Pruthvi, Chitram Sreenu, Dhanraj, Subbaraju, Jayaprakash Reddy, Raju, Jeeva, Jayasudha, Ali, Kalpana, Rajitha, Ragini, Delhi Rajeswari and others

Credits: Dialogues – BVS Ravi, Lyrics – Sirivennela Sitaramasastry, Chandrabose, Ananta Srireem, Photography – Vijay K Chakravarthy, Editing – Marthand K Venkatesh, Art – Anand Sai, Music – Manisharma, Co-producers – Sireesh and Lakshman, Presents – Smt. Anitha, Producer – Dil Raju, Story, dialogues, screenplay and direction – Bhaskar.

Banner: Sri Venkateswara Creations

Much was expected on Vijay starrer ‘Kuruvi’ since it brings back the successful ‘Gilli’ team. The Vijay, Trisha, Dharani and Vidyasagar quartet oozed abundance energy and ‘Gilli’ turned out to be a racy entertainer, going on to become a blockbuster.

When they teamed together again, obviously expectations soared to greater heights. Unfortunately, ‘Kuruvi’ has failed to live up to expectations and the pep and energy in ‘Gilli’ was sorely missed in ‘Kuruvi’.

Dharani, known for rendering right commercial elements in his movie, has handled a wafer-thin storyline. He has tried his best to sustain the momentum, which works out in parts.

All credit to Vijay, who manages to leave his screen presence in his usual self. He fights, romances and tries his hand at comedy. The actor with a mass fan-following has tried to play to the gallery.

The on-screen chemistry between Trisha and Vijay deserve a special mention. The bubbly Trisha fits the bill well. Though she has limited scope to perform, unlike ‘Gilli’, she is right there delivering one of her best. Suman continues from where he left in ‘Sivaji’. As a baddie, he performs what one expects of him. The scene stealer is Vivek, who with his usual punch lines walks away with applause.

Music composer Vidyasagar's groovy music is good specially the number Darna..., which will rock the front-benchers.

In a nutshell, the movie is about Vetrivel (Vijay), a racer in Chennai, who sets out to free his father Singamuthu (Manivannan) and his peers who are bonded laborers in a mine run by Kocha (Suman) and Konda Reddy (Ashish).

In the meantime, he also finds time to romance Kocha's sister Devi (Trisha), who falls in love when he comes to her brother's place in Malaysia as part of his mission.

Special pat to producer Udayanidhi Stalin for spending his might to bring grandeur on screen. Dharani, known for his commercially masalas, disappoints those expecting the same from him. It can be enjoyed only in parts.

‘Kuruvi’, a racy thriller loaded with romance and action, is a sure treat for Vijay fans.

To give Dharani his due, Kuruvi is watchable in parts, for die-hard fans of Vijay. For ordinary viewers, the film lacks a basic story and stretches ones patience for nearly three hours.

The first half has bits and shreds of Mask of Zorro when the lead pair meet and romance, comedy elements and mix-up scenes from The French Kiss and post interval it looks like the Telugu film Chatrapati.

The story credited to Dharani looks dated, like an old 70’s and 80’s mass masala film. Where else can you show heroism in the form of the hero winning a car race, with an old jalopy, and then bursting into an introduction item song with the loser’s girl?

A big menacing villain, who can’t shoot straight, good guy father swearing that his son will come and eliminate the baddies, and one of the villains smashing his head with a stone which many years later the hero uses to kill the same villain!

Vetrivel (Vijay) alias Kuruvi is a happy go-lucky young man, who is a car racer. He lives on the banks of Cooum near a Metro rail station in a rickety old house, with his father’s three wives including his mother and sisters. His father Singamuthu (Manivannan) a quarry worker in Cuddaph had mysteriously disappeared.

One of his father’s creditors tries to vacate Vetrivel and family. Due to his financial circumstances he is forced to go to Malaysia as a ‘kuruvi’ (courier), and also recover some money due to his father from Kocha (Suman), who had betrayed his father who discovered a rare diamond in the granite quarry.

Kuruvi in his attempt to recover his dues ends up stealing Kocha’s, precious diamond, and also wins the heart of his sister Devi (Trisha), who runs away with him to Chennai to avoid a marriage with her brother’s henchman.

The rest of the film is how Kuruvi goes to Cuddaph and discovers a slave camp run by Kocha and his associate Konda Reddy (Ashutosh), at the collieries and also finds his long lost father. Kuruvi turns into a ‘Parunthu’ (eagle) and single handedly takes on the mining mafia and finally annihilates them.

The film has all your trademark superhero-movie elements- a larger-than-life hero, action scenes galore stretching for nearly 15 minutes per fight, punchlines like- 1. Pechu thaan silent, aana adikkira ovaru adiyum saravadi. (2) Idukium munnadi onnu varum, minnal athu 10,000 watts irukke, songs in exotic locations Thaen, Then…, watch out for Trisha’s chiffon sari’s and fantastic dancing by Vijay in the Mozha Mozhannu.. number.

If you're looking for a tight, razor-sharp, edge-of-the-seat action thriller like Ghilli, you've got the wrong film. But of course, if Kuruvi is salvaged to some extent, it's thanks to Vijay’s irresistible screen presence and his spontaneous approach to the character.

Trisha fits the bill and her comedy scenes are good. However, the film is painfully long and unbearably tedious as it is a predictable fare and has absolutely no story to speak. Writer-director Dharani’s sheer inability to set the tone of the film is evident.

	Movie Kuruvi
	Director Dharani
	Producer Udayanidhi Stalin
	Music Vidyasagar
	Cast Vijay, Trisha, Suman, Vivek, Manivannan

Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj
Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma

Hindi movies have undergone a sea-change in terms of content. From crude, been there seen that, done to death kind of movies, to films with substance, the audience tastes have changed over the years. Even though we've have grown up on the staple diet of desi food, we've cultivated a taste for Italian, Chinese, Thai and Mexican cuisine.

The experience with Tashan is like, you enter a posh restaurant, waiting for a sumptuous meal to be served, but what's served on your plate is vada-pau. Tashan takes you back to the 1970s Bollywood, when illogical situations, blood and gore, for no rhyme of reason, were the main ingredients that made the junta break into taalis. Sorry, the formula doesn't work anymore!

Seriously, what was debutante director Vijay Krishna Acharya thinking when he wrote this apology of a script? It's perfectly okay to revisit the classics and pay homage to the masala films of yore, but the new interpretation has to be contemporary, you need to change with the times.

The one thing that you realize after watching Tashan is, no amount of gloss, glam and top notch stars can ever substitute for a riveting script. Great stars, great styling, great songs and great visuals work as long as the script is great.

So what's the verdict then? If you genuinely miss the 'Kamine, main tera khoon pee jaaonga' and 'Bhagwan ke liye mujhe maaf kardo' kind of movies that dominated the 1970s, pick up a DVD of those hits instead. Tashan is regressive cinema with a capital R