Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Review: Witch ghost will be the soul survivor? Alternately calling itself a horror story and a humorous tale, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (Labyrinth, Maze) does raise a few laughs. The horror, however, fails to strike terror. Songs, literally thrust into the film and one of them relegated to the end credit titles, are catchy, but they are either mushy or foot-tapping, neither kind blending with the theme. There is indeed a labyrinth of explanations for some of the spooky goings on in...

Mere Desh Ki Dharti, Review: Suicide or pesticide, you decide You get two films for the price of one when you, or if you, go to see Mere Desh Ki Dharti. Now, if you happen to arrive a little late, after the opening credits, the first half makes you wonder whether you have been ushered into the wrong auditorium of a multiplex, and the film you are watching is not Mere Desh Ki Dharti. On the other hand, if you arrived on time, you must wonder whether the reels have got mixed-up (what an archaic...

Babloo Bachelor, Review: Bachelor and the marriage lure Of all the themes that have been chosen for making Hindi films over the last several decades, marriage is the most common. Till the dawn of the 21st century, a host of film scripts were woven around the boy-meets-girl, they cannot marry due to a plethora of reasons, the most common being inequality of status, a villain was added for effect, and it all ended well. Now, with mobile phones, social media, so many mixed marriages and live-ins...

Prithvi Festival: Piyush Mishra’s Gagan Damama Bajyo, rivetting study of the life and times of Bhagat Singh, sets the tone Besides Mohandas Karamchand ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, two other freedom fighters are often cited as heroes of the Indian freedom struggle against its colonial British masters: ‘Netaji’ Subhashchandra Bose and ‘Shaheed’ Bhagat Singh. Bose went abroad, formed the Indian National Army (INA/Azad Hind Fauj) and waged armed battles against the ...

Naughty Gang, Review: Gang apes We keep hearing at every seminar or conference that with the advances in technology, anybody, just anybody, can make a film. In various Indian film schools too, film-making has been so vehemently de-mystified that every year some 10,000 students pass out and are ready to shoot from the hip, the hip being where they keep their mobile phones. It is a no contest. If a 22-23 year-old fresher can make films, why can’t those who have been around on the fringes,...