My friend, Vijoo Of his reported 440 film count, I shared screen space with the late Vijoo Khote in only two. Yet, I could call myself his friend. During the 1970s and 80s, the refrain I often heard from producers and directors whom I approached for acting assignments was, “You are an educated man. Why are you pursuing a career meant for ‘good-for-nothing-else’ types?” Obviously, I saw no merit in this facetious argument. Nevertheless, in an active career of 26 years, ...

Setters, Review: Questionable answers Job-oriented education has been a hot topic in India, where unemployment figures and poverty levels are very high. Corruption begins when a child is admitted to the kinder-garten class, with the help of a handsome bribe, euphemistically called ‘donation’. The spiral often continues till the graduation level, where the focus shifts to obtaining leaked examination papers, getting proxy candidates to appear on behalf of weak students, feeding liv...

Poster Boys, Review by Siraj Syed: The Half Monty Actor Shreyas Talpade’s directorial debut vehicle Poster Boys is a remake of his Marathi hit, Poshter Boyz. It also carries an elaborate scene towards the climax which reminds you of the British cult movie, The Full Monty (1997), wherein three unemployed men decide to strip on stage to earn some much needed money. Well, an Indian movie has a chance and a half of pulling off such show of skin on screen, either sex, so they decided to meet...

Wah Taj, Trailer and Preview: Heritage fight ‘Wah’ is an Indian expression, roughly equivalent to the English ‘wow’ or ‘great’. The Taj in the title refers to Taj Mahal, India’s biggest tourist attraction, among the Official New 7 Wonders of the World. It was elected by more than 100 million votes, to represent global heritage, and announced at the Declaration Ceremony, on 07.07.07. Among the many brands the monument has spawned are the Taj group of i...