Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia, Saheb Biwi… is the sequel to 2011 film Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, which was appreciated for its intense script, narration and performances.

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns Poster

The part two takes the story forward from where it was left in the original, which revolved around three characters entangled in a relationship that culminates in tragedy killing Randeep Hooda’s character, confining Jimmy Shergill’s to a wheelchair and letting Mahie Gill’s character become bindaas and powerful.

The sequel stars actors Jimmy and Mahie, who will all be seen reprising their roles from the previous film. They will be joined by Irrfan and Soha Ali Khan in the cast.

Said to be made on a budget of Rs.7 crore, Saheb Biwi… is co-produced by Dhulia and Rahul Mittra.

Dhulia candidly admits that his offering has the right amount of sensuality, which he feels is important to the story.

“There is sensuality, but in little measure. I feel that it is effective only like that. It (film) should have the right amount of sex and passion,” he said.

Actress Mugdha Godse will be seen in an item number for the first time in Dhulia’s directorial venture.

Releasing with Saheb Biwi… is Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga, which is Anshul Sharma’s directorial debut.

Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga Poster

Described as satire laced with humour, it targets inflation through a middle-class family living in a small city in north India.

The family, crushed under the burden of ‘mehngai’, tries to deal with it through an ingenious idea, not aware of the problems they would get entangled with as a result of the idea.

The family’s battle with the issues culminates into a climax that brings tears to your eyes.

Produced by Ashok Pandey, Saare Jahaan… features Sanjay Mishra, Pragati, Vishwa Mohan Badola, Ranjan Chhabra, Disha, Pramod Pathak, Zakir Hussain and Sitaram Panchal.

Directed by Anshul Sharma, Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga features Sanjay Mishra, Sitaram Panchal and Zakir Hussain as the lead faces.

Enjoy the song right here:

Still from Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga Movie

Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga is slated to release on March 8, 2013.

Check out the video right here:

Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga Movie Poster

Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga is slated to release on March 1, 2013.

Check out the video right here:

Sitaram Panchal in a still from Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga… Movie

Business rating: 1/5 star

Star cast: Eesha Koppikar, Raj Arjun, Zakir Hussain.

What’s Good: The fast pace of the film; Eesha and Zakir Hussain’s performances.

What’s Bad: Lack of novelty of subject.

Verdict: Shabri will fail to make its mark.

Loo break: Not really.

Watch or Not?: Watch it for Eesha’s performance.

User rating:

Reliance Entertainment and Ram Gopal Varma’s Shabri (A) is the story of survival, dignity, determination and triumph of a simple woman in the face of adversity. Shabri (Eesha Koppikar) works in a flour mill to support her parents and a younger brother, Bandya (Vijay Khadechkar), who is struggling to find a means of livelihood. Bandya looks up to Murad (newfind Raj Arjun) who runs a matka den. On his part, Murad has a soft corner for both, Shabri and Bandya. He does not want Bandya to follow in his footsteps.

One day, the innocent Bandya is rounded up along with other unruly boys of the neighbourhood by the dreaded police inspector Khare (Datta Sonawane). Bandya succumbs to police torture. This infuriates Shabri so much that she ends up violating the law. Much as Murad would like to help Shabri, he realises that he is helpless. Murad’s desperation leads him to kill his immediate boss, Kisnya (Niraj Kumar), who is the brother of Rajdharbhau (Pradeep Rawat), the matka don of the city.

Now, Murad and his partner, Vilas (Manish Wadhwa), flee the city with Shabri. But Rajdharbhau closes in on Murad and Vilas. Murad is killed. Shabri then swears revenge against Rajdharbhau, the man who took away all she ever had. Is she able to avenge the murders? Or does the arm of law on the one hand and the matka king’s reach on the other prove to be too much for her?

Shabri Review – Script Analysis

Lalit Marathe’s story is the usual tale of oppression of the poor by the rich and influential. The difference, however, is that the protagonist in this case is a female instead of the usual male in subjects of this kind. Other than this, the story affords no novelty. Marathe’s screenplay is also routine as there’s more of plotting and planning, swearing revenge and actual confrontation scenes than anything else. Although there’s nothing wrong with the screenplay of the revenge drama, its biggest drawback is that it is too routine to make much of an impact. Lalit Marathe’s dialogues are quite nice and go with the film’s mood.

Shabri Review – Star Performances

Eesha Koppikar delivers a very good performance in the title role. She plays the avenging angel very efficiently. Raj Arjun is good. Manish Wadhwa also does well. Pradeep Rawat is effective. Zakir Hussain is brilliant as inspector Qazi. He is delightful to watch. Sanjay Kulkarni (as inspector Kadam) and Datta Sonawane (as inspector Khare) lend good support. Niraj Kumar, Kishore Nandlaskar (as Shabri’s father), Vimal Mhatre (as Shabri’s mother), Vijay Khadechkar (as Bandya) and Swapnil Dinkar (Bandya’s friend) provide able support. Parvez Fazal Khan, Ragesh Asthana, Shridhar Patil, Sudhir Mayekar, Ishaaque, Jaya Kolekar, Santosh Shetty, Dhanu, Wilson, Ganesh Shetty, Babla, Ashok Mhatre, Sharad Gurav, Raj Solomon, Pramodini, Sunil Jadhav, Sugath Uthle, Balwant Jadhav, Rajendra Jadhav, Aslam Wadkar, Sagar Kale and Navnath fill the bill.

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Her uneventful life takes a sharp turn when Police Inspector Khare who is known for his brutal ways rounds up Shabri’s brother by mistake and tortures him resulting in his death. An uncontrollable rage seizes Shabri that sees her kill Khare, triggering off a mayhem of violence which in course of time leads to Shabri becoming a force to be feared, revered and to be reckoned with for both the underworld and the police.

Starring Eesha Koppikhar, Manish Wadhwan, Pradeep Rawat, Raj Arjun and Zakir Hussain, Shabri releases on 26 August 2011.

Business rating: 1.5/5 stars

Star cast: Deepak Dobriyal, Mahie Gill, Ajay Gehi, Zakir Hussain.

What’s Good: The fast pace of the film; the performances of the four main actors.

What’s Bad: The loopholes in the screenplay; the open-ended climax which will not find universal favour; lack of hit music; too much tension in the drama.

Verdict: Not A Love Story is an ordinary fare. It’s plus point, however, is that it has been made on a limited budget.

Loo break: Not really.

Watch or Not?: Watch it for the artistes’ performances.

User rating:

Paramhans Creations, Bohra Bros. Production Pvt. Ltd. and Shreya Creations’ Not A Love Story (A) is inspired by the real-life murder case of media executive Neeraj Grover, in which the court held the two accused – Kannada film actress Maria Susairaj and her boyfriend, naval officer Emile Jerome Mathews – guilty.

Anusha (Mahie Gill) and Robin (Deepak Dobriyal) are madly in love with each other. Anusha dreams of becoming a Bollywood actress and she leaves her town to come to Bombay in search of stardom. Robin, who is mad about Anusha, is not happy with her decision to leave him and come to Bombay to pursue her dream. Anyway, Anusha has to face a lot of humiliation and rejection before she finally gets a break as the heroine of a film. Obviously, she is overjoyed and so is her boyfriend back home. Ashish Bhatnagar (Ajay Gehi) is instrumental in getting Anusha the role and she, therefore, takes a liking for him. One evening, Anusha, Ashish and their friends celebrate Anusha’s break and they all consume alcohol at a pub. Ashish volunteers to drop Anusha home after the drinking session. He and Anusha consume more alcohol at her residence and before, they know it, they are together in bed.

As luck would have it, Robin comes to Bombay the next morning and reaches Anusha’s house without informing her as he wants to give her a surprise. But he is shocked to see Ashish emerging naked from Anusha’s room when he enters her house. In a fit of rage, Robin kills Ashish. Anusha is devastated at the turn of events, at the murder of her new friend, that too, at the hands of her boyfriend. She cries, wails, screams, shouts but what has happened has happened.

Robin then cooks up a plan to discard the corpse. He sends Anusha to get a large knife and some carry bags so that he can cut Ashish’s body in many small parts, stuff them in the carry-bags, take them in a car and burn them in a jungle far away from the city. Anusha gets the knife and the bags and also arranges for her friend’s car. The two then do as planned so that no trace of the murder remains. Robin leaves Bombay and returns to his town.

A missing complaint for Ashish is filed in the police station by Ashish’s friends. Anusha herself accompanies the common friends to the police station. Soon, the finger of suspicion points towards Anusha who is taken in for interrogation. She is physically tortured in the police station till she spills the beans about Robin having committed the murder. Both, Robin and Anusha are arrested.

In court, the lawyers of the two accused try to save their respective clients by means foul and fair even if that means, putting the entire blame on the other and leaving him/her to bear the legal consequences. What happens in the court room? The latter part of the film reveals that.

Not A Love Story Review – Script Analysis

Rohit Banawlikar’s story is inspired by the high-profile murder case of Neeraj Grover. His screenplay relies too heavily on the modus operandi of the crime, which may not be many people’s idea of entertainment. In other words, the writer gives too much importance to the style of killing and disposing of the body than to drama. Now, the style may be drama for a section of the audience but there will be another section which will look for more substantive drama. Another drawback of the screenplay is that the viewer’s sympathy goes to neither of the characters. One’s heart does not go out to Robin in spite of the fact that he is madly in love with Anusha for the simple reason that he has killed Ashish. The viewer also does not sympathise with Anusha because she aids him in his criminal activity after he has committed the murder. Also, the orthodox audience is likely to lose all respect for Anusha after she has had physical relations with him because she has a boyfriend who dotes on her and loves her like crazy. The worst part is that the audience’s heart may not even cry for the victim, Ashish Bhatnagar, because not much footage has been devoted to show about Ashish’s life so as to make him an endearing character in the audience’s mind. With the viewer’s sympathy not going to anyone, he would be at a loss to understand whose hand he should hold and whom he should root for while watching the film. Again, since Robin is not aware of Ashish’s presence in Anusha’s life, his killing Ashish in a fit of rage looks a bit far-fetched. The anger, many among the audience would feel, should have been directed at Anusha because without any knowledge of who wooed whom, it would be only too logical for him to assume that Anusha had cheated on him. There is nothing for him to believe that Ashish forced himself on Anusha or that he had spiked her drink or some such thing. In other words, Rohit Banawlikar’s screenplay fails to create a reasonable ground for Robin’s barbaric act, howsoever impulsive it may have been.

Among the plus points of the film are the crispness of the drama and the performances of the actors. Again, on the negative side is the fact that the film appears to be a tension-ridden drama devoid of any relief in the form of light moments or even entertainment value. The ladies audience and the weak-hearted would not find the murder drama palatable. The climax will meet with mixed reaction. While some may like the open-endedness of the climax, there would be others who would have preferred a completely conclusive climax. Also, what Robin and Anusha do in the court premises would leave a bad taste in the mouth of the more orthodox viewers, especially because the victim’s grief-stricken parents are shown to be standing right there. It almost looks like the two accused, with their act in the court premises, were rubbing salt in the wounds of Ashish’s parents.

Not A Love Story Review – Star Performances

Deepak Dobriyal lives his role. He is fantastic as the obsessed lover and also the unrepentant murderer. His casting in the lead role may have worked against a respectable initial for the film but his acting is par excellence. Mahie Gill is also first-rate. However, her torture scenes in the jail are too much for the womenfolk to digest. Ajay Gehi is good in a brief role. Zakir Hussain is brilliant as the investigating police officer. He gets into the skin of the character and performs excellently. Prabhleen Sandhu (as Anusha’s friend), Neil Bhoopalan (also as Anusha’s friend who lends her his car) and Rasika Joshi (as Ashish Bhatnagar’s mother) provide good support. Richa Ghosh (as Anusha’s other friend), Prashant (as another of Anusha’s friend) and Nandita Puri (in the role of Anusha’s mother) are okay. Others pass muster.

Not A Love Story Video Review by Komal Nahta

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Business rating: 0.5/5 star

Star cast: Atul Kulkarni, Anupam Kher, Rituparna Sengupta, Satish Kaushik, Ila Arun, Govind Namdeo, Zakir Hussain, Anang Desai, baby Jannat, Karan Razdan.

What’s Good: hardly anything!

What’s Bad: The story; the childish screenplay; the faulty Gujarati used in the dialogues; the narrative style; the dull horror drama.

Verdict: Aagaah The Warning is a disaster.

Loo break: Anytime… any number of times.

Watch or Not?: The aforementioned gist should be a warning for all concerned.

User rating:

Omkar Investments and Aartee Films’ Aagaah The Warning (A) is a story about terror, terrorism and horror. Azaan Khan (Atul Kulkarni) trains terrorists in the name of jehad. He and his men kill the few people on board a boat, including Ram Sharan (Karan Razdan). Azaan himself is killed soon thereafter.

Back in the village, Ram Sharan’s parents, Dev Sharan (Satish Kaushik) and Dulariben (Ila Arun), his wife, Megha (Rituparna Sengupta), and little daughter, Muskan (baby Jannat), are shattered to learn of their loss. As Muskan, who doesn’t comprehend that her father is dead, goes out in search of him in the jungle, she is attacked by a spirit which possesses her and makes her do strange things. The family is distraught but unable to do much. Ashrafbhai (Anang Desai), a maulana, directs Dev Sharan to Peer Jammatuddin Shah Baba (Anupam Kher), saying, he might be able to cure Muskan. But Peer Shah Baba fails.

Then, one night, a strange thing happens. The spirit attacks the family and when it is counter-attacked by Megha, it escapes through the chimney. But before escaping, it writes something on the wall of their house in a language which only Peer Shah Baba can read.

What has the spirit written? Whose spirit is it? Why has it entered the body of Muskan? Does the Nawab (Zakir Hussain) have any role to play in the entire drama? The latter part of the film tries to answer these questions.

Aagaah The Warning Review – Script Analysis

Karan Razdan’s story is rather weird and silly, to say the least. A drama which begins as a terrorist drama, soon changes into a horror drama, that too, one which fails to send even a single chill down the spine of the viewer. If Razdan’s story is childish, his screenplay is even worse. The spirit attacks Muskan and yet, in the end, it seems as if it is sorry for the calamity that has befallen the family. If that be so, why did the spirit make life hell for the family of Ram Sharan? The behaviour of the Nawab is idiotic, to say the least. Likewise, the villagers (whatever few there are of them) behave in such an idiotic fashion (they complain to the police against Megha rather than sympathising with her plight) that it would seem, everyone in the village was abnormal. In a couple of scenes, it seems as if there’s no difference between how the possessed Muskan behaves as compared to her mother who is not possessed by any spirit. For, the mother also mindlessly screams like Muskan. The way the spirit has been shown (like a trail of smoke) makes the entire horror drama look like a big joke! Although an entire set of a village has been put up, the screenplay restricts the drama mostly to one house – that of Dev Sharan.

To say that the dialogues are bad would be an understatement. For some strange reason, dialogue writer Karan Razdan makes his three principal characters, Dev Sharan, Dulariben and Ram Sharan, speak in Gujarati even to people who understand Hindi and don’t understand Gujarati. What’s worse is that they speak in Gujarati, then switch over to Hindi and then again to Gujarati, all in one sentence. What’s the worst is that the Gujarati is far from correct!

The emotional connect which the story ought to have made with the audience is completely missing. So, on the one hand, there are no emotional moments and on the other, the horror drama fails to chill or thrill. Since there is no scope whatsoever for comedy and romance in the film, it has nothing to offer to the audience in the name of entertainment.

Aagaah The Warning Review – Star Performances

Atul Kulkarni does an average job. Anupam Kher is ordinary. Rituparna Sengupta is unable to make an impact. Satish Kaushik looks ill at ease in the almost mindless enterprise. Ila Arun does a poor job, not caring for the Gujarati language in which she mouths her dialogues. Baby Jannat acts ably. Zakir Hussain is hopelessly wasted. Karan Razdan is dull. Govind Namdeo, Anang Desai, Suhas Khandke, Dhanbir Negi and the others lend average support.

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Starring Eesha Koppikhar, Shabri, written and directed by Lalit Marathe, is a story about how a simple woman from a Mumbai slum ends up threatening the biggest corridors of power in the matka gambling underworld of the city. Writer-director Lalit Marathe says “Most achievements are directly proportionate to the ferocity of hunger and the finality of the pangs. Shabri feels raw hunger. She is driven as much by the passion for vengeance as the terrible desire to live her life her own way. When inspired nothing in the world can stop what must rise. When everything is at stake there is nothing to lose. Shabri is an underdog whose stubbornness to have her way against all odds will touch a chord in all those who dream to soar.”

Reflecting Shabri’s spirit on the eve of the film’s release Lalit Marathe says, “I feel like a dog who will have his Friday!”

The film stars Esha Koppikhar, Raj Arjun, Pradip Rawat and Zakir Hussain.

Business rating: 1.5/5 stars

Star cast: Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaffrey, Ritesh Deshmukh, Aashish Chowdhary, Mallika Sherawat, Kangna Ranaut, Satish Kaushik, Zakir Hussain.

What’s Good: The punch-filled dialogues that will appeal to the masses; the good performances of some of the actors.

What’s Bad: The uninteresting story; the loopholes in the screenplay; the absence of hit music.

Verdict: ‘Double Dhamaal’ will not score well enough as it will appeal to the masses more than the classes, and the single-screen audiences more than the multiplex-going audiences.

Loo break: Not really.

Watch or Not?: Watch it for the funny dialogues and some hilarious comic sequences.

User rating:

Spoiler alert! You may want to skip directly to the Script Analysis below.

Reliance Entertainment and Maruti International’s Double Dhamaal (UA) is a comedy. Sequel to Dhamaal, it is about the four friends – Manav (Jaaved Jaffrey), Adi (Arshad Warsi), Roy (Ritesh Deshmukh) and Boman (Aashish Chowdhary) – and their encounter with Kabir (Sanjay Dutt) who is no longer a police officer.

Kabir is a conman in the guise of a rich businessman now, having resigned from the police force. Kamini (Mallika Sherawat) is Kabir’s beloved and a partner in his con game. Kiah (Kangna Ranaut) is the third partner and she is Kabir’s sister.

The four friends happen to spot Kabir and they hatch a plan to con him so that they can make money out of him, little realising that he is himself a conman. Anyway, Kabir manages to sell a government-owned plot of land to an underworld don-turned-tantrik, Baba Batanand Swami a.k.a. Bata Bhai (Satish Kaushik), by showing that the land has crude oil reserves. For the transaction, he tells Adi, Manav, Roy and Boman to deal with the don. Once the amount of Rs. 250 crore is received from the don as sale price of the plot of land, Kabir, Kamini and Kiah disappear with the money, leaving a fuming don who soon realises that he neither has right over the plot of land nor is it rich in crude oil reserve nor has he access to his Rs. 250 crore because the foursome who, in any case, don’t have the money to return him, have also disappeared.

Fearing for their lives, the four friends take the help of Mohsinbhai (Zakir Hussain) to flee the country. They land in Macau where they learn that Kabir is settled in the city. Thirsting for revenge, they try to gain entry, in disguises, into the life of Kabir who now runs a casino. Their aim is to win the confidence of Kabir, Kamini and Kiah, and then seek revenge by making away with his wealth. On his part, Kabir is trying to lay his hands on $1,000 crore from a local don of Macau, Johny Bonzela, by defrauding him but he doesn’t want to look like he has defrauded Bonzela.

Do Adi, Manav, Roy and Boman succeed in seeking revenge on Kabir? Or does Kabir con them once again? What about Bonzela whom Kabir is looking to con? And what about Baba Batanand Swami?

Double Dhamaal Review – Script Analysis

The film tries to encash on the ‘Dhamaal’ brand but in doing so, the story and screenplay writer (Tushar Hiranandani) has concentrated on gags and punches rather than an interesting script. In fact, the story about one-upmanship is predictable and the screenplay is full of gaping holes. Probably, the biggest drawback of the script is that the person from whose view point things are being narrated keeps changing as per the convenience of the situation. No harm in that except that this becomes an anomaly because when the focus shifts, the audience realises that some characters in the drama have done what could’ve been easily avoided. For instance, when the four friends come on a revenge mission to Macau, it is understandable that they would first and foremost try to win Kabir’s confidence and for that, they have to proceed in a round-and-about fashion as they are in disguises. But why Kabir, Kamini and Kiah play along is not explained. For, here were four scapegoats willing to do anything for Kabir – and Kabir, instead of using them to befool Bonzela and fleece him of his $1,000 crore, was busy playing along. Wasn’t Kabir in a hurry to first get control of the $1,000 crore? Why would he give even a minute extra to the foursome because what if any one of them got wind of his intention? If the writer would have us believe that Kabir was trying to make things as believable and as real as possible, that argument does not hold if only because, as stated earlier, the foursome was more than willing to do anything to win Kabir’s confidence – and getting $1,000 crore from Bonzela would be readily acceptable as a job by the foursome. More so, because the foursome, in any case, wanted to seek revenge which they could by running away with the money, and Kabir could have them get the money by conning them into believing that they were, in the process, going to win his confidence, and as soon as they got the money by risking their own lives, Kabir could’ve had them cornered. Instead, Kabir himself asks Bonzela to invest $1,000 crore in his casino. If that is so, wouldn’t the investor gun for Kabir to get his money back even if Kabir convinces him that the money is robbed by the foursome? Why would Bonzela go after the four and spare Kabir? This is just not explained but the fact is, this question crops up in the audience’s mind. Probably, the biggest hole in the screenplay is: why would Kabir ask for the four friends to be brought to Macau for his next con job, when he has himself run away from them and fled the country (India) after getting them involved in a crime? The natural human instinct would be to stay away from the four because it doesn’t require great intelligence to understand that they must be thirsting for Kabir’s blood. After all, Kabir had defrauded Bata Bhai of Rs. 250 crore, no less, and had made it appear as if the four friends were the criminals. Does the writer want the audience to believe that Kabir couldn’t have got four other idiots whom he could have made scapegoats of, for his casino deal in Macau and, therefore, wanted the same four friends to carry out the job? If so, the writer should have shown the compulsion for Kabir to want these and only these four friends. But the fact is, it may be difficult to get four intelligent men but not four idiots whom Kabir could’ve lured with money just as he lured the four friends in India in the Swami Batanand case. What’s worse still is that after having the four friends transported to Macau, it is Kabir and only Kabir who strikes the deal with Bonzela. Why wouldn’t Kabir make the foursome be at the forefront of the deal while himself remaining in the background so that he would never appear to be involved in the fraud? But the writer has no answer for this too.

Therefore, although the drama picks up after interval, the structure of the screenplay is so weak that other than the punch-filled dialogues, it doesn’t hold much. This is the reason why the film would find more acceptance among the masses and the single-screen audiences than among the classes and the multiplex audiences. Also the pitch at which the characters in the film speak is so loud that it would get on the nerves of the classes. Besides, so much reliance is placed on coincidence in the drama that it is not funny.

Another example of the focus being shifted randomly: the four friends vow to seek revenge at interval point but what comes of that vow in the end is not what one is used to watching. After all, in the scheme of things, the foursome are the underdogs and, therefore, the heroes in the drama. Put differently, the writer was not clear whether Kabir was the hero or the group of four was the group of heroes.

What saves the screenplay to a fair extent are the punch-packed dialogues by Sajid-Farhad and the performances. The funny lines often evoke laughter even though the drama defies logic. Similarly, there are some chunks which bring the house down with laughter. Among such funny anecdotes are the portions of Baba Batanand Swami (his dialogues are also splendid), Roy’s take-off on Sanjeev Kumar and other actors, the perpetually wrong timing of Manav’s dim-witted questions, the gorilla sequence etc. The scene in which the four friends hide themselves from Swami Batanand by covering themselves in long overcoats and ‘hanging’ themselves on the wall will bring the house down with laughter.

The climax is not as funny as it ought to have been.

Double Dhamaal Review – Star Performances & Direction

Sanjay Dutt is fair. He looks okay after interval but too stocky in the first half. Jaaved Jaffrey plays the dim-witted Manav very ably. Arshad Warsi is also effective. Ritesh Deshmukh is excellent, especially when he mimics Sanjeev Kumar and other actors. Aashish Chowdhary is okay. Mallika Sherawat doesn’t have a very substantive role. She is alright in what she does. Her dance on the Jalebi bai song is sexy. Kangna Ranaut also gets limited scope; she is fairly good. Satish Kaushik is a veritable highlight. His acting is remarkable and his one-liners are very enjoyable. Zakir Hussain has been wasted but does make his presence felt.

Indra Kumar’s direction is okay. He has concentrated on gags more than an arresting story to create comedy, which is hardly the most intelligent thing to do. Music (Anand Raaj Anand) is quite a letdown. Except for the Jalebi bai and the title songs (which is fair), the other numbers pass muster. Even the lyrics (Anand Raaj Anand and Mayur Puri) are nothing to shout about. Song picturisations (Ganesh Acharya and Remo D’souza) are okay. Background music could’ve been better. Aseem Bajaj’s cinematography is eye-filling and brings out the richness of the Macau locations. Sets (Tanushree Sarkar and Dipankar Dasgupta) are good. Action scenes (Allan Amin) are fair. Sanjay Sankla’s editing is reasonably sharp.

Double Dhamaal Review – Komal Nahta’s Verdict

On the whole, Double Dhamaal is for the masses and the single-screen cinemas mainly. Considering its high cost (over Rs. 40 crore), it is not likely to prove a profitable venture even though the producers have made a killing from its satellite rights. If, by a stroke of good luck, the producers are able to break even, at least the distributors of the circuits, for which the producers have sold the rights, would end up being in the red because of the high prices they’ve paid.

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Double Dhamaal Review – Video Review

Business rating: 1 star

Star cast: Nana Patekar, Mohit Ahlawat, Zakir Hussain, Anurag Kashyap, Rimi Sen.

What’s Good: The interesting twists and turns in the script; the extraordinary dialogues; comic punches; performances of the stars.

What’s Bad: The confusing screenplay; the routine nature of the subject; poor music.

Verdict: Shagird is a well-made film but it will sink at the box-office.

Loo break: At a couple of places.

Watch or Not?: Watch it for the performances and the fun-filled dialogues but don’t expect anything more.

Reliance Entertainment and Faizee Production’s Shagird (A) is about the police-underworld-politician nexus. Hanumant Singh (Nana Patekar) is a corrupt police officer who is close to minister Rajmani Singh (Zakir Hussain). He takes new recruit Mohit (Mohit Ahlawat) under his wings and tries to induct him into the world of corruption but Mohit is principled and does not want to partake in Hanumant Singh’s corrupt activities. Bunty Bhaiya (Anurag Kashyap) is a don who has been arrested by the police. Bunty Bhaiya, who is also close to Rajmani Singh, pleads with him to get him set free.

Mohit is in love with Varsha Mathur (Rimi Sen) who is a television journalist working for a channel. One day, a dreaded terrorist agrees to meet three journalists including Varsha, for an interview. The three journalists are thrilled that they are going to get a scoop of a story and head to the pre-decided destination. Instead of an interview, they are held captive there and in return for their freedom, the terrorist demands that Bunty Bhaiya and two other terrorists be released from jail. Hanumant Singh secures the freedom of Varsha and a foreign journalist in return for setting Bunty Bhaiya and the two terrorists free. The third journalist (Murali Sharma) gets killed at the hands of the terrorist.

Anyway, Hanumant Singh immediately takes Bunty Bhaiya into captivity to blackmail Rajmani Singh to give Rs. 15 crore. Although it appears that Rs. 15 crore is the price for keeping Bunty Bhaiya’s mouth shut about Rajmani Singh’s nefarious activities, it is actually Hanumant Singh who wants the money so that he can send the same to New Zealand where he has already sent his wife (Kishori Shahane-Vij) and their little son and where he, too, wants to settle shortly, after quitting his job.

Then begins a game of double-crossing. Does Rajmani Singh agree to pay up? Does Hanumant Singh get the money? Does he reach New Zealand? Does Bunty Bhaiya agree to be part of Hanumant Singh’s deal? What is Mohit’s role in this drama? The pre-climax and climax have the answers to all these questions as new equations and relationships emerge.

Shagird Movie Stills

Shagird Review – Script Analysis

Tigmanshu Dhulia and Kamal Pandey’s story is interesting and their screenplay has plenty of twists and turns. But the unfortunate part is that there are so many twists and turns that it does get confusing for the masses although the classes would be able to follow the drama better. However, the action thriller is basically a mass film rather than for the classes or the multiplex audience.

The entire track of the journalists being held captive and the suspense behind the captivity drama, when revealed, look contrived and too round-and-about so that the audience gets the feeling that a simpler approach could’ve led to the same conclusion. Another minus point of the drama is that the viewer does not know with whom his sympathy should lie as each time a new twist or turn is revealed, it emerges that the person with whom he was sympathising is not worth the sympathy.

Dialogues (by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Kamal Pandey) are extraordinary and full of punch-lines.

Shagird Review – Performances & Direction

Nana Patekar shines in a role that seems to have been written for him. He is excellent with his dialogues and evokes laughter at a number of places with his typical dialogue-delivery. Mohit Ahlawat gives a restrained performance and does the fullest justice to his role. Rimi Sen is natural. Zakir Hussain is splendid as the wily politician and deserves distinction marks for a great show. Anurag Kashyap is pretty effective. Vishwajit Pradhan makes his presence felt. Sitaram Panchal is very good as Panditji. Murali Sharma, Khan Jehangir Khan (as police officer Shamsher Singh) and the others lend able support.

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s direction is appropriate to the script. His narrative style keeps the audience engrossed completely. However, having said that, it must be added that the confusing script appeals more to the classes than the masses but the film, its genre, subject etc. would hold more appeal for the masses. In fact, the excessive violence and gore would not go down too well with the classes and the multiplex-going audience but, unfortunately, that’s (multiplexes) where a good chunk of the revenue comes from. Abbas Ali Moghul’s action and stunts are good. Cinematography, by Yogesh Jani, is quite nice. Music (Abhishek Ray) is functional. Editing (by Pravin Angre) is sharp.

Shagird Review – Komal Nahta’s Verdict

On the whole, Shagird may be a well-made film but it has several things going against it – lack of face value (Nana Patekar alone doesn’t sell), dated look, lack of promotion, dull title and horrifyingly poor initial. It will, therefore, sink at the box-office without a trace.

As the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear the links and interlinks between the various characters of the movie. The film also stars Rimi Sen who gets involved in a very high drama kidnap by some international terrorist blackmailing for the release of 2 of their men.

Star cast: Nana Patekar, Anurag Kashyap, Mohit Ahlawat, Zakir Hussain, Rimi Sen.

Promotion: The film has been very poorly promoted.

Box-Office Expectations: Shagird will have to rely on positive word of mouth to do well at the ticket counters.

Shagird releases on 13^th May, 2011.

Star cast: Munish Khan, Sara Khan, Zakir Hussain, Gulshan Grover, Mukesh Tiwari.

Plot: Zakir Hussain saves Munish’s life when he meets with a serious accident. After some days, Zakir is at Munish’s doorstep, badly injured. Munish helps him but soon learns that he is an assassin on the run. Should he continue to save Zakir’s life because he had saved his, or should he hand him over to the police and help the law?

What’s Good: A few sequences and acting of Zakir Hussain in some scenes.

What’s Bad: The TV serial-like script; the repetitiveness of the drama; the lack of excitement in the story.

Verdict: Payback will not pay anybody anything!

Loo break: You may take a couple of breaks as you won’t miss anything much.

Archangel Entertainment’s Payback (UA) is about a person paying back for someone’s noble deed. Kunal (Munish Khan) meets with a serious accident when the car he is driving one rainy night collides with a truck. Lying in a pool of blood and hanging between life and death, Kunal needs urgent medical assistance. Passersby look at him but don’t stop to help. Then, one stranger, Raghu (Zakir Hussain), rushes him to the hospital in his own car but leaves from there, after giving the doctor a fake address and a wrong telephone number.

Kunal, who has got a new lease of life because of Raghu’s help, has faint memories of him and he is pleasantly surprised to see him by chance one day near his house. He thanks him for saving his life. The next night, Kunal is shocked to find Raghu at his doorstep with a bullet wound. Kunal helps him but in the course of the night, he learns that Raghu is a professional assassin.

Kunal is now in a dilemma. Should he help Raghu and save him from the police? For, although Raghu takes lives of people, he was instrumental in giving him (Kunal) a new life. Kunal telephones Ishita (Sara Khan), his girlfriend with whom he has split, and calls her over. He asks her how far she, in a similar position, would go to save a killer who had saved her life.

The film has a story, penned by Upendra Sidhye, which was more suited for a television serial. The screenplay, also written by Sidhye, is repetitive and gets boring after a point of time, especially in the film’s second half because the drama moves on a single track. Since it takes up a moralistic issue, the opinion of the audience would be divided, and everyone may not agree with the stand taken by the writer.

For a drama of this kind, the proceedings had to be of a very high interest value to hold the audience’s attention and keep them engrossed. But writer Upendra Sidhye fails to achieve that. Even his dialogues are commonplace. The love story between Kunal and Ishita fails to impress. Also, Raghu being shown as an understanding assassin seems a bit weird and unbelievable.

Munish Khan makes an average debut as the lead man. Sara Khan may not have the looks of a heroine but her performance is quite nice. Zakir Hussain does justice to his role. However, it is irritating to see the constant frown on his face because of his bullet injury. Gulshan Grover is earnest. Mukesh Tiwari is fair but goes overboard in some scenes. Hrishikesh Joshi, as Bhau Bhosle, is okay. Kunal Kumar lends average support in the role of Rohit.

Sachin P. Karande’s direction is okay in the first half but, like the script, he quite loses control after interval. Dev Sikhdar’s music is routine. Lyrics (by Dev Sikhdar and Irfan Shaikh) are ordinary. Parvez Pathan’s camerawork and Firoz N. Boss’ action sequences are functional. Editing (Mukesh Thakur) could have been far more sharp.

On the whole, Payback won’t prove to be a paying proposition because it lacks entertainment value. Given its dull start, it will go down as one more flop fare.