Of the many disappointments in Chak De India, the most disappointing is Shah Rukh Khan’s passionless performance.



Let’s look at two crucial scenes in Chak De India: the first comes early in the movie when Shah Rukh Khan says he’s resigning as coach of the Indian women’s hockey team following opposition from the players to his style of training.



Coming towards the end of the movie, the second critical scene involves Shah Rukh Khan’s confrontation with two egoistic players Komal Chautala (the pint-sized Chitrashi Rawat) and Preeti Sabarhwal (pretty face Segarika Ghatge) on the eve of World Cup Final between India and Australia.



In what should have been the crowning moments of the movie, Shah Rukh Khan a.k.a. King Khan in India utterly fails to rise to the occasion, delivering flat performances that rank amateurs would be embarrassed of rendering on screen. Ironically, in the second critical scene the two girls do a better job than the more-experienced Shah Rukh Khan.



Where’s the passion, Shah Rukh?



After 50+ films and 15 years in movies, if such listless, uninspiring performances are all that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is capable of, it’s a mighty poor reflection of his acting skills and a sad commentary on the Indian film industry.



In Chak De India, Shah Rukh Khan plays Kabir Khan, the coach of a ragtag women’s hockey team that he whips up into shape.



A former captain of the men’s Hockey team, Kabir Khan is also looking to reedem himself in the eyes of his countrymen who dubbed him a traitor for losing to Pakistan.



As for the 16 hockey players in Chak De India, the girls are a mixed bag. Some of them like the the diminutive Chitrashi Rawat, the well-built Tanya Abrol (cast as the short-tempered Balbir Kaur) and Vidya Malvade (who plays the captain/goalie Vidya Sharma) leave an impression. The others are forgettable.



Great sports movies are a lot about excellent photography. But Chak De India’s photography never rises to great heights. Long shots or close-ups, much of the photography of the Hockey matches or the practice is hopelessly mediocre.



Then there is the treatment of the Hockey game itself in the movie. Given the lackluster screenplay, dull dialogs and second-rate photography, it’s hard to believe Chak De India will give a fillip to Hockey in India, where Cricket arouses all the passions.



The folks at Yash Raj Films deserve kudos for picking an unconventional theme - at least by Bollywood standards where filmmakers usually take the easy way out by focusing on love or stealing Hollywood plots.



But Yash Raj and director Shimit Amin also deserve flak for failing to execute well on an interesting theme.



Chak De India’s music is mostly pedestrian and nothing to write home about.



This season when Hollywood is offering such fine movies like the action thriller Bourne Ultimatum, why would you want to waste time and money on mediocre films like Chak De India?



All in all, Chak De India is a poor excuse for entertainment. ... More ... Collapse

"They didn't spare anyone," a bunch of desis were talking among themselves as they left the Regal Cinema at Union Square in New York City on Saturday February 10, 2007 after watching Black Friday, the movie based on the Bombay bomb blasts of 1993.



How true.



In a low key fashion and without the garish excesses typical of Hindi cinema, Black Friday is a stark indictment of all those involved in the the serial bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 that cost 257 people their lives and injured over 700.



Muslims, Hindus, corrupt police officers, Dawood Ibrahim, politicians, the government, the system and Pakistan all come under the unsparing, critical glare of the lens.



More than just a preface or an account of the bomb blasts, Black Friday also takes a close look at the lives of some of the alleged low-level perpetrators on the lam after the blasts.



Unlike most Bollywood movies built on the crude scaffolding of big-name stars and their crude gyrations to loud music, Black Movie has a powerful story to work with.



The star of this fine movie is the compelling story - the bomb blasts, the conspiracy that preceded it and the hunt for the alleged perpetrators.



There are moments when the narrative sags and the movie fails to keep the audience engaged. We'd have liked better photography and a tighter script overall.



Also, the manipulation of religious sentiments of the underlings by the vengeful Tiger Memon fails to come through strongly. Tiger Memon leaves for Dubai before the blasts leaving behind the underlings to implement his devilish plan and face the music subsequently.



Kay Kay Menon as the police officer Rakesh Maria determined to quickly nab the suspects, Pavan Malhotra as the vengeful Tiger Memon and Aditya Srivastava as the embittered Muslim Badshah Khan shine in their respective roles.



(The Indian government has named Ibrahim Memon a.k.a Tiger Memon the main conspirator of the Bombay bomb blasts but has been unable to nab him.)



Black Friday is finally seeing the light of the day after delays owing to legal issues.



Although the movie was completed a few years back, its release in theatres was held up after some of the alleged perpetrators of the blasts - and named in the movie - asked the court to stay its release arguing that it would prejudice public opinion against them and affect the outcome of the verdict. The court accepted the argument of the alleged perpetrators and stayed the release of the movie. The special court in Mumbai handling the case recently announced its verdict.



The movie is based on the book Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts by crime reporter S. Hussain Zaidi. ... More ... Collapse

I never thought I'd say this ever - Yes, Bollywood's horror show Amisha Patel does a better job in Bhool Bhulaiyaa than Parineeta girl Vidya Balan.



Vidya Balan sleepwalks through Bhool Bhulaiyaa offering a gratuitous insult to her fans who made the mistake of watching this movie.



After Parineeta, it seems like Vidya Balan has been steadily going downhill.



None of Vidya's subsequent movies evoke the intoxicating freshness and beguiling charm that she displayed in Parineeta.



Bhool Bhulaiyaa is a rehash of the successful Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu, which was subsequently made in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu as well.



Perhaps tired of stealing from Hollywood plots, lazy Bollywood directors and producers are now resorting to remakes of popular regional films or remakes of old Hindi hits like Sholay.



A few years back, we watched the Tamil version of Chandramukhi featuring Rajnikanth, Jyothika, Prabhu and Nayantara. Chandramukhi turned out to be one of the biggest blockbusters in the history of Tamil films.



Vidya Balan is not half as good as Jyothika was in Chandramukhi. That's scary when you consider that Jyothika herself is an actress of only limited abilities, way behind her peers like Padmapriya, Navya Nair, Meera Jasmine and Shreya Reddy.



So Bhool Bhulaiyaa was a combination of dejavu and ennui for us. Dejavu because we had seen the Tamil version, ennui because the Hindi version had nothing extraordinary - by way of acting, music, dance or photography - to hold our interest.



Bhool Bhulaiyaa hews closely to the Chandramukhi story with some minor changes.



A young NRI couple from America Siddharth (Shiney Ahuja) and Avni (Vidya Balan) move into a huge palace supposedly haunted by the ghost of a long-dead dancer.



Soon, very strange things start happening to the people living in the palace complex.



When things seem to be going completely out of control at the palace, Siddharth seeks the help of his psychiatrist friend Aditya Shrivastav (Akshay Kumar).



Before you know it, the psychiatrist is throwing around phrases like dissociated identity disorder and split personality a la Sybil.



Akshay Kumar does a decent job given the limitations of the script.



The comedy angles involving Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal and Asrani are downright sophomoic and a testament to the lack of imagination among Bollywood directors and writers that they have to frequently resort to such infantile techniques in a vain effort to hold audience interest.



As for the music and Vidya Balan's dancing in the movie, it's hard to tell which is worse. ... More ... Collapse

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