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If you observe director Karan Razdan's body of work, you'll realize that he has, quite often, made women-centric movies that defy stereotype... * HAWAS looked at a philandering housewife, who seeks sex outside marriage; * GIRL FRIEND was about a lesbian, who gets overtly possessive of her girl-friend, when the latter falls in love with a guy; * In SOUTEN - THE OTHER WOMAN, the guy first gets into a physical relationship with a middle-aged woman and then falls in love with her step-daughter. In MITTAL V/S MITTAL, Razdan highlights marital rape, which is a reality. It's the subject material of MITTAL V/S MITTAL that takes you by surprise, especially the sequences where the husband commits marital rape, night after night. In the past, MATRUBHOOMI, DAMAN and PROVOKED have tackled similar issues. While MITTAL V/S MITTAL makes a sincere effort to be an eye-opener, it loses focus midway after it gets formulaic. At best, MITTAL V/S MITTAL is a solid idea that doesn

I've often said, interesting ideas don't necessarily translate into enthralling celluloid experiences. That's what I realized, for the umpteenth time, as HUM TUM AUR GHOST concluded. Hollywood has attempted several films wherein the living has been shown interacting with the dead. In fact, two decades ago, there was a mad rush to Indianize GHOST [Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg]. The fascination with the dead continues to haunt Bollywood to this date. Arshad Warsi - who has been credited with the story of HUM TUM AUR GHOST - has denied that the film is inspired by GHOST TOWN. Yet, there're some similarities and that could be coincidental. So far, so good! Now here's the hitch. The screenplay - the lifeline of any film - is what makes a film stand on its feet and in this case, HUM TUM AUR GHOST suffers due to inept writing. Ideally, the writers and director should've come to the point right away, but the film takes its own sweet time to

Virsa is the story of Nawaz Ali and Ranvir Singh Grewal and their families. Nawaz Ali hails from Lahore in Pakistan and Ranvir Singh Grewal belongs to a village, Kartarpur, in Punjab, India. About 20 years ago, both of them migrated to Sydney, Australia, in search of work, where they met and became the best of friends. Gradually, their hard work paid off. Ranvir opened an Indian restaurant, which became a runaway success. Nawaz Ali opened a shop opposite Ranvir's restaurant. It did well and he could manage to lead a comfortable life but he was not as successful as Ranvir. Nawaz Ali was very grounded in his culture and values and this helped him to remain level-headed and not get carried away by the comforts of life in Australia. He never lost sight of what was morally and ethically right and stood by his Asian values. On the other hand, Ranvir got carried away by his success. He felt that he was superior to the other Indians and Asians who were not as successful

Just for the pleasure of watching Nana Patekar and Dimple Kapadia together, this quaint and sincere look at love across three generations is well worth a dekko. Dimple Kapadia, exuding a warmth that pervades the screen plays a feisty Parsi woman who isn't deterred let alone defeated by attempts to dismantle her dream, namely a strategic cafe where Mumbai-wallahs meet like they still do in cafe's all over Kolkata for a bit of a brany pow-wow and buttery pao . It all adds up. The feisty Parsi lady and the cranky sullen unhappy-with-life lawyer (Nana Patekar) who helps her keep her property and not-so-promptly falls in love with the lady. You get the picture? Rajen Makhijana, Sameer Siddiqui and Kabir Sadanand's screenplay cruises the realm of the known but still provides elements of freshness in the way the predictable characters are framed and photographed. DOP Pushan Kriplani adds an afterglow to the already-seen characters' lives. You could feel the

If there is someone who can look stunning in black and as well as in coloured, then, it's none other than Kangna Ranaut. And to get a real life experience of the same, you don't have to swim across the seven seas. All that you need to do is simply get your hands on the latest edition of Hi! Blitz. 'Steel Magnolias' is what the headline states about a never before interview. It is in this interview, wherein, she states all about the A-Z about her life. Full marks to the conceptualizer as well as the photographer for having presented Kangna like never before and maybe never after! She does go on record to say that, "It's shameful for me to be only 22. When I am in the middle of intense conversations with people, I avoid questions about my age. I have a mind of 45-50 year-old-woman, which is scary. I don't like to tell people my age. When I have conversations with producers and directors, it's at a very human level and that's how I treat

Young Maradona Rebello had to do some very strange and unconventional things in his debut film Pankh , like getting smooched by a man and go completely nude in front of his screen mother, played by Lilette Dubey. Confesses Maradona, "It's been a harrowing time for me. I've given the role everything because I believed in the film. It's the story of a pushy mother and a male child who's pushed into the movies dressed as a girl. My character grows up confused about his sexuality. I had to do many things that didn't come naturally to me because I'm a straight guy I had to kiss a man, get pushed around by him." Worst of all was the cross-dressing scenes. Shivers Maradona, "When I came on the set in a dress wearing stocking and lipstick my director Sudipto-da freaked out. He was so apologetic. He asked everyone to leave the sets. I told him to chill. But in the nights I just couldn't sleep. I was harrowed. Luckily my parents suppor

Dibakar Banerjee won't be starting another film till next year. He needs to take the rest of the year off to get to know his new adoptive baby Ira. "Otherwise she'll never be able to accept me as anything but an alien in her life. At the moment she's 7 months old. I want to spend some months with her and become an integral part of her life." Movies can wait. "I won't be starting another film till next year. I need to be home, to let my daughter get used to my presence around the house." Reacting to the charge by short-filmmaker Abhay Kumar that the first segment of Dibakar's film Love Sex Aur Dokha is similar to Abhay's short film Udaan Dibakar says, "Of course there are similarities! My film and his have adopted the age-old traditional Laila-Majnu format where boy meets girl, they fall in love, elope and get killed by irate parents. If anyone should be upset with me it's the person who wrote Laila Majnu ."

Dimple Kapadia's deceased sister Simple who was doing her star-sister's costumes in Tum Milo Toh Sahi until she was too unwell, is credited in the film for her work. But not as a posthumous presence. "I haven't credited her as the 'Late' Simple Kapadia. Because to us who were among the last fortunate folks to have spent time with her, she never went away. Her laughter and her joie de vivre remains with us. Though Pooja Chabria took over Dimple's clothes after she was unwell, Simple would was still a part of the whole procedure," says director Kabir Sadanand emotionally. Kabir didn't allow any pictures to be taken when Simple would come to the sets. "I didn't want the world to see her on a wheelchair. Even though she was ill, she insisted on coming to the sets and spending time with us. When we'd ask about her health she would turn around and say, 'Who's ill around here?' Her spirit carried us forward to the

It is deliciously ironical that during the week that our tennis queen Sania Mirza announced she would marry in Pakistan, comes this film where the young desi pair threatens to get married and move to Pakistan. Life often imitates art. And art is often a close companion of kitsch and melodrama. Kitschy melodrama is attacked by purists. But there's something to be said about a good old-fashioned melodrama like Sadiyaan where the biological and foster mothers, played by Hema Malini and Rekha respectively, vie for a son's love and attention and outdo each other in the sacrificial arena. They don't make screen -moms like Rekha and Hema any more. Raj Kanwar induces great dignity into the tussle between the modern-day Devaki and Yashodhara. Yup, there's something to be said in favour of nostalgia. Just see how Hema Malini, Rekha and Rishi Kapoor light up the screen in this surprisingly-watchable-in-parts ode to fugitive parenthood. Cleverly veteran director

As usual Dimple starts off by grumbling she has nothing to say. And if you must know the reason why she does so little work, it is because she isn't offered anything substantial. "Do you really think I am good? Please write that in your column. There aren't enough good scripts. It's not as if I'm flooded with offers. Whoever approaches me I do their film. Besides...I am lazy! There you finally got the honest truth out of me! I did Tum Milo Toh Sahi with Nana Patekar because I loved the script. I honestly need good scripts and directors. I just hope it happens soon." She perks up while talking about her new release Tum Milo Toh Sahi. "Bahut pyar se Kabir Sadanand ne film banaayi hai . Every scene is a labour of love. This is a film I'm very proud of. I loved my role. And so what if the director Kabir Sadanand made me look older on screen than I look in real? That's how I saw my character." So the next question? How does Dimple