Speed - the Bollywood version of Cellular?

Speed is about a criminal Kabir (Aftab Shivdasani) kidnapping a chef aka undercover agent Siddarth's (Sanjay Suri) wife Richa (Urmila Matondkar). Richa makes a call and ends up calling Sandy's (Zayed Khan) cell. All he wants is to win back his lady Sanjana (Tanushree Dutta) love back. However, he ends up receiving a phone call from Richa and needs help.

Urmila Matondkar - I like her a lot. She has been laying low in her film releases. I wish she would act more cause I think she's underrated. She was the sexy actresses in the 90s with her dancing with her hour glass figure in the Rangeela hits. Later she shed the sexy image off and started to show off her acting abilities in Satya, Bhoot, Ek Hasina Thi, and Naina.

She's still looking good and fit. You can tell she's aging a lot more now around her eyes. As the leading female lead in Speed as Richa, she's a great choice. She plays the kidnapped mother and wife trying to find a way to get out very well.

Sanjay Suri - cute. I still remember him in Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi in the supporting role as Bugs. With a name like that, how can I forget?? :) For some reason, any star who debuts as a supporting role in any film ends up better in supporting roles. Maybe the audience sees it that way. Sanjay has never really been a lead actor in a film because he's in a lot of multi-star films. He's not a good or bad actor. Mostly he's just there.

Sanjay's boyish look makes him look a bit too young for Urmila but I rather have him paired off with Urmila than Zayed or Aftab! I know, Aftab and Urmila were paired together in Mast but it's okay - Urmila turned him into a fanboy in the movie.

Siddharth (Sanjay Suri) and Richa (Urmila Matondkar) lives in this nice home. He owns this nice car. Come on Richa, you think he can afford it with a teacher's salary? No wonder you didn't know about him being an undercover agent!

Undercover agent busy at work cracking codes and saving the world.

Zayed Khan - not really impress with his acting but he's likeable in what I've seen. He's perfect in goofy, silly characters like Main Hoon Naa and The Fight Club. Sometimes he can look so cute and goofy. Sometimes he can look hot and sexy. Everyone has different opinions on attractiveness but gotta give it to Zayed for staying in shape.

Zayed actually has the main role as Sandy in the film besides Urmila. He's the guy who gets a call from her and wants to help her. Although his goal is to win back his girlfriend's love, he finds a way to help Richa as well because he overhears her cries and tears.

Tanushree Dutta - Former Miss India/Universe who I have yet to be impress with her acting. She's gorgeous. No doubt about that! When I first saw her in her debut film, Aashiq Banaya Aapne, she reminded me of Riya Sen but now she has her own identity. She has been criticized for her weight gain but I still think she looks healthy and lovely. Although I hate her heavy makeup! Maybe she won't be a great leading heroine but having her in a mult-star film or item song is good enough. There's a place in Bollywood for everyone.

Trying to win her love back is hard especially when trying to explain to her you got a call from a stranger - a female especially!

Aftab Shivdasani - adore him. For those who don't know, I just adore him since Mast. He's cute, buff, underrated, and just plain adorable. I usually would praise him but not in this film! Speed is not a film that I would tell Affy fans to watch for him unless you're a true fan girl. Hate the look on him. He plays a villian. I'm okay with that but the look is not good on him. He has such a babyface and growing the hair out is a NO-NO! He tries hard to be tough and I just wasn't buying it.

Sophiya Chaudhry - not the best actress but love her music. Remix oldies queen but awesome voice. I don't think she'll ever break it big in Bollywood but glad she is in more films.

Her character is the villianous vamp. I loved it! She was tough and had a fight scene with Zayed.

Couldn't get a good screen cap of her fighting object and Zayed.

Aahish Chaudhry - cute but don't have huge roles in films. Although he was the leading hero in Girlfriend, the film focused on girl on girl fantasies. Aashish is just goofy adorable. I don't analyze his acting skills because in whatever he's been in, he has put a smile on my face. In Speed, he plays the officer Rohan who is in charge of the Prime Minister's security.

Amrita Arora - cute girl but not as sexy as older sis, IMO. I do think people snub her because of that reason but I like her. She can't act but thank goodness her roles require her to just look good. She plays Aashish's girlfriend Sameera aka Sam in Speed.

Since Speed is a Bollywood version of the Hollywood film, Cellular. Why not have everyone on a cell phone?

There were four songs in the movie. How did it fit in? First song "Tikhi Tikhi Tikhi" is the intro songs with the credits. The guys were just looking hot and cool. I have to add that I think Aashish is looking extra hot!! Love this look on him.

The ending credit has the fourth song "Hello" with everyone on cell phones. The second song "Wanna Wanna" was with Zayed and Tanushree - he was trying to win her back and singing to her. The third song "Loving You" focused on Aashish and Amrita's love making. It was a very short song.

Speed is not a bad movie. It's very fast paced and keeps you interested. It's a Vikram Bhatt movie so Hollywood elements were borrowed. I've never seen Cellular but I'm sure the Bhatt's have Indianize Speed. It's worth a watch if you have nothing else to watch or are fans of any of the stars.

Five underrated films in 2007 worth watching

It's already June 2008! Woah! I haven't watched many Bollywood films this year.

Since I didn't write anything in here from 2007 about Bollywood movies, I'll talk about the 2007 films now. I'm all into low budget films. Sometimes the overpriced, big budget films are beautiful to watch but that's about it. A big star also help promote the movie. For example, anything that Shah Rukh is in, people will watch. I also like finding new faces.

Here are movies that you may not have heard of. Or wasn't sure you wanted to watch it because of the cast because you're unsure of them. Or have watched a bad movie of them before so you were just uncertain. I'm just choosing five films and writing about them.

Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee

Five friends - Rajiv (Dino Morea), Ishita (Anjori Alagh), Jai (Sameer Dattani), Monica (Nauheed Cyrusi), and Manish (Aftab Shivdasani) talk about what would make them happy in life. They each make a bet after five years who will be the most happiest.

To Rajiv, happiness means success. To Jai, happiness means power. To Monica, happiness means fame. To Ishita, happiness means money. To Manish, happiness will come to you which you will know.

There is indeed five different mini storylines in the movie. Each told beautifully.
Sure the movie has the cast of C graded actors. I'm just exaggerating here but I say this because the star cast alone will not bring enough audience to watch the film. I mainly watched the film for Dino. But I also adore Sameer and Aftab. If this film didn't have Dino or maybe Sameer and Aftab, I probably wouldn't have watch it.

I'm glad I watched the film. I loved it! I had zero expectations. What I love most about this movie is I love the meaning of it - the purpose of life. I enjoyed everyone's performance. I don't analyze the star's acting criteria as much as others. Nor do I think, so and so was so great in this movie but fell flat in this movie. I think this movie was a bit too serious for some people and with the cast, it flopped. It definitely has a multi star cast, whether you want to debate or not if they are stars.

What I also love about the movie is none of the five friends hooked up with each other at all. They were true friends who went on with their lives and every year had a reunion to meet up and chat about their lives. Give Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee a watch, you may surprise yourself and end up liking the movie.

1971 - Prisoners of War

1971 is a story about six Indian POWs (Prisoners of War) - Major Suraj Singh (Manoj Bajpai), Captain Jacob (Ravi Kissen), Subedar Ahmed (Chitaranjan Giri), Captain Kabir (Kumud Mishra), Flight Lt. Ram (Manav Kaul) and Flight Lt. Gurtu (Deepak Dobriyal) in Pakistan who plans to escape the camp to the Indian border.
Manoj Bajpai is an awesome, underrated actor. I don't go out and watch all his movies but I do appreciate his work. What attracted me to watch this movie is it's a war movie. Some people may yawn at that genre but I like watching war movies.

Why this movie is different from most war movies? Not only is it powerful and simple but the movie is realisticly told. Unlike LOC (Line of Control) where there is a song and dance with many flashbacks. 1971 isn't like that. Try to watch 1971 even if war movies aren't for you. This movie is brilliantly directored and different from a lot of war movies.
Awarapan


Shivan (Emraan Hashmi) is a lonely guy who is hurt and heartbroken searching for happiness. Shivan works for a gangster Malik (Ashutosh Rana) who ask Shivan to watch his young mistress Reema (Mrinalini Sharma) while he goes on a business trip. While Shivan does his job, he learns about Mrinalini's boyfriend. When he tries to follow Malik's orders, his conscious comes to haunt him because of his tragic past.

Another Bhatt movie, oh gosh! Oh no, and with the smootch king Emraan Hashmi! I'm sure many has said that when they heard about Awarapan. I knew about Awarapan remaking the Korean movie, A Bittersweet Life. Before watching Awarapan, I decided to watch A Bittersweet Life first. I disliked the movie! I was hoping the Indian version would be better because I liked Zinda, the Indian remake version, more than the original Korean version, Oldboy.

As an actor, I liked Emraan ever since I saw his debut film, Footpath. Awarapan is Emraan's best performance! You can feel his pain when he cries. When he's confused and lost, you can see it in his eyes. Mrinalini was a joy to watch. She is so beautiful and this role didn't give her an opportunity to actually show off her acting skills but she was decent.

Unlike most people, I enjoy Bhatt movies. They have the best music soundtracks! Just watch this movie and give it a chance. Even if you don't enjoy it, you'll sing the "Mahiva" song and get it stuck in your head.

Dhokha

Dhokha is a story about Zaid Ahmed (Muzamil Ibrahim), a Muslim police officer whose wife Sarah (Tulip Joshi) was killed in a suicide bombing. He later learns his wife may be the suicide bomber. With memories of his wife, he learns about her past and reasons of her actions.

Unfortuantely Dhokha is another Bhatt movie that the audience overlooked. The Bhatt's are good at giving newcomers, mostly model turn actors/actresses, a chance in non masala films. Whether it's John Abraham in Jism or Udita Goswami in Paap, this time it's Muzamil Ibrahim.

The movie gives out a powerful message. Again the music is wonderful. Maybe, just maybe, you'll enjoy this film. If not you can at least drool over Muzamil. Tulip is very lovely in the movie and it's her best acting till date.
Some people nit pick over details. "Muzamil is too pretty to play that role" or "Bhatt's always have too much skin exposure" Whatever. Get over yourself sometimes. If it's let's say the Yash Raj banner, films like Salaam Namaste, Dhoom, Neil N Nikki, Dhoom 2, etc - they had plenty of skin exposure but it's okay just because of the banner.
Johnny Gaddar


Five guys - Vikram (Neil Mukesh), Prakash (Vinay Pathak), Seshadri (Dharmendra), Shardul (Zakir Hussain), Daya (Shiva Shetty) - partner up for a plan to steal some money and to split it five ways. Vikram turns the table when he wants the money all to himself and plans to elope with his mistress Mini (Rimi Sen). The plan is not going according to what he wanted. With many twists and turns in the movie with crime, betrayal, love, and murder.

Although I've been a fan of Dharmendra since I first saw Seeta Aur Geeta when I was a little girl, I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch this film. After reading good reviews, I decided to give it a try. Watching Dharmendra on screen again was wonderful. He is still very handsome and the only actor who I was familiar with.
Neil is one of my fave newcomers in a while. Not only is he good looking, he can act. I love his facial expressions. Rimi is just there and never really cared for her. She's beautiful but that's it.

A well-made film. One of the best crime thriller movies! However, sometimes just don't have high hopes, you'll enjoy the film. I thought it was slick and stylish. Everything about it is stunning and the way it was delivered. Just go watch it!