Showbiz - when a good storyline gone wrong

Showbiz is a movie about the dark side of being a popular celebrity. Another Page 3 type of movie in which you see the good and the ugly from the paparazzi. Rohan (Tusha Jalota) is a rising singer who makes it big but the media takes him down revealing some personal information about him and a prostitute name Tara.

First of all, I love the Bhatt's for always giving newcomers a chance! Whether it's John Abraham, Udita Goswami, Emraan Hashmi, or Kangana Ranaut; there's talent out there with out the Yash Raj camp. However, Showbiz is a blah movie! Newcomer Tushar Jalota is average looking - he looks like a mixture of Fardeen Khan and Ritiesh Deshmukh. He has a nice body. From the cover, it looks almost like Hrithik Roshan but nope, you are wrong, it is just Tushar. I Although he had the lead role as Rohan as the rising singer, can't say whether or not he did a good job. I wasn't impress with him but it could be that the movie was that bad.

Mrinalini Sharma is so gorgeous - a mixture of Udita Goswami and Bipasha Basu. I loved her since I saw her in Awarapan. She's the main reason why I watched this film. I wanted to see her in a lead role. She does have to improve in her acting but I'll give her another chance. With her professional look, she reminds me of Bipasha Basu in Corporate - the long hair slicked back in a pony tail wearing a business suit. Who says you can't be sexy and look professional? Then you have her in a song looking sexy showing off her curves. She played the character Shikha who is Rohan's manager and later falls in love with him.

Delnaaz Paul doesn't have a big role in the movie but I just thought I'll mention her since many have seen her as Naina's (Preity Zinta) best friend Sweetu in Kal Ho Naa Ho. She looks bad with the loads of makeup put on her. I want the natural and bubbly Sweetu. In Showbiz, Delnaaz plays Mrinalini's assistant.

Shilpa Arori plays Tara, the prositute on drugs who messes up Rohan's career. Why does Rohan care for her so much? Who is she to him? She causes the drift between Rohan and Shikha.

Showbiz's tag is "the dark side of fame." The storyline seems very interesting - good script, beautiful heroine, good songs (you can't go wrong with any Bhatt soundtrack). So what went wrong? Let me tell you.

The script is really interesting but for some reason it just didn't translate as well in the movie. It just fell flat. Movie was very fast paced but fell through in the middle. I'm okay with some stories being unrealistic in some aspects but I just didn't buy the entire ending of the film. Maybe it's just about trying to show too much of the media gone wrong at the end that bored me.

Overall the movie is only worth a watch if you really have nothing else to watch. Or just want to watch it for Mrinalini Sharma cause she's hot. Otherwise, forget it!

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!