Manorama Six Feet Under

When a sultry older woman (Sarika) approaches a man to spy on her husband, he can seldom say no. In spite of the husband being the Irrigation minister, Satyaveer Randhawa (Abhay Deol) being suspended from his dead end municipal job,  finds the decision to be a no brainer much to the chagrin of his a nagging wife Nimmi (Gul Panag). Overnight Satyaveer finds himself sucked in to the dirty world of politics filled with hot women and cut throat goondas. 

A modern day Indian film noir that grabs you and never lets go. Much of it is thanks to Mr. Deol who should change his last name ASAP.  I guess it also helped that Satyaveer felt like a character straight out of Murakami novel and direction was akin to his writing. Sarika is back though age is telling on her. Vinay Pathak is brilliant as always as the local cop and Satyaveer's brother-in-law. And of course little needs to be said about Ms. Panag who looks sexy even when being paraded as a boring house wife. Inspired by Chinatown, the film in my opinion holds it own and in many ways more satisfying that its inspiration.

Rating: * * * +

Mithya

The age old story of a down and out actor (Ranvir Shorey) who bares an unearthly likeness to an underworld don and under duress is forced to take the don's place. The presence of Naseeruddin Shah and Vinay Pathak does add some panache to this often repeated plot but they unfortunately are not enough to allow this film to be seen in a new light with a fresh perspective.

Rating: * *

Khoya Khoya Chand

Nikhat (Soha Ali Khan) and Zafar (Shiney Ahuja) are rising stars in the Bombay film industry in a time it was not known as Bollywood. She a blossoming actress and he a budding script writer, cause sparks to fly when they meet. Intoxicated they carry on, without a care for whom they burn with their passion. Set in the 50s and 60s, the film casts an introspective eye at the life in the industry showing the back biting that goes on and the dog eat dog world it is.

Shiney Ahuja has eerily crept into the skin of the character but the same cannot be said of the daughter of Sharmila Tagore. After the initial half hour, she looks out of her depth failing to portray the changing phases in the actress's life. In fact Sonya Jehan who plays a rival actress could have done better in her role. But the actor who steals the limelight is Vinay Pathak who plays Nikhat friend.

The film looks lush and the saturated colors can fool you into believing Chris Doyle was behind the lens. The script too is craftily written with Urdu laced Hindi dialogs. But director Sudhir Mishra does not take advantage of this palette and fails to stitch it all together. Allowing the film to run a tad too long did not help either. A poor follow up to Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.

Rating: * *

Khosla ka Ghosla

This should have been the movie going to the Oscars; instead of the other UTV over-rated-piece-of-dog-piss production, Rang De Basanti. Glad to see more such real & funny mainstream movies making its way into the theatres. There slowly appears to be a core group of actors regaling in the freedom of making non-larger-than-life-fucking-bullshit cinema: a throwback to the early 80s indie film movement. Boman Irani as an evil land grabber is certainly one of them.

Rating: * * * +