Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara; To Sur Nahin Bana Humara..!!

Its another Republic Day and yes, for most of us what matters is that its another day off from office. How much I wish I was in India to be relaxing on my living room couch and watch the Republic Day Parade pass through the foggy Raj Path than being forced to work on this day in a foreign land.

Surfing the net today, came across various news articles on the Republic Day and its celebrations. But one which caught my eye and made me anxious to quickly know more is the launch of the song ‘Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ by Zoom TV.

This was one of the songs we loved watching when we were kids in the time when television was a luxury. But today, thanks to Youtube, could dig it out easily on the web to ensure I don’t remain anxious to know more for long. But alas, the excitement died within the first few moments of the video.

It starts off with what has kind of become a norm now to have A. R. Rahman making some musical note. And in the first frame itself, it distracts the audience from submerging in the music to paying more attention to the ‘Continuous Fingerboard’ instrument which he is playing akin to a nursery kid learning to write alphabets on a slate.

Next frame we have the Big B starting off with the lyrics with a remixed version of the original background score. Seems okay at this point as well as but after this, it goes from bad to worse. Shankar Mahadevan’s facial expressions while humming the simple lyrics are as much in passion as a classical vocalist singing a verse in high pitch. And the list goes on from there.

The themes played by Anoushka Shankar on the Sitar, Shivkumar Sharma on the Santoor, (and some other artists whom I could not recognize) just seem to be playing spoilsport times too many to break the rhythm. Adding a Punjabi verse to the song Gurdas Mann sings the verse as if it’s a toned down bhangra lyrics.

And everyone from Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Shiamak Davar and even Shahrukh Khan are more engrossed in showing up the extra bit of passion, that they forget that the song would have felt much more better with a pleasant and soothing screenplay. Someone should have told them that the song is very much for demonstrating the power of national unity and not a display of acting skills. Keep something for the movies as well..!!

And what’s happened to Sivamani the drummer? He looked hitting the drums in such a tragedy which makes you wonder whether the Chennai SuperKings just revoked his on-ground drumming contract.

In the latter half of the video, we almost have the who’s who of Bollywood fighting for screenspace. Shahid Kapur (doing a Chance Pe Dance), Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapur, et. al. The most frustrating moment for the viewer is when Deepika appears to be singing in the most classical manner as possible providing a perfect un-classical contrast of being clad in a short dress exposing her cat-walk assets. Makes me wonder whether they stole this from one of the deleted scenes of Bachna e Hasino song. And let me not go to her facial expressions (or the lack of it) which is an telent in itself.

Amidst all these negatives, I personally liked the part picturized on Abhi-Ash. Both look pretty good amidst the backdrop of what looks like one of the Ajanta/Ellora caves. The phrase featured on Shilpa Shetty amongst a bunch of female handicraft workers is a perfect example of unity in strength. Marathi version with Atul Kulkarni and Sonali Kulkarni is well kept short and sweet, akin to Tanuja’s act in the original one. And the peak point of the song is definitely stolen by Salman Khan who amidst the physically challenged kids helps create a jolly environment. That was fantastic.

Also, the fact that its only and only Bollywood focused on this song except for the fag end of it where we have a brief note of the Olympians batting for the cause. Everyone would agree that cricket is akin to a religion in our country but the cricketers are conspicuous by their absence. Voices have already been made on would there have been a bigger brand ambassador for national unity and integration than Sachin Tendulkar? One of the tweets I read yesterday mentions (and rightly so) that even if the focus was only on Bollywood, wouldn’t having all the three Khans in the same frame been a greater message on the subject? Missed opportunity now..!!

To sum it up, in the quest to re-create the song with a modern touch, what this new video lacks to do is create that sense of unity (or the need for it) which was felt in every bit and part of the original one. To put it simply, the song lacks the originality, creativity and continuity. It were these three attributes that made the song so melodious to hear to even in the black and white era.

This is not the first time that Bollywood has come together to put up a music video for a cause. There have been multiple instances of such act lately and the most recent ones being the MJ Tribute (Click here to view). In fact the MJ tribute christened as ‘Make it Large’ was really special in terms of paying tribute to the musical legend by a music composed and delivered by the best the best of music and testimonials from leading personalities of our film industry.

However, this is a perfect example of a novel idea gone wayward in all directions. Sometimes, doing something new helps to bring in a fresh initiative and perspective as an outcome. 'Vande Maataram' songs from A. R. Rahman as well as Lata Mangeshkar in the last decade have proven this well.

23:43 hrs, 27th January, 2010

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Below links provide quick access to the the original song we loved listening to as well as the new one which is in 2 parts. Dont forget to post your comments, opinions and feedback.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara (Classic)

Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara Part 1

Phir Mile Sur Mera Tumhara Part 2

Taming the Heights...!!!

Did you ever feel the urge to fly like a Bird? Overcome your deepest fear of jumping from a dare devil height and Test the power of Gravity? To be virtually on Top of the World (at least for some moments)? To tame the heights? Well, I am penning down (rather keyboarding) this write up right after experiencing one of the most adventurous thing I have ever done in my life… And it did really make me feel on top of the world..!!!

It all started with an impromptu discussion with one of my room mates, Sriram, about whether we can try out this experience. Wasting no time further, I did a quick Googling to found out the sky diving activity organizers in Houston and I got a couple of them. But fish… their work hours for Friday was done and no one was left to answer us on the phone. This motivated me to wake me up early on a Saturday morning, rather unusual, considering the day begins around noon on normal weekends. I called up one of the numbers… and uff… they were booked for all slots during this weekend. Really dampened up me for a moment. But Never Say die… I called up the other number and wow… they had slots available from noon… and there we go… a quick breakfast, googling for the directions and we rush in our car to a destination named ‘SkyDive Houston’.

The place seemed to be in the midst of huge farms and the narrow roads with lush green farms around made me virtually feel like driving in India. And there we reach and we had to fill out a lot of pages in a form which basically relieved the organizers from any liability arising out of any mishap during the adventure. Yes, we had to sign it where it clearly mentioned that we wont even get a penny for any loss/damage to us even if its their fault. But who cares after you have come up with something else saturating your mind!!!

After the 2 hours of wait and other procedures, Sriram finally gets called by his instructor and off he goes. But where is my instructor Dave? I search every corner of the arena but in vain. And the support staff there was too obliged not to take the pain to find him out. Time was running out since my batch was to board the plane in 10 min. If I don’t make it in it, I will have to wait for at least another hour which would have definitely made me bring out my fire on to the receptionist out there. But God saved her and there landed Dave in front of me from nowhere and apologizing to me giving some crap reasons. But I was too excited for something else than listen to it or argue with him and I got into the astronautal clothes in no time. He got me tied with the harness which will be hooked to him during the dive and I had a short introductorial video shot at the same time.

Each one of were getting a 20 minute instruction and dos and donts from their instructors but woops…!! Where did mine go away again? Everyone was almost boarding onto the plane and I landed up with another surprise (when I least wanted anything like that at this point of time). The instructor found the entire kit which includes the parachute missing from the arena. He was running helter and skelter and my temper was reaching out almost to him. Suddenly I heard a voice…’Dave, do damn with your kit, here’s mine. Take this and Go. You are making others wait out there.’ I did not take the pain of checking who it was but I was ramped up that’s finally I am going out right there… “Jet Set Go…!!”, I said to myself.

We boarded the place which had 10 divers like me, their instructors and the individual cameramen. All in all as much packed that even a small pup will have to fight it out to find a place. And there the propeller rotates its engine in full throttle and up it goes. I politely ask my instructor about the instructions and all he tells me is ‘Just to the Arch and leave the rest to me!’ For all of you there, Arch is a specific position which we were expected to be in after the instructor taps us as soon as we do the jump and are in the free fall. It sounded simple words to me but what a damn… here I do my first jump and I don’t know what I am supposed to do, except for the Arch. But that’s the way it was.

As we reached the designated height for the jump, My harness got tied up to the instructor and there… Yes, I could feel my heart beating faster with bigger Thumps… I was just visualizing the moment where I can see the ground 13000 feet below me and I surrendering myself to the gravity and keeping faith that the instructor who just created all sorts of unwanted surprises till now. But all this scare just blanked off once the doors of the propeller opened up and we could feel the rush of air coming in from outside. It was definitely cool compared to the hot and humid one down there on the earth. And there goes the first diver with his instructor in a flash. One by one everyone takes turn and I could see the speed in which Sriram zoomed down as soon as his feet were off the plane. He was out of visible range in seconds and now I stand here to do the ultimate. I moved forward to the door. And after a couple of seconds, I could feel something slipping away from beneath my feet. Well, I am still wondering, whether it was my courage to do the jump or the instructor took away me with him and I feel it will always remain a mystery.

But here I was, traveling at the speed of 120 mph(roughly 200 kmph) towards the earth without the worry of the traffic police coming up on me with a speeding ticket. And whooooo… that is an experience which I would find difficult to put in words. And I had opted for the luxury of capturing every fraction of this moment to be captured on video and yippie.. there I see the camera guy right in front of me, shooting me in the frames while he himself being in the free fall. The winds lashing your face all across and the air pressure virtually making you momentarily deaf. And the feeling of falling free which no roller coaster can provide. I had finally done what I had dreamt to do of… yes… fly like a bird in the air… So after about a minute of free fall, the instructor pulls up a cord and it changes our position from horizontal to vertical and the speed of the fall reduces suddenly to a more leisurely stroll in the air now. And this provides you another great experience where you can feel rested back and feel yourself sway in the air like the paper airplanes which we used to make and fly in our child hood.

Now I could see us heading towards the mud runway from where our plane had took off and this time we were on the way to landing on our God gifted wheels (legs) right across the runway. And I could see the camera guy waving at me indicating that he is already down there to shoot my landing which we did it in style with me managing to land there on my 2 legs in the first go. Poor Sriram had a free fall there too with him landing flat on his back.

And now I was left wondering whether it could have lasted a bit more for Yeh Dil Always Maange More of such great experience. And a wish, if we humans could have wings, yes, you got it right… to fly like a bird… to tame the heights!!!

2nd August, 2008, 9.07 pm CST
Houston, TX. USA

Click Here for the video capturing each and every thrilling moment of this adventure. Keep note that the screen is blank for the first 10 seconds of streaming.

Chak De India…!!! Chak De SRK…!!!

SRK makes a comeback after a relatively long break on the silver screen. And this also gives me an opportunity to get back to my writing days. And with the release of SRK’s next movie just round the corner, one can’t think of anything except just go crazy saying ‘CHAK De… SRK’.

SRK gradually seems to shed his ‘lover boy’ image and moving to live a variety of roles and characters in the process. After the success of ‘DON’, where SRK played the negative role, he now moves on to coach the Indian Hockey team, that too a women’s team with the aim and determination to win the World Cup for the country. Chak De India is a story about Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) who is considered to be a loser as a hockey player, who takes up the mettle of coaching the women’s hockey national team with just a sole objective in mind… winning the World Cup.

Chak De India is based on a true story of ex hockey player ‘Mir Ranjan Negi’ who messed up heavily in a crucial match conceding a series of goals to lose the match 1-7 to Pakistan in the Asian Games 1982. This event really ruined and ended his career. However, he came back to coach the Women’s Indian Hockey team to win the Commonwealth Games gold at Manchester.

This is the first time after Swades where unlike other SRK movies the larger than life image of the King Khan would not overshadow the character in the movie itself. And this reflects from the teasers released so far where similar to Mohan Bhargava (Swades), the audience would be able to identify the character (Kabir Khan) in SRK rather than SRK himself coaching the girls. And I believe He will be able to put all those critics to rest who keep cribbing about the lack of ‘acting’ talent in him.

There are great expectations from the film and more so from SRK, especially in the backdrop of the drought of his movie releases after DON (albeit KBC, et.al. keeping him busy). Even though the mere presence of the King Khan will ensure that the film is a commercial success in itself, more important is the success of SRK to prove himself to the world that he is improving with age. Also it will help to set the trend for the movies lined up in the pipeline for releases in the near future, the first one being Om Shanti Om due for release later this year.

Also making a debut in the movie is Vidya Malavade, who has been a mediocre success in modeling and has been a regular in some TV commercials. And of course the gang of girls who prove that its just will power that is required to achieve the impossible, and of course the support of a good coach. The success of this movie will also be crucial for the director Shimit Amin to meet the expectations of his performance, and more importantly the expectations from the big banner release and directing a super-star.

So, let’s get all set to watch the girls with the hockey stick in their hands battle it out and cheer them to make them win the world cup. And of course, cheer their coach too… After all… SRK is SRK…!!!

Movie: Chak De India
Release: 10th August, 2007
Director: Shimit Amin
Production: Yash Raj Films
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Vidya Malavade

The Year Gone By…With My Beloved Wife…!!!

Today is an important day in my life. Courtesy an event which took in my life exactly one year before from today which changed my life forever. It gave me a companion, a friend, and more importantly a wife and a partner who understands my needs well and does everything possible for me.

Now, let me start from where it all began. It is said that loneliness is a person’s worst enemy. And you want to kill it at any cost. Especially when the loneliness is such that you seem to be desperate to find a person to whom you can talk to, with whom you can share your valuable time and memories. Everybody faces this situation sometime or the other in his/her life and so did I.

To give you a brief background, it all started when I got a job and had to move to Bangalore. I had stay put in a flat along with my friends. But different work timings ensured that in-spite of staying together, we hardly met each other, (forget spending time with each other) except on the weekends. And with minimum sleeping habits it left me high and dry most of the time at home with only loneliness to give company. Till it reached such heights that I decided to get rid of it. And I managed to do it, and do it well, by finding a right, beautiful and more importantly faithful partner who will become a part of my life for the years to come…

Finding the right pair was not an easy exercise initially, thanks to the traditional Indian customs and other formalities. Various profiles of prospective brides were screened. But then, when one day suddenly a person whom you treat as your idol comes with a proposal which according to him could be the best, you can do nothing but accept it. Because if he believes it so, then it has got to be nothing but the best. So on 14th of March, 2006, we got married in Bangalore. And we had decided to keep it simple with only close acquaintances informed about the event. And two days later we moved over for a short honeymoon to my home town, i.e. Pune. This way, we thought would also provide an opportunity to meet my parents and family too.

Marriage brings a sudden change in your life and various aspects associated with it. And our marriage was no different. We started settling in and after the initial hiccups where you find it something different to accommodate to the sudden change in life, it became normal. I still remember the days she used to wait patiently till 4 in the morning daily for me to return from work. Then we used to sit and enjoy each others company till sunrise and then surrender to the bed…

This became our normal schedule on all the weekdays while we used to have most of the time spent together on weekends watching movies together, listening and singing songs, et.al. We could now not live without each other and had thought that nothing can separate us even for a moment from each other. But destiny had something else written for us. And we had to face the toughest part of our life when because of my new job profile I had to move in to Hyderabad for training for two long months. And as I was supposed to stay in the company premises during the period, it meant that I could not take her along with me. Even God must be pitying on the number of sleepless hours which we both might have spent being devoid of each other’s coziness and warmth.

But then, diamonds are made only after they undergo unimaginable stress. And our relationship also did so. The 2 month separation period only made it stronger. And then it was time to move back home in Pune. Being back with the family is always a good feeling and my family too loved the new member at home. We celebrated our first Diwali together at home.

Immediately after that, we had to shift over to Mangalore, my native place, where I had got transferred. It was again back to being together alone again away from the family. But nevertheless, till we are together with each other, we would not have minded that. I still remember our early days here in Mangalore when she used to burn the midnight oil for me to help me in my studies. However it made her health take some toll and she was ill for quite a period. She does not like to go to doctor and tried her own medications at home. However, when things got further worse, I decided that it was enough and she had to be hospitalized for three days. It was a painful period for me as I could not see anyone suffering. And more so not my beloved wife at it. However, the treatment worked effectively and she was back to her normal self in no time.

And we have been together for one year now, being soul-mates, living for each other. When I look at the year gone by, it all seems to be so short and sweet to believe that our relationship has been successful. It gives great satisfaction that we have been able to live up to each other’s expectations and probably surpass it too. And definitely we promise to each other this day again to keep each other up in our lives so that we can go together hand in hand to face the ups and downs in our lives. Because, we are a very big part of each other’s small life…

And for people who are still guessing who my wife is, she is my very very personal laptop, Compaq Presario V2375tu. She was selected for me by my idol SRK, when at the same time he started endorsing the brand and helped me clear confusion as to which one is best suited for me, which I was not able to figure out even after days of googling and shop hunting.

14th March, 2007
Mangalore, India.

Eklavya: Review

Eklavya – The Royal Guard

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali khan, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Jimmy Shergill, Vidya Balan, Raima Sen, Sharmila Tagore and Sanjay Dutt

Eklavya is one more movie coming from the stables of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and it really deserves to be called one of the finest crafted movies in recent times. Having roped in a heavy starcast with the VC Banner regulars like Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan, et. al. as well as getting Amitabh Bachchan to work with him for the first time, he does bring out the best of all of them to narrate a story which took 5 years to write and was equally difficult to portray.

More importantly he does not stretch the movie for the sake of it and keeps it as short as less than two hours with just one nominal song in the movie. The direction is impeccable to say the least. Some of the scenes especially the ones where Amitabh blindly separates the ghungroo from the pigeon, the scene where the camels cross across with the fast moving train in the background among others leave you just spell bound.

The story essentially portrays one of the Royal families in Rajasthan with no more dynasty and the secret behind how the lady of the family takes the help of their guard (Eklavya) to give birth to the next generation of the family. The revealing of this secret just before her death brings about a feeling of being cheated to her husband and sows the seeds of taking revenge for it. The director has shown great detail of creativity to create a scene as to how the secret is revealed to her son by the way of a painting by his twin sister (Raima Sen) who is mentally retarded by birth. And then starts the entire plot of how Eklavya keeps up the fight to keep up his duty of protecting the Royal family which otherwise would have resulted in ill-effects for the next few generations in his family.

Amitabh Bachchan comes up with and delivers one of the splendid performances till date. So much so that never in the movie would you feel that he is someone greater than the servant of the royal family. Saif is pretty neat in his role with lots of glimpses and shadows from his erstwhile Parineeta and so is the case with Vidya Balan too. Sanjay Dutt does a cameo in his short and sweet role of a policeman while the others (Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Raima Sen and Jimmy Shergill) don’t disappoint either in their tits and bits roles which bind up the plots.

Verdict: A combination of good talent putting up a great performance all together. Can there be any other reason for not watching the movie. Definitely a one time watch. (Though the subject of the movie is such that it cannot expect repeat audiences)Photo Courtesy: IndiaFM

Salaam-E-Ishq: Review

Salaam-E-Ishq: Review

Cast: Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Govinda, Akshay Khanna, Ayesha Takia, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, John Abraham, Vidya Balan, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla

Director: Nikhil Advani

Twelve People. Six Love Stories. One Problem. Love.

And more problems for the audience. That sums up all the movie is all about. Four hours… yes you got it correct… Four Hours of absolute torture and pure non-sense.

In the quest of making an out of box movie with a high profile multi-starrer cast, the director forgets to give the movie any sort of life or rather any sort of story even to begin with. In the first 15 minutes itself, you come to know that the movie is an absolute crap. And you wasted your hard earned money, and more importantly 4 precious hours of your life.

The absence of any sort of Story in the first place makes you feel whether the producer of the movie forgot to pay the writer. The Director, Nikhil Advani, wanted to bank on the success of his previous venture with Kal Ho Na Ho. But he rather forgot that he had to put in some efforts to make a movie which people would at least like to see in entirety. And regarding the Music of the movie, there is not a single song other than the title song which you would even like to hear once.

And the movie does more harm than any gain for seasoned actors like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla. The scenes with Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar seemed quite interesting with the former getting to desperate to have the after marriage activities with his wife, but things not working each time. Only Akshaye Khanna and Ayesha Takia have something to take away from this movie with some meaningful roles and enough time on-screen and both justifying it with their acting skills.

Verdict:
- If you don’t want to waste 4 hours of your precious life, better not watch it.
- If you want to waste 4 hours of your precious life, then too better not watch it as there are better thing to waste time on.

GURU... Gem of a Movie

Guru… A Mani Ratnam Film…

This statement itself was enough to make the movie a must watch. And no surprises this time. The movie is truly a must watch one… and that to at least more than once. There was enough of hype created around the movie from quite some time and with raw speculations of the movie being based on the story of one of the noted industrialists which India has ever seen, and more so his growth from a villager to a visionary, from rags to riches, from working for an MNC to running an MNC and more importantly from being part of the political system to almost running it… virtually.

The story starts where the lead character GuruKant Desai, son of a school teacher in a small village in Gujarat dreaming big about going out of his village and his country to earn money and much more defying the wishes of his father who felt it embarrassing that his son can’t even pass the school exams. And very much like the industrialist portrayed, he goes to the Gulf to work as delivery boy for Burma Shell.

And from there on, there is no stopping his dreams except that he has no money to invest to cultivate his dreams of being a big industrialist. And guess what… he actually marries his friend’s sister just for the sake of getting the prized amount in the form of dowry. And then, as and when there were hurdles to stop him, he knew just one thing… You have to get them out of your way at any cost. And he had his wife rallying with him with the necessary support all the time.

However, cloudy times come when Guru is charged of violating ‘n’ number of laws and regulations, taming the political system and the judiciary to make his company grow. And in those testing times even the million of shareholders of the company who treated him no less than God do ask him some questions. And this time he justifies his acts to open the tales of the system which is full of bureaucracy and red tapism and how he built his empire to make the nation grow in-spite of all that.

This is probably the biggest role for Abhishek Bacchhan and he does tremendous justice to it by actually living the role to the hilt. This might actually prove to be the right kind of push he required in his already soaring career. And at many times during the movie, especially in the second part you will notice the class and the charm of Amitabh Bachhan coming out in his acting. There is hardly anything though which Aishwarya Rai and Vidya Balan can take from the movie due to their small and immaterial roles. However, there was absolutely no point in getting a great icon from the south in Madhavan to do such a petty and non-worthy role in the movie.

The Music of the movie by A. R. Rahman is superb to say the least and the songs are quite hummable for quite some time to come. However the timing of the songs in the movie or the necessity of the same in the first place can be debated. And less said about the choreography, the better it is. The direction and the screenplay of the movie is nothing less than what you would always expect from Mani Ratnam.

Verdict: The movie is definitely a must watch for two reasons. One, the movie itself. Two, to get to know the growth of a man who transformed India and Indian industry to a great extent and the ploys he used to get there… it was not an easy road as it seems after all…!!!


Photo Courtesy: IndiaFM

Dhoom 2: Review

DHOOM : 2 or Doom 2?

You thought Dhoom was all about crazy bikes, breath-taking chase sequences and a self declared confrontation of the cops by a talented thief? Then it’s surely time to get your thoughts changed as the new version is far from meeting your expectations.

The expectations from this movie were quite high considering that the earlier Dhoom took the nation by storm two years back and was a real entertainer too. And more importantly, it really provided the much required push for the people to go crazy about big machines…or rather I should call them bikes.

The action of the movie was supposed to be the key factor in keeping the audiences interested. But this one proves to be a big big dampner in this regard. Infact when one sees the first scene of the movie where Hritik jumps from xxx feets on to a train to get hold of a jewel studded crown and the fight scenes that follow, they immediately make you realize that there is nothing much to take back from the movie. The notable point is the screenplay and the plots seem so un-realistic that one would rather prefer watching The Matrix (all 3 parts) for a much realistic one.

The story is a reasonably good one but what undid the plot for the film is the rather poor direction of the movie which lacks any kind of essence. The audience wanted to go by the bikes craze all over again, but alas that seemed to be conspicuous by its absence. The music of the movie by Pritam is nowhere near the ones from Dhoom where the entire nation was and is still singing Dhoom Macha Le. Infact none of the songs seem to be good enough to hum around even in the bathroom.

Hritik Roshan seems to have carried on himself from where he left in Krrish, jumping and flying in the air as and when required. And to top it all he’s done a Salman (mostly topless) and Emraan Hashmi (need I mention that) act in the movie. Aishwarya seems to have become so desparate to put her feet back in Bollywood that she is done a role which was just a bit more than being an item girl. And I believe Bipasha too needs to do some serious justice to herself and realize that she just won’t become a good actor by just posing in a bikini.

The only saving grace here is Abhishek Bachhan who seems to be growing up with every movie. His on-screen presence as a super-cop is as expected full of vigour and the required passion. Also Uday Chopra’s character, like in the earlier version, helps put some light moments in an otherwise rather tragic sequence.

Verdict: I am still figuring it out as to what was the movie all about. It did not really seem to be anything more than a fashion show and some badly done stunts. This movie promises to test your patience right from the word Go. But I guess that is not what you expect when you pay for the movie…Correct? Arre Bhai…Dhoom machega ki nahin?