Balaji's Thots

Special 26

A heist movie is typically divided into three sections – the planning, the execution and what can be termed the post-heist happenings. Each of these parts holds its own charm. The planning takes us into the minds of the gang members and gives us details about the plot; the execution brings on suspense about [...]

I’m not a big fan of interviews on TV since the interviewers steer clear of any topics that could be even remotely interesting. Afraid of controversy, they play it really safe and so the interviews are bland and boring with the actor repeating facts he/she has already uttered in a million interviews and praising sky [...]

Ishaqzaade is the latest movie to prove that even the most well-worn of stories can be presented in an interesting fashion on screen. Though it has a familiar story of star-crossed lovers facing hurdles in their romance because of their families, the film holds our attention because of the the way the romance is developed [...]

Sperm donation is a rather taboo topic and so its no surprise that not many Indian movies have dealt with that subject even tangentially(I can remember only one other film, Mohanlal’s classic Dasaratham, which touched our hearts with the emotional fight over the baby between a sperm donor and the woman who carried his child). [...]

Agent Vinod is Bollywood’s attempt to bring James Bond to Hindi cinema. The titular hero, played by Saif Ali Khan, is a suave, wisecracking RAW agent who is out to save the world from a deadly weapon and the man who intends to use it. The film has a decent plot and packs in some [...]

Kahaani serves up a perfect mix of thrills and emotions. Vidya Balan plays Vidya Bagchi, a London-based woman whose husband Arnab was on an assignment at the National Data Centre in Kolkata. With Arnab apparently vanishing into thin air a few days after arriving in Kokata, a very pregnant Vidya arrives in Kolkata, where she [...]

When it comes to remakes, the finest films are those where the director allows us to see his vision while retaining the spirit of the original. In Players, the official remake of The Italian Job, director duo Abbas-Mustan achieve the former but not the latter. They add their characteristic twists and turns to the story [...]

With the original Don not having a sequel, director Farhan Akhtar, who directed the remake of the original, goes with an original story for the sequel Don 2, which continues the saga of Don(Shah Rukh Khan). The film is another example of the phrase Style over Substance, propping up its non-existent story with slick cinematography, [...]

During his relentless pre-release promotional blitz, Shah Rukh Khan left no stone unturned to ensure that Ra.One became the most-hyped, most-publicized, most-anticipated film in quite a few years. We were led to believe that the film would be a game-changing entry in the sci-fi genre with its slick presentation and world-class special effects. Ra.One meets [...]

Along with fireworks, good food and new clothes, new film releases are an integral part of Diwali. While the number of films released on Diwali has gone down over the years, it is an important day for Kollywood with some high-profile movies always making it to screens. That is certainly true for Diwali this year, [...]