There will be 19 films mainly focusing on the theme of comedy, with the slogan Laugh Like a European.

Within this theme they have made a selection of films that provides something for everybody from situational comedies, films on relationship faux pas, animation and children’s films to musicals and comic action thrillers.

The EU Film Festival in India comes to the result of collaboration with EU Member States and Indian organizations such as Federation of Film Societies of India, National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai), India Habitat Centre (New Delhi), Cine Central (Kolkata), Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation (Chennai), Thrissur Chalachitra Kendram and Corporation of Thrissur.

Wrong Side Up: An eccentric comedy that dives into the common daily insanities of post Communist life in the Czech Republic. Peter works at the freight terminal of an airport and his girlfriend Jana has just left him for someone with a far more interesting job. Peter hopes to win his ex-girlfriend back although most of his encounters with her don’t go exactly as planned.

The Physics of Water: Alessandro the seven-year-old dislikes his uncle Claudio. He sabotages Claudio’s car breaks. But he sees his mother get in the car with Claudio and fails to stop the accident. The boy is forced to dig deep into the blocks of his memory until the true motives of his dislike for his uncle are unveiled.

Love is all: All the story-lines within this romantic comedy are linked to a greater or lesser degree. But sooner or later every character ends up meeting Jan, who in his role of deus ex machina sees to it that in the end love conquers all.

Beloved Berlin Wall: Franzi and Sascha have to find their ways to stand up for their love and strive for the impossible to bring down the wall.

Kino Caravan: An old truck transformed into a “Kino Caravan” is visiting a remote, isolated mountain village from Transylvannia as to screen Russian propaganda films. It’s the first

After a long ride of excitement and hope, Colin Firth in King’s Speech selected as the Best film in Oscar. As attention-grabbing plotlines go, it’s hardly a world-beater: buttoned-down British royal suffers speech impediment and hires unconventional Aussie quack to conquer his fear of public oratory. So it’s thanks to the best efforts of writer David Seidler, director Tom Hooper and, especially, leads Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush that The King’s Speech isn’t just an enlightening period drama, but a very entertaining, heartfelt and surprisingly funny crowd-pleaser with great glints of Oscar gold in its eye.

Awards Winners:

Actor in a Leading Role: Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”
Actor in a Supporting Role : Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
Actress in a Leading Role : Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Actress in a Supporting Role : Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Animated Feature Film : “Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich
ArtDirection:“Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

Cinematography : “Inception” Wally Pfister
Costume Design: “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood

Directing : “The King’s Speech” Tom Hooper
Documentary (Feature) : “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Documentary (Short Subject) : “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Film Editing : “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film : “In a Better World” Denmark
Makeup : “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Music (Original Score) : “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Music (Original Song) : “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Best Picture: “The King’s Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
Short Film (Animated): “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Short Film (Live Action) : “God of Love” Luke Matheny
Sound Editing: “Inception” Richard King
Sound Mixing : “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
Visual Effects : “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) : “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Writing (Original Screenplay) : “The King’s Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Evidently designed as a project to glorify his heroism, Salman Khan is the single reason you sit through the film. Sadly Salman can’t solely substitute for the abundant ambiguities in the film. Writer Shaktimaan fails to develop Salman’s story into a compelling screenplay falling prey to outmoded clichés and the film merely ends up being a love story between two warring families with the age-old revenge angle thrown in for good measure.
With shot-takings derived from Jodhaa Akbar ‘s battlefield sequences, the film starts on an interesting note. But the pace soon drops as an uninspiring love story takes precedence and too much of time is expended in song and dance. Though the narrative in first half doesn’t move beyond their redundant romance, the chemistry between the couple is palpably missing.
Half a dozen character artists are stuffed in the Pindari community, though none of them are established or contribute competently towards the war. Like many of those histrionic action sequences from the film where the hero makes a late entry to win instant applause, the film picks up pulse in the latter reels. The swayamvar sequence (derived from Dharam Veer ) and the climatic combat between father-son (inspired from Mard ) makes way for some dense dramatic moments. But Veer is excruciatingly long at a runtime that doesn’t justify its frail storytelling.
Action director Tinu Verma does a decent job in directing the stunt sequences but at several instances the rope tricks show off. Cinematographer Gopal Shah adds the requisite regal touch to the film, as his camera hovers vibrantly in action and battle sequences to capture accurate animated frames. Sanjay Dhabade’s art direction and Anna Singh’s costume designs somewhere fuses the period feel with a contemporary touch. Sajid Wajid’s musical score is pleasing to the ear and goes in sync with the period setting.

Salman Khan takes absolute precedence amongst everything else and roars through a powerful performance. The warrior character befits his stud and sturdy image and he doesn’t have to try too hard. Prominent in every frame of the film, he overshadows everyone else so much so that supplementary actor-brother Sohail Khan doesn’t even get one consolation solo scene. That thankfully moderates the trauma since all Sohail does is his brand buffoonery. Mithun Chakravarthy is the only one who stands on his own other than Salman Khan adding life to his character. Zarine Khan is a replica of Katrina Kaif and using the same dubbing artist only adds to the analogy. Lisa Lazarus is absolutely wasted in a two scene role. Jackie Shroff repeats his humdrum villainous act. Puru Rajkumar is unintentionally funny in his accented English.

The Bollywood Filim Veer doesn’t offer variety. But if you are a veracious Salman Khan fan, Veer is watchable

Expectedly our hero Immi (Shahid Kapoor) lands up at the spot and wins Priya’s heart through his premeditated ways by sneaking beforehand into her personal dairy. Love blooms and soon goes kaboom. Both part ways leaving it on destiny to make them reunite. Three years later both are individually engaged to someone else. But like all archetypal love stories of Bollywood, in the climax, both the hero and heroine are destined to run away from their respective marriages and run into each other.
While too many coincidences in any screenplay is a sign of weak writing, the story of Milenge Milenge relies so much on destiny that it employs flukes of fate as its USP. While writer Shiraz Ahmed uses references from several films like Maine Pyaar Kiya (cigarette scene), Ishq (fake principal scene) and Shola aur Shabnam (boys in girls hostel scene) while penning scenes in the first half, the actual story unfolds in the second half and is directly derived from Serendipity . How one wishes the proceedings in each protagonist’s hunt for the other was more eventful rather than Immi sobbing before a bank manager and Priya broadcasting her love on radio stations in vain. Rather the continual near misses remind the viewer of Boney Kapoor’s earlier production Sirf Tum.
When Himesh Reshammiya exercises his shrieky vocal chords every now and then in the background, you wonder whether watching him onscreen is a comparatively easier task? The theme track ‘ Kuch Toh Baaki Hai ’ which keeps repeating through the film is a fatal mixture of ‘ Dil To Pagal Hai ’ and Atif Aslam’s ‘ Judaa Hoke Bhi ’ ( Adat ). Director Satish Kaushik tries his best to add charm to this romantic-comedy but the comedy doesn’t click and the romance is left to destiny. Rather he amuses more as the comedy sidekick mouthing his trademark gibberish dialogues.
Both Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor are earnest and their chemistry is credible. But why do every other character artist in the film from Satish Shah to Delnaz Paul end up hamming. Panini Rajkumar (yesteryear actor Rajkumar’s younger son) is plastic personified. Aarti Chhabria and Sarfaraz Khan lack screen presence.

Watch it only if you are just interested to see Kareena Kapoor when the term size zero wasn’t coined. Else The Bollywood Movie Milenge Milenge doesn’t score too much above zero.

At the end, there will nothing define as WHO WAS WRONG and WHO WAS RIGHT? It is just as it happened with Akira Kurusowa’s RASHOMON. The ultimate decision about the right judgment lies in the hands of no one, but you. Might be for the situation, there may be few debates popping up sooner after the show is over as few people may advocate for Beera, while others Raghini and Dev.
Unlike other films, it’s best to make few points on the technical aspects. This is outstanding and you could have guessed it just with the list of the technicians. First of all, Manirathnam’s ability to shoot major portion of the film besides, inner and nearby locations of waters has to be appreciation. The backdrops of locations maybe different, but the continuities have been strictly followed as audiences may not feel the difference anywhere.
In fact, the story’s proceedings are mostly happening over there. You would not have found any sequences related to an unexpected character proposing the ladylove in water. Yes, the scene where Abhishek Bachchan expresses his love for Aishwarya between the waters is simply superb and for sure there are possibilities of audiences keeping quiet with shock or may freak out raising for applauses.
For the performance, Abhishek Bachchan is exposed in a completely different manner from Manirathnam’s yesteryear films Yuva and Guru. Try to grasp on his performance of Aishwarya Rai, the victim trying to attack him and yet he reciprocates with a different gesture. But the man who steals the show is South Indian actor Chiyaan Vikram. He is fit and more perfect and this one does not look like debut film in Hindi. He is so well versed with dialogues. His introduction is not as formal as it happens with his previous Tamil films.
When it comes to dialogues, Aishwarya Rai gets more footage just as she emotes well wedged between confusions on finalizing her life’s way.
The supporting actors like Ravi Kissan and Priyamani (one of the important characters in this film) have done the best performances. But some of the conversations pertaining between every character look like a stage play. Vikram’s body language speaks more than his dialogues while yesteryear actor Govinda has got far away from those clownery acts. Every character has its own definitions and conclusions as director Manirathnam does justice to the roles he has designed.
More than songs, the background score by A.R. Rahman will surely receive more welcome as the musician has well performed enhancing the breathtaking shots of Santhosh Sivan. But it’s weird to see that Manirathnam’s ‘GURU’ climax shot of freeze-and-frame is used at more sequence. For exemplification, the ‘KATA KATA’ has similar shot that causes a sort of pain in the neck. It could have been done even without it. Sreekar Prasad’s editing is crisp as before as he doesn’t try anything new. But the best of all picturing is ‘BEHNE DE’ that has everything superb – music, camera, lyrics and performing levels of actors.

There are some emotional criteria involving Abhishek Bachchan and Priyamani and their heart-binding scenes at certain portions will attract the audiences of all centres.
On the whole, Hindi Movie Raavan is a great movie at Indian standards that will be regarded as the best flicks of contemporary period.
Overall the movie is a good one and will give satisfaction to the viewers… Mani Rathinam can relax for some time and let me appreciate he and his team for the good work.

Where’s the story you ask? Somewhere in the second half (thankfully)! What’s the story you ask? A masala mix of several potboilers (thanklessly). Hetal’s father Batuk (Boman Irani) who is not on talking terms with his daughter ever since her love marriage decides to pay her a visit in London. A comedy of error follows as Aarush is mistaken to be Hetal’s husband. The conflict is as old as Rajesh Khanna’s Joroo Ka Ghulam (1972) to Rishi Kapoor’s Honeymoon (1992). More confusion ensues with the entry of Sandy’s brother, Krishna (Arjun Rampal) as a fake family is set up to win his consent for the marriage. The setting is as ‘familiar’ as Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Golmaal to Rohit Shetty’s All The Best (with Arjun almost recreating Sanjay Dutt’s part) or the more recent TV sitcom Sajan Re Jhooth Mat Bolo . Further Arjun and Akshay play Sach Ka Samna until the moment of truth arrives in the climax amidst laughing gas.
While one doesn’t expect much from producer Sajid Nadiadwala ’s skills as a storywriter, the screenplay by Sajid Khan, Milap Zaveri and Vibha Singh is hugely disappointing for being patchy and contrived. One wonders whether the actors go overboard to make up for the weak writing (esp. in the first half) or whether the writing is intentionally shallow to allow the actors to clown around.
There are some genuinely funny moments in the second half esp. Boman Irani sleepwalking through his portrayal of Gujarati Sholay . Unfortunately it fails to salvage the harm caused by the bland, boring and banal first half. Also this time Sajid fails to show the finesse of Farah Khan in pulling off spoofs.

Shankar Ehsaan Loy come up with a peppy and foot-tapping musical score. ‘ O Girl You’re Mine ’ is a breezy number while the ‘ Dhanno remix ’ is refreshingly recreated. But what’s with the ludicrous lyrics? ‘ Volume kum kar papa jag jayega ’ only complements the loud comedy of the film and ‘ Aaja tujhe heaven dikhaoungi ’ is certainly not hell-uva material. Vikas Shivraman’s cinematography is menthol cool, Farah Khan’s choreography is graceful and Aki Narula and Shabina Khan’s costume designs are trendy.

Both Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh are regular in their comic acts. Arjun Rampal is cast in a serious role and does well with the straight-faced expressions that his character demands. Lara Dutta is alluring. Deepika Padukone looks stunning. Jiah Khan pales in comparison. The gorgeous Jacqueline Fernandez adds to the eye-candy. Boman Irani induces the real funny moments. Chunky Pandey hams. Lilette Dubey is a pleasant change in a character usually designed for Kirron Kher. Daisy Irani is wasted.
The Bollywood Movie Housefull ends up being a painful experience.

But unfortunately the film falls way below the expectations and just remains on the periphery without any kind of emotional depth and feel as required by the subject chosen by the master film-maker. In fact, I would like to add that the movie frankly fits no-where in the list of all the other notable achievements made by the director in his illustrious career.
Revolving around Rajat Kapoor & Rituparna Sengupta a newly-wed couple visiting Sikkim on a business cum pleasure tour, the film actually begins when out of a sudden Rajat Kapoor faints in a Buddhist temple seeing a lady monk saying her prayers, played by Antra Mali. His past has something to do with the lady which starts haunting him and he loses all his peace of mind due to that. The story then mainly deals with this love triangle between the three characters and it goes on to reveal many dark secrets of their past disturbing each one of them individually.

Truly speaking, Sandhya Gokhale’s story was fine having both the elements of love and surprise to shock the viewer. But her own screenplay ruins the idea completely as the film never pulls you in to share the trauma faced by the trio. Further, Amol Palekar’s direction also leaves you unmoved since the characters remain few fictional people moving on the screen and never give you the feeling of some real people as experienced in all the previous projects of the director.
Rajat Kapoor as the husband is fine but I couldn’t understand why he was made to speak Hindi in his few dialogues when the film was actually made in English. Rituparna Sengupta doesn’t look like a real life character as she is adjustable to simply everything happening with the couple. Due to this fact her portrayal of Rajat’s wife appears to be a fake. Antra Mali too is not able to make any kind of impact on the viewers with her bold bald getup as the lady monk. She mostly remains silent and expressionless throughout the movie. The actor playing Rituparna’s father has a great voice and fine dialogue delivery style but the girl playing their family friend has nothing much to in the film.

Musically, the project should have been a song less venture for sure. Still Amol very strangely puts in few songs (in English), having no melody in them, which were not required at all in the first place.
In all, The Bollywood Filim “And Once Again” has nothing to offer either to the classes or to the masses. The movie never makes you feel even once that you are really watching a film directed by the veteran Amol Palekar. May be he had his own reasons of making it this way. But considering its skillful cinematography, the film can be more enjoyed as a visual trip to Sikkim and its monasteries than a movie made for the theaters.

Let me start with a unique experience I had while watching “3 Idiots” paid premiere in one of Delhi’s leading multiplex on Thursday night. The house was full and everyone was pretty excited to see the last most awaited film of the year 2009. The show was to start at 7pm but unfortunately the print got stuck somewhere and there was a delay announced in the hall of about half an hour. Unusually the wait became long enough to complaint, and the show started 3 hours late at around 10pm. But not a single person in the theater abandoned the show and went back home. Everyone just stayed there in their seats waiting for three long hours along with their kids and family. The ambience made me feel the power, magic and expectations associated with two big names of Bollywood, namely Aamir Khan and Raj Kumar Hirani. And as the movie ended, everyone stood there clapping as refreshed as ever, even after they had spent more than 6 hours sitting in the cinema hall.

In few words, “3 Idiots” fulfills every promise it made and entertains the viewer completely with its engrossing and enlightening content based upon some real life happenings, we see and read about every day. Loosely inspired from Chetan Bhagat’s novel, “Five Point Someone”, it starts with the story of two friends, who are in search of their third adorable room-mate of the engineering college who actually helped them both in finding their own desired path in life. Commencing with a phone call to Madhavan, about their lost friend, the movie keeps shifting between the present & the past and majorly talks about the days they all spent together in the college studying engineering.
The first half is full of highly enjoyable moments which have a distinctive Hirani flavor and are sure going to be liked by everyone of any age or gender. The pants dropping humor may be a bit weird for some but the youngsters would not mind it at all for a change. However the engineering college campus and the in-class sequences in the movie do remind you of all the famous medical college scenes in Hirani’s debut masterpiece “Munnabhai M.B.B.S”. The entertaining first half ends on a mystery note, which straight away gets solved post intermission and then the story moves on towards the search of the third lost idiot, Aamir. Though the second half has got some dragging moments in the mid but overall, it makes a good impact on the viewer with a masterstroke used towards the climax having a pleasant surprise twist. And in the end, it makes you leave the hall clapping with a cheerful smile.

Director Rajkumar Hirani brilliantly writes all his scenes along with the talented Abhijat Joshi and the experienced Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The ease with which he showcases serious issues like Suicides by Students, Ragging in Colleges, Faulty Education System based on memorization and the unnecessary competition creating tension is simply commendable. He politely gives his own message through many comic and hilarious sequences in the movie which also have much bigger hidden indications for the society. Further, he goes on to humbly remind you that Are you doing the job you always wished for? Or you also have just compromised and bowed down to the demanding needs of your greedy surroundings and still regretting the major decision of your life.
To be straight, “3 Idiots” is a director’s movie completely. Though it has been more publicized and awaited as an Aamir Khan project, but it would be completely unfair to treat it at par with the perfectionist’s earlier movies where he is in full force as a solo hero. In fact, every big and small character in “3 Idiots”, strongly makes his presence felt, which in turn restrains anybody from calling it an Aamir Khan movie alone. Having said that, I would also like to add that with “3 Idiots” Aamir once again proves his unmatchable understanding of the medium and willingness to work better with a team spirit. He consistently delivers another flawless performance of his shining career under the expert direction of Raj Kumar Hirani. His commitment towards the works shows from the unbelievable slim physique he gets into for the role of a college student after the famous body building act of “Ghajini” and comes out as a clear winner.
After Aamir, the next best act comes from Sharman Joshi who very convincingly portrays a complex character of a student caught in a dilemma. It’s unarguably the toughest role and Sharman’s the best performance of his career till date. A truly award winning act by the young lad in the Best Supporting Act Category this year. The third idiot, Madhavan equally impresses in the role of an engineering student, wishing to become a wild life photographer from heart. Madhavan, never makes you feel his huge star status in the south and impressively plays his part with a quite conviction. Boman Irani is superb as earlier seen in the similar role a University professor. Actually, he has mastered this particular kind of character by now and looks great in his messy get up in the movie.

Kareena Kapoor hasn’t got a big role in the script, but she still manages to catch your attention through her new look with the glasses. Mona Singh is cool in her few scenes but Javed Jaffery is wasted in a two scene role. The actor playing the studious friend of the 3 Idiots is first rate and Parikshit Sahni thankfully is there with a controlled act. Cinematography is worth mentioning especially in the scenes where the three friends meet at the top of a high rise structure, the beautiful roads in the mountains and the climax scene shot along the blue water lake of Ladakh. Shantanu Moitra’s music is not worth buying as an album, but it impresses and leaves a mark after you have watched the movie in the theater. The song “All Izz Well” keeps growing on the mind, once you understand the real meaning of its lyrics in the movie. Background score suits the mood of the script well and is used creatively in the scenes.
Summing up, there is no doubt that “3 Idiots” is one of the finest movies of 2009 and will be a great success at the box office, but at the same time I would like to share a few points I have in mind about the movie :

Firstly, the basic format of the movie remains very close to Hirani’s debut venture “Munnabhai MBBS”. It has many similar (not identical) scenes of college classrooms, lectures and exams (though the subjects are different). The interaction between Boman and Aamir is on the similar lines of Boman and Sanjay Dutt. There is also a Hospital Sequence of Sharman getting paralyzed and Aamir curing him with his miraculous ways (quite identical to Carrom Board Sequence in Munna Bhai). And lastly as there was “Jaadoo Ki Jhappi” in Munna Bhai and “Gandhigiri” in “Lage Raho”, similarly here we have a new phrase “All Izz Well” used in 3 Idiots to woo the audiences. So I somewhere felt the basic framework of the movie written around the same commercial elements used in Munna Bhai.

Secondly the pregnancy sequence of Mona Singh, where Aamir has to perform as a doctor on the online guidance of Kareena, was visibly deliberate, filmy and quite far from reality.
And thirdly, I couldn’t appreciate the way, Hirani hilariously treated the poor family of Shaman Joshi and the character of his paralyzed father. He mercilessly used the poor character as a comedian and made the audience laugh at his helpless situation which I didn’t find very amusing. This particular part was not as per the standards set by Hirani himself through his earlier two masterpieces and was an avoidable patch on an otherwise brilliant and highly entertaining flick from the master craftsman.
Despite of the above mentioned points, the talented trio, Rajkumar Hirani, Aamir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have a sure shot winner in their hands, which will be unanimously liked by all the section of the viewers together and should turn out to be a big success. It is an important Bollywood movie for all youngsters since it teaches them to follow their inner dreams and desires. And it gives them an ultimate message that “You should first aim at enjoying and achieving brilliance in your work and then success will automatically follow”. A must watch for all.

Mansi (Gul Panag), Candy (Celina Jaitley) and Satvati (Eesha Koppikar) work in an office under a boss (Javed Jaffery) whose life and every action is driven by libido. Ignoring his dowdy wife (Divya Dutta), the incorrigible lecher doesn’t miss half a chance of hitting upon women with the hope of having some ‘good time’ with them.
When things come to a head, the three women decide to teach the horny Hardik a lesson. On the other hand, the boss’s wife (Divya) takes the help of a hubby reforming NGO, Pati Sudharak Samiti, with its hardliner head (Seema Biswas) who adopts shock methods like a volley of slaps to bring the stray husbands back on fidelity track.
There’s confusion galore after a case of mistaken identity. There’s a dead body, eunuchs, thieves, dumb docs and many more as the plot goes haywire and cooks up a hodgepodge in the name of comedy. Sadly, none of it works.

Director Manoj Tiwari hardly gets anything right in Hello Darling. The comedy is not just slapstick and inane, it borders on daftness. The double meaning dialogues don’t add to laughs either. Many situations seem deliberately stitched in the plot to make the proceedings funny. The sequence when the three actresses pose as nurses and kidnap the dead body from the hospital may draw some chuckles.
The film’s three leading ladies seem to be in competition to see who hams the most, a contest which Celina wins hands down. Javed Jaffery as the lusty lech is over the top, while Divya Dutta comes up with the only credible performance.

All in all, Hello Darling, the Hindi Movie, is rife with silliness. But if you happen to be a titillation seeker like the testosterone driven boss Hardik, you might find a silver lining in the cleavages of the hot babes.