Aaj Ki Taaza Khabar (1973)

I had no idea what to expect from this movie and i was a bit skeptical as i hardly knew much of the cast but my fears were put aside when i embarked on the the fab ride that is Aaj Ki Taaza khabar (Today's headlines)

Sunil (Kiran kumar) & Geeta (Radha Saluja) are a married couple, when Sunil fails to come home early one night, Geeta becomes increasingly worried and is convinced he's having an affair



Sunil turns up in the morning, telling her he was stuck in a ferris wheel, when Geeta refuses to believe him, he cooks up a lie that he had spent the night with his friend Champak Bhumia


Geeta still not believing his word requests him to give her Champak Bhumia's address, Sunil makes up an address and Geeta sends a telegram requesting the so called Champak Bhumia to come over, she tells Sunil if Champak does indeed come over she would believe he's telling the truth


When Sunil realises Radha actually sent a telegram to a certain Champak Bhumia he becomes worried thinking there might be a probability of a Chamapak Bhumia turning up


Sunil's friend Amit (Asrani) who's just arrived from abroad notices Sunil acting all panicky, Sunil narrates the situation to him telling him how he had met a lovely lady at the fair and how things had started turning quite romantic between them till the ferris wheel got stuck leaving them up in the air over night



Sunil appears bothered wondering that his marriage to Geeta will be over if he finds she's been lying. Amit decides to take upon the role of Champak Bhumia considering Geeta has never met him, thus Amit acts as Champak Bhumia, all is well and Geeta believes Sunil's story him


On a certain day Motiyan (Padma Khanna) who claims to be Champak Bhumia's wife comes to accuse Geeta of infidelity as a result of the telegram Geeta had sent asking Champak Bhumia to come over


Is there really a Champak Bhumia out there or is Motiyan another one of Sunil's inventions to cover up his lie? Will he ever own up to his wife and tell her the truth?

Aaj ki Taaza Khabar is a smart and cleverly scripted comedy drama about the importance of trust in relationships, as seen through Sunil & Geeta's relationship, you just might be scared of lying to your partner after watching this, honesty really is the best policy.


Aaj ki taaza khabar has one of the most insane, twisted and mind bogging playfully suspense endings ever, if you've watched Johnny mera Naam (1970) you'll know what i'm driving at. The message of a Woman's suspicious nature forcing a man to lie, which the film tries to advocate didn't sit right with me as Sunil did have some suspicious behaviour, and would have probably cheated with the woman he met on the ride had it not been that the ferris wheel got stuck. All in all an enjoyable and well scripted movie even if a tad bit slow in places, watch it if you want a break from all the crazy masala films of the 70's

Of course the film owes its charm to the performances of its stars, Asrani was awarded the filmfare best comedian for his role


Kiran Kumar was fresh faced and cute, i had no idea he did meatier roles, i was used to seeing him as a villain or as a corrupt cop in most of his 80's stuff.



Radha Saluja was lovely too

so was Manju Asrani gotta love the print on her sari

Good music from Shankar Jaikishen there's the hilarious 'Muje meri biwi se bachao' and 'ye mard bade bedardi' and a rather funky item number by mehmood 'Raat hai baat hai' My favourites are 'Khilti hua shabab' with the super fab Helen in some tropical & art deco style outfits



Aaj Ki Thaza Khabar - Khilta Hua Shabab
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and the exuberant 'Happy Birthday to Pinky'

Paisa Vasool Rating: 7/10

Edited to add: The 2008 release Golmaal Returns was based on this film

Dhadkan (2000)

This film has a lot of beautiful songs which is the reason i watched it plus its one of Shilpa's most famous films so i thought i'd check it out

Dev (Sunil Shetty) a pooor man who can't even afford to change his chewed up Kolhapuri sandal is in love with wealthy Anjali (ShilpaShetty)

Dev's mother (Sharmila tagore) urges Anjali to promise her she would stick by him forever as he's known as illegitimate by society, Anjali promises her

Anjali tells her parents of her lover Dev, when he comes to meet them he doesn't even bother to make an effort plus he fails to make a good impression on her parents as he starts acting arrogantly

Anjali's father is disgusted and feels disgraced by her bringing home such a lowly guy, he arranges for her to be married to wealthy Ram (Akshay Kumar)

As Anjali is a traditional girl at heart and not wanting to disobey her parents she willingly marries Ram and of course she feels bad for betraying the promise she had made to Dev's mother

Dev is devastated and if the breakup wasn't bad enough, his mother dies leaving Dev alone in the big bad world

After their marriage Anjali refiuses to have sex with Ram, being the gentleman that he is, he agrees


(hell no what's it with this Ram, a night or two is fine but a whole month... hell no..lol)

Eventually she starts warming up to Ram and she falls deeply in love with him

Things take a turn when Dev now a millionaire comes back into her life, Dev hopes he can still make Anjali marry him

When he notices her love for Ram, Dev is jealous and he starts creating havoc in their lives

Will Anjali and Ram's marriage survive Dev's evil tactics? Will she remain faithful to Ram or will her affections shift towards Dev?

Dhadkhan (heartbeat) irritated the hell out of me, the done to death love triangle plus all the self sacrifices got on my nerves, also added to my annoyance was some Cinderellaesque type storyline with Sushma Seth as the wicked Stepmother Inlaw and Parmeet Sethi and Manjeet Kular as the wicked step sisters. Despite all the annoying things, for some reason i couldn't chuck it out of my Dvd player, i watched it all the way through as such I wouldn't describe it as an entirely awful film, but its not execeptionally good either watch it if you like Shilpa, Akshay & Sunil or if you're in need of some time filling entertainment or better still for the songs, the music of this film is probably one of the reasons it'll still be playing on my Dvd

Decent performances from all the cast but why oh why did Sunil Shetty win Best villain for this film, i've nothing against his acting in this but his role when he comes back to wreak havoc in Ram and Anjali's life can hardly be described as true villain material

Fabulous soundtrack from Nadeem-Shravan i loved all the songs here the romantic 'Dil ne yeh kaha hai' the joyful 'aksar is duniya mein' the celebratory 'Na na karte pyar' which sounds like a Chinese pop song and my favourite 'Tum Dil me Dhadkan ho'


Total Score: 5/10 ( Tired but watchable love story)