Ankahee (2006)

I have to admit, and perhaps as is obvious by now, i'm a bigger fan of the old bollywood films than the currrent ones, but now and again there comes a film from the current era that makes its way onto my favourites list, Ankahee (Untold) is one of them, perhaps not the most perfect film but i liked the story, enjoyed watching it and enjoyed the performances

When Kaavya (Esha Deol) a reigning beauty queen& starlet arrives at Dr Shekhar's (Aftab Shivdasani) hospital after attempting suicide, he takes pity on her and they start having an affair

However Dr. Shekhar is a married man with a lovely wife Nandita(Amisha Patel) and daughter Sheena, his friend Dr Kunal (Amin Hajee) warns him about Kaavya, alerting him on her Manic depressive personality and that nothing he does can ever make her happy

Dr Shekhar's affair with Kaavya soon becomes national news & Kaavya's reputation and work suffers, Shekhar's marriage too hits breaking point

Will he be able to make amends and save his marriage? Will Shekhar continue his affair with Kaavya?

I loved and thoroughly enjoyed watching this film, one little thing that bothered me though was the lack of attempt to portray two different decades, considering the film was set in two different decades, the director could have made an attempt to mark out the difference more realistically by adding fashion and cultural artefacts more typical of each, in particualr the earlier decade which was the late 70's/early 80's

A big part of the movie that stayed with me is What happens when we fail to draw up boundaries in our lives as could be seen in Dr Shekhar's affair with Kaavya, true he felt sorry for her but had he drawn a boundary, most especially over that of his marriage, his life wouldn't have been distraught

On the other hand Shekhar's straying could have been as a result of his over devoted wife who forgets her own aspirations, even when she was encouraged by her husband to focus on her own ambitions. I love this film's angle on this, yes she wants to be a good devoted wife, but over dependency or being too clingy is smothering and one does get the impression that its this clinginess that leads Shekhar on to commit adultery

I've never seen Aftab Shivdasani in a central role and he just excels as Dr. Shekhar here, he's not over the top with his acting here, and he pulls it off with just enough restraint

Amisha Patel is one of my favourite actresses of modern times, she's on fine form here, a bit melodramatic but lovely none the less

Esha Deol, where do i start, for all those allegations about star kids having it easy, Esha surely hasn't, sure it probably gave her a footing, Esha hasn't enjoyed immense success or fame. What an intense actress she was in this, she really executed her performance as a manic depressive, i believed her as the over possessive, manipulative Kaavya. Esha is a great actress and i hope she picks or is given more chances to develop her talents, this is an actress i would like to see more of

I love the gigantic picture of her face on her living room wall

Fabulous songs from Pritam none of his usual peppy numbers here, rather the music here is more sentimental and are mostly ballads, like the lovely 'Lamaa', 'aa paas aa' , 'tum se yun milenge' and my favourite which is 'Ek pal ke liye'

Paisa Vasool rating: 7/10

Humraaz (2002)

After giving us a hollywood/bollywood taste of Disclosure with Aitraaz, my favourite director duo Abbas Mustan strike again in this entertaining suspense drama. Humraaz (our secret) is said to have been inspired by Dial M for Murder which i'm yet to see, however i did enjoy this colourful suspense thriller

Karan (Akshay Khanna) and Priya (Amisha Patel) are a couple, they're also dance instructors hoping to make it big


Priya believes they can make it so does Karan, they hope their dance troupe will be selected for as the major healiners for a ship cruise

Their auditions are threatened when Jojo Fernandes a fellow competitor for the cruise ship gets selected ahead of the other dance troupes without auditioning

A dissatisfied Karan decides to approach the owner of the Cruise ship Mr Raj Singhania (Bobby Deol) about the issue


the auditions are reopened and Jojo jeopardises the chances of Karan's dance troupe by tossing a coin on the floor while Karan's dance troupe are performing , a vengeful Karan murders Jojo, his dance troupe are then selected for the cruise


Priya meets Raj during a dogchase on the cruise, Raj takes a liking to her

The two start dating and Karan starts getting Jealous

Raj asks for Priya's hand in marriage and she agrees, however its a plot to trap Raj, Raj and Priya had planned this all along in order to kill Raj and then inherit his property

Raj and priya get married and on the wedding night she refuses Raj sex asking him to wait for a month, a kind Raj agrees

(Hell no, after a lifelong of waiting there's no way i'll give in to this kind of demand one night is fine but one whole month hell no..Lol)

Karan and Priya's plot goes wrong when Priya starts falling for Raj as a result of this she becomes hesitant in carrying out she and Karan's plot


Will she give in to karan's demands? Will Raj take matters into his own hands? Will Raj ever come to know of Priya and Karan's schemes? Watch Humraaz to find out

This is a well placed suspense movie from Abbas Mustan, the suspense is introduced when least expected and generally keeps with the pace of the story, Humraaz is totally enjoyable but a minor downer for me came with the masalaish fighting end

Humraaz is also helped with great acting from all its stars

Bobby was fantastic as Raj Singhania, i loved his performance in this and i guess this is my best Bobby movie so far his character as Raj also provided me with my favourite Hindi film dialogue Tum aashiq nahin, talal, talal hai (you're not a love rather you're a pimp, a pimp)..LOL


I loved Amisha in this, what happened to her, She was bollywood's sweet girl around this time as she was riding high on the success of Kaho naa pyar hai and Gadar.. Ek Prem Katha, she was great in this and her character even though she resorts a bit to the atypical damsel in distress towards the end, her character is well etched out, and she looked utterly gorgeous


bahut khubsoorat ladki

Ahh Akshay Khanna he was fantastic in this, so evil so cunning and soo sexy


i love his funky shirt

Great Music by Himmesh Reshammiya ( i love this soundtrack a lot), from the earworm worthy 'Bardasht nahin ka sakhta' ( i love this song soooo much), the mellow grooves of 'Pyar kar' where Akshay gets to pull some funky moves to the romantic sweet sounds of 'Dil ne ka liya' the breezy sexy sounds of 'Sanam mere humraaz' and the very upbeat 'Life ban jayegi' which is sure to get any true blooded bollywood party rocking

Total Score:7/10 ( An enjoyable suspense thriller)

Humraaz is available on Youtube with English subtitles in 19 parts

BUY DVD