Cash (2007)

Lots of jokes do indeed prevail about how this movie should have been called 'Trash' rather than Cash, i had read lots of reviews that wrote it off and decided to see for myself, hoping there might be some ridiculous camp moments i might i enjoy, but unfortunately there was little to keep me amused or entertained

The film revolves around some long lost diamonds stolen from India by the British in the 18th century, the diamonds get lost at sea only to be found years later, where its split into three, one of the diamonds lands in Cape Town south Africa. Karan (Ajay Devgan) a professional robber enlists the help of four robbers to assist in stealing the diamonds

Robber No.1 Pooja (Esha Deol)

Robber No.2 Danny (Zayed Khan)

& Robber No.3 Lucky (Ritesh Deshmukh)

also after the diamonds is another high profile robber Angad (Sunil Shetty)


and his girlfriend Aditi (Dia Mirza)


protecting the diamonds is Karan's police officer Girlfriend Shania (Shamita Shetty)

Will they be able to carry out the Heist?

Indeed you might have noticed my quick write up of the plot synopsis, which is unlike other movies i review on here, it's because this movie was a big disappointment, What could have been an exciting, fun even if yet camp movie is let down by a dull script which made watching it quite tedious, there were some goodies though

I loved the brief comic animated sequences with which some of the characters were introduced


In a movie where the cast are let down by the script or should i say whose script does their talent no justice, i couldn't help but admire and fall for Shamita Shetty's energy and fierceness, what a babe she truly is

the Hip Soundtrack by Vishal Shekhar is what i loved most about this film, thankfully i had rented this film but if i had spent my own CASH on it, i would have been consoled by the songs, if you love Pop Music and R'n'b you'll love the songs of cash

there's the drum and bass influenced title Track 'Cash'

'Naa Puchho' which mixes some subtle traditional strings with a kicking R'n'b bass,

Cash - Na Puccho
Uploaded by kandigee. - Explore more music videos.

the sensual mellow R'n'b grooves of 'Rahem kare'

and the wonderful 'mind Blowing Maahiya', i love the whole hinglish R'n'b vibe going on



Overall watch Cash only if you're a die hard fan of any of the actors or better yet still for the songs if that's your thing, i really hope the director Anubhav Sinha who's directing Sharukh Khan's forthcoming action film R.A 1 has stepped up his game and delivers a super exciting and highly entertaining film with R.A 1

Border (1997)

Hmmm so i had heard lots about this movie plus after repeated hearings of one the most haunting film songs i've heard plus a rather sexy and fresh looking Akshay i thought i'd definitely check it out. When my rental service sent me an email that it was on its way to me i couldn't contain my excitement but all this fell a bit flat after watching the film

Border is based on the 'real life events' that happened during the Indo- Pakistani war of 1971also called The battle of Longewala which up until this movie i knew nothing about and still don't know much about but you can read about in on wikipedia

Overall i found Border quite an interesting but aggravating watch I'm not one to get involved in politics & i won't pretend to be an expert on the subject of the Partition but i PERSONALLY believe India & Pakistan are one.


Border had some 'Us' versus 'Them' approach as you can see from the subtitles in the slide below which i felt uncomfortable with, that the director later seemed to create a one India, Pakistan and Bangladesh after this film seemed somewhat phony as i noted in my previous review of his film Refugee (2000) which was 3 years after Border


Also added to my annoyance was some self righteous hindu/muslim hypocrisy in the scene where Sunil Shetty rescues a pakistani's man Quran from a burning house to which the muslim then exclaims to himself "and people say Hindu's are bad" which came across in a rather hypocritical and a desperate attempt to pander to the masses kind of way




'ahhhhhhhhh' very cringeworthy

Patrotism is a good thing but belligerent patrotism seems be the point of focus a lot in border, perhaps the director knew some audiences would play up to this as the film was the highest grosser of 1997


The film ended on the note of 'beginning a lasting peace' which i felt was rather corny after all the bashing that had gone previously


Poor Sunil Shetty i usually find him quite adoarble but he seems to have been given all the bigoted dialogues


Akshay Khanna was one of the reasons i watched this fim, he was so handsome and he gave a beautiful performance eeven though the film is a bit wishy washy with me, he won the Filmfare best male newcomer Award for his role as Dharamvir Bhan



The women have small roles in border as the weeping wives and left behind girlfriends

Sharbani Mukherjee one of the wives left behind, i'd never heard of her till this film and if you are getting some Rani vibes from looking at this picture, they are indeed real life cousins

Tabu as the teary wife

Pooja Bhatt as the left behind wife


And my beloved Raakhee was there as the mother of the ill fated army general

The music of this film is perhaps another reason that stopped me from hating it completely. Anu Malik was as always on top form with the beautiful strings and romantic sounds of 'hamen jab se mohabbat' (watch to see a super gorgeous Akshay) to the quiet soothing ballad sounds of 'To chalun' to my favourie 'sandese hate hain' which is the major reason or rather the first song i saw from the film that made me watch it, this was also the song that made Sonu Nigam a huge star and also got him the Filmfare best male playback singer award, now Sonu fans and lovers of good music hit the play button below


Total Score: 5/10 (extra points for the sake of Anu Malik's music)

Refugee (2000)

While many bollywood stars hide and shriek when asked about their debut film, Kareena and Abhishek need not worry as their debut movie is a pretty impressive one

The backstory of the film is set in 1971 with the Bihar who had settled in East Bengal (a part of Pakistan) for a better life, things take a change when East Pakistan becomes Bangladesh, thus resulting in the these Muslims from Bihar seeking a new Refuge once more

Manzoor Khan (Kulbushan Kharbanda) happens to be one of the Bihars who lands in India wanting to cross the border into Pakistan with his family

They're led to Jaan Mohammed (Anupham Kher) the village senator who introduces them to Refugee (Abhishek Bachchan) who helps people across the border

Refugee helps take Manzoor Khan and his family across the border into Pakistan to meet his brother Atta Mohammed (Avtar Gill)

Refugee is a stand-offish & quite cold individual who doesn't get personally involved with the strangers he helps across the border, things change when he sets eyes on Manzur Ahmed's daughter Naaz (Kareena Kapoor)


Following his love for Naaz (Kareena Kapoor), Refugee keeps making the journey to Pakistan to see her


Ashraf (Suni Shetty) a Pakistani ranger falls for Naaz as well, he asks her hand in marriage from Manzoor Khan who is only glad to give her away unknown to Manzoor however is his daughter's love for Refugee

On the other side of the border in India Raghuvir Singh (Jackie Shroff) is suspicious about people crossing the border, he gets Jaan Mohammed to do regular headcounts to keep the population in check

Things take a turn when Refugee unknowingly helps Makka a terrorist into India.
Makka (Ashis Vidyathi) aware of the headcounts kills a villager and then takes upon his identity


On the other side of the border in Pakistan during a headcount search for a terrorist Manzoor's family are outed as Bangladeshi


Manzur Khan reasons and pleads his case, he explains a catch 22 situation where he explains how they're seen as traitors who had helped Pakistani and over here they're considered aliens

Events take another turn when Naaz tells her parents of her plans to marry Refugee and not Ashraf who her parents had promised her in marriage to


Refugee on the other hand faces hardship on the otherside when he's trapped in a terror foil


Will Refugee and Naaz get to see each other again? How will Naaz's parents handle her decision to marry Refugee and not Ashraf? Will Ashraf backoff or be a gentleman and respect Naaz' wishes?

Overall Refugee is an enjoyable watch and at just under 3hours 30minuto it kept my attention which i guess is due to the interesting storyline and amazing cinematography, its beautifully shot with great views of the Rann desert



At the heart of the film is that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are all one which on its own is a great message, however as i watched this movie after previously viewing the director J.P. Dutta's Border, which was somewhat anti Pakistani i can't help but feel the director was trying to right some wrongs

I liked Sunil in this, his character as Ashraf could have become the atypical film villain out to avenge his broken heart


Very natural performances from Kareena and Abhishek as well, given this was their first film Kareena and Abhishek were utterly impressive, they seemed natural and tended not to overact which i believe is a combination of their talents as well as the director's sternness



I was also delighted to see my beloved Reena Roy in a small role as Jaan Mohammed's wife, Reena is one of my favourite actress from 70's-80's bollywood


Excellent Music from Anu Malik, if i had to Pick my top five Music directors both old and new Anu Malik would definitely be there. The music of this film is utterly beautiful and is one of the reasons i can watch this film over and over again, from the joyful 'Aisa lagta hai' which celebrates the joys of young love, the awesome Rhythms and chorus of 'Jise tu na mila', the wonderful lyrics of 'Panchi Nadiya' which explores the freedom and borderless nature of birds a metaphor for restrictions on human immigration, the romantic 'taal pe jab yeh' (watch as kareena and Abhishek do a cute dance very similar to Masakali towards the end) but my favourite and the one song that kept lingering in my head after watching this film is 'Mere Humsafar mere paas aa' sang by the wonderful Alka Yagnik (i love this woman her voice invokes so much emotions in me)



Total Score: 7/10 (A well packaged commercial socio-political entertainer)

Kareena and Abhishelk should really be proud of this film as their debut. In the Yash Raj films dvd extras we get to see proud parents in the form of Big B and Jaya supporting their son of course

And Randhir Kapoor and Babita supporting their Bebo