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Subhash K Jha is once again focussing on a film that is well, maybe, not the best in this edition of This Day That Drivel: as he revisits Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, which released in 2002.

If only wishes were cabinet portfolios. Bihari Babu Shatrughan Sinha plays an idealistic Home Minister battling militancy in the Valley. The Kashmir problem was so poorly depicted in Vinod Chopra’s Mission Kashmir and Tinu Verma’s Maa Tujhe Salaam that any attempt to tackle the core issue, albeit on a basic and simplistic level, raises our interest level in the potboiler genre of the Hindi commercial cinema.

Director Osho Raja, who earlier made some unsuccessful mixed-up mainstream films under his real name Ashok Tyagi, tackles the issue on a strictly “filmy” level. Except for the conflicted militant Shabbir (Chandrachur Singh), the characters are all one-dimensional heroes from the Indian government services and villains, naturally from...

In this edition of This Day That Year, Subhash K Jha revisits Nana Patekar’s Vadh as it clocks 23 years.

Though Vadh (assassination) aspires to be a slick thriller about a serial killer on the prowl, the plot is as pacy and elegant as a Chinese Puzzle with several missing pieces.

The cast, though uniformly unattractive and laughably stilted, features the once-revered Nana Patekar in his first major role since Wajood two years ago. Nana plays a shrink presiding over a shallow and shrunken menagerie of characters. The plot seems stage-managed by an invisible hand that thinks it knows what it’s doing.

Except for the denouement, which succeeds in surprising and shocking the audience, nothing about Vadh is the least convincing or exciting. Patekar, who openly admits to having taken over the directorial reigns from the original director, has earlier directed Prahaar, a film about an army man’s disillusionment with the system.

Ever since I started covering the Hindi film industry, I have heard artists complaining how tough it's for "outsiders" to succeed in showbiz and what a cakewalk it is for star kids. Contrary to popular belief, however, star kids too have to slog it out to win star status - and it's a journey where only a few succeed.

The success to failure ratio of youngsters from film families just goes to prove that the legacy edge is nothing more than a myth.

Consider some of the actors who came riding on the shoulders of their family names: Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Uday Chopra, Tanisha Mukherjee, Esha Deol, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Puru Raj Kumar, Riya and Reema Sen, Twinkle and.

The shooting of Salman Khan starrer ‘Veer’ cancelled due to the widespread of swine flu in Pune. Last week, Karan Johar's Kurbaan too was postponed because of the increasing cases of flu in the city. Says a source, "It was a three-night shoot which required almost the entire star cast consisting of Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Zarine Khan, Jackie Shroff and Puru Rajkumar." Producer Vijay Galani consulted with Salman Khan and decided to call off the shoot. Galani confirms, "Yes, we decided to cancel the Pune schedule because of the swine flu. We have been reading about it but we were going ahead with our shoot. We we...

Click above for more stills Just a few days back, Bollywood lost its most popular actor cum film maker Feroz Khan and yesterday, fate belted out yet another cruel blow when it snatched away the veteran filmmaker Prakash Mehra from amidst us. The prolific filmmaker, who was unwell for a while now, died early (Sunday) morning due to multiple organ failure. He was 69 years old. Prakash Mehra was the person who needs to be credited for creating the cult 'Angry Young Man' image of Amitabh Bachchan with his super-hit film Zanjeer. In the following years, the director-actor duo went on to give us several super-hit films such as Hera Pheri, Lawaaris, Sharaabi, Namak Halal, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar...to name a few. Unfortunately, Jaadugar, which was the last film of this duo, turned out to be a Box Office disaster. Prakash Mehra's last directorial venture was Bal Brahmchari, which marked...

Click above for more stills Just a few days back, Bollywood lost its most popular actor cum film maker Feroz Khan and yesterday, fate belted out yet another cruel blow when it snatched away the veteran filmmaker Prakash Mehra from amidst us. The prolific filmmaker, who was unwell for a while now, died early (Sunday) morning due to multiple organ failure. He was 69 years old. Prakash Mehra was the person who needs to be credited for creating the cult 'Angry Young Man' image of Amitabh Bachchan with his super-hit film Zanjeer. In the following years, the director-actor duo went on to give us several super-hit films such as Hera Pheri, Lawaaris, Sharaabi, Namak Halal, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar...to name a few. Unfortunately, Jaadugar, which was the last film of this duo, turned out to be a Box Office disaster. Prakash Mehra's last directorial venture was Bal Brahmchari, which marked...