Films that I saw:
Chandni Chowk to China
- Quite a large production where the Sippy's (who brought us Sholay, Seeta aur Geeta & Shaan) joined hands with a Hollywood production house. Though amusing and entertaining, the overall consensus was that it was a let-down. I'm in agreement. It was an updated version that blended aspects of the 3 mentioned hits of the 70's, which is fine, but the way they handled the content of the story fell apart in it's drama quotient.

I must admit, despite it's flaws, I personally enjoyed it & am glad I saw it, but I could see that when the story took a dark turn at intermission point, what followed could have been an excellent revenge plot. Much like director Nikhil Advani's excellent Kal Ho Naa Ho, they could have taken the 2nd half in a very different direction, almost forcing shock upon the viewer. However they maintained the slapstick humour of the first half which no longer suited the story, thus making the last half hour far too silly for us to feel the satisfaction of the revenge being attained.

Luck by Chance
- This film was by far the most brilliant & accurate portrayal of the Hindi film industry that I've seen to date. It deserves a post of it's own. I'll see what I can do, if time permits. For now I'll say this is by far the 'must watch' film so far this year.

Billu Barber
- Shah Rukh Khan producing always means there's no way you can miss the marketing of the film. What initially concerned me was the content of the marketing. I'd seen the theatrical trailer and knew that the story was supposed to parallel the traditional story of good friends Krishna and Sudaama which I've hear many a time as a child. The marketing on the other hand were pumping heavily these 'item songs' with Shah Rukh Khan on-screen throughout them & very little of Irrfan who I knew was supposed to be the protagonist. Was it going to become a film that centered around someone who wasn't by default supposed to be the protagonist?

Talk on the grapevine, from friends in the industry was that these songs were added to make up for the content of the film not being enough to 'sell'. Upon my first viewing of the film, I was relieved more than anything else. All of the above was justified and a perfect balance had been found. The songs which I feared would feel out of place, were just fine. In fact, upon my second viewing were the highlights of the film, just as marketed. Irrfan still is the centre of the story and the film & isn't at all over-shadowed by SRK. This said, the story is 'too simple' for a feature duration. Even with the tweaks made to modernise the story, something feels missing in the narrative for it to hold up. It was a risk to produce, but I'm pretty sure it'll have made it's money back by now already. So, though it's far from his best production, I'm still proud of this film.

Delhi-6
The marketing didn't show much at all when it came to what the story of this film might be, but we had Sonam Kapoor who has an instant on-screen presence, Abhishek Bachchan who has earned his respect as a dependable actor, the feel of the streets & the people of Delhi and of course the music of the recent Oscar Winner A.R. Rahman going for it. Enough to pique my interest & motivate me to see it on opening night. I kid you not, the music is so much more of a selling-point with Hindi flicks that English films that I can't stress it enough.

Having seen it I was sorely disappointed. Yet again, quite like CC2C above, the first half is all hunky-dorey. The very essence of the Delhi city is felt through what you see & this part could not have been better. However by intermission point I had already realised that this can't really have a satisfying resolution & it really bothered me.

The problem I could see was that we had spent a lot of time focussing on so many little story threads that it was like a house of cards, it lacked the backbone structure. There wasn't a linear & clear one story line that you were involved in from the initial scenes to the very end & numerous subplots suffered because of it. Let me stress that I'm not saying it was all-bad. As mentioned before, the music was wonderful & watching Masakali on-screen was enough for me to consider the admission worth it, but I did find even the music was quite misplaced at times. I'm a big fan of music integrated into the narrative, provided it doesn't 'feel' out of place. The Ram-Leela scenes & a number of the songs in this film did.

Films I didn't catch:
Raaz - The Mystery Continues
- A limited UK release that was on late shows on week of release. I didn't get a chance to see this. Admittedly I wasn't overly motivated to either. I haven't even see the first in the series, though I've heard it's a decent film & did enjoy the songs. Not being a fan of horror, not having a soundtrack that hooked me, not having marketing forced in my face, it didn't really stand a chance to impress me.

Victory
- A sports film, about cricket, with cricketers 'acting'. I'm not a big sports fan. I like the love and enthusiasm that surrounds cricket, but the game doesn't interest me enough to make me want to see this. So, why even go see Lagaan or Chak De India you might ask? Well, the answer is simple, Star Power. Aamir and Shahrukh both simply by being attached to a project, make it worth watching, here though I've heard Harman Baweja has done a great job, it wasn't enough for me to be motivated to go see. Yet again, if a soundtrack, or even 1 song was on the radio that made me think, I want to see how this has been picturised, it could be enough to sway me. There wasn't.

Other Hindi flicks that released but didn't make it as far as the UK:
Jan: Bad Luck Govind, Kaashh... Mere Hote, President is Coming, The, Aasma - The Sky is the Limit, Chal Chala Chal
Feb: Dev D, Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye, Jugaad, Kisse Pyaar Karoon, Siddharth - The Prisoner

Admittedly most of them I probably wouldn't have ended up watching anyway, but the surprise one here is Dev D. I'm very surprised this didn't get a wide release. Dev D is supposed to be a modern day interpretation of the much critically acclaimed novel Devdas . A tragedy comparable to Romeo & Juliet that has been made into films a number of times over the last century. The most famous ones featured Dilip Kumar (1955) and Shah Rukh Khan (2001) in the lead role. This time with the story being handled by Anurag Kashyap who made Black Friday and No Smoking, I expected this to be not only getting a wide release, but being advertised very heavily. It's a film that was guaranteed a bit of a cult following even before it's release. The soundtrack is refreshing & demands attention, whether you like it or not. Alas, I've yet to get my chance to see it.