Hindi Movie - Kati Patang (Rajesh Khanna, Asha Parekh) - Released in 1971

In the space of a few years, the late Rajesh Khanna became a superstar, enjoying a level of adulation that is difficult to achieve for anybody after him (even the level of success of Amitabh Bachchan soon after him did not reach the amount of crazed fandom that Rajesh Khanna achieved), giving a consecutive series of 15 hit films, something that nobody has managed to do since. This stardom lasted a few years, but made Rajesh Khanna a name that would forever be remembered. One of the movies released during this duration was 'Kati Patang', which also became a huge hit. The movie was produced and directed by Shakti Samanta, and was the second in a series of 9 films they made together. The movie earned a number of Filmfare nominations, but the only award won by the movie was for Asha Parekh as the Best Actress, and the movie did seem to have a focus on Asha Parekh as the person on whom the movie revolved around. The music of the film, by RD Burman was very well liked and appreciated, and Kishore Kumar sang most of the songs for the movie (Kishore was the usual singer for Rajesh Khanna). The movie was actually based on a novel by the name of "I Married a Dead Man," by William Irish (real name of the author being Cornell Woolrich, with William Irish being the name under which the novel was published) and was made into English and French language movies as well.

The movie was an emotional movie, based on the struggle of a woman who took a decision in her life that impacted her again, in an amazing coincidence. Like many people of the current age, the heroine of the movie Madhavi (Asha Parekh) took a decision that you would consider right. She was an orphan and when her uncle arranged her marriage to somebody whom she did not know, she ran away from there to her lover rather than get married to somebody she did not know. Unfortunately, she found that she had been deceived, since her lover Kailash (Prem Chopra) was only playing with her, and she found him with another woman Shabnam (Bindu). Hurt and betrayed, she returned home to find that her uncle had died. With this distressing situation, she ran away and ran into her friend Poonam who was with her small child. Poonam had married her husband against the wishes of his family and they had never met her. However, she was now returning to his family after the death of her husband, and yet, in another tragedy, Poonam dies although her child and Madhavi both survive, with Madhavi now having to take care of the child.
Madhavi decides to travel to Poonam's inlaws, and since they have never seen Poonam, Madhavi takes on the guise of Poonam, living as their widowed daughter-in-law. And then she runs into the person who has suffered an emotional turmoil, Kamal (Rajesh Khanna). Kamal's would be wife ran away before the marriage, something that affected him terribly emotionally. Madhavi is very distressed to hear about this, since she was the one who had caused such pain to Kamal. However, when Kamal starts to get closer to her, she resists since she does not want her truth to come out. And then the complication happens, with Kailash and Shabnam re-entering the scene and twisting things around so that she is liable to get blamed. How does she handle this and who supports her ? Watch the movie.

Music from the movie: Video from Youtube, Lyrics, MP3 on Amazon: Na Koi Umang Hai (link) Yeh Jo Mohabbat Hai (link) Mera Naam Hai Shabnam (link) Yeh Shaam Mastani (link) Pyar Deewana Hota Hai (link) Jis Gali Mein Tera Ghar (link)

Golmaal Returns - the extra suspicious wife and a murder (released in 2008)

When you get a successful film, there is a pressure to create a franchise, create more movies with the same set of actors and the director in the hope that viewers will also like this movie and make it successful. This has actually worked in many cases, with sequels of movies in Hollywood (Terminator, Pirates of the Carribean, Superman, Spiderman, etc) doing excellent business and providing riches to their creators. Of course there have been cases when the same success has not come to the next movie, but then there is no harm in trying. In the case of Bollywood, the concept of leveraging on the success of a previous movie is a pretty late one, only in the past decade that it has been seen. Golmaal indeed could be one of the first ones to make this a success, even though the sequels have no connection with the previous one in terms of story, but do have the same crew (director, and many actors and actresses being the same). Golmaal Returns was one such movie, which was released in 2008, in order to leverage the success of the earlier Golmaal (which was released in 2006).
Between the 2 movies, the director was the same (Rohit Shetty), and the main crew members were the same (Ajay Devgun, Tusshar Kapoor and Arshad Warsi). Sharman Joshi was no longer there in the sequel, and the heroine was also changed, with Kareena Kapoor brought in to enhance the star power, and some additional actors and actresses also brought in. The movie was a hit, even though critics were not particularly impressed by the movie - the humour in the original Golmaal seemed pretty genuine, while the humor in this one seemed a bit forced, written in to try and put more humour in the script, and leaving a slight jarring edge. But no matter, audiences loved it, and it was a hit. The songs were also liked, with the music being composed by Pritam, and one song 'Thar kar Le' being composed by Ashish Pandit (and the lyrics for the movie were by Sameer).
Now onto the story. I was not particularly fascinated by the story, since the attempt seemed to be to bring as many characters into the storyline and use some incredible coincidences to push the story forward. So, here goes (and if you have not seen the movie and want to keep your suspense, do not read ahead of this point).
Gopal (Devgun) and Ekta (Kareena Kapoor) are a couple with 2 siblings - Esha (Amrita Arora) is the sister of Gopal, and Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor, playing a mute) is the brother of Ekta. Ekta is an avid watcher of hindi serials (particularly the Balaji type serials) and is very suspicious of Gopal. Gopal keeps on warning her from time to time to not be so suspicious, since it would create problems for them.

Gopal works in a fishing company and has some periodic clashes with people in his company (not very serious though), especially when he believes that his colleague is instigating his wife against him. And then something happens which would cause the suspicion of Ekta to become reality. He is coming home from work, when he sees a girl being assaulted by some hoodlums and saves Meera (Celina Jaitley) from those goons. Unfortunately, due to some circumstances, they are forced to spend the night together on a yacht (although nothing happens between them).
Now, when Gopal reaches home the next morning, there is going to be trouble. Ekta, ever suspicious, wants to know where he was; Gopal obviously cannot tell her the truth, so he lies that he was with a friend of his. When Ekta pushes him for the name of the friend, Gopal comes up with a name 'Anthony Gonsalves', with a fictitious address. However, Ekta is very suspicious and sends of a letter to Anthony, and in the coincidence of a lifetime, there is actually a person called Anthony Gonsalves and an actual address and the letter is received.
One of Gopal's juniors, Laxam Prasad (Shreyas Talpade), who claims to be a great problem solver, then decides to take the place of Anthony to ensure that Ekta is not suspicious. Another coincidence, Laxman is also the boyfriend of Meera, and Meera has not told him about this incident. And then the big problem, where a dead man is found where Gopal had fought the goons, and this is the same person Gopal's office with whom he had a tiff. This brings inspector Madhav (played by Arshad Warsi) on the scene; Madhav is in love with Gopal's sister but has a running feud with Gopal and is incredibly happy that there is a chance for him to put Gopal in a difficult position.
Eventually, Madhav learns that Laxman is not Anthony, and when they tell him about Meera (and in the meantime, Ekta leaves Gopal when she learns that he told her a lie), he tells Gopal that he better bring Meera quickly to the station if he wants to save himself. Gopal and Laxam hire Munni to play the role of Meera, which she is willing to do for the money. However, her boyfriend, Vasuli, currently behind bars, is not happy at this. And then Munni is kidnapped by the murderer.

And then starts a whole trail of events to try and find Munni, in the meantime Vasuli kidnaps Meera since he wants his Munni back, and then finally Gopal learns that his boss was behind the murder since he was smuggling drugs under the guise of the fishing business, and his colleague was killed because he found out. After some more drama, there is a happy ending.

Golmaal returns (DVD on Amazon)	Music for Golmaal returns - Amazon	Golmaal Returns - Movie on Flipkart

Songs from the movie Golmaal Returns: Tha Kar Ke (link) Vacancy (link) Tu Saala (link) Meow (link)

Kambakkht Ishq (released in 2009) - starring Akshay Kumar, and Kareena Kapoor - A loud movie that I did not really like

The movie was an above average release for 2009. In addition, it was also the first movie in Hindi Cinemas, that features cameo roles from such international stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh and Holly Valance. The movie is shot abroad, and is also set in Los Angeles. With a hot set of lead stars, international celebrities, and expected good music, the movie was hotly awaited. The collections for the first weekend were good enough to declare the movie a hit. However, when the movie was finally released, it was a disappointment and was savaged by many critics. The movie was a loud movie, I did not find the humour in good taste, and the songs were just about okay. The only thing that seemed fine was the cameo role of Sylvester Stallone. The rest, including the supposed hot role of Denise Richards seemed to leave me cold; and of course when you are showing a movie with a stuntman, you expect a lot more action scenes, and those were almost totally missing.

The movie is based on a strange battle of the sexes, that can be very sexist and not make a lot of sense. Akshay and Kareena meet at the marriage of his brother and her friend, and clash with each other, and even later when they meet by accident in Italy. He is a famous stuntman, and she is a medical student who models to earn money for her medical school tuition. Things come to a head when he lands up on her surgical table, the final step in her evaluation. And since this is a Hindi movie, by mistake she leaves a small watch inside him, with the watch loudly making a sound of "Om Mangalam" every hour; when she finds out, she is horrified, since this could mean that she will have a malpractice case on her and can say goodbye to her hopes of becoming a doctor. As a result, she has to find him, and operate on him before he can find out what the exact problem is; and for this, even if she has to sexually attract him, she will do so.
The rest of the story is of the attempt, and in between, he starts to love her. She takes longer to accept this, and the end is happy. In the meantime the story of the love, divorce case, and love again of the other couple in the story, Aftab Shivdesani, and Amrita Arora keeps on happening.

De Dana Dan (released in 2009) - A comedy starring Akshaya Kumar and Suniel Shetty

De Dana Dan was a comedy movie that was released in 2009. The movie was directed by the famous director, Priyadarshan (who had directed many other hit movies such as Hera Pheri, Hungama, Garam Masala, and many others). The movie starred the combination that last was seen in the 2006 Hera Pheri, namely Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal. In addition, the movie also starred as the female leads, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy, and also starred Neha Dhupia, Chunky Pandey, Archana Puran Singh. The movie aims to be a comedy, with some amount of seriousness, the comedy being in the interactions between the characters, set in an overall situation where the main leads are in a poor financial condition and as a result, are unable to be with their loved ones. The music for the film was somewhat catchy with some of the numbers such as "Rishte Naate" and "Paisa Paisa" being remembered.
The movie was an above average earner, with the movie making a decent amount at the box office, both in India and abroad, thus increasing the reputation of Priyadarshan.

The movie is primarily about 2 poor male Indians in Singapore. Nitin (Akshay Kumar) and Ram (Suniel Shetty) are in a poor financial condition, and love 2 girls, Anjali (Katrina Kaif) and Manpreet (Sameera Reddy). Both of them are rich girls and whose parents are not agreeable to the idea of their daughters marrying poorly. Nitin works as the all-in-one servant to Archana Puran Singh who owns supermarket stores and who favors her dog Mulchand Ji, and there is a running tiff between Akshay and Mulchand Ji. Akshay's father owned a large debt to Archana Puran Singh and Akshaya is trying to pay off the debt by working like this, although he acknowledges that the debt will not be repaid so easily.
Ram in turn came to Singapore as an actor in Chinese films, but now works for a courier company. The movie runs through a mad-cap situation where the marriage of Manpreet is originally planned to the sun of Paresh Rawal (Chunky Pandey). Both Nitin and Ram decide to earn money by kidnapping Mulchand Ji, but the plot changes when the dog runs away, and then it is assumed that Nitin has been kidnapped. Paresh Rawal is a swindler who looks to this marriage as a way for his son to get a large sum of money. Neha Dhupia is a high class call girl, Shakti Kapoor is a person who has affairs behind his wife's back, and then there is an assassin also involved. The highlight of the movie is a madcap scene in the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore where the movie finally comes to a happy ending.

Love Aaj Kal - a different love story starring Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone (released in 2009)

Love Aaj Kal was a love story released in 2009, produced by Saif Ali Khan as his first movie as a producer, and paid him rich dividends, becoming a fairly big hit. The movie starred essentially 4 people in 2 parallel love tracks (separated by a generation), Rishi Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and a Brazilian newcomer, Giselli Monteiro. The music of the movie was also well appreciated, with songs such as Twist, Chor Bazaari, Dooriyan, and Aaj Din Chadheya becoming big musical hits. The music for the movie was by Pritam (lyrics by Irshad Kamil). The movie was directed by Imtiaz Ali (who also had a previous big hit in the form of Jab We Met).
The movie was a story of breakup and meeting, set in a very modern generation, where people concentrate on their careers, and contrasts this with a storyline that was set a generation back, where the person would do a lot for love, and base their decisions and their actions on love (and in the end, the conclusion of the movie is that the power of love still makes people do things even when they feel that they are driving their own decisions).

The movie is the story of Jai and Meera, who are a modern couple in London, and parallel to this, the movie also tells the story of Veer Singh and Harleen (from the past). Jai and Meera (Saif and Deepika) are in London, where they meet and become a couple. However, they have career needs that they realize will take them in different directions, with Meera interested in conservation, taking her to India, and Jai being an architect, working for the Golden Gate firm in San Francisco. They decide that they cannot be together, and have a separation party, deciding to move on with their own life. They do however, decide to remain very much in contact, and with the power of modern communications, it could be that they remain very close to each other. When Meera is leaving, Jai comes in contact with Veer Singh, who is surprised that Jai is letting Meera go like this, and tells him the story of how he fought for Harleen (in a sepia tinged story), whom he liked but did not get a chance to speak to much.
Now, Jai and Meera are living their own lives, with Jai involved with a blonde in London, while Meera has received an offer from her boss, and finally decides to accept his romance. In between, Jai pays a visit to Meera and they have a lot of fun together, but things get serious when Vikram (Meera's boss) proposes to her; Meera is confused because she still has feelings for Jai, and she and Jai have an argument (with Meera telling Jai that they should stop being in touch with each other).
And then Meera marries Vikram, still confused. Jai comes there, and in a remarkable coincidence, he gets an offer from the Golden Gate. In the meantime, Meera realizes her marriage was a mistake, and tries to get in touch with Jai but realizes that he is incredibly happy over going to San Francisco and does not say anything more to him. He enjoys his stay in San Francisco, but over a period of time, this excitement starts falling and he starts to feel depressed. It takes a mugging for him to realize that he is actually missing Meera, and he rushes back to Delhi even though he knows that Meera is married. When he reaches here, he realizes that Meera and Vikram are no longer married, and he has an emotional reunion with Meera at her site.