Bharateeyans-The New Blood, Review: Overboard, gored, bored Preminchukundam Raa, Premante Idera, Kalisundam Raa, Eeswar (2002 film), Lahiri Lahirilo, Sardukupodaam Randi, Nagaram Nidrapotunna Vela and Sakhiya. These are not the names of the characters or cast of Bharateeyans-The New Blood, but the names of films written by Deena Raj, collaborating with Dr. Shankar Naidu Adsumilli, a well-known surgeon based in the USA. Deena Raj teams with Naidu again for his directorial debut, at age 53, Bha...

Jabariya Jodi, First look: Swinging infection Jodi, literally, means a pair, in Urdu and Hindi. It also refers to husband and wife. Jabar or jabr is force, and jabariya, by extension, means forced or forcibly formed. So, we now understand the title of the upcoming film Jabariya Jodi to mean ‘Forced Couple’. As indicated above, the inference here is that the husband and wife were forced into matrimony. Nothing earth-shaking about it, in a country where thousands of such marriages t...

Ranchi Diaries: Nothing to write about Some films make you wonder whether their makers have any friends at all, for if they did have any well-wishers, why did they not speak-up and give some honest feedback during the making? You do not need to be a critic to conclude that a film like Ranchi Diaries is terribly flawed, though critics might tell you what are the things patently wrong with it: no coherent screenplay, false Bhojpuri accents, totally exaggerated and over-the-top dialogue, no resp...

Phullu, Review by Siraj Syed: Misleading title, taboo subject, tenacious treatment This is a good example of a film named after its lead character, with no regard for audiences’ perception of what it might stand for, and no clue about the storyline. The word is not a corruption of phool (flower), though it could well be an attempt to synthesise phool with ullu (owl; figuratively, a fool). We can go with the assumption that they intended to call him the flower fool, Phullu. Phullu is ab...