Salman Khan reveals that papa Salim allowed him to spend time with his girlfriends at home.

Superstar Salman Khan says his father Salim Khan had given him a “clear-cut instruction” when it comes to girlfriends. While shooting for “Dus Ka Dum – Dumdaar Weekend”, hosted by Salman, he asked celebrity guests a question – “How many per cent of Indians are scolded by policemen for romancing in public?” – as part of the game show. Before the guests could answer, Salman said it is “very sad” to see couples spending time with each other in public places, read a statement. “These couples are helpless as there are around 8-10 people in a small house. These youngsters cannot afford to book a hotel as the society takes it in other way. My father gave me a clear-cut instruction when it came to girlfriends. He gave us the permission to spend time at home rather than roaming around the city,” said Salman, who was romantically linked to actresses Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Katrina Kaif. “The same instruction was applicable to my sisters as well. If they have any good man in their life, they should first tell their parents and not hide anything from them. He has given us the right to take the decision on whom to marry and whom not to marry,” he added. Salman has two brothers – Sohail and Arbaaz, and two sisters – Arpita and Alvira.

Despite the debacle of Simran, Kangana demands a profit share for Manikarnika and Mental Hai Kya?

The versatile actress of Bollywood-Kangana Ranaut has given some amazing performances in films like Queen, Tanu Weds Manu franchise and Fashion. The three-time National Award winner has established her own league and her own set of audience, which makes one of the most successful and unconventional stars of the B-Town. Well, it seems that Kangana knows her potential at the box office, that’s why the actress has demanded profit share for her two upcoming projects, which are Manikarnika and Mental Hai Kya. As per the latest reports, the Gangster actress has asked for the profit share of these two films as she is quite confident about the content of both the ventures. Well, this decision has definitely shocked everyone as her last ventures like Simran, Rangoon and Katti Batti have failed miserably at the box office. Talking about Manikarnika, Kangana portrays the character Queen of Rani Jhansi Laxmibai in the historical drama. Manikarnika is directed by Krish Jagarlamudi and produced by Kamal Jain and Zee Studios. The film will also mark the acting debut of Deepika Padukone’s ex-boyfriend, Nihaar Pandya, where he’ll portray the character of Baji Rao the second (II). It also features Jisshu Sengupta, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi, Sonu Sood and television actress, Ankita Lokhande, in pivotal roles. On the other hand, Mental Hai Kya is directed by National award winning Telugu filmmaker, Prakash Kovelamudi, who is making his Bollywood debut with this film. The film marks the second collaboration between Rajkummar and Kangana after Queen (2014). The film is written by Kanika Dhillon and is produced under the banner of Balaji Motion Pictures.

Grab a cup coffee or a beverage of your choice for this one’s gonna be a long, long thread. Now, there are no two ways that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone make for a quintessential couple in the tinsel town. Their relationship has been guarded from the public eye for the longest of time and come November, their bond will be solemnised in the beautiful city of Italy, near Lake Como. Recently, they escaped for a small vacation to Disneyland, and the pictures and videos we saw on the internet, boy did they give us couple goals for life! We were equally in awe when they returned and remained as inseparable as ever, even amidst media glare, and Ranveer kissed his ladylove a good bye as he escorted her to the car. *Sigh* Well, we have been deprived of all this mushy PDA of the duo IRL, but there was all the social media PDA to make up for it, right? You’d be living under a rock and have a lot to catch up on if you are oblivious to this. But gradually over the last one year or so, these lovebirds have made us giggle, gush and admire their equation from time to time with the way they displayed their affection for each other on social media. From kisses to hearts and hugs, from love to admiration and flirting, Ranveer and Deepika’s social media exchange is a no holds barred expression of their feelings for each other. It would only be right to say that these lovebirds have aced their PDA game on Instagram and they don’t mind any of the attention it draws towards them. No, we’re not complaining at all.

Priyanka Chopra REVEALS her biggest fear...

Priyanka Chopra may be one of the biggest and most successful Indian stars, but the actor says failures still scare her. The 36-year-old actor, who forayed into the West with ABC thriller “Quantico”, said she feels “miserable” when she faces a setback in any aspect of her life. “My biggest fear is failure. I hate failures. I am miserable when I fail. My mom tells everyone, ‘Let her be alone for while’, whenever I fail. But because I am so afraid of failing that developed a way of not being nervous,” Priyanka said. The actor believes the fact that women have always had lesser opportunities makes them worry a lot about their lives and in the quest to make the best of the options they have, they “tend to pull each other down”. “When I entered the entertainment industry I came in through a beauty pageant. I was also thinking that only I should get the job. So I had to teach myself that I had to be the most confident of the lot. After spending three-four years in the industry I realised if I wear my confidence well I don’t need to elbow anyone out. “I felt if I just be great then I can be the person who actually pushes the other person up. That was a phenomenal change that came in me when I started working in movies… I really want to be that person who can be a support other girls out there because we get less opportunities anyway,” she said. Priyanka said even though she appears confident in front of the world, she still get serious nerves when going on the set. “I like nervous energy when I walk on to a set. Because if I don’t feel like that then I can’t perform somehow. I will be complacent and it is boring,” she added. The actor was speaking at an interactive session titled ‘Challenging the Status Quo & Forging New Paths’ organised Jointly by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) and Yes Bank.

Thoughts ON HUMANITY

It’s happening! Salman Khan’s Kick 2...

CAST: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand and Divya Dutta

REVIEW:

A 1990s orchestra singer, now on the wrong side of 50, seeks recompense for his failure to make it big. He is willing to go to any length to help his only daughter attain stardom. The girl has a fine voice but she doesn't possess the body type of a pop diva. "Dekha hai apne ko mirror mein kabhi," she is frequently asked. So much so that she herself begins to believe that popular music these days is more about seeing than hearing and that "it is all about styling". So, for both the fat-shamed girl and her out-of-work father, a life-changing opening is a castle in the air. That is the narrative kernel of Fanney Khan, officially adapted from the Belgian hit Everybody's Famous! (2000) and given the spin of a Bollywood musical that upends the established notions of showbiz success. Portions of Fanney Khan are a bit of a stretch: they are a touch flabby and far-fetched. But first-time director Atul Manjrekar not only keeps the dramatic core of the story intact, he also ramps it up appreciably to serve up an indigenized version that more than serves its purpose. Of course, the film's flights of fancy do demand a willing suspension of disbelief. What undermines Fanney Khan is its inability to tap to the fullest the universal emotions inherent in the father-daughter relationship. The worldviews of the two clash frequently and the daughter sees her dad's earnest enthusiasm as more irritating than encouraging. How the reconciliation happens is the crux of the story but it does not hit home hard enough when it is time for the film to wind down. Fanney Khan pivots around the infectious energy that Anil Kapoor brings to bear upon the character of the failed musician Prashant Sharma. The film kicks off with a rendition of Badan pe sitare lapete huye: a rousing curtain-raiser. But the man's joys are short-lived. One fine morning, he loses his factory job. Prashant hides the crisis from his wife Kavita (Divya Dutta). He begins to drive a taxi for an old friend Kader (Satish Kaushik). Prashant's daughter (debutante Pihu Sand), christened Lata for obvious reasons ("Main Mohammed Rafi toh nahin ban saka tujhe zaroor Lata Mangeshkar banaoonga," her father vows the day she's born), is on the lookout for a break. Her mother wonders why it is necessary to become a star, while her friend Rhea (Barbie Rajput) suggests that she keep her feet on the ground because becoming a star is no cakewalk. Away from the chawl that is home to the Sharma family - the patriarch's lingo suggests that they have roots in Hyderabad - another woman needs a break of a completely different kind. Baby Singh (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), the reigning female crooner of the land, is grappling with fatigue. She wants to run away from the unending whirligig of concerts, reality show appearances, photo shoots and the demands of her pushy manager Karan Kakkad (Girish Kulkarni) in order to recharge her batteries. The paths of the aspiring Lata and the super-successful Baby cross tangentially when Prashant, on a whim, kidnaps the latter. After a tiff with her manager, Baby boards Prashant's cab. He sedates her with sleeping pills and drives her to the premises of the sealed factory. He hopes to extort from her the money he requires to fund Lata's first album. He holds Baby Singh captive and turns to his best pal and former co-worker Adhir (Rajkummar Rao) for help. Initially, Adhir is reluctant but opts to be party to the conspiracy when his girlfriend Jinal (Swati Semwal) leaves for Goa against his wish to attend an acting workshop. Soon enough, the Stockholm syndrome kicks in and the kidnapping victim develops a soft corner for the captor. Adhir, on the rebound, promptly reciprocates the feeling. Hidden behind a Rajinikanth mask, Fanney Khan meets Kakkad and makes an unconventional demand - a recording of a song that he has composed for his daughter. Kakkad agrees - he wants Baby Singh safe and sound. As Baby's rapport with the awkward Adhir grows, the latter not only cooks for her but also agrees to fetch Ustad, the star's pet Beagle, from her apartment and feed the dog. Adhir leaves a tell-tale trail behind on the way out. The world gets wind of the kidnapping. The TV channels flash the news. The Mumbai police, however, remains inexplicably unmoved, allowing the hostage time to cement her bonding with Adhir. There we go again: Fanney Khan abounds in such leaps of logic. But all of it is in the pursuit of some harmless fun and emotional manipulation. The fun remains low-key; the vigorous pulling at the heartstrings, which gathers momentum in the lead-up to the climax, yields some returns by way of emotional impact. The characters are developed in a rather slapdash manner, but the actors, taking a cue from the lead, throw everything into their roles. Newcomer Pihu Sand is terrific as Lata Sharma, Divya Dutta makes her presence felt, and Girish Kulkarni effortlessly gets into the swing of things. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao, actors coming from different ends of the Bollywood spectrum, make an odd pair. Even the characters that they etch out on the screen - one is an orphan, the other is a refugee from Kashmir - have nothing in common. The evolution of their romance strains credibility. COMMENT But in a film that glides in and out of the make-believe, it is no big deal if the love story, which anyways runs parallel to the main narrative track of the film, flirts with the unreal. Isn't that what cinematic plots hinging on the realization of impossible dreams are supposed to be? Fanney Khan is that - and more. Embrace it. It will do no harm.

CAST:Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Ashutosh Rana, Prateik Babbar, Rajat Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Neena Gupta

REVIEW: Not that it broaches everything that there is to say about Islamophobia and its terrible repercussions - in fact, it really isn't possible for a single 140-minute film to cover all the dimensions of the theme - but Anubhav Sinha's Mulk is a compelling, uncommonly courageous drama that gets as close to the truth as a Mumbai film ever can, especially given the times that we live in. When Hindi cinema willingly crawls when it is asked to bend and a majority of India's television news channels shy away from speaking up against organized forces that peddle communal hate as political strategy, the relevance of a film like Mulk, which goes hammer and tongs at poisoned mindsets, cannot be overstated. Mulk articulates the prejudice of those that are quick to tar an entire community with the same brush for the violent actions of a few, but see no wrong in the systemic violence - political, social and economic - that is perpetrated day in and day out on those that are condemned to the fringes of a counterfeit development story designed to serve narrow interests. Mulk is an important film because it reflects the concerns of those that hold humanity dear and abhor binaries fuelled by WhatsApp-driven fear-mongering. The writer-director employs the character of a perennially smirking public prosecutor, Santosh Anand (Ashutosh Rana), to represent majoritarian assertions born out of unbridled prejudice. Muslims live in poverty, are poorly educated, and their young men are prone to being swayed in the name of religion: that is what the lawyer submits to the judge more than once while trotting out half-baked facts about a family he has decided to make an example of. There are others, too, who let their bigotry get the better of them, notably Chaubey (Atul Tiwari), a paan-shop owner who has been a friend of the film's principal character Murad Ali Mohammed, a retired Varanasi advocate, for four decades and tucks into meat dishes on the sly. Inspired in part by his militant son, he turns against his buddy and his family. Early in the film, the superannuated lawyer celebrates his 65th birthday with the entire neighbourhood joining in. One woman at the party, however, thinks nothing of othering the host's family: "vnaachne-gaane ke liye toh theek hai, par hum khaana nahin khaate in logon ke yahaan (the music and dance is all very fine, but we do not eat in the homes of these people)." That is exactly where it all begins. This intense courtroom drama, which tends occasionally to err on the side of a degree of theatricality but without suffering too much damage, is, principally about Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor) whose life is thrown into disarray when his nephew Shahid (Prateik Babbar) is drawn into a jihadist conspiracy. It results in a bomb blast that kills 16 innocents, 'HINDUstanis', as the public prosecutor repeatedly harps on. Murad's brother Bilaal Mohammed (Manoj Pahwa) - the two ageing siblings are barely on talking terms - is taken into custody for questioning. Anti-terror squad officer Danish Javed (Rajat Kapoor), himself a Muslim, is bent upon proving Bilaal's complicity in the terror attack. The family, which has lived in a Varanasi house erected in 1927 and chose not to leave India at the time of Partition, is hounded, ostracised and even subjected to an attack by a stone-throwing mob. His Hindu daughter-in-law Aarti (Taapsee Pannu) by his side, Murad comes out of retirement to fight his embattled brother's case. The old man is himself quickly dragged into the case and finds himself having to prove his patriotism. Aarti steps into the breach and becomes his defence lawyer. In conversations strewn across Mulk, the principal characters attempt to define jihad (holy war), deshdroh (treason) and aatankvaad (terrorism), among other dreaded notions. The spotlight, however, remains firmly on the story of a family increasingly painted into a corner. During the court proceedings, Anand summons Shahid's sister to the witness stand and asks her how she felt when her brother died. I felt very bad, she replies. Why? Because he was my brother, she says. See, the lawyer thunders in an unthinking, I-told-you-so tone, she has no remorse for her brother's murderous act. Mulk is certainly no Garm Hava or Shahid. It doesn't strive for subtlety. It places all its cards on the table, faces up. So we know exactly what is going on and what is about to come, yet the film holds one's attention as much for the urgency of the theme as the sustained quality of the acting and the mood-enhancing camerawork (Ewan Mulligan, who also filmed Sinha's Tum Bin 2) that takes in the hustle-bustle of the markets and streets of a small-town to create an apt backdrop for a drama that otherwise primarily unfolds indoors. Rishi Kapoor is consistently on the ball as the protagonist who wears an identity-marking beard, prays five times a day and asserts that he is answerable only to his imaan (faith) and mulk (country). The veteran actor provides the bulwark upon which Mulk builds itself. He receives solid support from Manoj Pahwa, who is generally pushed by Bollywood to the comic cameo zone. Here, he grabs the opportunity offered by a meaty role with both hands and leaves a very deep imprint. Taapsee Pannu is outstanding in the role of Murad Ali Mohammed's Hindu daughter-in-law and lawyer. In a perfectly balanced performance, she conveys the anger and the anguish of an independent-spirited woman who is aghast at the way her entire family is put in the dock. The last quarter of the film hinges almost entirely on her. She carries the burden with aplomb, putting her Pink performance in the shade by a fair distance. The first thing that strikes you about Mulk is that it is the sort of film that has no precedence in Anubhav Sinha's career. But that certainly is of no particular importance when compared to the pluck that it displays in articulating truths about a nation of magnificent religious, cultural and linguistic diversity that is being pushed to the brink of destruction by forces that have taken upon themselves the right to decide who fits in and who doesn't. At the heart Mulk is a fearless spirit that is a far cry from the abject timidity of Bollywood, an industry that believes in upholding the status quo even if it threatens to endanger the precious pluralistic ethos that lies at the foundation of this vast nation. In making its extremely timely statement, this film allows itself to lean a tad towards conventional melodrama. But it makes its point with such force that it is difficult not to be impressed. Go watch Mulk for its stout-hearted espousal of sanity. It isn't often that Bollywood shows such spine.

CAST: Sanjay Dutt, Jimmy Sheirgill, Mahie Gill, Chitrangada Singh, Soha Ali Khan, Kabir Bedi, Deepak Tijori, Pamela Bhutoria

REVIEW: In the crumbling, amoral universe that saheb and biwi inhabit - Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill reprise their roles - well-past-their-prime royals employ wicked, wicked ways to manipulate each other and their susceptibilities. But do their exertions make for great cat-and-mouse drama? Certainly not quite to the extent, or in the manner, that the first two entries of the series - Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster(2011) and Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns (2013) - did. Pretty much like the political prowess that the film's fading, flailing feudal figures and their cohorts exercise, the potential of the premise to deliver surprises has, on the evidence of this outing, waned significantly. The twists and turns that Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 springs upon the audience have an arbitrary, laboured ring to them, what with new entrant Sanjay Dutt (in the guise of an angry-as-hell Uday Pratap Singh, a man who's made 'bad choices' and has been in exile for two decades) stomping around first a smoky London nightclub called House of Lords and then a palace-turned-heritage hotel back in Uttar Pradesh like a clueless grizzly bear that has strayed out of its natural habitat. It is around this very disillusioned, defiant man's talent for emerging unscathed from Russian roulette face-offs that the plot of this film revolves. But the shots it yields generate more noise - tame clicks and big bangs - than genuine excitement. The blank shots reverberate through the film, robbing it off the gunpowder-dry quality that is of the essence in this dark, bloody, dusty UP milieu where marriages aren't made in heaven and human bonds teeter on a razor's edge. It has taken the third Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster instalment five years to take shape. One had expected time to add value to it. That does not seem to have happened. Devoid of the delirious energy, sly swerves and deeply melancholic core that defined the earlier entries, Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 struggles for the most part to hit the ground and run. Its sparks, too far and few between to form a recognizable pattern, do not yield the expected full-fledged firestorm. The desperate and devious methods that the greedy, going-for-broke men and women take recourse to fall all too quickly into a mechanical rut. One key character asks the 'saheb' of the pack, Aditya Pratap Singh (Jimmy Sheirgill): Is your blood still royal, or have the years of being in politics turned it into water? He does not answer the question, but taken in the overall context of the film, there can only be one response to that pointed query - royalty isn't just a matter of blood, it is just as much a state of mind. he malevolent characters that screenwriter Sanjay Chauhan and director Tigmanshu Dhulia's script rustle up in addition to Aditya Pratap and his ambitious, alcoholic wife Madhavi (Mahie Gill) exist in a limbo in the absence of the narrative support that could have turned them into meaningful pegs in a larger social commentary on a bunch of people so deeply entrenched in their sense of entitlement that they cannot see beyond their noses - and their guns. A political party is alluded to, workers are addressed from a desk behind which hangs a portrait of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and preparations for an upcoming polls are discussed but Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 jettisons the hurly-burly of political machinations at the altar of perfunctory personal shenanigans. The role essayed by Sanjay Dutt (he comes across as rather rusty, to say the least) is framed against two others - his father Maharaja Hari Singh (Kabir Bedi) and brother Vijay (Deepak Tijori), both of whom are upset no end when the profligate elder son returns to India, deported from the UK following a murderous assault on an Englishman who dares to needle him in his den. Uday Pratap demands his share of the royal property, but there is little left in the family's kitty to spare. So conspiracies are afoot in the palace and elsewhere, endangering the lives of innocents like the courtesan Suhani (Chitrangda Singh), Uday Pratap's mistress. Lives do not count for much in the haveli of Aditya Pratap either. Guns are whipped out and fired at the slightest provocation. While Aditya, convicted for murder, cools his heels in jail, his wily consort merrily plots to keep him there as long as possible. When he returns home, his wife offers truce. He accepts, but with many riders that are left to the daughter (Pamela Bhutoria) of his fiercely loyal retainer (Deepraj Rana, another franchise fixture) to enforce. The performances, led by the ever-reliable Sheirgill's, are all up to scratch, but one wishes the female roles weren't so underwritten. Mahie Gill, playing the woman who cares two hoots about moral niceties, works with a familiar bag of tricks. She still sways in an inebriated state to Lag jaa gale ke phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho and gives no quarters when faced with faced with threats and inducements. Some of the tics come off, some don't. Soha Ali Khan (as Aditya's second wife) has only two and a half scenes. Chitrangda Singh as Uday Pratap's mistress is allowed more but her character does not see much palpable development. One of the actresses in the cast who certainly deserved greater mind space, and not just footage, is Pamela Bhutoria, playing Aditya's tech-savvy protector standing in for her father who has gone into hiding. This bitter battle for fast-vanishing turf centres on the pressing need to protect the family 'reputation'. In this fictional neck of the woods, conventional honour isn't a big deal and the act of flouting laws and norms is worn as a badge of courage. The nautch girl puts the tussle into context when she advises the feckless, untrustworthy Vijay Pratap to tread with care. She says to him with all the curtness at her command: "Jab naam ke alawaa kuch no bacha ho toh naam ko bacha bacha ke chalna chahiye (When nothing but your name survives, do all you can to protect that name)." That statement could well be directed at the makers of Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3. The title has a resonance thanks to the impact that the film's two predecessors had made. Frittering it away on a flimsy Russian roulette-style effort isn't a good idea. So when the team decides to come up with another follow-up - the final moments of this film suggest that the fourth may not be far away - it will have to go all guns blazing. Or not at all.

CAST: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter, Ashutosh Rana, Kharaj Mukherjee, Aishwarya Narkar

REVIEW: An attempted makeover of a tested storyline is never more than a handful of missteps away from turning into an outright mauling. The latter is exactly what Dhadak metes out to Nagraj Manjule's 2016 Marathi sleeper hit Sairat. A muddled screenplay, bland storytelling and uneven lead performances leave this glossy Karan Johar production without a proper, palpable heartbeat. With Bittergaon's Parshya and Archi, beleaguered lovers in whom we were deeply invested, giving way to a pair of prettified, pale shadows, it is only sporadically that Dhadak shows any signs of life. The rest of the 137-minute film can bore the pants off even the most indulgent Bollywood watcher. Neither the blossoming of the furtive and risky romance between two college mates nor their forced flight from their hometown when their affair is discovered by the girl's ruthless, class-conscious family springs out of the screen quite in the profoundly affecting manner that it did in Sairat, a film that drew much of its efficacy from casual, confident understatement. The world that Dhadak creates is too synthetic. It lacks the power to evoke empathy. In the original film, an air of dread and despair hangs over the young couple as they try to come to terms with their new life in Hyderabad. Dhadak's many ill-advised detours - narrative, ideational and locational - take the focus away from the plight of the lovers who are never out of harm's way even when they find what appears to be a safe haven a thousand miles away from home. The script by director Shashank Khaitan (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Badrinath Ki Dulhania) may well have been titled Madhukar Ki Dulhania. It deviates in major ways from Nagraj Manjule's trenchant, unfussy narrative built upon a keen personal understanding of the milieu that his film is set in. Dhadak transports the story to Udaipur, gives the two principal characters new names - Madhukar Bagla (Ishaan Khatter) and Parthavi Singh (Janhvi Kapoor) - and reduces to near-irrelevance the class and caste divides that the plot of Sairat swivelled around. This takes the sting out of the film's shocking climax. The problem with Dhadak isn't, however, limited only to a weak ending or to the immediate lead-up to it. From its awkwardly farcical opening sequence in which a bizarre kachori-eating contest replaces the village cricket match with which Sairat kicks off all the way down to the couple's relocation to Kolkata in the second half to escape the fury of the girl's livid father and belligerent brother, nothing that writer-director Khaitan rustles up is able to pitchfork Dhadak out of its comatose state. Just ahead of the first half's principal flashpoint, a stolen kiss that unleashes mayhem, all the principal characters, choreographed by Farah Khan, get together to belt out a robust version of the peppy Zingat. But what about some zing, please? That commodity goes completely missing from Dhadak. The onus is on Janhvi and Ishaan to tide over the film's drawbacks - they do not try - and enliven the wishy-washy proceedings. Dhadak is as dull as ditchwater. So no matter how hard the two actors endeavour to win us over with their vulnerabilities, which they do a pretty good job of harnessing, theirs is an uphill task. Pressed into the service of this enervated remake, their efforts are unable to guide Dhadak away from its inconsistent arc. The film gets neither the love story nor the socio-political context of Sairat right. The script makes too many gratuitous changes for its own good. Udaipur's Lake Pichola and the impressive structures around it add up to a visually striking backdrop, but they cannot compensate for the soulless nature of the narrative. The male protagonist's father, a lowly fisherman in Sairat, is a restaurateur in Dhadak. In one scene refer to the uchhi jaat (high caste) of Parthavi's family and warns him to stay away from the girl. Parthavi's dad isn't a big, thriving farmer like Archana Patil's father - he is instead a big-talking small-town overlord Ratan Singh (Ashutosh Rana), whose ambition is to dislodge a long-serving MLA from her perch and enjoy the fruits of political power. He does have his way but only to lose his seat before the film winds down. His anger shoots through the roof and the reverberations are felt in faraway Kolkata. By this point, the film has well and truly lost its way in bylanes that lead nowhere. The end result is a meandering mess that delivers a feeble statement against the horror of honour killings. But by reducing the socio-political subtext of the tale to a mere footnote, Dhadak deprives itself of the chance of breaking out of its dreary shell and bringing into its sweep the social faultlines that lie at the core of a complex, fragmented society. Sairat's Parshya has two friends - Salim and Pradeep. The former is a Muslim bangle-seller's son who works in an auto mechanic's garage; the latter is a physically challenged young man who walks with a pronounced limp. They are a disadvantaged trio in a rural setting run with an iron hand over by a land-owning, politically connected Maratha family that is acutely aware of its position and power. In Dhadak, Madhukar's sidekicks are Gokul (Ankit Bisht) and Parshuram (television's 'tiny man' Shridhar Watsar), who is charged with providing comic relief. Beyond that, the duo contributes precious little to the plot - the Dalit-Muslim-differently abled axis is done away with, and what is left of it is employed only for a largely superficial purpose. Gokul and Parshuram, in another key departure from the Sairat plot, do make a reappearance in the film's second half to lend moral support to Madhukar and Parthavi in Kolkata, where they are in hiding in a hostel run by a gentleman called Sachin Bhowmick (Kharaj Mukherjee). The name is obviously borrowed from one of commercial Hindi cinema's most prolific screenwriters, whose credits range from India's 1958 Cannes Competition entry Lajwanti to 2006's Krrish, with a wide array of megahits in the interim (An Evening in Paris, Aradhana, Karma, Karan Arjun, Koi Mil Gaya, et al). But that definitely isn't meant to be an inspiration for Dhadak to shrug off its inertia. The film saunters rather than sprints. In Sairat, that strategy clicked famously because that film had its heart in the right place. Dhadak doesn't. The result is a grind that pretty frames and fresh faces cannot mitigate.

Several of his friends and filmi folks, who haven't seen him on the big screen in four years, have been congratulating him for attempting to play a teacher who speaks shudh Hindi, a tribute to his father Dharmendra's character in 'Chupke Chupke'. Now that the film, which centres around vasectomy, is all set to hit the screens, the actor will start looking at the other projects he has been offered. For Bobby, his dad has always been a huge inspiration. He says, "I am hungry for work. I want to collaborate with good directors on interesting scripts. I am happy that Poster Boys has got me back on everyone's minds. I am looking forward to new subjects and roles." The upcoming comedy, the remake of a Marathi film of the same name, also features macho Sunny Deol as one of the victims of a campaign that promotes vasectomy. The reason an actor with a repertoire of action films agreed to be a part of this light-hearted project is that today, meritorious content seems to have outshined big-budget projects. 'Poster Boys', produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions, Sunny Sounds Pvt Ltd, Shreyas and Deepti Talpade, releases on September 8.