Stripped to its bone, Rensil D’silva’s Kurbaan is an edge-of-the-seat thriller that seldom loses its grip on your attention. Credible performances from its leads, and a nail-biting screenplay make up for the plot holes that threaten to eat into this otherwise engaging film.

Never a lofty biopic that romanticizes Phalke’s struggle, Mokashi’s film in fact is a humorous, light-hearted take on a challenging adventure filled with impossible hurdles. From raising money by selling his furniture, and casting men in female roles because no women agreed to act in the film, Harishchandrachi Factory looks for irony and laughs even in the darkest places. A portion in the story when Phalke combats near blindness is recounted evenly, without any trace of over-sentimentality or heavy-handed direction.

The film’s success is the result of both Amole Gupte’s tremendous script, and Aamir Khan’s nurturing supervision. Neither could have achieved this without the other. Be prepared to shed tears, not because it’s always a sad story, but because it’s such an overwhelming experience.

Unpretentious and completely transparent in its intentions, Om Shanti Om is an entertainer in the true sense of the word, mixing up genre elements like comedy, drama, action and emotion to create a heady broth of Manmohan Desai-style exaggerated entertainment. With tongue firmly in cheek, the writers make light of everyone and everything in sight, packing the first half with so many in-jokes and movie references that it turns out to be every trivia collector’s wet dream.

…it’s an immensely satisfying movie experience, I’m going to go with four out of five and two thumbs up for director Shimit Amin’s Chak De India. It’s got a predictable premise and you know exactly which way the story’s going to go, but sometimes, when the characters win over your heart and you’re rooting for them to win, that’s all that really matters.

Hrithik is one of those rare actors who’s not only abundantly talented, but he’s also blessed with a presence that’s electrifying. With the grace of a dove he throws himself into the film’s many challenging stunt scenes – skydiving, sand-surfing, scuba-diving, roller-blading, bungee-jumping – and he does it all so well.Whether it’s in the action scenes, or the songs, whether he’s romancing Aishwarya or jumping off a cliff, it’s hard to take your eyes off him.

Easily her best performance since her debut in Socha Na Tha, Ayesha stands up and delivers. The film itself is noble and well-intended and for that alone it deserves a viewing. True Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor is a film that’s far from perfect, but it’s one that at least tries to achieve greatness. It’s nowhere as magnificent an achievement as Iqbal, but it’s certainly way above the ordinary.