Phillauri

Second venture of the sister-brother producer duo Anushka and Karnesh Sharma, starring Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh and Suraj Sharma (Pi in the Life of Pi) is a perfect desi Halloween movie for our Hindustani brethren in Umrika if they are searching for one.



Anushka is a nebulous white ghost stuck in a tree, accidentally freed by Suraj and currently stalking him, pestering him for answers. The bumbling, aspiring Canadian rapper that he is, Suraj is unnerved and thrown into a loop by the presence of this floating apparition whom no one else is able to see. Diljit Dosanjh stops by as Punjabi folk singer/ Anushka's love interest in her real life, in the early 1900s Punjab.


Phillauri is a perfect example of how ghost stories look like when they are delivered via the dream pike at Bollywood. There is the quintessential over the top Punjabi wedding and there is a horizontally floating ghost swishing around in a sparkly ghaghra whose ghostliness quotient has been bolstered up by the masterly use of CGI and changing the operating angle to 180 degrees. Add to this, we have not one but two love stories - set a century apart for to meet the enchantment needs of different generations.

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Bareilly Ki Barfi

Kriti Sanon is the leggy model who by some quirk of fate or by the malfunctioning magic wand of the casting director got deposited as a utility clerk, Bitti Mishra, in a musty sarkari (government) office in Bareilly, UP. Ayushmann Khurana is a writer so reclusive or ashamed of his writing skills or both  that he does not even want to be known as the author of his own novel. These are our two leads of Bareilly ki Barfi.

In real life, considering the rebellious, tomboyish nature of Bitti I would have expected her to have done a Kangana Ranaut and left her small town roots in the dust long ago and to reign over modeling world or Bollywood by now. Ayushmann Khurana as a writer is probably better than casting Varun Dhawan as one - that's surely a solid excuse for having Ayushmann as Chirag Dubey - printing press owner by the day and moonlighting novelist by night.

The perfect casting is Rajkummar Rao as Pritam Vidrohi - every bully's favorite person to pick on, the neighborhood punching bag - played to perfection by the national award winning actor.

Bareilly ki Barfi rides on the power of its script, direction and convincing portrayal of their roles by all the actors, not just the leads. It also plays safe by stringing together two of Bollywood's favorite subjects -1) love story ending in 2)wedding prep. It stays clear of moralizing and there are no villains in the story except for the hero.  A bubbly movie for a light-hearted hour or two.

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Running Shaadi

Tapasee Pannu's star is in the ascendent in Bollywood. The 'North Indian kudi who acts in S.Indian films' is probably an address she is now moving away from. Pink, Running Shaadi, Naam Shabana presents a list of strong female oriented characters that has come the way of Tapasee. Of the three Running Shaadi is the least serious of her roles. Loved the rest of the cast too - Amit Sadh, Arsh Bajwa, Brijendra Kala, everyone fits in with the story.

Playing a wild child to Amit Sadh's more grounded male character, Running Shaadi is the story of friends growing up in small town Northern India. In the land of arranged marriages they start a business of arranging elopements via an online website, which is the title of the movie.

First time director Amit Roy, a cinematographer turned director has delivered an enjoyable little package. And thankfully we have less of the most over-used element in Bollywood, although the entire premise of the film essentially centers around it - the Bollywood shaadi. Have to give it to the director Roy and the writer Navjot Gulati for not falling into the trap of delivering another over-the-top Punjabi wedding masala.

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