Film Impressions

PROFILE: Sachin Khedekar

This article first appeared in Time Out magazine

What kind of work would an actor of Sanjeev Kumar’s enormous talent but modest looks have attracted in contemporary cinema? Surely he couldn’t have played the six-pack flaunting hero of youth-obsessed love stories or a member of the lowbrow comedy club. Today even character parts are caricatures mechanically executed by veterans like Rishi Kapoor, Om Puri and Anupam Kher. Fortunately for Sachin Khedekar, a man of equal gifts, Marathi cinema still offers a small but vital window for creative expression.

REVIEW: Highway

ROAD TO NOWHERE

This review contains spoilers

Dear Papa,

I am writing to you from my new home in the mountains where the air is so fresh, the water so clean, the sheep so adorable and the women in ethnic costumes with cool folk music on their lips so trendy! I now live in a mud house with cute little square windows and have even learnt to make tea on the chulha, sweep the floor and make my own bed. Of course, when it's warmer I sleep on the green grass and gaze at the white stars shining bright in the ink blue sky.

Alia Bhatt in the new film from Imtiaz Ali, Highway

REVIEW: One By Two

ANOTHER TAME ROM-COM

In principle I have a problem empathising with a heroine whose sole aim in life is to win a dance reality show. It didn’t work even when Rani Mukerji displayed such chutzpah in Bunty Aur Babli (2005) running away from home for a modelling contest. Add to that, the girl in question (Preeti Desai) is neither a dancer nor an actress. She’s first and above all a London-bred model with a thick accent, dazzling hair and tall, thin legs.