Govinda is one of the best dancers our industry has known so far. So, when this veteran dancer praises some new comer, there must be definitely something worth praising. Talking about praises, both Govinda and choreographer Ganesh Acharya were impressed by Hansikaa’s graceful dancing steps during a dance sequence being shot for ‘Money Hai To Honey Hai’. Govinda even told director Ganesh that Hansikaa’s fervor and enthusiasm reminded him of himself from his old days and it feels like she is from his school itself, when it comes to dance!!

If sources are to be believed this particular dance number exudes amazing brilliance owing to the dancing skills of Govinda and Hansikaa and their chemistry has taken the number to even greater heights.

With ‘Halla Bol’ Rajkumar Santoshi has tried to re-create the magic of 1990s when a single-man war against the entire corrupt political system was there in every third movie, and sure enough Santoshi was successful in giving memorable films like ‘Ghatak’, ‘Ghayal’ and ‘Damini’. ‘Halla Bol’ seems to be the next in the sequence of Santoshi’s hard-hitting films, but nevertheless, it lacks the energy and compactness of his past films. The storyline goes as:

Ashfaque (Ajay Devgan), a small town boy aspiring to make it big in Bollywood works in a street theatre group run by a reformed dacoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur) which holds plays raising social and political issues to bring about an awakening in the masses. Ashfaque finally makes it to Bollywood with a new screen name – Sameer Khan. Once in Bollywood, he sheds his middle-class bearings and changes everything — values, ethics, attitude — along with his name. However, his wife (Vidya Balan) refuses to change and sadly and silently watches her husband’s deteriorating values. It takes the murder of a young girl in a party to provoke his conscience and ferret out the old activist, Ashfaqe-ullah. Soon, Sameer is the one-man army against the battery of evil politicians, businessmen and cops who are hellbent on covering up the crime. His support in this battle is his old Guruji’s: a firm, powerful and mesmerising Pankaj Kapoor.

‘Halla Bol‘ tries to deal with too many subjects and sequences at one time- rape, violence, power, crime, fraud, the darker side of Bollywood, things behind Page 3, media and abuse. Due to this the film seems to lose its grip and track every now and then. Two incidents which the film instantly brings to our memory is the old but not-so-old Jessica Lal murder case and the murder of the noted street theatre activist Safdar Hashmi during a performance.

The films gains momentum when Ajay Devgan steps ahead for justices aided with Pankaj Kapoor. We have some powerhouse performances by Pankaj Kapoor. Ajay Devagn has done justice to his role. Vidya Balan has not much to do except one scene when she hits the media when it raises questions on her marriage. Darshan Jariwala comes as a surprise package.

The dialogues are hard-hitting. Many of them receive a loud clapping. The musical scores are average, in fact quite forgettable. ‘Na Guzre Huwe Pal’ turns out to be the best number. The director could have done some trimming of the sequences in the second half. Also the climax is not so powerful and lacks the last impact factor.

The memorable and paisa vasool sequences are the one when Ajay relieves himself on the Persian rug at the minister’s palatial residence, when Vidya Balan shoots back at the media which is grilling Ajay if his wife has walked out on him, when Abhay Bhargava is trying to bribe Pankaj Kapur and Pankaj replies. The murder of the girl at the night club with stone faced spectators is also hair-raising.

On the whole, Santoshi has tried to bring back what seemed to have disappeared from Hindi cinema in recent times. The fight of common man against the system. Comedy, thrillers and love-story, for a change has taken a back seat and ‘Halla Bol’ has come up with hard hitting defects of our system. An applaudable try from Santoshi but lacking in a tight script and expert handling of too many issues in a short span of 2-3 hours.

2007 was a great year for Bollywood at box office with big banners taking most of the cream. If we look at the hits of 2007, OSO definitely is quite a few leaps ahead of all others. Let us brief it out along with the others:

Om Shanti Om

This was a mega hit of 2007 both within India and abroad. It’s perfect marketing strategy, the hype of reviving the golden past, the magic of SRK, the perfection of Farah Khan and the surprise package of Deepika Padukone oozing freshness and diva like appeal- all added up to make the film a huge hit.

Chak De India

This was another hit from SRK. The film is unique in itself owing to the fact that it has no female lead to add glamour and also dealt with a sport (hockey) which is not a big craze among an average Indian. Nevertheless, the perfect handling of the subject made it a surprise hit of 2007.

Partner

The magical combination of Govinda and Salman Khan worked wonders and this unofficial comeback of Govinda set the cash registers ringing for the producers. The film had foot tapping musical scores and gorgeous Katrina Kaif to add up to the factors contributing to it’s success.

Heyy Babyy

2007 was definitely an year of Akshay Kumar who emerged as the king of comedies in the year. Though Vidya Balan’s makeover look aroused negative critisicms, the film managed to come across as a majot hit of the year.

Namaste London

Talking about Akshay Kumar, this again was an average hit which dealt with the subject of romantic comedy. Along with Partner and Welcome, this added to make a hattrick of hits for Katrina Kaif in 2007.

Bhool Bhulaiyan

The magic of Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan worked yet again in ‘Bhool Bhulaiyan’ which was an experiment in the sense that it successfully managed to balance thriller with comedy.

Guru

This was undoubtedly the best movie of 2007 which gave a lifetime performance from Abhishek Bachchan blending well with a mature delivery from Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan). The year also saw this on-screen couple tying knots in real life too amidst much hype making them the most talked about couple of the year.

Jab We Met

Last but not the least, making it’s way to the top 10 was this love story from Imtiaz Ali. How much and in what way, the breakup of Shahid- Kareena affected the movie, is still to be worked out, but the movie managed to carved it’s niche at the box-office owing to the freshness and a superb performance from Kareena and Shahid.

Anees Bazmee, who gave us the rib-tickiling ‘No Entry’ has once again shown his expertise in dealing with comedy. Fun filled absurd incidents and lot of commotion, the film has funny sequences and promises loads and loads of fun.

The storyline deals with Uday Shetty [Nana Patekar], Majnu [Anil Kapoor] and their boss, Sikander [Feroz Khan], who are comical gangsters based in Hong Kong. They want to get Uday’s sister Sanjana [Katrina Kaif] married into a respectable family.

Rajiv [Akshay Kumar] accidentally meets Uday who in turn is quite impressed by Rajiv’s merit as Sanjana’s grrom. Meanwhile, Sanjana also happens to fall in love with Rajiv but is unaware of her brothers’ plans. Then there is Dr. Ghunghroo [Paresh Rawal], Rajiv’s uncle who supports the couple but decides to go against the marriage when he comes to know of Sanjana’s background. The commotion and confusion reaches it’s climax with the entry of a sexy bombshell [Mallika Sherawat] who claims to be Rajiv’s wedded wife.

The entry of the three gangsters sets the pace of the film and the film is definitely better in the first half which is packed with tickling intelligent one-liners. Mallika’s performance with Nana and Anil are really funny. The film successfully does justice to the beautiful locations of Dubai and South Africa.

However, the film seems to be losing it’s grip in the second half which has some repetitive jokes. Also, the music fails to come up to the mark.

2207 has undoubtedly established Akshay Kumar as the king of comedies, but for the first time this veteran actor seems to be overshadowed by other co-stars: Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor and last by not the least Paresh Rawal who are superb and brilliant in their roles. Though the female actors do not get much scope, Katrina Kaif manages to ooze freshness and appeal. In fact, in some places she seems to steal the show from Bollywood’s sex kitten Mallika Sherawat.

To sum up, the film’s well-planned advertisement strategy has created enough hype and also the festive mood of Christmas, has resulted in a remarkable and brilliant start at the ticket office, but the question is: Will ‘Welcome’ be able to reach up to the expectations of the ‘Junta Janaardhan’ and sustain it’s collections at the box-office? The ‘Welcome’ the film has got in the first week surely predicts that the film may be the last hit of the year 2007.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom manages to do just that with its ensemble star cast exuding charisma and doing justice to its role. As usual the father-son jodi rocks and Akki Narula’s costumes do a great job in defining the personas of the characters. Amitabh appears part rakish and part funny in his knee-length boots and feathered hat. He carries off the costume with panache and delivers another cool performance… he carried off the dock worker’s uniform with panache as well in Deewar… all those years back.

The characters are well-etched and loud and they respond to some very different-sounding names; sample these Rikki Thukral, Steven Singh, Alvira Khan, etc. The film is based on those flimsiest of premises – boy meet girl but slick production values, good humor, and fantastic locales make this a must watch.