Satish Shah Movies
Love and dreams follow two starry-eyed actors across three decades and two incarnations in this splashy Hindi musical. It's the early Seventies, and Om Prakash Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a young would-be actor who has been playing bit parts in Bollywood musicals while looking for his big break. Om's ambition is to become a film star and win the heart of beautiful screen siren Shantipriya (Deepika Padukone), and his pal Pappu (Shreyas Talpade) and his mother Bela (Kirron Kher) both encourage him not to give up on his dreams. One day, Om meets Shantipriya on a movie set, and he feels as if destiny is finally smiling on him, but when he overhears her having an argument with studio chief Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal), Om senses things are not as they should be. Before Om can decide what to make of his misgivings, the studio burns to the ground, claiming the lives of Om and Shantipriya. Thirty years later, a bit of Om's spirit seems to live on in Om Kapoor (also played by Shah Rukh Khan) a popular film actor with a large ego and a fear of flame who was born the day the old studio burned down. Despite his fame, Om is lonely, at least until he meets Sandhya (also played by Deepika Padukone), a shy but eager would-be actress looking for her chance to become a star. Om Shanti Om was directed and co-written by Farah Khan, who was a top choreographer in the Indian film industry before moving up to the director's chair, and features guest spots from a number of Bollywood's greatest stars, a few appearing in the form of digital recreations taken from films of the Seventies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, (more)
A blind Kashmiri girl venturing out into the world for the first time on her own discovers a love with the power to either transform or destroy her in director Kunal Kohli's scenic romance. Zooni Ali Beg (Kajol) is a young girl teetering on the verge of womanhood. As Zooni prepares to fly from the safety of her parent's comfortable nest, her father instills her with the sound wisdom that a person is not defined by their ability to choose between right and wrong, but instead their ability to distinguish between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods. When Zooni's journeys lead her into the arms of flirtatious tour guide Rehan Qadri (Aamir Khan), she willfully ignores the warnings of her well-intending friends and embraces her newfound love wholeheartedly. Though their precious time together finds both Zooni and Rehan transformed by the power of love, Rehan harbors a deadly secret that could prove fatal for the innocent and trusting Zooni. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rishi Kapoor, Aamir Khan, (more)
- 2006
For those who date before marriage, one's wedding day can be viewed as the perfect culmination of an ideal romance; when it comes to couples engaged in an arranged marriage, however, exchanging vows is simply the first step of a hopeful romance. Abhay Sachdeva and Ritika Khanna may have been virtual strangers when they found out they would be spending the rest of their lives together, but over the course of their five-day honeymoon, the couple that had never so much as held hands is about to get a crash course in the true meaning of commitment and togetherness. Upon departing from their hometown of Bangalore for the rolling hills of Ootay, Abhay and Sachdeva will come into contact with a number of people who have strong opinions concerning the institution of marriages. While most movies end with the ringing of wedding bells, Just Married begins with that familiar sound and follows the newly united couple to find out if two people who have never met can forge a lifetime of happiness together. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol, (more)
- 2006
- NR
Detroit-based filmmaker Diane Cheklich offers an intimate take on an international business trend in this office drama detailing the battle that erupts after an outsourced cubicle dweller is forced to personally train her replacements -- three ambitious young Indians who have been hand-selected to help get a small Indian call center off the ground. Fairfax Furniture CEO Derek Abernathy has a problem -- if he doesn't manage to cut costs quickly, odds are he'll be out of a job before he can blink. Desperate to save his own skin even if it means throwing his own employees under the proverbial bus, Abernathy gives the go-ahead to outsource the company's call center to a small Indian start-up called Voxx. But technically Voxx doesn't even exist yet, so when India-based businessman Devendra Tiwari and his son Ajay realize they have only two months to get the company up and running, they send Nikhil, Anjali, and Reva to Detroit to familiarize themselves with Fairfax Furniture products and gain a solid understanding of proper call center procedure. Needless to say, the current crop of call center employees aren't too thrilled about the prospect of training their replacements, and quickly wage war against the three newcomers. Call center manager Carol is particularly miffed, and wastes no time making the three visitors' lives miserable by sabotaging their training, ostracizing them in the office, and even rallying a local television reporter to her cause. With the lines drawn firmly in the sand and the three hapless trainees quickly nearing the emotional breaking point, only time will tell whether Abernathy's decision to outsource will save Fairfax Furniture or backfire and bring down the whole company. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deb Tunis, Satish Shah, (more)
Three neglected husbands get the job opportunity of a lifetime in this Bollywood musical comedy. Veer (Zayed Khan), Raj (Fardeen Khan), and Aryan (Sharman Joshi) are three close friends whose lives have taken a turn for the worst -- all three have lost their jobs, and all three have wives who are too busy with their own lives and careers to tend to their husbands in the bedroom. Diya (Esha Deol) is trying to launch her career in show business, Bhavna (Ayesha Takia) is obsessed with her spiritual side, and Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) is occupied with her law practice. Things are so grim for the husbands that they begin pondering suicide, but one Mr. Kothari (Satish Shah) comes to the rescue when he gives them jobs, and then asks a very special favor of them. Kothari has three beautiful daughters who all balk at the notion of having their father arrange marriages for them; to show them the folly of following their own hearts, Kothari wants the three husbands to woo and win the young ladies, and then break their hearts. Veer, Raj, and Aryan are happy to go along, but ending their relationships with the beautiful and willing women proves more difficult than they imagined, and the situation becomes stickier when the eligible bachelorettes strike up a friendship with the three betrayed wives. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Acclaimed Bollywood choreographer Farah Khan (Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge, Monsoon Wedding) makes her directorial debut with Main Hoon Na, a mix of action, comedy, and romance. Shah Rukh Khan (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham...) stars as Ram, a straight-laced action hero and major in the Indian army. When General Bakshi (Kabir Bedi) proposes a plan to release 50 harmless Pakistani POWs as a gesture of goodwill, he draws the ire of terrorist Raghavan (Sunil Shetty), a former army officer with a deep-seated hatred of the Pakistanis. Raghavan and his well-trained crew invade a television studio where the general is being interviewed, despite the efforts of Ram's father, Shekhar (Naseeruddin Shah of Monsoon Wedding), who is Bakshi's head of security. Ram intercedes and nearly captures the masked terrorist, but Shekhar is killed trying to protect Bakshi. With his dying words, he tells Ram his shameful secret. Shekhar was never married to Ram's late mother. Shekhar's wife and son left him when Ram, his illegitimate son, came to live in their home. Shekhar's dying wish is to have their forgiveness. Ram gets an opportunity to look for his long-lost stepbrother when General Bakshi assigns him to guard his estranged daughter, Sanjana (Amrita Rao), who goes to the same college as Ram's stepbrother. In order to stay close to Sanjana, Ram has to pose as a student. Being much older and far more conservative than most of the students, Ram immediately stands out, and is mercilessly mocked by the coolest guy on campus, Lucky (Zayed Khan). Sanjana wants nothing to do with him, making his job difficult. Things become more complicated when Ram learns the identity of his stepbrother, and finds himself falling for his sexy chemistry teacher, Chandni (Sushmita Sen). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shah Rukh Khan, Sunil Shetty, (more)
The second film from director Milan Luthria, Chori, Chori fought an extended battle to find its way into cinemas due to the death of a key producer and a distributor's strike that left the film in uncertain limbo. Following a chance meeting at a lavish banquet hall, single orphan bartender Khushi (Rani Mukherjee) approaches prominent architect Ranbir (Ajay Devgan) for some help putting his life together. Taking on Ranbir's surname in order to secure an apartment and get herself settled, both Khushi and Ranbir's lives are unexpectedly complicated when Khushi unknowingly introduces herself to Ranbir's parents as Mrs. Ranbir Malhotra. At first enraged, Ranbir soon agrees to go along with Khushi's ruse and the couple soon find themselves slowly and reluctantly drawn to one another. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Love blossoms in the most unlikely of places in director Rohan Sippy's feature debut. A carefree bachelor who is in no hurry to marry, Raj (Abhishek Bachchan) finds himself the pawn of an overzealous Cupid upon attending his cousin's wedding in India. Though Namarata (Aishwarya Rai) has soon laid out a series of potential mates for Raj, her plan backfires when she learns that it isn't her suggestions that Raj is interested in, but Namarata herself. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, (more)
- 2002
Director Kunal Kohli presents the Bollywood epic of mistaken loves and matrimonial mismatches in his 2002 release Mujhse Dosti Karoge! Young Raj (Hrithik Roshan) has spent the last 15 years in London, due to his father having relocated his family in order to start a computer company. In the meantime, Raj has kept in touch with his childhood friend, Pooja (Rani Mukherji), who still resides in India. Over those 15 years, Raj reveals to Pooja that he had fallen in love with her sister, Tina (Kareena Kapoor), before leaving India and via his communications with Tina. Pooja, it turns out, was the true author of those messages in a bid to spare her friend's feelings for a deeply ambivalent Tina -- and Pooja has subsequently fallen in love with Raj in the process. As Raj makes a return visit home to India, he spends as much time with Tina as he can allow and Pooja is forced to sit by and watch in silence. After Raj returns to London, however, Pooja decides to follow him. When the two meet, the truth is revealed and Pooja and Raj decide to marry. They return to India to announce their engagement, but find her father had recently died. Further complicating matters, Raj's father is determined to keep the vow he made to Pooja and Tina's father of marrying his son to Tina. The young lovers are forced to find a solution to their problem quickly before Raj is married to Tina and irretrievably lost to Pooja. Somewhat popular with the Indian movie-going public, Mujhse Dosti Karoge! was critically dismissed as derivative and unoriginal at the time of its 2002 release. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hrithik Roshan, Rani Mukherjee, (more)
Aditya (Vivek Oberoi) and Suhani (Rani Mukherjee) are deeply in love, though when their parents meet to arrange the marriage, questions of class soon begin to bring out the worst in everyone. Running away together to shun their families and begin a new life together, the couple devote themselves to one another entirely and vow to make their relationship work despite their meager surroundings. When reality begins to creep into their fairy-tale romance, will love be enough to bond the couple together through the hard times that lie ahead? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rani Mukherjee, Vivek Oberoi, (more)
- 1995
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Brave Heart Will Take the Bride) was a huge hit in India, and won all the major Filmfare Awards. It was also the film that catapulted Shahrukh Khan to Bollywood superstardom, and it was the first of several successful pairings of Khan and Kajol. Khan plays Raj, a likeably goofy rich Indian boy, brought up in London, who's had everything handed to him in life. Kajol is Simran, a proper Indian girl who also lives in London. Her stern father (Amrish Puri) has arranged for her to go to back to his sorely missed homeland in Punjab to marry the son of an old friend. Simran persuades the old man to let her go off on a month-long trip to Europe with her girlfriends before she weds. On the trip, Simran meets Raj, and naturally they don't get along at first. He humiliates her with his pranks, and she refuses to loosen up. Then they get stranded together, get drunk together, sing and dance together, and begin to develop feelings for each other. They return to London, each hoping the other will express his/her love. They part, and when Simran's father overhears her telling her mother (Farida Jalal) about Raj, he gets angry and demands that they leave for India immediately. But Raj follows them there, determined to win over Simran's father and take Simran as his bride. He ingratiates himself with the dimwitted groom, Kuljit (Parmeet Sethi), and enters the household as his friend. Things get even more complicated when Kuljit's family mistakenly believes that Raj is interested in the groom's sister, and they begin to plan a double wedding. The film was the directorial debut of Aditya Chopra, and the hit soundtrack was composed by the writing team Jatin-Lalit. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, (more)
A huge hit when released in India in 1994, director Sooraj Barjatiya's affecting family drama started a notable trend towards more family friendly fare in a time when violence was the predominant attraction of Bollywood films. As Prem's (Salman Khan) brother prepares for his marriage to Nisha's (Madhuri Dixit) sister, the single siblings slowly fall in love with one another. Following the death of Nisha's sister Pooja, Nisha is obligated to marry Prem's brother Rajesh since Rajesh's child is familiar with Nisha. As Nisha and Rajesh prepare for their wedding, Rajesh finds a note that Nisha has written to Prem and insists that she follow her heart and marry her true love. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madhuri Dixit, Salman Khan, (more)
- 1989
The Indian Tere Bina Kya Jina uses its marathon 144 minutes to weave a very simple and basic domestic tale. New bride Moon Moon Sen is resentful over the fact that hubby Shekar Suman spends too much time at the office. The disgruntled Sen fails at a suicide attempt, then hires mental patient Satish Shah to bump her off. Once the newlyweds are reconciled, Sen learns to her horror that Shah has every intention of living up to his agreement. How often have you seen this particular plot in American films? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Tetra is too poor to go to school. Instead, he earns money for his family by pulling the rope that moves a fan which cools three rich kids while they attend school. They, however, don't give a damn about their educations. They are much more interested in hijinks and good times. However, Tetra has a secret weapon which will further his ambitions: a photographic memory. Secretly encouraged by the school's sympathetic teacher, he is also noticed by the villainous rich kids, who want to use him as an accountant so he can help them collect even more rent from the poor villagers. Tetra manages to turn their scheme on its head and leaves the villagers better off than before. However, once the bad guys notice what he has done, he must do what he can to escape. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Utpal Dutt, Anil Chatterjee, (more)
- 1984
The English translation of the this Indian film's title is A Summons for Mohan Josh. Bhishan Sahni plays Mohan, a Bombay slum dweller at odds with his absentee landlord. When it becomes clear that the landlord refuses to improve living conditions because he wants to drive the tenants out and tear down the apartment house, Mohan tries to organize his neighbors into a rent strike. Out of fear, they refuse to do so, compelling him to continue his battle alone by hiring an attorney. The ensuing lawsuit takes so long getting before a judge that Mohan's savings are wiped out. Moved by his persistance, Mohan's neighbors finally rally around him--only to discover that the Indian legal system is set up in so archaic a fashion that some cases never get heard in court. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bhisham Sahni, Dina Pathak, (more)
