Javed Akhtar Movies

As helmed by Harry Baweja, and co-scripted by the director with Harman Baweja and Rowena Baweja, the saga Love Story 2050 embodies an unusual attempt to combine standard Bollywood tropes (including musical numbers) with the conventions of science fiction material. The tale begins in present-day Australia, where Karan Malhotra (Harman Baweja), a billionaire's son, displeases his father enormously by frittering away his time and energy on daredevil sports. His attitude about life changes and his interests shift, however, when his path crosses with that of the beautiful Sana (Priyanka Chopra). She harbors an intense fascination with time travel, and as it so happens, Karan's uncle, Dr. Yatinder Khanna (Boman Irani) is building a time machine. Sana tells Yatinder that she'd like to travel forward in time to Mumbai in 2050; tragically, however, the machine is still in an experimental phase, and kills her during the attempt. Heartbroken, Karan proposes to his uncle that they attempt to use the time machine to travel back in time and save Sana's life; instead, the machine gets stuck on sending people forward in time to 2050, but Karan theorizes that Sana's spirit may have traveled to a new body in the future, and thus climbs into the time machine to travel to 2050 and find Sana's reincarnated self. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

An energetic young pit-crew mechanic works his way up to stock car driver -- and meets the love of his life along the way -- in this high-spirited Bollywood musical. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Indian director Karan Johar's three-hour feature Never Say Goodbye (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) utilizes and celebrates the common Bollywood practice of combining multiple genres and elements - comedy, drama, romance and flashy musical numbers - into one picture of epic length, to maximize cinema's capacity for entertainment. The story concerns two Manhattan couples. Soccer player Dev (Shah Rukh Khan) and his magazine editor wife, Rhea (Preity Zinta) are happily married despite occasional stress on the relationship; PR executive Rishi (Abhishek Bachan) and preschool teacher Maya (Rani Mukherji) feel their marriage strained by her inability to conceive. But the couples' worlds are turned upside down when Dev and Maya meet and fall hopelessly -- wondering how they ever lived without one another. Meanwhile, Dev's father Samarjit (Amitabh Bachchan) - who lives for pleasure and satisfaction at the expense of others' feelings - complicates matters by encouraging his son's new relationship. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

One of the earliest salvos of Indian militancy before the nation won its freedom from the British Empire is recounted in grand scale in this historical drama. In the 1850s, Great Britain held both political and economic sway over India, and the East India Company was one of the most powerful English firms trading there -- so powerful that they had their own private army to help enforce the laws as they saw fit. Mangal Pandey (Aamir Khan) was a "sepoy" (local slang for an Indian soldier) in the East India Co. militia who became friendly with British officer William Gordon (Toby Stephens). Gordon had a great deal of respect for Padney, unlike many of his fellow British soldiers, who regarded their Indian colleagues with little more than contempt. While Padney's commitment to his duty was genuine, he became increasingly aware of the disrespect shown to Indians by the British, and when word began to spread that the powder cartouches being given to sepoy gunmen were greased with animal fat, making them taboo for Muslim and Hindu soldiers, long-simmering anger in the ranks began to boil over into open rebellion, and in time Padney was charged with mutiny for defending himself and other sepoys against their British superiors. Adapted from a true story, The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Padney features dialogue in both Hindi and English, unusual for most Bollywood films. ~ 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

A man searching for clues to his past pays a visit to the place where he was born in this drama laced with romance and music from India. Mohan Bhargava (Shah Rukh Khan) left the small village in India where he was born and raised to travel to the United States, where he worked as part of the American space program. But after the death of his parents, Mohan becomes nostalgic for his home and takes a leave of absence in order to visit Kaveri (Kishori Ballal), a woman who helped to raise him as a boy. While searching for Kaveri, Mohan becomes reacquainted with Gita (Gayatri Joshi), one of his friends from his school days who has stayed behind to serve the community as a teacher. Gita thinks little of Mohan's desire to bring Kaveri back to the United States with him, but she also finds herself struck by the charm and intelligence of the adult Mohan, and the two develop a strong infatuation. But many in the community have little regard for Mohan's accomplishments in the United States until he steps forward to help his old neighbors by revamping the village's antiquated electrical system. ~ Mark Deming, 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

Sanjay Gadhvi's romantic comedy Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai is about an attempt to undo an upcoming wedding. Uday Chopra plays Sanjay Malhotra, a young, successful man with lots of luck with the ladies. He discovers that his childhood friend Anjali (Sanjana) is going to marry. He leaves his model girlfriend Ria (Bipasha Basu) and attempts to wreck the ceremony. When her family welcomes the fiancée with open arms, and takes an immediate liking to him, the situation becomes more complex. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

As Dil Chahta Hai opens, Siddarth, known as Sid (Akshaye Khanna) is racing to the hospital due to an unexplained emergency. There, he is reunited with his old friend, Sameer (Saif Ali Khan). Sameer calls the third member of the trio, Akash (Bombay superstar Aamir Khan from Lagaan), who tells him he's not going to join them at the hospital, due to an unresolved dispute between him and Sid. The film then flashes back to earlier, happier days, to show us what came between the three close friends. Sid was the studious, serious one, with a hidden artistic side, while Sameer foolishly let himself be ruled by the woman in his life. Akash could never limit himself to one woman. He was a playboy who claimed he didn't believe in love. Sameer found himself unexpectedly falling for Pooji (Sonali Kulkarni of Mission Kashmir), the young woman his parents have tried to arrange for him to marry. Akash's father grew concerned about his son's immaturity, and sent Akash to Australia to work for his company. There, he ran into Shalini (Preity Zinta, who also starred in Mission Kashmir), a girl who once rejected him in a Bombay nightclub. She's engaged to be married to Rohit (Ayub Khan), but as the two spend time together, Akash falls hard for Shalini. For his part, Sid met a beautiful divorcee, Tara (Dimple Kapadia), but his friends and family weren't ready to accept their relationship. Eventually, we work our way back to the present, and find out what's become of the three friends and their romantic entanglements. Dil Chahta Hai, a huge hit in India, marked the feature debut of writer-director Farhan Akhtar. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide