silvan-desouza DARWAZA BANDH RAKHO is Chakravarthi's 2nd directional film after the flop DURGA and a small story in DBRThe film is a comedy fitted in 1 house which is novel but sadly the film falters as it progressesThe film starts off well but several comedy scenes are dragged and too chaosticYet there are several interesting scenes but the romance could be done without The film gets engrossing in the second half where lot of game plans are revealed but the climax is a bad jokeDirection by Chakravarthi is decent Camera-work is goodAftab Shivdasani is in good form and acts his part very well though he doesn't get much scope to display histrionics Isha Sherwani annoys at places otherwise she is good Chunky Pandey is relegated to the backseat, Manisha Koirala is okay Snehal Dabbi is adequate Zakir is superb in his role Ishrat Ali is the scene stealer, he excels in his comic act He mostly is seen as a loud politician in action films but here he is superb Smita Jaikar and others are good

Sherazade If you find yourself laughing hysterically during this very dark comedy, I think it's safe to say it's okay, it was meant to be that way. Ram Gopal Varma delivers production-wise, J.D. Chakravarthi directs and it's a great tag-team filled with great laughs and serious surprises.The movie begins with the life of struggling businessman who can't seem to catch a break from his demanding children(an extravagant daughter and a needy son) and clingy wife-sometimes overbearing wife. One night, while relaxing at home with his family the doorbell rings(and by the way let me just say that the weird-sounding-doorbell is also a character in the movie) and he goes to answer it. He peaks through the peephole and sees a group of men standing outside his front door with their backs turned towards the door. Curious, after inquiring to no avail who they are, he unwisely opens the door to investigate and they all rush in inadvertently taking the man and his family hostage.The goons, headed by Ajay (played by Aftab Shivdasani) after tying up and gagging each and every member of the family including the maid(Chameli - played by Divya Dutta), then reveal another victim which they have brought along with them. She is a young woman named Isha(played by Kisna's Isha Sharvani) they kidnapped, gagged and tied up in a potato sack before choosing the house as their hideout. She is the daughter of an affluent business tycoon whom their hope to use to extort money from her dad.But pandemonium ensues as they faulty plan goes awry, marred by the effect of the house's every increasing characters...uh victims and the love stories that form between two of the kidnappers and two of the victims. If you haven't guessed already, Shivdasani(goon) is paired with Sharvani(victim) and Pandey(goon) is paired with Koirala(victim). DUH! Anywho, Blink and you'll miss Gulshan Grover as Isha's brooding father. Chunkey Pandey and Manisha Koirala co-star. Well acted and very funny. B+

uncle_g1234 Four Indian down-and-outers decide to kidnap a rich man's daughter. They hole up in a randomly-picked house whose occupants they take as hostage. The doorbell becomes the enemy as one person after another shows up and is taken hostage till the house is full of people. As the population increases, behavior becomes more and more random. One of the amateur thieves takes a liking to a doortodoor shampoo saleslady. They find out that the daughter has faked a kidnapping before causing the rich man to think its another of her pranks so they have to convince him this is NOT a prank. And on and on. The peculiar thing about the movie is that frightening things happen at the same time as they are playing this circus music. Definitely an RGV perspective on funny business. But it had the trademark RGV quality of hurtling on through the plot with little letup at all.Not a great movie, but an interesting concept. WAY better than Naach. More original than D. I haven't seen any of the other RGV new releases this year, so I can't compare to those. But I'll forgive him for Naach because he did so much better in this one.Still a 6/10. Stars are Aftab Shivdasani, Manisha Koirala, Isha Sharvani, and Divya Dutta.

Indianmoviebuff Darwaza Bandh Rakho was touted as a comedy coming from RGV's factory after a string on action/scary movies. Chekravarthy directs this movie and considering his previous ventures (anyone unfortunate enough to view Durga would agree) and the star cast of this one, the expectations were zilch. After watching a lackluster Anthony… you anyway don't want to have many expectations from a movie.The movie is about a gang of four Ajay (Aftab Shivdasani), Goga (Snehal Dabhi), Raghu(Chunky Pandey) and Abbas (Zakir Hussain) who want to make a quick buck. They kidnap a construction magnate's spoilt daughter Isha (Isha Sharvani) and end up in a now-broke Guajarati household taking the family of Kantilal Shah (Ishrat Ali) as hostages. As Isha's father is in US they have to keep put up in the same house. As time passes quite a few characters like a pizza delivery boy Mugale Azam (Nitin Raikwar), shampoo sales girl Julie (Manisha Koirala), money lender Shetty (Jeeva), real estate agent Mehta(Goga Kapoor), constable Ganpat(Ravi Kale), a veterinary doctor (Kota Srinivas Rao) etc turn up and are promptly taken in as hostages. The kidnappers have to keep up with the idiosyncrasies of the hostages till they get the money. In the meanwhile the pizza boy wants to cozy up to them as he always wanted to be in underworld; Raghu takes a liking to Julie whereas Isha takes a liking to Ajay. The kidnappers then try to outsmart one another to get the money for themselves. There is lots of confusion and finally the police arrives to finish the matters.The story has enough in it to be turned into a laugh riot. Does it succeed in doing so? Yes and No. There are some fantastic one-liners and the acting is good. Some dialogues that stand out – Only incoming, outgoing cut Only cats, dogs cows…no mans and a couple of others. But, the cohesiveness in the film is missing. There are so many things that can be done with such a story line and that's where you feel let down. The pace of the movie never slackens. Dialogues are good and have mass appeal. Cinematography is also good.Acting is one area where there are some revelations. Ishrat Ali is undoubtedly the star of the movie. I have always held that he cannot deliver dialogues but he screams them but here it works and how! This is the best I have seen him perform in spite of seeing him in dozens of movies. Fantastic! Isha Sharvani is another revelation. Seeing her in Kisna I had remarked she is good for doing mallahkambh maybe and not acting Here she does really well as a kid who is excited about being kidnapped. Aftab is lackluster, Chunky and Snehal are OK whereas Manisha looks uninterested in the going on. Zakir is good. Divya Dutta as the maid is as usual. Among the supporting cast Kota Srinivas Rao stands out.Chekravarthy's direction shows improvement over his debut film. He has handled some scenes well but has still a long way to go.Overall the movie is time pass if you go with less expectation. After all movie-watching is a matter of managing your expectations. I think here also you are better off waiting for a few months by when this should be coming on channels.PS: The movie was touted as 35 people under one roof, believe it or not I counted the number of people in the house and they never reached 35!! In the climax when a gang of people reach the house and following them is a police team it might have neared 35 that's it and for most of the movie it is 15 people.