thp75 I saw this movie lately and must say that this was the best Hindi movie of 2006. It was superb direction and storyline which was right on track from beginning. John, Arshad and others have good roles. The storyline is practical and realistic. Director must had guts to show such film as it involves many international political agendas.. but they were plotted briefly and nicely along with the human being shades. I enjoyed this movie though i watched it late after 2006. All real messages were conveyed from film through simple truck (jeep) journey. It had good light comedy as well. Over all it was really nice movie and I am happy i saw it at last.John was good in his role in second half of the film.

kleoVII Nothing is as simple as stereotypes are. Those who don't want to shoot can kill, those who kill can save, Americans don't drink ***cola, even evil people have daughters and somebody's wish may be never fulfilled. You can think, than all what this people came through was in vain, but is it really in vain?Why press gave only 2 points for this film? Well, because there were no romance between handsome reporter (any of them) and flower from a desert ;-) ? No easy sex which is what some audience is used to. To give answer to "haw it all finished?" you have to think and interpret on your own.John Abraham was... well... he just was in this film. He showed his look and that is all. His character is so simple that he had no opportunity to show his talent (if he has). All the rest was OK, especially Arshad Warsi whose Jai was very colourfull person than draw attention."Of course" there must had been some reference to India-Pakistan conflict. (Well, maybe give them Madhuri Dixit). But as unforgettable Kapuscinski who died two days ago always tried to explain: there is no black/white people problem or Indian/Pakinstani. It is about people. Some are good some are bad no matter on which side they stand.Yes, it is typical story from the road, but I joined their odyssey with pleasure.

sandhirflora At one hand you have constraints of a fictional approach towards story telling, to be packed with requisite drama and emotions required for a commercial product. On the other hand, you have a subject that requires a mature, realistic treatment showing harsh realities, political issues plus much more. Now when one has to strike a right balance between the two, quite often the film-maker stumbles, making it look like a half-baked product or half-hearted effort. But fortunately, and surprisingly, even if this coming from hard-core commercial pot-boiler banner Yashraj films, débutant writer-director Kabir Khan this time manages to strike a right balance between the two without going much overboard. The result-a sensitive, sensible, fresh path-breaking cinema, which not only covers issues both social as well as political related to a war but keeps the narrative interesting with subtle humor thrown in between. Here we have a fictional account of two TV journalists at War-ravaged Afghanistan in post-Taliban times, trying to get interview of a taliban soldier in hiding, interspersed with film-maker's real life experiences. Though one shortcoming is that most of the narrative comes across from the interaction between the five main characters but it is to the credit of taut screenplay and witty dialogs that breaks the monotony of the situation. Direction, Performances (Not just Arshad, John but other three foreigners too), Cinematography, Sound design, Background score, everything is apt, in place, and save it from becoming a routine documentary stuff. Even the emotional situations are handled with panache. Film has no songs and has a length of about 110 mins all of which complemented to the narrative. All in all, it is a welcome relief amidst all those escapist fantasies and is definitely one of the best films of this year. Well done!

kooleshwar The goal of this movie is quite clear, its another attempt by a star to prove that he is an actor by doing a festival circuit movie. Whats not clear was whether or not he read the script before choosing this movie as his artsy vehicle.Also I would like to make it clear that I did not want to see this movie and was dragged to the theaters by the demands of my sister and Bhabhi.I find such artsy movie painfully simple to understand especially when the motives are so clear.I figured out the formula of the film by just looking at the posters, the all so standard one where are the actors are compressed into a row with the accolades (participation in this case) are displayed in wreaths on the top.So we have John the star who wants to be an actor, Arshard who is going to going to be the funny sidekick in the next billion movies, the pretty foreign thing who will play the typical American woman (as if all foreigners are British or American), the afghan (named Khyber wtf), and the Omar Shariefish looking actor who will probably be Pakistani.The moment the movie starts you feel that the filmmakers are trying a satire and starting with the humour....BUT THE TRAGEDY IS SO Predictable THAT YOU KNOW IT WITHIN MINUTES AND THE HUMOUR CONTINUES THROUGHOUT.John has a lesser lines than even Arshad who quite clearly steals the show, the acting is good especially from the Afghan who doesn't look awkward in his first movie.Whats both endearing and weird is the way bloodshed is tackled in the movie.For the battle-hardened Afghan death and destruction is a way of life and its eerie to see how casually they talk about it.But for Indian news reporters on their first war assignment to act like nothings happened is stupid.For a satire on war you never really feel the squirm that you are supposed to feel, the message if any is clearly lost in the sea of humour and predictability.You have a miserably failed attempt by the actors on the ideals of journalism which made the shortcoming of the entire effort even more glaring.The movie is bugged with plot holes and inconsistencies and is badly edited.The movie has one special moment though when the father meets his daughter but that about it, the movie makes a couple of attempts at special moments but fails.By and large the only parts where this movie succeeds is the humour and in this regards Arshard Warsi clearly steals the show, all his one liners are great and you are constantly smiling and laughing at them, brilliant ones are the conversations in the car on cricket and its after-effects, in fact for a small period this movie looked like it would rise above the ordinary, on the basis of the conversations between 3 parties that takes place in the car, BUT THE LARGE BORING AND HIGHLY PREDICTBLE PARTS RUIN THAT CHANCE.Cinematographically this movie is pretty sound some of the shot of Afghanistan are breath taking and shooting in the cramped interiors of a car is much more difficult than it looks.The soundtrack is ordinary and background score is forgettable.The editing is poor you can notice the breaks and the cut dialogs, a lot of stuff is left unexplained and unnecessary stuff left in.On the virtue of its inconsistency performance this movie will end up being strictly OK for all parties, albeit the people who like call their movies cinema and like them as tragic and boring as they come, the hardcore commercial lovers who are seeing this movie for John, the movie lovers who will see just about any movie etc etc.Overall this movie is strictly OK, I may have liked it more than other because I too have this habit of finding humour in the worst of situations like Arshad but others may find him a bit of a annoyance.The performance of this movie is exactly like the careers of Kapil Dev and Imran Khan (seeing the movie will help) who were mostly ordinary but showed flashes of brilliance, and had one big moment that defined their careers (the lifting of the cups).This movie is best watched in the matinée show at multiplex, paying full admission especially at night will guarantee disappointment.-s HIGHLY PREDICTABLE (even dialogs by less experienced movie goers), fails at everything else but humour, many inconsistencies, large boring parts, bad editing (very?).+/-s John Abraham (only a distraction ?),unanswered questions.+s great humour, good acting all around, good cinematography.total 6/10 (factoring in that I expected less(added points) and the fact that I am biased towards seeing humour in everything (reduced points))