Srinivas G Phani Musafir is the most technically advanced film of 2004. It has awesome production design, awesome cinematography, awesome editing, awesome music and good background score. But it has a confusing and complicated plot that is difficult to follow at most places.Inspired from Oliver Stone's "U-Turn", the plot takes a U-turn at many places. Just when you think everything will be fine from now on, you are wrong. Gupta turns the story completely. The characters are rugged and unendearing. Every character has shades of grey. One is a petty thief while other is an underworld bollywood-loving gangster. The heroine has a very interesting character that suffers from her husband's psychotic behavior and the next moment, dances to Vishal-Shekhar's raunchy tunes in a nightclub. We also have a corrupt cop who is all set to steal the gangster's money from his carrier. Thrown into this bag is an item girl who uses her sexuality to trap men and steal their money.The film is filled with lot of sex scenes, gunfights and item songs. There are four songs picturised on the two leading ladies and also a sufi song in the middle of an interesting turn in the plot. Gupta defies the basics of film-making and comes up with a serpentine story that moves exactly opposite to Indian films. It is worth watching for the shock value in the second hour during the heroine's flashback. The scene is a bit lengthy but confuses you completely if the heroine or her husband is honest. Anil Kapoor gets an amusing role. Sporting an unshaven look and uttering boorish words, he lives through all the twists in the story. One wonders if a person can find himself in so many ugly situations one after the other in just four days! Sanjay Dutt plays within his repertoire and entertains in every scene he appears in. He gets the best of the dialogues. Koena Mitra dances well, flaunts her naked body but is in dire need of improvement in acting. Although, I agree, she is perfectly cast keeping in mind the Saaki song. Shakti Kapoor is back after a long time and fits the bill. Aditya Pancholi is convincing as the corrupt cop. Mahesh Manjrekar plays what he is very good at and is the best choice for the role. Sameera Reddy gets the meatiest role. She looks a zillion bucks and acts with effortless ease. She is not uncomfortable doing the intimate scenes with Manjrekar or Kapoor or even dancing aggressively to 'Ishq Kabhi Kariyo Na.' She is the most interesting heroine of all those of gangster films.Vishal-Shekhar, Anand Raj Anand and Dev Kohli give the year's best soundtrack and the best of all gangster films. It is a progressive techno album with multiple versions of many songs. Raaba appears in an exhaustive four different versions which sound unlike each other. Ishq kabhi Kariyo Na by Anand is an instant winner. Door Se Paas has the best ever techno and trance by Indian composers. Saaki is a good psychedelic techno song with Sukhwinder Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan in top form. The lyrics by Kohli are in sync with the psychedelic mood. Tez Dhaar is for Sanjay Dutt fans and Ek Dil Ne for duet lovers. Hema Sardesai finally gets her song in the form of Sun Suniyo. Kaante's best songs – Mahi Ve, Ishq Samundar and Rama Re add extra flavour to the album as 'Back to Life mixes'. Try the album for sure if not the movie. Sanjay Gupta is a very good director even if he copies from foreign films. He can make a great film if given the right script and this is evident at many places in Zinda, Musafir and Kaante. Though all the three films remain the worst for many (for being unofficial remakes and scene-to-scene copy at places), I suggest watching them as they take Indian films to different levels altogether with their exquisite production values, excellent technical work and groundbreaking soundtracks. Waiting for the day when Sanjay packs new wine in his opulent bottles.

Malik Taufiq - ur - Rehman Awan The banner white feather films are back with their third product after the successful KAANTE (directed by Sanjay Gupta) and box office dud PLAN (directed by Harish Shetty, once assistant of Sanjay Gupta). But again Sanjay Gupta is back on the directors seat.Inspired by Oliver Stone's U-TURN (1997; Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Bob Thornton) but you can say that Musafir is 100 times better than the original.Lucky (ANIL KAPOOR) wanted his own house, a wife, a family and starts a new life. Lucky is betrayed by his girlfriend, chased by a drug king Billa (Sanjay Dutt) and sent to Goa to do a drug deal to get his life back. Lucky meets many people in his life , who gives his life a new twist. After that what happens and will he be able to get his life back or death is waiting for him, you have to watch it by yourself.Vishal-Shekhar's music is another portion that deserves strong marks. 'Ishq Kabhi Kariyo Na', 'Saaki Saaki' and 'Door Se Paas' are already popular and camera work is the best in the Koena Mitra track, ‘Saaki Saaki', which is one of the best erotic number in the Indian films. Cinematography is of first class.After PUKAR, this is the best performance and award winning performance of ANIL KAPOOR. After MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S., this is again the award winning performance of SANJAY DUTT.After a long long time, ADITYA PANCHOLI delivered something great though his role was small but still he manage to make his appearance felt and showed that he is one of the best performers of Indian film industry.After KAANTE, MAHESH MANJREKAR delivered one more confident performance and one can say that he delivers his good only in SANJAY GUPTA movies.The surprise in this film is SAMEERA REDDYS performance which everybody will agree that this movie should be the launch pad of SAMEERA REDDY instead of the box office dud MAINNE DIL TUJHKO DIYA. She was confident in front of the senior actors.SHAKTI KAPOOR and KOENA MITRA performances were just about okay.On the whole, MUSAFIR has style and substance. At the box-office, it will be a sure shot hit and will leave all the previous movies released back. 4 Out of 5 (same as KAANTE)

Sheraz Sherwani I am no critic. I watch movies just to have a good time. I don't get paid to criticize or praise a movie. I will not praise a movie just because it has one of my favorite actors, Sanjay Dutt. Sanjay Dutt is one of the top five actors in India on my list ( Others are Naseeruddin Shah, Amir Khan, Irfan and Om Puri). But its sad to see him doing movies like Rudraksh, Plan, Kaante and all these new formula movies. The only purpose of these new movies is to make the viewers believe we are getting closer to Hollywood but in reality we are giving up our originality and wasting talents like Sanjay Dutt with movies like Musafir. Cleavages, Guns, Leather, Silver, Gold, Drugs can look good in a movie if the movies actually has a storyline, a theme, a SCRIPT! Musafir is nothing but a Suzuki engine inside the body of a Lamborghini. Its all looks but no torque. If you liked Kaante then you will probably like this movie because both those movies have something in common, they're both "kool" but have no substance.

Moushumi Gandhi Musafir makes you wonder what is going on?Some reasons why NOT to watch the movie Filled with absolutely unnecessary songs throughout.Drug lord singing songs in Limousines?Unconvincing plot - the whole movie revolves around Bila(Sanjay Dutt) wanting his money - that he gives away at the end??The movie had a famous 'item bomb' search - which song was the actual item number was difficult to identify - all looked like item numbers to me.(Later realized that the song in the limo - 'Tez dhaar' was the one)Dead bodies dropping like flies - an no law enforcement agencies searching for the culprits - except Aditya Pancholi - a corrupt cop himself who drops a few bodies left and right.Story drags in the first half.Some reasons TO Watch the movieBrilliant individual performances by all cast - specially Anil Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar. Sameera Reddy impresses too.Wonderful presentation - specially the handling of Lucky(Anil Kapoor ) as he hears both sides of the story from Looka (Mahesh Manjrekar) and Sam (Sameera Reddy)Humorous in places - specially the satire on Hindi movies - References to Zanjeer, Muqaddar ka sikandar ,Sholay and 'Cops always arrive late - weather real or fake ones' are hilarious.So go watch it! you will enjoy the popcorn if nothing else!!!