H. Banerjee

Phamous is the story of love in Chambal, amongst the clash of power and the roar of guns. Jimmy Shergill, Pankaj Tripathi and Kay Kay Menon are seen in pivotal roles along with Shriya Saran, Mahie Gill and Jackie Shroff.

Dekh Tamasha Dekh is a political and social satire based on a true story, it revolves around the search for the religious identity of a poor man crushed under the weight of a politician`s hoarding. The film explores an Impossible India where bizarre is normal. Where religion is funnier then the best comedy show and politics is scarier then the worst horror movie. Welcome to Hindu-isthan.

Vishwanath alias Wiz, a Kathak exponent, and Nirupama, get married. Each have an agenda and seem to have achieved their wishes within three years of matrimony. Nirupama gets her Ph.D and Wiz runs his dance class in New Jersey, unhindered by each other. All is fine till Dr. Nirupama aspires for more and wants to opt out of the arranged marriage. She cannot cite any specific reason to leave Wiz as there is nothing to complain about. Every male according to Nirupama must have a flaw. So she decides to find out something about him to feel better about her decision to part. Nirupama then hires a detective to rake up something on him, wires get cross-connected and before we know it hell breaks loose.

`Krishna Aur Kans`- an animated feature film in 3D is based on the timeless tale of Lord Krishna, one of India`s legendary characters from Indian mythology, revered across the globe. The film chronicles his early years from his birth as the nemesis of his evil uncle Kans to his combat against innumerable lethal demons who are sent by none other than Kans to kill Krishna. This enthralling film brings to life Krishna`s various adventures and miracles, in an aim to put an end to evil.

Gandhi My Father unfolds the tragedy in the father son relationship of Mahatma Gandhi and Harilal Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi could transform the soul of a nation but could not save the soul of his own son. His eldest son; Harilal carried his Gandhi identity as a curse around the neck.In the shadows of his father, he roamed the streets like a beggar, converted to Islam as a rebellion, then reconverted to Hinduism as a penance and finally drank himself to his death.The movie shows the deep wound that Gandhi carried in his heart, a great human being and Father of the Nation but a failure as a father to his own son. Gandhi struggled personally, socially and politically, but always put his principles and quest for human dignity above everything else.

It is the year 1857, a large part of the Indian subcontinent is under the control of the British East India Company. The private company has its own administration, laws and its own army, which controls the fate of 20% of world's humanity. On 7 April, in Barrackpore in West Bengal, Mangal Pandey (Aamir Khan), a Sepoy (soldier of Indian origin) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry of the company's army, is being led to his execution by hanging for fomenting mutiny against company rule. Witnessing the execution is Pandey's friend, Captain William Gordon (Toby Stephens), who is relieved when the execution is delayed due to the hangman's refusal to hang Pandey. Gordon knows that he is responsible for the upcoming wars between India and the British Empire. The film then flashes back to four years earlier. While fighting in Afghanistan, Pandey saves Gordon's life by dragging him to safety when the two were targeted by Afghan snipers. Afterwards, Gordon seeks out Pandey at a camp and offers him his pistol as a token of gratitude. 4 years later (31 December 1856), during the New Year Eve's ball at the Governor General's palace in Calcutta, Pandey angers Captain Hewson (Ben Nealon) when he attempts to stop him from severely beating an Indian servant for inadvertently touching Emily Kent (Coral Beed), the daughter of Mr. Graham Kent (Kenneth Cranham), an influential British businessman. Gordon witnesses the assault but does not stop it leading to tension with Pandey. However, he apologizes to Pandey during a wrestling match and a friendship is formed between them transcending rank, color and race. Gordon even participates with Pandey to sabotage Hewson's horse-riding gear, which leads to Hewson falling on his back in a comic fashion. Officer Lockwood (Simon Chandler) is the company auditor who has been sent from England specifically to look into the company's affairs in India, and investigate the charges of corruption and wrong doing. Company's biggest business in India is opium. Company forces Indian farmers to grow Opium and pay them a pittance for it. They would sell this Opium in China at inflated prices and buy spices and silks from them. When the Emperor of China resisted, the company attacked China and wrested Hing Kong from them, using Indian soldiers for the battle. Lockwood raids the warehouse of a Parsi trader Sohrabjee (Sohrab Ardeshir) and finds stacks of privately purchased Opium ready to be shipped to China. Sohrabjee tries to Lockwood out with a bribe of 3000 pounds. But Lockwood burns the entire stock of Opium since the Company has a monopoly on the opium trade in India. The farmers who sold the Opium to Sohrabjee (under orders from Company officers), their lands are confiscated, and when they protest, the army fires on them and sets their village on fire. Meanwhile, the installation of communication wires all over the country have enabled telegraph services, which allows the East India Company to move troops to the troubled regions quickly, and before the situation gets out of hand. The company then introduces a new weapon in January 1857 for its troops: the Enfield rifled musket. Rumors spread among the Sepoy that the paper cartridges holding the powder and ball for the rifle are greased with either pig fat or beef tallow; the process of loading the rifle requires the soldier to bite down on the cartridge, and the soldiers believe that this would cause them to consume pork or beef - acts abhorrent to Muslim and Hindu soldiers, respectively, for religious reasons. A low-caste laborer named Nainsukh (Atul Kumar) teases Pandey, a Brahmin, that he has lost his caste by using such a gun, but Pandey dismisses Nainsukh's taunts. The Sepoy, led by Pandey, express their concerns to General Hearsey (Jeremy Clyde), but he reassures them that no such cartridge exists. The Sepoy remain concerned when they are asked to test-fire the new rifle at musketry drill, but Gordon, after talking to Hearsey, reiterates that no such cartridge exists and asks a Sepoy to test-fire the rifle. Pandey volunteers, and his fellow Sepoy chastise him afterward. However, demonstrating his trust in Gordon, he states his belief that the rumors are untrue. Meanwhile, Gordon stops a Sati ceremony from occurring and rescues a widow, Jwala (Ameesha Patel). Jwala says that she was forcefully married to a 60-year-old man, who had grown children. The Sarpanch demands that Gordon return Jwala, but he refuses. Gordon arranges for her to be treated, and the two gradually become closer, eventually having an affair. Pandey sides with Gordon on the matter, earning the ire of his community. Pandey further earns Captain Hewson's ire by stopping him from trying to sexually assault a prostitute named Heera (Rani Mukerji), who was sold to a brothel run by Lol Bibi (Kirron Kher) exclusively for British soldiers. While slavery was banned in Britain, the company allowed it in India, as it was a means of entertainment for the white soldiers and this way the army remained free of any serious diseases. Pandey suffers a serious beating from Hewson and three other officers the next day, but Gordon intervenes and saves Pandey. Pandey meets Heera at the brothel afterwards, and they begin to fall in love with each other. Sometime later, Nainsukh takes Pandey and some other Sepoy to see the factory, owned by Mr. Kent, where the cartridge grease is made; indeed, the grease turns out to be pig fat and beef tallow. Pandey, believing Gordon lied to him, returns Gordon's pistol, and ends their friendship. Hearing of the 34th Regiment's refusal to use the rifles, the 19th Regiment at Berhampore also refuses to use them in a parade at the ground on 12 February 1857, and mutiny brews among the Sepoy. Gordon unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade Pandey and the mutineers from rebelling and is likewise unsuccessful at convincing Major General George Anson (Christopher Adamson), the Commander-in-Chief, India, to abandon using the cartridges. The mutineers, meanwhile, meet with Tatya Tope (Deepraj Rana) and his messenger Azimullah (Shahbaz Khan) and they all agree to unite under the leadership of the elderly Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar (Habib Tanvir) and rise in rebellion. Anson decides to send the Queen's Regiment from Rangoon to intercept and subdue the rebels; it is scheduled to arrive in Berhampore on 1 April. Heera informs Pandey of this plan, having spent the previous night with Hewson. The rebels revise their timetable to march on 30 March, but the wife of one of the rebels, angry at her husband after an argument in which he tells her of the impending revolt, informs her British employer woman of the plans. As the employer woman is having an affair with Hewson at the time, he overhears the conversation and later tortures the rebel into revealing the date of the march. On 29 March, the mutineers are informed of the Rangoon Regiment's arrival. Pandey attempts to rally them into fending off the attack, and when the officers, including Gordon, inquire as to what they are doing, the rebels turn on them. With the regiment's arrival, the mutineers want to throw down their weapons; Pandey, however, fires at the opposing forces, killing two and injuring four. Later on, he was court-martialed, and Gordon testified on his behalf, passionately defending his actions and warning of bloody rebellion if he is hanged. Despite Gordon's warning, the court-martial imposes a death sentence on Pandey. The night before Pandey's execution, Heera visits him in his jail cell and has him place Sindoor on her forehead, marking their marriage. The next day (on 8 April), in front of Gordon, the British officers, his fellow Sepoy, and the townspeople, Pandey is hanged. Inspired by his execution, the spectators break out in revolt. The film ends with drawings of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, and footage of the later Indian independence movement.

An ordinary man is struggling with the onset of Alzheimer's. His daughter fights to save her father from a descent into dementia, and to tries to understand the strange guilt that haunts him - that he is responsible for Gandhi's death. Widowed Uttam Chaudhary lives a comfortable lifestyle with his college-going son, Karan, a daughter, Trisha, who is in love with a South-Indian youth named Ashish Reddy, and an elder son who is married and works in the United States, through whose income the Chaudharys live on. Uttam is a Lecturer, but when he starts getting old, becoming forgetful, he is asked to retire. He is very close to Trisha, who looks after him. The first major episode Trisha's experiences in her father when he announces that he is getting ready to go to work and asks for his wife to bring him breakfast. Thereafter, things get worse, especially when Ashish's parents come to meet the Chaudharys. It is here that Uttam babbles on inexplicably about being responsible for killing Mohandas K. Gandhi. Trisha must now find out if her dad was in any way responsible for Gandhi's death, and what exactly triggered his long-suppressed memory in her dad's mind, and at the same time must come to terms that his disability may have repercussions on her love-life also. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

The film starts with Angela Kathamuthu (Rohini) and her cameraman in Central Jail interviewing prisoners serving life imprisonment and awaiting the death sentence. She meets Kothala Thevar (Pasupathy) who is serving a life sentence. He tells his version of the story that led to his conviction. According to him the root cause of the problem is Virumaandi (Kamal Haasan) - the happy go lucky rogue. His support to Kothala Thevar in his clash against Nallama Naicker (Napoleon) brings about a bonding between the two. Annalakshmi (Abhirami), the niece of Thevar falls for Virumaandi. Thevar with an eye on the fertile land owned by Virumaandi does not object to the romance. According to Thevar, Annalakshmi was abducted by Virumaandi and raped. A clash between Virumaandi and Thevar takes places in which 24 innocent people are killed. Now it's Virumaandi's turn to tell his version of the story. He tells of how he fell in love with Annalakshmi and of her influence on him. She taught him to apologize and that forgiveness is a virtue. A clash at the Panchayata infuriates Annalakshmi and she asks Virumaandi to apologize to the elders whom he insulted. He goes to apologize but Thevar and his men, thinking he has gone to take revenge, come in groups and hack down innocents to death. Thevar uses his clout to get out of the murder charge but Virumaandi who was involved in the bloodbath is disturbed because he had to lie to save Thevar and his kin. As part of the penance he wills his land for the villagers. Annalakshmi asks him to marry her and leave the village. He marries her at the village temple and goes away in the night with the girl and stays with a relative. Thevar's men come and abduct Annalakshmi and forcibly get her married to Thevar's nephew. This is to ensure that Annalakshmi's property does not go to Virumaandi. Annalakshmi commits suicide. Virumaandi takes revenge by hacking to death Thevar's family. Thevar escapes. Nallama Naicker gives refuge to Virumaandi and sends him off to Chennai. Thevar and his men ask Nallama Naicker to hand over Virumaandi. A battle ensues in which Nallama Naicker is killed. The case goes to court. Virumaandi turns up in court. He finds all evidence is against him. He is convicted of having raped Annalakshmi and killing her and later on killing 26 men of Thevar who inquired into the rape. Angela Kathamuthu's cameraman discreetly shoots the deputy jailor conspiring with wardens and convicts to bump off the chief jailor (Nassar). A revolt among the jail staff leads to a jail break, the jailor being stabbed and Virumaandi saving the vital evidence and Angela from the deputy jailor and his henchmen. The film ends with a note that the death sentence should be abolished [Source: Wikipedia]

A young man, Chandu, teams up with a local gangster, Mallik, and together, they become the uncrowned kings of the mafia world. However, a misunderstanding turns them into foes and they decide to eliminate each other.

Aalavandhan is a high-octane action thriller that follows the lives of Nandu and Vijay, brothers who survived the torment of their stepmother. As Nandu, plagued by mental illness, mistakes Vijay`s fiancee for their past abuser, he embarks on a perilous journey, pushing the limits of family ties and personal demons.

Hey Ram is a crime drama film directed by Kamal Haasan. The story follows the semi-fictional era of India`s Partition. The story showcases an extremist who shares a similar ideology as Nathuram Godse, the guy who killed Mahatama Ghandhi. The movie features Kamal Haasan, Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji in lead roles.

Mansi, the daughter of a poor spiritual singer, and Manav, the son of a wealthy businessman, fall in love but the difference between their families rips them apart. Mansi then meets Vikrant, who helps her make a name as a famous dancer and singer. Trouble is stirred up when Manav decides to try and win her back.

Three women in a Bihar village are sentenced to death by their menfolk. Their crime is that they dared to protest. Ketki (Madhuri Dixit), an educated young girl with dreams in her eyes, gets married into a family of upper class landlords, whose fortunes have been consumed by lethargy and extravagance. Her husband Vinay Singh (Ayub Khan) has no agricultural land left, does not have the capital to start a business, and fails to secure a job due to the governments policy of reservation for the backward castes. Ketki makes sacrifices to support him in his entrepreneurial endeavours. But fails to restrain him when, in desperation to get rich quick, he aligns with the wrong people. Contractor and power broker Tirpat (Mohan Joshi) and local politician Pandey (Harish Patel) make use of Vinay's innocence for their own profit. Vinay's degeneration is complete when he thrashes Ketki for objection to his misdeeds. Her upbringing, self-respect and righteousness make it difficult for her to bear this humiliation. She suffers. Chandravati (Shabana Azmi) is the wife of Vinay's elder brother Abhay Singh (Mohan Agashe). Greedy for the wealth and political clout of the local temple, Abhay Singh masterminds the murder of the temple head and gets himself ordained as his successor. This entails renouncing the world and deserting his wife, which he cruelly does, citing her childlessness. The truth is that Chandravati has shielded her husband's impotence for seventeen years and now suddenly finds herself in the ignominious position of an abandoned woman. The solace offered by a lower caste well wisher of the family Rambaran (Om Puri) causes unexpected problems for her. She suffers. Kanti (Shilpa Shirodkar), a low-caste labourer is exploited by the contractor to whom her husband owed money Burdened with looking after an ailing mother, while her husband is away to earn money to repay the debt, she lives in the hope that he will return, She suffers. Suffering comes naturally to women here. Regardless of caste and class, their role in the family and society is predetermined and they must never cross these limits. Several social, moral and mythological images have been created to indoctrinate women with the virtue of sacrifice and submissiveness. They must conform to these role models. However, circumstances force the women in Mrityudand to break these rules and make their own. This cannot be tolerated as the Society finds its maleness threatened, and the men, putting aside their own bloodthirsty conflicts, unite to teach the women a lesson. The three women are branded evil and sentenced to death. But when the men come to carry out the Death Sentence, there is a silent but massive rebellion which they are not prepared for.

Set during the Sikh insurgency in 1980s Punjab, Maachis follows a common man whose life changes when he is falsely accused and arrested, spurring him on to become a gangster.

Vijay, a gangster, will go to any lengths to take revenge on Kancha Cheena, a crime lord, whose deception caused his father`s death.