Pushkar Pens

  When the Indian Army's surgical strikes had its share of onscreen glory with " Uri : The Surgical Strike " and Maj Vihaan Singh Shergill , could Balakot have been far behind? So here we are presented with the Indian Air Force and Squadron Leader Shamsher Pathania aka Patty . The Special Forces Para Commandos are replaced by the be-all-end-all Air Dragons. But first things first. " Kaho Na.. Pyaar Hai " came in 2000. 24 years later, Hrithik Roshan still drools you with his tall fair and handsome aura, bear-me-if-you-can abs, those absorbing hazel green eyes, finely chiselled jaw line and basically that Greek God looks.... Enough to cheekily accept that when he says " please " to a lady, she is bound to go in a trance... And he is doing it as a weapon of surrender here for ladies!! You have enough of all this in the first half along with an engaging chemistry with Deepika which comes to life in short bursts.  Actually the first half is very engrossing....

I had a hunch that it will not be a good movie. So I avoided it during its first week. Meanwhile we kept getting reviews that it has become a hit and has collected a few hundred crores during this week. Eventually I had to relent in front of my wife (Ranbir Kapoor fan !!) and ended up watching it on big screen. I wish I could have spent a better evening. These movies do not make their 100s of crores on the weight of cinematic excellence. They earn their money by creating a frenzy around the movie which our audiences fall for prior to the release. Add to that the cult status of a superstar and a sub standard product ends up being lauded over by a bunch of paid critics and media . And the latest trend is to add the glam quotient of more than one movie industries to generate added pre release glitter... So we see the Bollywood guys adding the star masaala of Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood, Mollywood... and inciting new audiences. So we see Shahrukh Khan with Nayanthara in Jawaan , Rajin...