Talaash: Macguffined!

Talaash is really an exploration of loss, grief, redemption and closure that uses the police procedural/murder mystery only as a carrier. The brave whopper at the end that brings it all together would alienate a lot of viewers, as it has many critics - going by the review headings (thankfully I've stopped reading them beyond that). For me it was the ultimate aha! moment, a rare occurrence across the thousands of movies I've seen. An absolute delight throughout!

(A note of advice: Don't go in expecting a high class feature length episode of CID.)

Ek Tha Tiger - The Spy Who Loved Zee

Wow action setpieces. Bondian beginning that matches Bourne. Endearing Salman-Katrina chemistry. This exotic visual feast is among the better films of a year which has had TDKR, Shanghai & GOW. Congratulations Mr. Kabir Khan, Mr. Neelesh Mishra & Mr. Aditya Chopra... waiting for the next Tiger adventure, a full-on save-the-world spy caper. And yes it was great to see Girish Karnad and Roshan Seth in remakarkable roles after long.

Arnab, Milan, Soldier, Spy

Gripping, Edge of the seat, Nail biting, White knuckle thriller are just a few phrases that seem to have been invented to describe movies like Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani. The best Hindi thriller post Sarfarosh is a puzzle within a puzzle with a solid whack-on-the-head conclusion. It stands tall with the best of international genre cinema. Hollywood are you looking?

Kites - The twain should ne'er had met...

Old Guard (Rakesh "Krrish" Roshan) meets new New Guard (Anurag "Metro" Basu) and we get a neither here, nor anywhere, "Kites". It seems they were writing the screenplay as they spotted various "beautifully framable locations".

Conclusions:
1. The twain should ne'er had met.
2. If you are in love with creating/seeing beautiful frames, become a painter/go to art exhibitions dammit!
3. Anurag Basu should stick to making his kind of movies.
4. Rakesh Roshan, an earlier favorite seems to have gone the Subhash Ghai way! Retirement time?
5. Hrithik Roshan should do something about himself because with his stock dancing style and limited vocal/facial expressions, he neither has the ammo to see through as an actor in the long run, or even as a choreographer. What a waste of an otherwise awesome personality!

LOL dialogue - You have a dream, I have a dream, now both of us have a bigger dream.

Recommended watch for the 88% western critics who gave it a thumbs-up - Bunty aur Babli.