Hindi
‘Roy’: Shot in the dark
MUMBAI: The title often shows a lack of imagination and is an indication of what is to follow. Roy, as it turns out after eons through the film, is the name Ranbir Kapoor goes by. Roy looks like a film inspired by watching a lot of the last century’s Hollywood and European films.
Arjun Rampal is a film maker, who is on his third version of a series, Guns III, having earlier made two very successful versions. His inspiration comes from a suave robber, Ranbir Kapoor, who steals antiques and paintings. Having bumped into Ranbir once, he puts Ranbir’s exploits on screen.
This once, Rampal is stuck for ideas and keeps working on his antique typewriter but nothing comes across on paper that he can go with. He realizes he needs inspiration. He proceeds to Malaysia without a script and starts shooting the film at random. No wonder then that what he comes up with through the Roy’s first part looks like a film to promote Malaysian tourism.
Soon, Rampal finds his inspiration in Jacqueline Fernandez. She is in Malaysia to shoot a short film. Rampal makes her a part of his story. Roy is out to steal a part of a portrait of which the other part is with his handler. There is a huge offer if both the parts are available together to complete the portrait. Rampal manipulates his story idea where now the part of the portrait is in Jacqueline’s possession from where Ranbir will steal it. For this purpose, he also finds an actress who is Jacqueline’s lookalike.
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| Producers: Divya Khosla Kumar, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar Director: Vikramjit Singh Cast: Arjun Rampal, Jacqueline Frenandez, Ranbir Kapoor, Anupam Kher (guest role), Shibani Dandekar |
As in most of the film, what happens thereafter is beyond understanding. The job is made easy for Ranbir as the actress has lured Ranbir to her bed and he just has to pick up the portrait hanging on the wall and make an early departure. Actually, it is all quite confusing.
This is a film of whims and fancy. There is no script and a thin line about a thief inspiring film stories, which qualifies as cock and bull stuff. The director has no clue what he wants to make and seems to think that shooting low light dark scenes makes one a genius. The film, however, has excellent visual value backed by a good background score. Mumbling passes as dialogue and is not easy to catch. Songs are good but orchestra overpowers the lyrics.
There is little in this film for actors: Rampal is lovelorn but hardly looks it. Ranbir Kapoor sleepwalks through his brief role. Jacqueline emerges the most sincere of the lot. Anupam Kher has a brief role, which is irrelevant.
Roy is a waste of lot of resources with no hope of returns.
‘MSG: The Messenger’: Of self-gratification
Having gained some recognition through media because of his numerous controversies, Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan, as he calls himself, decides to use his film watching hobby to help promote him and his cult, Dera Sacha Sauda, on a national level. The result is MSG: The Messenger, a film for the janata.
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Producer: Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan Director: Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan Cast: Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan |
And, no he does need stars to project him on screen; he can do it himself. So the Insan plays himself as a pure hearted person who is clean of thoughts and deeds, full of energy and preaches others to be like himself.
Insan does all the things NGOs around the world do: organises de-addiction programmes, blood donation camps, cleans streets, plants trees, rescues women from prostitution and also resettles eunuchs.
Insan also has a cure for his followers’ ailments through his ‘Ruhaani jaam,’ which is his own concoction. Insan also fights the evils of the world as he can fly, throw a mean punch and do all the stunts seen in Hollywood and Indian films.
The film, all of its 190+ minutes has Insan, each and every frame of it. What else would you expect? His costumes are garish and loud but that he has been seen to wear even in his real life.
Insan has done everything in this film from producing, directing, scripting, cinematography et al.
To make further sure his ‘hard work’ pays, Insan has also bought out tickets worth crores to make sure his followers don’t miss it!
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
