Producer: Cine Raas Entertainment P Ltd. Writer-director: Sudhir Mishra Cast: Irrfan, Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh, Aditi Rao Hudar, Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayan, Vipul Gupta, Vipin Sharma.

MUMBAI: Yeh Saali Zindagi is an interesting combine of love story and thriller woven around Delhi and its surrounding locales – a story mostly about people on the other side of law. The feel of the film is natural and its witty dialogue, generously peppered with North brand of foul words, adds to that feel.

A criminal usually wants to have one last hurrah, grab some loot and call it quits. Irrfan is a side kick of Saurabh Shukla, a financial wheeler dealer. Arunoday Singh, on the other hand is a henchman of underworld operator, Yashpal Sharma. Both, Irrfan and Arunoday, want to quit in favour of their love. Arunoday Singh’s son is getting a violent streak and wife, Aditi Rao Hydari, is planning to go abroad if he does not change his ways.

For Irrfan, it was love at first sight when he sees Chitrangda Singh but loses her to another man, Vipul Gupta. However, he is obsessed and wants to win her at any cost. He is even willing to save her lover, Vipul Gupta, from the captivity of underworld who has sought ransom for him. This is where the paths of Irrfan and Arunoday Singh cross; the latter has kidnapped Vipul, future son in law of a minister to pressurize the minister into releasing his boss, Yashpal Sharma. As all the characters come together towards conclusion, there is quite a flurry of connections and cross-connections, leading to a happy ending and to ‘they lived happily ever after’. Crime does pay; here it does since it is a crime against bigger criminals!

Writer director Sudhir Mishra uses Irrfan, the lead man as his protagonist, the narrator. The story of the underworld — politics nexus is typical North brand and nobody, none of the characters in the film except one, seem to be clean; the criminal thread binds them together. Music is used very well and composer Nishat Khan has come up with a great score. Dialogue is good.

Performances are natural and convincing by the entire cast. Irrfan is funny just by being himself. Arunoday Singh livens up with his pleasant demeanour. Chitrangda looks sultry and manipulative as the script demands. Aditi Rao Hydari is good. Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma are aptly cast and fit in to the characters they play with ease. Prashant Narayan, Vipul Gupta and Vipin Sharma give good support.

Yeh Saali Zindagi is an interesting watch but, as on day one, has found few takers; its face value falling short as a crowd puller and stemming in the bud the film’s business prospects.

                            No special reason to watch Hum Dono in colour

Producer: Dev Anand Director: Amarjeet Cast: Dev Anand, Sadhna, Nanda, Gajanan Jagirdar

Dev  Anand’s Hum Dono has been re-released as Hum Dono Rangeen in a colour version.

The story of identical personalities and faces was a novelty when the film first released and virtue despite huge challenges meant a lot in a story.

The film has a war background (World War 2) where one Dev Anand goes missing and the other, the surviving one, goes to look after his family of Nanda and Lalita Pawar; while his own girlfriend, Sadhana, is waiting for him. The film has evergreen musical score and balanced performances.

Whatever made Dev Anand choose Hum Dono to colour, one would have preferred Tere Ghar Ke Samane.

A few minutes into the film, it does not matter that the film is now in colour; you are watching it for a classic that it is, for its music and for all that Dev Anand was about and for what his films were about.