Hindi
A Gentleman: Sundar, Susheel, Risky: Dream native and act Hollywood
The title of the film needs some elaborate explaining. A film’s title says a lot about the film. When did you last hear somebody use the word Gentleman? It is a phrase from history, the British era. And, what is more, does the title say anything at all about the film? It does not, nothing at all.
A Gentleman seems to be a film inspired from all the popular action movies from the late 20th Century James Bond, Bourne Identity and such. The idea is to dream native and act Hollywood.
Director-duo Raj and Dk’s films like Go Goa Gone and Shor in the City are mostly made on alien themes. A Gentleman is also one of those where there is action galore, justification be damned.
The character of Sidharth Malhotra, living in Miami, works for a force called National Security Council, headed by the character of Suniel Shetty. Though dealing in violence, at heart he is a simple man with simple dreams of having a home and family. He wants to settle down with his love played by Jaqueline Fernandez, to a quiet life and bring up kids! As the film’s tagline says, he is Sundar, Susheel, Risky.
Towards this end, Sidharth plays a simple man, Gautam, with no hint of his other side as the undercover operative, Rishi. He wants to get out of this business to live a tranquil life. But, the Group and Shetty won’t let him. He will be hunted down by Shetty’s men. What follows is mayhem. It is the stylish, Bond kind of action with guys dressed in tuxedos spraying bullets.
The flavour is that of a light comedy as dialogues laced with humour are thrown around. It is mainly all about Sidharth and Jacqueline hanging around driving fast cars and pole dancing.
Being a Hollywood type film made by Indians, the location is the picturesque Miami, the style is like a Bond film. Humour and action are the mainstay of the film. The emphasis is on style rather than content.
The direction is slick. Cinematography captures the locations very well. But, stretching a film on such a genre, with not yet established faces, to 133 minutes takes its toll. Things get monotonous. The film could have done with some trimming. Songs don’t help much.
Sidharth passes the sartorial test but is yet to polish up his performance. Jacqueline provides the glamour quotient. Shetty gets little worthwhile to do.
Amit Mistry and Hussain Dalal make their presence felt. Rajit Kapoor and Supriya Pilgaonkar are okay.
A Gentleman has not been able to arouse any curiosity through its pre-release promotions while the title is also uninspiring. Faces poor prospects.
Producer: Fox Star Studios.
Directors: Raj and D K.
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez, Suniel Shetty, Darshan Kumar, Hussain Dalal, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Rajit Kapur.
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.
