Hindi
Barkhaa…Who?
MUMBAI: Barkhaa is an old fashioned story revisited. It is about a city lad on a visit to a picturesque location where he falls for another visitor. As a modern version, the theme is about one sided love, an obsession and about his love ending up in a dance bar.
Taaha Shah, a reputed and wealthy lawyer’s son, is on a visit to Haryana, where he spots Sara Loren and falls in love with her. She is not aware of his feelings or scrutiny. But, soon, Sara has vanished from the scene and Tahaa does not know where to look for her.
Back to routine, he is asked to run an errand for his lawyer father, Puneet Issar, to meet a dance bar owner client of his. Taaha is invited by the bar owner to come visit his bar. When Taaha does so, he gets an unpleasant surprise. Sara is one of the bar dancers at the joint. Now, Taaha may be obsessed with Sara but, for a reputed, traditional Tahaa, son of a renowned lawyer, a bar girl is not supposed to be an ideal object of romance.
Since Taaha is in a quandary as his love for Sara is overpowering, he is drawn to the bar constantly. He lands up there and takes to drinking. He drowns his sorrows and shock of his love being a dance bar girl by just looking at her every day without communicating.
Sara is not a mere bar girl, she is talented too and has penned a book, which Taaha is invited to inaugurate. After reading the book, Taaha learns the story of Sara’s life, her betrayal by Taaha’s own friend and her having been left with a child out of wedlock. The book mentions no author’s name but Taaha somehow connects it to Sara.
It is time for the old-fashioned melodrama. Taaha is summoned to his hospitalized mother. Meanwhile, Issar is plotting to get Sara out of Taaha’s life. As a reputed lawyer, he can’t have a bar girl as his daughter in law. But, such films are all about happy endings. So be it.
Sara acts well and has a good presence. Taaha does well. The direction is fair and the film has a pleasant musical score.
But with no face value and a lack of promotion, Barkhaa will only add to numbers, nothing to box office.
Producer: Shaban Hashmi.
Director: Shadaa Mirza.
Cast: Sara Loren, Taaha Shah, Puneet Issar.
Hindi
Rashmika Mandanna, Shanaya Kapoor and Naila Grrewal climb IMDb’s Indian celebrity rankings
Upcoming films and returning shows are driving fan interest across Bollywood and streaming
MUMBAI: Bollywood’s popularity contest has a new weekly scorecard, and the numbers are telling. IMDb’s Popular Indian Celebrities list for this week places Shanaya Kapoor at number six, buoyed by buzz around her film Tu Yaa Main. Naila Grrewal slots in at seven on the back of the returning comedy series Maamla Legal Hai, while Rashmika Mandanna climbs to eighth, riding mounting anticipation for Cocktail 2.
The list, available exclusively on the IMDb app for Android and iOS, tracks trending Indian entertainers and filmmakers each week, drawing on data from more than 200m monthly visits to the platform worldwide.
Further down the rankings, Raaka is keeping two of its biggest names in the spotlight. Deepika Padukone holds 11th position, with Allu Arjun close behind at 13th, as the film continues to find traction with audiences.
The list offers fans a weekly pulse on who is breaking through, who is holding steady, and who is fading. It is a barometer as unsparing as the box office itself.
