Hindi
Desi Kattey …..Make in India!
MUMBAI: Desi Kattey is yet another film with local Uttar Pradesh flavour with which rest of the country does not usually identify. Again, the film makes one think that UP is the biggest small-scale industry for manufacturing what is locally referred to as ‘kattey’, or a crudely made single-shot gun. The theme is familiar from several other films seen over the decades. But, in an effort to be different, the makers open many tracks and lose the plot.
In the city of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, two young lads who should be playing with slingshots wield kattas instead. They think nothing of using a katta, for they are full of anger with the society and their hunger. Such boys need more than a katta and bullets; they need political support to strengthen their standing while politicians need such boys to do their dirty work. Both complement each other. Ashutosh Rana is the local bahubali aka heavyweight referred to by his followers as Judge. The boys worship him and dream of reaching his position someday.
The boys, Jay Bhanushali and Akhil Kapur, have grown up to be expert shooters and eventually graduate to joining Rana’s unit; Rana is due to fight an election soon. As in all such cliques, there are a few who are envious of these new boys’ sudden rise. Rana wins the election but a situation is created whereby they can’t meet him.
This is most how UP-Bihar katta stories go, but here the makers want to not only continue with the great friendship saga while trying to extract emotional and melodramatic scenes from non-performers, but also give a purpose to the film by channelling their talent with guns to get them glory of the legit kind.
Suniel Shetty, a disgraced army major, spots the talent of Jay and Akhil and decides that instead of wasting it on killing people, they could be trained professionals and win shooting contests instead. Even as the two are being trained, they come across Rana again who beckons them to return to the fold. Time for a dramatic moment as it is also the time for an interval. Akhil decides to go back with Rana while Jay, who has also found his lady love in Shetty’s sister, Sasha Agha, does not.
The first half was tolerable purely due to force of habit having done so often enough. But the pace drops in the second half. Post interval, as Jay works on his shooting practice, Akhil perfects his shooting on Rana’s rivals. In between, having no enemies of his own to kill, Rana turns Akhil to social service asking him to wipe out all the evil-doers, including a land-mafioso, a pimp, a drug peddler and so on! What was this diversion for from the film’s routine?
The separated friends pine for each other and sob all the time which creates unintended comedy. And, to think that both have found their lady love. Akhil’s being Tia Bajpai who, in another clichéd moment, is killed just when she announces her pregnancy.
Desi Kattey is a badly scripted film trying to cram in too much and stretching itself to about 2.45 hours with a weak face value and limited talent. Direction below par and, again, clichéd. Musical score by Kailash Kher is the plus in this film with hummable tracks. Other aspects are routine. Of the two boys, Jay does better while Akhil just passes muster. Girls make little impression. Shetty is okay. Rana is fairly good.
Poor at box office.
Producer: Anand Kumar.
Director: Anand Kumar.
Cast: Suniel Shetty, Jay Bhanushali, Akhil Kapur, Tia Bajpai, Sasha Agha, Ashutosh Rana, Murli Sharma.
3 A.M. … Not worth staying up for
Horror genre being economical and can even work with new faces mainly on the strength of content and technology, it has been catching up in Hindi industry. As for content, there are a lot of ‘inspirations’ all around the world cinema. And, so are film titles can be sourced from other industries; this one for instance, comes from a Thailand film, 3 A.M.
Rannvijay Singh along with his girlfriend, Anindita Nayar and friends, Kavin Dave and Sahil Acharya are on a night out celebrating. Rannvijay proposes to Anindita. That done, Anindita, a journalist, moves on to research on her article on haunted places of Mumbai.
Rannvijay is fast asleep when he hears a woman’s wail and wakes up. It is 3am. He sees his girlfriend sitting in a dark corner sobbing. Rannvijay tries to reach out to her but can neither move nor speak. Finally, when he can, he tries to contact Anindita whose phone is not reachable. But, Rannvijay gets a call from her father instead informing him that Anindita was found hanging at the Rudra Mills where she had gone earlier in the night for her research.
Rannvijay, a nonbeliever in ghosts and afterlife, however, had a weird experience earlier. Anindita had come to him to apologise for leaving him and that she would always love him. He, along with his friends, decides to carry on the research on ghosts at the mill hoping that his girlfriend has turned into one too and he would be able to meet her. In the process, you keep watching some mix and match from other horror/ ghost movies.
There is nothing much to the story that can thrill you. Direction is passable sans highlights. Visual effects are good at times. Background score is loud. The three friends are on a ghost hunting mission or fun trip is something that one wonders. Rannvijay does fair while Anindita has a brief role. Kavin and Sahil are okay.
3 A.M. has no hope at the box office whatsoever.
Producers: Handprint Pictures, Essel Vision.
Director: Vishal Mahadkar.
Cast: Rannvijay Singh, Anindita Nayar, Salil Acharya, Kavin Dave.
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.
