Hindi
Ek Haseena Thi …..lacks substance
Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha is the second go at launching of Shiv Darshan, son of veteran filmmaker, Suneel Darshan.
The junior Darshan made his debut with Karle Pyaar Karle (2014), a home production directed by Rajesh Pandey. The film did not work and, this time, Darshan takes it upon himself to give the junior another chance.
The theme of the film is not easy to fathom. The character played by Darshan jr was in love with a girl in an earlier birth. His wish not fulfilled, and therefore his soul (atma) is now all over. It turns out that the girl he loved earlier was a total lookalike of the character of Natasha Fernandez who owns a palatial house in Europe. It’s not a coincidence since Fernandez is the earlier one’s granddaughter.
Fernandez has plans to marry her childhood love, played by Upen Patel. But, Patel seems to have different plans altogether.
The film also discusses if the ghosts really exist? The conclusion is they don’t. So what is Darshan’s junior’s claim to being an ‘atma’ all about?
The film is an outcome of poor storyline which shows on the scripting. There is nothing of substance. In this event, despite his past records of successes, Suneel Darshan fails to do justice as the director. The directors’ favourite music director, Nadeem, is roped in to provide the music for this film but there is nothing in the songs that make them hummable.
The cinematography does justice to the beautiful Wales locations where the film was shot.
Despite being his second film, Shiv Darshan shows no improvement. Fernandez can’t act. Upen Patel is not known for histrionics. Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deeewana Tha has nothing going for it.
Producer/ Director: Suneel Darshan.
Cast: Shiv Darshan, Natasha Fernandez and Upen Patel.
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.
