Hindi
An average rom-com with limited appeal
Mumbai : Looking at Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, it becomes obvious that the writer-director Ali Abbas Zafar is a film buff and has acquired most of his story telling from the films he watched.
The theme was earlier made as Devar in mid 1960s with Dharmendra and Deven Verma, where one looks for a match for the other.
Imran Khan has an elder brother, Ali Zafar, aptly called Bhaisaab, living in London. He sets the tone for the story by ending his five-year-old romance, thereafter wanting to settle down and, hence, asking Imran to look for a bride for him; he sort of identifies with his younger brother‘s choice! After a mandatory montage of some hardly tolerable faces as prospective brides, finally it is the bride‘s family who reaches him.
The eligible girl is Katrina Kaif, born and brought up in London, who swings between two personas; a guitar strumming, torn jeans bold girl on the move, she is ready to be domesticated for, as she says, if a girl was still single after 25, tongues would wag. Imran has encountered the bold and wild Katrina earlier and as the families are preparing for the wedding, Imran and Katrina come closer and soon realise they love each other.
So far so good, it is all fun and joy. The pair weighs many ideas to avoid the inevitable wedding between Ali Zafar and Katrina Kaif. While she wants to elope, Imran wants to find an honourable way out. From here on, Mere Brother ki Dulhan becomes one tryingly winding film with many attempted comic scenes and cliché sequences like a bhaang song, dug up from old hits. The wedding changes venues as the bride changes too.
Ali Zafar‘s Patel girlfriend from UK is brought down, his romance for her rekindled and they marry, paving the way for Imran-Katrina romance to flourish and since all preparations are made, they should marry too. One thought this was the happy ending but, no, the director thinks he still has one smart gimmick up his sleeve. Both fathers fight, exchange insults and call off Imran-Katrina‘s marriage, adding a senseless extra sequence and stretching the film further.
With a script that can go in any direction, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is generally a rehash of most things seen on screen before.
Direction lacks inspiration, the treatment is cliché filled; how does one depict Katrina to be a fun-loving, outgoing bindaas girl? Well, she strums on a guitar, gathers crowds around her and generally keeps waving from a car or scooter like a mobile traffic cop!
Musically the film has two decent numbers in ‘O Malang……‘ and ‘Madhubala…‘ Dialogue is routine. Performance wise, Imran Khan passes muster more because of his role than the acting. Katrina Kaif overdoes her chulbuli fun loving girl and is loud at times. Ali Zafar is good in a brief role. Tara D‘ Souza is not up to the mark, Kanwaljit and Parikshat Shahni are okay.
Mere Brother Ki Dulahn is an average rom-com with a very limited appeal.
Hindi
Viral AI video invites tech leaders to Delhi AI Film Festival
Sam Altman, Bill Gates and Sundar Pichai star in Hindi cinema style spoof at Qutub Minar event
DELHI: A hilarious AI-generated video casting OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai as unlikely Hindi cinema heroes has taken the internet by storm.
The clip, shared by tech entrepreneur Chandan Perla, cleverly recreates a comic scene from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the cult 2011 film directed by Zoya Akhtar. Using AI face-swapping wizardry, the video superimposes the global tech titans onto the characters originally played by Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol and Farhan Akhtar during a mock conference call scene.
The result is a surreal mash-up of Silicon Valley and Spanish road-trip nostalgia, complete with familiar expressions and perfectly timed comic pauses. Even those who cannot tell their algorithms from their auteurs are finding it hard not to smile.
But this is more than just a bit of internet mischief. The video serves as a playful invitation to Delhi’s first-ever AI Film Festival, set to take place on 17 February at the iconic Qutub Minar as part of the India AI Impact Summit.
Billed as a premier showcase for AI-generated cinema, the India AI Film Festival promises global premieres, panel discussions and an awards ceremony beneath the historic monument’s towering silhouette. Over 500 founders, celebrities, investors, policymakers and AI leaders are expected to attend.
The event is being led by Invideo, with participation from Nvidia. Among the featured speakers is Vishal Dhupar, managing director of Nvidia Asia South. The evening will culminate in an awards ceremony celebrating standout AI films, with prizes worth 12,000 dollars up for grabs.
In short, it is lights, camera, computation. If the viral video is anything to go by, artificial intelligence may not just be writing code but rewriting the script for how technology meets culture.
