Hindi
Desi Boyz is a feel good romcom
MUMBAI: Desi Boyz is the directorial debut film of a chip of the old block, Rohit Dhawan, son of David Dhawan, who regaled the audience with many an entertainer .
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Producer: Krishika Lulla,Vijay Ahuja, Jyoti Deshpande. |
Wisely, Rohit Dhawan chooses a romantic comedy as his launch vehicle and proceeds to add all that such a film would need, including a dash of emotions – just enough to moisten your eyes but not so much as to flood them.
Akshay Kumar and John Abraham share a friendship going back 15 years; while John finishes his graduation in economics, landing a cushy job as an investment banker, and has Deepika Padukone as his fiancée, Akshay has done nothing worthwhile since he arrived in London except for changing his name from Jignesh Patel to Jerry. He is a college dropout, has no fixed job and mostly survives by scrounging off John Abraham. To add to that, he is the guardian of his seven-year-old nephew, who has been orphaned.
All is hunky dory until the recession takes its toll and establishments sack staff left, right and centre. The signboards read: ‘we fire, don‘t hire‘. As Akshay Kumar loses his job as a security guard at a mall, John Abraham too loses his banking job. Their search for work is futile. John is overqualified and unaffordable while Akshay has no qualifications worthy of a job. Akshay Kumar stands to lose custody of his nephew and they are soon to lose their apartment as well. There is just one option available to them, join Sanjay Dutt‘s escort service, Desi Boyz, with the job profile being to gratify bored rich women. Reluctantly, both turn gigolos and money is no problem anymore; the bubble bursts when Deepika finds out what her fiancé is up to and walks out on him. For his part, Akshay loses custody of his nephew.
With this debut, Rohit Dhawan sure shows a lot of promise as a writer as well as director; his handling of the film is mature and shows his flair for feel-good cinema. However, choosing a younger star cast-oriented film would have given him a better start.
Music is on the good side with Subah hone nade…..giving a touch of melody while the title song and other numbers are foot tapping. Photography is good. Choreography is away from the routine and offers no loo breaks. Dialogues are appropriately witty.
Akshay Kumar looks a little fresher than his recent films but is his usual self in the acting department. John Abraham is restrained and good. Deepika Padukone is so-so. Chitrangda Singh, in a brief role, does the needful – look sexy as well as perform ably. Anupam Kher, Mohnish Behl and Omi Vaidya provide good support. Sanjay Dutt fits his character.
With the lead stars of Desi Boyz being out of favour with the audience, Desi Boyz has lost out on the required and expected opening draw; since it has appeal for both, multiplexes as well as single screens, its collections should improve over the weekend but not enough to justify its price tag.
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.
