"Actor: Smriti Mishra"

• Zubeidaa | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Palaces, princesses and politics--on the face of it Indian art cinema doyen Shyam Benegal's maiden foray into Bollywood, Zubeidaa, appears to have all the ingredients of a mainstream success. However, the film is at best an uneasy blend of art-house sensibilities with the full-on spectacle that is commercial Hindi cinema. This is the latest in a series of semi-autobiographical stories by writer Khalid Mohamed that have been directed by Benegal. Here the director charts the story of Zubeidaa, a young aristocratic Muslim woman, whose promising film career is cut short. She is married off young, has a son, is divorced and finally finds love with the married ruler of a princely state in newly independent India. Told in flashback, the film's structure and some key scenes are very similar to the director's masterpiece Bhumika ("The Role", 1976). Karisma Kapoor, hitherto known for her scantily clad raunchy roles, makes her bid for artistic credentials as the eponymous heroine. But much like the film itself, her performance falls between two stools. Veteran actress Rekha who plays her paramour's first wife easily outclasses her in a graceful yet forceful performance. AR Rahman's music is haunting, dreamy and helps create a mood and ambience that the visuals fail to produce. On the DVD: Zubeidaa is presented in a pleasing anamorphic transfer with 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. While the menus are easy enough to navigate, the extras are disappointing, consisting of a faded theatrical trailer and a few television promos complete with dropouts. The subtitling, though largely accurate, makes quite a few errors. For example "cemetery" appears as "symmetry" while the word "diary" consistently appears as "dairy". --Naman Ramachandran

• Train To Pakistan | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  The film was made to commemorate the golden jubilee of Indian independence but Train To Pakistan with its humanist message remains a film for all times. Based on the novel by Kushwant Singh the film has a message that transcends the border of the little village where the action takes place. Mano Majra is a sleepy town on the Punjab border between India and Pakistan where Sikhs and Muslims have lived peacefully for years. As the freedom struggle reaches its climax the frontier become

• Dil Dosti Etc | DVD | (21/01/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Dil Dosti Etc is a fresh, unabashed, no holds barred look at how young men of today think and choose to live their lives. Dil Dosti Etc is set around students in Delhi University. Sanjay, (Shreyas Talpade), is an ambitious and focused Bihari student-politician in Delhi. He represents the romantic and the idealist who steadfastly pursues his political goals. On the other hand, Apurv (Imaad Shah), is a rich cosmopolitan guy whose life is directionless. With the abundance of time...