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Many cineastes think Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is the most influential film of all times. I would have to go with that. So would Feroz Khan, who’s been in two of the worst Godfather-influenced films of all time. Here’s saluting The Godfather clones, good, bad and the awful.

1. Dharmatma (1975):

Feroz Khan was always ahead of his time. So, it’s no surprise that he was the first Bollywood filmmaker to jump on the The Godfather bandwagon with this wildly out-of-control remake—an almost scene-by-scene reaffirmation of the original with Feroz playing Al Pacino and Premnath as Marlon Brando. A laughably crude homage to the original, the silver lining was the beauteous Hema Malini as Reshma, the exotic Afghani lass whom Michael, sorry Feroz, falls in love with. Hema dancing to Lataji’s ‘Mere galiyon se logon ki yaari ho gayi’ would have probably given Coppola...

Producer Pravin Bharadwaj’s soon-to-release movie Swaha, a parody, will upset a fair share of high-profile people. Bharadwaj admits that actor Ishrat Ali’s character in the film, Asanandji Maharaj, has been modelled on spiritual guru Asaram Bapu. Directed by Manoj Sharma, the movie also has characters admittedly inspired by actor Govinda, filmmaker Subhash Ghai and two netas who go by the names of Deshmukh and Shinde. Subhash Ghai, who is still to recover from the debacle of Yuvvraaj, is parodied in a scene in which a filmmaker by the name of Sudesh Ghai goes to Asanandji to mourn the failure of ...

Film folk are a superstitious bunch. They believe in lucky stones, auspicious muhurats and God Men who inspire blind trust. It’s these babas who have inspired producer Pravin Bharadwaj’s soon-to-release film, Swaha.Bharadwaj frankly admits that Ishrat Ali’s character in the film, Asanandji Maharaj, has been modelled on Asaram Bapu.The fourth child of a wealthy businessman, Aasumal Sirumalani, has over the years transformed into self-realised spiritual guru, Sant Shri Asaram Bapu who is headquartered in Ahmedabad, but has 350 ashrams scattered across the globe and a following among the rich and the famous. It’s easy to draw parallels between reel and ...

Cast: Nisha Kothari, Nitin Reddy, Ravi Kale, Ishrat Ali, Kali Prasad Mukherjee, Harvey Rosemeyer, Rasika Duggal, Joy Fernandes and Gautam Rode; Director: Rgv; Rating: 2 out of 5.

Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Agyaat’ is as shoddy as the dead dummy publicity gimmick he deployed to publicise the flick. A disappointment to say the least, considering Ramu’s last year’s horror offering ‘Phoonk’ where even the otherwise innocuous crow had sent shivers down all our spines.

‘Agyaat’, on the other hand, is an.

Movie Review: Agyaat: Is film se mujhe bachao; Star cast: Introducing Nitin Reddy, Priyanka Kothari, Gautam Rode, Ishrat Ali, Howard Rosemeyer, Joy Fernandes and Ravi Kale; Director: Ram Gopal Varma; Rating: *1/2.

Irrespective of the fact that his last few films haven’t really been great experiences, one still enters a Ram Gopal Varma movie with certain expectations in mind. But Ramu nowadays it seems is hell bent on scaring even his most loyal fans away. Agyaat turns out to be one such experience wherein you go in expecting a thrill ride but come out absolutely unmoved rather.