*1. JODHAA AKBAR*
Set during the pinnacle of Mughal power in India, this swashbuckling tale of Emperor Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) and Princess Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai) had tongues wagging and cash-registers overflowing. Director Ashutosh Gowariker's superlative film maintained surprising historical fidelity while taking on a sumptuous medieval courtly romance and breathtaking epic war-fare. The magnificent A.R. Rahman soundtrack was pure icing. Finally, a modern Hindi film succeeded to be a worthy successor to the 1960s classic Mughal-E-Azam. *3. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE *British filmmaker Danny Boyle and Indian co-director Loveleen Tandan forged a compelling snapshot of contemporary urban India. British-born lead Dev Patel aced the role of street-hardened man-child Jamal Malik, searching for his long lost girlfriend (Frieda Pinto), who lands a chance to win a jackpot on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Despite the Oscar buzz, be forewarned: Slumdog is not an "Indian" movie by many measures and occasionally fumbles translating speech into English. Despite its flaws, Slumdog bodes well for "fusion" filmmaking. Read the full review. *4. JAANE TU ... YA JAANE NA * Abbas Tyrewalla's well-dressed and well-marketed Gen-Y musical-drama hit all the right chords. From banking on the surprisingly viable newcomer leads, Imran Khan and Genelia D'Souza, as a mis-matched campus boy-girl combo, to a dance-happy A.R. Rahman score Jaane Tu … was an overdue, smart and refreshing film in a season that also inflicted on audiences the rudderless, fast-sinkers Drona and Tashan. http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b02389705b164813bff696068625fc9b -- regards, Vithur
