Small-budget movies to crowd box office this Friday

The last Friday of the month is high on low-budget outings like Hello Darling, Antardwand, Gumshuda, Madholal - Keep Walking and Soch Lo. Even John Abraham starrer Aashayein falls in the same category as the film doesn't boast of big star casts and budget.

John plays a compulsive gambler, Rahul Singh, in the movie Aashayein.

John discovers a new meaning of life and love through a dramatic turn of events.

Aashayein is releasing Friday after a delay of about two years because of disagreement between producers-distributors Percept and Big Pictures.

While all five films are serious ventures, Hello Darling is a comedy about infidelity and harassment at work place.

Produced by Ashok Ghai and directed by Manoj Tiwari, Hello Darling stars Gul Panag, Isha Koppikhar, Celina Jaitley and Javed Jaffrey in the lead.

A remake of Kamal Haasan produced Tamil film Magalir Mattum (1994), Hello Darling is releasing under the Mukta Arts Films banner.

It revolves around a womanising boss (Javed), who targets three fashion designers in his office (Gul, Isha and Celina) and it leads to a laugh riot when all three are made to do his bidding.

However, they must unite and figure out how to regain control of the situation and free themselves of this man and his agenda.

"The focus here is on sexual harassment which happens inside the room, not something which is done openly," said Gul.

Antardwand, on the other hand, is a National-award winning film based on a true story of groom kidnapping in Bihar.

Antardwand has been directed by Sushil Rajpal. Made at a shoestring budget of Rs.1.5 crore, it stars Raj Singh Chaudhary, Vinay Pathak, Swati Sen and Akhilindra Mishra, among others.

"A lot of movies that are socially relevant are expected to be boring and art house but this film is quite entertaining and quite fast-paced," said Rajpal.

Three-time National award-winning director Ashoke Vishwanathan's Gumshuda is loosely based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes thriller The Sign of Four.

Made at a budget of about Rs.5 crore, it will see Rajit Kapoor essaying Holmes while Priyanshu Chatterjee plays his assistant Dr. Watson.

Victor Banerjee, Simone Singh and Raj Zutshi play other pivotal roles in the film Gumshuda.

Then there is Soch Lo, a Rs.3 crore (Rs.30-million) movie written, directed and produced by Sartaj Singh Pannu, who is also playing the main role.

The film takes off from the point where a wounded man is left to die in a desert. He survives the ordeal but loses his identity. He then resorts to robbing solitary car drivers traversing the highways.

Three troubled individuals - Harry, Toto and Pali - find him and take him to their home in a nearby village and name him Baba. Baba and Pali then embark on a journey to solve his mystery.

"It is an entertainer and a fairly simple plot," Pannu had told IANS.

Also releasing Friday is Madholal - Keep Walking, a tribute to the undying spirit of Mumbai and its people.

Directorial debut of Jai Tank, the movie stars Swara Bhaskar, Subrat Dutta, Neela Gokhale, Pranay Narayan and Varnita Aglawe.

The budget of the film was not available, but it is said to be a low cost venture of Jai who has co-produced it with Apurva Tank.

"It is a very sweet and moving script. There are many real life instances in the film... The budget is nominal but they (producers) are using it in all the right ways to spread awareness about the movie," Swara told IANS.