The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Chandni Chowk To China

Akshay Kumar as a jokey kung-fu master. Deepika Padukone in a dressy double role — two sisters, one good, the other very, very bad. Original, never-before locations in China.

Warner Bros' first big Indian production, and the first big film of the year, opened with a resounding thud. It left the studio deafeningly silent about its other in-the-pipeline projects, and Akki in a tailspin — CC2C set him on a downward spiral that hasn't stopped.

Slumdog Crorepati

Some lines are lost in translation in the Hindi version of Slumdog Millionaire, but kinetic speed is kinetic speed in any language.

The incredible adrenaline rush of Danny Boyle's film, created from old Bollywood tropes — lost-and-found, and love-conquers-all — set in a familiar city, told in a new way,

made stars out of two unknowns, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. It also, um, made money.

Dev.D

"Har phikr ko dhuein mein udata chala gaya." That seemed to be the motto of this latter-day, lily-livered, soaked-in-self-pity Devdas, who takes refuge in a haze of smoke and booze and a good-looking broad after dumping his ladylove.

The man is a wimp; the women are spunky and out there. Terrific performances from the cast — Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin — and note-perfect direction from Anurag Kashyap makes Dev.D one of the top films of the year, if not the decade.

Blue

Akshay Kumar again. Repeat after me,Rs 100 crore. Yes, you heard right. Rs 100 crore. This is the amount of money pumped into this soggy underwater adventure with an old ship and sunken treasure.

What you get for your buck — Akshay trying to be suave in dark glasses, Sanjay Dutt looking corpulent, Lara Dutta in bikinis, and lots of sleepy sharks. And, oh yes, Kylie Minogue doing an unenergetic bump-and-grind. No bang.