The Blue Umbrella (Chhatri Chor) is one of those few movies which is rich in cinematic experience but limited in its reach. The movie comes from one of the most creative directors of our time Vishal Bhardwaj and is based on a book on the same name by one of the most loved writers Ruskin Bond .
The movie revolves around Nandkishor(Played by Pankaj Kapur) & Biniya (Played by child artist Shreya) residing in a small village in Himachal Pradesh. Nandu as he is called in the village is a shop keeper who has a liking towards pickle & has a habit of acquiring attractive things in return of small debts. Biniya the smart nine year old sister of a wrestler understands his motives & always finds a solution to his crooked ways along with her friends to keep him at bay.
The twist in the story comes when the girl falls in love with a beautiful blue umbrella brought by few Japanese tourists & gets it in exchange of her bear claw necklace. Ass She roams around the village with the pretty umbrella in beautiful backdrops of Himachal, she has all the eyes set on her & herpossesion. Whileshe shares it with her friends & poses for photos with the tourists, she snubs all attempts by Nandu to wrest it from her. In theee meanwhile Biniya's Umbrella gets stolen,but how through her intelligence Biniya finds the umbrella & makes the thief to repent & realise his/her mistake forms the rest of the story.
The film is great in terms of the suspense regarding the thief & stands out due to its emotional phase depicting loneliness & struggle due to social outcast. The camera angles are sometimes taken from a character's perspective which makes it interesting & works in combination with the background score to enhance the emotions. There are several scenes which takes your heart away like the scene in which Biniya finds that her umbrella has been lost ,the scene in which Nandu explains the reason of his obsession towards the umbrella,the marriage procession in the village where Nadu is ousted,the umbrella struck in the bus door. There is a lot of humor in the movie through the interactions of Tikku (Played by Rahul Kumquatatatat) the helper in the shop & Nandu and even through Masterji & his wife Lillavawell. PankajPankaj Kapur does a valiantjob once again as the pahadi man with a sweet accent & the lonely old man in later part of the movie. Shreyaas a first timer comes up with a mature performance as required ,while the marvelous looking umbrella which opens up in a lovely circle is treated as the real protagonist in the movie.
Since it has a strong moral value at the end , its a great way to introduce the art of cinema to children! It can take you back to your "Malgudi days" kind of cinema & holds good for people from today's generation as well .The lyrics penned by Gulzar & music given by Vishal himself is soft & refreshing & compliments the scenic beauty of Himachal .As this is a movie which is watched or even heard by a few , my suggestion is to enjoy this on weekend on a DVD with your kids & family.
Trivia:The movie has won the National Film Award for Best Children's film in 2006.It is a 90 minute movie distributed by UTV classics & comes from the director of Makdee, Maqbool, Kaminey, Saat Khoon Maaf.

Directed by Rohan Sippy and written by Shridhar Raghavan, Dum Maaro Dum is an upcoming thriller film starring Abhishek Bachchan,Bipasha Basu,Prateik Babbar,Rana Daggubati and Aditya Pancholi. The soundtrack is composed by Pritam Chakraborty while the lyrics are penned by Jaideep Sahni.

The track listing has a total of 8 songs technically including the remix versions of Dum Maaro Dum and four versions of Te Amo. So is it a gamble to have four versions of same song? Does the remix of the cult song 'Dum Maaro Dum' in Hare Krishna Hare Ram meet the expectations. Let's see.

Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale who debuted as background music composers with Karthik calling Karthik in Bollywood have worked on Background Score for 'Dum Maro Dum'.

"Mit Jaaye Gham (Dum Maaro Dum)": Retaining the right portions from the original, and adding their own signature elements, Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale create a groovy remix of Pancham da’s ahead-of-the-times classic.
The song surprisingly is good even in remix version which proves the versatility of R.D.Burman who inspite of composing the original in 1971 proves a point that music is never going to die. A song that ruled charts comes back 40 years later and still continues to be appealing to young and old alike which proves the composer's genius. While you continue to enjoy the original the new version is groovy remix. Rightly sung by Anushka Manchanda the song retains original elements with added lyrics and some portions entirely different. The original song has been remixed many times but this remix is totally different. Thankfully they left the signature guitar tune intact throughout the song which is be the reason for the appeal. The song does appear situational given the content of the film that deals with drug mafia

Te Amo (Duet): Sung by Ash King, Sunidhi Chauhan the duet appears to be custom made for Mohit Chauhan with whom Pritam collaborated in many love melodies. The song does have the feel of 'Is this love' from 'Kismat Konnection'. Ash King does a decently good job as he tries to bring his unique style . However one does miss Mohit as these songs are his forte.
Te Amo (Female): The female version sung by Sunidhi Chauhan is melodious other than the fact that the song is repetitive. Sunidhi has improved in slow romantic melodies like in 'Bin Tere' from 'I hate luv Storys'. It is definitely enjoyable like a silent love melody waiting to be expressed to a partner.
Te Amo - Reprise: Enters Mohit Chauhan for his customised song in the unplugged version on acoustic guitar. He definitely proves why the song should be sung by him. The song may or may not make it to the film version given the situations according to story but Mohit's version is the best of the four tracks. One wishes that Pritam should have gone for a duet by Mohit and Sunidhi for single track instead of creating four tracks for the same song.
Te Amo - Remix: The Ash King, Sunidhi Chauhan duet returns in remix form. Less said would be better about this remix version. The remix track sounds initially like a spin off 'Bin Tere (Remix)' from 'I hate luv storys'. Honestly it felt the same. The duet was much better.

Jaana Hai: The combo of Pritam with Zubeen Garg returns with this song. Assamese singer Zubeen Garg has the unique voice that pelted out chartbusters like 'Subah Subah' in 'I See You' and "Ya Ali" in "Gangster". Although he sang many songs in a couple of films these two are his only claim to fame. This song is meant to be aspirational but sadly does not add any value to the singer nor the composer.

Jiyein Kaun: Sung by Papon who at places sounds like Mohit Chauhan the song stands out .The Assamese singer Papon debuts in Bollywood with a brilliantly arranged rock track Jiyein Kyun. The music arrangement does remind one much of the tracks of the Pritam's music 'Metro'

Thayn Thayn: The track is sung by Abhishek Bachchan, Earl, Ayush Phukan.Abhishek has sung 'Right Here Right Now' in Bluffmaster which was quite a blockbuster hit and returns to rapping with another one in Dum Maaro Dum called Thayn Thayn, with Ayush Phukan and Earl. Pritam provides an intriguing arrangement to the song marked by a wonderful chorus, to close the soundtrack on a positive note. This is one of the best tracks in the soundtrack and is sure to be the chartbuster

A fairly entertaining package from Pritam for Dum Maaro Dum, which surprisingly is a big comeback for the man whose other two scores so far this year came for United Six and Thank You.Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale continue to impress with their Bollywood forays, one song at a time.

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Recommended Tracks – Mit Jaaye Gham (Dum Maaro Dum), Te Amo (Duet), Thayn Thayn

Some time ago there was a buzz in bollywood that Amir khan was signed by none other than yashraj films for there next installment of the dhoom series.However, both amir and yashraj films are denied the news continuously.

But the rumors are not always fake and in this case similar thing is happend! Now it is confirmed that amir has been roped in by yashraj banner for there next installment of dhoom i.e. Dhoom 3.

The official press release from the yashraj banner are out stating that Amir is doing Dhoom 3 as villain along side Abhishek and Uday Chopra as Jay and Ali respectively.Although the leading ladies atre not yet finalized yet.

Confirming this Amir said that he's doing Dhoom 3 as he liked the script of Vijay krishna Acharya who had earliar directed Tashan forn the yashraj banner and also the writer of all the previous dhoom franchises.

Amir has also said that he loves the theme music of Dhoom and everytime he heard the tune he started dancing!

Well all can say that the third installment of Dhoom is getting bigger and better after Mr.Perfectionist joins the team and it will be fun to watch that how Abhishek and Uday chases him.

Dhoom 3 is going on floors at the end of this year and is slated for Christmas 2012 release.

Till then Amir fans have to wait to see him on Dhoom 3.