There have been some unusual and offbeat Hindi movies released recently (and some more on the way).  One such film is Darna Mana Hai, which I wrote about in the last update, a movie I really enjoyed.

On 15th, I got to see a... shall we say, OUT OF THIS WORLD, kind of film!  Yes, this one was the much-hyped Koi... Mil Gaya, starring Hrithik Roshan, and directed by his dad Rakesh Roshan.  I watched it in a group of around 30 people (our entire TAPMI Episode 2003 Team), and we were really in a daze after we came out of the theatre.  The basic plot is a cross between Forrest Gump and E.T. (and several other movies that the filmmakers probably had DVDs of - they must have been watching them on the set and ripping off ideas directly), where the mentally retarded Rohit (Hrithik) has his life changed when he meets a cute alien, which is soon named "Jadoo".  There is of course the standard love interest - Nisha (Preity Zinta), the jealous boyfriend, the cute kids who are Rohit's friends, the comic relief, the stern cops who want to capture the alien... add in the requisite songs, a few cute and crazy antics by the alien, some melodrama, some so-called "science" and you have the very definition of the word potboiler.  Here are some of the learnings that I gathered from the film:

• Sound can travel through space (light years, even!) in a matter of seconds.  All you have to do is play a few notes on a contraption that scientist Rakesh Roshan built, and an alien spaceship will show up in moments.
• Aliens are usually cute little blue things that have a very limited range of facial expression - mostly blinking eyes.
• It's easy for aliens to learn languages like Hindi and English.
• By looking at a photograph of strangely shaped footprints, it is possible to scientifically deduce that an alien is running around in your neighbourhood.
• Wire effects (remember Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?) can be used in dance sequences.
• It doesn't matter if there are cops looking for an alien that you are trying to protect.  You can always go out to a scenic location to sing a song and dance around.  The alien might even pitch in and contribute vocals to the song.
• The procedure of copying files in Windows Explorer is something very complex.  Explaining it to someone confirms that you are a genius.

Now this is not going to be the complete stinker of a mini-review that my friends would probably expect.  I can say one good thing about the movie - Hrithik Roshan puts in a lot of energy and work into his performance and tries hard.  Overall, though, I'd say it's a missable movie (though you might read otherwise in several other reviews!).