Competing with the likes of Anand Pat-wardhan and giving impromptu soundbytes has 25-year-old Antara Kak, the winner of the best director award for her debut documentary, in a flutter. Kak, who has been assisting her father and Surabhi creator Siddharth Kak for the past 10 years, won the award for her film, A Life in Dance-Daksha Sheth, at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2002 for documentary, short and animation films (MIFF) recently. Shot over 10 days in a village near Kerala, the film weaves the martial arts-yoga-Chhau fused dance form performed by Sheth and her husband Devissaro. It might be Kak's directorial debut but the quotes certainly resemble those of a seasoned winner-"I want to engross the viewer, awards are not that important," she says.

RAAZ Starring: Dino Morea, Bipasha Basu, Ashutosh Rana Director: Vikram Bhatt Earnings: Rs 1.5 cr Failed in Love

Box Office

When viewers had a healthy fear of creaking doors and rickety houses (read: in the 1960s) blockbusters like Woh Kaun Thi and Bees Saal Baad shook the living daylights out of people but were fortunate to earn Rs 15-17 lakh per circuit. After a series of C- and D-grade horror films that did mediocre business, Vikram Bhatt's Raaz with Basu and Morea has managed a business of over Rs 1.5 crore in just two weeks. Though slick special effects and eerie music have been the main attractions, one can never underestimate audience curiosity for a whodunit.

Review
Failed in Love

Movie: HAAN ... MAINE BHI PYAAR KIYA
Director: Dharamesh Darshan
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Karisma Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Simone Singh

While admissions of love can be of heart-wrenching importance to lovers, they rarely affect onlookers. Dharamesh Darshan's Haan ... Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya which admits to this emotion leaves audiences emotionless after two-and-a-half hours of mind-numbing spiel. The love triangle traces the lives of Shiv Kapoor (Bachchan), Pooja Kashyap (Kapoor) and Raj Malhotra (Kumar) caught in the flush of love. Shiv and Pooja meet, fall in love and get married. But the match made in heaven is destroyed by those on earth when Shiv has a one-night stand with a former collegemate, Simone Singh. Heart-broken, Pooja leaves Shiv to find employment, succour and further confessions in a film star, Raj. The film has done nothing for Kumar's penchant for meaningful roles, Bachchan Jr's sagging career and Kapoor's disappearance from the star horizon in the past year. The forced comic track of Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor and Himani Shivpuri is intolerable. While the music by Nadeem Shravan is of passable interest, the exotic locales of Switzerland are beautifully captured. One might be better advised to pick up a travel book.

Q&A
Govind Nihalani
It's Been A Decisive Growth

Govind Nihalani talks about his film Deham (Body), set for an April release. It won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema award for the best Asian film at the 25th Goteberg Film Festival 2002 in Sweden.

Q. This is a departure from your earlier work.
A. Unlike my earlier films which were inspired by contemporary reality, Deham is futuristic: a social sci-fi dealing with conflict at personal and political levels.

Q. What has been the response so far?
A. Encouraging. We participated in the Regus London and the Asia-Pacific Film Festivals 2001. The film does not have any songs. I hope we are able to get a crossover audience since the issue is relevant to everyone.

Q. What was the experience like?
A. It's been a decisive growth as a filmmaker. I've made an English film, used special effects and an international cast for the first time.