A sneak peek into the movies of 2009

It's that time of the year when the customary postmortems of the year-gone-by are taking place. But we at Bollywood Hungama always endeavour to think ahead, trying to gauge the future developments in the film world faster than others. So, in the first part of this series, we bring you our assessment of some of the films of the year 2009. Films, that may go on to re-write the Box Office history, or may receive acclaim-n-applause for their unique concept or execution. Ladies and gentlemen?time to lift the curtains of a new filmi year. May the whistles blow in the corridors of cinema halls forever.

Kambakht Ishq

Asha Bhonsle's piercing melody penetrates your mind as you think of....Kambakht Ishq. Well, this is surely one of the designer biggies of the forthcoming year. It's time Kinng Kumar 'met' princess of fine acting Kareena Kapoor in fresh young blood Sabir Khan's debut effort which has been extensively shot on tempestuous foreign locales. The Rambo-Shades presence of Sly Stallone (owing to the skyscraping dream of producer Sajid Nadiadwala) will catapult this 'Ishq' into an unimaginable big league. Don't be surprised if all time 'Kambakht' records are broken.

Hello Darling

What happens when three buxom-lacious working girls (Gul Panag, Eesha Koppika and Celina Jaitley) are destined to have a roving-eye-boss (Javed Jaffery)? Time to say Hello Darling...let's play (oh-my-) boy! Directed by Manoj Tiwari, this Mukta Arts comedy has been written by Sachin Shah and Pankaj Trivedi (Kya Kool Hain Hum, Apna Sapna Money Money). There seems to be song-n-dance happening out here...after all, why should... boys have all the fun!

Set in London, it's a story bound by a rock band that banks on the scaffold of friendship. Director Vipul Shah is trying to blend mercurial Salman Khan and Mr Intensity Ajay Devgan. Ghajini star Asin will surely be a cherished attraction. A R Rahman's music and Shridhar Raghavan's screenplay are the notable highlights of the film. With Vipul Shah emerging as quite an Ustaad at packaging his products according to a huge spectrum of audience, we expect London Dreams to be a potential blockbuster of 2009.

The film is a glimpse into the life of a 60 year old bookstore owner John Pereira (Amitabh Bachchan) who has somewhat taken his 40 year old wife Aditi (Sarika) for granted. There's a turnaround when Aditi meets with a near fatal accident and we hope capable director Shoojit Sircar must be weaving an interesting tale thereafter. Also the fact that this project is being backed by UTV Motion Pictures (who have delivered some outstanding films in 2008) makes it a prized catch to look forward to. Dia Mirza and Jimmy Sheirgill are also playing important roles in the film.

Salman Khan has picked up the pen yet again for Anil Sharma's Veer. Yes, he's the writer for the film! Mithun Chakravorthy plays a crucial role and so does British beauty queen Lisa Lasarus. The first look of the film has generated a lot of curiosity (it has an uncanny resemblance to one of Salman's earlier films Sooryavanshi and yes the producer Vijay Galani is same too) and Brat Khan is doing heavy duty workout to be in Top Shape for this role. Everyone's watching out with a keen eye for this one.

Mallika Sherawat has put the flops behind and is treading the Hollywood path by starring in Jennifer Lynch's (daughter of famous director David Lynch) Naagin - The Snake Woman. With world class visual effects to boast of, this Venus Production is an intriguing subject that may surprise the Western sensibility. Talented Irrfan Khan is also part of the star cast.