The Film: Filhaal
Starring: Tabu, Sushmita Sen, Sanjay Suri, Palash Sen, Akash Khurana, Shivaji Satam
Director: Meghna Gulzar
Rating: 1/5 (Poor)

Meghna Gulzar in her debut film has tried to deal with a topic which is little been touched here in Bollywood. We can recollect Chori Chori Chupke with a similar theme. Meghna has built castles on air! Beautifully packaged campaigns, amazing posters and two happy couples seen make us feel that this is yet another Dil Chatha Hai type new generation flick, but the fact is this is a sad and depressing movie.

Fihaal is flawless with its share of drawbacks -- but it certainly is a product that is daringly different, a mainstream entry that tackles the rarely attempted theme of surrogate motherhood without botching it up by falling prey to the temptation to sensationalize the issue.

The story is about two girls Rewa (Tabu) and Sia (Sushmita Sen) who have grown up together and are best of buddies. Rewa is married to a rich garment trader in Mumbai, Dhruv (Sanjay Suri). Both are happily married, but Rewa incapable of sustaining a pregnancy beyond a few months, so when she has a miscarriage their life is fully of misery.

On the other hand Sia is a fashion photographer, swears by her commitment to her professional goals and keeps avoiding marriage proposals from boyfriend Saahil (Palash Sen).

But seeing the grief of the couple not having baby – Sia comes to rescue by carrying Rewa's next unborn baby in her own womb. It is all done by medical treatment; so don’t let your imagination run wild!

Rewa does not inform her family nor her boyfriend which later turns to be a problem for both. On the other hand Rewa starts envying Sia since Dhruv stars giving her now more attention like he would have done originally to his wife.

This story continues for the next 3 hours while it should have been only 2 hours. The best part of the movie are the song sequences shot extensively in Cape Town, South Africa. Also, the soundtrack of this movie is brilliant.

Dialogues are ordinary, wonder why Sushmita translates every English statement into Hindi all the time!

This movie certainly belongs to Sush, her acting is cool and she looks fabulous throughout the movie. Tabu as usual is good though her dialogue delivery is bad, she ahs to work on her diction, as she cannot sound like a chawl girl all the time.

Sanjay Suri is good and given better roles to him – he can prove his mantle. Palash Sen is good for nothing in this movie; he looks like a joker walking around.

If you have to watch this movie, then watch it on DVD or wait for some TV channel to air it.