The Year 2018 has been quite an unconventionally phenomenal year for Bollywood. This is because this year we did not see much of Biggies dominating the screens except Padmavat, Sanju, Veerey Di Wedding, Race 3 and a few others. Rather the year belonged to some medium-budgeted smart scripts and small movies with great ideas like Raazi, Mukkabaaz, Padman, October, Mulk etc. making their presence felt on silver screen.

The month of September seems to carry the flavour of 2018 ahead and this said let us take a look at what we have for our entertainment dose this week:

Halka: Most of the movie lovers would not be aware of this less promoted flick, which has already won Grand Prix de Monteal at the 21st Festival International du Film Pour Enfants de Montréal Film (FIFEM) and at the KINOLUB International Film Festival Poland apart from acclaims in many other festivals.  Directed by National Award winning Director Nila Madhab Panda, whose first movie was I Am Kalam, the film raises a relevant social issue of defecation on railway lines while showing the desire of a child protagonist Pichku (played by Tathastu). The movie has Ranvir Shorey and Paoli Dam as parents of the child and must be a worthy watch.

Gali Guleiyan: Another film which has conquered the audiences’ heart internationally in about 15 fim festivals, the movie is ready to get released this week. A psychological drama having Manoj Bajpayee, Ranvir Shorey, Neeraj Kabi and Shahana Goswani and debutant child actor Om Singh in the main cast, the Gali Guleiyan promises to be an extraordinary experience to the viewers.  Lead actor Manoj has been appreciated a lot has even won the Best Actor’s Award at the Indian Film Festival at New York and the movie won Grand Jury Award at the MAMI. All the love makes debutant Dipesh Jain and his team glad and hopeful for a good response at Box office in India.

Paltan: After many years a significant war drama happens to be a comeback of Director J.P. Dutta. The movie is based on the clashes of Nathu La and Cho La between the Indian and Chinese military troops alongside the border of Sikkim. The film portrays an untold story of the innate strength and bravery shown by the Indian soldiers in a great triumph that reinstated the Indian pride. The film features an ensemble cast of Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Luv Sinha, Gurmeet Choudhary, Jackie Shroff, Deepika Kakkar, Sonal Chauhan, Esha Gupta, Harshvardhan Rane and Monica Gill among others. Hopefully the film would be successful in giving a great treat of patriotism like Border and LOC Kargil by the same director.

Laila Majnu: This sole romantic flick is set to compete with all the other non-romantic genres releasing this Friday and this may prove to be an advantage in terms of luring all the ‘love’ craving audiences. Laila Majnu is the modern day retelling of the classic love story of Laila and Majnu, directed by Shaad Ali, who has some good romance dramas to his credit. The movie stars newbies Tripti Dimri and Avinash Tiwary in the lead roles and its music is already a hit. Whether the interesting looking movie presented by Imtiaz Ali and produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Preety Ali turns out to be a surprise package or a dud will be judged this week.

--Sangita Roy