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Director            Pankaj Kapur Cast                  Shahid Kapoor, Sonam A Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Aditi Sharma, Manoj Pahwa, Kamal Nain Chopra, Supriya Pathak Kapur Year                 2011 Genre               Romance Have you guys heard the story about The Hare and The Tortoise? I cannot say with conviction that everyone who reads this blog would have.   But I can say this with absolute conviction that Pankaj Kapur has not only heard the story but also took it so much to heart that he applies it in every aspect of his life.   But there are a couple of learnings from the story that Pankaj Sir seems to have forgotten about the story.   Firstly the moral was “Slow AND STEADY wins the race” – not just SLOW ...

Director            Ali Abbas Zafar Cast                  Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tara D’Souza, Arfeen Khan, Parikshat Sahni, Kanwaljit Singh Year                 2011 Genre               RomCom Indian Audiences are probably very easy to please.   What else could explain the extremely positive reviews that a way below par movie like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan has received since its release.   First of all there is the aspect of a story line.   Yawn.   Everyone knows what is going to happen at the first look of the trailer itself.   Boy (Imran Khan) is entrusted to find an ideal wife for his brother (Ali Zafar) who is based in London and has no idea about the conce...

Don’t put off today what you can’t afford to do tomorrow. In spite of the world wide pension crisis and a growing acceptance that we must plan and save for our retirement, the harsh reality is we are actually not saving enough. Research reports reveal that only 15% of the individuals are saving sufficiently for their retired life. Here are a few tips on things to do before you retire so that your retired life is more comfortable and enjoyable. Get Rid of All Your Debts If you are taking a housing loan, personal loan, car loan or any other loan make sure that you will be repaying them on or before your retirement. You need to choose the term of the loan in accordance with your retirement age. You can enjoy your retired life when you have 100% financial freedom, not when you have to repay your loans. Protect Your Emergency fund Emergency expenses can happen any time. But the possibility goes up during the old age. So we need to enhance the emergency reserve year on year based on the infl...

There are so many tax saving investment options; how Mutual fund ELSS Schemes stand out from all other options? A Mutual Fund ELSS is similar to diversified equity funds. That means the fund manager can invest in shares of various companies across various industries. The difference is ELSS has got the added tax benefit, something a diversified equity fund does not offer. ELSS is part of the Section 80C instruments which are cumulatively eligible for a deduction from income up to Rs.1 Lakh. This gives the tax payers benefits from 10 per cent to 30 per cent (excluding the educational cess) based on their current tax slab. The other tax saving investments like NSC, PPF will give only 8% return p.a whereas the Mutual Fund ELSS has got the potential to deliver more than 12% return p.a. Also the lock-in period in Mutual Fund ELSS is 3 years and with NSC it is 6 yrs lock-in and with PPF it is 15 years. Among the various tax saving investment option, Mutual fund ELSS has got the least lock-in ...

Director                        Shoaib Mansoor Cast                              Iman Ali, Mahirah Khan Askari, Atif Aslam, Shafqat Cheema, Humaima Malick, Manzar Sehbai, Mahnoor Khan, Hania Chima Genre                           Drama Year of Release            2011 The very essence of movie making other than the perceived entertainment value that most people look at, is the message that is passed on to millions of people who watch it.   As a journalist (I can only assume) tells Zainub (Humaima Malick) at the beginning of the movie, “Tumhein apni kahaani batana zaroori...

Director Venkat Prabhu has not deviated from his usual style of film making in spite of this "Mankatha" being Actor Ajith's 50th film. He begins the film with a song and then he brings in comic overludes in the middle of something really serious and post interval there is another song which stamps the Venkat Prabhu mark all over. Ajith on the other hand has made a good decision by selecting such a script for his landmark film. The movie might look like a deja vu to "Oceans Eleven" but in a true sense, "Mankatha" is a well made film. Vinayak (Ajith) is a police officer under suspension in Mumbai for helping a gangster escape an encounter. He falls in love with Sanjana (Trisha) who is the daughter of Armugam Chettiyar (Jayaprakash). Chettiyar is a disguised don who is making big money in betting. IPL cricket season is in and it is about to rain money in his den when suddenly four unassuming boys in Sumanth (Vaibhav) who works for Chettiyar, Ganesh ...

Bodyguard Director                        Siddique Cast                              Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Aditya Pancholi, Hazel Keech, Rajat Rawail, Asrani, Katrina Kaif, Raj Babbar, Reema Debnath, Mohan Kapoor, Himani Shivpuri, Chetan Hansraj Genre                           Action Year of Release            2011 Eid Mubarak to one and all and much like previous times, the much awaited Eid release starring Salman Khan is out today.   And I obviously had to ensure that I catch up with it at the earliest but this time around I had the misfortu...