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Film: "Apna Aasman"; Cast: Irrfan Khan, Shobana, Dhruv Piyush Panjuani; Writer-Director: Kaushik Roy; Ratings: *** The problem with a film about a couple grappling with the grim reality of an autistic offspring is that it gets past the checkpost of cynicism on the table itself. And yet I'm surprised to see a lot of critical disapproval of debutant director Kaushik Roy's gentle elegiac look at a dysfunctional family from behind closed doors.

Indian cinema's enduring star continues to shine, with greasepaint or without, behind the camera or in front and now as author. At 83, the indomitable Dev Anand is yet again "Romancing With Life", an autobiography he promises will "feature little known secrets" through his six decades in showbiz.

The first trailer of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Saawariya" has created an extra buzz and the people 's expectations are soaring. The director is overwhelmed but scared too. "I'm overwhelmed! I'm now growing aware of how much people expect from 'Saawariya'. Just a one-minute-30-second trailer has evoked tremendous reactions," Sanjay told IANS.

"Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag" has been panned by critics and audiences, but the maverick filmmaker insists that his aim was to pay homage to Ramesh Sippy's classic "Sholay" and not to outdo it. "I was not trying to outdo 'Sholay'. I was doing a homage to 'Sholay'. And it would be foolish of me to think I can better the original," he told IANS in an interview.

Bollywood actor Bobby Deol, whose ready-to-release film "Nanhe Jaisalmer" was extensively shot in Rajasthan, is all smitten by the beauty of the state and says that he feels de-stressed in the lap of mother nature. "Nature de-stresses me! I think as you mature you understand better the power and energy it holds in itself," Bobby told IANS.

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who scripted his daughter's latest film "Dhokha" that puts the spotlight on terrorists and the fear in which Indian Muslims live, says this is his first political film. "I've co-written with Shagufta Rafiq. As a Muslim, she shares the dread and fears of the Indian Muslim," Bhatt, who has taken a break from direction, told IANS.

Time was when you watched a film and exclaimed that it had captured so much of real life. Today the trend has reversed: we compare a real life situation to a certain turn of the script in some film. "Just like in that movie," we say wonderingly. That sense of wonder has nothing to do with real life; it has everything to do with reel life. In fact, the image has become more real than the real thing.

Esha Deol says she loved playing a ghost in Ram Gopal Varma's just released "Darling" because eccentric roles gives her a high. "I loved playing Geeta in 'Darling'. I appreciate the fact that Ramu considered me for a role like this. It's an eccentric part, yes. I enjoy playing traumatised parts. That gives me a high," Esha, who has earlier played an obsessive lover in Vikram Bhatt's "Ankahee", told IANS.

Film: "Aggar"; Music Director: Mithoon; Singers: Qurram, Rup, Roop Kumar Rathod, Tulsi Kumar, Sharmishtha, Mithoon, Hamza, Shilpa Rao, Kshitij; Rating: **1/2 Composer Mithoon provides variety in the album, but one thing is common to all tracks - romance and passion.

Film: Nanhe Jaisalmer; Music Director: Himesh Reshammia; Singers: Himesh Reshammiya, Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Vineet, Jayesh Gandhi; Ratings: *1/2 Though the pairing of music director Himesh Reshammiya with lyricist Sameer has produced major hits in the past, they fail to make heads turn with "Nanhe Jaisalmer". The soundtrack comprises a couple of tracks with some folk in it and also has classic Reshammiya numbers that hardly create a stir.

Comedy is certainly the flavour of the season in Bollywood with every other comic caper making a killing at the turnstiles and dime-a-dozen dream merchants scrambling over one another to board the bandwagon. Among the recent to hit the box office is "Dhamaal". No sooner was David Dhawan's pop-up comedy flick, "Partner", declared a hit, another veteran of the genre, Indra Kumar, seems poised to hit a homerun with his latest offering "Dhamaal", which released Friday.

Film: "Dhamaal"; Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, Aashish Chaudhary, Asrani; Director: Indra Kumar; Rating: ** "Dhamaal" is so silly and goofy that you want to reprimand the people who are falling off their chairs all around you for laughing. Instead, you find yourself joining the mindless merry-making in this all-boys' film, with just two incidental female characters to avoid charges of a gender bias.