Samar Pratap Singh comes with wife Anjali (Raveena Tandon) and daughter Sonu (Baby Avi) to this sleepy village, buzzing with political activity. The fiery inspector will not fall in the line with an already sold-out staff and pugnacious Bachchu Yadav aka Bhaiyaaji (Sayaji Shinde) and cronies. He is unsuccessfully petted and cajoled by colleagues and seniors. In the process, he loses his daughter. Rustic humour,frequent brawls, a UP Bihar by Shilpa Shetty (apart from this and the title song, Sandeep Chowta's music is too noisy and intrusive) and lot of bloodshed smoothly take the film to a predictable finish. Sayaji Shinde is brilliant as a power-starved, psycho MLA. Manoj Bajpai refuses to be repetitive in an otherwise cliched role, and Raveena Tandon shuns detractors with a notable de-glamourised act. Despite E Nivas pulling off a commendable debut, this is no Ardh Satya.

Rockford
IT actually started with English August, but Nagesh Kukunoor's low-budget Hyderabad blues is thought to have created a new genre in Indian cinema that broke the traditional barrier between commercial and art films. Back with his second `sit-back and enjoy' flick, Kukunoor's skills have matured like fine wine. He uses the same sophomoric style of telling an everyday story here, all of 13, Rajesh Naidu (Rohan Dey) comes of age at a Catholic boarding school called Rockford. His friends Selva (Kailash Atmanathan) and DavidFischer (Imran Mirza) help him catch life without the safety net of his parents. Good at academics, Rajesh is, unfortunately, not a good sportsperson. In comes Kukunoor as assistant gym teacher Johnny Mathew.

In him Rajesh finds a father, mentor and friend to learn the ways of the world and eliminate fears like awakening sexuality and a teacher with a face of Dracula (Sohrab Ardeshir). From pranks (the best one gets an award every year), adolescent love (with girls from the neighbourhood school) and infatuation (everyone is head-over-heels in love with teacher Lily Vegas, played by Nandita Das), the story moves on to more serious things - Rajesh pays the price for becoming popular too soon. Rohan Dey shows unhindered sincerity with the role of an unsure kid trying to find his own place in the world. Commendable, what with no prior acting experience.

Equally good are Atmanathan and Imran as Rajesh's friends and Ulrika Krishnamurthy as his girlfriend. Music by Ashirvad is worth tapping feet with. Also,the film is better shot than Blues. However, Kukunoor's act is hackneyed. In the next, he should stick to direction. Still, if you want to be reminded that you were there once, go for it.

MEETA BHATTI
Hum Saath-Saath Hain
IT'S a trademark Rajshri's film, but this time, the `family film' bit seems to have been overdone.

A modernised Ramayan, the players are Ramkishenji (Alok Nath), Mamta (Reema Lagoo) and their four children Vivek (Mohnish Bahl), Prem (Salman Khan), Sangeeta (Neelam) and Vinod (Saif Ali Khan). The film begins with Ramkishenji and Mamta celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. A marriage quickly follows, - in this case, of Vivek with Sadhana (Tabu), then Prem's engagement with Preeti (Sonali Bendre) and Vinod's romance with Sapna (Karishma Kapoor).

It's in the second half that the Ramayan starts. Sangeeta is compelled to move out with her husband, which jolts Mamta badly. Since Vivek is her stepson, she becomes insecure and egged on by her socialite friends, shestarts talking about separation of property between the sons. Most of the brothers start to head out. Naturally, all's well that ends well.

Elaborate sets and costumes and good cinematography are the film's highlights; the same, though, can't be said about the songs - seven in all. The cast has also done a good job.

-- SABIHA KALOLWALA