True Subra with his minimal English voices most of the cliches in the Hindi film world and if he dominates the action, ageing Indian star Manu Kapoor is not far behind. Pat, the American, begins uncomfortably but gains in stature once he comes to grips with reality while the Indian starlet Kajal (Perizaad Zorabian) does help to provide an insight into Bollywood and though the romantic angle is at best fair, her role is essentially decorative.

May be director Kukunoor starts off quite poorly and with Om Puri jabbering in his usual manner the film tends to drift. Till then it is only the asides that keep it going with most of them put across by Om Puri. But it is in the second half that the story really develops and when the shadow of death looms large it gets a kind of second wind.

The formula for success in Bollywood is portrayed quite realistically. So are the King-size egos of those who inhabit it, especially the actors. The lack of scripts so to speak is also under fire. The so-called toughness of the West is pitted against the sentimentality of the Orient but in the final analysis the director sets out to show that there are really no stereotypes and hence the colour of grey. A bit of Bollywood drama is inevitable but all said and done, it is an amusing, entertaining and at times exhilarating picture of Bollywood that Kukunoor paints.

So if it’s Bollywood Calling don’t ignore the call. You’ll find it well worth your while. Another Indian-born filmmaker (music video director) Tarsem Singh has made his feature film debut in The Cell. And known for his visual razzle-dazzlery he has enough scope to display his talents.

When Hitchcock made psycho in 1960, psychology itself was a new domain. So was schizophrenia. But today, four decades later, it has come a long way and film makers are known to take a lot of liberties with it., Silence of the Lambs tried to enter the psyche of a serial killer and in the process provided enough suspense.

The Cell goes a step further. With the help of a brain-mapping device it enters the hidden recesses of the mind to capture the macabre mystifying world of the psychotic killer. How convincingly it does is of course debatable but it certainly provides the platform for Singh to do his thing in style.

Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is the psychologist who has been experimenting with a radical new theory in which she can actually experience what is happening in a patient’s mind. And when she is asked to carry out this experiment with a serial killer Carl Stragher (Vincent D’Onoforio), the results are disastrous. While seeing what it is to be a predator she could well end up becoming the prey.

Shades of Fantastic Voyage a 1960s si-fi thriller in which folks are miniaturised and immersed in the blood steam of a human being, this journey into the psyche is brilliantly projected. It scales new heights in cinematography and as such the film cannot be ignored.

All said and done, Singh must be commended for his work. It is a challenging subject to which he does justice. We sure are going to see much of him in the near future.