How much can 150 minutes mean to your life? A lot. And for someone, it could be about getting richer by as much as 2.5 crores. Ask Nilesh [Abhay Deol] and he would tell you how!

He was just one normal guy who worked as a Call Center executive. Coming from his work at office, he reaches Vikhroli station only to miss his last local train back home.

Time: 1:40 AM

Now the trouble is, the next train is at 4:20 PM and he needs to find a way to spend his next 150 minutes. Poore dhayi ghante! He may have chosen to return back home in an auto but the trouble is that even the autos were on strike in that particular night.

So there he was waiting for the time to pass by and comes across a girl named Madhu [Neha Dhupia] who too had to catch the same train. Together they get together on a journey that would become the biggest and the most interesting journey of their lives.

Both Nilesh and Madhu had their own personal traits. Nilesh was innocent, impulsive and naive but still believed that he could come out of any situation through sheer will. Soon he was to be trapped in a series of situations which would put his so-called skill to test!

On the other hand Madhu knew what her strengths and weaknesses were. Her beauty was a definite strength and she used them to her full advantage to get out of tricky situations. But in spite of that she did find herself trapped in surroundings from where it was difficult to escape. She had a cunning angle to her but then she was also vulnerable at heart.

Together they started marching on the streets to kill time and come across a series of people who would end up changing the course of their lives. Situations they faced too were bizarre & beautiful, unpleasant & uncanny but adventurous nevertheless.

The men they meet? Mangesh Chilka [Deepak Shirke], Habiba Bai [Snehal Dhabi], Ponappa [Vinay Apte] and Malvankar [Ashok Samarth].

Mangesh is a cunning man belonging to the underworld who could be as disloyal as one can be. That’s the reason why he is considered as a snake who can bite his own protector. Having a ’special fondness’ for young boys, his next victim may as well be Nilesh!

Habiba bai is a eunuch and a loan-shark by profession. At the top of the hierarchy in the eunuchs of the Kurla chawls, she is more bold and fearless than an ordinary man though being sensitive and soft woman at heart. Known for her razor sharp tongue, she can be bitter and lethal as per the demand of the situation.

Malvankar is a corrupt cop who leads a gang of 3 cops and is most interested in filling up his own pocket. He has a certain clout in the department and belongs to the ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ category of policemen. An aggressive man and someone who likes to bully around, he soon got himself in an encounter of a different kind with Nilesh.

Ponappa is a poker loving don. With an intrinsic desire of winning and not sparing anyone who dares to challenge and defeat him, he was a born killer with an unpredictable trait to him. Would Nilesh be his next target?

With such characters filling up the 150 minutes of their lives, Nilesh and Madhu could have never imagined how one single night could mean to much to them forever. Want to join them in this confusing yet intriguing, comic & psychosomatic drama? Then watch out for ‘Ek Chalis Ki Last Local’ directed by debutant Sanjay Khanduri that is coming your way on 13th April all over.

Times are indeed changing for Bollywood cinema. Thank goodness!

Film makers are coming up with interesting subjects with great regularity and some of them which could have been relegated to art house cinema or festival circuits are being made as complete mainstream cinema hence catering to a larger segment. Mushrooming multiplexes have to be thanked too since they are giving enough space for films and choices for audience to see experimental cinema at their will.

CHEENI KUM is one such film that comes this year and promises to be one exciting experience that lovers of offbeat subjects would relish.

Let’s first clear a misconception amongst many about any similarities between NISHABD and CHEENI KUM. Except for the difference factor between the age of lovers of the lead protagonists, there is nothing that is common between the two films.

While NISHABD was more about studying the psyche of two people with vast age difference falling in love, CHEENI KUM is a romantic comedy that doesn’t beat around the age factor and brings a philosophical/intellectual/sexual side to it. Instead, it just tells the tale of two people who find love in each other and the hilarious situations that are borne out of it.

The two protagonists here are Buddhadev Gupta [Amitabh Bachchan] and Nina Verma [Tabu].

They are 64 and 34 years of age. Interesting. Isn’t it?

So while the 18 year old girl in NISHABD was still trying to explore life and find the meaning of love (and lust), the 34 yeard old Nina has seen it, done all and is now at that stage of her life where she has the brains to make a sane decision in her life and choose a partner for her whom she thinks would be her ideal soul mate for life.

And she chooses Buddhadev. But first let’s take you through the situations that make them meet first!

Buddhadev Gupta was a happy man. And why not? He was working what he loved most - Run an Indian restaurant in London and be its chief chef. He loved cooking and he loved food. So much that he never fell in love with anything else in his life. Not even women. And this is what made him a bachelor throughout his life.

Until he met Nina.

And it was again food that got them closer.

Nina visits Buddhadev’s restaurant and it is certainly not love at first sight, well, of food. In fact there is an argument that follows about the food and a series of meetings later, Buddhadev realizes that probably Nina was the one for him.

Nina, who was beautiful, mature, calm, charming, and ever so understanding.

The two start understanding each other better and as mature individuals decide to get married to each other. So while Buddhadev lets his 85 year old mother [Zohra Sehgal] about his feelings for Nina, Nina introduces him to her father Omprakash Verma [Paresh Rawal] in Delhi.

The only trouble? Her father was 58 years old, 6 years younger than her would-be groom.

And it doesn’t require one to be an Einstein to figure how would any father in this position would react!

Would Buddhadev be able to get the hand of his lady love?

Produced by Sunil Manchanda and directed by Balakrishnan, CHEENI KUM is ready for release and should soon be on its way to theatres near this May to make you smile. Be ready to sip your coffee with…….cheeni kum!