Starring: <strong>Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkumar Yadav</strong> Directed by <strong>Reema Kagti</strong> Rating: <strong>****</strong>

The monsoon of clashes that began with the simultaneous release of Shah Rukh Khan’s <em>Jab Tak Hai Jaan</em> and Ajay Devgn’s <em>Son of Sardar</em> will be carried forward with the release of the Aamir Khan-starrer <em>Talaash: The Answer Lies</em> Within and Akshay Kumar’s <em>Khiladi 786</em> though the films will be released within a week of each other on 30 November and 7 December respectively.

Flying from city to city to promote Talaash is taking its toll on director Reema Kagti’s nerves. Suffering from a serious problem of aviophobia, Reema is going through the worst ordeal of her life.

The murder in Bulandshahr of Abdul Hakim, a participant in Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate episode on honour kill, sent shockwaves across the country. Coincidentally on Monday Aamir happened to be quite close to the scene of the grisly crime in Meerut to meet Hindi crime-fiction writer Ved Prakash Sharma. Understandably, Aamir who was shocked by the crime, spoke to the Meerut media expressing his strongest disapproval at the killing of a man who dared to marry outside his community.

No excessive amounts of publicity is going into the release of Reema Kagti’s Talaash. And with reason. We now learn that the master-strategist Aamir Khan has chalked out a deliberate plan with producer Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar to let <em>Talaash</em> be the most under-hyped film of the closing months in 2012.

The Censor Board has cleared Aamir Khan’s upcoming release Talaash with a U/A certificate. Film trade circles were apprehensive of the kind of certificate the Censors would dish out given the fact that the film is a suspense drama with serial killings at the core of it. Some even feared that the film may be deemed unfit for kids and teenagers and hence would be given an 'A' certificate.

Once something happens in Bollywood, it is followed up with something similar some time later. Everyone is aware about the clash between Yash Raj Films (YRF) and Ajay Devgn Films (ADF) on the issue of exhibition of their to-be released films <em>Jab Tak Hai Jaan</em> starring Shah Rukh Khan and <em>Son of Sardaar</em> that stars Ajay Devgn besides Sanjay Dutt and Sonakshi Sinha.

Aamir Khan has added another feather to his cap by turning into a make-up artiste for his upcoming film <em>Talaash</em>. For the film, actor-producer Aamir managed to do what no one else could do on sets while shooting a particular scene. For a shot, he turned a make-up man for his co-star Nawazuddin Siddique.

Stories that Rajnikanth is being roped in to perform a song and dance for the new Aamir Khan starrer Talaash has Rajnikanth’s camp completely flummoxed and angry. And Ranikanth’s associates tell us the mega-star is not amused. What is more, when this writer questioned the Talaash director Reema Kagti about the rumours that the iconic Rajnikanth is turning into an item boy for Aamir, Reema completely denied the rumour. “Not true,” the beleaguered director responded.