It’s No “ Secret” That This Drama Is A Waste Of Time... First of all before saying why this drama didn’t met up to many expectations of drama fans, it’s important to say that there were some genuinely intriguing aspects towards the show. One of the most apparent aspects of the drama was the international relationship between our Vietnamese female lead and aspiring reporter Chi Mai ( Hoàng Yến Chibi) and South- Korean Hallyu Star JIN ( Sung Joon). Although it isn’t out of the question for dramas to tackle international relationships or respectfully cast actors from different countries ( such as renowned South-Korean actor Lee Jong Suk being cast in the Chinese drama Jade Lover, or a young Lee Joon gi’s appearance in the Japanese movie with actress Aoi Miyazaki in Virgin Snow ), it isn’t a theme or relationship which is often tackled or centralised in many typical Asian dramas. Respectfully a lot of this can be to do with natural cultural differences and language differences between the two countries, and in My Secret Star there is the evident problem of Chi Mai and JIN’s words being lost in translation without Mai’s earphones which help to translate their conversations back and forth. On the other hand, My Secret Star was severely flawed by the aspect of story -writing and pacing. Although the show was very short, there was little to actually develop or process the relationship between our main leads. Undeniably the main focus of the show was the supernatural element of JIN transforming into a young child when someone makes physical contact with him. In a typical cliche manner, JIN naturally discovers that he is immune to Chi Mai’s touch leading the two to spending more time together. This is certainly a sweet element to show within the portrayal of their relationship, however, after the few early episodes of My Secret Star, this supernatural element is nearly drawn out the picture entirely and by the ending of the drama, it’s magically “ solved” without rhyme nor reason . It isn’t necessarily that this aspect of the show shouldn’t have been included, however, it was a strange move by the scriptwriters not to symbiotically use this as a plot device within portraying the development between the leads and challenges which allow them to grow closer in later episodes. In addition to this , despite JIN and Chi Mai’s status as an international couple, there were few culture shocks or differences between the two leads as well as general intrigue other one another’s country at all within the show. It is of course certainly not a necessary aspect to beat genuine romantic feelings, however, if a show is trying to tackle a relationship where both parties are from different countries and speak different languages, there is the natural element of wanting to learn more about someone’s background. This is hardly shown in the drama and whilst JIN reveals a little bit and his past and resentments towards becoming famous, there’s little explanation or actual drive as to why Chi Mai wanted to become a reporter even through revelations of her childhood . Overall My Secret Star wasn’t a show which was incredibly dire, however, poor story writing , characterisation , outfits ( particularly the Korean misrepresentation of the “ gay” fashionista ) and an inaccurate representation of international relationships, made the show incredibly cliche and a waste of time.

Bollywood has been going through some tough times during 2017 starting from Salman Khan's disaster dilemma to Varun Dhawan's cheesy acting. Luckily some films during the year created some satisfaction such as Baahubali 2 and Mom. So the story revolves around a 14 year old named Insia who resides in a suburban city that goes by the name of Vadodara which is in Gujarat. Insia's dream was to pursue a career in singing and her mother is highly supportive of Insia's decision to become a singer but her abusive and cold- hearted father invades her comfort zone which results in her dreams being crushed. So Insia decides to secretly pursue signing by posting a video and uses a burqa to hide her identity so her father don't find out. The video goes viral and it catches the attention of a failing and dim-witted Casanova music director Shakti Kumar. With the help of her mother and Kumar, how Insia manages to pursue her dream and what happens afterwards is basically what this film is about. Honestly, the teaser and trailer made me more excited for Aamir Khan but watching this movie made me realize that Aamir Khan wasn't the only important factor in the film. I loved this movie for how it was and how it looked. Advait Chandan deserves a bow because this debut filmmaker managed to master the craft of producing a screenplay that kept all the emotional factors in its place which also kept the audience engaged throughout the 143 minutes of the film. The acting in the movie was phenomenal. Zaira Wasim steals the show completely. Her acting had a clear justification to never fear anyone before pursuing a dream and her Dangal mentality managed to cover that. Meher Vij was nice and heartwarming as the mother for Zaira. Luckily in my opinion, she was not bad in Bajrangi Bhaijaan where she did the role of the little girl's mother but in this movie she manages to execute the mother role according to our expectations. Despite Aamir Khan's role only appearing half of the film, he still managed to act like the same khan who we all adore a lot. His flirty and sleazy humor managed to ma laugh a lot of times. Raj Arjun's first attempt as an abusive father figure kept the film smooth. The music was nice but I felt some tracks had weak compositions and Amit Trivedi has done it in some films like Qaidi Band and Shaandaar. Lyrics were fantastically produced by Kaiser Munir. Anil Mehta's cinematography keeps the script of the integral and consistent. Overall, I loved this movie. 1) Beautifully written and directed. 2) Well performed 3) Nice Camera work Enjoy your Diwali with this film at a theater near you. Golmaal Again will surpass the box office for this film. Secret superstar should fall into the 50-75 crore range. But just rely on the film more than the box office. 3.75/4- Bollywood's most proper flick

First of all before saying why this drama didn’t met up to many expectations of drama fans, it’s important to say that there were some genuinely intriguing aspects towards the show. One of the most apparent aspects of the drama was the international relationship between our Vietnamese female lead and aspiring reporter Chi Mai ( Hoàng Yến Chibi) and South- Korean Hallyu Star JIN ( Sung Joon). Although it isn’t out of the question for dramas to tackle international relationships or respectfully cast actors from different countries ( such as renowned South-Korean actor Lee Jong Suk being cast in the Chinese drama Jade Lover, or a young Lee Joon gi’s appearance in the Japanese movie with actress Aoi Miyazaki in Virgin Snow ), it isn’t a theme or relationship which is often tackled or centralised in many typical Asian dramas. Respectfully a lot of this can be to do with natural cultural differences and language differences between the two countries, and in My Secret Star there is the evident problem of Chi Mai and JIN’s words being lost in translation without Mai’s earphones which help to translate their conversations back and forth. On the other hand, My Secret Star was severely flawed by the aspect of story -writing and pacing. Although the show was very short, there was little to actually develop or process the relationship between our main leads. Undeniably the main focus of the show was the supernatural element of JIN transforming into a young child when someone makes physical contact with him. In a typical cliche manner, JIN naturally discovers that he is immune to Chi Mai’s touch leading the two to spending more time together. This is certainly a sweet element to show within the portrayal of their relationship, however, after the few early episodes of My Secret Star, this supernatural element is nearly drawn out the picture entirely and by the ending of the drama, it’s magically “ solved” without rhyme nor reason . It isn’t necessarily that this aspect of the show shouldn’t have been included, however, it was a strange move by the scriptwriters not to symbiotically use this as a plot device within portraying the development between the leads and challenges which allow them to grow closer in later episodes. In addition to this , despite JIN and Chi Mai’s status as an international couple, there were few culture shocks or differences between the two leads as well as general intrigue other one another’s country at all within the show. It is of course certainly not a necessary aspect to beat genuine romantic feelings, however, if a show is trying to tackle a relationship where both parties are from different countries and speak different languages, there is the natural element of wanting to learn more about someone’s background. This is hardly shown in the drama and whilst JIN reveals a little bit and his past and resentments towards becoming famous, there’s little explanation or actual drive as to why Chi Mai wanted to become a reporter even through revelations of her childhood . Overall My Secret Star wasn’t a show which was incredibly dire, however, poor story writing , characterisation , outfits ( particularly the Korean misrepresentation of the “ gay” fashionista ) and an inaccurate representation of international relationships, made the show incredibly cliche and a waste of time.