If you miss “Queen”, you may never get a chance to know how Rani journeyed into self-actualization. And that would be your loss entirely.

Total Siyapaa is total madness. An audacious comedy that dares to poke fun at a border issue, the film is stylised and is attentively staged.

Darr@The Mall is done with less stress on savagery than the genre favours. Though the head count does multiply alarmingly as the story progresses, we are pulled into the supernatural mayhem more by intelligent forces that grisly gimmicks. The characters get into the bloody mess without swimming in a tide of hysterical terror.

…a deeply dissatisfying film whose very incompleteness lends a sense of beauty to the narrative. Highway is a sprawling stretch of splendour, created by a director who shoots every frame in a painter’s vein. Layered, luminous and evocative this is a world that M.F Hussain would have created if he were a filmmaker.

No matter how you look at it, the film and every rich resplendent moment in it, belongs to Parineeti Chopra. She irons out all the rough spots in the storytelling, hides all the wrinkles in the jaded plot and makes her character seem far more empathetic than it would have been in a lesser actress’ hands.

…all said and done Heartless works within its ambitious realm of love, betrayal and mortality. It makes an endearing departure from routine romances about broken hearts and mended morale. Director Shekhar Suman doesn’t quite manage to hold the audience’s attention in that spellbinding grip which the plot suggests. But the drama never sags.

There is a warm lived-in feeling to Bhagat`s directorial debut. It may not win your heart as unconditionally as Farhan Akhtar`s directorial debut `Dil Chahta Hai`. But there`s a winsome, bubbly bouncy and ebullient quality to this take on urban aspirations.

It’s all a vehicle to enhance Salman’s image as the messiah of the downtrodden. He is one helluva angry man who’s not just anti-establishment but anti-antipathy. He implores the public to rise and revolt against humbug. Coming from a star with so much clout, that’s quite a hard-hitting message. Regrettably, the episodes to show the superstar-hero’s concern for humanity are text-bookish and illustrative.

It constructs the dynamics of love and redemption from the rubble of a lost world . It gets its indomitable storytelling power from the writing and dialogues. The four principal actors, as well as Vijay Raaz and Manoj Pahwa, imbue broad and bright shades to their fey characters. Here’s a world of poetry and parody that never co-existed anywhere else.

There is a laboured attempt here to prove that animation has come to animated life in Indian cinema. Sadly, it ends up proving only the opposite. We’ve a long way to go. If you want to see a credible dramatically deft adaptation of the Mahabharat, check out B R Chopra’s televised version.

As for animation, Indian cinema should leave it alone.