Naam Shabana is a film of rude awakening, reminding us how much maturity in vision treatment execution and the performances a film can achieve provided  it stops looking for reasons to make audiences happy.Watching this film is a joy, although nothing really happy happens to Shabana. We are just happy that she can fight her own battles even when the odds are stacked skyhighagainst her.

It’s hard to imagine Trapped working so effectively withoutRajkummar Rao. He lives every second of Shourya’s struggle for self-preservation.His journey is so illustrative of a migrant’s metropolitan melancholy as to make any attempt to add signboards to the storytelling is akin to shining torchlight to supplement sunlight.

Logan humanizes the  super-hero to a level of supreme surrender . We have never seen a comicbook hero who is so vulnerable and so challenged by a 9-year old girl who is played by a child who has the ability to project herself as much older than she actually is, without seeming precocious.

We’ve never seen a hero so ready for the fall.We probably never will.

Hidden Figures feels lightweight while saying things about the way women specially of a particular skin-tone, are treated at workplaces.Like the 3 heroines who break the shackles of their destiny to emerge triumphant this film remains  happy at heart even when sadness seems constantly around the corner.

This is a rom.com with a  dot between the ‘rom’ and  ‘com’ reminding us that the traditional romantic comedy has come a long way.

And dot’s the whole truth.

If only Jolly LLB 2 didn’t fumble at crucial plot points. Awkwardness sits on the proceedings.

Kung Fu Yoga is one wild wacky goofy adventure saga . It isn’t fodder for the intellect. But it sure as hell  is a lot of fun.

For all its faults Alif must be seen for its strong message on the importance of formal education for every child ,even if it means offending some who would rather have the young imprisoned in ignorance. Light, says the film, is life.For this message alone Alif deserves a round of applause.

Nawazuddin Redeems This Flawed Saga Of Gangsterism…

See Haraamkhor for its original and audacious content and for the way the debutant director extracts a  gush of empathy from these bored characters even during their worst moments. Love, we always knew, as redemptive. But lust needn’t be all bad either.