Sunny Deol and the sequel are disappointing and dated in equal measure…

Mastizaade’s problem is its absolute lack of originality and boring repetitiveness.

There is not much in the writing of Dilwale that could help these two recreate the sparks that flew between them in their earlier films, but they do radiate warmth for each other, a warmth that wafts off the screen and floats about the air in a sigh-inducing fashion. Each time Shah Rukh and Kajol are together in a frame, you can almost forgive Dilwale for everything else that it ought to have been but is not.

Despite its shortcomings then, this is a brave and beautiful film – beautiful to look at, beautiful in its position on religion, brave in its take on history, brave in its unwillingness to paint religious groups or its primary characters as black or white.
Bhansalified history, as it turns out, makes for good cinema.

Hate Story 3 adds up to zilch. If there is anything I’ve said so far that might for a moment suggest that this film has ANY redeeming factors, let me say it loud and clear here: it does not.

Frankly, spending so much time writing such a long review is in itself giving more credit than is due to this half-baked, lifeless, low-IQ film with its juvenile humour and family politics that resembles circumstances in the cheapest saas-bahu soaps now running on Hindi fiction TV.