Based on Kyle’s autobiography, much like Hurt Locker, Eastwood’s drama plays to the conservative gallery sidestepping the politics of war. Almost forgetting that Kyle died not on the war front but at a Texas shooting range. It is silent on the effect of his celebrity status on the society around him.

Margaret is tailor made for Amy Adams. She brings alive the complicated character who takes a long time to see through the manipulative nature of her husband. It is a kind of performance that juries of film awards love to reward.

Of course there are loopholes and creative licence is exploited but it is good fun on the run till it enters its final lap. After experimenting with the template, Amit suddenly runs out of ideas and decides to sum it up in conventional fashion.

However, a decade later, in its third edition, the museum has lost not just its novelty but the commitment of its watchdog, Ben Stiller, as well.

Anurag is so miserly with information that at one point you like to beseech him to part with more details but he is no mood to take a please-all route. Still all threads come together when they need to. Still it is Anurag’s least indulgent yet most visceral film. There is no escape from the ugliness that we and our films like to keep under wraps. Last week Hirani had hung a mirror in theatres, this week Anurag has put together few shards of glass. That was easier to face; this one will test the nerve.

When it seems somebody is drawing sadistic pleasure when a woman is punched in the face, one doubts the sensibility of the filmmaker.

Even those who whistled for his Rowdy Rathore would find this hard to swallow.

…after the effortless setup, the screenplay starts meandering. Some of the camera angles are amateurish. At times Masurkar gets carried away and brings in comedy-show kind of situations in an organic structure. But Naveen and Aditi ensure that the performances tide over the flaws in writing.

There is an attempt to whip up melodrama by intercutting the gas leak with a wedding and there could have been many other angles to the story but the camera doesn’t linger on the desperation to cash the poignancy. Kumar’s approach is neutral as he recreates the sensory experience of that ill-fated night. Unlike Carbide he doesn’t devalue death.

Cut from the same cloth from which films like Well Done Abba and Welcome To Sajjanpur were stitched, Zed Plus warms the cockles of the heart with its simplicity and integrity, ingredients that are fast disappearing from our cinescape. Far from the gloss and fakery of larger-than-life stories which rely on flying kicks and superheroes living next door, director Chandraprakash Diwvedi creates a scenario rooted in socio-political reality and gives it a satirical treatment.

No doubt, one gets absorbed in the scenery. The jungle indeed sucks you in but everything is postcard fresh. A wilting red rose against a dark background, it seems somebody has imbued life into those children’s picture books published in glossy paper. But when in the process the emotions also become too lustrous to be human, it hurts. The back story of the Beast and his sudden humanising seldom makes you grasp the armrest.