What doesn’t work as well is the love story (though the Bengali-Punjabi parental clash is laugh-out-loud funny) and the resolution of Vicky’s thorny problem. Sircar wants to make a case for sperm donation but the film falters when it moves into preachy melodrama. Still, there is much to like here, including Khurrana’s performance though I’m still figuring out what was going on with the pink lips!

Check out Vicky Donor. It’s a nice surprise.

Housefull 2 has exactly the same mix of stars, foreign locations, farcical plot and spectacularly dim-witted comedy as the first Housefull. This is the cinematic equivalent of junk food – when you walk in, you know exactly what you’re going to get.

The result is that Agent Vinod never becomes more than the sum of its parts and even though it picks up speed in the second half, it leaves you both exhausted and unsatisfied. But I enjoyed the character of Agent Vinod. If he does get a sequel, I hope he has a better narrative to romp in.

The first-rate performances help steer it to shore – from Vidya Balan to Parambrata Chattopadhyay to Nawazuddin Siddiqui who plays a hard-nosed IB agent and Saswata Chatterjee who plays the insurance agent. Balan, quite effortlessly, manages to be both vulnerable and resilient. So despite the loopholes, Kahaani fulfills what it sets out to do and keeps you hooked and guessing. Which in itself is no small accomplishment.

Shaitan loses steam, becomes repetitive and ends in a whimper. Which is a shame because Nambiar has talent to burn.

Ready made me laugh sporadically but beyond a point I could almost feel my brain cells shrinking and exhaustion setting in, one joke at a time.

Let me warn you that Stanley Ka Dabba is slow. In places, the story seems stretched. The climax is predictable and not entirely convincing. But I recommend that you make time for the film. It has an inherent sweetness and honesty that will stay with you long after the film is over.

Nana Patekar fans will enjoy his purposefully eccentric, casually ruthless cop but honestly, it felt like déjà vu to me.

Formulaic horror tropes – mist, screeching doors, books that fall by themselves and blaring background music that insists that you be scared.

Chalo Dilli strains hard to be uplifting and poignant but it doesn’t quite make it. I’m going with two stars.