Raajneeti is as exhausting as it is compelling…

Badmaash Company is a proof that the Yash Raj Films formula is irrevocably broken. The posturing stars, snazzy styling, foreign locations, plastic textures and necessary dash of family values simply can’t cut it anymore. Badmaash Company is a staggeringly tedious film, which takes two hours and twenty three minutes to give us the moral science lesson that honesty is the best policy.

…it is up to Ranbir to carry Rocket Singh over its limitations and he rises to the challenge exceedingly well.

Watch his eyes in the scene in which he first discovers that honesty doesn’t pay in this company or his body language in the scene, in which his grandfather has to come to jail to get him. He is outstanding.

What if your husband – the man you love and share a home and bed with, turns out to be a terrorist?

Kurbaan, produced by Karan Johar and directed by Rensil D’Silva, constructs this unimaginably tortured situation and then squanders it. The film has ambition but it is too flawed and simplistic to explore issues like religion, violence and the politics of terrorism with any conviction or gravitas.

Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani, a comedy set in a comic book universe, is a frustratingly uneven film. Some of it is genuinely funny and delightful and some of it is repetitive, and annoyingly tedious.

But even in its most limp moments, what keeps the film from derailing is its lead pair: Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. There is such sizzle and beauty and unadulterated charm here that you really can’t look away.

Wake Up Sid belongs to Ranbir. The actor is pitch perfect as the dazed and confused Sid. He manages to be infuriating, infantile and loveable in the same moment. We root for him from the minute we see his comic-book socks.

What saves Dil Bole… from being a total write off is Rani Mukherjee. The actress, looking better than she has in years, pours her soul into Veera Kaur. Her performance, like the film, is high-pitched and broad-stroked but she makes it work. She and Shahid Kapur have a nice chemistry.

Kaminey will take some getting used to. It isn’t the comfort food that Bollywood normally dishes out. But I strongly recommend that you see it. This taste is worth acquiring.

Harishchandrachi Factory is that rare thing – a delightful film that makes its point with charm, simplicity and a wonderful lightness of being. Director Paresh Mokashi’s triumph is that instead of predictably eulogizing this extra-ordinary man, the film humanizes him and celebrates his utterly mad and ferocious passion for cinema.

The premise of Rab Ne is illogical but even if you are willing to overlook the fact that Tani fails to recognise her own husband because he loses his moustache and gels his hair, the film is a frustrating experience.

Sporadic scenes play out nicely and Shah Rukh Khan works every acting muscle to bring conviction to this story but the overwhelming emotional inconsistency fractures the film.