Overall, this bitter-sweet film will make you laugh, will make you cry and will surely make you ruminate on the glorious uncertainty of life… 

Rear Window (1954) by Hitchcock made the unreliable narrator narrative popular in Hollywood. Thanks to films like Gone Girl and Girl On A Train, it’s getting a resurgence in the West. In Bollywood, the recent Badla gave us an example of how twisted such narratives can be. Judgementall Hai Kya is carrying the torch forward. It’s another female centric film that leads you across numerous red herrings before finally reaching the denouement. 

One doesn’t hold it against him too much though. His fate is akin to that of the viewer’s, who too will struggle to make sense of this film which meanders in twenty different directions, much like a kite stranded in the wind…

It’s the performances which elevate the film. The 30 students ooze sincerity and look their parts. One can empathise with their desire of spreading their wings and flying away from their hand-to-mouth lives.

It’s a Salman Khan film where he’s required to emote and not just punch some 20 goons at regular intervals. To his credit, he doesn’t shy away from the challenge. He’s shown to be modelled on Lord Ram – caring towards everyone, loyal to his friends, devoted to his family and having a strong sense of dharma, of justice. Somewhere along the way, the focus of the film shifts from India to Bharat the character and that’s its chief flaw. You leave the theatre feeling underwhelmed…

This film has   the most understated performance by John Abraham in recent times. He oozes sincerity in every frame, and tries gamely not to break character and go all berserker-like against the baddies, breaking their necks with bare hands. We wait for that to happen but for once his character uses brains rather than brawns to defeat his enemies…

Today, in a world growing more cynical by the minute, we need to be reminded of real heroes who lived and died for their beliefs. Manikarnika manages to reintroduce one of the most awe-inspiring figures from India’s past. A legend gets reborn, at least on screen, and maybe that’s the only reality palatable to us right now…

Believe it or faint, but Rangeela Raja is all about curing men of toxic masculinity and the sense of entitlement they have towards female companionship. It’s a cautionary tale against rape culture. Only it does it all in such an over the top and hamfisted manner, that you wonder what was the point of it all.

…watch Badhaai Ho for its unique take on the family film sub-genre, as also for some paisa vasool acting by the entire cast. Congratulations indeed to director Amit Ravindernath Sharma for making a hugely entertaining film.

Writer Kanika Dhillon has etched real-life situations. The conversations between people carry a ring of reality as well. We see three actual people, and not film tropes or archetypes, trying to make sense of their lives. There is no unnecessary drama in the film. The girl doesn’t get berated for bringing the ghar ki izzat down, nor is the boy beaten up by her relatives. Every situation is dealt with a certain restraint and maturity.