Debutant director Amar Kaushik establishes the setting elaborately but doesn’t manage to deliver on the writing. A film like this required a steady hand to carefully balance the chills and thrills along with the outlandish one-liners, ensuring neither is watered-down by the other.

Akshay Kumar’s portrayal of Tapan Das is convincing and effective…

Soorma applauds a deserving figure who has received national honours but sadly, hasn’t been celebrated with the same fervour. A worthy hat-tip!

Some may complain that Sanju makes light of the convicted actor’s inglorious misadventures. But if one really hoped for a bittersweet account, we’d watch an Anurag Kashyap.

While this one works as a breezy film on girl bonding, it gets a bit tedious while taking a stab at patriarchy. In fact, a message it hopes to convey on the societal pressures endured by women is lazily tucked into a dialogue. “Pehle shaadi karo, phir bachcha, phir bachcha hua toh doosre bachche ka pressure.” It almost seems like old whine in a new bottle.

Unlike most films within the genre that focus chiefly on the ‘operation’, Raazi also delves into the debilitating position that secret agents who stumble in and out of the margins of history must sometimes assume. Given the political climate, this one’s a relevant watch — especially since little has turned between the two nations over the years.

…the biggest mystery of all remains, did the person who invested in this excuse for celluloid do so out of free will? We’ll never know.

It takes a Majidi to rise above the plot and offer audiences hope when things look south. Even here, he’s determined to make it stick. It may not be a deep, immersive, dislocating experience one usually has when introduced to unwavering spirits and personal narratives that his cinema has come to be known for. But it’s surely reminiscent of his previous work and sparkles up an appetite to revisit them.

Let’s just say it — this film, like the October-born Librans, is moody and petulant and yet, almost obsessively sentimental.

It’s a bit exhausting to narrate the multiple entanglements, but the trying situations retain pace and keep one interested, curious and concerned about the events to follow.