Neeraj Pandey proves that he is a Dhoni fanboy. The movie starts out awesomely well, telling us details about Mahi’s early life we eagerly lap up. But we want to know about his growth from getting selected in the team to becoming a captain. We get Bollywood style romance instead and then we begin to look at the time: 190 minutes. Cricket wins, but…

Rajasthan is probably the heart of patriarchy land, and the villages hide many ugly tales. But three friends are there to support one another and they eventually learn to help each other fight the ugly reality that is their life. Shot beautifully, the film seems much longer than its running time because it is full of cliches about women and the feminist text seems to be borrowed rather than believed.

Emraan Hashmi is Aditya again. Alas there’s no Bipasha Basu rebooted as Shanaya, but another pretty girl (Kriti Khabanda) rebooted as Shaina redoing the Arth mangalsutra beads are broken act, the ghosts that possess bodies are still levitating and contorting bodies, and creaking doors and yanking screaming women under the bed… Reboot means Rehash.

Two hours and sixteen minutes long moral science lessons on molestation of women and the attitude society still nurtures. You learn nothing new, you haven’t seen anything different, you have heard it all before. But having Amitabh Bachchan make an argument for the cause, his whisky and honey baritone commenting on entitlement and patriarchy makes all the difference.

It’s a sports underdog movie where Nawazuddin Siddiqui gets to play a man from the wrong side of the tracks to win at a game meant for the idle rich. The story starts out to be great fun, but it becomes so repetitive in the middle that even the jokes are a drag and then dragged down by Bollywoodisation of the story: unsportsmanlike behavior, intervention by the gods, maa ka aashirvaad and big gangster with bigger heart…

A grouchy young man seems to be living a sort of groundhog day when everyone around him is happy celebrating his wedding to his childhood sweetheart. We know he has to re-live the day that changed his fate but we don’t know why. And despite Katrina Kaif and Sidharth Malhotra’s ‘hotness’ which drew the audiences in, the story leaves you cold.

Three stories, tenuously tied in a presentation that is so amateurish, you wonder why NFDC would back this film school type story-telling. Thankfully one story stands alone and puts a smile on your face. This should have been released on YouTube.

Sonakshi Sinha plays Akira, a girl who has been taught to stand up to bullies from her childhood. She stands in the way of a bunch of crooked cops headed by Anurag Kashyap. What unfolds keeps you hooked for one hundred and thirty eight minutes. As they say, ‘Full Paisa Vasool!’

A young lad becomes a superhero and defeats a big baddie and not only wins hearts but also the girl. Good plot, right? But it has been so needlessly Bollywoodised with a song and dance and everything seems to be happening so slowly you lose patience with it, despite some genuinely funny moments.

An India-Pakistan encounter that does not involve terrorists or silly politicians or bad-mouthing ‘them’? Never thought it was possible. But writer-director Mudassar Aziz manages that and offers us a funny story on a runaway bride, harried cops, silly cops, ambitious fathers, arranged marriages, and so much more… Mostly predictable, but delightful nonetheless.