Though the film touches upon the political aspect here superficially, it exposed the other system and its vindictive nature before its release for which it literally fought its way. You probably rooted for the film to win. Should you watch it for that reason alone? Happy to report, there’s more than just that.

At some point, inevitably, the cinema screen in the dark hall starts competing with your little cellphone screen. Which is only fair. As our phones get smarter, our humour clearly appears to be getting dumber.

This simple film is so much more about dealing with life, death, and the fuzzy space in between, that suddenly becomes precious when you’re hit with the thought of losing the most loved one. You can sense the tragedy. We all have. But we can do nothing about it.

This movie appears instead as some sort of a long explanation to the world, delivered by the corny looking Emraan Hashmi, on behalf of Azhar, setting the record straight—if not on the match fixing scandal, then on his extra-marital affair with a Bollywood actor of the time, Sangeeta Bijlani (Nargis Fakhri), and his first wife (Prachi Desai) adding to the over-the-top sob opera. Now really who cares? Okay, I hope for the filmmakers, plenty do.

I suspect a subject like this easily lends itself to realism, since the film itself is more often than not aimed at adults. Frankly, the presence of Robert Downey Jr. alone gives the franchise more gravitas than a bunch of serious lines ever could. There is much spectacle to keep the usual lot happy.

I just think this is the sort of movie designed really well around the hero and therefore bumper numbers at the box-office, which this might well get. If not, I would change my name (just don’t call me Tiger, Leopard, or Cheetah, that’d just be just weird okay?)

…every character in this film has to be unusually positive for us to unquestioningly gloss over the complexities of a story like this.

After all of that, sitting through two Superstar SRKs over two and half hours could seem like a chore or bore—if you’re not a fanatic yourself, or at the very least, merely interested in watching a film. Sure there’s a lot of the usual narcissism going on. To be fair, the fears were almost wholly unfounded. The picture keeps you glued to the screen for the most part. It certainly leaves a genuine and real impact.

This is absolutely the most gut-wrenchingly personal, mainstream film on an urban Indian family that I’ve ever seen. Yet, for the number of twists and turns that take place in the plot, or the story-line as it were—between four main characters who are together for as many as four or a few more days—the film runs the risk of you zoning out eventually and noticing merely the extraneous things that make this picture so much fun after all.

…just a series of relentless, supposedly crowd-pleasing hyperbole. And so something big does happen in this picture. It should command your attention. The film is centred on it. But you know what? You don’t care. When so much happens, why would you care if anything is happening at all.