Clearly, makers like Kaushik, who had a formidable box office record in the ’90s remaking South Indian films, need to borrow modern-day technique and storytelling tactics to keep the ever-evolving viewer engaged. In the case of GOG, the only ones who seem to have had a blast are the actors – Mahie, Anupam, Saurabh and Jackie, all of who ham.

Kangana Ranaut’s performance is outstanding. Whether she’s crestfallen or ecstatic, selling golgappas or naively buying sex-toys, hiding her infatuation for an Italian restaurateur or showing deep dejection about her wimpy beau Vijya (Rajkummar Rao), she’s a class act.

Hasee Toh Phasee is for the romantics who like their martinis stirred not shaken. Debutant director Vinil Mathew’s straight-forward approach is smart and fresh; his characters are lovable…If you’re looking to rediscover the magic of goofy love around Valentines, give HTP a shot.

Though lavishly mounted, the first half is routine with emphasis on the rich-boy-meets-poor-girl angle. Post intermission, the real plot is unravelled. Though the twists in the tale rest largely on a dry medical fact, the film becomes a thrilling roller-coaster ride with terrific punches. The mother-son relationship is emotionally gratifying.

The film is full of cliches of mainstream cinema. And the characters, like the parents of the boy, the quiet suffering mother of the girl, the villain who owns a meat factory, his spoilt son, the son’s sidekick, are caricatures that have been a part of Bollywood potboilers for eons. It’s time to bury these fast and furiously, rather than attempt to glorify them like KPK does.

Vishal Bharadwaj’s dialogue keeps you in splits. Naseer is back in super-form after straying in outings like Jackpot. Ditto Arshad. Madhuri looks gorgeous but the dhak-dhak girl (now woman) falls short on the oomph meter, as compared to Vidya Balan in Ishqiya. Huma Qureshi is interesting.

Forget laughter, the frequent use of in-house jokes and one-liners that are staples with actors like Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jafferi, who have built their personalities around comic repartee, fall flat in the film because they are so amateurish.

On the flip side, the animation effort itself is immature and several notches below those of Hollywood films. Yet the dub effort by the Bollywood superstars uplifts this epic, making it enjoyable.

Like all films that talk of reforming society, Anil Sharma’s Singh Saab the Great has its heart in the correct place. Sunny Deol’s earnestness shines, throughout the duration of this melodrama. But these guys have to choose better plots to make a point. We’ve seen a honest collector single-handedly trying to tackle corruption a zillion times. And the treatment; ouch, it hurts more than the hero’s blows.

What new can a filmmaker do with William Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo and Juliet? The answer is, if you are Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is technically sound and artistically astute as far as art and craft go, you just become impudent, set the story in Gujarat, sign Bollywood’s currently best actress Deepika Padukone (Leela), team her up with `I’ve-got-fire-in-my-loins’ actor Ranveer Singh (Ram) and then let them loose on one another