Undoubtedly, it is a mish-mash of ideologies, of film-making aesthetics. I cannot shake off the big question mark – why? Why would a perfectly sane director go about doing this? You can’t even call this experimentation because individually every thing that the film does has been done before. Maybe, true to the film’s theme – it was not a film, it was a business deal.

…is more or less what you expect, more of the same with a slightly better hand at direction. Storywise though if you enjoyed the first installment, you would like this one too. If you were disappointed /upset with that one, it will carry forward to this one. It is not just the fact that it is misogynist for I would have a problem with a man-hating movie too. There is no further insight or deeper look at the relationships.

It is not really a part 2, in that sense, it is a remake.

Jazbaa is superficial. The mother aches for her daughter, but it is the glycerin in those pretty wide eyes that tells you so. All characters are grey which is pretty rare in Hindi films but they don’t come together to make the film interesting. The motivations are unclear which builds an air of mystery but the conclusion so convoluted that the only reaction can be a resounding facepalm.

I am a little surprised that the sleaze wasn’t as bad as I had expected and it was refreshing to see a Bhandarkar film without a stereotypical, gay fashion designer. Yet, it is always a mark against a film when you start talking about the things the film could’ve done wrong, but didn’t.

No romance, zilch comedy in this rom-com. Should they stop trying so hard to remake movies and try their hand at some novel story-telling if not original stories?

The same movie still gets made. New faces, but no value addition to the film, no new stories. So used to expecting the same thing over and over again have we gotten, that we have even stopped getting bored watching them. You shrug, “what else did you expect” and move on.

I really don’t know what to say. Why anyone thinks any of this is even remotely funny, I don’t understand. Even the one-liners are WhatsApp forwards. A couple rare lines bring a smile. Sure, there were a few laughters in the theater. But, if I had to guess it would be more because they were laughing at the film rather than with it.

Even if you let go of sanity of the bigger picture, the little things are a bother too. Facts are repeated to help you make the connect. The filmmakers must be confident that the audience is not going to pay attention because the fact was mentioned 5 minutes ago. All it does is add minutes to the film that the film doesn’t need.

But hey, if you don’t watch the film, the extra minutes won’t bother you.

Manjhi is one of those films that are depressing and yet are meant to give hope. Like Dashrath say, if he can try to break a mountain, then why can’t you take a crack at that mountainous problem in your life?

In the form of story, we have a sour parent-child relationship. A full of himself dad and a thankless son make the perfect combination. But, they are too loud and they bicker – All. The. Time. The characters are pretty much insufferable. Not to mention, the movie tries way too hard to be funny and wraps it up with a sermon on importance of family. Doesn’t work one bit.