Sonchiriya is a rare bird, the metaphorical redemption that everyone is seeking. Apni apni Sonchiriya, apni apni mukti. It’s ultimately a journey towards finding your own bird of salvation.

A rom-com about live-in relationship ultimately champions the conventional…

There is one genuinely giggly moment in Total Dhamaal. It involves some cars, a train, a railway tunnel and lots of silliness. But such unfettered frivolity is barely there in the over two hour long slog of a film.

Ranveer Singh leads from the front in an empathetic, feel good tale about turning your imperfect reality into a long-cherished and impossible fantasy

Perhaps the overtly righteous sense of cause — no doubt significant and much needed — becomes too much of a burden and gets the better of the filmmaking itself. ELKDTAL might be bringing a “new story” to Bollywood but plays out too flat, lightweight and facile to be of any consequence. Tell us another love story, please.

A flat retelling of the legend of Jhansi Ki Rani that aims at stoking nationalism but reduces the story to mere platitudes

Marathi manoos, Babri Masjid demolition and Hindutvavaad, expectedly, don’t just find a thumping approval but are glorified in the latest Bollywood biopic

The moral position of the film as well as the central protagonist feels unconvincing in its carefully cultivated ambiguity. Emraan Hashmi’s Rocky is neither a hero nor a villain but a player. Fine! But blaming the system for an individual’s duplicitous ways and then finding a convenient awakening of conscience don’t manage to hold sway. Complex problems need complex cinema. Why Cheat India prefers to stay on the surface than dig deeper.

The film portrays Dr. Manmohan Singh as a nice though weak man but goes hammer and tongs at the Gandhi family in a tacky fashion

The most interesting is the portrayal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Rajit Kapoor) as a benevolent, caring and concerned patriarch who patronisingly pats Vihaan for being achcha beta (good son). He is as much concerned about his ill mom as he is about Bharat Mata, stays up late till the operation meets a successful end and then celebrates with the team. Surprise surprise he also seems to listen, talk, discuss and communicate and not just through Mann Ki Baat.