After Balraj Sahni in Garm Hava and Kaifi Azmi in Naseem, it’s the turn of Rishi Kapoor as the paterfamilias of a Muslim family to bring out the dilemmas of the community in divisive times

Even as the film makes you laugh uproariously, it gives some bittersweet insights into life in its own whimsical way.

Last year we had Advait Chandan’s Secret Superstar, on a similar theme of trying to make it big in the world of music. Despite its share of naïveté and narrative contrivances it was able to forge a connect with the audience with its emotional authenticity and freshness. Fanney Khan, unfortunately, leaves one cold.

The actor is the mainstay of an understated rather than rousing sports film…

Sanju started off on a dissonant note for me, it took a long while to settle down in its world of excesses. The caricaturish feel, the slapstick tone, the garish colours, the kitschy backdrops and in the midst of it, manipulative scenes like the one juxtaposing Dutt’s innocent kids next to the rabble-rousing reactions against him on television news and a shrill Sonam Kapoor yelling aloud for a missing mangalsutra.

As The Parr family returns to screen after 14 years, it’s the youngest member, the infant Jack Jack, who leaves the audience squealing in delight

Let me make an honest confession. I had high expectations from Race 3. Definitely not regarding logic and plausibility; I was looking forward to some plain, unadulterated, old-fashioned cheese on screen to top off the coffee, mini samosas and cream donut on my snacks tray. Sadly, I must report that all I got in this family saga of globalised NRI goons is some stale taste of sheer inanity and randomness.

Motwane’s craft is indisputable. The way he sees and presents dark, rainy shadowy Mumbai hit by water woes; the way he keeps alternating between the real and fantastical. Then there’s a mind-bending bike chase across the city and its local trains. Motwane’s superhero is a vulnerable common man. He isn’t endowed with any superhuman powers, gets easily battered and brusied, could well do with the help of a karate champ and instructor next door. He isn’t invincible, his mask could well fall easily.

The familiar buddy formula plays it out frothy and fluffy in ‘Veere di Wedding’

Based on a Gujarati play of the same name, Umesh Shukla’s film is unable to leave its inherent theatricality behind. It gets unchanging in terms of the give and take between the duo and leaves the viewers static too. It stirs nothing within, leaving you unmoved. All the whimsy you would have hoped for remains confined to the tagline of the film — Baap Cool, Beta Old School.