An ineffective remake of a 1983 box office hit mislabelled as a classic, Hero is yet another instance of the resilience of the ancient Indian tradition of nepotism.

The plodding pace, choppy editing and amateurish exposition are relieved by slick action sequences, suitably dressed-up foreign locations (including Beirut) and convincing production design. Every effort has been made to make sure that this delusion of vengeance looks as close to the real thing as possible, right down to the actors who play Headley and Hafiz Saeed. This is art imitating a fantasy about life, made with the hope that life will eventually catch up with art.

While the understated and naturalistic acting is a relief from the usual ostentation, Gour Hari Dastaan is sluggishly paced, and fails to convey the monumentality of the protagonist’s mission. More thought has been expended on Rajiv’s asides on the commercialisation of the media and the aforementioned castrating feminists than on injecting narrative momentum into Das’s journey. In any case, his battle is half-won when he gains access to top officials. There is little left thereafter for Das – or the movie – to prove.

If the Hindi remake, also called Drishyam, proves anything, it is that Joseph’s movie, which borrows its central idea from the Japanese thriller The Devotion of Suspect X, is a hard act to follow. The Hindi Drishyam, directed by Nishikant Kamat, works just fine so long as it reproduces its original twisty quality, but it nevertheless suffers from miscasting and unnecessary scripting tweaks.

The proceedings are held together by McKellen’s compelling performance and his deft switches between a spry 70-something and a precarious 93-year-old who looks back on his fame with amusement and regret. In one sequence, Holmes watches a film adaptation of the story that he is attempting to rewrite and concludes that the dramatisation is overdone.

The understated and compelling ‘Masaan’ finds life and hope in the city of corpses.
Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover, this first-time feature has memorable performances and a sensitively observed account of decay and redemption.

Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man is, by the very nature of its subject, a smaller and consequently far more enjoyable enterprise. The 118-minute movie retains a cheerful and light comic-book tone throughout, with its highlight being a battle for supremacy waged on a Thomas toy engine set between two miniscule men in insect-themed suits.

‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ has two stars, neither of whom is called Salman or Kareena…
The knee-high Harshaali Malhotra and the redoubtable Nawazuddin Siddiqui steal the show in Kabir Khan’s seriocomic cross-border drama.

The yellow-coloured minions are among the most critic-proof animated characters ever created. Considered opinion and critical distance are useless defenses against the sight of even a single one of the mites with its wide eyes and goofy grin bobbing across the screen…It’s sometimes aimless, often hilarious and always silly, everything you would expect the minions to be.

…is a triumph of size, scale and spectacle. SS Rajamouli’s eye-popping period spectacle raises the bar for the Indian action movie by several notches. Every frame pulsates with the passion of a filmmaker openly staking his claim as the most adventurous soul travelling through mainstream cinema at the moment.