There’s a reason the film feels legit and that’s down to the fact that real rap artistes worked on this film. The treatment and the visual finesse of the film are at par with anything you’ve seen from Hollywood or anywhere around the world. The rap battles shown in the film are riveting and an inspired piece of writing. The problem with the film though is it’s length, which stretches to two-and-a-half hours, but the emotional deftness and clap-worth dialogues add the right amount of gusto and keep you totally engaged. This is a film that deserves an encore. And in true rap style, let’s just say… yeh Gully Boy hard hai bhai!

Writer-director Shelly Chopra Dhar and co-writer Gazal Dhaliwal (who previously wrote Irrfan’s ‘Qarib Qarib Singlle’) manage to spark off some pretty interesting ideas of love. Yes, their film deals with sexuality and seeking acceptance from the older and more-conservative family members, but at the core, ‘ELKDTAL’ talks about love being a universal feeling, one that cannot be shackled by societal norms and diktats. The writing isn’t all top-grade, but this film has its heart in the right place and sometimes that’s all that really matters.

Writer and producer Sanjay Raut doesn’t distort facts from Bal Thackeray’s story. The riled up speeches, the unapologetic candour and the larger-than-life persona is presented without a veil. While the honesty is commendable, it comes across that the lead character’s political motivations lack clarity. Perhaps a more seasoned writer could have fleshed out Thackeray’s character and eccentricities a lot better. But its Nawaz’s nonchalant performance that overshadows the flaws and leaves a lasting impact.

An entertaining but flawed look at the mafia that promotes cheating during college exams.

Director Rob Marshall is the authority on musicals, he’s directed movies like Chicago, Nine and Into The Woods. So he’s perfectly at home with the song, dance and elaborately detailed choreography of Mary Poppins Returns. The film is a homage to Julie Andrews’ original and this 2018 version, with a bizarrely satisfying and unabashedly pastiche approach, is a pure delight for children and adults alike.

…the screenplay is too disjointed. It takes you on a flight of fancy for the sheer indulgence of it. It’s like an arrow shot high in the sky. You admire its trajectory but it’s not going to stay afloat forever. To cut it short, you feel like you’re watching two different films as the first half and the second half are vastly dissimilar to each other.

At one point, Zero dazzles with moments of colour and vibrancy, but then it also follows up with dull scenes that fail to launch the drama in the zone that it’s supposed to be in. Some of the comedy moments between SRK and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub stand out, so does the song Mere Naam Tu with SRK dancing in a storm of colours. While the film has a wealth of references to Bollywood and its stars, these details don’t compensate for a story that starts with a beautiful plot, but takes off on a bizarre ride. At first go, the film makes you light and easy, which is good, but the problem is that it doesn’t really take you on that flight of entertainment, which you set out for.

For a love story, there are no romantic tracks that really hold your attention. Apart from the song Namo Namo, Amit Trivedi’s music doesn’t create the required mood for a love saga like Kedarnath. Director Abhishek Kapoor’s attempt to make a film set against the backdrop of a natural calamity of this proportion is ambitious and sincere.

The problem with Thugs Of Hindostan is that it’s too long by modern standards. What could have been a crisp adventure drags on and on. We all like swashbucklers and despite the Pirates Of The Caribbean overtones, it could yet have been an engrossing film if it was edited properly.

Apart from the stray funny moments and consistently good visuals (thanks to decent CGI efforts), ‘TOH’ doesn’t really have the punch or the thrill that is required to pull off a film of this scale. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, the film feels a little too long and that’s down to the problematic editing. The grand canvas of the film does hold sway in terms of the visual experience, but at the end, this one is all show and no substance. With the mammoth expectations attached to this movie, the end experience just leaves you all at sea.