It’s a shame then that despite the uniformly impressive performances, and Suri’s nifty directing skills, the film is only moderately fulfilling. If you’re still wondering, the real villain here is the lousy script.

… essentially a tasteless, overblown affair that plods on for 159 brain-numbing minutes. I’m going with half out of five, yes just half out of five, for Sajid Khan’s ‘Humshakals’. I’ve never had one, but I imagine a ruptured appendix would hurt less.

If you’re having trouble sleeping lately, this is just the cure you needed!

In the end it’s neither thrilling nor stirring. Just a wasted opportunity.

Akshay Kumar livens up the proceedings now and then, but a lot of it is just thookpatti in this Thuppaki remake.

That this film is still not as awful as most typical Akshay Kumar starrers, despite several such harebrained sequences, is to the credit of director AR Murgadoss, who doesn’t let something as insignificant as common sense come in the way of telling a convenient story. In Holiday, Murgadoss remakes his own Tamil hit Thuppaki and he doesn’t tinker with the blueprint at all.

Where ‘Citylights’ succeeds is in telling the story of ordinary people living below the poverty line people we seldom cast a second glance at people who sometimes have to resort to desperate measures just so they can keep their children alive. It’s a good film, but not without its flaws.

When the lights come back on in the end, it’s unlikely that much will stay with you, apart from Jolie’s scorching presence. She deserved better, and so did we.

Whatever one makes of it, one must give both Rajinikanth and Soundarya props for effort. If the film doesn’t work, it’s not for lack of trying. I’m going with two out of five for Kochadaiiyaan. This one’s strictly for fans.

Culminating in a Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge-inspired climax, the film’s conflict is quickly resolved, but not before someone conveniently rips the shirt off Tiger’s back for a glimpse of his rock-hard abs. Subtlety is not this film’s strength. Newcomer Kriti Sanon looks lovely and makes an impression despite her harebrained role. We’ll just have to see both these kids in better films to give them a fair chance.

Pfister, best known as Christopher Nolan’s director of photography, may be drawn to a similar kind of thinking-man’s blockbuster, but ‘Transcendence’, unlike Inception or The Dark Knight Rises, remains simplistic and predictable. The film looks good, but it’s never as smart as it should be.