The sardonic art of Ethan and Joel Coen, so scornful of their own surly and defeated characters, never has had much room for emotional depth…Inside Llewyn Davis is their saddest and most poetic story ever. The recognizable narrative style—wide sweeping frames with just one crucial thing or person moving somewhere in the frame, moving to overcharged close-ups—is complemented by the mood-inducing cinematography of Bruno Delbonnel.

When I am despirited by the crassly sexist ethos that governs Hindi films today, Ishqiya is one of the films I like to think of. Here too, like the first, Chaubey keeps his light, humorous touch intact without failing to smuggle in the class and gender politics crucial to the story.

Dhulia’s new film Bullet Raja strays far from the work he has built so far. It is a wishy-washy mix of two brazen hinterland heroes’ misadventures, a revenge drama, and a soap-opera style, hackneyed depiction of Uttar Pradesh politics. Dhulia’s dialogues are insipid, and the humour, perhaps intended to be madcap, borders on the imbecile. The lead characters, Raja (Saif Ali Khan) and Rudra (Jimmy Shergill) are mere vehicles to keep a muddled narrative afloat. They have no signature quirk, as pulp heroes would demand.

Goliyon ki Rasleela Ram-Leela (the new title is perhaps the worst thing about the film) is an all out celebration of cinematic excess. Forget the tragedy, the Kutch landscape, its costumes, colours, expanses and details, are stuff of visual magic.

…is neither Amar Chitra Katha nor Marvel. The Indian superhero stays in an artless, old-fashioned limbo.

Don’t miss this acutely original, heartbreaking film.

Quite evidently, it is a film made on the premise that the hacker has novelty in Bollywood. It may be, for the technologically-challenged or the IQ-challenged. Without any authentic ring to it, and with artless performances and a predictable story, the last thing I could do, while sitting through its more than 2 hours of running time, was suspend disbelief.

Shahid is an admirable project, but as a biopic, it is far short of a masterpiece.

This is a simplified and 21st century version of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, wrapped in a very attractive pop sensibility.

While being an immensely enjoyable and competent film, the universality of The Lunchbox tends to exclude its setting’s all-important provinciality.