Coming as it does on the heels of “Pink” last week, “Parched” seems a little too contrived to be a memorable tale of women empowerment.

“Pink” is largely a triumph – a Bollywood film that talks about a burning topic and finds an entertaining way to do it. If only they had known where to stop the gimmickry and take it down a notch, it would have been a landmark film.

Under the flimsy cover of a sports film, “Freaky Ali” is just another Bollywood ‘good guy versus bad guy’ movie. Every character is a caricature and every plot point already seen in a thousand other films. This one doesn’t quite “putt” it.

“Baar Baar Dekho” doesn’t want to ask the tough questions about family, equality, marriage, and whether they trump your other passions as the ultimate aim in life. Once you accept the film’s contention that life is all about your relationships, it passes the Bollywood romance test with flying colours.

All three stories have their strong points, but there are times when Oberoi cannot resist the temptation to spell everything out. That takes some of the edge off from what is otherwise a rare and honest portrait of the lives of urban dwellers.

Murugadoss’ intent is commendable but his execution is flimsy, to say the least. Like a rash driver in the film who crashes his car into a pile of bricks, the film-maker seems unsure which way to steer, mashing together many half-baked sub-plots before the movie limps to its unconvincing climax.

D’Souza borrows liberally from the X-Men and Superman franchises, and puts in enough tropes to give his superhero enough of an Indian soul, making sure the next film in this franchise becomes a reality.

India-Pakistan unity and other tropes aside, “Happy Bhag Jayegi” is a mildly funny comedy that doesn’t try too hard to push the boundaries, but does enough to entertain you.

The story of KM Nanavati is shrouded in mystery even after all these years, and it is difficult to point right from wrong. But predictably, Bollywood would prefer painting its heroes white or black rather than taking the effort to look at the shades of grey that colour us all. That is the biggest failing of “Rustom”.

Even though Hrithik Roshan appears in almost every frame and brings his natural screen presence to the film, he is a shadow of his normal self, bogged down by a weak script, terrible production values and a lack of vision from the man who once made some of Bollywood’s grandest movies.