On paper, Vodka Diaries, starring Kay Kay Menon, Raima Sen, Mandira Bedi, Sharib Hashmi, may have sounded like an engaging whodunit. But what we see is clearly not.

Akhsat Verma’s directorial debut is very much of the it-happened-one-night format, where all kinds of people are on the move, and stuff happens. Saif Ali Khan makes the most of his part, even though you wish it had a little more heft.

Pitch Perfect 3, starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, D J Khaled and John Lithgow among others, is basically a bland, very-occasionally-bubbling-to-the-surface, not-enough-laughs comedy.

Ridley Scott is a little distant in the way he observes his characters and their dilemmas. The young boy is in mortal danger all through, but your heart is not as much in your mouth as it should be.

Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer is an enjoyable fare…

The situations are so tired and contrived there’s nothing that even such capable hands as Richa Chaddha and Pankaj Tripathi can do, to retain our interest.

Firangi review: The trouble with this mildly engaging film, with a solid supporting cast, is that it is far too long. Kapil Sharma is serviceable as a young Punjabi munda, making eyes at a blushing Sargi (Ishita Dutta).

The child actors are excellent, as they always are in Madhab’s films. It is the older lot whose performance is effortful, especially the calling-attention-to-itself-part from Mishra, who is capable of much more subtlety. Shorey’s loan-recovery shark, in his bright printed shirt, and persuasive tongue, fares better. You also wish the film was tighter: it feels like a stretch even at 100 minutes.

Nice to see man and woman working, and dealing with stuff that happens post-marriage: all the messy, irritating stuff that has not been part of the happily-ever-after Bollywood landscape. Kalki Koechlin leaves a mark as a harried professional.

One Jia is quiet and broody, the other is bright and chirpy. One chokes and splutters, the other smokes and drinks. One wears six inch stilletoes and flouncy chiffons, the other short shorts and cool singlets. On a rugged road trip.