What we are left with is our hero kicking up a lot of sound and fury, and sand, of course, with the promise of much more of the same to come. Not actively awful, but not a barrel of silly fun either.

The only element worth looking at in this film, apart from the dependable Kamat, is the rock-solid Rajkummar Rao. If he was given a better co-star than the strictly one-note Shruti Haasan, this might have turned out to be a better film.

Sushant Singh Rajput has moments and he makes the most of it, but suavity is not one of his strengths. Kriti Sanon is a surprise, having made clear strides since we saw her last. And one of our best actors, Rajkummar Rao, is hidden under layers of latex.

Konkona Sensharma’s assured directorial debut, unpacks a complex sentiment with feeling, and gives us a layered film with memorable characters about the games people play, and how, sometimes, that can have terrible consequences.

Sachin Tendulkar biopic has moments that you have not seen before, especially with his parents and elder brother, his wife and children and his coach.

As usual, it’s the marvelous Irrfan who keeps us watching. His is a fine, well-judged performance, which rises above the lines. At one point, we see him cracking up while watching his favourite florid TV serial : in that moment, ‘Hindi Medium’ is glorious, because the actor catches what he’s meant to do, meant to be, gloriously..

I enjoyed the first half. Suri knows how to create drama, and sweeps us up in places, enough for us to ignore the constructed-ness of the characters and the plot. In the second, which is doused in melodrama and swelling `gaana’, I was left with that looming question: is half better than none?

Ayushmann Khurrana, as the steadfast Bubla, fares a little better than Parineeti Chopra because he is given more to play with…

Bachchan shows signs of the towering actor he can be, but is captive to the way his Sarkar has been conceptualized and played: he declaims rather than speaks. And there are moments where you can see flashes of the director RGV used to be, when he pulled off films full of creative leaps, and crazy flourishes.
Can RGV be restored to factory settings? I hope so.

I enjoyed the first part enormously. The second one comes to life only intermittently. Leaving the theatre, you can’t help wishing that Kattapa had killed the fellow earlier, for us to get a tighter, more economical and perhaps sharper conclusion.