Both Naseeruddin and Kalki Koechlin are good fits for their parts in a film which segues easily between English, Hindi and a smattering of Malayalam.

I did tear up a couple of times, but only for Sarbjit. Randeep Hooda is mostly shown inside his dark, fetid cell, his hair filthy, his hands gnarled. He nails the look and the accent, never letting either overpower him, and is the only reason to sit through this sagging saga.

This could have been a great cautionary tale about a great sport at a time when it was just becoming the arena it has grown into—full of big money and glamour, bigger endorsements and never-ending temptations : it is, instead, an inept ‘tamasha’, not very different from the stuff Bollywood churns out, the cricket just the superstructure for tired song-and-dance and melodrama, in living rooms and court-rooms. Nope, this ‘Azhar’ doesn’t hit it out of the stadium.

There are a few moments between father and son which feel as if something real is going on – resentment and anger have a way of boiling up to the surface in strange ways between parents and children. But the rest of it is clunky and contrived, and the sudden switch between moods—from dad being foe to friend—feels too hurried.

Right now, Sunny Leone is gorgeous to look at, but we know that already, and struggling to emote, which has been her bugbear in her last few outings as well.

Right now, Sunny Leone is gorgeous to look at, but we know that already, and struggling to emote, which has been her bugbear in her last few outings as well.

…most of it is funny, even if the film suffers from occasional flatness. Reddy’s is an original voice, and the 26 year old is a welcome addition to the growing number of young filmmakers in India creating cinema which has provenance, which has something to say. Thithi has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada.

This enterprise, bloated by needless saccharine and background music, has its moments but stays, overall, strictly serviceable.

The only thing that makes Mother’s Day stand out for me is the presence of a salwar-kameez and sari-clad Indian woman, who plays Mandvi’s lively mum. She’s also written very broadly, but at least she’s there, right in the midst of a flick with so many A-list white gals.
Yay for ‘desis’ in Amrika.

I enjoyed the first half, and yawned through the much-too-long-drawn second.