The film is as real as a constructed-for-the-camera document can be, with its portrayal of the professional rivalries between the investigating teams, and insatiable media persons.

The only thing which saves it is that it wears its silliness proudly on its hero’s `pug’ ( turban), said hero smartly reworking his good-hearted simpleton who loves his mother and respects his father, and rescues his girl.

‘Timeout’ raises a subject that is usually not tackled with any seriousness in our movies, places it at the heart of the story. For that alone it deserves props.

A hurried after-thought, which talks of how these girls are really, truly ‘proud achievers’, comes right in the end. And it’s just that, an after-thought. The rest of it exploits—smugly, tackily, uncomfortably explicitly—young women being exploited.

The only reason not to run out of the theatre, screaming, is that Sharma displays a surprising flair for underplaying.

The movie is so far from being the zippy crime caper it presumably set out to be that it leaves you stranded, wondering just what is going on.

Kangana and Imran spend the film engaged in the most inane of doings…Imran Khan is pleasant and earnest, Kangana Ranaut has knocked it out of the park a couple of times while playing feisty, and is capable of mining real emotions even in the fakest of films.

The end of Sooraj Pancholi, Athiya Shetty film brings relief, with Sallu Bhai working the end credits, exuding more star power in two minutes than we’ve seen in two hours. This ‘Hero’ is a zero.

There really is no reason why the sequel, despite the collective clunkiness of John and Shruti, shouldn’t have worked in exactly the same way. But the jagged narrative and heavy-handed manner of delivering dialogue, much more risible and tasteless than the original, ruins it. We’ve moved on ; the film, and its treatment, hasn’t.

Good idea, faulty execution. Using water as a trade commodity is a powerful concept, especially given that there is so much drought and so little accessible clean drinking water in so many parts of India.