Zed Plus turns out to be a mildly engaging but overall patchy attempt at political satire from the man who gave us the memorable Doordarshan serial Chanakya. Chandra Prakash Dwivedi still has the touch, but is not consistent, and a lot of the story-telling gets drowned in obviousness.

The opening credits are animated, and Ungli would have been better off if all of it had been an animation film, aimed primarily at children. As live action for grown-ups, it is the most amateurish piece of work I’ve seen in a while, all fingers and thumbs.

A series of been-here, seen-this moments and a wasted opportunity…

This has steadily and sadly become a Yashraj trademark, the studio that has given Hindi cinema so many of its beloved landmarks, this cannibalizing bits and pieces of its own films without being able to give us a story we can believe in. It’s one thing to have an element or two which is exaggerated, it’s completely another to get through a full film with such few credible moments.

It feels like a choppy costume drama marred by false notes and static ‘acting’…Varma deserves a deeper, more layered film.

Three dirty old men `leching’ at a pretty young thing is what ‘The Shaukeens’ sets out to show. If it had stuck to its guns, made its threesome more interesting, and the girl less ditsy, this remake of Basu Chatterjee’s ‘Shaukeen’ (1982), would have done its job.

There are patches which feel well –observed, especially when they are based in Mumbai’s swish spots—pretty people talking about London flats, and well-attired investment bankers in their offices with a view. And, towards the end, when the reason for the bad blood between the brothers becomes apparent, the outlines of a plot become discernible, and you feel something there.

It is supremely ironical that a film making fun of ‘saas-bahu’ serials (yes, it tries) shoves exactly those sentiments down our throat. And even more so when you call your leading lady Bharati. We can do without this creaky idea of Mrs India, thank you.

It turns out to be a cross between an `Oceans 11/12’ and ‘Flashdance’ and a whole bunch of movies that topline Mera Bharat Mahan sentiments….a long showreel of what Shah Rukh Khan the superstar can do…

Rhea Chakraborty tries for perkiness but comes as a weak link, Anupam Kher is over the top…This could have been a modern day fable, but ‘Sonali Cable’ is not that film.