‘Darr @ the Mall’ did give me a couple of jumpy moments. But at no point did I feel like diving below, or closing my eyes. After a while, you give up. Because there is nothing to be feared from this predictable tale, other than dullness.

I wanted more because it comes from a director who knows, or at least has known how to transfuse exuberance in love, and joy in sheer movement. ‘Highway’ is pretty but stagey.

‘Gunday’ is as generic as its name suggests: even that old phrase ‘luchchhe- lafangey’ had more character. In the name of plot, we get a mash-up of many popular blockbusters, several of them belonging to Yashraj, the producers of this one. In the name of acting, we get pumped up beefcake and one number plumped-lip eye candy. There are a few solid supporting acts, and they are the ones that keep you watching, but they get buried in the sludge. What you get is what you’ve been getting. Over and over again.

Features about messages can be tricky, because the latter can overwhelm the story if the balance is not right. The director has made strong message films before ( ‘I Am Kalam’) with much more clarity and success. This one tries to do the same but fails : the plot is weak and the acting amateurish.

Batty girl meets sweet fellow. Is it cute? Yes, that first ‘mulaqaat’ is. And then? Then ‘Hasee Toh Phasee’ wanders about figuring out whether it wants to be a contemporary rom-com, or a Gujarati-flavoured soap, or a 60s melodrama, or all of the above. This confusion confounds the film, fronted by the most talented female lead working in Bollywood right now, and makes her much less fun than she can be. That holds true for the film, too.

It is ostensibly made to alert viewers to an anesthesia glitch which propels patients into a state of awareness where they can feel pain and can hear everything, but are unable to say it. The only reason to watch this one was to see what Shekhar Suman would do in his directorial debut.

The trouble begins with it not being able to find the right rhythm. The first half, where nothing happens over and over again, is a drag. Once you’ve set the scene, and introduced us to the characters, we need more. It’s only post interval that the film gathers some momentum, and gives us a bit of drama, and reason to see it through.

`Jai Ho’ could have been a pure and simple `Dabangg 3’. It’s not. It’s not even a no-holds-barred South remake either. Jai’s ‘aam aadmi’ catches traction only a moment. In the rest, he goes back to snarling and kicking and scowling.

Om Dar-Ba-Dar is a classic protest film because it rebels against everything, with lines which perhaps sound wiser than they are, especially when you hear them again…Welcome to the trippiest film made in Indian cinema.

This is a film that unsettled me, and moved me. This is also a film I will savour for a long time. This is a film that unsettled me, and moved me. This is also a film I will savour for a long time.