Sippy has a feel for staging scenes, and some are laugh-out-loud. The idea that true love can be found through such a random route is also nice, and lends the film a pleasing slightness. But the nautanki in this film is an on-off thing. I wish there was much more of it.

Why remake a classic if you can’t improve upon it? Truly bad-door.

I expected Himmatwala to be predictable, not only because I have faint memories of the older film, but because it follows such a template. I also expected it to be annoying, and it doesn’t disappoint on both scores. But I didn’t think it would be so dull.

Sona Spa has gone straight to the top of my so-ghastly-they-are-terrific films of the year.

With its somber palette and plot-with-potential, Aatma could have been a true scare-fest. But it winds down to being well begun, half done.

Priyadarshan has been growing so steadily unwatchable these days that you fear the worst when you step into Rangrezz, a remake of the Tamil hit Naadodigal. As the film unspools, each of those fears come true: this is rock-bottom.

The only one who lifts the film and makes it worth our while is Shukla, who has got himself a role worthy of his talent after a long time.

On the upside, the Punjabbi-ness is not exaggerated. No giddhas-bhangras. No bijis-baujis. And no rock-garden-Chandigarh or Sukhna-lake-Chandigarh.

Good idea, lousy execution. This is a mess of a movie, which ticks off its horror film checklist, one after the other: a church with a steeple, shadowy priests, spirits who wear splashy red gowns and kiss with a forked tongue, mysterious escort girls, ‘mental’ patients scribbling on walls, guilty killers who hang themselves and deadly islands.

The film has been written zippily by people who know this world. It looks and feels authentic, minus exaggeration. And the actors look as if they belong.