…a bona-fide film, referencing the original pop-culture behemoth, and renewing it, with some energy and vim.

You end up feeling for Titli. You want him to break free, and fly away. He shines, and despite its darkness, so does the film. It is harrowing but imperative viewing.

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.

‘Masaan’ is imbued with a sense of place and time, poetry and lyricism, and it captures the essence of Banaras, constant-yet-changeable, with felicity and feeling. It also announces the arrival of new talents in its writer and director: Grover’s story is eminently worth telling, and Ghaywan tells it beautifully.

SS Rajamouli’s film holds out many promises: of adventure and romance, love and betrayal, valour and weakness. And delivers magnificently on each of them.

‘Killa’ is about a boy. Have you been one? Have you attempted to make sense of a world that makes very little sense, after your father passes away, leaving your mother alone? How do you go? Whose shoes do you fill? Whose footsteps do you follow? Avinash Arun’s National-award winning directorial debut is about that boy in this movie, but it could just as well be any of us, because those are questions we all grapple with when it comes to growing past, growing up.

It is a life lesson, for eleven year-olds-going –on-twelve. And for the rest of us, at whatever age we may be at.

…a film that is enjoyable despite its occasional slides into message-y territory…Kangana Ranaut plays Tanu beautifully mixing up the familiar with the new.

The narrative of this Gurvinder Singh film unfolds unhurriedly and still you do not stir from your seats. You watch with a growing sense of dread, praying for safety of innocents in the frame, both two and four-legged.

Kalki pulls it off, and makes us believe in her Laila…This is a film to be celebrated. I am raising a Margarita, as a toast. Now where’s that straw?