The story-telling in the first half is so seamless that you overlook the things that had been a problem the first time around.

This could have been a slap-up rom com. But the trouble with this good-looking movie is that it is patchily written and performed, and often feels contrived.

This film rises beautifully above its faults. It does not allow simplicity to descend into simple-mindedness, as it transmits real emotions, and gives space to a stand-out performer.

If the Bhatts had given Hooda more able leading ladies to riff off, ‘Murder 3’ might have been something to look at. What we get instead is two of the most impact-less female lead parts I’ve seen in a while, packaged in an overlong series of ill-written, ill-acted sequences.

The plot that takes two interminable hours to unfold features aimless ‘bhais’ doing ‘filmi bhaigiri’ (‘tu mera right hand kaise banega, ja pehle usko udaa kar aa’), smarmy would-be employers preying upon innocent young girls, and a lead pair who think eating ‘anda bhurji’ in rundown Irani cafes is the height of excitement.

This film had the potential, but it needed both sharper direction and dancing, to maximize it.

Because Hindi cinema doesn’t usually do well with intelligent hide-and-seek games, I didn’t have too much hopes from ‘Special 26’, but the film surprised me. Its flaws are minor; on the “whole, ‘Special 26’ is a gripping, well-made heist film.

This is a fill it-shut it-forget it film, whose big budget slickness never overpowers it, and which holds you while it lasts.

I liked some of ‘Listen Amaya’, I really wanted to like it more.

‘David’ speaks of a new kind of Bollywood which doesn’t want to be slavish to stars or formulae. But it also speaks of a filmmaking which isn’t quite as accomplished as it would like to be, or should be. It points to the presence of craft, sure, but craft which should be paying much more attention to the crucial elements of centrality and coherence. ‘David’ coasts on a few startlingly sharp scenes and zippy musical interludes, but doesn’t add up to the sum of its zanier parts.