The story tries to accommodate a whole host of issues, fake babas to real crimes, and fails. The Neelananda track is overplayed while the music is underdone. Given its realistic detailing, this could have been a livewire of wry wit – but it ends up a feather-duster of fuzzy philosophy instead. Caught between wise-cracking veterans and wise-sounding vachans, large sequences look low on energy and stereotypes, from lusty swami to kajal-eyed imam, stretch to yawning point.

Dulal’s wry take – “Dialogues acche the. Film theek thi” – works here too. This keeda could’ve had a much sharper bite.

The result’s like a minty chewing gum that’s been stretched too long. Shedding 30 minutes and some jaded gags would make Humshakals consistent fun – now, you laugh but also frequently go, ho-hum.

The result is like a soggy Delhi chaat where potentially spicy ingredients make a sorry mess. As F*ugly would phrase it, quite a f*waste.

The overburdened story unravels under a palpable nervousness to please all. Therefore, too frequent songs, too many gaalis from Kilol, too many subplots (from gamlas to gay sex) and too many poor jokes spoil the show.

Overall, the direction of O Teri simply loses the satirical plot, leaving you sighing, jaane bhi do yaaron.

Minus 30 minutes, YPD 2 could have been much funnier – and much shorter.But despite two pretty heroines, three Deols and an assortment of nutty buddies, YPD 2 frequently stumbles into blunder-land.

First, the good news – Rush has an interesting plot and great detailing, the latter unusual in Bollywood. Such detailing – irregularly placed photos in Samar (Hashmi) and girlfriend Ahana’s (Ghatge) home, favourite coffee mugs from which media tycoon-types sip their whisky, a T-shirt cheekily promising ‘Endless Vacation’ landing a billionaire in jail – add heft to this tale.

On the upside, Aalaap makes an effort to depict people caught in troubled times. Sometimes – in a shot showing Yadav weeping without words, the blue walls of his humble home bathed in golden gloomy light, in an exchange between Bharti and Anna, in depicting a callous, clueless regime – it does that well. A lot of the time, it falters. But its sincerity helps as does its music. Debutante rock group Agnee’s composed more than a passable score, particularly the number ‘Paaparapa’ which hums away in your mind well after you’ve left the hall. Good job, Agnee – welcome to Bollywood. For the others, there’s still some way out of the woods.

Fatso’s a whimsical film with a rhythm somewhere between jazz and an old Bollywood song. you imagine Fatso’s second half will rev up.Alas. Here’s where Fatso flops down heavily. Any sense of magic, of life rescued from death, love saved from vanishing, even the funny ironies of a slim guy stuck in a fat form, is totally missing. The ‘friends group’ is unconvincingThe film seems overwhelmed by its own smart styling – little details like a dress drying on a clothesline, a girl rubbing hand-cream onto her palms, are clever. But there’s too much style, not enough substance.

AHDU is an interesting experiment. It has rather modest production values but some great lines. It retains the traditional love-story (to its detriment) but goes out on a limb satirizing the political.