Ignore the cynical readings of this enchanting excursion into an anti-war film. Just go and watch Salman Khan embracing Gandhism with  heartbreaking earnestness . This is filmmaking at the opposite end of what Ram Gopal Varma makes.

Raabta is fun most of the way.If only Jim had loosened up and had as much  as  Sushant and Sanon.

Hindi Medium is a well-told parable of middleclass aspirations, scattered with moments that every parents would recognize with a combination of pleasure and dread. It is a  solid weekend entertainer with a message for every parent who has ever suffered the traumatic jitters  of  preparing to get a child admitted  into school.

Hindi Medium has  balls and long legs. Should go a long way.

Half Girlfriend is a gorgeous-looking film with no real relevance beyond its Valentinian boundaries, with  plenty of unspoken chemistry between the lead pair. It could have done with less schmaltz and more raw passion, less cuteness and more real emotions.

But here is the thing. It delivers exactly the charming  confection thatChetan Bhagat’s novel attempted to be.

Watch Sarkaar 3 for the way Varma frames the familial feud in flames of fury. The performances are largely effective specially those byRonit Roy and Amit Sadh. The latter comes into his own as Mr Bachchan’s uncontrollable grandson. But above all, this is one more triumphant  celluloid outing for Amitabh Bachchan who invests his role of the aging tiger-neta with a kind of cosmic resonance that goes way beyond that famous baritone.

Yes,Baahubali 2 is much bigger than the first film in every sense. It is far deeper and dreamy,drawing us into its magic and magnificence with a seamless swoosh that sucks us in. We fall into the ravine of ravishing courtly machinations with no desire to pull ourselves out of the hypnotic spell that Rajamouli casts on  us.

Noor is not one  of the best films on journalistic ethics. It doesn’t do to the contemporaryMumbai media world what the Paul Newman-Sally Field  starrer Absence Of Malice did  30 years ago . It pricks at the conscience in a rather undemanding way. Noor takes  sly and slender satirical swipes at sensationalism in journalism , more delectable for its many jibes than the actual prick at the conscience.

In creating a world where women rule the roost, the film misses the wood for the trees. Or sex for the sleaze.

Though this film tells us why death need not be feared, I came away from it feeling a profound sense of melancholy . It makes us experience the final futility of life without disrespecting the art of living.

And that’s no small achievement.

Take a bow, Mr Bose. Poorna is not just a tale  of the triumph of the human spirit. We all have a Poorna  inside us waiting to conquer our own  Everest.