While many Indian youth (like Pitobash as Luvtund) grow up idolising film stars, we are really lucky to have Kalam. And it’s a good thing that someone made a film to give kids a role model, someone they can become.

The ensemble is just brilliant, and at no point in the film do you see them as actors. This is reality cinema at its best with all elements you usually associate with the larger than life genre — romance, action, comedy, song and dance. But, most importantly, it holds a mirror to male-chauvinist society and shows us our ugly side — we at our most unflattering, despicable real selves. Yet, it leaves us with a little hope of what we are capable of doing.

Clearly, the best film to have come out of Hindi cinema in ages.

Before you get an impression that it’s all dead serious… No, no it’s not. No, no. It’s highly entertaining, it’s as mainstream and popular as Hindi cinema gets with the romance, song and dance, sight-seeing tourist attractions, music cues that trigger off the tear-glands and Shah Rukh Khan quips that will make you laugh whole-heartedly. His chemistry with a fantastic Kajol (Tere Naina is so goddamned romantic) alone is worth the price of admission but this film gives you much, much more.

Everything about the film is so fresh (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy contribute a lot to this) that when the climax finally kicks in with a stock ending borrowed from Hollywood romantic comedies, it leaves you a little disappointed. But then, as you look back at Sid’s journey, you smile and forgive the trappings of the genre. And, Wake Up Sid feels like a fresh morning breeze that wakes you up to a brand new day.

Indian mainstream cinema has not seen a more contemporary love story. It’s a complete film — the dialogue is breezy and refreshingly candid; there’s not a song out of place; the smart choreography adds to the richness of the narrative; the editing keeps it tight; and the visuals are rich with metaphors — the Purana Qila epitomises old world romance, and Meera is the restoration artist.

By no means is this an accurate account of events or can be taken seriously as a piece of docu drama. Shootout at Wadala is pulpy, kitschy, Bollywood masala that makes no bones about its intentions: To titillate.