Rewriting historical defeats with patriotic fervour…

This ploy, of a child’s courage to look death in the eyes and talk to us about it, has some power and function at the beginning. But when it goes on and on, it starts to grate.

I felt impaled by the film’s relentless emotional badgering, constant telling us, and not showing, how terribly tragic it all is.

Given the amount of time devoted to action sequences in Saaho, Prabhas’ moves have no smoothness or finesse. As he lumbers, his thighs thunder. And when he’s not fighting, he looks pasty, his body is droopy and language languid.
Much like I was at the end of Saaho.

But more than that, Nakkash is important — because it’s a good thing when movies refuse to let us slip into complacency. Because it’s a good thing when movies remind us that democracy, secularism cannot and must not be taken for granted. Because it’s a good thing when movies tell us that our job is not done just by standing proudly and humming along when Jan Gan Man is played on the screen.

All we did was take a pledge. Now we must honour those words with our actions, work.

The motive of this tacky, third-rate propaganda piece is all too apparent in the story it wants us to go home with.

If, post-Diwali, you are in desperate need for a deep nap, check yourself into a show of Duds of Hindostan.

Sui Dhaga, having been rung through a big production house of Bollywood, in this case Yash Raj Productions, suffers the same fate.

Delightful, with a peppy, folksy punch… Vishal Bhardwaj’s direction and writing are superlative.

Satyameva Jayate’s plot is twisted to hide some nice surprises, and its killing scenes, though daffy, are bloody and have enough filmy drama to keep us engaged.

At least on face value, mining history for past glories seems to be a pathetic exercise in assuaging low-self esteem. But the manthan, churning that India is currently in the throes of is beginning to yield some very interesting, very political stories.

That two of these, in 2018 alone, have been helmed so well by women — Raazi by Meghna Gulzar and Kagti’s Gold — gives me hope.