Weaving in this typically Indian absurdity, that we all get and perpetuate, to a rather banal moment is what makes Mukti Bhavan a must watch.

If you are going to pay to watch this film, I beseech you to stay on for the last song. It’ll send you off smiling. Jackie Chan is great. Not just as the bumbling, fighting professor, but also as the Bollywood hip-shaking hero. Sonu Sood seemed as misplaced and wasted as the Indian beauties in their dupatta-less ghaghra-cholis.

The film is flawed, not just in pacing, but also some characters.

Nil Battey Sannata is an incredibly moving and emotional film in parts, and thankfully it’s more than about chasing one’s dreams.

There is too much artifice and very little spontaneity…

All the time weeping — everybody weeps one by one and then they weep in unison and then again they weep some more, solo, till we come to the point where some intense, quivering sort of love happens that makes us want to slip into the final death throes while screaming, “Abe yaar Inder, shaadi kar le na, please. Otherwise we’ll marry her and put her out of her misery.”

Ghayal Once Again uses the dhai kilo ka haath myth, Sunny’s goodwill, reputation and moral underpinnings, but, it’s a mediocre film. A much lesser film than the original it is leaning on. Director Sunny Deol is not half the director Santoshi still is, but Sunny the angry paaji is still the man he was. Sunny Deol has never been balanced, nuanced, subtle (lol). He only overdoes stuff. Everything. Even now. And I’m eternally grateful for it.

What it does tear open is the question of how ethical it is for film reviewers, who are in the business of commenting on other people’s films, have the power to influence opinion about films, to occasionally cross over to the other side. There is no ban on film reviewers/critics becoming filmmakers. But let us not for a second pretend that to get these assignments their clout, access as film critics was not in play. Often there are no rules. Often it is a personal standard of ethic that we all set for ourselves. These men, sadly, set them low.

Watch it for not just an incredible performance by Hooda, but also how smart biopics can be made. Not all have to be like Ketan Mehta’s Rang Rasiya.

Based on a brilliantly layered script and screenplay by Behl and Sharat Katariya, Titli’s plot is linear, but it’s made up of merging, giddy spirals of deceit, lies and crime, all of which are devoted to winding down many lives.