…for the last 10 or 15 minutes of ‘Baby’, it keeps you on the edge and sends you off feeling happy. But, too little, too late Pandey has written the story, script and directed ‘Baby’. Sometimes another pair of eye, another brain isn’t such a bad idea.

What’s also very disturbing here is that even when the film is saying something important, it’s surrounded by conventional and corny stuff. Weighted down by cliches, the film often feels tiresome. I don’t enjoy watching Aamir Khan very much. His smugness, didactic finger-wagging irritates me. But here he sheds the moral weight he’s been carrying since Tare Zameen Pe and Satyamev Jayate. There’s a lightness and playfulness to his character that’s touching. In the raw state, as a clean slate, his PK is convincing and charming.

There are interesting aerial shots, and the camera is always in motion. The kabaddi playing boys are not bad either. Only trouble is that all they mutter “kabaddi, kabaddi” in a decidedly third-rate story where the moral victory is, well, a dud.

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain tells the story of the worst of times with some needless “cinematic liberties” that make it a lesser movie, but, perhaps, a more palatable one. It begs a sequel a film about how our legal luminaries, led by Fali S. Nariman and Nani Palkiwala, argued in courts for several billable hours paid for by the Union Carbide Corporation, and ensured that Union Carbide had to cough up just $1,000 for every death it caused. It could be titled, Bhopal: A Courtroom Tragedy.

‘Kill/Dil’ flirts with the idea of having rotten men as its lead pair. It even seems to enjoy their bloody bonhomie. But it chickens out. What a shame! And what a waste! Imagine if Yash Chopra had chickened out and made Vijay sign up to become an LIC agent?

The film’s high point is seeing Ravi Varma’s paintings. It establishes that the painter-artist’s life is a powerful story that needs to be told by a better, more accomplished director and actors.

Though Charudutt Acharya’s characters in Sonali Cable have stories and context, his film flails about, unable to decide what it is. That’s partly because Rhea Chakraborty’s Sonali is completely unbelievable, and because the film’s bigotry keeps overtaking its socialist spirit.

Bang Bang! is pure Hrithik porn.

A star as big and stunning as Hrithik needs grand outings. So the script of K&D was bought, a gorgeous woman signed, locations short-listed and extras handed out a page each detailing their expressions and lines.

‘Chaarfutiya Chhokare’ is built around a mildly interesting germ of an idea, 12-13 year old boys taking to crime because of human trafficking. But this idea gets lost in its soporific maze of a story where silly characters run around but get nowhere. The film has a few nice frames and exactly two interesting moments, but they are spoilt by inept acting and lines that should never have been written.

In the film’s dull menu the only item of interest is Aditya Roy Kapoor. Despite the complete lack of reciprocity from Parineeti, he is able to get intimate with her and turn the screen into a pool of feelings. He makes you want to be in love. Parineeti is a charming and competent actress but now she’s getting repetitive and boring. And here she isn’t even invested in her role. Her Hyderabadi accent comes and goes, like the fluctuating talent of Anupam Kher.