Bharathi Pradhan

It’s a fine story to tell. Of youthful enthusiasm, courage, martyrdom, nostalgia and emotions that rule on both sides of the border. It’s also heart-tugging to watch Dharmendra in his last celluloid appearance in a role tailormade for the son-of-the-soil. When he, as long retired Brigadier Madan Lal Khetarpal, sentimentally revisits Sargodha and his family home in Pakistan before the Partition, it is entirely believable. Add to it his recital of a self-penned poem on the draw of his pind (village) and it’s only Dharmendra who could have given such authenticity to the Punjabi with nostalgia flowing unfettered out of him.

The title is a put-off, sounding like a stuck record. When it takes off with the glossy visuals expected from Dharma Productions, the scene’s set for fun, flirting, a helping of calibrated humour. But back-to-back songs in Croatia, shot like a travelogue, begin to discomfortingly resemble a tourist pamphlet. The he’s-so-annoying hero who has the heroine’s lips curled with irritation, is so textbook Hum Tum (2004) that ho-ho, how funny, slips into ho-hum, how silly.

A body is staged leisurely before the murderer vanishes. It’s déjà vu for Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police Arun Khatri (Priyanshu Chatterjee) who dials the central jail in Hyderabad. Mrs. Seema Deshpande (Madhuri Dixit), the serial killer he had imprisoned twenty-five years ago, is still behind bars. Who’s the copycat killer who has patterned himself/herself on Mrs. Deshpande’s modus operandi?

At over three hours, it is certainly the longest edition so far. And, as James Cameron watchers would expect from the writer-director, the scale of the new Na’vi adventure is visually stunning. In the fight between the water people (in tune with Nature) and the air people (expansionist humans), a new fire people enter the fray. In short, all the elements in different avatars. The fire people are grotesque and non-believing to boot. Nature has to win.

Ready with a repartee and quick-witted as the host of a comedy show, Kapil Sharma’s image pulls it off. When Mohan/Mehmood/Michael (Kapil Sharma) marries Meera (Tridha Choudhury), Ruhi (Ayesha Khan) and Jenny (Parul Gulati) though his heart ticks only for Saniya (Hira Warina), he must think on his feet to glib talk his way out of situations. Writer-director Anukalp Goswami ensures that the fun never stops.

There are two flaws that straightaway dog writer-director Aditya Dhar’s spy adventure. One, the intent may have been to use the first part of the two-instalment film to set up what happened before New India woke up to counter its belligerently violent neighbour. However, the focus is so much on building an elaborate scene of the gang wars and politics of Pakistan that nobody out here would connect with it. Honestly, who cares who’s in power and who’s murdering whom in the neighbouring country? Two, the disconnect is heightened with Dhar’s failure to make it a thrilling watch. At over 3.5 hours, it is laborious, unexciting storytelling.

Director Aanand L. Rai gets it better this time, after serious missteps in his three previous outings, Zero (2018), Atrangi Re (2021) and Raksha Bandhan (2022). To begin with, the title tune (AR Rahman) lingers. Aanand also makes a film that’s well-shot with powerful moments. Like the one where Shankar Gurukkal (Dhanush) tells Mukti (Kriti Sanon) that such a beautiful girl’s hand must land on a cheek and slaps himself hard with her hand. It was there in the promo.

Director Vibhu Puri with co-writer Prasshant Jha deftly creates the charm of an old world where men and women battle not with swords but with words, some of it poetic. It is delightful most of the way as Nawabuddin Saifuddin Rehman alias Babban (Vijay Varma) goes out of Old Delhi in search of poet Aziz (Naseeruddin Shah), retired and keen on keeping his passion private. Publishing Aziz will perhaps revive Rehman’s father’s dying printing press, the son on a mission to get that rare writing and turn it into a book.