Bharathi Pradhan

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.

It’s heart piercing when sole survivor Sepoy Ramlal Yadav (Ankit Siwach) makes it back to camp. But debriefing will be made credible only when the weather clears for facts to be verified. There are certain stories of valour that must be documented and the martyrdom of Major Shaitan Singh (Farhan Akhtar) who defended and saved India’s Chushul airfield from the Chinese, falls into this category. A cinematically unchronicled victory on the 1962 war with China, 120 soldiers put their lives on the line against a 3,000 strong enemy bent upon dining at Chushul the next evening.

Some cases are timeless. The Supreme Court ruling that favoured maintenance for Shah Banoo, a Muslim wife and her kids in 1985, resonates even today, nothing outdated about it. In fact, give it to director Suparn Varma and his writer Reshu Nath for making Shazia Banoo (Yami Gautam Dhar) so relevant that her fight for justice transcends religious boundaries.

With director Aditya Sarpotdar (of Munjya fame) at the helm and proven names Dinesh Vijan and Amar Kaushik in the credits as producers, a rib-tickling horror thriller is the big expectation. This time, they also mix in romance and smooches. Between Taadka (Rashmika Mandanna), a fang-bearing betaal (vampire) who rescues smooth-talking, adventure-seeking, reel-making journo Alok Goyal (Ayushmann Khurrana) from a bear in the jungle. Dil ki dhadkan as a synonym for love is tossed out as pyaar conquers all even when the heart has stopped ticking.

What are the items you would look for in a new Shashank Khaitan film? Let’s tick them off.

A story like a ray of sunshine: X

If only Khaitan and company had a plot as long as their title, there might’ve been a smidgeon of a story out there. But Sunny Sanskari (Varun Dhawan) and Tulsi Kumari (Janhvi Kapoor) teaming up and self-inviting themselves to the wedding of their respective former lovers is about as garden fresh as a joint family in a Barjatya movie.

When spanking new director Aryan Khan ends the first episode with an enforced raid sequence that signs off with ‘Say no to drugs’, you groan and wonder if he’s made this a childishly personal show.But as Aasmaan Singh (Lakshya), the boy from Delhi, rises, stumbles and bumbles around Mumbai – like desperately signing a 3-film contract with pompous producer Freddy Sodawallah (Manish Chaudhari) that soon has his career in knots – Aryan hooks you until he delivers a knockout punch at the end. It goes far beyond a glamorous parade of stars who keep popping up, a Ranbir Kapoor appearance most unexpected, Salman Khan turning up at a birthday party and Aamir-SS Rajamouli in a ‘serious debate’. Shah Rukh Khan is served as the cherry on top.