Bharathi Pradhan

This was the nadir YRF was fast plummeting to when Saiyaara lifted it temporarily. It’s a thud back to Thugs of Hindostan times. Around halftime, the thought was, so far so bad. But it got worse. We’d walked with a wolf, sparred in Japanese, fought an army of samurais, had car to car, bonnet to bonnet confrontations, travelled from Berlin to Delhi to the Somalian seas and the Himalayas, had coffee in Spain, got introduced to forced acronyms like MICE and LDBD, met Kaul (Anil Kapoor), the new RAW chief, saw Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) the old chief die with ‘India First’ on his lips, and we met Kabir (Hrithik Roshan), Vikram (NTR Jr) and Kavya (Kiara Advani) with ‘Aavan jaavan’ playing in the background. But, and it’s a big but, we hadn’t moved from where we’d begun.

There’s a dialogue by hero Neelesh (Siddhant Chaturvedi) to heroine Vidhi (Triptii Dimri) that goes, ‘Gehri neend mein ho.’ It is like being awakened from deep slumber when director Shazia Iqbal brings Hindi-medium, backward caste Neelesh from the ‘Bheem baja dhol band’ into a law college. It is hard-hitting and if you’re prepared for it, there’s enough going on to draw you in. Neelesh has an interview. There are friends who bring him a pair of shoes. A feisty chawl mother (Anubha Fatehpuria) gives him last-minute instructions, “Listen to your head but speak from the heart.” Ansari (Zakir Hussain), the Principal of the law college, who doesn’t want the reservation quota boy to waste time on ‘Jai Bheem’ politics on the campus. Ahirwar, a surname almost like a slur.

Everything about a sardar and Punjabiyat is reinforced. The credits open with the title song and each time ‘Son of Sardaar’ is mentioned, there’s a closeup of Ajay Devgn pointing to his kada. Heavy with many mentions that a sardaar never turns his back on anyone under his protective wing, simple farmer Jassi (Ajay Devgn) steps into the UK and into a role he’s eminently unsuited for. The energy that comes with the title prepares you for rambunctious noise. But what director Vijay Kumar Arora and writers Jagdeep Singh Sidhu and Mohit Jain serve is consistent comedy that doesn’t evoke even a smile. At least 80 per cent of Jassi’s adventures in a foreign land where wife Dimple (Neeru Bajwa) has summoned him only to ask for a divorce and for her share of his property, is like an amusement park without joy rides.

An army man sworn to protect his country at any cost. Even if the cost is his young son’s life. It resembles the premise of the Dilip Kumar-Amitabh Bachchan starrer Shakti (1982), tautly directed by Ramesh Sippy. Dilip Kumar had played uncompromising DCP Ashwini Kumar who wouldn’t negotiate with a gangster even if it meant endangering son Vijay’s life. Vijay, played by Amitabh Bachchan, had grown up resenting his father and had purposefully walked off in the opposite direction – to the world of crime. Travel to a troubled Kashmir in the 90s and transplant the Shakti theme against an Indo-Pak backdrop, with Soumil Shukla and Arun Singh (along with Kausar Munir and Jehan Handa) taking credit for story, screenplay and dialogues. After running to the rescue of his men who’ve walked into a trap, a fierce exchange of fire and much hand-to-hand combat, staunch army man Vijay Menon (Prithviraj Sukumaran) captures dreaded brothers Qaabil (KC Shankar) and Aabil (Rohed Khan). But when his own son Harman (Ronav Parihar) is nabbed, Vijay faces the toughest decision of his life – release the terror brothers who are wreaking havoc in the valley in exchange for his son?

New Delhi. Nepal. Rawalpindi. Budapest. Slovakia. Serbia. Vienna. Georgia. Dominican Republic. Athens. Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon) has his network spread out all over, there are mutually beneficial trade-offs with Pakistani agents and China, Russia take turns under the spotlight with an Indian-origin psychopath who calls himself a global citizen with no loyalty to any country. Neeraj Panday and Shivam Nair who direct different episodes, update the spy game. It’s no longer about bombs being set off by terrorists from across the border. The world of technology is more insidious. When Dr Piyush Bhargav (Arif Zakaria), a brilliant tech-savvy scientist, is nabbed in Budapest and agent Vinod Shekhawat (Tata Roy Chowdhury) is killed back home in a shopping mall, Himmat Singh orchestrates action that zig-zags cities and continents.

It requires metahuman skills to keep rebooting and refreshing a comic book character that was created in the 1930s. Writer-director James Gunn does it with Krypto. When a gasping-for-life Clark Kent/Superman (David Corenswet) is dragged to his secret crystalline home to be revived, Krypto the dog saves not just the superhero from an alien planet but also Gunn’s film. Bow-wow, wag-wag, Krypto gets the applause each time he flies in for a timely rescue. He also gets the laughs with his overenthusiastic greetings, his jumps and his boundless energy. Truly, a doggie version of almost killing with love. Amidst a whole lot of confusing metahumans, some good, some bad, an assortment of black holes and universes that include a pocket universe, and powers that provide sci-fi and CGI experts with lucrative employment, Gunn brings in one more aww-inspiring moment – an alien infant that must be rescued from CGI fire by Superman, good metahuman Mr Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Krypto. With Krypto slobbering all over the infant, the cuteness quotient shoots up.

Cough, cough. Saba Shergill (Shanaya Kapoor) has blindfolded herself on the train to Mussoorie to prep for an audition to play a visually challenged girl. For no apparent reason, Jahan (Vikrant Massey) gets a slap from her as an introduction. But, cough, cough, he’s a musician, he should understand another artiste. The cough disappears, inexplicably. She’s stranded in Mussoorie, inexplicably. She clings to the stranger on the train, inexplicably. Even moves into his hotel room. “Come, I’ll show you around my house,” he says, inexplicably. When did a hotel room turn into a house? Jahan has an assistant-cum-driver, a general factotum. Who talks of a chidiya (sparrow) that talks (everybody laugh, Saba and Jahan do) and tells them a ghost story (everybody shiver, Saba and Jahan do, she even moves into his bed).

He is 42. Single. Still a virgin. He is Shrirenu Tripathi (R Madhavan), he teaches Sanskrit in Jamshedpur. Even his students tease him about virginal bachelorhood. She is Madhu Bose (Fatima Sana Shaikh), she teaches French in Kolkata. She’s dumped Namit (Karan Wahi), her ex, after he checked out if she’s a virgin. Shrirenu chats on Aap Jaisa Koi, an app for cosy, sexual conversations between strangers. The voice on the other end of the app tells him he’s a cross between Gulzar and George Clooney. He goes all moony-eyed. With a forgettable song in the background. Until Srirenu meets Madhu. The sparks are perfect. They like the same sort of tea with milk and elaichi. She even preferred Ashok Kumar to Kishore Kumar. Oldies are just fine for her. He is old-fashioned, still believes in flowers pressed into books. And he talks to a mouse in a trap.