Sana Farzeen

A corrupt cop who takes bribes at the drop of a hat suddenly discovering the virtues of honesty? Now, that’s a plot twist. Except, in Gajab Raat, it is less gasp-inducing and more head-scratching. The Netflix thriller, directed by Ritesh Shah and co-written by Neeraj Pandey, has corruption, a vaccine scam, and a morally conflicted protagonist, but very little convincing writing. There is hardly any gajabness (wonderment) here, only ajabness (bafflement).

Four friends, empty pockets and a talent for turning every good day into a disaster. Chaar Yaar looks like a cool, young crime caper about hustling your way to the top. There are stolen cars, dangerous gangsters, messy friendships and a cop on their trail. The boys have the jugaad, the attitude and the ambition. They believe their story is an RGV-style drama, but what they don’t have is a screenplay that knows when to stop.

If Shah Rukh Khan’s Darr taught us anything, it’s that a man who refuses to take no for an answer is a BIG red flag. Tu Hai Meri Kiran takes that obsession, throws in a time-travelling phone and stretches it across a decade. Sounds interesting, right? It is, until the film gets so busy juggling time, love and obsession that it forgets to make sense. Starring Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal, the film connects two strangers from 2016 and 2026 through an old flip phone. Samar (Zaheer) and Kiran (Sonakshi) strike up an unusual connection, and you expect them to solve a mystery, change their destinies or perhaps prevent something terrible from happening. Instead, things take a detour when Samar decides that talking to Kiran isn’t enough. He wants her.. and he wants her at any cost.

There is a scene in Little Thomas where Gulshan Devaiah’s character tries to place a figurine of a couple on top of a multi-tiered cake. The cake comes crashing down. He eventually realises that the figurine was too heavy. And there, in a nutshell, lies the problem with Kaushal Oza’s film. The story topples under the weight of its own cuteness, forgetting that an adorable child can only take you so far. You need a good story and a tight screenplay to keep the audience invested, too.