Stutee Ghosh

Not all movies ought to be dignified with a review. Yet here we are…. reviewing Welcome to the Jungle. Everyone is in this film. And I do mean everyone. There isn’t a face you won’t recognize. From Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Disha Patani and Jacqueline Fernandez to Paresh Rawal, Kiran Kumar, Farida Jalal, Zakir Hussain, Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda it’s a literal stampede of familiar faces and proven talent. What should have been a comic goldmine becomes a traffic jam of characters, each written with roughly the same attention to detail usually reserved for out-of-focus background dancers. You could swap one actor with another and absolutely nothing would change.

Homi Adjania’s Cocktail 2 is the spiritual sequel to his own 2012 film Cocktail starring Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty — a love triangle referencing Archie comics and doffing its hat to the Betty and Veronica prototype. The latest offering written by Luv Ranjan and Tarun Jain once again gives us a menage à trois where two women Diya and Ally ( Rashmika Mandana and Kriti Sanon) fight over the affection and affectation of one man Kunal( Shahid Kapoor). And once again the exotic locations and risqué outfits cannot hide a safe, domesticated, traditional core lurking underneath all that gloss.

Ritwik Pareek’s wicked satire Dug Dug premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this year as part of the Discovery section. An audacious new voice, his debut feature casts a critical look at how superstition and blind faith provide a fertile breeding ground for religious cults and idolatry to grow unchecked. Set in Rajasthan, it’s well into 10 minutes that we trail an unnamed man as he rides his motorcycle on a busy highway, with trucks and cars speeding past him. The ominous background score creates anticipation and there is a strong hint that something is about to happen. And it does. A terrible freak accident takes place, where the man lies dead in a pool of blood.