Nandini Ramnath

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Dhurandhar: The Revenge is Marco or K.G.F: Chapter 2, but with malice that meshes seamlessly with pro-government propaganda.

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After a bustling beginning, Gandhari lapses into a kind of nervous languidity. Written and produced by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Devashish Makhija, the Netflix release tries to draw juice from low-hanging fruit – child sex trafficking is one of the most unconscionable crimes – but comes up empty.

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Where there is youth, there will be romance. On this optimistic note, David Dhawan rolls out a movie based on 1990s hit songs, a hero who’s pushing 40 and dated values.

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The thrill of seeing the sightless Shyam in action – he's nothing less than a Rustom-e-Hind with a white cane – is cancelled out by the sluggish pacing and mostly poor acting.

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So silly that it’s juvenile and sometimes so anarchic that it almost escapes notice, the 121-minute Happy Patel takes refuge behind its conceit.

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Based on a story by Vivek Verma, Jeevan Ya Bheema Con? (previously titled Jeevan Bheema Yojana) has a scattering of funny moments and an abundance of strained humour. Director Abhishek Dogra can't get an overstretched premise that is tailor-made for a stage adaptation to work.

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It does seem puzzling that Pawan is clueless about the social currents in his home town. He’s bursting with bravado and uprightness, but his inability to see what is groaningly apparent doesn’t help his case. It’s a credit to Saif Ali Khan that the 55-year-old actor not only passes as a 40-year-old character but also manages to keep a mid-scene snooze at bay through sheer charisma. Everyone performs very seriously and earnestly in a movie whose screenplay, also by Pulkit, isn’t trying to be anything but… dutiful. Everyone except Saurabh Dwivedi, a popular journalist in real life who has trouble posing as a powerful abuser.

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The movie version is crisp and efficient, if somewhat perfunctory. At 95 minutes, Last Man in Tower covers a great deal of ground quite rapidly.

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The film version stands on its own bloodied feet.

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Riteish Deshmukh plays the Maratha emperor with dedication, if not quite kingliness. Only Vidya Balan and Sanjay Dutt emerge as somewhat fleshed-out characters. Most of the cast members deliver performances as uninspiring and studious as the film itself.

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Until the plot development that ties together the boy, police inspector Pavithran (Jean Paul Lal) and the thief Abbas (Tovino Thomas), Balan The Boy is a suspenseful, gripping, plausible and often moving character study.

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Even at a relatively crisp runtime of 105 minutes, Bhai Tera Star Hai strains patience levels.

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Manoj Tapadia finds ways to introduce balance. Although Kangana Ranaut’s Geeta is shown as the one who comes up with all the bright ideas, she does not dominate the narrative. If anything, Geeta is one among a crowd, a leader but also a co-worker. By giving Geeta’s colleagues strong scenes, the film lets them become a part of her reflected glory. The efforts of the small people who expect nothing more than an extra-tight hug before they go back to emptying out bedpans stand out in Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata. The film rescues itself from being a mouthpiece of the regime, instead becoming a voice for an unheralded strata of society.

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Sid Vinsurkar and writers Saurabh Bhave and Himanshu Nimbhorkar make good use of silence here, ratcheting up ample suspense with sound effects and meaningful camera angles.

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By this point, the film is a political tract, rather than a film. Despite picking a worthy subject, Krantijyoti Vidyalay is too simplistic and facile to address the actual problems that affect Marathi-medium schools, or the larger existential crisis that has engulfed Marathi culture.

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