Chhorii 2 is written in a way that ensures it has enough scares and constant intriguing junctures that keep the audience busy and invested in the story. The bait at the centre of the story is a 7-year-old girl, and that raises the tension even more. The movie is laced well enough to not let the audience quickly notice the lapses or dips in the screenplay, and there are a few. Like the climax that is so hell-bent on wrapping up everything that it starts running. Changes of heart are very sudden and abrupt; people who couldn’t figure out a single thing are suddenly at the centre of it all. Everything gets blurry after a point because a lot is happening, and the main conflict unfolds like it is not the main highlight. You will see. However, Chhorii 2 gets the messaging a bit faded.
The Amol Parashar-starrer is a good idea with a beating heart, but that is not all it takes to build a stellar show. The glue to bind multiple plots is missing in Gram Chikitsalay, and that dilutes the impact of this potent story.
But what happens later is what hampers what could have been a rather fun watch. With elements that have the potential to be the most hilarious film, Inspector Zende chooses the route of being nothing more than mediocre. These cracks are visible when the main gang is phenomenal at their job but the world built around them is not strong enough to hold their art together. Imagine one of the police officers calculating the expenditure of the operation during the mission itself while wearing a lungi. Or the DGP (Sachin Khedekar) conducting a secret meeting for an undercover mission in a Mumbai chawl, where these men sit in a modest household and not around a glass table in a well-decorated AC conference room.
Khakee: The Bengal Chapter is Neeraj Pandey’s attempt to reveal a hidden side of Kolkata. While the drama is engaging, the series sometimes feels repetitive, as it follows a formula that’s already been heavily used in Indian streaming content. The overdose of the crime genre on streaming platforms weakens what could have been a truly standout Netflix outing.
Nishaanchi isn’t a bad film. In fact, it has all the ingredients to be a great one. Kashyap promises intensified drama in Part 2, but Part 1 is handled so unevenly in places that it never fully delivers the Kashyap experience we’ve all been starving for. The Anurag Kashyap of old — the one who shocked, thrilled, and redefined cinema — still needs to make a complete comeback. Hopefully, Nishaanchi Part 2 will be that long-awaited return. Anurag Kashyap revisits gangsters and the heartland — but not as sharply as Gangs of Wasseypur. The sparks are there, the setup is solid, but Part 1 barely scratches its full potential.
With Salman Khan on screen and a monstrous budget at hand, one would expect at least a compelling story, strong character arcs, and exciting showdowns from a director who made Ghajini. But nothing—and I repeat, nothing—in Sikandar makes sense, even remotely. It feels like the actors arrived on set, took a walk, and left. How else do you justify Salman Khan reading lines instead of acting? The lack of a story only highlights weak performances. But it is not just the actors at fault. The director, the producer, and everyone involved in approving this cut are equally responsible.
Mane Number 13 doesn’t even qualify to be a half baked product. The film that promises to be a gut-wrenching horror, ends up being a snooze fest. The writing doesn’t do justice to anything here. There are three parallel narratives running, but none get the depth they deserve. My sympathies are with the ghost whose capabilities are questioned so many times, that I would have resigned from the ghost association if I was her. Every time an absurd thing happens, it turns out to be a prank or a human-created mess. The ghost is side-lined criminally. Not that the humans get the weightage. 5 individuals in the centre of this narrative are as one tone as they can possibly be. Not a single character gets a layer.
