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As a kid when he is locked up for picking pockets, the orphan Sanghram Bhalerao aka Simmba sees the perks of being a cop. It’s not about maintaining law and order that attracts him to the job. He’s rather blown away at the potential of how much a cop can make underhand. Simmba eventually grows up to be a bent police officer who likes to scoop up fat ‘commissions’, acting as a middleman for both criminals and their victims. This corrupt cop played by Ranveer Singh is the protagonist in Rohit Shetty’s latest ‘Singham’ spin-off ‘Simmba’. Under Shetty’s pure masala aesthetics and ear-splitting back­ground score, we see cars float in mid-air and the hero lift off a dozen men in one take. When the film doesn’t take itself seriously, Singh’s natural energy makes us buy his anti-heroic qualities. It’s when the film shifts gear to give a sermon on a sensitive issue like ‘rape’ and slaps us with a populist stance that the film feels unbearably childish and narrow-minded.

 Who should watch it?

‘Simmba’ is designed as a crowd-pleasing masala film and packs in equal doses of action and comedy to fans of wholesome masala action films like ‘Singham’ and ‘Dabbang’. But it has a problematic social message that may upset many.

After we’re introduced to Simmba, the plot wastes no time to kick in. Simmba is transferred to a police station in Goa where a local kingpin Ranade (Sonu Sood) and his brothers dominate orga­nized crime. Simmba is quick to impress Ranade and enlists himself on Ranade’s pay-list, much to the dislike of Simmba’s junior officer, the honest head constable Mohile (Ashutosh Rana). In the meantime, Simmba also falls for Sagun (Sara Ali Khan), a girl running a catering business outside Simmba’s police station and whose deceased father used to be a daring cop.

In the film’s lighter moments early on, Ranveer Singh abandons all inhibitions and delivers an over-the-top Simmba, reminiscent of old-school Govinda and Salman Khan’s Chulbul Pandey from ‘Dab­bang’. He keeps things cool and funny with a flawed character like Simmba, although we can pretty well predict the transformative journey his character is going to take. But a rape sequence is then ill placed as Simmba’s coming-of-age moment. For once, Shetty and his screenwriters milk this moment for shock value and deliver patriarchal vigilante justice to a deep-rooted patriarchal problem. Women of this film remain in the periphery, while the men take things in their own hands to combat violence—with the help of violence.

Sara Ali Khan, who was impres­sive in her debut film ‘Kedarnath’, is used only for cosmetic purpos­es in this faux-feminist film. She makes random appearances during the film’s songs and turns into a wallflower among a parade of sup­porting characters.

‘Simmba’ doesn’t dig too much to make its flawed protagonist examine himself or to go through a personal crisis to come out with a changed heart. He rather changes suddenly without any personal growth or greater understanding of the world around him. And the plan of action he chooses is noth­ing short of the immature Simmba we meet at the film’s start.

Rohit Shetty is unmatched in orchestrating high-end action sequences but he still comes off raw in handling dramatic scenes with nuances. Shetty likes to make his point through heavy dialogue and takes a swing at challenging social problems with ultra-manliness and heroism. This has resulted in giving us ‘Simmba’ that breaks no new ground but solidifies stereotypical populist treatment of a sensitive issue that required more artistic and dramatic probing.

Movie: Simmba

Genre: Action

CAST: Ranveer Singh, Sara Ali Khan, Ashutosh Rana, Sonu Sood

DIRECTION: Rohit Shetty

‘Zero’ is a tall tale about a short man. This man is played by Bolly­wood’s evergreen romantic hero Shahrukh Khan, who digitally shrinks to become the four feet tall Bauua Singh, a self-centered and motor-mouthed 38-year-old bachelor from a small town in Meerut, India. It isn’t the first time we’ve seen Khan shed out his arms-wide-open lover boy persona. We’ve watched him play a video-game character turned superhero (Ra.One) and an obsessed fan of a Bol­lywood superstar (Fan). Here too he pushes through a physically challenging role with some help from his Red Chillies VFX team. But take away the scale of the film’s production and its visual effects, and ‘Zero’ is a very problematic film that hops from one genre to another and takes giant leaps of faith. The result? An unsta­ble film that impresses, con­fuses and frustrates in equal proportions.

Who should watch it?

If you can buy the outlandishness of the movie and get past the film’s giant logical leaps then you might find ‘Zero’ entertaining.

It isn’t the first time we’ve seen Khan shed out his arms-wide-open lover boy persona

Bauua Singh is introduced as a wayward son of a well-off father (Tigmanshu Dhulia). Bauua spends his time either annoying his belt-wielding father or throwing cash at any­one who flatters him by link­ing him with his Bollywood crush, actress Babita Kumari (Katrina Kaif). Bauua’s search for a matching life partner takes him to Aafiya (Anushka Sharma). There’s a one in a million chance that Aafiya, a scientist suffering from cere­bral palsy (whose research has helped discover water in Mars) will fall for Bauua (whose studies stopped after 10th grade).

But Bauua woos Aafiya with his street-smartness and Aafi­ya finds his antics non-judg­mental and unlike the pity she receives from everyone around. She goes head over heels for Bauua and even fights off her parents who badmouth Bauua for his height and education. And then just Bauua’s dream-girl Babita Kumari crosses his path. He’s so smitten to see her in real life that he aban­dons everything, even Aafiya, to pursue her.

‘Zero’ populates itself with quirky characters that we don’t often see in a mainstream masala film. Aside from Bauua and Aafi­ya who suffer from unique physical conditions, the oth­er major character Babita Kumari is drawn from real life. She’s a spoilt celebri­ty, drinking away her wor­ries to get over a breakup. And Katrina Kaif finds the right mojo to give us a no-holds-barred Babita Kumari. She even over­shadows Anushka Sharma’s inconsistent and overtly dra­matic portrayal of the wheel­chair-bound Aafiya.

When you watch Bauua and all the other main leads of ‘Zero’ in isolation, there is so much to like about them. But when they are pitted together by a plain plot that is not ashamed of its outlandish façade, we as audience lose connection between parts and forget what kind of movie we are watching. Is this a romantic epic? Is this a space explo­ration sci-fi flick?

Director Aanand L Rai and his frequent screenwrit­er Himanshu Sharma fail to deliver a coherent narra­tive. In ‘Zero’ they bank on Shahrukh Khan’s charm to pull off big and highly imag­inative set pieces. And Khan pulls out all stops to give us an earnest Bauua. But the plot’s silliness is too much to handle after the film’s mid­point and Bauua’s change of heart feels unearned and too hasty.

The silly ambition to patch up a rickety storyline with king size budget and high quality VFX work has dwarfed ‘Zero’ into a film that only impresses in parts and disap­points on a massive scale.

Movie: ZERO

Genre: Romantic Comedy

CAST: Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif

DIRECTION: Aanand L Rai

2002’s ‘Spider-Man’, directed by Sam Raimi, is often considered a land­mark movie for the super-he­ro genre. It tasted glory way before Hollywood struck gold in the box-office with the Avengers and the X-Men series. It was able to break the jinx on expensively-produced and CGI-heavy comic book hero flicks that had a tumultu­ous history of underperform­ing commercially and anger­ing comic book fans. Then, as the situation improved for the comic book-based mov­ies, the ‘Spider-Man’ movies ironically took a bad turn. After Raimi’s three ‘Spi­der-Man’ movies, the series was rebooted once in 2012 under the direction of Marc Webb, and then again in 2017 with Spider-Man gracing the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The idea of having yet another ‘Spider-Man’ ori­gin story can bring only one question to mind: How many more Spider-Man can we take? Enter ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’, the latest animated film, and believe it or not, the movie’s basic premise revolves around the same question. That much is evident from the film’s fun trailer but the film goes much beyond.

 Who should watch it?

The animation style and the superb visual and dialogue driven humor gives this film a repeat value. This is a thoroughly enjoyable family entertainer for both hardcore Marvel fans and general audiences who want to have a fun time at the movies with their kids. Make time for this!

The humor is complimented by an equal doses of dramatically touching moments and exhilarating action sequences

We get a new Spider-Man in teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameikh Moore) who has to work together with five more Spider-Men from alter­nate dimensions. These other Spider-Men are a potbellied middle-aged Peter B Parker (a terrific Jake Johnson), a sassy Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), an anime inspired Penny Park­er (Kimiko Glenn), a noir pri­vate eye (Nicholas Cage) and a cartoon pig (John Mulaney). They are thrust together after a massive collider operated by the evil Kingpin ruptures the space and time continuum. Miles has to learn the ropes to master his newfound super­powers as well as gel with this ragtag team of Spider-Men so that everyone gets to their respective homes.

At one glance Miles is no different from the young Peter Parker, except that he is of mixed race, his cop father is African-American and his nurse mother is Latino. Miles is a geek, enjoys spraying graffiti art and is awkward when it comes to talking to girls. He also shares a close relationship with his uncle (Mahershala Ali). And just like Peter, he gets bitten by a radioactive spider. But within these stark similarities Miles embodies the spirited hero of the ghettos. He continues to take pride in where he comes from, even after his father urg­es him to take scholarship at a private school as his ticket out of the ghettos. Amid all the other Spider-Men stuff that’s going on, the story gives us plenty of reasons to feel strongly about the raw Miles as he earns his right to don his Spidey suit.

From its uniquely stylized animation design to the clev­er screenplay that incorpo­rates meta-humor and funny dialogue exchanges, ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ gives us plenty to enjoy. It coolly makes fun of itself and is self-referential to the Spider-Man franchise. Lately the super-hero genre flicks have grown a bolder sense of humor, so much so that this style is getting rath­er tiring to see. That is not the case here. The makers and the voice actors genu­inely make the ride fun and light-hearted.

The humor is compli­mented by an equal doses of dramatically touching moments and exhilarating action sequences. Even with so many characters and story threads, the film never feels bloated or hard to follow. The seamless writing and direc­tion make the story coherent and pack in plenty of surpris­es and twists, leading up to a deeply satisfying finale.

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ is success­ful in accomplishing a rare feat. It gives an energetic and fresh spin to the deadbeat Spider-Man uni­verse and actually pumps new blood in the franchise to make us more excited about what’s next to come from Miles Morales.

Movie: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Genre: animation

CAST: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Hailee Steinfeld

DIRECTION: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Abhisekh Kapoor’s ‘Kedarnath’ never transcends into the romantic epic it sets out to be, but at the same time, it’s difficult to overlook some of the film’s sub­versive storytelling choices and to shake off the charms of newcom­er Sara Ali Khan and an in-form Sushant Singh Rajput. Even with an inconsistent screenplay, direc­tor Kapoor’s masterful grasp over filmmaking craft doesn’t let in any dull moment. Tucked in the laps of the majestic Himalayas, Kedarnath is an Indian town and a popular pilgrimage for Hindus who throng there in num­bers to visit Lord Shiva’s Kedarnath temple. Here we meet our two central characters: Mandhakini (Sara Ali Khan), the bratty daugh­ter of a local Hindu priest, and Mansoor (Sushant Singh Rajput), a Muslim porter living with his single mother. At first glance, you can’t help but get a strong ‘Sairat’ (or its Hindi remake ‘Dhadak’) vibes from this storyline. And yes, religion/class conflict is at the heart of the romance in ‘Kedarnath’.

Who should watch it?

Sara Ali Khan doesn’t disappoint in her debut. If you liked Abhisekh Kapoor’s ‘Kai Po Che’ that blended friendship, cricket and religion, ‘Kedarnath’ can be taken as a good companion that gives similar treatment to romance, religion and natural calamity.

The first half unspools by bring­ing the two characters closer through cleverly shot montage sequences while also hinting at the dark clouds surrounding them in the form of Gullu (Nishant Dahiya). Gullu is an influential local Hindu leader, who we come to know has called off his pre-planned marriage to Mandhakini’s elder sister and instead taken dibs at Mandhakini to be his new fiancé. Mandhakini and Mansoor’s increasing intimacy is pitted against Gullu’s growing possessiveness towards Mandhak­ini. This in turn fuels a bigger ten­sion between the high-caste Hindu group and its working-class Muslim porter group.

Then, as we approach the third act of the movie, the sky grows darker, the mountains appear unstable and the film promptly shifts genre. From ‘Romeo Juliet’ it turns into a ‘Titanic’ scale disaster movie. As all hell breaks loose, the theme doesn’t hinge on ‘Man versus Man’ anymore, but on ‘Man versus Nature’. (The film is partly based on the devastating Uttara­khand floods of 2013).

‘Kedarnath’ belongs to Sara Ali Khan. In her first film she is not only easy on the eye but finds a delicate lightness and extra poten­cy in her portrayal of Mandha­kini. Likewise Sushant Singh Rajput looks earthy in a physical­ly demanding role. They make for an endearing pair and get you to root for them. The makers may have attempted a grandiosely imagined romance of two star-crossed lovers through popular cinema troupes, but there are touches here and there that give the film a fresh look and feel. Mandhakini is a damsel in distress but she’s also the initiator who woos Mansoor rather than the oth­er way around. And Mansoor is unlike the cocky and street smart small town heroes we’re used to seeing on screen lately. He feels more subdued and sensitive.

Just like how Mansoor’s charac­ter walks uphill carrying pilgrims on his back, the film contains too much, in that it finally starts to crack open. Kapoor tries to make up for the tonal inconsistency by pouring immense effort in design­ing the breathtaking final disaster sequence; still it sticks out as some­thing that belongs to a different movie altogether.

But despite the unstable screenplay, there’s plenty in ‘Kedarnath’ that keeps the journey emotionally thrilling and visually arresting.

Movie: KEDARNATH

Genre: ROMANTIC DRAMA

CAST: Sushant Singh Rajput, Sara Ali Khan, Nishant Dahiya

DIRECTION:Abhisekh Kapoor

The rich imagination of director Shankar and the suaveness of superstar Rajinikanth worked wonders to make 2010’s ‘Robot’ an enjoyable sci-fi flick, even with a preposterous story that gave us a modern-day Frankenstein in Chitti, an android made to serve, but nonetheless turning rogue and becoming the problem itself. Its sequel, ‘2.0’, after being stuck in a post-production hell for some time, is finally here. The previous film’s thematic footing was on the possi­bility of machines taking over the human race. The follow-up adds the angle of technology destroying the natural order. There’s much to admire in ‘2.0’. Shankar crafts a visionary cine­matic design propped up with ludi­crous amount of VFX trickery. His mastery over visuals and action set pieces cast a spell and make your eyes pop. The writing is a major problem though, reeking of older Shankar films like ‘I’, ‘Nayak’ and ‘Indian’. Shankar looks at complex issues of technology and environ­ment through a myopic and sim­plistic social lens. He’s stuck in a grand narrative that instead of posing questions wants to provide all the answers.

We meet genius Indian scientist Vaseegaran (Rajinikanth) and his new android assistant Nila (Amy Jackson) as they try to figure out why all cell phones are flying away from their owners’ hands. There are speculations: This may be some alien force, or a ‘black hole’ has opened up in the space, sucking in all phones. Soon there is a nation-wide frenzy, and the government is forced to declare a state of emer­gency and mobilize the army.

Vaseegaran calls for Home Min­ister (Adil Hussain) to sanction an order to bring back Chitti (also played by Rajinikanth), who has been dismantled and kept at a high-security museum. After much reluctance, Chitti is restored and with his superhero-like powers he’s able to track down a myste­rious supernatural villain Pakshi Rajan (Akshay Kumar), who is hell bent on revenge against telecom multinationals. We are made to wait till the second half, where the origin of the villain is revealed through a tedious back-story.

Shankar has so much unpacking to do in a single movie that the bur­den falls on the audience’s head. Chitti’s projection as a superhero, the villain’s flight for vigilante jus­tice and the social commentary sprinkled everywhere are played in a cacophonic disharmony of cine­matic excess. There isn’t a particu­lar likable quality in Rajinikanth’s portrayal of the bland Vaseegaran.

Of all the scientists you may have come across in films, Vaseegaran sounds the wackiest and veers close to being a hack theorist. His arguments and explanations are pure pseudoscience. The charm of Chitti is also lost somewhere this time. (I also admit that demanding more than a one-note performance from a ‘robot’ is somewhat unreal­istic from my side). Kumar makes a powerful presence as the film’s antagonist but his character isn’t fully realized and gets lost between playing a hopeless activist and a ruthless vigilante on a killing spree.

As a spectacle of grand design, it will be hard for any Indian film in the coming days to match ‘2.0’. But director Shankar lets this spec­tacle overtake storytelling. He’s so involved in painting his frames in VFX canvas that he is detached from his characters and plotting, which needed more polishing. The film’s mesmerizing look doesn’t spill over into its screenplay to give us an involving experience.

 Who should watch it?

All the hype surrounding ‘2.0’ has turned it into an event movie. It’s then most likely to work for admirers of Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar, but not for viewers wanting an edgier sci-fi narrative with complex characters.

Movie: 2.0

Genre: SCI-FI

CAST: Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Adil Hussain

DIRECTION: Shankar

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’, the much anticipated fol­low-up to 2012’s ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, brings back the pleasure of watching Wreck-it Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly), the arcade game villain with monstrous hands but a kind soul, and his pint sized side-kick Vanellope (voiced by Sarah Silverman), a motor race game driver. Their first adventure happened within the world of video games, as Ralph, fed up with his sorry existence as an unlikable villain, ventured to get himself a ‘medal’ that would earn him a hero-like respect. The second adventure propels Ralph and Vanellope in a strange new world of ‘the Inter­net’. Compared to the somewhat niche circle of video games, the Internet provides an extravagant otherworldly appeal, and fishes for hilarity out of relevant materi­als associated with our daily web consumption.

It all starts when the arcade, where Ralph and Vanellope exist with other fellow video game char­acters, installs a WIFI router. Ralph is pretty used to his routine video game life but Vanellope is bored to death racing the same levels of Sugar Rush over and over again. As chance would have it, their nor­malcy is threatened one day and to make things go back to normal, they get themselves into a fish-out-of-water situation by diving into the sea of unknown that is the Internet.

The director duo of Phil John­ston and Rich Moore are highly creative in bringing Internet to life. They distill the complexity of building a landscape of virtual reality by giving it humanistic char­acter strokes. They give feelings to pop-ups, search engines and viruses—and touch trickier terri­tory like the ‘dark web’ with a light hearted treatment. The screenplay mashes up many genres but comes out clean as a well thought out character journey for both Ralph and Vanellope. Ralph Breaks the Internet is in equal parts a road movie, a fish-out-of-water movie and a buddy movie.

Apart from the main cast, some new characters that impress are Yesss (voiced by Taraji P Hen­son), the head algorithm of a viral video content sharing site called BuzzTube, and Shank (voiced by Gal Gadot), a player in a rac­ing game called Slaughter Race. Yesss catapults Ralph’s internet popularity by turning him into memes and making him do reac­tion videos. And Shank takes over as Vanellope’s new BFF, putting her friendship with Ralph in jeopardy.

The plot may have been designed to throw our central characters in a wild goose chase but the thematic fabric of Ralph Breaks the Internet focuses on the dynamics of their friendship. In the classic animated film style, the movie is aptly able to sell the idea that relationships change over time and sometimes the best thing to do is not to latch on to things you love the most but to let them go.

This film is lush, bright and mostly nostalgic, and right up along the likes of ‘The Incredi­bles’ and ‘Inside Out’ in delivering emotional punches. It is on-the-nose with all the in-house Disney jokes but it gets away by treating these sequences as self-parody instead of self-promotion. The feel good nature and the ease with which the characters evoke empathy make it a family enter­tainer that shouldn’t be missed at any cost

 Who should watch it?

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ guarantees a fun time for parents and kids alike. You don’t need to know anything about the first movie to enjoy this second movie in the Wreck-it Ralph universe. It’s the kind of animated flick that hits home its moral message without being sugary or overtly simplistic.

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

GENRE: Animation

CAST: John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P Henson

DIRECTION: Rich Moore, Phil Johnston

It is the ultimate joy to watch the story unfold against the backdrop of the famous soundtracks of Queen’s major hits

BIOPIC

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

CAST: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy

DIRECTION: Bryan Singer

Who should watch it?

Bohemian Rhapsody is tailor made for the fans of Queen. They will definitely take this film as a celebration and tribute to the band.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is an expensively produced, stu­dio-backed biopic about Fred­die Mercury, the legendary Brit­ish musician who led one of the most iconic Rock bands of all time, Queen. Biopics, or the based-on-real-life films, by their nature, have received bad repute over the years for their episodic narratives that try to say so much about their sub­jects they end up saying little. Bohe­mian Rhapsody doesn’t break free of its genre dimensions but to call it “another band movie” would be a grave disservice to the film. Within its template storytelling it shelters an emotional core that effectively exposes the musical genius’s chaotic relation with his own roots, sexual­ity and fame. Mercury is played by American actor Rami Malek. The actor sinks his teeth deep into Mercury’s char­acter, giving us a fully lived-in per­formance. The film opens with the shot of Mercury waking up from a deep slumber and then psyching himself to perform at the 1985 Live- Aid Concert. As he makes his way to the stage, we magically travel back to the 1970 London, where a young Farrokh Bulsara rebels against his conservative Parsi immigrant family to pursue a bolder dream of music. En route, he befriends Roger May (Gwilym Lee) and Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) to form a band that performs at college pubs, and begins a roman­tic relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton). Much to his par­ents’ disapproval, Farrokh Bulsara changes his name to Freddie Mer­cury. Gradually Freddie becomes the force to push his other band mates to think big. They self-finance their first album that catapults them into mainstream pop music and lands them in America to much acclaim.

As far as Queen’s musical jour­ney is concerned, it feels way too regular. There’s the conflict among the group’s band members once they amass fame and fortune—the debate of whether to make passion­ate music or to be a formulaic sell­out—and the unwanted attacks from scandal-hungry media. Then again, hiding in these layers of familiarity are some powerfully interwoven moments.

One of them is the birthday scene where Freddie sits around with his band members and family. The fam­ily is meeting Freddie’s friends for the first time, so they are excited to talk about their rich Zoroastrian her­itage and their life before London. But Freddie continuously tries to change the topic, saying “No look­ing back, only forward”. A sense of Freddie not wanting to let his roots define him hauntingly mopes over this scene. We are left thinking: Was he so ashamed of his origins that he wanted to put a blanket over it? The answer to this is given when years later he purposefully injects “Bis­millah” in the lyrics of their most popular song Bohemian Rhapsody. A subtle hat tip that assures us he’s finally embraced his heritage.

The film refuses to take the spot­light away from Freddie Mercury and rarely focuses on the lives of other Queen members. It’s no sur­prise they feel underwritten and sometimes operate only to make the front-man look good. The film’s other weakness is it tries to string together a narrative jumping from one event to the other at lightning speed. But the ultimate joy of Bohe­mian Rhapsody is to watch the unfolding of the story orchestrated with the soundtrack of Queen’s major hits. The behind-the-scenes give us little nuggets about the cre­ative process of the band. Similarly, the concert sequences succeed in building an atmosphere of energy and nostalgia.

I wouldn’t say the film will age well. But for the time being, despite being formulaic, it is a movie that captures the spirit of Freddie Mer­cury and his music.

‘Thugs of Hindostan’ reunites writer/director Vijay Krishna Acharya and leading Bol­lywood star Aamir Khan, whose previous team up gave us ‘Dhoom 3’—the 2013 heist film that saw Khan play an illusionist turned bank rob­ber. Accused of drawing on plot elements from ‘The Prestige’ and ‘Now You See Me’ and featuring VFX mayhem of crazy and outright silly action stunts, the third installment of the Dhoom series was mostly panned. But despite its weak critical reception, it went on to become a Bollywood blockbuster. While still riding on the high wave of making one of the highest earning Hindi films ever, Acharya and Khan were handed a mammoth budget for their next film, Thugs of Hindostan, deemed to be the most expensive Hindi film ever made. If only lavish spending could mag­ically transform mediocre storytell­ing. Thugs of Hindostan is a poorly structured film that tries to cover up its design faults with patchy VFX work and overbearingly loud action sequences. Movie audiences will fail to find a true Bollywood adventure; but rather an exhaustive ordeal that whirlpools with predictability.

The year is 1795 and India is under the control of British East India Company. We meet Firangi Mallah (Aamir Khan), a smooth-talking trickster who earns his bread by helping gangs of Indian thugs rob passing travelers and then dou­ble crossing those Indian thugs by handing them over to the British officials. Impressed by his tricks and charms, and the notion that his loyalty can be bought, the cruel Brit­ish officer Clive (Lloyd Owen) gives Firangi the job to infiltrate the gang of outlaws led by Khudabaksh Azaad (Amitabh Bachchan), who seeks to chase away the British from the kingdom of Raunakpur, so that Prin­cess Zafira (Fatima Sana Shaikh), the rightful heiress to the throne, gets her kingdom back.

Even though Vijay Krishna Acha­rya sets his film during the Brit­ish Raj, Thugs of Hindostan is his­torically inaccurate. He chooses the aesthetics of classic Holly­wood swashbuckler adventures featuring pirates, cannon fights and swords duels. Khudabaksh’s outlaws live like gypsies in a cave and Firangi’s dressed like the Mad Hatter in ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Anyone used to this familiar narra­tive could easily guess how things proceed after Firangi penetrates Khudabaksh’s gang and how his unchanging deceitful nature is trans­formed by a greater calling. Acharya packs in no new surprises to chal­lenge our assumptions.

Aamir Khan makes do by portray­ing Firangi in animated and playful strokes. What’s essentially missing from Firangi is that he’s not much likable as the film’s protagonist. His double crossing intention is stretched so far that when he has a change of heart, it feels very make believe. Bachchan as Khudabaksh mostly glooms and harps on about “freedom” and “country’s soil”. Fatima Sana Shaikh, who ought to be the film’s emotional core and the one who wants to come to peace with her parents’ murder at the hands of the British, is sidelined by the stature of both Khan and Bachchan. She strictly maintains a tight face and emotes the feeling of distaste throughout the movie. And poor Katrina Kaif is restricted to two song sequences and in very brief flirty exchanges with Firangi.

Thugs of Hindostan is very pre­dictable and rarely has moments that take you to the edge of your seat. If the film turns out to be a box office winner for Aamir Khan and Vijay Krishna Acharya, then the real victims will be the audiences who let themselves get tricked by a movie made with sheer lack of imagina­tion, ambition and purpose.