Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

*ing : Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Rajit Kapur, Shishir Sharma, Jaideep Ahlawat, Ashwath Bhatt, Amruta Khanvilkar, Soni Razdan Rated : 8/10 Meghna Gulzar makes a wholesome comeback with this no-nonsense gritty spy thriller which dotes on its Spartan surrounds, a virtually true tag and an absolutely real-time performance put in by Alia Bhatt. Spy thrillers always have a pull all their own, but this one is vibrantly resonant with real-time happenings that we all know about as part of our contemporary history. Set in the 1971 Bangladesh’s war of independence and adapted from Lt Commander (Retd) Harinder S Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat, Alia (Sehmat) is sent in as a Kashmiri Muslim-Sikh girl with a family legacy for spying in Pakistan to further the cause of Indian Intelligence. It is refreshing to see an Indian Muslim from the Kashmir Valley talking of the right vatan in right earnestness, that too convincingly through a brief but happening role played out by Rajit Kapoor. But...

Cast : Sidharth Malhotra, Jacqueline Fernandez, Darshan Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Kushal Punjabi, Hussain Dalal, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Rajit Kapur Rated : 6/10 A swishy pacemaker, this romantic spy thriller on a Miami to Mumbai junket pans out on the broad shoulders of Sidharth Malhotra and the gyrating sexiness of Jacqueline Fernandez. Add to that the slick dressing up of the scenes by directors Raj & DK and you have a film that keeps you and your popcorn brainlessly and aimlessly but sufficiently engaged. Malhotra plays a good guy and a bad guy, all at the same time, playing out both portions in equal measure. As an IT programmer with a big firm, a big house, a big dream and a big amount of loneliness, he is both   sundar   and susheel   but too right to be husband material for the fun-loving Jacqueline he is rooting for. As the bad guy, but actually not a bad guy, he is a crack killing machine who can do pretty much everything that the good one can’t even...