Dilwale **

Dir:  Rohit Shetty
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan,  Kajol, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon, Boman Irani, Johnny Lever

Rohit Shetty’s films - particularly his hammy comedies – aren’t exactly my cup of tea. But his last two movies - Singham Returns and Chennai Express - had raised his standing somewhat in my book. The former had a certain amount of impressive grit and the latter exhibited a more subversive brand of humour (with Shah Rukh Khan ably willing to send up his own image) than we had come to expect from the director. So based on that and the fact that the movie featured the classic pair of Shah Rukh-Kajol coming together on the big screen after a five year gap, I had hopes for Dilwale. Sadly, those hopes ended up being dashed quite decidedly.

Shetty wants this movie to offer something to every possible target audience. So we get some comedy which tries just too hard (we get Johnny Lever too, so you know you are going to lots of mugging for the camera); we get some shootouts and car chases (filmed in Bulgaria - just because) for the action buffs; the Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol pairing is to get the romantics swooning; the Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon duo is to get the pulses racing of the younger set; and the overcharged colour palette of the film is to grab audiences in the south of India (I’m guessing). But the only bit of this ill-conceived muddle which works (to an extent) is the crackle which Shah Rukh and Kajol are still able to achieve even after so many years and so many films together. The car chases and fight scenes are passable (though even Shetty’s done better previously on this front) but the best action sequence is lifted almost outright from Tom Cruise-John Woo’s Mission: Impossible 2. The rest of the film is pretty much a disaster.

Believe it or not there is an actual plot (improbable though it may be) buried somewhere (deep down) underneath the mess. That is the track (with a neat plot twist to boot) revolving around the Shah Rukh-Kajol romance. If Shetty had concentrated purely on that part and cut out all the rest (the movie logs in at a mind-numbing two-and-a-half hours) we could have had a half-way 90-minute decent action-romancer. But as conceived and executed it is just painful viewing. Two stars at a stretch.

Cut to chase: The Shah Rukh-Kajol reunion deserved better.

Bajirao Mastani ** ½

Dir:  Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Tanvi Azmi, Milind Soman

I am not a fan of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hyped up melodramatic extravaganzas. For the most part they are all style and no substance (and certainly no subtlety). The same holds true for the director’s latest, inspired by the storied romance of the 18th-century Maratha general and his second wife. This is a good looking film with its sweeping vistas and grand palaces and raging rivers and dusty, blood-soaked battlefields all beautifully framed and photographed. The battle scenes are also quite well done (though the last one with a frenzied Bajirao taking on the might of the Deccani kingdom all by his lonesome is, frankly, quite ridiculous). And the worst excesses of the Bhansali school of acting are, thankfully, reined in. But the movie lacks soul.

I was never quite convinced by the romance between Bajirao (Ranveer Singh) and his great love, Mastani (Deepika Padukone). The lead pair do what they can with what they are given (they are actually more than adequate) but there’s no great depth to their characters (by contrast, Priyanka Chopra, as Bajirao’s first wife, Kashibai, gets more room to play with). Bhansali also does not spend that much time in exploring the politics of the era and only hints at the court intrigues. Granted, doing so might have been tricky in Modi’s India but I have a feeling that Bhansali really wasn’t interested in that part of his epic anyway. He is going for the spectacle and taking as his inspiration, Mughal-e-Azam (he has said as much publicly). So we get his version of the sheesh-mahal, and Mastani gets turned into a courtesan (of sorts) and, later, finds herself bound in chains. Bhansali also rips himself off with the "Pinga" dance sequence, featuring both Deepika and Priyanka, evoking "Dola Re." Which is all great and good (and, admittedly, I did not get bored during the two-and-a-half hour movie except near the drawn out denouement) but somewhere along the line the heart of the movie and the romance got lost.

Note: I did really like Tanvi Azmi’s performance as the tradition-driven mother of Bajirao.

Cut to chase: Gold-plated but not gold.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz