VILE AND VENOMOUS

SACRED GAMES 2 (NETFLIX)

STARRING: Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey

DIRECTOR: Anurag Kashyap and Neeraj Ghaywan

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Sigh. Mumbai is again under siege. Nuclear attack being planned, no less, this time. And the monstrously notorious, foul-mouthed and evil- minded Gaitonde is back to create another season of havoc in a series whose massive global success has surprised many, stunned none.

What is it that makes this heavily dense and ponderous parable of a crime combat between a cop and a sociopath so widely appreciated? Is it the unabashed language and brazen depiction of bodily functions? One character who we are told has an erectile dysfunction, gets a remedial treatment from an obliging lady in a swimming pool. This character, we are told, thinks with his private part. I am not too sure which part of the body the writers of Sacred Games 2 think with. Everything that was apparently appreciated in the first season has been amplified in the second season. There is more darkness spreading itself out from the characters' hearts into the farthest distance of this series' godforsaken horizon. There is a moment of anguished self-mortification between

Frankly there is little to appreciate in this season of Sacred Games. Even the performances appear strangely detached, with Saif Ali Khan deliberately playing down his character’s tensions to let his archrival scream through a role that grows progressively socio-pathic. Gaitonde's foul language gets tiring after a while. The number of times he uses the crude term for the male private part makes one wonder if we are to read something Freudian in that script. There is way too much happening on screen this season. The violence that undercuts and defines the drama is purposely overbearing. Mumbai is finally saved. I am not too sure about the series.

Subhash K Jha

Mission Mangal

STARRING: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu

DIRECTOR: Jagan Shakti

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Going to Mars is about as much of a challenge as chomping on a Mars bar - at least, that's the impression Mission Mangal gives. Akshay Kumar's latest ode to the nation so prioritises the need to match the feel-good spirit of an extended holiday weekend, that it misses out on setting up the drama and thrill of a scientific feat that is nothing short of historic for India. The film packs in essential masala. Director Jagan Shakti and his battery of co-screenwriters (R. Balki, Nidhi Singh Dharma and Saketh Kondiparthi) set up smaller subplots of melodrama to describe the personal lives of the protagonists - in rather unnecessary detail. For the lack of a genuine antagonist in the real-life saga it is

Facts Messed Up By Fiction

Batla House

STARRING: John Abraham, Mrunal Thakur, Ravi Kishen

DIRECTOR: Nikkhil Advani

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In the media, the Batla House team has declared that their film is an attempt to seek definite answers to questions that still remain, regarding the alleged Batla House encounter in Delhi's Okhla area that happened in the aftermath of the 2008 serial blasts. Ironically, in a crucial courtroom scene of the climax, when the defence and prosecution are arguing to establish the guilt or innocence of a key suspect, an announcement appears on the screen stating that the filmmakers "do not endorse the viewpoint of either party".

You realise at that point where the problem with the film lies. Like most other mainstream Bollywood efforts claiming to bare truths, Batla House, based on, the script invents a ‘villain’ too - by way of Dalip Tahil's NASAreturned Indian expert at ISRO, who sneers and snarls at every desi effort to do something original.

The story begins when an ambitious ISRO project goes kaput. Rakesh

Dhawan (Akshay Kumar), a maverick genius scientist who was in charge of the project, takes blame, although it was project director Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan) who was actually at fault.

Consequently, he is shunted to a project no one believes will ever take off: head India's mission to Mars. Despite the odds stacked up against the project, Tara manages to convince Rakesh the project could actually take off, with the right team and execution.

The script intertwines personal lives of Tara and her team with the account of the mission itself. So, Eka Gandhi, propulsion control expert (Sonakshi Sinha), hates most things Indian and wants to get away to NASA. Spacecraft