FAULTY IN PARTS

moves, sees a well-penned climax that gives a credible ending to the themes of sex talk as well as entrepreneurship, binding them in a cohesive whole. The importance of ridding sex of the taboo factor is put across without over-thetop fuss, and it fuses seamlessly with the hilarious reality about Magic Soup.

Made In China

STARRING: Rajkummar Rao, Boman

Irani, Mouni Roy, Amyra Dastu

DIRECTOR: Mikhil Musale

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Made In China is symptomatic of what's often happening in Bollywood right now. They have a concept driven by content that's high on blending entertainment and message, and the idea is original, too. Yet the effort gets lost in execution, hampered by unsure storytelling.

Director Mikhil Musale's Bollywood puts together two very different themes to set up the story. The first is sex and the Indian mindset - a domain that

Saand Ki Aankh

STARRING: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Vineet Kumar, Prakash Jha

DIRECTOR: Tushar Hiranandani

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Saand Ki Aankh is important for what it is trying to tell you, but the effort gets weighed down by an obvious obligation to tick-mark the diktats of commercial cinema.

Tushar Hiranandani's directorial debut ends up a work of ironies - it is high on intention and low on execution. You admire Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar's performances, even as you can't resist a chuckle over the ludicrous prosthetics gone into making them look aged. The outstanding women, whose real-life story Saand Ki Aankh narrates, instil awe but it surprises you how their on-screen personas are imagined without much depth. The drama uses the all-important issue of gender discrimination in heartland India, yet characters are too black-and-white to leave any serious impact.

Balwinder Singh Janjua's screenplay starts off in 1999, introducing Chandro and Prakashi Tomar (Bhumi and Taapse) as aged bahus in the household of a village Sarpanch (Prakash Jha). Unknown to the crudely chauvinistic men of the household, the sisters-in-law make way to a shooting competition, and eventually win.

It turns out Chandro and Prakashi commercial Hindi filmmakers have been warily stepping into only in recent times (Vicky Donor, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Khandaani Shafakhana). The second theme is good old entrepreneurship, and how nothing defines success in a business effort as a clever hardsell pitch (Gurua, Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year, Band Baajaa Baaraat). Clubbing the unrelated themes of sex and entrepreneurship could have been a sureshot USP if the writing was sharper. Based on Parinda Joshi's bestseller of the same name, Made In China presents Rajkummar Rao as Raghuveer, a Gujarati entrepreneur struggling to find his feet, although his father (Manoj Joshi) and elder