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When your creativity has depleted in your later years, you turn to your greatest creations and choose to destroy them in hopes of affording for the expensive lifestyle you have gotten accustomed to. That's what Ridley Scott has done with the legacy that Gladiator had. Its sequel's premise is as nonsensical as the progression of its inconsistent plot thereafter. The action sequences went from being awestrucking in the original to inadvertently amusing in the sequel.

The dialogues, which were one of the most alluring and iconic parts of the original, are unremarkable at best. The characters' tongue also go from old English to modern English within a span of about 2 decades?

Joaquin Phoenix played the insecure, fragile, egoistic villain so impactfully in the first part that despite the sequel's two villains following the same order as his character feel laughable. It's hard to buy how they have held on to the power. The movie's plot only makes it more and more unconvincing as it progresses. Lucilla loses the gravitas she had in the original and is reduced to being a one-note character. Pedro Pascal is grossly underused as Acacius. Paul Mescal frankly does his best in this mess of a film but, despite desperate parallels with Maximus, simply doesn't have the charisma of Russell Crowe to leave any real impact. The story around his character isn't helping him anyway - the single dialog turning point for his character is so beyond unconvincing that even the best actors wouldn't be able to deliver it.

If you were a fan of the original and you rue the fact that you would never be able to appreciate the film in all its glory as you did when you first watched it, perhaps watch the sequel. Its ridiculousness would definitely make you appreciate how great the original was.

Crew fits right into the comedy genre of films with signature bright colors, dazzling lighting, one-liners, melodramatic sequences that Balaji Telefilms Productions is known for. However, the film is far from balanced in these elements. The movie goes at a brisk pace and yet the screenplay isn't designed to keep the viewer hooked as it lays the inevitable in front of us. The film demands the viewer to suspend their disbelief as too many convenient happy accidents carry the script forward. The non-linear narrative is simplified and flows well.

The direction is genuinely good at times. Rajesh Krishnan's slapstick comedy lands well but the limitations of the writing do hold him back. What saves the film is its leading actors. Tabu is fantastic in the film. She brings her A game in acting provides the comedy a nuance that the film needed. Kareena Kapoor's charm works as well as Tabu's subtle approach. Kriti portrays her character's naivety and overachiever complex with finesse.

Bonus points for not being didactic about feminism for the cast itself does a fantastic job at portraying it for everyone to see. To the unionisation of the middle class!

Applauding the confidence with which Aamil Keeyan Khan submitted the screenplay of Drishyam 2 screenplay for this movie and got away with it. The writing was so predictable that the shock factor (an important parameter for this genre of films) was completely lost. Also, kudos to whoever edited the trailer for showing the world how not to make a trailer. If you have watched the trailer, you have seen every watchable scene of the film.

Going with 5/10 purely for R Madhavan and Janki Bodiwala's fantastic portrayal of their characters and the aptly chilling background music. Haven't watched the original but maybe give it a go instead of this one.