Parents' Guide to Do Patti

This is a solid Hindi-language Bollywood thriller, but one that would have benefited from a reduced focus on a particular character's role. In Do Patti, fresh off the back of her Haseen Dillruba series, scriptwriter Kanika Dhillon pens yet another story of women who fight back. But when she chooses to place heavy emphasis on the character of the cop, Inspector Vidya Jyoti (Kajol), instead of the actual woman whose story is being told, the plot becomes lost. Kajol is a big star, and while her performance is not bad, one can speculate that her role was expanded for commercial reasons, which is to the detriment of the story. What's more, after an hour of accurate and subtle depictions of the sensitive issue of domestic violence, the last 30 minutes spend an unnecessary amount of time trying to cosplay as a "mystery" film and then spoon feed the audience, instead of trusting them to draw their own conclusions.

Sanon, however, executes the polar opposite twins Saumya and Shailee to perfection. Shaheer Sheikh too is quite eerie as Dhruv Sood, a violent and entitled man. He doesn't necessary look like a man capable of such cruelty, but that's what makes the casting so good. Do Patti had so much potential that it's difficult not to be left wanting more. Ultimately, it is the movie that muddles up its morality and is so unsure of its own feminism that it fails to say anything radical, despite coming very close.