The controversy surrounding Ranveer Singh and Don 3 continues to make headlines. According to recent reports, the actor has decided to maintain complete silence on the matter and has no plans to address the controversy publicly.

As per a report by a trade journalist, Ranveer is expected to stay away from media interactions for the next 18 months and is unlikely to give interviews until the release of his upcoming film Pralay. The report further claims that neither the actor nor his legal team intends to make any public statements regarding the Don 3 row.

Interestingly, actor Varun Dhawan appeared to react to the development on social media. A Bollywood news page shared the report claiming that Ranveer would continue to remain silent on the issue, and eagle-eyed fans noticed that Varun had liked the post.

Check it out below:

The Don 3 controversy began after reports emerged that Ranveer had exited the highly anticipated film, directed by Farhan Akhtar, shortly before production was expected to begin. The matter escalated when the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) issued a non-cooperation directive against the actor following complaints related to the project’s disruption and alleged financial losses. Reports suggested that the producers claimed significant losses after his departure.

However, shortly afterwards, the film body withdrew its non-cooperation order following mediation efforts by industry bodies including CINTAA and IMPPA.

The actor’s spokesperson had earlier stated that Ranveer chose to handle the developments with “dignity, maturity and mutual respect” rather than engage in a public back-and-forth.

On the work front, Ranveer is currently focused on Pralay, while fans continue to await clarity on the future of Don 3 and who will eventually lead the iconic franchise.

Also Read: Ashoke Pandit Praises Dhurandhar & Aditya Dhar Amid Ranveer Singh’s Don 3 Controversy

There was a time when a cardboard box and an idle afternoon were all a child needed to build an entire universe. Toy Story 5 understands that this time is slipping away, and it builds its entire fifth outing around the anxiety of watching it go. Bonnie has a new tablet called Lily Pad now, voiced with unsettling cheer by Greta Lee, and Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen), along with Jessie, find themselves competing with a screen for a child’s imagination for the first time in the franchise’s history.

What the film gets sharply, almost uncomfortably right is the social mechanics of growing up online. Bonnie’s friends from dance class don’t reject her for playing with toys outright; they make her feel uncool for it, the way an unliked photo or an unanswered message can quietly recalibrate a kid’s entire self-image. The film captures how peer validation has migrated onto a screen, and how instant gratification, that little dopamine ping of being seen and approved of, has replaced the slower, messier joy of actually playing. It is a smarter and more specific indictment of social media than most films aimed at adults manage, let alone one wearing a toy box on its sleeve.

The Buzz character gets its own fresh side quest too. Marooned on an island, dozens of freshly unboxed Buzz figures, all chrome, upgraded with new-age confusion start a new mission to get to star command. It sounds like a gimmick on paper, but watching an army of Buzz Lightyears scamper about in unison, with Tim Allen’s familiar delivery anchoring the chaos, is such a gratifying jolt of old-school nostalgia that you forgive it for not doing much narrative heavy lifting.

Blaze, voiced with terrific warmth by Mykal-Michelle Harris, is the film’s clearest answer to all this. She is tech-savvy and entirely her own person, a kid who doesn’t perform for anyone’s feed and finds her joy in horses, dance parties and old, half-forgotten toys rather than approval. She is the film’s conscience, and easily its most quietly radical character.

The humour, meanwhile, hasn’t lost a step. Conan O’Brien’s Smarty Pants is a genuinely funny creation, all dead batteries and wounded dignity, and the film knows exactly when to undercut its own earnestness with a well-timed gag. Technically, Pixar remains in a league of its own; the texture work on the toys, the lighting in Bonnie’s bedroom, the sheer tactile quality of a thirty-year-old animation house still finding new ways to make plastic feel alive, is a reminder of why this studio still sets the bar.

And yet, for all its insight, Toy Story 5 arrives feeling like a conversation we’ve already had. The dangers of screen addiction, the hollowness of validation-chasing, the slow erosion of real-world play, these aren’t new observations anymore; they’re the stuff of parenting columns and TED talks from five years back. Pixar makes the argument beautifully. It’s just arrived a little too late to feel urgent.

Toy Story 5 has all the imagination, craft and heart you’d expect from this franchise. It just spends two hours catching up to a conversation the rest of us already had.

Also Read: Taylor Swift Surprises Fans at Toy Story 5’s Premiere, Sings I Knew It, I Knew You

Cocktail (2012) was a fun, frothy film about three clueless people finally growing up and discovering what love and commitment actually mean. It was written by Imtiaz Ali and directed by his bro Homi Adajania. That film had Saif Ali Khan happily making out with both Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty before eventually deciding that the seedhi-saadi Meera was a better bet than the teekhi Veronica. My biggest grouse with the film was that the ‘good girl’ triumphed in the end. It felt like a cop-out. I remember calling it a Bloody Mary without the vodka.

Cocktail 2, written by Luv Ranjan and Tarun Jain and directed once again by Homi Adajania, is an entirely different drink. In fact, it is so sanskari that it feels as though it has been directed by Sooraj Barjatya.

Shahid Kapoor plays Kunal, a chef as pure as Gangajal (which, admittedly, is hardly pure these days), who has known Diya (Rashmika Mandanna) since junior college. The two seem destined for each other, yet after sixteen years together they still haven’t managed to get married. They head to Sicily for a holiday, where they run into Ally (Kriti Sanon), Diya’s friend from her phoren university days. Ally promptly dismisses their carefully planned itinerary as painfully dull and offers to show them the “real” Sicily. A free-spirited bohemian who’s hopped from one profession to another before opening a dance studio there, she injects some life into their holiday.

The three get along famously. Sorry to disappoint, but they don’t have threesomes.

Without giving too much away, Ally falls for Kunal. Will he finally marry the woman he has loved all his life, or throw caution to the wind and embrace a new adventure? Your guess is as good as mine. Of course he stays. Of course he doesn’t stray. Whom are we kidding? Virgin mojito on the rocks, anyone?

Through its three central characters, the film tries very hard to explain what love really is. According to the makers, love is like sleeping in the same torn T-shirt every night because it gives you comfort. Now try saying that in Hindi: Pyaar us phati hui T-shirt ki tarah hota hai jisme hum har raat sukoon se sote hain. The problem is obvious. Dialogues are conceived in English and then awkwardly translated into Hindi, leaving them sounding more like Instagram captions than genuine conversations.

Shahid Kapoor’s Kunal is positioned as the sensible one, the man who understands the true meaning of relationships. Naturally, this wisdom arrives in the form of one marathon speech at the end, patiently explaining love to the two women. If someone you’ve lived with for sixteen years still doesn’t understand what you feel at a deeper level, perhaps the relationship needs counselling rather than a monologue. Then again, maybe that’s the film’s point. Who knows?

Cocktail worked because Deepika Padukone’s Veronica gradually unravelled into a jealous, self-destructive wreck. Her emotional spiral gave the film its dramatic heft. Homi Adajania pulls his punches this time. Kriti Sanon’s Ally makes a move but never quite twists the knife. Rashmika Mandanna’s Diya never loses herself to jealousy either. There are no grand emotional outbursts, no messy confrontations and not nearly enough heartbreak to justify calling this a genuine conflict.

Ironically, Shahid Kapoor displayed far more passion in Kabir Singh. Yes, he played the much-maligned alpha male everyone loved to hate, but at least the emotions felt raw and visceral. Here, after discovering what both women are really feeling, he simply goes for a long drive before delivering the speech of the century.

The first Cocktail had Pritam delivering an infectious soundtrack. Tumhi ho bandhu, Daaru desi, Second hand jawaani and Yaariyan continue to live rent-free in people’s playlists. Pritam returns here as well, but while the songs serve the narrative adequately, none of them qualify as genuine earworms.

Visually, the film is a treat. The Italian countryside has been beautifully photographed, and the production design is first-rate. Unfortunately, the shallow writing doesn’t give the actors much room to shine.

Diya remains frustratingly underwritten, leaving us with little understanding of who she really is beyond being Kunal’s long-time partner. Ally’s vulnerability surfaces only in scattered moments. Kunal, meanwhile, gets all the emotional heavy lifting courtesy that climactic speech. Shahid Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna share warm, effortless chemistry, but the same spark is missing between Shahid and Kriti, not because the actors lack it, but because the screenplay simply doesn’t allow it to develop. They practically set the screen on fire together in Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya (2024). Here, their cocktail is missing one very important ingredient: fizz.

Also Read: Cocktail 2 Trailer: Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon & Rashmika Mandanna Navigate Love & Friendship