New York

An FBI agent, Roshan, makes an offer to Omar, an Indian student he has detained: get inside your old friend Sam's house, bring back information, save yourself. Omar and Sam know each other from university, and the third of them is Maya, whom both loved and who is now married to Sam. Omar goes back into his old friends' lives as an informant. The question at the centre is why Sam changed. The answer comes from after the eleventh of September: he was held for months, tortured, found innocent and released. The story does not offer this as an excuse but does not hide it either, and shows where the violence is produced. Kabir Khan directed. Neil Nitin Mukesh plays Omar, John Abraham plays Sam, Katrina Kaif plays Maya and Irrfan Khan plays the agent Roshan. Yash Raj Films produced. The strongest passages are the detention scenes, unusually direct and unadorned for Indian commercial cinema. Who it is for: anyone curious about the political strand of Indian cinema and post-2001 narratives. Who it is not for: anyone wanting subtlety. The love triangle crowds out the main subject, the songs break the tone, and the last section resolves the matter too easily.