By Sukanya Verma for Rediff.com, Click Here for Original. Two years ago, the animated version of Hanuman turned in a pleasant surprise with its winning charm and gripping goodness. Cashing on its popularity, the makers (Percept Picture Company) then decided to create a spin-off around the beloved mythological hero. Only they refused to call Return of Hanuman a sequel. Whatever! Considering the predecessor covered pretty much everything, Return of Hanuman blends the modern with the mythological to impart the golden lesson of good prevails over evil. In trying to establish this, the film tries to be a lot of things at once -- enlightening, entertaining, cheeky, cool and comic. The outcome of which is incoherent and exhausting. It all begins with the story of how Rahu and Ketu came into existence followed by why man himself is the biggest evil or the impact of pollution leading to global crisis. Barring the Rahu-Ketu portion, which is vividly and impressively picturised, the narrative not once touches upon what led to the decline of man and environment for it to cause such mass scale destruction. What could have been an excellent point of edification for the film's target audience -- children -- with regards to environmental issues, is, unfortunately, employed as a mere twist in the plot to get the climax done and over with. Also, Narada and Hanuman communicate straight out of a Ram Gopal Varma movie. That is, when Narada is not snooping around Lord Indra's room while the latter spends quality time with divine apsara, Menaka. The obnoxious innuendoes involved here are hard to overlook. 
Wait, there's more. You may spot a gorilla modelled around Shah Rukh Khan coming to little Hanuman's rescue or Hanuman dodge past a dozen bullets, a la Neo in Matrix. And there's a nasty bandit residing in mango orchards, inspired by Sholay's Gabbar Singh. Our man goes out of the way to demonstrate his versatility at the mimicking game, sometimes as the voice of Sanjeev Kumar, Raaj Kumar or Shatrughan Sinha, if you please. What is this? An animated homage to Om Shanti Om? Speaking of which, Narada breaks into a jig, strumming his sitar, fervently chanting OSO.
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Somewhere in the muddled picture, writer and director Anurag Kashyap fits in the hero of this enterprise, Hanuman and his unending saga of adventures.
One fine day, Hanuman resolves to make a trip down under as a mortal so that he can play football with the local boys. While Lord Brahma is most apprehensive, he eventually relents. Barely three months old, the human Hanuman, rechristened Maruti, is boy enough to get admitted in school. There's certain irreverence in the manner of handling the lovable deity's on screen persona. One fails to find anything chuckle-worthy about the director's constant fascination with Hanuman's tail or school kids referring to him as 'bandar'.
Anyhow, here the constantly famished Maruti bumps into the customary hapless kid, Minkoo, soft target of the bullies of his neighbourhood. Predictably, Maruti saves the day. Meanwhile, danger lurks around in the form of scheming bandits and Shukracharya's immortal creations -- the half serpent, half-human, Rahu and Ketu threatening to cause the end of the world.
For sure, with a do gooder like Maruti/Hanuman around, all's well that ends well. Not really! The climax involving a celestial battle and mucky volcanic eruption crawls painfully crying for a crisp pair of scissors. Although the artwork is fairly decent, the animation shows no sign of improvement since Hanuman's previous outing.
While adults may question Kashyap's take on mythology or disapprove of Gods conversing in Hinglish, kids might find the action entertaining. Or if nothing else; learn the importance of drinking milk. Else, go watch the recently tax-freed Taare Zameen Par.
Rediff Rating: 
The film begins with a disclaimer, stating that RETURN OF HANUMAN is not a sequel to any film made before. But is it really possible to watch the new experience forgetting all about the first part?
It's innovative to merge mythology with the contemporary and a number of sequences do make an impression, especially in the first hour. But the film drags in the post-interval portions and a long-drawn climax only dilutes the impact of several interesting sequences.
Welcome to the crazy, mad, funny, outlandish, outrageous, zany world of WELCOME, directed by Anees Bazmee, who gave us the rib-tickling NO ENTRY. Bazmee is a veteran when it comes to leave-your-brains-at-home comic capers, having penned and helmed non-stop laughathons in the past.
The director makes sure to open three more surprises in the post-interval hour -- Feroz Khan, Mallika Sherawat and Vijay Raaz, who is introduced in the first half, but gets scope only in the second half. The sequences between Nana and Mallika and also between Anil and Mallika are truly funny. Also, the marathon portion at the funeral is sure to bring the house down.
Akshay is equally competent. He looks every inch the seedha-saadha guy, who is torn between his lady love on one hand and the two factions [Paresh versus Nana, Anil & Co.] on the other. This film should find a prominent place in his repertoire.
It is hard to know, as a director, when there can be too much of a good thing. Khan indulges himself with his nice little visual flourishes significantly in the first half, to the point of repetition. There is the clever device of the child -- being shunted off to boarding school against his desperate pleas -- making a flipbook which shows a family with one kid moving away, as the pages turn. It's a strong, simple touch, yet Khan chooses to show it to us again and again, showing the audience the flipbook every time any character sees it.
Yet, let's discount that as nitpicking. This is the story of the child and his teacher, and Nikumbh stands at a blackboard and shows pictures of Albert Einstein and Abhishek Bachchan and tells us -- and the kids -- that dyslexia is more common than we think, and that it can be helped given the proper aid. Nikumbh speaks to the faculties, asks that Ishaan be given a little more time, and, after having educating the audience thoroughly on dyslexia, proceeds to charm Ishaan out of it. 
Those who somewhere nursed a grudge that the camera follows Aamir in all his films, will chew their words once they watch TAARE ZAMEEN PAR. Yes, Aamir has a key role to portray as an actor, but the camera captures the child's emotions like never before in a Hindi film. Also, let's also clear the myth about TAARE ZAMEEN PAR being a kiddie film. It's not! It's about children. Note the difference!
On face-value, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR looks like a kiddie film, but as the story unfolds, you realize that the story peeps into the mind and heart of a kid, his interests, his hobbies, his strengths and weaknesses. The director opens the cards at the very outset, when you realize that the kid is just not interested in books/studies. And his interaction with his stern father, doting mother and lovable brother is straight out of life.
The second hour is equally challenging and most importantly, motivating. The introduction of Aamir's character, Aamir spotting the indolent Ishaan, Aamir traveling to Mumbai to meet Ishaan's parents and then citing examples of extra-ordinary men who were ridiculed by their contemporaries/peers -- these moments linger in your memory even after the show has concluded.
Aamir is excellent. Note his scenes with the father of the kid. First, when he visits their home. Next time, when he cites the example of Solomon Islands. Splendid! Tisca Chopra is outstanding. Here's an actress who needs to be lapped up in a big way by film-makers.
Bipasha Basu -- in absolutely the single most moronic role of her career -- plays Warsi's sister, an incompetent physiotherapist who applies lotion on the nostrils of a man with a smashed septum. Of course, this could be because the bimbette is utterly smitten with Sunny, and makes use of these extreme close-up shots to tell him she cares because she's a doctor. And, um, that she's 'bahut sexy.' No kidding. She follows this up with, 'you're pretty sexy yourself,' in staccato Hindi, and giggles.
The filmmaker has said in interviews that he sees the new film as a fable for our times since it deals with absolutism and religious fundamentalism and the sins accruing from such arrogance. But you wonder at the end of the film what happened to that vision.
