I think this is a very well made movie. Very nicely paced. After Rang de I had high expectations from Rakesh Mehra and must say he has not dissapointed at all. Subject was very good. After I read the reviews I was expecting a very bad movie but I quite liked teh movie on whole. Taran Adarsh found the first half boring but I think it was very well paced and was very apt and linked to the later half and the end I thought was superb. The sensitive issue of communalism has been handled very well.
AB has given a good performace and for that matter everyone has performed very well. I agree with taran that there are a lot of stories going parallel to the main story line but the question is what is the main story line? All these stories form a part of the story.
In short this is a good story told even better. Not to mention the brilliance of A R Rehman. I think this is one of the better movies made in this era.