Lucknow Central is releasing today, and it’s a story about a group of people who form a band to escape jail. The reviews haven’t been so great, and we admit, we are a little skeptical of spending our hard-earned money on the film. From the trailer, we expected it to be India’s answer to The Shawshank Redemption, but alas.  

That said, we know that there is a serious dearth of jailbreak movies in Bollywood. And there is an acute need for more. 

For now, let’s look at the good, the bad and the ugly of such films. 

Kaalia (The Good) 

Probably, the most classic jailbreak movie in Bollywood, the film was powered by some great dialogues delivered in a terrific fashion by both Amitabh Bachchan and Pran. The film also had some great RD Burman songs like Kaun Kisiko Bandh Saka, 

Main Aur Charles (The Good)

Randeep Hooda’s breathtaking performance as serial killer Charles Sobhraj might not have resulted in big box office numbers, but it did help him earn his share of female fans. 

Qaidi Band (The Bad) 

This film was supposed to be Aadar Jain’s (part of the Kapoor clan) dream debut, what with the Yash Raj  banner and all. However, the film turned out to be a damp squib, and very few people know that such a film even exists. 

Toofan (The Ugly) 

There’s a scene in this movie where a prisoner escapes using a bunch of matchsticks. No, seriously. If you have the guts watch it. It starts at 1 hour 34 minutes.