Bhoomi
The problem with Bhoomi isn’t the loud, old-fashioned storytelling. It’s that it finds nothing interesting to tell.
Sep 2017
- Sep 2017
- Sep 2017
Simran
It’s not half bad. This is one of the rare instances the US doesn’t look shiny and plasticky, like a Christmas-tree ornament. The music is similarly real, understated. With Ranaut practically accommodating the orchestra in her portrayal, playing every instrument and waving the baton, a more melodramatic score would have been overkill. But the whimsy doesn’t work.
Sep 2017
Daddy
A barrelful of gangster clichés makes for a stylish but been-there-done-that biopic.
Sep 2017
Baadshaho
...promises B-movie entertainment, but the action scenes are unexciting, the writing is awful.
Sep 2017
Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
...is yet another “small” film that shows where so many of our bigger movies go wrong. It’s not rocket science. It’s just the basics. With an alert cast, flavourful writing, good filmmaking, it’s not… hard..
Sep 2017
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
An anything-goes genre hybrid that’s totally nuts, and totally entertaining.
Aug 2017
Sniff
It feels terrible to carp at a film made for children when there’s so few of these around – it’s the critical equivalent of tossing a mewling kitten off a cliff – but just about nothing goes right in Sniff.
Aug 2017
A Gentleman
Good directors are allowed to make bad movies, but with Happy Ending and, now, A Gentleman, Raj and DK have ventured into a peculiar place: they’re making bland movies. There’s no personality, only empty professionalism.
Aug 2017
- Aug 2017
Gurgaon
...is like… a dazzling edifice in Gurgaon. It’s imposing. It’s also remote. The director drains all life from his scenes till they come to resemble modern-art tableaux.
Aug 2017
Jab Harry Met Sejal
...ends up a cautionary tale about idiosyncratic filmmakers with a distinct voice working with a big star. Imtiaz Ali gets his biggest star yet, and he’s made his most underwhelming movie.
Aug 2017
Indu Sarkar
The storytelling is undeniably (and unsurprisingly) broad, but the masala treatment transforms what was simplistic and didactic in Bhandarkar’s earlier films into something touching, open-hearted, sentimental in a sweetly cornball style.
Aug 2017
- Aug 2017
Jagga Jasoos
The left half, he says, is logical. The right half is mad, magical. Anurag Basu has made a right-brain movie. I’m not sure it can be defended logically, and I’m not sure I care when the result is so mad, so magical.
Jul 2017
Shab
It’s hard to get involved with any of these lives, as their problems are so generic (though Onir could claim, rightly, that the generic is the universal). Something’s off. The revelations are underwhelming, and, worse, unaffecting.
Jul 2017
- Jul 2017
Tubelight
...Kabir Khan is no Hirani, and he is simply unable to tune into the good-hearted whimsy this story needs – and after the initial portions, Tubelight begins to drag its feet, becoming almost unwatchable.
Jun 2017
- Jun 2017
Sarkar 3
A needless, not-all-bad sequel that’s more interesting as commentary on the director
May 2017
Meri Pyaari Bindu
I’m just saying that keeping things light is one thing, and merely scratching the surface is something else entirely.
May 2017
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion
There’s none of that ‘leave your brains at the door, just go have fun’ condescension, and there’s no star-pandering. Rajamouli takes the genre seriously – he doesn’t pander to the audience either.
Apr 2017
- Apr 2017
Trapped
Even at a 100-something minutes, Trapped feels a tad stretched, but Rajkummar Rao ensures that the film is never less than watchable.
Mar 2017
Badrinath Ki Dulhania
At the “leave your brains at home” level, Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya is undeniably fun. Only, it doesn’t want you to leave your brains at home. It wants you to think about the things it’s doing. That’s the trouble.
Mar 2017
Commando 2
The problem with Commando 2 isn’t that it’s a B-movie. The problem is that it isn’t B-movie enough.
Mar 2017
Irada
...leaves you with a renewed appreciation for burning-issue masala movies like Kaththi and Kodi, which, for all their flaws, at least remember to entertain.
Feb 2017
- Feb 2017
Raees
Is it possible to make a relatively “realistic” masala movie? The lines don’t have the punch they should, and the Old Bollywood scenes are an embarrassment.
Jan 2017