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Chhapaak
This isn’t the angry film I thought it would be. It is, surprisingly, filled with laughter and hope...
Jan 2020
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Good Newwz
It wants to make you laugh a lot, weep a little, and walk home with a grin. The good newwz is that it checks all these boxes.
Dec 2019
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Dabangg 3
...what the sequels have done, really. They’ve reduced the Dabangg universe to a joke.
Dec 2019
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Mardaani 2
As a pure genre film, Mardaani 2 delivers. It helps that Rani Mukerji is a superb actor.
Dec 2019
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
This remake needed to be funnier, but it does interesting things with its women.
Dec 2019
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Marjaavaan
The film looks like someone sat down and made a bunch of post-its of “must-haves”, and then someone else slapped those post-its onto random pages of the screenplay.
Nov 2019
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Saand Ki Aankh
I would have liked a classier film, but as far as the emotional beats go, Saand Ki Aankh is mostly on target.
Nov 2019
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The Sky Is Pink
A tastefully made weepie that’s cheerier than the downbeat material would have you think.
Nov 2019
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War
...is a defining action movie of our time. It’s Hollywood enough to rock the multiplexes, but it doesn’t forget its roots.
Oct 2019
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Dream Girl
These are one-joke characters, and this is a one-joke movie. Very quickly, a sense of staleness sets in.
Sep 2019
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Sep 2019
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Judgemental Hai Kya
It’s just that the film is far more convincing as an art installation about a mental condition than as a whodunit, whydunit or did anyone indeed dunit in the first place!
Jul 2019
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Jul 2019
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Bharat
...is rooted neither in the cinema traditions of the decades it covers nor is it the designer masala of this day. It’s a series of very perfunctorily staged scenes that flit past us. This happened. And then, this happened. And then this.
Jun 2019
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Jun 2019
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Student Of The Year 2
...the clothes, the technicians, the sets, Tiger Shroff — must have cost crores, so why does Arshad Sayed’s script feel like it cost 50 paise? This is a question we keep asking our big-budget productions. SOTY 2 is undernourished and overlong.
May 2019
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Kalank
...the overall feeling is that of disappointment. Kalank is certainly not a lazy failure, but it ends up being an odd bird: watchable, but neither generic enough to overlook its flaws nor specific enough to embrace with all your heart.
Apr 2019
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Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aaata Hai?
This “conceptual remake” could have used less concept, more thought on why they were remaking the earlier film in the first place.
Apr 2019
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Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota
It’s classic masala, and Abhimanyu Dassani’s impressive performance mirrors the director’s vision: a mix of affectionate mocking and serious homage.
Apr 2019
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Badla
...despite an overall watchable quality, especially towards the end, Badla is a tepid affair.
Mar 2019
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Sonchiriya
...is very watchable, but sometimes, when some parts are so great, it’s a bigger disappointment when the rest of the film falls behind.
Mar 2019
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Mar 2019
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Gully Boy
If you’re looking for a good time, Gully Boy is everything you can ask for. It’s just that I wanted it to be more. I wanted it to be the film its lyrics deserved.
Feb 2019
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Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
This very “safeness” is this film’s secret strength. This isn’t Blue is the Warmest Colour. It’s a YashRaj-style romance with two girls. Without discomfiting the mainstream audience, it makes it possible to talk about a “bedroom subject” in the living room.
Feb 2019
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Manikarnika
...is all ingredients. There’s no cook. Technically, of course, there are two: Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi and Kangana Ranaut. But there’s very little in the film that looks “directed”. It’s just a dull series of events...
Feb 2019
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Thackeray
A celebratory epic that’s less about a leader’s psyche than his penchant for punch lines.
Jan 2019
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Jan 2019
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Simmba
On his good days, Salman Khan can really carry off a “mass” movie. But based on his extraordinary performance in Simmba, Ranveer Singh can apparently do this even on a bad day.
Jan 2019