Sanju
Hirani is more interested in event and entertainment. He transforms a feel-bad life into a feel-good story.
Jul 2018
- Jun 2018
Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
A sombre not-quite-superhero tale whose flaws don’t make it any less fascinating.
Jun 2018
Veere Di Wedding
...is a lazy film, too content with easy zingers. Issues are raised and resolved in so little time, it looks like a new scripting technique: premature elucidation. But whenever the film doesn’t try too hard to show you how hip it is, it’s not entirely unlikeable.
Jun 2018
- May 2018
Raazi
I’m happy Raazi is a hit. We need more heroine-driven films to work broadly — and not just in a few metro pockets. But the film is broad, too, as is Alia Bhatt’s performance, though she is a victim of the writing and filmmaking.
May 2018
Daas Dev
The film is darkly funny, and a refreshing change from the staid classicism that undermined some of Mishra’s recent work.
May 2018
Hichki
...isn’t a bad film — it’s a mild, pleasant diversion, something that’s going to make a lot of people think they saw something “good” and “worthwhile.”
Mar 2018
- Mar 2018
Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety
Another Luv Ranjan film, aka some mild laughs buried in a mountain of misogyny.
Mar 2018
Pari
A rewarding slow-burn story that’s not a ‘horror movie’ so much as a horror-inflected drama about misfits.
Mar 2018
Pad Man
...Balki never loses sight of the fact that what he’s making isn’t an Oscar-bait biopic but a rousing audience-pleaser.
Feb 2018
Padmaavat
All of which is to say that people who don’t care for this filmmaker should stay far, far away — but even for fans, Padmaavat is an underwhelming oddity.
Jan 2018
Kaalakaandi
...made me wonder if Delhi Belly might be another instance of the famed “Aamir Khan touch,” where people who make good-to-great films under his aegis end up bombing outside.
Jan 2018
Mukkabaaz
I loved Mukkabaaz, but it took me a while to put a frame on it, to decide how to look at it. Kashyap’s reputation is so festooned with international art-house hosannas – screenings at Cannes! reviews in Variety! – that it’s easy to forget how rooted in Hindi cinema he is.
Jan 2018
- Dec 2017
Monsoon Shootout
...was a little too low-key for my taste — it isn’t quite as existential as I’d have liked, and the butter-smooth filmmaking could have used more rough edges. But there’s still a lot of skill on display, not least from Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Dec 2017
- Sep 2017
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