Pati Patni Aur Woh
The movie is refreshingly unsentimental and bereft of breast-beating, but fails to capitalise on its independent-spirited women...
Dec 2019
- Nov 2019
Pagalpanti
...pedestrian writing and severe shortage of engaging characters and imaginative gags.
Nov 2019
Satellite Shankar
...the movie isn’t interested in teasing out the shades and complexities of Shankar’s cross-country adventure. Ballad of a Soldier celebrates the Russian spirit while allowing for doubt and sadness. Satellite Shankar is all grins and salutes...
Nov 2019
Bypass Road
Had the 137-minute movie been as ruthless about its running length as some of its characters, Bypass Road might actually have worked.
Nov 2019
Bala
...extends its leading man’s predicament in more interesting ways, and is an altogether more humorous and layered examination of a widespread problem than Ujda Chaman. And yet, every time Latika appears on the screen, a shred of legitimacy falls to the floor, just like one of the many strands leaving Bala’s scalp at an alarming rate.
Nov 2019
Ujda Chaman
A movie that sets itself up as an anti-romcom, one in which outward appearances don’t matter, makes little effort to explore the inner lives of its characters, particularly its self-centred hero.
Nov 2019
Made In China
The movie tries to marry the world of the inept trader with nothing to sell and the enlightened doctor with something important to say, but no amount of magic potion can make this union work.
Oct 2019
Saand Ki Aankh
The movie aims high, and wants to say many important things about the lack of opportunities for women, in sports or elsewhere. But its uneven tone and the easy-peasy manner in which the lead pair accumulate awards rarely allows for an nuanced understanding of just how the Tomar women did it.
Oct 2019
Laal Kaptaan
Threats are delivered but never carried out, and ambition is spelt out but not realised. Yet, Laal Kaptaan scores on other fronts. The lack of sentimentality suits the material, and Navdeep Singh effectively conveys the sense of a battle without honour or humanity.
Oct 2019
P Se Pyaar F Se Faraar
The adults in the room, rather than the under-age lovers on the run, save the movie from predictability and inevitability.
Oct 2019
The Sky Is Pink
The sincerity of the 149-minute film is never in doubt, but to have been effective, it needed stronger actors and less clutter and over-plotting.
Oct 2019
War
The male leads, separated by a couple of generations and united by their ability to land punches and execute pirouettes without breaking a sweat, set the screen on fire. Fortunately for War, there is barely a scene without either of them.
Oct 2019
The Zoya Factor
...a movie that both suffers from miscasting and benefits from perfect casting. Abhishek Sharma’s shambolic romantic comedy, based on the bestselling 2008 novel by Anuja Chauhan, gives top billing to Sonam Kapoor, but all the attention is hogged by the name that follows hers in the credits. Malayalam star Dulquer Salmaan...
Sep 2019
Dream Girl
The movie’s aims include supplying a joke every minute, which it often does, and delivering a comic take on urban loneliness, which it doesn’t quite do.
Sep 2019
Section 375
In the interests of free expression, then, it is necessary to hear the support for patriarchy laid out by Section 375 – just as it is possible, in a democracy, to decide for yourself whether the movie is an effective legal drama or a bilious defence of deeply entrenched sexism in Bollywood.
Sep 2019
Chhichhore
The movie begins as a rambunctious college campus comedy, quickly moves into the sentimental family drama zone, returns for the fun and games, shifts back into tear-jerking territory, and finally runs out of breath with only some of its ambitions realised.
Sep 2019
Batla House
...claims to explore the role played by doubt in a police investigation, but it is loaded with biases.
Aug 2019
Mission Mangal
In between the gimmicky jugaad philosophising and meaningless sub-plots, Mission Mangal manages to devote some time to space technology.
Aug 2019
Pranaam
The amateurish staging and tacky melodrama ensure that Pranaam ends up without anything resembling a high score, let alone grace marks.
Aug 2019
Jabariya Jodi
The humour is as forced as the romance, and the biggest question goes unanswered: what is the movie really trying to say?
Aug 2019
Khandaani Shafakhana
There isn’t enough humour of the gentle or wicked variety across the sluggishly-paced film to communicate its larger themes.
Aug 2019
Arjun Patiala
In trying to send up Bollywood cliches, Arjun Patiala becomes yet another Bollywood cliche itself.
Jul 2019
Judgemental Hai Kya
Neither whodunit or even whydunit, Judgementall Hai Kya is never quite able to match its ambitions. Buried somewhere in the rubble is the ghost of a movie about why madness is sometimes the only sane response to violence.
Jul 2019
Family Of Thakurganj
The plot kicks in very late, and a bit too late to rescue the movie from utter predictability and sameness.
Jul 2019
Jhootha Kahin Ka
The whole commotion would have been resolved if the characters had sat across from each other and explained their positions, but then we wouldn’t have had a movie to plod through.
Jul 2019
Super 30
...suggests that with talent and commitment, it is possible to cross over from the other side of the tracks. Leap high towards your goals, Anand tells his students. The formula is as pat as the solution, but many parts of the journey makes this classroom victory worth the while.
Jul 2019
Malaal
The movie has nothing new to say about the star-crossed romance, and is too timid to mirror the unabashed celebration of unreconstructed malehood that marked the source material.
Jul 2019