Tumbbad
...is the personal exploration of one man’s demons and the inevitability of him living with them forever no matter what he achieves. Rigorously detailed as a period film, Tumbbad has resonance with class structures that exist today.
Oct 2018
Margarita With A Straw
Watching Margarita with a Straw, I smiled and laughed a lot. Even in moments when I felt deep sympathy for her, the girl was sassy.
Apr 2015
Ugly
Ultimately Ugly rests on an irony, and although there are some masterfully-crafted scenes to build up suspense, none of it can hide the writer-director’s moral gaze—how depraved are you, he seems to ask, leaving his audience uneasy.
Dec 2014
PK
...the director’s biggest feat is the idea, its effortless translation and its politics.
Dec 2014
Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain
...apart from the provocative end, Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain is a wasted opportunity.
Dec 2014
Ungli
The film has the distinct stamp of a brand of exaggerated, schmaltzy activism far from reality but in the garb of realism—the consummate example of this is Rang De Basanti, also D’Silva’s script.
Nov 2014
Happy Ending
Listless and phoney though it is as cinema, Happy Ending has some chuckle-inducing moments, and one secret weapon in Govinda.
Nov 2014
Kill Dil
...is an amalgam of Hindi film clichés, the most obvious being the orphans, set to uninspired gimmicks. A waste of a Govinda comeback.
Nov 2014
Happy New Year
So much staleness, packed into a running time of 3 hours, is revolting even to the brain-dead stupor that we, fans of Hindi movies, sometimes habitually get into just for the sake of time-pass entertainment.
Oct 2014
Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami
...despite the best of intentions, Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami is a tiresome film and at least half an hour longer than it should have been.
Oct 2014
Haider
...an immensely effective reimagination of Shakespeare—and the film’s biggest triumph is that the provincial, in this case Kashmir and the characters defined by its reality, shine in a universal and timeless tragedy.
Oct 2014
Chaarfutiya Chhokare
Some nerve in the performances and crackle in the dialogues may have made the film a few notches better.
Sep 2014
Mary Kom
The champion’s amazing journey is broad-brushed, Manipur is a puzzle and Priyanka Chopra is impressively industrious
Sep 2014
- Aug 2014
Katiyabaaz
It is heartening to see documentaries release on the big screen, and Katiyabaaz is the clever new avatar of this genre that turns the mundane and the extraordinary in reality into marketable and watchable cinema.
Aug 2014
Kick
It’s a really long Salman Khan act—he’s the messiah, the crazy ‘dil se’ man. Just don’t count it as cinema
Jul 2014
Ek Villain
...an ugly ode to misogyny. On the other hand, it is an opportunity wasted for a spectacularly violent film free of middle-class dross.
Jun 2014
- Jun 2014
Dekh Tamasha Dekh
...political satire is a scarce commodity in Hindi cinema. Khan makes one without alienating any kind of audience. Far from being preachy; its politics is utterly engaging.
Apr 2014
- Mar 2014
- Mar 2014
Queen
...an ebullient, enjoyable film, its feminist points squirelled into the film’s margins. It’s the breeziest film you can imagine about a person’s transformation in a short span, and Ranuat is winningly responsible for it.
Mar 2014
Hasee Toh Phasee
It is an extremely likable balance between light and shade, the sadness in his beautiful lead woman sitting happily alongside her smiles. The sugar is pleasingly granular.
Feb 2014