Gully Boy
Dreams and reality fuse seamlessly in Gully Boy, Zoya Akhtar’s most heartfelt and accomplished movie yet. Akhtar’s fourth feature is headlined by an outstanding Ranveer Singh, packed with well-picked actors and neatly-etched characters, and filmed with infectious passion.
Feb 2019
The Fakir Of Venice
The decade between its completion and its release shows in every frame. Mumbai and Venice are visibly less crowded than they now are and the actors are younger and more energetic, but the movie’s art world con made little sense then and even less sense in 2019.
Feb 2019
- Feb 2019
Thackeray
Subtlety, or, for that matter, reason, are hardly to be expected from Thackeray, a 139-minute propaganda video for the Shiv Sena as it gears up for the Lok Sabha election later this year.
Jan 2019
Manikarnika
The Manikarnika production isn’t lavish enough to suggest a grand sweep of history, and the focus on its heroine is too narrow to accommodate a larger conversation about the efficacy of Lakshmibai’s actions. There is plenty of leaping and feinting, but not enough reflecting.
Jan 2019
Why Cheat India
Despite being disjointed and overstretched, the 120-minute movie manages to double up both as an expose of the problems that plague the examination system and a commentary on the failure of a generation to secure the future of the next one.
Jan 2019
Bombairiya
...the humour not sharp or bizarre enough, and the narrative too disjointed to hang together.
Jan 2019
The Accidental Prime Minister
...never evolves into anything more than a broadside against the Gandhi clan.
Jan 2019
Simmba
Ranveer Singh’s energy and flamboyance ensure that Simmba appears more engaging than it often is, and Ajay Devgn’s well-timed cameo rescues the film from being a write-off.
Dec 2018
Zero
Khan’s fanbase will possibly be even more perplexed with Zero. By trying to play the man next door rather than a larger-than-life personality, Khan has all too literally let himself be cut to size. The romantic declarations are less effective, the conviction with which Khan has carried off more modest romances is missing, and the package is smaller than before.
Dec 2018
Kedarnath
Despite the brisk storytelling and nicely braided scenes that give a vivid sense of the locations, Kedarnath never achieves the emotional peak that is a requirement of the disaster movie.
Dec 2018
2.0
In 2.0, Shankar’s ability to marry visual effects with populist melodrama serves him well in some of the sequences, even though the larger message is confused and the screenplay is too sluggish for an action spectacle.
Nov 2018
Pihu
...Vinod Kapri has delivered a bona fide suspense thriller that doubles up as a parenting lesson. Effective, yes, but also unsettling? Always.
Nov 2018
Mohalla Assi
What is supposed to be a satire about the exploitation of religious sentiment becomes a plodding dirge about a disappearing way of life.
Nov 2018
Thugs Of Hindostan
...scuttled by its ineptitude and palpable disinterest in approaching the freedom struggle with fresh eyes.
Nov 2018
Lupt
There is nothing here that is truly frightening, and not enough substance to justify the running time of 117 minutes, but at least the actors are committed to the material.
Nov 2018
Namaste England
There is barely a moment of relief from the tedium of watching the leads go through the motions and tuning into the poorly written dialogue and endlessly uninvolving moments.
Oct 2018
Helicopter Eela
The start-stop narrative, which feels jerky and disjointed, contains the ghost of a screwball comedy.
Oct 2018
FryDay
How about crafting a role for Govinda that properly capitalises on his comic talents and persuades him to shed off the anything-goes quality and tackiness of his recent films? Fryday isn’t quite a comeback for Govinda, but it will have to do for his extant fanbase.
Oct 2018
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
LoveYatri
...the movie exists only to give Aayush Sharma his dream debut. Salman Khan devotees might be persuaded to accept the latest boon from their screen god, but for the unfaithful – and the unforgiving – Loveyatri is a trudge from start to finish.
Oct 2018
Andhadhun
Raghavan’s talent for imagining ordinary people as proficient criminals in the right conditions and his use of locations and sharply etched characters to advance his plot is put to great use in Andhadhun.
Oct 2018
Sui Dhaaga
What eventually endures isn’t the inevitable heart-warming finale but the honesty of the writing and the performances and the subversions, minor and major.
Sep 2018
Pataakha
A crisper running length would have ensured a more explosive impact for Bhardwaj’s latest, and welcome, foray into black humour with a political subtext.
Sep 2018
- Sep 2018
Manto
Despite the best efforts of Nawazuddin Siddiqui to humanise his character, Manto’s inner workings remain elusive, emerging only in bits and pieces.
Sep 2018
Love Sonia
Despite the disjointed narrative, which leaps from one idea to another, the unconvincing plot turns, and the unending agony that awaits Sonia at every turn, the movie doesn’t waver from its focus on the inherently exploitative nature of sex work.
Sep 2018
Manmarziyaan
...Anurag Kashyap’s most emotionally resonant movie yet, injects considerable vim and wit into the most conservative and predictable of sub-genres: the love triangle.
Sep 2018