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Commando 3
...is a celebration of hyper-masculinity and hyper-patriotism. That’s not a good combination – either in cinema or in life.
Nov 2019
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Cocktail
He (Imtiaz Ali) creates a love triangle that references Archie's comics, the 1980s television show Three's Company and the oeuvre of Aditya Chopra-Karan Johar (foreign locales, decadent Western lifestyle, superior Indian values) and yet feels new.
Jul 2012
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Click
How hard can it be to make a reasonably diverting horror film if all you’re doing is copying? Well, if you’re Sangeeth Sivan, the answer is: very hard.
Feb 2010
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Citylights
...is persuasive. And it will hit you harder if you haven’t seen the original.
May 2014
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City Of Gold
...had the potential to be a far better film than it is...But the director is unable to find the right narrative tone for this difficult material.
Apr 2010
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Chhichhore
...allows us to revisit that first flush of youth. The film never matches the the inspired grunge vibe of In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones (1989) or the magic of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. But it’s a satisfying journey back to woh din!
Sep 2019
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Chhapaak
...hovers dangerously close to becoming a public service announcement. The messaging becomes bigger than the movie, which reduces the impact.
Jan 2020
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Chef
...the film is too bumpy to leave you satiated. But it is a pleasant enough diversion.
Oct 2017
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Chaurahen
...brims with tortured souls, pensive silences, meaningful looks and meals left unfinished. Not surprisingly, it’s a slog of a film.
Mar 2012
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Chance Pe Dance
...tries to combine a dance movie with a Bollywood-cinderella story and comes up empty-handed.
Jan 2010
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Chalo Dilli
...strains hard to be uplifting and poignant but it doesn't quite make it.
Apr 2011
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Bypass Road
My takeaway from Bypass Road is that perhaps it isn’t such a good idea to let an actor write a script, play the lead role, co-produce the film and have his brother direct it. Because then what you get isn’t a film, it’s a showreel.
Nov 2019
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Bullett Raja
...has flashes of fire but mostly it seems to be hobbled by a misguided sense of machismo.
Nov 2013
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Aug 2016
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Brothers
...was obviously made with a great deal of sweat and strain, but there is no getting away from its solemn silliness.
Aug 2015
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Break Ke Baad
I'm officially instituting the two and three- quarter star rating on our show. This is for films, which show promise and sparkle but eventually don't deliver the goods.
Nov 2010
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Bombay Velvet
...had the potential to be the definitive Mumbai noir. But the centre does not hold.
May 2015
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Bombay Talkies
...a unique experiment that works very well. The collaboration between four leading directors suggests a confidence that was rare in the industry even a decade ago.
May 2013
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Bol Bachchan
...mediocre entertainment, which is almost depressing in its repetitiveness. A fitting label would be: The Cinema of Exhaustion.
Jul 2012
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Apr 2012
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Blank
...Blank isn’t merely an adjective, it’s an entire sensibility. Which, as you can imagine, makes for a pretty dull movie.
May 2019
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Bhoothnath Returns
...is unnecessarily bloated. It has far too much sermonising. The narrative is simplistic and naïve. And yet I recommend that you see the film — because it is also heartfelt, genuinely moving and, for the first half at least, slyly funny.
Apr 2014
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Bhoot – Part One
Bhanu plays with the usual horror tropes – creaking doors, found footage, mirrors, children, dolls and cell-phones not working exactly when you need them. Which isn’t the problem. You pretty much sign up for this when you go into a horror film. The trouble is that beyond the first hour, the screenplay gets repetitive and increasingly silly.
Feb 2020
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Bharat
I know nothing about Korean history but by the end of Ode To My Father, I was weeping like a baby. The film is a masterclass in melodrama. In comparison, Bharat is bloated and inconsistent.
Jun 2019
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Beyond The Clouds
...is a mixed bag. It is likely to be a footnote in Majidi’s rich filmography. But the film is worth seeing as an intriguing experiment.
Apr 2018
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Bewakoofiyaan
...it’s going to take a better script than this to make me summon emotion for out-of-work yuppies.
Mar 2014