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Lootera
...while The Last Leaf, with its daft romanticism in the end, is better imagined than seen on screen, where the literalness of the images makes everything look foolish.
Jul 2013
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Ghanchakkar
Raj Kumar Gupta is a tasteful filmmaker with an eye for colourful detail and the archly droll moment. But he cannot rein in the various dimensions of the story, and the film feels like it’s stuck in a loop.
Jun 2013
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Shortcut Romeo
A remake is usually a way to take care of the things that did not work earlier, but Ganesh is too busy having his African extras shake their buttocks...
Jun 2013
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Raanjhanaa
I was left with mixed feelings, torn between admiration for what was being attempted and frustration that a film dealing with such serious subject matter had chosen to take an audience-friendly approach, showcasing its protagonist as someone you just can’t help loving.
Jun 2013
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Fukrey
What’s missing is the sense that something is at stake. Rather, we see what’s at stake, we know it, but we don’t feel it as the film progresses.
Jun 2013
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Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
...my experience of it was similar to what I felt with Wake Up Sid – plenty of beautifully thought-out moments, lots to like, but it should have been so much more. Mukerji has this tendency to pick up heavy subjects and treat them lightly, which can be frustrating at times.
Jun 2013
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Ishkq In Paris
It’s hard to decide what’s worse - this psychobabble, or the bland drama that it sets up.
May 2013
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I Don't Luv U
...isn’t terrible and it could have been saved with a rousing climax, but the end is shockingly low-key.
May 2013
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Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb, which should have been much better, plays like a mashup of Hindi cinema before it became Bollywood.
May 2013
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Gippi
...follows a tried-and-tested Hollywood template, and it doesn’t try to do too much. Its triumphs are minor (though not insignificant).
May 2013
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Gippi
...it knows what it wants to do - clear a low bar - and does it pretty well, with a jaunty tone and cheerfully foul-mouthed one-liners.
May 2013
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Shootout At Wadala
...the film never becomes anything more than a proficiently made cops-and-robbers thriller.
May 2013
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Bombay Talkies
The quartet of shorts that make up Bombay Talkies train a zoom lens on cinema, starting on the outside and slowly drawing us in.
May 2013
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Special 26
...the occasional slackening of the plot is compensated for by the rampant nostalgia.
Feb 2013
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David
...this movie too could have been named Shaitan, and here too Nambiar comes off more super-cool technician than storyteller.
Feb 2013
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Race 2
...the "director duo" – that very moniker is funnier than most of what passes for humour in their films – have somehow pulled off a thriller where we root for the beautiful people. Walking out, I thought, "How did they do this?"
Jan 2013
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Inkaar
Mishra’s point may be that the sexual harassment case was just a red herring and that the real story was about a man and a woman who realised what’s truly important and repriortised their lives, but that’s just cheapening a sensitive issue.
Jan 2013
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Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola
Bhardwaj gives the feeling of having worked hard – really, really hard – on these scenarios and we are torn between admiring the thought and effort that’s gone in and being exasperated by how it all comes together on screen.
Jan 2013
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Table No. 21
...it isn’t everyday that you get a B-movie that makes a convincing case for karma.
Jan 2013
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Dabangg 2
...will delight fans of people being swung around in slow motion as well as those who’ve wondered what the world looks like from the inside of a blender.
Jan 2013
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Nov 2012
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Jab Tak Hai Jaan
It is perhaps a testament to Yash Chopra that he shepherds us past this material without making it look entirely ludicrous. Jab Tak Hai Jaan is a sturdy instruction manual on how to handle melodrama in the classiest possible fashion.
Nov 2012
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Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana
Family is the motor that revs up this wonderful romance, which is as much about the ways we love people as the ways we love food – and this is only fitting in a film whose title embraces both "luv" and "chicken."
Nov 2012
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Chakravyuh
For a while now, Jha has been coming off like a more high-minded clone of Madhur Bhandarkar, picking up a hot topic and embedding his research in creaky subplots.
Oct 2012
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Student Of The Year
How can such a lively premise result in such dullness? The blame may lie with characters who are as clichéd as they come.
Oct 2012
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Oct 2012
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English Vinglish
There is a lot to like in English Vinglish, which is the very definition of a gentle and urbane entertainment, but I couldn’t get past this manufactured premise, which makes all successive events seem manufactured.
Oct 2012
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Barfi!
I was trying to think of another film that’s so sad that made me feel so happy watching it. I still haven’t come up with a name.
Sep 2012