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Brothers
One feels a twinge about picking on a movie made with so much craft and care, by a director who errs on the side of too much in the midst of many who do too little, but strip away the pretty wallpaper and you’ll see how generic Brothers is...
Aug 2015
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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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Mickey Virus
The trick is to convey a sense of breathlessness, and Saurabh Varma’s Mickey Virus manages this only in spurts.
Oct 2013
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Jai Ho
There is so little to root for in the film – despite such an emotional hook, of man helping fellow man – that we look for scraps...
Jan 2014
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Kick
Movies like Kick depress me – and not because of the ineptness on display, the sheer waste of resources, the utter contempt for the audience. What depresses me is that they become hits, and further the conventional wisdom that this is what masala cinema is all about.
Jul 2014
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One By Two
After a while, the film begins to feel like an academic experiment: Can the lives of two not-terribly-interesting people be shaped into an interesting story?
Feb 2014
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Jab Harry Met Sejal
...ends up a cautionary tale about idiosyncratic filmmakers with a distinct voice working with a big star. Imtiaz Ali gets his biggest star yet, and he’s made his most underwhelming movie.
Aug 2017
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Aug 2015
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Helicopter Eela
A terrible mother-son story with a Freudian subtext it doesn’t know what to do with.
Oct 2018
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Nov 2015
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Dil Dhadakne Do
All those carefully calibrated line readings. You may wonder if, after filling out the soapy plot with Reema Kagti, Akhtar experienced some kind of soap-opera twist herself, amnesia or something. What else could explain the disconnect between the material and the movie?
Jun 2015
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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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Thugs Of Hindostan
A dull attempt at a masala potboiler that hopes star power will trump the script.
Nov 2018
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Gori Tere Pyaar Mein
We don’t go to rom-coms expecting cold logic, but even as a heart-tugger Gori Tere Pyaar Mein doesn’t quite cut it.
Nov 2013
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Ghayal Once Again
After a while, it’s not the action – it’s the acting. Deol just cannot play emotional scenes convincingly. But at least he looks as if he can move mountains with a single hand, and that’s really what this film needs.
Feb 2016
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Bumm Bumm Bole
Priyadarshan reworks a minimalist masterwork into an overblown (and over-cute) drama. The results aren’t pretty.
May 2010
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Ok Jaanu
I feel for Shaad Ali. Ever since his best film, the criminally underrated Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, bombed, he’s been at sea. Remaking his mentor’s works may be a way to keep himself visible, but someone should tell him an echo is not a voice.
Jan 2017
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Sep 2017
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Nov 2013
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Sep 2013
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7 Hours To Go
7 Hours To Go is what happens when you have a big idea and a very small budget.
Jul 2016
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Jai Gangaajal
...under the usual Jha trappings, we’re looking at a good, old-fashioned masala movie.
Mar 2016
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Sniff
It feels terrible to carp at a film made for children when there’s so few of these around – it’s the critical equivalent of tossing a mewling kitten off a cliff – but just about nothing goes right in Sniff.
Aug 2017
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Angrezi Medium
...is so wretchedly written, tonally so all over the place that it set my teeth on edge – especially the relentless cutesiness.
Mar 2020
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Department
Ram Gopal Varma leaves the audience behind and launches into increasingly idiosyncratic ways of telling stories.
May 2012