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Game
...the director, manages the not-inconsiderable feat of making his movie a gigantic snooze, which wakes up briefly, very briefly, only towards the end, when the mystery is explained. Too little, too late.
Apr 2011
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Tanu Weds Manu
A generally underwhelming love story cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be a romantic comedy or a romantic melodrama.
Feb 2011
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7 Khoon Maaf
A delectably mounted, dramatically inert black comedy has lots of atmosphere and little else.
Feb 2011
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Patiala House
Underdog-cricketer story meets emancipation saga in an inoffensive-enough drama that really should have been much better.
Feb 2011
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Yeh Saali Zindagi
An entertaining screwball-noir is also in the running for the year’s unlikeliest love story.
Feb 2011
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Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji
Romantic material more suited to delicate drama is twisted into a sex-jokey comedy. The results aren't pretty.
Jan 2011
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Dhobi Ghat
Forget the rangy big points. It’s the sculpted small-moment that marks this elegant elegy to Mumbai.
Jan 2011
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Toonpur Ka Superrhero
...surely even films seeking to occupy children can strive to be more than just the blandly competent (and brightly coloured) fare that plays routinely on kiddie channels on television...
Dec 2010
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Tees Maar Khan
Farah Khan used to be effortlessly fun. Now she’s holding a gun to our head and demanding that we laugh. The difference is dismaying.
Dec 2010
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Mirch
Shukla aims for a lighthearted tone that come and goes, and it's his lamentably little-seen cast that grabs and holds our interest
Dec 2010
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Band Baaja Baaraat
A beautifully textured romcom with flesh-and-blood characters instead of lazy caricatures.
Dec 2010
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Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey
The problem with Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey isn't its simple-minded straightforwardness. The problem is that not a single character in this story is brought to three-dimensional life - we get a parade of names and faces, and we could be staring into an illustrated history book.
Dec 2010
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Break Ke Baad
...the story never really catches fire, and it never makes you invest enough emotion in the continent-hopping lovers - painted as opposites, in typical rom-com colours - ending up together. The hurdles that they plant on their way to happiness appear molehills, not mountains.
Nov 2010
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Guzaarish
Just what, exactly, is this oddly bloodless film - a Bhansali movie for those who don't like Bhansali movies?
Nov 2010
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Nov 2010
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Dabangg
Two films for the price of one - an entertaining, star-centric potboiler, plus a delicately textured relationship drama.
Sep 2010
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Sep 2010
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We Are Family
An entirely needless remake supposedly targeted at women respects them the least.
Sep 2010
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Lafangey Parindey
A nice-enough idea for a lower-middle-class love story is scotched by leads who just don’t belong in this milieu.
Aug 2010
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Peepli [Live]
An extremely well-made first feature is also extremely overfamiliar, what with its initial investment in farmer suicides giving way to easy potshots at our media.
Aug 2010
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Milenge Milenge
Why bother to remake a destiny-driven romance if you cannot capture the things that made it romantic in the first place?
Jul 2010
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I Hate Luv Storys
Extremely winning leads do their best to add freshness to a film that feels a decade old (and about as long).
Jul 2010
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Raavan
Raavan falls for Sita (and vice versa) in an intriguingly idiosyncratic take on the Ramayana – if you can get past the lead performances, that is.
Jun 2010
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Kites
A cross-culture romance cum road movie is very easy on the eye, and very difficult to endure.
May 2010
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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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It's a Wonderful Afterlife
...after the enjoyably batty It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, I suppose it’s time to wonder how Gurinder Chadha was drawn to an empowerment saga like Bend It Like Beckham in the first place. Her talents seem to be those of a natural-born farceur...
May 2010
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Housefull
The problem, as always, is that our filmmakers confuse no-brainer entertainment with no-brainer filmmaking. Housefull is far too long and laden with far too many emotional subplots to function fully as comedy.
May 2010
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Chase
The refrain in the title track – “Get, set, go…” – might well be a cautionary injunction to the unwitting viewer settling into his seat.
May 2010