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R... Rajkumar
The problem with this kind of cinema is that it’d probably work best as a two-hour show reel of highlights and our filmmakers almost always insist on adding the extra half-hour or hour. There’s just not enough plot or characterisation to sustain these films for that long.
Dec 2013
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Tubelight
...Kabir Khan is no Hirani, and he is simply unable to tune into the good-hearted whimsy this story needs – and after the initial portions, Tubelight begins to drag its feet, becoming almost unwatchable.
Jun 2017
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Joker
Kunder is a daring dreamer of big concepts, but he needs to be a better director to flesh them out with sustained energy. Otherwise a nonsense comedy becomes just… nonsense.
Sep 2012
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Dec 2017
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What The Fish
The director, Gurmmeet Singh, rounds up able actors – Deepti Pujari, as a naïf from Saharanpur, is quite good – but they’re let down by a series of sketches that must have sounded good on paper but fall flat on screen.
Dec 2013
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Humshakals
Why are our comedies so bad? We don’t have to search very far for the reasons – tempo-killing songs, underwritten heroines, leaden pace, overlong running times… And we insist on casting stars rather than comic actors.
Jun 2014
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Dharam Sankat Mein
To succeed with all this within the framework of a broad-strokes, Censor Board-friendly comedy isn’t easy. At times, you may feel a more appropriate title would have been Fuwad Khan Sankat Mein.
Apr 2015
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Student Of The Year 2
...the clothes, the technicians, the sets, Tiger Shroff — must have cost crores, so why does Arshad Sayed’s script feel like it cost 50 paise? This is a question we keep asking our big-budget productions. SOTY 2 is undernourished and overlong.
May 2019
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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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Tamanchey
What we’re left with, then, is an unsatisfying mix of blood and laughs. Even with our low expectations, that’s not enough.
Oct 2014
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Marjaavaan
The film looks like someone sat down and made a bunch of post-its of “must-haves”, and then someone else slapped those post-its onto random pages of the screenplay.
Nov 2019
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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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Don 2
The depressingly underwhelming (and numbingly long) Don 2 is less about Farhan Akhtar's commitment to plot and character than hairstyling and haberdashery.
Dec 2011
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Oct 2013
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Jackpot
What he (the director) doesn’t do is put together something that can make us care. And the acting is awful.
Dec 2013
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Gulaab Gang
I walked into Soumik Sen’s Gulaab Gang expecting a fiery feminist drama. I walked out having watched a Tamil/Telugu mass-hero masala movie – only, with women.
Mar 2014
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Baadshaho
...promises B-movie entertainment, but the action scenes are unexciting, the writing is awful.
Sep 2017
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Boss
Akshay Kumar does what he can to keep things afloat, taking care of the action and the drama and the comedy, but unless you’re Amitabh Bachchan, these one-man circus shows are never a good idea.
Oct 2013
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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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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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Dhoom 3
The scenarios are dull. The face-offs are flat. The set pieces are flabby, uninspired...
Dec 2013
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Bajatey Raho
...galling to put oneself through a Khosla ka Ghosla rip-off with none of the charm and wit.
Aug 2013
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Wedding Pullav
It seems to be more of an educational video put together for future generations to get an idea of the ingredients in the rom-coms of our time.
Oct 2015
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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
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Dabangg 3
...what the sequels have done, really. They’ve reduced the Dabangg universe to a joke.
Dec 2019
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The Xpose
...despite murder, a catfight, a daring rescue from a computer-generated fire, multiple twist endings, and at least one partially revealed nipple – manages to remain terminally dull.
May 2014
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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