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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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City Of Gold
The travails of a closely-knit milling community make for a few great moments, if not all-out great cinema.
Apr 2010
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Prince
Gulati cannot decide if he wants to emulate a superhero movie or if he’d rather tap into a more human dimension, with the hero in a limbo after having lost his mind. The film itself exists in a bit of a limbo...
Apr 2010
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Tum Milo Toh Sahi
...a crisscross of lives converging on a depressingly drawn-out courtroom proceeding.
Apr 2010
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Well Done Abba
With no one to particularly invest in, Well Done Abba turns dull very quickly – and it doesn’t help that complex issues are raised and redressed with insulting simple-mindedness.
Mar 2010
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Love Sex Aur Dhokha
Dibakar Banerjee pulls off a courageous experiment, even if that’s not quite the same as a satisfying movie experience.
Mar 2010
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Na Ghar Ke Na Ghaat Ke
...this genial television-level skit is too slight to amount to anything.
Mar 2010
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Right Yaaa Wrong
...a morality-play thriller that’s not exactly bad, but not much good either.
Mar 2010
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Karthik Calling Karthik
Spooky 5 a.m. calls perk up a wallflower-loser in an eerie urban-nightmare that’s terrific for the most part.
Feb 2010
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Click
...what could have been a prime entry in the hitherto underserved elegiac-horror-as-gothic-romance subgenre is reduced to a mere jump-out-of-your-seats exercise.
Feb 2010
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Feb 2010
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My Name is Khan
Shah Rukh Khan shines in a dully earnest drama that bites off too much and chews on too little.
Feb 2010
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Striker
We are always aware of the broad-strokes version of all that happened, but the lives of these people don’t possess the texture of their intricately etched-out surroundings. We’re drawn adroitly into the feel of the film, but we don’t feel for its characters.
Feb 2010
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Ishqiya
On a basic level, Ishqiya is extremely entertaining, and yet, it’s hard to shake off the suspicion that it could have been so much more given its initial promise about a refreshingly adult approach to love, an emotion that has been infantilised by most of our filmmakers.
Jan 2010
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Rann
Varma’s accomplishment in Rann is to transform an entirely predictable outline into an engrossing experience.
Jan 2010
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Veer
It’s too long, too bland – and yet, this muscular throwback to a yesteryear cinema culture isn’t without its occasional pleasures.
Jan 2010
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Chance Pe Dance
...not interesting enough to earn outright approval, yet not incompetent enough to warrant outpourings of spite...
Jan 2010
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Dulha Mil Gaya
The only thing sadder is that these dubious “Indian values” are still being peddled under the guise of wholesome entertainment.
Jan 2010
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Pyaar Impossible
That such a mating is possible is the fiction we need these films to feed us – why else would we watch rom-coms? – and yet you can’t help wishing that the fantasy weren’t so many light years removed from reality.
Jan 2010
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3 Idiots
Rajkumar Hirani’s assault on our apathetic education system is funny, timely, heartfelt – but also terribly pushy and preachy.
Dec 2009
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Rocket Singh
...charming, minor-key movie about material that might have been better served belted out with brassy energy.
Dec 2009
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Kurbaan
Yet another story about yet another terrorist. The hardware is there, but where’s the heart?
Nov 2009
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Tum Mile
A love story set against a great downpour isn’t all that it could have been – but it isn’t nothing either.
Nov 2009
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Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
The unlikely team of Raj Kumar Santoshi and Ranbir Kapoor serves up a comedy that casts a spell (well, at least for a while).6
Nov 2009
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London Dreams
An “Amadeus”-inspired saga has wonderful musical segments, but a woeful dramatic heart. Plus, a feeble fantasy.
Nov 2009