-
That Girl in Yellow Boots
...scratch the arresting surface and we're left with a subplot-heavy narrative whose discursions end up undermining her story. Several sequences work very well on their own but they don't build cohesively and they don't detonate in your mind with a bang by the end of the film.
Sep 2011
-
Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Badly plotted, badly staged and badly performed, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is almost worth watching for the smouldering train-wreck that is Kaif's performance.
Sep 2011
-
Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
If you go in knowing what to expect, you might be surprised at how unexpected a Bollywood romance can be.
Sep 2011
-
Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
I walked away from Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster with the feeling that I needed to see it again, this time brushing aside the cobwebs of the earlier film and impressing on Dhulia's conceits a feminist reading.
Oct 2011
-
Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
...this isn't a film that embraces tomorrow as much as it celebrates yesterday, and its most remarkable achievement may be that, with one foot tentatively toeing the future and one stuck resolutely in the past, it didn't end up peeing all over itself.
Oct 2011
-
Rockstar
Like most of The Dirty Picture, these supposedly stinging observations are little more than storms in a D cup.
Dec 2011
-
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
-
Agneepath
...is thunderously staged (quite literally; the background score is a force of nature) and it's never boring, but the film never amounts to anything.
Feb 2012
-
Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu
Who says a rom-com - even one with big-name stars - cannot be shaped with an invigorating voice and vision?
Feb 2012
-
Kahaani
...is beautifully shot and put together, and its deeply atmospheric scenes are driven by a superb score...
Mar 2012
-
Paan Singh Tomar
...even if it doesn't entirely reveal itself and stays somewhat locked inside its protagonist's head - throbs with heart and humour and a knowing appreciation of life in the hinterlands.
Mar 2012
-
Agent Vinod
Why do filmmakers who work so well within the confines of Bollywood mandates feel pressured to set course for western horizons? Is it simply not enough, anymore, to tell a solid story in an emotionally engaging manner, without stopping, periodically and apologetically, to unburden a guilty conscience?
Mar 2012
-
Vicky Donor
...is one of those films that looks as if it’s going to shatter a hundred different on-screen taboos, but it’s actually as old-fashioned as they come.
Apr 2012
-
Jannat 2
I went in with low expectations and the film surpassed them at every level, and this isn’t faint praise.
May 2012
-
Ishaqzaade
...works so well because it’s a love story where there’s something more at stake than the question of will-they-get-together.
May 2012
-
Department
Ram Gopal Varma leaves the audience behind and launches into increasingly idiosyncratic ways of telling stories.
May 2012
-
Jun 2012
-
Ferrari Ki Sawaari
So much of Ferrari Ki Sawaari is so original, so one-of-a-kind, that part of the fun of watching the film is just seeing where it will go next.
Jun 2012
-
Gangs Of Wasseypur
...a diffuse epic, content to coast around the revenge plot instead of making it the thrust of its narrative – and what the film loses in terms of dramatic power, it gains in texture.
Jun 2012
-
Teri Meri Kahaani
There's nothing aggressively bad about it, but there's nothing good either - and there's something frustrating when a film that could amount to something ends up being nothing.
Jun 2012
-
Maximum
Had the director Kabeer Kaushik done little more than chart the story of his protagonist, Maximum could have ended up a gripping little film.
Jul 2012
-
Cocktail
...is too long, too taxing - after a point, we know exactly what’s coming, and we just wish it came soon enough.
Jul 2012
-
Jism - 2
Pooja Bhatt has actually managed something remarkable. She has taken a subject with a love triangle, the threat of terrorism, guns, bloodshed, double crosses, spy operations and an adult-film star and rendered it utterly boring.
Aug 2012
-
Gangs Of Wasseypur 2
Like Part I, Gangs of Wasseypur II works on a scene-by-scene level rather than as a cohesive whole.
Aug 2012
-
Ek Tha Tiger
The film seems to be made for the young-at-heart – there’s no heat in the romance, no sex, and there’s no bloodlust in the action.
Aug 2012
-
Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi
This sort of material, to be pulled off, needs a certain kind of director – Bela Bhansali Sehgal isn’t that director.
Aug 2012
-
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
-
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