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Bullett Raja
With so much that’s so fascinating at a conceptual level, it’s surprising how dull Bullett Raja is – and that’s because Dhulia, in his attempts to imbue his material with layers and texture, forgets what made those masala movies work in the first place.
Dec 2013
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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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Sep 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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Chalk N Duster
Aren’t we all guilty of having moved on, with very little time to remember our teachers? But they deserve more than this shrill drama...
Jan 2016
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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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Chance Pe Dance
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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Chhapaak
This isn’t the angry film I thought it would be. It is, surprisingly, filled with laughter and hope...
Jan 2020
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Sep 2019
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Children Of War
The problem with Children of War may be that there aren’t enough surprises. A film may be based on fact, but that shouldn’t stop the filmmaker from imbuing it with the zing of good fiction.
May 2014
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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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Citylights
What do you do when you have a lofty metaphor and little to pin it on? That’s the problem Mehta faces in CityLights, which has very little that’s new.
Jun 2014
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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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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
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Coffee Bloom
After a gentle two-thirds or so, the plot picks up and the film becomes hurried and less satisfying.
Mar 2015
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Commando 2
The problem with Commando 2 isn’t that it’s a B-movie. The problem is that it isn’t B-movie enough.
Mar 2017
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Daas Dev
The film is darkly funny, and a refreshing change from the staid classicism that undermined some of Mishra’s recent work.
May 2018
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Daas Dev
Two films for the price of one - an entertaining, star-centric potboiler, plus a delicately textured relationship drama.
Sep 2010
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Dabangg 2
...will delight fans of people being swung around in slow motion as well as those who’ve wondered what the world looks like from the inside of a blender.
Jan 2013
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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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Daddy
A barrelful of gangster clichés makes for a stylish but been-there-done-that biopic.
Sep 2017
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Dec 2016
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David
...this movie too could have been named Shaitan, and here too Nambiar comes off more super-cool technician than storyteller.
Feb 2013
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Jun 2019
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Dear Dad
The film is anchored by Arvind Swamy’s performance – though it’s really his presence, that quiet way he weathers the worst of storms.
May 2016
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Nov 2016
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Dedh Ishqiya
...the problem with these Ishqiya movies. There’s so much to savour in them, but they never become what they could have been because the heaviness of the love stories, which are the core, are diminished by the lightness, the cheekiness, the tomfoolery in everything else.
Jan 2014
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Dekh Tamasha Dekh
...the director, Feroz Abbas Khan, positions the film at the border of surrealism and absurdity – and this tone, gently satiric, makes all the difference.
Apr 2014
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Department
Ram Gopal Varma leaves the audience behind and launches into increasingly idiosyncratic ways of telling stories.
May 2012