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Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3
...is a bit of an underwhelmer, but not unwatchable — and the reason goes back to what the Randeep Hooda character said in Part 1: “Is haveli ke sab log pagal hain.” Everyone’s bonkers — even the filmmaker.
Jul 2018
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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
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Main Tera Hero
...is only half what it could have been – still, that isn’t a bad half.
Apr 2014
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Tevar
Sharma is a genuine filmmaker. His scenes are artfully lit, staged, populated with extras – he makes a masala movie as if he’s making something loftier, worthier, and Tevar is the better for it.
Jan 2015
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Apr 2016
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Hichki
...isn’t a bad film — it’s a mild, pleasant diversion, something that’s going to make a lot of people think they saw something “good” and “worthwhile.”
Mar 2018
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Lootera
...while The Last Leaf, with its daft romanticism in the end, is better imagined than seen on screen, where the literalness of the images makes everything look foolish.
Jul 2013
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Ra.One
...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
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Mar 2020
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Go Goa Gone
...it knows what it wants to do - clear a low bar - and does it pretty well, with a jaunty tone and cheerfully foul-mouthed one-liners.
May 2013
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Jun 2017
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Aug 2018
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Monsoon Shootout
...was a little too low-key for my taste — it isn’t quite as existential as I’d have liked, and the butter-smooth filmmaking could have used more rough edges. But there’s still a lot of skill on display, not least from Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Dec 2017
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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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Gippi
...follows a tried-and-tested Hollywood template, and it doesn’t try to do too much. Its triumphs are minor (though not insignificant).
May 2013
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Nov 2015
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Raazi
I’m happy Raazi is a hit. We need more heroine-driven films to work broadly — and not just in a few metro pockets. But the film is broad, too, as is Alia Bhatt’s performance, though she is a victim of the writing and filmmaking.
May 2018
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Kalank
...the overall feeling is that of disappointment. Kalank is certainly not a lazy failure, but it ends up being an odd bird: watchable, but neither generic enough to overlook its flaws nor specific enough to embrace with all your heart.
Apr 2019
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Haider
...left me cold. It’s extraordinarily crafted, but it’s something you admire from a distance.
Oct 2014
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Bollywood Diaries
...is a splash of ice-cold water on everyone who stands in front of a mirror and says: Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon.
Mar 2016
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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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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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Phata Poster Nikhla Hero
We really only care about the laughs. But what Santoshi’s making aren’t just comedies. They’re reverential homage. They’re tongue-in-cheek throwback. They’re a love letter to the movies. They’re utterly one-of-a-kind.
Sep 2013
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Thappad
Anubhav Sinha is in a golden zone. Thappad is the third of his “Social Issues trilogy”, if you will, and the weakest of the bunch. (The earlier films are Article 15 and Mulk.) But for all its flaws, the core character, the core conflict is superbly unpacked.
Mar 2020
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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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Jul 2017
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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