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Table No. 21
...it isn’t everyday that you get a B-movie that makes a convincing case for karma.
Jan 2013
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Hawaa Hawaai
For a film that skirts melodrama so scrupulously in the first half, the high-decibel contrivances in the latter portions come as a rude shock.
May 2014
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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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Mirch
Shukla aims for a lighthearted tone that come and goes, and it's his lamentably little-seen cast that grabs and holds our interest
Dec 2010
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Veere Di Wedding
...is a lazy film, too content with easy zingers. Issues are raised and resolved in so little time, it looks like a new scripting technique: premature elucidation. But whenever the film doesn’t try too hard to show you how hip it is, it’s not entirely unlikeable.
Jun 2018
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Jun 2019
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Dum Maaro Dum
This is, in general, a superbly staged film, but it doesn't quite hit its emotional notes consistently. You're there - yet not there.
Apr 2011
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
This remake needed to be funnier, but it does interesting things with its women.
Dec 2019
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Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
A sombre not-quite-superhero tale whose flaws don’t make it any less fascinating.
Jun 2018
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Rock On 2
...is well-staged and not entirely unwatchable, but it would have been much better had it tried to do less.
Nov 2016
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Lafangey Parindey
A nice-enough idea for a lower-middle-class love story is scotched by leads who just don’t belong in this milieu.
Aug 2010
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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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Padmaavat
All of which is to say that people who don’t care for this filmmaker should stay far, far away — but even for fans, Padmaavat is an underwhelming oddity.
Jan 2018
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Toonpur Ka Superrhero
...surely even films seeking to occupy children can strive to be more than just the blandly competent (and brightly coloured) fare that plays routinely on kiddie channels on television...
Dec 2010
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Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
...my experience of it was similar to what I felt with Wake Up Sid – plenty of beautifully thought-out moments, lots to like, but it should have been so much more. Mukerji has this tendency to pick up heavy subjects and treat them lightly, which can be frustrating at times.
Jun 2013
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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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Mubarakan
A comedy lives and dies on the strength of its bits, and Mubarakan has a few.
Aug 2017
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Jul 2019
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Not A Love Story
This is probably the closest Varma is going to get to a Heer-Ranjha story.
Aug 2011
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Nov 2016
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Simran
It’s not half bad. This is one of the rare instances the US doesn’t look shiny and plasticky, like a Christmas-tree ornament. The music is similarly real, understated. With Ranaut practically accommodating the orchestra in her portrayal, playing every instrument and waving the baton, a more melodramatic score would have been overkill. But the whimsy doesn’t work.
Sep 2017
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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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Oct 2015
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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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Indu Sarkar
The storytelling is undeniably (and unsurprisingly) broad, but the masala treatment transforms what was simplistic and didactic in Bhandarkar’s earlier films into something touching, open-hearted, sentimental in a sweetly cornball style.
Aug 2017
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Nov 2016
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Sep 2017
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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
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Kochadaiiyaan
...is truly history-making in a sense, because this is the first time that a huge star has allowed himself to be the hero in a full-length animated feature. Walking out, you may find yourself wondering: Did it have to be Rajinikanth?
May 2014