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Kick
Movies like Kick depress me – and not because of the ineptness on display, the sheer waste of resources, the utter contempt for the audience. What depresses me is that they become hits, and further the conventional wisdom that this is what masala cinema is all about.
Jul 2014
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Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya isn’t a cynical rip-off. It’s more the work of a young filmmaker who clearly adores an older filmmaker’s movie, but infuses it with his own new-gen vibe. And that vibe is infectious.
Jul 2014
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Lekar Hum Deewana Dil
After a point, the film turns as clueless as its characters. It’s a nice little loop. Arif Ali is laughing at his leads (both of whom wilt under the bad writing), and we are laughing at him. He cannot decide what kind of movie he wants to make, and for whom.
Jul 2014
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Humshakals
Why are our comedies so bad? We don’t have to search very far for the reasons – tempo-killing songs, underwritten heroines, leaden pace, overlong running times… And we insist on casting stars rather than comic actors.
Jun 2014
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Fugly
There’s a good movie to be made from all this, one that looks at our country through the eyes of women, especially in light of recent headlines – but Fugly isn’t it.
Jun 2014
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Jun 2014
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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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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
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The Xpose
...despite murder, a catfight, a daring rescue from a computer-generated fire, multiple twist endings, and at least one partially revealed nipple – manages to remain terminally dull.
May 2014
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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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Manjunath
This is the kind of film about which you use words like “well-intentioned” and “earnest” and “solid.” But it never catches fire.
May 2014
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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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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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2 States
This material, based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel 2 States: The Story of My Marriage, might have worked if treated with slapstick energy. Instead, Varman tries to class it up.
Apr 2014
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Apr 2014
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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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Dishkiyaoon
This is one of those Goodfellas-type stories where a kid announces that he wants to be a gangster. But there’s no edge, no danger.
Apr 2014
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Apr 2014
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Bewakoofiyaan
...is much more complicated and adult, and by reducing it to a rom-com, Asthana pulls her punches.
Mar 2014
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Gulaab Gang
I walked into Soumik Sen’s Gulaab Gang expecting a fiery feminist drama. I walked out having watched a Tamil/Telugu mass-hero masala movie – only, with women.
Mar 2014
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Queen
It’s too long, too predictable, and too full of bits that needn’t have existed – that lizard bit? that sex shop bit? that casino bit? – but everything is pulled off with such panache (and with such good performances, especially from Ranaut) that you don’t feel like complaining.
Mar 2014
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Total Siyapaa
...despite a few big laughs, the film never becomes the farce it so desperately wants to be.
Mar 2014
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Shaadi Ke Side Effects
...the film feels toothless, pointless, pretending to tackle real issues while really searching for the next easy punch line.
Mar 2014
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Highway
The feeling that we’re on a journey with no use for beginnings or ends is exhilarating.
Feb 2014
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Gunday
The experience is immersive, but solely at a surface level – we’re not pulled in. Zafar is so busy making a movie that looks like a 1970s movie that he forgets to make a movie that feels like a 1970s movie.
Feb 2014