An archive of Hindi movie reviews and ratings from 2010 to 2020.

critic

Mayank Shekhar

Highest rating for
Lowest rating for
Number of reviews
313
Average rating
43

Order by

Date

Title

Rating

  • Ek Paheli Leela

    If you needed any further proof that she is really a bona fide, solo Bollywood star, it doesn’t get any bigger than this. Does one need to sit through a whole mumbo-jumbo picture to appreciate that? No.

    29

    Apr 2015
  • Baar Baar Dekho

    ...takes so long to get to the point, and leave any impact at all, that as an audience, we merely find ourselves lopping around in circles, not just over the harrowing running time, but within multiple timelines of this slick looking pic as well.

    29

    Sep 2016
  • Shagird

    The script may still have seemed quite striking on paper to some. The filmmaker's just never sure when he's diving deep into realism, and when he's completely frikin' stretchin' it.

    29

    May 2011
  • Milan Talkies

    ...one suspects, much of this movie pretty much remains in the filmmaker's imagination/head. Rest of it, quite honestly, gave me a bit of a headache.

    29

    Mar 2019
  • Rahasya

    As for whether I can watch a film for a lead actor when everything else is rather second-rate? Maybe I can.

    29

    Jan 2015
  • Veer

    ...this apparent period film owes its origins less to the genre Hollywood movies. It belongs more to Bollywood of back in the day: a song designated for smokers every few minutes; crispness, hardly a narrative virtue; three hours, the accepted clock-time.

    29

    Jan 2010
  • Kya Yahi Sach Hai

    Assemblage of some of the world’s worst over-actors will worry you, editing’s patchy, sound’s screwed up, art-work's third rate, cinematography’s amateurish.  Some of the most crucial scenes are shot before a chroma screen. The research and script are solid still. This is sad.

    29

    Jan 2012
  • Kedarnath

    Practically all top stars from the '90s have at some point owed their stardom to a similar super-hit. Maybe that's the intention here. Wonder if this stuff still works in the front benches; forget the few highfalutin film-buffs.

    29

    Dec 2018
  • The Tashkent Files

    ...this is the sort of know-all, grand con-spiracy theory picture - regurgitating catch-phrases like "presstitutes", "Lutyens Delhi," "fake news" - that emanates from a world-view wholly derived from spending far too much time on social media.

    29

    Apr 2019
  • Utt Pataang

    You’d imagine someone read this script and thought the supposed page-turner would make for another low-budget comic hit. They didn’t bother to apply any cinema at all.

    29

    Feb 2011
  • Bodyguard

    Here's what this film's super-star should do next. Pick up, remake every regional blockbuster of Rajnikanth's from the recent past. That's what super-hero, cartoon character Salman is to the Hindi audiences by now: Rajnikanth for the excitable North.

    29

    Sep 2011
  • Players

    A few players intend to share the loot, given the plan or plot (borrowed from Hollywood) is already in place. That’s the story of this film. It could be the story of its making as well!

    29

    Jan 2012
  • Raaz Reboot

    Sure, it’s predictable stuff. But that’s to do with the genre, which like mindless comedy, is fairly easy to judge or appreciate.

    29

    Sep 2016
  • Indu Sarkar

    While high on obvious propaganda, low on aesthetics, where Bhandarkar does well is to show the deep disdain the Indian state has for activists, its excessive censorship, the complete lack of an opposition in politics, and a relentless public campaign through events to suggest all's well, when it’s really not.

    29

    Aug 2017
  • Aisha

    The atmospherics is complete. The intentions aren’t off the mark. You may like to voyeuristically share a rich experience (with the film’s cast, or crew, in this case). You only wish this sense of outdoor adventure could conceal the blandness of the drama within.

    29

    Aug 2010
  • De De Pyaar De

    The film just stops being about a relationship; let alone romance, or comedy. It's almost like the filmmakers are certain the intended audience won't connect much with such a young-old love, by itself, in a single screen theatre. Well if you think they can't take it, then why make it?

    29

    May 2019
  • Gabbar Is Back

    Given the changing desi palette, these Bollywood super-star, super hero stuff really seem so much like regional language potboilers in comparison.

    29

    May 2015