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Rustom
Rustom’s recreation of an iconic trial echoes the narrative style of the lesser films of the period in which the actual crime occurred – it throws out the facts in favour of a simplistic and crowd-pleasing solution, glosses over its hero’s criminal behaviour, and paints its characters in black and white.
Aug 2016
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Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
For all its promises of looking at Mumbai’s seemingly intractable problems with a fresh eye, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero offers solutions that are far removed from reality. The film moves away from common sense as it descends into genre territory. It doesn’t help that its leading man fails to take audiences along.
Jun 2018
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Saand Ki Aankh
The movie aims high, and wants to say many important things about the lack of opportunities for women, in sports or elsewhere. But its uneven tone and the easy-peasy manner in which the lead pair accumulate awards rarely allows for an nuanced understanding of just how the Tomar women did it.
Oct 2019
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Aug 2017
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Gold
The sluggish pacing over 153 minutes contain few moments of surprise or discovery. In the end, the inevitable clamber for the exit gate is stalled in the final moments by the strains of the national anthem.
Aug 2018
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Anjaana Anjaani
...treats suicide and people who want to kill themselves as one big joke. The movie could have been a black comedy, but the writing simply isn’t sharp enough. There is no character development worth its name.
Oct 2010
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Daas Dev
Few films can survive the weight of so much loftiness and ambition. Daas Dev goes off the rails in its opening scenes and fails to return to course.
Apr 2018
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Ferrari Ki Sawaari
Mapuskar directs his actors with confidence and boldly shoots the films in real locations, but the movie needed to have been crisper and quicker, more Ferrari than Ambassador.
Jun 2012
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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!
Although Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! works hard on creating a convincing setting for Byomkesh to make his mark, the characters are mostly under-written and the central mystery lacks tension and a sense of imminent danger.
Apr 2015
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Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon
...a throwback to the 1980s and '90s, when comedies featuring clandestinely bigamous and harried husbands were common enough to qualify as a sub-genre.
Sep 2015
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Madam Chief Minister
...is about as sophisticated as a college play. The complexity of identity politics is reduced to palace intrigue.
Jan 2021
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Thugs Of Hindostan
...scuttled by its ineptitude and palpable disinterest in approaching the freedom struggle with fresh eyes.
Nov 2018
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Student Of The Year 2
The sequel that nobody wanted is neither an improvement over the original nor a downgrade of it. The bar is low to begin with, and when the butter-limbed Tiger Shroff is around, it’s easily surmounted.
May 2019
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Made In China
The movie tries to marry the world of the inept trader with nothing to sell and the enlightened doctor with something important to say, but no amount of magic potion can make this union work.
Oct 2019
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Kites
Character development is sacrificed for Hallmark moments between the leads, which are just about the only entertaining bits in the film.
May 2010
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Bol
Rather than schadenfreude, the emotion likely to linger on after the film is over is empathy.
Sep 2011
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Ishkq In Paris
If the movie works at all, it is because Prem Raj restricts the lopsided affair to 96 minutes, and Zinta’s joy at being the cynosure of attention is undeniably contagious.
May 2013
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Shimla Mirchi
The plot fits snugly in romcom territory, providing an update to the hill-station romances that were the staple of Hindi cinema in the 1960s and ’70s.
Jan 2020
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Prague
Shukla and screenplay writer Sumit Saxena lay on the twists and turns, tying themselves in knots they are unable to get out of.
Sep 2013
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Nov 2016
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Phullu
If marks were given for good intentions and sincerity, Phullu would top the university. But if marks were also given for presentation and execution, Phullu would be somewhere at the lower levels.
Jun 2017
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Chalo Dilli
...loses the chance to create dramatic tension between the ill-matched leads.
Apr 2011
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Shabri
There's the same catatonic acting, the staccato dialogue delivery, the bursts of violence, the over-loud background score, the strange camera angles, the crooked cops and larger-than-life thugs. Perhaps it's time to give the Mumbai gangster genre a rest.
Sep 2011
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Dhoom 3
...sallies forth boldly into Hollywood genre territory but resorts ever so often to longstanding Hindi movie contrivances to keep the plot ticking.
Dec 2013
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Surkhaab
A sobering look at illegal immigration from Punjab to Canada soon turns into an formulaic woman-on-the-run movie.
May 2015
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Tamasha
...doesn’t have enough depth or profundity to say anything that Ali hasn’t said before.
Nov 2015
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Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety
The disposable soft-focus songs and foreign locations cannot gild the coarseness of Ranjan’s view of modern romance.
Feb 2018
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Love Aaj Kal
A few of Ali’s gambles pay off up until the interval, at which point the 141-minute movie launches into freefall, never to recover. Love Aaj Kal is crammed with non-sequitur conversations and faux philosophical musings, but the best bits are the dialogue-free montages, which reflect the beauty and purity of timeless ardour that the film seems to be aiming for.
Feb 2020
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Sanju
It promises complexity and psychological acuity. Until a point, it appears to be on track to creating a nuanced portrait of controversy’s favourite child – but then it plummets into unquestioning and misty-eyed reverence.
Jun 2018