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India‘s Most Wanted
The overheated and undercooked film doesn’t have enough substance to justify its flourishes.
May 2019
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Red Alert
...an earnest movie that is low on melodrama but equally lacking in dramatic tension.
Jul 2010
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Ghanchakkar
...is at heart a languid and quirky comedy, but even laidback movies need momentum.
Jun 2013
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Befikre
If a breezy, highly styled, armchair travel rom-com is your mood, then Befikre might be the ticket. But if you prefer insightful, warming and witty, skip this.
Dec 2016
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Raazi
...the movie is unable to liberate itself of the outlandishness and questionable themes of the novel on which it is based.
May 2018
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Bhoot – Part One
The absence of a strongly plotted emotional undertow to convey the idea that personal loss can lead to a never-ending nightmare of literally monstrous proportions results in a half-full vessel that makes some noise.
Feb 2020
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Akira
The poorly directed action scenes number a handful, with most of the 139-minute running time devoted to contrivances and convolutions that do not do justice to an interesting premise.
Sep 2016
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Mahayoddha Rama
The movie is frequently loud, and the characterisations are black-and-white.
Nov 2016
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Arjun Patiala
In trying to send up Bollywood cliches, Arjun Patiala becomes yet another Bollywood cliche itself.
Jul 2019
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Haraamkhor
Haraamkhor’s characters are supposed to have shades of grey, but their blandness can never be mistaken for maturity. About the most shocking thing about this major-minor affair is its sloppiness.
Jan 2017
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FryDay
How about crafting a role for Govinda that properly capitalises on his comic talents and persuades him to shed off the anything-goes quality and tackiness of his recent films? Fryday isn’t quite a comeback for Govinda, but it will have to do for his extant fanbase.
Oct 2018
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Kya Dilli Kya Lahore
...feels stretched and half-baked, less of a big-screen experience and better suited to an intimate stage production.
May 2014
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Satellite Shankar
...the movie isn’t interested in teasing out the shades and complexities of Shankar’s cross-country adventure. Ballad of a Soldier celebrates the Russian spirit while allowing for doubt and sadness. Satellite Shankar is all grins and salutes...
Nov 2019
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Chennai Express
Shetty never lets it rip. He is content with doling out a festive season timepasser, which is the solo release for the Eid weekend and has been plastered across so many screens in the country and the world that its success is guaranteed.
Aug 2013
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Do Lafzon Ki Kahani
All the ingredients are present for a three-hankie weepie about a love that survives obstacles, but the movie lacks energy and frisson between the leads.
Jun 2016
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31st October
We need more films on this dark chapter in Indian history, but not the likes of 31st October.
Oct 2016
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Maatr
...Sayed manages to skillfully steer his fantasy of vigilante justice all the way to the ludicrous climax.
Apr 2017
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Jai Ho
As an employment scheme for various television regulars and forgotten actors from previous decades, Jai Ho is honourable; as an act of self-mythologizing, it is peerless; as cinema, it is disposable. And as a message movie, Jai Ho is pure lunacy (not for nothing was its original title Mental).
Jan 2014
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Mar 2019
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Freaky Ali
Nawazuddin Siddiqui lives it up as the hero, churning out punchlines and playing the romantic lead in a creaky fantasy about bridging the gulf between the working class and a rich person’s game.
Sep 2016
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Jabariya Jodi
The humour is as forced as the romance, and the biggest question goes unanswered: what is the movie really trying to say?
Aug 2019
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Hero
An ineffective remake of a 1983 box office hit mislabelled as a classic, Hero is yet another instance of the resilience of the ancient Indian tradition of nepotism.
Sep 2015
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Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive
...tries very hard to squeeze humour out of a contrived plot.
Feb 2016
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Dishoom
Dishoom’s premise has promise – two mismatched police officers join hands to rescue India’s cricketing jewel from a kidnapping – but Desi Boyz director Rohit Dhawan simply cannot get the film to jumpstart despite all the elements being in place.
Jul 2016
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Romeo Akbar Walter
The twists in Romeo Akbar Walter don’t always work, and the narrative is stretched to 144 unearned minutes. The plotting barely rises above the level of the popular television series CID.
Apr 2019
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Traffic
...the essence of the original – and the reason it worked with audiences – has been lost.
May 2016
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Jab Harry Met Sejal
If the baseline for Jab Harry Met Sejal is ‘what you seek is seeking you’, then it’s time for Imtiaz Ali to seek a new canvas, because the idea of characters travelling in order to find answers within themselves seems to be suffering from acute jetlag.
Aug 2017