-
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
-
Mahayoddha Rama
The movie is frequently loud, and the characterisations are black-and-white.
Nov 2016
-
Nanu Ki Jaanu
Suspense is thin in a movie with three major characters. The staggering incompetence on display ensures that the events are neither funny nor frightening...
Apr 2018
-
Buddha In A Traffic Jam
...severely lacks artistic merit, but it will forever be entrenched in memory as one of the zeitgeist films of the Modi era.
May 2016
-
Satyameva Jayate
The movie never takes itself too seriously, even as it emerges as the obverse of Hindi movies that celebrate the super-cop who breaks the rules while in uniform.
Aug 2018
-
Dabangg 3
...isn’t funny or even campy enough to be anything more than an aging hero’s throw of dice, hoping that third time will be as lucky as the first two.
Dec 2019
-
Meeruthiya Gangsters
Quadri’s writing isn’t half as sharply funny or piercingly deadpan as it thinks it is, but that’s par for the course in a movie that celebrates the virtues of taking the easy way out.
Sep 2015
-
Dear Dad
The movie wants to say something poignant and profound about the need for sons to accept their father’s decisions, but it doesn’t have the material to do so.
May 2016
-
Malaal
The movie has nothing new to say about the star-crossed romance, and is too timid to mirror the unabashed celebration of unreconstructed malehood that marked the source material.
Jul 2019
-
Rock On 2
Ill-conceived and incompetently executed, Rock On 2 never manages to justify its existence.
Nov 2016
-
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
...works neither as a social issue film nor a triangular romance.
Sep 2018
-
Calendar Girls
Low on surprises, shoddily made and poorly acted, this latest expose indicates that its filmmaker is running on empty.
Sep 2015
-
Shab
...seems to want to make a grand statement about ambition, migration, exploitation and sexuality, but its scope is limited by the stodgy dialogue, the mostly poor acting (Raveena Tandon has her moments) and incredible levels of contrivance.
Jul 2017
-
Fukrey Returns
Theoretically, a sequel offers up the opportunity to fix the flaws of part one and strengthen the story. In reality, this is unlikely to happen when your source material was unworthy of a follow up.
Dec 2017
-
Phamous
struggles to justify its existence. Sequences tumble into each other with barely any coherence or sense of rhythm; the talented cast flounders at the best of times.
Jun 2018
-
Azhar
...directed with consistent ineptitude by Tony D’Souza, Azhar pretends to be anything but a biopic.
May 2016
-
Banjo
The movie takes too long to make its point, and says little that is unusual or unique along the way.
Sep 2016
-
Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi
The frenetically paced plot makes even less sense the second time round, and the humour is more scattershot and even desperate in places.
Aug 2018
-
Besharam
It works to the extent that Kapoor is a star in the popular Hindi cinema mould and can command attention in the dreariest of moments, but even screen gods can’t convert water into wine.
Oct 2013
-
7 Hours To Go
The message is muddled and the pace glacial even at 90 minutes. Most of the acting is strictly functional...
Jun 2016
-
Game
...a movie has to be much more than the sum of liquor-ad lighting, sharp clothes and tourism brochure locations.
Apr 2011
-
Race 3
The unpardonably long movie (160 minutes) has been directed by choreographer-turned-director Remo, who appears to have been too much in awe of his leading man to have actually given him any basic instructions on the sets. The dialogue strains to be funny, and provokes humour in the wrong places.
Jun 2018
-
Holiday
Holiday’s slickness and the adroit use of actual locations in Mumbai can’t prevent slippages into ludicrousness.
Jun 2014
-
Sarbjit
The loud and insistent melodrama takes away from the pathos of the central character’s story.
May 2016
-
Jan 2020
-
102 Not Out
The movie, based on Saumya Joshi’s popular Gujarati play of the same name, sticks so closely to its stage origins that it feels as though we are actually watching a filmed play. In the final bits, the cheesy humour makes way for cloying sentimentality...
May 2018
-
Main Tera Hero
Varun’s youth and verve are never in doubt, but he labours under the shadow of the great Govinda, who enlivened several Dhawan productions with his ability to land a joke at just the right moment and convey the essential insanity of the enterprise.
Apr 2014
-
Running Shaadi
...a comic critique of arranged marriage? Or is it a quirky but slowburn romance between an odd couple? Running Shaadi tries to be a bit of both, and becomes neither.
Feb 2017