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Section 375
...as the politics of Section 375 gradually comes into view, it loses all claim on even-handedness. This is a film too smug about its own neutrality, using it as a front to sneak in a damaging conclusion.
Sep 2019
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Dream Girl
...is consistently funny, but structured too much on Ayushmann’s own Vicky Donor to draw a fresh response.
Sep 2019
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Chhichhore
...has a big point to make about defeat and self-worth, but takes the laziest possible route to get there. For a film about the dignity of trying, it does not lead by example.
Sep 2019
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Batla House
All Nikkhil had to do was slow-bleed the suspense, and extend the moral tossup. But Batla House is not that kind of film.
Aug 2019
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Mission Mangal
...is respectful and clear of heart, but struggles at times to pick out its heroes. If the answer is no one in particular, that signal is lost in space.
Aug 2019
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Jabariya Jodi
Hindi cinema needs to get real about getting real. It is exploitative to borrow a milieu and short-change its people. Such meanness belongs in politics, not art.
Aug 2019
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Khandaani Shafakhana
Shilpi’s debut effort is well-intentioned but suffers from the same hypocrisies that afflict Indian drawing rooms. Not a line of dialogue sticks and there are very few talking points in this film on sex talk...
Aug 2019
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Judgemental Hai Kya
Prakash Kovelamudi has made a punchy Hindi debut. Seductive and snarly, it urges us to look beyond the obvious — to do a double-take on things.
Jul 2019
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Jhootha Kahin Ka
Comedies like Jhootha Ka Nahin are horror in today’s age. Their ‘error’ isn’t derived from characters double-dealing each other, but in filmmakers thinking they can double-deal the audience.
Jul 2019
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Family Of Thakurganj
With little resources, filmmakers like Prakash Jha, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Anurag Kashyap made our northern badlands cinematic. It’s the impostors that come now who are balling up the place. They exploit dialect for laughs, landscape for scenery, and violence for plot twists. It’s all so criminally wrong.
Jul 2019
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Super 30
...is not quite the masala potboiler it wants to become. The emotional beats are grand but disingenuous, while the wit is hollow.
Jul 2019
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Malaal
The film is constantly aiming for a large-canvas treatment, often at the expense of local colour and depth. Only because it can.
And, because this is ultimately a launch film.
Jul 2019
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Article 15
Cynicism and hope strike a precarious balance in Mulk director Anubhav Sinha’s new film. The procedural drama paints a grim picture of caste-based violence in rural India.
Jun 2019
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Kabir Singh
There’s no forgetting an original performance, a sentiment this story coasts rather lazily on.
Jun 2019
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Jun 2019
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Nakkash
...is a well-intentioned film that does not overstate its bravery, but suffers on account of length and lack of dramatic drive.
Jun 2019
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May 2019
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De De Pyaar De
...is the sort of nightmare you want to unleash on a disgruntled gender studies professor; the film is bookended by two women rationalizing male infidelity as a mild derision.
May 2019
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Student Of The Year 2
...in trying to tell a rags-to-riches story in a franchise that solely celebrates the latter, he belittles the spirit of genuine sports films worth their salt. As a love story, too, the film is bereft of spark, with tired tricks and predictable arcs promptly giving away who will go with whom.
May 2019
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Setters
...is a Neeraj Pandey movie directed by someone else (Ashwini Chaudhary), one that features Shreyas Talpade and Aftab Shivdasani in place of Akshay Kumar and Manoj Bajpayee.
May 2019
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May 2019
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Kalank
...is a sincerely-crafted, visually-robust film pulled apart by mediocre performances.
Apr 2019
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The Tashkent Files
...becomes increasingly weird as it goes along. A chaos of quotes, citations, claims and counterclaims grab you by the throat.
Apr 2019
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Romeo Akbar Walter
Purportedly based on a real man, the film has little interest in truthfully engaging with its subject, clearly driven by the singular ambition of cashing in on patriot season.
Apr 2019
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Gone Kesh
...goes slack with the drama at crucial junctures, which makes the second half predictable. Still, this film is enough of a joy.
Mar 2019
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Notebook
It soon becomes clear that Notebook — for all its postcard framings and poetic peg — is still very much about one thing: introducing two new faces to the world, and serving as their showreel.
Mar 2019
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Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota
...director Vasan Bala retreats to that primal feeling of fantasy, and performs a touching reversal: he stacks up the imaginary outtakes of his own childhood and returns them to where they belong — in a movie.
Mar 2019
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Mar 2019
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Photograph
Ritesh Batra has crafted a sweet homage to the movies that complete our dreams. It takes a while but finds its heart. Don’t let the festival olives tell you otherwise. 'Photograph' is a Hindi film that’s happy to be one.
Mar 2019
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Sonchiriya
Devious and unforgiving, Abhishek Chaubey’s filmmaking lugs Sonchiriya into uncharted mainstream territory. Its reflective pace might puzzle a few, especially audiences unaccustomed to revisionist cinema, but I’m hoping for the humour to sell.
Mar 2019