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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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Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan
Audiences going for Hindi cinema’s first queer romance will be disappointed. Yes, you get a kiss between the male leads (two, in fact), but no real insight into their relationship.
Feb 2020
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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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Mar 2021
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Dec 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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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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Kalank
...is a sincerely-crafted, visually-robust film pulled apart by mediocre performances.
Apr 2019
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Mar 2020
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Total Dhamaal
Shall we blame a slapstick comedy for sticking to the slaps? There’s little that’s freshly funny about Total Dhamaal...
Feb 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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Laal Kaptaan
...crucial balance between gravitas and fun is woefully amiss in Navdeep’s latest work, a galloping period western, weighed down by its broad historical sweep and dreary philosophizing.
Oct 2019
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Uri
...plays out in the precarious sub-genre of the 'well-made' propaganda. The ambitious production design and consistent visual flair come scarily close to masking out the timely histrionics. The film is well-executed, if not well-intended.
Jan 2019
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Kaagaz
Satish Kaushik is one of our steadiest actor-directors, thriving especially in mainstream fare. But the social realism of Kaagaz largely eludes him.
Jan 2021
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Mar 2019
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May 2019
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Marjaavaan
...an 80s masala template, dance bars and remixes, infuriating rhyme schemes, and a pyro-maniacal obsession.
Nov 2019
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Manikarnika
The film begins as a biopic, but derails quickly into a surreal showdown of unbridled carnage. The facts, if any, get chewed up in the mess.
Jan 2019
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Roohi
Just a few years into its revival, the Hindi horror-comedy has upped and died. The biggest blow was Laxmii (2020), with Akshay Kumar in a red saree, and now another is dealt by Roohi, starring Janhvi Kapoor as a human-witch hybrid.
Mar 2021
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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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Helicopter Eela
The story certainly has its moments, but the schmaltzy grammar adopted by Sarkar fails this messy story about prodigy mothers and prodigal sons.
Oct 2018
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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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Pati Patni Aur Woh
Its humour doesn’t stem from escalating confusion or clever lines, but plain sleaze. It takes the fantasy world of old Govinda movies and grafts it onto a real milieu — a scary combination by all means, as hinted at by Bhumi’s ‘single-screen/multiplex’ line.
Dec 2019
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Pihu
The set-pieces are intriguingly imagined, but they mesh oddly, and entire sequences, like unmatched pieces of Lego, refuse to fit into each other.
Nov 2018
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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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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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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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Good Newwz
It’s a silly move, ditching a laugh track and filling it up with beat drops and stings. In case the Indian TV industry hadn’t made it clear, noise isn’t news.
Dec 2019
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Kedarnath
Abhishek Kapoor melds two difficult subjects — interfaith romance, natural calamity — while working within a moderate budget. The writing is clunky and the payoff unearned, and everything feels like a drag at the two-hour runtime. The execution hurts the most.
Dec 2018
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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