-
Chef
There are some interesting flavours here, but ‘Chef’ feels derivative, and doesn’t come together as a fully satisfactory dish. And that’s got to do with the uneven, stodgy writing.
Oct 2017
-
Super 30
Yes, the real-life story is inspiring. But the telling of it is a drag. The film has its moments, which belong mostly to its young people: the kids are all right.
Jul 2019
-
Milenge Milenge
Despite the silliness , and despite the fact that they look like their much younger, outdated selves...they manage to come up for breath. But only intermittently.
Jul 2010
-
Pappu Can't Dance Saala
I had trouble keeping myself interested because of the flatness which the film suffers from, despite some nice touches.
Dec 2011
-
Rowdy Rathore
You take the masala films made in the 70s and 80s. Borrow liberally. Patch together a plot, or whatever passes for it. Rope in a star looking for a solo hit. And you get, all together now, ‘Rowdy Rathore’.
Jun 2012
-
Karwaan
...is aiming for an easy, offhand charm, and we get that only in bits and pieces, especially when Irrfan hits his stride on occasion, or when Dulquer proves just how good he can be...
Aug 2018
-
Photograph
A tiny cameo by Vijay Raaz illustrates what this film needed more of: a touch of whimsy, a kind of magic.
Mar 2019
-
Madholal - Keep Walking
What's nice about the film is the way it depicts an ordinary life made endurable by little things...What'’s not so nice is the disappearance of the lightness of touch which makes these familiar elements enjoyable.
Aug 2010
-
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola
The film passed me by in the first hour. It enticed me back again in the second half. But not enough to make me forget the inert prologue, which is minus drama, which is Bhardawaj’s true forte.
Jan 2013
-
Traffic
This enterprise, bloated by needless saccharine and background music, has its moments but stays, overall, strictly serviceable.
May 2016
-
M.S. Dhoni
This film had potential to present us with the recent Indian cricketing story, warts and all. Sadly it’s more hagiography than biography: the cricketer is reduced to a being singing-dancing Bollywood hero rather than a top-flight cricketer, a master strategist, and a captain who led from the front.
Sep 2016
-
Manmarziyaan
You enjoy the initial exhilaration born out of breathless passion as the winsome boy and girl engage in the age-old dance of desire. And then they become exhausting. As does the film.
Sep 2018
-
Setters
...lays all its cards on the table in the first act itself: the follow-up is over-long and tedious. And, barring a few sharp moments, flat.
May 2019
-
Commando 3
Though Jamwal does the heroic things, like thumping thugs and rescuing fair maidens, it is Devaiah who steals the show in this patchily plotted, predictable actioner.
Nov 2019
-
Apr 2010
-
Murder 2
What makes the flick a tad less standard procedure is the taut first half, which doesn't let you move from the seat, followed by a muddled, too-long second.
Jul 2011
-
Bittoo Boss
What could have had us cracking up becomes dramatically inert, and a film that doesn’t, despite its occasional nice moments, live up to its potential.
Apr 2012
-
Jun 2016
-
Nov 2016
-
Tanhaji
...we are so steeped in Bollywood’s patriots re-creating paeans to our glorious past, that to even bring up the fact that the bad guys are your Muslim ‘outsiders’, seems to belabour the point. For this film, it’s simple; either you are on our side, or theirs.
Jan 2020
-
Red Alert
Mahadevan doesn’t leave anything out of his worthy plot, which seesaws between keeping it straight and creating a shoot-and-scoot drama, but doesn’t have the skill to pull it off.
Jul 2010
-
Allah Ke Banday
In the taut first half, first time director Faruk Kabir gets most of it right. The second half is scattered...
Dec 2010
-
Aurangzeb
Somewhere in the too-complicated strands of Aurangzeb is a film struggling to cohere.
May 2013
-
Ek Villain
Suri is an innate story-teller, and can keep things moving. All he needs is a strong, all-the-way credible, original plot.
Jun 2014
-
Zed Plus
The good news is that there are still people attempting a satirical look at power and pelf and politics, and seeing how the public and personal intersects. The bad news is that it is not effective enough.
Nov 2014
-
Happy Bhag Jayegi
...is good for a few laughs but then falls victim to weak writing and never realises its full potential.
Aug 2016
-
War
The chief trouble with War is that all the space is divvied up between Hrithik and Tiger, and they are so busy strutting across the screen, in all their glory, so ripped, so brawny, that the poor baddies don’t really get a chance.
Oct 2019
-
Tum Mile
That lack of tension tells on the film: the effective parts when the two are coming together and drawing apart get submerged by the way it wraps.
Nov 2009
-
Emotional Atyachar : The Film
...needed much more imagination to get to be the heist-roadie film that it set out to be...
Sep 2010