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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
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Highway
I wanted more because it comes from a director who knows, or at least has known how to transfuse exuberance in love, and joy in sheer movement. ‘Highway’ is pretty but stagey.
Feb 2014
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Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive
...generates start-up potential, some smiles, some laugh-out-loud lines, but it keeps petering out.
Feb 2016
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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
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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
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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
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Feb 2012
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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
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Ghanchakkar
This could have been a hoot, but the execution lets down the premise, and the film remains one of those that could have been edgier and funnier.
Jun 2013
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Mar 2014
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Kick
We know that a Salman film is created solely to display his popular quirks and his one-liners and his ‘andaaz’, all of which are designed to send his fans into a swoon.
Jul 2014
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Traffic
This enterprise, bloated by needless saccharine and background music, has its moments but stays, overall, strictly serviceable.
May 2016
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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
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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
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Photograph
A tiny cameo by Vijay Raaz illustrates what this film needed more of: a touch of whimsy, a kind of magic.
Mar 2019
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Apr 2010
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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
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Jun 2016
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Nov 2016
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Yamla Pagla Deewana 2
...the only thing one can say in its favour is that it is not as terrible as the first.
Jun 2013
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Filmistaan
There are a few enjoyable moments in ‘Filmistaan’, but the potential is never fully realized.
Jun 2014
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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
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Happy Bhag Jayegi
...is good for a few laughs but then falls victim to weak writing and never realises its full potential.
Aug 2016
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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
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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