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The Body
There’s enough meat in the story for it to have been an engaging thriller. But it’s been a while since I watched such an inept film. Everything in it is flat: the plot, the performers, the alleged twists.
Dec 2019
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Mardaani 2
We need more strong female leads in our movies. We just don’t need them to be surrounded by misogyny and dialogues which lead the audience to cheer when the men mouth lines which aim low.
Dec 2019
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
Our ‘pati’ may have redeemed himself, and the ‘patni’ and ‘woh’ may have lifted the film somewhat, but to wish for good taste in a comedy dealing with straying husbands and wives-and-other-women-in-holding patterns is no laughing matter.
Dec 2019
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Dec 2019
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Yeh Saali Aashiqui
...the trouble with the film is that the treatment of both the romantic angles, as well as the watch-the-femme-fatale-in-her-red-lips, is dated and troubling.
Nov 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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Nov 2019
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Satellite Shankar
This very Forrest Gump-ish intent could have been better realized if the plot had been less simplistic, and the lead actor a little more versatile.
Nov 2019
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Ujda Chaman
If the point of the film is to tell us that external appearances have nothing to do with our inner selves, it needed to have done it better. Much, much better.
Nov 2019
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Saand Ki Aankh
In the film, the elderly women are played by two twenty-somethings buried under layers of prosthetics, and that, right there, is the problem.
Oct 2019
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Housefull 4
Brain: Oh my god, it’s that time again. You are going for Housefull 4. Me, weakly: Yeah. Just doing my job. Brain: Well what can I say, you will never learn.
Oct 2019
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Made In China
What does Made In China want to be ? A double-meaning-dialogue-laden romp-in-the-sheets, or a go-to sex manual for repressed Indians? It veers, alas, towards the pulpit.
Oct 2019
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Laal Kaptaan
...there are flashes when you feel the film will finally say something important, but then it lapses back into stodgy set-pieces which go on and on.
Oct 2019
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The Sky Is Pink
...barring some passages, it feels both constructed and sentimental. With the material at hand, you expect a legitimate heart-breaker ( how else can you look at a young life threatening to be cut short?) but this one left me mostly unmoved.
Oct 2019
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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
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The Zoya Factor
For a rom-com which needs to be light on its feet, hitting fours and sixes as it goes along, the writing is not as supple as it should have been. Too many slog overs here.
Sep 2019
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Dream Girl
There are many good ideas floating around in Dream Girl. But ideas need execution, and on that score, this film flubs it: it has so little wit and imagination that it turns all those ideas into a series of flat set-pieces.
Sep 2019
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Saaho
Everything a thriller needs is in here, and you settle down, fully prepared for a non-stop, breathless, firing-from-all-cylinders ride. But Saaho turns out to be a damp squib.
Aug 2019
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Batla House
...the trouble with Batla House is that the whole film acts like a disclaimer...
Aug 2019
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Mission Mangal
How do you jazz up dry, complicated science to make it easy for the viewer who wants, primarily, to be entertained? The answer is twin-pronged: one, dumb down the science and keep it simple, stupid, and two, get a big male A-lister to front the project.
Aug 2019
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Jabariya Jodi
As the film goes along, confusion gets confounded. Is this a well-meaning social drama, a rom-com, or an actioner?
Aug 2019
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Aug 2019
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Jul 2019
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Judgemental Hai Kya
It’s been a long time since I have seen something so determinedly experimental, so inventive, despite its flaws, to come out of Bollywood...
Jul 2019
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Jhootha Kahin Ka
This alleged comedy of errors, in which are complicit such veterans as Rishi Kapoor and Rakesh Bedi, bids fair to leap straight into the worst films of the year list. The dialogue is risible. The performances are loud. The film is beyond awful.
Jul 2019
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Family Of Thakurganj
...feels like a tired retread on all counts. How you can pull of such a feat with so many good actors is an achievement in itself.
Jul 2019
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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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One Day
This is not a bad premise for a spot-the-vigilante thriller, led by the trusty Anupam Kher. But the execution is so ham-fisted from opening to closing frame that you are left reeling.
Jul 2019
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Kabir Singh
To watch a character like Kabir Singh do this thing for nearly three hours places the viewer squarely into a place of conflict. Here’s a fellow who thinks going through life yelling, shouting, snorting-and-drinking on the job, assuaging his raging libido with crass directness, basically being a sexist we-will-not-use-the-word-that-follows-naturally-here, is an acceptable thing.
Jun 2019