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Akira
Sonakshi Sinha kicks butt in the A R Murugadoss film but is limited by her role. Despite Anurag Kashyap's deliciously bad performance, Akira falls into a sinkhole.
Sep 2016
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Satyameva Jayate
There was a time, in the 70s and 80s, when B grade cinema embraced this theme—weeding out corruption with extreme violence– with enthusiasm. Satyameva Jayate brings it all back, with all its dialogue-baazi, and relentless background music, piling one improbable, cliché-ridden sequence upon another.
Aug 2018
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Jul 2019
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Street Dancer 3D
The first thing a good dance movie ought to do is give us numbers that make us want to leap up to our feet right there in the aisle, and go shake-shimmy-shake. On that score alone, Street Dancer 3D, the third in the ABCD line, flubs it.
Jan 2020
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Love Breakups Zindagi
...presents characters that are flat, in situations which are flatter.
Oct 2011
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What The Fish
This is yet another in the line of the Quirky Delhi Film, a genre that has long run out of steam. The novelty lasts for a few minutes. After which it's all downhill.
Dec 2013
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Rahasya
...the result is a film that has only a couple of dark moments. The rest is an attempted mish-mash of a crime-of-coiled-passion- cum-police procedural, the confusion only serving to confound.
Jan 2015
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Oct 2016
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Game
...is a good Bollywood example of a bad Hollywood film : all slick surface, nothing underneath.
Apr 2011
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Satyagraha
This is a film whose anthem is 'Janta Rocks'. Which sort of goes with 'Politics Lite', doesn't it?
Aug 2013
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Ok Jaanu
Shaad Ali’s copy Ok Jaanu, with a screenplay by Ratnam, is faithful but pale and predictable.
Jan 2017
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Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana
For a film that ostensibly sets out to speak against the ills of dowry, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is surprisingly, and dangerously muted.
Nov 2017
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Boss
For all intents and purposes, this could be called Rowdy 2, because Akshay does exactly what he does in that earlier film, but with different co-stars, and a plot that is totally subservient to labelling him Boss every two minutes.
Oct 2013
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Gang of Ghosts
The stinging satirical tone of the original was its hook. This ‘Bhootiyapanti’, as it is called in the film, keeps looking for one.
Mar 2014
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Main Aur Mr. Riight
Sobti gets the hungry-actor look right, but the smiley Treasurywala needed to be deeper. So did the film.
Dec 2014
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Sep 2016
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Vodka Diaries
...just why, with a notable exception or two, doesn’t Bollywood make any worthwhile thrillers? Sadly, the reliable Menon is wasted. So is our time.
Jan 2018
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Total Dhamaal
Brainless comedies can be a lot of fun (brain, stop smirking), but they need to be written with smarts. Here, the CGI animals (the climactic chunk of the film is set in a zoo) have more effect than the humans.
Feb 2019
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Khamoshiyan
There’s your new Bhatt Brothers film, which does exactly what you expect : plays out familiar erotic-horror-thriller ingredients on new, or almost-new faces.
Jan 2015
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Sarkar 3
The best that can be said about Sarkar 3 is that it is not as terrible as Not A Love Story, and, no, nowhere as ghastly as Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. That’s small consolation for a film...
May 2017
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Haseena Parkar
...is a long and winding and weary telling of a story which could have been something, but comes off merely as a tired re-tread of tired re-treads.
Sep 2017
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Mar 2018
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Nov 2010
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Khap
That a burning social issue has been sought to be addressed is a good thing, but not this way.
Jul 2011
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Aiyyaa
...a flat, heavy-footed clomp through screechy lines and overstated, dragged-out situations.
Oct 2012
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Zanjeer
There really is nothing in this film that catches your eye except for a few set pieces, and a new male face which could make some space for himself if he gets something better.
Sep 2013
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Babloo Happy Hai
The director has made strong message films before ( ‘I Am Kalam’) with much more clarity and success. This one tries to do the same but fails : the plot is weak and the acting amateurish.
Feb 2014