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Mar 2010
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Thanks Maa
...a strangely uneven film. Its beginning feels amateurishly put together ; as it heads onwards, though, it finds an easy, flowing rhythm with just the occasional stutter.
Jan 2011
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Lootera
It has left me with some indelible scenes which are sheer poetry, but this is one of those films that I wanted to like much more than I did.
Jul 2013
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Bhoothnath Returns
...it was neither funny nor serious enough: neither fully ghostly nor ghastly, but somewhere in between.
Apr 2014
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3 Storeys
Even if not madly original, ensemble pieces can turn out interesting if consistently told. 3 Storeys comes off nice in bits but uneven overall...
Mar 2018
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AK vs AK
Motwane’s movie is not just meta. It’s meta-meta, especially when some parts hit too close to the mark, and some are just tantalisingly off the mark.
Dec 2020
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AK vs AK
...the pleasures of a film like this, made by a director who knows her mountains and its people, are unmistakable: there's not one ounce of fakery...
Oct 2010
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Saare Jahaan Se Mehnga
The film has been written zippily by people who know this world. It looks and feels authentic, minus exaggeration. And the actors look as if they belong.
Mar 2013
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Khwaabb
It’s tough to make a true-blue sports film, minus song and dance and melodrama, in Bollywood. This one has tried.
May 2014
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Jugni
The film turns clunky in other places, the first-time inexperience showing, but we don’t really mind, because it has that rare thing : a soul, and of course, song. I came out humming.
Jan 2016
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May 2018
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De De Pyaar De
You wish the film had been braver in its intention of creating a really cracking rom-com, instead of playing its clichés for a laugh.
May 2019
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Pagglait
With an ensemble cast and its heart in the right place, this Sanya Malhotra film only veers off-course when it becomes too heavy-handed.
Mar 2021
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Talaash
...starts out as a smart, well-written noir-ish thriller, and then slips between the tracks. Pity about the second half.
Nov 2012
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Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain
What makes the film worth your time is the way it states, unequivocally, that the gas need not have leaked if Union Carbide and its employees and its votaries had come together to pull the plug in time.
Dec 2014
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Island City
...works best through these fleeting, arresting visuals, their impact diluting when the director turns her attention towards building the narrative arcs.
Sep 2016
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Bareilly Ki Barfi
Rajkummar Rao blows away the weaknesses of this film with his consummate act, playing the timid 'chota shehari' on the one hand, and the loud 'rangbaaz' on the other. He sweetens the pot, and makes up for the rest of it.
Aug 2017
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Kaalakaandi
Kalaakaandi is a Marathi term for ‘mayhem’, but there’s not enough of it, resulting in the film being more a no-stakes stroll, rather than a breathless roller-coaster.
Jan 2018
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Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Two things mar the movie. Some of the humour made me distinctly uncomfortable: sexist lines inserted for cheap laughs, and a judge made too comic, is not something we expect in a film with good intentions. The other is its inordinate length. It’s run-time is almost three hours: the meter should have stopped at two and a half.
Sep 2018
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Thank You
...promises you a huge passel of nothing: no story, no sense. On all those scores, it doesn't disappoint.
Apr 2011
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Mere Dad Ki Maruti
At its best it is placid, and sort of middling, this Mere Dad Ki Maruti.
Mar 2013
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Band Baaja Baaraat
...both Sharma and Singh, the near pitch-perfect surprise packet of the film, make you smile. Enough reason for a visit.
Dec 2010
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Jul 2014
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Bobby Jasoos
These are good actors being made to boost a limp story: they needed a better film.
Oct 2010
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2 States
The smooth, engaging first half descends, post-interval, into mopey melodrama, and I got impatient waiting for the inevitable resolution.
Apr 2014
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Guddu Rangeela
Kapoor demonstrates a growing assuredness, which is clear in the robust, cracking portions of the film: all he now needs is a solid hole-less plot with lines to match.
Jul 2015
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Guddu Rangeela
The writing is confused as to point of view and weightage, and post-interval, like most Bollywood films, 'The Dirty Picture', dives.What makes us watch, despite everything-the overheating, the overwriting-- is Vidya Balan...
Dec 2011
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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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Mardaani 2
Even when it turns out to be too wordy, and much too long-winded, there's no denying that 'Bol' is important. Because it has the courage to say, via its spunky heroine : utaar ke phenk do in burquon ko, apni zindagi khud banao.
Sep 2011