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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!
...a film that filled me to the brim. It is the kind of film that I will recall and savour, flaws and all.
Apr 2015
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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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Shikara
A more nuanced sense of history would have made this film much more complete, even if you were to put aside the enormous irony of watching a film about a place which has been in lock-down for the past six months: when will the people in the valley be able to watch Shikara, and tell us what they think?
Feb 2020
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Bol
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
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The Last Act
...more consistency in quality would have made ‘The Final Act’ a more solid, better -realised act.
Dec 2012
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Raanjhanaa
Post interval, it comes unstuck, and squanders its gains. If Raanjhanaa had kept its tone intact, it would have been a great love story.
Jun 2013
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Padmaavat
You can easily delight in it while the going is good. But nearly three hours of it, and looping rhetoric around what constitutes Rajput valour can and does become tiresome.
Jan 2018
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Baaghi 2
The trouble with a full-on masala film going in search of a plot is evident in the way the film unspools.
Mar 2018
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Delhi Safari
...does a great service to the animation-for-kids genre by stepping out of the tired mythological stories, and creating animals with distinctive personalities.
Oct 2012
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Soorma
In choosing to show the personal side, the professional aspects get short shrift, and that’s where the film doesn’t score as well.
Jul 2018
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Bol Bachchan
If your nosy is not turned up too high, ‘Bol Bachchan’, less blaring than your standard Rohit Shetty comedy, can give you sporadic chuckles, and a few helpess laughs. Can’t expect more.
Jul 2012
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Dabangg 2
Because he is being Salman, whose thing of `don’t take me seriously, just have fun’ takes us into a zone where all of `Dabangg 2’ and its settings and characters become comic-book.
Dec 2012
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PK
What you need to re-purpose these themes is nuance, which, after a point, goes missing. This is where the Hirani magic recedes, and the film becomes commonplace.
Dec 2014
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Welcome 2 Karachi
...it is all good-natured and appropriately silly, so ‘Welcome 2 Karachi’ stays watchable.
May 2015
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Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
...overall this comedy of middle-class-Dilli-manners-and-mores suffers from a sit-com flatness. And when everything is meant to make us laugh, you can quite easily deflect attention from the main premise.
Sep 2017
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Patiala House
...there’s enough that’s enjoyable in the film. The writing is smart, the lines are life-like, the characters feel right.
Feb 2011
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Dedh Ishqiya
There is much to be liked in the film, and I wish all of it had been as good as the scintillating bits.
Jan 2014
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May 2014
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Half Girlfriend
The book, despite its shortcomings, feels more an organic whole: the film, which was what the book was always going to be, tries too hard.
May 2017
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Ishaqzaade
It’s all in there, and yet the result is mixed : some of ‘Ishqzaade’ hits the spot, the rest is a drag.
May 2012
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Shaadi Ke Side Effects
...is fun, and real, and has some nice laugh-out-loud situations which the leads make the most of.
Feb 2014
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Pyaar Ka Punchnama
...while it lasts, you can laugh your head off most of the time. Not a bad reason to see a film.
May 2011
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Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu
...is a half and half : it gets where it needs to with flair, but not enough surprises.
Feb 2012
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Stree
Stree’s premise is a cracker, leaving you grinning in the dark. But the execution comes off a tad clunky: subversion in a film willing to embrace its silliness can be very effective, but it can get diluted if your messaging is mixed.
Aug 2018
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Hawaa Hawaai
...has a big beating heart, but you wish it had been a better film: it trundles on, leaps up intermittently, but doesn’t fly.
May 2014
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Drishyam
The film, which stays mostly faithful to the original but has a few inserts, could have been better if it had been tighter. And if Ajay Devgn had someone other than Shriya Saran (the two don’t quite fit) opposite him.
Jul 2015