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Ugly
In all the to-ing and fro-ing, it starts feeling too long, and too much, without the requisite emotional pay-off. There are three potentially gripping films in here : one would have been enough.
Dec 2014
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Phoonk 2
...manages to startle and scare in a few places, even if a few scenes look filched from a couple of Japanese horror films, once in a while. Can’t ask for more, not from RGV’s brand of horror.
Apr 2010
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Bbuddah...Hoga Terra Baap
What Bachchan needs is a real, grown-up film, not a stand-up, send-up act.
Jul 2011
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Bbuddah...Hoga Terra Baap
It is a superstarry slurry sludge, with just the occasional consolatory sparkle.
Oct 2011
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Blood Money
...has a story which starts off interesting but becomes familiar as it unspools, underwired with the usual flash.
Mar 2012
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Krrish 3
...is a superhero film. It is also a throwback to the creaky family entertainers Bollywood used to make. The hero has special powers, sure, but also a loving daddy, a lovely wifey, an attractive moll and a villain with severe daddy issues.
Nov 2013
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Kya Dilli Kya Lahore
...had the potential to be as powerful, maybe more, because it is our story.
May 2014
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Madam Chief Minister
This film had potential. It could have redressed a shameful lack.
Jan 2021
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Milenge Milenge
Despite the silliness , and despite the fact that they look like their much younger, outdated selves...they manage to come up for breath. But only intermittently.
Jul 2010
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Pappu Can't Dance Saala
I had trouble keeping myself interested because of the flatness which the film suffers from, despite some nice touches.
Dec 2011
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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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Gippi
This comes off as a mini version of the Karan Johar-directed Student Of The Year, which was itself derivative.
May 2013
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Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi
The film ends up being a strictly average, and mostly bland, slice of Delhi life.
May 2014
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Indu Sarkar
...doesn’t break fresh ground, even as it does bring alive some of the most disturbing aspects of the time. And we relive it, even as we cringe at the heavy melodrama, and the over-simplification of many of the issues the film raises.
Jul 2017
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Firangi
The trouble with this mildly engaging film, with a solid supporting cast, is that it is far too long.
Dec 2017
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Firangi
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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Parched
...despite Parched’s obvious worthy intentions, its execution left me discomfited.
Sep 2016
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Baadshaho
Only it’s 2017 not the 70s, and whatever you might do – add some spit-and-polish and intrigue and new faces, and create funny dialogues – the film comes off as old wine, in a not very new bottle, which we have to sip for over 2.5 hours.
Sep 2017
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Pad Man
...is as worthy, but it isn’t a particularly enjoyable film. It has tonal problems, because it is trying to appeal to many constituencies at the same time.
Feb 2018
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Mere Pyare Prime Minister
...the attempt at balancing the serious with the jokey sits uneasy. And there’s no getting away from the all-hail-the-PM rah-rah-ness...
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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Beyond The Clouds
...good-looking yet hollow, and leaves us wondering why, if Majidi did have to make a Hindi film, did he choose this subject? He’s clearly seeing it at second-remove.
Apr 2018
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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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Red Alert
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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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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Jul 2017