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Titli
Unrelentingly grim, morally unmoored, Titli festers like a sore on your consciousness.
Oct 2015
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Sep 2016
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Newton
...can say with confidence that Newton thrilled me like no other Hindi film this year.
Sep 2017
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Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota
...Vasan Bala manages something rare: a delirious pastiche with a heartbeat.
Mar 2019
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Court
...is absolutely worth raving about, and that it might be one of the most original films to come out of the country in a long time. But its insights are hard-won: you have to be willing to wait and watch until the point of each scene...
Apr 2015
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Dangal
...bends a little to accommodate its superstar, but has plenty of charm and grit.
Dec 2016
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Talvar
By turns witty and thoughtful, devastating and emotional, it’s up there with Masaan and Dum Laga Ke Haisha and the one or two other stirringly well-written films of the year.
Oct 2015
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Article 15
...might not comfort the afflicted, but there’s every chance it will afflict the comfortable.
Jun 2019
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Udta Punjab
It’s fascinating to see how the diverse acting styles of the leads meld or clash with each other throughout the film.
Jun 2016
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Gully Boy
If Gully Boy earns its props by the time it’s done, this is testament to its immersion in, and respect for, the world it springs from.
Feb 2019
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Raman Raghav 2.0
...is as unpleasant as it is gleefully amoral and perversely enjoyable.
Jun 2016
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Trapped
Time games, inventive soundscapes, Rajkummar Rao: there’s lots to love in ‘Trapped’.
Mar 2017
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Apr 2015
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Sonchiriya
There’s a question that recurs through Sonchiriya: what is a dacoit’s dharma? At one point an answer is given: to protect one’s people and caste, to live and pass away in the ravines, to die from a bullet. A fatalistic response, and a bracingly nihilistic film.
Mar 2019
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Raazi
Like she did in Talvar, Gulzar assembles and marshals an expert ensemble. It’s a pleasure watching a detail-oriented director like her collaborate with an actor like Bhatt, who has a knack of making the tiniest gestures count.
May 2018
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Happy Bhag Jayegi
I’m having a hard time remembering the last time I watched a Hindi film this silly but still found myself laughing.
Aug 2016
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Island City
As a tonally tricky, slyly subversive mood piece, it finds itself in a very small group of Hindi films. It’s also an intriguing new entry in the long tradition of films that explore the spiritual heartache of living in Mumbai.
Sep 2016
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Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola
Fans of Bhardwaj, meanwhile, will be happy he’s back filling the screen with life and colour after the strangely acrid 7 Khoon Maaf last year.
Jan 2013
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Aligarh
...an even bigger victory for the film might lie in getting vaguely homophobic viewers to empathize with Siras, to understand his distaste for easy labels, to admit that even they sit in the dark with a drink and listen to old Hindi film songs.
Feb 2016
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Mukkabaaz
...is a bracing start to the movie year—overstuffed, enjoyable and urgent. It doesn’t have big stars, but feels like a commercial movie in a way that Bombay Velvet didn’t.
Jan 2018
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Drishyam
...a solid remake, but a film with Tabu as in the Vijay role and Devgn as the cop would have been so much more exciting.
Jul 2015
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Jolly LLB 2
There’s little doubt about what kind of film Jolly LLB 2 wants to be: broad, accessible and successful.
Feb 2017
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G Kutta Se
...this is a sharp, pitiless look at a society governed by feudal minds overly concerned with women’s honour while utterly dismissive of their rights. G Kutta Se might seem violent and unsubtle. Then again, so might India.
Jun 2017
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Panipat
...does do something that Bhansali, and the other directors of recent historical films, didn’t bother with – which is to give the viewer a sense of history playing out.
Dec 2019
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Tanu Weds Manu Returns
She’s (Kangana Ranaut) also the main reason the film is—even at its silliest—very watchable.
May 2015
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Parched
...it is lively, bright, charged and accessible. Chatterjee, Apte and Chawla are thoroughly enjoyable, and find excellent support in Chandan K.
Sep 2016
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Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
Dhar’s mild-mannered film does something similar, setting off a bomb under a hetero cinema tradition, but turning it into something soft and pretty so as not to alarm the viewer.
Feb 2019