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Sanju
It’s a warts-and-all film that hedges its bets: Sanju baba is rarely kept apart from the viewer’s sympathy.
Jul 2018
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Bareilly Ki Barfi
...it lacks bite, which Rao, playing a rather toothless individual, supplies.
Aug 2017
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Uri
...has incredibly persuasive action sequences, but its military reserve can be stifling.
Jan 2019
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Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
...is caught in a peculiar bind: it’s a bit too competent to be dismissed, but not original or striking enough to dispel the feeling that it’s all been done before.
Jun 2018
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Jawaani Jaaneman
Having set itself up nicely in the first hour, Jawaani Jaaneman finds itself with little to say in the second.
Jan 2020
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Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Whether you’re a sceptic or a fan, it’s almost impossible to withstand Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s calculated emotional assault. But it’s also tough to shake the feeling that you’re being played.
Jul 2015
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TE3N
...keeps the surprises, not all of which are easy to predict, coming at regular intervals. Whether all these twists make sense, or are entirely fair, is another matter.
Jun 2016
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Meri Pyaari Bindu
...ends on an intriguing note, at once messy and fitting. But is this enough?
May 2017
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Dhadak
By replicating the narrative but tossing in caste almost as an afterthought, Dhadak shows the limitations of mainstream Hindi cinema.
Jul 2018
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Laal Kaptaan
For the second time this year, Hindi cinema takes a run at a revisionist Western. Laal Kaptaan doesn't come together as satisfyingly as Sonchiriya, perhaps the best theatrical release of 2019.
Oct 2019
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Baar Baar Dekho
In her first film as director, Mehra moves everything along briskly but is unable to add her own visual touch to the impossibly bright and beautiful Dharma house style.
Sep 2016
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Raees
...because Khan holds so much in reserve, Raees remains a cipher. To borrow an old theatrical aphorism, he plays the king as if afraid someone else might play the ace.
Jan 2017
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Fanney Khan
...is a well-meaning feint at the issue of body-shaming and an exhortation to not give up on one’s dreams. Yet, it also shows the yawning chasm between intent and execution into which so many Hindi films fall.
Aug 2018
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Bala
The central quandary is that Bala would have seemed skewed and farcical with only male baldness to concentrate on. It needs the skin colour scenes – but it really didn’t need the blackface.
Nov 2019
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Bombay Velvet
...is frustrating and exhilarating in equal measure. Though his ambition is plain to see, I prefer the Kashyap who delivers the shock of the new rather than the glamour of old.
May 2015
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Baadshaho
...may not be a smart film, but it’s a reasonably savvy daft one, inventive enough to revisit a key event from multiple perspectives and silly enough to have Mishra pick a safe in horse blinkers.
Sep 2017
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Thappad
There are times you wish Sinha could take some of the weight off his writing with inventive filmmaking. But he isn’t a visual director, and the 142-minute Thappad mostly has the look and rhythms of a stage play.
Feb 2020
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Listen... Amaya
Too often, it feels like the film is straining for hipness, with its coffee table books and jogging and touristy Delhi locales like Khan Market and Chandni Chowk. All of which are at odds with the three living, breathing characters at its centre.
Feb 2013
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Karwaan
Some of the pit stops in Khurana and Adhir Bhat’s script (based on a story by Bejoy Nambiar) feel gratuitous and the characters never reach out and touch us.
Aug 2018
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Daddy
It feels like an extension of the idea of the Mumbai gangster as family man that Bheeku Mhatre introduced some 20 years ago, just as Daddy seems to build on the legacy of Satya while pushing the Indian gangster film into darker, more ambiguous territory.
Sep 2017
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Rangoon
...is a rollicking, messy, somewhat frustrating film—it neither coheres, nor does it let you drift away.
Feb 2017
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Super 30
...is on track as long as it steadily plugs away at the real life story of a teacher in Bihar who coaches underprivileged children for the IIT-JEE examination. But when the film starts to doubt whether this is enough, it comes undone.
Jul 2019
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Simran
After all the drama of the last month, it’s nice to be reminded that offscreen Ranaut, no matter how entertaining or scandalous, cannot hold a candle to onscreen Ranaut.
Sep 2017
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Mar 2017
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Hunterrr
...has the right comic material but lacks the timing that would make the movie sing.
Mar 2015
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Mom
...is a strange brew: audience-appeasing thriller, relationship drama and social commentary all rolled into one. To Udyawar’s credit, he manages to make it look cohesive, even as he struggles to contend with the moral quagmire of revenge and opts instead for the escape of pulp.
Jul 2017
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Manjhi
Manjhi is rousing, simplistic cinema, just about saved by a fantastic lead turn.
Aug 2015
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Jagga Jasoos
The singing stratagem occasionally gets in its own way, with dramatic scenes rendered silly by characters breaking into song. There’s also the baffling decision to cast, opposite Bollywood’s nimblest male star, the slow-reacting, risk-averse Kaif.
Jul 2017