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Chauranga
Had the performances been stronger, the accents more convincing, and the ideas more novel, Chauranga might have achieved something...
Jan 2016
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Thackeray
A critical biopic was never on the cards; the only question, really, is how vitriolic it was going to be. Thackeray is 2 hours and 19 minutes, so the hate is spread out. The problem is, the scenes which exist only to praise Thackeray’s altruism and courage are bland. The nasty moments kept me engaged and enraged.
Jan 2019
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Mar 2016
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Padmaavat
...the Karni Sena has unwittingly been protesting a wet dream of Rajput pride. Pride beyond logic, pride in defeat, in suicide, in abetting suicide.
Jan 2018
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Coffee Bloom
...isn’t the most exciting of films, but it has a slow-burn intensity that owes a lot to Mathur and Garg’s carefully calibrated performances and Kapoor’s exuberant, pressure-releasing one.
Mar 2015
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Singh Is Bliing
...had a few classic comic scenes. With its lame script and tiresome gags, you’ll forget Singh Is Bliing within seconds of leaving the cinema.
Oct 2015
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Wazir
Nambiar’s previous films have suffered from screenplays that are less than clever. This one reaches for cleverness, which is just beyond its grasp, and that mars what could have been an unusually dour, taut thriller.
Jan 2016
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Mar 2016
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Jun 2016
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
...the problem with Pati, Patni Aur Woh isn’t that it’s offensive, but that it's dull and predictable for too much of its running time.
Dec 2019
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Angrezi Medium
A film about a free and loving father-daughter relationship becomes a closed circuit. It’s that old cliché about setting someone free if you love them and seeing if they come back.
Mar 2020
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Hichki
...often comes across as parachute filmmaking—dropping in on a problem just long enough to prick the viewer’s conscience and make them feel like they’re watching something meaningful, but avoiding any sort of meaningful engagement.
Mar 2018
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Gold
The story itself is a nice idea, but that extra beat, that crucial unwillingness to trust the viewer, reveals the film’s insecurities.
Aug 2018
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Mardaani 2
...Hindi cinema has no appetite for complexity when it comes to sexual assault, opting time and again for vigilante retribution.
Dec 2019
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Delhi In A Day
...this film reminded us of being called up in front of a classroom. You know you’ve done something wrong, but it’s not a pleasant experience.
Aug 2012
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Oct 2016
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AK vs AK
The one-line is irresistible—“Anurag Kashyap kidnaps Anil Kapoor’s daughter”—but it’s still sketch material. Blown up to feature-length, it plays like a grungy, scrappy vanity project.
Dec 2020
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Mission Mangal
The film plays up Indian ingenuity without making a convincing case for it.
Aug 2019
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Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi
...isn’t a total bust: there are intermittent laughs, and the Indian and Pakistani characters are treated with generosity. But to set a film in China and then spend 135 minutes sneering at the Chinese is, to put it plainly, opportunistic and childish.
Aug 2018
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Dil Dhadakne Do
Pretty but never dazzling, busy but never riveting, glib but never wise, Dil Dhadakne Do never does find its sea legs.
Jun 2015
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Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Instead of confronting its central question—what do you do if the person you love doesn’t love you back?—the film sidesteps it with a shameless deus ex machina.
Oct 2016
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Ki & Ka
A promising premise is ruined by narrative unsubtlety and some strange stylistics choices.
Apr 2016
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Beyond The Clouds
...had it not been Majidi making this, it’s debatable whether Beyond the Clouds, which feels like an artily rendered patchwork of stock Mumbai film moments, would have been on anyone’s radar.
Apr 2018
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Main Aur Charles
Hooda’s Sobhraj is a cipher, a beautiful surface with no indication of the emotions—if any—that are raging underneath.
Oct 2015
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Rock On 2
...the best thing one can say about Rock On 2 is that it’s a professional job.
Nov 2016
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Omerta
Mehta’s frequent juggling of timeline and location means the jag and jump of the filmic technique matches the fragmented nature of the narrative. The chaos is needed, for though there’s some shock in Omerta, there’s little surprise.
May 2018
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Dream Girl
...a film that’s slight to begin with, and which looks even slighter in comparison to Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan and Badhaai Ho.
Sep 2019
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Jun 2015