An archive of Hindi movie reviews and ratings from 2010 to 2020.
  • Halkaa

    37

    Generally unfavourable reviews (?)
    Based on 10 critics

    Cast & Crew

    Summary

    Halkaa is a story of an eight-year-old boy Pichku who lives in the oldest slums of Delhi and aspires for a better life. It is a story of a child who against all odds strives to achieve his goal and becomes a hero in the making for his parents, slum, and society. This is the maiden production of Shiv Nadar Foundation in association with Akshay Kumar Parija and Nila Madhab Panda and Supratik Roy is the associate producer.

    Trailer

Critic reviews and ratings

  • Works as the story of a little boy who doesn’t have access to a clean toilet, might seem heavy-handed if watched as a movie with an agenda.

    69

    Critic rating (?)

  • Nila Madhab Panda gives us a film about urban wretchedness in easily digestible drawing-room gollops.

    49

    Critic rating (?)

  • ...director Nila Madhab Panda has made a film with its heart in the right place and let’s hope the message it conveys reaches the right pockets...

    49

    Critic rating (?)

  • Halkaa’s good intentions are never in doubt, nor are the efforts of the filmmaking team in illuminating a dark reality of Indian cities. But far greater subtlety, and a more realistic assessment of the problems faced by slum dwellers in building toilets, were needed to have made Pichku’s mission credible.

    49

    Critic rating (?)

  • This setting is again where Panda scores, bringing alive to us the slums we pass by every day, even if the suggestion of grime is fleeting. At the same time, this is where he cheats, by giving us a film about urban wretchedness in easily digestible drawing-room gollops...

    49

    Critic rating (?)

  • Though the film doesn’t come across as a part of some government policy, it doesn’t touch your heart as a human story either.

    29

    Critic rating (?)

  • This one sounds more like an ad advocating the use of toilets stretched to a 114-minutes-long feature and including some of the most blatant product placements ever seen on screen. It means well, but good intentions and a wide-eyed hero are just not enough.

    29

    Critic rating (?)

  • Director Nila Madhab Panda has made a career of drafting films (I am Kalam, Kadvi Hawa) which pack in a social message or three. If only these mass vehicles of public betterment could’ve been peppered with some cinematic flourish, they would’ve been a bit more bearable.

    19

    Critic rating (?)

  • The film’s call against open defecation is gratuitous and in trying to portray class divides ends up widening it.

    19

    Critic rating (?)

  • An awful tale about shitting told crappily. This is worse than government funded propaganda films...

    09

    Critic rating (?)

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