-
Mukkabaaz
Critic reviews and ratings
-
Kashyap is at his absolute best in Mukkabaaz, all heart and heartland, a movie made with a vintage filmi sensibility but highly modern skills. And a story that bleeds.
-
...is a total knockout. The not-just-a-boxing film must not be missed as it puts forth a message that's most relevant in today's world — Bahut Hua Samman Tumhari Aisi Taisi — #Timesup, bullies.
-
...packs a massive punch. Watch it because it is one of the more important films to have come out of the Mumbai movie industry in recent times.
-
...marks Kashyap's fab return to a realm he understands and expresses best -- with all its flaws, angst and humour, Tarantino-esque pop-culture references, making it all as distressing as it is frickin' fun and real.
-
...is the best film in last one year or so, and this year couldn’t start on a better note. Let’s cherish Vineet Singh and his thickheaded brawler with open heart.
-
...is not your average sports film or love story. This one’s a funny, intense, dramatic and thrilling ride. It makes you laugh, cry and nervous in equal measure. It’s a great way to start the year.
-
A Hindi film that is unafraid to say what it has to say in this present repressive atmosphere is rare. This is fearless, energetic filmmaking at its best.
-
...is an unusual sports flick that qualifies to be a gender bender in spite its attempt to get hooked to the wider audience, thanks to the constant jabs and punches to the caste system, religious intolerance and corruption.
-
Hardcore Anurag Kashyap fans may be a bit disappointed with its happy ending and moreover, less of blood bath unlike his films. Though Mukkabaaz is not as dark as his genre, the overall treatment is edgy and thrilling alongside the universal appeal.
-
I detested the new velvety 2.0 Anurag Kashyap but Mukkabaaz is a glimpse of the old & hungry Anurag.
-
...its narrative stretched by way too many background songs, and an inevitable sense of repetition and wallowing in the protagonist’s misery. Yet it might be Kashyap’s most accessible film since Gangs of Wasseypur, and his only crime here may be one of overreaching.
-
Kashyap is still one of Hindi cinema’s better storytellers. His films definitely shake you from your reverie. So for those who don't wish to just sleepwalk through life, this Kashyap kand is a must.
-
I loved Mukkabaaz, but it took me a while to put a frame on it, to decide how to look at it. Kashyap’s reputation is so festooned with international art-house hosannas – screenings at Cannes! reviews in Variety! – that it’s easy to forget how rooted in Hindi cinema he is.
-
Anurag Kashyap fans may be a bit disappointed here. The filmmaker who doesn't hold his blows, seems constricted in telling this story. Not that there aren't enough bloody noses and hammered eyes, but the overall treatment seems to be tweaked for universal appeal.
-
This is a film whose lack of ostensible polish works to enhance its rough-and-tumble flavor: Kashyap and the film are at its most sure-footed when they are calling out discrimination, across the board. That’s when their punches land in exactly the right place.
-
...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.
-
A rare sports film which steps away from jingoistic chest thumping to stare hard at the casteist and corrupt face of sports management in the country.
-
...is also a scathing critique of corruption in Indian sport, of the caste system, which keeps worthy men in chains and of extremists who spread mayhem under the cloak of religion. It’s a love story and a sports underdog story, which in the second half transforms into a suspenseful revenge drama. It’s a lot to weave together and ultimately Mukkabaaz becomes as exhausting as it is energizing.
-
Relentless, intense, relentlessly intense are all the words that come to you during interval. After that though, the film loses steam slightly because it gets a touch repetitive.
-
It may appear as a sports film, a boxing film, but Mukkabaaz really is an intense relationship drama, a romance — almost a quasi-Romeo-Juliet — that will not bow down to disability or politics or caste.
-
It scores thanks to the performances, dialogues, action and some well executed sequences. But the long length, incoherent direction combined with a low buzz plays spoilsport and would surely affect the prospects of the film at the ticket window.
-
My worry is that many who are not fond of Kashyap's usual complex sensibility would like this latest move: They'll applaud the fact that he's going for the tear glands with brass knuckles on.
The tragedy of Mukkabaaz is not that it aims low; the tragedy is that it aims low and hits.
-
In trying to create a socially aware entertainer through Mukkabaaz, the director throws too many punches.
-
...puts its fist in many pies: boxing, romance, caste wars, defiance and revenge. Anurag Kashyap brings alive small town Uttar Pradesh brilliantly. But the fist through so many pies laced with too many songs becomes a feast too difficult to digest.
-
It is not the acting, the content, or the ideology that is wrong with this movie. What jars is the choice of a hackneyed and overused cinematic style that divides characters and conflicts into simplistic demarcations of black and white.
Best and worst reviewed movies (Min. 5 reviews)
Best
-
Worst
-
Best
-
Worst
-
Best
-
Worst
-
Best
-
Worst
-
Best
-
Worst
-
Best