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Dream Girl
Just when you think Dream Girl has succumbed to what critics have in the past called The Curse of the Second Half though, it picks up once again thanks to certain cast members with unfailing comic timing.
Sep 2019
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Saaho
A lot of it is very high tech and clearly very expensive. At the end of the day though, what we get is not a film but a little boy showing off his toys to his playmates.
Aug 2019
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Student Of The Year 2
SOTY 1 chose to spend more time on its characters’ bodies, make-up and wardrobes, its soundtrack and dance routines than on its writing, but proved to be entertaining in its own limited fashion. SOTY 2 seems not to even try.
May 2019
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Mar 2019
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The Fakir Of Venice
Everything in the film feels half-hearted. Neither Farhan Akhtar’s charm nor Annu Kapoor’s commitment can save this semi-baked effort. To be fair to it, it is not excruciating or insufferable, it is simply immensely forgettable.
Feb 2019
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Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
...the strong screenplay is backed by an endearing cast.
Feb 2019
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Gully Boy
For a film that is about protest music, the music of anger and rebellion, Gully Boy is surprisingly quiet and extremely funny. Its understatedness and sense of humour are among the multiple reasons why it is also one of the best films to emerge from the Hindi cinemascape in recent times.
Feb 2019
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Manikarnika
Rani Lakshmibai was a great woman. She deserves better than a poorly written film that chooses to use her for its own self-serving ends.
Feb 2019
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Fraud Saiyaan
Warsi’s continuing career struggles may explain why he agreed to be a part of this formulaic, dull, misogynistic rubbish, but what is worse is that Fraud Saiyaan is a Prakash Jha Productions presentation, with the senior producer-director’s daughter Disha Prakash Jha as one of its producers. Seriously Jha-saab, why?
Feb 2019
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Simmba
Don’t be deceived by the apparent good intentions – women’s safety is just another excuse for Shetty’s macho hero to deliver speeches, take the law into his own hands, display his impressive biceps and single-handedly bash up groups of bad men.
Feb 2019
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Zero
Whether or not Zero rakes in big bucks at the box office, it is a spluttering, tottering affair.
Dec 2018
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Kedarnath
This is the natural order of things, the way the world was meant to be: men and women falling in love without social interference, humankind co-existing with the rest of the planet without interfering with the environment in the name of development and human welfare, so that no one gets to ask, “where did you land up in our midst?” because you see, we were all “always here”. Point well made, Abhishek Kapoor.
Dec 2018
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2.0
...the glitz and grandeur become boring after a while in the pre-interval portion as the story takes forever to take off and the SFX are beset by repetitiveness, as though a teenaged boy is trying to impress his school buddies with his brilliance.
Nov 2018
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Bhaiaji Superhittt
...has been in the making for almost a decade, but its mediocrity can hardly be blamed on the delay.
Nov 2018
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Pihu
Kapri’s debut feature, Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho, was marked by the same tendency to bite off more sociological profundities than he could chew.
Nov 2018
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Thugs Of Hindostan
Khan, on the other hand, crackles, pops and sparkles as a swashbuckling scoundrel. The writing of his character and his performance are the only reasons why Thugs of Hindostan does not turn out to be a stylishly produced but disastrously dreary repeat of Acharya’s first film, Tashan.
Nov 2018
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Helicopter Eela
...means well, but it ends up as an often fun but almost entirely superficial Mom com, a sort of English Vinglish without depth.
Oct 2018
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Tumbbad
The joy of watching Tumbbad comes from the fact that Barve and his co-writers offer no answers, making this a delightfully intriguing film.
Oct 2018
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Andhadhun
...a black comedy that is breathless in its pace and breathtaking in the scope of its imagination, linking seemingly random occurrences in the cosmos, and with all its entertainment value, arriving at an unexpectedly thoughtful study of both kismet and human nature.
Oct 2018
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Sui Dhaaga
...so rewarding, so amusing, so steeped in tenderness, affection for the characters and positivity that it makes the ride with Mamta, Mauji and their charmingly eccentric family and friends completely worth it.
Sep 2018
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Manto
...Das makes her Manto a stirring, sensitive portrait of a tortured genius from an era seemingly long past yet tragically mirroring our troubled present.
Sep 2018
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Mitron
...Mitron’s screenplay has quite a bit going for it, and the casting of the leading man is the spoke in the wheel.
Sep 2018
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Sep 2018
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Gali Guleiyan
It has been several days since I watched this film, and even now an acute sadness grips me each time I think about it. The beauty of Gali Guleiyan lies in the fact that I never ever want that feeling to go away.
Sep 2018
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Laila Majnu
Dear Sajid and Imtiaz, from the space in your minds where that came from, why could you not have thought up a more credible, imaginative adaptation of Laila Majnu? Why?
Sep 2018
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Halkaa
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.
Sep 2018
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Stree
...is like a blind date that turns out well – a tryst with the unexpected filled with exciting surprises. It is a thought-provoking laughathon-cum-spookathon, and one of the most unusual Bollywood films of the year so far.
Sep 2018
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Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi
...is not without flaws, but they are overshadowed by the absence of references to farts, poop and animal backsides, homophobia, misogyny and other ugly biases that have repeatedly reared their heads in the kind of comedies Sinha herself has been a part of over the years.
Aug 2018