-
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
-
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
...half-baked, lifeless, low-IQ film with its juvenile humour and family politics that resembles circumstances in the cheapest saas-bahu soaps now running on Hindi fiction TV.
Nov 2015
-
Commando 2
The film’s impressive action scenes and pretty hero cannot make up for its limited substance, which matters particularly because the action is not unrelenting.
Mar 2017
-
Welcome 2 Karachi
As it stands, W2K’s narrative is looser than the drawstrings on a pair of pyjamas that are falling off their wearer.
Aug 2015
-
Sarkar 3
...too is lacklustre and ordinary. Coming from the House of Ram Gopal Varma, in some ways that counts as worse than being bad.
May 2017
-
X: Past is Present
...emerges from an interesting experimental concept that comes to naught.
Nov 2015
-
Badrinath Ki Dulhania
...a dishonest film, neither fully committed to the causes it apparently espouses nor to its own closeted conservatism.
Mar 2017
-
High Jack
In the end, the film remains a stringing together of good concepts that are not carried to their fruition.
May 2018
-
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
-
Hate Story
...latent possibilities are buried here under a contrived script in which all proceedings are manipulated to fall in line with the writer’s ultimate goal, the dialoguebaazi is more amusing than it is hard hitting, and the execution borders on the farcical.
Apr 2012
-
Firangi
Clearly Dhingra has his heart in the right place. What he also needed to have in place was substantive writing.
Dec 2017
-
Aiyaary
Pace and bluster cannot compensate for lack of substance. This wannabe James Bond flick is nothing but a blast of hot air.
Feb 2018
-
Policegiri
"Assault on the senses" is such a critics' cliché. Films like this are why the phrase is indispensable though.
Jul 2013
-
Satyameva Jayate
To describe Satyameva Jayate merely as tired would be a kindness. In fact, the writing and execution are both exhausted, making it an exhausting viewing experience.
Aug 2018
-
Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum
With all its crudeness, I could still have enjoyed Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum if it had been funny. But here’s the only funny part of this story … it’s not.
Jul 2012
-
Jun 2016
-
Jab Harry Met Sejal
...is occasionally funny, but not half as funny or cute or ruminative as it clearly thinks it is. Hats off to Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma for managing to raise the Centigrades in this otherwise pakau disaster.
Aug 2017
-
Hamari Adhuri Kahani
Spectacularly sexist and spectacularly boring – that’s a lethal combination. It hurts to see Vidya in such a film.
Jun 2015
-
Raabta
It is hard to imagine why Vijan chose to make his directorial debut with this unremarkable enterprise in which Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon and pretty visuals are all drowned out by tedium.
Jun 2017
-
Kaabil
The kindest review I could give Kaabil is to say it is not unbearable. What it is is commonplace, unremarkable, unthinking and shoddy.
Jan 2017
-
Sep 2014
-
Sep 2015
-
31st October
Thousands of Sikhs were slaughtered, raped and driven out of their homes in the riots of October-November 1984. Their story needs to be told with delicacy and intelligence, not with the sloppiness and hollowness that are the hallmark of 31st October.
Oct 2016
-
Alif
...is proof, if any were needed, that good intentions need good writing, good direction and good production values to be translated into a good film. This is an important story. It just needs to be told in a better film.
Feb 2017
-
Ramaiya Vastavaiya
...if I could sue for the over two hours of my life lost to this film, I would.
Jul 2013
-
Entertainment
What else does one say of a film that makes Humshakals seem like it had substance and Kick seem cerebral in comparison? Nothing, I guess.
Aug 2014
-
Irada
Little purpose is served though if you zero in on a crucial theme but do not breathe life into it. Irada (meaning: intent) is an opportunity lost to draw mass attention to a pressing concern.
Feb 2017
-
Oct 2015
-
Bhaiaji Superhittt
...has been in the making for almost a decade, but its mediocrity can hardly be blamed on the delay.
Nov 2018