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Department
Ram Gopal Varma leaves the audience behind and launches into increasingly idiosyncratic ways of telling stories.
May 2012
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Ishaqzaade
...works so well because it’s a love story where there’s something more at stake than the question of will-they-get-together.
May 2012
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Jannat 2
I went in with low expectations and the film surpassed them at every level, and this isn’t faint praise.
May 2012
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Vicky Donor
...is one of those films that looks as if it’s going to shatter a hundred different on-screen taboos, but it’s actually as old-fashioned as they come.
Apr 2012
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Agent Vinod
Why do filmmakers who work so well within the confines of Bollywood mandates feel pressured to set course for western horizons? Is it simply not enough, anymore, to tell a solid story in an emotionally engaging manner, without stopping, periodically and apologetically, to unburden a guilty conscience?
Mar 2012
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Paan Singh Tomar
...even if it doesn't entirely reveal itself and stays somewhat locked inside its protagonist's head - throbs with heart and humour and a knowing appreciation of life in the hinterlands.
Mar 2012
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Kahaani
...is beautifully shot and put together, and its deeply atmospheric scenes are driven by a superb score...
Mar 2012
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Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu
Who says a rom-com - even one with big-name stars - cannot be shaped with an invigorating voice and vision?
Feb 2012
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Agneepath
...is thunderously staged (quite literally; the background score is a force of nature) and it's never boring, but the film never amounts to anything.
Feb 2012
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Don 2
The depressingly underwhelming (and numbingly long) Don 2 is less about Farhan Akhtar's commitment to plot and character than hairstyling and haberdashery.
Dec 2011
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The Dirty Picture
Like most of The Dirty Picture, these supposedly stinging observations are little more than storms in a D cup.
Dec 2011
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Ra.One
...this isn't a film that embraces tomorrow as much as it celebrates yesterday, and its most remarkable achievement may be that, with one foot tentatively toeing the future and one stuck resolutely in the past, it didn't end up peeing all over itself.
Oct 2011
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Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
I walked away from Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster with the feeling that I needed to see it again, this time brushing aside the cobwebs of the earlier film and impressing on Dhulia's conceits a feminist reading.
Oct 2011
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Mausam
If you go in knowing what to expect, you might be surprised at how unexpected a Bollywood romance can be.
Sep 2011
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Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Badly plotted, badly staged and badly performed, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is almost worth watching for the smouldering train-wreck that is Kaif's performance.
Sep 2011
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That Girl in Yellow Boots
...scratch the arresting surface and we're left with a subplot-heavy narrative whose discursions end up undermining her story. Several sequences work very well on their own but they don't build cohesively and they don't detonate in your mind with a bang by the end of the film.
Sep 2011
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Not A Love Story
This is probably the closest Varma is going to get to a Heer-Ranjha story.
Aug 2011
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Aug 2011
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Dum Maaro Dum
This is, in general, a superbly staged film, but it doesn't quite hit its emotional notes consistently. You're there - yet not there.
Apr 2011
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Game
...the director, manages the not-inconsiderable feat of making his movie a gigantic snooze, which wakes up briefly, very briefly, only towards the end, when the mystery is explained. Too little, too late.
Apr 2011
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Tanu Weds Manu
A generally underwhelming love story cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be a romantic comedy or a romantic melodrama.
Feb 2011
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7 Khoon Maaf
A delectably mounted, dramatically inert black comedy has lots of atmosphere and little else.
Feb 2011
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Patiala House
Underdog-cricketer story meets emancipation saga in an inoffensive-enough drama that really should have been much better.
Feb 2011
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Yeh Saali Zindagi
An entertaining screwball-noir is also in the running for the year’s unlikeliest love story.
Feb 2011
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Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji
Romantic material more suited to delicate drama is twisted into a sex-jokey comedy. The results aren't pretty.
Jan 2011
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Dhobi Ghat
Forget the rangy big points. It’s the sculpted small-moment that marks this elegant elegy to Mumbai.
Jan 2011
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Toonpur Ka Superrhero
...surely even films seeking to occupy children can strive to be more than just the blandly competent (and brightly coloured) fare that plays routinely on kiddie channels on television...
Dec 2010
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Tees Maar Khan
Farah Khan used to be effortlessly fun. Now she’s holding a gun to our head and demanding that we laugh. The difference is dismaying.
Dec 2010