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One By Two
After a while, the film begins to feel like an academic experiment: Can the lives of two not-terribly-interesting people be shaped into an interesting story?
Feb 2014
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Jab Harry Met Sejal
...ends up a cautionary tale about idiosyncratic filmmakers with a distinct voice working with a big star. Imtiaz Ali gets his biggest star yet, and he’s made his most underwhelming movie.
Aug 2017
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Aug 2015
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Nov 2015
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Dil Dhadakne Do
All those carefully calibrated line readings. You may wonder if, after filling out the soapy plot with Reema Kagti, Akhtar experienced some kind of soap-opera twist herself, amnesia or something. What else could explain the disconnect between the material and the movie?
Jun 2015
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Chakravyuh
For a while now, Jha has been coming off like a more high-minded clone of Madhur Bhandarkar, picking up a hot topic and embedding his research in creaky subplots.
Oct 2012
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Gori Tere Pyaar Mein
We don’t go to rom-coms expecting cold logic, but even as a heart-tugger Gori Tere Pyaar Mein doesn’t quite cut it.
Nov 2013
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Ghayal Once Again
After a while, it’s not the action – it’s the acting. Deol just cannot play emotional scenes convincingly. But at least he looks as if he can move mountains with a single hand, and that’s really what this film needs.
Feb 2016
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Bumm Bumm Bole
Priyadarshan reworks a minimalist masterwork into an overblown (and over-cute) drama. The results aren’t pretty.
May 2010
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Nov 2013
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Sep 2013
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Ok Jaanu
I feel for Shaad Ali. Ever since his best film, the criminally underrated Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, bombed, he’s been at sea. Remaking his mentor’s works may be a way to keep himself visible, but someone should tell him an echo is not a voice.
Jan 2017
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Jai Gangaajal
...under the usual Jha trappings, we’re looking at a good, old-fashioned masala movie.
Mar 2016
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Sniff
It feels terrible to carp at a film made for children when there’s so few of these around – it’s the critical equivalent of tossing a mewling kitten off a cliff – but just about nothing goes right in Sniff.
Aug 2017
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Angrezi Medium
...is so wretchedly written, tonally so all over the place that it set my teeth on edge – especially the relentless cutesiness.
Mar 2020
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Dec 2017
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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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R... Rajkumar
The problem with this kind of cinema is that it’d probably work best as a two-hour show reel of highlights and our filmmakers almost always insist on adding the extra half-hour or hour. There’s just not enough plot or characterisation to sustain these films for that long.
Dec 2013
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7 Hours To Go
7 Hours To Go is what happens when you have a big idea and a very small budget.
Jul 2016
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Tubelight
...Kabir Khan is no Hirani, and he is simply unable to tune into the good-hearted whimsy this story needs – and after the initial portions, Tubelight begins to drag its feet, becoming almost unwatchable.
Jun 2017
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Joker
Kunder is a daring dreamer of big concepts, but he needs to be a better director to flesh them out with sustained energy. Otherwise a nonsense comedy becomes just… nonsense.
Sep 2012
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What The Fish
The director, Gurmmeet Singh, rounds up able actors – Deepti Pujari, as a naïf from Saharanpur, is quite good – but they’re let down by a series of sketches that must have sounded good on paper but fall flat on screen.
Dec 2013
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Humshakals
Why are our comedies so bad? We don’t have to search very far for the reasons – tempo-killing songs, underwritten heroines, leaden pace, overlong running times… And we insist on casting stars rather than comic actors.
Jun 2014
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Dharam Sankat Mein
To succeed with all this within the framework of a broad-strokes, Censor Board-friendly comedy isn’t easy. At times, you may feel a more appropriate title would have been Fuwad Khan Sankat Mein.
Apr 2015
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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