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Mirch
Shukla aims for a lighthearted tone that come and goes, and it's his lamentably little-seen cast that grabs and holds our interest
Dec 2010
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Band Baaja Baaraat
A beautifully textured romcom with flesh-and-blood characters instead of lazy caricatures.
Dec 2010
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Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey
The problem with Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey isn't its simple-minded straightforwardness. The problem is that not a single character in this story is brought to three-dimensional life - we get a parade of names and faces, and we could be staring into an illustrated history book.
Dec 2010
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Break Ke Baad
...the story never really catches fire, and it never makes you invest enough emotion in the continent-hopping lovers - painted as opposites, in typical rom-com colours - ending up together. The hurdles that they plant on their way to happiness appear molehills, not mountains.
Nov 2010
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Guzaarish
Just what, exactly, is this oddly bloodless film - a Bhansali movie for those who don't like Bhansali movies?
Nov 2010
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Nov 2010
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Dabangg
Two films for the price of one - an entertaining, star-centric potboiler, plus a delicately textured relationship drama.
Sep 2010
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Sep 2010
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We Are Family
An entirely needless remake supposedly targeted at women respects them the least.
Sep 2010
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Lafangey Parindey
A nice-enough idea for a lower-middle-class love story is scotched by leads who just don’t belong in this milieu.
Aug 2010
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Peepli [Live]
An extremely well-made first feature is also extremely overfamiliar, what with its initial investment in farmer suicides giving way to easy potshots at our media.
Aug 2010
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Milenge Milenge
Why bother to remake a destiny-driven romance if you cannot capture the things that made it romantic in the first place?
Jul 2010
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I Hate Luv Storys
Extremely winning leads do their best to add freshness to a film that feels a decade old (and about as long).
Jul 2010
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Raavan
Raavan falls for Sita (and vice versa) in an intriguingly idiosyncratic take on the Ramayana – if you can get past the lead performances, that is.
Jun 2010
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Kites
A cross-culture romance cum road movie is very easy on the eye, and very difficult to endure.
May 2010
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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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It's a Wonderful Afterlife
...after the enjoyably batty It’s A Wonderful Afterlife, I suppose it’s time to wonder how Gurinder Chadha was drawn to an empowerment saga like Bend It Like Beckham in the first place. Her talents seem to be those of a natural-born farceur...
May 2010
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Housefull
The problem, as always, is that our filmmakers confuse no-brainer entertainment with no-brainer filmmaking. Housefull is far too long and laden with far too many emotional subplots to function fully as comedy.
May 2010
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Chase
The refrain in the title track – “Get, set, go…” – might well be a cautionary injunction to the unwitting viewer settling into his seat.
May 2010
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City Of Gold
The travails of a closely-knit milling community make for a few great moments, if not all-out great cinema.
Apr 2010
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Prince
Gulati cannot decide if he wants to emulate a superhero movie or if he’d rather tap into a more human dimension, with the hero in a limbo after having lost his mind. The film itself exists in a bit of a limbo...
Apr 2010
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Tum Milo Toh Sahi
...a crisscross of lives converging on a depressingly drawn-out courtroom proceeding.
Apr 2010
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Well Done Abba
With no one to particularly invest in, Well Done Abba turns dull very quickly – and it doesn’t help that complex issues are raised and redressed with insulting simple-mindedness.
Mar 2010
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Love Sex Aur Dhokha
Dibakar Banerjee pulls off a courageous experiment, even if that’s not quite the same as a satisfying movie experience.
Mar 2010
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Na Ghar Ke Na Ghaat Ke
...this genial television-level skit is too slight to amount to anything.
Mar 2010
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Right Yaaa Wrong
...a morality-play thriller that’s not exactly bad, but not much good either.
Mar 2010
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Karthik Calling Karthik
Spooky 5 a.m. calls perk up a wallflower-loser in an eerie urban-nightmare that’s terrific for the most part.
Feb 2010