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Lootera
...while The Last Leaf, with its daft romanticism in the end, is better imagined than seen on screen, where the literalness of the images makes everything look foolish.
Jul 2013
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Padmaavat
All of which is to say that people who don’t care for this filmmaker should stay far, far away — but even for fans, Padmaavat is an underwhelming oddity.
Jan 2018
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
This remake needed to be funnier, but it does interesting things with its women.
Dec 2019
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Simran
It’s not half bad. This is one of the rare instances the US doesn’t look shiny and plasticky, like a Christmas-tree ornament. The music is similarly real, understated. With Ranaut practically accommodating the orchestra in her portrayal, playing every instrument and waving the baton, a more melodramatic score would have been overkill. But the whimsy doesn’t work.
Sep 2017
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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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Shuddh Desi Romance
When a subtle writer’s work is filmed by a subtle filmmaker, maybe we end up with too… understated a product. A little brashness isn’t out of place in a love story...
Sep 2013
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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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Haider
...left me cold. It’s extraordinarily crafted, but it’s something you admire from a distance.
Oct 2014
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Mubarakan
A comedy lives and dies on the strength of its bits, and Mubarakan has a few.
Aug 2017
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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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Rock On 2
...is well-staged and not entirely unwatchable, but it would have been much better had it tried to do less.
Nov 2016
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Sep 2017
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3 Idiots
Rajkumar Hirani’s assault on our apathetic education system is funny, timely, heartfelt – but also terribly pushy and preachy.
Dec 2009
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Hawaa Hawaai
For a film that skirts melodrama so scrupulously in the first half, the high-decibel contrivances in the latter portions come as a rude shock.
May 2014
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Oct 2015
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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
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Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
...my experience of it was similar to what I felt with Wake Up Sid – plenty of beautifully thought-out moments, lots to like, but it should have been so much more. Mukerji has this tendency to pick up heavy subjects and treat them lightly, which can be frustrating at times.
Jun 2013
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Indu Sarkar
The storytelling is undeniably (and unsurprisingly) broad, but the masala treatment transforms what was simplistic and didactic in Bhandarkar’s earlier films into something touching, open-hearted, sentimental in a sweetly cornball style.
Aug 2017
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Nov 2016
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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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Main Aur Charles
Some parts are confusing and there’s no grip. It’s just one escapade after another.
Nov 2015
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Kalank
...the overall feeling is that of disappointment. Kalank is certainly not a lazy failure, but it ends up being an odd bird: watchable, but neither generic enough to overlook its flaws nor specific enough to embrace with all your heart.
Apr 2019
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Gangs Of Wasseypur 2
Like Part I, Gangs of Wasseypur II works on a scene-by-scene level rather than as a cohesive whole.
Aug 2012
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Tanu Weds Manu Returns
A romance that struggles to measure up to its heroine’s performance.
May 2015
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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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Nov 2016
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Special 26
...the occasional slackening of the plot is compensated for by the rampant nostalgia.
Feb 2013