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Feb 2010
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Lekar Hum Deewana Dil
After a point, the film turns as clueless as its characters. It’s a nice little loop. Arif Ali is laughing at his leads (both of whom wilt under the bad writing), and we are laughing at him. He cannot decide what kind of movie he wants to make, and for whom.
Jul 2014
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Sanju
Hirani is more interested in event and entertainment. He transforms a feel-bad life into a feel-good story.
Jul 2018
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The Shaukeens
It’s only when Akshay Kumar shows up – he plays himself – that we perk up.
Nov 2014
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Fitoor
After a point, I didn’t want a movie about Kashmir, I didn’t want a movie about Noor and Firdaus, I just wanted to see Hazrat grow old and batty.
Mar 2016
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Waiting
...there’s a difference between overcooked and bland – Waiting leans too much towards the latter.
Jun 2016
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Click
...what could have been a prime entry in the hitherto underserved elegiac-horror-as-gothic-romance subgenre is reduced to a mere jump-out-of-your-seats exercise.
Feb 2010
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English Vinglish
There is a lot to like in English Vinglish, which is the very definition of a gentle and urbane entertainment, but I couldn’t get past this manufactured premise, which makes all successive events seem manufactured.
Oct 2012
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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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Badrinath Ki Dulhania
At the “leave your brains at home” level, Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya is undeniably fun. Only, it doesn’t want you to leave your brains at home. It wants you to think about the things it’s doing. That’s the trouble.
Mar 2017
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Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aaata Hai?
This “conceptual remake” could have used less concept, more thought on why they were remaking the earlier film in the first place.
Apr 2019
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Maximum
Had the director Kabeer Kaushik done little more than chart the story of his protagonist, Maximum could have ended up a gripping little film.
Jul 2012
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Fukrey
What’s missing is the sense that something is at stake. Rather, we see what’s at stake, we know it, but we don’t feel it as the film progresses.
Jun 2013
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May 2015
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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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Oct 2012
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Happy Ending
Surely directors this smart should know that you can’t mock a genre and embrace it at the same time.
Nov 2014
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Pyaar Impossible
That such a mating is possible is the fiction we need these films to feed us – why else would we watch rom-coms? – and yet you can’t help wishing that the fantasy weren’t so many light years removed from reality.
Jan 2010
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David
...this movie too could have been named Shaitan, and here too Nambiar comes off more super-cool technician than storyteller.
Feb 2013
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TE3N
I kept wondering why none of this was working, and I think at least part of it is because we aren’t invested in anyone’s plight.
Jun 2016
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Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety
Another Luv Ranjan film, aka some mild laughs buried in a mountain of misogyny.
Mar 2018
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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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Cocktail
...is too long, too taxing - after a point, we know exactly what’s coming, and we just wish it came soon enough.
Jul 2012
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Aug 2016
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Student Of The Year
How can such a lively premise result in such dullness? The blame may lie with characters who are as clichéd as they come.
Oct 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