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Gunday
The experience is immersive, but solely at a surface level – we’re not pulled in. Zafar is so busy making a movie that looks like a 1970s movie that he forgets to make a movie that feels like a 1970s movie.
Feb 2014
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Guddu Rangeela
Some films that don’t quite work, you dismiss outright. Guddu Rangeela is the kind of film you grapple with. You wish it were better.
Jul 2015
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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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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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Hawaizaada
Puri has toiled hard to make his film look outré, but that isn’t enough – you wish he’d expended an equal amount of energy to infuse a similar eccentricity into the plot and the characters as well.
Feb 2015
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Dear Dad
The film is anchored by Arvind Swamy’s performance – though it’s really his presence, that quiet way he weathers the worst of storms.
May 2016
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Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb, which should have been much better, plays like a mashup of Hindi cinema before it became Bollywood.
May 2013
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Dilwale
Every decision in Dilwale screams: I have Shah Rukh and Kajol in my film, so why bother?
Jan 2016
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Zubaan
...it’s a problem when what’s meant to be an edgy coming-of-age story is hijacked by a campy, entertainingly nutty family soap.
Mar 2016
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Apr 2014
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Singh Is Bliing
Why can’t we make just pure comedy – without action, without missing mothers, without villains? I’d have ended up happier had I walked out during the interval.
Oct 2015
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Jolly LLB 2
Merely okay as courtroom drama, but a vivid look at Hindu-Muslim dynamics.
Feb 2017
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I Don't Luv U
...isn’t terrible and it could have been saved with a rousing climax, but the end is shockingly low-key.
May 2013
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Daddy
A barrelful of gangster clichés makes for a stylish but been-there-done-that biopic.
Sep 2017
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Kurbaan
Yet another story about yet another terrorist. The hardware is there, but where’s the heart?
Nov 2009
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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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Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola
Bhardwaj gives the feeling of having worked hard – really, really hard – on these scenarios and we are torn between admiring the thought and effort that’s gone in and being exasperated by how it all comes together on screen.
Jan 2013
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2 States
This material, based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel 2 States: The Story of My Marriage, might have worked if treated with slapstick energy. Instead, Varman tries to class it up.
Apr 2014
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Badla
...despite an overall watchable quality, especially towards the end, Badla is a tepid affair.
Mar 2019
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Mickey Virus
The trick is to convey a sense of breathlessness, and Saurabh Varma’s Mickey Virus manages this only in spurts.
Oct 2013
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Fugly
There’s a good movie to be made from all this, one that looks at our country through the eyes of women, especially in light of recent headlines – but Fugly isn’t it.
Jun 2014
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Total Siyapaa
...despite a few big laughs, the film never becomes the farce it so desperately wants to be.
Mar 2014
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Bangistan
Anshuman has ideas – but he doesn’t know what to do with those ideas on screen.
Aug 2015
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Inkaar
Mishra’s point may be that the sexual harassment case was just a red herring and that the real story was about a man and a woman who realised what’s truly important and repriortised their lives, but that’s just cheapening a sensitive issue.
Jan 2013
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Teri Meri Kahaani
There's nothing aggressively bad about it, but there's nothing good either - and there's something frustrating when a film that could amount to something ends up being nothing.
Jun 2012
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Gabbar Is Back
The title Gabbar Is Back merely indicates the return of the bogeyman, not the return of the glorious masala cinema of his era.
May 2015
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Chalk N Duster
Aren’t we all guilty of having moved on, with very little time to remember our teachers? But they deserve more than this shrill drama...
Jan 2016
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Jul 2016