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Zero
...left me stumped and eventually, sad. Because when artists take such ambitious creative risks, you are really rooting for them to succeed.
Dec 2018
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Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se
...tries to be a comedy, an Ayurveda commercial, a plea for national integration – specifically between Gujaratis and Punjabis – a love story and a moral science lesson.
Aug 2018
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Why Cheat India
...like the hybrid of fact and fiction, needed far more imagination and audacity.
Jan 2019
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Why Cheat India
...this incoherent mess of a film plays out more like an extended skit or a school play.
Feb 2018
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War
...is very much a bromance which sparkles because Hrithik and Tiger are combative without being competitive. I had a good time. I think you will too.
Oct 2019
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War
...is a defining action movie of our time. It’s Hollywood enough to rock the multiplexes, but it doesn’t forget its roots.
Oct 2019
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Vodka Diaries
...a film so preposterous that within a few minutes I started to feel a little embarrassed for the actors on-screen.
Jan 2018
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Uri
...is an unabashed love letter to the Indian army. If you want nuance or insight into the hearts and minds of brave men and women who willingly put themselves in the line of fire, you won’t find it here.
Jan 2019
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Ujda Chaman
The biggest problem with Ujda Chaman is that the film wants to have it both ways – first make you laugh with cheesy jokes about sex and virginity and then deliver an important social message about why we shouldn’t judge people by their looks.
Nov 2019
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Nov 2017
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Tubelight
...is cinema as a sermon. Which makes the film flat and emotionally unconvincing. The good intentions and lectures on yakeen don’t translate into a gripping narrative.
Jun 2017
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Toilet
I must repeat that it’s refreshing to see Hindi cinema tackle such challenging subjects. But a film has to work as a film. This one does, in fits and starts.
Aug 2017
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Tiger Zinda Hai
...is flat out exhausting. The story is much too long and convoluted. The frame is filled with characters but apart from Tiger, none of them make an impact. And for me, the weakest link is that there is nothing that moors you emotionally.
Dec 2017
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Thugs Of Hindostan
A dull attempt at a masala potboiler that hopes star power will trump the script.
Nov 2018
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The Sky Is Pink
...is sincere and heartfelt but it never gets raw or messy. Until that final stretch, it doesn’t pierce your heart the way this subject should.
Oct 2019
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The Accidental Prime Minister
...strategically, a smart move. But here’s what I don’t get – why create such a shoddy product? The Accidental Prime Minister is narratively incoherent, technically sloppy and flat-out tedious.
Jan 2019
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Thappad
This film compels us to question our complicity. Which is the first step to change. I strongly recommend that you see Thappad.
Feb 2020
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Thackeray
A celebratory epic that’s less about a leader’s psyche than his penchant for punch lines.
Jan 2019
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Tanhaji
...there is no room here for nuance or arcs. Actors play outsized, one-note characters. The Marathas, with a few exceptions, are valiant, noble warriors who sacrifice their lives for their motherland. The Mughals are largely avaricious usurpers who demand ‘jaat’ and ‘jaan’.
Jan 2020
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Super 30
What trips up the film is the high-pitch and the shaky tonality. Vikas and writer Sanjeev Dutta narrate in black and white.
Jul 2019
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Student Of The Year 2
You signed up for a fantasy and that’s precisely what director Punit Malhotra is providing. What you can complain about is the poor writing.
May 2019
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Student Of The Year 2
...the clothes, the technicians, the sets, Tiger Shroff — must have cost crores, so why does Arshad Sayed’s script feel like it cost 50 paise? This is a question we keep asking our big-budget productions. SOTY 2 is undernourished and overlong.
May 2019
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Street Dancer 3D
For the running time of this film – two hours and twenty-four minutes – people are pirouetting, leaping, flipping, contorting and moving their limbs in impossible ways. Watching them, I thought – if the script was half as nimble as these gifted people, this film would have been a smash. Sadly, that is not the case.
Jan 2020
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Stree
Director Amar Kaushik and writers Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru create a horror-comedy, which turns out to be subversive commentary on the position and treatment of women in India. It’s clever and very funny.
Aug 2018
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Sonchiriya
...tries to blend Spaghetti Western style-action drama with social commentary but it isn’t entirely satisfying on either count.
Mar 2019
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Simran
...is a brilliant performance trapped in a sloppy screenplay - ironical given the headline-hogging, fall-out between writer Apurva Asrani and Kangana Ranaut over writing credits. Actually, the writing is the weakest part of the film.
Sep 2017