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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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Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
...has sparks of originality but they get buried in a convoluted story that is tired and tiring.
Aug 2017
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Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aaata Hai?
...made with crowdfunding and good intentions but it never comes near where it wants to go.
Apr 2019
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Race 3
Remo fetishizes the cars, helicopters, looming towers, gilded rooms and bars where these characters hang out but he doesn’t extend the same love to the narrative. Storytelling is sacrificed at the altar of Superstar Salman Khan.
Jun 2018
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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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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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Khandaani Shafakhana
The film wants to be funny but the writing is too weak and the feeble jokes are underlined with loud background music, cueing us to laugh. The film also wants to deliver a serious message about the importance of being open about sex – so entire scenes play out like public service announcements, in which characters espouse the cause.
Aug 2019
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Baadshaho
If you are willing to buy into the ridiculous premise, the first half has moments of fun but in the second, Baadshaho becomes like a flat comic book.
Sep 2017
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Luka Chuppi
The writing by Rohan Shankar is consistently feeble. Scenes are stretched endlessly and the humour is limp.
Mar 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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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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Jabariya Jodi
...is over-plotted – characters keep getting married, kidnapped, nearly married and separated. Folks slap each other, which counts as humor. And the narrative swings wildly like there is no one steering it.
Aug 2019
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Batla House
...make no mistake, Batla House isn’t a Rashomon-like investigation of many truths. The film is firmly on the side of the beleaguered cops and it makes its point with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Which is why Batla House will satisfy John Abraham fans. Those biceps were not made for nuances. Viewers looking for a more layered exploration of izzat, farz, desh should probably go elsewhere.
Aug 2019
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Karwaan
If the story had more depth, these three could have worked magic. But Karwaan stays on the surface.
Aug 2018
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Bharat
I know nothing about Korean history but by the end of Ode To My Father, I was weeping like a baby. The film is a masterclass in melodrama. In comparison, Bharat is bloated and inconsistent.
Jun 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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Bharat
...is rooted neither in the cinema traditions of the decades it covers nor is it the designer masala of this day. It’s a series of very perfunctorily staged scenes that flit past us. This happened. And then, this happened. And then this.
Jun 2019
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Bhoot – Part One
Bhanu plays with the usual horror tropes – creaking doors, found footage, mirrors, children, dolls and cell-phones not working exactly when you need them. Which isn’t the problem. You pretty much sign up for this when you go into a horror film. The trouble is that beyond the first hour, the screenplay gets repetitive and increasingly silly.
Feb 2020
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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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Blank
...Blank isn’t merely an adjective, it’s an entire sensibility. Which, as you can imagine, makes for a pretty dull movie.
May 2019
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Munna Michael
But director Sabbir Khan and writer Vimmi Datta pin his talents on a brain dead narrative. Despite ample support from Nawaz, Tiger's granite biceps can’t lift the load.
Jul 2017