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Kaagaz
...is an enjoyable and important film, held together by its largely assured direction and by Tripathi, one of contemporary Bollywood’s finest actors.
Jan 2021
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Tribhanga
...is an entertaining, thoughtful, well-acted female bonding flick, as unconventional as the three women whose stories it tells.
Jan 2021
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The Power
...is engaging to begin with, but as it rolls along it becomes clear that it falls in the ‘if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ’em all’ category of underworld dramas.
Jan 2021
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Nail Polish
...is a smartly handled, intriguing, well-acted psychological thriller that comes as a pleasant surprise.
Jan 2021
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Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi
To treat a film like a play, despite all the good intentions and conditioning, comes across as a disservice to both the mediums.
Jan 2021
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Dec 2020
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AK vs AK
...is unusual, fun although it dips, breezy despite the grimness that takes over as it rolls along, and such an unexpected Christmas gift from Bollywood.
Dec 2020
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The Last Color
You could reassemble its striking images in practically any order, and you’d end up with a similar aesthetic experience. The film’s heart is in the right place, but touching anyone else’s feels like a chasm too wide to cross.
Dec 2020
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Baaghi 3
You can imagine how uninspiring the script is that despite all this high-adrenaline action, Baaghi 3 lacks fire.
Mar 2020
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Kaamyaab
...Mehta keeps the tone humorous, often satirical, tinged with pathos, and always respectful.
Mar 2020
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Thappad
...is designed to make us uncomfortable about our milieu and compel us to introspect about our own complicity in patriarchy. It also shines a light on patriarchy and gender-based violence across class divides.
Mar 2020
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Feb 2020
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Feb 2020
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Shikara
...the screenplay by Chopra, Abhijat Joshi, and Kashmiri Pandit investigative journalist Rahul Pandita has been structured well but as mentioned above, could have achieved greatness with a more holistic perspective.
Feb 2020
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Malang
A whole lot of time is wasted setting up the story; far less is assigned to unravelling the mystery or providing adequate backstory to all the characters.
Feb 2020
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Gul Makai
...is well-intentioned but as a film, it flails about, overusing background music, abruptly ending scenes, not convincingly recreating an environment and shortchanging its subject.
Jan 2020
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Jawaani Jaaneman
...Kakkar steers clear of chest-thumping melodrama and old-school moralising. The content is mostly flippant with a few meaningful moments punctuating an easy-breezy coming-of-age story about a modern Indian family.
Jan 2020
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Street Dancer 3D
...has its heart in the right place, one only wishes the music and the choreography had something new to offer.
Jan 2020
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Jai Mummy Di
It is so poorly conceived and so so ordinary, that you have to wonder why this plain film was ever made. Seriously, why?
Jan 2020
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Tanhaji
The real meat of Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior is the climactic strike and ensuing battle. The rest of the narrative falls weak in relation on grounds of both engagement and significance.
Jan 2020
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Bhangra Paa Le
In spite of best efforts by the actors, a feeble script, by-the-numbers direction, unimaginative choreography, and contrived drama are unable to burn up the dance floor.
Jan 2020
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Sab Kushal Mangal
Khanna seems to be having fun with his moustache, mischief, heartland politician, and rough around-the-edges Casanova character. The film hits the right notes when he is on screen but declines to near pallid when it focuses on the flimsy romance between Sharma and Kishan.
Jan 2020
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Chhapaak
...means well, no doubt, but the screenplay is surprisingly thin – surprising because of Meghna’s brilliance with Raazi and Talvar. Combine that with plotline weaknesses, an excessive effort to stay low key and the unexpected shot at being a conformist fairytale in the end, and the result is a film that seems curiously detached from its heroine, despite the devastating true story that inspired it.
Jan 2020
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Good Newwz
...is a smart sociopolitical commentary on class would be a slight exaggeration. But it truly is an accurate, evolving into ideal, representation of our social zeitgeist.
Dec 2019
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The Body
Unfortunately, and not unlike the original, The Body places more emphasis on answering the question of why rather than how.
Dec 2019
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Dec 2019
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Panipat
...is shorn of Padmaavat and Kesari's insidious intent, but it is not exactly an innocent, truthful chronicler of Indian history. Add to that its lack of polish and spark, and for all its occasional positives, it ends up as just an average affair.
Dec 2019
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
In 2019, the men as seen in this movie, are still taking women for granted, and the women, who maybe independent-spirited, are still responsible for forgiving and forgetting.
Dec 2019