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Daawat-e-Ishq
...not quite sure if it wants to be a social satire or a serious-minded attack on dowry.
Sep 2014
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Apr 2017
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Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
...is the film equivalent of an authorized biography, which is written with the help and collaboration of the subject. A self-mitigating account, every defeat and every turn of events in the film has a sentimental, ingratiating slant.
Jul 2013
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Ki & Ka
A promising premise is ruined by narrative unsubtlety and some strange stylistics choices.
Apr 2016
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Saat Uchhakkey
...the climax does come with a twist but it’s wholly unsatisfying and a tad convenient. The one highlight is the way the actors embrace these characters, banter easily and show relish for those expletive-heavy lines.
Oct 2016
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Hichki
...often comes across as parachute filmmaking—dropping in on a problem just long enough to prick the viewer’s conscience and make them feel like they’re watching something meaningful, but avoiding any sort of meaningful engagement.
Mar 2018
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Why Cheat India
Hashmi seems to enjoy himself; if the writing was brighter and the other characters had more agency, the film might have played differently.
Jan 2019
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Mardaani 2
...Hindi cinema has no appetite for complexity when it comes to sexual assault, opting time and again for vigilante retribution.
Dec 2019
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Chaarfutiya Chhokare
Some nerve in the performances and crackle in the dialogues may have made the film a few notches better.
Sep 2014
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Kaabil
A somewhat relaxed performance from Hrithik Roshan is the only watchable thing in this dull, dim-witted revenge drama.
Jan 2017
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Tevar
A number of tropes in this script, for instance the damsel in distress who whimpers and then falls hopelessly in love with her knight in shining armour, are, like this film, conservative and well past their sell-by date.
Jan 2015
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Fukrey Returns
It’s hard to see a film that seemed as casually tossed off as Fukrey gain a follow-up that’s so labored.
Dec 2017
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Jai Ho
As an employment scheme for various television regulars and forgotten actors from previous decades, Jai Ho is honourable; as an act of self-mythologizing, it is peerless; as cinema, it is disposable. And as a message movie, Jai Ho is pure lunacy (not for nothing was its original title Mental).
Jan 2014
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Dharam Sankat Mein
A satire about religious divides that begins well, but disintegrates into bland liberal pieties.
Apr 2015
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Indu Sarkar
And though it’s a shade better than his last, the laughable Calendar Girls, it’s still a Bhandarkar film. It hardly matters that he’s swapped salacious expose for historical statement...
Jul 2017
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Baaghi 2
The ridiculousness of such scenes almost distracts from the noxious nature of this film, which dilutes its near-constant violence with cheaply bought nationalism.
Mar 2018
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Cocktail
...meant for the 20-something audience, is not a breezy watch. As a romcom, it fails in that essential criteria.
Jul 2012
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The Attacks Of 26/11
The way the story is told restricts what the film can say about the larger tragedy of human loss.
Mar 2013
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Main Tera Hero
Varun’s youth and verve are never in doubt, but he labours under the shadow of the great Govinda, who enlivened several Dhawan productions with his ability to land a joke at just the right moment and convey the essential insanity of the enterprise.
Apr 2014
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Jazbaa
...is all Dutch angles and green filters and slo-mo, an excess of stylization that calls attention to the absence of any real style.
Oct 2015
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Bang Bang!
Knight and Day was mediocre at best. The remake comes with that legacy and even experienced writers like Sujoy Ghosh, Suresh Nair and Abbas Tyrewala are unable to add bang to this bland concoction.
Oct 2014
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Hamari Adhuri Kahani
I don’t think I’ve laughed more at a movie that wanted me to be crying along with it.
Jun 2015
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May 2016
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Daas Dev
There are so many vested interests in this microcosm of UP politics that I wished I had a cheat sheet to keep track of who is who and why they are betraying and killing each other.
Apr 2018
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Holiday
Holiday’s slickness and the adroit use of actual locations in Mumbai can’t prevent slippages into ludicrousness.
Jun 2014
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Azhar
Mohammad Azharuddin may or may not have sold out his team and country, but at least he was never boring. One cannot say the same for Azhar, Tony D’Souza’s inert biopic...
May 2016
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Force 2
In an effort to extend the brand and build it into a franchise, a shallow story has been laced together between ambitious action set pieces.
Nov 2016
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Guddu Rangeela
Logical sinkholes keeping opening up along the surface of the plot; the humour is mostly SMS-level...
Jul 2015
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Jan 2016