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Judwaa 2
Leave your brain at the door, they used to say about Dhawan’s films. I did that today, and when I picked it up on the way out, it thanked me.
Sep 2017
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Half Girlfriend
Mohit Suri makes a particular type of film—full of rain, pain and emotional strain— but, from moment to moment, scene to scene, he isn’t the most imaginative of directors. Nor are Shraddha Kapoor or Arjun Kapoor captivating actors...
May 2017
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Race 2
The big budget is on display, and in boring, plastic ways. A lover of pulp action thrillers has many sharper, and far more entertaining options.
Jan 2013
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Aug 2014
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May 2016
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Vishwaroop II
Haasan has full control over Vishwaroop II – he’s the writer, director, co-producer and star – and yet it keeps getting away from him. The film never settles into a satisfying rhythm: irrelevant scenes are stretched beyond reason and important ones are rushed through.
Aug 2018
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Kabir Singh
...it takes nearly three hours for Kabir to admit that he has a problem, whereupon he’s immediately rewarded. “Go to the depth of anything and you get zero," we’re warned early on. In this case, it’s absolutely true.
Jun 2019
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Raabta
This reincarnation drama with convenient plot-points doesn’t quite come together.
Jun 2017
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Parmanu
Abraham goes all-out in portraying the sincerity and blinkered nationalism of Raina, but the character feels two-dimensional and flat.
May 2018
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Street Dancer 3D
This film exists neither to impress nor express but to oppress and distress.
Jan 2020
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Ek Tha Tiger
Without any heft or intrigue for a spy film, and with too much of dull romance, Ek Tha Tiger is damp squib.
Aug 2012
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Kya Dilli Kya Lahore
...feels stretched and half-baked, less of a big-screen experience and better suited to an intimate stage production.
May 2014
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M Cream
...comes off as an amateur, even pretentious effort to showcase an unexplored subculture.
Jul 2016
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Qaidi Band
...rather than leave it to the audience to discern and feel, circumstances are described and speeches delivered patronisingly. The script soon turns towards drama, a poorly planned escape and a convenient climax.
Aug 2017
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Ungli
The film has the distinct stamp of a brand of exaggerated, schmaltzy activism far from reality but in the garb of realism—the consummate example of this is Rang De Basanti, also D’Silva’s script.
Nov 2014
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Jab Tak Hai Jaan
It is strikingly out of tune with the age, and real emotions. Even seen as a film about extreme characters, there is no originality in the story or its treatment to make it timeless.
Nov 2012
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Tubelight
It’s nearly always excruciating when an actor with limited talent plays a character with limited intelligence. Normally, the charge against Salman is that he doesn’t do anything; here, he does so much that you’ll be begging for him to go back to his minimalist ways.
Jun 2017
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Zero
The flaws of Zero lie not in the physicality of the characters, but in the story. Too ambitious in its vision and indiscriminately illogical, Rai falters in exploring both inner spaces and outer space.
Dec 2018
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Meeruthiya Gangsters
Still, there’s just enough here to suggest that Quadri has a future as a screenwriter. Direction, though, may require a little work.
Sep 2015
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Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami
...despite the best of intentions, Ekkees Toppon Ki Salaami is a tiresome film and at least half an hour longer than it should have been.
Oct 2014
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Dabangg 2
...is one of those films that blusters forward to fulfil its obvious purpose—to make money by doing little. It is the job of a hack director.
Dec 2012
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Maximum
The script is a mess, and the film depends more on stylized shots and plenty of posturing.
Jun 2012
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Chennai Express
Shetty never lets it rip. He is content with doling out a festive season timepasser, which is the solo release for the Eid weekend and has been plastered across so many screens in the country and the world that its success is guaranteed.
Aug 2013
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Heroine
...a damp squib. Bhandarkar’s years in the industry are obviously not the fodder for this film. We have heard this story many times before; he has no new interpretation.
Sep 2012
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Besharam
It works to the extent that Kapoor is a star in the popular Hindi cinema mould and can command attention in the dreariest of moments, but even screen gods can’t convert water into wine.
Oct 2013
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Sanam Teri Kasam
....it’s very difficult to take the film as seriously as they do—especially after it becomes clear that they’re unwilling to grant their female lead the slightest bit of agency.
Feb 2016