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Jan 2016
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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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Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara
...is the worst I have seen of Luthria. All his previous films are a celebration and relish of stylish pulp. This is a misfire in style as well as story.
Aug 2013
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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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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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Kick
It’s a really long Salman Khan act—he’s the messiah, the crazy ‘dil se’ man. Just don’t count it as cinema
Jul 2014
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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