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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
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Rustom
...uses all the sensational material the Nanavati case has to offer, the treatment is laughably bad...
Aug 2016
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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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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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Kesari
...dull and monochromatic. There’s a worthy tribute due to those 21 men, but this reductive, gratuitous film isn’t it.
Mar 2019
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Baaghi 3
The Baaghi films aren’t sequels, but they’re basically the same: someone close to Tiger is threatened, and he responds by killing his way to the source.
Mar 2020
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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