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Bala
The central quandary is that Bala would have seemed skewed and farcical with only male baldness to concentrate on. It needs the skin colour scenes – but it really didn’t need the blackface.
Nov 2019
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Ferrari Ki Sawaari
...has heart, a time-tested premise and some good performances. It tries hard to tow the formula, and yet it’s worth a watch if you can ignore the time-consuming excess.
Jun 2012
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Bombay Velvet
...is frustrating and exhilarating in equal measure. Though his ambition is plain to see, I prefer the Kashyap who delivers the shock of the new rather than the glamour of old.
May 2015
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Veere Di Wedding
Everything about this film is deliberately put together, like the cushion covers co-ordinated with kaftans and teacups. If only, like Meera, who carries her girth with aplomb, all of Veere Di Wedding had been as natural and comfortable.
Jun 2018
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Phata Poster Nikhla Hero
...makes the strongest possible case yet to the movie trade and viewers that Kapoor cannot be written off easily.
Sep 2013
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Manjunath
...Varma does throw up some surprises. He effectively captures the ordinariness of the milieu that produces Manjunath, and extracts solid performances from his cast. However, the director is less sure-footed about the larger issues thrown up by Manjunath’s death.
May 2014
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Stree
...an amiable comedy with a couple of good ideas, too many jump scares and the most confusing ending I’ve seen in a long time.
Aug 2018
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Khiladi 786
The anything-goes movie is packed with so many random characters and even more random jokes that moments of inspired humour emerge out of the hodgepodge.
Dec 2012
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Bobby Jasoos
...harnesses the classic tropes of melodrama—coincidences, conflicts, the perfect resolution—to deliver a feel-good fairy tale of a remarkably mobile heroine who gets up and leaves whenever she feels like.
Jul 2014
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Mom
...is a strange brew: audience-appeasing thriller, relationship drama and social commentary all rolled into one. To Udyawar’s credit, he manages to make it look cohesive, even as he struggles to contend with the moral quagmire of revenge and opts instead for the escape of pulp.
Jul 2017
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3 Storeys
The problem with 3 Storeys is the screenwriting; Althea Kaushal’s three stories don’t match moods or stay on the same beat.
Mar 2018
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Special 26
An insipid lead character and unnecessary digressions derail a good heist story.
Feb 2013
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TE3N
...keeps the surprises, not all of which are easy to predict, coming at regular intervals. Whether all these twists make sense, or are entirely fair, is another matter.
Jun 2016
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Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
...is caught in a peculiar bind: it’s a bit too competent to be dismissed, but not original or striking enough to dispel the feeling that it’s all been done before.
Jun 2018
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Aug 2016
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Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
...an extended, 134-minute review of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge by a debutant writer and director who has watched the film closely enough to have his own spin on it.
Jul 2014
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Hunterrr
...has the right comic material but lacks the timing that would make the movie sing.
Mar 2015
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Jagga Jasoos
The singing stratagem occasionally gets in its own way, with dramatic scenes rendered silly by characters breaking into song. There’s also the baffling decision to cast, opposite Bollywood’s nimblest male star, the slow-reacting, risk-averse Kaif.
Jul 2017
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Uri
...has incredibly persuasive action sequences, but its military reserve can be stifling.
Jan 2019
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Raees
...because Khan holds so much in reserve, Raees remains a cipher. To borrow an old theatrical aphorism, he plays the king as if afraid someone else might play the ace.
Jan 2017
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Baadshaho
...may not be a smart film, but it’s a reasonably savvy daft one, inventive enough to revisit a key event from multiple perspectives and silly enough to have Mishra pick a safe in horse blinkers.
Sep 2017
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Soorma
Writers Shaad Ali, Suyash Trivedi and Siva Ananth gently follow a linear narrative to recount Singh’s story but the screenplay feels rather lazy and the drama of Singh’s inspirational story is barely felt.
Jul 2018
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Thappad
There are times you wish Sinha could take some of the weight off his writing with inventive filmmaking. But he isn’t a visual director, and the 142-minute Thappad mostly has the look and rhythms of a stage play.
Feb 2020
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Ajji
...is one of the most unsettling experiences you’ll have at the movies this year. Whether it adds up to much more than exploitation-art is another question.
Nov 2017
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Daddy
It feels like an extension of the idea of the Mumbai gangster as family man that Bheeku Mhatre introduced some 20 years ago, just as Daddy seems to build on the legacy of Satya while pushing the Indian gangster film into darker, more ambiguous territory.
Sep 2017
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Dhadak
By replicating the narrative but tossing in caste almost as an afterthought, Dhadak shows the limitations of mainstream Hindi cinema.
Jul 2018
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OMG Oh My God!
...could have been a taut, edgy take on organized religion. But it stops short, almost scared to really question religion, and turns into a verbose and silly film.
Sep 2012
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Table No. 21
If there was ever a movie in need of an enhanced computer-generated imagery budget, it is this one.
Jan 2013