-
Dear Maya
Watching the mild-mannered actress return to screen after a personally difficult time resonates with the headway she makes as Maya.
Jun 2017
-
Half Girlfriend
The constant issue in Half Girlfriend is its wimpy characters and the contrivances they resort to arrive at its predictable conclusion. Stupidity is responded with equal, if not more, stupidity.
May 2017
-
Hindi Medium
...works because it somehow manages to stretch itself beyond its scrubby elements, easy half-baked jokes, lessons about consumerism and our love for English, into a simple story about a boy who would do anything to see his girl smile.
May 2017
-
Sarkar 3
For me, a director's cinematic approach often says a lot about his larger philosophy, and Ram Gopal Varma's present approach suggests an extreme literalisation of the punkish values he once advocated through his interviews. This makes me wonder if Varma's ability for self-destruction was always built into his greatness.
May 2017
-
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion
There are times Baahubali shows the strain of expectation, especially in the second half's doddering pace and excessive, unconvincing VFX, but when it communicates from a place of heart, it moves and enthralls.
Apr 2017
-
Apr 2017
-
Maatr
...would like to believe its relevance comes from true events that headline news channels regularly, but its typically Bollywood tropes to attain justice modelled on the likes of Aakhri Raasta and Mohra is not half as engaging.
Apr 2017
-
Begum Jaan
In its preoccupation with drama, Begum Jaan neglects to reveal its soul. As a consequence, you feel nothing for the characters, their cause or fate.
Apr 2017
-
Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laddoo Deewana
If you want to be disappointed, there are better movies to be disappointed by.
Apr 2017
-
Laali Ki Shaadi Mein Laddoo Deewana
... discards volubility for quieter storytelling or oversaturating its protagonists in quirk. Instead, Bhutiani juggles emotion and practicality to skilfully extract real, relatable humour out of ordinary circumstances.
Apr 2017
-
Naam Shabana
Yet it is an aspirational film. Because the Naam Shabana India, though pretty close to what we have today, has still elements of the India we want to be.
Apr 2017
-
Poorna
This movie is a perfect example of a city-bred director scanning our heartlands, and instead of taking in all the complexity, all the denseness, stopping to ask himself, "What are the corrections I can highlight in these lives, and how do I stitch together a narrative around these corrections?"
Mar 2017
-
Phillauri
Lal’s insistence to maintain room temperature humour and downplay a frothy premise robs Phillauri of fizz in its comedy.
Mar 2017
-
Mar 2017
-
Trapped
Audaciously enough, Motwane feeds off the negativity of disastrous coincidences to explore a human being’s most profound fears as well as marvel at his dormant instincts.
Mar 2017
-
Machine
...is not a film in the first place -- it is a 148-minute parody that ends up possessing your mental faculties.
Mar 2017
-
Badrinath Ki Dulhania
What makes it work, really, is the intent and the two principal actors.
Mar 2017
-
Commando 2
There's more unintended hilarity and very little combat to justify the existence of a sequel.
Mar 2017
-
Rangoon
...haunts in unlikely fashion and, while the director's most straightforward picture, holds enough of its own marvels to justify multiple viewings.
Feb 2017
-
Running Shaadi
Only if the script was better. Only if the film maintained the promise of its beginning.
Feb 2017
-
Irada
Blame it on the director for Irada's sloppy editing, the film fails to hold your undivided attention.
Feb 2017
-
The Ghazi Attack
...if you love watching a war movie, that too about a mission that is mired under the weight of being 'classified' and under the sea, the truth about which can surface only exploring the depth of the sea bed, then The Ghazi Attack is a must watch film.
Feb 2017
-
Hind Ka NaPak Ko Jawab – MSG The Lionheart 2
Watch HKNKJ: MSG LH 2 only if you need some comic relief.
Feb 2017
-
Jolly LLB 2
The story is more or less the same except around sharper wit seasoned in authentic local flavours that scorns at the intense rot eating up a noble profession without whitewashing the rascality of its titular character.
Feb 2017
-
Kaabil
...doesn't pull off anything extraordinary with its visually challenged contrivance except whip up as many puns possible. From blind date to blind justice, it's all there.
Jan 2017
-
Raees
...takes you for a boring ride, trying to soak the gangster's character in filmi spiel that is so typical of Bollywood's masala films when the film's creators realise that the plot is absolutely lame.
Jan 2017
-
Coffee With D
...does not have a bad plot but it could do with a better on-screen translation. What lets down the film is the way it is executed and shot. The film's music and dubbing too are disappointing.
Jan 2017
-
Haraamkhor
...may not appeal to the regular Bollywood audience but if you’re a Nawazuddin Siddiqui fan and love watching performance-oriented films, this shouldn’t be missed at all.
Jan 2017