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Toilet
...pans out exactly like a public service announcement video produced by Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: it demands attention because of the seriousness of the subject, but makes little effort to engage its intended recipients.
Aug 2017
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Titli
...a disturbing yet unforgettable portrait of a bunch of dark souls in search of redemption.
Oct 2015
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Tiger Zinda Hai
The explosive Khan-Kaif combination turns out to be a damp squib, undone by staggering ambition and matching incompetence.
Dec 2017
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Thugs Of Hindostan
...scuttled by its ineptitude and palpable disinterest in approaching the freedom struggle with fresh eyes.
Nov 2018
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The Zoya Factor
...a movie that both suffers from miscasting and benefits from perfect casting. Abhishek Sharma’s shambolic romantic comedy, based on the bestselling 2008 novel by Anuja Chauhan, gives top billing to Sonam Kapoor, but all the attention is hogged by the name that follows hers in the credits. Malayalam star Dulquer Salmaan...
Sep 2019
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The Tashkent Files
...is the kind of movie you get when you arrange an offline meeting of the online community that has rallied behind the Quora question, “Did Lal Bahadur Shastri die a natural death?”
Apr 2019
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The Sky Is Pink
The sincerity of the 149-minute film is never in doubt, but to have been effective, it needed stronger actors and less clutter and over-plotting.
Oct 2019
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The Power
...is a slog, staggering from one grisly death to another and pausing only to marvel at Vidyut Jammwal’s eye-popping stunts in slow motion.
Jan 2021
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The Legend of Michael Mishra
...is saddled with amateurish acting and a directionless plot.
Aug 2016
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Dec 2020
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The Fakir Of Venice
The decade between its completion and its release shows in every frame. Mumbai and Venice are visibly less crowded than they now are and the actors are younger and more energetic, but the movie’s art world con made little sense then and even less sense in 2019.
Feb 2019
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The Blueberry Hunt
There simply isn’t enough in here to justify the 110-minute running time.
Apr 2016
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The Accidental Prime Minister
...never evolves into anything more than a broadside against the Gandhi clan.
Jan 2019
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Thappad
The bloated runtime of 141 minutes packs in many necessary truths, especially about the pernicious nature of patriarchy and the manner in which women enable discrimination. The overall message, of heeding the conscience even if it pricked just once, survives the needless wandering.
Feb 2020
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Thackeray
Subtlety, or, for that matter, reason, are hardly to be expected from Thackeray, a 139-minute propaganda video for the Shiv Sena as it gears up for the Lok Sabha election later this year.
Jan 2019
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Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive
...tries very hard to squeeze humour out of a contrived plot.
Feb 2016
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Teraa Surroor
Whatever the view on Reshammiya and his unrelenting attempts to be regarded as an actor, there is no doubt that he is the biggest sport in Bollywood. Perhaps no other actor tries so hard to live up to the criticism, and succeeds every time.
Mar 2016
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Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Rai, who also made Raanjhanaa in 2013, confirms his ability to conjure up a convincing small-town milieu characterised by clamour and kitsch, but his tendency to cram his frames with lots of people crisscrossing the screen, overlapping dialogue and insistent background music results in a sensory overdose.
May 2015
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Tanhaji
People will write powadas, or ballads, about you, Tanjahi is told. They did, and the movie often has the quality of a ballad – it’s heavily embellished, romantic and simplistic. Tanhaji loudly sings its hero’s praises, creating a spectacle that is thrilling when in battle mode and troubling when considering the dynamic between the Marathas and the Mughals.
Jan 2020
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Tamasha
...doesn’t have enough depth or profundity to say anything that Ali hasn’t said before.
Nov 2015
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Talvar
A legal petition disguised as a movie, the police procedural takes up cudgels on behalf of the dentist couple...
Oct 2015
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Surkhaab
A sobering look at illegal immigration from Punjab to Canada soon turns into an formulaic woman-on-the-run movie.
May 2015
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Super 30
...suggests that with talent and commitment, it is possible to cross over from the other side of the tracks. Leap high towards your goals, Anand tells his students. The formula is as pat as the solution, but many parts of the journey makes this classroom victory worth the while.
Jul 2019
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Sultan
Sustained by the leading man’s magnetic pull, nicely cast supporting actors, a welcome lack of melodrama, and a setting that looks less plastic than the average A-list movie, Sultan is the apogee of the Salman Khan cult.
Jul 2016
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Sui Dhaaga
What eventually endures isn’t the inevitable heart-warming finale but the honesty of the writing and the performances and the subversions, minor and major.
Sep 2018
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Student Of The Year 2
The sequel that nobody wanted is neither an improvement over the original nor a downgrade of it. The bar is low to begin with, and when the butter-limbed Tiger Shroff is around, it’s easily surmounted.
May 2019
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Street Dancer 3D
The movie leaps to life only in the last 30 minutes, as various crews twist and twirl their way through the inevitable contest. But to get there, you have to wade through sentimental slush and endure trite humour (the tin-eared dialogue is by Farhad Samji) and endless distractions.
Jan 2020
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Aug 2018
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Soorma
...by downplaying the genre’s excesses – chest-thumping jingoism, macho aggression, excessive manipulation – and giving its hero enough room to find his place in the world, Soorma ensures that this triumphal journey of the human spirit is full of surprises.
Jul 2018