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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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Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Johar’s latest movie is somewhere in between. He is trying to move away from the large-canvas romances on which he has built his career, but his foundation remains the popular Hindi film idiom, especially Yash Chopra’s cinema.
Oct 2016
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Kabir Singh
...reimagines the Indian hero archetype in interesting ways, but its inability to even consider the flaws in its leading man’s romantic outlook is its undoing. Is masochism the flip side of machismo? Both movies seem to agree, but they never ask why.
Jun 2019
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Dharam Sankat Mein
...isn’t a patch on Oh My God! or PK, both of which boldly lampooned the commercialisation of religion, but the very fact that it exists, dares to broach the matter of Islamophobia among Hindus, and has been passed by the Central Board of Film Certification redeems it somewhat.
Apr 2015
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Raees
...is overstretched and too much in thrall to the Indian gangster movie formula, but Dholakia does try to use the past to comment on the present.
Jan 2017
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Laal Kaptaan
Threats are delivered but never carried out, and ambition is spelt out but not realised. Yet, Laal Kaptaan scores on other fronts. The lack of sentimentality suits the material, and Navdeep Singh effectively conveys the sense of a battle without honour or humanity.
Oct 2019
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Kaamyaab
Mehta consciously attempts to sidestep the cliches associated with meta-movies, but eventually succumbs to the lure of the actor staring at his reflection in the mirror and the nightmare about a shoot gone awry.
Mar 2020
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Shamitabh
Here are the offbeat story, the easily flowing and witty banter, the quirky and urbane characters, and the light-hearted touch. But here are also the unwieldy and stretched narrative (153 minutes), the unresolved climax, the gimmicky nature of the material and the inability to expand on the movie’s premise.
Feb 2015
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Raman Raghav 2.0
...might lack the layers needed to be a contemporary update of the serial killer movie, but it has plenty of surface pleasures.
Jun 2016
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Pari
...an elaborate track about satanic worship along with themes of good versus evil and love limits this film’s appeal to the loyal viewer who favours this genre.
Mar 2018
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Panipat
Gowariker finds the emotional connect in the scenes between Kapoor and Sanon, but there’s a been-there-seen-that feel to the battle scenes and the drama of the royal court.
Dec 2019
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Saina
The overwritten script, which includes a voiceover by its subject, still falls short of revealing her inner life. Sports biopics and documentaries often seek to discover the unknowable – the higher force that propels athletes to excellence.
Mar 2021
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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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Mar 2019
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Welcome 2 Karachi
There is a clear sense of a welcome being outstayed, and yet another instance of comedy creators having so much fun amongst themselves that they forget that they’re at the movies, rather than a jam session.
May 2015
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Mukkabaaz
In trying to create a socially aware entertainer through Mukkabaaz, the director throws too many punches.
Jan 2018
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Kalank
The movie retains its hauteur and attention to period haute couture even as it goes off the rails, finally chugging into its destination after leaving broken hearts and unmet ambitions in its wake.
Apr 2019
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3 Storeys
Mukherjee directs his cast well and creates a convincing middle-class milieu, but the hothouse of desire, deceit and death that Mayanagar supposedly represents simply does not emerge from the lightweight and toothless material.
Mar 2018
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Pati Patni Aur Woh
The movie is refreshingly unsentimental and bereft of breast-beating, but fails to capitalise on its independent-spirited women...
Dec 2019
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Global Baba
The clarity with which director Manoj Tiwari approaches his subject isn’t always reflected in the overly busy plotting and the choppy narrative. Yet, the filmmaker makes his points adequately.
Mar 2016
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Hamid
The movie balances simplicity and profundity, and would have benefited from a leaner running time to better convey its ambitious exploration of loss and abandonment in a region stereotyped as a paradise on earth.
Mar 2019
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Dil Dhadakne Do
...suffers from the butter-knife treatment when it actually needed a razor.
Jun 2015
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M.S. Dhoni
There is a test-match quality to the efforts taken to highlight every bump and curve on the way of the journey of a quick scorer. Yet, Dhoni remains an enigma.
Sep 2016
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Bareilly Ki Barfi
...suffers tremendously from tonal inconsistency. It promises a relentlessly eccentric and zany experience, but doesn’t follow its screwball premise all the way through.
Aug 2017
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Pihu
...Vinod Kapri has delivered a bona fide suspense thriller that doubles up as a parenting lesson. Effective, yes, but also unsettling? Always.
Nov 2018
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Angrezi Medium
The jalebi-shaped screenplay is attributed to four writers. The direction, by Homi Adajania, struggles to contain a narrative that is figuratively and literally all over the place.
Mar 2020
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Saala Khadoos
The movie is unnecessarily overblown but also curiously affecting due to the knockout performances of real-life fighter and debutant actor Ritika Singh and Mumtaz Sorcar as her elder sister.
Jan 2016
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Force 2
It’s not quite India’s answer to the Mission: Impossible films, but at least on the thrills front, it’s halfway there.
Nov 2016