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Sonchiriya
The film itself is a tangle of ideas, and works better as an existential mood piece than the heavy-duty action drama it often resembles.
Mar 2019
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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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Titli
...a disturbing yet unforgettable portrait of a bunch of dark souls in search of redemption.
Oct 2015
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Jun 2018
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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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Bajrangi Bhaijaan
Salman Khan will regard Bajrangi Bhaijaan as a career redefining moment, but his limited acting skills show up in every scene.
Jul 2015
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Aiyaary
...tackles a bold subject, one that is worth exploring alongside the frequent tales of battlefield valour. There is palpable and relatable outrage at the rot within the system, but the response is inchoate and not particularly clever.
Feb 2018
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Tribhanga
Shahane’s chronicle of imperfect mothers and difficult daughters says far more on the subject than is usually seen, but is crimped by its desire to extract sweetness from bitterness.
Jan 2021
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Hunterrr
...is a comedy about sex rather than a sex comedy, presented with plenty of verve and wit, but also the indulgence of a first-time director.
Mar 2015
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Bombay Velvet
The plot is needlessly complicated at the expense of emotion, and assembles a set of well-dressed people who seem to want to go someplace but are not quite sure where.
May 2015
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Airlift
This amazing story needs a second movie, perhaps titled The Real Airlift, which is not in thrall to a single and singular man but acknowledges the hundreds who enabled lakhs of Indians to return home safe. Airlift soars on its own merits, but it is ultimately a flight of fantasy.
Jan 2016
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Manikarnika
The Manikarnika production isn’t lavish enough to suggest a grand sweep of history, and the focus on its heroine is too narrow to accommodate a larger conversation about the efficacy of Lakshmibai’s actions. There is plenty of leaping and feinting, but not enough reflecting.
Jan 2019
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Jan 2021
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Zubaan
Many of the tropes of the coming of age saga are intact in the story by Mozez Singh, Thani and Sumit Roy, but the screenplay needed greater work and rounding out.
Mar 2016
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Manto
Despite the best efforts of Nawazuddin Siddiqui to humanise his character, Manto’s inner workings remain elusive, emerging only in bits and pieces.
Sep 2018
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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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Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
...neither hitting the highs expected from such an expensive and high-profile project nor the lows that plague mid-career filmmakers. Like its intended audience, the movie sticks firmly in the middle.
Nov 2015
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Gurgaon
The movie works best in fits and starts, especially when it lets itself by guided by its richly layered atmospherics.
Aug 2017
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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