Top Rated Films
Manisha Lakhe's Film Reviews
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3 Storeys are three stories about people who live in a Mumbai Chawl (old fashioned project housing). It’s almost refreshing and yet not really. Someone from the ensemble cast overdoes it. It’s almost good, and then it isn’t because you’ve read the story somewhere. It’s an idea that’s not new and yet, a decent effort. Would have been smarter move to put it straight to Netflix or Amazon.
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The fourth in the ‘Hate’ franchise, this film like its other tales has lingerie, shaved manly chests, moans and suggestive hip thrusts, whiny song or two, high heels, pancake makeup, bearded men who snarl at each other, murders too and foreign locations… The acting is so poor your nerves will be jangled. Supposedly erotic, the on screen kisses will put you off kissing for ever.
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The hallmark of a good scary movie is that the scares come at you from all sides, fast and furious and do not allow you to breathe. This movie is slow to create the scary world, and even though you enjoy it, it takes too long to actually make you gasp for air. But what an awesome beginning for Anushka Sharma and Parambrata Chatterjee.
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‘Bromance or Romance’ is the underlying premise of the battle of the sexes film. Although it feels misogynistic to paint women the way they have in the film, it is so delightful and frothy and fun, you come away smiling. Are all girlfriends needy or plain manipulative? Will Sonu save his best friend Titu from his girl? What is true love? Do Punjabis drink and wed? The film is a tad too long, but has enough to make you finish gigantic popcorn tubs.
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The movie itself is terribly made. It uses footage from the IIFA awards, showing how stars arrive and are seated and are cheering for something that’s happening on stage. It’s so terribly inserted, even lay people in the audience can see clearly that it is not shot for the film. And if IIFA paid money to promote their brand, the audience will prove that content, not footage is king. Am sure Karan Johar’s cell phone has smarter and more interesting video footage than this awful, awful film.
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The story of a beautiful, faithful queen and a lustful invader who will stop at nothing is told in three very long hours. The costume drama is beautiful and Rajasthan is a great setting for this tale of Rajput valor. But the talk of pride and glory is so endless, it makes you want to run into your sword out of sheer boredom. But Ranveer Singh makes a brilliant hammy villain, and Deepika is luminous.
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Is it is guilt for the one sexual encounter that keeps Rajeev Kaul awake or has he really killed the girl? The film is a psychological thriller which is rather interesting, but feels dragged despite its short running time of 95 minutes. Sanjay Suri looks traumatised enough as Rajeev Kaul but is that enough? This film has a decent supporting cast but needed a huge pay-off at the end. So much thrill for so little an end…
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Based on a true story of a hotheaded pugilist who wants to prove he is better than everyone else in the ring, Mukkabaaz puts its fist in many pies: boxing, romance, caste wars, defiance and revenge. Anurag Kashyap brings alive small town Uttar Pradesh brilliantly. But the fist through so many pies laced with too many songs becomes a feast too difficult to digest.
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If you think a story like Delhi Belly could be replicated or something ‘as cool’ could be made, Kaalakaandi will disappoint you. Three random stories in one night in one terribly pretentious film that tries too hard. Fails.
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You step out of the theatre laden with cheese and corn: there’s flag waving patriotism, there’s good vs evil, there’s his girl kicking ass, there’s dialog, there’s biceps and six pack abs, there’s the gigantic gun, there’s comic relief, there’s also American drone strikes. Salman Khan fans will love the action-packed corny cheese fest that makes for a decent if predictable watch.