Namrata Joshi
The Hindu·Outlook
Jawaani Jaaneman
2020 · The Hindu · Jan 2020
The film goes on to reinforce the most hackneyed of cliches about singledom. It wears the garb of a modern, Hollywoodian, set-in-London comedy but lives up to the sentimental "it's all about loving your family" adage. So the singles have no moral compass and they are selfish and irresponsible in their chase for freedom.
Tanhaji
2020 · The Hindu · Jan 2020
A historical that kicks off well, flounders in the middle and then serves some good punches in the climax
Dabangg 3
2019 · The Hindu · Dec 2019
Almost ten years down the line, the Chulbul Pandey franchise is feeling weak and worn out.
Panipat
2019 · The Hindu · Dec 2019
Sticks to the tried-and-tested format, but falls short of its ambition
Pagalpanti
2019 · The Hindu · Nov 2019
An overcooked, overstretched comedy that can't resist playing on the loyalty-to-the-nation theme
Laal Kaptaan
2019 · The Hindu · Oct 2019
All the interesting disparate elements in the film don't come together well enough to build it into a compelling whole
War
2019 · The Hindu · Oct 2019
Despite there being nothing new and everything predictable about it, War is slick and smart and keeps the audience engaged and absorbed. What irks is the nth iteration of a Muslim trying to prove his loyalty for Bharat. The good Muslim shoved in to balance out the global Islamic terror. Why do it so needlessly and thoughtlessly when the film is anyhow successful enough in its larger aim of providing "entertainment, entertainment, entertainment"?
Hustlers
2019 · The Hindu · Sep 2019
Towards the end a political statement is also shoved in: that the whole country is a strip club where some are paying and others are getting paid to dance. You would do well to pay and see Lopez, Wu and co dance away with sheer abandonment and fun. But chances are that you could well end up finding yourself dancing to their tunes.
Batla House
2019 · The Hindu · Aug 2019
Batla House is a needlessly convoluted and garbled interpretation of the 2008 encounter case which entirely sides with the police.
Mission Mangal
2019 · The Hindu · Aug 2019
With the nation's conscience keeper Akshay Kumar at the helm and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech featured in a special appearance, the idea behind Mission Mangal quite clearly is to ignite our supposedly latent nationalism.
Khandaani Shafakhana
2019 · The Hindu · Aug 2019
Sonakshi Sinha delivers a sincere performance in a movie that gets lost between convenient laughs and righteous messaging
Arjun Patiala
2019 · The Hindu · Jul 2019
Arjun Patiala feels like a Punjabi film masquerading as a Bollywood one. The humour is deliberately rough and rustic and the filmmaking clunky. The hero has a glad eye, uses some utterly banal and incorrect lines about maa behen ki izzat but gets away from it all by giving a self-righteous lecture on consent.
Judgementall Hai Kya
2019 · The Hindu · Jul 2019
Eventually, the film turns out to be Ranaut's assertion that she is much misunderstood, but will live the way she wants to
Family of Thakurganj
2019 · The Hindu · Jul 2019
Strong performances can't save this forgettable affair
The Lion King
2019 · The Hindu · Jul 2019
The new adaptation is a loyal tribute to the 1994 original, though a few outdated tropes could well have been reinterpreted
Super 30
2019 · The Hindu · Jul 2019
A salutary cause and an inspirational story about the triumph of the underdog doesn't necessarily make an engaging film
Toy Story 4
2019 · The Hindu · Jul 2019
Woody, Buzz and the rest of the crew go on an epic road trip in what could well be their last adventure together
Kabir Singh
2019 · The Hindu · Jun 2019
The entire film, just like the original, is dependent on and propelled by the performance of the star at the centre. And however good Shahid Kapoor might be in living the trauma and angst of the character, you still can't get away from the sickening male entitlement.
Bharat
2019 · The Hindu · Jun 2019
Khan might get to show off his emotional chops with the ever-reliable Tabu for company but it's Kaif who pleases and almost walks away with the film with her natural, unaffected and winsome ways. Also, for a change, it's refreshing to find a film in these times, that doesn't portray former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a bad light. Some points scored there.
Nakkash
2019 · The Hindu · May 2019
The tone gets too sanctimonious and earnest and often screechy, the acting veers towards the melodramatic but film's plea to save manushyata (humaneness and humanity) is well-intentioned and hits the right spot. The timing of its release makes one wonder if it's an unintended metaphor of our times. Or if it's a film that is marooned and stranded because the cause it's propagating is itself a lost one. At least for now.
Student of the Year 2
2019 · The Hindu · May 2019
To be fair SOTY2 tries to be a little different, by adding a little Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar to K2H2. The poor "Pishorilal ka fukra" gets pitched against the "St Teresa dude" in the game of kabaddi, in much the same way as Model had a face off with Rajput in a cycle race in JJWS. But caught between two cult films, SOTY2 isn't able to acquire a personality of its own.
Setters
2019 · The Hindu · May 2019
Chaudhary gets the milieu, lingo and the social nuances and hierarchies right and has a fabulous ensemble of actors, some in smaller roles, but the film doesn't hit a high note. It remains facile rather than probing or provocative. It's also too protracted to hold your interest. Incidentally, two of the actors here—Jameel Khan and Ishita Datta—can also be seen in the other release of the week, Blank.
Blank
2019 · The Hindu · May 2019
Despite the vendetta twist in the end, Blank eventually doesn't rise above being a stilted "bad Muslim" narrative. It's yet another film that plays on Islamophobia and it does say a lot that it comes with the backing of the BJP candidate from Gurdaspur (who plays the clean-handed ATS chief) and the Canadian journalist specialising in doing non-political interviews (who does a special end credits song, titled Ali ali).
Kalank
2019 · The Hindu · Apr 2019
Kalank's visual grandeur burdens its romance and shoves Partition politics to the background. Kalank is a strange film that leaves one's head in an odd whirl.
No Fathers in Kashmir
2019 · The Hindu · Apr 2019
In trying to bring in humaneness and politics in equal measure on screen, Ashvin Kumar's film stops short of being a searing account of a tragedy
Romeo Akbar Walter
2019 · The Hindu · Apr 2019
Trying to find too much logic here is totally futile. Fashioned along the lines of the childish, old-fashioned B-grade Bollywood-Hollywood thrillers, RAW is all about the hidden transmitters and surveillance rooms and gratuitous third degree torture in ISI detention centres, laughable polygraph tests and sundry similar procedurals and investigations.
Junglee
2019 · The Hindu · Mar 2019
There is a sweet stray dog and magnificent tuskers and an unintended nostalgia unleashed for Haathi Mere Saathi. I came out raving about Kulkarni's fitness and agility and Jammwal's voice and jawline. But that wasn't quite the point of the film, was it?
Kesari
2019 · The Hindu · Mar 2019
...in the one-man show, none of the other characters or actors turn out memorable. All that has stayed on with me is the landscape—the brown, arid earth pitted against the majesty of the snow-laden, silver mountains. If only panoramic settings could make a good film.
Photograph
2019 · The Hindu · Mar 2019
...with Photograph I was also left feeling a sense of void and dissatisfaction, in that it barely scratches the surface of what could have been a far deeper engagement. It chooses to provide just passing snapshots that don't come together as a memorable album. The situations themselves feel consciously set-up, more deliberate rather than flowing along spontaneously.
Badla
2019 · The Hindu · Mar 2019
Bachchan and Pannu are in fine form. Beyond them no other actor is of any major consequence save Amrita Singh who effortlessly steals everybody's thunder and turns out to be Badla's big takeaway. Here's hoping to see her more often on screen.
Sonchiriya
2019 · The Hindu · Mar 2019
Sonchiriya is a rare bird, the metaphorical redemption that everyone is seeking. Apni apni Sonchiriya, apni apni mukti. It's ultimately a journey towards finding your own bird of salvation.
Luka Chuppi
2019 · The Hindu · Mar 2019
A rom-com about live-in relationship ultimately champions the conventional...
Total Dhamaal
2019 · The Hindu · Feb 2019
There is one genuinely giggly moment in Total Dhamaal. It involves some cars, a train, a railway tunnel and lots of silliness. But such unfettered frivolity is barely there in the over two hour long slog of a film.
Gully Boy
2019 · The Hindu · Feb 2019
Ranveer Singh leads from the front in an empathetic, feel good tale about turning your imperfect reality into a long-cherished and impossible fantasy
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
2019 · The Hindu · Feb 2019
Perhaps the overtly righteous sense of cause — no doubt significant and much needed — becomes too much of a burden and gets the better of the filmmaking itself. ELKDTAL might be bringing a "new story" to Bollywood but plays out too flat, lightweight and facile to be of any consequence. Tell us another love story, please.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
2019 · The Hindu · Jan 2019
A flat retelling of the legend of Jhansi Ki Rani that aims at stoking nationalism but reduces the story to mere platitudes
Thackeray
2019 · The Hindu · Jan 2019
Marathi manoos, Babri Masjid demolition and Hindutvavaad, expectedly, don't just find a thumping approval but are glorified in the latest Bollywood biopic
Why Cheat India
2019 · The Hindu · Jan 2019
The moral position of the film as well as the central protagonist feels unconvincing in its carefully cultivated ambiguity. Emraan Hashmi's Rocky is neither a hero nor a villain but a player. Fine! But blaming the system for an individual's duplicitous ways and then finding a convenient awakening of conscience don't manage to hold sway. Complex problems need complex cinema. Why Cheat India prefers to stay on the surface than dig deeper.
Uri: The Surgical Strike
2019 · The Hindu · Jan 2019
The most interesting is the portrayal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Rajit Kapoor) as a benevolent, caring and concerned patriarch who patronisingly pats Vihaan for being achcha beta (good son). He is as much concerned about his ill mom as he is about Bharat Mata, stays up late till the operation meets a successful end and then celebrates with the team. Surprise surprise he also seems to listen, talk, discuss and communicate and not just through Mann Ki Baat.
The Accidental Prime Minister
2019 · The Hindu · Jan 2019
The film portrays Dr. Manmohan Singh as a nice though weak man but goes hammer and tongs at the Gandhi family in a tacky fashion
Simmba
2018 · The Hindu · Dec 2018
Nothing woke about this problematic entertainer...
Zero
2018 · The Hindu · Dec 2018
The characteristic outstretched arms of SRK get smaller, as does his height, the creative ambition gets bigger but the film stays resolutely middling when it could have been much more
Kedarnath
2018 · The Hindu · Dec 2018
Kedarnath for being "insensitive" to the 2013 Uttarakhand tragedy and turning it into a metaphor, is a proof that we are content remaining blind to the bigger picture; that we are not far from disaster but sitting right on top of it.
Bhaiaji Superhit
2018 · The Hindu · Nov 2018
Bhaiaji Superhit is nothing more than three yesteryear stars being forced to embrace their own obsolescence.
Pihu
2018 · The Hindu · Nov 2018
...the filmmaker indulges in with the child, despite getting enraged at her cuteness being exploited to send the adults on a guilt trip, you ultimately know how it will pan out. But 90 odd minutes of it is way too much of a torture, as much for Pihu, as for us.
Thugs of Hindostan
2018 · The Hindu · Nov 2018
Ambitious in its visual scale, 'Thugs of Hindostan' reveals a disappointing lack of heft and flair when it comes to the story and its telling
Namaste England
2018 · The Hindu · Oct 2018
There is a flat, half baked subplot about illegal immigration and the usual righteous show of desh bhakti. And not a single intelligent moment to balance out the daftness on display. Just what were the makers thinking when they were hatching this senseless film in their collective head!
Badhaai Ho
2018 · The Hindu · Oct 2018
The film captures the little, seemingly insurmountable conflicts of a middle class family very well and also its self-righteousness when it comes to matters of sex and its hypocrisies in putting the mother on the pedestal. It's in conclusions and closures that things get out of hand. The convenient and sentimental "it's all about loving your family" route doesn't quite work with the otherwise cheeky tenor at the start of the film. If only it could have remained consistently so.
Tumbbad
2018 · The Hindu · Oct 2018
The atmosphere, landscape, and themes in 'Tumbbad' are accentuated by a sense of Gothic dread and an eerie expectancy of the diabolical
Andhadhun
2018 · The Hindu · Oct 2018
All the darkness comes laced with humour. Raghavan takes you to the edge of the seat with the pulse racing, makes you keep guessing even as you are chuckling. Getting outwitted and taken by surprise was never more entertaining. The film completes a perfect arc from where it starts to how it ends. Cabbage, cats and colour red; milestones and rabbits and liver and life all come with a larger meaning attached. Missing the beginning, end and anything in the middle would then severely imperil what could be the most fun you'd have at the movies.
Sui Dhaaga
2018 · The Hindu · Sep 2018
Ultimately Sui Dhaaga pans out like Lagaan—a rag tag team hits a sixer on the fashion ramp; the hoi polloi earn the approval of the gentry. It is a tad flat in comparison to the more layered quirkiness of his previous outing, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, but you still care and root for Katariya's characters and can't help appreciate the fact that the agent provocateur in this film, as in DLKH, continues to be a woman. To borrow a line from the film itself, despite many hiccups, sab badhiya hai (all is well).
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
2018 · The Hindu · Sep 2018
...well-intentioned but artistically deadbeat and dull...
Manto
2018 · The Hindu · Sep 2018
Nandita Das' film underlines the continued relevance of Manto's words whether to do with Hindu-Muslim unity or freedom of expression. Most of all, it's about his aching love for a city he felt most at home in.
Manmarziyaan
2018 · The Hindu · Sep 2018
This now yes-now no, now no-now yes romance tests patience beyond a point...
Gali Guleiyan
2018 · The Hindu · Sep 2018
Debutante director Dipesh Jain does well in mirroring the confusion and feverishness of Khuddoos' mind in the bewildering lanes of Old Delhi. Much like mindgames, these alleyways lead you nowhere, often taking you to a dead end. Very rarely in Hindi cinema have both character and locale melded so effectively. The mood of the place, its claustrophobia get personified in Khuddoos. The film is a fine study of deteriorating places, people, relationships, families, neighbourhoods, communities and human minds with the one aerial shot at the end capturing it all economically. It's a bird's eye view of a manic maze in which not just a child but practically everyone is lost.
Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
Far from being mad fun, YPD3 is dull and dreary. It bored me to death save one nice line, "Dar dar ke dhokle khana" (being forced to run from pillar to post). But the film is likely to have the boundless blessings of Baba Ramdev, Patanjali and Ministry of Ayush. Sadly, that's all the Deols seem to gunning for.
Stree
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
Between chuckles and stabs of fear the film offers some lessons in gender sensitivity
Satyameva Jayate
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
John Abraham shows off his muscles, flares his nostrils, rips open a tyre quite like Sunny Deol had uprooted the handpump in Gadar. All the while, remaining steadfastly poker-faced when it comes to sporting an expression. Bajpayee looks lost in the film, rather the film is lost on him. Director Milap Zaveri dishes out the same old vigilante justice cinema that we grew up watching in the 80s with a special doff of the hat to the classic Deewar (1975). But his added tadkas can't hide the essential staleness of the concoction. Satyameva Jayate is death by over pungent masalas.
Gold
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
Despite the presence of the national anthem, the tricolour, and a story based on India's first Olympics win, the film's nationalism fails to bring the goosebumps on
Fanney Khan
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
Last year we had Advait Chandan's Secret Superstar, on a similar theme of trying to make it big in the world of music. Despite its share of naïveté and narrative contrivances it was able to forge a connect with the audience with its emotional authenticity and freshness. Fanney Khan, unfortunately, leaves one cold.
Mulk
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
After Balraj Sahni in Garm Hava and Kaifi Azmi in Naseem, it's the turn of Rishi Kapoor as the paterfamilias of a Muslim family to bring out the dilemmas of the community in divisive times
Karwaan
2018 · The Hindu · Aug 2018
Even as the film makes you laugh uproariously, it gives some bittersweet insights into life in its own whimsical way.
Soorma
2018 · The Hindu · Jul 2018
The actor is the mainstay of an understated rather than rousing sports film...
Isle of Dogs
2018 · The Hindu · Jul 2018
Like Anderson's 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited, which set in India, Isle of Dogs has also been accused of cultural appropriation. Beyond the 'white saviour' trope of an American exchange student saving the day, one wonders if there's more to Anderson's decision of keeping Japanese uninterpreted. There is so much to be read in the film that Anderson's claim of it originating simply as the story of dogs in a trash island seems like a distant, unimaginable past.
Sanju
2018 · The Hindu · Jun 2018
Sanju started off on a dissonant note for me, it took a long while to settle down in its world of excesses. The caricaturish feel, the slapstick tone, the garish colours, the kitschy backdrops and in the midst of it, manipulative scenes like the one juxtaposing Dutt's innocent kids next to the rabble-rousing reactions against him on television news and a shrill Sonam Kapoor yelling aloud for a missing mangalsutra.
Incredibles 2
2018 · The Hindu · Jun 2018
As The Parr family returns to screen after 14 years, it's the youngest member, the infant Jack Jack, who leaves the audience squealing in delight
Race 3
2018 · The Hindu · Jun 2018
Let me make an honest confession. I had high expectations from Race 3. Definitely not regarding logic and plausibility; I was looking forward to some plain, unadulterated, old-fashioned cheese on screen to top off the coffee, mini samosas and cream donut on my snacks tray. Sadly, I must report that all I got in this family saga of globalised NRI goons is some stale taste of sheer inanity and randomness.
Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
2018 · The Hindu · Jun 2018
Motwane's craft is indisputable. The way he sees and presents dark, rainy shadowy Mumbai hit by water woes; the way he keeps alternating between the real and fantastical. Then there's a mind-bending bike chase across the city and its local trains. Motwane's superhero is a vulnerable common man. He isn't endowed with any superhuman powers, gets easily battered and brusied, could well do with the help of a karate champ and instructor next door. He isn't invincible, his mask could well fall easily.
Veere Di Wedding
2018 · The Hindu · Jun 2018
The familiar buddy formula plays it out frothy and fluffy in 'Veere di Wedding'
102 Not Out
2018 · The Hindu · May 2018
Based on a Gujarati play of the same name, Umesh Shukla's film is unable to leave its inherent theatricality behind. It gets unchanging in terms of the give and take between the duo and leaves the viewers static too. It stirs nothing within, leaving you unmoved. All the whimsy you would have hoped for remains confined to the tagline of the film — Baap Cool, Beta Old School.
Nanu Ki Jaanu
2018 · The Hindu · Apr 2018
If all this wasn't enough there is a casual, pointless reference to beef lynchings and moral science lessons on mobiles and helmets. Forget the ghost, the film will leave you spooked with the many hairy male bodies on display; under the shower, in the bed. And that's all I am saying for ...
Beyond the Clouds
2018 · The Hindu · Apr 2018
The film just doesn't manage to throb with the authenticity of experience. It feels like an artificial world – virtuous but curiously inert. The depiction of violence, sex and trafficking is oblique, bashful and old-worldly. As is the forgiveness and redemption offered for all the trespasses — everything is well as long as the conscience and compassion is alive and kicking.
October
2018 · The Hindu · Apr 2018
Death is the finale for only the one who dies. October underlines this with melancholy that resonates without ever turning maudlin.
Blackmail
2018 · The Hindu · Apr 2018
No room for poignancy in this Abhinay Deo outing; it's all about dredging out the essential wickedness, even in the best of human beings.
Hichki
2018 · The Hindu · Mar 2018
Rani Mukerji lords over a film that plays out predictable, pontificatory and manipulative by turn
Raid
2018 · The Hindu · Mar 2018
The recreation of the supposedly longest ever income tax raid could have been far more tight, taut and thrilling than it turns out to be
Dil Juunglee
2018 · The Hindu · Mar 2018
Disjointed, tackily put together with no sense of drama and direction, it will be difficult to top this one on the inanity stakes this year. Some films are so bad that they turn out good in a fun way. Dil Juunglee is so bad that it is horrifically bad.
Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz
2018 · The Hindu · Feb 2018
On paper Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz seems just like what Dr Love would have prescribed. ...However it takes the entire length of a film and some misunderstandings and complications for it to reach fruition.
Aiyaary
2018 · The Hindu · Feb 2018
In the name of swag the actors are made to wear shades, look deliberately deadpan and perennially walk in slo-mo, so much that they leave one somnolent with their unhurried ways. You can see Bajpayee trying hard to breathe life in his persona but Malhotra, who is lovely to gaze at, doesn't have an ounce of the angst that his character should have ideally had. Bajpayee, the song 'Lae Dooba' and some stray canines at the fag end are the film's only saving graces.
Pad Man
2018 · The Hindu · Feb 2018
Pad Man is an example of how good causes may not always make great cinema.
Padmaavat
2018 · The Hindu · Jan 2018
The colours, costumes and jewellery scream luxury and weigh the actors down but very strangely I also felt the glitzy spectacle getting dwarfed in 3D IMAX. The opulence doesn't seem as awe-inspiring, the special effects, especially in some of the battle scenes, are plain tacky and the actors seem like cardboard dolls of themselves in the long shots, acquiring a human visage only in extreme closeups, which is when Deepika Padukone (and Aditi Rao Hydari too) looks extremely regal and radiant, which she anyhow always does.
Mukkabaaz
2018 · The Hindu · Jan 2018
The realistic finale which is more about off-bout negotiations than a knock-out punch end Mukkabaaz in a low key manner. But "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" (with a big dose of sarcasm) instead of "The End" plate, after the disclaimer in the finale, is where Kashyap knocks it out of the park. Just as he does in naming his chief villain — a Brahmin, mind you — Bhagwan. Chuckle along and ponder some.
Kaalakaandi
2018 · The Hindu · Jan 2018
Khan is especially delightful, alternating between the slapstick and the sombre with an off the cuff ease. The "Cape of Good Hope" and "Australia" bits he gets to speak are the noteworthy chuckle-inducing bits in a largely bland, facile and slight fare.
Tu Hai Mera Sunday
2017 · The Hindu · Dec 2017
Despite a strain of predictability, Tu Hai Mera Sunday brings alive contemporary Mumbai with a rare freshness and likeability
A Death in the Gunj
2017 · The Hindu · Dec 2017
Konkona Sen Sharma's debut is a marvellously measured film, where each element of filmmaking is staggeringly synchronous with the other
Qarib Qarib Singlle
2017 · The Hindu · Nov 2017
QQS is a happy confluence of many things besides an absolutely entrancing, candid and un-self-conscious Khan who makes acting seem utterly easy and effortless.
Jab Harry Met Sejal
2017 · The Hindu · Aug 2017
JHMS marks a thumping return to love at its most banal, hackneyed and exasperating. There is not much in the silly situations and trite conversations to get you invested or interested in the lovers. The two main characters themselves don't seem to share that vital thing on screen called frisson
Lipstick Under My Burkha
2017 · The Hindu · Jul 2017
Lipstick…remains breezy in its audacity. It is unapologetic in giving platform to something largely brushed under the carpet—women's sexuality—without making a big deal about it.
Tubelight
2017 · The Hindu · Jun 2017
Unfortunately piety and righteousness are written way too large on Tubelight. We need some inventiveness and chutzpah even when we take the bull by its horns. Afterall, what's cinematic subversion without any sparkle?
Commando 2: The Black Money Trail
2017 · The Hindu · Mar 2017
Commando 2 is an action film that decides to wear another mask; of topicality, social consciousness and patriotism, all for the heck of it. In the process the film loses its own identity entirely.
Force 2
2016 · The Hindu · Nov 2016
The twist in tale is as dubious as the film's feminism, in how it conveniently aligns with the patriotic mood of the moment. But it still doesn't thaw a hard-hearted viewer like yours truly.
Rock On 2
2016 · The Hindu · Nov 2016
Forget good, there is hardly any music in most of Rock On!! 2. Save in the many flashbacks and in the needlessly protracted climax. The songs and melodies, instead of being well knit in the narrative, seem to stand jarringly outside of it. There is a wisp of a story, narrated in large chunks through that easy, lazy device — a run-of-the-mill voiceover.
Shivaay
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
There is a consistency of craft in Shivaay that is rarely seen in Hindi cinema. Like its relentless commitment towards slow motion. From the first shot to the last, everything moves s…l…o…w — the bullet that leaves the pistol to the teardrop that falls from the eye. No wonder the film turns out almost three hours long despite just a wisp of a story to tell.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
ADHM is the latest in the brand of cinema that isn't so much as plot driven as it is focused on characters, relationships and interactions. But all this is executed in a squarely Bollywood way. It's all about two individuals — Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizeh (Anushka Sharma) — thrown unexpectedly together and their journey through friendship/love.
31st October
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
There's nothing nuanced or new in this film about one of the worst pogroms of our times: the anti-Sikh riots of 1984
Queen of Katwe
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
Queen of Katwe stands on its own feet because of its distinct raw rhythm and energy and for rooting itself well in the underprivileged world of Uganda.
Mirzya
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
You can actually see the film in its soundtrack alone. It remains the mainstay and takeaway from the film. It's a pity then that despite so much happening, so much aspired for in the film, in the end you don't feel as though you have come back with something substantial.
M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
The film catches the game at the grassroots—but instead of the usual portrayal of bureaucratic stranglehold what you see is an unquestioning commitment and passion for the game in the many officials. In a way, the film then becomes a piece of nostalgia, harking back to the innocent days of cricket.
Parched
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
That film still speaks to me, while Parched left me thirsting for more; its parts don't quite add up to a compelling whole.
Raaz Reboot
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
Nothing changes in the fourth of the Raaz franchisee. If at all the chills and thrills seem to run dangerously out of steam and some scenes turn out unintentionally funny.
Pink
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
Pink is a relevant film, in a day and age when there are many such cases in the news, when attempts by women at seeking justice are often equated with vindictive litigation. Despite the fact that so many women don't even have recourse to justice, they are accused of misusing the law.
Freaky Ali
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
Freaky Ali is predictable to the core replete with every cliché of a typical sports film that you can possibly think of and, is marked by old fashioned story-telling and over the top, slapstick humour. The added layer is also a done and dusted one, that of a poor man taking to a rich man's game — golf — and succeeding at it at that.
Baar Baar Dekho
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
Passionless performances and cardboard characters mark this much awaited directorial debut by Nitya Mehra
Akira
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
'Akira' is yet another film in which being a strong woman essentially means having to suffer and sacrifice
Island City
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
All three stories are about authoritarianism, the individual rebellions against it and the happy and not-so-happy consequences of these unheralded, unknown mini mutinies. While this core idea is strong, the representation of it and the cinematic tonality is inconsistent, varying from tale to tale.
Waarrior Savitri
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
Somewhere along the line the film turns into yet another skin and sex show. That too, a boring rather than titillating one — the kind in which the man is fully clothed in a swimming pool while the woman wears the itsy-bitsy bikini. Add to all this a dash of mythology, the talk of reeti-riwaaz and Shiva puja and all is well for letting the 21stcentury heroine go on a kissing spree.
Missing on a Weekend
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
A police procedural, Missing on a Weekend is amateurishly staged and feels too long for its 113 odd minutes. A 30-minute long Crime Patrol episode on TV would have delivered something infinitely more watchable.
A Flying Jatt
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
A clunky script, comic book flat characters and a wafer-thin plot are propped up by needless song-n-dance routines, juvenile SFX and innumerable fights and confrontations. The climactic battle in space is hilariously ridiculous, with some unnamed planet, a satellite, rocket and nuclear battery, all thrown in.
Happy Bhag Jayegi
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
Of course, there are gaping plot-holes and slapdash contrivances galore but some genuine fun and many smart lines to balance things in favour of this Indo-Pak interaction of a different kind. If you come laughing out of this one you know there's "padosi mulk ka haath" in it. A good handshake all the way.
Mohenjo Daro
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
The very straight, simple and oft-repeated tale of foster parents, mistaken identity, good vs evil is just another fantasy, a mishmash of many such larger than life epics.
Rustom
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
There's nationalist fervour and jingoism running right through this cinematic interpretation of the scandalous Nanavati murder case that rocked the nation in the 1950s.
Budhia Singh – Born to Run
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
'Budhia Singh' manages to break away from a whole lot of principle arcs and formulae.
The Legend of Michael Mishra
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
Despite the heavy duty title the film plays out so flat and lifeless that the viewer couldn't care less. What you get in the name of whimsy is sheer inanity, boredom and irritation. Some Groucho Marx masks may have been worn by the characters in a couple of the scenes in the film but that doesn't lend the film any of Marx's crackling humour.
Chauthi Koot
2015 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
Much of the power of Chauthi Koot is in that which is not spelt out or spoken of, but which the audience is made to feel and live through, along with the characters — their lives and relationships — on screen.
Dishoom
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
Dishoom is the cinematic equivalent of masala chai; an all too familiar but giddy infusion.
Great Grand Masti
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
Great Grand Masti had positioned itself as an adult comedy with an added zing of horror. So obviously one couldn't go looking for cerebral humour. Crudity, vulgarity, titillation, infantility is all one expected but also hoped against hope for it to deliver a few risqué laughs. No such luck. Banal and boring is all you get.
Sultan
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
In spite of being a Bhai film it showcases the woman's cause — PM's beti bachao abhiyan in the backdrop of Haryana, infamous for female foeticide and a lopsided sex ratio. What could be nicer?
Raman Raghav 2.0
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
More than the story itself, it is the quirky telling that is the key. Structured around eight chapters, vividly shot in the slums, pulsating with raucous music, Raman Raghav 2.0 is a taut thriller, full of energy and brimming over with tension. It doesn't flag even once and holds the viewer tightly in its grip. Such is the dizzying momentum and pace that you even stop caring about some missing pieces of the jigsaw that would have been niggling you. Clear-cut, uncomplicated Raman Raghav 2.0 takes you on an entertainment high.
Dhanak
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Good children's films or those with children at the centre are often as unknowingly profound for adults as they are obviously engaging for kids. Here, one stayed invested and smiled along only because of the adorable actors with Bollywood references adding to the cute appeal. But it needed a lot else.
Udta Punjab
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
It's about relentless exposure to a gut-wrenching reality for 148 minutes (a shorter version may have been even stronger) that I am still trying to process. It's about the many innocent, helpless Ballis being born to drugs everyday. I came out of the screening with Balli's cries ringing harsh in my ears. They are haunting me. Still.
Te3n
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
The climax gets disappointing with its predictable, explanatory touch. As a viewer I like coming out of a mystery with questions on my mind rather than neat resolutions of all the loose ends.
Do Lafzon Ki Kahani
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Do Lafzon Ki Kahani is way too pedestrian. The mushy tagline doesn't help either: "Love never hurts… Love heals". I would have added "Love bores to tears" to that.
Housefull 3
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
One can't quite go looking for political correctness in such a film. But Housefull3, doesn't know where it wants to stand on issues. No wonder after cracking many a joke at the physically challenged its attempt to redeem itself in the end seems half baked and forced. The film's stand on racism is also just as confused.
Phobia
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
Much of the terror resides in Radhika Apte's eyes. She is the film, all by herself, that too in just a single setting. The film draws on the essential horror from her. The performance is an external manifestation of the workings of her inner mind. And Radhika she is sensational as a woman living with her own demons—be it fighting with her sister or being flirtatious with friends, slurring on her speech or travelling miles (metaphorically) to leave garbage bag just outside her house. Or just being radiantly vulnerable. In her we get a radically inventive scream queen. All hail her!
Veerappan
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
Veerappan is watchable because it belongs to Muthulakshmi. Usha Jadhav is excellent as Veerappan's wife be it cooking in the jungles for her husband (Sandeep Bharadwaj) or braving police torture for him or loving him despite his indiscretions. She retains the innocence and vulnerability even as she reposes trust in a woman who is actually out to use her to avenge her husband's death at the hands of Veerappan.
Waiting
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
It's about swinging between hope and despair. It's about a bond forged in the face of a possible bereavement.
Sarbjit
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
Randeep Hooda stands out in this melodramatic melange of cardboard cut-outs that substitute for characters.
Dear Dad
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
The slow and steady passage from love to hatred and pride would have been a profound and poignant journey that the film doesn't quite embark on. It's in too much of a hurry to reach nowhere.
Azhar
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
Azhar lacks spine. It is evident in the long disclaimer preceding the film in which the team seems to be making a claim on cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin's colourful and controversial life as a source material yet maintaining that it is a fictional account. All to escape the legal battles the film could land them in.
One Night Stand
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
Written by a woman, directed by a woman, but that doesn't change much about what Sunny Leone or her films have come to represent in Bollywood. One Night Stand is also about sex and titillation, yet is eventually square and conventional when it comes to the overarching issues of morality and family values, the good woman and the bad one, the temptress and the caring wife.
Traffic
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
'Traffic' wears thin, feels rushed. There is neither much of an emotional tug nor an edge-of-the-seat urgency that the film promised to deliver.
Baaghi
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
The film hangs on a plot thinner than a strand of hair: Wild, untamed boy Ronny (Tiger) is sent by his father to a Kalaripayattu guru to get trained in martial arts. Before you can say "another Karate Kid?" there's also a Tezaab inspiration lurking in the background.
Nil Battey Sannata
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
There are plot points you could nitpick on but at the end of the day Nil Battey Sannata remains a warm, feel-good film which offers hope and the promise of upward mobility that doesn't depend on the social strata you come from but your own will and diligence.
Laal Rang
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
A jumbled up messy film, Laal Rang could have done with a little more focus. It lacks spit-and-polish and style. There are no frills and flourishes, no slickness to the filmmaking. That, ironically, is its strength, the reason why it feels so real.
Fan
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
It's rarely that I have seen an audience step out of the theatre so sombrely after a Shah Rukh Khan movie. Perhaps in the mood and flow of the film which isn't quite as light-hearted and feel-good as SRK starrers are preordained to be. Fan is completely out of SRK's comfort zone. There is hardly any romance, not a single song, little to laugh about. Instead there is plenty of action, chases and unbridled emotions of the very dark and serious kind – in a film that's all about a fan's pursuit of the star and then the star trying to hunt down the fan.
Love Games
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
'Love Games' is a C Grade film trying hard to be cool (pitches itself as urban-thriller) making it worse for itself. If the whole point of giving us a truly adult film was to tom-tom the sexually expletive terms well, then what more can one say?
The Blueberry Hunt
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
The 'thriller' boasts of not a single edge of the seat moment. You wait for things to happen but nothing consequential does. The film comes in the midst of a debate about legalisation of marijuana, for medicinal as well as cultural reasons. This could have been a cracker of a film to take the debate forward. But it prefers to remain hazy and tepid in a pointless world of its own.
Ki and Ka
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
Ki & Ka stays sympathetic with Ka and speaks with the hero's voice. Not only does he take care of the home well but will eventually be the protector of the woman and thereby prove his manliness ('chaddi check') too. Meanwhile, in the time-honoured tradition of Hindi movies, it portrays the ambitious woman as the one who is, eventually, in the wrong.
Rocky Handsome
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
An adaptation can always be done with one's own distinct touch. But Rocky Handsome is happy and satisfied in living off borrowed aesthetics even while clinging to its Indian self for all the wrong reasons. It ends up being neither here nor there. The nowhere film alienates, makes for a pronounced disconnect and also makes one long for the return of the good old fashioned, home grown Indian action hero who knew what he stood for. I will take a Ghayal Once Again over this any day.
Kapoor & Sons
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
Like Piku, Batra brings the family, parent-child relationship under the scanner in Kapoor & Sons but he doesn't quite rebel against or throw away the construct entirely. He questions the family only to reassert its primacy.
Teraa Surroor
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
No compelling cinema here, just an out and out guilty pleasure that requires a huge suspension of disbelief to go with the flow.
Global Baba
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
Despite the shrillness and breathlessness of action it deals with a significant issue in all seriousness. A film that might be loud but does talk sense.
Zubaan
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
...despite the fabulous music the songs feel more like intrusions than part of the storytelling. Vicky pulls off the Sikh pop singer act as well, especially in the Ajj Saanu O Mileya number, which plays out like a rousing anthem in the end. If only the lead-up to it was as compelling. Zubaan is a film that you stay with till the end even as you rue that it could have been so much better.
Aligarh
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
The film is a unique step forward in reality cinema in that it uses actual names of people and places involved in the real incident. But then it still has to put a disclaimer at the start.
Neerja
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
You don't even realise that it's the selflessness and courage of real characters you actually end up applauding than the actors playing them. Go for it if you are in the mood for a good cry.
Sanam Re
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
They make the two hours stretch longer. If this is sweet and cute bring me another film.
Fitoor
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Of course all the loose ends are tied up eventually, explanations are offered but it is done clumsily and stretches credibility.
Ghayal Once Again
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Ghayal Once Again is very old fashioned, rough hewn and klunky. Everything, right from acting to action, is high strung. But it remains curiously engaging till the end.
Sanam Teri Kasam
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Go with a boxful of tissues if you cry easily at the movies. If you are as cold-hearted as I am you'll be left scratching your head and perennially looking at the watch hoping for things to wrap up fast. Alas, they don't.
Mastizaade
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
Moans, groans, pokes and farts fill in whatever is left of the run time. In other words the infantilization of the viewers is complete. Only question left to ask after two hours: would you call this a film?
Saala Khadoos
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
Saala Khadoos is unable to rise above the predictability and time worn clichés of an average sports movies. One hopes the Tamil version would have come together better.
Jugni
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
The most effective and affecting thing about the film is, it's glimpse of the fecund and fertile Punjabi pop/folk industry and how the unassuming kings of that world (who are offered seats by fans in crowded local buses) could lose their identity and get exploited when they head to the city. That story deserves a standalone film.
Airlift
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
Filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon fashions a taut, engaging feature film out of an incident which would, on paper, appear to be more worthy of a documentary.
Wazir
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
Bachchan is reliable as ever, particularly with grief written all over his broken face...It's Farhan of the first half, plunging the depths of emotions, who makes you take note of him as a dramatic performer. However, by the time we get to the end even he seems jaded and lacklustre. Like the film itself.
Chauranga
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
As against a seething, fuming Fandry, Chauranga is a lot more muted and quiet in its rage. But the thread of protest runs through it nonetheless as Santu retaliates against each bit of random violence heaped against him or his brother.
Bajirao Mastani
2015 · The Hindu · Dec 2015
Sanjay Leela Bhansali returns with another visual spectacle that wilfully takes liberties with the past that it depicts. But it does manage to engage even as it exhausts.
Dilwale
2015 · The Hindu · Dec 2015
The deliberate attempt to repackage and sell the Kajol-SRK romance of yore backfires, seeming like a pale shadow of the magic there once was. The two seem like caricatures of Raj-Simran. Much water has flown under the bridge and all that. Yes, nostalgia can, at times, suck. So Gerua can't be a patch on Sooraj hua maddham. And Shetty can't a Chopra-Johar be.
Hate Story 3
2015 · The Hindu · Dec 2015
Things get way too predictable with twists and turns that are a yawn. The dialogue is cringeworthy with archaic gems like "Kab tak bekasoor auraton ke aanchal ke peeche chhupta rahega" (How long will you hide behind an innocent woman). If you were to take the film seriously then women who possess brains along with beauty are dangerous. The plot, incidentally, is Maggi-inspired. How?
Kajarya
2015 · The Hindu · Dec 2015
Perhaps because what the film portrays doesn't quite go beyond the newspaper headlines, there are no new insights, perspectives to enlighten, added to what you already know nor is there anything to jolt you. Perhaps we have become too inured. Or may be the film needed to be more intense than it has turned out.
Tamasha
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
Tamasha goes a step ahead from these seminal questions to dwell on something even more significant: finding your true, inner self that has been lost in the robotic work life, to discover and embrace the clown lurking behind the automaton in you. In that sense Tamasha could well be the next part in the Ranbir Kapoor-In-Evolution series of Hindi cinema that boasts of films like Wake Up Sid, Rockstar and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani.
Spectre
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
Perhaps it's my own fatigue with the Bond franchise and the knowledge of exactly where it will go and how things will turn out that makes the old-fashioned and nicely campy Spectre not as gripping a ride as I would have wanted it to be.
X: Past Is Present
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
Watching X: Past is Present is like being in a trance or a dream. Some moments remain vivid even after the film gets over, others way too hazy to recollect. There is a big idea here, which gets communicated to the viewer at times and eludes at others. The film moves from moments of instant connect to those which demand that the viewer see things from a distance.
Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
2010 · Outlook · Nov 2015
To compare OUTIM to other underworld films like Company and Satya would also be gross injustice to them considering they were a far more textured look into the mafia machinations. OUTIM doesn't go beyond the obvious and essentially remains nothing more than a straightforward tale about how the new order takes over from the old in the underworld hierarchy.
Shootout at Lokhandwala
2007 · Outlook · Nov 2015
Shootout At Lokhandwala's tagline is a contradiction—"true rumours"—a clear indication of how facile a film it is. It shows no engagement with the politics of encounter killing, which is its core idea, but glorifies violence and machismo.
Dhoom 2
2006 · Outlook · Nov 2015
It is also cinema of the stars, of larger-than-life glamour. Ash and Bipasha display bronzed, toned bods in hanky-small dresses. Dhoom 2 teases, titillates, caters to the voyeur in every viewer. But there's no gender divide here. We women too have been given an equal opportunity to ogle at dishy Hrithik.
Labour of Love
2015 · Outlook · Nov 2015
...Sengupta fashions a lovely tale of love in times of recession. It's about routinised work lives, the loneliness of living in shifts in your own homes, of being a family, yet not knowing the pleasures of eating and living together. But hope lives.
Titli
2015 · The Hindu · Oct 2015
No family is quite happy in Behl's imagination. Least of all the overtly happy one - that of Prince. You know that all the loving is built on a foundation of lies and delusions. Despite that the film does try and leave us on a note of change. Titli talks to Neelu about starting all over again in their relationship and rebuilding their family from the scratch. A talk that comes loaded as much with hope as it does with scepticism. There can be no clean ends and closures in the world of Titli.
Pyaar Ka Punchnama
2011 · Outlook · Oct 2015
For a good, consistently witty, relationship-oriented film told from the male perspective, I'd go with Saket Chowdhury's Pyaar Ke Side Effects. But it's evident that Pyaar Ka Punchnama is on its way to becoming the love bible for young men—however problematic that might be for some.
Love Sex aur Dhokha
2010 · Outlook · Jul 2015
Initially, the jerky, odd camera movements of LSD can prove quite unsettling for an audience used to sanitised, textbook frames. The kitschy metafilm (inspired from pulp fiction) adds to the bizarreness. But it doesn't take long to fine-tune your vision to the inventive look, feel and idea of LSD.
I Am Kalam
2011 · Outlook · Jul 2015
It's a straight, simple story with no great highs and lows and an easy resolution. The film moves a bit slowly, the acting initially feels mannered and the setting designed. But the unashamed good-heartedness and positivity of the film eventually take over.
Shahid
2013 · Outlook · May 2015
It's in how Mehta captures the psyche of the Indian Muslim in the changing, increasingly polarised India. Shahid's lower-middle-class Muslim family, its highs and lows, togetherness and differences, are portrayed with warmth and simplicity.
Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost
2015 · Outlook · Feb 2015
One of the most beguiling films of recent times, Qissa captivates even as it confounds.
Band Baaja Baaraat
2010 · Outlook · Dec 2014
Hindi mainstream cinema, despite its predictability, can at times leave you with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Band Baaja Baaraat is one such endearing film. The story might be the usual: boy meets girl, they get into a misunderstanding and eventually come together again. However, what makes it special is that it feels delightfully real, is strongly rooted in contemporary Delhi middle class.
Sulemani Keeda
2014 · Outlook · Dec 2014
At times, Sulemaani Keeda feels like an in-group Versova film that needed more to say hello to the world. At others, it feels yet another variation of Luck By Chance, albeit from the margins. It didn't stay with me for long.
Mary Kom
2014 · Outlook · Sep 2014
Mary Kom plays out as a simple, unpretentious tale that picks up and dramatises important incidents from the champion's life. The frenzy and excitement of a Raging Bull or Million Dollar Baby may not be there. However, the essential message speaks out loud.
Finding Fanny
2014 · Outlook · Sep 2014
... this sense of whimsicality and romance within the absurd and a simultaneous assertion of the ludicrosity of romance that I found most interesting. However, instead of dwelling more on this delicious dichotomy, the film goes deliberately overboard on the kinkiness and becomes over-indulgent with the loudness and farce. It entertained while it lasted but hasn't stayed on with me for long.
Ankhon Dekhi
2014 · Outlook · Mar 2014
Mishra, as the patriarch, Bauji, is the fulcrum and spine of the film. At once mercurial and patient, crazy yet sane, it's a character difficult to pull off and Mishra literally internalises it. Seema Pahwa as his hyper, nagging yet loving wife is just as pitch-perfect. So are the rest. Maya Sarao as the live-wire daughter is a revelation. The relationships are convincingly handled. Be it the father-daughter bonding after a fight or the brothers falling apart. They feel so real that they could well be happening in your own family.
Special 26
2013 · Outlook · Dec 2013
There are times when, instead of following the film's narrative, you end up playing 'spot the mistake'. I did think that making all the kids of Anupam Kher's family wear clothes off the same yarn was excessive. That happened in the '50s and '60s, not so much in the '80s.
Ship of Theseus
2013 · Outlook · Dec 2013
It's a film of meditative pauses and life as many of us have felt and lived. It reaches out to the heart as well as the mind. Not the kind of film you see very often.