Nandini Ramnath
Scroll.in·LiveMint
Satluj
2026 · Scroll.in
Despite its length – 163 minutes, and not all of them necessary – Satluj is a gripping, tension-filled affair. The film is admirably measured in its outrage and powerfully performed across the board. Trehan's understanding of the circumstances that encourage the killing spree, as well as his clarity on human rights and moral probity, make Satluj one of the sharpest political films in recent memory.
Baby Do Die Do
2026 · Scroll.in
Baby Do Die Do initially lives up to its superb title and inventive premise, with deft portrayal of Mumbai and inventive use of split screens. However, the love story takes over the narrative and diffuses its focus, forcing overly neat coincidences and unconvincing twists, and the 125-minute film could have done with the same kind of ruthless treatment that Baby reserves for her targets.
Alpha
2026 · Scroll.in
Alpha is more product than experience, with sketchily drawn characters, a derivative plot and predictable beats. The chief item on offer in Alpha is brawn over brain, and the rigour, ideas and production budget needed to expand the franchise in interesting ways are in short supply.
Dabangg 3
2019 · Scroll.in · Dec 2019
Dabangg 3 isn't funny or even campy enough to be anything more than an aging hero's throw of dice, hoping that third time will be as lucky as the first two.
War
2019 · Scroll.in · Oct 2019
The male leads, separated by a couple of generations and united by their ability to land punches and execute pirouettes without breaking a sweat, set the screen on fire. Fortunately for War, there is barely a scene without either of them.
The Zoya Factor
2019 · Scroll.in · Sep 2019
Wannabe show boat meets dreamboat in The Zoya Factor, a movie that both suffers from miscasting and benefits from perfect casting.
Dream Girl
2019 · Scroll.in · Sep 2019
Ayushmann Khurrana is in fine form as the hero as well as the heroine...Raaj Shaandilyaa directs Ayushmann Khurrana as a call centre employee who puts on a woman's voice and gathers a fleet of admirers.
Chhichhore
2019 · Scroll.in · Sep 2019
What works best for the nostalgia-flecked Chhichhore is its warm and non-judgemental evocation of the wonder years. The earnest Anni arrives at a college modelled on the Indian Institute of Technology and learns that he has been assigned to Hostel Number 4. This is where the "losers" are dumped. Although Anni initially attempts to move out, he soon succumbs to its charms.
Mission Mangal
2019 · Scroll.in · Aug 2019
A space opera with a little bit of science...
Jabariya Jodi
2019 · Scroll.in · Aug 2019
Inexplicably convoluted and unforgivably long...
Judgementall Hai Kya
2019 · Scroll.in · Jul 2019
Strong performances cannot rescue a weak and confused whodunit Prakash Kovelamudi's comedy-tinged thriller stars Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao.
Super 30
2019 · Scroll.in · Jul 2019
Like this year's Gully Boy, 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.
Article 15
2019 · Scroll.in · Jun 2019
A powerful examination of crimes against Dalits...Article 15 isn't exactly nuanced about the brutal system that continues to subjugate Dalits, but neither are the times. The implausible portions balance out the moments that echo the headlines. For every scene that seems out of place, another comes along to remind us of why this movie is effectively landing its punches.
Kabir Singh
2019 · Scroll.in · Jun 2019
Just like the man of the title, the director seems stuck in a moment he doesn't want to get out of. 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.
Bharat
2019 · Scroll.in · Jun 2019
An ode to the Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif pairing and little else...Ali Abbas Zafar's movie sets his hero's adventures against the backdrop of India's post-Independence history.
India's Most Wanted
2019 · Scroll.in · May 2019
This terrorist manhunt is overheated and undercooked...
PM Narendra Modi
2019 · Scroll.in · May 2019
A 131-minute victory parade on the big screen...Omung Kumar's biopic stars Vivek Anand Oberoi as the Man from Gujarat.
Blank
2019 · Scroll.in · May 2019
A loud, overstretched thriller starring Sunny Deol in rescue mode...
Avengers: Endgame
2019 · Scroll.in · Apr 2019
The movie reserves its firepower for a climactic display of pyrotechnics, and the visual effects showcase is a relief from the puffy eyes and forlorn speeches. Thanos may be inevitable, but what's an Avengers movie without showboating?
Photograph
2019 · Scroll.in · Apr 2019
Tries to be understated, but is ultimately underdeveloped
Kalank
2019 · Scroll.in · Apr 2019
An attempt to map a love triangle onto the tragedy of the Partition goes awry
Badla
2019 · Scroll.in · Mar 2019
Badla has hugely familiar leads, and the casting of at least one of them allows Ghosh to deliver a weak and unconvincing coup de grace. Taapsee Pannu is unable to summon up the blank canvas onto which all manner of possibilities can be projected, while Amitabh Bachchan hops on the gravitas train for the nth time. The gender swap allows for a meaty role for Amrita Singh, who deftly plays a key character, and her presence, along with that of Tony Luke, work strongly in the movie's favour and helps it along its pretzel-shaped journey.
Total Dhamaal
2019 · Scroll.in · Feb 2019
Some of the humour is nicely timed and executed, and Indra Kumar even tucks in a message of environmental conservation (delivered through tamed wild animals). There are enough lines here to fuel WhatsApp conversations – until the next such movie comes along.
Gully Boy
2019 · Scroll.in · Feb 2019
A compelling fairy tale with a standout performance by Ranveer Singh...
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga
2019 · Scroll.in · Feb 2019
Ek Ladki moves along on the strength of its progressive theme and some fine performances. Typical Bollywood elements – quirky characters, peppy songs, posh settings, syrupy emotions – are cleverly turned around to encourage us to see love through a different lens. However, the 120-minute movie tries too hard to be funny and heartfelt at the same time (and sometimes in the same scene). The comic bits inspired by the source material always work better than the melodramatic portions.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
2019 · Scroll.in · Jan 2019
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.
The Accidental Prime Minister
2019 · Scroll.in · Jan 2019
A petty attack on the Gandhi family that lacks insight...
Uri: The Surgical Strike
2019 · Scroll.in · Jan 2019
The 138-minute Uri leaves no room for debate. The build-up to the military strikes are accompanied by swelling background music. All characters are suitably grim and ruthless, preparing to "invade the enemy in his home and kill him there". The action sequences have a brutality and realism that has rarely been seen in Hindi cinema. The film is stacked with bold flourishes – the title appears on the screen only 30-odd minutes in – and Aditya Dhar directs with a confidence that belies his experience.
Simmba
2018 · Scroll.in · Dec 2018
Ranveer Singh's energy and flamboyance ensure that Simmba appears more engaging than it often is, and Ajay Devgn's well-timed cameo rescues the film from being a write-off. Simbba is all about its male movie stars. Sara Ali Khan has fewer scenes than some of the other characters, including Siddharth Jadhav as a member of Simmba's posse. The movie has no use for her Shagun – so much for being on the side of women.
Zero
2018 · Scroll.in · Dec 2018
Khan's fanbase will possibly be even more perplexed with Zero. By trying to play the man next door rather than a larger-than-life personality, Khan has all too literally let himself be cut to size. The romantic declarations are less effective, the conviction with which Khan has carried off more modest romances is missing, and the package is smaller than before. As the space rocket blasts off towards Mars, the superstar is transformed into a supernova, and it's null all the way into the void.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2018 · Scroll.in · Dec 2018
At close to 120 minutes, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse spins far too many webs for its own good, but the witty dialogue, energetic voice work, and eye-popping visuals mostly keep fatigue at bay.
Kedarnath
2018 · Scroll.in · Dec 2018
Ali Khan is a vibrant presence, lending her character spirit and charisma. She is the most watchable and memorable character in the pre-interval sequences, and gives a snappily told but somewhat cold film much-needed warmth when the mountains melt and everything goes under water.
Bohemian Rhapsody
2018 · Scroll.in · Nov 2018
In the end, the movie belongs to Freddie Mercury, the Bohemian rhapsodiser of the title, who conquers with his voice from beyond the grave. The movie comes alive every time Mercury's sonorous voice booms out of the screen. His powerful singing makes it possible to endure the flat writing and staging with your eyes shut and your ears open.
Thugs of Hindostan
2018 · Scroll.in · Nov 2018
Aamir Khan is the saving grace in a trite, uninvolving film...Krishna Acharya's period drama, starring Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, pits a gang of rebels against the British empire.
Badhaai Ho
2018 · Scroll.in · Oct 2018
Great expectations are partially met in comedy about pregnancy...Amit Sharma's comedy explores the consequences of an unplanned pregnancy on a middle-class Delhi family.
Andhadhun
2018 · Scroll.in · Oct 2018
A wicked and wacky yarn about a crime and its unlikely punishment...Sriram Raghavan's crime thriller stars Ayushmann Khurrana as a blind pianist, Radhika Apte as his girlfriend, and Tabu as a femme fatale.
Stree
2018 · Scroll.in · Aug 2018
What this movie succeeds at being is a well-mounted excuse for marrying light horror with glib and unremitting humour (the often hilarious dialogue is by Sumit Arora). The cast is in full flow here, with Rajkummar Rao brilliantly leading the herd as a not-too-bright mushball who becomes Chanderi's unwilling hero. Rao faces competition on occasion from Pankaj Tripathi, and even the perfectly cast Shraddha Kapoor seems to be paying attention after a very long time. Even as Stree begins to collapse under the weight of its contradictions, the actors are always on cue, delivering the steady patter of conversational humour with aplomb and leaping out of their skins at just the right moment.
Gold
2018 · Scroll.in · Aug 2018
The gleaming cars, neatly ironed costumes, and orderly manner in which the props have been arranged barely convey the impression of the blood and sweat involved in achieving a seemingly unattainable goal. The pounding background score and on-the-nose dialogue heavily underline what is being seen on the screen. The sluggish pacing over 153 minutes contain few moments of surprise or discovery. In the end, the inevitable clamber for the exit gate is stalled in the final moments by the strains of the national anthem.
Karwaan
2018 · Scroll.in · Aug 2018
Despite the contrivances he is saddled with, Shaukat turns out to be a delight. Irrfan has had his share of road movies (Road to Ladakh, Piku, Qarib Qarib Single), but he has immense fun being the designated joker in the pack in Karwaan. A scene in which he rehearses his proposal to a woman he has only just met involves talking to a wall, and the actor ensures that it is memorable. Together with Salmaan, Irrfan lends the movie the poignance it seeks, but doesn't always find, over 120 minutes.
Sanju
2018 · Scroll.in · Jun 2018
Sanju is the fawning biopic of Sanjay Dutt that the trailer warned us about. It promises complexity and psychological acuity. Until a point, it appears to be on track to creating a nuanced portrait of controversy's favourite child – but then it plummets into unquestioning and misty-eyed reverence.
Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
2018 · Scroll.in · Jun 2018
The story's real superhero isn't Harshvadhan Kapoor's dull Sikandar, but Priyanshu Painyuli's passionate Bhavesh. Painyuli plays Bhavesh with real feeling, and the exact moment of the film's descent can be pinpointed to the moment when his character cedes ground to Sikandar. The myth takes over the man, but Painyuli ensures that the man matters too.
Veere Di Wedding
2018 · Scroll.in · Jun 2018
Rarely has a movie worked so hard at being outrageous...
Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain
2018 · Scroll.in · May 2018
Scenes from a marriage that actually isn't worth saving...Sanjay Mishra stars as a rude husband trying to win back the affections of his wife in Harish Vyas's movie.
Raazi
2018 · Scroll.in · May 2018
Alia Bhatt shines in a muddled and improbable spy thriller...
Beyond the Clouds
2018 · Scroll.in · Apr 2018
Despite strong performances, Iranian director Majid Majidi's first Indian movie is barely convincing.
October
2018 · Scroll.in · Apr 2018
There is a Hallmark quality to Dan's lack of direction, which is presented without adequate explanation. But there is also a lived-in quality to Chaturvedi's study of life-threatening illness, which is rarely explored by the movies with any seriousness.
Blackmail
2018 · Scroll.in · Apr 2018
Despite the efforts taken to ensure that the labyrinthine turns through the 139-minute movie are never confusing, the filmmakers are unable to avoid the twin curse of repetition and redundancy. Deo aims for conversational humour that evolves organically from the moment, but the running length could have been cut significantly limiting its impact. Blackmail has a satisfying neatness and roundedness that are usually missing from such films, but some of the manufactured clutter could have easily been avoided.
Raid
2018 · Scroll.in · Mar 2018
This crusade against black money has its moments...
Pad Man
2018 · Scroll.in · Feb 2018
Pad Man proves that sometimes, the message is far more important than the way in which it has been communicated.
Mukkabaaz
2018 · Scroll.in · Jan 2018
Kashyap's trademark caustic humour and tendency to upturn expectations serve him well in many moments. There are scenes in Mukkabaaz that will not find place in a regular film, including Bhagwan's humiliation of Shravan and the tense conversation between Sanjay and Bhagwan.
Kaalakaandi
2018 · Scroll.in · Jan 2018
The best thing about Akshat Verma's debut feature is a performance by Saif Ali Khan that is both outrageous and moving.
Tiger Zinda Hai
2017 · Scroll.in · Dec 2017
In Ali Abbas Zafar's Tiger Zinda Hai, Khan's vitality as an action hero is sorely absent. Were it not for back-up from Katrina Kaif as his wife Zoya, a laughably incompetent bunch of terrorists, and the combination of an indigestion-causing substance and sedatives, the Research & Analysis Wing agent's mission to rescue Indian and Pakistani nurses trapped in Iraq would simply not have been possible.
Simran
2017 · Scroll.in · Sep 2017
The movie exists as a testament to Ranaut's awesomeness. The star and the character merge into one, and the movie suffers as a result.
Atomic Blonde
2017 · Scroll.in · Aug 2017
McAvoy lights up his scenes, but it is Theron's unchanging visage and her claim to the female Bond crown that steer the show from one head-scratching but ravishing scene to the next.
Lipstick Under My Burkha
2017 · Scroll.in · Jul 2017
The sexual politics isn't always on target, but the emphasis on sexual freedom is. The script wobbles as the four tracks evolve and get far too complicated to be smoothly straightened out, but it is at its entertaining best when the women get all hot and heavy.
Commando 2: The Black Money Trail
2017 · Scroll.in · Mar 2017
Commando 2 is recommended viewing for the Finance Ministry, fans of actresses who steal scenes from under the noses of their bulky heroes, and advocates of films that are extensions of the government's Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity department. Its efforts to make sense of and communicate a solution for the black money economy is even less competent than the government's authoritarian measure.
The Ghazi Attack
2017 · Scroll.in · Feb 2017
Underwater thriller 'The Ghazi Attack' dives deep for patriotism. Passions are roused and the national anthem plays twice as an Indian Navy crew faces a Pakistani submarine in 1971.
Running Shaadi
2017 · Scroll.in · Feb 2017
There's too much of everything in Running Shaadi, whose casual humour would have worked better with a crisper and more focused running time. The idea of wedding organisers balking at the prospect of their own nuptials has been tackled with both greater economy and expansiveness in the past. By running in two directions, the movie ends up nowhere.
The Lego Batman Movie
2017 · Scroll.in · Feb 2017
Some portions seem like a shameless ode to the Lego company, while other scenes celebrate the joy of seeing legendary characters interact with each other. At 105 minutes, the film occasionally becomes too cute for its own good. The plot is wafer-thin but the jokes fly thick and fast.
Jolly LLB 2
2017 · Scroll.in · Feb 2017
To the credit of Kapoor and the marquee lead, Jolly retains his human dimensions. Akshay Kumar is typically endearing in his everyman role, and Annu Kapoor is suitably venal as his opponent, but both are defeated by Shukla's Tripathi. The judge's pragmatic definition of the law, unconventional courtroom behaviour, and no-nonsense attitude enliven the proceedings. In the case of Justice Sunderlal Tripathi versus the others, the defence and prosecution can both rest.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
2017 · Scroll.in · Feb 2017
It's all as expected – the gimmicky scares that are so predictable that you can set your watch to them, the slickly choreographed action that befits the movie's video game origins and the strictly-business acting by one and all. The futility of the enterprise is evident from the ease with which Alice overcomes every obstacle thrown her way.
Kung Fu Yoga
2017 · Scroll.in · Feb 2017
The fast-paced plotting, and typically silly action-comedy sight gags ensure that the 103-minute running time breezes by, but there is little here that hasn't been seen before, or that Chan hasn't done better.
Kaabil
2017 · Scroll.in · Jan 2017
In 'Kaabil', Hrithik Roshan is much too capable as the blind hero Sanjay Gupta's vendetta thriller works because of its childish simplicity and the leading man's exertions.
Raees
2017 · Scroll.in · Jan 2017
The movie's philosophy is best summed up not in the line "Baniye ka dimaag aur miyan bhai ki daring", but in the observation that where there are restrictions, there will be rebellion. Raees's resistance is conventional, but the movie's slyness and lack of moralising are off the books, like the liquor.
Coffee with D
2017 · Scroll.in · Jan 2017
Coffee With D aims for conversational comedy, but it never quite hits its stride. Grover, the television actor best known for his mimicry-based characters Gutthi and Rinku Bhabhi, is miscast as the hero of the enterprise. Grover doesn't have the ability to command the big screen, and the absence of clever dialogue leaves him visibly floundering.
XXX: Return of Xander Cage
2017 · Scroll.in · Jan 2017
As pitches for conquering world markets and disgruntled domestic audiences go, Return of Xander Cage does one better than Gibbons's glib and always successful sales talk.
Haraamkhor
2017 · Scroll.in · Jan 2017
Haraamkhor's characters are supposed to have shades of grey, but their blandness can never be mistaken for maturity. About the most shocking thing about this major-minor affair is its sloppiness.
Ok Jaanu
2017 · Scroll.in · Jan 2017
Ali has all the elements in place for a breezy ode to young love, but his mechanical approach and miscasting ensure that OK Jaanu is not exactly an okay remake.
Dangal
2016 · Scroll.in · Dec 2016
Every age produces the cinema it deserves, and with its insistence on absolute obedience to an authoritarian figure, Dangal is inadvertently a reflection of our times. Daddy truly does know best, and Dangal harbours no doubt whatsoever that his daughters are wise not to question him.
Kahaani 2
2016 · Scroll.in · Dec 2016
The movie lacks Kahaani's balance of thrills and humour, but it has the same spirit of righteous anger and faith in a female actor's ability to take charge of a situation. Ghosh shopped the script to other actors before going back to Balan, and the movie is the better for it.
Dear Zindagi
2016 · Scroll.in · Nov 2016
Dear Zindagi has the longest prelude in recent memory – endless soft-focus montages, friendly banter, and lovable close-ups and fly-on-the-wall footage of the magnificent Alia Bhatt as a romantically confused cinematographer, all of which seem to be adding up to something vague or nothing at all.
Force 2
2016 · Scroll.in · Nov 2016
The action is nasty and short, and before any "what just happened" questions can be asked, ACP Yash delivers yet another punch. It's not quite India's answer to the Mission: Impossible films, but at least on the thrills front, it's halfway there.
Rock On 2
2016 · Scroll.in · Nov 2016
The characters have barely progressed since Rock On!!, and if anything, their bickering proves that they are frozen in the universe created by the first film. Aditya continues to be troubled by trifles; KD is still the enthusiastic peacemaker; Joe can't seem to stop playing party-pooper.
Doctor Strange
2016 · Scroll.in · Nov 2016
An endless supply of pop culture references and a swagger similar to Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark character from the Iron Man films allow Doctor Strange to showcase Cumberbatch's talents. But the filmmaking isn't bold enough to fully revel in the strangeness of the source material. Co-writer C Robert Cargill had said in an interview that an early version of the script was rejected by producer Marvel Studios for being "too weird", which is exactly what the film needed to be.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
The movie's self-conscious and almost apologetic sober approach, muted shades (the cinematography is by Anil Mehta), and grown-up acting persists all the way till the ridiculous pre-climax twist.
Shivaay
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
The action is nasty and efficiently choreographed, but Shivaay does not have the power of Taken, which never wavers from its blunt tagline, "They took his daughter. He'll take their lives."
31st October
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
The anti-Sikh riots in Delhi following Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 needed better writing, acting and nearly everything else.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
Ice and warmth even each other out. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back trundles along on the comfort of knowing that America, and Hollywood, is safe as long as Tom Cruise is around.
The Girl on the Train
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
The Paula Hawkins bestseller about gender battles and domestic violence is reduced to a thriller, and a not very effective one at that.
Saat Uchakkey
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
...adds up to nothing more than a crash course in profanity
Inferno
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
...barring an intriguing opening and a few nicely executed scenes in Italy, Inferno is a strained attempt to capitalise on Robert Langdon's popularity and a far cry from the fast-paced and edge-of-the-seat stuff we have come to expect from the Brown-Howard-Hanks combine.
Mirzya
2016 · Scroll.in · Oct 2016
Mirzya is doomed by its inability to free itself from the weight of the original legend. A tragic romance that doubles up a cautionary tale about the consequences of rebellion gets the music video treatment. One song rolls out after another to suggest the heat of the heart, but the movie remains cold to its own possibilities.
M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
The movie is less a study of psyche than of personality. But within its hagiographic constraints, Pandey and lead actor Sushant Singh Rajput assert themselves admirably.
Umrika
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
The gentle pace works well in the first hour, but Nair runs out of steam in depicting Ramakant's struggle to deal with the truth about Udai. Ramakant's bold romantic relationship with a woman beggars belief, as does the idea that under-educated villagers in the '70s and '80s would dream of fleeing towards America. The real destination of an under-educated Indian immigrant might have been the Arab countries, but then "Dubai" cannot be mangled like "Umrika".
Parched
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
Yadav's third film Parched presents gender issues in a fairy-tale setting, but retains enough head and heart to flip the gorgeous backdrops to reveal the violence, abuse and discrimination that characterise the lives of the three principal characters.
Banjo
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
Like ABCD, Banjo relies on a song dedicated to Ganesha to win audiences over in the climax. The track Om Ganapataye Namaha Deva is a doozy, but it proves yet again than a rousing prayer to the remover of obstacles is powerless in the face of limited imagination.
Raaz Reboot
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
The best thing about 'Raaz Reboot' is that it is the last one in the series...
Pink
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
The movie considerably enriches the screen treatment of sexual assault, but the moment for fewer lectures and greater observation is still some years away.
Baar Baar Dekho
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
With a tighter screenplay, sharper dialogue and more accomplished leads, Baar Baar Dekho could have been that hybrid between Hollywood and Bollywood genres, but it is neither here nor there, neither of the present nor of the future. Mehra has a fashion catalogue writer's eye for beauty, but this movie needed a Mills & Boon writer's heart to make its fantastical premise work.
Freaky Ali
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
Some of the one-liners land with the same force as Ali's shots, but the cocktail of wacky humour, sentimental blather and tributes to God, Mom and the Neighbourhood has just too many elements to digest. Nawazuddin Siddiqui lives it up as the hero, churning out punchlines and playing the romantic lead in a creaky fantasy about bridging the gulf between the working class and a rich person's game.
Sully
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
Eastwood's plain and to-the-point filmmaking style syncs perfectly with Hanks's marvellously underplayed and understated characterisation. Hanks's Sully hits just the right notes of fear, frustration, ambivalence and pride. He is no ordinary hero, but he is not extraordinary either – I'm just doing my job, he shrugs. That sounds a lot like Eastwood.
Island City
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
The 111-minute movie has been beautifully shot by Sylvester Fonseca, set in vividly captured locations, and perfectly performed by its ensemble cast, but the screw-loose narrative needed some tightening to have been truly effective. Oberoi sometimes takes too long to set up and spell out obvious moments and scenes.
Akira
2016 · Scroll.in · Sep 2016
Sonakshi Sinha does a decent job in the emotional scenes, but the movie needed somebody faster and stronger to kick higher.
Thithi
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Stripped off its unusual settings, Thithi's story is most ordinary – a crooked deal gone badly wrong. By plonking it in a place that is both "once upon a time" and a recognisable town in Karnataka, Reddy has brewed a curious mix of anthropology, comedy and commentary on the futility of resistance.
Nine Lives
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Barry Sonnenfeld's Nine Lives is catnip for followers of such twenty-first century personages as Maru and Lil Bub, and perhaps only the most ardent feline fans will find Tom Brand's adventures, funny, insightful, or even halfway engaging.
A Flying Jatt
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Coming at the end of 151 minutes, some of them well spent and some of them wasted, this bumper sticker sentiment mirrors the film's endeavours. A Flying Jatt is clearly designed as a franchise in the making, and a sequel to Aman's adventures on the ground and in the sky is probably already being scribbled on the back of a napkin.
Ben-Hur
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Bemkambetov's Ben-Hur is an adequate spectacle for viewers unaware of the existence of Wyler's version, and the director's impersonal approach to the charged material works fine until the moment of Ben-Hur's encounter with Jesus Christ. The hurried ending seems tacked on to the real climax in the dust-laden arena, where men and horses shed blood for their beliefs.
UNindian
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
...heavy on the sort of cultural tropes that buoy the average NRI comedy: weddings, differing values, mock horror over Caucasian men preying on innocent Indian women and the long-simmering sexual union (cut down in the Indian version). But the dialogue is easy on the ear and the cultural anxieties are just a stock-in-trade.
Happy Bhag Jayegi
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Mutual tensions, politics and conflict are shoved out of view for a rom-com utopia in which, if only for 126 minutes, Indians and Pakistanis are on the same side. All they want is a barreful of laughs, and at least on that score, the movie doesn't let them down.
Mohenjo Daro
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
...is a costume party with food for thought. Mohenjo Daro is far from perfect, but it's also far more than the sum of its memes.
Rustom
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Rustom's recreation of an iconic trial echoes the narrative style of the lesser films of the period in which the actual crime occurred – it throws out the facts in favour of a simplistic and crowd-pleasing solution, glosses over its hero's criminal behaviour, and paints its characters in black and white. What the movie does get right is the luridly tabloid quality of the case.
The Legend of Michael Mishra
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
The movie's central conceit, that we tell tall tales in the name of love, doesn't have enough meat for more than a few scenes. This legend is actually a short and not very imaginative joke.
Suicide Squad
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Suicide Squad doesn't trust its instincts for mischief and derangement enough. The contours of a truly mean and subversive comic book adaptation flash through in some portions of Suicide Squad, especially when Waller and Harley Quinn are around, but they are defeated by the curse of the ultimate Enchantress – the please-all Hollywood blockbuster.
Budhia Singh – Born to Run
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
Born To Run fits the bill of the average sports biopic, but it rises a few notches above the Indian version of the genre. The 111-minute movie might have benefited from fewer montages of Budhia panting over asphalt and less pantomime performances by the government employees (played by Chhaya Kadam and Gajraj Rao). This sports biopic wants to be black and white, but it's actually a nice shade of grey.
Jason Bourne
2016 · Scroll.in · Aug 2016
At least in its refusal to give pat answers, Jason Bourne earns its place as a worthy successor to the original trilogy, but the suggested sequel is going to have to work harder in giving Jason Bourne, and the undeniably aging Matt Damon, a reason to move yet again.
Dishoom
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
Dishoom's premise has promise – two mismatched police officers join hands to rescue India's cricketing jewel from a kidnapping – but Desi Boyz director Rohit Dhawan simply cannot get the film to jumpstart despite all the elements being in place.
M Cream
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
Agneya Singh's disjointed and pretentious first feature features the quest for high-quality hashish and the meaning of life.
Madaari
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
As vigilante solutions for a heavily mediatised environment go, Madaari is certainly a movie for our times. Shailja Kejriwal's story and Ritesh Shah's screenplay leave us in doubt about which side we are supposed to choose.
Great Grand Masti
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
Despite the promise held out by the title, this kind of fun is neither great nor grand.
The Secret Life of Pets
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
The Secret Life of Pets is beautifully realised but often misses the zaniness of Despicable Me and Minions (which was co-directed by Renaud and Pierre Coffin). The dialogue is less funny than the antics of the scatterbrain animals and birds.
Sultan
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
Sultan is billed as fiction but at its heart, it's really a biopic of Salman Khan, the dark star who has now attained supernova status.
Shorgul
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
Shorgul has no scope to explore the unending rise of communal feelings among ordinary people, and the confused plotting and never-ending turn of events further muddle an already mixed message.
The Legend of Tarzan
2016 · Scroll.in · Jul 2016
As the plot slowly but surely meanders out of control in the service of delivering a big-bang finish, it's the sequences in the jungle and the incredibly real computer-generated animals that endure over the greedy and confused humans.
Rough Book
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
The message is muddled and the pace glacial even at 90 minutes. Most of the acting is strictly functional, with Chatterjee making an unlikely inspirational teacher of the wonders of physics, and the production values are better suited for television than the big screen.
7 Hours to Go
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
Most of the acting is strictly functional, with Chatterjee making an unlikely inspirational teacher of the wonders of physics, and the production values are better suited for television than the big screen.
Raman Raghav 2.0
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
The idea that Raghav is merging into Ramanna is provocative and thought-provoking, but the movie doesn't elaborate on its cleverness and focuses instead on delivering shocks and jolts. They come unfailingly whenever Ramanna is on the screen, swinging an iron rod and wearing a helmet to add his personal touch to an already macabre scene.
Udta Punjab
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
Udta Punjab soars on the back of hard-hitting scenes and superb performances from its cast, but a shorter trip would have given the movie the kick it sorely needed to be counted as the definitive drama on the moral corruption of an entire society.
Dhanak
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
If the movie works, it's because of the casting and direction of the children. Hetal Gada is especially lovely as the protective yet strict older sister who knows more than she should for her age. Krrish Chhabria strictly follows instructions to convey his blindness by tilting his head to one side¸ keeping his eyes down at all times, and looking at his toes while he speaks. But his affection for Pari is unmistakable, and their bond guides the movie over its many bumps.
Finding Dory
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
The exquisiteness of the marine backdrops get drowned by the uninteresting yammering of the characters, especially Dory, whose refrain that she does not remember anything but her name is charming only at the first instance. The detailed reproduction of underwater life is there before the eyes, but it constantly competes with the assault on the ears from talkative and neurotic sea creatures that have clearly spent too much time in human company.
Te3n
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
Te3n is unable to capture the briskness of Kahaani, whose director, Sujoy Ghosh, is one of Te3n's producers. Dasgupta's feature film debut (he has previously made short films and the television series Yudh) shares with Kahaani an attempt to create a Kolkata neo-noir setting in which dread and death lurk in unlikely spaces.
Warcraft
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
Apart from fans of the popular video game World of Warcraft, the movie Warcraft is also of interest to two other sets of viewers: those who have been missing their regular dose of orcs, dwarves, wizards and kingdoms caught between sorcery and normalcy, and fans of Duncan Jones.
Do Lafzon Ki Kahani
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
The low-grade aesthetic isn't as much a creative decision as a sign that somebody on this production decided to keep a firm handle on the budget. The title says it all: unable to improve on or add anything to the Korean source, the filmmakers have decided to keep it brief.
Housefull 3
2016 · Scroll.in · Jun 2016
The filmmakers have aimed to deliver a puerile movie, and, in fact, will be offended by any discussion about Housefull 3 that does not involve its box office prospects. We are in the mythical "critics will hate it but audiences will love it" zone, and since the movie aims to be nothing more than a weekend moneyspinner, it is accordingly forgettable and disposable.
Waiting
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
Waiting is too sparsely plotted to realise its ambitions, but Menon, who has co-written the film with James Ruzicka, does raise important questions on the dilemmas faced by the family members of comatose patients. Who decides the treatment methods, and when is it time to stop waiting and move on? A less neat and more rigourously written movie would have waited for the uncomfortable answers to these knotty questions to come less easily.
Phobia
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
The set-up is convincing, and Radhika Apta's central performance as Mahek makes it doubly so. Apte has been steadily building up an impressive portfolio of performances, and she is in top form in Phobia.
Veerappan
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
The most engaging scenes are the numerous shootouts and chases, especially one in which Veerappan and his men escape yet another STF attack through a vast area of red hillocks that resemble ant-hills. Men, women and children perish like flies and there are gut-wrenching torture scenes, but the real violence is felt by the ear-drums.
Sarbjit
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
'Sarbjit' is a tragedy in capital letters...The loud and insistent melodrama takes away from the pathos of the central character's story.
X-Men: Apocalypse
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
At almost two-and-a-half hours, in spite of collapsing cities, new characters and a Wolverine cameo, X-Men: Apocalypse offers so little over such a long running time.
Sairat
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
Manjule takes well-worn material and a classic tale and gives it his own distinctive touches.
Buddha in a Traffic Jam
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
Fortunately, Agnihotri isn't as skilled a propagandist as Leni Riefenstahl and more a modern-day Don Quixote. As he sallies forth against the windmills of his imagination, his political and economic prescriptions for a better India get the better of his storytelling. And to think that it all began with a pile of unsold pots.
Money Monster
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
Despite strenuously ignoring its tremendous potential for black comedy, Money Monster ticks along on the assured turns by its star leads. Julia Roberts is especially lovely as the dream producer who, in a less toothless movie, would have been the real monster in the studio.
Dear Dad
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
The movie wants to say something poignant and profound about the need for sons to accept their father's decisions, but it doesn't have the material to do so. Still waters are meant to run deep, but in Dear Dad, they remain still.
Azhar
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
Tony D'Souza's film about Mohammed Azharuddin plays out like an episode from the TV show 'CID'.
Traffic
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
...the essence of the original – and the reason it worked with audiences – has been lost. There's none of the energy and drive in the Hindi Traffic.
Captain America: Civil War
2016 · Scroll.in · May 2016
Captain America: Civil War makes up for the dullness of the previous Captain America films, and Chris Evans, with his pumped-up muscles and thawed-out all-American good looks, adds greatly to making this a satisfying watch.
The Man Who Knew Infinity
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
The real drama of how Hardy brought out the sparkle in the diamond in the rough is reduced to a clash of working styles. At the heart of Robert Kanigel's book is the indefinable bond between the two men, vastly different in education, temperament, approach and cultural values. A different kind of movie is required for this relationship to find expression.
Baaghi
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
Baaghi is a derivative mishmash of several popular romances and martial arts classics, including Tezaab, Enter the Dragon, The Karate Kid, and The Raid: Redemption, but director Sabbir Khan at least gets the spirit of the action sequences right.
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
Threatened by protests and petitions by the Sikh community, Santa Banta Pvt Ltd comes with a huge disclaimer that its turbaned characters are fictitious and bear no resemblance to anyone real. That seems entirely superflous. It's hard to imagine anybody in real life as dim-witted as Santa (Boman Irani) and Banta (Vir Das).
Laal Rang
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
The story is slight and stretched, and there isn't enough meat it in to adequately explore the potential themes – the bromance that develops between Shankar and Rajesh, the moral concerns over illegal blood donation, the exploitation of poor donors, and the general shortage of the life-giving fluid that makes racketeering a necessity.
Nil Battey Sannata
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's debut is hardwired to be heartwarming. Only a curmudgeon could complain about the gimmickiness inherent in the story of a domestic worker who enrolls in her 15-year-old daughter's school to ensure that the girl doesn't flunk her crucial tenth standard board examination. The modern-day fairy tale has its fiar share of Moving Moments, but then over-eggs an already substantial pudding.
Fan
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
Khan is predictably effective as Aryan, but he is solid as Gaurav. Stripped of the head tilts and gestures that have made him a latter-day Dev Anand, Khan is menacing as the deranged admirer who loses his balance and goes to extreme lengths to teach his icon a lesson. Khan commands the screen in a movie that is effectively a two-hander despite the presence of minor characters (Waluscha De Sousa as Aryan's wife, Sayani Gupta as his secretary, Deepika Amin and Yogendra Tikku as Gaurav's parents).
Love Games
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
'Love Games' aims to shock, but it's only shockingly bad..
The Jungle Book
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
The Jungle Book is always stunning to look at, and its economical 105-minute running time adequately showcases Mowgli's first steps towards realising his inner potential and coming closer to his human self. But the film misses out on the opportunity to provide a compelling reason for Mowgli's resurrection.
Ki and Ka
2016 · Scroll.in · Apr 2016
The main characters are too sketchy for the movie Balki hopes to have made, and they are not light enough for the movie he should have made. Ki & Ka could have been an interesting screwball comedy about the gender wars if the director had a greater attention span and a genuine interest in moving beyond gimmicky plots and contrived situations.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Shot by Larry Fong, who also worked on Snyder's 300 and Watchmen, Batman v Superman is an eye-popping visual experience in which the action moves from destruction porn to poetic abstraction.
Rocky Handsome
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
The movie's highlights are three action sequences that have been faithfully replicated from the original. Hamstrung by local censorship laws, Rocky Handsome has had to trim back the ultraviolence that marks South Korean crime dramas¸ but at least the movie comes to life when the death count is ticking. It's a pity that the survivors are not as interesting as the corpses.
Eye in the Sky
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Eye in the Sky is a suspenseful and timely, if simplistic, thriller, exploring the new methods of war. Hood builds up the tension while injecting dashes of humour, particularly through the characters of the British politicians and Alan Rickman's caustic Lieutenant General Frank Benson, who cannot remember which doll to buy his daughter but is completely clear on the rules of engagement.
Kapoor & Sons
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Strong performances and charming characters compensate for a lack of depth and acuity in Shakun Batra's movie.
Triple 9
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
The plot synopsis for Triple 9 barely stretches beyond a line – corrupt cops on the payroll of Russian mobsters. But director John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless) packs the film with enough pulpy flavor and tension to transform the routine into something deep and perhaps even profound.
The Program
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Even though The Program stays away from Armstrong's personal life, there is still far too much going on at any given point. However, the solid performances from Foster and the supporting cast steer the narrative.
Global Baba
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
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. People are willing to be herded like sheep. Politicians use trickster godmen for electoral gains. And all it takes to be a successful holy man is a wardrobe full of saffron and a talent for manipulation. Blind faith and cynicism take care of the rest.
Teraa Surroor
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Reshammiya's fans will appreciate the corny dialogue by Natasha Ramsay, the slow-motion action sequences in which our hero sends criminals flying through conveniently located glass panes, and his newly chiseled body. 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.
London Has Fallen
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
The action too is definitely weaker in this sequel too, which comes across as a bit of a vanity project for producer and lead actor Butler, with skimpy support coming from Morgan Freeman, Angela Basset and Eckhart. Though Butler and Eckhart share an easy chemistry, the plot is too contrived for the proceedings to be convincing. The spectacle of the White House exploding has the hint of awe to it, but the poor computer graphics in the sequel do not evoke any horror as Westminster Abbey and Chelsea Bridge are blown up.
45 Years
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Andrew Haigh's marital drama features superb performances by Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay...
Jai Gangaajal
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
BN Singh's solutions are ultimately no different – and certainly less watchable – than the average vigilante flick. Singh ultimately emerges as a more serious and sorrowful Chulbul Pandey, and all Jai Gangaajal needed was a shirt-baring moment to complete the fantasy of justice delivered off the books and in slow motion.
Zootopia
2016 · Scroll.in · Mar 2016
Packed with beautifully animated creatures, this animated movie is a winner...
Gods of Egypt
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
Alex Proyas's Gods of Egypt is a deeply stylish and deeply hollow fantasy adventure in which it is hoped that the spectacular visual effects will blind audiences to the absence of a credible storyline.
Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
Abhishek Sharma's sequel to his 2010 sleeper hit tries very hard to squeeze humour out of a contrived plot.
Aligarh
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
The movie is most powerful as a miniature about a man who prefers the comforts of the shadows rather than the glare of the spotlight. Mehta and Asrani put forth the message of the personal as political with as much restraint as is possible in a mainstream movie. Deepu draws the introverted professor out of his self-imposed prison and seems to be able to restore some of his trampled-upon dignity. There are some benefits to being forcibly outed. Siras recites his poetry at a gathering, shyly accepts the applause, and, for the first time in days, feels better about himself. It's one of the movie's most affecting scenes and Bajpayee's finest moment.
The Revenant
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
Alejandro G Inarittu's surival epic features superlative cinematography by Emanuel Lubezki and a deeply committed performance by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Spotlight
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
Spotlight doesn't set up false binaries between print and new media, nor does it treat its reporters as superheroes with notebooks. McCarthy's no-frills approach and classic shot and reverse-shot storytelling often nudges Spotlight into the television movie zone, but there is no mistaking what is at work here: the good fight to tell a story the way it needs to be told.
Neerja
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
Ram Madhvani's biopic on air hostess Neerja Bhanot is a lump-in-the-throat account of courage under fire.
How to Be Single
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
The episodic screenplay barely hangs together, and many of the characters are poorly fleshed out. But the performances are strong, particularly by Johnson, Mann and Wilson, some of the observations on the battle of the sexes are acute, and the intimate camerawork brings us closer to the characters, particularly Alice, than we usually would.
Sanam Re
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
The answer to whether this prophecy is fulfilled is delivered after a torturous journey that involves Akash's workplace tensions, a yoga camp in Alberta in Canada, and many songs in which Samrat sheds his shirt in an imitation of his self-declared hero, Salman Khan. Despite numerous plot twists, the two-hour duration feels as stretched as Samrat's movie star ambitions. Every now and then, a song that might be better viewed on YouTube shows up to relieve the tedium.
Fitoor
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
Fitoor's plot has no central motor to power it through its twists and turns, and no discernible big idea to replace the critique of privilege and entitlement. Despite being residents of one of the country's most politically volatile states, the characters are largely bereft of ideology.
Ghayal Once Again
2016 · Scroll.in · Feb 2016
'Ghayal Once Again' proves that some old wounds don't heal well The sequel can't dislodge memories of the original, but the action is spectacular.
Mastizaade
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
The movie's general disgust with the idea of gay sex proves that for all its outrageousness, Mastizaade is as tame as they come. The jokes are weak, while Zaveri's taste for zany puns has soured. The filmmaker's ability to find sexual innuendo in everyday situations and objects is truly staggering.
Asterix: The Mansions Of The Gods
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Those unfamiliar with the comics may just find some of the relentless action and the new track of a Roman child amusing enough. But die-hard fans will rage at the rewrites to the story, the pedestrian dialogue and childish gags. Like Caesar's efforts to conquer Gaul, the attempt to tame Asterix for the screen has proved futile yet again.
Saala Khadoos
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Saala Khadoos packs in many issues that affect female Indian athletes – poor sporting infrastructure, indifferent and corrupt government officials, and sexual harassment by coaches, selectors and administrators. The movie seeks to warn young women of the perils that could befall them if they lay themselves bare for the glory of the game and the nation. It doesn't exactly seem to be the appropriate place to suggest that it is perfectly alright for a young boxer to fall in love with a coach who is twice her age, but Saala Khadoos goes right ahead and does just that.
Airlift
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Airlift soars on its own merits, but it is ultimately a flight of fantasy.
Joy
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
The joy in this 124-minute drama comes from watching the fabulously chosen cast play off each other. Joy shares with Russell's previous feature, American Hustle, a loose and improvisational quality and a light-headed and slightly manic approach to storytelling.
Jugni
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
'Jugni' has a lot of sparkle but not enough firepower...
Chalk N Duster
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Folded into the mess is a heartfelt message reminding viewers that teachers should not be taken for granted and should be accorded the respect and dignity they deserve. But the movie is too overwritten, shoddily produced and amateurishly performed to make its point convincingly. Of the cast, all of whom have been directed to act as broadly as possible, only Azmi makes a mark. The film's report card: an A for effort, but with marks cut for general incompetence.
The Danish Girl
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Hooper's movie is far too ironed-out to adequately explore the creases and rips of the relationship. The Danish Girl proves that mainstream filmmakers are more receptive than before to tackling tricky subjects such as trans identity and the fluid boundaries between genders, but the movie also sets out the limits of this depiction.
The Hateful Eight
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Tarantino is an ace at using a repetitive question-and-answer format to build up menace and tension, but both qualities are in short supply in The Hateful Eight. Mistrust is spelled out loud and clear rather than felt, and when the bullets start to fly, the movie becomes a familiar bloodbath that is played for both shocks and laughs.
Our Brand Is Crisis
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
...is overstretched even at just 107 minutes, but it packs in enough of a cutting critique of electioneering chicanery. However, the salutary message that spin, rather than politics, is the villain, is unearned. The Hollywood-mandated happy ending is drenched in an idealism that isn't evident in the rest of the narrative.
Chauranga
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
If Chauranga's world feels doubly familiar, it's because this combination of elements has already been presented by Nagraj Manjule's Marathi movie Fandry in 2013. Even though Chauranga has been in the making for longer than Manjule's debut, Fandry beat Mishra to it, and for those who have watched both films, Chauranga feels like a milder and less adventurous cousin.
Wazir
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
Sharp viewers will guess the conclusion much before it comes. Yet, Wazir remains watchable even at its eyeball-rolling best.
Point Break
2016 · Scroll.in · Jan 2016
The original Point Break featured a cornball romance between Keanu Reeves's Utah and the spiky-haired Lori Petty, and there is a token female in the new movie too, but the real sparks fly between Bodhi and Utah as they test the limits of endurance and their trust for each other. The movie flounders when it's not in mid-flight, and the absence of memorable dialogue or sexiness, both of which were plentiful in Bigelow's film, means that we can't wait for Bodhi and his band of hirsute seekers to gather at the edge of something – a cliff, a rockface, the ocean – and defy the laws of nature. Every time they get back to earth, the pointlessness of this remake reaches breaking point.
Dilwale
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
The Khan-Kajol pairing proves that the stars still have what it takes to set the screen alight, and they are more combustible together than Dhawan and Sanon, but their romance is tired and trite. The movie works best when it stays within the Golmaal zone, and Farhad-Sajid's WhatsApp-level humour keeps the eyelids from meeting ever so often.
Bajirao Mastani
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
... sumptuous retelling of the legend is strong on romance but weak on statecraft.
Hate Story 3
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
There simply isn't enough here for 131 minutes. Sharman Joshi looks pained throughout at the prospect of having to profess undying love for Zarine Khan, deal with Daisy Shah's incompetence, and pretend that Grover is a dastardly villain.
In the Heart of the Sea
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
After some dubious-looking computer-generated backdrops in the opening scenes set in Nantucket, the special effects team kicks into gear once the Essex enters the water. The battle between the whale and the humans has the unfortunate effect of creating empathy for the mammal, which appears rightfully outraged at the repeated attacks on members of its pod. After the mammal has done its work, the story floats as aimlessly as the castaways, counting down to the inevitable return home. The cast performs efficiently, but they are dwarfed in every way possible by Moby Dick's inspiration.
Legend
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
The focus on the inner world of the Krays and their cohorts excludes any awareness of what else was going on in London at that point, but as a platform for the talented cast, especially Hardy, the movie works just fine. Helgeland's screenplay is packed with sharp one-liners and repartee, including Ronnie's observation that he is a "giver and not a receiver" when he is describing the kind of gay man he is, and Thewlis's resigned comment that the gang needs "a public relations department and we have Joseph Goebbels".
Kajarya
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
Ruhil makes a fine weasly villain, who is using Kajarya for his own ends, and the movie has its share of corpulent police officers and cold-hearted editors. It's a grim watch, but then female foeticide is never easy to confront.
Angry Indian Goddesses
2015 · Scroll.in · Dec 2015
Though the movie has been shot in a fashionably jittery, hand-held style, and the overlapping conversations and rapid-fire editing suggest momentum and purpose, the 120-minute running time is a stretch. Since the movie has saddled each of its female characters with a Problem, it feels duty-bound to address every one of them. The conceit of being a non-formulaic movie that examines Indian social problems in a realistic manner blows up in the preposterous climax, which faithfully follows the scripting rule book that a gun in the first scene must be fired by the end.
Creed
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
In keeping with one of the many boxing movie traditions invoked by that Creed, a full-throated yes follows a half-hearted no.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
The movies have measured out their moments of grace and levity in tea spoons. This has been the rare franchise without false hope and easy short-cuts. The soft-focus closing frames in a film whose favourite colour is grey suggest an ending that is unearned, and the relationship between Katnis and Peeta remains frustratingly underdeveloped.
Tamasha
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
At 151 minutes (the filmmakers seem to have used every single shot canned), only a handful of scenes stand out. Kapoor and Padukone are perfectly paired, and Ali brings out their chemistry in many tender moments.
Spectre
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
The new James Bond movie adventure, directed by Sam Mendes, is as traditional as it gets. Were it not for its superior technical quality, Spectre might have been classified as a 1980s production.
Secret in Their Eyes
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
The strong performances by the leads notwithstanding, the Hollywood remake doesn't quite capture the complexity and thrills of the original. The narrative confusingly cuts back and forth between the past and the present as in the Argentinean film, but the chemistry between the police officer and the lawyer are missing from the English-language version.
X: Past Is Present
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
11 filmmakers contributing to a single theme in 'X Past is Present' make one big mess...
Aurangzeb
2013 · LiveMint · Nov 2015
This is a movie that aspires to be about the mini-empires that exist within—and often work against—the Indian republic, but it scuttles its own ambitions midway through. It becomes yet another movie about twins separated by circumstance and brought together by Hindi cinema.
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
...muddles through its 174 minutes, 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.
He Named Me Malala
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
It's a halfway house between the observational and the reverential, with cutesy moments with the Yousafzai family mixed with awe at the ease with which Malala addresses world leaders and handles the media. In its weakest moments, He Named Me Malala feels like a campaign tool for the activist's foundation and for the larger cause of women's education. The film is an incomplete picture of a work in progress, but the teenager's confidence, maturity, wisdom, and talismanic status in the world of global activism are undeniable even in the most uncritical moments.
Guddu Ki Gun
2015 · Scroll.in · Nov 2015
Some of the jokes have the ring of truth found in the best WhatsApp forwards. The daring premise seals the movie's destiny as a cult favourite, but at 124 minutes, it is stretched beyond belief and tolerance. The curse on Guddu takes far too long to lift, and the directors are unable to escape the other curse that has ruined several potentially interesting comedies. Guddu can't keep it down, and the filmmakers can't keep it short.
Main Aur Charles
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
Had Raman stuck with his investigation into Charles's mystique and his self-mythologisation, this movie might have actually become the sophisticated biopic it wants to be. Main Aur Charles should really have been about the poster, not the case file.
Titli
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
Stripped of its class dimensions, however, the movie has a raw power and imagination. Behl and Katariya wash off the gloss, dishonesty and sentimentality that have clung to depictions of the Indian family and reveal a face that is ugly but also commonplace. Above all else, Titli is a horror movie.
Rock the Kasbah
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
Rock the Kasbah is neither about rock nor a casbah, and only Bill Murray, the craggy-faced prince of pathos, single-handedly steers the movie from one stupefying bad moment to the next.
Shaandaar
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
The 146-minute movie proceeds in a jerky and slapdash fashion, and only a few sequences hit the mark. Most of the comedy seems to be in the form of one big private joke that does not travel beyond the borders of the set.
Wedding Pullav
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
The insipid writing, functional performances by an ensemble cast that includes Satish Kaushik, Kitu Gidwani and Parmeet Sethi, and contrived emotions add up into a stale serving of a cinematic sub-category that has run its course.
Sicario
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
In Denis Villeneuve's Sicario (Mexican slang for hitman), Del Toro plays Escobar's ghost. Taylor Sheridan's screenplay tries to imagine what it would be like if Escobar re-entered a game whose power centre has moved to the borders of the US. What might the Colombian, who died in a shootout in 1993, and whose Medellin cartel self-destructed soon after, make of the levels of brutality in Mexico that exceed the imaginations of the most lurid-minded scriptwriters?
Jazbaa
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
Sanjay Gupta's remake of a Korean hit is designed as a comeback vehicle for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, but Irrfan holds sway all the way. The movie loses momentum after the interval and the contradictions pile up as in a train wreck, but there is always a scorchingly lit corner in a never before-seen shade of yellow or green to gaze upon.
Talvar
2015 · Scroll.in · Oct 2015
Talvar makes an elegant and convincing case for the Talwars, but it ignores one of the biggest factors behind their conviction. A separate, cautionary tale can be spun on how news anchors in hot pursuit of ratings and tabloid-influenced editors stacked the odds against the couple. Avirook Sen's book Aarushi provides several instances of how unverified claims about the private lives of the Talwars created an unassailable image of the dentists as scheming and swinging monsters.
The Intern
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
The latest movie from the director of Something's Gotta Give and It's Complicated has nothing to give and is most uncomplicated. The novelty factor of the premise of Nancy Meyers's The Intern and the casting wears off within the first hour. The rest of the running time is spent on padding up the potentially interesting but severely underdeveloped encounter between generations.
Kis Kisko Pyaar Karu
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
...a throwback to the 1980s and '90s, when comedies featuring clandestinely bigamous and harried husbands were common enough to qualify as a sub-genre. In television star Kapil Sharma's big-screen debut, the stakes are doubled: his character Bholu has three wives, none of whom knows about each others and none of whom he particularly cares for, as well as a girlfriend he actually loves.
Meeruthiya Gangsters
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
...the 128-minute takes its own sweet time to get around to whatever it wants to convey – which is, in its cheerfully nihilistic way, nothing. As six kidnappers hatch frequent plots to amass money in the canteen of the college where they are supposedly enrolled as students, the screenplay luxuriates in their insouciant banter and complete lack of urgency.
Black Mass
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
The killings are swift, brutal and plentiful, executed with a businesslike chill that hangs over the whole movie. Black Mass is a better adaptation of non-fiction books than most, but the experience is ultimately as cold as Bulger's heart.
Everest
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
Everest takes us right to the top but is in such a hurry to get back to base camp that it ignores a question posed by travel journalist Jon Krakauer's character to the summiteers: why is scaling Mount Everest so important? The struggle between human will and the mountain's unbending nature is conveyed in the most basic and obvious terms. The movie shows us how the climbers reached the top, but isn't interested in understanding why some of them died.
Katti Batti
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
The humour misses its mark and the romantic entanglement rarely locks into place. This is a rom-com low on rom as well as com.
Hero
2015 · Scroll.in · Sep 2015
An ineffective remake of a 1983 box office hit mislabelled as a classic, Hero is yet another instance of the resilience of the ancient Indian tradition of nepotism.
Phantom
2015 · Scroll.in · Aug 2015
The plodding pace, choppy editing and amateurish exposition are relieved by slick action sequences, suitably dressed-up foreign locations (including Beirut) and convincing production design. Every effort has been made to make sure that this delusion of vengeance looks as close to the real thing as possible, right down to the actors who play Headley and Hafiz Saeed. This is art imitating a fantasy about life, made with the hope that life will eventually catch up with art.
Gour Hari Dastaan
2015 · Scroll.in · Aug 2015
While the understated and naturalistic acting is a relief from the usual ostentation, Gour Hari Dastaan is sluggishly paced, and fails to convey the monumentality of the protagonist's mission. More thought has been expended on Rajiv's asides on the commercialisation of the media and the aforementioned castrating feminists than on injecting narrative momentum into Das's journey. In any case, his battle is half-won when he gains access to top officials. There is little left thereafter for Das – or the movie – to prove.
Drishyam
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
If the Hindi remake, also called Drishyam, proves anything, it is that Joseph's movie, which borrows its central idea from the Japanese thriller The Devotion of Suspect X, is a hard act to follow. The Hindi Drishyam, directed by Nishikant Kamat, works just fine so long as it reproduces its original twisty quality, but it nevertheless suffers from miscasting and unnecessary scripting tweaks.
Ant-Man
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
Peyton Reed's Ant-Man is, by the very nature of its subject, a smaller and consequently far more enjoyable enterprise. The 118-minute movie retains a cheerful and light comic-book tone throughout, with its highlight being a battle for supremacy waged on a Thomas toy engine set between two miniscule men in insect-themed suits.
Mr. Holmes
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
The proceedings are held together by McKellen's compelling performance and his deft switches between a spry 70-something and a precarious 93-year-old who looks back on his fame with amusement and regret. In one sequence, Holmes watches a film adaptation of the story that he is attempting to rewrite and concludes that the dramatisation is overdone.
Masaan
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
The understated and compelling 'Masaan' finds life and hope in the city of corpses. Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover, this first-time feature has memorable performances and a sensitively observed account of decay and redemption.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' has two stars, neither of whom is called Salman or Kareena... The knee-high Harshaali Malhotra and the redoubtable Nawazuddin Siddiqui steal the show in Kabir Khan's seriocomic cross-border drama.
Minions
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
The yellow-coloured minions are among the most critic-proof animated characters ever created. Considered opinion and critical distance are useless defenses against the sight of even a single one of the mites with its wide eyes and goofy grin bobbing across the screen...It's sometimes aimless, often hilarious and always silly, everything you would expect the minions to be.
Bāhubali: The Beginning
2015 · Scroll.in · Jul 2015
...is a triumph of size, scale and spectacle. SS Rajamouli's eye-popping period spectacle raises the bar for the Indian action movie by several notches. Every frame pulsates with the passion of a filmmaker openly staking his claim as the most adventurous soul travelling through mainstream cinema at the moment.
Inside Out
2015 · Scroll.in · Jun 2015
It's hard to shake off the feeling that we are inside the head of the average member of the Pixar approvals committee rather than a girl on the cusp of puberty. Pixar productions are always fun, but they are rarely profound despite their visible efforts, unlike French and Japanese animated films that do not try to be, and often predictable. That's why the one emotion missing in Riley's head is surprise.
Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho
2015 · Scroll.in · Jun 2015
The satire is seems confidently put across at first but then becomes illogical and unwieldy. Kapri is aiming for a tragicomedy about rural India, but some of his visuals are straight out of a horror movie.
ABCD 2
2015 · Scroll.in · Jun 2015
Since ABCD 2 aims to be bigger than its predecessor and magnifies its spectacle to 3D proportions, it takes no chances. Apart from God, Vande Mataram is also invoked to help the Mumbai Stunners conquer hearts in Las Vegas. All that is missing from the rousing climax, in which all races and nationalities rise to applaud this Make in India moment, is a Swachh Bharat message.
Jurassic World
2015 · Scroll.in · Jun 2015
Events move at a fast clip, the paleontology talk is kept to a minimum, the computer-generated effects are beautifully realised, and the characters perform their parts with the required efficiency. The raptors easily steal the show, especially in the sequence where they hurtle through the woods in pursuit of the Indominus rex, as ugly-cute as pit bulls.
Hamari Adhuri Kahani
2015 · Scroll.in · Jun 2015
Passionless and pathos-ridden 'Hamari Adhuri Kahani' struggles to show the love...
Dil Dhadakne Do
2015 · Scroll.in · Jun 2015
For all its efforts, Dil Dhadakne Do doesn't have one standout sequence that lays bare the nastiness that fester in some families. The Mehras are mildly troubled rather than seriously dysfunctional. They have one crucial scene together, inspired partly by The War of the Roses, when Kabir decides to end the lies once and for all. Like other such scenes, this one too suffers from the butter-knife treatment when it actually needed a razor.
Daawat-e-Ishq
2014 · LiveMint · Sep 2014
Overcooked and unsatisfying smorgasbord...
Finding Fanny
2014 · LiveMint · Sep 2014
Lots of sweet, not enough bitters, and one great Dimple...It's a they-are-crazy-but-not-dangerous giggle-fest, with as many repeat-worthy jokes in Goan English as there are cashew trees in the state. Since this is also India's European corner, the sun-blessed land of laidback, where time can stretch onto eternity or to the 105-minute duration of this movie, Finding Fanny never dares to disappoint.
Mardaani
2014 · LiveMint · Aug 2014
The movie's sexist title suggests that she has masculine qualities of bravery and honour, but the best proof of her macho side is her indifferent relationship with her spouse. Not unlike the average Indian husband, Shivani prefers the company of others, in this case her co-workers, her orphaned niece, and a teenager, Pyari, who sells flowers at traffic signals. The abduction of this flower girl by a sex trafficking ring deeply upsets Shivani, who launches a personal crusade to save Pyari and whoever else might be in the room at that moment.
Singham Returns
2014 · LiveMint · Aug 2014
A vigilante movie that smartly lands its punches and punch dialogue is well suited to provide unreal solutions to very real problems, but Shetty also wants to change the world, one car blow-up at a time. In between the runs-in with thugs and masked gun-men, there are pleas for a better tomorrow, candle-light vigils and speeches to the media to behave.
Guardians of the Galaxy
2014 · LiveMint · Aug 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy is the kind of movie that frequently sends up its own clichés, only to rescue them eventually and reassert the reasons we flock to such movies in the first place.
Into the Storm
2014 · LiveMint · Aug 2014
The movie works best when it forays bravely into the tornado, conjuring up suitably awe-inspiring acts of devastation, and is at its most tedious when it tries to establish emotional connections with its characters, including Richard Amritage's suspiciously buff school vice-principal and Sarah Wayne Callies's anxious single mother and weather scientist.
Entertainment
2014 · LiveMint · Aug 2014
There is endless punning, a play on the names of actors (example: "I Rajini-can't believe it") and iconic Hindi movies, SMS forward-worthy jokes and the idea that a dog can get the better of humans. Junior's bored expression and lack of affection towards the two-legged creatures on the set is glaringly evident, but the rest of the cast has far more energy, sportingly submitting themselves to the pratfalls aimed at knee-high viewers and going along with the occasionally madcap plot twists.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
2014 · LiveMint · Jul 2014
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is an extended, 134-minute review of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge by a debutant writer and director who has watched the film closely enough to have his own spin on it. Shashank Khaitan's film-making debut arrives 19 years after Aditya Chopra's blockbuster became the gold standard of screen romance, and he has the necessary distance from the source material to unpack the conservatism that beats loudly at the heart of the original movie.
Bobby Jasoos
2014 · LiveMint · Jul 2014
The 121-minute movie harnesses the classic tropes of melodrama—coincidences, conflicts, the perfect resolution—to deliver a feel-good fairy tale of a remarkably mobile heroine who gets up and leaves whenever she feels like. The movie needed to have come with a "Don't try this at home but feel free to dream" disclaimer.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
2014 · LiveMint · Jun 2014
ay arrives to beauty only to unleash terror on it. Transformers 4 has many superbly executed set pieces, but its showcase is a pre-climactic sequence that makes excellent use of Hong Kong's architectural mix of tenements and high-rises. A Hong Kong Tourism Board hoarding gets tucked into one scene, but, as the saying goes, you need to let the right one in.
Humshakals
2014 · Jun 2014
Sajid Khan has declared in every available forum that his movies are for audiences rather than critics (whatever that means). The same audiences booed his last offering, Himmatwala, out of the cinemas. If there is something to relish in Humshakals, it is the opportunity to sharpen weapons and words. It's been a while since there's been a movie this hatchet-worthy. For that, the team behind Humshakals needs eternal gratitude and continued support.
Grace of Monaco
2014 · LiveMint · Jun 2014
The first thing to be said about Grace of Monaco is that it is not as maul-worthy as it has been made out to be. The next thing to be said about Olivier Dahan's movie is that it isn't exactly noteworthy. The best thing that can be said about the 103-minute biopic is that it is always lovely looking, dressed to the hilt and bathed in the kind of lambent light dear to films about movie and actual royalty.
How to Train Your Dragon 2
2014 · LiveMint · Jun 2014
How to Train Your Dragon 2 has few surprises, enough predictable fun and a running time (106 minutes) that respects the scantiness of the material.
Holiday - A Soldier Is Never Off Duty
2014 · Jun 2014
A.R. Murugadoss' entertainer displays greater fidelity to its source than did his Ghajini reboot, down to the bloated running length of 170 minutes. The situations are the same, the dialogue is translated verbatim and the heroine hasn't yet grown a brain, but the Hindi version misses out on the charisma of its leading man. Holiday's Akshay Kumar is a poor match for Tamil superstar Vijay, who has built a career out of supplanting average acting skills with practised insouciance.
Edge of Tomorrow
2014 · Jun 2014
Doug Liman's new movie Edge Of Tomorrow proves that despite the doomsday predictions of his detractors, time is always on Tom Cruise's side. The object of avoidable ridicule and the unavoidable effects of ageing in recent years is nothing but unputdownable, which is just what he needs to be in this heavily weaponized version of Groundhog Day.
Maleficent
2014 · May 2014
The reboot's real interest is in conjuring up a tender relationship between a fairy, a princess and a crow, with enough twists to save a well-worn fairy tale from the curse of overuse.
The Raid 2
2014 · May 2014
More comfortable with action than words (the dubbed English version, done in India, is another source of unintentional mirth), he focuses his energies on delivering the daddy of all action spectacles. Would anybody else dare to come close to his achievements—or would anybody else bother? Once is quite enough.
Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi
2014 · May 2014
Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi has many rough edges, patches of amateurish staging and acting, misguided attempts at humour, and an ear-splitting and disposable Amar Mohile background score, but it is also good-natured, warm-hearted, and finely observed. Its characters seem right at home in the Subhash Nagar, west Delhi, location in which the movie plays out.
Heropanti
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
Several leading men before Shroff have boosted their careers by building up body mass and appearing in movies with plots as profound as a gym manual, but they were fortunate enough to have a smart screenplay, crackling dialogue writers and a popular soundtrack. All of the above are absent in Heropanti, resulting in a 146-minute tour of incompetence.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
Mutant maniacs might just enjoy the significance of such knowing lines as "It's good to see everyone" and "You and I have a lot of catching up to do". Mutant agonistics might just feel like uninvited guests.
The Xposé
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
The Xposé's cheerfully chintzy look and feel, the lack of interest in period detail, the wispy plot, and endless shots of a pensive Reshammiya walking down a Paris avenue, gazing moony-eyed at Zara's rival Chandni (Afroz), dominating the shooting of an under-production movie, and yanking every other character's strings this way and that add up to an ambitious vanity project that holds appeal only to other members of the singer's treasure hunt. Full marks for trying, but none for refusing to give up.
Godzilla
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
Strikingly shot by Seamus McGarvey to maximize the movie's Imax potential (it's hard to imagine the scale and depth of the gritty visuals on anything smaller), Godzilla demands, and often achieves, a sense of awe.
Manjunath
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
For a movie whose conclusion is foregone, whose treatment is literal-minded, and whose message is sloppily assembled and delivered, Varma does throw up some surprises. He effectively captures the ordinariness of the milieu that produces Manjunath, and extracts solid performances from his cast. However, the director is less sure-footed about the larger issues thrown up by Manjunath's death.
Mastram
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
There are only moments of the frisson that characterises humankind's fascination with the verboten, conveyed more through Mastram's language than the visuals of open-mouthed women waiting to spill out of their clothes at the slightest provocation.
Kya Dilli Kya Lahore
2014 · LiveMint · May 2014
ven at this modest running length, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore feels stretched and half-baked, less of a big-screen experience and better suited to an intimate stage production. The accusations and counter-accusations traded by Samarth and Rehmat—much of it in un-subtitled Punjabi—aren't particularly insightful about the intractable problems plaguing both nations, while the overwhelming sense of nostalgia for an undivided India doesn't do the Pakistanis justice.
Samrat & Co.
2014 · LiveMint · Apr 2014
The movie feels a few decades old despite moments and ideas stolen from Guy Ritchie's anachronism-packed Sherlock Holmes films and the popular British series Sherlock.
Revolver Rani
2014 · LiveMint · Apr 2014
Revolver Rani has a bit too much going on at any given point, but it is cast well and has an interesting set of actors who give the material much-needed heft. Vir Das makes a convincing foil to Alka's brusqueness, balancing the comedy of his daily tortures that result from Alka's blinkered love with the tragedy of his pawn status.
Rio 2
2014 · LiveMint · Apr 2014
For a movie that asks birds in particular and nature in general to be left alone, Saldanha can't resist anthropomorphising the creatures to the extent that they sound and behave an awful lot like humans. Perhaps this franchise needs to be more bird-brained than it is at the moment.
Bhoothnath Returns
2014 · LiveMint · Apr 2014
The overly busy screenplay, which clocks at 155 minutes, is packed with so many ideas that it unfolds at the pace of a multi-phase election. A documentary montage of poor Indians is one of many heavy-handed gestures in a movie that could have benefitted without them.
Main Tera Hero
2014 · LiveMint · Apr 2014
As if to compensate, there are ample displays of Varun's sculpted body, his fighting skills, his dancing abilities, and his general heroism. The title says it all.
Ankhon Dekhi
2014 · LiveMint · Mar 2014
As city films and portraits of ordinary people taking a step towards an extraordinary light go, Aankhon Dekhi is an enjoyable confection, delivered by an ensemble cast, especially Sarao as Bauji's daughter and the ever-dependable Brijendra Kala as his partner in crime, that brings immense energy and vitality to the show.
Gulaab Gang
2014 · LiveMint · Mar 2014
Of all the tributes to Sampat Pal's debatable feminist politics, this one is the narrowest, and the silliest.
300: Rise of an Empire
2014 · LiveMint · Mar 2014
With more thunder thighs than in a Silk Smitha retrospective, 300's sequel displays yet again the perils of pitting bare-chested fighters against a cavalry of archers. More clothes could do the trick in the inevitable sequel, in which The Man with the Golden Underwear will be given more to do than just distract audiences from the unrelenting carnage.
The Monuments Men
2014 · LiveMint · Feb 2014
It's only when the monuments men realize that the Nazis have stashed away the art in various mines that the movie belatedly gets going. The fact that Oscar-nominated cinematographer Phedon Papamichael doesn't deliver a single artistically composed and lit frame to showcase the fabulous paintings being saved, tells you everything you need to know about this shadow of a sketch of the impact of war on art.
RoboCop
2014 · LiveMint · Feb 2014
...well-judged performances, richly atmospheric cinematography, attractive production design, and further proof that advances in computer-generated imagery tend to make human beings redundant. A good-looking muddle about men, machines and money
Lone Survivor
2014 · LiveMint · Feb 2014
Like most films of its type, Lone Survivor works fine as long as its characters maintain their fingers on the trigger and keep the armaments industry in the black. It's when they stop firing and start looking around them that the overall lack of geopolitical sensitivity becomes painfully apparent.
One By Two
2014 · LiveMint · Jan 2014
Of all the genres that Bhagat dips into for the mish-mash that is One By Two, the gross-out American comedy was an ill-advised choice.
Jai Ho
2014 · LiveMint · Jan 2014
What we get from Jai Ho the movie: Salman Khan saves his family honour and, by extension, the honour of the nation, in slow motion, single-handedly dispenses a battalion of baddies, rattles off repeat-value dialogue, romances a freshly excavated young female whom we might never see on screen again, divests himself of his upper garment and wriggles his bottom.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
2014 · LiveMint · Jan 2014
Every nation wants a biopic that reminds it of a time when it produced great souls. Accordingly, Mandela is drenched in nobility. Given the difficulties that Mandela and his fellow South Africans have endured, it's possible to ignore the two-hanky sentimentality, soaring finale and the experience of a half-done portrait that's waiting for a more clear-eyed artist.
Om-Dar-Ba-Dar
2014 · LiveMint · Jan 2014
Indeed, the entire experience, in which visual and sound are inseparable, is designed to satirise the very small-town nostalgia that is the movie's most accessible legacy. Om-Dar-Ba-Dar is the original vernacular spectacle that has been endlessly imitated by advertising, music video and popular cinema.
The Legend of Hercules
2014 · LiveMint · Jan 2014
Made solely to keep costume designers, prop suppliers and computer effects providers orphaned after the wrap of Ridley Scott's Gladiator gainfully employed, The Legend of Hercules reduces the torturous life story of its storied Greek hero to a few, easily comprehensible words.
The Wolf of Wall Street
2014 · LiveMint · Jan 2014
It's a zeitgeist film, of course, given all that has happened on Wall Street and the rest of the world in recent times, but it's also a study of addiction, to money, drugs, sex and the kind of outré hedonism that now seems outright obscene. The movie doesn't have a single totemic image that captures the obscene wealth and privilege on display—there is no Antilla, no Scarface cocaine bath. Rather, the parade of outrageousness continues from the beginning to the end, dominated by DiCaprio's smarmy visage that suggests a Gatsby gone irredeemably rogue and transformed into a coked-out raging bull.
Dhoom 3
2013 · LiveMint · Dec 2013
Khan, who was billed as one of the big draws of the latest Dhoom, turns out to be one of its biggest liabilities. Pushing his body to the limit but limiting his facial movements, Khan sets himself up for a year's worth of supply of parody through attempts to convey determination and purpose by knitting his brows together.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
2013 · LiveMint · Dec 2013
The never-ending turn of events is eventually as tiresome as a junk food binge, but the colours, shapes and inventive fruits and vegetables are truly ravishing, and some of them stake their claim to Minion-level cuteness.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2013 · LiveMint · Dec 2013
Rebellion and revolt don't often fly off the franchise shelf, but here is Katniss Everdeen in part deux of the post-apocalyptic fantasy action drama The Hunger Games, having an Arab Spring moment and landing an arrow or two in the name of liberty.
Last Vegas
2013 · LiveMint · Nov 2013
Last Vegas is the outcome of Hollywood's admirable ability to create roles and movies for its older talent and address the needs of the wrinkled but moneyed section of the audience. The adventure of four childhood friends, who reunite when one of them finally decides to end his bachelor days, is filled with references to pill organizers, hip surgeries, and the advent of death.
Rajjo
2013 · LiveMint · Nov 2013
Rajjo claims to be a sensitive examination of the social discrimination faced by prostitutes, but writer and director Vishwas Patil's feminism can be measured by the depth of lead performer Kangana Ranaut's cleavage.
Satya 2
2013 · LiveMint · Nov 2013
Satya 2 does have academic value, as a study of a director's systematic attempts to demolish his legacy and bury one of his most enduring creations—the Man With No Background who represented the dreams and nightmares of Mumbai in the 1990s.
Boss
2013 · LiveMint · Oct 2013
The only bold move in an otherwise smug, by-the-numbers movie is the absence of a romantic interest for Boss. Akshay Kumar's XXL-sized comic timing serves him well in some of the action comedy sequences, but fitness levels can never replace genuine acting skills. The rest of the cast picks up their paycheques, and only Ronit Roy seems to be making an effort to be serious amidst the clowning.
Captain Phillips
2013 · LiveMint · Oct 2013
Captain Phillips begins in a routine way and concludes in a Best Actor Oscar bid, but the opening and climax bookend an often heart-stopping battle of wills between a ship cargo crew and four daredevil pirates.
Diana
2013 · LiveMint · Oct 2013
German filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel's biopic Diana takes the basic facts of the British royal's post-divorce years, puts them through the dry-cleaner and then whips them on the washing stone to make sure that no blemishes or stains survive.
Besharam
2013 · LiveMint · Oct 2013
When it's not trying to jolt audiences out of the stupor they are likely to slide into, Besharam turns over every cliché from the Big Black Book of Hindi Movie Plots section that lists "Robin Hood-inspired Thief Takes Good Turn After Heart is Stolen."