Sarit Ray
Hindustan Times
Most Divergent Takes
- Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013)4.0 vs TRM 6.5-2.5
- Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016)4.0 vs TRM 6.0-2.0
- Burnt (2015)3.0 vs TRM 5.0-2.0
- The Xposé (2014)2.0 vs TRM 4.0-2.0
- Fire in the Blood (2013)8.0 vs TRM 6.1+1.9
Mukti Bhawan
2017 · Hindustan Times · Apr 2017
In the end, rather than being about the heavy religious stuff, it is about universal human drama. As a father and son reconcile, it is near heart-breaking. As an old man and his grandaughter sneak out for bhang, it tells you that the most devout have mischief in them. Bhutiani gives death its due dignity, and yet retains its objectivity and subtlety. It makes you laugh, and cry, and think and question. It's what good cinema and storytelling are meant to do.
Raees
2017 · Hindustan Times · Jan 2017
...the problem is fundamental: the writing is shoddy and unoriginal. And by the time it wades into certain true events, it is left with too little time and meaning. Raees perhaps works only as an SRK showcase. But we've seen many of those already.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
2016 · Hindustan Times · Oct 2016
Kapoor plays a character that's rather familiar: a mash-up of roles, from the youth coming of age in Wake up Sid to the deviants in Rockstar and Tamasha. Sharma carries on in the same vein as her character from Dil Dhadakne Do. And by the time Johar throws in his final twist, he's turned his no-mance into a soppy story and is just squeezing for the last drop of melodrama.
Saat Uchakkey
2016 · Hindustan Times · Oct 2016
...it has flavour, a seed of a good idea even, something mega-budget films often lack. But like our Dilli Laundas Eleven, it lacks planning and execution.
Creed
2015 · Hindustan Times · Nov 2015
Young Johnson has shades of a young Rocky, pestering him the way he'd once pestered Mickey (late Burgess Meredith) to train him. He asks about the outcome of his third fight with Apollo (which Rocky III ends with). The overall story, too, fits the underdog-versus-champion template.
X: Past Is Present
2015 · Hindustan Times · Nov 2015
Experiments are good. Hindi cinema certainly has room for more. But you run the risk of things blowing up in your face. That's what this one does.
Burnt
2015 · Hindustan Times · Nov 2015
Burnt , in the end, isn't burnt at all; it's far from cooked. It tells no endearing story. And whatever it does tell doesn't awe. A food critic says of Smith's first cook in London: It fails to shock. She might as well have been writing about the film.
Pizza
2014 · Hindustan Times · Jul 2014
If you're the sort of horror junkie who feeds on Hollywood and Japanese versions (Japan is to horror what Italy is to pizza), don't expect to see something you haven't seen before. But by Bollywood standards, this film easily outdoes most of what passes for horror. As pizzas go, this is Peppy Paneer. Far from authentic, but still enjoyable, as long as it's well made.
Humshakals
2014 · Hindustan Times · Jun 2014
As social experiments go, this one tests patience rather than intelligence. It takes every ounce of the former not to take the cue from Ashok's audience at the outset and leave.
The Xposé
2014 · Hindustan Times · May 2014
Good films require innovation; bad ones are usually recipe-based. And the really terrible ones? Those are recipes gone horribly wrong. What the makers of The Xposé will have you believe is cinema is actually punch lines, and lots (and by lots, we mean nearly a dozen) of songs roughly chopped up and mashed together. Add a poker-faced, nasal-toned lead actor, and you have what can only be a Himesh Reshammiya creation.
Sholay 3D
2014 · Hindustan Times · Jan 2014
go see Sholay only because it's an opportunity to see it again on the big screen, to see a young Amitabh and Dharmendra, and to introduce your kids to it. They might complain it's a bit long, but the gimmick of 3D should help convince them to come along.
Mahabharat 3D
2013 · Hindustan Times · Dec 2013
Good animation needn't necessarily be about the computer-graphics imagery. Films such as Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir were deeply moving without being cutting-edge. Mahabharat, sadly, lacks more than technical prowess; it lacks imagination. It is an over-simplified, children's-book version of the epic tale.
Fire in the Blood
2013 · Hindustan Times · Oct 2013
A film that is as riveting as it is engaging, Fire… emerges as the perfect vehicle for a powerful message that has been lost in the cacophony of social media networks and 24x7 news cycles. It is well-shot, sharply edited, and has a fluent, convincing narrative.
Ship of Theseus
2013 · Hindustan Times · Jul 2013
Ship Of Theseus, no doubt, an intellectual exercise, the sort festival films often indulge in. Yet, the narrative is lucid, and the stories are simple and deeply moving.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
2013 · Hindustan Times · Jul 2013
For a film about sprinting and clocking shortest timings possible, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag moves at a snail's pace and goes on for over 3 hours. And while the protagonist purportedly possesses tremendous focus, the film seems to lack that very quality.
Lootera
2013 · Hindustan Times · Jul 2013
Flaws notwithstanding, Lootera is of a standard that's inarguably higher than the Bollywood average. Here's a director to watch out for. Behrman's masterpiece came in The Last Leaf. Motwane's is yet to come.
Ishkq in Paris
2013 · Hindustan Times · May 2013
The borrowed plot (from 'Before Sunrise') is cooked with a generous dosage of Bollywood spices. So you must suffer clichés like a Paris full of French people who speak Hindi and a heroine whose jackets are heavy but hemlines ridiculously short.
Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2
2012 · Hindustan Times · Nov 2012
It would be a mistake to judge Wasseypur for factual correctness. Kashyap shows familiarity with this world in his attention to detail – the typical Hindi accents, the Ray Ban shades, the pager. But they enhance the flavour rather than the facts. Wasseypur is as much a celebration of small-town India as it is a sinister revenge tragedy. If the subject wasn't so gory, you'd call it charming.
Raaz 3
2012 · Hindustan Times · Nov 2012
Add to that every available cliché in the book — Ganpati to the rescue, ganga jal as a weapon — and it's more likely to scare you away than scare you.
Ferrari Ki Sawaari
2012 · Hindustan Times · Nov 2012
Ferrari works as a film. It's a story of reaching for your dreams, of endearing father-son relationships, and of moral lessons that aren't preachy. It's a formula that rarely fails — the sort of feel-good movie that makes for perfect Sunday viewing with the whole family.