Solidly directed by Sircar, who steers clear of typical Bollywood machismo and avoids oversimplifying characters or their motives, the film – at a little over two hours – is a compelling watch. I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five for ‘Madras Café’. Until the climate is more conducive for filmmakers to boldly make real-life stories without fear of controversy or censorship, this may be the best way to approach important stories that must be told.

In trying to keep it fast-moving, the film turns choppy and confusing in parts. Also, a few of the characters are a tad comic book-y, matching the ludicrousness of some dialogues. The high-flying journalist helping the hero bit feels contrived.

Bottomline: Well-intentioned, but monotonous.

Madras Cafe is flawed but also ambitious and brave. I’m going with three stars and recommending that you see it.

After experiencing back-to-back idiocy on big screen, it’s refreshing to return to the theatres for a film that expects you to be educated, informed and attentive. Give it a chance, Madras Cafe deserves an audience.

Madras Cafe is not your average Bollywood thriller. It crackles with genuine energy and is marked by true empathy for humanity.
It is an unqualified triumph.

Straight up, Madras Cafe couldn’t be more different to director Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor. Political, tense, finally explosive, Madras Cafe is no picnic in the neighborhood park.

The film bristles with the raw, unnerving textures of a battlefield documentary. What is impressive is the film’s cool restraint. Not once does it attempt to sensationalize, sermonize or take sides. It merely states facts and tackles the subject head-on.The imagery is so effective and powerful that, you are transported back in time when the incidents actually takes pace.

Madras Café is a hypnotically created masterpiece which thrives in the freshness of its conception. Using history with drama to build a persuasive tapestry of enthralling action, energetic plot and skillful narration of the grim phase of Lankan War, Shoojit Sircar astonishes with this fascinating docu style dramatic movie. I am going flatly with a 4/5 this triumphed work of passionate and compelling cinema.

The film tells a story we already knew. Yet it scores because of the way Sircar maintains intrigue, teasing viewers with regular twists.

Irresistible stuff if you love brain work in your movies.

On the whole, MADRAS CAFE is an earnest and honest effort, a terrific thriller, with several poignant moments and episodes that leave a stunning impact. It’s a film that you should watch because it gives you an insight into an exceptionally pertinent episode of history. If you are in the frame of mind to watch superior quality, sensible cinema, I would strongly recommend MADRAS CAFE to you. Try not to miss it!

To put it plainly, Madras Cafe raises the bar for commercial Hindi cinema. Firstly, films that mix fiction and reality are an extreme rarity in Bollywood and equally rare is a no nonsense approach in making it. There are no item numbers (heck there are no songs either), no juvenile gags and no melodrama, yet Madras Cafe grabs your attention right from the word go.

…undoubtedly makes for an engrossing watch, a little more attention to detail and the film would have been brilliant.

This is arguably the best political thriller that Bollywood has so far given us.

Watch this one as it takes you back to a horrid chapter of our political history and makes you think.

‘Madras Café’ rewards us with a story that refuses to bow-down to Bollywood stereotypes and traditional narrative, and remains true to what it promises to capture.

Truly a first for Bollywood, and hopefully, not the last.

On the whole, Madras Cafe is a class-appealing film which will do well in the high-end multiplexes of big cities mainly. Its performance in the single-screen cinemas and ordinary multiplexes, frequented by masses, will be below the mark. Given its cost, the film will see those associated with it in the red.

This is probably the first Bollywood film that looks closely at India’s political involvement outside of its own shores. The director (Shoojit Sircar: Yahaan, Vicky Donor) ably spins this as a war film, visually referenced to near perfection, yet scales things down to the details of a tight espionage thriller set among R&AW agents between Jaffna and New Delhi.

‘Madras Cafe’ is a must watch for those tired of hackneyed plots and over the top nonsensical dialogues and want more of powerful and impactful cinema on screen.

This charged political thriller, despite its flaws, is a leap in the right direction – away from that other “Madras”-titled film and its ilk – that deserves our support. If nothing else, it’ll give you an acute insight and a timely reminder of the turmoil our neighbors went through and our country’s confounding contribution to the matter.