X: Past Is Present

Although it feels aimless and self-indulgent throughout the first half, X: Past Is Present finds some purpose towards the end. However, you'll have to be exceedingly forgiving to sit through the first half waiting for the movie to find itself later on.

In its misappropriation of Freudian themes, the movie gives its protagonist a truckload of guilt, but nothing more to chew on. And all this, means that the grand statement made isn't anything more than a South Mumbai kid's version of the all-conquering, all-observing, all-knowing feminine power. There's a lot of worship for women that's comes through in X. But is there enough love?

Overall, this movie is like a biryani prepared by 11 cooks. You can imagine the taste if one cook has forgotten to inform the other whether he has added salt!

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.

X Past is Present is an experiment at best and should be watched as one; if at all!

Avoid, X : Past is Present. It will fail to suit your filmi palettes and make you stay away from biryani for life with a very grotesque reference. You can do without such negativity.

...tries too hard at being modern-day filmmaking but in the lieu forgets audience's commercial tastes. In one of the dialogues, K says that he does not believe in God but in Science. Well, God, Science and Filmmaking, all three seem to be a lost cause here.

Go for the film only if you want to watch a film with a different and striking storyline or if you don't have anything better to do this weekend and just want to kill some idle time. But dont expect yourself to get entertained, because as already mentioned earlier, you might just start thinking that you were better off back home.

...a movie like this sure would have looked good on paper, but its execution just doesn't work well with the viewers. Too many cooks do spoil the broth, we say.

The film may be called X: Past is Present, but it surely promises a headache in the immediate future.

...a cinematic kaleidoscope full of diverse genres, styles, and cast that all come together to fit perfectly and form a colorful film full of expression.

What it does tear open is the question of how ethical it is for film reviewers, who are in the business of commenting on other people's films, have the power to influence opinion about films, to occasionally cross over to the other side. There is no ban on film reviewers/critics becoming filmmakers. But let us not for a second pretend that to get these assignments their clout, access as film critics was not in play. Often there are no rules. Often it is a personal standard of ethic that we all set for ourselves. These men, sadly, set them low.

Considering how ambitious the intention is, in attempting to diversify the film into various genres and interpretations of love, it is commendable that the present life of K is well tied up with all the other stories set in the past. It just about makes it a watchable, cohesive whole, though not necessarily something that makes sense.

...simply something that will not connect at all with the non-pseudos who form 98 percent of the audiences for Hindi cinema. The film is also partly in Tamil and predominantly in English. And at 105 minutes, clearly more than a quarter of it is sleep-inducing!