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“Housefull 3.”… A flat, unfunny “comedy” that needed far better actors
Spoilers ahead… The surprise in Housefull 3 isn’t that it’s spectacularly unfunny. It’s that it needn’t have been so. Sajid-Farhad, who wrote and directed this film (that a “director,” leave alone two,...
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“Te3n”… A thoroughly underwhelming thriller
Spoilers ahead… Eight years. That’s how long John Biswas (Amitabh Bachchan) has been chasing a ghost. His granddaughter was kidnapped and she turned up dead – he wants justice. He wants to find the...
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“Do Lafzon Ki Kahani”… A missed opportunity for a four-hankie weepie
Spoilers ahead… Do Lafzon Ki Kahani is adapted from the 2011 South Korean film Always, which hinged on a plot point from the Kamal Haasan-starring Manmadan Ambu, made a year earlier. Strange are the...
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“Udta Punjab”… Very well made, but also very banal
Spoilers ahead… Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab opens with trees swaying in the breeze at night, topped by a handful of stars. The calm composition is held for a while, but soon, light from a motorcycle...
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“Dhanak”… A ‘cute’ fairy tale that could have used other shades
Spoilers ahead… Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dhanak, set in Rajasthan, is the story of a boy named Chotu (Krrish Chhabria), who turned blind from malnutrition. His parents are dead. Dhanak is the story of his...
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If rushes were horses
The ‘Udta Punjab’ verdict fills me with enough hope to draw up a laundry list of wishes for our cinema. The next time a demand for a ban comes up, I wish we’d remember the Udta Punjab verdict. I wish...
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“Raman Raghav 2.0.”… A welcome almost-return to form
Spoilers ahead… Raman Raghav 2.o is divided into chapters whose titles appear in a lurid, pulp-fiction font – and the best chapter is titled The Sister. In a gut-churning subversion of the bhai-behen...
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“7 Hours To Go!”… A thriller that tries so hard to be cool, it hurts
Spoilers ahead… Saurabh Varma’s 7 Hours To Go opens with four armed men, in masks, breaking into a hi-tech building. The background music does its best to make us believe Godzilla is in the building...
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“Junooniyat”… An old-fashioned weepie that barely works
Spoilers ahead… A week after Udta Punjab, the spring is back in Punjab’s step. Those big glasses of lassi, they’re back. As are parathas glistening with ghee, fields with yellow flowers. Also back are...
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“Shorgul”… A good subject trivialised by bad filmmaking
Spoilers ahead… And the award for Most Gratuitous Item Number goes to… Shorgul. So this is what happens. It’s night. A door opens. A man slips out, clutching a bag. He travels to another part of town....
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“Sultan”… A well-made, enjoyable sports drama
Spoilers ahead… Watching a Salman Khan film today reminds me of watching Woody Allen’s films in the 1990s, when the sixty-something actor/director kept pairing himself with decades-younger actresses...
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“Great Grand Masti”… The real boobs may be the audiences
Spoilers ahead… You know those pretty, shapely girls from Belarus or Lithuania who come to Mumbai on a holiday and end up as backup dancers in a Baw-ly-would movie? In the song that plays over the...
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“Madaari”… An unremarkable vigilante drama, with some Irrfan moments
Spoilers ahead… Madaari is about the catastrophic aftermath of a bridge collapse, but director Nishikant Kamath wants us to know that the film is about so much more. He gives us split-second visuals of...
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“Dishoom”… Disappointing action film, or a prototype of the Modi-era masala...
Spoilers ahead… John Abraham’s thesping skills have always been suspect, but after seeing Dishoom, where he plays a special agent named Kabir, I’m wondering if he’s losing the ability to do more basic...
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“The Legend of Michael Mishra”… A painfully strained attempt at quirk
Spoilers ahead… Manish Jha loses little time letting us know that he’s made a quirky film. Over the opening credits of The Legend of Michael Mishra, we hear this song: “Film shuru hui hai, kursi pe set...
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“Budhia Singh – Born to Run”… A solid drama that transcends rah-rah...
Spoilers ahead… A quick refresher from Wiki is all you need to know why a movie was begging to be made from the story of Budhia Singh: “Budhia Awooga Singh (born 2002) is an Indian boy and the world’s...
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“Mohenjo Daro”… Every bit the film the trailer led us to fear
Spoilers ahead… Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro opens with a big disclaimer that none of what’s to follow should be taken too seriously. I suppose this injunction is meant for those who missed the...
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“Rustom”… Vaguely watchable, and that may be overstating it
Spoilers ahead… I hadn’t heard of the Nanavati trial until I watched Bombay Velvet, and then I realised I’d seen two films loosely based on it: Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke and Achanak. These films – like...
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“A Flying Jatt”… An amiably silly superhero film flounders when it gets serious
Spoilers ahead… An indigenous superhero who isn’t just generically Indian but a Sikh? Part of me says “What an idea, sir-ji,” while the other part wonders if what we need now is the celebration –...
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Conversations with Mahesh Bhatt
This April, at this event, I was invited to converse with Mahesh Bhatt about Smita Patil. It took a while, but the video is finally here. Really enjoyed the conversation. Hope you do too. Filed under:...
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