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“Raabta”… A dreadful love story that fails at just about every level
Spoilers ahead… Dinesh Vijan’s Raabta begins with Shiv (Sushant Singh Rajput), an Amritsar lad, leaving for London. His entire clan comes to see him off, all but breaking into the title song of Rang De...
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“Behen Hogi Teri”… A small-town romance with a few laughs, and that’s not enough
Spoilers ahead… Ajay K Pannalal’s Behen Hogi Teri is a riff on that old joke about the school-assembly pledge: All Indians are my brothers and sisters. Say what? Then who is one supposed to marry?...
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“Tubelight”… A lethargic drama where the director seems as “miscast” as the hero
Spoilers ahead… You heard it here first: In a forthcoming film, Salman Khan will play Sita. In Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, the character he played hailed from Ayodhya. In Bajrangi Bhaijaan, he played a...
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“Mom”… A predictable, problematic, well-made thriller, helped by its...
Spoilers ahead… Every Mother’s Day, we see this sentiment: MOM upside down is WOW. Repeat this mantra for two-and-a-half-hours and you get Sridevi’s new movie. Or Maatr, which featured Raveena Tandon...
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“Jagga Jasoos”… A mad, magical, parts-greater-than-sum musical that’s a total...
Spoilers ahead… The last time we got a musical – a musical in the genre sense of the word, and not simply a film with a few songs – was probably in Shirish Kunder’s Jaan-e-Mann, of which I wrote: “We...
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“Shab”… An underwhelming, unaffecting criss-cross of urban lives
Spoilers ahead… Onir’s new film, Shab, begins with a migration. A handsome-to-the-point-of-pretty young man, Mohan (Ashish Bisht) hops onto a Delhi-bound bus. He wants to become a model, and he’s got...
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Bitty Ruminations 87 – Nepotism
Someone brought up the nepotism thing in the comments section, and I thought I’d add my two cents. Was the joke (by Saif, Karan and Varun) insensitive? Sure. Was it in bad taste? Probably. But these...
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“Munna Michael”… An unfocused, unremarkable, but also un-terrible Tiger...
Spoilers ahead… Munna Michael is the third collaboration between star Tiger Shroff and director Sabbir Khan, and their single-mindedness is admirable. They pick stories that will resonate with...
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“Lipstick Under My Burkha”… Some nice moments in a film that makes it too...
Spoilers ahead… Of the four women in Lipstick Under My Burkha who irked the censors, Leela (Aahana Kumra, who’s fantastically alive) was probably the most irksome. At first, we see her with her...
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“Mubarakan”… A bearable comedy (but nothing more)
Spoilers ahead… Had Mubarakan just been about the characters played by its senior cast, we’d have had a family melodrama of a bachelor brother (Anil Kapoor’s Kartar Singh) torn between his warring...
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“Indu Sarkar”… A surprisingly decent Bhandarkar drama, rooted in the politics...
Spoilers ahead… Here’s what a Madhur Bhandarkar “touch” looks like. It’s the Emergency era, and Indu (Kirti Kulhari) has brought home two children whose parents are missing. (Their slum was razed down...
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“Gurgaon”… A sumptuous-looking but remote crime drama, more concept than cinema
Spoilers ahead… Early on in Shanker Raman’s Gurgaon (“inspired by true events”), Preet (Ragini Khanna) walks into the kitchen, greets her mother. She’s come home after studying architecture abroad, and...
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“Jab Harry Met Sejal”… Girl searches for ring, audience searches for Imtiaz Ali
Spoilers ahead… Some fifteen minutes into Jab Harry Met Sejal, when I began to fidget in my seat, I wondered if my expectations were the problem. There’s first that title, suggesting two beloved...
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“Toilet – Ek Prem Katha”… An overlong, messagey, but satisfying social-issue...
Spoilers ahead… When I heard of the premise of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha – the problems arising from the lack of toilet facilities – I thought it would be like Joker, the Tamil drama whose crux was...
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“Bareilly Ki Barfi”… A glibly entertaining rom-com that ignores its pricklier...
Spoilers ahead… If you think a terrific Rajkummar Rao performance is its own reward, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Bareilly Ki Barfi is every bit the sweet treat the title promises. The actor plays Pritam...
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“A Gentleman”… An action-comedy that comes up short on both counts
Spoilers ahead… Good directors are allowed to make bad movies, but with Happy Ending and, now, A Gentleman, Raj and DK have ventured into a peculiar place: they’re making bland movies. There’s no...
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“Sniff”… A fantastic premise, a missed opportunity
Spoilers ahead… Would food taste as good if you couldn’t smell it? This isn’t the kind of existential question that you’d think would plague a child – Sunny (Khushmeet Gill) – but the boy has no sense...
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The RS Prasanna interview
COMING SOON: My video interview with RS Prasanna, on taking Kalyana Samayal Sadham to Bollywood. Copyright ©2017 Film Companion.Filed under: Cinema: Hindi, Cinema: Tamil, Interview
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“Babumoshai Bandookbaaz”… An anything-goes genre hybrid that’s totally nuts,...
Spoilers ahead… If you love RD Burman’s songs from Amar Prem, I’d advise you to skip the first few minutes of Kushan Nandy’s Babumoshai Bandookbaaz. An early scene has a hitman named Babu Bihari (a...
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“Shubh Mangal Saavdhan”… Not as snappy as the original, but a lot of fun...
Spoilers ahead… RS Prasanna’s Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, a remake of his Tamil hit Kalyana Samayal Sadham, has many jokes — but none funnier than the name of its leading man, played by Ayushmann Khurrana...
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