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“Haider”… Very well made, if a tad too footnote-heavy – but why ‘Hamlet’?
Spoilers ahead… It’s possible to imagine an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet without the balcony scene – not ideal, but conceivable. Julius Caeasar, too, you could probably rewrite without Mark Antony’s...
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“Tamanchey”… This crime story needed more chemistry
Spoilers ahead… Some actors you don’t have any opinion about. It isn’t about whether they’re good or bad – it’s just that they don’t have much of a presence. They blend right into the scenery. Nikhil...
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“Happy New Year”… Heil Bollywood!
Spoilers ahead… Farah Khan wouldn’t be making movies if people before her hadn’t made movies. She loves the films she grew up on, and she gives the term “tip of the hat” a whole new meaning. In Happy...
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“The Shaukeens”… Where’s the sex? And where’s the comedy?
Spoilers ahead… Why can’t we make a good sex comedy? Perhaps the problem lies with the Censor Board that demands cuts instead of rating films according to content. And surely, part of the problem lies...
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“Rang Rasiya”… A film about art, made with very little artistry
Spoilers ahead… It’s the wedding night. The groom is the man who will go on to become the famous painter, Raja Ravi Varma (Randeep Hooda). His bride, smiling shyly, makes a move to blow out the oil...
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“Kill/Dil”… More po-mo pranks from Shaad Ali, but count this as a misfire
Spoilers ahead… If you’re one of the four others on the planet who liked Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, you should check out Shaad Ali’s follow-up Kill/Dil – not because of the film itself (it’s pretty much a...
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“Happy Ending”… Hip surfaces, but downright clichéd at heart
Spoilers ahead… Happy Ending, which is directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K., begins with a scene in a cinema hall where a surprise guest star declares her love for Yudi (Saif Ali Khan). A startled...
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Reviews…
REVIEWS IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA A review by Sudhir Srinivasan, in The Hindu, is here. An excerpt: While it may seem like a fairly plain statement to make, you catch yourself going back to it during...
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“Ungli”… A facile film that doesn’t want to get its hands dirty
Spoilers ahead… I may be a little off here in terms of the exact number, but in Rensil D’Silva’s Ungli, we have the 6784-th filmic instance of a hapless senior citizen camped out at a pension office...
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The launch…
This is a Book Club event and entry is by invite only, so do let me know in advance if you need an invite. Look forward to seeing at least some of you there.Filed under: Books, Cinema: Hindi, Cinema:...
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“pk”… Funny, yes, but now it’s begun to feel like formula
Spoilers ahead… Rajkumar Hirani has often spoken about his admiration for Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films, and it comes as no surprise. Hirani’s films, from the two Munnabhai entries to 3 Idiots, are...
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Freedom of speech: an alien concept?
The protests against ‘pk’ bring up the question: When the people themselves don’t mind, why are self-appointed people’s representatives getting all hot and bothered? Centuries ago, a Hindu named...
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Lights, Camera, Conversation… “A matter of same”
Thoughts on Rajkumar Hirani, formula films, and the astonishingly successful ‘pk’. Most of us turn filmmakers when something we’re watching doesn’t satisfy us. If X occurs and we’re not happy with it,...
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“Tevar”… Amidst masala clichés, a new director leaves a mark
Spoilers ahead… I wonder who coined the phrase “dishoom-dishoom.” It has to be an Indian, and it has to have come from watching Indian cinema. No other filmic tradition has featured, so consistently,...
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“Dolly Ki Doli”… A flat comedy that should have been more serious
Spoilers ahead… Dolly Ki Doli opens with a long, concentrated narrative stretch that zooms in on Sonu (Rajkummar Rao) and Dolly (Sonam Kapoor). The first time we see them, they’re in a car by a railway...
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“Baby”… A solid entertainer with a semblance of reality
Spoilers ahead… Watching Akshay Kumar as covert ops specialist Ajay Singh Rajput in the new thriller Baby, I began to wonder if there was another star who would have been equally at home in this...
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“Hawaizaada”… A good director flounders without a good script
Spoilers ahead… Some of our politicians are going to be very, very happy with Vibhu Puri’s Hawaizaada. (About that title – is it just me, or did you too feel, when you first encountered it, that you’d...
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“Khamoshiyan”… More stupidity than scares
Spoilers ahead… As Khamoshiyan opens, we see a mansion – its name: Lakeside Manor – and over it, we hear a man’s voice. “Kal raat phir wohi khwaab dekha.” And I thought this was going to be a retread...
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A cab, a conversation
About “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” John Lennon probably meant it in a bigger, more existential sense. But I found life happening to me, in the face of my other...
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“Roy”… A very slow trudge to nowhere
Spoilers ahead… If you wandered into a multiplex and wanted to locate the screen on which Roy is playing, just head towards the discreet coughing. That would be the audience, after two-and-a-half hours...
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