Raja Sen reviews
200 reviews of Indian films, average rating 2.3/5.
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Loud and inert at the same time, Teen Thay Bhai is a film to be shunned simply because of how cruelly it treats three actors we should treasure.
Read the full review...is a monstrously excessive film with a riot of colours, a girl who looks very pretty indeed and a daft hero, but despite that being the warning on the tin whenever you attempt (foolhardily) to buy into a Bhansali product, this…
Read the full reviewDilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is, by sheer dint of originality, one of the best Hindi films made in the last 20 years...We all have our favourite moments from the film -- Raj's valiant AlPacino-AlPacino attempt at Europeanese…
Read the full reviewKochadaiiyaan, alas, is a fundamentally flawed dud, one without anything to applaud besides grand (if self-glorifying) ambition. And little is as heartbreaking to witness as utterly failed ambition.
Read the full reviewIt's bleak, bittersweet, funny and markedly unglamorous, and yet you come out humming the theme tune, your head blown clear off your shoulders. Hell yeah. Welcome to adulthood, Bollywood, can we get you another beer?
Read the full reviewExaggerated faces, clueless extras and cartoonish sound effects set the stage for something that resembles a sloppy sitcom more than an actual feature film
Read the full reviewThere’s nothing objectionably bad about the movie, and while it starts off promisingly, it finally leaves you with absolutely no reason to recommend it to anyone.
Read the full reviewI’m not sure what director Jehangir Surti was trying to achieve with this film utterly lacking in originality or intelligence, but let’s assume he tried to make a fun children’s movie.
Read the full reviewA comicbooky premise is made into a thriller so confused,Tsk, from the Nagesh Kukunoor who once greatly Hyderabad Blues’d?Forget loopholes, this movie features too many half baked factors,Basically, this is just Aa Dekhen Zara…
Read the full reviewKambakkht Ishq is a painfully excessive work of burlesque, one so dragged down by the nauseating combination of toilet humour and lazy screenwriting that it makes American Pie look like Brokeback Mountain in comparison.
Read the full reviewDirector Kabir Khan’s new film tries hard to make a point, loses it in a weak, seemingly unending plot executed by a group of pretty performers each competing for a Worst Actor Award, and finally ends by spelling the name of…
Read the full reviewIt is only at this, film three, that the director appears to have hit a snag. Love Aaj Kal is watchable, but feels heavily compromised.
Read the full reviewThe film’s plot is engaging, and most of the twists are genuinely authentic. However, far too much time is spent on building up silent moments where nothing really happens.
Read the full reviewOnce in a particularly blue moon, comes a film that makes you wolf-whistle.
Read the full reviewIt could have been ‘decent timepass,’ as us indulgent towards Bollywood are likely to label tripe, but this ridiculous script devoid of both logic and drama leads to a really boring piece of trash.It’s like watching a really slow…
Read the full reviewAt a time when ‘comedies’ seem to have become nothing but a mindless procession of gags, it’s good to see writer Anees Bazmee come up with an actual plot.
Read the full reviewWanted is a modern-day rarity, a B-grade actioner that really doesn’t spend any time trying to class up its tackiness or pretend to make sense.
Read the full reviewThe detailing is shoddy, the characters cardboard and the dialogue plain laughable. Jail is a formulaic, below average Bollywood headache, slowed down to lugubrious dullness.
Read the full reviewPriyadarshan, refusing as always to call himself a director — ‘filmed by,’ proclaim his credits — attempts to stitch together this ragtag quilt in his usual style, ending up with a stupidly elaborate monstrosity.All manner of…
Read the full reviewThe best films about sales are compelling narratives about savage closers, like David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross or Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, audiences lapping up the con-games used by piranhas in action, but the Rocket Singh…
Read the full review3 Idiots is a very average bit of fluffy Bollywood masala that tragically pretends, at times, to be making a profound point, one it loses in repetition.
Read the full reviewA nothing movie with flashes of heart, Chance Pe Dance is a slow, indulgent watch — meant strictly for the Shahid Kapoor fan.This is the story of a Bollywood struggler, and it initially feels refreshing to see the leading man be…
Read the full reviewDirector Anil Sharma has never been known for his subtlety, and here, sinking his teeth into the painfully melodramatic script, he goes at it hammer and tongs, taking one megabudget misstep after another.The film is mounted on a…
Read the full reviewMy Name Is Khan is an impressive film, without question. It’s also Bollywood mainstream, an overlong film revelling in cliche and cinematic punchlines, but director Karan Johar shows admirable control through most of the…
Read the full reviewToh Baat Pakki works like a Priyadarshan drama devoid of the outrageous plot and the utterly watchable hero, and we’re served up a bland, preposterously dated ‘comedy’ with lame jokes and little to laugh at.Tabu herself can’t…
Read the full reviewThere are some fantastic moments whenever the old projector, aided by hair oil, whirrs into action, but not enough to make the film as fascinating as it deserved to be.The writing is clever, yet the dialogues frequently…
Read the full reviewThe film itself is just as distasteful. Just as you’ve stopped cringing at a typical farcical stereotype, another one comes along: the black baby makes way for the gay jokes, after which come pun-laden Sikhs Santa and Banta, all…
Read the full reviewBadmaash Company is an unimaginably boring film that is so amateurish it hurts.
Read the full reviewYes, I said experiment. Because while this is pure popcorn, it’s not the popcorn you were expecting.
Read the full reviewThe film starts off aggressive, turns into a game of toppling pawns, and ends up a farce as Kunti meets Karan and the audience dissolves into giggles.
Read the full reviewThe film’s first half is choppy and bewildering but tight, while the second sprawls all over the place, overlong and exhausting. Sivan’s frames are indeed grand, but there isn’t one great shot to take away from the film.
Read the full reviewEverything — repeat, everything — falls conveniently into place for Bunty, who apparently wins each lover over by just showing up.
Read the full reviewThe best thing that can be said about Golmaal 3 is that it both enters and exits your system rather comprehensively, leaving behind nothing either memorable or of consequence.The only genuine fun had by anyone in this movie — and…
Read the full reviewShah Rukh Khan measures up. The visual effects lack continuity and he looks more like a dwarf in some scenes than others, his deformity occasionally more pronounced while he looks like a spookily smooth tiny-Khan in other…
Read the full reviewFor the love of Govinda, don't watch this film...Pahlaj Nihalani assaults us with images of a sickening Govinda, a performance-enhancing rapist who laughs in the face of consequences.
Read the full reviewA tense romantic drama between two married couples -- and the most compelling character in the film is a dad who dresses like a pimp?
Read the full reviewIt's always tragic when young directors start off their careers with scripts originating out of foreign DVDs.
Read the full reviewSure, you know what's going to happen, but it's a good ride -- and especially satisfying to see Swiss flower-fields replaced by Australian stadiums. Not to mention the return of the King.
Read the full reviewOm Shanti Om is an exultant, heady, joyous film reveling in Bollywood, and as at most parties where the bubbly flows free, there is much silly giggling and tremendous immaturity.
Read the full reviewThe problem lies with their puppeteer, the all-conquering badshah of bluster.
Read the full reviewAll in all, it’s an okay film. There is a very nice love story somewhere under all the blockbustery bluster, and its characters work brilliantly together.
Read the full reviewAll in all, it’s a rank amateur effort. The actors do their bit, but they too are mostly detachedly going through the motions hoping the camera and the cool moments would carry them through. They don’t.
Read the full reviewit’s the best directorial debut in ages [the film is directed by debutant Raj Kumar Gupta, who assisted Anurag Kashyap in No Smoking], and quite likely the film of the year.
Read the full reviewAbbas underscores what the pretty Mala (Renuka Kunzru) realises at the airport, that the magic of a story lies in its telling. And the rag-tag bunch of narrators he’s created do an absolute bang-up job.
Read the full reviewBachna Ae Haseeno is well shot, competently performed and the writing shows glimpses of honest-to-goodness subtext and intelligent character development.
Read the full reviewBut Rock On works — and how — because of some fine, understated work from all departments.But what Akhtar lacks in singing, he makes up for in acting.
Read the full reviewA Wednesday manages to deliver a decent body blow for the cause of smart entertainment.Like I said earlier, faith is a powerful thing.
Read the full reviewThere is much of this tomfoolery in the decidedly scriptless Golmaal Returns, with jokes made at everyone’s expense: from Kareena’s boyfriend’s tattoo to Tusshar Kapoor’s sister’s serials.The last five minutes of Golmaal Returns…
Read the full reviewOverall, it’s an average piece of fluff — but one of the most hideously insensitive things to come out of Bollywood in a long while.
Read the full review...after very gratefully handing it four and a half stars, in case you asked -- that this is a movie to love. And one that makes the audience feel just like the hero: really, really lucky.
Read the full reviewMr Chopra, you make a lot more money than I ever will, but I’ll still take this opportunity to throw up some basic, unsolicited suggestions: ask Farah Khan how to deal with movies-within-movies and have fun; ask Dibakar Banerjee…
Read the full reviewWatch Ghajini, though. Watch it for Aamir Khan, because I don’t think I’ve seen him having this much fun as an actor in a very long time — and that’s always great to see.
Read the full reviewBut the film itself can’t quite decide whether to be a massively over-the-top bit of masala (like Kumar’s own vaguely enjoyable Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi) or an out-and-out spoof (like Shah Rukh Khan’s [Images] guilty pleasure silly…
Read the full reviewShah Rukh Khan’s latest production is a simplistic, well-meaning take on a familiar story, and Billu — perhaps inadvertently — ends up being a naive little children’s film, the kind of entertainment DD used to hurl at us kids…
Read the full reviewNostalgic and earnest as it may be, it’s hard to qualify Delhi-6 as an actual film.It starts off as a plotless set of well-drawn vignettes, a series of quirky characters doing their own charming thing, which one almost gets used…
Read the full reviewAjab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani might be laden with faults in the conventional sense of the word, but if you give yourself over to the madness, you emerge having a pretty good time.
Read the full reviewDhobi Ghat is a middling debut, watchable due to its nuances but simply not interesting enough to recommend. Yet Rao seems assured of her craft, and worth looking out for in the future.
Read the full reviewDhobi Ghat is a middling debut, watchable due to its nuances but simply not interesting enough to recommend. Yet Rao seems assured of her craft, and worth looking out for in the future.
Read the full reviewKhelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is a clumsily structured, unevenly paced film, with very few moments to match up to the aforementioned scene.
Read the full reviewIt is fast becoming the norm, thanks largely to Rohit Shetty and Co, for our ‘comedies’ — a most misleading and insulting label — to forsake plot, story and logic and instead throw a bunch of oddballs at the screen, fervently…
Read the full reviewTurning 30!!! is a collection of cliches running through a harebrained script, where Gul Panag is surrounded by an impressive coterie of non-actors, even as the director vainly, even gallantly, tries to push the envelope.A film…
Read the full reviewUnfortunately, the trailer is all Yamla Pagla Deewana has to offer, the film itself nowhere near funny or clever enough to warrant a recommendation.
Read the full review7 Khoon Maaf may well be about a demented deity with a fetish for husband-killing, but — incredible as it may seem — it is a strikingly boring film.More than that, in fact, this is a cute film.
Read the full reviewAnees Bazmee’s latest film Thank You goes nowhere, and takes forever to, um, not get there.Frequently the film, like leading man Kumar, doesn’t even bother with the attempt of being funny.
Read the full reviewIt is a delightfully simple story about a young boy, his friends and a schoolteacher who isn’t his greatest fan, and yet, like the finest of children’s tales, it has the power to be just as epic as the children want it to be.
Read the full reviewIt’s a simple cop drama, or, as Nana casually tells a shocked guest as he chases a drug-dealer down the hallway at a party, There is much of merit in the film. The actors, as said, are in top form.
Read the full reviewThat said, the film punctuates its increasingly noisy but wonderfully well-lit predictability with significant quirk. In the end, it’s all flash.
Read the full reviewOne of the most frequently repeated terms to describe and legitimise Bollywood’s silliest products is “paisa vasool.” This patronising yet appreciative phrase denotes giving up, the person using the term confessing that while the…
Read the full reviewNobody else in Roshan Abbas’ Always Kabhi Kabhi is EVER quiet. Yes, I used caps. Just like the film does as it screams at the eardrums , with a moronic background score that never stops overselling the moment.
Read the full reviewThere's a cop, an ex-wife, a groupie, assorted mafioso, the cop's girl, a nosy landlady, a bizarrely brutal father, yadda yadda yadda. It's all utterly unnecessary, except to give the viewer a mild respite from Bachchan-gazing.
Read the full reviewThe first Murder worked because of a molten Mallika Sherawat the genuinely raw chemistry between her and Hashmi, and director Anurag Basu keeping things taut. It was a ripoff, sure, but a darned effective one.
Read the full reviewWe’ve seen it all before, and Singham’s another time machine set up to take us back into the 1980s, Hindi cinema’s most ghastly decade.
Read the full reviewThis is a film made in bad taste, and -- with apologies to Mr Capote -- in old blood.
Read the full reviewMausam starts off significantly fresh, making up for slightly overdone cutesiness with heart and flavour.
Read the full reviewRa.One is a subpar superhero film with a mediocre soundtrack and occasionally terrific effects. For those of you looking to compare, it’s well below Krrish on the superpecking order, and far, far below Robot.
Read the full reviewRanveer Singh, who was fantastic in last year’s Band Baaja Baaraat, here has his rough edges blunted by the generic sheen of wannabe stardom, and the result is most unfortunate.There is a plot in Maneesh Sharma’s latest, but…
Read the full reviewDon 2, Akhtar’s latest, is a glossy, unashamed action offering polished within an inch of itself, visually coming together seamlessly and effectively.
Read the full reviewIf only Agent Vinod were a video game. It has all the hallmarks of a classicSo yes, as a game it’d be sensational, and tremendous fun.
Read the full reviewSajid Khan’s Housefull 2, a grotesque film that seems to have been put together by a particularly sadistic ten-year-old. Look, I have nothing against stupid comedies.
Read the full reviewSupavitra Babul's directorial debut tries far too hard to be the next Band Baaja Baaraat.
Read the full reviewPublicised purely on the strength of its ‘erotic’ content and scandalously adult themes, Hate Story delivers very little actual heat. What it does have is a girl willing to take her clothes off.
Read the full reviewTragically enough, the film doesn’t stick to the guns the concept inherently offers.
Read the full reviewA lot would have been forgiven — as it often is with these producers — if the film had either a meatier plot or a more gripping narrative, but this one’s just tiresome as the obvious story drags on.
Read the full reviewThere is much craft on display, and some lovely moments, but the immense promise shown by the first half turns out as hollow as a politician’s.
Read the full reviewVarma, predictably, has fun with a couple of quirky lines — especially one that blatantly introduces Nathalia Kaur’s item number, a cameltoe-y milestone for Bollywood — and a scene with the camera mounted on the striker on a…
Read the full reviewA good meaty chunk of pointless predictability, brutal violence avenged by even more sadistic violence, and one-liners than make no sense: everything serving only to prostrate the film at the feet of the star, making him the…
Read the full reviewso strident is Dibakar Banerjee’s voice as a filmmaker that even this adaptation — of Vassilis Vassilikos’ Z, about a wholly different time and political situation — is turned into a strikingly relevant story of our times and our…
Read the full reviewYet it is the excess that suffocates all the magic, originality dying out for lack of room to breathe. Kashyap gets flavour, setting and character right, but the lack of economy cripples the film.
Read the full reviewAll three genuinely do look like they’re having a good time, this camaraderie making for a reasonably enjoyable first half — with an upbeat, vibe.Actually, the second half of Cocktail borrows from every conceivable romantic…
Read the full reviewGangs of Wasseypur II plunges straight into action, rendering the first part nearly redundant.
Read the full reviewDirector Kabir Khan scales down the ambition as he aims for a safe mainstream middle-ground in his Ek Tha Tiger, a spy-thriller which takes a while to get boiling but eventually crackles along quite effectively.It could have been…
Read the full reviewSo what happens if a film — one ostensibly in the guise of a comedy — doesn’t try too hard? The humour here isn’t grating, overdone, outrageous, offensive, excruciating, unwatchable.
Read the full reviewA well-crafted script with an intriguing back-and-forth narrative -- set in the present day, 1978 and 1972 -- Barfi!
Read the full reviewHeroine is quite stupendously glossy, with every actress soaked in bronzer, and much flattering lighting.
Read the full reviewGo watch English Vinglish, and take your mothers along. As shown by one great scene which has Shashi speaking furiously in Hindi to her chef friend Laurent, who replies back in thoughtful-sounding French, it isn't about language.
Read the full reviewAnd while Chittagong falls well short of being a great film, it can't help but be an important one. And Pain keeps it honest.
Read the full reviewRush is a film about a racing season — and two seasoned racers — so damned thrilling that it would compel the most stubborn Formula One hater, those people who insist mastering technology isnt a sporting enough achievement and…
Read the full reviewA Yash Chopra drama that treads very familiar territory slickly – and a fair bit too slowly – but does so with an old-world sincerity that somehow makes most of it bearable.
Read the full reviewMake no mistake, Talaash is a Vikram Bhatt film. It starts off well, but simmers far too long before it gets to the boil.
Read the full reviewFor a fan of the star in question, all that matters is whether the star seems to be having fun. In which case Dabanng 2 is just the ticket, since Salman looks to be having the time of his life.
Read the full reviewIt’s theatrical, insightful, wickedly clever and, often, too funny to even laugh at, if you know what I mean. It is also, as may be apparent, an utterly random movie, sometimes jarringly uneven and frequently meandering.
Read the full reviewDespite finding a lot to individually love, I wasnt very sold on the first Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, largely because of the way it stretched out, its uneven tone, and the fatal misstep in attempting to pay tribute to Saheb Bibi…
Read the full reviewMere Dad Ki Maruti throws up a debutant director with promise and actors who deserve to be in more films, writes Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewWhich is all rather admirable but decidedly boring, and exhaustingly predictable.
Read the full reviewMotwane’s direction is so assured and confident that this scarcely feels like his second feature. The script is clearly one he believes in, and the film is resultantly free of false-notes.
Read the full reviewThis is the sort of creep-fest which is better creating an uneasy buildup than at actually scaring the pants off you, and perhaps it should have stayed goosepimply instead of going for the jugular.
Read the full reviewMaria, while beautiful, is clearly a hack, for the love story she describes is so unbearably generic that the script could have been assembled by putting together the outtakes from any number of romantic movies.
Read the full reviewThe finest, most fascinating mysteries are the ones where we find the red herrings stashed away in plain sight all along. In Raj Kumar Gupta’s Ghanchakkar, the true clue to the proceedings is barely hidden.
Read the full reviewChor Chor Super Chor, however, has a pretty nifty idea at its core.
Read the full reviewChor Chor Super Chor, however, has a pretty nifty idea at its core.
Read the full reviewShah Rukh Khan yelps and squeaks and shrieks and bares fangs and pouts and, well, exhausts himself overcompensating at every step, despite nobody else in the film following this template.
Read the full reviewZanjeer was never a particularly great film. Sure, it had Amitabh Bachchan at his most primal, all flammable eyes and sincerely-furious baritone. And it had Pran, who brought dignity and warmth to the proceedings.
Read the full reviewBatra, who has also written The Lunchbox, has allowed his smashing actors tremendous room to improvise, all the while himself sketching in nuanced details about the city, its food-ferriers, and the many disparities Mumbai is…
Read the full reviewThere was Aamir Khan running down the side of a building for no apparent reason. Everything — repeat, everything — looked too goofy to be either thrilling or realistic or compelling or even plain fun.
Read the full reviewTrue to its name, this is half a film. Its half-written, half-digested, half-witted.Abhay Deol shoots himself in the foot by acting in (and, inexplicably, producing) this monstrosity that sucks all the goodwill out of an actor we…
Read the full reviewGunday is the sort of film some people may mistakenly call a bromance.
Read the full reviewThat unrehearsed feel, I suspect, was what Motwane was going for.
Read the full reviewBegum Jaan is a highly melodramatic film that waxes frequently on how Hindus and Muslims are the same beasts, but – at its core, under all the shrillness – it is a frustratingly straightforward film about an eviction being…
Read the full reviewNoor, a skilfully photographed adaptation of Saba Imtiaz’s book, Karachi, You’re Killin Me.
Read the full reviewThe plotting is oafish, the character motivations are boringly shallow, and there seems to have been a catastrophic misreading of what palace politics entail.
Read the full reviewHalf Girlfriend is about two halfwits who belong together. It is a film that claims to celebrate romance and undying passion and gates both Bill and Indian, but all it does is applaud a spoilt man who believes he’s a scapegoat.
Read the full reviewSachin: A Billion Dreams is thankfully not a biopic. This is a documentary not merely about the man with that name, but one narrated by him, one where he tells his own story in his own words.
Read the full reviewBank Chor has a few mildly amusing moments, but it could have been a genuinely funny film. The setup is there, the characters are there, Deshmukh is around and game to embrace the nuttiness.
Read the full reviewThis is a story of girl meets girl, and you should know upfront that this is not a love story. Unless, of course, we refer to the relationship between the audience and the protagonist.
Read the full reviewFrom snatches of dialogue (about adulterated cement) to plot-points (about disappearing corpses), even lifting bits of the background score to try and underscore its salutation, O Teri borrows constantly from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro…
Read the full reviewLucknow Central is frequently stupid. The prisoners wanting to break out, to give you just one example, stash fake police uniforms in their drum set – even though their band doesn’t ever play or practice with drums.
Read the full reviewBhoothnath Returns, directed by Nitesh Tiwari — a follow-up to the 2008 hit about how many faces Amitabh Bachchan could pull — is about a ghost so fed-up with our corruption and our politicians that he decides to stand for the…
Read the full reviewThe one truly memorable moment in Chef – at least for those of a certain vintage – is when Khan makes a clever reference to a twenty year old buddy film.
Read the full reviewThere are two murders, there are two suspects, and there is one scowling police detective trying to unravel things on a very rushed timeline.
Read the full reviewHawa Hawaii is simple but wonderful. It’s a well-textured and etched film. Gupte’s first film, the marvellous Stanley Ka Dabba was better-realised cinematically and held more to cherish, but Hawa Hawaai tries to bite off more.
Read the full review102 Not Out is, as I said, a sweet film. It's nice to see an old Bachchan picture on the wall, circa Abhimaan, just as it is fine to see a photograph of a Khel Khel Mein Kapoor teaching his son math.
Read the full reviewBesides the intriguing bahu-spy premise, the film presents nothing new to inform the genre: spies have feelings, spies get sappy, spies cry. Even Bond films show us that these days.
Read the full reviewFriends are the new family. Weddings are now as much about parents giving away the bride as they are about friends entrusting her to a man they approve of.
Read the full reviewHoliday, obsessed as it is with detailing Akshay’s efficiency, takes obscene amounts of time getting to the point. Cut down to less than half its running time, Holiday could perhaps have been bearable.
Read the full reviewTake a dash of Dil Chahta Hai. Throw in liberal doses of Shaitan, add several tablespoonfuls of Fukrey, with a climactic heap of Rang De Basanti on top.
Read the full reviewIt's all bad. All of it, every last instant, every single word, rants Raja Sen in his review of Humshakals.
Read the full reviewHence we have Ek Villain, where we take a hardboiled Korean film — full of brutal gore and s**ual abuse but enough panache to stay constantly gripping — and inexplicably scramble it into a s**-less, gore-less slasher film with a…
Read the full reviewWhen composing his own epitaph, Manto had famously (and only half-jokingly) suggested that his tombstone ask: Who was the better storyteller: God or Manto? It is when writing Mantos life that God may have come close.
Read the full reviewKick is Salman’s best film in a decade. The film is predictable, the script is lazily convenient, and yet there’s a surefootedness in the way Nadiadwala jauntily carries on increasing the tempo, piling on the Khan.
Read the full reviewIt is written out like comic-book style pulp, but shot as flatly as bad television. Things are in place, and while its not a bad film per se, it could have something far cooler.
Read the full reviewShashank Ghosh’s Khoobsurat is a bright red lollipop. In every way, this film offers up the expected — only it does so with a smirk.
Read the full reviewThis is not a simple adaptation, this takes not a simplistic stance; Haider is a remarkable achievement and one of the most powerful political films we’ve ever made, a bonafide masterpiece that throbs with intensity and…
Read the full reviewBesides the consistently cringeworthy dialogue, all Bang Bang holds are stunts.
Read the full reviewThis could well have been a film like Band Baajaa Baaraat or Rocket Singh, films where we saw the lead characters innovate against the odds and do something their bigger rivals couldn’t.
Read the full reviewWhile Sonu Sood stays consistent and Deepika inevitably dazzles, it is Shah Rukh himself who appears the most out of place, says Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewRang Rasiya is not a consistent film, but one that tells a story of a pioneering artist and visionary, a story decidedly worth telling..
Read the full reviewRang Rasiya is not a consistent film, but one that tells a story of a pioneering artist and visionary, a story decidedly worth telling..
Read the full reviewIt is an uneven, tacky, cheesy actioner, a film that has much going catastrophically wrong but it is also — surprise, surprise — at times incredibly zany .
Read the full reviewPK is no satire — it’s a bit too toothless for that — but it is a rollicking mainstream entertainer with ambition to evoke some introspection, one with compelling moments and some genuine surprises.
Read the full reviewUgly is a tale of torment, masterfully woven around the universally urgent trigger of a disappearing minor €” and yet where, in the larger scheme of things, that kidnapping itself becomes, I daresay, a minor detail. Genius.
Read the full reviewTevar — yet another of those mindless South remakes we have been indulging in so faithfully ever since Aamir Khan showed us the way in Ghajini — is a tiring slog, devoid of personality, riding unfairly on the shoulders of a young…
Read the full reviewThe whole film looks like those Pakistani VFX videos we laugh at on YouTube and — while there is definitely, definitely something to be said for a film where a talking Barbie doll tells the hero how a little girl in a bride…
Read the full reviewThis is a shame, because Anushka Sharma, who has also produced this film, is one of our most intriguing actresses. She’s fine in her part, and often beguilingly pretty, yet the film wastes her.
Read the full reviewBaahubali 2: Rajamouli never loosens his grip on the narrative. Prabhas is a hero to celebrate. This is the rare sequel that is better than the first...
Read the full reviewSushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon’s film promised a refreshing take on a relationship based on cockiness instead of conventional sap, Dinesh Vijan’s Raabta is let down.
Read the full reviewSalman trying to move mountains and stop wars by sticking his arms out and grunting earnestly, over and over. These are supposed to be emotionally hardcore scenes depicting naive wholesomeness and a good heart.
Read the full reviewBadlapur is all fury and fog, a revenge saga that plays out with such eyebrow-singeing intensity that I could imagine a gravel-voiced narrator filling us in on dames and dreams and dark, stormy nights.As the curtain falls on…
Read the full reviewNH10 is a scary, compelling ride featuring an actress who surpasses herself, says Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewIndu Sarkar demonstrates that it doesn’t matter who is in charge if the thinking is oppressive. It serves also as potent warning to those in power now and in the future, threatening their legacies.
Read the full reviewHunterrr is not a truly smart film. It is however brazen, ambitious and decidedly shameless in its celebration of sleaze.Written and directed by debutant Harshvardhan Kulkarni, Hunterrr is a deeply problematic film, one where…
Read the full reviewDetective Byomkesh Bakshy! is the best looking and least captivating of the current lot. And, as said earlier, he didn’t like to be called detective. Defective Byomkesh Bakshy, then.
Read the full reviewRanaut and a few clever lines keep the film watchable, until the third act where the script sadistically starts piling misfortune on the character to ratchet up the dramatic tension.
Read the full reviewDumbed down to a ridiculous degree, the film €” directed by hotshot Telugu director Krish €” tries to be a less-pathetic version of Salman Khans Jai Ho and might have succeeded on that count were it not for an absolutely daft…
Read the full reviewThis is also symptomatic of Newton itself, a film that, while striving to be admirably dry, proves at times to be achingly dull.
Read the full reviewBhoomi is not just a bad film, it is a bad film trying to be many good films. As the background score gets shriller, the film takes turns trying to be NH10 and Ghayal and Pink.
Read the full reviewBombay Velvet runs out of breath less than halfway through, and huffs and puffs as it tries to breast the finish line.
Read the full reviewI like young Dhawan. I enjoy his work in movies as disparate as Badlapur and Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya, but in Judwaa 2 he isn’t allowed to do his own thing. Instead, he’s trying to match a marvellously inane Salman Khan performance.
Read the full reviewthis is a marginally better film than Golmaal 3 or Golmaal Returns, not like that’s saying much.
Read the full reviewDil Dhadakne Do is like a really long episode of Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai where Satish Shah doesn't show up, says Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewHamari Adhuri Kahani is a film where three fine actors all play idiots. This time, working from a script written by Mahesh Bhatt, his focus appears to be not story but, simply, sadness.
Read the full reviewYet Guddu Rangeela never quite soars.The ingredients are all there and there are times its all good and rollicking, but a lot of it seems slapped hurriedly together.
Read the full reviewSeveral parts of Drishyam work but the film is more tackiness than craft, says Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewAt one point in All Is Well, Bachchan picks up Rishi Kapoor and carries him on his shoulders. This is the big ‘moment’ of the film, clearly, the Shravan Kumar moment which shows the prodigal son lifting the father.
Read the full reviewYet while it remains a work of immature, even irresponsible wish-fulfillment, that in itself does not keep it from being a passable actioner. Yes, its Saif Ali Khan essentially playing Sunny Deol.
Read the full reviewWelcome Back is dumb yet entertaining, utterly silly but made with a kind of absurd, warm energy.
Read the full reviewMSG 2 is a bizarre experience, and while definitely one that would make me want to ask Rediff.com for a raise, it’s mercifully an hour shorter than the unending first release and may also prove to be a daftly enjoyable release…
Read the full reviewPa Ranjith has some strong Leftist messaging and a lot to say about caste and colour, but all is lost within a mediocre film.
Read the full reviewLust Stories is out on Netflix, and I applaud these four distinct filmmakers for exploring this anthological format and still maintaining their originality of vision.
Read the full reviewIt’s a preposterously sloppy production, a film where the casting brief apparently insisted on excluding all those with any talent.
Read the full reviewGupta has cut to a generic hip-hop song, a party song, the kind Irrfan himself satirised so well recently.That says it all, the gulf between the lampooned and the lampooner.earlier, Khan offers a fellow policeman a bribe of the…
Read the full reviewTitli does very boldly to eschew both comedy and style for a more arid approach, but the narrative rationale is flimsy. Titli offers up dry nakedness as if that is enough to impress.
Read the full reviewNot that we need it. Charles is the only ladykiller we know, and we remain fascinated.
Read the full reviewIndu Sarkar demonstrates that it doesn’t matter who is in charge if the thinking is oppressive. It serves also as potent warning to those in power now and in the future, threatening their legacies.
Read the full reviewEven the car stunts — something Shetty is known for — are unoriginal, coming to us from Goldeneye and The Fast And The Furious movies, and so Dilwale, which, in its convoluted, sloppy fashion, tries to pay homage to Mukul Anand’s…
Read the full reviewI would never recommend that all films feature some KhoyaKhoyaChand-ugiri, but this one cries out for visual zip, for some seriously slick style.
Read the full reviewLook, there’s nothing wrong with stupid film, says a frustrated Raja Sen. Or, heaven forbid, with sexy films. Or films that delight in being a cross between the two.
Read the full reviewThe director casts two attractive people where he ought have chosen a couple of actual actors instead, and thus it becomes hard to care about the protagonists or their sundered hearts, and despite aesthetic appeal, what we end up…
Read the full reviewZubaan emerges, sadly, like one of those ads where you can half-hum the song but you forget what it was for, feels Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewOne Night Stand isn't yet another tawdry skin-flick; it actually has something to say, feels, Raja Sen.
Read the full reviewThe plot is preposterous, and by the end of the film, all us critics were laughing in exhausted disbelief. Is this a real movie? Did someone fund this? Is this actually releasing in theatres?
Read the full reviewAs a work of fan-fiction, Azhar is a mostly watchable film with a solid lead, but falls far short of being either entertaining, insightful, or worthy of recommendation. Hashmi and D’Souza try hard, and their effort shows.
Read the full reviewSarbjit is an irresponsibly sloppy film, a film so focused on artless emotional manipulation and trying to make the audience weep, that it trivialises an important true-life story.
Read the full reviewIt may well be a misfire, but Veerappan shows that at least RGV has his eyes open while squeezing the trigger. The dacoit is still at large.
Read the full reviewProducer Sujoy Ghosh ensures that there is at least an aesthetic in place and the film is competently crafted even if it squanders its narrative potential.
Read the full reviewThe film is clearly aiming for laughs, and even when it gets lost along the way, blindsided by some unnecessarily elaborate action moment or by a bicepped un-actor, it still provides a fair bit of corny fun.The films best parts…
Read the full reviewIt is a question we, the audience, would do well to echo, because it is hard to fathom what on earth led to this film being made.
Read the full reviewIt ends poorly, sure, and has some clumsy moments on the way, but as a children's film, A Flying Jatt goes a helluva lot further than those Krrish things...
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