2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
No filmmaker I know has managed to bring to life the filth, the underbelly, and, yes there is no other word, the sheer grime, of India on to the screen as Anurag Kashyap has (right from Paanch, down to Ugly).
The W14 reviews
84 reviews of Indian films, average rating 2.5/5.
Compared with other critics
Rates films 0.3 stars below other critics on average, across 76 shared films. See the full table
84reviews
2.48/5average rating
4highest: The Lunchbox
1lowest: Desi Kattey
38Under 2.25
02.25 to 2.9
383 to 3.9
84 and up
Hindi 2.46/5 (83)Marathi 4/5 (1)
Udta Punjab3.5/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Though the film touches upon the political aspect here superficially, it exposed the other system and its vindictive nature before its release for which it literally fought its way. You probably rooted for the film to win.
Housefull 32/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
At some point, inevitably, the cinema screen in the dark hall starts competing with your little cellphone screen. Which is only fair. As our phones get smarter, our humour clearly appears to be getting dumber.
Waiting3/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This simple film is so much more about dealing with life, death, and the fuzzy space in between, that suddenly becomes precious when you're hit with the thought of losing the most loved one. You can sense the tragedy. We all have.
Azhar1.5/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This movie appears instead as some sort of a long explanation to the world, delivered by the corny looking Emraan Hashmi, on behalf of Azhar, setting the record straight—if not on the match fixing scandal, then on his…
Baaghi2/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
I just think this is the sort of movie designed really well around the hero and therefore bumper numbers at the box-office, which this might well get.
Sairat4/5
2016 · Marathi · Anup Pandey
More than the "story", we are taken on a ride of emotions, such as the adrenaline rush of waiting for your crush to enter the classroom. This takes you right back to your college days.
Nil Battey Sannata3.5/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
...every character in this film has to be unusually positive for us to unquestioningly gloss over the complexities of a story like this.
Fan3/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
After all of that, sitting through two Superstar SRKs over two and half hours could seem like a chore or bore—if you're not a fanatic yourself, or at the very least, merely interested in watching a film.
Jai Gangaajal1.5/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
...just a series of relentless, supposedly crowd-pleasing hyperbole. And so something big does happen in this picture. It should command your attention. The film is centred on it. But you know what? You don't care.
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Tere Bin Laden: Dead Or Alive, retains a fine balance. It is, for the most part, black comedy at its best. Yeah it does stretch things a bit much towards the final few minutes.
Aligarh4/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You get instantly drawn to this guy and therefore this film. Sure, the issue it addresses is urgent (homophobia, section 377, right to privacy, etc. etc.).
Neerja3/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The film seems obviously centred on Sonam. It's hard to tell if any other actor would've cracked this role better.
Fitoor3.5/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Quite simply, it works for you, or it doesn't. There is no logic. It is about emotions. You sound like a fart verbalising or intellectualising beyond a point. I'm wholly aware of it. So, will rightly desist. Or will try to.
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Much, clearly. To start with, unlike most other films that treat sequels as brand franchise, Ghayal Returns is genuinely the second part of Ghayal (1990), where Om Puri's cop character is now an RTI activist.
Mastizaade1/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Very poorly shot, standard, third-rate double-meaning fare is what you get then. And god knows we've seen so many such that it's hard to keep track.
Airlift3/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Yeah I know, this had the potential to be Hotel Rwanda. But let's not quibble much; for now, this will do—a very, very watchable Bollywood film.
Wazir3/5
2016 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
I was quite satisfied while making a move from the theatre. Yeah, this totally works, for the time it lasts! Can't quite ask for more.
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The authenticity in the writing (Himanshu Sharma) is perhaps the reason practically all the actors in the film (most notably Deepak Dobriyal) leave a mark. The wit and repartee is absolutely top class.
Bombay Velvet1.5/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
For a moment if you disregard this pic's massive budget, it does not even count as director Anurag Kashyap's most ambitious work. The inter-generational saga Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) was—both in its scope and scale.
Piku4/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
More than anything else this comedy got me slightly emotional thinking about how distracted we get by life in general that we often begin to take our old folks—parents, grand parents—for granted.
Gabbar Is Back1.5/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This is a super hero film. Like all Bollywood super-star actioners are. The hero is expected to make a dozen men fly and eat dust with one stroke of his arm. That fauladi arm, as you know, belongs to Akki man.
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The stories eventually boil down to common emotions. As does this film's. Yes, there is a lot of pathos. But there is much joy. And enough empathy. By the end of it you want to go get a margarita with Laila.
Ek Paheli Leela1.5/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
I'm actually stunned by the reincarnation of Ms Leone, or Karenjit Vohra, ex-pornstar of Punjabi descent, herself. She's come a long way, baby.
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Popular entertainment, or a lively, mass-oriented film such as this, is perhaps our most potent counter to a frightening intolerance. That fact alone makes this a very important and brave film.
Hunterrr1.5/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Between the two main characters the movie collects enough material not only to flit between various timelines (that we've been going through anyway), but also between various possibilities of what could happen in various scenes.
NH103/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
While this one also gives off the feel of a horror flick, it is essentially a thriller. The number of coincidences in a plot is obviously inversely proportional to how credible the story seems.
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This picture is still in the '90s. I'm pretty sure the audience has moved on.
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This is a particularly poorly promoted picture, so I am not sure how well it may pack theatres. Fat chance.
Roy1/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Here's what they get, entirely out of context: Long pauses. Pretentious bollocks for dialogue between three decent Bollywood tracks. The massive mansion. Horses in slo-mo. Vast ocean under a semi-lit sky.
Hawaizaada1/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You only wish some of this grandeur could have been transported to give the fine Marathi biopic Harishchandracha Factory some of the scale it deserved to compete at the Oscars in 2010.
Baby3/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
What matters is that at no point do you question, and you ought to hand it to the writer-director who creates enough tension in every scene, even if very little lies beneath. Some of the dialogues are crackerjack.
Alone2/5
2015 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Plot isn't so much the point. Most horror movies are about someone who feels the spirit and everyone else who's unable to believe this.
Ugly3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
...the film itself, tightly put together, ideally watched without an interval, keeps you thoroughly engaged and almost at the edge of your seat until you get to that end. That's fun enough. Would you even want to look back?
PK3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
At some point towards the end the filmmakers also take their eyes entirely off the ball and begin to deal with extraneous things and side characters. Responding as an audience, was I disappointed? Yes.
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You know the film is called Action Jackson, and it will essentially be a series of stylized stunt and sexy song sequences. And it totally is. Yet, no one, really, no one, can adequately warn you against what to expect here.
Ungli1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
...the disturbingly repetitive plot of this supposedly realistic film that's got some top actors to show up at what must be less than their current market rates.
Happy Ending3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The Bollywood script getting written within this film somewhere starts tallying with the hero's own story. This clever move allows us to flit between a formula pic and an unconventional rom-com.
Kill Dil3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The title is borrowed from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. That homage somewhat plays out in the background score sometimes. I suspect Indian filmmakers' intense love for Tarantino comes from their shared fondness for kitsch.
Rang Rasiya3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The relevance of this movie then will be lost on no one in the audience. The relationship between art and morality (or the public and morality itself) has not been a linear one.
Rang Rasiya3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The relevance of this movie then will be lost on no one in the audience. The relationship between art and morality (or the public and morality itself) has not been a linear one.
Roar1/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
I feel for the 'Save the Tiger' campaign. But if a film about a tiger, such as this, was in front of you, I would suggest that you save yourself first.
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Eventually, while walking down the aisle, after what could've been an exhausting experience, you realise that while you hadn't really been rolling on the floor laughing, you weren't quite rolling your eyes either.
Sonali Cable1/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You can as easily sense why the intentions of this award-wining screenplay are lost in the lameness on the screen. Meanwhile the villain, Kher the corporate shark, chomps on khakras and orders his white woman assistant around.
Haider2/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
What you're left with then are a series of scenes stretching the film to almost 3 hours (without even a fulsome soundtrack) that tries to fit the original Hamlet—singing gravediggers, play within the play etc—into a movie with a…
Bang Bang!1/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
If the reasons above to sit through over 150 minutes of this movie are good enough for you, feel free to bang your head against the seat in the front.
Desi Kattey1/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Films like these are supposed to be hard-hitting. Once they begin to hit you on your head, it usually becomes quite hard to recover for a while. But this one takes things a little further. I speak from experience.
Khoobsurat1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
To be fair, I'm not the target group for this movie. It's probably aimed at audiences aged 14 or 15 or under (whether mentally or chronologically).
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The movie is clever and fun for the most part. Yet, as you step back for a second, you realise this is a contemporary 'Muslim social drama', and it is about lower middle class Indians.
Mary Kom3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Sometimes we watch films to feel inspired, since there is such little in our lives that make us feel the same way. There is enough exhilarating drama in Mary's life. I'm glad the filmmakers kind of play it straight.
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
If you disengage yourself from logic of any kind, it still sort of works, although some will buy it, many others won't. Some of the twists and set-ups are quite clever, even if done in by the rest of the film.
Mardaani1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You're bored to death wondering when the heroine will just morph into a female Salman and get on with it. Oh, she does, but only very briefly. Ah okay. Then what's the point.
Mardaani1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You're bored to death wondering when the heroine will just morph into a female Salman and get on with it. Oh, she does, but only very briefly. Ah okay. Then what's the point.
Singham Returns1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Films that are so meticulously designed to become a hit, more often than not, hit your head really hard. This picture is not an exception in that sense.
Kick1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
From all Salman Khan movies, you rarely remember any other actor, besides Salman himself, which is just as well, because that is what audiences pay for.
Pizza1/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
There is a twist at the end of this film that is way over-smart for its own good.
Pizza1/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
There is a twist at the end of this film that is way over-smart for its own good.
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Repeated references to scenes, characters and situations from DDLJ may bug you sometimes. This film can fully stand on its own feet.
Bobby Jasoos3/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Does it matter that Bobby Jasoos takes far too many creative liberties so far as plot is concerned? Yes, it certainly would, if you went in only for a detective drama. Don't. It's a lot more than that.
Ek Villain1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
By the end of it, you're not sure if this is a soft passionate number on how love conquers all.
Humshakals1.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
A series of bad gags is still better than a bad film that takes itself seriously. Therefore we give comedy the long rope. This one is dedicated to Kishore Kumar, Peter Sellers and Jim Carrey for inspiration.
Dedh Ishqiya3.5/5
2014 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The genre is the same. It is totally Tarantino-esque in its tone, making light of goons with guns.
Dhoom 33/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The film at some level goes back to the original purpose of all public entertainment – the circus. That's where it is set. It's also about magic on a grand scale, a reason pop-corn laden blockbuster flicks fascinate us anyway.
Besharam2/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Yeah, this could have been Ranbir Kapoor's Rangeela. It's funny in some parts but nowhere as good and only half as much fun as director Abhinav Kashyap's Dabanng.
The Lunchbox4/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This picture primes you up for the end, slowly taking control of your emotions when you're willing to go either way so far as this film's conclusion is concerned.
Zanjeer1.5/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
It's hard though when you're constantly made aware that these loose, sometimes fully disjointed pieces of a zanjeer (series of events) – with several unexplained and missing scenes — is the reinterpretation of the 1973 classic
Madras Cafe3.5/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This is probably the first Bollywood film that looks closely at India's political involvement outside of its own shores.
D-Day2/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Spies inhabit a shadowy world. They plot long-term moves, stay under cover for a living, and quietly run for their life when necessary, which is quite often. Any exposure equals death.
Lootera3.5/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
His first film Udaan (2010) was both a commercial success and an entry at Cannes. It's the kind of reception Bollywood films would get back in the 1950s (Awaara, Do Bhiga Zameen ….).
Katiyabaaz4/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This picture is unique not so much for its subject as for the manner and choice of the story being told. The film effectively employs techniques of narrative fiction to spin a hugely engaging, entertaining drama.
Special 263.5/5
2013 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
There is no doubt this movie is based on a true story. It's too crafty for a screenwriter's invention. So are the folks before us on the screen.
2010 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Luthria rightly recreates retro from the '70s. And this is not just in the low angles of the shots; strange prints on expensive nylon shirts; or trumpets for a background score.
Kurbaan2/5
2009 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
What you may brave through then is a flick neither real or serious enough to be a meditation on global terror, nor sweetly suspended and adequately brain-dead to be Die Hard. It's hard to be both. The hardship shows.
2008 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
This is an altogether atmospheric film; the sorts where the sum of sweetly stirred parts and details is so much superior to the whole. How often do we watch a Mumbai movie whose setting alone we can smell from our seats.
Saawariya2/5
2007 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Bhansali carefully chose his leading couple from the mom-and-pop store movies in Mumbai get made from. The move made commercial sense. He gives them instead much less scope to prove any skills.
Chak De! India3.5/5
2007 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
One, a brilliant comedy and comment on the cultural divide and diversity of India. Two, a strong perspective on team and attitude building.
2007 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
In journalism, stories, if confirmed, are true; if not, they stay rumours. This movie-fantasy, according to its poster, belongs to a vague genre called "true rumours".
Dhoom 23/5
2006 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
The anticipated result is a wonderfully crafted mall product; much of it goes well with the pop-corn. This is more or less what I felt the posters had promised. They just about meet those expectations.
Khosla Ka Ghosla!3.5/5
2006 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
Golmaal, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, these are gigantic reference points for any film. This one lives up to them in substantial measure; I can't think of a better compliment to pay.
2006 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
You may, or may not be entirely convinced by Mehra's phenomenally filmed, but rather far-fetched grand finale.
Socha Na Tha3/5
2005 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
All said, given that every formula worth a 'family film' — about a young boy who meets a young girl as they live (or don't live) happily ever after — has been flogged to death, this fresh, sparkling and lively resurrection that…
Swades4/5
2004 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
As for the lead protagonist Khan (brilliant), let's just say, in an entire career that spans a string of no-brainer, schmaltzy cinema hot off the shelves of Bollywood's money-making masala stores, this is by far the most…
Veer-Zaara3/5
2004 · Hindi · Mayank Shekhar
An old-fashioned love tale for the tear-ducts. Which, I must pleasantly note, still holds and very mildly moves you.
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