31st October movie review: It has nothing we didn’t know
The assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on that fateful 1984 October day had led to three days of shocking mayhem in the national capital, where armed mobs rampaged through many parts of Delhi, burning and killing Sikhs, and pillaging their establishments. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a pogrom. […]
Tutak Tutak Tutiya Movie Review
STORY: Krishna (Prabhu Deva), a city bachelor, wishes to get married to a modern, English speaking girl but ends up with village belle Devi (Tamannaah). The newlyweds return to Mumbai and rent out a house as Krishna is too ashamed to introduce his desi wife to his friends. Turns out the house is haunted by the […]
Movie Review: Mirzya Movie Review
STORY: Mohnish/Aadil (Harshvardhan) and Suchitra (Saiyami) are schoolmates, who care deeply for one another. An untoward incident that occurs in their hometown, Jodhpur, separates them. Years later, their paths cross. But this time around, Suchitra is on the verge of getting married. REVIEW: Mirzya is inspired by the story of the star-crossed lovers Mirza-Sahiban, a popular folklore […]
M S Dhoni Movie Review: Sushant Singh Rajput’s Film is a Fanboy Account
Neeraj Pandey’s M S Dhoni – The Untold Story is a highly unusual enterprise. Never before in the history of cinema has a biopic of an active sportsman been mounted with quite this level of patronage from the subject himself. This unabashed puff-job has been bankrolled by Dhoni’s long-time confidant and business partner Arun Pandey and personally […]
Banjo review: There’s a lot to like in this Riteish Deshmukh film
Most Bollywood heroes prefer Switzerland or New Zealand or similar scenic locations for dream sequences, but Nand Kishor alias Tarrat Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh) isn’t one of them. He likes to sweep the Mumbai streets with his beloved even in a beautifully planned and executed dream song. After all, this is what he has seen. Chris […]
Raaz Reboot Movie Review
STORY: Happily married couple – Rihaan (Gaurav) and Shaina (Kriti) move into a heritage hotel like property in Romania and call it their home. Trouble beckons as the wife starts feeling the existence of an evil entity in their haunted house. REVIEW: Her deadpan banker hubby refuses to believe her, while her ex beau Aditya (Emraan Hashmi) […]
Pink review: Amitabh Bachchan is still the only boss around
Two cars are moving in two different directions. Each has three passengers – the first one has girls and the second is being driven by boys. Parallel cutting suggests a connection. One of the boys is bleeding and the girls look tense. A dark and sinister night has engulfed the Delhi-NCR region and everyone’s waiting […]
Freaky Ali review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui scores a sixer, not an albatross
In golf, you seldom see albatross. It’s a rare score where the player sinks his ball into the cup ‘three strokes below the par’ (meaning three strokes less than the par score of the hole). Extremely challenging. Yet, if it happens, you never see crowds go crazy with dhols and dance. Why? Well, that happens […]
Akira Movie Review
Sonakshi Sinha is an eye-catching action star and director-turned-actor Anurag Kashyap evil incarnate in A R Murugadoss’ intriguingly titled Akira. Both pull off their roles with astonishing aplomb. The film as a whole is, however, patchy. Its facile genre sleights – rogue cops, wronged innocents and bloody confrontations – hit home only sporadically. Despite pitchforking a […]
UnIndian film review: This side, that side
A cross-cultural romance comes with its own tropes. A successful one manages to break free while acknowledging the need for said conventions. UnIndian does quite well on that count; it’s familiar enough and yet manages to please. So there’s Will Henderson (Brett Lee), a true-blue Aussie who teaches a bunch of rookies the rules of […]
Pretham movie review: Jayasurya excels in this horror film without chills
Renjith Shankar’s movie Pretham, supposedly a horror comedy, keeps you waiting for a twist which never comes. What you get instead is a pretty ordinary climax, which is neither memorable nor scary. Thanks to Jayasurya’s character John Don Bosco, the movie is engaging in parts though. The actor again proves his versatility as he plays […]
Chauthi Koot Movie Review
Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) has already attained the status of a cinematic milestone. Last year, it became the first-ever Punjabi-language feature to break into the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection. No Indian entry in the past decade has arguably been more deserving of that nod. Opening in multiplexes with English subtitles this Friday, Chauthi Koot, […]
Budhia Singh – Born to Run Movie Review
A Bollywood sports film is usually an awkward creature. It tends to be a loud, lumbering beast prone to melodramatic flab and excessive deification. Mercifully, first-time writer-director Soumendra Padhi’s Budhia Singh – Born to Run isn’t one. It is neither average Bollywood fare nor is it just another sports-themed potboiler designed to magnify the heroics of an […]
The Legend of Michael Mishra Movie Review
STORY: Michael Misra (Arshad Warsi) aka Bhaiyyaji is a Bihari tailor-turned-kidnapper who falls in love with Varsa Sukla (Aditi Rao Hydari), a wannabe actress from Patna. He sheds his criminal image for her and becomes a good man but can his transformation bring the two together? REVIEW: While there have been reports of the film facing protests […]
Dishoom Movie Review
A star Indian batsman is kidnapped 36 hours ahead of a make-or-break match. The external affairs ministry in Delhi rushes a badass cop to a place “somewhere in the Middle East” to lead the manhunt to find both the missing cricketer and the mysterious captor. Sounds super exciting? On paper, it does. It definitely is […]
Kabali Catches Houston by Storm
By Vanshika Vipin HOUSTON: Houston saw some action from a frenzied crowd, last week. The occasion was the release of Kabali, the latest film starring the SuperStar Rajnikant. Die-hard Thalaiva fans had queued outside theatres to watch their beloved larger-than-life star. To many, Rajnikant is not just an actor or a SuperStar; he is a […]
Rajini leaves the Khans behind: Kabali is the biggest opener of all times
Toppling the three Khans of Bollywood, Rajinikanth emerged as the winner on Saturday when the makers of Kabali announced that the film had made an opening collection of Rs 250 crore in the domestic market alone. With figures like that, Kabali is now the all-time biggest opener in India. Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year […]
Madaari review: It’s a guide on how to spoil a film despite perfect ingredients
If you have a good story and a bunch of talented actors, you can make a good movie, right? Wrong. Despite a well-intentioned and intriguing story on vigilante justice and actors like Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill, Madaari comes across as a rather vague, stretched and cliched film. is Madaari begins with Irrfan Khan’s voiceover […]
America Welcomes ‘Rustom’ Akshay Kumar!
NEW YORK: Akshay Kumar and ZEE Studios unveiled the trailer and the first song of his movie ‘Rustom’. During this event Akshay Kumar, who plays the role of a Parsi naval officer Rustom Pavri in his upcoming film, met and had lunch with the Parsi community of America and Canada. During the event, the community […]