Clik here to view.
“Boss”… Khiladi No. 7835693
For a while, there is the indication that Anthony D’Souza’s Boss will shape up to be a solid masala outing. There’s a sense of bigness at the beginning, a reference to the events being played out on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Mickey Virus”… Saying it with passwords
The best cybercrime films play on our paranoia of a world in which our net-bound lives are constantly in peril. Any kid with talent can hack in and walk away with our secrets, our money, our very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Krrish 3.”… Yucks-men
All filmmakers make pacts with the devil to ease production costs. A Bond movie, say, will show M cracking open her laptop at an angle that highlights the fluorescent apple. But no one – no one – is as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela”… Purple hearts
Watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela, I felt that Ranveer Singh should have played the protagonist of Besharam. He wears disreputability like a second skin, and he doesn’t...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Singh Saab The Great”… Deol fashioned way
If Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Satyakam were made today, it might look like Singh Saab the Great. Here, Sunny Deol takes on the role his father did in the earlier film, the honest man disillusioned by the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Gori Tere Pyaar Mein”… It takes a village…
Imran Khan made a charming debut in Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na, but little did we know then that that was all he could do. (Watching him try to stretch in films like Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola and Once Upon...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Bullett Raja”… Masala musings
There are many ways to make masala movies. You can serve them straight up, the way Prabhu Dheva does. Or you can distance yourself and refract the whole thing through a po-mo prism, the way Anurag...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“R… Rajkumar”… Do the fight thing
By some freakish coincidence, we have, this week, practically the same movie we had last week – only, this one’s done the way it should be. Like Bullett Raja, Prabhu Dheva’s R… Rajkumar is a masala...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Jackpot”… Goa boys
Kaizad Gustad’s optimistically titled Jackpot wants to be a sweat-soaked comic noir, like those stories of con artists in sultry Florida bayous, with alligators snapping around. There’s a sense of that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“What the F!$#”… Home movie
In What the F!$#, Dimple Kapadia plays Sudha Mishra, a crotchety upper-class woman, and at the beginning of the film, she just cannot stop complaining – about the roads, about the cab driver who’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Dhoom 3.”… Corn games
For the latest installment in an empty-headed franchise, Dhoom 3 sets its sights surprisingly high. This isn’t so much a bikes-and-babes tableau as an Angry Young Man saga (think Trishul on steroids),...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Dedh Ishqiya”… Love all
The first time I saw Abhishek Chaubey’s Ishqiya, I walked out having enjoyed it but not quite knowing what to make of it. At a basic level, it’s a very entertaining movie – and how could it not be,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Jai Ho”… Help!
Jai Ho was earlier named Mental – and that was actually a good title, given this story of Jai (Salman Khan), who, ousted from the army, seeks to do a bit of public good. And he turns Samaritan to an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“One By Two”… Half-baked
At the beginning of One By Two, the screen is halved… one by two. Only, we don’t know it’s a vertical split screen. Someone with a camera is going around recording guests at party, and she calls out to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Hasee Toh Phasee”… Escape plans
When we meet Meeta (Parineeti Chopra), she seems to be auditioning for the part of an autistic savant. She’s clearly some sort of genius, but she looks a little unhinged. She blinks furiously. She...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Gunday”… Shuddh desi bromance
This Valentine’s Day, Bollywood gives us a bromance. No, really. Forget Amitabh Bachchan horsing around on a bike with Dharmendra, or sloshing around in the showers with Shashi Kapoor, or locking eyes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Highway”… On the road
Spoilers ahead… In a very funny moment in Imtiaz Ali’s Highway, Veera (Alia Bhatt) attempts an apology. She feels bad about snapping at Mahabir (Randeep Hooda), the man who’s abducted her and is now...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Shaadi Ke Side Effects”… Hollywood ke side effects
Spoilers ahead… I enjoyed Saket Choudhary’s Pyaar Ke Side Effects, and I wrote: “We’ve seen this sort of thing a thousand times in Hollywood before, and if something like this had come along with, say,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Total Siyapaa”… Indo-Pak relations
Spoilers ahead… The Pakistani hero (Ali Zafar) of E Nivas’s Total Siyapaa is named Aman, and he’s in love with an Indian named Asha (Yami Gautam). (Get it? She’s “Aman ki asha,” which is what this film...
View ArticleClik here to view.
“Gulaab Gang”… That touch of pink
Spoilers ahead… I walked into Soumik Sen’s Gulaab Gang expecting a fiery feminist drama. I walked out having watched a Tamil/Telugu mass-hero masala movie – only, with women. I’m serious. As with the...
View Article