The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Changez, loves America. An Ivy-leaguer, he is a successful financial consultant who has everything going for him in the land of opportunity. Then he witnesses 9/11. And Changez begins to hate America. Not because he interprets the act as some subliminal belief he had within him all along, but rather, for what America does to [...]

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Aurangzeb

It is important to pay attention early on in Aurangzeb as it kicks off with Prithviraj’s voiceover. He introduces his “business” as a top cop and the roll of characters that are to play a part in this complex, intelligent plot that holds the promise of a taut thriller about power and money. At a [...]

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Go Goa Gone

Finally. Zombies! It’s about time the general Indian population was alerted about the possibility of a post-apocalyptic world where the dead walk and feast upon the living and bring them into their fold. I should admit that I’m a huge fan of the genre and have watched and read a lot on the subject and [...]

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Gippi

Class 9. You’re fat. You’re insecure. You think you can dance. But you trip and fall. A lot. The mirror is your best friend. Time stands still when you’re in front of it. The reflection is your world. Only when you look away does time fast forward to the present and you feel like a [...]

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Bombay Talkies

Amitabh Bachchan is in Bombay Talkies. Katrina Kaif is in it too. So are Rani Mukherjee, Randeep Hooda, Saqib Saleem, Ranvir Shorey, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. And yet the promotion of the film is done on the strength of the directors’ names alone: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Anurag Kashyap. Four amongst India’s finest [...]

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Celluloid Man

Of the 1700 films that were made in the silent era in India, only nine exist today. This number would’ve been zero, had it not been for one man. The rest have been lost, destroyed, or sold for their silver, used in a compound with halide that coated earlier forms of celluloid. It is also [...]

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Shootout at Wadala

A scene from Shootout at Wadala released on the internet even before the film opened in theaters. In it, Manya Surve and his gang sit at a restaurant table and dissect the word ‘b****c**d’: it’s universality, moods, and interpretation across cultures. This is a very Tarantino-esque aside and it would be a shame if it [...]

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Aashiqui 2

An alcoholic rock star rarely in control of his actions, a culturally-rooted girl who sings at bars and aspires to be Lata. An innocent resolve to guide that snowballs into a torrid affair. Love. Addiction. Tears. Karma. Sacrifice. Music. Music, above all else. This, in a nutshell, is Aashiqui 2: freshly crated off the Bhatt [...]

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Shree

Shree attempts a genre rare for Hindi cinema: science fiction and straightaway earns a few points in trying to be original. But with a nearly zero budget production cost and general lack of polish in every department, it finds itself in unenviable territory: a good idea, a poor script, and shoddy execution. At this point [...]

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Ek Thi Daayan

Producers Ekta Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj’s take on Mukul Sharma’s short story is bit of a genre bender. Ek Thi Daayan strays from the conventional, formulaic, horror. Best to read the film, then, as a drama consisting spooky elements, with suspense and songs thrown in for good measure. First time director Kannan Iyer has all [...]

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