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Member Reviews

No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough. Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.

You can also browse reviews using our alphabetical index of films reviewed

Films reviewed on this Page

Nadaaniyan (3)
The Waking of a Nation (2)
Dupahiya (2)
Sthal (1)
Kingston (1)
Gentlewoman (1)

Page 10 of 97

Nadaaniyan
Srivathsan Nadadhur
Independent Film Critic
Another Nepo-Kid Disaster

Pia Jaisingh, from a family of lawyers, hires Arjun Mehta, a scholarship student, as a pretend boyfriend to cover a lie in her school. Despite his academic and athletic success, relationships are not his forte. As their pretense deepens, genuine feelings develop, until all hell breaks loose over a misunderstanding. How far will Pia and Arjun go to confront their inner demons and find true love? Though the film is in place to launch Ibrahim into the industry, one feels sorry for him. He is reduced to a male mannequin devoid of any personality. All he’s asked to do is to wear good clothes, show off his toned body and if possible, find time to act. Khushi Kapoor is marginally better in the film than her debut The Archies, though she clearly has a long way to go as a performer.

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All 19 reviews of Nadaaniyan here

The Waking of a Nation
Srivathsan Nadadhur
Independent Film Critic
History Lesson Lacks Impact

The unrest surrounding the oppressive Rowlatt Act culminates in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. London-educated advocate Kantilal Sahni, witnessing the carnage, loses his childhood friends Hari and Allahbaksh amidst the political chaos. Haunted by their deaths, Sahni exposes the systemic injustice of the British Raj that facilitated the massacre, while leading the Hunter Commission inquiry. Taaruk Raina, popular for his lighter roles, makes a welcome departure from his strengths, in a heavy role packed with old-fashioned drama – an arena he’s not fully comfortable with, though he delivers a sincere performance. Sahil Mehta, as the angsty journalist with firm opinions, is at ease with his portrayal and is helped by his strong screen presence.

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All 4 reviews of The Waking of a Nation here

Dupahiya
Srivathsan Nadadhur
Independent Film Critic
Engaging Rural Comedy with a Message

Banwari Jha, a teacher in the remote village of Dhadakpur, is anxious to find a husband for his daughter, Roshni. Despite her relationship with childhood friend Amavaas, Roshni accepts a marriage proposal, surprisingly opting for the groom’s brother, Kuber. Kuber’s demand for a five-lakh worth motorbike as dowry sets off a chain of unexpected events. Fresh after his heartfelt performance in Laapata Ladies – Sparsh Shrivastava is back in a familiar avatar (with a few tweaks) but still manages to leave a strong imprint, thanks to his agile body language, ease with humour and drama. Gajraj Rao brings warmth to yet another fatherly role. It’s a pleasant sight to see Shivani Raghuvanshi grow with every project while staying true to the pitch of the character.

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All 4 reviews of Dupahiya here

Sthal (A Match)
Sucharita Tyagi
Independent Film Critic
Marathi Film Shining Again
All 5 reviews of Sthal here

Nadaaniyan
Sucharita Tyagi
Independent Film Critic
Bollywood’s Unending Nepotism Problem
All 19 reviews of Nadaaniyan here

Kingston
Avinash Ramachandran
Indian Express
A promising sea creature feature watered down by its embellishments

When things go right, the film makes you feel like reading one of those fascinating pulp fiction stories that are not just radical and intriguing, but also knew never to overstay its welcome.

There is a quaint Christian fishing hamlet. There is a raging sea at their footsteps. The villagers haven’t gone fishing in their waters for over two decades. Every single person who has gone out to the sea has come back dead. There is a curse. There is a reasoning. There are overarching themes involving regret, retribution, and redemption. There is a romance track that, thankfully, exists in the periphery. There is a to-and-fro between timelines that moves from the 80s to the 2020s to the 2010s to the 60s to the 80s, and you know the drill. There are multiple backstories for each principal player of this story. There is a folklore. There is a fantasy element, and then… there’s a sea creature. And yet, for the longest time, GV Prakash Kumar‘s latest film, Kingston, seems to move nowhere, and this proves to be the film’s biggest undoing.

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Gentlewoman
Avinash Ramachandran
Indian Express
Lijomol and Losliya anchor a chilling and compelling tale that is rough around the edges

Gentlewoman might have been a lot of things, could have been a lot more things, but ends up being a film that reminds people that societal expectations, set by some random people, cannot become the norm for a woman, or for anyone.

Gentlewoman starts off as a tale about a gentle woman. She wakes up. She makes coffee. She has her bath. She wears her saree. She cooks. She packs. Her husband wakes up, prays to God, and gets ready for work. He reads philosophy. On the outset, he is that perfect husband. But scratch just a couple of layers, we understand that he has made her a creature of habit. She wakes up, makes coffee, has her bath, wears her saree, cooks, packs, and also has to stand in the balcony and bid him goodbye as he leaves for work. But what does he do for her? Well, never once in the film does he do anything for her. And this is not registered by an elaborate scene, but just a simple callback that is effective and subtle. Probably why when director Joshua Sethuraman suddenly decides to get all preachy and rub our faces in the film’s ideology with verbose monologues, and random conversations that feel out of place in this world, it feels like a let-down.

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All 2 reviews of Gentlewoman here

Dupahiya
Shubhra Gupta
The Indian Express
Gajraj Rao, Renuka Shahane’s anti-Mirzapur show delivers clean, family entertainment

Gajraj Rao, Renuka Shahane's ruralcom delivers clean, socially-relevant family entertainment. The show has a determinedly cheerful air -- leaving the viewer smiling is clearly the mandate.

A stolen motorcycle– ‘dupahiya’– in the fictional village of Dhadakpur becomes the fulcrum around which this new comedy and its characters revolve, delivering a melange of Bihari-via-Mumbai accents, loads of quirk and broad life lessons. This is the mix that gave ‘Panchayat’ its mojo, with Phulera’s Sachivji and Pradhanji and their cohorts becoming a byword in the madly-popular OTT-specific ruralcom genre. Here, Uttar Pradesh is replaced by Bihar, but the mood remains similarly overall sunny, as the occasional clouds created by the busy plot (written by Avinash Dwivedi and Chirag Garg) are dispelled by the show’s determinedly cheerful air: leave the viewer smiling is clearly the mandate.

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All 4 reviews of Dupahiya here

Nadaaniyan
Shubhra Gupta
The Indian Express
Ibrahim Ali Khan, Khushi Kapoor film rehashes every Karan Johar romcom, without his sparkle

Ibrahim Ali Khan and Khushi Kapoor-starrer, directed by first-timer Shauna Gautam, has been created by-and-for hashtags, with zero insights into the demographic it represents.

Take the Dharma template because, duh, this is a Dharma film, borrow deets from a bunch of romcoms, shake ’em up, and you get Nadaaniyan. There’s the swish high-school from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, which lead character Pia Jaisingh (Khushi Kapoor) helpfully describes as having ‘no-uniform, resort-type vibes’, just in case we miss it. Ms Braganza (Archana Puran Singh, reprising her role, older but not wiser) is back. No student ever seems to go to class: that’s not changed, either. And those who’ve been missing that shooting star, so cute, ya, fear not: it gets a look-see, too.

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All 19 reviews of Nadaaniyan here

The Waking of a Nation
Bharathi Pradhan
Lehren.com
The Conspiracy Behind The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

The Waking of a Nation' tells the story of Kantilal, a fictional member of the Hunter Commission, who tries to uncover the truth behind the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, risking his life after General Dyer orders the shooting.

It was a blood splattered Baisakhi on April 13, 1919. When a jashan (celebration) turned into a janazaa (funeral) for the hundreds gunned down at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar. General Dyer went down in history as the butcher. He was the cruel perpetrator, also the puppet. But mastermind, ringmaster and puppeteer Lieutenant-General Michael O’Dwyer was never formally indicted. (Udham Singh did shoot him dead more than 20 years later.) Is it time for an unwritten chapter to be brought to the fore? Director Ram Madhvani who had shown glimpses of how well he can segue imagination into history when he made the short film That Bloody Line (on how Sir Cyril Radcliffe cut off bits of India on the west and on the east), goes down the same path, same era.This time to recreate the Amritsar of 1919.

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All 4 reviews of The Waking of a Nation here