Bollywood Archives

Zero Review: Proof of Everything Wrong with the Cult of SRK

SRK’s Bauua Singh is a carefully orchestrated and subtle attempt to insult the intellect of audiences – exactly what makes Anand L Rai’s Zero even more manipulative than Sanju. The film might be the worst reminder of SRK’s incompetence in completely inhabiting a character.

Poulomi Das May 31, 2016

Bollywood

Dabangg 3 Review: 53-Year Old Overgrown Child Continues Romancing 20-Year-Olds

The first few minutes of Dabangg 3 do an incredible job of lowering expectations, foreshadowing in a way, the unpardonable daftness that makes up the film’s 162-minute runtime. Eventually it becomes clearer that this film is just an excuse for 53-year-old Khan to romance actresses half his age.

Poulomi Das May 30, 2016

Bollywood

The World of Rajkumar Hirani: Where All is Well Despite Some Chemical Locha

Over the years, Rajkumar Hirani has created for us a universe full of slice-of-life characters that keep evolving, keep mutating, in small and big ways across his other films. His humour, feel-good narratives, and finger-on-the-pulse messaging blend together to form, what can be called the “Hiraniverse”.

Jackie Thakkar May 30, 2016

Bollywood

Coolie: Kader Khan’s Dialogues Remind Us of a Time When Secularism Wasn’t a Bad Word

The late Kader Khan wrote the dialogues of Coolie and gave us gems like “Tere haath mein maut ka samaan hai toh...mere seene pe khuda ka naam hai.” He also played the twisted antagonist Jafer, the very personification of greed, lust, and treachery. Thirty five years on, Coolie still remains a wholesome and entertaining film.

Aditi Sen May 30, 2016

Bollywood

What Deepika Padukone’s Chhapaak Misses Out On, Parvathy’s Uyare Gets Right

Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak struggles to make the connection that an acid attack isn’t only directed toward defacing a woman’s face and crushing her aspirations but also erasing her from society’s conscience. Last year’s Malayalam drama Uyare starring Parvathy as an acid-attack survivor gets that right.

Poulomi Das May 30, 2016

Bollywood

How Soorma Almost Makes a Villain Out of Sandeep Singh’s Wife

In Soorma, Sandeep Singh’s wife – Harpreet Kaur in the film – abandons her husband soon after he is paralysed. She is also painted as a distraction for Singh’s goal-scoring abilities. I’ll let you guess what happened in real life. Hint: None of it.

Poulomi Das May 29, 2016

Bollywood

“I’m On a Journey”: Irrfan Khan’s Candid Interview is Heartbreaking

In a 2018 interview with AP, Irrfan Khan spoke candidly about his cancer, and how it made him see “life from a totally different angle”. “Life offers you so much. That’s why I feel like I have no other words but thanks. There are no other words, there’s no other demand, there’s no other prayer,” he’d said.

Arré Bench May 29, 2016

Bollywood

Haasil: The Underrated Gem That Made Bollywood Take Notice of Irrfan Khan’s Genius

Irrfan has left behind a towering body of work where picking one performance feels sacrilegious. And yet it is the actor’s breakout role as the wily student leader Ranvijay Singh in Tigmanshu Dhulia's Haasil that will forever have my loyalty.

Pragyan Mohanty May 29, 2016

Bollywood

21 Years of Hera Pheri: This Priyadarshan Comedy is Greatest Uplifter of All Time

In these dark times, my friends and I turn to Hera Pheri, the heist comedy that informed our childhoods. The Priyadarshan film is a bunch of guffaw-worthy skits, where the narrative is secondary. It has aged perfectly for the meme generation with our ten-second attention spans and voracious appetite for punchlines.

Jackie Thakkar May 28, 2016

Bollywood

Dear Bollywood, Enough With the Item Girls. Where Are the Item Boys?

Item girls shimmied their way into Bollywood back in the ’40s and there’s been no looking back ever since. Think Madhuri Dixit in “Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai” and Malaika Arora in “Munni Badnam Hui”. But where are our item boys? What is stopping Bollywood from tapping into the sea of testosterone?

Mallika Chakrawarti May 28, 2016