Raja Sen

Raja Sen's reviews do not count toward the Tomatometer. This is not a Tomatometer-approved critic, and this critic's reviews are not published on a Tomatometer-approved publication.

Publications: Rediff.com

Movie Reviews Only

Movies
TV

	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
2/5	36%	Kesari (2019)	We must salute the brave soldiers of the Saragarhi. This movie merely gives us 21 angry men. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 22, 2019
4.5/5	79%	Photograph (2019)	Sanya Malhotra is superb in the role, boxed in by her own hesitation, softly and inwardly holding her own alongside the striking Geetanjali Kulkarni. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 15, 2019
3/5	55%	Badla (2019)	Amitabh Bachchan has been in the movies for fifty years now, and whatever he says, we're listening. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 8, 2019
3/5	71%	Sonchiriya (2019)	[It] proves to be a film about the desperation to belong to something larger than oneself, the all-consuming desire to believe in something. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 1, 2019
1/5	33%	Total Dhamaal (2019)	As I now massage my traumatised temples, I thank Devgn for appearing on the poster, and make note to heed his statutory honesty in the future. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 25, 2019
4/5	100%	Gully Boy (2019)	The knockout punch comes from MC Sher. With a name that means both big cat and couplet, Sher is played by Siddhant Chaturvedi with natural, easy ferocity. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 15, 2019
3.5/5	67%	Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019)	This could have been a bolder and more explicit film, but sometimes cinema should work like a street play. Sometimes we need to preach beyond the choir. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 1, 2019
1/5	22%	Thackeray (2019)	This is either an oblivious or blatantly self-aware film, a work not of propaganda as much as it is a work of pride, celebrating a legacy of violence. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 25, 2019
3/5	56%	Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019)	Ranaut is glorious. She wears a dazzling smile early on like a cloak of confidence, and later slices down enemy soldiers with a fury that must surely have injured some extras on the set. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 25, 2019
2/5	67%	Uri (2019)	While watching Uri, I kept wondering about the point of such a self-congratulatory film. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 14, 2019
1/5	22%	The Accidental Prime Minister (2019)	This is propaganda by people who can't spell. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 11, 2019
3/5	33%	Simmba (2018)	Singh dials up the intensity, spittle underscoring his passionate declarations, and the show stays compelling. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 2, 2019
3.5/5	33%	Zero (2018)	The first half of Zero is flat-out fantastic, an unabashed charm-offensive from Rai, Khan and the film's writer Himanshu Sharma... It is as the film continues, and gets more fanciful, that the seams start to show. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 21, 2018
2/5	36%	Kedarnath (2018)	Kedarnath is a pointless, entirely forgettable film, but some may remember the girl fondly - which may well be the film's only task. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 7, 2018
3.5/5	67%	2.0 (2018)	The film is rather linear, with an easy-to-identify and easy-to-extinguish problem, but coasts nicely on Rajini's charm. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 29, 2018
1.5/5	57%	Pihu (2018)	A silly, sadistic and torturous experience. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 16, 2018
1/5	23%	Thugs of Hindostan (2018)	I believe pirate movies need to have eye-patches. This one doesn't, and that's a shame. The viewing experience would have been hugely improved. I should have gone in wearing two. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 8, 2018
1.5/5	29%	Baazaar (2018)	There are many problems with the mediocre Baazaar, but the primary issue is intent, because it appears Chawla didn't truly attempt to tell a story. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 26, 2018
3.5/5	89%	Badhaai Ho (2018)	The dialogues are a riot. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 18, 2018
2/5	38%	Helicopter Eela (2018)	Helicopter Eela also claims to be a comedy, though most of the humour is inadvertent. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 12, 2018
5/5	100%	Andhadhun (2018)	This phenomenal new thriller from Sriram Raghavan pulls off its tricks in plain sight. Everybody knows how a mystery should work, but Raghavan knows how all the mysteries work. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 5, 2018
2/5	88%	Sui Dhaaga: Made in India (2018)	The film takes over two hours to stitch together the same blasted story. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 28, 2018
4/5	63%	Pataakha (2018)	The delights are in the details. The turns of phrase are rollicking and unassumingly poetic. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 27, 2018
3.5/5	71%	Manto (2018)	The maestro Zakir Hussain provides an intricate background score, one that is occasionally highlighted by a discordant, drunken sitar twang. This sense of intoxication informs the visuals as well. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 21, 2018
2.5/5	82%	Husband Material (Manmarziyaan) (2018)	It is ultimately a disappointment not because of its craft, but because of predictability, self-indulgent pace and its irritating attempt to be both a light crowd-pleaser with a cutesy ending as well as an impassioned, volatile romance. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 14, 2018
1.5/5	29%	Paltan (2018)	There is a lot to be said about the futility of war, and now Dutta has made his case for the futility of the war movie. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 7, 2018
3.5/5	63%	Laila Majnu (2018)	Here are highly flawed and even doomed characters, yet they partake of something special, enviable and real. Who among us dares judge a true romantic? Love is love. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Sep 7, 2018
3/5	75%	Stree (2018)	The laughs are inconsistent, and despite a breezy-ish momentum, the plotting feels sloppy and rushed. The ideas are fine, but the writing needed work. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 31, 2018
2/5	50%	Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi (2018)	Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi relies too hard on obvious attempts at humour at the expense of the Chinese characters. - Hindustan Times EDIT Read More \| Posted Aug 27, 2018
3.5/5	90%	Trapped (2017)	Rao plays the character superbly, making his Shaurya insecure and hesitant. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 23, 2018
1/5	11%	Begum Jaan (2017)	Begum Jaan could well have been a film about a fantastic bunch of feisty, disparate women taking on all odds, but alas. We're left only with memories of some melancholy bores. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 12, 2018
4/5	No Score Yet	Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns (2013)	The new film is much sharper, more assured, and, unencumbered by a classic to stand beside, a far better film. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jul 2, 2018
1.5/5	No Score Yet	Sonali Cable (2014)	Sonali Cable disconnects itself from the point of the film incredibly fast, littering itself with one-note characters stuck in cinematic cliches. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 6, 2018
2/5	45%	Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018)	The film takes forever to get there, and while focussing on realism and grit is great, there is no real build-up of the protagonist's character. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 1, 2018
3.5/5	55%	Veere Di Wedding (2018)	Veere Di Wedding gets this fantastic bond right, and gives us four dramatically different kinds of women with agency and spirit. Nobody stands in the way of their decisions. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jun 1, 2018
2/5	83%	Zubaan (2016)	The whole film emerges, sadly, like one of those ads where you can half-hum the song but you forget what it was for. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 22, 2018
1.5/5	No Score Yet	Wah Taj (2016)	In Wah Taj, the press is the most ridiculous. Assembled to cover a breaking story, they write in notepads while people argue, they posture with microphones even without cameras on them, and they sing bhajans siding with the protagonist. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 17, 2018
4.5/5	63%	Ugly (2014)	Ugly is a tale of torment, masterfully woven around the universally urgent trigger of a disappearing minor - and yet where, in the larger scheme of things, that kidnapping itself becomes, I daresay, a minor detail. Genius. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted May 15, 2018
1/5	15%	Tubelight (2017)	Salman Khan gives one of the worst performances of his career... - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted May 3, 2018
2/5	56%	Hichki (2018)	There simply isn't room for others during the Rani Mukherji show, you see. Class dismissed. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Mar 23, 2018
4/5	No Score Yet	Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (2008)	The magic here lies in the lines, the characters, the words, and yeah, a 'feel' as fresh as a spanking new acoustic guitar composition by an old jazz vet trying to make the kids smile. And smile they do. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 29, 2018
2/5	No Score Yet	Shortkut - The Con Is On (2009)	Short Kut had the potential to be a genuinely funny one, and while it mostly flubs that promise up throughout, it does manage a few moments. It could really do with a pretty significant re-edit, though. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 29, 2018
1.5/5	63%	Padmaavat (2018)	The problem lies not in Padmaavat being a costume drama, but in the fact that there is too much costume, too little drama. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 24, 2018
2/5	63%	Indu Sarkar (2017)	Despite being an important mainstream film, Madhur Bhandarkar's take on The Emergency is a poorly written and conceived mess. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 9, 2018
1.5/5	17%	Raabta (2017)	Do not watch Raabta, unless you already suffered through it in a past life. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 4, 2018
3.5/5	No Score Yet	Hawaa Hawaai (2014)	It is rare to find a Hindi film hero more deserving of our cheers than Arjun. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 3, 2018
2/5	57%	Hunterrr (2015)	The second half of the film consists of at least a half-dozen moments that are filmed but, we then realise, haven't actually taken place. An unreliable narrator is one thing but Hunterrr, like Mandar, cheats too often. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 3, 2018
1/5	25%	Half Girlfriend (2017)	Half Girlfriend is about two halfwits who belong together. It is a film that claims to celebrate romance and undying passion and gates both Bill and Indian, but all it does is applaud a spoilt man who believes he's a scapegoat. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 15, 2017
2.5/5	75%	Guzaarish (2010)	The film tries far too desperately to evoke what Bollywood calls the 'feelgood' factor, but ends up evoking more apathy than empathy. Guzaarish starts off slow and beautiful, but gradually, sadly congeals into a wet mess. - Rediff.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2017
	82%	Gurgaon (2017)	This is still a strong effort, but could have been much finer without overtly emphasising the characters morals and repeated demonstrations to show us how bad everyone is. - NDTV EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2017