Shubhra Gupta
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Bheed (2023) |
With the context missing, this well-intentioned film becomes less than its powerful moving parts. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Zwigato (2022) |
Nandita Das' third directorial is such a powerful mirror to today’s India, which has always grappled with staggering disparities between the haves and have-nots. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Mar 24, 2023
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Bodyguard (2011) |
Bodyguard sparks only when Salman [Khan] is slamming 'em off the walls, with his trademark smile and snarl. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Mar 21, 2023
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Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (2023) |
The writers of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar clearly didn’t get the memo on brevity being the soul of wit: the film drags on for two hours before it comes to the last twenty minutes, which is when the pace picks up. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Mar 09, 2023
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The Teachers’ Lounge (2023) |
A lovely film, which is low-key and naturalistic to a fault, but reveals its treasures to those who are patient. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Afire (2023) |
Both elemental and grounded... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Femme (2023) |
Both the central performances are wonderful, even if it leaves you wondering exactly how the revenge will shape up... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Golda (2023) |
Helen Mirren's playing of Golda as a woman of steel, unafraid to take tough decisions, is astute; she also looks remarkably like the real Golda.
- The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Past Lives (2023) |
If Celine Song’s Past Lives allows men and women to break out of gender expectations, John Trengrove’s Manodrome holds out an olive branch to the kind of alpha men who use the gym as a place of validation. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Joan Baez I Am a Noise (2023) |
The fascinating documentary on the tumultuous life and times of Joan Baez, folk singer, balladeer, activist, artist... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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The Survival of Kindness (2022) |
The Survival of Kindness is an allegory done right. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 25, 2023
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She Came to Me (2023) |
She Came To Me is a grown-up contemporary comedy laced with romance, starring an eye-catching ensemble, led by Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 17, 2023
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The Fabelmans (2022) |
Even though the film is based on Spielberg's life, it manages quite artfully to not feel too artful; it refuses to turn itself into a fable. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Shiv Shastri Balboa (2022) |
Both Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta face their troubles with a great deal of good cheer, and you cannot help rooting for them as they bump along. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Jugjugg Jeeyo (2022) |
Anil Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani film falls back on the familiar Big Fat Punjabi Wedding with opulent sets and wedding naach-gaana every time things threaten to get real and spiky. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 10, 2023
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Knock at the Cabin (2023) |
...a better film than he has in a while. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Faraaz (2022) |
More stagey than menacing... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Feb 03, 2023
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Gandhi Godse - Ek Yudh (2023) |
Santoshi's attempt at revisionism is marred by trying to play it both ways, and falling between the planks. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Jan 27, 2023
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Mission Majnu (2023) |
A sedate, by-the-numbers drone... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Jan 26, 2023
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Pathaan (2023) |
Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone-starrer has finally got what’s needed in a spy thriller -- non-stop action, glamorous leads, the guy who can save the world, a high-octane set piece, and an emo line at a time. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Jan 26, 2023
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Kuttey (2023) |
Every time the pulsating ‘dhan-ta-naa’ comes on, and it does frequently, you flash back to the grungy delights of ‘Kaminey’, waiting for the feeble, contrived proceedings in front of you to pass. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Jan 13, 2023
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Aftersun (2022) |
Aftersun is a film about belonging, aching loss, and making memories, and you will find yourself taking deep dives into personal pools of these elements, looking for your share of the sun. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Jan 06, 2023
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) |
Blanc is bland, and despite all its bells and whistles, so is the movie. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 28, 2022
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Cirkus (2022) |
The gags don’t land; neither does, for the most part, the lead star. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 23, 2022
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Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) |
That early scene, a stunning chiaroscuro, with the camera pulling back as the newbie Gangubai learns to call out to potential punters, is a classic. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 22, 2022
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Vadh (2022) |
Mishra comes off more hangdog than disturbed. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 17, 2022
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Salaam Venky (2022) |
Revathy eschews all understatement in this Kajol-starrer. Every sequence is created to fill you with pathos, and leave you teary-eyed.
- The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 17, 2022
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) |
Avatar 2 is just stunning in the parts it skims along the water, dives deep, rolls around joyously, keeping up with the incredible creatures who live in the deep. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 17, 2022
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An Action Hero (2022) |
Ayushmann Khurrana-Jaideep Ahlawat deliver a caper which is mostly fun... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 05, 2022
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Qala (2022) |
It looks like I’ve seen the most gorgeously-shot film of the year: each frame of Anvita Dutt’s sophomore feature ‘Qala’ is like an impressionist painting... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Dec 02, 2022
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Bhediya (2022) |
Varun Dhawan does a good job of aligning with the tone of the film-- the horror is pretty much ‘naam-ke-vaaste’, comedy is what it is interested in and does it well. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 29, 2022
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Strange World (2022) |
Despite the film's rich CGI, it’s only when the humans and their conflicts, big and small, come to the forefront, that the film comes to life. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 29, 2022
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The Blue Caftan (2022) |
Not only about abiding love, but also about a deep, unspoken understanding between two people who are committed to each other. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 22, 2022
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The Swimmers (2022) |
You are able to ignore the film’s occasional flat, underlined patches because of its harrowing, powerful story. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 22, 2022
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Monica, O My Darling (2022) |
On the whole, and despite those slow spots, and a few twists which we figure long before the characters do, with a cracker of a beginning and an end which slithers in most unexpectedly, ‘Monica’ ends up being a fun watch. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) |
Good lessons for tough times... - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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No Bears (2022) |
Just the kind of film that makes the long, sleepless travel to reach a far-away film festival worth every minute of its time. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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Queens (2022) |
Queens is a complete cracker, channelling a great feminist spirit in its familiar theme of women-on-the-run, making-a-dash-for-freedom, looping in genre elements from road-heist-cops-and-convicts adventures. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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Marlowe (2022) |
Marlowe is a handsome picture, as old-style Hollywood mavens would call it, but it’s all surface; there’s very little going on underneath. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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Uunchai (2022) |
A bit fewer of several stretches towards the second half where the film meanders into more than one man-made crises, and this Uunchai would have been mission truly accomplished. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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Double XL (2022) |
Huma Qureshi's film on body-shaming is a massive opportunity wasted, and that is a crashing pity. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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Mili (2022) |
The survival thriller has its moments and Janhvi Kapoor puts in the work. However, the pace slackens and bloat becomes the problem. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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Phone Bhoot (2022) |
Somewhere struggling underneath this mess starring Katrina Kaif, Ishaan Khatter and Siddhant Chaturvedi must have been a movie. But the one we get is a wrong number. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Nov 04, 2022
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The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022) |
The Fawad Khan-starrer reminds you of the films Bollywood used to make at one time, proudly declamatory, in which the mainstay of the plot was good vs evil. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 31, 2022
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Thank God (2022) |
Thank God was meant to be a cautionary tale, laced with lessons and laughter. Where’s the fun? Even the Almighty can’t do a thing about it. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 25, 2022
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Ram Setu (2022) |
Akshay Kumar's latest film is a pedestrian experience, which is interested only in hammering home its message. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 25, 2022
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Code Name: Tiranga (2022) |
The only time you watch is when Durga and Mirza murmur sweet nothings to each other. The rest is nothing but a rinse-and-repeat expanse. Not one moment of excitement. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 18, 2022
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Doctor G (2022) |
Ayushmann Khurrana film is so busy earning its feminist cred that it forgets the show-more-than-tell dictum, and never becomes the cracker it could have been. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 18, 2022
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Aye Zindagi (2022) |
For an origin story which is so extraordinary, the treatment of Aye Zindagi is bafflingly ordinary. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 18, 2022
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Samrat Prithviraj (2022) |
As befits its simplistic, shorn-of-nuance tone, this Akshay Kumar-Manushi Chhillar film lurches between dialogue-baazi and blandness, and stays completely faithful to its stated intent. - The Indian Express
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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