Revolver Rani could have been the movie of the year. It ended up as a confused film that can't decide who, or what it wants to concentrate on instead, says Paloma Sharma.
'Why is it that we are so forgiving of the glaring problems in grand multi-starrers like Dil Dhadakne Do,' asks Sreehari Nair, 'but when a small film with a truly personal vision seeks our approval, we analyse it through a prism of formal perfection?' 'With its Seinfeldian humour, episodic structure and performers who play off each other's energies, Meeruthiya Gangsters goes farther than most Hindi movies.'
These characters have entertained us despite the fact that they do not have any name at all.
'Movie plots clearly don't excite director Dileesh Pothan as much as true stories where life had come dizzyingly close to becoming like a movie and then, had fused back with life.' 'This means that a conversation he overhears at a tea shop is more likely to give Pothan a setting for his next picture than a brainstorming session inside a conference room,' says Sreehari Nair.
'Maneesh Sharma's Fan should be good. It will have Shah Rukh doing something entirely different from what he has been doing recently.'
Strange Fruit will never quite sound the same again, says Raja Sen after watching 12 Years A Slave.
'When I least expect it, I start to find traces of India in foreign lands.'
The film's mechanics and motivations are laughable, says Raja Sen.
Mad Max: Fury Road has a very realistic chance of sweeping the Oscars, predicts Raja Sen.
Rangoon haunts in unlikely fashion and, while the director's most straightforward picture, holds enough of its own marvels to justify multiple viewings,' notes Raja Sen.
What happened within the last 40 years that turned this society from secular democratic to Hindu right-wing that clench their collective fists of spiritual nobility against the fictional enemy that never was? The internet happened, says Vinay Menon.
Bombay Velvet is an obviously shallow film, an all-out retro masala-movie with homage on the rocks and cocktail-shakers brimming with cliche.
Raja Sen lists his favourite moments.
It is always wonderful to discover a gem of film at an international film festival. It is even more exciting when that film is from India.
'The starting point of the Udta Punjab casting was that we didn't think stars would do a film like this, so we'd take non-stars. As the names kept rolling in and we had Kareena Kapoor and Shahid and Alia Bhatt, I was like yaar yeh ho kya raha hai?'
