Maniyarayile Ashokan is the story of a man who marries a banana plant in a ritual to solve his marriage issue. The idea of the movie is interesting, but it does not work due to the makers' tendency to use songs and snippets as tools to communicate it.
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Sadak 2 is a sequel to 1991's Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt movie, Sadak. Mahesh Bhatt's film has little in the way of a plot or characterization. It is so lousily written that we end up laughing at scenes that are not supposed to be funny at a script level.
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Class of 83 has the look and feel of a 1980's-style gangsters versus cops drama. The movie has some interesting ideas and an array of fine performances. But the familiar treatment means that it may only appeal to an impressionable audience.
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Faruk Kabir's third work as a director, titled 'Khuda Haafiz' fails as a drama and an action film. The fact that it uses a fictional place in the Middle East but with a seemingly real English accent tells you a lot about its authenticity.
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Writer Nikhil Mehrotra and writer-director Sharan Sharma team up to tell this awe-inspiring story of an IAF pilot with gumption in "Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl". This is a movie that marries its big, bold ideas with action that defines character.
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Lootcase is the second film this year that talks about the repercussions of money reaching the hands of commoners who do not know what to do with it. Rajesh Krishnan's movie uses the 'lost-and-found money' trope as a plot device to evoke laughter from the audience.
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Vidya Balan is appropriate for the role of Shakuntala Devi, and she gets the essence of this real-life mathematical genius. But the inherent strength of Anu Menon's film is also its main weakness: the conflicts and resolutions are by the numbers, just like the math riddles that Devi solves.
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Trehan's film scripted by Smita Singh leaves little to the imagination, but this is one of the film's inherent strengths. There is neither any phony suspense element here nor some cheap red herrings along the say. It is Radhika Apte and Siddiqui's chemistry that elevates the film to a few notches above your standard suspense thriller.
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Director Mukesh Chhabra and his scriptwriters Shashank Khaitan and Suprotim Sengupta, with able support from A. R. Rahman, create charming little touches that make the film rooted in Indian culture.
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Sufiyum Sujatayum holds the distinction of being the first Malayalam film to release directly on a streaming platform. Sadly, the movie would be best remembered for that.In its concluding act, Sufiyum Sujatayum offers glimpses of a film that finally starts to find its footing.
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Gulabo Sitabo offers a look at small lives in Lucknow, and it is a respectable entry in Shoojit Sircar's varied filmography. It may not be a great achievement like the director's other films, but there is much to admire in this parable on man's greed.
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Choked is the sort of film that shows promise early on but then fizzles out. It shows the negative effects of demonetization on a middle-class Mumbai family that is very short for money. Anurag Kashyap's film is watchable and has big ideas, but it is in the execution that the film falters big time.
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