Shubhra Gupta is film critic and senior columnist with the Indian Express. She watches world cinema for delectation, Hollywood for fun, and Bollywood for work. She has a huge capacity to sit through terrible Bollywood movies, but no patience at all with bad Hollywood. And world cinema has to be really cutting edge to grab her attention, and keep it. When she began reviewing, over 20 years ago, people would commiserate and say, “oh, you poor thing, you have to watch Hindi cinema”. But soon, Bollywood became cool, cool, cool. So now she hears this more often “oh my god, you watch Bollyood films, can you introduce me to Shah Rukh Khan”? No, she can’t, sorry, though she can vouch for the fact that he is really sharp and good fun in conversation. But what she can do, and has done week after week, month after month, year after year, without a break, is to lead you into the magical world of movies, and share her experiences of watching all those hundreds of films over the years. In her reviews and columns, she lets you into what she likes, and doesn’t, and invites you to be bewitched. And to know how to choose between the good ones and the turkeys, and how you can take away something from even the really ghastly ones. Because life is a movie, isn’t it? Bahut picture baaki hain, mere dost.

December 02, 2022 13:48 IST
India Lockdown review: The film affords a few moments, such as the one where the tired, exhausted family of four scavenge on rotten bananas or how an older woman rescues a younger one from the flesh trade.
Sat, Dec 03, 2022
December 02, 2022 13:48 IST
Freddy movie review: Kartik Aaryan is getting better in roles where both he, and we, are required to take him seriously, and there are a couple of instances when he does give us the chills.
Sat, Dec 03, 2022
December 02, 2022 09:21 IST
An Action Hero movie review: This Ayushmann Khurrana-Jaideep Ahlawat film comes stuffed with meta jokes, in-house gags, and a running jibe against the shouty TV shows and the hashtag #BoycottBollywood.
Sat, Dec 03, 2022
December 01, 2022 12:45 IST
Qala movie review: Babil Khan reminds you of his father, the late, brilliant Irrfan, because of some of his features that he has inherited, as well as, evidently, the acting gene. But it is equally evident that Babil is his own actor.
Sat, Dec 03, 2022
November 26, 2022 08:06 IST
On the sidelines of the Marrakech International Film Festival, Anurag Kashyap speaks of his upcoming film, a love story, moving away from gangster-giri, and emerging from a long funk.
Wed, Nov 30, 2022
November 25, 2022 16:40 IST
Kora Kagazz movie review: It isn’t bad. It’s just not interesting enough.
Fri, Nov 25, 2022
November 25, 2022 16:20 IST
Strange World movie review: 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.
Fri, Nov 25, 2022
November 25, 2022 10:04 IST
Bhediya movie review: 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.
Fri, Nov 25, 2022
November 19, 2022 16:40 IST
Sally El Hosaini's The Swimmers tells the real-life story of two young sisters from war-torn Syria who make the arduous trek to freedom.
Sat, Nov 19, 2022
November 17, 2022 18:01 IST
The story of a gay middle-aged tailor and his beautiful, terminally-ill wife, is not only about abiding love, but also about a deep, unspoken understanding between two people who are committed to each other.
Thu, Nov 17, 2022
November 16, 2022 18:16 IST
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.
Wed, Nov 16, 2022
November 15, 2022 18:00 IST
It’s a film set in far-away UP’s Noida about a couple from Kerala trying to find their feet in an alien landscape while at the same time trying to escape it.
Fri, Nov 18, 2022
November 14, 2022 16:15 IST
‘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.
Mon, Nov 14, 2022
November 13, 2022 17:33 IST
Jafar Panahi's 'No Bears' and his subsequent incarceration prove that if you are a politically aware artist, have no doubts that someone is going to come after you.
Sun, Nov 13, 2022
November 12, 2022 20:01 IST
The 19th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival's chief attraction is Ranveer Singh, whose opening act on the red carpet had the crowd going berserk.
Sun, Nov 13, 2022
November 11, 2022 12:35 IST
Monica O My Darling movie review: Rajkummar Rao is reliably solid, Sikandar Kher livens things up, and Radhika Apte has so much fun as the female version of the standard quirky cop that you wish she had more to do.
Sat, Nov 12, 2022
November 09, 2022 13:30 IST
Breathe Into The Shadows Season 2 review: The Abhishek Bachchan and Amit Sadh starrer fails to raise any feeling of dread, or fear and is saddled with all kinds of unbelievable elements and twists.
Fri, Nov 11, 2022
November 04, 2022 13:52 IST
Phone Bhoot movie review: 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.
Sat, Nov 05, 2022
November 04, 2022 09:43 IST
Mili movie review: The survival thriller has its moments and Janhvi Kapoor puts in the work. However, the pace slackens and bloat becomes the problem.
Sat, Nov 05, 2022
November 04, 2022 09:32 IST
Double XL movie review: Sonakshi Sinha, Huma Qureshi's film on body-shaming is a massive opportunity wasted, and that is a crashing pity.
Sat, Nov 05, 2022
October 29, 2022 11:55 IST
The Legend Of Maula Jatt movie review: 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.
Sat, Oct 29, 2022
October 25, 2022 18:55 IST
Ram Setu movie review: Akshay Kumar's latest film is a pedestrian experience, cobbled together in an even more pedestrian fashion, which is interested only in hammering home its message.
Fri, Oct 28, 2022
October 25, 2022 17:13 IST
Thank God movie review: 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.
Fri, Oct 28, 2022
October 14, 2022 16:10 IST
Aye Zindagi movie review: Looming death is a terrible thing; can the burden of gratitude become too much to bear, especially if the donor is someone you know?
Fri, Oct 14, 2022
October 14, 2022 13:09 IST
Doctor G movie review: 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.
Fri, Oct 14, 2022


