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.

November 10, 2025 08:05 IST
The ‘small town’ made a comeback. Swish rom coms set in foreign parts came out from the same studio just to keep the balance: choose your pick, Abhishek and Rani, or Saif and Preity? Loud comedies ruled the roost: 2005 had all this and Black.
Tue, Nov 11, 2025
November 09, 2025 08:03 IST
In 2004, Farah Khan arrived with a bang, coasting on her love for the rollicking masala of the 70s. Ashutosh Gowariker and Vishal Bharadwaj gave their leading men films that would stay on top of their filmographies: SRK with Swades and Irrfan with Maqbool.
Mon, Nov 17, 2025
November 08, 2025 08:15 IST
25 Years of Indian Cinema: 2003 belonged to Haasil. This was the film which gave Tigmanshu Dhulia a foothold in Bollywood, and Irrfan Khan the role of a life-time.
Mon, Nov 17, 2025
November 07, 2025 15:59 IST
Baramulla movie review: The Manav Kaul-starrer unravels in the way it tries to mix its allegorical elements with inconsistent plot-points.
Fri, Nov 07, 2025
November 07, 2025 14:48 IST
Jatadhara review: Somewhere in this choppy, chaotic enterprise is a film which wants to warn us about the evils of greed, and the importance of tradition. But it is basically yet another Sudheer Babu star vehicle.
Fri, Nov 07, 2025
November 07, 2025 13:53 IST
Maharani Season 4 review: Huma Qureshi show offers old laced with some new in terms of actors, but the tone of the show refuses to change.
Fri, Nov 07, 2025
November 07, 2025 08:12 IST
As we speak about the year 2002 as part of SCREEN's 25 Years of Indian Cinema series, two films clearly stand out, both at separate ends of Hindi cinema's spectrum.
Mon, Nov 17, 2025
November 06, 2025 08:03 IST
2001 was a blockbuster year for Bollywood, with Lagaan, Gadar, Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham all jostling for top grosser status. It was, however, Dil Chahta Hai that came as a watershed.
Mon, Nov 17, 2025
November 05, 2025 14:46 IST
Haq movie review: Yami Gautam Dhar-Emraan Hashmi film achieve what it sets out to do with clear-eyed empathy, giving us an ordinary woman who found extraordinary strength and resilience to fight for her cause, and created, without ever quite realising it, history.
Fri, Nov 07, 2025
November 05, 2025 08:08 IST
Here’s what the past 25 years looks like, from the vantage of hindsight. Here, we will go beyond the box office and give you the films which stood out, and those which changed the game. Let's start with 2000, and we will give you one year every day for the next 25 days.
Mon, Nov 17, 2025
November 02, 2025 13:31 IST
Shah Rukh Khan's journey reflects not just stardom, but the evolution of an entire generation’s idea of love, loss, and charisma. As one of the biggest stars in India, this could well be the best time for SRK to re-explore his actorly roots
Wed, Nov 05, 2025
October 25, 2025 20:25 IST
Satish Shah, who passed away Saturday of kidney failure at 74, was not just one of the finest comedians in Indian cinema; he was a humourist par excellence, whose craft shone in the way he imbued even his most inane roles with surprising depth and warmth.
Sun, Oct 26, 2025
October 24, 2025 18:30 IST
Regretting You movie review: The film never manages to shake off its TV drama-lite vibe, and despite the natural notes the characters strike amongst themselves coming off banal, its urgencies fleeting and constructed.
Fri, Oct 24, 2025
October 22, 2025 11:17 IST
Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat movie review: Bollywood refuses to deep-six the deeply regressive misogynistic toxicity, cementing the dangerous idea that one-sided obsession is a perfectly legitimate emotion. Whatever happened to No means No?
Wed, Oct 22, 2025
October 21, 2025 14:15 IST
Thamma movie review: It's telling that in the Ayushmann Khurrana, Rashmika Mandanna film with its multiple cameos, the loudest laughs are meant for Abhishek Bannerjee in a walk-on part.
Tue, Oct 21, 2025
October 21, 2025 11:35 IST
Asrani was one of those rare comedians who didn’t have to succumb to vulgarity to grab our attention. Asrani was versatile enough to play shades of the guy who could always be relied upon to do the right thing
Tue, Oct 21, 2025
October 17, 2025 15:35 IST
Stand-up comedian Zarna Garg has found a voice, and she’s learnt how to use it. And people, not just brown, are listening.
Fri, Oct 17, 2025
October 17, 2025 11:51 IST
Bhagwat Chapter One Rakshas movie review: Almost all the moments from Vijay Varma's Dahaad show up in Arshad Warsi and Jitendra Kumar's film, making you wonder if it's a straight-up rip-off, or someone genuinely had no idea of the plot points of the show.
Fri, Oct 17, 2025
October 10, 2025 12:47 IST
Search The Naina Murder Case review: Konkona Sen Sharma fronts classic conflict of a whodunit with domestic and professional pushes and pulls in play, even as murky details which shaped the crime begin emerging.
Fri, Oct 10, 2025
October 10, 2025 11:51 IST
Lord Curzon Ki Haveli movie review: There are good actors in the film, but the writing is stagey. There’s nothing that the always-watchable Rasika Dugal or Arjun Mathur can rescue.
Fri, Oct 10, 2025
October 02, 2025 10:22 IST
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari movie review: Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra, Rohit Saraf film settles creakily back in the sangeet-sagaai-shaadi template awash with star-crossed lovers and their parivarik conflicts.
Thu, Oct 02, 2025
September 26, 2025 11:54 IST
Homebound movie review: Neeraj Ghaywan's second feature in a decade may or may not bring an Oscar home, but what it offers is compassion and cautious optimism, something we so desperately need in these times.
Fri, Nov 21, 2025
September 19, 2025 15:15 IST
The Trial Season 2 review: Kajol and co are back in Season 2 as legal eagles working their way through and around the system geared towards saving the powerful and damning the weak.
Fri, Sep 19, 2025
September 19, 2025 12:11 IST
Nishaanchi movie review: The best of Anurag Kashyap has always included scenes and situations which go for the jugular, no waffling, no wasting time, but in this one, you are hard put to find those that will be stayers.
Fri, Sep 19, 2025
September 19, 2025 11:01 IST
Jolly LLB 3 Movie Review & Rating: Akshay Kumar-Arshad Warsi-Saurabh Shukla's film has a surprisingly strong anti-establishment streak, reminding you of the kind of thing that Hindi mainstream cinema would routinely do back in the day.
Fri, Sep 19, 2025



