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.

October 22,2025 11:17:57 AM
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 14:15:27 PM
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 11:35:45 AM
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 15:35:01 PM
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 11:51:17 AM
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 12:47:04 PM
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 11:51:17 AM
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 10:22:36 AM
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 11:54:13 AM
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, Sep 26, 2025
September 19,2025 15:15:18 PM
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 12:11:40 PM
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 11:01:26 AM
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
September 18,2025 18:47:58 PM
The Ba***ds of Bollywood review: Aryan Khan's debut as a director is a mixed bag -- while it entertains in parts, it deflates into seen-before ordinariness when it segues into showing us ‘the other side’ of the film industry.
Fri, Sep 19, 2025
September 12,2025 13:32:08 PM
Do You Wanna Partner review: In Tamannaah Bhatia, Diana Penty show, there’s not one idea or performance that can save it from going under, and staying there.
Fri, Sep 12, 2025
September 12,2025 10:56:31 AM
Jugnuma The Fable movie review: Manoj Bajpayee-starrer is at it most piercing when it is gentle. It weaves in the prosaic, the quotidian, with quiet strokes of magical realism.
Fri, Sep 12, 2025
September 09,2025 15:48:56 PM
Only Murders In The Building 5 review: Our favourite real crime podcasters who keep discovering dead people in their building are back with a new season, and they are in cracking form, as is the franchise.
Tue, Sep 09, 2025
September 08,2025 14:15:05 PM
Bad Girl movie review: Anjali Sivaraman’s Ramya is curious about her sexuality, all the while raging against the conservative elements which think boys sowing their wild oats is par for the course, but girls doing the same only bring 'shame' upon themselves.
Mon, Sep 08, 2025
September 05,2025 16:39:25 PM
The Bengal Files movie review: It is no one’s case that turbulent history shouldn’t be examined and interrogated cinematically: art is nothing if it doesn’t provoke or challenge, but it is not art if it incites or inflames.
Fri, Sep 05, 2025
September 05,2025 13:19:14 PM
Ufff Yeh Siyapaa movie review: What happened to Sohum Shah, the actor who left such an impact in The Ship Of Theseus and played the lead so assuredly in Tumbaad? Here his character, who gets major screen time, is just plain embarrassing.
Fri, Sep 26, 2025
September 05,2025 12:47:57 PM
Inspector Zende movie review: The attempt at a serio-comic tone in the Manoj Bajpayee-Jim Sarbh film falls flat with only an occasional leap or two, with the writing struggling to match the audacity of the criminal and the enterprise of his nemesis.
Fri, Sep 05, 2025
August 29,2025 15:44:37 PM
Songs of Paradise movie review: Saba Azad’s Noor Begum comes across as a young woman of the 50s, not an actor trying to do period, the costuming and the body-language feeling as if it could well have belonged to that era.
Fri, Aug 29, 2025
August 29,2025 13:42:26 PM
Param Sundari movie review: The limpid-eyed Janhvi Kapoor tries hard with the Malayali accent, calling attention to the effort, while the chiselled Sidharth Malhotra gets to flaunt his abs. The film, however, doesn't allow its lovers a chance to do any heavy breathing.
Wed, Sep 03, 2025
August 25,2025 17:30:14 PM
The Thursday Murder Club movie review: Despite a dizzying collection of stars -- Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie -- the Netflix film remains shallow and flat.
Mon, Aug 25, 2025
August 14,2025 19:20:20 PM
Tehran film review: What John Abraham, whose impassivity helps his character feel as real as it can when done with reel-drama, manages to pull off here is noteworthy.
Fri, Aug 15, 2025
August 14,2025 17:37:41 PM
Andhera review: Andhera, starring Priya Bapat, Karanvir Malhotra, Prajakta Koli, Pravin Dabas, Surveen Chawla, among others, should come with a tagline: suspend all disbelief, all ye enter this supernatural-horror territory.
Thu, Aug 14, 2025




