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.

June 07,2024 12:35:39 PM
Munjya movie review: Munjya, the latest in Dinesh Vijan's horror universe, loses an opportunity to have created a truly original bad boy whose rancid desire for an older girl keeps it alive all these decades.
Sat, Jun 08, 2024
June 07,2024 10:42:50 AM
Gullak 4 review: The key to TVF's Gullak is its relatability -- their ‘ chotey-chotey-khushi-aur-gham’ are either things we’ve experienced first-hand, or we know people who have -- built upon its sheer likeability.
Sat, Jun 08, 2024
June 06,2024 07:58:42 AM
For a series of unforgettable visuals, you need Santosh Sivan, the recipient of this year’s coveted Pierre Angenieux tribute at Cannes.
Thu, Jun 06, 2024
June 02,2024 07:30:22 AM
Naseeruddin Shah talks about the experience of the famed standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, the shooting of Manthan, what the film has come to mean to him, among other things.
Mon, Jun 03, 2024
June 02,2024 06:50:15 AM
It was India’s moment in the sun at the Cannes Film Festival this year as the audience and jury tipped their hats to the confidence and fearlessness of its new talent.
Sun, Jun 02, 2024
May 31,2024 11:33:01 AM
Mr and Mrs Mahi movie review: Janhvi Kapoor-Rajkummar Rao film gives us a rom-com nestled in India’s favourite sports, which in turn is nestled in the tropes of the family-entertainer movie.
Fri, May 31, 2024
May 27,2024 14:18:18 PM
One film cannot, and should not be expected to, shoulder the responsibility of changing the perception that all Indian films are song-and-dance stompers. But there’s no doubt that the ecstatic Cannes reception of All We Imagine As Light will help shift that needle, and hold out hope for other independent Indian filmmakers
Tue, May 28, 2024
May 26,2024 08:30:13 AM
The Benegal classic was India’s first crowd-funded film: each farmer of Gujarat’s Kheda district contributed Rs 2, and the opening credit read, ‘Produced by 500,000 farmers’.
Tue, Dec 24, 2024
May 26,2024 01:52:52 AM
There has been a long drought since, and Kapadia’s film has broken through, gloriously.
Sun, May 26, 2024
May 24,2024 22:17:20 PM
Australian actor Cate Blanchett’s gown with a robe in the Palestinian colours has also been seen as a mark of solidarity, something she has been outspoken about.
Fri, May 24, 2024
May 24,2024 08:22:39 AM
Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light striking performances from Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha, and solid supporting acts from Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon.
Fri, May 24, 2024
May 23,2024 21:41:15 PM
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a colossal bore. All the crashing and banging, the fleet of odd-bods, including masked creatures wearing strange uniforms, the convoys criss-crossing the desert pockmarked with caves and cliffs, is just a lot of noise, signifying less than nothing.
Thu, May 23, 2024
May 22,2024 21:54:32 PM
Being Maria is a deliberate focus on the before-during-after of Last Tango in Paris which would change Maria Schneider’s life, very much for the worse.
Thu, May 23, 2024
May 21,2024 15:04:39 PM
The part of India that we see in Santosh, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival, is overrun by men who mock and belittle women when they are not doing worse things to them.
Wed, May 22, 2024
May 21,2024 06:54:57 AM
Ali Abbasi manages to skate on very thin ice-- being objective about his subject while being clear-eyed about all his faults-- with a great deal of conviction. The film doesn’t vilify, but it is also not a hagiography.
Tue, May 21, 2024
May 19,2024 19:23:05 PM
Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez manages to find the sweet spot between intention and execution, and comes up with a wholly absorbing film.
Sun, May 19, 2024
May 18,2024 18:24:59 PM
At its best, Kind Of Kindness does what Lanthimos does best : he gives us pure, visceral, original cinema imbued with such startling imagery, that you forgive him his excesses.
Sun, May 19, 2024
May 17,2024 12:23:49 PM
You are left wondering how much of ‘Megalopolis’ can safely be derived from the word megalomania: it is a monumental mess, but it is also a pean to the past, a lament of the present, and a hope for the future.
Fri, May 17, 2024
May 16,2024 20:13:32 PM
Malou Khebizi as the nineteen-year-old Liane checks many familiar boxes-- she is appropriately fierce and fiesty, and mouthy with it—but it also allows her to exhibit a pleasing vulnerability. Liane is a type, but she is also an individual, and therefore memorable.
Fri, May 17, 2024
May 15,2024 21:29:58 PM
Meryl Streep was last on the Riviera 35 years back with Fred Schepisi’s 1988 ‘Evil Angels’, which got her a Best Actress award for her part as a mother accused of being too-stoic over the disappearance over her infant.
Thu, May 16, 2024
May 13,2024 08:05:26 AM
A restored version of Shyam Benegal's Manthan will be showcased at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival that begins from May 14.
Tue, May 14, 2024
May 10,2024 12:55:04 PM
Murder In Mahim review: The eight-part series focuses on regular people (and their families) to be found in modest dwellings and crowded police thanas, through a sharp look at the LGBTQi community.
Fri, May 10, 2024
May 10,2024 10:34:36 AM
Srikanth movie review: Rajkummar Rao is one of the few actors who is capable of fully inhabiting his role, and even more important, shed all vanity in the process.
Fri, May 10, 2024
May 03,2024 13:09:23 PM
The Broken News 2 review: The Sonali Bendre-Jaideep Ahlawat show does well enough in the parts where it borrows bravely from current events, and tells us how all ‘news’ can be ‘spun’ so that a particular point-of-view is cemented.
Fri, May 03, 2024
May 01,2024 12:53:59 PM
Heeramandi review: It’s when Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Netflix show turns its eyes on the faded grandeur of its ‘Lahore ki ranis’ in their gilded cages, grime peeking out from behind their finery, that the show is most effective.
Fri, May 03, 2024


