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 02,2023 10:57:24 AM
Chidiakhana movie review: There’s a pleasing sincerity about Ritvik Sahore, and Rajeshwari Sachdev and Mahesh Narayanan are both capable of breathing life into a scene. But with so little lift from the writing, they all come off cliched.
Fri, Jun 02, 2023
June 02,2023 10:06:47 AM
Zara Hatke Zara Bachke movie review: The film is a tonal switch in its second-half, introducing a plot twist doused in mothballed sentimentality, and adding a dreary sanskari layer to the whole thing.
Sat, Jun 03, 2023
May 28,2023 07:56:50 AM
Here are the top non-main competition films at Cannes Film Festival 2023, which draw attention to original first-time voices, or throw light on parts of the world which are still under the radar, in terms of creating cinema which travels outside their borders.
Sun, May 28, 2023
May 27,2023 07:28:48 AM
Will Loach, who won the Palme D’Or twice, win it a third time for the refugee drama?
Sat, May 27, 2023
May 26,2023 11:44:44 AM
May December leaves you thinking: Why do people do what they do?
Fri, May 26, 2023
May 25,2023 15:02:48 PM
Anurag Kashyap’s set-during-the-pandemic cop-crime drama ‘Kennedy’ and Kanu Behl’s ‘Agra’ got long standing ovations after their screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Fri, May 26, 2023
May 24,2023 15:00:23 PM
Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai movie review: Manoj Bajpayee slips into the role of lawyer PC Solanki, who is unafraid of taking on the rich and powerful and yet human enough to want to make a good impression on the famous lawyers arrayed against him.
Wed, May 31, 2023
May 24,2023 08:01:57 AM
Wes Anderson returns to the Cannes competition with yet another candy-coloured confection, Asteroid City, just two years after The French Dispatch.
Wed, May 24, 2023
May 23,2023 07:14:15 AM
Sandra Huller, who was so good as the 'Queen of Auschwitz' in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest, looks like she is taking the Palme for the Best Actress away.
Tue, May 23, 2023
May 22,2023 09:36:06 AM
Martin Scorsese film is a Western, a true-crime thriller, a character study, all of which segue into a sprawling origin story of how a nation was born.
Mon, May 22, 2023
May 21,2023 07:04:20 AM
Both Chadha and Fazal, partners on and off the screen, represent the kind of acting talent that arrives in Bollywood from the outside, assesses the un-level playing field, and dives right in regardless, knowing full well that the path is not going to be easy.
Sun, May 21, 2023
May 20,2023 04:22:18 AM
The Zone Of Interest, Based On A Martin Amis Novel, Transports Viewers To A Concentration Camp During WW-2
Sat, May 20, 2023
May 19,2023 07:42:05 AM
A desire to rediscover your roots, laced by racism and heartbreak, is at the heart of Catherine Corsini’s film; in Black Flies, Sean Penn is terrific as Rutkovsky, the older man with a fraught personal life and a solid professional ethic.
Fri, May 19, 2023
May 18,2023 04:30:15 AM
Written and directed by Maiwenn, the film is a good-looking bon-bon with an undemanding flavour; it pleases the eye, but doesn’t linger. Maiwenn, who also plays the titular role of Jeanne—a low-born woman who uses her wily intelligence to dazzle the Versailles court, gifts herself the meatiest part.
Thu, May 18, 2023
May 12,2023 11:52:43 AM
IB71 movie review: This Vidyut Jammwal film claims to have been cobbled together from actual events, but the execution is both simplistic-comic-book and convoluted.
Fri, May 12, 2023
May 12,2023 10:34:57 AM
Chatrapathi movie review: Crassness is a big part of how women are depicted in this film that is straight out of templated potboilers of the 70s and 80s.
Fri, May 12, 2023
May 12,2023 10:22:12 AM
Dahaad review: For a series that should have our hearts pounding and our breaths growing shallower as the serial killer zeroes in on newer victims, it is surprisingly bland.
Sat, May 13, 2023
May 05,2023 12:43:17 PM
Saas Bahu and Flamingo review: Dimple Kapadia's Savitri could really teach Succession’s Logan Roy a thing or two, in the way she is always on top.
Fri, May 05, 2023
May 05,2023 09:14:44 AM
The Kerala Story movie review: When a film shines a light on different aspects of an issue, it creates space for reflection and conversation, and you come away with food for thought. What about a film which does exactly the opposite?
Tue, May 09, 2023
April 29,2023 14:19:05 PM
As Aamir Khan completes 35 years in the Hindi film industry, here's looking at how the superstar is still relevant all these years later.
Fri, May 05, 2023
April 28,2023 14:46:31 PM
The new spy series, Citadel, from the Russo Brothers, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden, is streaming on Prime Video.
Fri, Apr 28, 2023
April 28,2023 11:58:59 AM
The Song Of Scorpions movie review: The film comes out just ahead of Irrfan Khan’s third death anniversary, and it brings us face to face, once again, with an actor non-pareil, whose absence grows sharper with each passing day.
Sat, Apr 29, 2023
April 28,2023 08:53:06 AM
U Turn movie review: The film's story, in its insistence on keeping the focus on the leading lady, makes everyone else’s arcs sub-par. This results in a film unable to keep a hold on the viewer.
Fri, Apr 28, 2023
April 21,2023 14:59:38 PM
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan review: The last time a Salman Khan film had Bhaijaan in the title, its prefix was ‘Bajrangi’, and that solid Kabir Khan film had, verily, a story. This Bhaijaan is running on empty.
Sat, Apr 22, 2023
April 14,2023 10:43:56 AM
Mrs Undercover review: Laboni Sarkar is about the only one who rises above the harebrained script. The rest--including the singularly single-toned Radhika Apte, the usually reliable Sumeet Vyas, and the excellent Rajesh Sharma-- flounder.
Sat, Apr 15, 2023




