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.

April 14,2023 10:29:38 AM
Sir Madam Sarpanch seems to be a spin-off from the excellent web-series Panchayat. But whereas the series does it with sure-footedness, the film remains ineffective, despite its frequent stabs at ‘New India’ and its many current votaries.
Fri, Apr 14, 2023
April 07,2023 11:31:17 AM
Gumraah movie review: A remake of the Tamil-language ‘Thadam’ (2019), Gumraah again raises the question why Hindi films are choosing to remake such recent films, especially when the originals are easily available on a streaming platform.
Thu, Apr 13, 2023
April 07,2023 08:03:28 AM
Jubilee review: It’s quite clear that the team of the Vikramaditya Motwane show has worked in tandem – cinematography, music, costumes, sets, and other technical departments-- to create perfectly-judged, knowledgeable, affectionate nostalgia.
Fri, Apr 14, 2023
March 31,2023 09:18:55 AM
Gaslight movie review: Sara Ali Khan, who really needs a role with substance, and Vikrant Massey who can usually be relied upon to get us to look, leave little impact in this film that fails to dial up the dread.
Thu, Apr 13, 2023
March 30,2023 10:27:47 AM
Bholaa movie review: Ajay Devgn-Tabu's all-out action film is not for the faint-hearted but it is bang for your buck.
Tue, Apr 04, 2023
March 24,2023 16:42:56 PM
Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay and English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom on their ways of seeing the world, RRR and Indian films
Fri, Mar 24, 2023
March 24,2023 15:47:23 PM
Chor Nikal Ke Bhaaga movie review: The yami Gautam-Sunny Kaushal film is fine till it stays on the two of them, but when it starts to play with all its other threads, it starts feeling scattered.
Sat, Mar 25, 2023
March 24,2023 11:30:19 AM
Bheed movie review: It is clear why it was tempting to use the analogy of the Partition, which Anubhav Sinha had to excise from the film. With the context missing, this well-intentioned film becomes less than its powerful moving parts.
Sat, Mar 25, 2023
March 17,2023 11:43:11 AM
Rocket Boys 2 review: The series is the most vibrant when the camera is trained on the original rocket boy duo, Homi J Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, imperfect men who never let their weaknesses detract from their vision.
Sat, Mar 18, 2023
March 17,2023 09:35:20 AM
Zwigato movie review: Nandita Das' third directorial is such a powerful mirror to today’s India, which has always grappled with staggering disparities between the haves and have-nots.
Sat, Mar 18, 2023
March 13,2023 12:02:19 PM
India's win at Oscars 2023 brings up one of our major strengths, which is being unafraid of sentiment, of bringing something real and emotional to a world which has been taken over by pallid superheroes and their even more pallid tales.
Tue, Mar 14, 2023
March 09,2023 11:09:39 AM
Remembering the twinkly-eyed Satish Kaushik who made us laugh out loud so many times over the years. He passed away at the age of 66 in Gurugram.
Fri, Mar 10, 2023
March 08,2023 08:36:00 AM
Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar review: The writers of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar clearly didn’t get the memo on brevity being the soul of wit: the film drags on for two hours before it comes to the last twenty minutes, which is when the pace picks up.
Thu, Mar 09, 2023
March 03,2023 12:22:34 PM
Taj Divided By Blood review: This desi Game of Thrones refuses to be either in total thrall to one of the most liked Mughal Badshah, nor does it go about bashing him, and his doings.
Fri, Mar 03, 2023
February 25,2023 16:52:37 PM
The Teacher’s Lounge won the Best European award in the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlinale, which comes to a close tomorrow (26th February).
Sat, Feb 25, 2023
February 24,2023 12:53:21 PM
Sreemoyi Singh’s documentary ‘And, Towards Happy Alleys’ is filled with the positive presence of the celebrated Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi who has been in and out of prison for years.
Sat, Feb 25, 2023
February 24,2023 11:30:41 AM
The Berlinale is considered a film festival which belongs as much to the city and its people, as those of us who travel long distances to be here.
Fri, Feb 24, 2023
February 22,2023 17:22:38 PM
Films covering the staggering range of alt sexuality have always been a Berlinale strong point. So far, Femme and Mutt have stood out.
Wed, Feb 22, 2023
February 22,2023 11:41:30 AM
Express At Berlinale: Helen Mirren’s playing of Golda as a woman of steel, unafraid to take tough decisions, is astute; she also looks remarkably like the real Golda.
Wed, Feb 22, 2023
February 20,2023 20:32:06 PM
If Celine Song’s Past Lives allows men and women to break out of gender expectations, John Trengrove’s Manodrome holds out an olive branch to the kind of alpha men who use the gym as a place of validation.
Tue, Feb 21, 2023
February 19,2023 13:06:08 PM
After the screening, Baez showed up for a Q&A: it is the first time, we were told, that she has travelled to a film festival. And then she sang a few lines, and that was just sublime.
Mon, Feb 20, 2023
February 18,2023 09:11:29 AM
The Survival of Kindness is a survival story, filled with great violence and pain. It is about the asymmetry of power: those who wield power and those who are trampled upon.
Sat, Feb 18, 2023
February 16,2023 19:58:47 PM
She Came To Me is a grown-up contemporary comedy laced with romance, starring an eye-catching ensemble, led by Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, and Marisa Tomei.
Thu, Feb 16, 2023
February 16,2023 11:19:26 AM
Lost movie review: The plot’s focus on Yami Gautam's Vidhi reduces the other characters into satellites who revolve around her. The only one who lifts off the screen is Pankaj Kapur, playing her twinkly-eyed, wise grandpa.
Thu, Feb 16, 2023
February 14,2023 17:44:45 PM
It’s all rah-rah, hardly any nose-digs, but then you don’t really expect any in a series like this, about the biggest, most storied production house in Hindi cinema.
Fri, Feb 17, 2023




