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 10,2022 15:46:49 PM
Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon movie review: Anamika Haksar’s nearly two-hour tour of Shahjahanabad is a mix of documentary, ethnography, magical realism, surrealism, fantasy, folk tale, animation, with a bit of burlesque thrown in.
Fri, Jun 10, 2022
June 10,2022 15:19:48 PM
The Broken News review: The show comes off more like a crime thriller than what it promises at the outset – an exploration of how TV news is shaping everyday discourse in the country.
Sat, Jun 11, 2022
June 10,2022 10:43:52 AM
Janhit Mein Jaari movie review: The film uses humour well enough up to a point, to make its point -- that it’s no sin to talk up protection during sex.
Sat, Jun 11, 2022
June 10,2022 09:59:36 AM
Jurassic World Dominion movie review: No effort has been spared in making this one’s canvas bigger, but that doesn’t make the film necessarily better. We are even reunited with the OG trio, Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum.
Sat, Jun 11, 2022
June 03,2022 16:06:21 PM
Samrat Prithviraj review: As befits its simplistic, shorn-of-nuance tone, this Akshay Kumar-Manushi Chhillar film lurches between dialogue-baazi and blandness, and stays completely faithful to its stated intent.
Sat, Jun 04, 2022
June 03,2022 09:16:10 AM
Aashram Season 3 review: Bobby Deol and Chandan Roy Sanyal-starrer rechristens itself Ek Badnaam Aashram, but offers just more of the dreary same.
Sat, Jun 04, 2022
May 30,2022 16:49:57 PM
A combination of audience preference, which has been fed on escapist cinema for decades as the sole 'entertainment' option, and a fear of rocking the boat has kept Indian filmmakers far from the kind of realism that leads to finding a Cannes competitive pew
Tue, May 31, 2022
May 27,2022 15:05:21 PM
Anek movie review: Ayushmann Khurrana and the film stay woolly, being careful to stay in the middle of the while-on-the-one-side, but-also tightrope. Anubhav Sinha dips his toe into relatively unexplored territory, with mixed results.
Tue, Apr 04, 2023
May 24,2022 14:40:07 PM
Cannes 2022: Two films, very different from each other, received a splendid reception at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
Wed, May 25, 2022
May 23,2022 15:05:40 PM
Cannes 2022: Holy Spider is a dark, atmospheric character study of one of the most difficult humans to sympathise with.
Tue, May 24, 2022
May 22,2022 18:13:11 PM
Francis Ford Coppola’s gangsta-classic drew massive crowds at the Cinema de Plage: once the seats were full, people sprawled on the sand.
Sun, May 22, 2022
May 21,2022 21:40:49 PM
Cannes 2022: “Triangle Of Sadness” takes it to the next level, and bids fair to win big too.
Sun, May 22, 2022
May 20,2022 18:12:14 PM
The performances in Armageddon Time are excellent. The actors playing the two boys are alive to each moment, as are the adults, and the terrific Hopkins shows how it is done, with kindness and compassion.
Sat, May 21, 2022
May 19,2022 18:30:06 PM
Top Gun: Maverick actor Tom Cruise waved to the screaming crowds which had been lining the Croisette for hours, happily posed for selfies, as the band belted out ‘Great Balls Of Fire’.
Thu, May 19, 2022
May 19,2022 14:25:31 PM
Apart from becoming a pop culture moment, the film was single-handedly responsible for the sky-rocketing popularity of Ray Bans, the glasses that all cool aviators wore, as well as all the cops and crooks in Hollywood and Bollywood.
Fri, May 20, 2022
May 18,2022 18:04:32 PM
What is the value of an event such as the 75th Cannes Film Festival in today’s world which is struggling with food scarcity, fundamentalism, and death and disaster? The answer is wrapped in the question.
Thu, May 19, 2022
May 17,2022 13:43:16 PM
The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival opens today with its usual fanfare: red carpet galas at the Palais, stars sweeping down the Croisette, and film press lining up for much-anticipated goodies. It’s May, it’s Cannes, and all’s right with the world.
Thu, May 19, 2022
May 14,2022 11:23:59 AM
A new show, based on Sally Rooney's debut novel, mines the rocky terrain inhabited by close friends
Sat, May 14, 2022
May 13,2022 14:50:30 PM
Jayeshbhai Jordaar movie review: The intentions of this Ranveer Singh-Shalini Pandey film may have been noble, but it comes off as a babble of characters flailing about in a plot which makes you grit your teeth.
Sat, May 14, 2022
May 13,2022 09:53:11 AM
Modern Love Mumbai review: This city is perhaps India’s only true ‘mahanagar’. The anthology may not inspire the same awed-affection as the Maximum City, but each story does have something uniquely Mumbai about it.
Sat, May 14, 2022
May 09,2022 17:35:40 PM
Shubhra Gupta writes: How long will it take for us to realise it is not just about him, that we all need the wind beneath our wings?
Wed, May 11, 2022
May 08,2022 06:15:48 AM
Films, be they big or small in scale, what works across the board finally is attitude, vision and conviction
Sun, May 08, 2022
May 06,2022 15:34:32 PM
Thar movie review: This is one of those films where the setting is the real hero-- the ‘marusthal’ (desert) stretching as far as the eye can see, crumbling forts, bare trees providing meagre shade, implacable, hard beauty.
Sat, May 07, 2022
May 06,2022 11:57:21 AM
Home Shanti review: This is your 'halka-phulka parivarik' space; relatable and mildly amusing.
Sat, May 07, 2022
April 29,2022 14:29:37 PM
Heropanti 2 review: This film has no plot. It’s basically a series of set pieces featuring Tiger Shroff prancing, romancing, and dancing, when he is not mowing down bunches of baddies.
Sat, Apr 30, 2022



