Recent Reviews by Ishita Sengupta
Independent Film Critic
Ishita Sengupta is an independent film critic and culture writer with a keen focus on nonfiction work. Her writing is informed with gender, pop culture and politics and it has appeared in publications like The Indian Express, The Hindu Frontline, OTTplay among others.
Films reviewed on this Page
Singham Again
A Modern-Day, Cop-Addled Reimagination Of The Ramayana
Of all the improbable things in Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again, like a car flying over a helicopter, like the same car landing without a scratch, like gifted actors dialling down their craft to match the trite script, like six people writing that script, like Ajay Devgn mistaking walking for acting, like the film mistaking walking for acting, the one that sticks out the most is Shetty assembling half the Hindi film industry (an exaggeration but you get the drift) to combat Arjun Kapoor.
Read all 12 reviews of Singham Again here
Jigra
Alia Bhatt In & As The Angry Young Woman
In Vasan Bala’s Jigra (Courage) Alia Bhatt is Amitabh Bachchan. The suggestion seems both foolish and foolhardy, not least because both actors have disparate, almost contrasting, physicalities. They act differently, they react differently. And more crucially, a punch lands on them differently. If Bachchan in his youth stumbled upon being hit, then Bhatt crumples like a paper bag. If the former’s daunting presence intimidates the frame then the latter’s diminutive silhouette makes space for others. Alia Bhatt is nothing like Amitabh Bachchan yet Bala insists that she is, for she has the jigra.