Recent Reviews by Tanul Thakur
Outlook
Tanul Thakur is a National Award-winning film critic and an independent journalist. A film critic for The Wire, he’s written features and opinion pieces for The Caravan, Open, Fountain Ink, GQ, and Yahoo! India.
Films reviewed on this Page
Jigra
The Alia Bhatt-starrer Doesn’t Fire but Fizzle Out
Vasan Bala’s directorial is marred by bland writing
The trailer of Jigra promised a coup too delicious to resist: Alia Bhatt as the Angry Young (Wo)man. At one point, Manoj Pahwa tells her, “Arre, [Amitabh] Bachchan nahin banna hai. Bach ke nikalna hai.” A stone-faced Bhatt replies: “Ab toh Bachchan hi banna hai.” This exchange hides loaded meanings: reverence (Bhatt, the best Bollywood actor right now, paying tribute to the best Bollywood actor of the ’70s), inversion (a heroine playing an anti-hero), and nostalgia (a drug always in short supply). There’s a bit of serendipity, too: the movie’s release date, October 11, coincides with Bachchan’s birthday.