Anupama Chopra, founder & editor of Film Companion, is a film critic, television anchor and book author. She has been writing about Bollywood since 1993. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Hindustan Times, The Los Angeles Times and Vogue (India).
Here you can find all of her reviews for movies from across the globe.
BellBottom, inspired by true events, is set in the 1980s, described as a time when hijacking had become rampant. The films propels itself forward on a certain caper-style energy, slickness and scale. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of BellBottom on @Amazon Prime Video India , starring Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta among others.
The word immersive gets tossed around a lot but Mumbai Diaries 26/11 actually achieves it. Over eight episodes, which range in duration from 35 minutes to 48 minutes, the series recreates the horror, beat by beat. Anupama Chopra reviews the Amazon Prime Video series.
Watching Bhoot Police on @DisneyPlus Hotstar , I realized that a film which is mediocre is more soul-sucking than one that is actively awful because you see glimpses of what might have been.
With his third film, Once Upon a Time in Calcutta, filmmaker Aditya Vikram Sengupta is back in Venice, being the only Indian film playing at the festival this year. The film has a lovely, lyrical quality to it. Here's Anupama Chopra's review to know more.
The Father is a devastating film. One man’s descent into dementia becomes a gutting reminder of your own mortality. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of The Father.
Shang-Chi is the MCU’s first Asian lead, and like Black Panther, this film carries the weight of the departure from the all-white pantheon of Marvel superheroes. The writing doesn’t have the heft or depth of that film. Still, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a strong step forward.
The Interview: Night of 26/11, starring Jackie Shroff & Anjum Nayar, is so bizarrely amateurish that it’s hard to adequately describe it. Watch Anupama Chopra's review to know more, and watch the film on BookMyShow Stream.
These stories are about mostly affluent people grappling with affairs of the heart – divorce, infidelity, the idea of an open marriage, coming out of the closet, one-night stands and love in the time of social media. The stories end with the characters in a Mumbai taxi, hence the title Kaali Peeli Tales. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review to know more, and watch the anthology on Amazon Mini TV.
In Kuruthi, director Manu Warrier and writer Anish Pallyal build a Trojan horse – a home invasion movie that works as a gripping thriller but at the same time asks us to consider religious fanaticism, how faith can create good and evil, how hate persists and how ultimately, violence begets violence. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review, and watch the film on @Amazon Prime Video India .
Shershaah, on @Amazon Prime Video India , starring Sidharth Malhotra & Kiara Advani, doesn’t have the daring of its subject. The intentions are laudable but it feels tokenistic because the writing isn’t detailed enough. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review to know more.
Navarasa is arguably the mother of Indian anthologies - nine films based on the nine emotional states prescribed by the Natya Shastra. It's bolstered by good intentions, some superb performances and craft but overall, the anthology doesn’t exceed the sum of its parts. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review here.
A remake of the National Award-winning 2011 Marathi film Mala Aai Vahhaychy!, buried somewhere inside Mimi is a moving story about parenting and what it means to raise and love a child. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review of the film starring Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi, Sai Tamhankar, Supriya Pathak & Manoj Pahwa, to know more.
Most of the films are thirty minutes long but truthfully, little in the three hours "feels like ishq". Much of it feels synthetic, simplistic, straining to be meaningful and, largely, insipid. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review of Feels Like Ishq to know more.
14 Phere is a bewildering film. It’s set up as a romance but the horror of honor killing looms large. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review of the film starring Vikrant Massey, Kriti Kharbanda, Jameel Khan, Gauahar Khan among others.
In Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Toofaan, Aziz, a street fighter from Dongri, the catalyst in his life is a doctor at the local hospital. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson’s great line in As Good as it Gets, Ananya makes Aziz want to be a better man. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review to know more.
A short descriptor of Malik could be – a Malayalam Nayakan. Like Mani Ratnam’s 1987 classic, this film is also a sprawling story of crime and punishment spanning generations and decades – from 1965 to 2018. Here' Anupama Chopra's review of Malik on @Amazon Prime Video India , starring Fahadh Faasil in the titular role.
Haseen Dillruba, starring Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey & Harshvardhan Rane, is genre busting – it’s a murder mystery but also a feverish romance with dollops of comedy bunged in. Listen to Anupama Chopra's review to know more.
The idea of contemporary directors interpreting Ray’s writing is instantly magical but this anthology is too uneven to do it justice. The master deserves more sparkling filmmaking.
Sherni has many stellar actors including Vijay Raaz, Neeraj Kabi and Ila Arun but the film is grounded by the gravitas and understated strength that Vidya Balan brings to Vidya Vincent.
After Skater Girl was shot in Khempur, a village near Udaipur in Rajasthan, the skating park that was built as a set for the movie was donated to locals. Which is probably the best thing about this well-intentioned but slight film.
The Family Man Season 2, on Amazon Prime Video India, doesn’t deal in simplistic heroes and villains. There are enough thrills here but what stays with you eventually is a sense of sadness - Anupama Chopra reviews the Manoj Bajpayee, Samantha Akkineni series created by Raj & DK.
The primal, animalistic nature of men sits just beneath the veneer of civilization imposed by society. Poke a little and a man, who is a loving father and husband, turns into a creature so savage that he is barely recognizable.
Wherever you think this narrative might go, it doesn’t. And when the twist arrives, it’s so unexpected that just like the character it’s revealed to, you are also stunned into silence. The beauty is that all of this plays out amidst the humdrum rhythms of daily life. There is no drama or high emotion.
What happens when an expensive Sony camera is left by mistake on the backseat of an autorickshaw? Lives change. Because the camera enables people to become storytellers. It renews hope and ambition. That is the power of cinema and the story of Cinema Bandi, the delightful new Telugu film, directed by Praveen Kandregula, and produced by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK.
Sardar Ka Grandson plays neither as a coming-of-age saga of a man who learns to face challenges and deliver on his commitments nor as a cross-border comedy nor as a moving family drama.
The Salman Khan starrer is so free of craft that it hurts. Prabhu Deva delivers yet another loud, numbing, pointless paean to the cult of Salman Khan. Anupama Chopra reviews the film.
Nayattu is a chilling film about the machinations of the system. The title means the hunt in Malayalam. What makes Nayattu brilliant is the way director Martin Prakkat reworks it.
Godzilla vs Kong is the fourth installment in a franchise called the MonsterVerse. But even if you haven’t seen those films, you won’t have any trouble connecting the dots in this one.
Meel Patthar, which means milestone, is far from a road movie, which romanticises the journey and the learnings from it.
How do you repurpose a powerful and gripping story about women into an over-the-top star vehicle in which the hero towers above everything else? Vakeel Saab provides a masterclass.
