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.
Debutant director Hitesh Kewalya, who has also written the story, tries valiantly to establish that a same-sex relationship has the same passion, heartache and insecurity. Here's Anupama Chopra's review of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. #ShubhMangalZyadaSaavdhan #AyushmannKhurrana #JitendraKumar
Debutant director Bhanu Pratap Singh takes the true incident of a cargo ship stranded at Juhu beach in Mumbai and spins a story about why it’s haunted. Here's the movie review by Anupama Chopra. #BhootTheHauntedShip #VickyKaushal #BhumiPednekar
Written and directed by #ImtiazAli (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23ImtiazAli) , #LoveAajKal (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23LoveAajKal) starring Sara Ali Khan and Kartik Aaryan is a confounding film about confused people. With this film, Imtiaz who is Hindi cinema’s high priest of romance tries to dive deeper and go darker. He wants to show us the loneliness of pure ambition and the emptiness of hook-up culture. Does the film land? Listen to Anupama Chopra’s rev...
Director Taika Waititi, who adapted the screenplay from a novel called Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, works a miracle here. Jojo is a 10-year-old boy who lives in a small German town and spends a lot of time chatting with an imaginary buddy – Adolf Hitler.
Jawaani Jaaneman is an official adaptation of the 2010 Argentinian comedy Igualita A Mi which means Just Like Me. Somewhere in it is a tender, funny story about parenting, growing up, the importance of family and what a character calls ‘old-school love.’ But director Nitin Kakkar only skims the surface. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of Jawaani Jaaneman.
Panga works on the strength of its performances and its writing. Ashwiny, co-writer Nikhil Mehrotra and Nitesh Tiwari, who has been credited with additional screenplay create a lived-in world with characters who have depth and personality. Here is Anupama Chopra's review of the Kangana Ranaut starrer.
Street Dancer 3D is a master-class in all the incredible things the human body can do. If the script was half as nimble as these gifted people, this film would have been a smash. Sadly, that is not the case. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of Street Dancer 3D, directed by Remo D'Souza, starring Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Aparshakti Khurana and more.
Just Mercy is a thoughtful meditation of the nature of compassion and cruelty. It’s a startling reminder that human beings are capable of both extremes. The film has been adapted from the memoir of Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard-trained lawyer, who moved to a small town in Alabama in 1989 to review charges against death row inmates. Here's Anupama Chopra's review of Just Mercy, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.
In 1917, director and co-writer Sam Mendes, co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns and DOP Roger Deakins deliver a film that combines high impact with high artistry. Lance Corporal Blake, played by Dean-Charles Chapman and Lance Corporal Schofield, played by George MacKay have a youthful bravery that is heart-breaking. Watch Anupama Chopra's review here.
Jai Mummy Di’s only redeeming factor is that it’s short. Genuinely, there is nothing else I can recommend in this film – the acting is bizarre, the writing is sloppy, the plot is incoherent and the background music is so purposefully annoying that you want to weep. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of the film here.
Writer-director Om Raut, co-writer Prakash Kapadia and leading man and co-producer Ajay Devgn seemed to have cracked the formula – Tanhaji, based on the life of Shivaji Maharaj’s lieutenant, is an action movie rolled into an Amar Chitra Katha comic. Here's Anupama Chopra's review of the film.
Laxmi Agarwal's remarkable survival story is the inspiration for Chhapaak, in which Deepika Padukone plays Malti, a middle-class Delhi girl whose pleasantly ordinary life is wrecked by an acid attack.The film's biggest success is that Deepika becomes Malti.
With The Rise of Skywalker, the story that George Lucas started on May 25th, 1977 finally comes to an end. It is, as director J.J. Abrams, said the ‘trilogy of trilogies.’ The Rise of Skywalker had to be the ultimate grand finale. Sadly, the film is much less.
When you step into Dabangg 3, you know you’re in for a Salman Khan extravaganza. Which would be fine if there was some attempt to tweak the formula or push it into a new direction.
Mardaani 2 is a sequel dedicated to Shivani Shivaji Roy, a lady super cop, who locks horns with the devil incarnate, a young & remorseless criminal who is murdering young women. Starring Rani Mukerji as Shivani, it is directed by Gopi Puthran and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films.
Writer-director Mudassar Aziz attempts to deliver a reboot that is lively, funny and at least superficially, progressive – he doesn’t always succeed but there is fun to be had here. Pati Patni Aur Woh stars Kartik Aaryan, Bhumi Pednekar, Ananya Pandey and Aparshakti Khurana.
Panipat should have been the 18th century version of Uri because the josh of Sadashivrao and his men is always high. Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, this films stars Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon.
In Hotel Mumbai, writer-director Anthony Maras and co-writer John Collee revisit the first night of the three days the terror lasted. Starring Anupam Kher, Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Nazanin Boriadi, watch Anupama Chopra's review of Hotel Mumbai.
Knives Out is a delicious, twisted, witty murder mystery. The film, written and directed by Rian Johnson, manages at the same time to be both meta and self-aware but also satisfyingly old-school. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of the film, starring Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Don Johnson and Ana de Armas.
The religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims is one of India’s gravest fault lines. Commando 3 offers a simple solution – Vidyut Jammwal in a manbun. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of Commando 3, directed by Aditya Datt, also starring Adah Sharma, Angira Dhar and Gulshan Devaiah.
Pagalpanti is a sloppy TikTok video stretched to a torturous two hours and 29 minutes. Whatever dimag you might mistakenly bring to the film will definitely be depleted by the end of it. Director Anees Bazmee may be a veteran of mindless comedies but Pagalpanti is so soul-sucking and brain-dead that it makes Bazmee’s last film Mubarakan look like high art.
Like the title suggests, Motichoor Chaknachoor is sweet and slight. Director Debamitra Biswal follows the standard beats of these films. But, the film has modest aspirations and it never soars above them because the writing isn’t strong enough. Watch Anupama Chopra's review of Motichoor Chaknachoor, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Athiya Shetty.
Writer-director Milap Milan Zaveri blends his favourite 80s and 90s Hindi film clichés with ear-splitting background music, bombastic dialogue-baazi and frantic over-acting by Sidharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria and Riteish Deshmukh.
The Ayushmann Khurrana social message movie is now a bonafide Bollywood sub-genre. Bala is a balding 25-year-old living in Kanpur. He is an aspiring stand-up comic. He entertains people by mimicking Bollywood stars, especially Shah Rukh Khan. This film is like his act – fun in places, flat in others and not enough sticks.
Neil Nitin Mukesh has written the story, screenplay and dialogue of Bypass Road, which is a fantastically convoluted thriller. There are so many twists, reveals, false alarms, schemers and disgruntled lovers that you lose track of the story. Here is Anupama Chopra's review of the film
Drive starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Jacqueline Fernandez dropped on streaming platform Netflix this week. Subtlety is not the film’s forte. Neither is clarity, characterisation, coherence or anything else that any reasonable person requires. Anupama Chopra reviews the Tarun Mansukhani directed film.
Ujda Chaman is a remake of the Kannada film Ondu Motteya Kathe. Which means 'story of an egghead'. This film is about the ache of being ordinary, and actor Sunny Singh playing Chaman, does an adequate job at playing the role. Watch Anupama Chopra's review to know more.
#TheSkyIsPink (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23TheSkyIsPink) is based on the true story of Aisha Chaudhary who was born with SCID, a rare genetic disorder. She eventually died of Pulmonary Fibrosis, which was a side-effect of her treatment for SCID. The film stars #PriyankaChopraJonas (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23PriyankaChopraJonas) , #FarhanAkhtar (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23FarhanAkhtar) , Zaira Wasim and Rohit Suresh Saraf and is direc...
#DiegoMaradona (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23DiegoMaradona) is the modern equivalent of a Greek tragedy. An extraordinarily talented hero rises to fame and glory. But ultimately, he is defeated by his own fatal flaws – hubris, insecurity, a weak will. Chopra reviews #AsifKapadia (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23AsifKapadia) ’s documentary on the footballer.
Directed by #ToddPhillips (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23ToddPhillips) , #Joker (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23Joker) played by #JoaquinPhoenix (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23JoaquinPhoenix) gives us a view of a deranged world but it never attempts to offer more than a simplistic causality. Listen to #AnupamaChopra (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23AnupamaChopra) 's review to know more.
