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Film Companion


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.


Anupama Chopra Reviews

A Star is Born is a thing of beauty. It’s gorgeously romantic but also authentic and emotionally searing. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are both brilliant and heartbreaking. The film is of course a love story but it’s also a portrait of creativity and commerce and the difficulty of protecting the former from the latter. Through the film, Cooper’s character Jackson Maine talks about the importance of having something to say. But how do you get the world to listen without selling your soul and becoming a cog in the star-making machinery?

5: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of A Star Is Born | Bradley Cooper | Lady Gaga

Eela, as the title tells us, is a nightmarish helicopter parent. She hovers over every aspect of her son’s life. Just like in the Melissa McCarthy film Life of the Party, Eela ends up going to college with her child. Which of course pushes her suffocating ways to the next level. The film is based on the Gujarati play Beta Kaagdo by Anand Gandhi who has co-written the screenplay with Mitesh Shah. The writers and director Pradeep Sarkar want to create a portrait of a middle-aged, middle-class woman who must rediscover herself and find a life outside of her son.

4: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Helicopter Eela | Kajol | Riddhi Sen | Tota Roy Chowdhury

At one point in Bhaiaji Superhit, we arrive at a flashback in which Sunny Deol, as the uneducated Banaras don named Bhaiaji is serenading his wife, Sapna played by Preity Zinta, by reciting Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He’s wearing a shiny, black velvet coat and stumbling over the English. It was at this precise moment that I started to feel more pain for Sunny than I was feeling for myself. Of course Bhaiaji Superhit isn’t his tragedy alone though he does do the heavy-lifting. Preity returns as leading lady after five years. As Sapna, she gets to speak mangled English and have temper tantrums each time she sees her husband talking to a woman. Ameesha plays a Bollywood diva who gets Bhaiaji into trouble.

6: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Bhaiaji Superhit | Neeraj Pathak | Sunny Deol | Preity Zinta

Sriram Raghavan is Hindi cinema’s thriller master. His films are filled with dark and dirty people – criminals and gamblers, murderers and conmen. His films are also filled with references to older Hindi films. But in Andhadhun, Sriram takes the homage further. Anil Dhawan, star of 70s pulp classics like Chetna and Darwaza, plays a version of himself – a yesteryear star who spends too much time revisiting his past glory.

1: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of AndhaDhun | Sriram Raghavan | Ayushmann Khurrana | Tabu

Gali Guleiyan is a film about a maze - both mental and physical. Khuddoos lives in one of the narrow lanes in old Delhi. It’s a vast and bewildering network of homes scrunched up against each other. A lesser actor would have asked more blatantly for our sympathy or given us some comfort to clutch on to. But Manoj Bajpayee understands that Khuddoos is broken irreparably. His mind is a fog of memories and punishments.

2: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Gali Guleiyan | Dipesh Jain | Manoj Bajpayee

Creed II also firmly establishes Michael B. Jordan as a major movie star. He combines charisma with formidable acting chops. His body resembles granite but the narrative is about Adonis’ vulnerabilities and when Jordan cries, you feel his pain.

Of course, Creed II is familiar ground. But it honours the genre and still has enough vitality to make us feel the thrill again.

35: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Creed II | Steven Caple Jr.| Michael B. Jordan

Uri: The Surgical Strike is an unabashed love letter to the Indian army. If you want nuance or insight into the hearts and minds of brave men and women who willingly put themselves in the line of fire, you won’t find it here. Writer-director Aditya Dhar positions soldiers as superheroes who might grieve but they never doubt or question their place in an increasingly complicated and polarized world.

39: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Uri: The Surgical Strike | Aditya Dhar | Vicky Kaushal

Gold is a fictional account of a real incident. I’m not sure how many people are aware of this victory so applause to Reema for bringing it to light. The film is handsomely produced. The period details are in place and despite some dull stretches, the narrative has hold. In the second half though, the wobbling becomes more precarious. The tonality alternates between dramatic and comic.

3: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Gold | Reema Kagti | Akshay Kumar

The film, adapted from Garrard Conley’s memoir, is both efficient and effective. What I liked best about Boy Erased is that the film is driven by empathy. There are no outsized villains here – even Victor Sykes, played nicely by Edgerton himself, the bulldozer who runs the therapy program, has texture.

7: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Boy Erased | Joel Edgerton | Lucas Hedges

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a frantic movie – visually and narratively. So much happens to so many characters and the film is stuffed with so many marvels that by the end, I was both confused and exhausted. But I will admit that the sight of Hogwarts made me jump with delight. I love the Harry Potter universe and I wish I could recommend this film with greater enthusiasm. It’s competent but not enchanting enough.

8: Anupama Chopra's Movie Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | David Yates

Here's Film Companion's review of Bachchhan Paandey. It has taken eight years for the story of Karthik Subbaraj's Jigarthanda to find its way to Hindi cinema, which is just as well because Bollywood has mangled it beyond recognition. Bachchhan Paandey is a loud, joyless bore. Here's the full review to know more.

Bachchhan Paandey | Bollywood Movie Review by Anupama Chopra | Film Companion

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