Razzi

“The word “mulk” – meaning, nation – is repeated several times in Raazi. Close your eyes, and it won’t be clear which side of the border it’s coming from. And for most part, it won’t even matter. This, in a nutshell, is perhaps director Meghna Gulzar’s most remarkable achievement. In hyper-patriotic times such as these, it’s hard enough to make a spy thriller that humanizes the enemy; it’s even harder to suggest that the enemy lies in the eyes of the beholder.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review

“Alia’s metamorphosis from squirrel saviour to savage soldier is what acting is all about. I just feel dizzy thinking about the heights she’ll attain in future.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review

“Jay I Patel’s camerawork is intrinsic to the nervous edge that is a constant in the narrative. He seems to shadow Sehmat rather than shoot Bhatt, and is particularly responsible for underlining heightened stress levels in a scene involving a chase down a lonely street.”

Rating: 4.5 stars | Full review

“Meghna Gulzar… marries her own inimical woman’s gaze with her father’s lyricism, thus creating an amalgam that is pure heart. “

Rating: 3 stars | Full review

“Meghna Gulzar basks in the quietude that underscores the turmoil of a soul tormented by the guilt of her betrayal.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review

“Alia’s Sehmat is far from the glamourised version of spies you usually find in Hindi films. She is gritty yet tears up frequently. She blinks before the opponent and acts faster than expected. She is lethal, but it’s not in her habit. Like other girls of her age, she also has desires, but they don’t dilute her determination. Her transformation is not dramatic, but a natural progression in dangerous circumstances.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review

“Raazi holds up a defiant mirror to the very foundation of patriotism, goading introspection on how we’ve unquestioningly agreed to the pound of flesh it demands, without any bargain.”

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“An India/Pakistan film in which jingoism, and all the cliches of religion, culture and society, are deleted from its semiotics.”

Rating: 3 stars | Full review

“The movie tries to be sensitive to the current situation in Kashmir and its recent history. It’s a careful balancing act, but one that contradicts the patriotic fervour that drives the book.”

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“Despite her combat training, Sehmat can’t seem to negotiate the climbing of a high stool, and there is also the niggling detail that nobody in this Pakistani family, a family of army-men and decoders of intelligence, ever thinks to suspect the Indian girl in their midst.”

Rating: 3  stars | Full review

“Steers clear of chest-thumping jingoism and impassioned patriotic monologues that have become a staple of this genre.”

Rating: 3.5 stars | Full review

“We are spared speeches about one country being better than the other.”

Rating: 3.5 stars | Full review

“There’s another kind of infiltration happening here, of what has become a hyper-nationalistic, triumphalist genre by a more humanistic, shaded kind of filmmaking.”

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“You care so much for the girl, or perennially hope that she stays out of harm’s way that, for the most part, I ended up watching this film with my hand on the forehead, often veering towards closing my eyes! It’s the textured use of sound and some superb, textbook camera-work that, experience wise, it almost feels like you’re going through David Fincher’s stellar mystery-thriller Zodiac (2007), no less. This is director Meghna Gulzar’s first outing after Talvar (2015), proving, without doubt, she is at the top of her game.”

Rating: 4 stars | Full review