Popular reviews

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  Review by nrh ★★★★★ 6

  high modernism of the ancients, and a masterpiece of visual/narrative harmony. impossibly overlooked.

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  Review by Mansah ★★★

  5x5: Indian Actresses, part I: Rekha

  I feel like I would need several rewatches to understand the various layers of this film, but as it is, I'm just kind of happy it exists. Thank you Shashi Kapoor for spending all your masala money producing out-of-the-box, experimental stuff like this (and theatre). Also, it's just so beautiful and so is Rekha.

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  Review by irmavep ★★★★

  I loved this until the last 5 minutes...Girish are you kidding me with that fucking ending...please...

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  Review by arushibhaskar ★★★ 2

  This needs to be restored in better quality, I'm begging.

  Rekha looked stunning, and the film did a good job at making the play come alive while retaining its core as a spectacle, with a narrator and commentators and quirky characters that keep an audience engaged. Wish we had been shown this when we were studying this in college (once again, please restore this!!)

  God bless Shashi Kapoor for putting his money into artsy and experimental stuff like this (he lost over 1 crore after this was released, apparently). A true patron of the arts and artist rolled into one (and the best male Kapoor too, by a long shot)!

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  Review by No.1 Spy Kids fan ★★★★½

  I can’t believe I said a film was “the most *me* thing ever” and then immediately watched this, where a guy eats up a foot like a subway sandwich. This is the horniest most revolutionary movie of all time. If it weren’t for the last 2 mins this would legit be a 100/100 film. Rekha is a goddess.

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  Review by Aadya Sharma ★★★★

  Sex, lust, war, revolution, thievery, thieving glances, foreplay, playful lovers, foresaken by caste, brilliant gold cascading over breasts - everything is an art, dripping in sensuality.

  South Asia loves theater, and this bittersweet ode to this love, to the elusive courtesan trapped in a play of romance only to realize the shackles of the very real caste structures around her, praised as everything but bound to be a plaything, all the while overlapping voices shifting in and out of each other breathe, huffing, moaning, singing, screaming, sighing, an aroma that can almost be smelt through the screen.

  Rekha is an ICON

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  Review by dublincore ★★★★★

  My kingdom (AKA the price of a LE 4K/blu-ray these days--jk jk I love you blu-ray labels, plz give me free stuff & I'll say nice things about you to my literal tens of followers who engage with my reviews) for a gorgeous restoration & release of this beautiful, sexy, rich, & sometimes difficult film.

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  Review by dublincore ★★★★★

  Ah, the spell of Art.

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  Review by Jaye 1

  thirty minutes left and I was losing my damn mind looking for shashi and then it hit me that samasthanak be looking like someone 🤡

  someone edit out the ending and rekha truly too other-worldly for words 🥺

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  Review by nnmore_films

  Shades of Mizoguchi and mid-period Rossellini, yet never blatantly influenced by. A world that continually opens itself up as the world around its central players becomes increasingly smaller. Genuinely erotic in both physicality and framing.

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  Review by Borkodo

  Very formally accomplished and very funny managing to capture the eroticism of gold which I don’t think I’ve seen before. I’m surprised it did so poorly when it came out.

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  Review by Ossian ★★★★

  criminally overlooked. A multi thread period drama that is focused on the lower ends of society: gamblers, thiefs, courtesans, slaves and revolutionaries. Charudutt, supposedly the the protagonist of the original drama, is the least interesting part and is given rather limited screen time.