Critics’ Verdict: ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ Makes For a Good Watch

Check out what critics are saying about this week’s new release ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’

A scene from Angry Indian Goddesses

Film: Angry Indian Goddesses
Director: Pan Nalin
Cast: Sandhya Mridul, Anushka Manchanda, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sarah Jane Dias, Rajshri Deshpande, Pavleen Gujral, Amrit Maghera

Pan Nalin’s <i>Angry Indian Goddesses</i>, on one level, is a charmingly jaunty film powered by peppy performances. But under its cool, casual and cheeky chitchat on matters both saucy and solemn, it is also a trenchant study of a society festering from within. The fact that the cast members are a mix of models, VJs, beauty queens and seasoned theatre/television/film actresses helps - they know the world they are talking about. That is not to say that every strand in the film is perfect. To begin with, parts of <i>Angry Indian Goddesses</i> seem somewhat superficial and emotionally hollow. <i>Angry Indian Goddesses</i> is a must-see and not only because it is unlike anything Hindi cinema has produced before. It strikes a fine and rare balance between thematic gravitas and breezy entertainment.

<b>Saibal Chatterjee (Movies.ndtv.com)</b>

Womenfolk of the country, it is time to rejoice: India’s ‘first female buddy film’ hits theatres this Friday. For most parts, Pan Nalin’s Angry Indian Goddesses is indeed an Indian version of Sex and the City, (of course much less sex, this is India with the censor board, remember?) and surprisingly, a good one! Ultimately, <i>Angry Indian Goddesses</i> is a decent watch as long as the fun lasts but tumbles downhill with gathering pace as the ‘anger’ kicks in. Watch it for its good acting, the director’s bravery in picking his premise and protagonists, but don’t expect a statement on feminism or a revolutionary Bollywood film’.

<b>Shweta Kaushal (Hindustantimes.com)</b>

As the film unfolds, one of them observes that “to be a woman in this country [India], you need to be a warrior”. Of course, it helps if you are at least photogenic to begin with. Though the movie has been shot in a fashionably jittery, hand-held style, and the overlapping conversations and rapid-fire editing suggest momentum and purpose, the 120-minute running time is a stretch. Since the movie has saddled each of its female characters with a Problem, it feels duty-bound to address every one of them. The conceit of being a non-formulaic movie that examines Indian social problems in a realistic manner blows up in the preposterous climax, which faithfully follows the scripting rule book that a gun in the first scene must be fired by the end. The movie is barely convincing as a feminist tract, and less so because of its quick-fix and fantastical analysis of the Indian woman’s condition. But the actresses are always watchable and convincing, especially Mridul, Dias and Gujral.

<b>Nandini Ramnath (Scroll.in)</b>