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Guild Reviews

Image of scene from the film Mardaani 3
FCG Rating for the film Mardaani 3: 58/100
Mardaani 3

Action, Crime, Thriller (Hindi)

Officer Shivani Shivaji Roy returns to hunt down those behind the disappearance of young girls, risking everything to bring them back alive.

Cast: Rani Mukerji, Mallika Prasad, Janki Bodiwala, Jisshu Sengupta, Mikhail Yawalkar, Jaipreet Singh, Sachin Negi, Jimpa Sangpo Bhutia, Prajesh Kashyap, Indraneel Bhattacharya
Director: Abhiraj Minawala


FCG Member Reviewer Tusshar Sasi
Tusshar Sasi | Filmy Sasi
Ungendering the mass action hero

Sat, January 31 2026

Are female cops different from male cops? At least in the way they are shown in commercial films and series? An example of this can be found halfway through Mardaani 3. Top cop Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji) is tense in a hospital lobby after her husband was attacked by the antagonist Amma (Mallika Prasad). What should she ideally do as both a woman and an officer? When Shivani receives a tip about the villains, the scene pauses for a microsecond, the camera glances at the emergency room, and then she gets up and walks out. She does so because Shivani is the hero of the franchise, not the heroine. Minutes later, she is seated in the same fashion but outside a morgue. It’s not her husband but somebody else that’s the victim this time, and Shivani has tears in her eyes – something that a Chulbul Pandey (Dabangg) never would.

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FCG Member Reviewer Upma Singh
Upma Singh | Navbharat Times
मर्दानी बनकर फिर छाई रानी मुखर्जी

Sat, January 31 2026

साल 2014 में ‘मर्दानी’ बनकर दिल्ली के गर्ल चाइल्ड ट्रैफिकिंग गैंग का सफाया, फिर साल 2019 में फिल्म ‘मर्दानी 2’ में राजस्थान के खूंखार रेपिस्ट का खात्‍मा, धाकड़ पुलिसवाली शिवानी शिवाजी रॉय यानी रानी मुखर्जी अब ‘मर्दानी 3’ में फिर अपने उसी ‘नो नॉनसेंस, ओनली एक्शन’ अवतार में लौट आई हैं। खास बात यह है कि छोटी बच्चियों की तस्करी के जुर्म की जानी-पहचानी दुनिया होने के बावजूद यह फिल्म और रानी, दोनों ही प्रभाव छोड़ने में कामयाब रहती हैं।

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FCG Member Reviewer Sachin Chatte
Sachin Chatte | The Navhind Times Goa
Trope of the Cops

Sat, January 31 2026

A third installment of a franchise headlined by a female police officer is an unusual and somewhat unexpected occurrence in Bollywood. Male-led cop films are far more common and commercially encouraged, with Singham being a prime example—boasting three standalone films and multiple crossover appearances. Shivani Shivaji Roy, in contrast, does not enjoy the same level of mass appeal or pop-culture visibility. However, the comparison between the two characters is inevitable, as they are built on similar foundations.

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Image of scene from the film Mayasabha
FCG Rating for the film Mayasabha: 54/100
Mayasabha

Fantasy, Thriller (Hindi)

The monsoons have washed Mumbai. RAVARANA has just come out on parole. He is nothing but a security guard in Mumbai. He, along with his sister Zeenat, lives a life in Chawl. Every day is a struggle and existence is hand to mouth. Both are in their late 30s and life seems to be an exercise in defeat.One day they meet a bizarre boy, Vasu.

Cast: Javed Jaffrey, Veena Jamkar, Deepak Damle, Mohammad Samad
Director: Rahi Anil Barve
Writer: Rahi Anil Barve


FCG Member Reviewer Upma Singh
Upma Singh | Navbharat Times
जावेद जाफरी चमके, पर फिल्म फीकी

Sat, January 31 2026

लोककथा पर आधारित ‘तुम्‍बाड’ जैसी शानदार पीरियड हॉरर फिल्म के निर्देशक अनिल राही बर्वे करीब 8 साल के लंबे इंतजार बाद लौटे हैं। उनकी इस दूसरी फिल्‍म का नाम ‘मयसभा: द हॉल ऑफ इल्यूजन’ है। शुक्रवार, 30 जनवरी 2026 को सिनेमाघरों में रिलीज हुई यह फिल्‍म कुछ मायनों में ‘तुम्बाड’ की यादें भी ताजा करती है, क्योंकि इसकी दुनिया भी सोना और इंसानी लालच के इर्द-गिर्द ही बुनी गई है। हालांकि, बावजूद इसके यह तुम्‍बाड वाला असर नहीं छोड़ पाती।

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FCG Member Reviewer Rahul Desai
Rahul Desai | The Hollywood Reporter India
An Original But Less-Than-Affecting Psychological Drama

Fri, January 30 2026

Rahi Anil Barve’s intriguing second film after 'Tumbbad' is set in a rundown movie theatre, but gets consumed by the stagey-ness of it all

In Tumbbad director Rahi Anil Barve’s second film, stories are told in a cinema hall. Quite literally. A few characters reminisce, rage, narrate, perform and lie in a decrepit Mumbai movie theater named Mayasabha; they may be projecting, but the blank screen is witness to the telling and untelling of their stories. The place looks halfway abandoned between suffocating reality and misty mythology: like a penniless single-screen auditorium that gave up on its own allegorical significance (as Mahabharata’s Hall of Illusions). It is also “home” to a once-famous and now-unhinged film producer, Parmeshwar Kumar (Jaaved Jaaferi). He lives in the past but scoffs at history.

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FCG Member Reviewer Sucharita Tyagi
Sucharita Tyagi | Independent Film Critic
Movies as puzzles, brought to you by Rahi Anil Barve.

Fri, January 30 2026

Image of scene from the film Bridgerton S04 Part 1
Bridgerton S04 Part 1

Drama (English)

Wealth, lust, and betrayal set in the backdrop of Regency era England, seen through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.

Cast: Ruth Gemmell, Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha, Luke Newton, Claudia Jessie, Florence Hunt, Will Tilston, Adjoa Andoh, Julie Andrews, Golda Rosheuvel


FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha's Magical Chemistry Drives Cinderella Story

Sat, January 31 2026

The lavish romance series is back for a fourth season as it follows the second son, Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), find his happily ever after with new entrant Sophie Baek (Yerin).

Bridgerton Season 4 turns its attention to the fourth sibling and second son, Benedict (Luke Thompson), who has put off the marriage mart for too long. He finds a mysterious Lady in Silver at his mother’s masquerade ball, but she vanishes without leaving her name or address. Based on the romance novels by Julia Quinn, each sibling’s love story follows a different trope. Season 4 is about love at first sight and follows an emotional Cinderella story where the couple has to overcome a few obstacles towards their happily ever after. While the narrative does get a bit overstuffed at times, the central couple sells this season with their magical chemistry.

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Image of scene from the film Shrinking S03
Shrinking S03

Drama, Comedy (English)

Jimmy is struggling to grieve the loss of his wife while being a dad, friend, and therapist. He decides to try a new approach with everyone in his path: unfiltered, brutal honesty. Will it make things better—or unleash uproarious chaos?

Cast: Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley


FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Jason Segel, Harrison Ford's Comedy Gets Personal, Sets Up Endgame

Sat, January 31 2026

Created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Segel, and Brett Goldstein, the comedy about dysfunctional therapists is readying fans for a final goodbye.

The therapists at Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Center and their loud and wacky friends are back for a new season of Shrinking. The Apple TV comedy series, created by star Jason Segel and Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein, started out about a man coming to terms with his grief after his wife’s death. It has since evolved into a series about found family and friendship when dealing with life issues such as death, illness, and relationships. This season, the makers have amped all these storylines and set up a way for the show to say goodbye and leave fans happy with where we leave them.

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Image of scene from the film Daldal
FCG Rating for the film Daldal: 53/100
Daldal

Drama, Mystery (Hindi)

Haunted by the guilt of her past and dealing with the demons of her present, a newly-appointed DCP, Rita Ferreira, must embark on an investigation of a series of murders that puts her on a collision course with a cold-blooded serial killer.

Cast: Bhumi Pednekar, Samara Tijori, Aditya Rawal, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Chinmay Mandlekar, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Sandeep Kulkarni, Rahul Bhat, Jaya Bhattacharya
Director: Amrit Raj Gupta
Writer: Priya Saggi, Sreekanth Agneeaswaran, Rohan D'Souza


FCG Member Reviewer Nonika Singh
Nonika Singh | The Tribune
A gloomy ride in and out of Daldal

Sat, January 31 2026

Based on author Vish Dhamija’s bestseller ‘The Bhendi Bazaar’, it has all the ingredients of a thriller

In ‘Bhakshak’, Bhumi Pednekar’s Vaishali Singh busted the wrongdoings in a shelter home. In ‘Daldal’, her character is face to face with a victim-turned-assassin from the same place. Before you accuse us of letting the cat out of the bag, let it be said that the seven-episode crime thriller is not exactly a whodunit. Early on, by Episode 2, we know who the killer is. So, it’s the why and how which is more significant. Suresh Triveni, who gave us the delightful ‘Tumhari Sullu’ and ‘Jalsa’, is the creator of the series.

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FCG Member Reviewer Anuj Kumar
Anuj Kumar | The Hindu
An emotionally exhausting slog

Fri, January 30 2026

More gory and opaque than immersive, the crime thriller starring Bhumi Pednekar oversells the idea of a bold female-centric narrative

A tale of damaged people caught in a psychological swamp, Daldal is a thriller that is more keen on uncovering the motivations behind the crime than on who committed it. The plot follows DCP Rita Ferreira (Bhumi Pednekar) investigating a series of gruesome murders while confronting her guilt-ridden past and a patriarchal system that projects committed female police officers as mere showpieces.

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FCG Member Reviewer Rohit Khilnani
Rohit Khilnani | Bollywood Hungama
Samara completely becomes the character she plays in Daldal. The moment she’s on screen, it’s impossible to look away

Fri, January 30 2026

Image of scene from the film Gandhi Talks
FCG Rating for the film Gandhi Talks: 63/100
Gandhi Talks

Comedy (Hindi)

A silent black comedy, about the monetary needs of a character & how it impacts the others. A young, unemployed graduate Mahadev’s struggle to land a job through any means possible and crosses paths with a businessman and petty thief. A subject wherein silence speaks much louder than words. Although a work of fiction by the writer, all the characters in the film are sketched out to seem very real and relatable ensuring an enriching journey as well a laugh riot as the cat and mouse guffaws amongst them unfold. Gandhi Talks aims at telling a story by switching off the device of dialogue, which is not only scary but also interesting and challenging.

Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Arvind Swamy, Aditi Rao Hydari, Divay Dhamija, Siddharth Jadhav
Director: Kishor Pandurang 'Belekar'
Writer: Kishor Pandurang 'Belekar'


FCG Member Reviewer Kirubhakar Purushothaman
Kirubhakar Purushothaman | News 18
Vijay Sethupathi’s film is silent in form, talkie in soul

Fri, January 30 2026

Premiered at the International Film Festival of India in 2023, the silent movie ends up saying very little

In many ways, Gandhi Talks feels like a spiritual remake of Kamal Haasan’s Pushpaka Vimana (1987), also released in Tamil as Pesum Padam — a silent film about a struggling, unemployed man who takes a shortcut to wealth and high life before returning to honesty and struggle.

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FCG Member Reviewer Shubhra Gupta
Shubhra Gupta | The Indian Express
Vijay Sethupathi can’t save this ambitious silent film

Fri, January 30 2026

The better bits are in the first half; post-interval, all is a confused slump, weighed down by an inordinately long passage with the rich guy, poor fellow and the grinning thief skulking about without any discernible purpose.

I went into this film for a couple of reasons. One to see how inventive this silent film was, and the other because I can happily watch Vijay Sethupathi reading a directory. Here’s how it unfolds. Sethupathi plays a Poor Man Living With Usha Nadkarni’s Always Coughing Mother In A Chawl. He is in love with Aditi Rao Hydari’s Beautiful Damsel, who lives Ghar Ke Saamne. Arvind Swamy is a Rich Man Living In A Mansion.

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FCG Member Reviewer Renuka Vyavahare
Renuka Vyavahare | The Times of India
A tender portrait of humanity in a chaotic world

Fri, January 30 2026

Crafting a silent film is one thing; making it consistently engaging is another, and Gandhi Talks succeeds on both counts.

A tragicomedy steeped in survival and inner turmoil, this silent film follows Mahadev (Vijay Sethupathi), a Mumbai chawl dweller striving for a better life for himself and his ailing mother in a cluttered metropolis that, despite its chaos, has a big heart. Elsewhere in the city, celebrated builder Boseman (Arvind Swamy) finds himself grappling with personal and professional setbacks that push him to the brink. Both men are victims of corruption and circumstance. When their paths cross, they are unaware that pain neither absolves privilege nor spares poverty.

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Image of scene from the film Send Help
Send Help

Horror, Thriller, Comedy (English)

Two colleagues become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it's a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.

Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien, Edyll Ismail, Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Emma Raimi, Bruce Campbell
Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift


FCG Member Reviewer Rahul Desai
Rahul Desai | The Hollywood Reporter India
(Writing for OTT Play)
A Delicious Send-Up Of Hollywood Survival Thrillers

Fri, January 30 2026

At once a deliriously funny horror movie and a shockingly scary comedy. Somehow, both tones co-exist without losing the essence of either. It’s an uncanny balance.

Sam Raimi’s Send Help stars Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle, a disgruntled corporate employee who finds herself stranded on an island with the sexist young CEO of the company after his private jet crashes into the ocean. She’s the better survivalist (Survival is literally her favourite reality series), so the power dynamic is reversed on the island — and she starts to enjoy it a bit too much. Her injured but smug boss, Bradley, begins to rely on her like the volleyball Wilson might have depended on Tom Hanks in Cast Away. She likes his dependence. At some point, the two even threaten to enter romcom territory, what with the days and weeks of cohabiting and building sheds and cooking and hunting together. That’s how it goes: the two enemies fall in love, and their differences are fetishised.

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Image of scene from the film Valathu Vashathe Kallan
Valathu Vashathe Kallan

Crime, Thriller, Drama (Malayalam)

A police officer being investigated for his role in a woman’s death rushes to save his son from her vengeful father.

Cast: Biju Menon, Joju George, Lenaa, Shaju Sreedhar, K R Gokul, Irshad, Claire C John, Leona Lishoy, Vyshnavi Raj, Niranjana Anoop
Director: Jeethu Joseph
Writer: Dinu Thomas Eelan


FCG Member Reviewer Vishal Menon
Vishal Menon | The Hollywood Reporter India
Jeethu Joseph Regains Lost Form In This Procedural

Fri, January 30 2026

Anchored by a great Biju Menon performance, director Jeethu Joseph explores the theme of parenting in 'Valathu Vashathe Kallan', narrating stories of all the personal battles that come your way when you try to bury your secrets

For all the credit Jeethu Joseph gets for being the Malayalam master of suspense, one doesn’t realise how often he’s made films that talk about something as soft and subtle as parenting. Of course he’s no Sathyan Anthikad to be making mild-mannered family dramas, but the parenting theme has always popped its head all over his cinema, even if the genre isn’t quite the expected safe zone for said discussion. We saw this topic getting addressed in a predictable, if entertaining manner in his second film Mummy And Me. Aspects of parenting became one among the many themes of both Life Of Josutty and Thambi. It’s also no debate how both Drishyam and its sequel were as good as two families (and two sets of parents) fighting it out in their ways to achieve justice for their children.

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Image of scene from the film Mercy
Mercy

Science Fiction, Action, Thriller (English)

In the near future, a detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has ninety minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced AI Judge he once championed, before it determines his fate.

Cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers, Jeff Pierre, Rafi Gavron, Kenneth Choi, Jamie McBride
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writer: Marco van Belle


FCG Member Reviewer Shubhra Gupta
Shubhra Gupta | The Indian Express
The storytelling is flat in this Chris Pratt-starrer; so is everyone on screen

Fri, January 30 2026

The execution is so confused and dull that we lose interest in Chris Pratt sitting in that deadly chair much too soon, and are completely unbothered by the ticking clock.

It’s 2029, Los Angeles. A detective finds himself in the hot seat, accused of murdering his wife. He has only 90 minutes to prove his innocence: the catch is, that it is an AI-powered justice system which is judge, jury, executioner, and if he can’t lay out sufficient evidence to clear himself, he will be executed. Blinking himself out of a stupor, Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) finds himself strapped to a chair, facing the beautiful Judge Maddox (Rebecca Fergusson). From all accounts in front of the judge, the detective was alone with his wife (Annabelle Wallis) for a length of time, during which she was stabbed with a sharp knife. Their daughter (Kylie Rogers) finds her mother lying in a pool of blood, and calls it in, and from then on, starts Chris’s ordeal.

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Image of scene from the film Marty Supreme
FCG Rating for the film Marty Supreme: 73/100
Marty Supreme

Drama (English)

In 1950s New York, table tennis player Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to Hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Tyler, The Creator, Emory Cohen, Sandra Bernhard, David Mamet
Director: Josh Safdie
Writer: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie


FCG Member Reviewer Uday Bhatia
Uday Bhatia | Mint Lounge
Everybody wants to rule the world in Josh Safdie’s film

Fri, January 30 2026

Timothée Chalamet stars as a table tennis player with grand plans in Josh Safdie’s manic solo venture

Desperate for money, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) enlists his friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion), who’s married but likely carrying his unborn child, for a hopelessly long shot in an endless series of long shots. She calls up the shady Ezra (Abel Ferrara), whose dog Marty lost, then tracked down. When she asks for a finder’s fee of $2,000, Ezra balks, saying he got the dog for free. What if I was a doctor operating on your mother, Rachel improvises, would you refuse the surgery because you got your mother for free? “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,” Ezra says. Rachel immediately retorts: “Well, then I guess you don’t know anything about love.”

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FCG Member Reviewer Sucharita Tyagi
Sucharita Tyagi | Independent Film Critic
Whirlwind!

Mon, January 26 2026

FCG Member Reviewer Rahul Desai
Rahul Desai | The Hollywood Reporter India
(Writing for OTT Play)
The Fascism Of Desire

Sat, January 24 2026

The “Supreme” in Marty Supreme has dual connotations. The obvious one is that here’s an underdog hero who will stop at nothing to achieve sporting supremacy. Marty Mauser will be an anti-hero, a hustler, a fraud, a narcissist and whoever it takes to summon his destiny of being world champion. Usually, such protagonists have to overcome the system with talent and grit. Here, the talent and grit are almost incidental. It is assumed he has those, so he’d rather game the system in the language of those who run it. As a Jewish shoe salesman in 1950s New York in a post-Holocaust world, he is accustomed to selling his identity more than proving it. America and table tennis are merely his mediums to be seen; he is neither patriotic nor a purist. If he’s an allegory for the entitlement of US capitalism and the illusion of the American Dream — where he upends multiple lives and puts everyone at risk to get what he wants — so be it.

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Image of scene from the film Tere Ishk Mein
FCG Rating for the film Tere Ishk Mein: 35/100
Tere Ishk Mein

Romance, Drama, Action (Hindi)

A psychology student attempts to rehabilitate a volatile young man, before evolving into a doomed romance.

Cast: Dhanush, Kriti Sanon, Priyanshu Painyuli, Prakash Raj, Sushil Dahiya
Director: Aanand L. Rai
Writer: Himanshu Sharma, Neeraj Yadav


FCG Member Reviewer Akhil Arora
Akhil Arora | akhilarora.com
A Spotify Review

Thu, January 29 2026

Tere Ishk Mein, the new film from director Aanand L. Rai and his longtime writer Himanshu Sharma, might be more offensive than anything Sandeep Reddy Vanga has ever made. A misogynist, hate-mongering pile of slop, the movie exists to validate its incel male audience’s opinions about all womankind. It would be foolish to question why Dhanush and Kriti Sanon agreed to make this film, but for A.R. Rahman and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub to participate in something like this says a lot about their politics. We talk about the film’s unhinged story, the poor acting by the two leads, and its overall disdain for the audience.

FCG Member Reviewer Anupama Chopra
Anupama Chopra | The Hollywood Reporter India
Inanity disguised as profundity

Sat, November 29 2025

FCG Member Reviewer Anuj Kumar
Anuj Kumar | The Hindu
Aanand L. Rai’s romantic tragedy is messy and magical in equal measure

Sat, November 29 2025

Dhanush rages and Kriti Sanon recoils in Aanand L. Rai’s love story of epic proportions, which eventually begins to test your patience

Bollywood is in love all over again. After Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara, Aanand L Rai, another master of the poetic portrayal of passion and pain, returns with a gripping interrogation of love’s destructive underbelly, set in a social context. Connected to Raanjhanaa(2013) by an umbilical cord, Tere Ishk Mein talks of the magic of love that is lost in modern life’s logic, which entices us to trade emotions. In Rai’s universe, love is both poison and panacea, and once again, he has taken up a risky subject — the transformative power of romance.

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Image of scene from the film The History of Sound
The History of Sound

Drama, Romance, Music (English)

In 1917, two young music students attending the Boston Conservatory bond over a mutual love of folk music. They reconnect a few years later, embarking on a song-collecting trip in the backwaters of Maine.

Cast: Paul Mescal, Josh O'Connor, Molly Price, Alison Bartlett, Michael Schantz, Chris Cooper, Raphael Sbarge, Hadley Robinson, Peter Mark Kendall, Emma Canning
Director: Oliver Hermanus


FCG Member Reviewer Udita Jhunjhunwala
Udita Jhunjhunwala | Mint, Scroll.in
A quiet romance shaped by music and circumstance

Tue, January 27 2026

Oliver Hermanus' film is a deeply restrained love story that allows intimacy to exist in glances, harmonies and silences

The History of Sound is a quiet, deliberately paced film about missed chances and unresolved lives. Directed by Oliver Hermanus and adapted by Ben Shattuck from his short stories The History of Sound and Origin Stories, the film traces one man’s journey through music, memory and emotional restraint. The story opens in rural Kentucky in 1910, where Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal) grows up on a farm dutifully following in his family’s commitment to physical labour, finding release through song. “It never occurred to me that music was only sound,” Lionel reflects, a line that establishes music as something far larger than art. It is also a means of survival, a repository of memory, and conduit for connection. When a local teacher recognises his singing ability and helps him secure a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the opportunity briefly lifts Lionel out of a dead-end life.

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