Satluj
Crime, Drama, History (Hindi)
Triggered by the search for his missing aunt, human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra takes on a broken system in a courageous fight to uncover the conspiracy behind thousands of disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the nadir of Punjab’s period (more…)
Baby Do Die Do
Mystery, Thriller, Crime (Hindi)
Follows a deaf and mute serial killer in Mumbai who can only hear her dead sister's voice as she commits murders for mysterious reasons. (more…)
Gatta Kusthi 2
Comedy, Drama (Tamil)
Picks up after the first film, with Veera and Keerthi balancing parenthood and Keerthi's wrestling career, featuring a role reversal where Veera takes on more domestic responsibilities. (more…)
Welcome to the Jungle
Action, Comedy, Adventure, Crime (Hindi)
A group of quirky characters gets stuck in a dangerous jungle during a chaotic mission. Filled with confusion, criminals, and hilarious situations, they must work together to survive and find their way out. (more…)
Pritam and Pedro
Crime, Drama, Mystery (Hindi)
The dynamic between the two contrasting personalities, a seasoned cop who prefers old-school methods and a tech-savvy cop who relies on modern technology for investigations, as they navigate their partnership in solving crimes. (more…)
Guild Reviews by Film
Satluj
Crime, Drama, History (Hindi)
Triggered by the search for his missing aunt, human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra takes on a broken system in a courageous fight to uncover the conspiracy behind thousands of disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the nadir of Punjab’s period of insurgency.
Cast:
Diljit Dosanjh, Arjun Rampal, Suvinder Vicky, Geetika Vidya, Kanwaljit Singh, Saurabh Sachdeva, Jagjeet Sandhu, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Amit Dhawan, Vikas Mohla
Director:
Honey Trehan
Writer:
Utsav Maitra, Niren Bhatt, Honey Trehan
Mon, July 6 2026
Honey Trehan's film, which was taken down within days of release, is a troubling yet essential account of state crackdown during the Punjab insurgency
“Hisaab toh Punjab ka hai hi complicated (Punjab has a complex history),” says Arjun Rampal’s CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) officer and the film’s narrator in Honey Trehan’s profoundly relevant Satluj. The director is in no mood to shy away from the state’s turbulent past or let the wrongdoers off the hook in this drama that has seen its share of trouble with the censors. Much like its real-life protagonist Jaswant Singh Khalra (played by Diljit Dosanjh), a human rights activist, Trehan has been resolute in his mission, refusing to flinch to the powers that be—in this case the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). His persistence paid off as Satluj, formerly titled ‘Punjab ’95’, finally released on ZEE5 in the iteration its creator wanted—though only briefly.
Mon, July 6 2026
Few Indian films have had their very existence validated so completely by the forces they are fighting. Honey Trehan’s Satluj (formerly Panjab ’95) concerns a man who bravely sought to expose state-sanctioned cover-ups and justice for the victims’ families. It then languished for years, awaiting CBFC approval, before being released on an OTT platform without any fanfare. The irony is brutal. Even before the first frame rolls, the film’s own painful journey to our screens is a mirror to the very silence it is trying to break. Trehan’s 1995-set film a somber and unsettling alternative to popular Indian cinema obsessed with hyper-masculine, uniformed heroes who shoot first and ask questions later (and sometimes never do). It gives up chest-thumping folklore for documented history and dives into a bleeding chapter of Punjab’s past that mainstream conversation has spent decades trying to forget. Satluj does not try to exploit the tragedy to create a cheap spectacle, but rather concentrates on the lives lost without explanation and the one man who refused to let them be statistics.
Mon, July 6 2026
In the deadline-driven world of film review writing, I find time hanging, every Friday afternoon, like the proverbial Sword of Damocles over my head. I write most of what I absorb; in hindsight, I feel I have invariably left out some observations. But that holds true for almost everything in life. With Satluj, there was so much to take in, feel, assimilate and ponder, that I allowed the film to stay and grow within me for a day before I put my emotions into words. But Satluj wasn’t allowed to breathe for more than 48 hours. Dropped silently on Friday evening, it was pulled off Zee 5, without a doubt the most courageous streaming platform out there, within Sunday night. The platform — whose triptych of bold storytelling (Berlin, Kennedy) was crowned by Satluj — put out a statement saying that the film would be “unavailable in India until further notice” owing to “current developments”. It also vowed to bring back Satluj, as well as continue its endeavour to promote creators with artistic integrity and conviction. We hope the platform will come through with its promise and purpose every time.
Alpha
Action, Thriller (Hindi)
Two fierce female agents tackle dangerous missions in a thrilling world of espionage, as they navigate perilous situations, execute daring stunts, and face unexpected turns in this action-packed adventure.
Cast:
Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Dia Mirza, Hrithik Roshan
Director:
Shiv Rawail
Mon, July 6 2026
Shiv Rawail's ‘Alpha’ is sorely missing fresh ideas and is unable to credibly showcase Alia Bhatt as an action star.
The YRF Spyverse is now running on vibes, star cameos and whatever ridiculously catchy new jingle with placeholder English lyrics Sanchit and Ankit Balhara have cooked up. After the glorious high of Pathaan (2023), there’s only been disappointment: first the unnecessary Tiger 3 (2023), then the embarrassing misfire of War 2 (2025). Shiv Rawail’s Alpha isn’t as dire as the previous two entries, but nevertheless shows a franchise badly in need of fresh ideas and, more importantly, a sense of purpose.
Sun, July 5 2026
The benchmark for the YRF Spy Universe isn’t particularly high, especially after the War films. So it comes as a pleasant surprise to find a taut, breezy action thriller that doesn’t waste time dwelling on unnecessary detours. For starters, this is a completely romance-free enterprise, and that itself is a rarity in mainstream Hindi cinema. There are no mandatory love songs shot in exotic locations or forced romantic subplots. In fact, there are only a couple of songs, and for the most part, the film moves at a brisk pace.
Sat, July 4 2026
Gatta Kusthi 2
Comedy, Drama (Tamil)
Picks up after the first film, with Veera and Keerthi balancing parenthood and Keerthi's wrestling career, featuring a role reversal where Veera takes on more domestic responsibilities.
Cast:
Aishwarya Lekshmi, Vishnu Vishal, Ramya Krishnan, Karunas, Munishkanth, Kaali Venkat, Lizzie Antony, Gajaraj, Sreeja Ravi, Karunakaran
Director:
Chella Ayyavu
Writer:
Chella Ayyavu
Mon, July 6 2026
Does a really good job of keeping the laughs coming, even if there are intermittent scenes where your eyes roll to the back of your head
Camouflage. It is always interesting to see how women empowerment films play out in Tamil cinema. Quite often, the makers try to mount a ‘male saviour’ film masquerading as a ‘women empowerment’ film. But smarter filmmakers know that the audience might see through this bluff, and they have started packaging it better. One such film was Chella Ayyavu’s Gatta Kusthi (2022), a seemingly entertaining ride about the ill effects of misogyny and the inherent need for women’s empowerment in society. On paper, it was empowering, but compromises were made to make it seem more ‘palatable’. Interestingly, in Gatta Kusthi 2, Chella doesn’t play the camouflage game. He throws caution to the wind, and goes all out to give us a battle of the sexes that tilts the scales clearly in favour of the man, but not without having him point out why women must be empowered. Basically, Chella and Vishnuu have the cake, and this time, they eat it, too.
Couture
Drama (French)
In the frenzy of Fashion Week, three women cross paths in Paris, grappling with the world's tragedies and the questions of their lives: Maxine, an American film director in her forties, discovers she has cancer; Ada, a young South Sudanese model, escapes a predetermined destiny to be thrust into a deceptive universe and French makeup artist Angèle, a small hand working in the shadows of the catwalks, dreams of escaping her life.
Cast:
Angelina Jolie, Anyier Anei, Ella Rumpf, Louis Garrel, Vincent Lindon, Garance Marillier, Grégoire Colin, Aurore Clément, Yuliia Ratner, Mona Tougaard
Director:
Alice Winocour
Sun, July 5 2026
Miranda Priestly probably wouldn’t tolerate Angelina Jolie’s character from Couture, a new drama set in the world of high fashion that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025. Jolie plays Maxine, an indie filmmaker who’s been hired to bring her brand of transgressive edginess to a promotional short for Paris Fashion Week. With neither the patience nor the experience for promotional work, Maxine can barely mask her contempt for her new gig — and that’s before a call from her doctor flips her world upside down. Couture couldn’t be further removed from the glossy world of this summer’s fashion world-set blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada 2. And while that movie makes excuses for the same industry that Couture wants to dress down, director Alice Winocour’s attempt to offer a ground-level perspective of an industry that has been glamorized for far too long turns out dull, directionless, and mildly delusional.
Pritam and Pedro
Crime, Drama, Mystery (Hindi)
The dynamic between the two contrasting personalities, a seasoned cop who prefers old-school methods and a tech-savvy cop who relies on modern technology for investigations, as they navigate their partnership in solving crimes.
Cast:
Vir Hirani, Arshad Warsi, Vikrant Massey, Mona Singh, Rajesh Sharma, Mohit Chauhan, Shruti Marathe, Naina Sareen, Satyadeep Misra, Harshika Kewalramani
Director:
Amir Satyaveer Singh, Avinash Arun
Sat, July 4 2026
Despite capable performances, Pritam and Pedro struggles with predictable writing, muted emotional impact, and storytelling that never rises above polished mediocrity.
There are certain names in cinema that arrive long before the credits roll. They carry with them not merely recognition but a formidable burden of expectation—a promise of excellence painstakingly accumulated over decades. Rajkumar Hirani belongs comfortably to that rarefied league. His films have consistently blended humour with humanity, wit with wisdom, and entertainment with emotion, creating stories that linger long after the curtains have fallen. From the irrepressibly charming Munna Bhai series to the socially resonant 3 Idiots, the delightfully irreverent PK, and the emotionally layered Sanju, Hirani has fashioned a cinematic identity that is at once distinctive and deeply endearing.
Sat, July 4 2026
Bringing his magical touch to long-form storytelling, Rajkumar Hirani turns a cold, clinical cyber-thriller into a heartwarming buddy-cop comedy where old-school muscle beautifully collides with modern computer code.
Moving past a heavy-handed Dunki, Rajkumar Hirani finds his deft touch, imbuing a warm soul into the Over-The-Top streaming space where even empathy feels algorithmic these days. Instead of adding to our daily anxiety, Hirani, who works as a series creator, along with director Avinash Arun, takes the clinical world of cybercrime and wraps it in an engrossing buddy-cop comedy that educates and comforts the audience. Reflecting the anxiety of the times when a single digital mistake can ruin a life, the series effectively uses the theme of forgiveness to heal people and relationships. Led by Arshad Warsi, who balances his signature effortless humour with a tougher tone, and debutant Vir Hirani as his father’s creative voice of the outsider who questions the absurd rules of the world, the narrative finds its sweet spot when the points of view of Pedro, an old school policeman nursing a young wound and Pritam, a modern hacker, living with his grandfather under an assumed identity, collide.
Fri, July 3 2026
'Pritam and Pedro' has no granularity. It is cybercrime explained at the level of a school assembly
Rajkumar Hirani has spent two decades turning simple ideas into big, feel-good hits. The six-episode JioHotstar series is directed by Avinash Arun Dharware, the filmmaker behind Killa, Paatal Lok, and Three of Us. It’s an odd pairing on paper. Hirani makes cheerful, sanded-down cinema. Arun makes moody, textured, specific work. None of that specificity survives here. The show looks and moves like a generic OTT product. Pedro (Arshad Warsi) is a Crime Branch cop in Goa, punished for a colleague’s mistake and shunted off to the Cyber Crime Cell. To him, typing a password already counts as hard labour. Pritam (Vir Hirani) is a young ‘cyber genius’ who actually sells vacuum cleaners for a living. When a politician’s son goes missing, the two team up: Pedro needs the case solved to earn his old job back, while Pritam wants help recovering his grandfather’s stolen tape recorder, which holds an old recording of his late grandmother’s voice.
Baby Do Die Do
Mystery, Thriller, Crime (Hindi)
Follows a deaf and mute serial killer in Mumbai who can only hear her dead sister's voice as she commits murders for mysterious reasons.
Cast:
Huma Qureshi, Rachit Singh, Sikandar Kher, Seema Pahwa, Chunky Panday, Saqib Saleem, Vidya Malvade, Himanshu Malik, Marudhar Shekhawat, Arun Kushwah
Director:
Nachiket Samant
Sat, July 4 2026
‘Baby Do Die Do’, starring Huma Qureshi, throws together noir, graphic novel aesthetics, Mumbai life, romance, real estate politics and revenge drama
There’s a genuinely interesting film hidden inside Baby Do Die Do. It just takes far too long to reveal itself, and even then, it refuses to answer the questions that matter. The film opens with a fractured family: a deceased father, an emotionally volatile mother, twin girls, one of whom is deaf and mute. A late-night adventure results in tragedy leaving Baby alone and vengeful. Right away the questions start building—how did the girls suddenly pick up a puppy in an abandoned hotel? It’s the first of many questions the film, co-written by director Nachiket Samant with Jasmeet K Reen and Parveez Shaikh, never answers.
Fri, July 3 2026
Fri, July 3 2026
It’s a different kind of reality check to battle the Mumbai monsoons to watch a film, only for the film to remind you that the very same showers might well have taken your life. In Baby Do Die Do, director Nachiket Samant imagines a world where Mumbaikars do not die by falling into manholes or getting swept away in man-made floods. Instead, the season’s biggest accessory – an umbrella – becomes the murder weapon. In an angle that strangely reminded me of Johnny Lever’s Chhota Chhatri in Awara Paagal Deewana, it isn’t just the weapon that adds spice to this dark comedy. Nor is it the fact that Samant’s protagonist is a woman. The third layer – that she is deaf and mute – gives the film the extra quirk it needs.
Super Subbu
Comedy (Telugu)
An unlucky teacher is assigned to teach sex ed in a hostile village. Can he balance this secret while chasing his dreams and saving his relationship?
Cast:
Sundeep Kishan, Mithila Palkar, Murali Sharma, Maanasa Chaudhary
Director:
Mallik Ram
Fri, July 3 2026
Directed by Mallik Ram, Netflix’s first Telugu original series turns a familiar conversation on sex education into an engaging rural dramedy
The more we assume things have changed, the more they probably have not, at least not for everyone. While some urban homes and schools have moved beyond awkward ‘birds and bees’ conversations to adopt a more pragmatic approach to sex education, the subject remains taboo in many households. In a remote village, those conversations become even harder. Super Subbu, Netflix’s first Telugu original series, directed by Mallik Ram and starring Sundeep Kishan in the title role, builds an engaging drama around this premise. Some of the early scenes evoke school days when teachers would skip sex education lessons to avoid uncomfortable giggles in the classroom. They also reveal the unease many educators themselves feel around the subject.
Thu, July 2 2026
It is but a coincidence that Super Subbu has released a day before Pritam and Pedro. Besides the fact that the titles of the two series are based on the names of their protagonists, Super Subbu takes a leaf out of the Rajkumar Hirani (who makes his digital debut as producer with Pritam and Pedro) book of mirth-meets-message, camouflaging bitter truths and taboo life lessons with humour, managing to pack in some succinct social commentary along the way.
Rao Bahadur
Fantasy, Drama, Thriller (Telugu)
In 1970s India, an eccentric aristocrat—labeled a 'man of miracles'—miraculously survives a terminal illness. Plagued by guilt and fear, he retreats into his palatial mansion, creating an alternate world that deeply blurs reality and imagination.
Cast:
Satyadev Kancharana, Deepa Thomas, Anand, Vikas Muppala, Bala Parasar, Pranay Vakka, Master Kiran, Kunal Kaushik
Director:
Venkatesh Maha
Writer:
Venkatesh Maha
Fri, July 3 2026
Satya Dev delivers a career-best performance as director Venkatesh Maha experiments with magical realism and an edgy narrative that offers plenty to unpack
The final stretch of Rao Bahadur is an absolute riot. The carefully constructed drama gives way to a series of delightful twists that are both entertaining and thought-provoking. It is here that director Venkatesh Maha gently pulls the rug from under the audience, forcing them to view the entire film from a fresh perspective. Telugu cinema lovers may remember a similar narrative flourish in his debut indie film, Care of Kancharapalem. While that film offered a deeply realistic portrait of a neighbourhood grappling with questions of gender sensitivity and social hierarchy, Rao Bahadur ventures into fantasy, lacing its psychological drama with touches of magical realism.
Welcome to the Jungle
Action, Comedy, Adventure, Crime (Hindi)
A group of quirky characters gets stuck in a dangerous jungle during a chaotic mission. Filled with confusion, criminals, and hilarious situations, they must work together to survive and find their way out.
Cast:
Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Jacqueline Fernandez, Disha Patani, Raveena Tandon, Jackie Shroff, Paresh Rawal, Lara Dutta, Farida Jalal
Director:
Ahmed Khan
Writer:
Farhad Samji
Fri, July 3 2026
Not all movies ought to be dignified with a review. Yet here we are…. reviewing Welcome to the Jungle. Everyone is in this film. And I do mean everyone. There isn’t a face you won’t recognize. From Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Raveena Tandon, Disha Patani and Jacqueline Fernandez to Paresh Rawal, Kiran Kumar, Farida Jalal, Zakir Hussain, Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda it’s a literal stampede of familiar faces and proven talent. What should have been a comic goldmine becomes a traffic jam of characters, each written with roughly the same attention to detail usually reserved for out-of-focus background dancers. You could swap one actor with another and absolutely nothing would change.
Mon, June 29 2026
A promising satirical premise buried beneath bloated storytelling, shrill humour, uneven performances, and exhausting excess, resulting in a deeply disappointing cinematic experience.
Reality, on rare occasions, possesses an uncanny habit of imitating fiction—not deliberately, but with an irony so exquisite that it borders on poetic justice. One suspects that director Ahmed Khan had little inkling that his latest spectacle, Welcome to the Jungle, would ultimately become the most eloquent metaphor for its own creative bankruptcy. Conceived as a madcap satire on the film industry and the absurd economics of blockbuster filmmaking, the film instead collapses under the crushing weight of the very mediocrity it seeks to lampoon. The result is not a parody of commercial cinema but an inadvertent specimen of everything that has gone catastrophically wrong with it.
Sun, June 28 2026
The basic premise of Welcome To The Jungle instantly reminds you of Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan (2010), which also starred Akshay Kumar in the lead. The main difference is that he played the director in that movie. But the difference that matters the most is that WTTJ is better than the 2010 flick, although the latter had its moments here and there. It is anybody’s guess that one needs to keep logic and reasoning miles away while watching such movies. But this is worth only when we get non-stop entertainment in return. That is what happens with Welcome To The Jungle. The basic plot of a wealthy business wanting to make a flop film itself is funny and interesting. It is also something that used to happen during the olden days. The screenplay gives you no time to breathe. There are plenty of bizarre happenings, both during the film shoot and the second half when the terrorism angle takes over. But, again, the fast pace and the fact that the film is honest in what it is trying to do ensures that you don’t mind that much.
The Death of Robin Hood
Adventure, Drama, Thriller, Action (English)
Grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder, Robin Hood finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman, he is offered a chance at salvation.
Cast:
Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård, Murray Bartlett, Noah Jupe, Jade Croot, Faith Delaney, Tabitha Smyth, Beau Thompson, Alfie Lawless
Director:
Michael Sarnoski
Writer:
Michael Sarnoski
Fri, July 3 2026
Michael Sarnoski film is neither a mood piece nor a swashbuckling thrill-ride. It is a character study of a deeply unpleasant man whose self-hatred borders on the repulsive.
The term “deconstruction” is often thrown around in the world of haute cuisine, which director Michael Sarnoski took a long whiff of in his phenomenal debut feature, Pig. It starred Nicolas Cage as a reclusive former chef who lives in a self-imposed exile in the woods, accompanied by a pet truffle pig and his many demons. Pig remains one of the finest directorial debuts of the last decade, and is a great lead-in to Sarnoski’s latest film, The Death of Robin Hood.
Enola Holmes S03
Adventure, Crime, Mystery (English)
Adventure follows detective Enola Holmes to Malta, where her plans to tie the knot unravel when Sherlock's disappearance plunges her into a perilous case.
Cast:
Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge, Himesh Patel, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Hattie Morahan, Susan Wokoma, Joe Azzopardi, Nicholas Aaron
Director:
Philip Barantini
Writer:
Jack Thorne
Fri, July 3 2026
Her family's repute is revealed to be seemingly ill-gotten; a rebel hopes to overthrow the British Empire someday and Moriarty’s politics is hard to question, as Enola races to find her kidnapped brother, Sherlock, in this third offering in the Enola Holmes franchise.
Make no mistake, it is a minor miracle that Enola Holmes, the Netflix film franchise which had its first outing in 2020, hasn’t been corrupted by everything that has happened in the past half-decade. The franchise has survived two Trump administrations, a pandemic and whatever the Russo Brothers (filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, known for directing four Marvel films) have done to the streaming industry (they reportedly tried to revolutionise the space with offerings like Citadel and The Electric State, but received limited success). And yet somehow, the Enola Holmes movies — revolving around the adventures of the newly-imagined sister of English literature’s legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes — are still as earnest as ever.
Thu, July 2 2026
Directed by Philip Barantini, the engaging young detective franchise moves out of London to sunnier locales
The Enola Holmes franchise is growing up. With the third film, the intrepid young detective played by Millie Bobby Brown is about to marry Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) when disaster strikes. The team behind the award-winning Adolescence comes together for a new mystery that takes viewers to Malta, where the remnants of the past affect the future. The young leads of the film franchise, Brown and Patridge, have grown up as the film’s prior flashbacks show. And while it’s great to see the familiar faces again, the Victorian mystery is missing some of that London magic. In Malta for her wedding to Tewkesbury, Enola has some cold feet but on her way to the church, her brother Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) gets kidnapped. As Enola pieces together the when and why, she uncovers a plot that links back to Tewkesbury’s past. With the help of her husband and Dr. John Watson (Himesh Patel), they uncover a military cover-up that leads to a shocking truth and brings back a familiar villain, at least for Sherlock. Will Enola be able to save her family before it’s too late?
Elle
Comedy, Drama (English)
Before Elle Woods was a fish-out-of-water at Harvard, we meet her in 1995 in the tumultuous waters of high school where she encounters tricky friendships, forbidden romance, and questionable fashion choices. In this unexpected chapter of her adolescence, we learn about the experiences that shaped Elle into the iconic young woman we've come to know and love.
Cast:
Lexi Minetree, June Diane Raphael, Tom Everett Scott, Gabrielle Policano, Jacob Moskovitz, Chandler Kinney, Zac Looker, Amy Pietz
Thu, July 2 2026
Elle reimagines an icon, reinstates that pink is powerful and a personality but struggles to recapture her spark
Elle, the 2026 reboot of Legally Blonde set in 1995, feels more like a nostalgic fan tribute than a worthy prequel. It is sweet and easy to watch, unfolding like a familiar teen campus drama, but lacks the wit, cleverness, and unmistakable charm that made the original so memorable. Written off as a shallow Barbie in her new school, Elle must win people over with empathy and sincerity. Along the way, she finds herself torn between two romantic interests — campus jock Miles and activist Dustin - builds an unlikely friendship with Shannon, clashes with resident mean girl Kimberley, and gets entangled in a controversy involving the school principal.