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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
Tere Ishk Mein
Romance, Drama, Action (Hindi)
A psychology student attempts to rehabilitate a volatile young man, before evolving into a doomed romance. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi
Comedy (Telugu)
Prashanthi gives up her dreams for love, only to fall into abusive relationships first with her lecturer and later with her husband, Omkar, who pretends to support her but turns violent and manipulative. After enduring trauma, betrayal, and a heartbreaking miscarriage, she secretly strengthens herself, escapes his control, and rebuilds her life by starting a successful business. When Omkar's abuse becomes public and reaches court, she refuses divorce, not out of love, but to ensure no other woman suffers the same fate
Cast:
Eesha Rebba, Tharun Bhascker, Brahmaji, Sivannarayana Naripeddi, Bindu Chandramouli, Goparaju Vijay
Director:
Sajeev AR
Writer:
Vipin Das
Eesha Rebba, Tharun Bhascker shine in this sharp critique of patriarchy
Sun, February 1 2026
The 2022 Malayalam film Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey was not subtle in its take on patriarchy, opting instead for an intentionally over-the-top reversal of power. In adapting the film into Telugu and relocating it to the Godavari region, director A.R. Sajeev stays largely faithful to the original. Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi is a partly fun, partly simmering emotional drama, shouldered by compelling performances from Eesha Rebba and Tharun Bhascker. While it does not always strike the right note, the film effectively captures the many ways patriarchy continues to stifle women, and how both men and women often enable it.
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
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.
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।
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.
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
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।
An Original But Less-Than-Affecting Psychological Drama
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
Movies as puzzles, brought to you by Rahi Anil Barve.
Fri, January 30 2026
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
Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha's Magical Chemistry Drives Cinderella Story
Sat, January 31 2026
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.
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
Jason Segel, Harrison Ford's Comedy Gets Personal, Sets Up Endgame
Sat, January 31 2026
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.
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
A gloomy ride in and out of Daldal
Sat, January 31 2026
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.
An emotionally exhausting slog
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
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
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'
Vijay Sethupathi’s film is silent in form, talkie in soul
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
Vijay Sethupathi can’t save this ambitious silent film
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
A tender portrait of humanity in a chaotic world
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
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
(Writing for OTT Play)
A Delicious Send-Up Of Hollywood Survival Thrillers
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
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
Jeethu Joseph Regains Lost Form In This Procedural
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
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
The storytelling is flat in this Chris Pratt-starrer; so is everyone on screen
Fri, January 30 2026
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.
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
Everybody wants to rule the world in Josh Safdie’s film
Fri, January 30 2026
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.”
Whirlwind!
Mon, January 26 2026
(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.
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
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.
Inanity disguised as profundity
Sat, November 29 2025
Aanand L. Rai’s romantic tragedy is messy and magical in equal measure
Sat, November 29 2025
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.