Sat, December 13 2025

Fuelled by an endearing ensemble, writer-director Anusha Rizvi returns with a refreshingly unpretentious portrait of a modern Muslim family grappling with generational gaps and social tensions.

After weeks of shrill, strident films, The Great Shamshuddin Family offers the warmth of a quilt and the taste of ginger tea in a Delhi winter. Nearly 15 years after Peepli Live, Anusha Rizvi returns with a day-long glimpse into the life of a modern Indian Muslim family that is achingly human, steadfastly hopeful, and consistently humorous. Carrying tensions arising from interfaith relationships and generational grievances within its layers, the film gradually builds the tenuous relationship between the home and the world. From the passive aggression of liberals, the youthful presumptions, the manipulation of conservative but well-meaning elders, to the bitterness, the casual communal innuendos, and prejudices that we see around us, the film brings out the foreboding and the fears of social violence in our subconscious mind without pointing fingers.

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Sat, December 13 2025

Fri, December 12 2025

Boyapati Sreenu and Balakrishna’s film tries to cash in on prevailing sentiments with an apologetic excuse for a story

There is a scene in Akhanda 2: Thaandavam that is almost impossible to describe with a straight face. Somewhere in the snow-capped Himalayas, Balakrishna — as Akhanda, endowed with divine powers — bends over the antagonist to check if his heart still beats. This man has already survived one round of Akhanda’s wrath. His tongue had flown out (I wish I were exaggerating), but he apparently stitched it back on and returns to contribute to this talk-heavy film. This time, Akhanda wants to be absolutely certain. So he pierces the man with his mace, hoists him into the air, and swings him left and right several times.

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Sat, December 13 2025

10 साल से ऊपर हो गए जब कॉमेडी के लिए चर्चित कपिल शर्मा बतौर हीरो अपनी पहली फिल्म ‘किस किस को प्यार करूं’ लेकर आए थे। उस फिल्म में उन्होंने एक ऐसे युवक की भूमिका निभाई थी जिसे मजबूरी में तीन शादियां करनी पड़ती हैं और अब वह अपनी पसंद की लड़की से चौथा ब्याह रचाने जा रहा है। उस फिल्म में रोमांस की हल्की खुशबू के साथ कॉमेडी का तड़का था और दर्शकों ने उस फिल्म पर अपनी पसंदगी का ठप्पा भी लगाया था। यह फिल्म ‘किस किस को प्यार करूं 2’ उसी कड़ी की अगली फिल्म है। लेकिन यह उसका सीक्वेल नहीं है बल्कि लगभग उसी कहानी पर फिर से बनाई गई फिल्म है-कुछ अलग तड़के के साथ

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Fri, December 12 2025

Ready with a repartee and quick-witted as the host of a comedy show, Kapil Sharma’s image pulls it off. When Mohan/Mehmood/Michael (Kapil Sharma) marries Meera (Tridha Choudhury), Ruhi (Ayesha Khan) and Jenny (Parul Gulati) though his heart ticks only for Saniya (Hira Warina), he must think on his feet to glib talk his way out of situations. Writer-director Anukalp Goswami ensures that the fun never stops.

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Fri, December 12 2025

Fri, December 12 2025

Created by Neeraj Udhwani and Ishita Moitra, the well-meaning comedy series follows a divorced man who fights for the right to adopt a baby.

Can a man become a single parent in India? The odds are stacked against him in the Netflix series Single Papa. Kunal Kemmu plays the man in question, a divorced man who finds purpose in becoming a father to a baby abandoned in his car. The zany comedy, created by Neeraj Udhwani and Ishita Moitra, has an equally zany cast of characters in this slightly fantasy path to adoption. Even while the scenarios grow wild, the heart of Single Papa is sincere as it bats for gender equality and supports adoption.

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Thu, December 11 2025

Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix film, ‘Jay Kelly’, suggests that the cost of stardom is rarely paid by the star alone

Director Noah Baumbach joins forces with George Clooney to deliver a sharply observed, melancholic study of celebrity, memory and regret. Clooney plays Kelly, a Hollywood icon forced to shake off the stardust and confront the impact of his choices. As he drifts between denial and self-awareness, he confronts the fallout of decades lived at the centre of his own universe. What Baumbach attempts, and often pulls off (but not throughout) with considerable elegance, is a meta-fictional story of an ambitious man’s hubris. This is a film about Jay watching his own mythology crumble, only to realise and awaken to a truer, humbler version of himself.

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Thu, December 11 2025

It’s one thing to make a biography or documentary on an over-exposed crime episode. It’s another to sprinkle it with cinematic liberties and hope it magically transforms into a chilling superstar saga. Jithin K. Jose’s debut feature Kalamkaval attempts the latter and ends up as an engaging yet deeply implausible effort that feels dystopian. Tragically so, because almost nothing in its setup or screenplay reflects the conservative, observant, and perpetually inquisitive social fabric of Kerala.

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Mon, December 8 2025

Sat, December 6 2025

Director Jithin K Jose's crime drama, featuring Mammootty and Vinayakan, is a gripping thriller about a psychopathic killer. With exceptional performances and some delicious twists along the way, the film could have benefited from a crisper screenplay.

That Mammootty is playing his darkest role yet is something that’s known to everyone who has watched Kalamkaval’s promos. With his amazing track record of pulling off diverse roles with different levels of complexity, what does Mammootty have up his sleeve this time to blow our minds? Sharing the screen with him is another beast of an actor, Vinayakan. Has Jithin K Jose’s Kalamkaval lived up to expectations and imagination? Let’s find out!

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Thu, December 11 2025

Do we think enough about the filler conversations our mothers have with us? The questions usually follow a familiar template, beginning with “How was your day?” and ending with “What was for dinner?” If we set aside the romanticized ideas about moms that cinema projects, these exchanges can sound mundane, even annoying. And yet, in a relationship as pristine in theory as this one, it never feels polite enough to say this aloud.

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Sat, November 29 2025

There are a couple of interesting elements in here, chief of them being the strained mother-son relationship, which spirals after the death of the father.

Truth be told, the only reason why I was interested in Kaisi Yeh Paheli is because I wanted to see what Sukant Goel was up to this time, as I had enjoyed his turn in the sadly-truncated Netflix series Kaala Pani. In Kaisi Yeh Paheli, he plays a son who dislikes his mother intensely, sustaining the emotion even when he is tasked with cracking the case of a young woman’s murder.

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Sat, November 29 2025

Ananyabrata Chakravorty’s small-town whodunnit has the ideas, but fails to contain its excitement

Conceptually, Kaisi Ye Paheli goes for broke. The 95-minute independent film, written and directed by Ananyabrata Chakravorty, wears the cloak of yet another small-town whodunnit. There’s a death in misty Kalimpong; sullen cop Uttam (Sukant Goel) and his boss, Tamang (Chittaranjan Giri), are flummoxed by the details: a religious girl poisoned by a holy sweet? The theatrical Bondo (Rajit Kapur, always) is summoned from Kolkata by the powers that be; the senior sleuth has a direct line to “Didi,” and behaves like he’s an amalgamation of Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda in his head. Meanwhile, Uttam’s home situation is complicated — he resents his widowed mother (Sadhana Singh) for various reasons, not least because she constantly recalls their past life and late husband. The mother-son bond is strained, she aches for his attention, so it’s amusing when Tamang and team unofficially recruit her to be part of the investigation because of her passion for Bengali detective novels. Uttam’s colleagues confide in her like sons in their downtime; it’s a quirky touch without the energy of a quirky touch.

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Wed, December 10 2025

पर्दे पर कश्मीर के अक्सर दो ही पहलू देखने को मिलते हैं। एक धरती के जन्नत की खूबसूरती तो दूसरा आतंकवाद, मगर वेब सीरीज रियल कश्मीर फुटबॉल क्लब इससे इतर वादी के युवाओं की अपनी नई पहचान और सम्मान तलाशने की एक प्रेरक दास्तान है। कश्मीर के पहले प्रफेशनल फुटबॉल क्लब बनने की असल कहानी पर आधारित यह सीरीज कश्मीर का एक उम्मीद भरा नया चेहरा दिखाती है। कहानी कश्मीर में 2014 में आए बाढ़ के दो साल बाद 2016 में शुरू होती है, जब वादी के युवा रोजगार के लिए भटक रहे थे और लोकल नेता उनका इस्तेमाल प्रदर्शन और पत्थरबाजी के लिए कर रहे थे। इसी दौरान पेशे से पत्रकार सोहेल मीर (मोहम्मद जीशान अय्यूब) कश्मीर का अपना फुटबॉल क्लब शुरू करने का ख्वाब देखता है। इसमें उसका साथ देता है कश्मीरी पंडित बिजनेसमैन शिरीष केमू (मानव कौल)। बचपन में पलायन और अपने भाई को खोने का दर्द झेलने वाला शिरीष कश्मीर के युवाओं के लिए बेहतर रास्ते खोलना चाहता है। अब इन दोनों की जुझारू जोड़ी किस तरह एक कबाड़खाने से कश्मीर के पहले फुटबॉल क्लब की नींव रखती है? कैसे कुछ दिशाहीन, कुछ बेरोजगार तो कुछ अपने सपनों को दिल में कैद कर जीने को मजबूर युवाओं के साथ अपनी टीम खड़ी करती है और राष्ट्रीय लीग के मुकाबले तक पहुंचती है, यह सब सीरीज देखकर पता चलेगा।

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Wed, December 10 2025

The eight-episode series, inspired by true events, succeeds at simplifying a modern Kashmir tale through sports, humanity and balanced writing.

When it comes to reviewing shows, binge-watching is the default mode of the job. It’s mostly a mad rush to finish all the preview episodes and start writing. There’s no time to be immersed in a universe long enough; the next title is always waiting. So you’re more wired to look for inventive themes and catchy in-points. It’s not often critics get to see a show as it should be seen — steadily, on a drip, one episode at a time, spread over a few days. I had this rare luxury with Real Kashmir Football Club and its eight episodes. Ideal as it sounds, this can go wrong, too; the choice to walk through a show brings with it the risk of losing rhythm and interest. But I found myself ‘waiting’ to watch Real Kashmir Football Club and voluntarily returning to it: during meals, after breaks, before sleeping, between films. Not out of suspense to know what happens next, but out of curiosity to know more. That’s the sign of a rooted and fundamentally sound series. Like a good host, it invites you in without gimmicks and touristy offers, lets you experience it on your own terms, transcends terms like “addictive,” and allows you to establish more of a lived-in relationship. It’s not a perfect bond, but it can be a satisfying one. And it’s kind of fitting for a story set in Kashmir, the one place that cannot be reduced to snap judgments and plain scrutiny.

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Tue, December 9 2025

Inspired by a true story, the journey of an underdog sports club hits all the predictable beats in a heartwarming tale.

The emergence of a professional football club is the unlikely “underdog success” story of Real Kashmir Football Club. The SonyLIV series, directed by Mahesh Mathai and Rajesh Mapuskar, highlights the passion of two men who try to get the club off the ground and change the future of Kashmiri youth. The well-meaning series hits all the right notes of a sports drama while incorporating the real-life obstacles of fronting a professional football club. The story of hope and courage is inspirational.

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Wed, December 10 2025

Aditya Dhar’s second film after 'Uri: The Surgical Strike' stars Ranveer Singh as a patriotic spy trapped in an inert and distracted action thriller.

Since deception is the language of a spy thriller, let’s pretend that movies exist entirely in isolation — like an introvert on a Saturday night. Let’s pretend that Dhurandhar, Aditya Dhar’s directorial return after Uri (2019), has absolutely nothing to do with the world around us. (One could argue that it doesn’t, but that’s a mob attack for another day). Let’s also pretend that film criticism is about seeing a movie for what it is, regardless of its moral character or ideology. It’s only fair, given that we all admire great serial killers for being awesome at what they do, legendary dictators for being no-nonsense leaders, wars for being the epitome of courage and technology, and plane crashes for doing tragedy so well.

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Mon, December 8 2025

A fictional narrative inspired by true incidents, Aditya Dhar’s action drama follows Hamza (Ranveer Singh), a mysterious Indian agent who embeds himself deep within Karachi’s mafia network (Lyari gangwar) to dismantle terror operations from the inside.

A fictional narrative inspired by true incidents, Aditya Dhar’s action drama follows Hamza (Ranveer Singh), a mysterious Indian agent who embeds himself deep within Karachi’s mafia network (Lyari gangwar) to dismantle terror operations from the inside. Structured across multiple chapters, the world-building is deliberate and immersive, pulling you into a gritty, violent universe that unfolds over nearly 3.5 hours. Yet, the runtime rarely feels overbearing thanks to Dhar’s stylish, tight storytelling.

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Mon, December 8 2025

Tue, December 9 2025

“Nostalgia sells,” says Patsy Cline impersonator Claire (Kate Hudson) to an exasperated Mike (Hugh Jackman) in Song Sung Blue. He had just refused to don a Don Ho getup at a paying gig. If it weren’t a film and the actors weren’t well-known, this would be the last scenario where any sparks might fly. In a striking dramatization of a true story, the duo come together, romantically and professionally, to become a hit among Milwaukee’s music lovers, who take Neil Diamond’s songs like a sweet pill. Beyond the onstage fireworks, the unbelievable love and family story of Lightning and Thunder takes shape in Craig Brewer’s musical melodrama.

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Mon, December 8 2025

Angammal is a film that wonderfully showcases how exercising freedom always comes at a cost in a society that values conformity over everything else

Freedom. It is quite an interesting beast because everyone wants it, but somehow they are tuned to keep it caged and away from others who might not have it. This dichotomy is very telling of the human mind and its vagaries. There is always someone who has more freedom than you, and someone who doesn’t have as much. It is supposed to be an absolute unit, but there are enough caveats in freedom to allow oppression of some kind to be perpetuated through avenues like patriarchy, misogyny, and simple conditioning. Director Vipin Radhakrishnan’s Angammal is one such film that shows how exercising freedom always comes at a cost in a society that values conformity.

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Fri, December 5 2025

Blending Perumal Murugan’s observational honesty with echoes of K Balachander’s domestic grammar, Angammal becomes a nuanced portrait of pride, gender and generational change led by a superb Kailasam.

In Vipin Radhakrishnan’s Angammal, Geetha Kailasam anchors the tension between the old and the new. Based on Perumal Murugan’s short story Kodithuni, the Tamil film is due for theatrical release this week after premiering at prestigious film festivals last year. It is the beginning of the 1990s, and this very intriguing period is bookmarked by Singaravelan, Roja, Sami Potta Mudichu and more. Pavalam (Saran Sakthi) aka Pavala Muthu and Jasmine (Mullaiyarasi) have their dates in the movie theatre amidst modest snacks and seats as they watch the film less and indulge more either in each other (a bout of make out set to Tamizha Tamizha chorus is hilarious) or in familial matters like the impending visit of Jasmine’s parents to Pavalam’s house to discuss their marriage. Pavalam is the rare and, probably, first graduate from his village — and a doctor at that — and his experiences of the outside world cloud his foundation as he comes to see his mother’s style as an embarrassment.

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Thu, December 4 2025

Directed by Vipin Radhakrishnan, Angammal is a stimulating and evocative piece of art that chronicles the life of a matriarch who lives on her own terms. Geetha Kailasam, with an exceptional performance, brings the story to life.

When the spunky Angammal (a brilliant Geetha Kailasam) rides her moped and delivers milk, there’s a spark in her eyes. The spark tells you that she’s leading life by her own rules. But when she’s forced to make certain lifestyle changes after her second son Pavalam (Saran) pushes her to, you see the vitality fading. It shows you how little things that made Angammal the fierce matriarch that she is are not acceptable to the generation that comes after hers. It shows how Angammal, the independent woman, is denied the choice. The choice that made her a flawed, foul-mouthed woman with her own ideals.

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