Guild Reviews by Film Page 1 of 112
Meethe Mein Kya Hai
Family, Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
A young widower's grief eases at a joyful Diwali reunion — until his sister's surprise marriage throws the family into chaos.
Cast:
Ritwik Bhowmik, Rohini Hattangadi, Ayesha Raza Mishra, Gaurav K Sharma, Tarana Raja, Abhay Kaul, Dalai, Vikram Bakshi, Ayuushman Ghai, Kiara Chouhan
Director:
Radhika Bansal
Writer:
Radhika Bansal
Sat, October 31 2026
Meethe Mein Kya Hai's pursuit of happiness and finding joy in the little things exudes the emotionality of a greeting card, not life.
You know how the Hallmark holiday movies are designed to fill its target audience of sentimental fools with a warm fuzzy feeling? Meethe Mein Kya Hai is a bit like that. Set against the backdrop of Diwali, its slice-of-life enthusiasm aims for a low key charm. The problem is, only the low key bit registers. First-time director Radhika Bansal’s drama, centred around a family reunion, is about nothing in particular except follies and foibles of its folk unraveling against the festival of lights. Hosting this annual gathering at her sprawling Lucknow bungalow is the head of the Rastogi family (Rohini Hattangadi) even as her children, their partners and grandchildren lounge about devouring mathris with pickle, dissing pesky uncles and aunts while platters full of samosa, kachori and chai are slipped into the frames to lay bare its snack over storytelling momentum.
Fri, October 30 2026
दिवाली के त्योहार को केंद्र में रखकर बुनी यह हल्की-फुल्की फिल्म खोने के दर्द, अपनों के साथ और परिवार की अहमियत पर जोर देती है।
वो कहावत है न कि सुख-दुख में परिवार और अपने ही साथ देते हैं। लेखिका-निर्देशिका राधिका बंसल की डेब्यू फिल्म ‘मीठे में क्या है’ इसी एहसास को और पुख्ता करती है। दिवाली के त्योहार को केंद्र में रखकर बुनी यह हल्की-फुल्की फिल्म खोने के दर्द, अपनों के साथ और परिवार की अहमियत पर जोर देती है। कहानी जय (ऋत्विक भौमिक) और उसकी हंसती-खेलती फैमिली की है। जय दो साल पहले गुजर चुकी पत्नी तारा (कनिका कपूर) को खोने के गम से उबर नहीं पा रहा है। वह सब कुछ बेचकर विदेश में बसने जा रहा है, पर तभी उसकी बहन सना (दलाई) बिना किसी को कुछ बताए करम (विक्रम बख्शी) से शादी कर लेती है। इसलिए, उसे दिवाली पर अपनी नानी (रोहिणी हट्टंगड़ी) के घर लखनऊ आना पड़ता है, जहां पूरा परिवार इकट्ठा है। अब दिवाली का त्योहार है। परिवार का री-यूनियन है। सना की शादी का सरप्राइज है। लेकिन बड़ा सवाल ये है कि पूरा घर इस पर कैसे रिएक्ट करता है? जय इन सबके बीच अपने दर्द से कैसे उबरता है? परिवार की इसी हल्की-फुल्की मस्ती, नोकझोंक, प्यार और अपनेपन को एकसाथ सजाकर परोसती है यह फिल्म।
Akka
Drama, Crime (Tamil)
In a kingdom ruled by women, matriarch Bhavani faces her biggest threat in Rudra, a ruthless rebel eyeing her land and legacy.
Cast:
Keerthy Suresh, Radhika Apte, Tanvi Azmi, Nivedita Bhargava, Anshumaan Pushkar, Poornima Indrajith, Vishak Nair, Mahesh Manjrekar, Monika Panwar, Pooja Mohanraj
Director:
Dharmaraj Shetty
Writer:
Dharmaraj Shetty
Sat, October 31 2026
In Akka's confused worldview, women are just as violent as men when consumed by power and pride. Glorifying their cruelty as code and dog-eat-dog politics as empowerment to promote the idea of how flawless the world would be if women ran it, is flawed in itself.
Two parts Wonder Woman’s feminist ethos, two parts Game of Thrones-inspired bloody, backstabbing fervour, a garnish of Milan Luthria’s school of retro kitsch in the vein of Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, The Dirty Picture and what have you, Akka, a five-part series by writer and director Dharamraj Shetty, chronicles the administrative chops of a matriarchal society standing up to the vendetta of a shunned sister after she enlists the aid of spiteful gangs and resentful tribes. Created under the YRF banner, Akka’s lavishly scaled, visually sumptuous yarn fetishes the idea of female leadership. But its wishy-washy feuding over matters of business and bloodline neither justifies its male loathing nor makes a strong case for women as superior leaders. On paper, a self-governed sisterhood’s patriarchy-smashing ideals carry immense weight. Reducing it to a cliched catfight mars its potential quite a bit. All the same, Akka isn’t without its attractive attributes.
Sat, October 31 2026
Led by powerful performances from Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte, the matriarchal neo-noir flips crime-saga tropes on their head, showing that power’s corrupting pull isn’t gender-coded.
Crime sagas traditionally use women as passive anchors. Going beyond the template of mothers, sisters and daughters, Akka centres on an 800-year-old sisterhood that controls the criminal underworld and gold trade in the fictional South Indian region of Perunuru. Dressing progressive thought in a commercial gaze, the Yash Raj Films’ series seems to tweak genuine subversion into pulpy, mass-market dialoguebaazi, ultimately strengthening the very systems of oppression it claims to dismantle. But a deeper look suggests the narrative emerges from a cynical school of thought which argues that when women assume absolute power, they inevitably mirror the behavioural patterns of their male counterparts.
Fri, October 30 2026
Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte headline Gangs of Kantarapura, a glossy period drama that promises grit but falls short of delivering it.
Feisty female gangsters, matrilineal linkages, picturesque period settings, strong women leading from the front: can anything be better? Turns out, not really. When it’s a Yashraj production, style is a given, and there’s plenty of that strewn around the strikingly shot Akka, with its sprawling homesteads and old rivalries and new contenders. What there’s not in such lush abundance, is substance: the plot, which takes its time getting to a tipping point by the fifth episode, at which point there’s a pause till presumably the second part of the show, that keeps giving way to gratuitous spurts of violence and superfluous stylistic flourishes.
Pyre
Drama (Hindi)
In the Himalayan Mountain range, a rural village loses its inhabitants to the city’s allure while an elderly couple, Padam Singh and Tulsi, live in desolate isolation. Their days are filled with routine and occasional humour as they mask their loneliness. Their son’s absence gnaws at them, and when a letter arrives promising his return, it reignites their hearts with joy and anticipation. However, the reunion does not unfold as expected, shattering their hopes. As the film climaxes, the spectator is confronted with a more rueful plight, deeply engaging the audience’s empathy.
Cast:
Padam Singh, Hira Devi Mishra, Subhash Chandra, Shubham Chaudhary, Sadab Khan, Sadab Khan, Alok Verma, Jaya Shah, Gopa Nayal, Deewan Kanwal
Director:
Vinod Kapri
Writer:
Vinod Kapri
Sat, October 31 2026
While director Vinod Kapri evocatively captures the painful desolation of Uttarakhand’s ghost villages through raw, life-like performances, its cinematic grammar occasionally feels deliberately engineered for a global festival gaze
High in the Himalayas, where the wind murmurs through timber and stone, sits a village that time forgot and the world walked away from. This is the stage for Vinod Kapri’s Pyre(Chita), an elegy carved in the lines of timeworn faces and the vast, aching silence of mountains. It is a story born of memories from Uttarakhand’s ghost villages, where the young have shifted to the heartless cities, leaving only the old to watch over a crumbling community. At its heart, Pyre is a poem to the endurance of love. It follows an elderly couple bound by shared devotion and bickering, and the tenuous hope of their son’s return. With the patience of a documentary and the soul of a tragedy, Kapri creates a meditative piece of minimalist cinema where soaring peaks serve as both a majestic sanctuary and an indifferent prison.
Fri, October 30 2026
Vinod Kapri's Pyre follows an elderly couple growing old in an emptying Uttarakhand village. Their tender bond exposes the isolation, migration and hardships shaping life in remote communities.
What does growing old look like when the world around you is slowly disappearing? When your children are too far away, your village is emptying out, and even visiting a doctor becomes a challenge? Vinod Kapri’s Pyre explores these realities through an elderly couple in the mountains of Uttarakhand. Beneath its story of loneliness, migration and old age lies a more intimate question: who will hold your hand when life gets difficult? If there is one thing this film makes you want, it is someone to grow old with.
Fri, October 30 2026
पहाड़ों की खूबसूरती के कसीदे तो हम अक्सर पढ़ते हैं, पर क्या आपने कभी उसकी खामोशी सुनी है? उसका अकेलापन महसूस किया है? अगर नहीं, तो लेखक-निर्देशक विनोद कापड़ी की फिल्म 'पायर' देख लीजिए। Pyre का हिंदी अर्थ चिता है। यह फिल्म वीरान होते जा रहे पहाड़ों का वह रुदन है, जो आपका दिल चीरकर रख देगा।
पहाड़ों की खूबसूरती के कसीदे तो हम अक्सर पढ़ते हैं, पर क्या आपने कभी उसकी खामोशी सुनी है? उसका अकेलापन महसूस किया है? अगर नहीं, तो लेखक-निर्देशक विनोद कापड़ी की फिल्म ‘पायर’ देख लीजिए। Pyre का हिंदी अर्थ चिता है। यह फिल्म वीरान होते जा रहे पहाड़ों का वह रुदन है, जो आपका दिल चीरकर रख देगा। फिल्म का आगाज दूर तक फैले उत्तराखंड के उन्हीं खूबसूरत पहाड़ों से होता है, जहां एक 80 साल का बूढ़ा पदम सिंह (पदम सिंह कापड़ी) अपनी बूढ़ी बीवी तुलसी (हीरा देवी) को साथ लेकर कूदने जाता है। यह पहला सीन कहानी की मार्मिक विसंगति को स्थापित कर देता है। होता यूं है कि पलायन का दंश झेल रहे इस इलाके में उंगलियों पर गिनने लायक लोग ही बचे हैं। पदम सिंह का खुद का बेटा हरिया 28 साल पहले शहर कमाने गया था, जो दोबारा नहीं लौटा। बूढ़े पदम सिंह के लिए अपनी बीमार पत्नी तुलसी को ऊबड़-खाबड़ पहाड़ी रास्ते से शहर ले जाने के लिए लक्ष्मण (सुभाष चंद्रा) और जीवन (शुभम चौधरी) का ही आसरा है। अब इनमें से भी एक की नौकरी लग गई और दूसरे का परिवार गांव छोड़कर जाने वाला है। लिहाजा पदम सिंह को पत्नी समेत इन्हीं पहाड़ों से कूद जाने के अलावा कोई और रास्ता नहीं सूझता। हालांकि, कहानी आगे इससे भी कहीं ज्यादा दर्दनाक मोड़ लेती है, जो आपको झकझोर देता है।
The One About Matthew Perry
Documentary (English)
Told through intimate testimonies from close family and friends, this documentary event reveals the real Matthew Perry—generous, funny, vulnerable, larger than life—and the battles he fought to become the man behind the icon. A raw record of a life lived in full, and the honesty that became his greatest legacy.
Cast:
Matthew Perry
Fri, October 30 2026
Netflix's three-part documentary retraces Matthew Perry's life through family, friends and colleagues. Their memories reveal the private struggles behind his celebrated portrayal of Chandler Bing.
There is something particularly cruel about being remembered for making people laugh when your own life is anything but funny. Matthew Perry knew that contradiction all too well. For 10 years, as Chandler Bing on Friends, he made awkwardness charming, sarcasm endearing and vulnerability funny. Behind the character we continue to adore, however, was a man battling demons that fame, fortune and the love of millions could not defeat.
Sense and Sensibility
Drama, Romance (English)
A charming, witty, and deeply relatable story of love and sisterhood.
Cast:
Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, George MacKay, Fiona Shaw, Stacy Martin, Tom Brooke
Director:
Georgia Oakley
Fri, October 30 2026
Georgia Oakley's Sense and Sensibility follows Elinor and Marianne Dashwood through love and loss. The adaptation finds fresh warmth in patient romance, familial bonds and Austen's humour.
In a world where dating apps, situationships and the dreaded “what are we?” conversation have become part of the romantic vocabulary, Georgia Oakley’s Sense and Sensibility feels like a gentle reminder that love can be beautiful when it takes its time. But this Jane Austen adaptation is not just about making yearning romantic again. It is also about sisterhood, the absurdities of society, the courage to feel deeply and the sheer joy of getting lost in a beautifully told story. Based on Austen’s beloved novel, the film follows Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esm Creed-Miles, two sisters who approach life and love rather differently. While Elinor keeps her emotions firmly in check, Marianne wears her heart on her sleeve. Their differences make for some amusing exchanges, but it is their bond that gives the story its warmth.
Fri, October 30 2026
Director Georgia Oakley refuses to romanticise Regency era in this grounded, subdued take on Austen.
The new adaptation of Sense & Sensibility offers a gloomier, grimmer take on Jane Austen’s classic tale of two sisters, their contrasting perspectives on love and heartbreak, and their struggle to navigate life, financial uncertainty and rigid social hierarchies in 19th-century England. It is fascinating to see how two sisters perceive love in their own distinct ways. One believes in restraint, the other in revelation. “We have neither of us anything to tell; you, because you do not communicate, and I, because I conceal nothing.” The older Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and younger Marianne Dashwood (Esmé Creed-Miles) embody the central philosophical conflict between Sense (rationality and restraint) and Sensibility (emotion and openness). Their contrasting attitudes towards emotional reserve, understanding and the expression of love shape their individual journeys, their sisterly bond and Austen’s larger commentary on women’s survival in a society that leaves them with little agency.
The Fix
Action, Thriller (English)
Disillusioned by the end of the war in Afghanistan, a group of disgraced, war-torn ex-CIA operatives set out to Tehran to take down a life-changing score.
Cast:
Zachary Levi, Liam Neeson, Wes Chatham, Titus Welliver, Navid Negahban, Annet Mahendru, Grant Harvey, Augusto Aguilera, Numan Acar, Elnaaz Norouzi
Director:
Guy Moshe
Writer:
Guy Moshe, Mark Bacci
Fri, October 30 2026
As The Fix labours on for an inexplicable length of 142 minutes, you can’t help but feel it has lost the plot – not unlike the lay of the land in real life.
It doesn’t matter if it ain’t broken, trust good red-blooded Americans to try fix it. If it is in the larger direction of the Middle East, don’t bother keeping them away. Here, Tucker (Zachary Levi) and his gang (Wes Chatham, Jake Choi, Augusto Aguilera, Quincy Isaiah) fly into the embers of a US intervention gone south in, first, Afghanistan, and then Iran. In Kabul, it is 2021, as America is making a hasty retreat in the face of a resurgent Taliban. In Iran, in a lucky or unlucky (depending on your geographical location) break for the film, the war is still not on the horizon. However, the Revolutionary Guards are villainous enough to justify Tucker’s excursion.
Wicker
Romance, Fantasy, Comedy (English)
On the outskirts of a village by the sea, lives a Fisherwoman; smelly, single and perpetually ridiculed. One day, fed up with her stuffy, small-minded neighbours, she commissions herself a husband to be made from wicker. In an otherwise conservative town, this unconventional romance sparks outrage, jealousy and chaos.
Cast:
Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, Marli Siu, Nabhaan Rizwan, Richard E. Grant, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Gustav Lindh, Ella Bruccoleri
Director:
Eleanor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer
Fri, October 30 2026
Alexander Skarsgaard plays the Wickerman softly, gently, but never lets us forget that he is also a manly man, with all his bits in perfect working order.
Once upon a medieval time, in a village populated largely by an assortment of dislikeable types, there lived a Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman). Sick of being bullied, accused of stench arising from her string of tench (a kind of fish), she goes off to the resident Weaver (Peter Dinklage), and requests him to ‘make’ her a husband. Behold the Wickerman, duly created in the image of the ideal man, who has almost ceased to exist, if he ever did. That he is a veritable green forest makes sense not only because he is made of wicker, but also because he is incapable of a single evil thought. When you find one of those, let me know.
Birds in the Dark
Romance, Drama (Punjabi)
A police informant Jagtar takes Amir, a Muslim man from Kashmir, into custody. As they travel through the jungle and the mountains towards the bustling city, Jagtar eventually sets Amir free and returns to the hometown he once fled. There, as agricultural workers begin to organize a struggle, Jagtar reunites with Raman, a landowner and his former lover. Meanwhile, Amir comes to the town looking for Jagtar and meets Dilraj, the leader of the workers' organization, and begins to feel a sense of solidarity.
Cast:
Mauli Singh, Sapna DAS, Harwinder Singh Aujla, Shahnawaz Bhat, Navdeep Bajwa
Director:
Shashank Walia
Writer:
Shashank Walia
Thu, October 29 2026
For all its political urgency, Shashank Walia’s film, too often, mistakes solemnity for substance.
There’s a particular kind of independent film from India that has permeated the festival circuit in the last few years. They hint at the recent political turmoil, the social inequities and taboos of an increasingly rigid society. The sound design is decidedly sober, the camera is mostly still, the characters speak soft and slow. The titles are usually long English phrases or sentences (more frequently in the aftermath of Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light). It’s a hard trick to pull because a ‘meditative’ film can easily tip over into a ‘self-conscious’ one. Shashank Walia’s Birds in the Dark (Punjabi title: Hanere de Panchhi), which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival, lands somewhere in the middle of its fine intention and self-serious form.
Clayface
Horror, Thriller, Science Fiction (English)
Matt Hagen's meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss's actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self… but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiraling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
Cast:
Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, Eddie Marsan, Max Minghella, David Dencik, Francesca Corney, Ruby Sear, Wil Coban, Joshua James, Jake Curran
Director:
James Watkins
Thu, October 29 2026
It’s messy, pulpy, sometimes predictable, but it has the good sense of embracing its grotesqueness. For a film about a man that can become anyone, it understands the real horror might be no longer knowing yourself.
Life’s great for actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) when he arrives on set, one morning. Coming from ‘the Narrows’ – the most impoverished, tough neighbourhood in Gotham city – Hagen has paved his way to becoming the hottest upcoming actor in Coast City (possibly a stand-in for Los Angeles). And with his name being announced as an Oscar nominee, the ‘buzz’ around him understandably goes stratospheric. Hagen takes his best friend Corey (Joshua James) for a celebratory weekend on a private jet. The weekend quickly turns into a nightmare, as Hagen flirts with the girlfriend of the most dreaded mobster in Gotham, Markos Szabo (David Dencik), despite Corey’s words of caution. The one-night stand ends with Hagen waking up to find his bed surrounded by Szabo and his men. He doesn’t take kindly to Hagen’s transgression, using a razor to carve his face beyond recognition. Just like that, a blooming life is knocked into hell.
Mon, October 26 2026
This may be as good as it gets for Clayface, before it is simply yet more putty to be moulded and fit into DC’s world.
In its rebooted form, the DC Universe has been doing some interesting things – tinkering with the format of Superman to give it a different tone, giving a kickass Supergirl who holds her own, and now making the first standalone feature film on a minor character from the Batman comics, Clayface. It’s a surprisingly winsome outing, with the origin story of the antihero staying close to the dingy, shabby, forgotten parts of Gotham City, and from all that, creating a character you are rooting for till the end. The script was originally written by Mike Flanagan – who is having a moment with his Carrie TV series – with Hossein Amini (Drive) stepping in later. If their decision to keep it simple, with no grand superhero-like flourishes, serves the film well, the credit also goes to Tom Rhys Harries in the titular role of Matt Hagen/Clayface, whose sharp, rugged face is handsomely craggly and feels disarmingly innocent. He switches modes as required of his character, but an essential earnestness remains about him of a boy who has risen from the worst part of town to Oscar’s glitzy heights.
Fri, October 23 2026
Clayface works best as a tragic character study, a tale of human suffering wrapped in visceral body horror. It stands out as one of DC’s most promising cinematic outings since Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019).
Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), a promising young actor on the brink of stardom, sees his world shatter when a ruthless mob boss brutally disfigures his face. Unable to accept his world crumbling beneath his feet, Hagen vows to reclaim everything he has lost, warning his tormentors: “I will be back, and I am coming for everything.” For a movie star whose face is his identity and currency, losing it is nothing short of a living nightmare. Matt begs Dr. Corr (Naomi Ackie) to restore his features, urging her to resort to any unapproved medical means necessary. The procedure gives him back his face, but at a terrifying cost: an uncontrollable shape-shifting ability that he initially struggles to control. His body stretches, melts, bubbles, and contorts, allowing him to assume any shape, size, or identity he desires or even one that crosses his mind. The transformation wreaks havoc on his psyche and unleashes chaos upon his adversaries.
Hope
Science Fiction, Mystery, Action (Korean)
In the remote South Korean village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-seok and officer Sung-ae are called to investigate a mysterious creature wreaking havoc on the community. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.
Cast:
Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Lee Sang-hee, Um Mun-suk, Im Hyun-sik
Director:
Na Hong-jin
Writer:
Na Hong-jin
Tue, October 27 2026
Forget K-dramas and K-pop. The real deal is here. Directed by Na Hong-jin, Hope is reportedly the most expensive Korean film ever made, and it shows. Unlike many Hollywood films that rely heavily on CGI, Hope combines computer-generated imagery with real action to deliver some astounding chase sequences. The film makes a compelling case for how to spend big bucks on an action thriller, with is fingers pointing towards Hollywood- this is how you do it.
Mon, October 26 2026
Writer-director Na Hong-jin, whose films combining horror and thrills have had both commercial and critical success, overplays his hand in Hope.
At 160 minutes, this film is double the length it should have been. At one and a half monsters, it had just the right number, before becoming greedy. Writer-director Na Hong-jin, whose films combining horror and thrills have had both commercial and critical success, overplays his hand here. So much so that even charismatic actor couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander have to make do with crumbs, hidden under make-up and prosthetics. Hope begins very promisingly, as Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-min), police chief of the town on which the film is named, is called by his cousin Sung ki (Zo In-sung) to investigate the sudden appearance of a dead and badly mutilated bull in the middle of a lane, amidst fields. Sung Ki has gathered his “boys”, that is other men with a lot of time and dubiously procured guns on their hands like him, anticipating that what they are looking at is a monster that will need hunting.
Fri, October 23 2026
Starring Hoyeon and Hwang Jung-Min, Na’s latest creature flick arrives a decade after The Wailing, a mix of preposterous delights
A decade after South Korean auteur Na Hong-jin took the world by storm with horror hit The Wailing, he returns with a demented monster movie. Hope premiered in Cannes Competition earlier this year, an audacious, eyebrow-raising outlier choice. Expectations are naturally immense. At its best, Hope is a thrilling demonstration of dynamite action filmmaking. But it’s also scraggly, unwieldy and prone to flat characterisation. Your experience will vary dramatically on certain expectations. As a big-scale apocalyptic outing, Hope is ambitious, frustrating, misjudged and yet genuinely surprising. That it can flit between so many things is in itself a total departure from the dead-eyed generic drudgery that hogs popular Hollywood blockbusters.
Udta Teer
Comedy, Action (Hindi)
An amnesiac Pakistani spy wakes up believing he is a patriotic Indian counter-terrorism officer.
Cast:
Ayushmann Khurrana, Sara Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Brijendra Kala, Ram Kapoor, Mukul Dev, Suhail Nayyar, Sandeep Anand, Gulshan Grover
Director:
Aakash Kaushik
Writer:
Aakash Kaushik
Tue, October 27 2026
Directed by writer-turned-director Akash Kaushik, Udta Teer wants to be a Dhurandhar when it comes to patriotism but a comedy when it comes to everything else. The result is a film caught between two incompatible impulses. One moment, it is a straight-faced spy thriller invoking desh bhakti with songs like Jai Hind gaaye; the next, it breaks into comedy, as if it cannot bear to take itself seriously for too long. While some of the humour lands, the patriotism is largely performative, playing to the gallery without making much of an impact.
Mon, October 26 2026
Aakash A. Kaushik's ‘Udta Teer’, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, takes the temperature of Indo-Pak relations down several notches, but can't sustain the charm
Of the many musical gags in Udta Teer, one made me surprisingly wistful. Agent Vikrant (Ayushmann Khurrana) watching the video for A.R. Rahman’s ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ and becoming emotional is intended as parodic patriotism. But it reminded me of when this version of ‘Vande Mataram’ came out in 1997 and was received as a dynamic reworking, not an imposition. It’s also hard not to think of ‘Gurus of Peace’, a Rahman-Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan track on the same album, especially when Udta Teer reminds us, with a cover of ‘Dum Mast Qalandar’ playing over a shootout, how Pakistan’s music is still a presence in our films but not Pakistani artists.
Mon, October 26 2026
Ayushmann Khurrana sinks into the skin of a man who is the very antithesis of a big-screen secret agent.
A well-trained Pakistani spy sent on a mission to destabilise India post-Operation Sindoor suffers a grievous head injury. He loses his memory. His bosses in Rawalpindi go into a tizzy, his accomplices in India are caught in a bind and the film about an amnesiac secret agent’s erratic exploits flies off on a merry but uneven tangent. What’s not to like in this harmless cockeyed concoction, one might ask. A lot because the arrow that Udta Teer refers has a rather blunt head that knows not where it is headed? There is a great deal in Udta Teer that keeps spiralling out of control as the film makes its way through an exercise that harks back in spirit, but certainly not in substance, to the Hollywood spy parodies that Mel Brooks and Mike Myers powered many decades ago with considerable commercial success.
Sumo Didi
Drama (Hindi)
Hetal, a talented wrestler, discovers sumo by chance, but her road to improvement is very steep. Unwilling to give up her dream, she goes to Japan and endures rigorous training. A unique Indian sumo girl movie!
Cast:
Shriyam Bhagnani, Chaitanya Sharma, Nitesh Pandey, Anubha Fatehpuria
Director:
Jayant Rohatgi
Writer:
Nikhil Sachan
Mon, October 26 2026
Jayant Rohatgi's film tells the story of Hetal Dave, India’s first professional female sumo wrestler
Sumo Didi opens at the Taiwan Open Sumo Live, where Hetal Dave (Shriyam Bhagnani) makes history as the first Indian woman to compete in the tournament. It then rewinds nine months to Kolkata, where Hetal—who will become India’s first professional female sumo wrestler—is struggling after years of being judged for her body. She’s humiliated at school for her weight issues, and her mother, Sudha (Anubha Fatehpuriya), worries that she won’t find a husband. Encouraged by her father, Rajendra Dave (Nitesh Pandey), Hetal learns judo and enters competitions. But she is also acutely aware of the judgments she encounters, and begins to doubt herself. Her friend Akshat (Chaitanya Sharma), a physiotherapist, helps her see the difference between the person she is and the person the world expects her to be. He asks her to consider who she really is: someone who conforms to the way the world sees her, or an individual who can look beyond stereotypes.
Fri, October 23 2026
कर पाओगी…? हर उस लड़की से, जिसने कुछ नया, कुछ अनोखा, कुछ बड़ा करने का सोचा तो उसके परिवार का, समाज का, दुनिया का, हमारा, आपका पहला सवाल यही तो होता है-कर पाओगी…? हेतल दवे से भी यही पूछा गया था। हेतल दवे को तो जानते हैं न आप? नहीं…! अच्छा, सुमो कुश्ती तो आपको पता ही होगी। वही जापानी कुश्ती जिसमें बहुत मोटे-मोटे पहलवान आपस में भिड़ते हैं। भारत में तो यह लोकप्रिय ही नहीं है। लेकिन यह जान कर आप हैरान हो सकते हैं कि भारत की पहली और इकलौती महिला सुमो प्लेयर का नाम है हेतल दवे जिन्होंने बरसों पहले इस खेल में भारत का नाम चमकाया था। यह फिल्म ‘सुमो दीदी’ (Sumo Didi) उन्हीं हेतल दवे की कहानी दिखाती है। हेतल को उसके मोटापे के चलते बहुत कुछ सहना, सुनना पड़ता है। खुद उसके अपने परिवार के लोग भी उसे जताते-सुनाते रहते हैं। हेतल जूडो खेलती है। एक दिन जापान से आए एक नामी सुमो खिलाड़ी से मिलने के बाद वह भी सुमो प्लेयर बनने का ठान लेती है। पिता उसके साथ हैं लेकिन मां नहीं। आखिर मां कहती हैं-एक साल ले लो, कामयाब नहीं हुईं तो उसके बाद शादी। हेतल जुट जाती है, लड़ती है, भिड़ती है, पहले दूसरों से, फिर खुद से और आखिर…!
Fri, October 23 2026
The biopic of India’s first female sumo wrestler Hetal Dave features a solid lead performance that elevates a predictable template.
No matter how safe and formulaic many biopics choose to be, sometimes it’s the subject alone that does the heavy-lifting. This is quite literal in Sumo Didi, a Hindi film inspired by the life of Hetal Dave, India’s first female professional sumo wrestler. The underdog checklist already exists: an unmarried girl mocked for her weight; a middle-class background; a notoriously patriarchal society; a supportive father; an apathetic federation; a passion as rare and mismatched as a bobsleigh racing team from Jamaica in Cool Runnings; and a sport that weaponises the body-shaming stigmas that infect most cultures. When life itself offers a winning theme — with all social and narrative bases covered — then all ‘fiction’ has to do is show up. The trick is to trust reality, not accessorise it.