





Guild Reviews by Film

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.


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

Fri, July 3 2026
Let’s get two things out of the way right away. YRF has abandoned its RAW+ISI bhai-bhai theme for a change and Sharvari (as Durga) is not a Pak agent teaming with Indian Sita (Alia Bhatt). In fact, Pakistan is the baddie that’s named this time and India is the one with the valour. Jai Hind to that. With the pre-release misinformation set aside, step into the dark world of demoted army officer Fateh Singh Lakhawat (Bobby Deol) whose pet project Alpha has been officially shut down. In his punishment posting at Cherrapunji, he continues his research to create the ultimate Alpha soldier with infant Sita as his guinea pig.

Fri, July 3 2026
Alpha is so hollow that it feels like an energy drink or athleisure brand commercial.
Armed with the potent Alpha serum, Sita (Alia Bhatt) is trained by Colonel Fateh (Bobby Deol) to become an elite assassin and a valuable asset for India’s special forces. However, everything changes when she discovers the truth about her past and goes rogue. Along the way, Sita crosses paths with Durga (Sharvari), RAW chief Kaul (Anil Kapoor), and a tragic past that binds the trio together while reopening old wounds. Shiv Rawail’s Alpha rests on the petite shoulders of two capable female leads, neither of whom are conventional action stars — a relatively novel proposition for Bollywood. Rooted in the trauma of a stolen childhood, Alpha initially shows promise of crafting an action thriller around buried pain and emotional scars. You expect that inner conflict to shape the narrative. Even the idea of introducing two superheroic female assassins, reminiscent of Black Widow, into the YRF Spy Universe feels genuinely exciting on paper. Bollywood creating its own genetically enhanced super soldiers armed with elite combat training, think Captain America or The Winter Soldier, is an ambitious idea in itself.

Fri, July 3 2026
YRF's first women-centred narrative in the testosterone-heavy spy universe lands with the disadvantage of being measured against the likes of 'Dhurandhar'
Credibility is an important attribute when telling any tale, more so if it is around India’s national security. Yash Raj’s spy universe for long operated with the ability to make viewers suspend their belief and instead soak in the foreign locales, the choreographed stunt set-pieces, the songs and the swagger on display. That is until Dhurandhar entered the spy landscape. Suddenly, reality became a mainstay, the threat all too actual, to make the film an immersive experience. Alpha, YRF’s first women-centred narrative in the testosterone-heavy spy universe, arrives in that environment, wherein it will be measured not against Pathaan, Tiger, War et al but against the world Aditya Dhar created in Dhurandhar.


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

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.

Fri, July 3 2026
आज के डिजिटल युग में तकनीक पर हमारी निर्भरता जितनी तेजी से बढ़ी है, साइबर अपराध का खतरा भी उतना ही गहरा हो चुका है। आज हम सभी बैंकिंग से लेकर शॉपिंग तक, गेम खेलने से लेकर दोस्ती और प्यार ढूंढ़ने तक, हर चीज घर बैठे ऑनलाइन कर रहे हैं, लेकिन इसके साथ ही फिशिंग, हैकिंग, ऑनलाइन फ्रॉड, डिजिटल अरेस्ट, साइबर बुलिंग, डीपफेक, गेमिंग चैलेंज जैसे तरह-तरह के साइबर अपराध का शिकार भी बन रहे हैं। इन्हीं साइबर अपराध के प्रति हल्के-फुल्के अंदाज में जागरूक करती है, फिल्मकार राजकुमार हिरानी की डेब्यू वेब सीरीज ‘प्रीतम एंड पेड्रो’। इस सीरीज से राजू हिरानी बतौर निर्माता ओटीटी पर और उनके बेटे वीर हिरानी एक्टिंग की दुनिया में कदम रख रहे हैं। जाहिर है ऐसे में उम्मीदें काफी ज्यादा थीं, लेकिन दिलचस्प विषय के बावजूद रिसर्च की कमी ‘प्रीतम एंड पेड्रो’ को एक लाजवाब या मस्ट वॉच सीरीज की बजाय, महज हल्की-फुल्की सोशल ड्रामा ही बन पाई है।

Fri, July 3 2026
Arshad Warsi can create an air of levity around anybody but Vir Hirani's stiff screen presence as Pritam Parkar has no vibe to match his peevish, pitiable Pedro Gonsalves.
As filmmakers, Rajkumar Hirani’s cheerful spin on social issues and Avinash Arun Dharware’s moody, gritty slices of life could not be more different. One would not think of them as collaborators but that’s exactly what they are on Pritam And Pedro, a buddy comedy about a pair of chalk and cheese individuals joining hands against the masterminds of cybercrime. Having watched all of its six staggeringly sloppy and staid episodes, perhaps they are better off staying in their own lanes. As the creator, co-writer, producer, editor and father of one of Pritam And Pedro’s titular heroes, Rajkumar Hirani dons a lot of hats and tries to bring his rosy outlook to a premise hinged on thrill and danger.


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.


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

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.

Fri, July 3 2026
Nachiket Samant’s efficient and stylised movie stars Huma Qureshi as a deaf-and-mute contract killer with a Mumbai-shaped hole in her heart
As an assassin story, Baby Do Die Do is not out of the ordinary. The only novelty is that the brooding hero is a deaf-and-mute hitwoman, not a hitman. The tropes are Freudian and familiar. A childhood tragedy turns this woman named Baby (Huma Qureshi) into a cold-blooded contract killer. She works for a father figure called Papa (Chunky Panday). She’s slick and experienced at her job; a sharp-shooting umbrella is her weapon. She finds a good man (Rachit Singh), and suddenly, the secret is too heavy. She wants out of the profession. She wants to be human. Except it’s not that simple. She’s in too deep. A bloody mess is imminent.

Fri, July 3 2026
The film kills much of its own promise, squandering it on superficial trappings
The hired killer in Baby Do Die Do is a woman. She is deaf and mute to boot. She can neither hear anything that anybody says nor spit out her rage in the form of words. She executes her chosen targets in utter silence with an umbrella that is actually a gun. Pretty much like the umbrella in a rain-soaked Mumbai, nothing is what it seems. The pivotal elements in Baby Do Die Do are intriguing all right but do they give the film an edge that serves its purpose? They do only sporadically. Huma Qureshi (who has also produced the film with her brother Saqib Saleem) fronts Baby Do Die Do with the ‘quiet’ confidence that the role calls for. She is unwaveringly consistent. The film is anything but.

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.

Isakapatnam
Drama (Telugu)
Set in the 1990s, in the ruthless port town of Isakapatnam, three forces collide—a woman driven by justice, a henchman torn by loyalty, and a common man hungry for revenge—each closing in on the empire built by the port’s most powerful man, Naidu.
Cast:
Aishwarya Rajesh, Samuthirakani, Sunil Varma, Naresh Agastya, Merin Philip, Sudhakar Komakula, Rajiv Kanakala, Mime Gopi, Rohini, Raja Chembolu
Director:
Garry BH
Writer:
Prashanth Babu Ragathi

Thu, July 2 2026
Isakapatnam aspires to be a sprawling crime saga in which every murder has consequences, every betrayal shifts the balance of power, and every character carries old wounds. Directed by Garry BH from a script by Prashant Ragathi with dialogues by Tajuddin Syed, the Prime Video series stars Samuthirakani as feared gangster Naidu and Aishwarya Rajesh as his daughter Bharathi. Sunil, Naresh Agastya, Merin Philip, Sudhakar Komakula, Rajeev Kanakala, Raja Chembolu and Banerjee round out an ensemble of characters including henchmen, townsfolk, cops and businessmen. The Prime Video series is set in the fictional coastal town of Isakapatnam. The town owes its prosperity to its docks, shipping trade, trucking business and steel plant – a fertile setting for a story about the nexus between crime, commerce and politics. Oddly, though, the series barely uses any of it. The docks have little bearing on the story, which unfolds mostly in houses, police stations, hideouts, and an occasional boat scene.

Silo S03
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama (English)
In a ruined and toxic future, thousands live in a giant silo deep underground. After its sheriff breaks a cardinal rule and residents die mysteriously, engineer Juliette starts to uncover shocking secrets and the truth about the silo.
Cast:
Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, Rick Gomez, Tim Robbins

Wed, July 1 2026
Created by Graham Yost and based on Hugh Howey's novels, Silo returns for a triumphant third season, which digs deep into the show's past lore.
The key to the future lies in the past. That’s the message of the wildly thrilling third season that returns after a year and a half on Apple TV. Led by Rebecca Ferguson, the sci-fi series Silo has always been about rebellion. But this time, it delves into the question of why. Why are the residents of Silo 18 not allowed to go outside and who is controlling them? The answers to all of these begin in the past as the series based on Hugh Howey’s trilogy finally lifts the curtain on the founders. The more that Silo reveals, the more intriguing the origin story becomes, making the sci-fi series one of the most riveting series on the streaming service.

The Bear S05
Drama, Comedy (English)
Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.
Cast:
Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Abby Elliott, Matty Matheson, Liza Colón-Zayas, Edwin Lee Gibson

Wed, July 1 2026
Having run out of money at the end of S04, seven out of the eight episodes in S05 are set in one day of Chicago’s biblical rains, as the crew tries to make it through one more restaurant service with limited resources.
Christopher Storer’s The Bear has built a singular fan-base, since it arrived in 2022. The kitchen of a sandwich shop in Chicago becomes a place of reckoning for its dozen primary characters, battling one form of existential dread or another. It’s been nice to witness the show’s stylistic swings crystallise over the years. For instance: the loud pandemonium of the largely one-take marvel, Review (S01E07), is contrasted with the precise ASMR of Honeydew (S02E04) – when Marcus goes to Copenhagen to train as a pastry chef. The vortex of a deeply dysfunctional family in Fishes (S02E06), is followed by the winsome redemption arc of Richie in Forks (S02E07). My favourite episode in the show, Tomorrow (S03E01), relaying Carmen’s culinary journey till the end of S02 in non-linear fashion, working like a recap episode, is among the 10 most aesthetically ambitious episodes I’ve seen in my life.

Mon, June 29 2026
Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear goes out on a high after a couple of bumpy middle seasons.
It’s a changing of the guard at The Bear in the fifth and final season of the FX series created by Christopher Storer. After four years and five incredible seasons, The Bear finally bids adieu and moves ahead in a way that only it can. Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Ayo Edebiri have gotten us so invested in these characters, along with its large ensemble cast, and the show does a great job of wrapping it all up in a satisfactory manner. Moreover, the Emmy-winning series stays away from the mistakes of the past seasons as it closes the lights out on the restaurant while staying true to its core premise.