Fri, September 18 2026

Sugam Mishra is a newly married railway cop who has just joined duty, juggling pressures at home and at work. He finds a mentor and a father figure in his senior. Afroz Hamza, a hacking enthusiast nursing a heartbreak in college, takes to crime for a living – joining hands with his uncle to do the dirty backend work for travel agents. While most films try to milk Divyendu Sharma’s Mirzapur image, a show like Waiting Hai actually showcases his range. As an earnest, newly-married man in his 20s starting a new job, he mirrors the character’s rebellion and idealism with honesty. Bhuvan Arora is decent as the invisible hacker wronged by the system. One of the more moving portrayals comes from Kumud Mishra as Sugam’s senior on the verge of retirement. The supporting cast – Vijay Maurya, Harshita Gaur, Sunita Rajwar and Dayashankar Pandey – deliver the goods.

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Fri, September 18 2026

பானிக்கு ஏற்படும் பார்வைக் குறைபாடு, அந்தச் சூழலிலும் குழந்தையைத் தேடி ஓடும் கதை சுவாரஸ்ய லைனில் செல்கிறது. குழந்தை கடத்தல் மாஃபியா பற்றிய விவரிப்பும் ஆராய்ச்சியும் படத்துக்கு ஆழமானதொரு நிறத்தைத் தருகின்றன.

பானியும் (டாப்ஸி) அவருடைய கணவரும் ரயிலில் சென்றுகொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள். திடீரென ஜாய்புரா என்ற ஊரில் அவர்களுடைய குழந்தையைக் கடத்திவிடுகிறார்கள். குழந்தையைக் காப்பாற்ற ஓடிச் செல்கையில் பானிக்குத் தலையில் அடிபட்டு கண்பார்வையில் பிரச்னை ஏற்படுகிறது. ஜாய்புராவில் இப்படியான குழந்தைக் கடத்தல் அதிகமாக நடப்பது பற்றியும், அதை நிகழ்த்தும் நெட்வொர்க் பற்றியும் பானி அறிந்துகொள்கிறார். அதன் பிறகு, பார்வைப் பிரச்னை சரியானாலும், பார்வைச் சவால்கொண்டவர் என்றே தனது அடையாளத்தை வைத்துக்கொண்டு ஜாய்புராவில் தங்கி, தன் குழந்தையைத் தீவிரமாகத் தேடுகிறார். இறுதியில் தன் குழந்தையைக் கண்டுபிடித்தாரா, இந்தக் கடத்தல் குழுவின் பின்னணி என்ன, ஜாய்புராவில் அவை எப்படி ஊடுருவியிருக்கின்றன என்கிற முடிச்சுகளை அவிழ்ப்பதே நெட்ஃப்ளிக்ஸ் தளத்தில் வந்திருக்கும் இந்த ‘காந்தாரி’யின் கதை. (தமிழ் டப்பிங் உண்டு).

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Sat, September 12 2026

A land that worships the divine feminine yet treats its women poorly. This is a paradox that rings tragic and true both in reality and in the fictional world of Gandhari. The film is set in Joypurra, an unsettling place where the disappearance of young girls has been frighteningly normalized. The story opens by establishing a happy family of three. Taapsee Pannu and Ishwak Singh play a husband and wife and parents to a young girl Mishti. When Mishti suddenly goes missing the narrative dives straight into the conflict.

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Sun, September 6 2026

Thu, September 17 2026

Meghna Gulzar showed her penchant for balancing two different viewpoints when she made the largely true-life Talvar (2015) with Vishal Bhardwaj as writer. Although this time it is a medley of cases that she mixes without picking any single one, Meghna’s flair for effectively presenting contrasting opinions continues as DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) revels in public applause. Four monsters behind the grisly rape and murder of a charred body have been gunned down by the police. Self-defence, say Raman Kumar and his team. Let’s investigate, says DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan), introduced as a fearless cop heading a vigilance unit that keeps a check on the police. She has just busted a racket where superintendents fawn over VIP prisoners, serving them a special menu of quinoa pulao and avocado.

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Thu, September 17 2026

Daayra raises the right questions, even if its central confrontation needed sharper, more evenly matched arguments.

A police encounter involving four accused in a young girl’s gang-rape and murder case evokes sharply divided reactions. The public celebrates it as rightful justice and closure, while the SIT (Special Investigation Team), led by DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan), suspects that the encounter was a planned shootout orchestrated by DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and his team. So, what really happened and who is right? What happens when a person who is done waiting clashes with someone who keeps asking: why can’t people wait anymore? At the heart of Meghna Gulzar’s Daayra is this unsettling question, has our growing impatience, anger and obsession with urgency diminished our ability to think clearly? And when the machinery of justice moves too slowly, do ethics and morality become obstacles to efficiency? After all, life may not always be about following rules but about doing what we believe is right.

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Wed, September 16 2026

An intriguing psychological thriller is overwhelmed by Akshay Kumar’s star persona, implausible action, and a screenplay that sacrifices restraint for spectacle.

Some thrillers are so absorbing that they persuade us to surrender logic at the door and simply follow the action wherever it takes us. A good mystery, particularly one built around a cat-and-mouse chase, can make even the most improbable turn feel plausible because the characters, the atmosphere, and the suspense are persuasive enough to keep disbelief suspended. Haiwaan begins with precisely that promise — a potentially engrossing tale of guilt, vengeance, betrayal, and retribution, populated by characters whose secrets could have sustained a gripping psychological thriller. Instead, Priyadarshan’s remake of his own 2016 Malayalam film Oppam gradually loses sight of the thriller it could have been, drowning a promising premise in star power, implausible action, and a screenplay that repeatedly mistakes excess for excitement.

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Sat, September 12 2026

Priyadarshan’s Haiwaan is a remake of his own Malayalam film Oppam (2016), which was a big hit a decade ago. After watching Haiwaan, I spent some time wondering why Priyadarshan chose to remake a successful film of his own. What value addition could he possibly bring to it? Alas, I couldn’t think of a satisfactory answer - except that commercial considerations must have warranted it.

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Sat, September 12 2026

श्रीराम राघवन की फिल्म ‘अंधाधुन’ में एक अंधा पियानो प्लेयर एक खून होते हुए ‘देख’ लेता है। अब अंधा आदमी ‘देख’ कैसे सकता है? और यहीं से शुरू होती है छल, कपट और धोखे की एक अंधी दौड़ जिसमें कोई भी पाक-साफ नहीं है। प्रियदर्शन की इस फिल्म ‘हैवान’ में एक बिल्डिंग के अंधे मैंटेनेंस मैनेजर की जज साहब को मारने वाले एक खूनी से हाथापाई हुई है। वह उसे सूंघ कर पहचान लेता है लेकिन पुलिस उस अंधे को ही खूनी माने बैठी है। कैसे निकलेगा वह इस आरोप से? कैसे पकड़ा जाएगा वह खूनी? वह खून कर ही क्यों रहा है? क्यों वह ऐसा हैवान बना हुआ है जो अपने बदले की आग में मासूमों की जान लिए जा रहा है? सवाल कई हैं, जवाब यह फिल्म देती है। मगर क्या ये जवाब हज़म होने लायक हैं? आइए देखते हैं।

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Wed, September 16 2026

The Emmy-nominated British espionage drama is back with its sixth season in six years, and the tension remains at an all-time high

Apple TV’s Slow Horses has never shied away from death. In the past five seasons, Slough House has lost several agents, and this season, the count is about to get higher. Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb must figure out who is targeting his agents and why. Based on the books of Mick Herron, the MI5 agents of Slough House have endured a lot, but this season, they’re truly on the run as sitting targets in a mission that’s out to get them. Led by Oldman and Jack Lowden, the darkly humorous spy thriller just improves with every season, as the writing, characterisation and direction just get sharper and hit that much harder.

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Wed, September 16 2026

My loudly-declared soft spot for Reacher has always had room for Neagley, and when they are together, they rekindle old magic: maybe in the next Neagley outing, have more of Reacher? And maybe more Neagley, in the next Reacher?

At the outset, let me confess how keenly I was waiting for this Reacher spin-off, with his favourite team-mate Neagley at its centre: the fierce ex-Armywoman who went on to become a PI in Chicago, has been a staple in the best Reacher adventurers, and has livened up things everytime she shows up in the show. In her first solo outing, Maria Sten’s Neagley fills the screen with her presence, the creators Nick Santora and Nicholas Wootton wisely surrounding her with an interesting ensemble from the get-go: smart cop Hudson Riley (Greyston Hold), an equally smart secretary Renee Birdwhistle (Adeline Rudolph) and homeless orphan Keeno (Jasper Jones), who get enough to do together and on their own.

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Tue, September 15 2026

Shahad, who debuted with the forgettable coming-of-age drama ‘Prakashan Parakkatte’ (2022), ups his game here by several notches, aided by a taut screenplay

It may be one of cinema’s greatest tricks that it can twist one’s line of thinking about a person or an incident just with the perspective it chooses to present, the framing, editing choices, or the background score used. Reading a basic news report on the incident of crime at the centre of Shahad’s Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar might make one assume a particular stand on the culprits, knowing the long history of this kind of crime in the country and the stories that can be made up to save them. However, the film frames the incident, the events leading up to it, its aftermath and the people involved in such a way that not once do we wish for the culprits to be caught and punished. Of course, we have Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam (2013), in which we all collectively stood with those who committed the crime. The film also has quite a few parallels with Drishyam, but this one has very different concerns and approach to the crime.

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Mon, September 14 2026

A quartet of cops orchestrate a cover-up in Shahad Nilambur’s occasionally thrilling ‘Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar’

The first few scenes of Shahad Nilambur’s Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar remind one of Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, in how undramatically we find out about the death of Aleena Abraham’s (Parvathy Thiruvothu) husband on duty. Aleena, with a child and the hopes of her husband’s family pinned on her, takes the police job on offer. There are no theatrics, no sad ballads or wave of sympathy for her, her baby or her situation. Theatrics is for later, but manufacturing sympathy almost never enters the picture, for Aleena is cut from a different cloth. The film then speedruns—a montage covers her training, a split-second encounter with her husband’s former colleague, her posting to a station in Kottayam and getting comfortable with the new workplace and her sufficiently leisurely colleagues, all of them in the lowest rungs of the police hierarchy. We realize that time has passed and the baby is now a toddler.

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Sun, September 13 2026

How do we empathise with a force like the police? The last time I asked myself this, I was watching reels of police violence against Gen-Z protesters at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar. That scepticism lasted about thirty minutes, right until I spotted a traffic cop drenched in sweat while I sat comfortably in an AC vehicle, wearing sunglasses and two layers of sunscreen. Humanising lower-rank police officers in India is an uncomfortable exercise. Director Shahad’s investigative thriller Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar takes up that challenge and builds a cat-and-mouse game around a group of cops hiding an accidental crime from a system that both empowers and oppresses them.

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Mon, September 14 2026

Sat, September 12 2026

Directed by Ben Rekhi, Last Man in Tower is an adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name. The story revolves around a decrepit residential building in Mumbai and its residents, and how the lure of a better future changes ties when a builder arrives with an offer to acquire and reconstruct the property.

Directed by Ben Rekhi, Last Man in Tower is a perfectly pleasant adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name. But therein lies the problem; it is well-behaved when it should have been transgressive. At its core, this is a cautionary tale about the decaying morality of the Indian middle class, a satire about our collective lack of social trust. But filtered through Rekhi’s lens, the movie comes across as an ode to the undying spirit of Mumbaikars. The story revolves around a decrepit residential building in Vakola, Mumbai, an almost fantastical vessel where men and women of all ages, sexes, and social classes live in relative harmony. The building can be seen as a metaphor for India; a society we imagine existed before it was shredded to pieces by populist politicians. At its (moral) centre is a retired teacher affectionately known by everyone as ‘Masterji’. He’s played by Manoj Bajpayee in a terrific central performance that occasionally reveals the underlying rage that should have been more palpable in the film itself.

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Fri, September 11 2026

Adapting Aravind Adiga’s acclaimed novel, Ben Rekhi builds a gripping moral battleground where a community chooses redevelopment to compromise its own foundation.

At the heart of Last Man in Tower lies Vishram Cooperative Housing Society, a decaying, close-knit enclave of middle-class Mumbai families. Their world is upended when a ruthless real estate tycoon, Dharmen Shah (Boman Irani), offers them a life-changing financial windfall to buy out the building for luxury redevelopment. The catch is that the payout is all or nothing, contingent on a unanimous vote. While his cash-strapped neighbours eagerly scramble for a ticket into the modern world, Yogesh Mishra (Manoj Bajpayee), a retired schoolteacher known as Masterji, stubbornly refuses to sign away the home that holds the memories of his deceased wife. What begins as a disagreement quickly degenerates into a psychological social pressure cooker, as the neighborhood’s collective desperation, led by the chirpy Sangeeta Puri (Divya Dutta), turns into targeted malice against the lone dissenter.

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Sun, September 13 2026

मध्य भारत के डकैतों की बात होती है तो चंबल नदी के आसपास के बीहड़ वाले डाकू (ओह सॉरी, बीहड़ में बागी होत हैं, डकैत होत हैं पार्लामैंट में) ही याद आते हैं। यही कारण है कि किसी ज़माने में कुख्यात रहे डकैत ददुआ यानी शिव कुमार पटेल को भी चंबल से जोड़ लिया जाता है जबकि उसका इलाका उत्तर प्रदेश के चित्रकूट में माणिकपुर के आसपास का पाठा (पठारी) क्षेत्र था। कभी बीहड़ की फूलन देवी पर बनी कमाल की फिल्म ‘बैंडिट क्वीन’ से जुड़े रहे और वहीं के पान सिंह तोमर पर ‘पान सिंह तोमर’ नाम से एक उम्दा फिल्म दे चुके फिल्मकार तिग्मांशु धूलिया अब पाठा के ददुआ पर यह फिल्म ‘घमासान’ (Ghamasaan) लेकर आए हैं। मगर क्या यह फिल्म उन दो फिल्मों की तरह शानदार बन पाई है? आइए देखते हैं।

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Sun, September 13 2026

Set in the Hindi heartland, Bundelkhand, Ghamasaan delves into the conflict between a powerful dacoit named Maharaj (Arshad Warsi) and a fearless officer, Aditya Singh (Pratik Gandhi). As Aditya tries to dismantle Maharaj’s reign, he needs to rise above deep corruption, taking stock of power struggles and the thin line between the law and the outlaws. Pratik Gandhi is decent as an approachable, earnest cop and gives it relatability. And, after a while, Arshad Warsi sheds his comedy image and brings an earthy flamboyance to a ruthless, proactive dacoit. Rajpal Yadav bags a unique role, and among the supporting cast, Deepraj Rana, Jatin Goswami and Ishita Dutta make a mark.

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Fri, September 11 2026

Arshad Warsi as Maharaj didn’t make me believe all the way that he could be a cruel man with zero compassion. And there’s also Rajpal Yadav, in a striking supporting role, which leaves a mark.

The arena is Bundelkhand, not Chambal, but Timanshu Dhulia knows his terrain. And that familiarity makes Ghamasaan stand out from the series of films shot on locations created on sets, their artifice seeping into the story-telling: the best part of this conflict between cops-and-robbers is the authenticity of the place, and the people. Maharaj (Arshad Warsi) is Bundelkhand’s Bandit King, as opposed to Phoolan, Chambal’s Bandit Queen (in which Dhulia was casting director) , as well as Paan Singh Tomar (which Dhulia directed, turning it into one of his, and lead Irrfan’s, best collaborations) from the same area who famously gave us that line about ‘baaghis’ and ‘dakaaits’.

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Sun, September 13 2026

Cop Jai Ram’s life takes a drastic turn when his younger brother dies under mysterious circumstances. The local authorities and the officials quickly dismiss the tragedy as a mere accident. Refusing to buy it, he kickstarts an investigation to uncover what truly happened. Bharath fits the part of a hardened cop with a past and has the right composure and body language expected of a protagonist in a tight investigative thriller. Medha Reddy is decent in a role with limited scope. The show is particularly noteworthy for Roopa Lakshmi, who gets to do something substantial beyond her goody/emotional mother roles. Sivaji Raja does what’s expected of him, with no surprises there.

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Sat, September 12 2026

The Revolutionaries is a vivid document of the lesser-known armed resistance of India’s independence movement. Set in the early 20th century, it tells the stories of young, fearless freedom fighters, including Rash Behari Bose, Sachindranath Sanyal, and Bagha Jatin, as they risk everything to challenge the might of the British Empire. The series brings together several exciting talents that have made use of OTT as a talent showcase, including Bhuvan Bam, Rohit Saraf, Pratibha Ranta and Gurfateh Pirzada. Yet, they seem overwhelmed by the prospect of carrying the density of the theme. Bhuvan, Rohit and Pratibha get to shine in flashes, though nothing consistent enough to make it a poignant performance. Jason Shah, as General Dyer, is hardly intimidating.

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Fri, September 11 2026

Fri, September 11 2026

Nikkhil Advani earlier floored us with ‘Freedom At Midnight’, which recounted the years that led to India’s freedom struggle

“Hum se pehle bhi kranti, hamare baad bhi kranti…” Yet many of us are not fully clued into the tale of armed resistance and revolutionaries who fought for the freedom of our country, not always successfully, but never in vain. Creator-writer Nikkhil Advani, who floored us with ‘Freedom At Midnight’, recounting the years that led to India’s freedom struggle in many sterling ways, is back again. This time, he digs further back into history — early 20th century. The heroes of his earlier series — Gandhi, Nehru, Patel — are household names. But Rash Behari Bose, Jatindranath Mukherjee aka Bagha Jatin and Sachindranath Sanyal urf Sachin are at best names which ring a bell, but only a few among us fully know or understand their tales of valour.

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Sat, September 12 2026

In competition at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Oscar-nominated documentarian’s short returns to the bylanes of old Delhi.

Termite, a 30-minute short, is documentary maker Shaunak Sen’s first fiction film. But it’s hard to tell the difference. He treats life as the introverted ally of storytelling; his nonfiction often designs the truth of an invisibilised India. It finds a controlled language to present what already exists. While Cities of Sleep traced the gloomy lyricism of Delhi’s insurgent sleeper communities, the Oscar-nominated All That Breathes shadowed two Muslim brothers who run a bird clinic in old Delhi. The camera — steady, studied, often static — reframes the people as characters, spaces as settings, and ecological relationships as cultural metaphors. Termite looks like it’s ‘following’ two men in the capital, too. A Tamil migrant, Ajith (Valavane Koumarane), shares a rooftop room with his Muslim friend, Saud (Faisal Malik); they spend tired evenings drinking tea and passively watching television.

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