Fri, March 13 2026

The attempt at subversive social-political inquiry into mentorship and manipulation is diminished by overwriting and tiresome visual and creative contrivances

A rare filmmaker who understands the pulse of heartland politics, Prakash Jha returns this week to his Raajneeti universe along the Ganga with a flawed yet engaging take on benevolence. The series Sankalp stands out for its intellectual ambitions and strong performances. It succeeds as a reflective political drama rooted in moral ambiguity, but its bloated narrative structure and lack of visual innovation prevent it from becoming addictive. In an era of flashy spectacles, Jha sticks to a traditional, issue-driven style, prioritising realism and complexity, though some methods of portraying power corridors and the dynamics between kingmakers and rebellious disciples now feel clichéd in the series format.

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Fri, March 13 2026

The 10-episode political drama stars Nana Patekar as a Patna-based kingmaker on a collision course with one of his former devotees

Some shows are so long and expansive that they become like senior family members — you don’t know if you like or dislike them because you’re inherently attached to them. Especially if nearly 500 minutes are consumed in one day, for professional reasons. Sankalp is (finally) over, but I have to be honest: I find myself missing how talkative and busy and overbearing and old-fashioned it was. I’m not sure what to do with my time anymore. There’s a certain sort of antiquity to a Prakash Jha directorial in this age: a narrative that’s about politics without being political, a potboiler about grassroots power and wise teachers and manipulative king-makers and faithful students, a traditional assortment of characters with shifting allegiances, mythology-fuelled dialogue, a chessboard that’s supposed to convey mind-games and twisty moves and metaphorical pawns. Even when I wasn’t paying attention to one of its 15 subplots, I grew to respect the scale. It’s not peak storytelling, but it’s the kind of committed mid-tier entertainment that reclaims the genre from the algorithmic clutches of modern streaming. In short, Sankalp is watchable because it doesn’t pretend to pander.

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Fri, March 13 2026

Cultural appropriation seldom feels as inappropriate as it does in this Priyanka Mohan-starrer

Made In Korea is quite the clever title for the film it turned out to be. The most obvious reading is that the film was made in Korea, but it indicates the coming-of-age story of a lady named Shenba (Priyanka Mohan), giving us the sense that the real Shenba was made in Korea after she migrates there. And then there is the pun. After Shenba makes her way to Seoul, she finds work in a mansion as a ‘maid’, looking after the old lady who lives there. But there ends anything one can remotely term clever about this film.

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Thu, March 12 2026

Writer-director Ra. Karthik’s South Korean adventure starring Priyanka Mohan has a promising start but fizzles out towards the finale.

The Tamil film Made in Korea reveals that there is a tangible connection between Tamil Nadu and South Korea. In 48 AD, Princess Sembavalam, aka Queen Heo Hwang-ok, from Tamil Nadu, went to start her new life in South Korea after marrying King Suro of the Gaya Kingdom. The protagonist of the South film, Shenba, becomes fascinated with the country after dressing up as the young queen at school one day. The feature, written and directed by Ra. Karthik follows a different kind of adventure as Shenba struggles to survive in the land of her dreams. Priyanka Mohan plays the young woman in the mediocre coming-of-age story.

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Thu, March 12 2026

The Priyanka Mohan-starrer on Netflix is a little like aegyo: cutesy enough about the "what", but never quite getting to the heart of the "why" and "how"

HALLYU is all encompassing — so universal that there isn’t a generation for which it is alien, and not many cultural exports can boast of that. Across millennials, Gen Z, and every Greek alphabet in between, the Korean Wave cuts across age groups and class with equal ease, taking the form of films, K-Dramas, and K-Pop — be it BTS to Blackpink and beyond. It is therefore not surprising that the Korean influence itself becomes a key element in storytelling, for it is such a big part of the lives of anyone who has consumed the internet and media in the last decade. It also lends naturally to Tamil, which shares curious similarities with Korean — enough to have sparked both linguistic scholarship and colourful folklore about their shared origins.

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Fri, March 13 2026

The third season of the popular TVF series pits its robotic protagonist against a more complex and real-world aspirant

One must embrace certain rules to engage with a TVF setting. (Read this in the Fight Club voice). First, you only have the right to criticise the country if you are willing to serve it: an extension of the “don’t criticise movies until you’ve made one yourself” or “you can’t commentate on cricket without playing it” line of argument. It’s a bit more hostile than “be the change you want to see”. Second, Civil Services is the be-all-and-end-all of all careers; there is no greater honour than clearing the UPSC exams and working for the government. Third, India is a perfectly functioning democracy in which inquiries on officers happen without any ulterior motives and political prejudice; corruption is an exception, not the norm. Fourth, every department cares solely for the development of the nation; pro-establishment vibes are good vibes. Fifth, women exist in service of their male counterparts; they’re partners or lovers. And last, caste and religion don’t exist at the grassroots level; only class and opportunities do. Within these rules, and within the truth that nearly every TVF show can be called Aspirants, this series is more adept at exploring the aspirational genre called Walking the Talk.

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Fri, March 13 2026

Tighee is the kind of film, revolving around complex, relatable human emotions, that we need more of: the end-note is perhaps most conflicting, leaving us to question our feelings.

Tighee movie review: Marathi chamber drama Tighee (Three Of Us, or Us Three) features veteran Bharati Achrekar, familiar to Hindi film audiences through her impactful supporting roles, helming a story about simmering familial tensions, traumatic pasts, and the promise of a better future. She plays the terminally ill Hemlata — mother to two fractious daughters, Swati (Neha Pendse) and Sarika (Sonalee Kulkarni) — back home one last time.

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Tue, March 10 2026

Dramas about dysfunctional families or families with grudges have been a regular feature in various languages in Indian cinema. Tighee is also a family drama that tackles issues between three family members. However, it stands apart as it’s a modern saga that takes a contemporary route. While the yesteryear family dramas mostly revolved around conflicts between sons, this one features two daughters. Even the issues between them are new age as they are independent in their own journeys. Apart from the characters and the storyline, what makes Tighee a product of 2026 is its making. Debutant director Jeejivisha Kale has presented the drama in a new-age manner. Even the high points in the narrative are devoid of any melodrama. She has displayed maturity in her first feature film itself. She is ably supported by the nuanced and mature writing.

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Thu, March 12 2026

Lakshmipriya Devi’s BAFTA-winning film is a reminder that in landscapes defined by waiting, hope itself becomes a political act.

More than once while watching Lakshmipriya Devi’s Boong, I was reminded of Aijaz Khan’s Hamid (2018) – another Indian film that used the ruse of a “children’s film” to examine a region riddled with conflict. In Khan’s film, a serendipitous phone call between a seven-year-old local (Talha Arshad Reshi) searching for his‘disappeared’ father and a CRPF jawan (Vikas Kumar) became an unintentional humanitarian bridge in the midst of Kashmir’s paranoia. In Devi’s film, the unrest in Manipur remains an undercurrent, filling even the ‘cute’ scenes with an unease.

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Sun, March 8 2026

Lakshmipriya Devi’s debut film follows a mischievous boy’s search for his father across Manipur’s borderlands. Told through a child’s gaze, Boong is a political portrait of a region where identity and belonging are in flux

At a moment when Indian theatres are increasingly crowded with spectacle — pan-Indian actioners, franchise filmmaking and historical epics — Boong arrives as something radical: a children’s film that trusts the intelligence and emotional acuity of its young protagonist. That it is returning to theatres after becoming the first Indian film to win the BAFTA award for Best Children’s & Family Film (defeating Disney’s Zootopia) is both a milestone and a small indictment. A milestone because a Manipuri-language film has found global recognition; an indictment because the film needed that recognition to be rediscovered by Indian audiences.

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Sat, March 7 2026

The film is not to be missed for it articulates truths that matter.

Marked by a keen eye for detail, a gentle rhythm and controlled buoyancy, Boong, Manipuri writer-director Lakshmipriya Devi’s remarkably accomplished debut feature, probes a climate of discord and disquiet in the garb of a story of a boy, his mother and her absent husband. The deceptively simple but marvellously evocative and wonderfully well-crafted film views life in a strife-torn region through the prism of a fractured family that hopes against hope of becoming whole again. Boong, produced by Excel Entertainment, is a tale of love, loss, longing, and a tenacious spirit rooted in a child’s innocence and innate ebullience in the face of adversity. The film just won a BAFTA Award in the “children’s and family film” category. But it breaks the confines of the genre with intent.

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Thu, March 12 2026

The film, a political thriller that wastes no breath, is lean, razor sharp and laser focused.

Set in the Sunderbans and shot entirely in natural light, or in its absence, Adamya is about a young rebel who will neither be tamed nor be reined in. Akin to a matchstick that aspires to burn like the sun, he is up against the firepower. It may be a losing battle, but he will fight the good fight no matter what.Depending on what one’s political stance is, the ‘unbreakable’ protagonist, Palash, a twenty-something boy on the run after a failed attempt to assassinate a minister, is a dangerous malcontent who must be weeded out at all cost or an inspired renegade worthy of our attention and support. Adamya, which is now in its fourth week in cinema halls in Kolkata, is a hyper-indie film shot by a skeletal crew. It made it to the multiplexes against all odds. That it is holding firm a month on is no mean feat.

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Wed, March 11 2026

The adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s ambitious, popular manga returns as the Straw Hats sail down the Grand Line.

After a two-and-a-half year wait, the next chapter of the live-action One Piece is ready to set sail on the Going Merry. Based on the beloved manga by Eiichiro Oda, Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) returns to lead his Straw Hats crew on the quest to find the One Piece treasure hidden on the Grand Line by pirate Gold Roger. Navigator Nami (Emily Rudd), first mate Zoro (Mackenyu), marksman Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson), and chef Sanji (Taz Skylar) join him as they face all sorts of adversaries and friends. Netflix’s One Piece Season 2 is that rare show that has gotten better in its return.

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Wed, March 11 2026

Director Sivakumar Murugesan creates a world led by a woman with gumption and makes it work

In Tamil Nadu, there’s something called the kadamba maalai (mixed garland). It might look like a splotch of colours, but there’s synchrony in terms of colour and math involved in the frequency of a flower being used. Watching Thaai Kezhavi, that’s what I thought of the writing. Writer-director Sivakumar Murugesan handles multiple strands, but knows what to do with each, many minutes after the first reference. The floral reference? Watch the movie, and you’ll know why. Everyone has been raving about Radhika Sarathkumar’s performance and rightly so. The rest of the team hits it out of the park too, conveying a mix of yearning, small-mindedness, jealousy, mindless anger, and the like. But the root for all of that is the layered writing that has something for everyone, and which transports you to rural Tamil Nadu, where life moves at a different pace and where even a house where someone has died or is going to, can become a venue for entertainment.

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Sun, March 1 2026

Sat, February 28 2026

Sivakumar Murugesan's directorial debut is as warm and wry as the village it inhabits, and it earns every laugh it gets

From Disney’s Snow White to our own Vidaathu Karuppu, the evil grandma stereotype shines, making an old woman the face of terror and crudeness. Indian TV and its serials have furthered this trope of this evil old matriarch harassing the hapless daughter-in-law. On the other hand, there’s another popular archetype of a benevolent old woman, who “melts like a candle” to produce light for those around them. Manormama has been the quintessential choice of Tamil filmmakers for this cardboard cutout. The scene from Shankar’s Gentleman, of her telling her son (Arjun Sarja), “Naan irukaen pa” (“I’m there for you”). She is the all-giving mother, and men are supposed to find her godly love and care in their potential mates.

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Sun, March 8 2026

Director Suresh Triveni’s Subedaar walks down a fairly beaten path, but to its credit, it does so with considerable style. The story leans on a familiar cinematic catharsis: an apparently ordinary man—quiet, restrained, and carrying emotional baggage—ultimately takes on a group of villains and single-handedly brings them to justice. It’s a trope audiences have seen many times, yet the film manages to make it engaging

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Sat, March 7 2026

Sat, March 7 2026

Does Indian cinema really suffer from a shortage of ageing men in action roles? With the nation’s average male superstar age steadily inching towards 60, the familiar “chacha-buddha” slander hardly makes sense today. But when director Suresh Triveni steps in with Anil Kapoor as the tough action hero, in a setup that offers no ‘Dabidi Dabidi’ to dance to, the proposition becomes instantly intriguing. That curiosity fuels Subedaar, a film that attempts to place Kapoor’s enduring screen energy within a rugged, massy canvas. Triveni has previously delivered two compelling films – the sparkly Tumhari Sulu and the humane, unsettling Jalsa. Both were anchored by women and explored their emotional landscapes very well. Which raises an intriguing question: can the filmmaker channel the same insight into a testosterone-charged universe unfolding in the lawless heartland?

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Sat, March 7 2026

The thriller turns a cottage, a couple and a third wheel into a pressure cooker of pride, shame and buried truths.

There is an evolutionary completeness in Vijay Ranganathan’s debut feature Oh Butterfly. We see larvae, chrysalis and the whole butterfly lifecycle. We also see other insects and ants and as if to attract them, and us, there are breadcrumbs. They take the form of a book, a golf ball, a club, a glass and other objects. Ranganathan lays them out in the beginning like multiple Chekhov’s guns, objects that will eventually come into play. Not all of them wait till the third act to fulfil their destiny, some aid in dialing up the stakes midway amidst casual as well as torrid conversation, and some in fatalistic action. There is considerable therapising and some psychobabble, not all of it interesting but the drama remains compelling, not necessarily due to the writing (by Ranganathan and Harish Rajagopal) but mostly down to the direction.

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Fri, March 6 2026

Nivedhithaa Sathish holds it all in place as the guilt-ridden protagonist, struggling to deal with multiple heartbreaks.

There are a hundred metaphors to choose from in Oh Butterfly; even the “butterfly” in the film’s title is open to multiple interpretations. For one, you may think of Gowri (Nivedhithaa Sathish) as the titular butterfly as she struggles through the fag end of her metamorphosis. Her cocoon is a trap laid out by her mind because she believes she was responsible for her husband’s death. She lives in perennial guilt, fuelled by intrusive thoughts when we meet her for the first time. Right from a tennis ball to a kitchen knife, everyday household objects have the power to trigger something catastrophic in her. As the movie progresses, what we could be seeing in Gowri slowly emerges from this trap as she finally finds a way to fly away, primarily from her old self.

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Sat, March 7 2026

‘शिक्षा हर बच्चे का हक है। उसकी आर्थिक स्थिति उसके पढ़ने, कुछ बनने के सपने के आड़े नहीं आनी चाहिए।’ इस नेक सोच से एजुकेशन टेक्नॉलजी की दुनिया में क्रांति लाने वाले बच्चों के चहेते टीचर अलख पांडे और उनके सपने, संघर्ष और सफलता की कहानी है वेब सीरीज ‘हैलो बच्चों’। वैसे, अलख पांडे और उनके ऑनलाइन कोचिंग संस्थान के सफरनामे पर पहले भी एक सीरीज ‘फिजिक्स वाला’ बन चुकी है, लेकिन ‘हैलो बच्चों’ अलख पांडे के साथ-साथ उन बच्चों की कहानी भी दिखाती है, जिसकी जिंदगी इस एक टीचर ने बदल दी। कहानी फिजिक्स वाला की नींव रखने वाले अलख पांडे (विनीत कुमार सिंह) और उनके साथ प्रतीक माहेश्वरी (विक्रम कोचर) के संस्थान के विस्तार के लिए फंड जुटाने की जद्दोजहद से शुरू होती है। कम की तंगी के चलते इंस्टिट्यूट अपना नेटवर्क सिस्टम अपग्रेड न कर पाने से लेकर अच्छे टीचर्स को गंवाने की चुनौतियों से जूझ रहा होता है। इन्वेस्टर फंड देने को राजी भी हो जाते हैं, मगर ज्यादा मुनाफे के लिए कोर्स की फीस बढ़ाने की मांग करते हैं, जिस पर अलख कतई राजी नहीं होता, क्योंकि उसका तो उद्देश्य ही हर बच्चे को सस्ती शिक्षा उपलब्ध कराना है।

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Sat, March 7 2026

Alakh Pandey struggles to keep his small coaching centre alive while massive corporations try to buy him out. He faces constant betrayals, teacher resignations, and mounting debts. Meanwhile, his students battle poverty and academic failure, fighting a system stacked against them. Refusing to sell his soul, Alakh takes his mission online, sparking a high-stakes revolution to make education a right for the masses. There is no discrediting the value that Viineet Kumar Singh, Vikram Kochhar, and Girija Oak Godbole bring as performers, but this is definitely not a show that gives much value to their mettle. It simply takes their presence for granted, offering them toothless characters. Viineet’s awkwardness in his performance is quite palpable; he struggles to bring Alakh Pandey alive due to the flat writing. The supporting cast is formidable, though their stories lack any impact.

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Fri, March 6 2026

Vineet Kumar Singh is rightly the star of the show, even as his character keeps protesting against his face being the prime draw on posters, etc.

To be honest, I went into this show because of Vineet Kumar Singh, In and As Alakh Pandey, who is world-famous as Physics Wallah, the teacher whose one-point agenda was to teach, baaki sab baad mein. Directed by Pratish Mehta, and written by Abhishek Yadav, Vernaali, Sandeep Singh Rawat, Hello Bachchon puts its love for Physics front and centre. In these times, when the importance of scientific temperament itself is under such pressure, to have a series outline its beliefs so clearly is heartening.

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Sat, March 7 2026

Despite the contrivances in the storytelling, Saurabh Shukla’s tender dramedy shines through Pankaj Kapur’s sensitive interpretation of emotional decay and trust deficit

Cracks in conjugality constitute a common conflict device in Hindi cinema. Usually, the male commits the bhool and expects forgiveness. Most fissures appear early, but what if a grandmother reveals a long-buried truth? Can the man accept it as easily as he expects forgiveness? Seasoned actor and theatre practitioner Saurabh Shukla gives new meaning to a prescribed book, making us both chuckle and reflect.

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Sat, March 7 2026

Sat, March 7 2026

Gopal and Anasuya, a couple married for 50 years, suddenly announce they are getting a divorce. The news creates an immediate crisis for their grown children and extended family. As the legal process begins, Gopal’s stubbornness clashes with Anasuya’s need for independence. The home becomes a battlefield of old secrets and modern grievances, forcing everyone to question their equation.

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