Jab Khuli Kitaab
Comedy, Drama, Family (Hindi)
When Anusuya confesses to her husband, Gopal, that she cheated on him with another man a few months into their five decade-long marriage, all hell breaks loose. Angry and hurt, Gopal decides to seek divorce while he struggles to keep (more…)
Hello Bachhon
Drama (Hindi)
A physics teacher sets out to make quality education accessible to all students through online learning. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Oh Butterfly
Thriller, Drama (Tamil)
A woman brings her partner to an isolated hill house for a retreat. She plans to reveal a life-changing secret, but strange events begin to occur. This mystery thriller uses butterfly imagery to explore hidden truths.
Cast:
Nivedhithaa Sathish, Ciby Bhuvana Chandran, Attul, Nassar, Lakshmi Priyaa, Geetha Kailasam
Director:
Vijay Ranganathan
Writer:
Vijay Ranganathan
Sat, March 7 2026
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.
Fri, March 6 2026
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.
Hello Bachhon
Drama (Hindi)
A physics teacher sets out to make quality education accessible to all students through online learning.
Cast:
Vineet Kumar Singh, Vikram Kochhar, Girija Oak
Director:
Pratish Mehta
Writer:
Abhishek Yadav, Ankit Yadav
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।
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.
Fri, March 6 2026
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.
Boong
Drama (Manipuri)
In the valley of Manipur, Boong (*a little boy) plans to surprise his mother with a gift. In his innocence, he believes that bringing his father back home would be the most special gift. His search for his father culminates into an unexpected gift – a new beginning….
Cast:
Gugun Kipgen, Bala Hijam, Angom Sanamatum, Vikram Kochhar, Hamom Sadananda, Jenny Khurai, Nemetia Ngangbam
Director:
Lakshmipriya Devi
Writer:
Lakshmipriya Devi
Sat, March 7 2026
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.
Thu, September 25 2025
In a country that is so diverse that there is a new language, a new cuisine, a new landscape, a new cultural ethos, and even a new set of rules and regulations every 100-200 kilometres, perspective is everything. That is why it feels futile to try to make sense of the things that are ‘different.’ Why not just embrace the vibrance of diversity without trying to burden it with the monotony of uniformity? When Lakshmipriya Devi’s Boong presents us with her view of Manipur, it doesn’t ask us to analyse the differences, but to appreciate the similarities. And the best way to do it is to tell a film through the eyes of a boy, who might be corrupted by the world around him, but he has the excuse of saying, “But I didn’t know better.”
Wed, September 24 2025
Boong tells the story of little Brojendro “Boong” Singh (Gugun Kipgen), a naughty Manipuri kid from Imphal who sets out to search for his absent father in the bordertown of Moreh. It’s been years since his dad left home, phone calls have stopped being returned, but young Boong wants to surprise his single mother Mandakini (Bala Hijam) with the ‘gift’ of the man’s return. He leaves him voice messages to no avail. Their village mysteriously receives news of the man’s death, but Mandakini refuses to believe it. Boong notices her distress, so his journey with best friend Raju (Angom Sanamatum) into the unknown — into neighbouring Myanmar, even — is framed as a bittersweet Home Alone-coded adventure. The two boys reach their destination by hiding in a wreath next to the corpse of a friend’s grandfather in a hearse.
Jab Khuli Kitaab
Comedy, Drama, Family (Hindi)
When Anusuya confesses to her husband, Gopal, that she cheated on him with another man a few months into their five decade-long marriage, all hell breaks loose. Angry and hurt, Gopal decides to seek divorce while he struggles to keep the rest of the family oblivious to his and Anusuya’s blistering secret. What follows is an impassioned, often hilarious deep-dive into the lives of Gopal and Anusuya while they manoeuvre the rocky roads of their relationship, rediscovering the meaning of love and togetherness.
Cast:
Pankaj Kapur, Dimple Kapadia, Aparshakti Khurana, Manasi Parekh, Samir Soni, Nauheed Cyrusi, Sunil Palwal, Devyani Ratanpal, Abuli Mamaji, Kyra Kumar
Director:
Saurabh Shukla
Writer:
Saurabh Shukla
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.
Fri, March 6 2026
It’s comforting to watch something like Jab Khuli Khitaab. It’s a bit like going to a small circus in the age of curated theme parks. It’s clumsy at times, you can see the strings, some of the treatment is dated, but there’s an old-fashioned goodness seeping through its veins. Based on his play of the same name, Saurabh Shukla’s film opens with a 70-something man, Gopal Nautiyal (Pankaj Kapur), going about his morning routine with his wife Anusuya (Dimple Kapadia). He catches her up on the news, helps her get dressed, jokes around, and discusses their adult children who are now visiting them at their family home in the mountains. They’ve been together for ages. Except this is a one-way conversation: Anusuya has been in a coma for two years. He misses her; all she can do is listen. The story kicks into gear when Anusuya suddenly wakes up from her coma, and her husband’s unconditional care guilts her into confessing to an affair 50 years ago. The rest revolves around a mopey Gopal wanting a divorce, Anusuya resisting, even as they try to keep their ‘spat’ a secret in the busy household.
Subedaar
Action, Crime, Drama (Hindi)
Haunted by loss and drifting away from his daughter, a retired Subedaar Arjun Maurya’s newly found civilian life is jolted by one reckless act. As old wounds reopen, he must summon the warrior within to face a new kind of war - one that hits too close to his heart.
Cast:
Anil Kapoor, Radhikka Madan, Aditya Rawal, Saurabh Shukla, Mona Singh, Faisal Malik, Khushboo, Nana Patekar
Director:
Suresh Triveni
Writer:
Suresh Triveni, Prajwal Chandrashekar
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?
Fri, March 6 2026
The rank of Subedaar evokes humble authority in the Hindi heartland. As the army’s backbone, these quiet mainstays, often drawn from the subaltern classes, are more respected than idolised. Anil Kapoor’s status in Hindi cinema is similarly earned. The analogy finds shape in director Suresh Triveni’s emotionally charged action drama, with the repurposed folksy number “Balam Subedaar” underlining the title’s regional draw, where a culture of entitlement is pervasive.
Mrithyunjay
Thriller, Crime, Action (Telugu)
Cast:
Sree Vishnu, Reba Monica John, Nellore Sudharshan, Racha Ravi, Ayyappa P. Sharma, Sijju Menon, Nanda Gopal, Baladitya, Krishna Koushik, Mrinchi Madhavi
Director:
Hussain Sha Kiran
Writer:
Hussain Sha Kiran
Sat, March 7 2026
Some films try to punch above their weight while others play to the strengths of their core team and work within set limits. Mrithyunjay, the Telugu film written and directed by Hussain Sha Kiran and led by Sree Vishnu, falls into the latter category. Designed as an investigative thriller, it builds intrigue in parts. A few smart stretches, however, are undercut by convenient writing choices that keep the film from becoming fully engaging. On the positive side, Mrithyunjay stays focused on its core story and characters across its 122-minute runtime. It avoids needless frills. The comedy is situational and blends smoothly into the narrative, and the film resists forcing in a romantic track. Sree Vishnu plays Jay, an aspiring crime reporter, while Reba Monica John appears as Sita, a police officer. Their paths cross solely during the investigation. The story keeps her personal life out of the frame, while Jay’s past trauma is revealed only enough to lend the narrative emotional weight.
Fri, March 6 2026
Investigative thrillers have been done to death in cinema. They hit screens every week, follow familiar beats, and more often than not, blur into each other. The rare ones that stand apart share one quality — they never take the audience for granted. They treat viewers as intelligent, engaged participants in the puzzle rather than passive observers waiting to be told the answer. The question Mrithyunjay raises from the outset is a simple one: does it earn its place among those films?
S Saraswathi
Crime, Drama (Telugu)
A devoted mother whose life is shattered when her 12-year-old daughter goes missing. Desperate for answers, she turns to the police for help, but as the investigation unfolds, unexpected twists begin to deepen the mystery.
Cast:
Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Prakash Raj, Priyamani, Kishore, Rao Ramesh, Murali Sharma, Radikaa Sarathkumar, Nassar, Tulasi, Saptagiri
Director:
Varalaxmi Sarathkumar
Writer:
Varalaxmi Sarathkumar
Fri, March 6 2026
It is not often that women-led mainstream films find their way into theatres in Telugu cinema. When they do, they are mostly directed by men and turn out to be cautionary statements about social ills women confront on a daily basis. Though this is understandable given the crime rate against women and children, it also indicates how such films become a limiting portrait of the lives of women and seldom tap into the essence of their lives beyond victimhood. S Saraswathi, which marks actress Varalaxmi Sarathkumar’s directorial debut and is produced by her sister Pooja Sarathkumar, falls prey to this very trope where a woman’s story is largely equated with her suffering. Charting the journey of Lakshmi (Varalaxmi), who works as a nurse in a metropolis, the film is a thriller drama with a non-linear screenplay and the story nearly makes a case for revenge as a necessity.
The Bride
Science Fiction, Horror, Comedy (English)
A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride is born. But what ensues is beyond what either of them imagined.
Cast:
Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Jake Gyllenhaal, Annette Bening, Peter Sarsgaard, Penélope Cruz, Jeannie Berlin, John Magaro, Julianne Hough, Louis Cancelmi
Director:
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Writer:
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Fri, March 6 2026
It’s the season of gothic romance and yet another Frankenstein’s Monster adaptation, but this one occupies a space closer to Joker: Folie à Deux. Like Joker and Harley Quinn, it centres on two damaged beings who find solace in each other as they take on the world with vengeance. While this film echoes the tempo of Joker, themes of deep-seated trauma, male loneliness, and the muzzling of the female voice within a patriarchal society lie at the heart of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s bold and provocative universe. Feminist, punk, gothic, and violent yet deeply empathetic, the Bride mirrors the Joker’s anarchic spirit but carries a sharper, more self-aware edge. While the Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga film leaned into shared madness through its operatic psychology, the Bride surpasses it in imaginative scope and theatrical boldness, embracing a more expansive, Broadway-infused narrative style.
Rooster
Comedy, Drama (English)
On a college campus, an author navigates a complicated relationship with his daughter.
Cast:
Steve Carell, Phil Dunster, Charly Clive, Danielle Deadwyler, John C. McGinley, Lauren Tsai
Fri, March 6 2026
After leaving The Office, Steve Carell has branched out as an actor with diverse projects such as Foxcatcher, The Morning Show, The Patient, and Four Seasons. His latest comedy series, Rooster, co-created by Shrinking and Ted Lasso’s Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, features the faculty and students of Ludlow College behaving very badly indeed, much to the amusement of audiences. The cringeworthy comedy will remind fans of Michael Scott, though this current character is more endearing. The original HBO series centers around an author, Greg Russo (Carell), who comes back into his daughter Katie’s life during a difficult period.
Young Sherlock
Action & Adventure, Mystery (English)
Sherlock Holmes is a disgraced young man, raw and unfiltered, when he finds himself wrapped up in a murder case that threatens his liberty. His first ever case unravels a globe-trotting conspiracy that changes his life forever.
Cast:
Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Dónal Finn, Zine Tseng, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Max Irons, Colin Firth
Fri, March 6 2026
After The Gentlemen and MobLand, Guy Ritchie turns his attention to Sherlock Holmes. The filmmaker has already directed two features on the Arthur Conan Doyle character with Robert Downey Jr as the Baker Street detective. Ritchie returns to Victorian England as the Amazon Prime Video series Young Sherlock looks at the origin story of Sherlock, with Hero Fiennes Tiffin playing the 19-year-old investigator. The web series is a mixture of Andrew Lane’s Young Sherlock Holmes book series and the original Doyle detective. The result is an engaging, twisty mystery series about the young Sherlock that goes around the world to reveal how he got his start. The mostly British cast has a roaring good time, peeling back the layers of the murder at Oxford University, and viewers will have plenty of sleuthing to uncover as the series unveils some major shockers.
Hamnet
Drama, Romance, History (English)
The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
Cast:
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe, Olivia Lynes, Justine Mitchell, David Wilmot, Louisa Harland
Director:
Chloé Zhao
Fri, March 6 2026
Most of us prefer to view great art as an act of magic: unexplainable, beyond the realms of reason, otherworldly, divine. We often speak of a landscape-altering movie or book like it’s conjured from nothing but fateful creativity and limitless vision. We perceive their creators as those who create; as those blessed with a little extra, almost as if they see worlds that we cannot. It’s not dissimilar from how we think of top athletes as supernatural beings. Terms like “gifted” and “immortal” are freely employed to describe record-breaking feats. Reframing talent as a cosmic value is the most traditional way of preserving the sanctity of ordinariness. We see them as extraordinary because it not only gives us something higher to trust in, it also absolves us from the complexities of being human. It’s easier to believe that they’re built superior so that we can reckon with our own regularity.
Tue, March 3 2026
I first heard it about 15 minutes into the film, when Agnes tells the village tutor whom she likes, and who’s crazy for her, that she can read landscapes on his hand. “You saw a landscape?” he asks with a smile. “Mm hmm,” she replies. Later on, the tutor tells Agnes, whom he’s now married and has three children with, that he’s acquiring a house in Stratford for them. To this also she says, “Mm hmm.” Hamnet wants Shakespeare as a hook to hang its tragic story on. It wants a few details of his life. It wants a smattering of the plays. But it wants nothing to do with the language. I don’t know if they said ‘mm hmm’ in 16th century England; for all I know they said ‘uh oh’ and ‘uh uh’. But it feels inadequate. It’s a strange impulse, to want to make a film about someone who changed the way people speak, yet have barely any of that speech coursing through it.
Sat, February 28 2026
Accused
Thriller, Mystery, Drama (Hindi)
When a celebrated queer doctor in London is accused of sexual misconduct, her life unravels. Now under a storm of suspicion and scrutiny, her marriage fractures and the truth blurs. Her wife must decide whether to walk away, or fight for the woman the world is turning against.
Cast:
Konkona Sen Sharma, Pratibha Ranta, Aditya Nanda, Sukant Goel, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Anuj Sachdeva, Mashhoor Amrohi, Monica Mahendru, Kallirroi Tziafeta
Director:
Anubhuti Kashyap
Writer:
Sima Agarwal, Yash Keshwani
Thu, March 5 2026
Accused, the tone-deaf “feminist” film on Netflix, is the equivalent of Neha Dhupia going “It’s her choice” on Roadies. We discuss the film’s utterly misguided defence of a serial harasser, groomer, and all-around toxic human being, and its baffling attempts to pass her off as “ambitious”. We also question the film’s understanding of sexual harassment as a concept, and disapprove of anybody trying to make a movie about false allegations in a post-#MeToo world. Additionally, we poke holes in the film’s central mystery, the decision to have not one but two eccentric detectives, and an irrational villain reveal that disregards the laws of the genre.
Mon, March 2 2026
Accused, the tone-deaf “feminist” film on Netflix, is the equivalent of Neha Dhupia going “It’s her choice” on Roadies. We discuss the film’s utterly misguided defence of a serial harasser, groomer, and all-around toxic human being, and its baffling attempts to pass her off as “ambitious”. We also question the film’s understanding of sexual harassment as a concept, and disapprove of anybody trying to make a movie about false allegations in a post-#MeToo world. Additionally, we poke holes in the film’s central mystery, the decision to have not one but two eccentric detectives, and an irrational villain reveal that disregards the laws of the genre.
Sun, March 1 2026
Days before Anubhuti Kashyap’s Accused dropped on Netflix, the director admitted that the film was made keeping in mind the audience and algorithm. Her words were a radical confession, one that freely used the “A” word and distilled an aesthetic that is increasingly becoming a norm in the streaming landscape. Algorithm filmmaking, bent on holding the audience’s attention hostage, has diverse symptoms, ranging from using stark colours, recurring expositions and, as Kashayap shared, the dire need to sustain tension (“I kept taking very specific notes and showing the film at different stages to different people — asking, were you feeling relaxed here? Were you getting out of the film at this point?” she told The Hollywood Reporter). Such interventions can result in assembly-line products, and Accused is the recent casualty.