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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Fri, February 27 2026

It might seem like a poignant tale of parents and children, but it is also a film that makes you unabashedly laugh out loud

Money. In a world that is all about division, money holds the ultimate power to make you breach such hierarchies. Of course, it also results in the decimation of a few age-old structures, but that’s par for the course in a world that doesn’t wait for people to catch up. But is money really the ultimate thing? Does the presence or lack of it really determine your worth in the world? As a character in the debutant filmmaker Sivakumar Murugesan’s film says, “Has any parent refused to take care of their child because they didn’t have the financial resources?” One might think it is a poignant tale of parents and children, and how the world treats the geriatric. In a way, Thaai Kizhavi is definitely that kind of a film, but it is also a film that makes you unabashedly laugh out loud with a consistency that has been missing in Tamil cinema for quite a while.

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Fri, February 27 2026

Director Sivakumar Murugesan's film, starring Radikaa Sarathkumar, Singampuli, Aruldoss and Bala Saravanan, is a hilarious drama about women's agency and breaking generational chains without ever getting preachy or melodramatic.

Imagine a foul-mouthed matriarch who terrorises everyone with her mere presence, yet delivers the most valuable lesson on independence, agency and womanhood. If you operate on social media’s version of morality, your mind will immediately question this dichotomy. But Sivakumar Murugesan’s Thaai Kizhavi grounds you, drags you back to real life and makes you laugh while quietly asking the most important question of all — what does it mean to truly live, rather than merely exist in someone else’s shadow?

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Sat, February 28 2026

Accused, directed by Anubhuti Kashyap, is a smart thriller with queer love-story at its core. The film only scratches the surface of a complex issue like #MeToo. However, it boasts of credible performances by Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Rannta.

At the onset, filmmaker Anubhuti Kashyap’s latest film Accused, featuring Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Rannta as a queer couple in London, feels like a smart thriller that attempts to tell a strikingly new story. Sexual harassment at work and power dynamics in a marriage where both partners are ambitious are tropes well known. Urban romances mostly revolve around two individuals attempting to strike a balance between romance and the regular humdrum of life. However, Kashyap’s film Accused takes the familiar trope but gives it a unique twist. It has a queer couple in focus, with one of them dealing with charges of sexually harassing colleagues at her workplace. Strikingly new plot for Bollywood for sure.

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Fri, February 27 2026

Compelling performances by Konkona Sensharma and Pratibha Ranta elevate the thriller, directed by Anubhuti Kashyap, to a thought-provoking commentary on power, perception, and the personal cost of suspicion.

These days, the Kashyaps seem keenly interested in stories that probe the steep personal toll exacted by success, ambition, and power. Even as Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar gets a date in theatres, sister Anubhuti Kashyap observes the post-#MeToo landscape through a perceptive lens in this Netflix original. A cross between psychological drama and a taut thriller, Accused stars Konkona Sensharma as Dr. Geetika Sen, a celebrated queer surgeon, and Pratibha Ranta as her partner, Dr. Meera, who has travelled from a conservative Meerut to the accepting lap of London.

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Fri, February 27 2026

The intent is to normalise gay relationships, a gay marriage in this case, where the focus is on the story and not on raising eyebrows over sexual preferences. To that extent director Anubhuti Kashyap, and writers Sima Agarwal and Yash Keswani pull it off. Once Dr Geetika Sen (Konkona Sen Sharma) and “wife” Dr Meera (Pratibha Ranta) are accepted by the viewer just as casually as the people in their workplace do, it’s the investigation into a sexual misconduct case that should be the focus.

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Fri, February 27 2026

The spinoff series from the film Godzilla (2014) delves into Titan lore and follows troubled family dynamics for the Randa family.

After two and a half years, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters returns with an answer to the cliffhanger ending of Season 1. Will Colonel Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) be rescued from Axis Mundi? Affirmative. Kurt and son Wyatt Rusell, who plays the younger version of Lee in the past, are back as the Monsterverse spinoff series adds yet another Titan to the mix and deals with the complicated Randa family relationships now that Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) has returned from the dead. Developed by Chris Black and Matt Fraction, the second season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters tries its hand at family conflict again.

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Fri, February 27 2026

The wildly addictive Regency romance series returns after a month to wrap up the love story between Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Baek).

In the first half of Bridgerton Season 4, viewers were introduced to a magical Cinderella tale between second brother Bendect Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) and Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) as the mysterious Lady in Silver. And at the end of the fourth episode, Benedict proposed that Sophie become his mistress. The Netflix series returns to explore the fallout of the proposal, as Benedict must decide whether to defy society and his family for the sake of love. Furthermore, other younger Bridgertons have significant goings-on in their lives as the series sets up what’s next for seasons ahead.

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Fri, February 27 2026

Tanmaya Shekhar’s independent drama expands the Indian street-play aesthetic into a modest coming-of-age journey

t’s bittersweet when you learn of an independent film releasing against all odds. The more inspirational the journey is, the more complicated it gets for film critics who must approach it objectively. What if it’s not good, despite the sincerity and courage? What if the inventive process of making it is the best part of its legacy? What if the craft is consumed by underdog hype and passion? What if the behind-the-scenes story is more interesting than the film’s story? What sort of euphemisms might one have to use to be kinder to gutsy ‘outsider’ art? The anxiety is more heightened with a film like Tanmaya Shekhar’s Nukkad Naatak: a crowd-funded, self-promoted and self-distributed indie whose guerrilla marketing campaign features a recent cross-country road trip in a rented caravan. It wears its defiance on its sleeve. The premise is even designed to be curious and socially expressive — a sign that commentary might be used to offset a lack of depth.

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Wed, February 25 2026

Despite its thrilling sequences and Priyanka's compelling performance, the film lacks depth in emotional storytelling and thematic exploration.

Within the first few minutes of The Bluff, Priyanka Chopra Jonas slices and dices, swoops down and slashes a bunch of buccaneers in a relentless, action-packed, adrenaline-pumping sequence. Except that her character is no ordinary damsel in distress and neither is this a regular home invasion. The men who break in aren’t your streetside thugs either. They are, in fact, tied inextricably to Ercell Bodden’s past (Priyanka) and now stand to threaten her future. For Ercell wasn’t always Ercell. Known as “Bloody Mary”, she grew up sailing the seven seas as a pirate but gave up her swashbuckling, edgy ways for a domesticated life in Cayman Brac. The invasion — in which Priyanka plunges into the blood and gore with both physical solidity and psychological grit — is just the beginning of the high-stakes action that defines this Frank E. Flowers-directed film.

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Wed, February 25 2026

It represents the ‘i’ in irony and the ‘OG’ in hagiography

Very little of Aashish Mall’s Shatak looks real. I’m not talking just historical authenticity here, or the conspicuous name-dropping of ‘leftist’ freedom fighters (all of them, obviously in awe of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or the RSS). Most of Mall’s film looks enhanced like the tacky green-screens on primetime news. Most characters wander around like AI slop, speaking with pauses – without showing the slightest bits of humanity. Walking out of Mall’s film, one of my thoughts was if the film was an exhibit for the India AI Impact Summit held in Delhi. If that was the case, what fresh hell it would mean for the nation already grappling with a dozen controversies brewing because of the event. Would Sam Altman have felt pressured to give it a standing ovation, seeing the Indian Prime Minister sitting adjacent to him, if the film screened there? Mall’s film feels like a 112-minute reel created using AI, chronicling the good/better/best anecdotes of the far-right organisation – without the slightest hint of curiosity. The aim is not to find out about how the RSS came into being, as much as kissing the feet of its founding fathers.

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Wed, February 25 2026

R Gowtham's film, which premiered at the 2026 Berlinale, is a raw, unflinching portrait of a family rationing grief and despair

A new dissenting voice emerges in Tamil cinema. R Gowtham’s debut Tamil feature, Members of the Problematic Family, premiered at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival last week in the Forum section. Everything about this film is distinct yet unfamiliar, beginning with its title. The Tamil title, Sikkalana Kudumbathin Uruppinargal, a literal translation, rolls off the tongue. For decades we’ve had the word kudumbam (family) in Tamil film titles that have often alluded to the spotless, divine status accorded to the unit. But here is a film that makes no such promise. It invites you not to witness a few days in the life of irascible characters but just human beings who, as fate would have it, need to function as a society sanctioned order.

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Wed, February 25 2026

Once again, we find ourselves watching a Kartik Aaryan movie and wondering why… We discuss Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’s pointless travel vlog first half, which unexpectedly transforms into a combination of Baghban and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. We also discuss the film’s awkward projection of seemingly progressive values, which happens to be filtered through a deeply regressive lens. We conclude by wondering if Croatia even knows what it has gotten itself into by inviting the Kartik Aaryans of the world to visit.

Sun, December 28 2025

Directed by Sameer Vidwans, the film Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri is proof that a film and it’s title can be overwhelmingly long. The title itself gives us adequate warning and feels like an endurance test, and the film faithfully lives up to it. By the midpoint, which feels like an eternity, one realizes that only half of the title has been addressed.

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Sat, December 27 2025

The film picks up some momentum and verve, an emotional arc as well, but only by the fag end

For some time, Dharma Productions has been wearing its progressive heart and beliefs on its sleeve. That’s all very well, what more do you want from the proponents of ‘rich lives matter’? Like the typical gloss and shine signature of its cinema, it can’t quite bid adieu to its glitzy USP. Any wonder then that the storyline spends the first half in picturesque Croatia. The ‘to-die-for’ locales of the European nation on the coast of the Adriatic Sea is where love blossoms between our two lovebirds.

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Wed, February 25 2026

It took three years for Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy to secure a release after its Cannes premiere, and that, too, on the D-list tier streaming service ZEE5. We discuss the film’s baffling narrative, vague rumination about corruption and power, and long stretches of inaction that don’t feel authentic to Kashyap. We also spend way too much time discussing the ill-fitting costumes of Rahul Bhat and the underused Sunny Leone, and end with unverified rumours about the movie’s long-delayed release. Hint: It had something to do with a certain ‘Bade Papa’.

Tue, February 24 2026

Sat, February 21 2026

Anurag Kashyap returns to his raw, uncompromising ways with a ticking-time-bomb of a film that rewards patience

Before the curtain rises on Anurag Kashyap’s latest noirish adventure, William Wordsworth’s famous words, “We poets in our youth begin in gladness; but thereof come in the end despondency and madness”, flash on the screen. This struggle between resolution and independence holds for both Kashyap and Kennedy.

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Tue, February 24 2026

Mon, February 23 2026

Assi is not Sinha’s finest hour as a director, but the lack of sophistication might be necessary to reach an audience that otherwise laps up mean-spirited propaganda.

At one point in Anubhav Sinha’s Assi, a father (Manoj Pahwa) and his son (Abhishant Rana) are devouring a plate of chhole bhature. The father says, “Your mother is an excellent cook, but the chhole bhature she makes is… okay. No shame in eating outside once in a while. You can get a plate like this for Rs 60, maybe Momos for Rs 90,” he says, going on to add – “but a man never brings these home.” Only towards the end, does a woman overhearing the conversation realise that the duo aren’t talking about her food. The son is shown to be an accomplice in a rape, a few scenes earlier. I can see why co-writers Sinha and Gaurav Solanki [the duo had also earlier written Article 15] might lean on the wryness of a scene like this to explain a perpetrator’s mindset. But the scene feels too satisfied with its oversimplified metaphors for deep-seated dishonesty and compartmentalisation that the (primarily) male, urban population is capable of.

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Sun, February 22 2026

There is no gentle way to say this—Anubhav Sinha’s Assi hits you hard. It is, at times, an uneasy watch—and therefore, a very good film. To be clear, the unease does not come from graphic visuals; it comes from statistics read aloud by a lawyer, from stark statements that linger long after they are spoken. If merely listening to these details causes discomfort, one can only imagine the horrors endured by the victims. Sinha not only stabs us in the heart; he twists the knife—quietly, deliberately.

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Sat, February 21 2026

Siddhant Chaturvedi and Mrunal Thakur fail to rise above flimsy conflicts in this plodding romantic drama, devoid of passion

When the trailer of Ravi Udaywar’s romantic drama Do Deewane Seher Mein surfaced online, one was hooked to the tune of Gulzar’s melancholic Do Deewane (Gharaonda), searching for home and sustenance all over again. The haunting voice of Bhupinder Singh and the melody in Runa Laila’s timbre continue to capture the dreams, hope, and loneliness that lovebirds face in big cities. However, it turns out that old gold is being refashioned to win over a new audience, but the carat is compromised in the process.

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Fri, February 20 2026

Siddhant Chaturvedi, Mrunal Thakur film makes you wonder how how can you expect passion in a film where the censors have excised ridiculous numbers of words from the mouths of adults?

To judge by appearance is a bad thing. This single line premise is stretched out over two and a half hours, leading to a film where you are left counting the moments where two people spark. The only nice thing about Do Deewane Seher Mein– please note, not Shehar–is that for a change a Hindi film doesn’t make you feel as if Shashank (Sidhant Chaturvedi) and Roshni (Mrunal Thakur) could be brother and sister. There is attraction, and they do act upon it, bringing their faces close enough for their lips to touch. Small mercies.

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