Sat, August 22 2026

After the success of Amar Singh Chamkila, Imtiaz Ali returns with Main Vaapas Aaunga—a film that desperately wants to build a timeless love story, but forgets to make its lead characters believable. We discuss the movie’s sanitised and one-dimensional depiction of Partition trauma, the bizarre inclusion of stand-up comedy monologues, and question Ali’s “political reawakening”. Along the way, we talk about the disastrous casting of lead actor Vedang Raina, how the film treats historical trauma like a Wikipedia checklist, and why Naseeruddin Shah effortlessly outclasses everyone despite being bedridden.

Sun, June 21 2026

Naseeruddin Shah headlines a film about love and loss and longing.

It has been a week since the end credits rolled for Imtiaz Ali’s Main Wapas Aaunga, but the film has been playing non-stop inside my head and heart. It has been peeling itself, layer by layer, to reveal the nuances that might have been missed when you were bawling your heart out for a love lost, and people displaced. This is the second movie this year to pay spiritual homage to Sargodha — the first was Sriram Raghavan’s tender anti-war film Ikkis, about war hero Arul Khetarpal. I confess I saw the movie through the many stories of escape I had heard in my six years (1997-2003) in Delhi, living in Old Rajinder Nagar, one of the colonies the refugees settled in. Many Papajis and Maajis still shed salty tears for their Pind, for the people, potted plants and property they left behind, never to return to. As we knitted on chill winter mornings when the sun played peekaboo, the creases on Maaji’s face softened, and yet another past memory resurfaced.

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Tue, June 16 2026

In the end, Imtiaz Ali, though sometimes full of feeling, seems full of sermonising.

In a scene during Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga, when Nirvair (Diljit Dosanjh) takes the stage at an open mic in London, I braced myself. In my head, Ali is notorious for dipping his toes in subcultures he considers ‘hip and trendy’ (like stand-up comedy here, fresco painting in 2009’s Love Aaj Kal) – including them as passing details in a film, never to be brought up again. Over here, it’s used to establish Nirvair as a young wastrel (from a wealthy family in Amritsar) coasting through life. He can’t stick to a job for more than two months, he can’t commit to his girlfriend, Kaveri (Banita Sandhu). His father (Rajat Kapoor) asks, “Why do you keep running?” – a narrative failsafe, lest the metaphor be lost on someone unfamiliar with an escapist Imtiaz Ali protagonist.

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Sat, August 22 2026

The Telugu film brings to the fore the pertinent issue of empowering daughters to speak up, anchored by Ravi Teja and child actor Nakshatra’s performances

At the first sign of abuse, a character in the Telugu film Irumudi asks his daughter not to blow it up into a big issue. She wants to raise a complaint, but he states that fear is the best safety armour for a girl child. Another character empowers his daughter to be transparent and share all the happenings at school and the village without fear. These contrasting approaches of two fathers become the film’s biggest takeaway. The other significant takeaway is how Irumudi marks the return of Shiva Nirvana and Ravi Teja to form after a few middling films.

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Sat, August 22 2026

Trinath, a doting father to his daughter Manikanta, is a protector-figure in his family and for all the women in Pollur, his village in Andhra Pradesh. Despite his good intentions, he has a weakness for alcohol, except for the 41-day-long Ayyappa deeksha every year. As Manikanta uncovers a dark link between a series of mysterious deaths and a government school, all hell breaks loose. All that Ravi Teja needed for a long time was a director who could draw out his strengths as a performer, rather than merely relying on his past glory for quick returns. Backed by a script with its heart in the right place, the veteran’s emotional portrayal of a protective family man is ably complemented by child artiste Nakshatra, who shines as a girl with an indefatigable spirit.

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Sat, August 22 2026

Elan, a Dubai returnee who just lost his job, and Pavithra, a corporate employee and popular influencer, fall in love and marry under unusual circumstances. Developing cold feet on the wedding day, she asks Elan to move into her home instead of his. Though initially repulsed by the idea, Elan relocates to Pavithra’s place as a dependent househusband staying at his in-laws’ residence. Elan the actor, for a debut, fares slightly better than Elan the director. He handles comedy with ease, but the script offers minimal room to prove his acting chops. Saanve Meghhana manages to bring some dignity to Pavithra, saddled with a male-centric narrative determined to caricature her.

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Fri, August 21 2026

Elan makes his acting debut with a fun, crisp take on gender reversal. Starring Saanve Megghana, the film raises interesting questions about marriage and equality, but falters with a shallow climax.

Choices and freedom are equally important for men and women in a relationship built on respect, love and true companionship. But here’s the uncomfortable question that lingers: when it comes to marriage, are men and women really given the same freedom to choose their own lives? Or are some choices still reserved for one gender more than the other? Director Elan’s Pyaar Prema Kalyanam toys with this idea and presents some genuinely interesting arguments around role reversal. Elan (Elan) is a reckless young man with little sense of responsibility. After losing the job in Dubai that his strict, conservative father got him, he returns to India with a simple life goal: fall in love and get married.

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Sat, August 22 2026

Sanjay Dutt chews the scenery, and Salman Khan counts his chickens as this Arabic action spectacle loses its vision in translation

What happens when you inject Hollywood blood into the veins of Arabic cinema? A cinematic coup that stakes a claim on cultural soft power. After headline-grabbing football acquisitions, Saudi Arabia seems to be aiming for global box office dominance by mounting a vanity project. Orchestrated by ‘Bad Boys’ Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the Arabic blockbuster, 7 Dogs, lands on our shores in the form of an official Hindi dub.

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Fri, August 21 2026

In a shack nestles Salman Khan as a small-time informer called Johar; in a bigger shack, Sanjay Dutt holds court as flamboyant goon Ranjit. They’re both big draws in the Middle-East, Salman being the bigger one, but their parts are nothing but glorified cameos.

A global cartel called 7 Dogs. A super-strong drug called Pink Lady. Good guys. Bad guys. And a billion-dollar budget. Make that billions. And there’s your Big Arabic Blockbuster, studded with international stars and locations, its India release buoyed by the presence of Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt. I must confess that I went into the movie mostly to see what the two Bollywood superstars would do in a film like this one, whose plot-line resembles countless films they’ve been part of. Clearly, the Belgian-Moroccan director duo of two of the ‘Bad Boys’ capers– as well as a couple of episodes in the enjoyable series ‘Ms Marvel’– are capable of mounting films on scale, creating kinetic set-pieces with a high degree of entertainment.

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Sat, August 22 2026

The Prithviraj Sukumaran film works best when it breaks down the inner workings of a complicated “family business”, even if it feels familiar and comes undone in the last hour.

Director Vysakh has made some of Malayalam cinema’s biggest blockbusters, but he still doesn’t have a clue about how to handle romance. In a fairly straightforward first half hour of the film, you’d expect to understand the Ali family’s hierarchy and criminal legacy; Vysakh forces a “cute” love story between Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Aamir Ali and a girl named Fiza. There’s some background here about Aamir’s ailing grandpa and how he wants to see him get married as his dying wish, but you can smell the fluff from miles away.

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Fri, August 21 2026

Director Vysakh's Khalifa, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Neil Nitin Mukesh, is a template masala entertainer that lacks heart and conviction. The film relies heavily on Prithviraj's swag rather than a compelling story.

Prithviraj Sukumaran needs a win, and Khalifa: The Ruler arrives at just the right — or perhaps the most crucial — moment. After Vilayath Buddha and I, Nobody failed to make a mark at the box office, all eyes are now on Vysakh’s action thriller to turn things around. But does Khalifa have what it takes to end Prithviraj’s box-office dry spell? Let’s find out! Khalifa opens with a grand wedding, after which the bride’s brother, Samad, is detained by the police. From there, the narrative unfolds around Aamir Ali (Prithviraj Sukumaran), who has taken refuge in London. With a warrant issued against him for murder and a notorious reputation as a gold smuggler, the film explores the circumstances that led Aamir to this point.

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Sat, August 22 2026

Gireesh AD's film has a narrative softness that’s obsessed with making you feel, rather than telling you about it

Set aside all temptations to speak about small town Angamaly as a character in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, because even a guitar has a full character arc in Gireesh AD’s effortlessly charming film. The first scene of the film is Ashley (Mamitha Baiju) getting ready to say goodbye to her group of close friends as we hear chatter about her moving to a college in Ernakulam. They click selfies, hug each other all teary eyed and as a farewell gift, her friends gift her a new guitar. It takes an hour more, but it’s when we see the wallpaper on Ashley’s screen that we’re told about a band named Room 17 and of how she was its lead guitarist. When her new neighbour Justin (Nivin Pauly) identifies the band that features on this wallpaper, it immediately brings Ashley closer to Justin, someone she thinks off as the only person around her who’s even heard of that band.

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Sat, August 22 2026

A bizarre exotica circles India’s southern state of Keralam, encompassing its people, cinema, food, and heritage. Outside the state (excluding Bangalore, of course), it almost feels like a soft form of reverse racism. Sure, Keralam has the stats to back up the reputation: better education, sanitation, and a genuinely decent quality of life. Malayalam cinema has long ridden that wave, shaping this glowing image (the famous Kerala Model in many areas of public life) while turning out some of the best films in the country, a list Bethlehem Kudumba Unit seamlessly joins.

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Sat, August 22 2026

An endearing age-gap romance, lived-in family dynamics, and a charming ensemble elevate this breezy slice-of-life entertainer

There’s beauty in simplicity, and director Girish AD swears by this. He cherry-picks simple, relatable stories and grounds them firmly with reasonable conflicts and well-etched characters. It’s essentially why his works breathe beyond superficial entertainment. With Bethlehem Kudumba Unit (BKU), the director repeats the same success formula and, as expected, reaps the same charm. Why fix what isn’t broken? In our cinema, it’s not uncommon to see actors with a big age gap playing romantic leads. But even in films that acknowledge this age gap, they don’t mention the difference. But here’s a film that wears this tricky detail on its sleeve. When Ashley (Mamitha Baiju) falls in love with her neighbour Justin (Nivin Pauly), who is around 12-13 years older, the film treats it very uncinematically. There’s awkwardness, apprehension, and of course, affection.

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Sat, August 22 2026

Pathikrit Basu’s biographical drama about Indian revolutionary Ananta Singh uses history as a crutch to give its superstar a free run

It’s easy to process the crushing familiarity of a movie like Keu Bole Biplobi Keu Bole Dakat (“Some call him a Revolutionary, some call him a Dacoit”). Mainstream Indian cinema has long run out of ways to stage populist fiction about swaggering vigilantes meting out their own versions of justice. So storytellers often choose the crutch of nonfiction. For instance, KBBKBD is a big fat superstar vehicle posing as a historical action drama. The figure it’s about — in this case, the controversial revolutionary Ananta Singh — is just a narrative vessel. The framework exists almost entirely so that Bengali superstar Jeet can flex his muscles as a Robin Hood-coded rebel and righteous superhero who fights for the oppressed in a broken system.

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Sat, August 22 2026

The Emergency-era thriller, starring Kay Kay Menon and revolving around the race to weaponise India’s first wireless phone is scattered, strange and disorienting at best

It’s not often you go into a film blind — and come out blinder. But Dial 1975 is that rare Hindi thriller. When you have an intriguing logline like “a gripping race to control India’s first wireless telephone takes place during the Emergency,” it takes some doing to make the furthest possible iteration of it. There were times I had to look up the premise again to make sure I wasn’t watching the wrong film. A semblance of a storyline pops up every now and then, and I can’t be sure, but it’s a pot-of-gold plot featuring an ex-soldier-turned-baddie (Kay Kay Menon), an ex-con-turned-goodie (Pravessh Rana), the goodie’s girlfriend (Kirti Kulhari), a bag full of cash (currency notes), missing tapes, a German guy with the precious invention, and a battle between government loyalists and rebel factions to procure said phone.

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Fri, August 21 2026

Streaming on Waves OTT, directors Navneet Behal and Vibhu Kashyap bring a film seeing a delayed release of almost a decade, but still appears incomplete.

There is a long history of small-budget films that escaped the limitations of finance and showed the world what true innovation really is. Generations of filmmakers have relied on techniques indistinguishable from magic tricks to make up for budgetary constraints. Scores of these movies are now regarded as classics. Dial 1975, which dropped on the OTT platform Waves this week, isn’t one of them. The film features a trio of talented actors and traps them in a production so amateurish that it could be mistaken for a student project. The starting premise is familiar. It’s the Emergency (of the ‘70s) and civil rights have been greatly restricted by the administration of a prime minister, who, however, is never seen or heard in the film. It is up to the prime minister’s loyal aides to ensure that even the mere thought of rebellion is quelled before it can morph into something more damaging.

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Fri, August 21 2026

इस फिल्म ‘डायल 1975’ की कहानी कुछ यूं है कि… यार, मैं न बता रहा कहानी। पूरी फिल्म देख ली, इत्ती लंबी और उलझी हुई कहानी है कि देखने में माथा खराब हो गया, अब बताने में भी होगा। एक काम कीजिए, खुद ही ट्रेलर में देख लीजिए, अगर वह भी समझ में आ जाए तो। हां तो, अब आपकी समझ में आ गया होगा कि… बताइए क्या समझ में आया? नहीं आया न कुछ? चलिए मैं कोशिश करता हूं। जून 1975 में तब की ताकतवर प्रधानमंत्री इंदिरा गांधी ने भारत में इमरजैंसी लगवा दी थी। उन दिनों हर तरफ नज़र रखी जा रही थी, फोन-शोन रिकॉर्ड हो रहे थे, ऐसे में एक फोन-कॉल रिकॉर्ड होता है कि जर्मनी से एक ब्रीफकेस आ रहा है जिसमें आने वाले ज़माने का एक यंत्र है। इसकी डील चार लाख रुपए में एक होटल में होगी। अब बहुत सारे लोग इस डील के आगे-पीछे घूम रहे हैं। किसी को उस कॉल-रिकॉर्डिंग की टेप चाहिए, किसी को वह ब्रीफकेस, किसी को चार लाख रुपए तो किसी और को कुछ और। इन सारी चाहतों को पूरा करने के लिए अलग-अलग लोग, अलग-अलग लोगों को ज़िम्मेदारी देते हैं और ये अलग-अलग लोग बहुत सारे अलग-अलग लोगों को मारे जा रहे हैं।

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Sat, August 22 2026

The series taps into the fissures within the Swedish policing systems.

Yet another crime thriller in the OTT space, but without a feeling of deja vu or excess of familiarity. Swedish series ‘Blodsoffer’, ‘Blood Sacrifice’ in English, by creator George Kay, the maker of heist drama ‘Lupin’, doesn’t just take you into the blood-soaked killings on the streets of Stockholm, but also into the minds of policemen. What happens when those whose job it is to provide security are the victims? Can they protect themselves? The five-part Netflix series opens with the macabre killing of two police officers. To begin with, we don’t see the dance of goriness. The fact that the killer murders with utmost bestiality is mentioned more than it is shown.

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Sat, August 22 2026

The first Insidious film came out in 2011, and since then, the franchise has spawned six films, including the latest, Out of the Further, directed by Jacob Chase, who makes his debut in the franchise. Horror franchises like this are low-hanging fruit for producers and studios. The six films have collectively made more than $700 million at the box office on a combined budget of less than one-tenth of that amount, making the math fairly simple. The franchise has also attracted some reputed names from the world of horror. James Wan, of The Conjuring fame, directed the first two films, while Oren Peli, who made Paranormal Activity, has served as a producer on all six.

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Fri, August 21 2026

It’s only so many ways that you can take this story about the Further farther, told as it has been in four films before.

If the thought of lying defenceless on a chair as a dentist pokes around inside your mouth leaves you queasy, you are in kindred company. This latest chapter in the Insidious franchise does draw on teeth, the full rotting spectrum of them, to add bite to its howls. And who better than beings suspended between life and death (the “Further” world, in the film’s words) for a specimen of ghastly pearly whites)? However, as and when it pulls out, the film is only passingly effective. It’s only so many ways that you can take this story about the Further farther, told as it has been in four films before. And the effort to do that shows, though as mother and daughter, the pair of Amelia Eve (in the role of Gemma) and Island Austin (Maya) are pretty good.

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Fri, August 21 2026

Sparks indeed fly and the film becomes an equal parts comedy as the desperate search for consummation leads Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner into several sticky situations.

In One Night Only, Allie (Monica Barbaro) says it’s the “build-up” that is the best part of sex for her. Owen (Callum Turner) says it’s the “after”. Quite like those predictable responses, this latest film by Will Gluck (with other bawdy modern romances behind him, such as Anyone But You, Friends with Benefits, Easy A) is a nice-enough rom-com that pretends very hard to be somewhat radical. And while it is beating about the bush, the film’s “build-up” — despite all the kissing and petting and lovemaking going on around the two leads — is hardly a turn-on. While the “after” is not the movie’s concern.

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Fri, August 21 2026

Directed by Jason Hehir, who previously made Netflix’s viral 2020 sensation The Last Dance, the Djokovic documentary not only falls short in its efforts to capture the life and times of one of tennis’ most controversial stars, but it also fails as a piece of filmmaking.

It would be safe to surmise that if you want to stand a chance at beating Novak Djokovic, you play him in an empty stadium, or better yet, fill it with fans. The tennis star will be thrown off track by all the love! Djokovic, widely regarded as the “greatest tennis player in the sport’s history”, famously thrives under pressure. He weaponises the disdain that crowds often show him and turns it into fuel that has pushed him farther than any tennis player in history. He has now reached that stage in his career where a documentary can be made about him. But the one we’ve been presented with by Prime Video is hardly the tribute that the champion deserves.

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