Prathyush Parasuraman

The Hollywood Reporter India

Prathyush Parasuraman is a film critic and journalist with The Hollywood Reporter India, and a columnist with The Frontline magazine, where he writes on cinema, literature, art, and the broader zeitgeist. His words have appeared in The Hindu, Caravan, First Post, and Verve, among others. In the past, he has served as programmer for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and the Himalayan Film Festival. On Beauty: The Cinema of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, published by Penguin Random House India, is his debut book. Currently he is working on his sophomore book, On Style: The Cinema of Mani Ratnam.

All reviews by Prathyush Parasuraman

Mayasabha - Rise of the Titans

War & Politics, Drama (Telugu)

Deva Katta's Political Drama Hampered By Weak Writing and Stiff Acting

Fri, August 15 2025

'Mayasabha', also like most shows today, is written with an unexcited imagination, beginning with a high-stakes, livewire moment, only to recede into a long flashback.

I suppose the first thing you need to know about Mayasabha is that it is an incomplete show—like most shows these days, hungering for your attention to make you watch their second season, they forget to complete the first. So, before you strap on for this nine-episode saga, know there will be nine more. How has this become common practice among the streamers? Imagine being pushed out of a theatre post interval, and being told that this is all we get to see for now—come later, pay again, for more. They have collectively ruined storytelling as an art form, fracturing it into parts that can be sold cheaply at the marketplace for attention. Mayasabha, also like most shows today, is written with a lethargic hand and an unexcited imagination, beginning with a high-stakes, political, livewire moment, only to recede into a long, winding flashback. We will not return to that high-stakes moment in this season—that is for later.

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