Renuka Vyavahare

Bani (Taapsee Pannu) and her husband Gokul (Ishwak Singh) are shell-shocked when their five-year-old daughter Mishty is abducted in broad daylight from Joypurra, a fictitious town in West Bengal. Consumed by guilt over her perceived negligence, Bani joins Gokul in a desperate search for their daughter, which eventually leads them to a child-trafficking racket. Things take a dramatic turn when Bani loses her eyesight. Can she still find her daughter and bring her back? With its Bengali backdrop, missing-person mystery, woman-on-a-mission narrative, revenge angle and vulnerable protagonist, Gandhari seems designed as a spiritual successor to Sujoy Ghosh’s terrific Kahaani (2012). But while Kahaani drew its power from atmosphere, restraint and a riveting central performance, Gandhari keeps reaching for bigger and louder moments without earning them. Vidya Balan’s performance in Kahaani immersed you in the world of an unsuspecting woman driven by fear, grief and determination. Taapsee Pannu, meanwhile, is pulled in too many directions here. The film turns her into a full-fledged theatrical action hero, complete with elaborate fight sequences, but in doing so, it loses sight of the actor and the emotional complexity she can bring to a character.

David Robert Mitchell’s Amblin-esque sci-fi survival thriller is a heartwarming, terrifying and thoroughly entertaining ode to Steven Spielberg and the magic of the ’80s. A frightening, unnatural event disrupts the slow, idyllic life of the Platt family. Without warning, their quiet suburban neighbourhood transforms into a dense forest inhabited by an army of deadly dinosaurs. Has time shifted their reality? And can they survive this bizarre catastrophe? Kids riding bikes, childhood spent outdoors with friends and neighbours instead of glued to gadgets, lazy afternoons on rooftops with books, families dining together and children believing they are safe as long as their parents are around — The End of Oak Street is a resounding ode to simpler times and the unconditional love of family. Its world is idyllic, dreamy and deliberately nostalgic.

Despite the resemblance in title, Ohh My Dog isn’t a sequel to the OMG franchise, even though Amit Rai also directed OMG 2, starring Pankaj Tripathi. This is a standalone film that celebrates the bond between humans and dogs, championing compassion and kindness towards voiceless beings as the truest form of religion. Metaphorically, it even presents dogs as a manifestation of God—selfless protectors who love unconditionally. Amit Rai’s son Maahi and the family’s indie pet dog Oscar play the sharp-witted Apu and Momo, two inseparable siblings living a happy life in Assam until Momo is kidnapped. Convinced that dog meat smugglers are behind the disappearance, Apu sets out to uncover the truth while the authorities remain largely indifferent. Meanwhile, in Bhopal, Prince, an underage labourer, shares an unlikely bond with a stray dog named Bruno. When Prince goes missing, Bruno becomes the film’s true hero, relentlessly searching for his companion, convinced that something sinister has happened.

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker grows up in Brand New Day, a melancholic, grief-stricken Spider-Man story that trades humour for humanity. Following the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), New York’s friendly neighborhood hero is no longer a bumbling teenager. With his high school years behind him, Peter Parker enters a new chapter of his life, confronting its defining realities—grief, loss, loneliness, and a profound journey of self-reflection. Having lost Aunt May and the two people closest to him, Ned and MJ, whose memories of Peter have been erased, he is left to navigate adulthood alone. Now a full-time masked vigilante, he fights crime while battling the isolation within. Melancholy lingers where humor once prevailed. Already wrestling with his inner demons, Peter is forced to take on a formidable nemesis who can manipulate the minds of others. (Hint: the origin of an iconic X-Men character played by Sadie Sink).

Inspired by Homer’s timeless Greek epic, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey follows Odysseus (Matt Damon), Trojan War hero and King of Ithaca, haunted by the consequences of his past choices. Twenty years after leaving his family behind, he embarks on a perilous journey back home, confronting monstrous sea creatures, mythical beasts, powerful witches, and vengeful gods. Yet his greatest battle lies within, as he struggles to overcome the burden of his past in a relentless quest for redemption. As Odysseus longs to reunite with his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), he discovers that his greatest obstacle is not the treacherous seas he must cross, but the memories and regrets that consume him. His homecoming is not merely a physical arduous journey; it is an emotional reckoning, a burden he must confront and a price he must pay.

A personal crisis forces Arjun Mehra (Sunny Deol), a celebrated lawyer, to set aside his personal beliefs and defend murder suspect Shauryamann Gaur (Akshaye Khanna), an entitled brat he deeply despises. Does morality have a place in legal practice? Must a defence lawyer believe in a client’s innocence to defend them? Probably not. Director Siddharth P. Malhotra attempts to subvert that notion, which is interesting. His protagonist, Arjun Mehra (Sunny Deol), is an idealist who firmly believes that the world roots for heroes, not villains. His moral convictions are put to the test when he’s compelled to defend the deeply unlikeable Shauryamann Gaur (Akshaye Khanna), accused of attempting to murder Soma Mittal (Akansha Ranjan Kapoor), a young woman he is last seen leaving a nightclub with. While Gaur insists he’s innocent, the prosecution, led by lawyer Madhura Bannerjee (Tillotama Shome), appears to have enough evidence to prove otherwise.

Inspired by true events, Satluj chronicles the courageous and harrowing journey of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who exposed Punjab Police’s role in thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings and illegal cremations during the insurgency. Despite repeated threats from those in power, Jaswant Singh Khalra refused to be silenced. He did not buckle under pressure, choosing to pursue the truth, fully aware of the consequences that awaited him. Before his abduction and subsequent murder in 1995, he alleged that Punjab Police was responsible for at least 25,000 illegal killings and secret cremations. Punjab carries the scars of a deeply troubled past. The 1980s and 1990s were among the state’s darkest years. As the government sought to crush insurgency and separatist violence, security forces were granted sweeping powers with little accountability. Under officials such as Director General of Police KPS Gill, counter-insurgency policies, coupled with a state-sponsored bounty system, allegedly enabled extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and extortion.

Armed with the potent Alpha serum, Sita (Alia Bhatt) is trained by Colonel Fateh (Bobby Deol) to become an elite assassin and a valuable asset for India’s special forces. However, everything changes when she discovers the truth about her past and goes rogue. Along the way, Sita crosses paths with Durga (Sharvari), RAW chief Kaul (Anil Kapoor), and a tragic past that binds the trio together while reopening old wounds. Shiv Rawail’s Alpha rests on the petite shoulders of two capable female leads, neither of whom are conventional action stars — a relatively novel proposition for Bollywood. Rooted in the trauma of a stolen childhood, Alpha initially shows promise of crafting an action thriller around buried pain and emotional scars. You expect that inner conflict to shape the narrative. Even the idea of introducing two superheroic female assassins, reminiscent of Black Widow, into the YRF Spy Universe feels genuinely exciting on paper. Bollywood creating its own genetically enhanced super soldiers armed with elite combat training, think Captain America or The Winter Soldier, is an ambitious idea in itself.