Renuka Vyavahare

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.

Elle, the 2026 reboot of Legally Blonde set in 1995, feels more like a nostalgic fan tribute than a worthy prequel. It is sweet and easy to watch, unfolding like a familiar teen campus drama, but lacks the wit, cleverness, and unmistakable charm that made the original so memorable. Written off as a shallow Barbie in her new school, Elle must win people over with empathy and sincerity. Along the way, she finds herself torn between two romantic interests — campus jock Miles and activist Dustin - builds an unlikely friendship with Shannon, clashes with resident mean girl Kimberley, and gets entangled in a controversy involving the school principal.

Superhero fatigue has been setting in for quite some time now, with both Marvel and DC struggling to find the right footing. In the race for bigger spectacles, sprawling multiverses, time travel, and interconnected sagas, many superhero films traded genuine emotion and character for sheer scale and experimentation. Audiences, understandably, began to lose interest. James Gunn rebooted the DC Universe with Superman (2025), introducing the dimpled David Corenswet as the new Man of Steel. While the film dazzled with its scale and visual ambition, it often felt emotionally scattered and underwhelming. What lingered long after the credits, however, were the brief but memorable glimpses of Milly Alcock’s carefree, rebellious Supergirl.

An atmospheric and deeply unsettling crime drama, Raakh draws inspiration from one of India’s most chilling criminal cases, the infamous Ranga-Billa case (1978) that shook the nation and forever altered the way people viewed safety in the capital. Most crimes are tragically remembered for the notorious criminals who commit them, while the victims are often forgotten with time. In a sea of cop dramas, Raakh urges you to look beyond the investigation and examine the origin, aftermath, and far-reaching consequences of a brutal crime on society at large. The lingering trauma of grieving parents seeking accountability and justice after losing their children makes for an emotionally difficult watch. Trial by Fire, led by Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol, explored similar emotional devastation effectively. Raakh serves as a reminder of humanity at its worst, and how such horrors force ordinary people to live with endless guilt — what if I had done something differently? Yet the real sickness lies with the criminal mind to begin with.