Shomini Sen

The flight of fancy scales unimaginable heights with this one. In director Balaji Mohan’s supernatural-meets-mythology comedy caper Nayyi Navelli, Yami Gautam plays a mysterious woman with special powers. On the onset, the film appears to mix comedy and horror- a template well established by the Stree franchise. But the film’s punchlines and wit soon segue into mythology. No harm there either, considering the film is one of the big Dussehra releases this year in India. However, the film quickly spirals thanks to a convoluted plot that infuses too many things into one story, making the second half extremely tedious to watch. The story of Ramayan has been a source of inspiration for filmmakers for decades. The entire concept of good vs evil is a theme that never goes out of fashion and can be interpreted in multiple ways. Nayyi Naveli, to its credit, takes a lesser-known part of the Ramayana and spins an intricate tale. It may not always make sense, but it still makes for an interesting plot.

Oscar-winning director Alejandro G Iñárritu’s latest film Digger strips Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise of all the frills and presents him in one of the actor’s most experimental films to date. In recent years, the audience has witnessed Cruise perform death-defying stunts in action thrillers. The man who, in innumerable films, refused to age and gave actors half his age a major complex by performing risky stunts, ages and how in Digger plays a character who is self-aware of his misdeeds and even wants to come clean. Buried under heavy prosthetics, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon in Iñárritu’s climactic satire, which talks of power and politics and how it influences society at large. The satire, while highlighting some pertinent issues, is also indulgent with its storytelling, making Digger a very complex film which is not palatable for regular film watchers.

Ever so often, Bollywood wants to speak the language of the youth. However, in an attempt to address their issues and growing pains, the industry often ends up stereotyping Gen Z and making them look superfluous. In Don’t Be Shy, director Sriti Mukerji attempts to tell a Gen Z story, but sets it in the early 2000s and delivers a very run-of-the-mill, coming-of-age campus tale. While it begins on a promising note, the film eventually becomes predictable and rather silly by the end. Produced by Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt, Don’t Be Shy introduces fresh faces to the film industry. The cast delivers credible performances, but does that salvage the film? Only in parts.

Lust Stories, right from the beginning, when the first part was released in 2020, raised eyebrows. Since then, several other similar films and series have come up on OTT- all exploring female sexual desires- some landed, some did not, but the charm of Lust Stories and subsequently of Lust Stories 2 has had a different effect on the audience. How many mainstream filmmakers have attempted to explore what women want and ultimately got it right? In Lust Stories 3, filmmakers Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj speak of Lust, an emotion that often brings out the best and worst in any human being.

When Mirzapur: The Movie was announced, I have to admit I was sceptical. The film, an extension of the hugely popular web series Mirzapur, was supposed to take audiences back in time, somewhere in the middle of the first season. Loyal audiences of the series have, over the years, already progressed a lot into the Mirzapur universe. Some key characters are now long dead in the series, and the trajectories of Munna, Guddu, Golu, and Kaleen Bhaiyaa have also taken very different turns. Was it necessary to make a movie and go back to the origin story again, I wondered. Happy to report that my doubts and scepticism were pleasantly put to rest as I watched Mirzapur the movie. The film takes you back in time, somewhere in the middle of the first season and introduces new characters and adds a fresh twist to the story. The result is a deeply engaging story of power and greed, but also of validation and fighting for love.

Human trafficking, a grim reality of our present time, has become a favourite theme for Bollywood. After Mardaani and Delhi Crime Season 2, Netflix’s new film Gandhari, featuring Taapsee Pannu, delves into the same theme. Written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Devashish Makhija, Gandhari has Pannu playing a blind mother in search of her missing daughter in a fictitious town in Bengal. While looking for her daughter, she stumbles upon a larger network of child trafficking. And while the premise of Gandhari is very real and thus makes for an engaging thriller, in reality, the film’s execution makes it falter ever so often.

There are very few films that live up to their title, and Geetu Mohandas’ latest directorial venture, Toxic: A Fairy Tale For Grown Ups, is one of them. The film is more toxic than your red-flag ex and more a tale of horror than a fairy tale, even for grown-ups. Featuring Yash in an all-encompassing role, Toxic numbs you from the very beginning with its over-the-top drama, VFX, and too much screeching. Nothing in the film is subtle; everything and everyone is loud. And with a plot that is hard to fathom, Toxic feels a bit too much- much like its crowded star cast.

India’s independence from British rule came at a price. As the British left India, they ravaged and divided the country - emotionally, based on religion and geographically. The happiness of independence was far less on 15 August 1947, as so many families were destroyed; people were separated from their loved ones, their homes, and their motherland. The Partition led to the birth of Pakistan but also to a great Hindu-Muslim divide, an enmity that continues to this day between the two countries. Bollywood has made innumerable stories on India’s Independence and the partition. Most have narrated stories of brutality and riots that preceded partition. Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi’s latest release, Batwara 1947, flips the narrative a bit- telling the story of a Muslim family in Lahore in the aftermath of partition. Santoshi teams up with Sunny Deol, with whom he has delivered iconic films like Damini, Ghatak and more. Deol and Santoshi collaborate after decades, making Batwara 1947 special. The film also features Shabana Azmi, marks Preity Zinta’s comeback to Bollywood after a long time and has Aamir Khan as the producer. With such impressive names attached to the project, expectations are bound to be high for Batwara 1947. So, does it deliver? Let’s find out.