Shomini Sen

It’s been a while since we watched a good Bollywood comedy. And perhaps longer since a director has used the perfect comic timing of Rajkummar Rao in a movie script. Rao, who has featured in a spate of mostly unforgettable films in recent years, perhaps got bored with the repeated roles that were being offered to him year after year and decided to back a genuinely funny film called Toaster. Released on Netflix directly, it’s the kind of film that makes you laugh out loud at mundanity, the everyday chaos that the Indian middle-class balances in life. Directed by Vivek Daschaudhary and produced by Rao’s wife, Patralekha, Toaster feels refreshing amid the heavy-duty pan-India action films that filmmakers are constantly feeding us.

Modern-day romance is complex. Gone are the days when boy-meets-girl and they fall in love form the ideal rom-com in Hollywood. An entire generation may have grown up on light frothy rom-coms that Hollywood used to churn out in a dozen back in the day. But that very generation has now grown up and is navigating complexities in life. And thus, Kristoffer Borgli’s latest dramedy, The Drama, may resonate with many of its viewers. Featuring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in the lead, Borgli’s film explores love in the time of violence, accessibility and wokeness.

At the onset, filmmaker Anubhuti Kashyap’s latest film Accused, featuring Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Rannta as a queer couple in London, feels like a smart thriller that attempts to tell a strikingly new story. Sexual harassment at work and power dynamics in a marriage where both partners are ambitious are tropes well known. Urban romances mostly revolve around two individuals attempting to strike a balance between romance and the regular humdrum of life. However, Kashyap’s film Accused takes the familiar trope but gives it a unique twist. It has a queer couple in focus, with one of them dealing with charges of sexually harassing colleagues at her workplace. Strikingly new plot for Bollywood for sure.

Writer-director Sudip Sharma had opened up a new world when he created the procedural drama Kohrra in 2023. The web series, mostly in Punjabi, unusually showcased the state of Punjab, sans all the bonhomie and colour that films often associate the state with. Much like its plot, a murder mystery, the drama had muted colours, with heavy fog shrouding the lives of those involved in the case. Sharma returns with Kohrra season 2, with a new mystery and a new set of complications, but keeps the same aesthetics and mood of the first season. Just like the first season, a heavy fog remains on the lives of the police officers investigating the case, the identity of the killer, the victim’s family and societal prejudices.

Rani Mukerji’s latest offering, Mardaani 3, presents her in a larger-than-life, no-nonsense, gritty cop- a role that she has played well in the previous two instalments in the franchise. While the actress delivers well to her part, the film sticks to the basics and familiar template, giving a sense of déjà vu to the viewers. Mardaani 3 feels like a replica of its predecessor films, with just a few minor changes and an all-encompassing heroine taking charge before anyone can even step in to offer help.

It’s been nearly three decades since JP Dutta’s war classic Border was released in theatres. The film was set in 1971 and highlighted the Indian Army’s brave defence at the Battle of Longewala during the Indo-Pak war. The film, over the years, earned cult status and to date is remembered for its memorable dialogues, performances and soulful music. Border also set a template for future such war films. All mounted at a big scale, all speaking of patriotism and glorifying the valour of our Armed forces. Some worked, others were mere copies, including Dutta’s film on Kargil, called LOC. 29 years on, JP Dutta returns with Border 2, this time as a producer along with his daughter Nidhi Dutta and lets Anurag Singh direct the sequel. But is Border 2 as impactful as Border? Let’s find out.

It’s all there, but not quite. Vir Das, known primarily for his stand-up comedy, co-directs (with Kavi Shastri) and co-writes (with Amogh Ranadive) Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos,which starts on a promising note, but the chaos and the humour that come along with it runs its course midway through the film. I was seated when the film began, which showed Aamir Khan as a dreaded gangster in Goa’s fictitious Panjore out on a killing spree and engaging in a gun fight with two British agents.

Ikkis is not your typical Sriram Raghavan film, yet you can still find the master storyteller’s signature style throughout the film. Raghavan, who is known for his mystery thrillers and neo-noir films, moves out of genre to make a war drama based on a real-life incident. The result is a beautiful film that not only highlights the valour of Second Lieutenant Arun Kehtarpal during a crucial operation at the fag end of the Indo-Pak war in 1971, but also goes beyond the conversation of war and talks of humanity. The film, starring Dharmendra, Jaideep Ahlawat and Agastya Nanda, revisits a time when hatred was a common emotion between Indian and Pakistan but Raghavan, in his own way, talks about the futility of war and highlights the human side of soldiers on both sides of the border.