Suchin Mehrotra

Dynamic duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller return to live-action filmmaking after years of giving us some of the most crowd-pleasing animation storytelling in recent memory. You can clearly see the animation-filmmaking fingerprints from the producers, co-writers, and creative engines behind both the Spider-Verse films and Netflix’s terrific The Mitchells Vs The Machines all over the utterly delightful new space saga—Project Hail Mary. Think Interstellar meets Arrival meets The Martian (which is itself based on a book by Andy Weir, whose 2021 book Project Hail Mary this film is adapted from).

Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar The Revenge opens with the origin story that was promised. Before dreaded Pakistani gangster—and undercover Indian spy—Hamza Ali Mazari, there was army officer Jaskirat Singh Rangi. In the year 2000, we see a younger Jaskirat (a tremendous Ranveer Singh) buying guns before singlehandedly storming a beastly stronghold in his hometown of Pathankot, maiming and tearing through every man he comes across in search of a family member held captive.

Suresh Triveni’s Subedaar is an odd film. The Amazon Prime Video film, starring Anil Kapoor, wants to be mass in the streets and class in the sheets. The result is a curious, uneven ride. You can see the vision behind Suresh’s film: to subvert, toy with, and use the packaging and trappings of masala action cinema to examine something more raw and primal. But the result risks being neither here nor there, an action drama that struggles to thrill nor mount a moody character study. Subedaar Arjun Maurya (a fierce Anil Kapoor) is a retired army officer who’s recently returned home to an unnamed North Indian town. Arjun is the gruff rebel desperately in search of a cause. The recent passing of his wife (Khushbu Sundar) forces Arjun into retirement after 25 years in the Army. It also forces him to find his footing with Shyama, the daughter he was barely around for (a solid Radhika Madan).

After a series of recent misfires, Bejoy Nambiar appears to have finally broken free of the “style over substance” tag with creature feature—Tu Yaa Main. Here, the filmmaker’s music video-like aesthetic sinks its teeth into enjoyable material. A remake of the 2018 Thai film The Pool, Tu Yaa Main is a film of two worlds. The first—a spunky, sizzling attraction story between two influencers from two different Mumbais. The second, a survival thriller where the couple is trapped in a swimming pool, forced to face off against a man-eating crocodile. Even if the two “halves” don’t always inform each other seamlessly, they collide well enough in a film that delivers on all its promises and makes for a refreshing, fun time at the movies.