Saare Jahan Se Accha
Drama (Hindi)
A resilient Indian spy must defeat his counterpart across the border in a battle of wits and tradecraft to sabotage a nuclear program. (more…)
Night Always Comes
Thriller, Drama, Crime (English)
Facing eviction in a city her family can no longer afford, a woman plunges into a desperate and increasingly dangerous all-night search to raise $25,000. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Saare Jahan Se Accha
Drama (Hindi)
A resilient Indian spy must defeat his counterpart across the border in a battle of wits and tradecraft to sabotage a nuclear program.
Cast:
Pratik Gandhi, Tillotama Shome, Sunny Hinduja, Suhail Nayyar, Kritika Kamra, Rajat Kapoor, Anup Soni
Writer:
Shivam Shankar
Netflix sabotages Suhail Nayyar’s performance, humiliates Tillotama Shome by editing her scenes out
Sat, August 23 2025
The new Netflix series Saare Jahan Se Accha begins with Pratik Gandhi’s character being posted to the R&AW’s Islamabad station, and it ends with him foiling a major nuclear operation and blowing things up real good. All of this happens in six episodes of roughly 45 minutes each. In these six episodes, we are introduced to several characters — field agents, a journalist, the chief of the ISI; even Indira Gandhi drops by. Most of these characters, including the protagonist’s wife, is introduced with enough fanfare to suggest that they are going to be important to the plot. Some of them are, most aren’t. But you can never shake the feeling that Saare Jahan Se Accha was stripped to the bone after somebody interfered with either the scripts or the first assembly. Nearly everybody in the cast suffers, not to mention the show itself. But nobody is done quite so dirty as Tillotama Shome.
Sunny Hinduja and Suhail Nayyar steal the show, which peters off towards the end
Fri, August 15 2025
It’s not the fault of this series that it comes exactly a week after the one which had the same theme. Well, almost. Salaakar is about scotching Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions with the help of canny footwork by Indian spies : this week’s new show on Netflix, Saare Jahaan Se Accha, created by Gaurav Shukla and directed by Sumit Purohit, is exactly about the same thing. The intent may be the same but the treatment, thankfully, is vastly different: the beyond-terrible Salakaar, with Naveen Kasturia leading the charge, reminds you of a comic-book with none of the fun of the genre; this Pratik Gandhi starrer, on the other hand, takes things seriously, and that’s a good thing, more or less.
Despite the potential for a tense thriller with grand stakes, the series rarely brings tension and feels more like a uneven forgettable feature film
Thu, August 14 2025
Deja Vu
Documentary (English)
Deja Vu (2025) is a documentary by Indian filmmaker Bedabrata Pain that draws parallels between the corporatization of the American farming industry in the 1980s and similar agricultural market reforms in India
Director:
Bedabrata Pain
Bedabrata Pain’s Urgent Warning on How Indian Farm Laws Could Wipe Out the Small Farmer
Sat, August 23 2025
The Indian farmers’ protest on Delhi’s borders in late 2020, was arguably the longest citizen-led protest in post-Independence India. Lasting a little over a year, weathering a bone-chilling winter and an equally oppressive summer, the farmers were labelled many things by the TV media: folks misunderstanding the government’s intentions to empower them, anti-social elements, even Khalistani terrorists. The protest sites invited the curiosity of documentarians: Nishtha Jain’s Farming The Revolution, Gurvinder Singh’s Trolley Times and Varrun Sukhraj’s Too Much Democracy were some of the films that chronicling the 13-month farmers’ agitation, interviewing them, getting experts to weigh in on initialisms (like MSP), and trying to understand the points of disagreement around the farm laws, which were hastily passed in the Parliament.
The Map That Leads to You
Romance, Drama (English)
Heather is a young woman traveling Europe with friends before starting her perfectly planned life. A chance meeting with Jack sparks an unexpected romance that leads to deep emotional discovery. As secrets and life choices test their bond, her path changes forever.
Cast:
Madelyn Cline, K.J. Apa, Sofia Wylie, Madison Thompson, Orlando Norman, Josh Lucas, Karl-El Santos, Diego Ross, Giuseppe Schillaci, JR Esposito
Director:
Lasse Hallström
KJ Apa And Madelyn Cline’s Film Doesn't Live Up To The Bookish Romance
Sat, August 23 2025
The Map That Leads To You is sort of a coming-of-age story for new adults with romance at the center of the plot. Based on a book of the same name by J.P. Monninger, it follows a young woman on an adventure across Europe with her best friends when she crosses paths with Jack, who stirs up her entire idea of an organised and planned life. Meanwhile, Jack, older than her, is off on his own adventure following his grandfather’s post-war journal across Europe.
Madelyn Cline, KJ Apa Starrer Is My Oxford Year Take 2
Wed, August 20 2025
The newest streaming romance, The Map That Leads to You, is based on JP Monninger’s novel and feels like deja vu arriving on the heels of Netflix’s The Oxford Year. It uses the same kind of tropes - American young woman, a European excursion and a summer fling with a stranger who becomes the important part of your life. The biggest difference between the two is the direction by Oscar nominee Lasse Hallström and the treatment of the feature, which feels a bit more lived in. The film’s narrative is much more optimistic and thankfully, this one has a more relatable female lead. Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline plays Heather, who, like Anna (Sofia Carson) from My Oxford Year, has a job waiting for her back in New York. Heather goes on a girls’ trip across Europe with her college besties Connie (Sofia Wylie) and Amy (Madison Thompson), when she meets a stranger named Jack (KJ Apa) from New Zealand on a train to Spain. It’s very DDLJ-esque. He becomes a part of their friends group and the usually rigid Heather finds herself following the oft-beaten path along with Jack. She finds herself opening more and more. But the summer must come to an end, and Jack is hiding a very big secret. Will their romance be able to stand the distance?
Hostage
Drama, Crime (English)
When the British prime minister's husband is kidnapped and the French president starts receiving threats, both leaders must face an impossible choice.
Cast:
Suranne Jones, Julie Delpy, Corey Mylchreest, Lucian Msamati, Ashley Thomas, James Cosmo, Jehnny Beth
Hostage to a potboiler served cold
Sat, August 23 2025
It is touted as a political thriller but unfolds like a potboiler. The very first scene and the dialogue, “I trust you will make the right choice”, is a precursor and portender that impossible choices will soon beset this happy family. The scene shifts to UK’s Parliament. Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones) is the British Prime Minister facing a volley of barbs from the Opposition leader. As she prepares to meet her French counterpart, President Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy), again an indomitable woman of substance, something sinister is brewing alongside. Abigail’s husband Alex Anderson (Ashley Thomas), a doctor, is abducted along with other medical professionals. The ransom demand is no less than her resignation.
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox
Drama, Comedy (English)
Amanda Knox arrives in Italy for her study abroad only to be wrongfully imprisoned for murder weeks later. Follow Knox's relentless fight to prove her innocence and reclaim her freedom and examines why authorities and the world stood so firmly in judgment.
Cast:
Grace Van Patten, Sharon Horgan, Giuseppe De Domenico, John Hoogenakker, Roberta Mattei, Francesco Acquaroli
Flawed but horrific story well told
Sat, August 23 2025
Does the truth even exist if no one believes it?’ This line — loaded with, well, the truth of life in general and particularly with what transpires in this claustrophobic retelling of a horrific real-life story, sums up The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox. Streaming on JioHotstar — the first two episodes of the eight-episode Hulu series are now available, with subsequent weekly drops — this is the dramatisation of what is undoubtedly one of the most keenly followed murder trials of the millennium. The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, in its telling, feels sensationalist, and even stagey in parts, but the case itself is compelling enough to want you to stay with it.
Cast:
Akashdeep Arora, Anushka Kaushik
Director:
Dheeraj Jindal
Writer:
Palak shah
A Sweet and Direct Seance About Grief
Fri, August 22 2025
Momo Deal opens with the voice of a dead girl at her funeral. Except it’s quirky. This young woman, Mahima (Anushka Kaushik), is reading out her own wishlist for the funeral — the way any manic-pixie hall of famer like Jab We Met’s Geet might (we learn that her favourite song is “Tumse hi”) to lighten the mood. One zoom-out of the camera reveals that none of Mahima’s wishes have been followed, especially the one that demands her best friend Naman (Akashdeep Arora) to weep loudly at the front. Naman is instead numb. His deadpan face suggests he’s an action hero who can’t act, but he’s something more common: an Indian man who can’t — or won’t — express himself. He refuses to cry. Dheeraj Jindal’s 13-minute short then features a late-night conversation between Naman and the ghost of his newly-deceased bestie. They walk the streets of their hometown, Jaipur, and exchange difficult emotions.
Night Always Comes
Thriller, Drama, Crime (English)
Facing eviction in a city her family can no longer afford, a woman plunges into a desperate and increasingly dangerous all-night search to raise $25,000.
Cast:
Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen, Stephan James, Julia Fox, Eli Roth, Randall Park, Michael Kelly, J. Claude Deering, Dana Millican
Director:
Benjamin Caron
Vanessa Kirby wouldn’t look like a mess even if she tried, and this hurts her Netflix thriller
Wed, August 20 2025
It’s perhaps no coincidence that Julia Fox has a cameo in Night Always Comes, the new thriller on Netflix starring Vanessa Kirby. Modelled on the movies of the Safdie brothers, Night Always Comes stares more than just a structure with Uncut Gems, in which Fox played a memorable cameo. That ticking timebomb thriller followed a desperate New York jeweller weaponising his gambling addiction in a breakneck attempt to gather cash. It was a movie that a third-act basketball match into a life-and-death scenario. In Night Always Comes, Kirby plays a working class woman staring at sure-shot eviction if she isn’t able to come up with a $25,000 deposit in one night.
Just about delivers on its promise of mid-level entertainment
Sat, August 16 2025
Similar in spirit to the Dardenne Brothers 2014 drama Two Days, One Night and, more recently, the far inferior Straw, front lined by Taraji P. Henson and directed by Tyler Perry, is Night Always Comes. This is a film with a grammatically questionable title, familiar characters and generic treatment but held together by a stirring and steely act by Vanessa Kirby. In the film, that is now streaming on Netflix, Kirby plays Lynette, a woman who has to fight against all odds to ensure that her family — comprising her mom Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and brother Kenny (Zack Gottsagen, in fine form), who has developmental disabilities — continue to have a roof over their heads.
Vanessa Kirby Turns In Raw, Powerful Performance In Gritty Yet Unrealistic Thriller
Fri, August 15 2025
The Crown and Fantastic Four: First Steps actress Vanessa Kirby delivers yet another terrific performance that is the cornerstone of this uneven thriller. Her character is pushed to several lengths as she moves mountains to protect her family. Based on Willy Vlautin’s 2021 novel The Night Always Comes, the Netflix film is set in moody Portland, Oregon, where the forecast is already grim. However, despite the strong performances by its excellent cast, director Benjamin Caron and screenwriter Sarah Conradt aren’t able to elevate the narrative to be believable. The crime thriller takes place over a ragged 24 hours in which it is established that Lynette (Kirby) is deeply in debt. She needs a down payment of $25,000 to sign a loan with her mother, Doreen (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to save their family home and her older brother, Kenny (Zack Gottsagen), who has Down’s syndrome. If the house is in his name, he won’t be sent away to a special facility. But of course, nothing goes her way. Her mother buys a new car instead and a desperate Lynette runs around Portland, calling in every favour she knows and meeting unsavory characters to gather the money.
Coolie
Action, Thriller, Crime (Tamil)
A mysterious man takes a stand against a corrupt syndicate exploiting and abusing the workers of a port town.
Cast:
Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna Akkineni, Soubin Shahir, Upendra, Sathyaraj, Shruti Haasan, Aamir Khan, Reba Monica John, Monisha Blessy, Baburaj
Director:
Lokesh Kanagaraj
(Writing for Medium)
Hype vs Reality in Rajinikanth’s Latest
Mon, August 18 2025
Superstar Rajinikanth’s latest movie Coolie is trash! At least, that’s what the general consensus among reviewers seems to be. There are reports about falling footfalls, defying earlier expectations of it becoming Tamil cinema’s 1000-crore grosser. But if we set aside these endless discussions about ticket sales — which, let’s face it, none of us have any stake in — our financial fate won’t change, no matter how many crores the movie makes. Why would we give even a two-hoot about a film’s commercial success? That’s a discussion for another day. Coming back to Coolie, I initially refused to read any reviews or listen to anyone’s opinions. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t avoid stumbling upon multiple negative takes. The headlines all said the same thing: “Coolie is a huge disappointment.” “Lokesh Kanagaraj fails to deliver on expectations.” Memes and posts across social media screamed the same.
Not enough Lokesh Kanagaraj in Rajinikanth's latest
Sun, August 17 2025
There are four key pieces of information on the Coolie poster. Above the title: ‘Superstar Rajinikanth’. And below: ‘Written & directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj’, ‘An Anirudh musical’, ‘An Anbariv action’. In the end, the film ends up less than the sum of these imposing parts. It isn’t sterile, it has something of all their personalities, but no one brings their A-game. The film starts with its best idea: Soubin Shahir as the heavy. He plays Dayal, an enforcer at a Visakhapatnam dockyard, responsible for keeping workers afraid and details of his employer’s smuggling racket from leaking out. It’s inspired casting, transforming the mild-looking Malayalam actor into a loathsome sadist. Shahir jumps in headfirst, radiating mean little guy malevolence as he hacks, bludgeons and gurgles psychotically.
Lokesh Imitates Lokesh In A Convoluted 'Baashha' Reprise
Sat, August 16 2025
Lokesh Kanagaraj is no longer a “young” filmmaker. He’s been around for eight years and six films, and it’s become easy to predict the exact manner in which he works on his screenplays. Back when he introduced the Gatling gun towards the end of the much-loved Kaithi, we didn’t just get one of Tamil cinema’s most exhilarating climaxes, we also got a textbook example of what one can do with a great Chekhov’s Gun. Five films and an artillery later, you’re able to make out the beats of what he’s trying to achieve, hours before his films get there. So when we saw a happy picture of Parthiban/Leo and family feeding their newly domesticated hyena, you could sense that the wild animal would make a return later on in the film. And by the time we hit Coolie, our minds are working overtime when a pointless character walks past a closed door with another pointless character revealing how lethal the inmate of that room is. It may have been a gun in Kaithi, a canon in Vikram, a box and arrow in Master and the Hyena in Leo, but with Coolie, Lokesh has possibly realised that he’s making a film so big that he can now afford to cast a full-time superstar from another industry as his Chekhov’s Gun.
Sangarsha Ghadana (The Art of Warfare)
Crime, Drama (Malayalam)
Kodamazha Suni, a retired organised crime leader, is compelled to return to his homeland after his former gang is attacked by an unknown adversary. Haunted by his past decisions, Suni's journey mirrors the battles of ancient warriors, as he faces his greatest adversary yet. As the conflict deepens, Suni’s thought process is explored through the wisdom of an ancient Chinese text, revealing the timeless struggle between strategy, surveillance, and survival
Cast:
Vishnu Agasthya, Zhinz Shan, Rahul Rajagopal, Sreenath Babu, Mrudula Murali, Sanup Padavedan, Jain Andrews, Megha Ranjini Krishnan, Manoj Kana
Director:
Krishand
Writer:
Krishand
Krishand’s rumination on the futility of war brims with quiet inventiveness
Sun, August 17 2025
The anticipation of violence is as mind-numbing as violence itself — the expectation that someone who has taken a hit will retaliate, with several ways to do so. In Sangarsha Ghadana - The Art of Warfare, which begins with a violent hit by one gang on another, filmmaker Krishand prolongs this anticipation to upset the audience’s expectations of what would transpire during that period. Kodamazha Suni (Sanup Padaveedan), a former gangster who has moved on and is now living a respectable life, has just lost four of his trusted lieutenants in a brutal attack by an unknown gang led by Kunjan (Vishnu Agasthya). One would expect the man to be plotting his revenge, especially when he sits with the other members of his former gang. The comical policemen tailing him also probably expected the same. But go closer, and the conversations are about a pepper drink and special masala dosa that Suni would like to have before leaving the city.
War 2
Action, Adventure, Thriller (Hindi)
Years ago Agent Kabir went rogue, became India’s greatest villain ever. As he descends further into the deepest shadows... India sends its deadliest, most lethal agent after him, Agent Vikram A Special Units Officer who is more than Kabir’s equal and a relentless Terminator driven by his own demons, determined to put a bullet into Kabir’s skull.
Cast:
N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Hrithik Roshan, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Alia Bhatt, K.C. Shankar, Varun Badola
Director:
Ayan Mukerji
(Writing for The Daily Eye)
Chopra’s aiming for pan-India domination misfires
Sun, August 17 2025
Let’s begin with a universal truth: a film doesn’t necessarily need a new idea. Sometimes, all it takes is a snazzy new coat of paint, some brooding stares, an international flight or six, and voilà! You have a fresh treatment. Or so one hopes. Enter: War 2. The sequel to 2019’s War has been handed over to Ayan Mukerji, who trades in time travel (Brahmāstra flashbacks, anyone?) for testosterone, tactical, and tight t-shirts. Taking the reins from Siddharth Anand, Mukerji attempts to inject some emotional heft into the franchise, perhaps believing that what this series really needed was… feelings. The result? A three-hour cocktail of high-octane set-pieces, soul-searching monologues, and chase sequences that last longer than most gym memberships.
Impossible Mission
Sat, August 16 2025
It is challenging to identify any redeeming qualities in this high-budget, multi-crore disaster. From the action sequences to the storyline, particularly the action, this film disrespects the audience’s intelligence, even if one assumes that the audience possesses a wide range of sensibilities.
(Writing for The Juggernaut)
The Spy Thriller That Forgot the Thrill
Sat, August 16 2025
In 2019, Siddharth Anand’s War gave us answers. That, yes, a big, pulpy blockbuster could look slick enough to make your eyes dance. That the camera doesn’t just love Hrithik Roshan — it worships him in salt-and-pepper mode, an object of thirst so undeniable even Tiger Shroff’s stoic glare softens in submission. That Shroff, with his balletic precision and coiled physicality, could turn action into poetry — especially when put chest-to-chest with Roshan, eyes locked, breath mingling. And that somewhere between the beaches, bullets, and blatant homoerotic stares, mainstream Bollywood might have finally figured out how to make spy thrillers pure cinema.
Fixed
Animation, Comedy (English)
After learning he's getting neutered, a dog has 24 hours to squeeze in one last balls-to-the-wall adventure with the boys.
Cast:
Adam Devine, Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Fred Armisen, Bobby Moynihan, Beck Bennett, Michelle Buteau, River Gallo, Scott Weil, Aaron LaPlante
Director:
Genndy Tartakovsky
Utterly deranged, it’s perhaps the only cartoon film that could realistically be banned by the CBFC
Sat, August 16 2025
Animation hall-of-famer Genndy Tartakovsky latest film, Fixed, was originally set for a theatrical release, but was offloaded by Warner Bros. during a cost-cutting drive. While movies such as Coyote vs. Acme and Batgirl — both were dealt similar blows — remain sight unseen, it’s easy to imagine why the studio would’ve wanted to wash the scent of Fixed off of itself. A wiser move would’ve been to bury it in the backyard. Painfully unfunny, the train wreck of a movie feels interminable at even 80 minutes long; it’s crude, cringe, and filled with juvenile dialogue that makes you feel like you’re eavesdropping on a group of 12-year-old boys at the playground.
Raunchy Adult Animated Comedy About Dog About To Be Neutered Is Not For Faint-Hearted
Thu, August 14 2025
Fixed is not a family film. It is far, far from that. Instead, the animated feature on Netflix focuses on a dog named Bull who is about to lose his ‘manhood’ by being neutered at the vet. Along with three of his besties, he has a wild 24 hours before he is tamed. Think of Fixed as an animated The Hangover featuring canine characters. Filmmaker Genndy Tartakovsky’s new animated feature goes hard and may not be for everyone. Bull (voice of Adam DeVine) is a mutt who is loved by his family but they are tired of him humping anything that moves, including the aged Nana. The solution is to send him to the vet to get neutered once and for all. Bull’s pack of besties, boxer Rocco (voice of Idris Elba), dachshund Fetch (voice of Fred Armisen) and beagle Lucky (voice of Bobby Moynihan), try to reassure him, but he runs off to the city. They eventually track him down, leading to a night of mayhem where Bull tries to admit his feelings for Honey (voice of Kathryn Hahn), an Afghan hound who is being presented at the dog show. The pack’s misadventures make up much of the story.
Weapons
Horror, Mystery (English)
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
Cast:
Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Justin Long, Amy Madigan, Cary Christopher, Austin Abrams, Whitmer Thomas, Callie Schuttera
Director:
Zach Cregger
Writer:
Zach Cregger
Indian directors are more terrified of making meaningful horror movies than you are of watching them
Sat, August 16 2025
Can a society that is terrified of confronting the evil at its core ever produce a single subversive piece of art? Certainly, Indian cinema is still taking baby steps when it comes to addressing our immorality; here, a movie about caste discrimination is a movie about caste discrimination, a movie about corporate greed is a movie about corporate greed, a movie about political corruption is a movie about political corruption. But it will be a while before our cinema is empowered to subvert. It will be a while before someone makes a gothic horror about crimes against women, or a creature feature about the Kashmir issue. It will be a while before we get a homegrown version of Barbarian director Zach Cregger’s brilliant new film, Weapons.
(Writing for OTT Play)
The Adolescence Of Horror
Thu, August 14 2025
Weapons opens and closes with a kid’s voiceover, but the anonymity of this narrator kind of ties into the film’s thematic fluidity. As viewers, we are simply wired to look for social cues, for hints and allegories. Weapons knows this and toys with our instincts. The meaning — or lack of it — lies in the eyes of the beholder. The horror in the film becomes anything we want it to be. For some, it could be a self-aware take on community trauma and urban isolation. For some, it could be a nifty riff on our biases about witchcraft and creepy relatives. For some, it could be a naughty satire on our perception of true-crime and supernatural stories. For some, it’s the wicked title, where the emotional ‘weaponisation’ of an entire town on edge prevents them from looking in the most obvious places. The twist — of a fragile outsider arriving to cast a voodoo over victims and turn them into literal weapons — is an entertaining rendition of this simple idea.
The most terrifying and twisted horror of the year
Tue, August 12 2025
When 17 kids from the same class mysteriously disappear from their homes on the same night except for one student (Alex) and the teacher (Julia Garner as Justine), the bewildered town seeks answers. While both survivors face scrutiny, Justine becomes the prime suspect. How did the kids vanish into thin air! Who’s behind these bizarre disappearances? This gripping small town mystery is like nothing you have seen before. Shocking at every turn, it never gets predictable. Very rarely do you come across a horror film that’s smartly layered, deeply unsettling, dark and amusing, all at once. Weapons ticks all the boxes. Be it the isolated setting, camera work or performances, you feel as much a part of this eerie mystery as the characters.