Fri, September 19 2025

In India, the concept of godmen — spiritual leaders elevated to the status of demigod — has spawned a series of narratives. Fiction (Aashram ) and non-fiction (My Daughter Joined a Cult, Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu, etc) alike have responded to the peculiarity of the culture. Bikas Ranjan Mishra’s new film, Bayaan, a loosely wound police procedural that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a frustrating reiteration of the template. To be fair, Bayaan is largely effective and well-made with slight exceptions. The plot is rooted in Rajasthan, where a godman, ‘Maharaj’ (Chandrachur Singh), runs an ashram full of young girls. When one of them tips off about his sexual abuse, a Delhi-based police officer, Roohi (Huma Qureshi), is assigned to the case. She might be a novice, but she knows the way. Her father (Sachin Khedekar) has been in the profession for a long time and is celebrated by peers. Mishra’s film outlines the way in which an anonymous tip opens a can of worms for the godman, only for Roohi to realise that she, a privileged urban woman, inhabits a world as compliant as that of the rural women.

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Mon, September 15 2025

Fri, September 19 2025

In Anurag Kashyap’s Monkey in a Cage (Bandar), provocations arrive early. When a man held in custody is asked to sign papers, he refuses because he cannot read the document. “It’s in Marathi”. The cop’s retort flies back: “If you want to stay in Maharashtra, you have to know Marathi”. Later, there is an elaborate jail song, condemning everything from religion to caste-based divides. Kashyap has been angry for a while. The filmmaker’s rage has been so palpable that it percolates from social media posts to his films. His last couple of original works have been topical indictments — each more incensed than the other, and defined and undone by fury. At this point, his anger is a knotty glaze on his films — impossible to ignore but also distracting. The pattern has been so consistent that baiting seems to be the intent and the whole point. His latest, Monkey in a Cage, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a more obvious step towards that direction.

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Mon, September 15 2025

Fri, September 19 2025

In films, the presence of three is inherently fodder. The arrangement can be disruptive, but it is mainly used by makers to arrive at familiar resolutions. In her wonderfully assured directorial debut, Poetic License, Maude Apatow flips the script. She takes three people, resists settling for sweeping endings and shakes things up for fun. It is a lovely detour that is consistently rewarding. Ari (Cooper Hoffman) and Sam (Andrew Barth Feldman) have been friends for a while. As students, their lives have been mostly spent on campus. Things, however, are about to change. The erudite Sam has his eyes set on a finance job, while Ari, the rich young boy prone to wearing LED face masks at leisure, is still trying to figure things out. A poetry class together becomes their latest way of hanging out. But when Liz (Leslie Mann) sits with them in class, their attention to each other wavers a little. There is only one problem: Liz is a married woman with a daughter. Her professor-husband’s new job at the university brings her to a quiet town from Chicago, as she sits with them in a poetry class to audit.

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Thu, September 18 2025

There’s a point in Tango Malhar where it stops feeling like a promotional piece for the Argentinian dance form it’s named after. That moment arrives when siblings Malhar (Nitesh Kamble) and Rani (Kriti Vishwanathan) are secretly filmed while passionately practicing tango in a secluded building. In Saya Date’s film, this scandalous act carries the potential to ignite controversy, challenging the sanctity of familial bonds. Where will the story go from here? That question becomes the film’s most compelling suspense. Tango Malhar opens with Malhar, a 20-something autorickshaw driver, grooving to Indian hip-hop on his earphones. He lives with his widowed mother and school-going younger sister in a cramped city home. Early in the film, we see Rani’s love for dance and her brother’s latent rhythm. A man of few words, Malhar is still searching for purpose when tango unexpectedly enters his life.

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Wed, September 17 2025

Dashavatar scores high in getting you transported to the small Konkan village where it’s based. The scenic place is shot well by cinematographer Devendra Golatkar. The village’s folk theatre culture is portrayed in a realistic manner. It also acts as a tribute to the unsung theatre artistes from various corners of India. The bittersweet relation between Babuli and Madhav also brings a smile, although the song between them could have been done away with. Dashavatar brings a shocking incident at the interval point. From here on, you expect the film to rise further. But, instead, it starts suffering from the second half syndrome. The incidents where various avatars of Lord Vishnu are brought in not only make the narrative predictable but also lack logic as it’s difficult to believe what one character keeps doing. Plus, the screenplay starts becoming messier as the film nears the climax with quite a few questionable incidents. The climax gives an important social message but it suits more in the medium of theatre than cinema.

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Sat, September 13 2025

In the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Dashavatar presentations continue to be a huge draw. The traditional theatre form is centred around the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, and its performers command immense respect and popularity. Subodh Khanolkar’s Dashavatar is the story of one such performer – Babuli Mestri (Dilip Prabhavalkar). Having performed in the traditional theatre all his life, Babuli is almost synonymous to Dashavatar in his village, so much that his entry in the presentation is all that people look forward to. Age is fast catching up with Babuli, but he refuses to hang his boots despite repeated pleas from his doctor and even his son Madhav (Siddharth Menon). Babuli promises to retire only when Madhav gets a job and starts earning. When that happens, the veteran performer stays true to his word and announces his last performance during a Mahashivratri celebration. On the other hand, Madhav also decides to ask for his girlfriend Vandana’s (Priyadarshini Indalkar) hand in marriage on the auspicious day. But tragedy strikes, derailing everyone’s plans and putting in motion a series of entirely unexpected events.

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Wed, September 17 2025

Deliciously sinister and delectably unhinged, Fresh is a commentary on the perils of modern dating, with a refreshingly original take on the splatter genre. This 2022 film, available for streaming on JioHotstar, marks the debut of Mimi Cave (who has since gone on to direct this year’s middling Nicole Kidman thriller Holland), and manages to winningly (at least for the most part) be a dark comedy, a feminist tale and a horror fest at the same time. Fresh begins in a way that most films on modern-day urban loneliness do. Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is striking, sharp and smart, but doesn’t seem to have much luck in the dating department. With almost no family to call her own, it is her closest pal Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs) that Noa leans on emotionally. A few days after a particularly bad first date, Noa bumps into a charming stranger (Steve, played by Sebastian Stan) in a supermarket aisle. Numbers are exchanged, a few fun dates follow and before we know it, Noa is hopelessly charmed by the disarming Steve, who claims to be a doctor specialising in ‘reconstructive surgery’. More on that later.

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Tue, September 16 2025

The first ever film in Braj has received its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

In the last decade, it’s been heartening to see filmmaking voices emerge from the heartland, drawing raw, earthy portraits of rural life, where more than half of India still resides. We see such films hiding in the garb of a genre: comedy, satire, police procedural etc, especially when the director isn’t familiar with the milieu. Hence, the work of an assured filmmaker jumps out at us. The likes of Natesh Hegde, Anmol Sidhu, Achal Mishra etc, confidently marry sophisticated aesthetics with a lived-in grittiness. Director Jitank Singh Gurjar fits right into this mix as his feature debut, In Search of the Sky (alternate title: Vimukt) suggests. Told in Braj language, it tells the story of a family in rural Madhya Pradesh, which is trying to escape its life sentence by visiting the Mahakumbh.

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Mon, September 15 2025

Mon, September 15 2025

I recently watched this Kannada film called Su from So. It’s written and directed by a debut filmmaker, J. P. Thuminad and produced by Raj Shetty, and has surprisingly turned into a huge hit. The film has gone from regional obscurity to almost a national sensation. What struck me most is its vibe; it feels very much like modern Malayalam cinema. Easygoing, not trying to be grand or over-ambitious, but simply a filmmaker telling a story with a camera. And that simplicity is part of its charm. At its heart, Su from So is about small-town lives. How everyone’s closely knit, and how even the tiniest incidents become the biggest entertainment in the predictable rhythm of everyday life. The story is anchored by two characters, Ravi Anna (Shaneel Gautham), a respected, unmarried man in the village, and a younger guy Ashoka (played by J. P. Thuminad, yes the director) who has a crush on a local girl.

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Sat, August 2 2025

To put it in plain English, Su From So, the Kannada film playing with English subtitles, is one of the most refreshing films in recent times Amidst the chaos and juvenile humor that characterize most Friday releases, this film, directed by J. P. Thuminad, arrives like a breath of fresh air.

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Mon, July 28 2025

Director JP Thuminad creates a world that’s deeply immersive, and in a film that’s high on humour, he nudges you to be better

There’s a passing scene in JP Thuminad’s hilarious yet thoughtful Su From So (releasing on July 25), which explains why the film lands the way it does. The villagers need to head somewhere and a convoy departs — it is led by two scooters, followed by two autos and cycles. Even in that not-so-important scene that barely lasts seconds, the film does not veer off its inherent spirit. These vehicles are ‘enough’ to serve the story. This is one of the many reasons why the film, which falls somewhere in the space between a thought-provoking movie and a horror comedy, keeps you engrossed through its runtime that’s a little over two hours.

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Mon, September 15 2025

Raam Reddy’s sophomore film knows the difference between an ambiguous and a profound film.

As any film critic these days will tell you, the word ‘Lynchian’ gets thrown around a lot in reviews. The slightest bit of surrealism in a scene is described as something emulating the work of the man behind masterpieces like Blue Velvet (1986) and Lost Highway (1997). I’m guilty of it too. So much so that the descriptor has lost some of its gravitas over the years. Most things that don’t seem logically coherent are touted as Lynchian. However, ambiguity is not a stand-in for true enigma, nor does density always equal profundity. Sometimes, a scene can play straight like a musical note, evoking something visceral in the audience – leaving no room to question its logic. It’s this feeling of discovery through a film that counts for more than ‘understanding’ it. In its duration of a shade under two hours, Raam Reddy’s Jugnuma – The Fable might be the closest an Indian film has come to emulating David Lynch’s genre-breaking style. I’m not saying the film derives it from the existing style, as much as Reddy embraces it and makes it his own. Having made his debut with the fantastic Thithi (2015), the 36-year-old filmmaker might not even have been conscious of it.

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Sun, September 14 2025

Sat, September 13 2025

Though the film moves languidly, there is a sense of urgency, a premonition that engulfs you just as fires would

Life is real, life is magical. And when a movie brings these two elements of reality and fantasy together, which doesn’t happen too often in the Indian film industry, the result can be a thing of beauty, a joy to behold. As it is with director Raam Reddy, of National Award-winning film ‘Thithi’ fame, whose Hindi feature ‘Jugnuma: The Fable’ literally grows on you and glows like fireflies. The title itself tells you that the subject at hand is surreal. The very first scene, in which we see Manoj Bajpayee flying with a wing-like contraption, tells you that nothing is what it seems. There is a fable at play which comes rather innocuously in the narrative. Set in the 1980s in Himalayan mountains, shot close to the Indo-Nepal border, the pace is as idyllic as the setting. Bajpayee as Dev is the owner of vast orchards, which he has inherited down the family line from his ancestors, who served the British masters. Deepak Dobriyal, whom we are so used to seeing in comic parts, has an equally significant and sombre part. He is not only the manager of the estate but also the commentator letting us into the twists and turns, the inner crevices of the story. Not that this is a whodunit mystery that makes you sit on tenterhooks. If you have seen the trailer, you know fires will soon engulf this beautiful orchard.

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Mon, September 15 2025

In a conversation with Subha J Rao, 24-year-old filmmaker Sarthak Hegde discusses Green Girl, his film that explores religious intolerance in coastal Karnataka and its impact on a young couple.gree-girl

THERE’S A SHOT in Sarthak Hegde’s featurette Green Girl, where Ameena (a splendid Sucharita) and Jeevan (Mayur Gowda lives the role) speak about where they want to live, and later sit in companionable silence — he helps her with the lighter, she smokes, he is never tempted to. In that tiny space of freedom, the young couple lets the other be — their love encompasses, but also lets the individual in them thrive. That’s also why Ameena tries telling Jeevan not to get involved with a brash set of boys and men who affiliate themselves with a religion. But when he does not listen, she lets it be. He is also her safe space, and she’s herself with him.

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Sat, September 13 2025

‘सैयारा’, ‘धड़क 2’ और ‘परम सुंदरी’ जैसी फिल्मों के बाद अब एक और लव स्टोरी सिनेमाघरों में पहुंची है। नाम है ‘लव इन वियतनाम’। हालांकि, यह प्रेम कहानी कहीं भी परवान चढ़ सकती थी, लेकिन फिल्म में जिस तरह वियतनाम टूरिज्म और एयरलाइन्स का प्रचार किया गया है, उससे वजह साफ हो जाती है। कहानी पंजाब में शुरू होती है, जहां मानव (शांतनु माहेश्वरी) अपने बड़े पापा (राज बब्बर) की तरह सिंगर बनना चाहता है। लेकिन बड़े पापा ने एक दिन अचानक गाना छोड़ दिया था, जिसकी वजह पूरी फिल्म में पता नहीं चलती। अब वह गायिकी को इतना नापसंद करते हैं कि मानव के चोरी-छिपे गाने पर उसे एडवांस खेती सीखने वियतनाम भेज देते हैं। साथ में बड़े पापा की चहेती और उसके बचपन की साथी सिमी (अवनीत कौर) भी जाती है। सिमी का बचपन से एक ही सपना है, मानव की दुल्हन बनना। जबकि, मानव वियतनाम में एक आर्ट गैलरी में लगी तस्वीर को देखकर उसके प्यार में इस कदर पागल हो जाता है कि दिन रात बस उसी लड़की को ढूंढ़ता रहता है।

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Sat, September 13 2025

Karthik Gattamneni’s 'Mirai' wants to fuse faith, science, history, and myth into a sweeping epic, but ends up straining both logic and belief

It is irritating when religious people use science to explain faith—the language of energy, Einstein, vibrations, frequency etc. to rationalise how blessings and prayers work, for example. (If your prayer is an action, the blessing is the equal and opposite reaction, so the lore goes) Faith operates on a logic that is different from science, and appropriating the language of reason to express the contours of belief, is like demanding the heart to breathe. It is also why the religious film and the science fiction film have been kept apart, because their pursuits, pitch, and parlance seem to walk in different directions. That was until Hanu-Man starring Teja Sajja last year blew those borders apart, to tell a story that, though riddled with the flaws of both genres—too much faith, too much reason—was also packed with the joys of those genres—the joyful imagination, the pungent staging. It built its mythical world on the quirky possibilities of our present, remember the women pickling in the backdrop of a pulping?

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Sat, September 13 2025

Mirai is no ordinary stick. It’s a divine staff, the use of which baffles rudderless young Super Yodha (Teja Sajja) who must dedicate his life to a mission where the Mirai will work its miracles and help him succeed. Writer-director-cinematographer Karthik Gattamneni goes time-trotting and globe-trotting. Hark back to the times of Emperor Ashoka, glimpse at Lord Rama and Hanuman. Also go futuristic with set action pieces overloaded with VFX. Move from the Himalayas, Varanasi, Morocco, Hyderabad and Japan to hidden temples, the Kumb Mela and faraway islands. The target is simple: Super Yodha must save the nine granths or scriptures from falling into the hands of Mahabir, a dark force (Manchu Manoj who must wear black). He has already misused his tantrik powers and gained even more strength from eight granths. Super Yodha must save the ninth.

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Sat, September 13 2025