Sat, October 3 2026

Director Jason Sanjay's Sigma is a heist drama starring Sundeep Kishan, Faria Abdullah and Sampath Raj. The film is replete with stale ideas that are executed with the least care, making for a frustrating watch.

A bunch of dim-wits. Crores of money. A villain desperately hunting for a pen drive or a key. Police officers and investigators who invariably arrive at the scene only after everything has already happened. Several heist dramas have adorned the big screen over the years. Will CM Vijay’s son, Jason Sanjay, deliver something new with this heist drama titled Sigma built around new-age ideas? Let’s find out.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Sundeep Kishan and Faria Abdullah lead debut director Jason Sanjay’s heist-action drama, which has some interesting ideas but ultimately struggles to break new ground

Storylines exploring the nexus between illegal gambling dens and crime networks have been overdone in Indian cinema. Within the heist-action genre, it is rare to find something that feels new. The title of Sundeep Kishan and Faria Abdullah’s Tamil film, Sigma, alludes to the Gen Z idea of a “cool quotient” and an underdog protagonist navigating chaos. The film has been in the news because it marks the directorial debut of Jason Sanjay, son of Tamil actor and Chief Minister Vijay. Like Aryan Khan, Jason has chosen to work behind the camera rather than in front of it for his debut.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Burdened by logical loopholes, shallow writing and jarring technical flaws, Jason Sanjay's directorial debut tries hard to be a slick heist thriller but ends up as an incoherent mess

Guru (Sandeep Kishan), the protagonist of Sigma, is a struggling library owner and podcaster. He lives in an inherited, dilapidated bungalow that doubles as a library—a space his late mother cherished and asked him to protect. However, along with the property, he has inherited a crippling debt of Rs 1.5 crore from his late father, leaving him struggling to make ends meet. Strangely, in the many scenes set in the library, we see only books on engineering and various other study course/exam

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Sat, October 3 2026

Director Balaji Tharaneetharan's Baththa, starring Vijay Sethupathi, Lijomol Jose and Sai Prithvi Raj, is a moving comedy drama that's wholesome and beautiful. With minor shortcomings, the film brings laughter and emotion effortlessly.

A dreaded don sees life in a certain way — he wants everyone to be afraid of him and think twice before approaching him. He almost achieves it, too. But when he strips himself of his carefully built persona, who is he? Is he someone he can be proud of? And what happens when a child unintentionally gives him a reality check? Director Balaji Tharaneetharan’s Baththa takes this concept and turns it into a wholesome drama that is equally fun and emotional.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Baththa, played by Vijay Sethupathi, is a frightening gangster. He is driven by ego, and no threat scares him. At home, he casually slaps his wife, throws a plate full of food, yells at his daughter. And he seems to be getting away with everything. So, you really wonder who’s gonna put him in his place. Balaji Tharaneetharan’s film hints that an assassination attempt is on the cards. But as it turns out, Baththa’s most dangerous adversary is not a gangster, not some man who defeats him in size and strength. Instead, it’s the opposite. His reckoning comes in the form of a little, meek boy. Baththa is full of such gorgeous ideas. The tender beauty of a child’s innocence serving as a mirror to such a gangster feels almost like a ‘pure cinema’ idea. For an entire half, Baththa is stuck in a school toilet, isolated and unable to get out. The premise seems almost like it might potentially get a bit too indulgent, a bit too static, maybe test your patience a bit. But Balaji’s Baththa is magnificently kinetic.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Director Shashank Yeleti’s Telugu film has hilarious moments and a delightful lead trio, but dull stretches and repetitive magic tricks keep it from becoming the full-on fun children’s film it could have been

Don’t Trouble The Trouble, written and directed by Shashank Yeleti, marks Fahadh Faasil’s first Telugu film as a solo lead. The film is an example of what it could have been versus what it actually is. Aiming to appeal to children and the childlike in adults, it makes for an easy watch without violence or gore. Some genuinely funny moments had children and adults in the hall cheering, but the narrative also has stretches that offer little excitement. The three principal actors — Fahadh Faasil, child actor Ssara Palekar and the adorable beagle Snoopy — are fantastic. Shashank has some fun ideas, from Aladdin and his magic lamp to an invisible character seen only by two characters and spells that should appeal to Potterheads. But not all of these ideas translate into an immersive experience.

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Fri, October 2 2026

The flat Hindi remake of ‘Premalu’ stars Vir Pahariya as a weepy slacker who somehow discovers love through the language of rejection

A mainstream remake of a non-Hindi-language movie is often a license to hijack, not adapt. If the original depends more on the treatment and cultural rhythm of an old formula, the imposter has nowhere to hide. Girish A.D.’s Malayalam romcom Premalu was about the scrambled identity of love and ambition for middle-class strivers who enter the adult world; it isn’t perfect (especially a copout airport climax), but the humorous ‘youngness’ of the film sells the point. But Apoorv Singh Karki’s Prem Keetanu is flattened by its Bollywood habits. It is tonally greedy, and the gentrified story is demarcated into genres: it starts out as a TVF-style campus-slacker comedy, morphs into a loud love triangle, collapses into echoes of an obsession tale, briefly flirts with the idea of a coming-of-age drama, and ends as a lightweight romcom. It has the grammar of a music-video montage, where every genre behaves like an entitled lover fending off one another to woo the reluctant viewer.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Colleen Hoover has filled many of those airport bookstores and this one ought to have stayed there, and never crossed the desks of Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson or Josh Hartnett.

“I don’t read novels one can get at an airport,” declares Lowen (Dakota Johnson). Which is her way of saying that her books are “not popular”, but that they need not be. This is after she has taken up the offer to ghost-write for one very popular writer (Verity, played by Anne Hathaway) because, well, who doesn’t need money? As you may have guessed by now, neither does much writing in this latest Colleen Hoover book to be made into a film. When Lowen does find herself behind a computer, she is mostly rubbing her face or stretching or sighing. She also fills up a room with handwritten notes, laid out across couches and carpet, as part of her “process”.

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Fri, October 2 2026

जैसे हर सिक्के के दो पहलू होते हैं, वैसे ही हर किसी का अपना सच होता है। एक ही बात को अलग-अलग इंसान, अलग-अलग नजरिए से देखते हैं। इसलिए, सवाल यह है कि किसके सच पर भरोसा किया जाए और इसी उलझन में दर्शकों को डूबने-उतरने पर मजबूर करती है हॉलीवुड फिल्म ‘वेरिटी’। ऐनी हैथवे और डकोटा जॉनसन जैसे दो बेहतरीन और हसीन एक्‍ट्रेसेस से सजी यह साइकोलॉजिकल थ्र‍िलर फिल्‍म मशहूर लेखिका कोलीन हूवर के चर्चित उपन्यास पर आधारित है। सच की धुंध इस थ्रिलर की ताकत भी है और कमजोरी भी, क्योंकि कहानी का रहस्य आपको तो बांधता है, पर कंफ्यूज भी करता है।

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Thu, October 1 2026

Verity is one of those psychological thrillers where, once it starts, you find yourself glued to the screen, waiting to see what happens next. And honestly, how often does a thriller manage to do that?

Based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel of the same name, the film has been directed by Michael Showalter, who keeps the suspense alive through a steady stream of twists, secrets and revelations. Dakota Johnson plays Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who gets an unexpected opportunity when she is hired to complete the bestselling series of Verity Crawford, a successful author who is now bedridden and unable to continue writing. Verity’s husband Jeremy and her publishers want Lowen to take over the series, but there’s a catch: she has to move into the Crawford family home in Vermont and go through Verity’s work — her manuscripts, notes, documents and everything she has left behind.

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Fri, October 2 2026

The 16-episode comedy series headlined by Neena Gupta goes for broke in search for belly laughs and pockets of charm

How do you review last-gen media? Watching Chumbak is a bit like watching your parents, grandparents and assorted relatives put on a play: you nod encouragingly, laugh at the one-liners (if they’re good), and, when no one’s looking, merrily go back to scrolling your phone. The show and its makers expect no better. These, after all, were the unassuming standards set by broadcast TV — by benign yet brain-scrambling sitcoms like Khichdi, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and Baa Bahoo Aur Baby. This is a throwback to those times. That Chumbak is one of the top shows on Netflix India, in 2026, is revealing. The TV-fication of Indian streaming is complete.

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Thu, September 10 2026

Five quirky families in Chumbak Colony deal with chaotic conflicts and hilarious antics as neighbours. An elderly couple, Rajni and Kuku, decide to divorce, creating ripples through the neighbourhood. From court agreements and secret affairs to unexpected runaways, their everyday life becomes a series of crises as the couples confront challenges in their relationships. Neena Gupta and Sumeet Vyas keep the tone of their performances in check amidst the chaos. They don’t try to oversell the characters or the writing and manage to hold fort. Anant Joshi’s flair for humour comes to the fore occasionally, while Sandeepa Dhar, Amyra Dastur and Arjun Bijilani pass muster. Manasi Parekh is strictly okay. Helly Shah, Sumeet Raghavan, Delnaaz Irani and Deven Bhojani go quite overboard in shallow roles.

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Fri, October 2 2026

I wanted to like Mike Flanagan’s Carrie. I really did. I’m fond of Flanagan’s work in general. And in particular, I adore his takes on Stephen King’s stories. If somebody was going to convince me that Carrie needed eight episodes, he seemed a good bet. Having watched them, however, I’m still wondering why this needed to be a series. It is packed with good performances across the board. The series departs from the novel in ways that are at lest worth discussing. And overall, it is a competent retelling. But the longer it goes on, the more its achievements feel like reasons to admire individual scenes rather than recommend the whole thing.

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Fri, October 2 2026

The English-Telugu film is a Jane Austen-esque take on the evolution of its protagonists — two female cousins and their common male friend

For an industry with such far-reaching influence, Telugu cinema has a relatively notorious track record when it comes to representing modern-day urban women in all their complexity. It is tempting to generalise that most films fail to get it right. Impure, a Tenglish (a mix of English and Telugu) film marking Nishanti Evani’s feature debut, liberates its women from linearity and allows them to breathe. They are messy, frustrated, confused, lonely and lost all at once; they have desires and are finding their way through love and career.

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Thu, October 1 2026

The latest retelling of John Steinbeck's classic novel by Zoe Kazan is an ambitious, sprawling saga that attempts to do justice to the author's work.

In 1955, Elia Kazan directed the James Dean starrer, East of Eden, which followed the last part of John Steinbeck’s semi-autobiographical 1952 novel. Dean played Cal Trask, who fights for his father’s love alongside his perfect brother Aron. A new Netflix limited series on the material, written and showrun by Elia’s granddaughter, Zoe Kazan, goes deep into the novel, exploring the Biblical themes, characters and the promise of America at the turn of the century. Backed by a strong cast, East of Eden follows the doomed marriage of Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Cathy (Florence Pugh) that spills over its sins to the next generation. Finely acted, the ambitious and largely faithful period drama really gets into the characterisation from the novel, while also immersing viewers into its self-righteous world.

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Thu, October 1 2026

East of Eden broke my heart more often through its supposedly good father than its murderous mother. That’s where this uneven adaptation finds its strongest drama. Zoe Kazan’s departure from John Steinbeck’s treatment of Cathy is welcome, but the series spends too much time explaining cruelty that Florence Pugh makes compelling enough. It’s more affecting when it follows the damage parents pass to their children. Those family conflicts give its ideas about choice a force the explanations often lack. Let’s dive in.

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Wed, September 30 2026

Any publicity is good publicity. Any act of social reform can be justified if the intent is right. Primetime asks the colder question underneath both slogans: how far can that intent be stretched before the act itself is the product? Lance Oppenheim’s first narrative feature, adapted from Luke Dittrich’s Esquire piece “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” does not treat To Catch a Predator as a curiosity from the MySpace years. It treats it as a machine. Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) works the chatrooms, then the doorway, then the camera. NBC has given him primetime. ABC’s Lost is eating the other side of the dial. The numbers have to land.

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Mon, September 28 2026

Chris Hansen, a self-styled arbiter to dispense social justice, is far from a hero. He’s shown to be a philanderer, even getting caught by a gossip website. Robert Pattinson understands this dichotomy, and plays it incredibly well.

In the last few years, a strange but recognisable character has emerged on social media feeds: the lifestyle influencer. Preying on our voyeuristic tendencies, some of them stand at the junction of substance and salaciousness. Every trending topic becomes an opportunity to package their grandstanding as introspection, and monetise their exhibitionism. It’s an endless repository for ‘content’, and it is only a matter of time before the dopamine spikes (surrounding engagement) begin to sidestep the ethical quagmires. I was reminded of lifestyle influencers a lot while watching Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime, because before one could peek into people’s lives through phones, there was reality TV. Even though To Catch A Predator (on NBC) started out as an exposé on creepy men soliciting sex from minors, the quest for ratings and well-known host Chris Hansen’s ambition, turned a news piece into a muggy, diseased version of the American dream.

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Sat, September 26 2026

Wed, September 30 2026

Don’t Be Shy, the new Prime Video original movie directed by Sreeti Mukerji and produced by Alia Bhatt, is a coming-of-age drama that fundamentally undercooks its characters. We discuss how the film’s bloated, two-hour-plus runtime wastes the potential of its unlikable protagonist and buries meaningful character development under unnecessary musical numbers and low-stakes college fest drama. We also talk about the frustratingly dated, millennial-coded writing that relies on tired “gym bro” tropes, superficial relationships, and corporate internship aspirations. Along the way, we lament the underutilisation of Kunaal Roy Kapur’s professor character, question the afterthought inclusion of chapter markers, and wonder when Bollywood will finally level up to the standard of Hollywood coming-of-age films from the 2000s, let alone the modern era.

Sat, September 26 2026

Don't Be Shy, backed by Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt, and directed by Sriti Mukerji, tells the story of an ambitious and controlling Shy. While the film is well-intended, the makers never go the extra mile to tell an effective story

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.

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Fri, September 25 2026

1998 में जब करण जौहर ‘कुछ कुछ होता है’ लेकर आए थे तो दर्शक सोचते थे कि अपने देश में कहां पर होते हैं ऐसे कॉलेज जिनमें इतनी रंगीनी हो, इतनी चमक-दमक हो, जहां पढ़ाई के अलावा सब कुछ होता हो…? लेकिन वह फिल्म सुहानी हवा के झोंके की तरह आई थी। आर्चीज़ कॉमिक्स से निकली कहानी, कसी हुई स्क्रिप्ट, सधा हुआ निर्देशन, बड़े सितारे, शानदार म्यूज़िक और… फिल्म सुपरहिट। इसके 14 बरस बाद एक बार फिर करण जौहर ‘स्टूडैंट ऑफ द ईयर’ लेकर आए तो हम दर्शक फिर हैरान हुए कि यार, कहां होते हैं ऐसे स्कूल-कॉलेज जिनमें इस तरह की भौंडी हरकतें होती हों, इस तरह के चमकीले जीव ‘पढ़ाई’ के नाम पर फूहड़ता करते हों। लेकिन यह फिल्म भी अपनी चमक-दमक और रसीले एंटरटेनमैंट के चलते युवा दर्शकों को ही सही, पसंद आ गई थी।

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Tue, September 29 2026

In Shivam Shankar’s 30-minute short, the public washroom becomes the outlet of anger, diss, desire and unfiltered opinions for citizens of a choked country

A public toilet becomes the contained outlet for the public’s rage in Bhed Bakri Bhoot, a 30-minute short helmed by Shivam Shankar. It all starts with a heartbreak. A jilted lover, a marriage-band player of everyone, scratches “Shalu I hate you” on the yellowing wall, as the trumpets of his paramour’s wedding procession blare the tale of his pain in the background. This wall becomes the writing slate of disses and desires. Everybody from a runaway bride stood up by her lover to a journalist quitting his job to an escaped convict, pens their opinion on the wall, venting out their frustrations.

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