Balan: The Boy
Drama (Malayalam)
A teenage boy searches for his missing mother following a turbulent childhood and her subsequent disappearance, exploring his search for closure and the truth about his past. (more…)
Main Vaapas Aaunga
Romance, Drama (Hindi)
An elderly man remains haunted by a childhood romance and memories of love lost during the 1947 Partition of India. As he shares his story with his grandson, the past unfolds through memories of migration, longing, and a love that (more…)
Maa Inti Bangaaram
Action, Thriller, Drama (Telugu)
Through both her moments of fear and bravery, a woman discovers that embracing her vulnerabilities is as vital to her inner strength as facing challenges head-on. (more…)
Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata
Drama, Thriller (Hindi)
Inside Cama Hospital, one of the sites targeted during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, nurses, ward boys, cleaners, lift operators, security personnel, and administrative workers keep 400 people alive while armed assailants struck the city around them. (more…)
Toy Story 5
Animation, Family, Comedy, Adventure (English)
When Bonnie receives a Lilypad tablet as a gift and becomes obsessed, Buzz, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang's jobs become exponentially harder when they have to go head to head with the all-new threat to playtime. (more…)
Guild Reviews by Film
Balan: The Boy
Drama (Malayalam)
A teenage boy searches for his missing mother following a turbulent childhood and her subsequent disappearance, exploring his search for closure and the truth about his past.
Cast:
Adhisheshan K R, Farzana Palathingal, Tovino Thomas, Lal Jr., Chandu Salimkumar, Girish A. D., Beena Antony, Muhammed Zinaan, Dolly June, Anand Ekarshi
Director:
Chidambaram
Writer:
Jithu Madhavan
Tue, June 23 2026
Sun, June 21 2026
‘Balan: The Boy’, from Chidambaram, director of ‘Manjummel Boys’, is at different times a thriller, home invasion film, procedural and melodrama.
There is an incredible time jump a little over halfway into Chidambaram’s Balan: The Boy. A police station hide and seek battle between a police constable and a lost little boy (Adiseshan) occurs in parallel with the search for his identity, conducted by the police officer, the one who’s given the constable babysitting duties. We move between the officer’s investigation outside and the game in the station as the nonplussed constable launches a frenetic search only to hit a wall. With a medium size hole in it small enough for the boy to crawl through. A painful realization dawns on her face and a match cut takes us to a bus window with the solitary face of a teenager speaking a language from another part of India. The whole sequence is hardly a few minutes long, but Chidambaram, cinematographer Shyju Khalid and editor Vivek Harshan take us on such a delirious ride that we transcend time.
Sat, June 20 2026
A painful ode to lost innocence and a boyhood that never was—a heartrending drama about a son's search for his mother, even when the film wanders a little too far from its core.
The Boy, directed by Chidambaram, calling it a painful ode to lost innocence and a boyhood that never was—a heartrending drama about a son’s search for his mother, even when the film wanders a little too far from its core. Vishal admires how unengineered the storytelling feels; rather than a constructed plot, it plays like someone recalling the most vivid memories that defined his childhood. He traces Indhu (Farzana), who gave birth to the titular Balan in prison, as she and her son move from city to city, terrain to terrain, even religion to religion, assuming fresh identities and back stories while she reminds herself to trust no one. Vishal lingers on the duo’s outlaw spirit, the recurring sense of the past catching up with them, and the moments—a shopkeeper’s request, a marriage proposal, a heart-shaped earring—that each become Indhu’s cue to flee.
Cocktail 2
Romance, Comedy (Hindi)
After a decade together, Diya and Kunal's relationship is shaken when Ally, an old friend, re-enters their lives. What begins as a plan between two women spirals into chaos, triggering hilarious, emotional rollercoaster none of them saw coming.
Cast:
Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, Rashmika Mandanna, Rohit Saraf, Dimple Kapadia, Arjun Rampal, Ishita Dutta, Sanjay Dutt
Director:
Homi Adajania
Writer:
Luv Ranjan
Tue, June 23 2026
The Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, Rashmika Mandanna starrer broaches the right questions about relationships, but doesn't dive deep enough to offer potent answers
Be practical (read: boring and safe) or free-spirited (read: fun and unpredictable)? That’s the life-defining choice Kunal (Shahid Kapoor) has to make by the end of two hours and 30 minutes of Homi Adajania’s Cocktail 2. It sees the audience go from drab Delhi to sunny, sandy and scenic Sicily and back to drab Delhi, witness an excess of sartorial flourishes from costume designer Anaita Shroff Adajania and watch the trio—Ally (Kriti Sanon), Diya (Rashmika Mandanna) and Kunal—laugh their way through life to such extravagance that your own cheeks hurt at their expense.
Mon, June 22 2026
Whether fidelity constitutes a decisive factor in a relationship depends largely on the expectations, boundaries, and understandings negotiated by the partners themselves. While traditional marriage has historically placed a premium on sexual and emotional exclusivity, contemporary relationship dynamics reveal a far more nuanced spectrum of beliefs about what ultimately sustains a successful partnership. Cinema, however—particularly Hindi cinema—has often lagged behind these evolving realities. For decades, the screen was populated by self-abnegating heroines, memorably portrayed by actors such as Meena Kumari, Mala Sinha, and Nanda, women who seemed almost eager to embrace suffering as proof of devotion. Their emotional universe was encapsulated in the oft-quoted refrain: “Hai isi mein pyar ki aabroo, woh jafa kare, main wafa karoon”—loosely translated as, “The true honour of love lies in remaining faithful and devoted even when the beloved is cruel or unfaithful.”
Sat, June 20 2026
Main Vaapas Aaunga
Romance, Drama (Hindi)
An elderly man remains haunted by a childhood romance and memories of love lost during the 1947 Partition of India. As he shares his story with his grandson, the past unfolds through memories of migration, longing, and a love that endures across generations.
Cast:
Vedang Raina, Sharvari, Diljit Dosanjh, Naseeruddin Shah, Danish Pandor, Anjana Sukhani, Rajat Kapoor, Sanjay Suri, Manish Chaudhary, Vinod Nagpal
Director:
Imtiaz Ali
Writer:
Imtiaz Ali, Nayanika Mahtani
Sun, June 21 2026
Naseeruddin Shah headlines a film about love and loss and longing.
It has been a week since the end credits rolled for Imtiaz Ali’s Main Wapas Aaunga, but the film has been playing non-stop inside my head and heart. It has been peeling itself, layer by layer, to reveal the nuances that might have been missed when you were bawling your heart out for a love lost, and people displaced. This is the second movie this year to pay spiritual homage to Sargodha — the first was Sriram Raghavan’s tender anti-war film Ikkis, about war hero Arul Khetarpal. I confess I saw the movie through the many stories of escape I had heard in my six years (1997-2003) in Delhi, living in Old Rajinder Nagar, one of the colonies the refugees settled in. Many Papajis and Maajis still shed salty tears for their Pind, for the people, potted plants and property they left behind, never to return to. As we knitted on chill winter mornings when the sun played peekaboo, the creases on Maaji’s face softened, and yet another past memory resurfaced.
Tue, June 16 2026
In the end, Imtiaz Ali, though sometimes full of feeling, seems full of sermonising.
In a scene during Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga, when Nirvair (Diljit Dosanjh) takes the stage at an open mic in London, I braced myself. In my head, Ali is notorious for dipping his toes in subcultures he considers ‘hip and trendy’ (like stand-up comedy here, fresco painting in 2009’s Love Aaj Kal) – including them as passing details in a film, never to be brought up again. Over here, it’s used to establish Nirvair as a young wastrel (from a wealthy family in Amritsar) coasting through life. He can’t stick to a job for more than two months, he can’t commit to his girlfriend, Kaveri (Banita Sandhu). His father (Rajat Kapoor) asks, “Why do you keep running?” – a narrative failsafe, lest the metaphor be lost on someone unfamiliar with an escapist Imtiaz Ali protagonist.
Mon, June 15 2026
At a time when the politics of hostility has engulfed the world and escalated it into senseless wars Main Vaapas Aaunga's unwavering belief in love is a testament to cinema's uplifting gifts
Survivors of Partition could never truly move on as the horrors it brought on continued to haunt their hearts for the rest of their days. So did the hope to see their home once in their lifetime. They never really believed they won’t be able to return ever again. I’ve heard of the displacement and a desire to revisit their home in stories of my grandparent-in-laws. They, like many others, on both sides of the border, died without getting their wish fulfilled. Scenes of burying their wealth in the backyard with hopes of reclaiming it on return, fleeing bloodthirsty foes on the other side with the help of friends from the same community or women wearing a vial of poison around their necks in the event of violent mob attacks, days and days of uncertainty spent in camps would become stories of staying alive. One that flocks of homeless and heartbroken refugees, like my relatives, would remember and remind generations to come.
Maa Inti Bangaaram
Action, Thriller, Drama (Telugu)
Through both her moments of fear and bravery, a woman discovers that embracing her vulnerabilities is as vital to her inner strength as facing challenges head-on.
Cast:
Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Gulshan Devaiah, Diganth Manchale, Gautami Tadimalla, Anand, Sreemukhi, Srilakshmi, Manjusha Mukkavilli, Chaitanya Krishna, Srinivas Gavireddy
Director:
B. V. Nandini Reddy
Writer:
Shantharuban Gnanasekaran, Sita Menon, Vasanth Maringanti, Raj Nidimoru
Sat, June 20 2026
ஸ்வர்ணாவை (சமந்தா) காதல் திருமணம் செய்ததால், அனிருத் (திகந்த்) தன் குடும்பத்திடமிருந்து பிரிந்திருக்க வேண்டிய நிலை. மீண்டும் அதில் இணைய ஒரு வாய்ப்பு கிட்ட, அந்தப் பெரிய கூட்டுக் குடும்பத்தின் முழுமையான அன்பைப் பெற்று, அந்த வீட்டின் ‘எங்கள் தங்கமாக’ (மா இண்டி பங்காரம்) ஜொலிப்பதை லட்சியமாக ஏற்கிறார் மருமகள் ஸ்வர்ணா. ஆனால் ஸ்வர்ணாவின் இந்த அமைதியான வாழ்க்கைக்குப் பின்னால், ரத்தச் சிவப்பான, வன்முறை நிறைந்த ஒரு இருண்ட முன்கதை இருக்கிறது. பல வருடங்களாக மறைத்து வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த அந்த ரகசியம், எதிர்பாராத விதமாகக் கொடூரமான வில்லன் கருணாவால் (குல்ஷன் தேவைய்யா) வெளிச்சத்திற்கு வருகிறது. தனது அன்பான குடும்பத்திற்கு வரும் ஆபத்தை ஸ்வர்ணா ஆக்ஷன் மோடில் எப்படிக் கையாண்டார் என்பதே ‘மா இண்டி பங்காரம்’ (தமிழில் ‘எங்கள் தங்கம்’).
Sat, June 20 2026
Director Nandini Reddy's Maa Inti Bangaaram, starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Gulshan Devaiah, is a female-led commercial film with great action. It is also a film that proves women can headline an action drama and do it convincingly.
An orthodox family preparing for a wedding. A couple who eloped three years ago returns to the family and their village, hoping for acceptance. The protagonist is worried if all will go well. Meanwhile, the protagonist’s past comes to haunt the family. And the character, backed by a massy background score, is ready to put her life on the line to protect the family. Sounds like a usual commercial drama, isn’t it? Now, picture a woman, in a saree, holding guns, and machetes and sickles, all for her family. That’s what Maa Inti Bangaaram is all about. Swarna (Samantha) and her ‘green forest’ husband Anirudh (Diganth Manchale) arrive at her in-laws village home to attend her sister-in-law’s wedding. The couple is meeting their family for the first time in three years after getting married against their parents’ wishes. In an attempt to win the family’s acceptance, Swarna does everything to impress her new family.
Sat, June 20 2026
Samantha Ruth Prabhu convincingly embraces a mass-action avatar in Nandini Reddy’s family drama, but a familiar template and underwritten twists keep the film from realising its full potential
At the end of Maa Inti Bangaaram (MIB), I kept thinking about what it could have been had the team gone all out with its blend of action entertainer and family drama. Telugu cinema rarely presents a sari-clad female protagonist who can deliver punches powerful enough to send shivers down the spines of thugs. That role belongs to actor-producer Samantha Ruth Prabhu, who once again makes her action sequences convincing. The audience cheers during the high moments; that kind of stardom is earned over time. Samantha’s third outing with director Nandini Reddy, co-produced by Raj Nidimoru, has plenty going for it. Parts of the film are genuinely enjoyable, blending humour, subtle social commentary and action. It remains immensely watchable but falls well short of being a standout.
Toy Story 5
Animation, Family, Comedy, Adventure (English)
When Bonnie receives a Lilypad tablet as a gift and becomes obsessed, Buzz, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang's jobs become exponentially harder when they have to go head to head with the all-new threat to playtime.
Cast:
Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Greta Lee, Conan O'Brien, Craig Robinson, Shelby Rabara, Tony Hale, Scarlett Spears, Jay Hernandez
Director:
Andrew Stanton
Sat, June 20 2026
Toy Story ranks among Hollywood’s longest-running animated franchises. More importantly, in an industry where sequels are often accused of existing primarily to generate revenue, the Toy Story films have consistently managed to be a few notches above the rest. The journey began in 1995 and, with its newest instalment, the franchise is still going strong. Crucially, it continues to keep itself relevant with changing times and audiences.
Sat, June 20 2026
With little meat on it but a Taylor Swift song and a $250 million budget, is as good a story of excess as any.
Child’s play has always been serious business in the Toy Story franchise. Now, it’s just business. The fifth iteration of this profitable Pixar franchise is way past its game and, more importantly, has lost its sense of play. The central idea is that tech and tablets are replacing toys and imagination. By the end, the central takeaway is that the twain can co-exist happily. After all, says a wisened Jessie/Sheriff (Cusack), once much water has flown under the bridge, the sole mission on Earth for all of them — the ageing Woody (Hanks) to smitten Buzz (Allen) to new-plaything-on-the-block Lilypad — is to be there for the kids when they need them, at the right moment.
Fri, June 19 2026
इंटरनेट और सोशल मीडिया के इस युग में बच्चों को मोबाइल या स्क्रीन से दूर रखना आज हर माता-पिता के लिए सबसे बड़ी चुनौती है। बच्चे खेल और खिलौने छोड़कर इंटरनेट की वर्चुअल दुनिया में गुम होते जा रहे हैं। इसी मौजू विषय को मनोरंजक अंदाज में दिखाती है ‘टॉय स्टोरी 5’, जो दुनियाभर के बच्चों की पसंदीदा एनिमेशन फिल्म है। करीब 30 साल पहले 1995 में शुरू हुई ‘टॉय स्टोरी’ ऐसी कामयाब फ्रेंचाइजी रही है, जो बच्चों के साथ उनके माता-पिता को भी लुभाती रही है। अब शुक्रवार 19 जून 2026 को ‘टॉय स्टोरी’ की पांचवी कड़ी सिनेमाघरों में रिलीज हुई है। हालांकि, यह पहले जैसा प्रभाव नहीं छोड़ती, लेकिन बच्चों को मनोरंजन के साथ अच्छा सबक जरूर देती है।
Colony
Action, Thriller, Horror (Korean)
Professor Se-jeong is thrust into a bloody nightmare when a rapidly mutating virus is released during a biotech conference causing authorities to seal the facility. Trapped inside with no escape, Se-jeong along with a small group of survivors must fight to stay alive while the infected undergo horrific transformations.
Cast:
Gianna Jun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Kim Shin-rock, Shin Hyun-been, Go Soo, Lee Jung-ok, Kim Jong-tae, Hwang Jae-yeol, Lee Dam-hee
Director:
Yeon Sang-ho
Writer:
Yeon Sang-ho, Choi Gyu-seok
Fri, June 19 2026
The action unfolds inside a massive office tower in the middle of a densely populated city, when a disgruntled scientist launches a bioterror attack during a seminar conducted by his former partner.
A sporadically clever but ultimately convoluted affair, Colony is somehow both underwritten and over-plotted. The Korean horror-thriller marks a long-awaited return to the zombie genre for director Yeon Sang-ho, who broke out internationally almost exactly a decade ago with the clutter-breaking horror hit Train to Busan. That film took a deceptively simple premise, injected it with some old-fashioned melodrama, and managed to appeal both to Western and Asian sensibilities. In the subsequent decade, Yeon has remained highly sought-after, having directed several movies and as many as three Netflix shows. With Colony, he returns to his roots, armed with a bigger budget, seemingly brighter ideas, and a significantly larger canvas to splatter with gore and other grimy fluids.
Sugar S02
Drama, Mystery (English)
An enigmatic private detective struggles with personal demons as he investigates the disappearance of a Hollywood producer's beloved granddaughter.
Cast:
Colin Farrell, Jin Ha, Tony Dalton, Raymond Lee, Laura Donnelly, Sasha Calle, Shea Whigham
Fri, June 19 2026
Created by Mark Protosevich, the Colin Farrell-led drama sees the actor as a mysterious private investigator who's hiding a big secret
After dropping the biggest shocker about its lead character, John Sugar (Colin Farrell), in the first season, Sugar moves back into being a moody neo-noir about a detective trying to track down a missing person. The original series by Apple TV puts the reveal of Sugar’s otherworldly secret aside and builds a story around corruption, betrayal and greed, all things that are alien to him (pun intended). The eight-part series continues with its homages to old Hollywood as the cinephile private detective attempts to reunite two boxer brothers. With some new faces in the second season, Farrell slips back into detective mode as the layered drama keeps viewers interested.
Disclosure Day
Science Fiction, Thriller, Action (English)
If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?
Cast:
Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell, Elizabeth Marvel, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Michael Gaston, Gabby Beans
Director:
Steven Spielberg
Tue, June 16 2026
Even though Disclosure Day is far from his best work, in the age of frictionless perfection, there is something oddly reassuring about watching Spielberg get it wrong.
When Steven Spielberg made Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), extraterrestrial life forms were a dining-table conversation, shrouded in mystery and wonder. As his latest venture Disclosure Day releases, aliens, ‘unidentified flying objects’ (UFOs) and deep-state military complexes unfortunately appear more often in the message boards of alt-right conspiracy theorists – folks caricatured beyond redemption in popular culture. This is the first significant difference between the two Spielberg films, released 49 years apart, which might dictate the latter’s reception. Another thing working against Spielberg’s latest film is that it comes a decade after Arrival (2016), directed by Denis Villeneuve. The Amy Adams-starrer, based on humans making first contact with extraterrestrial beings, managed something rare: being both deeply philosophical about the human condition while also being a definitive anti-Spielberg film, with its devastating, open-ended climax prompting more questions than answers.
Tue, June 16 2026
என்பதாக டிவி சேனலில் அரங்கேறும் அந்த இறுதி அத்தியாயம் அட்டகாசமான திரை அனுபவம்! இதைத்தான் ஹாலிவுட் கடந்த சில வருடங்களாக மிஸ் செய்ததோ?!
சயின்ஸ் பிக்ஷன் - ஏலியன்ஸ் காம்போவில் ஸ்டீவன் ஸ்பீல்பெர்க் படம் என்றாலே அதற்கு எனத் தனி ரசிகர் பட்டாளம் உண்டு. ஏலியன்கள் குறித்து அவர் எடுத்த ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, ‘E.T. (Extra Terrestrial), ‘War of the Worlds’ என அனைத்துமே இன்றுவரை கிளாசிக்காகக் கொண்டாடப்படுகின்றன. அப்படிப்பட்ட தன் ஃபேவரைட் ஜானருக்குள் மீண்டும் நுழைந்திருக்கிறார் ஸ்பீல்பெர்க்! உலகமே மூன்றாம் உலகப்போர் குறித்த அச்சத்திலிருக்க, ‘வார்டெக்ஸ்’ (Wartex) என்ற நிறுவனத்தின் ரகசிய, பாதுகாக்கப்பட்ட கோப்புகளையும், ஒரு மர்மமான கருவியையும் திருடிவிடுகிறார் அந்நிறுவனத்தின் சைபர் செக்யூரிட்டியில் பணியாற்றும் டேனியல் கெல்னர் (ஜாஷ் ஓ’கானர்). அவரை அந்நிறுவனத்தின் சிஇஓ (காலின் ஃபிர்த்), தன் படைகளுடன் துரத்த, தன் காதலியுடன் தப்பி ஓடுகிறார் கெல்னர்.
Mon, June 15 2026
‘Disclosure Day’, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor, is a solid chase film but a muddled whistleblower drama and extraterrestrial story
When his compatriots were making paranoid thrillers in the 1970s, Spielberg was busy perfecting a different kind of film, one so successful it hastened the end of the New American Cinema. Years later, he made an excellent film about whistleblowers and journalists, set in 1971, called The Post (2017). His new film—set in the present day—is also a kind of paranoid thriller, yet it lacks the dread and the shadowy possibilities of the best ones. This is a genre that’s most effective when allusive, and Disclosure Day is both vague and too literal. When his compatriots were making paranoid thrillers in the 1970s, Spielberg was busy perfecting a different kind of film, one so successful it hastened the end of the New American Cinema. Years later, he made an excellent film about whistleblowers and journalists, set in 1971, called The Post (2017). His new film—set in the present day—is also a kind of paranoid thriller, yet it lacks the dread and the shadowy possibilities of the best ones. This is a genre that’s most effective when allusive, and Disclosure Day is both vague and too literal.
Sing Geetham
Comedy, Music, Drama (Telugu)
In an isolated village, young Prathap seeks opportunity but enters a world of deception. Drawn into uncontrollable forces, he's caught between progress and preservation, testing his beliefs and purpose.
Cast:
Ahilya Bamroo, Ayaan, Shalini Kondepudi, Tulasi, Sivannarayana Naripeddi, Banerjee, Racha Ravi, Vamshidhar Kosgi Goud, Agu Stanley Chiedozie, Vijay Deverakonda
Director:
Singeetam Srinivasa Rao
Writer:
Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, Shashank Chintalpudi, Rathna Sreekar, Rahul V Rajeshwar, Nanda Kishore, Gautami Challagulla
Tue, June 16 2026
The 94-year-old filmmaker’s dream project transforms a simple ecological message into an engaging musical experience and works as a clutter breaker in Telugu cinema
At a time when Telugu cinema seems trapped in the pursuit of pan-Indian ambitions, with big-budget productions often resting on weakly written stories, Sing Geetham is a refreshing departure. Directed by 94-year-old filmmaker Singeetham Srinivasa Rao, it serves as a timely reminder that the industry can still take leaps of faith and offer audiences something new. The story reflects on the futility of human greed while reinforcing the need to live in harmony with Nature. Its musical fantasy-drama format springs from childlike innocence and an audacity to defy stale box-office formulas. Bringing wings to Rao’s 40-year-old dream project is a talented cast and crew, with music composer Devi Sri Prasad serving as the film’s backbone.
Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata
Drama, Thriller (Hindi)
Inside Cama Hospital, one of the sites targeted during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, nurses, ward boys, cleaners, lift operators, security personnel, and administrative workers keep 400 people alive while armed assailants struck the city around them.
Cast:
Kangana Ranaut, Girija Oak, Smita Tambe, Esha Dey, Asha Shelar, Suhita Thatte, Rasika Agashe, Prasad Oak, Aditya Mishra, Vijay Gokhale
Director:
Manoj Tapadia
Writer:
Manoj Tapadia
Tue, June 16 2026
The Night Courage Walked the Hospital Corridors
Terror and terrorism admit of only one character: brutality. As such, they are beyond justification and ought to remain beyond forgiveness. Yet the stories that emerge from acts of terror are often far more complex and, at times, profoundly heroic—not from the perspective of the perpetrators, but from that of the victims, survivors, and those who rise in defiance of violence. After a string of commercial disappointments, Kangana Ranaut returns to the big screen with Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, a 127-minute dramatization of the extraordinary events that unfolded at Mumbai’s Cama and Albless Hospital during the horrific 26/11 terrorist attacks. Drawing upon real incidents and inspired by the courage of healthcare workers such as nurse Anjali Kulthe, who helped save more than twenty pregnant women, the film seeks to illuminate a chapter of the tragedy that remains insufficiently remembered.
Sat, June 13 2026
Cinematically, the first round of applause goes to Kangana Ranaut for not only playing Cama nurse Geeta Madhav Gandhare with professional efficiency but for also not overshadowing her colleagues Girija Oak, Smita Tambe and the others who play her fellow nurses. It is as an ensemble cast should be, screen time shared by all. In real life, a resounding round of applause has been long overdue for the feisty nurses of Cama who worked fearlessly and tirelessly on a night they were not trained for. Nobody was prepared for a terror attack on Mumbai where blood was splattered in restaurants, roads, railway stations, five-star hotels and a hospital.
Fri, June 12 2026
ड्यूटी फर्स्ट…! बस यह कहा और निकल गई काम पर। बीमार बच्चे को छोड़, अधूरा खाना छोड़, आधी नींद छोड़, फुनफुनाती सास को छोड़, भुनभुनाते पति को छोड़, खुद अपनी खराब तबियत को पीछे छोड़ वह पहुंची अस्पताल और यूनिफॉर्म पहनते ही उसके भीतर आ गई सुपर पॉवर। जी हां, यह होती है नर्स। ऐसी ही एक सुपर नर्स अंजलि कुल्थे और उन जैसे कई कर्मठ कर्मियों के साहस को सलाम करने आई है यह फिल्म जो न सिर्फ पूछती है बल्कि बताती भी है कि कौन हैं हमारे असली ‘भारत भाग्य विधाता’। 26 नवंबर, 2008 की उस मनहूस रात मुंबई की छाती को ज़ख्मी करने आए दस पाकिस्तानी आतंकियों में से दो इस्माइल खान व अजमल कसाब कामा अस्पताल में भी जा घुसे थे। तब महिलाओं और बच्चों के इस अस्पताल के स्टाफ ने साहस का परिचय देते हुए सारे मरीजों को यहां-वहां छुपा कर वार्ड के ताले व बत्तियां बंद कर उन्हें बचाया था। इसी स्टाफ में थीं नर्स अंजलि कुल्थे जिन्होंने उस रात न सिर्फ 20 गर्भवती महिलाओं को बचाया बल्कि बाद में ज़िंदा पकड़े गए एकमात्र आतंकी अजमल कसाब को पहचानने में पुलिस की मदद भी की थी। इस फिल्म की नर्स गीता का किरदार उन्हीं अंजलि से प्रेरित है।
Governor
Drama, Thriller (Hindi)
Set against Indias 1990 economic crisis, Governor follows Raman, a reluctant bureaucrat unexpectedly appointed as the Governor of the RBI when the nation stands on the brink of bankruptcy. As inflation rises, fuel runs low, and panic spreads, Raman must navigate political pressure and a collapsing system to prevent the country from falling apart.
Cast:
Manoj Bajpayee, Adah Sharma, Noushad Mohamed Kunju, Madhoo, John Forbes, Devaang Bagga, Paritosh Sand, Krisha Kurup, Jaywant Wadkar, Sanjay Sonu
Director:
Chinmay Mandlekar
Writer:
Saurabh Bharat, Ravi Asrani, Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Tue, June 16 2026
Bajpayee Shines, Cinema Suffers as History is Recast to Fit a Narrative
We inhabit an age in which the credibility of almost every belief we hold has become increasingly uncertain. The relentless proliferation of digital media has not merely expanded access to information; it has also enabled the systematic reshaping of opinions, perceptions, and even philosophical convictions to serve competing ideological agendas. Whether the subject concerns scientific evidence, historical memory, matters of faith, or political events, public understanding is increasingly shaped less by rigorous inquiry than by carefully curated narratives. In such an environment, political history—with all its complexity, nuance, and contested interpretations—becomes particularly vulnerable to distortion. Bias is repackaged as truth, and selective representation masquerades as historical interpretation.
Sat, June 13 2026
A revisionist manifesto disguised as history, director Chinmay Mandlekar reduces a multi-layered institutional rescue to a one-man army myth
An economic thriller that utilises the textures of India’s Balance of Payments crisis of 1991 to deliver a message on state power, centralised authority, and the perceived liabilities of democratic noise, Governor: The Silent Saviour is yet another example of how history is being instrumentalised on screen today. It is not just looking back to understand the crippling economic impact of the Gulf War in 1991; it is looking back to legitimise the governance model of 2026. The timing of the film’s release feels remarkably prescient because India is once again navigating severe macroeconomic tremors triggered directly by a West Asian crisis, with petrol prices soaring, and rumours of depleting gold reserves floating in the air again.
Fri, June 12 2026
It could’ve turned into a documentary. But mercifully, director Chinmay Mandlekar and his array of co-writers (Ravi Asrani, Saurabh Bharat, Subhendu Bhattacharya, Vipul Amrutlal Shah) use brief touches of humour and bring human, familial elements into the storytelling, to make it an interesting watch. Outside, the financial condition is dire with spiralling prices. Inside, new RBI Governor A Ramanan (Manoj Bajpayee) is bemused by the celebrations to welcome him. There is a lightness in the office atmosphere (like the lift scene) that keep the telling easy and a tough topic like an economic crisis is put across simply, making it comprehensible to the layman. Add to it, the human inspirations that surround Ramanan. Wife Vandita (Madhoo Shah) with her pujas, prayers and positivity, the Deputy Governor (Noushad Mohammed Kunju) who inspires his senior with the line, ‘Fathers don’t quit’ to pull him out of a low mood, an office peon whose borrowings help Ramanan think out of the box.
Raakh
Crime, Drama (Hindi)
When two teenagers vanish, a close-knit family is shattered and the city is left on edge. Determined to uncover the truth, a relentless officer leads a nationwide manhunt that pulls him deep into a world of violence and human depravity.
Cast:
Ali Fazal, Sonali Bendre, Aamir Bashir, Akash Makhija, Ramandeep Yadav, Anshul Chauhan, Rakesh Bedi, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Director:
Prosit Roy
Writer:
Anusha Nandakumar, Sandeep Saket
Sat, June 13 2026
Sat, June 13 2026
Led by an excellent ensemble, ‘Raakh’ is an immersive investigative crime drama that sifts through Delhi’s lost innocence
The flood of true-crime content has turned the living room into a dark laboratory. It feels unsettling to measure which series ‘grieves better,’ which depicts ‘more realistic’ violence, or which frames ‘suffering believably’. The couch feels like a spectator’s seat to human misery. Yet, this discomfort perhaps serves the point. The niceness of a living room is often a bubble, while the city outside – as Raakh reminds this week – remains equally brutal and indifferent. In the sweltering haze of August 1978, a sudden rain washes away Delhi’s innocence. When two children, Suman and Sahil Arora (Divya and Vivan Sharma), vanish into the maw of a predatory night, the world of a decorated army man, Ashok, and his wife Mona (Aamir Bashir and Sonali Bendre), dissolves into unsolvable grief. Into this void steps Sub Inspector Jayprakash Jatav (Ali Fazal), a rookie defined by the sharp crease of his uniform and the heavy burden of his birth, hunting two shadows who kill with the casualness of a seasonal breeze. Inspired by the infamous Ranga-Billa case, Raakh is not merely a chase, but a dissection of the anatomy of crime in the Capital.
Sat, June 13 2026
Unsettling, disturbing, and difficult to watch at times, but undeniably important viewing
An atmospheric and deeply unsettling crime drama, Raakh draws inspiration from one of India’s most chilling criminal cases, the infamous Ranga-Billa case (1978) that shook the nation and forever altered the way people viewed safety in the capital. Most crimes are tragically remembered for the notorious criminals who commit them, while the victims are often forgotten with time. In a sea of cop dramas, Raakh urges you to look beyond the investigation and examine the origin, aftermath, and far-reaching consequences of a brutal crime on society at large. The lingering trauma of grieving parents seeking accountability and justice after losing their children makes for an emotionally difficult watch. Trial by Fire, led by Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol, explored similar emotional devastation effectively. Raakh serves as a reminder of humanity at its worst, and how such horrors force ordinary people to live with endless guilt — what if I had done something differently? Yet the real sickness lies with the criminal mind to begin with.