Sat, May 30 2026

A charming, sincere children’s film marked by a joyful jugaldbandi between Jackie Shroff and Mihir Godbole that one wishes had trusted its own early imagination a little longer.

The greatest superpower of cinema is the ability to make us believe again. Jackie Shroff’s little summer adventure, The Great Grand Superhero: Aliens Ka Aagman doesn’t just ask us to believe in flying grandfathers or marauding aliens, it invites us to believe in something far more radical in these times of attention and trust deficit. The film tells us that a wrinkled, mischievous Dadaji can still be the mightiest hero in a child’s universe, and that childhood imagination isn’t childish — it’s the original superpower. Intelligent, imaginative, but lonely, young Dipu (Mihir Godbole is pitch-perfect) fabricates grand stories to win over new friends in new schools and new towns where his father gets transferred. In his script, his grandfather (Jackie Shroff) is a superhero who fights aliens. The tone is secretive, and Dipu limits the age group to under-18 because he perhaps knows his adventure will not pass the adult scrutiny.

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Fri, May 29 2026

There’s a scene in The Great Grand Superhero: Aliens Ka Aagman where Jagdish alias Dadaji (Jackie Shroff) narrates what must be a superhero origin story. Dipu (Mihir Godbole), his grandson, is visibly appalled that the tale, however preposterous it may sound, contains no bombs, explosions, or gunfire. Of all things, it has orange candy. How ridiculous is that, asks the sharp kid, staring at his grandfather like a man completely out of touch with the times. The moment is amusing, but it also defines the spirit of Manish Saini’s film. In an era where children’s cinema has almost disappeared from theatres, replaced either by loud spectacle or violent and jingoistic content, The Great Grand Superhero arrives like a relic from another time. And yet, to call it “small” would be inaccurate.

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Fri, May 29 2026

Jackie Shroff and the kids are more than alright in this charming and occasionally clumsy tale of friendships and fictions

The Great Grand Superhero has one of the most charming setups in recent memory. The first half is funny, poignant, satirical and very inventive. It also has the best child actors since Stanley Ka Dabba, a film it shares an editor (Deepa Bhatia) and narrative spirit with. There’s a new mid-term admission in a small-town school; his name is Deepu (a pitch-perfect Mihir Godbole). Deepu is a clever student; he knows all the answers to all the teachers’ toughest questions. The other kids envy him and find him strange. He confesses to one of them that he’s “different” because his grandfather (Jackie Shroff) is — suspenseful drum beat — a superhero. It’s a secret, he says, that only kids below the age of 18 can know, otherwise the grand old man will lose his superpowers.

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Fri, May 29 2026

Almost everything expected of a horror film, from blood to gore to jump scares, happens in the film. Almost everything that you know will come to pass does.

The wise woman Diane (Melissa Leo) who knows all about the things that can go wrong on the road advises Maddie (Lou Llobell) seriously: “People don’t take trips. Trips take people.” That’s just her way of saying that please avoid lonely, dark roads at night, and should you have to, never, ever stop. But by then, the road trip of Maddie and Tyler (Jacob Scipio) has put them in the path of a demonic being that is mythically known as Passenger (Joseph Lopez). Once he has latched on to you, for whatever reason, he travels with you, so to speak.

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Fri, May 29 2026

Style overshadows susbtance in ‘Kattalan’ which belongs to the same universe of ‘Marco’. Despite a strong cast, Paul George’s film falters in all departments

One can sit through something as intolerable as Kattalan only if one can invent some distraction. A possible diversion could be to keep a count of the humans and elephants killed during the film’s two-hour duration. But halfway through, you are bound to lose track as the killings are just too many, even in a single sequence, to get an accurate number. In the end, one realises that the biggest casualty of this relentless assault on the senses is neither humans nor elephants, but cinema itself. The dishonesty of it all is evident in how it treats its characters. To fill the emotional void at the centre of the film, one or two characters, like a physically challenged young girl, are introduced randomly and immediately turned into victims of some violent act, which would then set off some pathos-inducing background score. The writers are clearly not interested in these characters. They are deliberately using them for the film’s emotional impact and to underscore the need for revenge.

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Fri, May 29 2026

Apart from the film being written as a broad revenge saga between two rival gangs, there’s almost nothing resembling character development, motivations or a payoff.

First-time director Paul George’s Kattalan is what one may call a graphic novel movie. Almost all of its dialogues can be fit into two sides of an A4-sized page, and the effort that’s gone into it is only to re-create a storyboard that was made as a part of the film’s “writing”. As a film that follows the hyper-violent Marco in the same cinematic universe, Kattalan is a film that feels like it was forced to be made into a pan-Indian title. Apart from a handful of leads, almost the entire supporting cast is imported from all the other film industries of the country. Dialogues switch between Malayalam, broken Malayalam, Tamil, and English, and none of them delivers the impact it is meant to. And when they are not conveying plot points or exposition, Kattalan becomes home to some of the most pompous punchlines in all of our cinema.

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Wed, May 27 2026

The Spider-Man Universe comes alive with Nicolas Cage playing the live-action version in this new Marvel-Sony series

After voicing Spider-Man Noir in the Sony animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Nicolas Cage brings a version of the character to the small screen with Amazon Prime Video’s Spider-Noir. The Marvel and Sony co-production is part superhero saga and part classic noir. Interestingly, Spider Noir gives viewers the chance to see the show both in colour and black and white, which can also change perspective on the story. Developed by Oren Uziel, Spider Noir is a character portrait of a broken-down man named Ben Reilly who rises to the occasion when really required. The ongoing mystery woven in the narrative also keeps audiences engaged.

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Mon, May 25 2026

Seemingly discordant storylines are strung together into a pleasing whole by director-co-writer Daniel Roher, largely due to the effortless charm of its cast.

Paraphrasing Billy Joel’s Piano Man, if you’all in the mood for a melody, this film has got you feelin’ alright. Seemingly discordant storylines are strung together into a pleasing whole by director-co-writer Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar for his Navalny documentary), largely due to the effortless charm of its cast. Leo Woodall is Niki, a piano prodigy who now tunes pianos for a living, having developed a hearing condition that has left him allergic to loud sounds. Two years of therapy, of being kept in a dark room, means he can just about get around the world of noise via ear plugs and noise-cutting headphones. Dustin Hoffman is Harry, a piano player of some repute and a friend of Niki’s late dad, who runs the piano tuning and fixing company where Niki works. The film begins with their effortless banter as Harry trades his wisdom and tricks with his beloved Niki, and tries to evade the sharp eyes of his wife Marla (the unmissable Tovah Feldshuh) who is worried for his failing health.

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Mon, May 25 2026

“Everything is planned…” When Ajnabee had Bobby Deol exposing Akshay Kumar in a corny yet wildly entertaining climax, we watched with amusement while tapping our feet to an infectious Anu Malik tune. It was never meant to feel intelligent. The same planning by a sharp-minded person made the Malayalam film Drishyam a national sensation. Georgekutty (Mohanlal) put Malayalam cinema on the national movie map, perhaps for the first time in history. Shockingly enough, Drishyam 3, the sequel to Drishyam 2, finds its tension in spontaneity and unpredictability, not foolproof planning. The question is: are we ready for this version of Georgekutty?

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Fri, May 22 2026

Fri, May 22 2026

Sat, May 23 2026

Sonakshi Sinha and Jyotika team up in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's underwhelming legal drama ‘System'

I was trying to keep an open mind about Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s System when Neha (Sonakshi Sinha) says, “Uski vibe hamesha off thhi par woh murderer type kabhi nahi laga.” And that was that. I don’t expect every lawyer to speak in iambic pentameter or quote Thomas Cromwell. I do, however, feel it’s not unreasonable to have a protagonist in a legal drama—one who’s trying hard to prove she’s not a lightweight—speak like a professional and not some millennial at brunch. Neha is a public prosecutor, though she’d rather not be. She doesn’t like the sweaty courts, the desperate cases, the grind, her boss. She’s also not particularly competent. The first time we see her in court, the judge explains that she needs to prove the accused actually committed the crime, not that he might have—and she looks shocked. So when her famous lawyer father, Ravi Rajvansh (Ashutosh Gowariker), makes her a deal—win 10 cases in a row and join my practice—it feels like a little exercise in humility, or humiliation.

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Sat, May 23 2026

In a country where the judiciary’s independence has question marks all over it, and its members are in the spotlight all the way from Delhi to Madhya Pradesh, it felt like a missed opportunity to introspect beyond the obvious.

Director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari has been making films for over a decade. And yet, nothing gives away her lack of assurance more than her choice of background score. Iyer Tiwari’s style is what I like to describe as having soap-opera coherence (my mother is a huge fan of these films, which are technically proficient, but ideologically axiomatic). If the choice was ever between thought-provoking and manipulating tears, she overwhelmingly leans towards the latter. Having made films with noble (sometimes, even sweet) through lines, like a mother re (Nil Battey Sannata), or a woman making a comeback to professional sports after a prolonged sabbatical (Panga) – Iyer Tiwari’s films often find its underdogs in women. But there’s also a lack of rigour in her ideas curdling the simple into gratingly simplistic.

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Sat, May 23 2026

Sonakshi Sinha and Jyotika stand out in this polished critique of the idea of justice in the garb of a legal thriller, but Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s ‘System’ loses its edge when its loops become too easy to read

Another week, another commentary on uncomfortable societal truths packaged in the form of a mystery where solid performances and subtext are marred by predictable beats. At first glance, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s System masquerades as a legal thriller, but beneath its polished exterior, it promises to lay bare the facade of institutional neutrality. It positions the courtroom not as a temple of justice, but as a theatre of social stratification where truth is a manufactured commodity. The narrative (penned by Arun Sukumar, Harman Baweja, and Akshat Ghildial) forces a meta-textual collision. Neha Rajvansh (Sonakshi Sinha), a public prosecutor fighting the suffocating shadow of her iconic legal patriarch (Ashutosh Gowarikar), is subtly challenged from the margins by Sarika (Jyotika), a humble yet resilient stenographer who weaponises the very bureaucratic machinery designed to keep her invisible.

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Sat, May 23 2026

Vivek Soni's romantic drama, starring Ananya Panday and Lakshya, is messy, swoony and stormy

Aarav (Lakshya) and his wife, Chandni (Ananya Panday), are cracking under the strain of caring for a newborn. Their frustrations boil over into an ugly yelling match. Aarav grabs her face. He’s motionless for a few seconds, then backs away, mortified. She runs into the other room and balls up in a corner, shaking in shock as he begs her to open the door. The moment when Aarav grabs Chandni is in the film’s trailer. I think it’s there because Dharma doesn’t mind giving the impression that this will be an ‘intense’ love story in the key of Sandeep Vanga or the Anand L Rai/Dhanush collaborations. Yet, Chand Mera Dil is nothing like those films, treating the brief physical contact with utter seriousness. Aarav is immediately contrite, but it doesn’t matter. The entire story turns on this moment. PSA films like Thappad are lauded for presenting characters who won’t stand for any kind of abuse, but Chand Mera Dil is equally steadfast without resorting to moral grandstanding.

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Sat, May 23 2026

When the end is obvious with a title that gives away where the hero is headed, writer-director Vivek Soni’s screenplay should’ve been dramatically different, offering an unseen experience at every major turn. Let’s check how he goes about it. It’s one long predictable flashback to Hyderabad where Chandni (Ananya Panday) and Aarav (Lakshya) are engineering students, both brilliant. There’s a fresh touch to the attraction where they twin every day, wearing the same colour, without a word exchanged between them. Until Chandni takes the first step. So far, rather nice. The good is that there is definite chemistry between Chandni and Aarav, leading to relatable intimacy.

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Sat, May 23 2026

The problem with writer-director Vivek Soni, who has had a hit-and-miss record in the past, is that he misses more this time

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” said William Shakespeare. And in an average Hindi film, it often is too tortuous, if not torturous. ‘Chand Mera Dil’, the title, promises a film high on the gossamer shades of romance. Only, as the film opens, for a long time, the only shades you see are the matching colours of our hero and heroine’s outfits. Love-struck Aarav (Lakshya Lalwani) starts twinning with Chandni (Ananya Panday). Obviously, his outfit shade card — ranging from neon and fluorescent yellow to pinks — not only matches her clothes but catches her attention too.

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Fri, May 22 2026

Hidden beneath that helmet, with his face unseen for almost the length of the film, Pedro Pascal is efficient and business-like, except when it comes to Grogu.

Jon Favreau has a knack for lending a certain levity to the most grave of things. In the Star Wars universe that is largely unencumbered by gravity, Favreau’s vision (he has also co-written the film) is unwaveringly and dourly solemn. But, rescued just in time by the effervescence of being that is Grogu. You can say there is a Star Wars link because the title says so, and the two main characters, the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu (who is Baby Yoda), trace their origins back to that mammoth franchise. However, after dispensing with the topic of the Empire in the first few minutes, and the Rebellion in the next few, The Mandalorian and Grogu, which began life as a TV series, settles down to its own pace and narrative.

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Fri, May 22 2026

Rami Malek’s Jimmy may remind you of his Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. Malek won an Oscar then, and I won’t be surprised if this turn garners him more prizes.

he 80s in NYC was a scene, man. If you’re of a certain vintage, you may have actually heard this line — from the know-it-all seniors when you arrived in any liberal arts college in Delhi University as a newbie, those exalted beings who smoked Charminars and wore drainpipe jeans and floppy hair and big Beatles glasses who were, in hindsight, probably spouting received wisdom. There are no such gaps between perception and knowing in Ira Sachs’ marvellous re-creation of that very specific Reagan era in ‘The Man I Love’, which brings alive the sights and sounds of the city with the kind of pulsating energy that can come only from someone who has lived through it.

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Fri, May 22 2026

What could be thornier than when children are the at the centre of the conflict, with the family unit up against the might of the state?

When a bunch of kids are greeted by a school principal saying jovially, no Draculas here, you are meant to surmise a few things. That the children have a connection with Romania, and that this remote Norwegian town with a fjord on one side and mountains on the other, is a new experience for them. Turns out that The Gheorghiu family, with a Romanian father and Norwegian mother, and their five children — two teenagers, two younger ones, and the fifth, a babe in arms, have relocated from Romania and come to live in Norway. Mihai (Sebastian Stan) is an IT expert, and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) who works in medicine are here for fresh prospects and fresh air, both of which seems to be in ample supply in this snowy, windy place, which turns out to be not as welcoming, leaving the new entrants facing an uncertain future.

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Fri, May 22 2026

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's deeply observant style suits the central thrust of the film, which is mainly set in a home for the elderly, where the big themes accompanying end-of-life scenarios are a natural outcome.

To say that Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘All Of A Sudden’ (Cannes competition) is a long film – it weighs in at a solid 3.15 hours – is stating the obvious. The Japanese auteur doesn’t do sudden – the title is a nice little touch of unintentional irony; a leisurely unfolding of events is much more his thing. In fact, he doesn’t do events either; capturing moments like no one’s looking is more like it. Here, his deeply observant style suits the central thrust of the film, which is mainly set in a home for the elderly, where the big themes accompanying end-of-life scenarios are a natural outcome.

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