Sat, July 5 2025

Director Bheemarao’s film uses a stylish haircut as a metaphor for self-respect and dignity.

At a very basic level, Bheemarao P’s debut film Hebbuli Cut, set in Chandrabanda in the North Karnataka–Telangana border, is about a young boy’s aspiration to get a fashionable haircut, like Sudeep’s in Hebbuli, and the path he takes to get it. At a deeper level, it is about how society and its obsession with class and caste kill spirits, bit by tiny bit, even as someone is in quest of dignity. This is probably one of those very rare Kannada films that speak about caste without couching it in pleasant, acceptable language. But, to its credit, it does so without being preachy. Vinaya (a brilliant Mounesh Nataranga) is the heart and soul of the film, keeping things going with his hope, joy, silent anger, and shy smiles. His parents are Mallanna (Mahadev Hadapad is pitch-perfect as dad, who is afraid for his son), who repairs shoes for a living, and Kanaka (the lovely Uma YG of Cinema Bandi fame). Vinaya grows his hair long, and all he wants is to get it cut by Channa (Mahantesh AS), the curly-haired wonder of Modern Men’s Buty Parlar, the go-to person for a good haircut. But he has to make do with the local barber, who is summoned home when the deed has to be done. The mother is constantly complaining about the unruly mop, the father does not mind, because they are not raising it with fertiliser or water.

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Fri, July 4 2025

Despite featuring a stellar cast headlined by Charlize Theron, Netflix's action-fantasy sequel feels incomplete; as if the crew shot only 70% of the script.

We had no idea how good we had it in July 2020. Little did we know, for instance, that the pandemic just… wouldn’t end. Petrol was cheaper, the air was cleaner, and we were getting used to life at home. Plus, you could still count on Netflix to occasionally produce an impressive film or two. Extraction remains one of the slickest action movies of the last five years; in fact, it basically cannibalised The Old Guard, an equally good Netflix original that debuted only a few weeks later. Starring Charlize Theron alongside an overqualified supporting cast, the movie screamed for a sequel, which was quickly approved. But did you know that The Old Guard 2 was shot three years ago? The movie had been sitting on the shelves for quite some time before being released this week, and it shows. In case you weren’t aware that The Old Guard 2 existed, don’t blame yourself; it’s not your fault. Netflix has been suspiciously quiet about it, perhaps because the finished movie resembles a work-in-progress — a film that hasn’t yet been streamlined on the edit table. It retains the hyperreal gloss of ungraded raw footage, while giving the strong impression that what we’ve been presented with is some kind of unfinished cut. Among the film’s many flaws — we’ll get to the rest momentarily — is Barry Ackroyd’s flat cinematography.

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Fri, July 4 2025

A potent premise and a smart climactic twist notwithstanding, the film doesn’t have much going for it

Naveen Chandra, who has had a handful of theatrical releases this year, has been steadily winning over audiences across OTT platforms with a stream of consistent, assured performances. His latest Telugu film, Show Time, perfectly aligns with his forte: a crime thriller with a minimalistic setup, banking on a supposedly offbeat concept. The core premise of the film seems to be an offshoot of Ayyappanum Koshiyum (the inspiration behind Pawan Kalyan’s Telugu film Bheemla Nayak). It centres on an ego-driven, crooked cop named Lakshmi Kanth (Raja Ravindra) and a hot-blooded common man, Surya (Naveen Chandra), who refuses to yield. However, their confrontation largely takes place within the confines of a crime scene. Both men have an ugly face-off when Lakshmi Kanth desperately instigates Surya, his family, and neighbours, rebuking them for creating a nuisance at night. Just when the tense atmosphere seems to settle, Surya’s wife, Shanti (Kamakshi Bhaskarla), finds herself trapped in a crime. As Surya attempts to resolve the crisis with the help of a lawyer, the cop tries to prove he’s in charge.

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Thu, July 3 2025

While Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan took a ‘bachcho pe nahi chhod sakte’ stance, Brad Pitt's F1 understands that true progress can only be achieved when the older generation makes way for the new.

Nearly four decades ago, the late director Tony Scott, star Tom Cruise, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer attempted to re-conjure the magic that made Top Gun such a cultural touchstone with Days of Thunder, a racing movie that followed the same basic structure, but replaced the fighter jets with fast cars. Now, Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski are essentially following the same playbook with Top Gun: Maverick and the recently released F1. The only difference, this time around, is that Cruise didn’t return for the sports drama, perhaps because he has been occupied for the last half-decade by the Mission: Impossible franchise. But this was all for the best, because nobody other than Brad Pitt could’ve played the role of the seasoned drifter Sonny Hayes. It’s an odd observation to make, because Cruise literally played the most famous drifter of them all, Jack Reacher. Twice. But he was famously miscast in those movies. Not because he didn’t fit writer Lee Child’s physical description of the towering Reacher, but because, as an actor, Cruise doesn’t exactly project the going-with-the-flow energy that is required for such a character. He is simply too intense, his persona is too curated, too meticulous to play someone that lives like hobo. There’s a reason why people joke that he’s actually an alien scientologist sent to spy on earthlings. Pitt, on the other hand, has the exact opposite screen presence. He’s a relaxed, relatable, somewhat rudderless.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Sun, June 29 2025

F1: The Movie has all the aspects that make for a summer blockbuster. It takes Racing fans on the circuit, it presents Brad Pitt in all his glory, it talks of an underdog who rises to the occasion and it talks of friendship and brotherhood.

When you combine two of the most popular entities of the world – Brad Pitt and Formula One racing- in a film, you can expect it be a big blockbuster hit. One of the most popular stars of Hollywood, Pitt has been credited with some of the biggest hits of all time and earned an Oscar award for his performance. The man splashing comes back in F1: The Movie as a Sony Hayes, a rule breaker, a has-been driver who left the circuit years back after a freak accident. When Sony is pulled back into the circuit- this time by an old friend and fellow rider (Javier Bardem in a delightful role) and Sony has to face his demons, move past personal setback, and even befriend a weary rookie driver (Damson Idris) to win F1.

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Thu, July 3 2025

Arjun’s a carefree lad who wants to join the same college as his crush, Jayashree. Tired of his irresponsible ways, his father, Raju, sends him to a hostel. Meanwhile, Imran, the village’s top student, sees his father take out a loan to admit him to a reputable college. From grim food to homesickness and relentless timetables, the trio’s intermediate years get off to a far-from-ideal start. Yet, a strong friendship helps them muddle through the stress. The three young blokes, Harsh Roshan, Bhanu Prakash, and Jayatheertha (playing Arjun, Raju, and Imran), deliver confident, refreshing performances that help us look beyond the show’s issues. Besides their impressive screen presence, they embody all the naïveté, playfulness, and early adult-ish arrogance you tend to witness in an average 16-year-old. Campus tales enjoy an everlasting appeal. While they generally try to tick the same old boxes – the highs and lows of studenthood, academic pressures, a brush with first love, a dose of bromance, and coming-of-age motifs – newer backdrops and different timelines infuse new life into the template. ETV Win’s AIR (All India Rankers) packages that bittersweet nostalgia with humour aplenty.

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Mon, June 30 2025

The larger ideas never fully click into place, even when 'Love Marriage' tries to surprise you with the writing

The core plot of Shanmuga Priyan’s Love Marriage surely deserved a better film. Like Sooraj Barjatya’s Vivah (2006), Love Marriage too is written around the various stages between engagement, marriage and the relationships that form or get broken along the way. The engagement is said to take place between Ram (Vikram Prabhu) and Ambika (Sushmitha Bhat), and we get the feeling that they’re being forced to get married, just hours after they first meet each other. From a distance, it appears to be a film that romanticises the concept of an arranged marriage. In one place, we’re told that both Ram and Ambika belong to different castes, but their getting together isn’t an issue for their elders because they both belong to similar class groups in the hierarchy. However, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be an entirely smooth ride for Ram and Ambika.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Director Shanmuga Priyan's 'Love Marriage', starring Vikram Prabhu, Sushmitha Bhat and Meenakshi Dinesh, is a Tamil remake of the Telugu film, 'Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam'. The pleasant romantic comedy is a perfect canvas for a laughter riot but bogged down by redundant ideas.

When Indian cinema is dominated by action dramas with a newfound love for extreme violence and gore, there’s always something soothing about heartwarming dramas. Be it a simple love story or a family drama or a comedy drama, they remind you of the good old times. Director Shanmuga Priyan’s ‘Love Marriage’, a remake of the Telugu film, ‘Ashoka Vanmulo Arjuna Kalyanam’, has all the elements to be that cutesy film that will leave a smile on your face. Did it succeed in its mission? Let’s find out! Ramachandran (Vikram Prabhu) is a 33-year-old bachelor who is waiting to get married. A thorough gentleman, the only progressive man in a family of regressive people, goes through arranged marriage. He, along with his family and extended family, travels to a different town to meet a potential bride, which is followed by his engagement. One meeting is all it takes for Ram to get engaged to Ambika (Sushmitha Bhat) old-school style.

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Fri, June 27 2025

Love Marriage is held together by likeable and earnest performances, especially from the leads — Vikram Prabhu, Sushmitha, and Meenakshi — who make do with the superficial nature of their roles

The moment we commodified weddings and started calling it the marriage ‘market’, many brides and grooms became products that came with a selling price, a buying price, and unfortunately, an expiry date too. They are depreciating assets, and it is one such asset that is the protagonist in director Shanmuga Priyan’s debut film, Love Marriage, a rather faithful remake of Vishwak Sen’s Ashoka Vanamlo Arjuna Kalyanam. Ramachandran (Vikram Prabhu) is in his early thirties and is already considered to be past his sell-by date. He is part of a misogynistic and casteist family, which has relaxed its rules since they haven’t found the right suitor within their caste and class. That is the scheme of things in many a family in the arranged marriage setup. And after multiple rejections due to his age, greying hair, rumours of balding, and his profession, Ramachandran’s family decides to travel far away from home and get engaged to Ambika (Sushmitha Bhat), who is from a different caste.

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Mon, June 30 2025

Each of the film's sub-plots has been written around one broad joke, but the casting is so perfect that we’re constantly looking forward to the reactions of these actors

When Vipin Das, the producer of Vyasana Sametham Bandhu Mithradhikal (With Condolences, Friends and Relatives), last directed a film, he made Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil (2024), a hilarious confusion-comedy that culminated in a million things going wrong at a wedding. The hit comedy was something a master like Priyadarshan would have been proud to call his own. But if he were to watch Vyasana Sametham Bandhu Mithradhikal, he’d be prouder. Made by another Vipin (S Vipin), he borrows the chaos of a Priyadarshan-esque comedy and plants it within a dark comedic setting that is already primed for the wildest of laughs. So, instead of a wedding like in his guru’s film, Vipin sets up his comedy on the day on which the film’s protagonist Anjali’s (Anaswara Rajan) grandmother passes away. What makes the timing impeccably imperfect is that she’s just a week away from getting engaged to her toxic fiancé. On one hand, you feel deeply for Anjali for having lost the one person in the family she connected strongly to; in the other hand, her grandmother’s passing is a blessing in disguise, giving her hope that she can get out of a marriage she was never interested in.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Sun, June 29 2025

Maargan is a great example of a genre film that engrosses its audience and makes one buy into the supernatural or pseudo-scientific framework.

Kolai, Raththam, Mazhai Pidikathavum Manidhanum, Hitler… after such a barrage of misses, a sense of prejudice is expected to set in when Vijay Antony comes up with another crime thriller. But a few minutes into the film, Maargan assures you that the streak will be broken. It exhibits good craftsmanship despite ticking all the boxes of genre films and treads carefully without breaching the territory of clichés. To top it all, it sets up an engrossing supernatural premise involving Siddhars and astral projections that effortlessly win you over. Tamil cinema tends to get overly didactic and self-congratulatory when it ventures into such themes of ancient knowledge. However, Leo John Paul’s success lies in the way he effortlessly sells you his ruse. The trick, after all, is not to convince you to believe but to entertain enough that you don’t mind. To give the context, Maargan is an investigation thriller where an archetypical resigned police officer, Dhruv (Vijay Antony), takes up a case that looks similar to the murder of his daughter. A Chennai girl, on her birthday, is murdered by an unknown killer using a chemical cocktail which, when injected, burns the body from the inside, turning it black. Dhruv takes over the case unofficially and arrests a suspect named Tamilarivu (Ajay Dishan), a brilliantly written role. As Tamil is subjected to police interrogation, it is realised that he is innocent but has supernatural abilities that would aid the investigation. With his astral projection abilities, he puts himself at risk of finding the killer, which also turns out to be an effective surprise.

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Sun, June 29 2025

A convoluted mess of a crime thriller with high ambitions. With a crisp runtime, the whodunnit relies heavily on the twists and turns.

Music director-turned-actor Vijay Antony has a knack for picking interesting stories. However, his choices in the last few years have been questionable. The actor now returns with ‘Maargan’, a crime thriller about a serial killer. Will ‘Maargan’ provide a much-needed respite to Vijay Antony from a string of underwhelming films? Let’s find out! Dhruv (Vijay Antony), ADGP in Mumbai, is grieving the loss of his daughter, who was murdered by a serial killer. He is notified of another similar murder in Chennai. One connection between both cases is that the killer seems to have injected a drug which blackens one’s body. Dhruv expresses interest in transferring to Chennai to investigate the murder. However, his superiors don’t let him as he is recovering from the loss of his daughter. His left side is blackened after he gets injected with the drug while trying to nab the killer.

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Sun, June 29 2025

A textile supervisor turns wild after a horrible insult at the workplace that results in humour, punishments, shame, and revelations.

Good Day starts with a line from Tamil writer G. Nagarajan’s existential novel Naalai Matrum Oru Naalae, which is about a labourer and the things that pan out in his life on a single day. The novel gives an eagle-eye perspective of the non-person as he goes about his day getting some work done and indulging in vices. Good Day is also about one such person from the fringes of society. Shanthakumar (Prithiviraj Ramalingam), a supervisor at a textile factory, begins his birthday with distress as his monthly salary is yet to hit his account. He asks his housemate to lend him a thousand rupees, but when the friend asks him to run an errand, Shanthakumar refuses. His ego is hurt. Hours later at his office, he gets slapped by his manager in front of a co-worker. We aren’t told why, but we understand that Shanthakumar is facing the fire for backing the co-worker, who was facing sexual harassment at the hands of the manager. The manager, being the son-in-law of the factory’s owner, leaves Shanthakumar to swallow his ego and endure the humiliation. And his salary is still yet to reach his account.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Fri, June 27 2025

Barring a few moments driven by Prabhas and Vishnu Manchu, ‘Kannappa’ struggles with a dull, uneven narrative

At one point, well into the second hour of the Telugu film Kannappa, Prabhas appears on screen as the deity Rudra. His extended cameo includes lines that cheekily nod to his larger-than-life image — one even references the endless speculation around his bachelorhood. These ‘meta’ touches serve as deliberate fan service, injecting energy into an otherwise uneven narrative. It is a shame, because Kannappa, led by Vishnu Manchu, sets out with the earnest ambition of reintroducing the devotional legend to a contemporary audience. Rooted in folklore, the story follows Thinna, an atheist hunter believed to be a reincarnation of Arjuna, who transforms into a devout follower of Lord Shiva. In a final act of faith, he offers his own eyes to the deity, earning the name Kannappa.

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Sun, June 29 2025

ओटीटी प्लैटफॉर्म्स को अपने दर्शकों को पकड़कर रखने के लिए लगातार नया कॉन्टेंट लाना पड़ता है, मगर इतनी कहानियां कहां से आए? इसके लिए अच्छा तोड़ है रीमेक। दुनिया का कोई भी हिट शो उठाओ, उसके राइट्स लो और हिंदी में अडॉप्ट कर डालो और इस कड़ी में नया नाम है ‘मिस्त्री’। राम कपूर की मुख्य भूमिका वाली यह वेब सीरीज मशहूर अमेरिकन शो ‘मॉन्क’ का देसीकरण है। कहानी क्राइम विभाग से सस्पेंडेड एक ऐसे कमाल के जासूस अरमान मिस्त्री (राम कपूर) की है, जो केसेज सुलझाने में उस्ताद है। वह उन सुरागों को झट से पकड़ लेता है, जो दूसरे देख भी नहीं पाते। लेकिन वह गंदगी जरा भी बर्दाश्त नहीं कर पाता, किसी भी चीज को बेतरतीब नहीं देख पाता, क्योंकि वह ओसीडी यानी ऑब्सेसिव कंप्लसिव डिसॉर्डर से जूझ रहा है। ऐसे में, उसकी असिस्टेंट शरण्या (शिखा तलसानिया) हर वक्त सैनेटाइजर और टिश्यू पेपर लिए उसकी मदद के लिए तैयार रहती है। दरअसल, अरमान अपनी आंखों के सामने पत्नी सुष्मिता को बम ब्लास्ट में खोने के बाद से ओसीडी का शिकार हो गया। इस वजह से लोगों के बीच उसका बर्ताव सामान्य नहीं रहता, लेकिन उनके तेज दिमाग के चलते क्राइम विभाग की इंचार्ज और अरमान की पुरानी कलीग एसीपी सहमत सिद्दीकी (मोना सिंह) केसेज सुलझाने के लिए उसकी सेवाएं लेती रहती है। 30-35 मिनट के हर एपिसोड के दौरान अरमान एक केस क्रैक करता है, इसमें एक नेता, एक ड्रग डीलर, एक गजल गायक, एक बिजनेसमैन आदि से जुड़े केस सामने आते हैं।

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Fri, June 27 2025

In Mistry, director Rishab Seth reimagines the popular American drama Monk in an Indian setting but waters down everything that made the procedural drama fun, resulting in a damp squib of a series.

The current landscape of the Hindi language streaming space is so dire that for every bad show, there is something worse waiting in the wings. This not just complicates comparisons but makes objective criticism impossible. For every “this is really the worst show” thought in your head, there is another informed thought that counters with “but don’t you remember that?” Mistry, the new JioHotstar show, is a little of this and that. Which is to say, it is an objectively bad series, but a worse series than it exists. Directed by Rishab Seth, Mistry is the remake of the popular American drama Monk. And while Seth reimagines it in an Indian setting, he also waters down everything fun in the procedural drama, making a damp squib of a series. The premise is the same: a detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder, grappling with the sudden death of his wife, helps the police force to solve cases. Much of the allure of Monk resided in its character development and in using humour not as a means to make light of mental illness, but as a vessel to make it accessible. Mistry goes for cheap thrills.

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Fri, June 27 2025

Starring Ram Kapoor, the official adaptation of the Emmy-winning ‘Monk’ is incurious and functional

I remember binge-watching Monk back in the day. It wasn’t at the top of my American-sitcom-comfort-viewing list (Scrubs and Frasier were), but I was a Peter Sellers fan looking for the next Pink Panther-coded legacy. I was also curious about Tony Shalhoub’s Emmy-winning performance as an OCD-afflicted detective with all sorts of tics and phobias. Shalhoub was an uncanny mix of funny and sad, turning Monk into an oddball portrait of a grieving husband whose trauma became his superpower. Mistry is a scene-by-scene Hindi remake of Monk, starring Ram Kapoor as Armaan Mistry, a neurotic former Mumbai cop who is regularly roped in by the Crime Branch so that he can declare “the case is cracked” before the end of every episode. Mistry’s assistant-cum-nurse is single mother Sharanya (Shikha Talsania), who follows him around with wet wipes and hand sanitizers, protecting the man from himself while aiding his ‘freelance’ career. Of all the Hotstar adaptations so far, Mistry is perhaps the most uninspired one yet. I feel like I’ve written this line in a previous review before, but such is the business of long-form remakes. The lack of originality isn’t a problem — that’s just the nature of the beast, and who am I to question the commerce of conveyor-belt storytelling? Mistry is likely for anyone who hasn’t seen Monk, and unfortunately for those who have, the comparisons are crippling.

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Sat, June 28 2025

Starring Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett, the new thriller mini-series has an Apple-level budget but the soul of an MX Player original.

After knocking it out of the park with the excellent prison drama Black Bird a couple of years ago, writer Dennis Lehane and star Taron Egerton have reunited on the new Apple mini-series Smoke. The nine-episode thriller follows a mismatched pair of investigators tasked with tracking down a couple of arsonists. Gudsen, the character played by Egerton, is an expert of some kind. He lives and breathes fire. His new partner Calderon, played by Jurnee Smollett, is a detective with a horrific past. In a contrived piece of writing that even Mahesh Bhatt would have drawn the line at, it is revealed that Calderon’s mother tried to set their house ablaze when she was a child. It’s like Dexter, with an Apple-level budget but the soul of an MX Player original.

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Wed, June 25 2025

Created by Dennis Lehane, Smoke is an unusually framed narrative drama that grows more complex with each episode.

In recent years, shows based on podcasts, such as The Dropout and Dr Death, have been breakouts. While the trend is still gaining traction, the new Apple TV+ series Smoke is the latest on the block. Inspired by the podcast Firebug, the new drama created by Dennis Lehane follows an arson investigator (Taron Egerton) and a detective (Jurnee Smollett) teaming up to find the culprits of two serial arsonists. The ambitious show flips everything you know about a traditional investigative drama and turns it on its head. However, with nine episodes, Smoke overdoes it at points, revisiting certain themes and abandoning others. But the cast’s compelling performances are the main reason to stick around for this unusual narrative. The series starts off slow and predictable with a troubled detective, Michelle Calderone (Smollett), and a former fireman turned arson investigator, David Gudsen (Egerton), who are on the case of two serial arsonists. Smoke is not just about these two arsonists; it’s also about these two main characters, their pasts, and motivations as they uncover the chilling truth of who is behind the devastating fires. The drama thriller does a deep dive into these characters, giving viewers a story that may waver about but will always have you guessing what’s next.

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