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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Mon, September 28 2026

If the 2017 original was a euphoric, barefoot sprint through childhood fantasies, this luminous sequel is a melancholic exhale of coming of age.

In contemporary Indian cinema, few voices capture the anguish and alchemy of rural survival quite like Rima Das. With Village Rockstars 2, the auteur returns to the flood-bitten plains of Assam, proving that lightning can indeed strike twice in the same muddy field. If the 2017 original was a euphoric, barefoot sprint through childhood fantasies, this luminous sequel is a melancholic exhale of coming of age. The cardboard guitars have given way to real strings. Her Apu’s melody is now weighted down by the weight of adulthood, but Dhunu isn’t the tragic sister left behind to fade away.

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Mon, September 28 2026

Aneet Padda stars in this limited series about a young woman who accuses a powerful godman of rape

A young woman and her parents are at a police station. They’re trying to file a complaint, but the officer they’re speaking to is distracted. Another cop comes by with a box of sweets, says they’re from Saburi, that Baapji makes them with his own hands. The family are offered these as well; the daughter is uncomfortable but is told it’s aashirvaad. She tells the officer again that she wants to report a crime done to her. Badsaluki, she says first, then corrects that to zabardasti. The perpetrator is Baapji. There’s a temple bell, a cry of ‘Baapji ki jai’, and we go into the opening credits.

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Sat, September 26 2026

Fri, September 25 2026

Aneet Padda, Fatima Sana Shaikh remain largely convincing, and own the best moments of the six-episode show.

The rampage of dhongi babas, spellbound bhakts and shell-shocked victims continues apace. The fresh spate began in 2020 with Bobby Deol spreading his beatific smile and vile ways through the multi-season ‘Ashram’ . In 2023, we saw Manoj Bajpayee fighting a lone battle against a powerful self-styled godman, based on the real-life Asaram, in ‘Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai’. That was followed by Jaideep Ahlawat jumping into the role of the rapacious ‘Maharaj’ in a film of the same name in 2024. Now comes ‘Hunkkaar’, in which the excellent Raghubir Yadav plays Baapji, the all-seeing seer who preys upon young girls. While the casting seems, at first glance, to be inspired – I mean, the always likeable Yadav turning into a monster, can you imagine – not being able to overcome the utter familiarity of the subject never allows Hunkkaar to become its own beast.

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Mon, September 28 2026

‘Heart of the Beast’ uses the conventions of the survival genre, but the film’s sincerity is difficult to resist

There are movies that make you jump out of your seat, and then there are movies that make you sit very still, your shoulders slowly tightening, waiting for something terrible to happen. Heart of the Beast belongs to the latter category. Brad Pitt leads this affecting survival drama in which the bond between a retired soldier and his service dog becomes the heart of the story. Director David Ayer’s film is remarkably spare. There is very little dialogue, few characters and, for long stretches, just Brad Pitt and Odin, a German Shepherd, navigating an unforgiving wilderness. Yet the film rarely feels empty. Its silences become part of the storytelling, allowing the landscape, the sounds of the forest, Jared Michael Fry’s evocative score and the two central performances to carry the weight.

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Sun, September 27 2026

A story about a man and a dog—that one line is enough for suckers like me to get excited about a film, and David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast doesn’t disappoint. Ayer is known for his action films (The Beekeeper, Fury, Suicide Squad), and even though the human protagonist is a retired army man, this film is really about the bond between him and his dog.

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Fri, September 25 2026

My five minutes of joy — and, more importantly, of peace — are when I lay my head on my furry baby’s stomach and talk her through my day. The highs, the lows, the mundane and the momentous… I talk to her about everything. She responds with a few grunts (if I am lucky), but I am mostly greeted with an unstifled yawn. But her eyes tell me she understands. That she shares and cares. That alone is enough to help me power through yet another day.

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Sun, September 27 2026

Directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, Bandkhor deals with the emancipation of women across generations. While it occasionally takes a sledgehammer approach to make its point, it never strays from its central theme—the main plot and subplots all revolve around women. As for the sledgehammer approach, given the state of affairs in society, some messages are perhaps best conveyed that way.

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Sat, September 26 2026

Fri, September 18 2026

Shot in bleak greys offering little by way of colour, on the muddy grounds or the cloudy skies, or the person of its characters – who are dressed uniformly, but for the royals, in clothes made of worn, torn sack material – The Uprising is often hard to see or follow.

In a world where ever-new oligarchs, from oil to tech, run the world, who cares for a peasants’ revolt 700 years ago? So, doff hats to Paul Greengrass and Andrew Garfield for lending their weight to this film about the 1381 uprising, widely considered the first populist rebellion in England. But, uprising does not mean uplifting. Shot in bleak greys offering little by way of colour, on the muddy grounds or the cloudy skies, or the person of its characters – who are dressed uniformly, but for the royals, in clothes made of worn, torn sack material – The Uprising is often hard to see or follow.

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Sat, September 26 2026

The film’s repetition is deliberate, designed to evoke the claustrophobia of having no control over your day. But to break free from its own monotony, the answers to some questions needed to be far more shocking than what the film ultimately offers.

Writers Manu and Sonny seem to have stumbled upon a terrific premise for one of Malayalam’s first time-loop comedies (Sajin Gopu himself has starred in Lijo Jose Pellissery’s darker Churuli) with Dhoomakethu (comet). Not only is the setting obviously Malayali, with much of the film taking place in a typical small-town home as it gets wedding-ready, but there’s also the theme of jealousy that feels peculiarly Malayali in this joyous setting. This includes sneaky caterers wondering out loud about how a man as old and unappealing as Kuttan (Sajin Gopu) can score a wife like Sharmila (Nikhila Vimal). This includes nosy neighbours reminding each other of Sharmila’s ‘colourful past’ and of reasons why Kuttan has remained single for this long. Just as hilarious is one of Kuttan’s frenemies deciding to buy himself a new car exactly on the date of the wedding.

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Fri, September 25 2026

For a part of the film’s runtime, a blend of the now familiar time loop trope with humour seems to work, until some of the hard work unravels due to weak writing of the background story

Any out of the world concept can lose its sheen when it becomes too commonplace and is overused. So it is with the time loop concept in cinema, the latest iteration of which is in Sudhi Maddison’s Dhoomakethu (comet). There is some irony in naming a film with a now commonplace concept with something as rare as a comet. Yet for a part of its runtime, the blend of this now familiar trope with humour seemed to work, until some of the hard work unravels due to weak writing of the background story.

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Fri, September 25 2026

Director-writer Rensil D’Silva weaves an interesting albeit clichéd storyline

Illusion meets reality… those of us who have watched Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ with rapt attention know all too well what a fascinating blend it is. Of course, Netflix’s latest web series ‘Shaque: Trust No One’, which too marries phantasmagoric elements with truth, bears no similarity with the acclaimed film. Rather, on the surface, it bears an uncanny resemblance with another of Netflix’s new films, ‘Gandhari’. Yes, like the Taapsee Pannu starrer, ‘Shaque’, which marks the web-series debut of Parineeti Chopra, too, deals with a mother’s search for her daughter.

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Fri, September 25 2026

The corny seven-episode series stars Parineeti Chopra as an unhinged mother who receives a photograph of her missing child every year

When I was little, my mother’s very North Indian family would clink glasses, raise voices and play card games on winter nights. As the only sober primate in the room (I wasn’t sure about the wayward dog), calling the adults’ bluff was a cinch, because their intoxicated minds and muscles kept failing them: they’d place the cards face-side up by mistake, coughed harder every time they tried to lie, or even forgot the name of the suits (“3 of Souls!”) before playing their hand. If they ever played poker, I thought, we’d end up homeless. Shaque: Trust No One is the cinematic equivalent of those nights: the harder it strives to be serious (or just convincing), the funnier it gets. Some might call that entertainment; I call it the comforting embrace of mediocrity. At times, I got excited at the prospect of those farcical, downright incompetent card games.

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Fri, September 25 2026

एक मां के लिए इससे बड़ा सदमा क्या होगा कि उसकी नवजात बच्ची उससे दूर हो जाए? वो मां ना अपनी पहली संतान को भूल सकती है, ना ही उसे वापस पाने की उम्मीद चैन से जीने देती है। एक मां की ऐसी ही भावुक कहानी वाली वेब सीरीज ‘शक: ट्रस्ट नो वन’ से परिणीति चोपड़ा ने ओटीटी पर वेब सीरीज की दुनिया में अपनी पारी शुरू की है। हालांकि, मेकर्स ने मां-बेटी की इस भावनात्मक कहानी के इर्द-गिर्द शक और साजिशों के ढेर सारे जाले बुनकर इसका मजा थोड़ा किरकिरा कर दिया है।

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Fri, September 25 2026

Engineered to exploit the current devotional fervour at the box office, in this tale of divine retribution, both the plot and the message are ultimately buried beneath a high-pitched, artificial theme-park aesthetic.

What happens when the custodians of ecological preservation form a corrupt alliance with political forces in the name of progress? Arunabh Kumar and Ekta Kapoor combine to present the dialectic between ecological conservation and modernisation, wrapped in a glossy, high-pitched divine intervention, for a mass audience that, these days, looks South for grand mytho-mystical experiences. When Rishi (Sidharth Malhotra), a rational professional, returns to his ancestral village with his wife Mamta (Tamannaah Bhatia) to sell off his inherited land, he is sucked into a raging debate. Led by the double-faced Deepak (Sunil Grover), those aligned with the development agenda offer a better rate because they want to build a road through the forest to reduce travel time to city infrastructure. In contrast, the traditionalists, including his well-meaning brother Shashi (Anup Soni) and bitter sister-in-law (Shweta Tiwari), don’t want to upset the forest’s reigning deity and invite her curse. Because of a past incident, Rishi has lost faith in the goddess, but Mamta remains devoted. When Rishi ignores the sacred decree forbidding entry into the forest after sunset, fury breaks loose as we gradually discover that beneath the supernatural lies a timely message: reneging on a pact with nature can unleash self-seeking dark forces. Drawing from folklore, it reminds us that the ruler has a role to protect nature and what happens when the custodian goes corrupt.

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Fri, September 25 2026

Some films are bad. Some are terrible. And some are pure torture. Sidharth Malhotra-Tamannaah's The Vvaan falls neatly into that third category.

Some films are bad. Some are terrible. And some are pure torture. The Vvaan falls neatly into that third category, in which I struggled to find a single redeeming feature, and failed spectacularly. When we first come upon a Mumbai-based engineer (Sidharth Malhotra) and his wife (Tamannaah Bhatia), childless but certainly not loveless, they are a) singing songs in a large sea-side bungalow, b) fetching up at a quack who hands out potency powders and c) participating in a hideous racist-colourist joke. The Vvaan never recovers from this early blow. Nor did I, as the film kept drawing me deeper into an off-colour, off-putting mix of so-called fantasy and folklore, of the kind that involves dark forests and their resident guardian devis, and evil spirits which devour those who dare walk into their domain after dark.

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Fri, September 25 2026