





Guild Reviews

Neelira
Drama (Tamil)
A wedding eve in 1988 Sri Lanka turns into a hostage standoff when Indian Army soldiers occupy a family's home overnight.
Cast:
Naveen Chandra, Sananth, Kapila Venu, Roopa Koduvayur, Vidhu, Sidhu kumaresan, Vincent Nakul
Director:
Someetharan
Writer:
Someetharan

Fri, April 3 2026
Neelira takes place over one night. There is a note at the end of the film, text on screen, that transcribes the long, arduous journey, from Sri Lanka to Europe, that now lies ahead for one of the characters—Vasuki. That text, pregnant with odyssey, suddenly made the film come alive for a brief second. Then, the film ends. Set in 1988, in Northern Srilanka, Neelira, the first Tamil feature directed by a Sri Lankan Tamilian, begins with the preparation for Vasuki’s wedding—including the logistics of getting permission from the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and the Sri Lankan army, though we don’t see a scene with the latter. Have they ceded control to the IPFK in this narrative?

Fri, April 3 2026
There is a scene in director Someetharan’s Neelira where a group of children is playing outdoors in the midst of the Sri Lankan civil war in 1988. One of them blurts," What’s a game without guns?," as they indulge in a shooting game. It takes only one scene to put everything into context. These are children who should be playing hopscotch or hide-and-seek. Instead, they are thinking about shooting each other.

Biker
Adventure, Drama (Telugu)
Adrenaline-fueled motocross racers navigate dangerous competitions and face intense challenges on their bikes.
Cast:
Sharwanand, Dr. Rajasekhar, Malavika Nair, Shashank, Atul Kulkarni, Brahmaji
Director:
Abhilash Reddy
Writer:
Abhilash Reddy, MVS Bharadwaj, Shravan Madala

Fri, April 3 2026
There are times when a filmmaker chooses to not reinvent the wheel or the story, to be precise. But a new setting lets it breathe. The broad contours of the storyline, sub plots and character arcs in director Abhilash Reddy’s Telugu sports drama, Biker are familiar. Motocross, a sport that has rarely or perhaps never been explored in Indian cinema, gives it a new sheen. The cutting-edge audio-visual landscape and worthwhile performances make it fairly engaging.


Maa Ka Sum
Comedy (Hindi)
Agastya, a math prodigy, believes every problem has a formula - even love. When he sets out to find the perfect match for his mother, his algorithm-fueled adventure spirals into a hilarious tangle of bad dates, big feelings, and one unexpected discovery: sometimes love can't be calculated, only felt.
Cast:
Mihir Ahuja, Angira Dhar, Ranveer Brar, Mona Singh, Manish Anand
Director:
Nicholas Kharkongor
Writer:
Sumrit Shahi, Nicholas Kharkongor, Vinay Choudary, Heena D’Souza

Fri, April 3 2026
Maths nerd Agastya aka Gast (Mihir Ahuja) has his heart set upon seeing his single mom Vinita aka Vinnie (Mona Singh) ‘settled’, so he’s in search of that perfect algorithm that will lead to a perfect match. In all the adding and subtracting, he forgets that humans are still the sum of their gloriously imperfect parts. No artificial intelligence can crack ‘em. At least not yet, fingers tightly crossed.

Fri, April 3 2026
We’ve seen Shah Rukh Khan’s pre-teen daughter gatecrash a wedding to get her dad remarried in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Akshaye Khanna endeavour to reunite his widowed father to his childhood sweetheart in Mere Baap Pehle Aap and Ayushmann Khurana embrace the idea of his mom’s need for companionship in Doctor G. Maa Ka Sum draws out on similar single-parent child psychology in the story of a teen mathematics genius using his skills to create a perfect match for his lonesome mom. Except there’s a dark side to his purpose. He doesn’t just wish to see his mother happy with somebody but also make that choice for her.

Fri, April 3 2026
Maa Ka Sum sets out to explore love through logic. Directed by Nicholas Kharkongor and written by Ravinder Randhawa and Sumrit Shahi, the Prime Video series is about a 19-year-old mathematics prodigy trying to “solve” relationships and matchmaking through equations and algorithms. Agastya (Mihir Ahuja) is on a mission to find the perfect partner for his single mother Vinita (Mona Singh). Their relationship is framed as unusually close, almost idealised, but quickly reveals a troubling co-dependence. Boundaries are virtually non-existent, with Agastya assuming the role of decision-maker in his mother’s romantic life, prioritising data and outcomes over her autonomy and feelings.

Super Duperr
(Marathi)
When a deceitful agent sells the same house twice, a modern couple and a village family must somehow share a roof and their very different worlds.
Cast:
Lalit Prabhakar, Vidula Chougule, Namrata Awate Sambherao, Kushal Badrike, Jagruti Datir
Director:
Sameer Asha Patil
Writer:
Sameer Asha Patil

Fri, April 3 2026
Super Duperr is a Marathi movie based on a conflict between two families that are poles apart. Rohit (Lalit Prabhakar) and Isha (Vidula Chougule) are a live-in couple from Mumbai. They are deeply in love but aren’t thinking about marriage. Rohit and Isha are struggling to make a mark in the field of singing and acting respectively. Once when they host a wild party at their rented apartment with their friends, they are forced to vacate the society as it doesn’t go down well with its members.

Bait
Comedy (English)
Shah Latif is a struggling actor on the cusp of landing the role of a lifetime, only to find himself thrust into a full blown existential crisis and trippy conspiracy thriller all at the same time.
Cast:
Riz Ahmed

Fri, April 3 2026
A brown Bond may not be on the British bingo card… Until Riz Ahmed challenges the status quo as a struggling British-Pakistani actor auditioning for 007, following Daniel Craig’s departure in Bait’s six episodes of marvelously meta, humorous and unabashedly topical commentary. There are no shortage of actors vying for the role of the ‘white neo-colonial MI6 agent’, including Idris Elba and Regé-Jean Page.

Wed, April 1 2026
In a way, it’s brilliant that actor Riz Ahmed delves into one of Hollywood’s (and Britain’s) most pressing cultural voids – Who will be the next James Bond? – and inserts himself into it. In Bait, a six-episode miniseries, Ahmed plays an emerging Pakistani-British actor having an existential moment when he’s announced as a contender to be the next 007. In a series that is part wish-fulfilment, part introspection, part satire and part surreal coming-of-age tale, Ahmed meditates on his place in Hollywood, in modern British society and if his immigrant trauma will even lends itself to playing the poised, suave, and, till now, white, neo-colonial MI6 agent.

XO Kitty S03
Comedy, Drama (English)
Teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she'll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it's your own heart on the line.
Cast:
Anna Cathcart, Choi Min-yeong, Gia Kim, Sang Heon Lee, Anthony Keyvan, Regan Aliyah, Peter Thurnwald, Philippe Lee, Sule Thelwell, Shin Hojo

Fri, April 3 2026
The Netflix spinoff series XO, Kitty follows Kitty Song Covey’s adventures as she goes abroad to Seoul, South Korea for love and family. Kitty has come far since she first landed clueless in The City of Palaces. But since then, she has found her place at the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS). However, the friendship group is growing up and thinking about their future in the third season. With new showrunner Valentina Garza injecting new energy into the season, the show takes some much-needed steps ahead. Now in Season 3, XO, Kitty is still relying on the power of the To All The Boys franchise to pull in viewers.

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen
Drama, Mystery (English)
A bride has a feeling that something horrifying will happen at her wedding — and the closer to the altar she gets, the worse it becomes.
Cast:
Camila Morrone, Adam DiMarco, Gus Birney, Jeff Wilbusch, Karla Crome, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ted Levine, Sawyer Fraser

Thu, April 2 2026
For all those (and by that I mean almost everyone) who, at some point, has felt that marriage is a death sentence, the experience is quite literal in the ominously named Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. Events that fall in the very, very bad category — and that is putting it mildly — do take place in this fresh-off-the-block Netflix series, all of which has to do with its protagonist’s decision to marry her “soulmate”.


Dhurandhar: The Revenge
Action, Crime, Thriller (Hindi)
As rival gangs, corrupt officials and a ruthless Major Iqbal close in, Hamza's mission for his country spirals into a bloody personal war where the line between patriot and monster disappears in the streets of Lyari.
Cast:
Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, R. Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun, Rakesh Bedi, Danish Pandor, Gaurav Gera, Manav Gohil, Ankit Sagar
Director:
Aditya Dhar

Sun, March 29 2026
German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl wasn’t the only person making propaganda for the Third Reich. She is remembered simply because she was the best. By that measure, director Aditya Dhar may be painted with a similar brush, because while his fellow Bollywood opportunists choose to spoonfeed their message, Dhar deploys his through subterfuge. Overlong, gratuitously violent, and brimming with a self-indulgence that borders on arrogance, his latest film, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, ought to be canceled on artistic grounds alone before even a word is spoken about its problematic politics. The film serves as a mouthpiece for India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and not, as it claims on several occasions, a bipartisan story about the bravery of true patriots.

Tue, March 24 2026
Dhurandhar: The Revenge doubles down on everything that made the first film so controversial. The level of sycophancy on display borders on the pathetic. We discuss the film’s plodding narrative, pointless diversions, and shameless devotion to the ruling party. We also talk about plot twists that you see coming from a mile away, the protagonist’s muddled motivations, and the convenience with which certain hurdles are overcome.

Sun, March 22 2026
A little more than 40 years ago, cartoonist Alison Bechdel formulated The Bechdel Test, which, over the decades, has become an essential metric to evaluate the representation of women in media, with special emphasis being laid on film. The Bechdel Test has a simple ask — to assess whether a piece of performing art has (a) at least two named women and (b) whether the female characters in it engage in a conversation (or more) on a topic which is something other than that centred on a man. Many films, since then, even while not being feminist in the classical sense of the term (or female-centric, according to commonly-used parlance), have proved to be worthy candidates of the test. Many others have not, despite their on-the-surface female presence, been able to pass muster. But no film, at least in recent times, would perhaps have failed it as spectacularly as Dhurandhar: The Revenge.


Muthu Engira Kaattaan
Drama, Crime, Action & Adventure (Tamil)
A story of an man who becomes a legend, a Monster, and a Miracle, depending on the Storyteller.
Cast:
Vijay Sethupathi, Milind Soman, Sudev Nair, Vadivel Murugan, Risha, VJ Parvathy, Kalaivani Bhaskar, Muthukumar, Abi Nakshathra, Gemini Mani
Director:
M. Manikandan, B. Ajithkumar
Writer:
M. Manikandan

Sun, March 29 2026

Sun, March 29 2026
Muthu Alias Kaattaan, starring Vijay Sethupathi, begins on a shocking note. A few minutes into the first episode, a local villager discovers a severed head perched on top of a rock — with no body in sight. It is the kind of opening that promises a gripping, atmospheric mystery. Across 10 episodes on JioHotstar, the series attempts to deliver on that promise. Does it get there? Let’s find out! The village police station is facing an existential crisis — negligible cases have brought it to the brink of shutdown. When officer Kalai Pandiyan (Vadivel Murugan) receives a call about the severed head, he seizes the opportunity and nudges his seniors to take up the case. An elderly villager (Balaji Sakthivel) identifies the dead man as Muthu, and the investigation begins.

Sat, March 28 2026
Before Tamil superstar Vijay Sethupathi, who is also the producer of the Tamil series ‘Muthu Engira Kaattaan’, appears in his titular part, we see his smiling head. To begin with, the thriller set in a Tamil village and in a forest area rests on the dilemma of three policemen. The outsider wants the station to be shut because it is visited by creatures like snakes. Constable Kaali Pandiyan (Vaidivel Murugan), who happens to be the son of an affluent goat herder from the village, is so besotted with his wife that the thought of leaving the village for an outstation posting is outright unpalatable to him.


Project Hail Mary
Science Fiction, Adventure (English)
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
Cast:
Ryan Gosling, James Ortiz, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Milana Vayntrub, Ken Leung, Priya Kansara, Mia Soteriou, Annelle Olaleye, Maya Eva Hosein
Director:
Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Sun, March 29 2026
Dynamic duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller return to live-action filmmaking after years of giving us some of the most crowd-pleasing animation storytelling in recent memory. You can clearly see the animation-filmmaking fingerprints from the producers, co-writers, and creative engines behind both the Spider-Verse films and Netflix’s terrific The Mitchells Vs The Machines all over the utterly delightful new space saga—Project Hail Mary. Think Interstellar meets Arrival meets The Martian (which is itself based on a book by Andy Weir, whose 2021 book Project Hail Mary this film is adapted from).

Sun, March 29 2026
Films are never exactly about stories, but there’s nothing like a film with a refreshingly original one. As paradoxical as it might sound, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary (based on Andy Weir’s book of the same name) solidified this belief of mine. Its second lead is not even human, and yet I got to witness what we famously call a human story. In a world where uncertainty is the only constant, where technology and greed threaten to upset the balance of society, what we need and deserve is a ray of metaphorical sunshine, and this film, starring Ryan Gosling, provides this in spades, albeit in a very unexpected way.

Sun, March 29 2026
At one point, in Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary, someone asks if they know when a hug ends. “You just know,” comes the response from Dr Ryland Grace, a scientist from earth, trying to devise a way to save the Sun. After the film, my first thought was if Lord and Miller’s film knew when to stop mollycoddling its audience. Why else would a competent film adapted from a bestselling novel of the same name by renowned author Andy Weir, starring an immensely watchable Ryan Gosling (playing Ryland Grace), triggering laughs and tears feel almost immediately forgettable after leaving the theatre? A film can be ‘good’ by any number of metrics, but it’s a certain degree of serendipity galvanising good films, elevating them into an authentic and a moving experience. Even the tears in Project Hail Mary feel like the result of a large assembly line, which is never a good sign.


Mardaani 3
Action, Crime, Thriller (Hindi)
Officer Shivani Shivaji Roy returns to hunt down those behind the disappearance of young girls, risking everything to bring them back alive.
Cast:
Rani Mukerji, Mallika Prasad, Janki Bodiwala, Jisshu Sengupta, Mikhail Yawalkar, Jaipreet Singh, Sachin Negi, Jimpa Sangpo Bhutia, Prajesh Kashyap, Indraneel Bhattacharya
Director:
Abhiraj Minawala

Sun, March 29 2026
Mardaani 3 has the same flawed feminism as its predecessors, but a larger canvas to project it on. We discuss the evolution of Rani Mukerji’s vanity project, which is coming up on nearly 15 years. We also talk about the film’s jarring third-act plot twists and Shivani Shivaji Roy’s Bond villain-esque new adversary. Along the way, we touch upon its attempts to create some sort of Avengers-type team for future instalments.

Mon, February 2 2026
The inherent dilemma of a successful franchise lies in its creative confinement. Once a central premise has been firmly established, subsequent chapters often circle familiar terrain, offering variations rather than reinvention. Mardaani 3 is no exception. Shivani Shivaji Roy returns once more—unyielding, razor-sharp, and morally incandescent—to dispense justice, this time in pursuit of girls who vanish without a trace.

Mon, February 2 2026
Abhiraj Minawala’s Mardaani 3 begins where the franchise is most comfortable: with a crisis that demands urgency. Two girls are kidnapped from a farmhouse in Bulandshahar. One is the daughter of an Indian diplomat. The other belongs to the domestic worker employed by the family. The distinction is not subtle, and neither is the film’s point. What initially appears to be a mistake quickly escalates into a national-level crisis, exposing the familiar fault lines of power and urgency. Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji), now with the National Investigation Agency in Delhi, is called in to handle the case. She takes charge instantly.


Tighee
Drama (Marathi)
Swati has built a respectable life in Mumbai, but everything is unravelling. Her predatory boss exploits her financial condition while her husband drowns in debt. When Swati comes to know her ailing mother Hemalata is not long for this world, Swati returns to a house that once was home. Her childhood home in Pune with her scorned younger sister Sarika, who has cared for their difficult mother alone for the last three years. The sisters' reunion is brutal, filled with accusations of abandonment. Fighting guilt, rage, and helplessness, the three find peace, until a fateful night when Swati discovers her old wedding video. The film explores how families survive through silence, sacrifice, and secrets that both save and destroy them.
Cast:
Bharati Achrekar, Neha Pendse, Sonalee Kulkarni, Jaimini Pathak, Pushkaraj Chirputkar, Nipun Dharmadhikari, Shrirang Deshmukh, Sanjay Mone, Mrinmayee Godbole, Siddharth Menon
Director:
Jeejivisha Kale

Thu, March 26 2026
A dark cloud of anxiety and unease hangs over Swati (Nehha Pendse) as she negotiates unwanted attention of her boss (Jaimini Pathak) and a mounting debt. Her younger sister, Sarika, (Sonalee Kulkarni) is in no better position, feeling stifled as the sole caretaker of their ailing mother and a stuttering career. The estranged sisters are united by the fact of their mother (Bharti Achrekar) being terminally ill. It doesn’t take long before they start bickering like children even as they turn caretakers.

Tue, March 17 2026
The many permutations of human relationships, and the stereotypes tied to them, feel particularly puzzling today. Can’t two sisters ever be mature and jealousy-free? Will a single mother not be an adequate provider to her daughters? Are all daughters really “daddy’s little girls”? Can’t sons find their best friends in their fathers? Tighee, directed by Jeejivisha Kale, suggests that all of this is possible today. It simply depends on the circumstances people find themselves in. The film’s philosophy is more along the lines of what I would call ‘unity in adversity’.

Sat, March 14 2026