One Battle After Another
Action, Crime, Thriller (English)
When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. (more…)
They Call Him OG
Action, Thriller (Telugu)
After vanishing from Mumbai's underworld for a decade, mob boss Ojas Gambheera resurfaces—feared, unstoppable, and with a single goal: to reclaim his empire and exact vengeance on the current tyrant, Omi Bhau. As loyalties fracture and alliances shift, OG reignites (more…)
Guild Reviews
Steve
Drama, Comedy (English)
Over one intense day, the devoted head teacher of a last-chance reform school strives to keep his students in line while facing pressures of his own.
Cast:
Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman, Jay Lycurgo, Little Simz, Douggie McMeekin, Youssef Kerkour, Roger Allam, Emily Watson, Archie Fisher, Araloyin Oshunremi
Director:
Tim Mielants
Sat, October 4 2025
It’s an all-time performance by Murphy, who somehow stages Steve as both victim and survivor in a setting that democratises the nature of suffering.
STEVE opens with a 48-year-old man (Cillian Murphy) on his way to work. He’s full of nervous energy. The way he’s psyching himself up, you’d think he’s going to war. It’s going to be a long and complicated day. He knows it, not because the film revolves around this day, but because it’s just another day. The moment Steve reaches work, the war begins. As the headteacher of a school of reform for troubled boys, he is pulled into the quotidian mayhem of his ‘job’. The students of Stanton Wood are already at it: Jamie and Riley are fighting like animals again, Tarone is provoking everyone, Shy is brooding and simmering after a heartbreaking phone call with his mother. It’s 1996, and the heavy-metal emotions of youth clash with the hard-rock resilience of adulthood. Steve tries to calm them down, assuage them, warn them, banter with them; he’s everywhere and nowhere.
Cast:
Dhanush, Rajkiran, Arun Vijay, Nithya Menen, Sathyaraj, Shalini Pandey, Vadivukarasi, Samuthirakani, Ilavarasu, R. Parthiban
Director:
Dhanush
Writer:
Dhanush
Sat, October 4 2025
Sat, October 4 2025
Fri, October 3 2025
Dhanush’s 'Idli Kadai' swings between brilliance and banality, offering both tender, timeless moments and frustratingly overcooked clichés
It doesn’t take Dhanush more than five minutes to both frustrate and fascinate you with his filmmaking. In one scene, we see Murugan (Dhanush) on a video call with his fiancée Meera (Shalini Pandey) after returning to his village. Murugan is in Tamil Nadu and she’s in Bangkok; he is poor, and she is rich. But instead of using a line or a frame to underline this disparity, director Dhanush stages Meera outside her mansion, seated on the bonnet of a white Rolls Royce. The next time we see her, she FaceTimes Murugan with a champagne flute in hand, strutting around the deck of her yacht. And in a silly line, her wealthy father Vishnu Vardhan (Sathyaraj) explains to his spoiled son: “We millionaires don’t get to where we are in life just because of hard work and talent.”
Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Drama, Crime (English)
The shocking true-life tale of Ed Gein, the infamous murderer and grave robber who inspired many of Hollywood's most iconic on-screen killers.
Cast:
Charlie Hunnam, Olivia Williams, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Hollander, Suzanna Son, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Joey Pollari, Charlie Hall, Tyler Jacob Moore
Fri, October 3 2025
Produced by Ryan Murphy, the third season of Monster is more interested in his legacy than his crimes.
“Only a mother could love you,” scolds Ed Gein’s mother Augusta (Laurie Metcalf). Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology returns for a third time on Netflix with the story of serial killer and grave robber Ed Gein, who the series would have you believe is the godfather to the rest of the murderers that followed. Charlie Hunnam plays the title role and really sinks into it. However, the screenplay by Ian Brennan is overly indulgent dragging the story over eight episodes and moving it from tangent to tangent.
I Poppy
Documentary (Hindi)
The divergent paths of poppy farmer Vardibai and her activist son Mangilal intertwine in this powerful documentary about a Dalit family’s resistance against systemic oppression.
Director:
Vivek Chaudhary
Writer:
Vivek Chaudhary
Fri, October 3 2025
Vivek Choudhary’s powerful 75-minute documentary took the Best International Feature at 2025 Hot Docs and won the Busan Cinephile Award
I, Poppy follows an old poppy farmer and her troubles with a ‘wayward’ adult son. Like several others in her Rajasthani village, Vardibai Meghwal owns a patch of land and a poppy-farming license. She is a grassroots supplier of opium, the precious Black Gold that contains morphine used in both medicinal and illegal drugs. The trade is far from profitable, but she perseveres; she cannot afford to worry about moral implications. Her grandsons help her toil in the field. But Vardibai considers her son, Mangilal, a liability for not entering the family business, slacking on his teaching job and barely contributing to household expenses. The situation is dire. Mangilal is an addict who, according to his mother, needs to be cured and controlled and rehabilitated. He is amused by her taunts; he’s never at home, always distracted by hallucinations of an alternate reality.
13th
Drama (Hindi)
13th tells the story of Ritesh, a successful venture capitalist who reunites with his maverick IIT-JEE mentor, Mohit Tyagi Sir, to help scale his visionary educational institute. The series unfolds against the backdrop of India's most gruelling academic competition and a startup culture fixated on valuations. At its heart, 13th is a deeply nostalgic, human story of a master and his pupil-bound by ambition, respect, and the lessons that shape a lifetime.
Cast:
Gagan Dev Riar, Paresh Pahuja, Girija Oak, Pradnya Motghare, Abhishek Ranjan, Jai Kishan
Director:
Nishil Sheth
Writer:
Sameer Mishra
Thu, October 2 2025
गुरु गोविंद दोऊ खड़े काके लागू पाय, बलिहारि गुरु आपनो गोविंद दियो बताय… एक बच्चे के जीवन में गुरु का क्या स्थान होता है, यह संत कबीर दास ने इस दोहे में बखूबी बता दिया था। वाकई एक सच्चा गुरु अपने शिष्य के जीवन की दिशा बदल सकता है। एक ऐसी ही गुरु-शिष्य की जोड़ी की कहानी पर बनी है, ‘13वीं: सम लेसन्स आर नॉट टॉट इन क्लासरूम्स’वेब सीरीज। जैसा कि शीर्षक से ही साफ है कि सारे सबक क्लासरूम में नहीं सिखाए जाते, यह सीरीज इंसान को डर, असुरक्षा, ईष्या, घमंड जैसी उन कमियों से निपटना सिखाती है जो किसी किताब से नहीं सीखा जा सकता।
Thu, October 2 2025
The TVF-coded drama about a former student and his mentor launching an ed-tech startup has the personality of an algorithm
Inspired by the real-life journey of educator Mohit Tyagi and his platform Competishun, 13th is a five-episode drama about a venture capitalist who quits his job to help his former mentor build an ed-tech startup. It is composed of two timelines around a decade apart: the struggle of cocky IIT-JEE aspirant Ritesh (Paresh Pahuja) under the tutelage of crowd-favourite MT Sir (Gagandev Riar) is intercut with the struggle of corporate star Ritesh teaming up with a vintage MT Sir to turn this vision into a unicorn. The protege and teacher trade roles across phases; Ritesh chooses to ‘invest’ in Mohit the way he once invested in him. The ominous-sounding title refers to the term used for students who take a drop year after their 12th to prepare for the JEE entrance exam — like Ritesh does in Kota in 2005, but also like he figuratively does after getting disillusioned with startup culture years later.
Balti
Action, Drama, Romance (Malayalam)
A star kabaddi player's life takes a dangerous turn when he's pulled into the criminal underworld.
Cast:
Shane Nigam, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, Preethi Asrani, Shiva Hariharan, Alphonse Puthren, Selvaraghavan, Poornima Indrajith, Jeckson Johnson, Asha Madathil Sreekanth, Akshay Radhakrishnan
Director:
Unni Sivalingam
Writer:
Unni Sivalingam
Thu, October 2 2025
With excellent performances from the ensemble cast, 'Balti' is the work of a director who lives and breathes masala cinema in Unni Sivalingam
Set in the one of the border towns of Palakkad, bang in the middle of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu, is a surprising film that borrows its sensibilities from both Malayalam and Tamil cinema. The writing, about four young kabaddi players and how they’re slowly absorbed into the world of crime and corruption, feels planted and subtle, like a solid Malayalam slowburn. But the colours of these scenes are dynamic, the sounds loud, and its treatment a lot like that of the rooted Tamil cinema of the 2000s.
Sat, September 27 2025
'Balti' is an action drama starring Shane Nigam and Shanthanu Bhagyaraj. While its dynamic characters are intriguing, the film ultimately suffers from overused cliches and a predictable storyline.
‘Balti’ opens with a gory murder and the four friends, who meticulously plan and commit the crime. Minutes after the crime, they quickly change their outfits and take part in a temple ritual. With pulsating music from the find of this decade, Sai Abhyankkar, the film grabs your attention from the first frame. But, does it hold your attention throughout? Let’s find out!
Sat, September 27 2025
In ‘Balti,’ starring Shane Nigam, Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, and Preethi Asrani, an unending stream of well-staged action sequences barely keeps afloat a plot lacking any novelty
Balti comes accompanied with the tag of a ‘sports action film’, with Kabaddi being the sport in the spotlight. For a while in the beginning, debutant filmmaker Unni Sivalingam appears to be keen on living up to this tag, serving us some intensely fought and tastefully shot Kabaddi matches. But by the halfway point, Kabaddi gets firmly pushed to the background, only for a glimpse of it to be shown in the epilogue.
They Call Him OG
Action, Thriller (Telugu)
After vanishing from Mumbai's underworld for a decade, mob boss Ojas Gambheera resurfaces—feared, unstoppable, and with a single goal: to reclaim his empire and exact vengeance on the current tyrant, Omi Bhau. As loyalties fracture and alliances shift, OG reignites a brutal criminal war, confronting both external threats and haunting buried betrayals.
Cast:
Pawan Kalyan, Emraan Hashmi, Priyanka Arul Mohan, Prakash Raj, Sriya Reddy, Arjun Das, Ajay Ghosh, Rajendran, Jeeva, Harish Uthaman
Director:
Sujeeth
Writer:
Sujeeth
Tue, September 30 2025
The Telugu superstar goes full tilt at powering an erratic screenplay that delivers an abundance of superficial style
Another southern superstar vehicle that alternates between soaring high and sputtering cumbersomely, They Call Him OG does not go completely off the rails thanks to the kinetic power that lead actor Pawan Kalyan lends the film. The Telugu superstar goes full tilt at powering an erratic screenplay that delivers an abundance of superficial style. The film has plenty of arrows in its quiver but all of them hit their intended targets. But if you are a Pawan Kalyan fan, that lacuna is unlikely to take anything away from the sheen that the star possesses.
Sat, September 27 2025
Director Sujeeth's 'They Call Him OG' is a fan-service to Power Star Pawan Kalyan. The gangster drama, with a Japanese connection, has redundant ideas but is lifted by rousing elevation sequences.
All the superstars of Indian cinema share one thing in common: a remarkable screen presence. All it takes is for them to come on screen and blow us away with just one glance. Telugu superstar Pawan Kalyan, fondly known as Power Star by his fans, is one such actor whose antics are enough to set the screen ablaze. For his fans, director Sujeeth’s ‘They Call Him OG’ is a film that promises to satisfy all their cravings.
Fri, September 26 2025
Bad Girl
Romance, Drama (Tamil)
From her journey through high school and college, then out into the wider world, Ramya’s dream of finding the perfect guy is obstructed by societal mores, strict parents, unrequited love and the untrammeled chaos of her own mind.
Cast:
Anjali Sivaraman, Shanti Priya, Hridhu Haroon, Teejay, Sashank Bommireddipalli, Saranya Ravichandran
Director:
Varsha Bharath
Writer:
Varsha Bharath
Tue, September 30 2025
Fri, September 26 2025
Thu, September 25 2025
एक लड़की है स्कूल में जिसके लिए ब्वॉय फ्रैंड बनाना पहली प्राथमिकता है। उसकी मां उसी स्कूल में टीचर है लेकिन वह लड़की रूल्स तोड़ना अपना हक समझती है। पढ़ाई की बजाय उसका ध्यान लड़कों में रहता है। मां-बाप समझाते हैं तो वह उन्हें धमकियां देती है। स्कूल के बाद कॉलेज, कॉलेज के बाद नौकरी करते हुए भी वह बदलती नहीं है। नियमों और परंपराओं से बगावत उसकी फितरत है। लोगों की नज़रों में ऐसी लड़कियां खराब होती हैं। वह भी ‘बैड गर्ल’ है। लेकिन अपनी नज़र में वह सही है, बिल्कुल सही।
Samsaram Adhu Minsaram
(Tamil)
Ammaiyappan Mudaliar fulfils every need of his four children. However, when the eldest son fights with him and leaves the house, Uma, the daughter-in-law, tries to solve their issues.
Cast:
Visu, Lakshmi, Raghuvaran, Vagai Chandrasekar, Kamala Kamesh, Ilavarasi, Manorama, Madhuri, Delhi Ganesh, Kishmu
Director:
Visu
Writer:
Visu
Sun, September 28 2025
Alice in Borderland S03
Mystery, Drama, Action & Adventure (Japanese)
With his two friends, a video-game-obsessed young man finds himself in a strange version of Tokyo where they must compete in dangerous games to win.
Cast:
Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya
Sat, September 27 2025
Based on Haro Aso's manga, the series returns of another nail-biting chapter, with thrills all round.
Before Squid Game, there was the Japanese series Alice in Borderland about players in life-or-death games. Returning five years after the Shibuya meteorite incident, Alice in Borderland’s third season puts its protagonists Arisu (Kento Yamazaki) and Usagi (Tao Tsuchiya) back in dire danger. As the games resume in Borderland, the games become more elaborate with higher stakes. The events of Season 3 veer away from Haro Aso’s manga while sticking to its essence. The second half picks up to return to the show that entralled fans over five years and should leave them wanting more.
Karam
Thriller, Action (Malayalam)
Former Indian military officer Dev Mahendran and his family find themselves in a perilous situation in a foreign country, Lenarco, during an international conference.
Cast:
Noble Babu Thomas, Reshma Sebastian, Audrey Miriam, Manoj K Jayan, Kalabhavan Shajon, Baburaj, Vishnu G. Varrier, Johny Antony, Shweta Menon, John Kaippallil
Director:
Vineeth Sreenivasan
Writer:
Noble Babu Thomas
Sat, September 27 2025
Vineeth Sreenivasan trades Kerala’s heart for Europe’s cold streets in a thriller so generic, it forgets to feel
There were instances during Karam where you are led to believe you’ve entered into the wrong screen at the multiplex. This begins right from the first shot when when we’re asked to guess if a particular chase is taking place in India or elsewhere. Of course we see Noble Babu Thomas (Dev) in the frame and we’re told that he’s just missed a shot at the most notorious militant in the world, but the imagery is so devoid of specificity that it could be any Mallu action hero running away from bad guys in any continent in any part of the world and it wouldn’t make a difference. A scene later, it’s when Dev gets court-marshalled that we learn that these two are Indian soldiers, out to take on a threat against India. The generic Europeanness of the location is something we need to interpret as the story taking place in some idyllic North Indian hill station, along the lines of Shimla.
Sat, September 27 2025
Humour depends on the setting as well as the timing, and Vineeth Sreenivasan’s particular attempt at comedy amid attempts to bust a human trafficking ring, fall flat
To create a humorous situation around the ubiquitous ‘Dolo 650’, like the one in Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Karam, requires a certain amount of ingenuity. But, humour depends on the setting as well as the timing, and this particular attempt at comedy may have worked in a different setting. In Karam, it just happens to be placed in the middle of a person’s attempt to breach and bust a dreaded human trafficking ring, causing the humour to fall flat.
One Battle After Another
Action, Crime, Thriller (English)
When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.
Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Tony Goldwyn, Shayna McHayle
Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer:
Paul Thomas Anderson
Sat, September 27 2025
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another serves as a reminder that it is the same director behind There Will Be Blood (2007), although this film ventures further into uncharted territory. It encompasses political themes, satire, action, and family drama. Above all, this film showcases the filmmaker’s mastery of his craft – from the musical score to the cinematography, there is an abundance of elements to appreciate in this work.
Fri, September 26 2025