Guild Reviews
IC 814 the Kandahar Hijack
Drama, War & Politics (Hindi)
When IC 814 gets hijacked on its way to Delhi, hundreds of lives are at stake as the country faces its longest and most alarming aviation crisis.
Cast:
Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Arvind Swamy, Dia Mirza
Director:
Anubhav Sinha
Writer:
Trishant Srivastava
Tue, October 15 2024
भारतीय इतिहास में 1999 के कंधार प्लेन हाईजैक की घटना आज भी एक काले अध्याय की तरह याद की जाती है। सारी दुनिया जब नई सदी Y2K के आने के उत्साह में मगन थी, क्रिसमस से एक दिन पहले 24 दिसंबर 1999 को करीब 175 लोगों को लेकर काठमांडू से दिल्ली के लिए रवाना हुए इंडियन एयरलाइंस के हवाई जहाज IC 814 को आतंकियों ने हाईजैक कर लिया। हाईजैकर्स के कब्जे वाला यह प्लेन पहले अमृतसर और फिर लाहौर और दुबई होते हुए कंधार में लैंड हुआ। सात दिन बाद भारतीय जेलों में बंद तीन आतंकियों मौलाना मसूद अजहर, मुश्ताक अहमद जरगर और अहमद उमर सईद शेख को छोड़ने के बदले इन यात्रियों की सुरक्षित घर वापसी करवाई गई। अब इसी घटनाक्रम पर आधारित वेब सीरीज ‘IC 814: द कंधार हाईजैक’ से चर्चित निर्देशक अनुभव सिन्हा ने ओटीटी पर दस्तक दी है।
This Anubhav Sinha directorial is one of the best ‘based on real life’ series to date
Mon, October 14 2024
Since the arrival of OTT platforms and binge-watching, Indian series have shown a marked improvement in craft and skill at telling fictional stories. But when it comes to mounting real-life stories for OTT, most have floundered, sometimes because they follow Netflix’s formulaic template, and sometimes because of who is telling the story. Delhi Crime, for example, the riveting show on the Nirbhaya rape case, was made with the help of Delhi’s former commissioner of police, Neeraj Kumar, and it naturally made heroes out of cops when it should have interrogated them.
Zindaginama
Drama (Hindi)
An Anthology series that highlights the stigmas around mental health and mental illness in India. According to the latest World Health Organization report on depression, almost 7.5% of Indians suffer from major or minor mental disorders that require expert intervention. The brainchild of Dr. Neerja Birla, Zindaginama strives towards creating an environment where mental health dialogue is encouraged. It's okay not to be okay. Six different stories from six creators with a common theme - to encourage us to be sensitive to our environment and peers and to show openness to acknowledging mental health struggles in our lives.
Tue, October 15 2024
मेंटल हेल्थ हमारे समाज में लंबे समय तक एक टैबू रहा है। हालांकि, अब कुछ साल से इसके बारे में खुलकर बातें होने लगी हैं। विश्व मानसिक स्वास्थ्य दिवस (10 अक्टूबर) पर आई एंथॉलजी सीरीज ‘ज़िंदगीनामा’ इसी मेंटल हेल्थ के प्रति जागरूकता की ओर एक मजबूत कदम है। यह सीरीज 35-40 मिनट की छह कहानियों का गुलदस्ता है, जो ईटिंग डिसऑर्डर, गेमिंग एडिक्शन, सिजोफ्रेनिया, ओसीडी, पीटीएसडी, जेंडर डिस्फोरिया जैसी अलग-अलग मानसिक समस्याओं के प्रति लोगों का ध्यान आकर्षित करती है।
A timely limited series
Mon, October 14 2024
Zindaginama tackles a set of mental health issues through six episodes, targeting a different one each time. What happens when a human begins believing in an alt reality? Purple Duniya’s protagonist, a terrific Tanmay Dhanania, sets out ostensibly to go to work, like regular folks do. But that’s all a sham. His total focus lies in the game he plays obsessively, constantly, forgetting to eat or drink. Or communicate with his sister. Therapy can help, but to what extent? And who wins finally, man or machine? Sahaan Hattangadi writes, and co-directs with Danny Mamik.
Call Me Bae
Drama, Comedy (Hindi)
Bae, billionaire fashionista is disowned by her ultra-rich family, owing to a salacious scandal and for the first time in her life, has to fend for herself. On this journey, she overcomes stereotypes and discovers who she really is.
Cast:
Ananya Panday, Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat
Ananya Panday shines but style trumps substance in story
Tue, October 15 2024
In Bella Chowdhary’s world, there’s no such thing as too many bags and in a world of fakes, she is on a path to become a Birkin. But it’s a path that she hasn’t chosen for herself, rather, a tragedy has led her there.
Taaza Khabar S02
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Hindi)
A public toilet caretaker's poverty-stricken life takes a drastic U-turn when he helps an old woman. How long will fate smile upon him?
Cast:
Bhuvan Bam, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Deven Bhojani, Prathmesh Parab, Shilpa Shukla
Director:
Himank Gaur
Writer:
Abbas Dalal
There's little that's 'taaza' in Bhuvan Bam's show
Tue, October 15 2024
In Taaza Khabar Season 2, there’s little that’s taaza (fresh). There’s ambition, but not enough drive. There are those next big things, but not the smoothest ways forward. A show, often oscillating between past, present and future, lacks the ‘vardaan’ (blessing) of staying afloat - something that, both the series and Bhuvan Bam’s character Vasant Gawde desperately need.
Bhuvan Bam Gives The Role His Best Shot
Mon, September 30 2024
Bhuvan Bam’s Vasant Gawde, Mr. Vardaan to the world owing to his ability to see events before they come to pass, is back seeking to make a killing from the prescient news updates that he receives on a mobile phone app. This time around, the Taaza Khabar protagonist is either on the backfoot or, worse still, down on his haunches. His plight necessitates desperate measures as he faces new challenges hurled at him by a man who will stop at nothing. But the show, notwithstanding a series of dramatic confrontations, struggles to skirt around the pitfalls of an idea that is beginning to wear thin.
Angry Young Men
Documentary (Hindi)
Angry Young Men is the story of Salim-Javed, legendary screenwriters of 1970s Hindi cinema. Together, they created the archetype of the Angry Young Man - a brooding anti-hero who captured the imagination of an entire nation with his rage, defiance, and quest for social justice. Like the character they created, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, two outsiders to the Hindi film industry, defied all odds, questioning the position of writers and demanding recognition as much as the reigning stars of that time. Their break-up made headlines for many years and Indian cinema never saw a cultural collaboration as powerful again. This is a personal and candid account of their lives, their writing and their legacy.
Cast:
Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan
Director:
Namrata Rao
An entertaining home video that mollycoddles Salim-Javed duo
Mon, October 14 2024
Angry Young Men, a three-part series directed by Namrata Rao, is crafted like the many Bollywood blockbusters that its protagonists — Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar — wrote together. Starring their wives, children, colleagues, friends and fans, the series is devoted to not just telling the story of a very successful and almost epochal collaboration, but also to cast them as the best writers Indian cinema has ever had.
Ullozhukku
Drama (Malayalam)
The film is set in a flooded region in Kerala where a woman and her daughter-in-law attempt to bury a loved one. However, due to heavy floods, the burial is postponed. This delay brings long-buried secrets and lies to the surface, threatening the family's unity.
Cast:
Urvashi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Arjun Radhakrishnan, Shebin Benson, Alencier Ley Lopez
Director:
Christo Tomy
Writer:
Christo Tomy
An Astounding Urvashi Headlines a Tender Film On Love That Defies Conventions
Mon, October 14 2024
he first few events in Ullozhukku (Under Current), directed by Christo Tomy, happen in quick succession. Life falls through Anju’s (Parvathy) fingers before she can chart a plan. From a wide-eyed sales girl at a textile shop furtively smiling at her lover, she transforms into a bride posing for awkward post-wedding pictures on a backwater boat, her eyes heavy from what was likely a teary night. The film then moves to the old, spacious house of her husband, Thomas Kutty (Prasanth Murali), and his doting mother, Leelamma (Urvashi), in Kuttanad, where time, like a boat engine whirring to a halt at the dock, comes to a pressing stillness.
Urvashi’s powerhouse performance carries this haunting drama
Mon, September 30 2024
Everyone in Ullozhukku is stranded, in one way or the other. Even a dead body remains unburied for days, as flood waters have submerged the burial grounds. The less said of the living, the better. Anju (Parvathy Thiruvothu) and her mother-in-law Leelamma (Urvashi) are in a life not of their choosing. One has come to terms with it, tempered by the struggles of family life, and even yearns to protect that way of living, while the other still has some spirit left to fight her way out of it.
Agatha All Along
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery (English)
Agatha Harkness gathers a coven of witches and sets off down, down, down The Witches' Road.
Cast:
Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Debra Jo Rupp
Novelty max, Success not quite
Mon, October 14 2024
With WandaVision, creator Jac Schaeffer made it clear that she wasn’t interested in the standard approach to superhero fare. For most of its running, the Marvel TV show’s exploration of Wanda Maximoff’s grief over the loss of her partner Vision took the form of a sitcom spoof, one that barrelled through decades of the format—from black-and-white 4:3 aspect ratio to the meta recasting and costume choices—in an episodic fashion. Sure, Schaeffer struggled to usher her non-standard superhero show away from the climactic final-third tropes of the genre. But there was still a lot of fun to be had in WandaVision. It was the perfect possible start for Marvel’s new television-heavy era on Disney+ (though what has come after has been more miss than hit).
Love Sitara
Drama, Romance (Hindi)
Tara and Arjun travel to her hometown to work on their relationship before marriage. What happens when her family starts sharing their darkest secrets?
Cast:
Sobhita Dhulipala, Rajeev Siddhartha, Sonali Kulkarni, Virginia Rodriguez, Jayashree B.
Director:
Vandana Kataria
Pre-wedding blues with Sobhita Dhulipala
Mon, October 14 2024
Love, Sitara begins with a nod to Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” says Sitara (Sobhita Dhulipala). Unlike Leo Tolstoy’s great novel — whose opening line these words are — the writing in Vandana Kataria’s film isn’t as quotable, though it tries hard. You can assemble a slim volume of pithy self-help slogans from Abbas and Hussain Dalal’s dialogue: “Happiness lies in honesty.” “Dysfunction means they are making an effort.” “I’ll fix myself, before I can fix my relationships.”
More Than Just Another Wedding Film?
Tue, October 1 2024
Black
Mystery, Thriller (Tamil)
Vasanth and Aaranya, a couple move into a serene row house, eager for peace and privacy, but a violent storm leaves them trapped inside, unsettling supernatural disturbances threaten to unravel their marriage. Vasanth must uncover the truth behind these supernatural occurrences before everything falls apart.
Cast:
Jiiva, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Vivek Prasanna, Shah Ra, Swayam Siddha
Director:
Balasubramani KG
Writer:
Balasubramani KG
Jiiva, Priya Bhavanishankar shine in a gripping, intriguing melange of genres
Sun, October 13 2024
The best part of Black is how it reels you in right in the first ten minutes. The film starts in 1964. There is a couple eloping with the help of a friend (Vivek Prasanna). It is raining like crazy. Their journey is briefly interrupted by a vehicle in the ditch. This vehicle carries a marble statue of a guardian angel. There is thunder and lightning. Soon enough, this friend, who has sinister intentions, hears two gunshots. He rushes in to ask the couple what happened? Cut to black. Literally. The title credits pop up, and we are in 2024.
Citadel Diana
Action & Adventure, Drama (Italian)
Milan, 2030: Diana Cavalieri is a double agent for the secret syndicate Citadel, who infiltrated Manticore, the rival agency that destroyed Citadel eight years ago. Trapped behind enemy lines, Diana has a chance to leave the agency forever, but she has to decide whether to trust a surprising ally: the heir of Manticore Italy, Edo Zani.
Cast:
Matilda De Angelis, Lorenzo Cervasio, Maurizio Lombardi, Julia Piaton, Thekla Reuten
A Slick Spy Thriller With a Gimmicky, Confounding Narrative
Sat, October 12 2024
Citadel, an independent spy agency, is wiped out by Manticore, a powerful syndicate that’s desperate to take charge of the world. Diana, an undercover Citadel agent, works as a mole in Manticore. She forges an unexpected rapport with Edo Zani (the heir of Manticore Italy), who is keen on taking the mantle from his father Ettore, grooming himself to be a capable leader.
Is It Better Than Priyanka Chopra's OG Show?
Fri, October 11 2024
Citadel Diana is one of the many spin-offs set around the American Citadel led by Priyanka Chopra. The series explores the world of a covet organisation across the globe trying to take down the world’s most evil organisation Manticore. While Citadel carried the story more straightforward, Citadel vs Manticore, we get to see a different side in Diana. The Italian show led by Matilda De Angelis, Lorenzo Cervasio and Maurizio Lombardi explores more on the side of how things are done at Manticore. Released in Italian, with few dialogues in English, the show is expected to have a stronger opening than Citadel.
Janaka Aithe Ganaka
Comedy (Telugu)
When his wife announces a surprise pregnancy, a man decides to sue the condom company he deems responsible.
Cast:
Suhas, Sangeerthana Vipin, Vennela Kishore, Goparaju Ramana, Vijaya Lakshmi
Director:
Sandeep Reddy Bandla
The courtroom drama is a missed opportunity
Sat, October 12 2024
Telugu cinema has consistently portrayed stories where protagonists embody middle-class values — from Needi Naadi Oke Katha and Middle Class Melodies to Middle Class Abbayi (MCA) and The Family Star. Interestingly, Dil Raju, the producer behind two of these films, also backs Janaka Aithe Ganaka this week. The Sandeep Reddy Bandla directorial, starring Suhas, aims to acknowledge and appreciate the bread-winners of middle-class households, in the guise of a courtroom drama.
Lonely Planet
Romance, Drama (English)
At an idyllic writers retreat in Morocco, a newly single novelist finds an unexpected connection with a younger man who's reevaluating his life choices.
Cast:
Laura Dern, Liam Hemsworth, Diana Silvers, Bellina Logan, Sami Fekkak
Director:
Susannah Grant
Writer:
Susannah Grant
Laura Dern, Liam Hemsworth's Aimless Romance Is A Waste Of Time
Fri, October 11 2024
A foreign locale, two individuals at a crossroads… on the surface, the Netflix film Lonely Planet had the right ingredients. But the Susannah Grant film does nothing with it. Starring Laura Dern as an established writer and Liam Hemsworth as a finance guy who meet at a retreat in Morocco, the film wastes our time with their ineffectual romance. It ends up being a tourism guide for the country.