Su From So
Comedy, Horror, Drama (Kannada)
In a peaceful village full of joy, laughter, and vibrant life, everything seems perfect—until one day, the devil arrives. What follows is a hilarious chain of events that flips the entire village upside down! (more…)
Jugnuma (The Fable)
Drama (Hindi)
Dev owns orchards and lives on a sprawling estate. After finding burnt trees Dev monitors workers and Nomads fall under suspicion. Despite night guards, a huge fire engulfs the mountainside. Dev uses violence in his search. (more…)
Mirai
Science Fiction, Action, Adventure (Telugu)
Following the historic Kalinga battle, where King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty emerged as the winner, he chose to walk the path of peace instead of continuing warfare. Yet, the kingdom appointed nine warriors to protect some ancient scriptures rumored (more…)
Ek Chatur Naar
Drama, Comedy, Crime (Hindi)
Abhishek Verma, a fund consultant, gets trapped in a web of lies, deception and blackmail after a good-for-nothing but cunning woman, failing to make ends meet, gets her hands on his phone, which lets slip more than anyone should know, (more…)
Do You Wanna Partner
Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
Best friends Shikha and Anahita turn entrepreneurs with an exciting craft beer brand, Jugaaro, to stand out in the crowded NCR beer market. However, they face gender discrimination every step of the way. To fight for an equal place in (more…)
Guild Reviews by Film
Tango Malhar
Drama (Marathi)
When Malhar, an auto driver, accidentally discovers Argentine Tango, he finds himself torn between his conservative roots and an elite dance community. Along the way he uncovers connection, awakening something beyond his mundane existence
Cast:
Akshay Gaikwad, Nitesh Kamble, Kriti Shrinivasan
Director:
Saya Date
Thu, September 18 2025
There’s a point in Tango Malhar where it stops feeling like a promotional piece for the Argentinian dance form it’s named after. That moment arrives when siblings Malhar (Nitesh Kamble) and Rani (Kriti Vishwanathan) are secretly filmed while passionately practicing tango in a secluded building. In Saya Date’s film, this scandalous act carries the potential to ignite controversy, challenging the sanctity of familial bonds. Where will the story go from here? That question becomes the film’s most compelling suspense. Tango Malhar opens with Malhar, a 20-something autorickshaw driver, grooving to Indian hip-hop on his earphones. He lives with his widowed mother and school-going younger sister in a cramped city home. Early in the film, we see Rani’s love for dance and her brother’s latent rhythm. A man of few words, Malhar is still searching for purpose when tango unexpectedly enters his life.
Dashavatar
Drama, Thriller, Adventure (Marathi)
When evil rises, divinity manifests to defeat it. An aging Dashavatar folk theater performer faces life's storms, guided by the wisdom of this traditional Konkan art form blending myth, music, and dance.
Cast:
Mahesh Manjrekar, Priyadarshini Indalkar, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Siddharth Menon, Lokesh Mittal, Ravi Kale, Bharat Jadhav, Abhinay Berde, Sunil Tawde, Aarti Wadagbalkar
Director:
Subodh Khanolkar
Writer:
Guru Thakur, Subodh Khanolkar
Wed, September 17 2025
Dashavatar scores high in getting you transported to the small Konkan village where it’s based. The scenic place is shot well by cinematographer Devendra Golatkar. The village’s folk theatre culture is portrayed in a realistic manner. It also acts as a tribute to the unsung theatre artistes from various corners of India. The bittersweet relation between Babuli and Madhav also brings a smile, although the song between them could have been done away with. Dashavatar brings a shocking incident at the interval point. From here on, you expect the film to rise further. But, instead, it starts suffering from the second half syndrome. The incidents where various avatars of Lord Vishnu are brought in not only make the narrative predictable but also lack logic as it’s difficult to believe what one character keeps doing. Plus, the screenplay starts becoming messier as the film nears the climax with quite a few questionable incidents. The climax gives an important social message but it suits more in the medium of theatre than cinema.
Sat, September 13 2025
In the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Dashavatar presentations continue to be a huge draw. The traditional theatre form is centred around the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu, and its performers command immense respect and popularity. Subodh Khanolkar’s Dashavatar is the story of one such performer – Babuli Mestri (Dilip Prabhavalkar). Having performed in the traditional theatre all his life, Babuli is almost synonymous to Dashavatar in his village, so much that his entry in the presentation is all that people look forward to. Age is fast catching up with Babuli, but he refuses to hang his boots despite repeated pleas from his doctor and even his son Madhav (Siddharth Menon). Babuli promises to retire only when Madhav gets a job and starts earning. When that happens, the veteran performer stays true to his word and announces his last performance during a Mahashivratri celebration. On the other hand, Madhav also decides to ask for his girlfriend Vandana’s (Priyadarshini Indalkar) hand in marriage on the auspicious day. But tragedy strikes, derailing everyone’s plans and putting in motion a series of entirely unexpected events.
Fresh
Horror, Thriller (English)
Frustrated by scrolling dating apps only to end up on lame, tedious dates, Noa takes a chance by giving her number to the awkwardly charming Steve after a produce-section meet-cute at the grocery store.
Cast:
Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs, Charlotte Le Bon, Dayo Okeniyi, Andrea Bang, Brett Dier, Alina Maris, William Belleau, Lachlan Quarmby
Director:
Mimi Cave
Writer:
Lauryn Kahn
Wed, September 17 2025
Deliciously sinister and delectably unhinged, Fresh is a commentary on the perils of modern dating, with a refreshingly original take on the splatter genre. This 2022 film, available for streaming on JioHotstar, marks the debut of Mimi Cave (who has since gone on to direct this year’s middling Nicole Kidman thriller Holland), and manages to winningly (at least for the most part) be a dark comedy, a feminist tale and a horror fest at the same time. Fresh begins in a way that most films on modern-day urban loneliness do. Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is striking, sharp and smart, but doesn’t seem to have much luck in the dating department. With almost no family to call her own, it is her closest pal Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs) that Noa leans on emotionally. A few days after a particularly bad first date, Noa bumps into a charming stranger (Steve, played by Sebastian Stan) in a supermarket aisle. Numbers are exchanged, a few fun dates follow and before we know it, Noa is hopelessly charmed by the disarming Steve, who claims to be a doctor specialising in ‘reconstructive surgery’. More on that later.
Vimukt (In Search of the Sky)
Drama (Hindi)
When A 26-year-old mentally unstable son of a poverty-stricken elderly couple begins to feel like a burden and the reason for constant mockery in a village they have lived their entire life. The couple's decides to travel to the Maha Kumbh, once in a 144-year pilgrimage, largest human gathering on the planet. Will this journey bring them the healing they hoped for? Or will their lives be changed forever?
Cast:
Nikhil Yadav, Meghna Agarwal, Raghvendra Bhadoriya
Director:
Jitank Singh Gurjar
Tue, September 16 2025
The first ever film in Braj has received its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
In the last decade, it’s been heartening to see filmmaking voices emerge from the heartland, drawing raw, earthy portraits of rural life, where more than half of India still resides. We see such films hiding in the garb of a genre: comedy, satire, police procedural etc, especially when the director isn’t familiar with the milieu. Hence, the work of an assured filmmaker jumps out at us. The likes of Natesh Hegde, Anmol Sidhu, Achal Mishra etc, confidently marry sophisticated aesthetics with a lived-in grittiness. Director Jitank Singh Gurjar fits right into this mix as his feature debut, In Search of the Sky (alternate title: Vimukt) suggests. Told in Braj language, it tells the story of a family in rural Madhya Pradesh, which is trying to escape its life sentence by visiting the Mahakumbh.
Mon, September 15 2025
Su From So
Comedy, Horror, Drama (Kannada)
In a peaceful village full of joy, laughter, and vibrant life, everything seems perfect—until one day, the devil arrives. What follows is a hilarious chain of events that flips the entire village upside down!
Cast:
Shaneel Gautham, JP Tuminad, Sandhya Arakere, Prakash K Thuminadu, Deepak Rai Panaje, Mime Ramdas, Pushparaj Bollar, Arjun Kaje, Raj B Shetty
Director:
JP Tuminad
Writer:
JP Tuminad
Mon, September 15 2025
I recently watched this Kannada film called Su from So. It’s written and directed by a debut filmmaker, J. P. Thuminad and produced by Raj Shetty, and has surprisingly turned into a huge hit. The film has gone from regional obscurity to almost a national sensation. What struck me most is its vibe; it feels very much like modern Malayalam cinema. Easygoing, not trying to be grand or over-ambitious, but simply a filmmaker telling a story with a camera. And that simplicity is part of its charm. At its heart, Su from So is about small-town lives. How everyone’s closely knit, and how even the tiniest incidents become the biggest entertainment in the predictable rhythm of everyday life. The story is anchored by two characters, Ravi Anna (Shaneel Gautham), a respected, unmarried man in the village, and a younger guy Ashoka (played by J. P. Thuminad, yes the director) who has a crush on a local girl.
Sat, August 2 2025
To put it in plain English, Su From So, the Kannada film playing with English subtitles, is one of the most refreshing films in recent times Amidst the chaos and juvenile humor that characterize most Friday releases, this film, directed by J. P. Thuminad, arrives like a breath of fresh air.
Mon, July 28 2025
Director JP Thuminad creates a world that’s deeply immersive, and in a film that’s high on humour, he nudges you to be better
There’s a passing scene in JP Thuminad’s hilarious yet thoughtful Su From So (releasing on July 25), which explains why the film lands the way it does. The villagers need to head somewhere and a convoy departs — it is led by two scooters, followed by two autos and cycles. Even in that not-so-important scene that barely lasts seconds, the film does not veer off its inherent spirit. These vehicles are ‘enough’ to serve the story. This is one of the many reasons why the film, which falls somewhere in the space between a thought-provoking movie and a horror comedy, keeps you engrossed through its runtime that’s a little over two hours.
Jugnuma (The Fable)
Drama (Hindi)
Dev owns orchards and lives on a sprawling estate. After finding burnt trees Dev monitors workers and Nomads fall under suspicion. Despite night guards, a huge fire engulfs the mountainside. Dev uses violence in his search.
Cast:
Manoj Bajpayee, Priyanka Bose, Deepak Dobriyal, Tillotama Shome, Hiral Sidhu, Awan Pookot, Viking, Ravi Bisht
Director:
Raam Reddy
Mon, September 15 2025
Raam Reddy’s sophomore film knows the difference between an ambiguous and a profound film.
As any film critic these days will tell you, the word ‘Lynchian’ gets thrown around a lot in reviews. The slightest bit of surrealism in a scene is described as something emulating the work of the man behind masterpieces like Blue Velvet (1986) and Lost Highway (1997). I’m guilty of it too. So much so that the descriptor has lost some of its gravitas over the years. Most things that don’t seem logically coherent are touted as Lynchian. However, ambiguity is not a stand-in for true enigma, nor does density always equal profundity. Sometimes, a scene can play straight like a musical note, evoking something visceral in the audience – leaving no room to question its logic. It’s this feeling of discovery through a film that counts for more than ‘understanding’ it. In its duration of a shade under two hours, Raam Reddy’s Jugnuma – The Fable might be the closest an Indian film has come to emulating David Lynch’s genre-breaking style. I’m not saying the film derives it from the existing style, as much as Reddy embraces it and makes it his own. Having made his debut with the fantastic Thithi (2015), the 36-year-old filmmaker might not even have been conscious of it.
Sun, September 14 2025
Sat, September 13 2025
Though the film moves languidly, there is a sense of urgency, a premonition that engulfs you just as fires would
Life is real, life is magical. And when a movie brings these two elements of reality and fantasy together, which doesn’t happen too often in the Indian film industry, the result can be a thing of beauty, a joy to behold. As it is with director Raam Reddy, of National Award-winning film ‘Thithi’ fame, whose Hindi feature ‘Jugnuma: The Fable’ literally grows on you and glows like fireflies. The title itself tells you that the subject at hand is surreal. The very first scene, in which we see Manoj Bajpayee flying with a wing-like contraption, tells you that nothing is what it seems. There is a fable at play which comes rather innocuously in the narrative. Set in the 1980s in Himalayan mountains, shot close to the Indo-Nepal border, the pace is as idyllic as the setting. Bajpayee as Dev is the owner of vast orchards, which he has inherited down the family line from his ancestors, who served the British masters. Deepak Dobriyal, whom we are so used to seeing in comic parts, has an equally significant and sombre part. He is not only the manager of the estate but also the commentator letting us into the twists and turns, the inner crevices of the story. Not that this is a whodunit mystery that makes you sit on tenterhooks. If you have seen the trailer, you know fires will soon engulf this beautiful orchard.
Green Girl
Drama, Romance (Kannada)
Amidst a volatile blend of religious strife, suppressed sexualities, and divine sermons in an Indian town, a teenage inter-faith couple—one of whom is innocently entangled in a fundamentalist group, dream an illusive American Dream.
Cast:
Mayur Gowda, Sucharitha, Sudarshan Acharya, TRIKO, Ashwin Raghavendra, Rakshak Kulal, Jeevan Poojary, Dhruv Kotian, Thejas Gowda, Shravan C
Director:
Sarthak Hegde
Writer:
Sarthak Hegde, TRIKO, Manish Kumar
Mon, September 15 2025
In a conversation with Subha J Rao, 24-year-old filmmaker Sarthak Hegde discusses Green Girl, his film that explores religious intolerance in coastal Karnataka and its impact on a young couple.gree-girl
THERE’S A SHOT in Sarthak Hegde’s featurette Green Girl, where Ameena (a splendid Sucharita) and Jeevan (Mayur Gowda lives the role) speak about where they want to live, and later sit in companionable silence — he helps her with the lighter, she smokes, he is never tempted to. In that tiny space of freedom, the young couple lets the other be — their love encompasses, but also lets the individual in them thrive. That’s also why Ameena tries telling Jeevan not to get involved with a brash set of boys and men who affiliate themselves with a religion. But when he does not listen, she lets it be. He is also her safe space, and she’s herself with him.
Love in Vietnam
Romance, Drama (Hindi)
A passionate cross-cultural romance unfolds between Vietnam and Punjab, inspired by the classic Turkish novel 'Madonna in a Fur Coat.
Cast:
Shantanu Maheshwari, Avneet Kaur, Khả Ngân, Farida Jalal, Raj Babbar, Kusum Tickoo, Mir Sarwar, Monica Aggarwal, Gulshan Grover, Saqib Ayub
Director:
Rahhat Shah Kazmi
Writer:
Kritika Rampal
Sat, September 13 2025
‘सैयारा’, ‘धड़क 2’ और ‘परम सुंदरी’ जैसी फिल्मों के बाद अब एक और लव स्टोरी सिनेमाघरों में पहुंची है। नाम है ‘लव इन वियतनाम’। हालांकि, यह प्रेम कहानी कहीं भी परवान चढ़ सकती थी, लेकिन फिल्म में जिस तरह वियतनाम टूरिज्म और एयरलाइन्स का प्रचार किया गया है, उससे वजह साफ हो जाती है। कहानी पंजाब में शुरू होती है, जहां मानव (शांतनु माहेश्वरी) अपने बड़े पापा (राज बब्बर) की तरह सिंगर बनना चाहता है। लेकिन बड़े पापा ने एक दिन अचानक गाना छोड़ दिया था, जिसकी वजह पूरी फिल्म में पता नहीं चलती। अब वह गायिकी को इतना नापसंद करते हैं कि मानव के चोरी-छिपे गाने पर उसे एडवांस खेती सीखने वियतनाम भेज देते हैं। साथ में बड़े पापा की चहेती और उसके बचपन की साथी सिमी (अवनीत कौर) भी जाती है। सिमी का बचपन से एक ही सपना है, मानव की दुल्हन बनना। जबकि, मानव वियतनाम में एक आर्ट गैलरी में लगी तस्वीर को देखकर उसके प्यार में इस कदर पागल हो जाता है कि दिन रात बस उसी लड़की को ढूंढ़ता रहता है।
Mirai
Science Fiction, Action, Adventure (Telugu)
Following the historic Kalinga battle, where King Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty emerged as the winner, he chose to walk the path of peace instead of continuing warfare. Yet, the kingdom appointed nine warriors to protect some ancient scriptures rumored to have the ability to make someone divine or godlike.
Cast:
Teja Sajja, Manchu Manoj, Ritika Nayak, Raj Zutshi, Rana Daggubati, Shriya Saran, Jayaram, Jagapati Babu, Pawan Chopra, Getup Srinu
Director:
Karthik Ghattamaneni
Writer:
Karthik Ghattamaneni, Manibabu Karanam
Sat, September 13 2025
Karthik Gattamneni’s 'Mirai' wants to fuse faith, science, history, and myth into a sweeping epic, but ends up straining both logic and belief
It is irritating when religious people use science to explain faith—the language of energy, Einstein, vibrations, frequency etc. to rationalise how blessings and prayers work, for example. (If your prayer is an action, the blessing is the equal and opposite reaction, so the lore goes) Faith operates on a logic that is different from science, and appropriating the language of reason to express the contours of belief, is like demanding the heart to breathe. It is also why the religious film and the science fiction film have been kept apart, because their pursuits, pitch, and parlance seem to walk in different directions. That was until Hanu-Man starring Teja Sajja last year blew those borders apart, to tell a story that, though riddled with the flaws of both genres—too much faith, too much reason—was also packed with the joys of those genres—the joyful imagination, the pungent staging. It built its mythical world on the quirky possibilities of our present, remember the women pickling in the backdrop of a pulping?
Sat, September 13 2025
Mirai is no ordinary stick. It’s a divine staff, the use of which baffles rudderless young Super Yodha (Teja Sajja) who must dedicate his life to a mission where the Mirai will work its miracles and help him succeed. Writer-director-cinematographer Karthik Gattamneni goes time-trotting and globe-trotting. Hark back to the times of Emperor Ashoka, glimpse at Lord Rama and Hanuman. Also go futuristic with set action pieces overloaded with VFX. Move from the Himalayas, Varanasi, Morocco, Hyderabad and Japan to hidden temples, the Kumb Mela and faraway islands. The target is simple: Super Yodha must save the nine granths or scriptures from falling into the hands of Mahabir, a dark force (Manchu Manoj who must wear black). He has already misused his tantrik powers and gained even more strength from eight granths. Super Yodha must save the ninth.
Sat, September 13 2025
Ek Chatur Naar
Drama, Comedy, Crime (Hindi)
Abhishek Verma, a fund consultant, gets trapped in a web of lies, deception and blackmail after a good-for-nothing but cunning woman, failing to make ends meet, gets her hands on his phone, which lets slip more than anyone should know, forcing him to comply.
Cast:
Divya Khossla, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Rajneesh Duggal, Chhaya Kadam, Yashpal Sharma, Sushant Singh, Zakir Hussain, Heli Daruwala, Geeta Agrawal Sharma, Rahul Mittra
Director:
Umesh Shukla
Sat, September 13 2025
In Euclidean geometry, or on a flat surface, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. However, in Bollywood films, the journey from point A to point B often involves a detour around point A for a considerable duration, followed by a series of convoluted twists before finally arriving at the destination. Ek Chatur Naar, directed by Umesh Shukla, exemplifies this tendency, taking an unnecessarily lengthy path to reach its conclusion. In doing so, it becomes overly clever for its own good.
Sat, September 13 2025
There is a lot going for writer-director Umesh Shukla’s new film that strikes a quirky equation between Mamta Mishra (Divya Khossla Kumar) from the slums and suited-booted Abhishek Verma (Neil Nitin Mukesh). And take it from us, there’s nothing romantic going on between them. But what Mamta is all about doesn’t add up. She’s got a kid and a mother-in-law (Chhaya Kadam) who hits the bottle all the time. She’s got a job at the railways and moonlights as a waiter. And the three stay in a locked up little flat, leading the landlord on a merry chase. Along with writers Siddharth Goel, Jay Master, Deepak Nirman and Himanshu Tripathi, Umesh Shukla’s feel for comedy strikes from the first note. But the story really gets going when suave but sleazy Abhishek Verma who’s late for a meeting with a politician (Zakir Hussain), dumps his car that’s stuck in a traffic snarl, jumps into the metro and loses his mobile phone.
Do You Wanna Partner
Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
Best friends Shikha and Anahita turn entrepreneurs with an exciting craft beer brand, Jugaaro, to stand out in the crowded NCR beer market. However, they face gender discrimination every step of the way. To fight for an equal place in this male dominated sector, they decide to invent a fictitious male partner to help smooth their way. Invariably, things don’t go exactly as planned. What follows are their collective adventures & misadventures in trying to build a successful start-up amidst the current boom, as the bunch of misfits band together and become a family.
Cast:
Tamannaah Bhatia, Diana Penty, Javed Jaffrey, Neeraj Kabi, Sufi Motiwala, Rannvijay Singha
Director:
Archit Kumar, Collin D'Cunha
Writer:
Mithun Gangopadhyay, Aarsh Vora, Nandini Gupta
Sat, September 13 2025
The premise of the Prime Video series Do You Wanna Partner promises fizz: two women dare to launch a craft beer start-up in Delhi, taking on the boys’ club of the alcobev industry. Shikha (Tamannaah Bhatia) and Anahita (Diana Penty) are best friends who set out to build their own brewery. Shikha is fuelled by the unrealised dream of her late father, Sunjoy (Indraneil Sengupta). Sunjoy’s beer brand Gondogol was snatched away by businessman Vikram Walia (Neeraj Kabi, sporting a Cruella-inspired hairdo to suggest a villainous streak). Anahita is the pragmatic financial anchor, Shikha’s often lonely partner-in-entrepreneurship who is overcoming her own issues with being taken seriously at work.
Sat, September 13 2025
Fri, September 12 2025
Starring Tamannaah Bhatia and Diana Penty, the 8-episode buddy comedy brews a flat pint of entrepreneur cliches
When Indian shows get it right, they become their own genre. They’re used as a point of comparison by creators and viewers: Oh, you mean it’s a wannabe Mirzapur? It’s giving slice-of-life Raat Jawaan Hai energy? They’re Panchayat-coded characters? What, it’s a slow-burning Paatal Lok-meets-Kohrra thriller? But when they get it wrong, you think fondly of the ones that became their own genre. Do You Wanna Partner, for instance, made me appreciate all the titles that ran so that Do You Wanna Partner could crawl: the upscale-and-socially-mobile-NCR entrepreneur drama of Made In Heaven, the middle-class business hustles of Rocket Singh and Band Baaja Baarat, the scammy Delhiness of Khosla Ka Ghosla, even the cross-cultural swag of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (whose ghost haunts imitations from the production house).
Unbroken: The Unmukt Chand Story
Documentary, Drama (Hindi)
This access-driven documentary chronicles the life of Unmukt Chand, an Indian-American cricketer once heralded as ‘the next big thing’ in Indian cricket. The film is an intimate exploration of universal themes like broken dreams, second chances, mental health, identity, and the immigrant experience—through the lens of Unmukt and his wife, Simran.
Cast:
Unmukt Chand, Simran Khosla
Director:
Raghav Khanna
Sat, September 13 2025
Raghav Khanna’s documentary on Indian-American cricketer Unmukt Chand is shaped by Bollywood stageyness and empty access
In Indian cricket, as in most religions, the tragedies are as mythical as the triumphs. Certain names become adjectives in the lexicon of the game — antonyms to the gods, like cautionary tales mentioned in the same breath as the fairytales. It’s hard to love Sachin Tendulkar without grieving for Vinod Kambli: two sides of the same Bombay-fabled coin. Similarly, it’s hard to worship Virat Kohli without feeling for Unmukt Chand: two sides of the Delhi-swag coin. Chand’s story is almost like an alternate-reality version of Kohli’s — a batting prodigy, a dizzying rise as Under-19 World Cup winning captain and star batsman, a lucrative IPL contract, a Ranji knock to remember, unprecedented brand endorsements for a teenager, and suddenly, a failed transition to senior cricket. He left India at 28 after all doors of an international debut were shut, moved to the USA to play minor-league cricket and work towards a 2024 T20 World Cup spot as an American-Indian player. As someone who’s closely followed his career in the hope of a miraculous resurgence, I’ve often found myself randomly googling “Unmukt Chand” to see what he’s up to. There are no ready answers. The fame-to-anonymity curve is second to none; being forgotten is worse than being notorious (public scrutiny is reserved for those like Prithvi Shaw — whose genius as a 12-year-old unfolded in the 2013 documentary Beyond All Boundaries).