Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video
Comedy (Hindi)
Vicky and Vidya, newly married, decide to record a video of their first night together as a keepsake for the future. However, their plan goes awry when the CD with the video gets stolen. What follows is a chaotic and (more…)
Guild Reviews
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Documentary, Animation (Norwegian)
The secret life of a young World of Warcraft gamer is vividly reimagined when his online friends contact his family after his death.
Cast:
Mats Steen, Robert Steen, Trude Steen, Mia Steen, Kelsey Ellison, Thomas Stene-Johansen, Zoe Croft, Paul Wild, Elena Pitsiaeli, Ed Larkin
Director:
Benjamin Ree
Writer:
Mats Steen
(Writing for OTTPlay)
The Retroactive Stillness Of Grief
Thu, October 31 2024
Benjamin Ree’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin starts off as a documentary about death. We see the tombstone of Mats Steen, a Norwegian boy whose body and soul were at war. A mix of VHS footage and family interviews then reveals that Mats had duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a degenerative disease that reduced his 25 years to a hellish survival story. His mind yearned for the momentum his muscles never had. Subsequent clips show his body shrinking on landmarks and vacations, the end inching closer.
Aindhaam Vedham
Mystery (Tamil)
Anu travels to Varanasi for her mother’s last rites, where a priest asks her to deliver an ancient relic to a temple in Tamil Nadu. While she plans to disobey his command, fate has other plans.
Cast:
Sai Dhanshika, Santhosh Prathap, Vivek Rajagopal, Krisha Kurup, Y. G. Mahendran, Ramji, Devadarshini, Mathew Varghese, Prajna Ravi, Ponvannan
Director:
Naga
Writer:
Naga
Naga’s Mystical Thriller Is Ridiculously Stale And Dated
Tue, October 29 2024
Anu heads to Varanasi to immerse her mother’s ashes in Ganga. During the trip, she meets a sage, who hands over an ancient relic to her and dies under mysterious circumstances. Though Anu is instructed to give it to a temple priest in a village, she is reluctant to take the initiative. What connects her to the relic, an ancient temple and the fifth veda?
The Miranda Brothers
Drama (Hindi)
An orphan rescued from trash becomes devoted to his elder brother in a Goan suburb run by a drug gang, both growing to be star footballers - till suspicious death of their mother threatens to tear them apart.
Cast:
Harshvardhan Rane, Meezaan Jafri, Manasi Joshi Roy, Sanjay Suri, Rahul Dev, Surya Sharma, Sahher Bambba, Jeniffer Piccinato, Nikhil Chinappa, Naved Jaffrey
Director:
Sanjay Gupta
Writer:
Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta’s Sibling Saga Is An Ultimate Snooze-Fest
Tue, October 29 2024
Julio, the son of a single parent Susan Miranda, requests his mother to adopt an infant who’s left stranded on the streets. Braving past several financial challenges, Susain raises Julio and Regalo, who are extremely fond of one another. As adults, they hope to make a career in football. However, when a personal setback tests their equation, Regalo has a tough choice to make.
Goa, Football and (Filmmaking) Crimes
Mon, October 28 2024
Sanjay Gupta’s The Miranda Brothers revolves around two hunky brothers named Julio (Harshvardhan Rane) and Regalo Miranda (Meezaan Jafri), rising football stars in a Josh-coded Goa where orphaned babies are picked up from garbage dumps outside churches; arrogant cricketers cackle and say: “Cricket has two C’s: Cash and Chicks”; football scouts exclaim: “if we select both brothers, it’s like an earthquake and typhoon becoming one!”; bronze-bodied dance tracks called “Be My Mehbooba” pop up on a beach; and mourners at a funeral walk together in slow-motion as if they’re teleported to Sanjay Gupta’s Kaante (2002) instead.
The Legend of Hanuman S05
Animation, Action & Adventure (Hindi)
When the power-hungry Ravan tore through the world to unleash evil, in his way stood a humble vaanar awoken to his divinity to become an immortal legend. The series follows Hanuman and his transformation from a mighty warrior to a god and how Hanuman became the beacon of hope amidst the harrowing darkness.
Cast:
Richard Joel, Daman Baggan
Director:
Jeevan J. Kang, Navin John
Writer:
Sharad Devarajan, Sarwat Chadda, Shivangi Singh, Jeevan J. Kang
A worthy, lively peek into an epic from a new tangent
Tue, October 29 2024
With Indrajith no longer around and Ravan drowning in sadness, Ahiravan wreaks havoc on the Lankan dynasty. Hanuman is surprised to realise he has a son – Makardhwaja, who opposes him initially but makes amends later. He also finds unexpected support from Ravan’s former aide Harshasringa in his quest to free Ram and Laxman from Ahiravan. Who has the last laugh?
Hellbound S02
Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Korean)
Unearthly beings deliver bloody condemnations, sending individuals to hell and giving rise to a religious group founded on the idea of divine justice.
Cast:
Kim Sung-cheol, Kim Hyun-joo, Yang Ik-june, Im Sung-jae, Lee Dong-hee, Moon Geun-young, Lee Re, Kim Shin-rock, Moon So-ri, Cho Dong-in
Director:
Yeon Sang-ho
The Hit Korean Thriller Has a Decent Round-Two
Tue, October 29 2024
After his tryst with hell for many years, Jung Jinsu, the brain behind the New Truth, is back and recognises the growing prominence of the Arrowhead in the society. Jinsu realises he may not be the only one to be resurrected back to the land of the living. Does resurrection eventually mean damnation or will it pave the path to true salvation?
Anora
Drama, Comedy, Romance (English)
A young sex worker from Brooklyn gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out to get the marriage annulled.
Cast:
Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Luna Sofía Miranda, Lindsey Normington, Darya Ekamasova, Aleksey Serebryakov, Anton Bitter
Director:
Sean Baker
Writer:
Sean Baker
Reimagination of 'Pretty Woman' With Some Twists
Tue, October 29 2024
A lot of the splendour in Sean Baker’s Anora lies in its treatment – where we might be shown one thing, but deliberately made to feel something else. For example, the film opens with a discomfiting panning shot featuring barely-clothed exotic dancers performing with neon lights around them. However, Baker scores this scene with a loud, winsome techno song taking what is a distressing visual of young women forced to work a job that fetishises them, and drains the self-pity out of it.
Caddo Lake
Thriller, Mystery, Drama, Science Fiction (English)
When an 8-year-old girl mysteriously vanishes on Caddo Lake, a series of past deaths and disappearances begin to link together, forever altering a broken family’s history.
Cast:
Dylan O'Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Lauren Ambrose, Sam Hennings, Diana Hopper, Eric Lange, Lance E. Nichols, Nina Leon, David Maldonado, Kim Baptiste
Director:
Celine Held, Logan George
Producer M Night Shyamalan’s new mind-bender is among the finest thrillers of the year
Tue, October 29 2024
A slow-burn thriller with a deep emotional core, an intricately plotted genre exercise, and an acting showcase for two talented young performers, Caddo Lake, on paper, sounds like the complete package. It takes a while to get going, and the first act is particularly testing, but it’s also the kind of film that gets better with every passing minute. In fact, Caddo Lake is at its best towards the end, when it ties all — or, at least two — of its narrative threads together, unleashing an emotional wallop that rivals only the sheer thrill of watching its well-executed twist.
Pani
Action, Crime (Malayalam)
When the peaceful married life of a couple is unexpectedly disrupted by two youngsters with criminal inclination, the trials and tribulations connect the mobster lives of Thrissur by becoming a part of vengeance.
Cast:
Joju George, Abhinaya, Chandini Sreedharan, Abhaya Hiranmayi, Sona Maria Abraham, Seema, Merlet Ann Thomas, Babu Namboothiri, Prasanth Alexander, Sujith Sankar
Director:
Joju George
Writer:
Joju George
Joju George’s gory drama works despite its typical revenge plot
Tue, October 29 2024
When a gruesome murder happens in broad daylight at the beginning of a film, one expects the murder to be the major event around which everything else will revolve. But Joju George’s Pani really takes off from a smaller fight that Don (Sagar Surya) and Siju (V.P.Junaiz), the two murderers, get involved in at a supermarket later in the day.
Before
Drama, Mystery (English)
After tragically losing his wife, child psychiatrist Dr. Eli Adler encounters a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli's past.
Cast:
Billy Crystal, Judith Light, Rosie Perez, Jacobi Jupe, Maria Dizzia, Ava Lalezarzadeh
Billy Crystal's Psychological Thriller Is Tedious And Unnecessarily Creepy
Sun, October 27 2024
Billy Crystal is known for his roles that show off his comedic range like Harry Met Sally… and City Slickers. With his latest project, Before, the veteran actor is trying out a different side to his talent. He plays a grieving widower who finds purpose treating a young boy named Noah with unprocessed trauma. Written by creator Sarah Thorp, the psychological thriller delves into coincidences, fate and things science can’t explain. The Apple TV+ has a shaky narrative that gets repetitive fast and leaves its big reveal too late.
Boong
Drama (Hindi)
In the valley of Manipur, Boong (*a little boy) plans to surprise his mother with a gift. In his innocence, he believes that bringing his father back home would be the most special gift. His search for his father culminates into an unexpected gift – a new beginning….
Cast:
Gugun Kipgen, Bala Hijam, Angom Sanamatum, Vikram Kochhar, Hamom Sadananda, Jenny Khurai, Nemetia Ngangbam
Director:
Lakshmipriya Devi
Writer:
Lakshmipriya Devi
Fine blend of heart-touching moments and natural humour
Sat, October 26 2024
Aijaz Khan’s Hamid and Danish Renzu’s Half Widow are the names that easily come to my mind when it comes to movies about husbands going missing. But both the aforementioned films have the backdrop of the political crisis in Kashmir. This is where filmmaker Lakshmipriya Devi’s Manipuri movie Boong stands apart. It is more of a personal story of a boy whose father goes missing not due to any political tensions.
This Is the Zodiac Speaking
Documentary (English)
A documentary featuring interviews with the people involved with the Zodiac killings, covering every aspect of the investigation, including the original investigators and surviving victims.
Cast:
George Bawart, Pierre Bidou, Russell T. Butterbach
Director:
David Prior
The most famous unsolved murder case in American history gets the Netflix treatment
Sat, October 26 2024
Often described as ‘the most famous unsolved murder case in American history’, the Zodiac Killer’s brutal spree in the 1960s and ‘70s attracted a flock of amateur investigators before true crime was even a thing. But now it is, and as per the law, Netflix is mandated to make a three-part documentary series about it. Titled This is the Zodiac Speaking, the show confusingly omits the real-life chapter that inspired this title, and presents, instead, a new angle to the case, one that has been flogged to death by documentarians, filmmakers, and podcasters alike. This is the Zodiac Speaking has the same fast-paced narrative that has come to define most of these Netflix true crime content; the tone is perpetually ominous, the violence and mayhem is circled and highlighted, cheap recreations are used to heighten the drama. The ending, invariably, is anti-climactic. But the show attempts to sidestep this inevitability by picking its lane and sticking to it. In minute one, This is the Zodiac Speaking identifies a possible suspect — in fact, the only person who was ever publicly named by the police as a person of interest — and proceeds to move heaven and earth in an effort to corroborate its claims.
Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video
Comedy (Hindi)
Vicky and Vidya, newly married, decide to record a video of their first night together as a keepsake for the future. However, their plan goes awry when the CD with the video gets stolen. What follows is a chaotic and comedic journey as the couple scrambles to retrieve it before things spiral out of control.
Cast:
Rajkummar Rao, Triptii Dimri, Vijay Raaz, Mallika Sherawat, Tiku Talsania, Mukesh Tiwari, Archana Puran Singh, Rakesh Bedi, Ashwini Kalsekar, Mast Ali
Director:
Raaj Shaandilyaa
Writer:
Yusuf Ali Khan, Raaj Shaandilyaa
Rajkummar Rao enlivens this long title with a short shelf life
Fri, October 25 2024
Coming from a background in writing low-brow comedy skits for television, director Raaj Shaandilyaa has this knack for creating funny characters rooted in mofussil towns that generate mirth by engaging in rollicking repartees. His broad humour emanates from deep observation and understanding of the cultural mores of a conservative society coming to terms with socio-economic liberalisation in the 1990s. However, Shaandilya’s skill to combine the comic sketches into a wholesome screenplay is still a work in progress, resulting in a disappointing outcome.
Mon, October 14 2024
A tacky lowbrow comedy
Sun, October 13 2024
The year is 1997. The setting is Rishikesh. It’s a time just before mobile phones, when DVDs were still predominant. Writer-director Raaj Shaandilyaa’s film opens with a shoddily executed computer graphic of a train hurtling towards a forlorn man on the tracks. This is the eponymous Vicky, played by Rajkummar Rao. It’s much like Rao’s year which has been speeding along strongly, but will eventually have to come to a halt. Unfortunately, the Rao train has been derailed by this most unintelligible 152-minute-long romantic comedy that is built around a slim plot line.