Tue, September 2 2025

Param Sundari's narrative, set in stereotyped Kerala, doesn't quite make hearts flicker; the Janhvi Kapoor-Sidharth Malhotra jodi isn't a fun opposites-attract story either

In the popular teen romance series Summer I Turned Pretty, adapted from Jenny Han’s books by the same name, leading lady Belly speaks of how she just can’t imagine marrying someone who doesn’t give her the “fireworks”“you know, like electric jolts, every time I see them”. In Tushar Jalota’s Param Sundari, Kerala’s most eligible girl Sundari (Janhvi Kapoor) finds herself in a similar conundrum when Punjabi munda Param (Sidharth Malhotra) strolls into her life (read homestay) believing she is his soulmate. Only unlike Belly’s karmic connection to Conrad, to whom the observation is made, Param and Sundari hardly exude MFEO (made for each other) vibes. And this despite having Sonu Nigam sing a pretty good romantic number in Pardesiya.

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Sun, August 31 2025

North Meets South, Clichés Meet Screen

Param Sundari, directed by Tushar Jalota and starring Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor, attempts a North-meets-South romance but falls flat. Laden with clichés, forced chemistry, and predictable tropes, the film struggles despite Kerala’s beauty, sidekick humour, and forgettable music. At 136 minutes, this Bollywood rom-com offers visual delight but little substance, proving yet again that cross-cultural love stories need more than recycled stereotypes and surface spectacle. India’s diversity has long been the go-to spice rack for Bollywood romances, and our filmmakers haven’t missed a single masala. From Raanjhanaa to Two States and Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, we’ve seen lovers playing Romeo and Juliet across caste lines, language barriers, and angry elders wielding moral outrage like a family heirloom. So, it’s no surprise that Param Sundari joins the tradition—this time with a Punjabi munda and a Malayali miss, thrown together in a cross-cultural curry that aims to be spicy but ends up more sambhar-lite.

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Sun, August 31 2025

Mon, September 1 2025

I watched Hridayapoorvam, the latest Malayalam film starring Mohanlal and directed by Sathyan Anthikad. Sathyan is one of those rare filmmakers who know how to turn everyday life into cinema that feels honest, entertaining, and deeply relatable. At a time when the industry is obsessed with big blockbusters, massive sets, and larger-than-life heroics, here comes a film that quietly wins you over with storytelling, humour, and heart. The film is, in a way, a Malayalam version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But don’t mistake that for awkward gags or over-the-top comedy. This is The 40-Year-Old Virgin reimagined with our sensibility — sensitive, clean, and packaged with humour that a family audience can comfortably enjoy. Mohanlal plays a middle-aged, unmarried man, Sandeep, who undergoes a heart transplant. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets the family of his donor — a widow Devika (Sangita Madhavan Nair), and her daughter, Haritha (Malavika Mohanan). Sathyan sets up a delicate, almost taboo situation: a man who has never really known female attention suddenly finds himself at the receiving end of affection from two women — one closer to his age, and the other much younger.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Quintessential Sathyan Anthikad — light on its feet, airy and like a warm beverage on a rainy afternoon.

Sandeep Balakrishnan (Mohanlal), a successful cloud kitchen owner from Kochi, possesses a generous heart. His tenants are three aspiring filmmakers who eat in his kitchen for free, and he treats them like his own children. They narrate their script to him, an ultra-violent revenge story that disgusts him to the point of disowning them. Even their insistence that “violence is trending” doesn’t change his mind. This scene, from Sathyan Anthikad’s new film Hridayapoorvam, is a comedic aside, but it also conveys the self-awareness of this film. It’s quintessential Anthikad — light on its feet, airy and like a warm beverage on a rainy afternoon, but now such a film wants to reinforce its merits. The saturation of high-octane mass entertainers has pervaded Indian popular culture so forcefully and brazenly that even a Malayalam film feels the need to acknowledge, course correct and advertise. But, no complaints, it is indeed nice to stay in a different zip code than whatever is trending.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Hridayapoorvam is almost like Mohanlal’s return gift to a 2025 that has given him all of this, and much more

Mohanlal and Sathyan Anthikad have been defining the emotional core of the average Malayali for over four decades now. Despite technological advancements, the propensity for action extravaganzas in today’s times, and the seeming erosion of the audience’s attention span, Mohanlal and Sathyan reunite for a film that reminds us why these two were allowed to define emotions closest to our hearts. Anger, love, fear, guilt, regret, happiness, devastating sadness, and a smile that finds its way through it all…

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Mon, September 1 2025

Director Jay Roach, Cumberbatch and Colman successfully reimagine the dark marital comedy ‘The War of the Roses’

The Roses is director Jay Roach and screenwriter Tony McNamara’s reimagining of the 1989 film The War of the Roses, which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in an untamed marital war. In the 2025 version, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman take on the marital troubles of a modern couple in this black comedy that feels at once familiar and also entirely new. Ivy Rose (Colman) and Theo Rose (Cumberbatch), negotiate the challenges of professional and personal life as they move from unshakable love to complete hatred. The Roses’ love story starts just as impulsively as it ends—passionate, spontaneous, till death do them part. She’s a chef, he’s an architect. They move from the UK to California to explore and expand their creativity.

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Fri, August 29 2025

The Roses is a caustic satire about a wealthy couple struggling to stay married. Unlike most couples content to survive, the Roses strive to live — they say what they feel and do what they say.

Based on Warren Adler’s novel The War of the Roses, Jay Roach’s The Roses is fundamentally different from Danny DeVito’s 1989 film adaptation starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. The caustic black comedy about a wealthy American couple going through a bitter divorce is reframed as a caustic satire about a wealthy British couple struggling to stay married. The razor-sharp humour is a coping mechanism for the characters, not so much a narrative genre. When they’re mean to each other, it’s amusing because of how creatively they weaponise words, but it’s also dark for how far they’re willing to go to wound each other. When they’re not mean, it’s tense because a barb or two — like a jumpscare in ghost stories — might just be around the corner. Watching them is like being trapped in a room with a dysfunctional couple and second-hand embarrassment.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Sun, August 31 2025

Writer and director Krishnadev Yagnik’s Gujarati movie Vash (2023) turned out to be a thrilling saga of black magic. The film was later remade in Hindi as Shaitaan (2024). Sequels of horror films are always expected to overpower the first one but that doesn’t happen always. But Vash Level 2 actually goes up several notches as far as the vashikaran (casting a black magic spell) is concerned. Vash Level 2 continues 12 years from where Vash ended (hence, you need to watch the first film to understand the second one). Atharva (Hitu Kanodia) is leading a quiet life with his daughter Aarya (Janki Bodiwala), who is still under the black magic spell, after his son Ansh (Aaryan Sanghvi) and wife (Niilam Paanchal) are killed. But unknown to the world, inside a dark corner of his bungalow, he has kept hidden the black magic monster Pratap (Hiten Kumar), who is responsible for the tragedy in his and his family’s life, in the most inhuman condition possible. He doesn’t let him live, nor die.

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Thu, August 28 2025

This sequel to the Gujarati horror film 'Vash' is a potent blend of craft and commentary

A pack of teenage schoolgirls wreak havoc across a city. They overpower everyone and everything in sight, seemingly possessed by superhuman strength and violent desire. The attack is visceral and unstructured, like the beginning of a dance rehearsal gone wrong. Their school uniforms become a symbol of danger. The police are clueless; the parents are terrified. The setting is notoriously sexist, so the sight of them spreading chaos is oddly empowering. In most movies, it would be. But Vash Level 2 is not most movies. The sequel to Vash (2023), Krishnadev Yagnik’s national award-winning supernatural thriller that was remade as Shaitaan (2024) in Hindi, our simplistic perception of female empowerment is thrown out of the window (or, well, off a terrace). Even their “rebellion” is defined by subservience; their agency is shaped by the crippling lack of one. For they are actually controlled by a sinister male stranger (Hiten Kumar) who laced their lunch with black-magic dust. The rampage is happening against the girls’ wishes; their bodies are weaponised but their minds are scared. Most of them attack hawkers, motorists and street-dwellers and bash their heads in, regardless of gender or status. The smash-the-patriarchy allegory unfolds like a cruel joke. The brainwashing and societal-conditioning metaphors unfold like punchlines.

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Sun, August 31 2025

Richard Osman’s novel about four retirement home residents who are also amateur sleuths gets a winning screen adaptation

Richard Osman’s 2020 novel The Thursday Murder Club soon became a runaway bestseller and a book-club favourite. Its delightful premise follows four older residents living at Cooper Chase, an expansive English retirement home, who meet weekly to discuss unsolved crimes—only to find themselves entangled in a real-life murder investigation. Osman’s novel balanced wit, warmth and intricate plotting to create a clever and endearing mystery, drawing readers into piecing together clues from a wide field of suspects. The film adaptation, written by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote and directed by Chris Columbus (on Netflix) embraces the same charming setup but inevitably takes a different route. The heart of the story—the idea of senior citizens becoming unlikely detectives—remains intact. The setup too remains playful and refreshing, as older characters take the spotlight in a genre usually dominated by hardened investigators, somewhat like Only Murders in the Building but with only senior sleuths, and set in an English retirement home rather than an American apartment block.

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Sun, August 24 2025

Picture this: A cup of steaming hot chocolate in hand, you snuggle up in your warm quilt on your favourite couch by the window and watch the rains hit the greens outside making it even more verdant. That same fuzzy feeling of familiarity and comfort is what you experience when you watch The Thursday Murder Club. Based on the best-selling 2020 whodunit by Richard Osman (who has gone on to write a few more in the series), The Thursday Murder Club takes you into the world of old-school sleuthing. One which relies on both smarts and intellect to fit together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to solve more than one murder, without having to rely on Gen-Z-coded cinema loaded with high-octane car chases and gravity-defying action sequences. If one were to quote a journalistic analogy, The Thursday Murder Club is the equivalent of good ol’ shoe leather reporting.

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Sat, August 23 2025

Director Chris Columbus ably adapts the first book in Richard Osman's popular mystery series with a who's who of the British film industry

After Harry Potter, filmmaker Chris Columbus spearheads another popular franchise. The Netflix film, The Thursday Murder Club, is the first of five books about four retired senior citizens who solve murders. Richard Osman’s mysteries are bestsellers worldwide and this first film casts Oscar winners and popular British stars in the main roles. The result is a cheeky and delightful romp across the countryside as the retirees try to save their retirement home and figure out who is willing to kill for the land it’s built on.

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Sat, August 30 2025

It would be a stretch to even describe Maa as a horror film, seeing how far it strays from the genre in its final act. This is when Kajol's character delivers a lecture about why female infanticide is bad.

The problem with Hindi horror movies used to be that they’d sabotage their scares with music and romance. This was done mainly as a promotional tactic to lure (family) audiences to theatres, and to then give them an opportunity to use the washroom or get a popcorn refill during the interval. Neither the music nor the romance had any business being in those movies, but they were left intact anyway. They contributed nothing to the plot; in fact, they actually brought it to a standstill. The music and romance issue with Hindi horror has now been replaced with an even more irritating trend: social messaging. The latest film to fall prey to this bizarre, self-defeating strategy is Maa. It would, however, be a stretch to even describe it as a horror film, seeing how far it strays from the genre in its final act. This is when Kajol’s grieving single mother, Ambika, discovers that her teenage daughter has been kidnapped by a forest-dwelling demon, who intends on impregnating her to carry forward his ‘vansh’ or some nonsense. Ambika rushes into the lion’s den, so to speak, determined to rescue her daughter from the demon’s clutches. But before she leaves on her mission, she is told by the superstitious locals that she must perform a ritual, and seek the blessings of Goddess Kali. Kali is the only one who can vanquish the demon, she is told. And so, Ambika… does a song-and-dance number.

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Mon, June 30 2025

Mining India's mythology and religious beliefs to craft a horror that's contemporarily relevant is a nifty idea, but to do so frighteningly well is another thing altogether

Mothers are a resilient lot. Harm their kids, then be ready for a battle. In Maa, Kajol’s maternal instincts face their toughest test as she contends with superstitions as well as a girl child-feasting, tree-residing monster who has eyes on her adolescent daughter. Kajol’s Ambika is an ordinary woman trapped in extraordinary circumstances, but then the film’s title isn’t just a nod to her but also to the powerful and dangerous deity who should not be messed with—Kali Maa. Mining India’s mythology and religious beliefs to craft a horror that’s contemporarily relevant is a nifty idea that’s been attempted before, but to do so frighteningly well is another thing altogether. Maa takes the tried and tested not-without-my-daughter formula and spins it round and round until audiences are left frustrated at the actions of characters.

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Sun, June 29 2025

Sat, August 30 2025

Starring Fahadh Faasil and Vadivelu, the Tamil-language film Maareesan gaslights you into giving a thumbs-up to a mass murdering maniac.

At what point do you start feeling bad about the idea of wanting someone dead? While watching the new Tamil-language film Maareesan, you crave nothing more than the satisfaction of seeing a middle-aged man murder child molesters. The movie aims to appease a primal desire buried deep within us, and it does so with patience and skill. But the catharsis is temporary. After a while, you’re going to have to live with yourself, a person who wouldn’t mind a few murders here and there as long as the ones being murdered are terrible people. But, the service that Maareesan is accidentally providing has a greater purpose. In its efforts to manipulate our inherent goodness — who wouldn’t want to watch bad people be punished? — it is exposing our blood lust.

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Wed, August 27 2025

In the Tamil-language film Maareesan, the plot twist comes not at the end, but midway through. We talk about the sudden change in tone, and how the film handles it. We also discuss Fahadh Faasil’s comedic performance, and wonder why the film is presented through the perspective of his character. But mainly, we talk about the film’s shady morality, which seems to champion extrajudicial killings if the cause is perceived as noble enough.

Thu, July 24 2025

Director Sudheesh Sankar's 'Maareesan', starring Vadivelu and Fahadh Faasil, is a comedy thriller. While the film wows you with a brilliant first half, it takes a formulaic turn in the second half.

‘Maareesan’ brings together Tamil comedy legend Vadivelu and brilliant performer Fahadh Faasil for the second time after ‘Maamannan’. While the two have their individual strengths, they are terrific performers. Give them any role, their eyes are enough to pull them off. Director Sudheesh Sankar’s ‘Maareesan’ is a comedy thriller, a genre that could either be effective or a total misfire. Dayalan (Fahadh Faasil) is a thief who is just out of the infamous Palayamkottai prison. In his words, certain houses talk to him and call him, so he could rob them. Soon after his return, he finds Velayudham Pillai’s (Vadivelu) house calling him. He breaks into the house to steal, but only to find Velayudham chained to his bed.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Krishand’s narrative balances the style and pop glamour traditionally associated with the gangster genre with a more straightforward, truth-seeking tale of men confronting reality.

“You don’t know anything about postmodern narrative”, bemoans the Malayalam writer, ghost writing a novel for a small-time, but battle-hardened, world-weary gangster from Thiruvanchipuram. The gangster is narrating his admittedly short but eventful story of adult life, his criminal escapades with four other friends. Crime wasn’t the choice they made. It was a byproduct of all their attempts to legitimise their lives out of oppression, a ticket out of their matchbox-sized slums. Arikuttan, charmingly played by Sanju Sivram, sits across writer Maithreyan, veteran in spirit (played by Jagadish) as well as pedigree, and tells him to go easy on the colourful digressions that the writer plucks out of his imagination. But Maithreyan wants that postmodern flourish, that bite of a story that functions as an adventure with an immediate judgment call laced with irony. It’s not surprising. The writer and director is Krishand, and the Sony LIV web series Sambhava Vivaranam Nalarasangham, or The Chronicles of the 4.5 Gang, has his stamp all over.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Director Althaf Salim's romantic comedy, starring Fahadh Faasil and Kalyani Priyadardhan, is an absurd romantic comedy that struggles to find its footing. Surprisingly, even Fahadh Faasil isn't able to elevate it.

Mohanlal’s ‘Hridayapoorvam’, one of the popular Onam releases this year, featured a scene where a fan claiming to know Malayalam cinema talks highly of Fafa aka Fahadh Faasil. He tells Mohanlal, one of the legends of Malayalam cinema, that FaFa is the best. A day later, FaFa’s ‘Odum Kuthira Chadum Kuthira’ hits theatres. You expect everything the fan said. Eyes, expressions, and everything. But Fahadh’s film bores you so much that you contemplate walking out of the theatre. Now, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d say as a critic. The night before the wedding, Nidhi (Kalyani Priyadarshan) tells her fiance Aby Mathre (Fahadh Faasil) about a dream that she has been having for the past few days. Nidhi is a woman who looks at dreams as signs and goes to the extent of realising them. The dream is about Aby arriving at the wedding on a white horse. Aby gives in to her fancies and finds a horse with the help of his coworker Anurag (Anuraj OB).

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Fri, August 29 2025

Director Althaf Salim tries to give a humorous treatment to a serious subject, but an aimless narrative spoils the fun

Towards the fag end of Odum Kuthira Chaadum Kuthira, when one character asks - “Do you sense any logic in this joke?”, it appears to be one last-ditch effort to convey the filmmaker’s intentions to the audience. Clearly, the film is set in an absurdist landscape. It is the kind of film in which the father of the protagonist, who has slipped into a coma, would say, ‘Till now, he was a question mark to us, now he has become a com(m)a’. But such jokes, which land, are few and far between, for even absurdist humour requires a sense of timing and rhythm for it to work. What we get instead is a series of misfires that punctuate a screenplay with no sense of direction, just like the protagonist Eby (Fahadh Faasil). We are pulled into his life the night before his wedding, when his fiancée, Nidhi (Kalyani Priyadarshan), expresses a wish. In the quest to fulfill the same, Eby ends up facing a crisis.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Isn't your usual cop thrillers

Created by Brad Ingelsby of Mare of Easttown, the show follows a simple crime thriller, but only on the surface. The way the characters in the seven part series are explored is the real story within the plot. Task is about an FBI agent in the working-class suburbs of Philadelphia trailing a string of violent robberies. Before the gangs in the area start taking credit and the cops have a turf war on their hands, Special Agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) is sent out on the scene to bring things under control. Task begins with a grieving family man, Robbie, played by Tom Pelphrey. Raising two kids without their mother, Robbie wants a better life for his family and knows he won’t be able to do it if things stay the way they are. The only one by his side is his work friend, Cliff and his niece, Maeve. She is the one usually taking care of the kids and is unhappy with how unreliable Robbie is as a father. But Robbie has plans of his own to make sure his kids are taken care of, no matter the cost.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Brad Ingelsby, who created Mare of Easttown, returns with a new crime story featuring Mark Ruffalo that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Since its release in 2021, so many makers have tried to replicate the moody and twisty narrative of Mare of Easttown, which starred Kate Winslet. Creator Brad Ingelsby’s latest show, Task, borrows many elements from his own award-winning series, and the result is a taut thriller that leaves you guessing until the last episode. The seven-part series gives viewers two protagonists to empathise with; they are headed on a crash course from which there is no return. Mark Ruffalo plays FBI agent Tom Brandis, who heads a task force to look into a string of violent robberies that target drug and gang houses. As he and his team dive deeper and deeper into the case, they uncover betrayals and moles that have wider repercussions. Meanwhile, main suspect Robbie Prendergast (Tom Pelphrey) is bottling up intense emotions that could land him and his family in deep trouble. Will both men make it out to the other side alive?

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Fri, August 29 2025

Directed by Michael Gracey, Better Man relives the hit songs of Robbie Williams' career in a reflective and emotional biopic

Better Man is a strange but effective musical biopic on singer Robbie Williams, formerly of Take That. Viewers see him lay bare several key moments from life - the good, the bad and the ugly. However, until the credits roll, we never see his face. That’s because the role of Robbie is taken over by a CGI chimpanzee (performed by Jonno Davies). Robbie narrates his story and the Michael Gracey film shows how fame can be both the best and worst thing to happen to you. As far as biopics go, this feature makes an impact from the very first scene. The biopic charts Robbie’s incredible rise from a nobody living in Stoke-on-Trent to becoming the UK’s best-selling solo artist ever. It’s a steep rise that comes with its own perils as the teenage Robert becomes Robbie and begins to lose himself to his starry career. Seeking the approval of his absent dad, he manages to become one of the greats while overcoming several addictions from drugs, booze and dizzying heights of fame. This is a happy story, as we know he does emerge out of the dark side, but the movie never shies away from the bleakness.

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Fri, August 29 2025

Rohith, a lawyer by profession, arrives at the police station to claim that his wife, Meera, is missing. After a work trip, he’d returned home to surprise Meera on her birthday. Meanwhile, Meera’s sister Aditi takes charge of the situation at home, shielding his daughter Tara from the confusion. A woman, claiming to be Rohith’s wife, lands at home, whom he asserts is an imposter. Where’s the case headed? Shodha doesn’t demand much from its cast, for it barely settles down, not giving any performance enough time to register well. Pawan Kumar (who also helped with the adaptation), as the protagonist, gets the maximum screen time and plays a multi-layered role minus any overt exaggeration. Yet it isn’t a performance you’d call memorable; it fits the bill and that’s about it.

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