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…)
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari
Romance, Comedy (Hindi)
Two former lovers in Delhi try to rekindle old flames, leading to amusing mix-ups and deceptions. As chaos unfolds, a new unexpected romance blooms. Who will find their happy ending amid the confusion? (more…)
The Game You Never Play Alone
Crime, Mystery (Tamil)
A career-driven game developer fights back against misogynistic expectations after she becomes the target of brutal attacks online and in real life. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari
Romance, Comedy (Hindi)
Two former lovers in Delhi try to rekindle old flames, leading to amusing mix-ups and deceptions. As chaos unfolds, a new unexpected romance blooms. Who will find their happy ending amid the confusion?
Cast:
Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra, Rohit Saraf, Maniesh Paul, Akshay Oberoi, Nishigandha Wad, Neeraj Sood, Abhinav Sharma, Manini Chadha
Director:
Shashank Khaitan
Writer:
Shashank Khaitan
No Fun only Confusion
Tue, October 7 2025
(Writing for The Daily Eye)
Bollywood Comfort Food, Reheated with Extra Ghee (and a Side of Confusion)
Tue, October 7 2025
Can two ex-lovers rekindle an old flame, amicably, no less? Even if it involves impersonations, preposterous plans, and enough emotional confusion to make Freud reconsider his career path? Of course they can—especially if they’re in a 135-minute Bollywood rom-com, a genre that continues to churn like a butter factory run by hopeless romantics. Now, while global cinema gallops into bold territories—where genre-bending narratives and offbeat themes are embraced with open arthouse arms—our beloved Hindi films remain steadfast in their commitment to unearthing every last angle of the same timeless theme: love.
Varun Dhawan-Janhvi Kapoor's Film Is More Froth Than Fizz
Mon, October 6 2025
Love makes the world go round in confoundingly concentric circles in Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. Given full on flippant treatment, the caprices and convolutions of the Varun Dhawan-Janhvi Kapoor starrer have a free run of the field. The film revolves around four young people who are surrounded by families at variance with their choices. The quartet finds itself on a wild merry-go-round of break-ups, hook-ups and matrimonies.
Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc
Animation, Action, Fantasy (Japanese)
In a brutal war between devils, hunters, and secret enemies, a mysterious girl named Reze has stepped into Denji's world, and he faces his deadliest battle yet, fueled by love in a world where survival knows no rules.
Cast:
Kikunosuke Toya, Reina Ueda, Shiori Izawa, Tomori Kusunoki, Shogo Sakata, Fairouz Ai, Karin Takahashi, Natsuki Hanae, Yuuya Uchida, Maaya Uchida
Director:
Tatsuya Yoshihara
ऐक्शन-एडवेंचर के साथ इमोशन का परफेक्ट तड़का
Sun, October 5 2025
हॉलीवुड और साउथ की फिल्मों के बाद अब एक नए किस्म का सिनेमा बॉलीवुड को टक्कर देने सिनेमाघरों में दस्तक दे चुका है। यह नया फॉर्मेट है, जापान की धरती से पूरी दुनिया के Gen Z दर्शकों को अपने मोहपाश में बांधने वाला एनिमे। हाल ही आई एनिमे फिल्म ‘डेमन स्लेयर: इन्फिनिटी कैसल’ के बॉक्स ऑफिस पर धमाल मचाने के बाद अब इस शुक्रवार, एक नई एनिमे फिल्म ‘चेनसॉ मैन- द मूवी: रेज़े आर्क’ थिएटर में पहुंच चुकी है।
The Game You Never Play Alone
Crime, Mystery (Tamil)
A career-driven game developer fights back against misogynistic expectations after she becomes the target of brutal attacks online and in real life.
Cast:
Shraddha Srinath, Santhosh Prathap, Viviya Santh, Syama Harini, Hema
Misogyny and Mayhem in Chennai
Sat, October 4 2025
Cliffhangers are the hot sauce of series storytelling. They’re meant to make us drool, lean forward, smack our lips in anticipation. They are old spice, essential for closing out seasons but also necessary as episode-to-episode hooks. They fulfil an ajinomoto-like role in the cooking of compelling shows, and even the most prestigious chefs will cop to their use. The American television critic Emily Nussbaum is dead-on when she writes, “…cliffhangers are fake-outs. They reveal that a story is artificial, then dare you to keep believing.”
Tries To Be Serious, But Ends As A Parody
Fri, October 3 2025
THE GAME: YOU NEVER PLAY ALONE is ominous not only in its title but also in its inaugural stature as Netflix India’s first Tamil original of the year. So far, Netflix has mostly dabbled in anthologies in Tamil; web series are a rarity. The world of web series is slow to take off in South India owing to factors like budget constraints, the scepticism about streaming within the film industries, and operational reasons from writing to production. It’s still at a nascent stage, even as OTT platforms introduce new series in several south Indian languages, and streaming itself is undergoing a churn in how it is viewed and operated. At this time comes The Game, a Tamil series starring Shraddha Srinath and Santhosh Prathap, written by Deepthi Govindarajan and directed by Rajesh M Selva. It takes long form’s trusted entry-level genre — thriller — and encapsulates it within a game developer’s world where digital objects become as much of a minefield as real life.
Derivative and underwhelming
Fri, October 3 2025
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
(Writing for OTT Play)
Cillian Murphy’s Steve Does The Job
Sat, October 4 2025
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
A comfort meal that is warm, familiar, but overcooked
Sat, October 4 2025
The Long Review
Sat, October 4 2025
Simple, Obvious Pleasures in Dhanush’s Homebound Drama
Fri, October 3 2025
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
Charlie Hunnam's Eerie Performance Overshadowed By Indulgent, Disturbing Narrative
Fri, October 3 2025
“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
Vivek Choudhary’s Sharply Observed Film Is One of the Finest This Year
Fri, October 3 2025
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
सबक सॉलिड, मगर सीरीज साधारण
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।
Another Brick in the ‘Kota Factory’ Wall
Thu, October 2 2025
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
Blockbuster Moments In A Surprisingly Well-Done Tamil-Malayalam Hybrid
Thu, October 2 2025
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.
Shane Nigam, Shanthanu's promising crime drama drowns in cliches
Sat, September 27 2025
‘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!
Action papers over clichés and patchy writing
Sat, September 27 2025
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
Expect A Pawan Kalyan Show And Nothing Much
Tue, September 30 2025
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.
Invincible Pawan Kalyan lifts film with unmatched aura
Sat, September 27 2025
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.
Driven by star power, swagger, and an audacious aesthetic.
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
ठेंगा दिखाती ‘बैड गर्ल’
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
Reshapes how Tamil cinema portrays the middle-class household
Sun, September 28 2025