Fri, September 25 2026

The film whimsically sways from one end to the other leaving yawning gaps in the process of transitioning.

The eponymous forest - it has been in existence since the 7th century, the audience is told in a rushed introduction - has a human voice. It emanates from a goddess carved in stone. The rock deity has eyes that glow in the dark like traffic lights. Only those who dare to venture into the forbidden, mystical woods at night witness the phenomenon but only a few survive to tell the tale. It is deep-rooted fear of the unknown that keeps people away from the forest after sunset. In the climax, a crowd divided by what they know or what they don’t congregates there. A protracted fracas erupts. The skirmish is of the sort that leaves one completely cold.

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Tue, September 22 2026

Unlikely heroes, friendship, espionage, humour, chemistry, tonal balance, comic heroism, and contemporary Hindi cinema.

A film may possess an ingenious premise, an assured director and a cast brimming with talent, yet still lack the one intangible quality that can make or break a genre exercise: the right vibe. Not vibe in its loose, fashionable sense, but the precise tonal alchemy of mood, rhythm, atmosphere and attitude that tells us how seriously—or how gleefully—we are expected to take what unfolds on screen. For an action-comedy, that equilibrium is particularly precarious. Too much solemnity makes the jokes feel intrusive; too much frivolity diminishes the stakes. Vibe, for the most part, negotiates this tonal tightrope with considerable assurance.

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Sun, September 20 2026

But director-actor Kunal Khemu overplays his hand and assumes that the audience does not get the joke.

Unfortunately, I’m not on team Kunal Khemu. I used to be, when I thought of him as an actor who didn’t get his due. However, his directorial debut, Madgaon Express (2024), changed that. Laced with typical “boys-will-be-boys” silliness, I found myself drifting off during many points of the inanity that was unfolding on screen. It needs a special kind of wit and sorcery to keep people invested in a film where nothing truly matters but the makers’ whimsy. Then I heard his views on pay parity, on his wife Soha Ali Khan’s podcast, and he didn’t seem all that wise. It’s futile to assume the above instances wouldn’t colour my perspective of his directorial venture, Vibe, a film he has also co-produced, and is starring in. But for the sake of fairness, I have to concede that there are few things more effortless in Hindi cinema than Khemu enacting a gag he wrote.

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Sat, September 19 2026

Tue, September 22 2026

Santosh Davakhar's formally ambitious Marathi folk drama is India's official submission to the 99th Academy Awards

Gondhal begins with what is, roughly, a 25-minute single shot at night. It follows an old man, Bhivaba (Kishor Kadam), and his grandson Vishnu (Dhruv Thoke) walking towards the gondhal, a ritual folk celebration in the village for newlyweds, and on that long-ish walk, the old man meets other men, and gossip is exchanged under the guise of curiosity, resentments are expressed under the guise of conversation, and the child’s curiosity is mistaken for his personality—he only seems to ask questions: What is this? Why is that?

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Mon, November 17 2025

Gondhal, which is written and directed by Santosh Davakhar, gets the viewers transported into the interiors of the village and the ceremony of Gondhal in a thoroughly impressive manner. It does that through a long one-take shot that not only follows different characters perform different tasks but also in presence of over 100 junior actors in a large open area. Veteran cinematographer Amalendu Chaudhary makes his presence felt in various other shots as well. No stone is left unturned when it comes to portraying the ceremony and its various aspects. One can find even minute detailing with regards to the rituals, costumes and production designing.

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Tue, September 22 2026

At 95 minutes, the film mirrors the design, efficiency and danger of a Samurai sword.

In Zach Cregger’s reboot of the Resident Evil franchise, a character appears capable of killing the zombies unleashed on Raccoon city. Appearing halfway into the film, I finally settled into my seat – taking comfort in the fact that the Milla Jovovich version of the film was about to begin. Designed as a shooting videogame in 1990s Japan, the film franchise gained notoriety for its genre thrills and Jovovich’s elaborate action set-pieces, which only got bigger, more intricate with the success of each film. But true to Cregger’s ability to pull the rug from underneath us, in the eighth film of the franchise, the action hero character unceremoniously disappears. Another well-known face, who you imagine will stick around for longer in the film, is taken out. In Zach Cregger’s apocalypse, there are no saviours.

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Sun, September 20 2026

Based on the Japanese video game, the Resident Evil franchise had a good run at the box office from 2002 to 2017. And, like most films based on video games, all six films were quite mediocre. There was also the eminently forgettable Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City in 2021. Just when you thought the franchise was dead and buried, it has now resurrected itself-like the zombies in the film.

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Fri, September 18 2026

A drive through icy desolation on the edges of Raccoon City boasts one of the year’s most arresting movie openings.

With Resident Evil, Zach Cregger builds one of the year’s most pin-sharp, nerve-rattling cinematic openings. It lurches between extremes amid an expert orchestration of unpredictability. Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a medical courier who’s having issues with his girlfriend, Michelle, over having kids. She wants an honest, direct conversation, but his deliveries keep coming in the way. He’s not sure if he’s ready for such a big change as parenthood. The film opens at a hospital. Amidst his efforts to get a delivery signed, he’s tapped to ferry a critical bag to Raccoon City. He’s cautioned that the location is far and the terrain snowy. But the pay is double. In just a beat, he agrees. However, shortly after, he realises things might be way harder than it seemed.

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Mon, September 21 2026

Fri, September 18 2026

A promising premise and a reliable Karunas are let down by clumsy staging and a bloated, repetitive courtroom drama

Sajeev Pazhoor, the first-time director of Enna Vilai, is no ordinary writer. He’s written the new-age Malayalam classic Thondimuthalum Drikshakshiyum and the directors who have worked on Sajeev’s scripts include Dileesh Pothan, G Prajith (the director of Oru Vadakkan Selfie) and the master Shaji N Karun. Sajeev has also made dozens of documentaries and short films before turning director with Enna Vilai, a Tamil drama set in Rameshwaram. What shines through, even at a premise level, is this writer’s mind and a short story-like quality that could have been made into a better film.

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Sun, September 20 2026

Daayra poses an interesting question concerning the relationship between law and morality: if culprits are likely to get away with murder, is it acceptable to take the law into one’s own hands and deliver justice? And who gets to decide the quantum of punishment, assuming the accused are indeed guilty of a heinous crime? Are extrajudicial killings justified in such circumstances? Meghna Gulzar’s film raises several thorny questions. That is essentially the point of the story, though the film becomes somewhat heavy-handed in making it.

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Sun, September 20 2026

Sun, September 20 2026

Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran star in Meghna Gulzar's film about cops doling out their own justice

Daayra opens with a city in celebration. It looks like a festival—the streets are teeming, sweets are distributed, fireworks set off. Eventually, the hero of the hour arrives: DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran), who led the team that shot and killed four men accused of rape. Officially, it was in self-defense, but no one, not the cops or the revelers, pretends it’s anything but an encounter killing. Meghna Gulzar’s film is loosely based on the 2019 Hyderabad rape case, in which the accused were killed in police custody and the cops widely praised afterwards. It offers the illusion of balance, but its heart is with the celebrating public. A week after the deaths, DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan) of the Special Investigative Team is tasked with looking into the case after human rights activists raise concerns. In contrast to Raman’s heroic introduction, we first meet Ajooni conducting a comic sting operation on an avocado-desiring inmate—a small clue to how the film sees their respective roles.

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Sun, September 20 2026

Lust Stories 3 is the third instalment of the popular Netflix franchise, exploring various dimensions of human desire through four shorts helmed by Kiran Rao, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vishal Bhardwaj and Shakun Batra. Konkona Sen, Radhika Apte, Ali Fazal, Vijay Varma, Sana Thampi, Siddharth, Gurfateh Pirzada, Aditi Rao Hydari and others essay key roles. Desire comes in many shapes and sizes, something that Lust Stories on Netflix has addressed with the sensitivity it merits, removing the ‘shame’ angle from the discussion. Roping in big names, both actors and directors, has given the franchise a widespread reach across both seasons, making it a conversation starter.

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Sat, September 19 2026

A mirror to modern relationships, the franchise’s third instalment sheds its past shock value for the disturbing terrain of emotional isolation

If the birth of Lust Stories was a shout for liberation, a tearing down of the velvet curtains that long hid Indian intimacy, then the third iteration is the echo. Helmed by a new set of original voices — Shakun Batra, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, and Vishal Bhardwaj — and bolstered by an ensemble of actors who translate subtext through the vocabulary of body language, it does not seek to shock, nor does it carry the heavy burden of breaking taboos. It treats desire not as a provocative statement, but as a messy mirror. The four-part anthology shows how physical proximity often masks isolation in modern relationships. It shows how lust is weaponised, bargained with, or surrendered to. In the earlier films of the franchise, the stories followed a clear arc of liberation, a character realising their worth or claiming their pleasure. Here, within the recognisable OTT beats, the liberation is rarely external. In three segments, intimacy is readily available, but real emotional safety is scarce.

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Sat, September 19 2026

Lust Stories 3 sticks to the format of the previous films in the franchise, keeping female desire at the core of all the films. The anthology film has four distinctive stories which are propelled by great performances.

Lust Stories, right from the beginning, when the first part was released in 2020, raised eyebrows. Since then, several other similar films and series have come up on OTT- all exploring female sexual desires- some landed, some did not, but the charm of Lust Stories and subsequently of Lust Stories 2 has had a different effect on the audience. How many mainstream filmmakers have attempted to explore what women want and ultimately got it right? In Lust Stories 3, filmmakers Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj speak of Lust, an emotion that often brings out the best and worst in any human being.

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Sun, September 20 2026

With an animatedly ever-complaining father, a “modern” son, a pacifying mother, and a house that tells this story in Vijay Raaz’s voiceover, this could very well be an Ayushmann Khurrana middle-India comedy

Child might be the father of man but the Indian father is often a manchild. Raised under the patriarchal system which limits men to their hunter-gatherer history, the Indian dad provides for his family more out of a sense of duty than love. This man, whose idea of strength is curbing emotional release, lives his middle-age as a disciplinarian, commanding his family, his tribe, with an iron hand. But when the kids grow up and the wife discovers her calling, the dad, now retired, witnesses his grip loosening over the family. Then comes the annoyance, the mean comments, the thumping around the house like a wrecking ball.

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Sun, September 20 2026

Fri, September 11 2026

PS Mithran's sequel to 'Sardar' loses momentum in the second half, sinking into generic territory with its overblown plotline

The first half of Sardar 2 may seem familiar, but at least it commits to the kind of spy thriller it wants to be. There’s a lofty idea in there about a Japanese-made bioweapon that’s being kept secret by the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and there’s a thrilling flashback that gives you the origins of how this weapon got to India in the first place. Set predominantly in the 1980s, the film sees Bose (Karthi), or Sardar, navigating the complexities of this international mission, and we also get a series of Mission: Impossible-style action set pieces that cover everything from the back of an airplane to the front of a Japanese bullet train.

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Fri, September 11 2026

Director PS Mithran's Sardar 2, starring Karthi, SJ Suryah and Malavika Mohanan, is a predictable sequel that is engaging in parts. However, the overstretched climax drags down the film.

Sardar, directed by PS Mithran, gave Tamil cinema a rooted spy character in 2022, well before Dhurandhar made the genre fashionable. Four years later, Sardar (Karthi) — who swears by the line, “Once a spy, always a spy” — returns with a shot at correcting a mistake that cost thousands of lives. The first film ended with Bose, aka Sardar, accepting his fate as a branded terrorist despite never committing espionage. His son Viji, inducted into RAW, has since been sidelined into a dummy unit handling no cases of consequence. Sardar 2 hands him a chance to prove himself — just as a bigger threat surfaces. What brings Sardar out of exile? Can father and son join forces against Black Dagger, a mercenary outfit endangering 140 crore people? The film spends a patient three hours answering these questions.

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Sun, September 20 2026

Sat, September 19 2026

TIFF 2026 | In 1960s Nagaland, a Konyak chief and his son grapple with the advent of Christianity.

Modernity arrives in several garbs all at once. It shifts between assimilation, a promise of progress and a threat of complete cultural loss. Development can wholly wash over a sharp sense of identity that once existed, chipping away at it one by one. Premiering in Platform competition at the Toronto International Film Festival 2026, Theja Rio’s brilliantly immersive debut, Angh, understands every shade of this complex negotiation. Rio, born in Nagaland’s Kohima, brings alive the state’s churning historical moment as Christianity burst in the 1960s. At the centre of the quiet, reflective drama is a tribal chief, Anghba (Anghlong Konyak). He’s a mournful witness to his community’s transformation under the sway of an American missionary (Douglas James Henshall). There’s a gentle ache in Angh that seeps under your skin, without a hint of rush.

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Wed, September 16 2026

Theja Rio‘s film, set in 1960s Nagaland, patiently archives the feeling of dislocation without putting forth resolved arguments

Aiming for a boar on the other side of the river, the Anghbha (Anghlong Konyak), or tribal chief, sights a “white ghost” floating by—a flesh and blood American missionary (Douglas James Henshall) on a boat, with his jeep and some Nagas who have converted. The music is ominous. The ghost waves at him—does the Angbha understand this gesture? The ghost takes out a camera and captures him in film—does the Angbha understand this technology? All we see is his face, shaped by doom. He is hunting the boar with a gun, and not bow and arrows, nor spears, so technology has seeped even into his cloistered world from beyond. What else has slipped through the cracks? What has he resisted?

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Fri, September 18 2026

TIFF 2026 | The Oscar-nominated All That Breathes director mines the creeping loneliness of a termite exterminator in Old Delhi.

Once again, the alleys of Delhi hum their ache, regrets and yearnings in Shaunak Sen’s debut fiction outing, Termite. It’s a short film as if Sen is testing the ground before hoisting his flag on it. Like his Oscar-nominated 2022 breakout doc, All That Breathes, the fiction short is also alive and porous to an ecological world, the fellow non-inhuman inhabitants we share our lives with, marginality and the deep curl of thoughts and fears you swat away in recesses.

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Sat, September 12 2026

In competition at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Oscar-nominated documentarian’s short returns to the bylanes of old Delhi.

Termite, a 30-minute short, is documentary maker Shaunak Sen’s first fiction film. But it’s hard to tell the difference. He treats life as the introverted ally of storytelling; his nonfiction often designs the truth of an invisibilised India. It finds a controlled language to present what already exists. While Cities of Sleep traced the gloomy lyricism of Delhi’s insurgent sleeper communities, the Oscar-nominated All That Breathes shadowed two Muslim brothers who run a bird clinic in old Delhi. The camera — steady, studied, often static — reframes the people as characters, spaces as settings, and ecological relationships as cultural metaphors. Termite looks like it’s ‘following’ two men in the capital, too. A Tamil migrant, Ajith (Valavane Koumarane), shares a rooftop room with his Muslim friend, Saud (Faisal Malik); they spend tired evenings drinking tea and passively watching television.

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