Bandish Bandits S02
Family, Drama (Hindi)
A classical singer Radhe falls in love with pop singer Tamanna and embarks on a path that forces him to compromise his classical roots. With time, both the singers try to get out of their comfort zone while trying (more…)
Citadel: Honey Bunny
Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (English)
When stuntman Bunny recruits struggling actress Honey for a side gig, they are hurled into a high-stakes world of action, espionage and betrayal. Years later, as their dangerous past catches up, the estranged Honey and Bunny must reunite and fight (more…)
Singham Again
Action, Drama, Thriller, Crime (Hindi)
The cop universe expands with newer additions while the old ones return led by Bajirao Singham. Singham Again interweaves the mythological epic Ramayana's good vs evil narrative when his wife Avni Kamath gets abducted by Danger Lanka setting Bajirao and (more…)
Guild Reviews
Body
Drama (Hindi)
In the post covid world, Manoj, a young, struggling actor, is trying to cope with his personal trauma. On a village trip with his theatre peers he gets brutally bullied in the name of drunken fun. His friends leave him. He tries to find his way out of the village, battling shame and fear, without a stitch on. He comes back to Mumbai and starts stripping in public spaces. His life starts fragmenting to pieces. In his almost dysfunctional state he makes friends with a little boy living in the opposite apartment and finds that he is regularly abused by his father. This discovery sets him off on a complex journey of uncertainty and intrigue.
Cast:
Amol Deshmukh, Khushboo Upadhyay, Sandeep Shridhar Dhabale, Shivam Parekh, Jatin Negi, Manoj Sharmaa, Kritika Pande
Director:
Abhijit Mazumdar
Writer:
Abhijit Mazumdar
A Hindi Indie Full of Craft, Curiosity and Naked Ambition
Tue, December 17 2024
Once adulthood sets in, and once we’ve accumulated enough years, most of us have two types of recurring dreams (and nightmares). One revolves around the terror of remembering that the exam is tomorrow and we haven’t touched the school syllabus. The other is shaped by the horror of finding ourselves naked in routine situations, while being totally helpless about it. Both of these are trauma responses to our fraught relationship with society. Both feature a link between social conditioning and shame, but Abhijit Muzumdar’s Body confronts the steeper task of exploring the second dream. It’s a testing watch, but ultimately quite a rewarding one.
Kaalratri
Mystery, Drama (Bengali)
When the chilling prophecy of the impending death of Debi's husband comes true the day after her wedding, she finds herself trapped in a web of secrets and scandals of her new dysfunctional family.
Cast:
Soumitrisha Kundu, Koushani Mukherjee, Anujoy Chattopadhyay, Indrasish Roy
Director:
Ayan Chakraborti
Soumitrisha’s OTT debut has Hoichoi written all over it
Tue, December 17 2024
Devi (Soumitrisha), who only remembers the past six years of her life, gets married to Rudra Roy Burman (Indrasish Roy) — a drunkard and lecherous son of Samaresh Roy Burman (Debesh Chattopadhyay). Devi’s mysterious friend Maya (Koushani Mukherjee) — known for her ominous presence – predicts that Rudra will die the next day after their marriage. Her prediction becomes real.
Talmar Romeo Juliet
Drama (Bengali)
A budding romance stirs up an all-out war between two rival families in the little hamlet of Talma, where a shocking twist flips everything upside down. Will love conquer all, or will history repeat its tragic end in this quirky twist on William Shakespeare's classic?
Cast:
Debdutta Raha, Hiya Roy, Anirban Bhattacharya, Anujoy Chattopadhyay, Joydeep Mukherjee, Kamaleswar Mukherjee, Ujan Chatterjee, Payel De, Buddhadeb Das, Durbar Sharma
Director:
Arpan Garai
Forget Shakespeare, watch it for Anujoy Chattopadhyay and Anirban Bhattacharya’s duel
Tue, December 17 2024
Badal Majumder (Kamaleswar Mukhopadhyay) and Liyaqat’s (Joydeep Mukherjee) families harbour animosity for each other for years. Badal’s eldest son Somnath (Anujoy Chattopadhyay) and Liyaqat’s nephew pugnacious Mostaq (Anirban Bhattacharya) do not see eye to eye. However, Rana – Badal’s younger son, and Jahanara – Liyaqat’s daughter and the apple of his eye, love each other. All this drama takes place in a small town, Talma.
Pushpa 2
Action, Drama, Thriller, Crime (Telugu)
As his smuggling empire grows, a brazen Pushpa longs for power and respect on his vengeful journey, while facing old rivals and new.
Cast:
Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Jagadeesh Bandari, Rao Ramesh, Sunil Varma, Anasuya Bharadwaj, Ajay, Kalpalatha, Pavani Karanam
Director:
Sukumar
Thrilling, thoughtful, but troubled
Tue, December 17 2024
Why do we like Pushparaj? He doesn’t care to look conventionally attractive. His shoulders are lop-sided, his hair unkempt, his speech brimming with contempt. His work? Smuggling red sanders. His retribution? A fierce defiance of systematic oppression, making him a figure of political utility. And his manner of retribution? Ruthless. As he says, he kills “without mercy.” In this sequel, Pushpa seems almost possessed, his machete slicing through limbs as though they were branches from a tree.
Loud and Clear
Sun, December 8 2024
“Pushpa naam nahi hain, Pushpa matlab brand hain”, (Pushpa is not just a name; it signifies a brand) states Srivalli, portrayed by Rashmika Mandanna, in this sequel anticipated to shatter all box office records. This statement prompts reflection on whether it is the character speaking or if the filmmakers are conveying their confidence through her words. Following the success of Pushpa (2021), the sequel is grander in every aspect, running an exhausting 200 minutes, though it does not necessarily surpass its predecessor. The filmmakers have amplified every successful element from the first installment, leaving no stone unturned in terms of scale and ambition. However, the narrative, or lack of it, remains unchanged—if the first part emphasised “Pushpa flower nahin, fire hai main”, the second part shifts to portraying him as a wildfire, whatever that may imply.
Sun, December 8 2024
Despatch
Drama, Thriller (Hindi)
Determined to break the next big story and refashion his complicated personal life, Joy embarks on a relentless odyssey through the heart and gut of Mumbai.
Cast:
Manoj Bajpayee, Shahana Goswami, Archita Agarwal, Anand Alkunte, Mamik Singh, Riju Bajaj, Veena Mehta, Rii Sen, Kabir Sadanand
Director:
Kanu Behl
Writer:
Ishani Banerjee, Kanu Behl
कुछ ढंग का ‘डिस्पैच’ करो भई
Tue, December 17 2024
इस फिल्म का बेहद कसा हुआ, तेज़ रफ्तार ट्रेलर दिखाता है कि मुंबई के एक अखबार ‘डिस्पैच’ का क्राइम रिर्पोटर जॉय बाग एक ऐसे मामले की तह तक जाने की कोशिशों में लगा है जिसमें हजारों करोड़ का घपला है और बड़े-बड़े लोग शामिल हैं। ज़ाहिर है कि इतना सब है तो खतरे भी बड़े हैं। जॉय बाग कर पाएगा इस काम को? कैसे करेगा वह इसे?
Manoj Bajpayee steers most of the movie on his able shoulders, and occasionally his bare bottom.
Mon, December 16 2024
Tailored for Manoj Bajpayee, the searing crime drama examines the death of investigative journalism
Sat, December 14 2024
Those who have experienced Titli and Agra would vouch that Kanu Behl’s cinema is not easy to watch. Always reflecting dark shades of everyday reality, the filmmaker has this knack for scratching the soul of his desperate characters struggling to cling to their little power structures and, in the process, leaves impressions on the conscience of the audience.
Agni
Action, Adventure (Hindi)
In a city plagued by a strange rise in fires, fireman Vithal and his policeman brother-in-law Samit reluctantly team up to solve the escalating crisis. Battling personal conflicts, they race against time to crack the case and save Mumbai.
Cast:
Pratik Gandhi, Divyendu Sharma, Jitendra Joshi, Sai Tamhankar, Saiyami Kher, Udit Arora, Kabir Shah, Pramod Pathak, Kundan Roy, Sakhi Gokhale
Director:
Rahul Dholakia
Writer:
Rahul Dholakia
Pratik Gandhi blazes a trail in this tale of courage under fire
Sat, December 14 2024
In Indian tradition, fire alludes to love and conflict, devotion and anger, eternality and death. The ever-youthful element that demands sacrifice plays the central character in director Rahul Dholakia’s ode to the unstinting spirit of the firefighters. Capturing a daze’s multiple faces and colours, Dholakia removes the smokescreen that covers the firefighters’ work and opens a window into the lives of those who keep us out of its fury but whose services are not duly acknowledged by the system and society. The action takes us into the heart of the evacuation process, the drama unravels the sacrifices firefighters make and the thriller elements seek to find the answer to the source of the firestorm.
Pratik Gandhi is excellent in Rahul Dholakia’s damp film
Fri, December 13 2024
Hindi movies have played with fire several times before. Those with long memories will remember such films as the 1980 adventure ‘The Burning Train’, which may have picked up inspiration from an earlier Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Towering Inferno’, but those who fight the flames at the risk of their own lives, have never been in the limelight.
The Faint Glimmers, and the Uncontained Wildfires of Vintage Bollywood
Wed, December 11 2024
I couldn’t help but be left with the feeling that there’s an enjoyable disaster film somewhere within Rahul Dholakia’s Agni, which surely owes a debt to The Burning Train (1980). There is more than one echo of the Ravi Chopra-directorial, where the spectacle is foregrounded by professional rivalry – Danny Denzongpa and Vinod Khanna’s in the 1980 film; emulated by Pratik Gandhi and Divyenndu’s characters in Dholakia’s directorial. The innate Bollywood melodrama after an unexpected death, the high-voltage social commentary and righteous anger fuel both spectacles. Both Chopra and Dholakia’s film balance a strong ensemble, offering everyone their moment, and yet Dholakia’s film fails to stick its landing. It might have to do with what Hindi films have become in 2024 – too self-conscious, cautious, and reverential towards any uniform.
Bandish Bandits S02
Family, Drama (Hindi)
A classical singer Radhe falls in love with pop singer Tamanna and embarks on a path that forces him to compromise his classical roots. With time, both the singers try to get out of their comfort zone while trying to protect their stardom. This series tests their resolve for their passion and love.
Cast:
Ritwik Bhowmik, Shreya Chaudhary, Atul Kulkarni, Sheeba Chaddha, Rajesh Tailang, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Divya Dutta, Yashaswini Dayama, Saurabh Nayyar, Rohan Gurbaxani
Director:
Anand Tiwari
Writer:
Atmika Didwania, Karan Singh Tyagi, Lara Chandni, Anand Tiwari
Sat, December 14 2024
When ‘Bandish Bandits’ streamed on Prime Video in 2020, it was a breath of fresh air wrapped in melody and a master class in classical music. As it enters the second season, there is good news and a bit of bad news. First the downside: what it did not succumb to in the first season, it has done so in the second outing and turned into an ‘Indian Idol’ of sorts. Here, the major part of the series is devoted to the India Band Championship. Of course, on the sunny side, it is still an ode to music, now of various hues, and the master class continues. You will still learn more than a thing or two about ragas. Only, this time, we get to hear and see the exponents of contemporary music too.
Hits The Right Notes
Fri, December 13 2024
In our autograph books way back in school, a favourite verse was, “East is East, West is West. When they meet, it’s the best.” Bandish Bandits makes the same point, embellishing it with blended, mood-elevating music. There’s usually an ambience-fatigue when a fresh premise goes into a second season and struggles to say something new. Kota Factory, Mirzapur, Undekhi and Aarya are prime examples of ambience-fatigue.
Strikes the right notes
Fri, December 13 2024
The second season of the Prime Video series Bandish Bandits opens in Jodhpur, three months after Radhe (Ritwik Bhowmik) has been crowned Sangeet Samrat. In the previous season, battle lines were drawn between rival gharanas represented by Radhe and his grandfather Radhemohan (Naseeruddin Shah) on the one side and Radhemohan’s estranged son Digvijay (Atul Kulkarni) on the other. With the passing of the patriarch, the responsibility for the Rathod gharana rests on Radhe’s shoulders. Radhe is also contending with new and confusing feelings after Tammana (Shreya Chaudhry) walks away from their fusion band Bandish Bandits, and her relationship with him, to find her own voice.
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein S02
Crime, Drama, Mystery (Hindi)
Relentlessly pursued by a powerful politician’s daughter who will do anything to make him hers, a man slips down a dark, risky path to reclaim his life.
Cast:
Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Anchal Singh, Saurabh Shukla, Brijendra Kala, Anant Joshi, Arunoday Singh, Gurmeet Choudhary, Varun Badola
Director:
Siddharth Sengupta
Writer:
Umesh Padalkar, Siddharth Sengupta
Tahir Raj Bhasin, Saurabh Shukla show never takes its eyes off the ball
Fri, December 13 2024
The first season of ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein’ became an addictive watch in the way it bent one of the oldest genres in the book: being an obsessive lover is not just a male prerogative; women can do it just as well, if not better. It made up for all its nods to hoary Hindi movie heavies who lived in palaces overrun by armed goons, governed by old-style off-with-their-heads villainy.
Chaotic Romantic Thriller Grows Darker, Goes Back To Square One
Sat, November 30 2024
In January 2022, the Netflix series Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein introduced us to an unusual drama. The show, set in a small town, revolved around Vikrant (Tahir Raj Bhasin), who uncomfortably finds himself to be the object of affection for a gangster politician’s daughter Purva (Aanchal Singh). Instead of marrying his college sweetheart Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), he finds himself tied by matrimony to someone he doesn’t love. Sidharth Sengupta’s series took Vikrant to his limit as he found himself hiring a hitman to get rid of Purva. Now, nearly three years later, the series returns to pick up where it left off.
Cruella Gets A B(l)ack Story
Sun, November 24 2024
A recap of Season 1: Purva (Anchal Singh), daughter of ruthless neta Akheraj Awasthi (Saurav Shukla), a don-like figure with the authorities at his beck and call and an army of goons, has always obsessed over and been a thorn in the flesh of good boy Vikrant Singh Chauhan (Tahir Raj Bhasin). To add to his misery, Vikrant’s father (Brijendra Kala) has always been a servile, loyal employee of the Awasthis, afraid to go against Akheraj even if it means pushing his son towards Purva. Vikrant had instinctively and steadfastly spurned Purna’s friendship even in school and could heave a sigh of relief only when she was packed off to the UK. He had a dream future planned with Shikha (Shweta Tripathi), the love of his life, when Purva returned as an adult, obsession intact and ready to claim him as hers once again. With Akheraj willing to go to any lengths to get her what she desires, getting rid of Purva was Vikrant’s only way out of a marriage he dreaded. It was, unwittingly, Vikrant’s first step towards turning himself into an unrecognisably dark person, no different from the Awasthis.
Singham Again
Action, Drama, Thriller, Crime (Hindi)
The cop universe expands with newer additions while the old ones return led by Bajirao Singham. Singham Again interweaves the mythological epic Ramayana's good vs evil narrative when his wife Avni Kamath gets abducted by Danger Lanka setting Bajirao and his gang of Sangram Bhalerao and Veer Sooryavanshi along with Satya and Shakti Shetty on a mission to rescue her.
Cast:
Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone, Akshay Kumar, Jackie Shroff, Shweta Tiwari, Dayanand Shetty
Director:
Rohit Shetty
Rohit Shetty’s outdated action film looks down upon its target audience; no wonder the Cop Universe is imploding
Wed, December 11 2024
There is an early scene in Singham Again where Ajay Devgn’s titular super-cop barges into his teenage son’s party along with a couple of cronies, embarrasses him in public, and hauls him back home. He does it, it seems, only to give director Rohit Shetty another opportunity to shoot him in stylised slow-motion. At home, Singham and his wife, Avni (Kareena Kapoor Khan) lecture their son about how out of touch he is with Indian values. It’s a deeply melodramatic moment; you can almost imagine them turning into Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini from Baghban in a couple of decades. But one thing is made absolutely clear by this early domestic drama: Shetty and Devgn don’t think too highly of the nation’s youth. This became a recurring theme even in their pre-release press interviews. They would both proudly declare that they barely resonate with the kids these days, and how, back in their day, they were roughing it out in the real world. This is a bizarre stance to take, for multiple reasons. For one, it’s always a good idea to understand younger generations. You might just learn something; just ask Javed Akhtar. But second, Singham Again is aimed at the very demographic that Shetty and Devgn have decided to infantilise.
Ajay Devgn headlines Rohit Shetty's biggest actioner, simplistic plot overshadows massive cameos
Tue, December 10 2024
Rohit Shetty is probably the biggest showman in Bollywood right now. With Singham Again and the idea of a cop universe, he has pulled off the biggest mainstream casting in the last 25 years. With at least five top commercially viable actors—Ajay, Akshay, Ranveer, Deepika and Kareena—he has made the canvas of Singham Again so big that it is most likely to become the ‘go to’ movie of this year.
Sun, December 8 2024
Citadel: Honey Bunny
Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (English)
When stuntman Bunny recruits struggling actress Honey for a side gig, they are hurled into a high-stakes world of action, espionage and betrayal. Years later, as their dangerous past catches up, the estranged Honey and Bunny must reunite and fight to protect their young daughter Nadia.
Cast:
Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Varun Dhawan, Kay Kay Menon, Kashvi Majmundar, Simran, Saqib Saleem, Sikandar Kher, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Soham Majumdar
Varun Dhawan, Samantha try powering this dull series
Tue, December 10 2024
The Indian spin-off of Prime Video’s American show Citadel, titled Honey Bunny, tracks the making of super-agent Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra). Though Priyanka is not in the series, it’s about her parents Honey (Samantha) and Bunny (Varun Dhawan) and they become Citadel agents. The little Nadia (Kashvi) is very much present throughout the series and shows early inclinations of being a tough girl. While Honey is a struggling actor, Bunny is a stuntman who lives a double life of an agent under Baba (Kay Kay Menon). The time period is somewhere around 1992 and the play areas are Mumbai, Belgrade, Nainital and Bucharest. As expected, Baba and his ace killer KD (Saqib Saleem) are after Honey’s life even after eight years in 2000, but as the sentiments would go, Bunny returns to be the wall between death and life.
Sun, December 8 2024
Varun Dhawan, Samantha's Prequel Spy Saga Packs A Solid Punch
Mon, November 18 2024
Citadel: Honey Bunny is the third series in the Citadel universe. Arriving on the heels of the Italian series Citadel: Diana, the Indian version is a prequel story that links into the main Amazon Prime Video series. Developed by Sita Menon and directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK (Raj & DK), Citadel: Honey Bunny has a sluggish start introducing the characters and the Indian connection. However, over six episodes, the series builds on the characters’ connections for a solid finish.
Don't Move
Horror, Thriller (English)
A grieving woman in a secluded forest encounters a killer who injects her with a paralytic drug. As her body shuts down, her fight for survival begins.
Cast:
Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, Daniel Francis, Moray Treadwell, Dylan Beam, Kate Nichols, Skye Little Wing Dimova-Saw, Denis Kostadinov, Zainab Azizi
Director:
Adam Schindler, Brian Netto
Writer:
T.J. Cimfel, David White
Psychological thriller with enjoyable moments
Tue, December 10 2024
For psychological thrillers, it’s a given that we live in a broken world, a place with predators lurking around. Usually isolated from civilisation, literally and metaphorically, such a space evokes fear, horror and then survivalist tendencies. A new Netflix film Don’t Move portrays a similar canvas where a 30-something Iris (Kelsey), grieving the accidental death of her child, has lost the will to live, but she surprises herself with the fightback she still has in her when a family man-cum-ruthless kidnapper Richard (Finn) enters the scene.
Sam Raimi’s high concept Netflix survival thriller isn’t as smart as it thinks
Sun, December 8 2024
A young woman grieving the death of her child treks to the cliffside spot where he died. She intends to jump herself. Played by Kelsey Asbille, the woman is approached by a mysterious stranger, played by Finn Wittrock. He recognises immediately that she’s one step away from falling to her death. The stranger doesn’t attempt to talk her down from the ledge, but he makes enough of an impression for her to reconsider. They walk back together to the parking lot, where things take a sudden turn. The man injects her with some kind of paralytic substance, revealing that he isn’t a good samaritan after all. Thus begins Don’t Move, a high-concept thriller that producer Sam Raimi probably thought was going to turn out like his knockout 2016 film Don’t Breathe. It didn’t. These movies have nothing in common beyond Raimi’s involvement, and that gentle nudge of a title. In terms of quality, they couldn’t be further apart from each other. Don’t Move appears to be so pleased with its premise — it’s a survival thriller featuring an immobile protagonist! — that it forgets it needs to sustain this early momentum. The movie succeeds in drawing your sympathies for its heroine, Iris, but struggles to put her in interesting scenarios after this pre-credits sequence.
Do Patti
Thriller, Mystery, Drama, Crime (Hindi)
A puzzling investigation leads a no-nonsense cop down a dark path involving the vicious rivalry between twin sisters and the volatile man they both love.
Cast:
Kajol, Kriti Sanon, Shaheer Sheikh, Tanvi Azmi, Brijendra Kala, Prachee Shah, Vivek Mushran, Rohit Tiwari, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Shastra Prashant Gajbhare
Director:
Shashanka Chaturvedi
Kajol is a misfit in this convoluted Kriti Sanon drama
Tue, December 10 2024
There are twin sisters—Saumya and Shelly—played by Kriti Sanon in a beautiful Uttarakhand town with paragliders covering the blue sky. What a sense of relief in this confusing weather. Defused lighting and a lot of touch ups to bring out the best facial features of good-looking leads ensure a soothing start of a tale which harps on the childhood animosity of the twins. They both have their eyes set on a baby-faced yet quite violent Dhruv Sood (Shaheer Sheikh), which eventually leads to a cop and criminal chase led by Vidya Jyoti aka VJ (Kajol) to a point where the real purpose of law books and its practical usage would be discussed.
Two for sorrow
Tue, October 29 2024
Do Patti begins with scattered shots of paragliding gone wrong and a stakeout on a bridge, followed by a woman in a police station telling the cops her husband tried to kill her. Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, released in August, also has a stakeout on a bridge, and its first scene is a woman in a police station telling the cops her husband is going to kill her. Both films are written by Kanika Dhillon, both are Netflix releases. Did no one think it was a problem that the films start the exact same way?
One By Two
Tue, October 29 2024
Dressed in the exact same attire as her newly wedded sister at her reception, the lookalike twin poses right next to the bride and groom as if fulfilling Bollywood’s bawdy fantasy of saali aadhi gharwali in a tasteless, thunder-stealing move.