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.

Continue reading …

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).

Continue reading …

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.

Continue reading …

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.

Continue reading …

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.

Continue reading …

Fri, August 29 2025

Smart screenplay and well-written character arcs lend a new appeal to a worn-out, formulaic story in Mohan Srivatsa’s Telugu film

There is a certain degree of freedom that storytellers enjoy with a film that is not tailored to suit an actor’s image. One can sense that liberation in director Mohan Srivatsa’s Telugu film Tribanadhari Barbarik, which, despite being a done-to-death redemption drama centred on a missing child, rises above the limitations of its genre, thanks to crisp storytelling and well-etched characters. The title, Tribanadhari Barbarik, is a reference to Ghatotkacha’s son in the Mahabharata; he is a gifted warrior who vows to support the losing side in the war. The film’s protagonist, Shyam Kathu (another name for Barbarik, played by Sathyaraj), a psychiatrist, is a warrior-like figure for his granddaughter Nidhi, who goes missing one night. The grandfather will not rest till he finds her.

Continue reading …

Fri, August 29 2025

Director Venkatesh Nimmalapudi’s Telugu film has a quirky concept, good situational humour, but is too inconsistent to be engaging

In Sundarakanda, Siddharth (Nara Rohith) faces a quintessential problem common to most middle-aged protagonists in Telugu cinema’s romcoms. The parents are worried that their ageing son may never get married, while the typical man-child will not agree to a girl unless she matches his specific requirements. However, the Nara Rohith starrer gives this idea a cheeky little twist and playfully subverts it. The film’s title is a throwback to Venkatesh’s 1992 hit by the same name, and there is enough thematic similarity between the two to establish a clear connection. While the former featured an unconventional equation between a male teacher and a feisty student, the 2025 film is a tale of a man who turns a teacher to woo his lady love (creepy, yes), tackling ageism with tongue-in-cheek humour.

Continue reading …

Thu, August 28 2025

Niraj, Archie and Parth have cleared their CA Group 1 exams. Both Parth and Archie land articleships in different companies, juggling their time for exam preparation. Niraj bumps into his ex, Kavya, again, and the two give their relationship another chance. Tejas continues to support Archie through her highs and lows, while Vishal makes progress with his acting career. The performances generally fit the bill. Given the graph of the characters is limited in terms of complexity, there’s only so much that an actor can do to go beyond the established tropes. Ahsaas Channa is the pick of the lot among the cast; she’s barely tested but tries to bring some earnestness into her performance. Half CA is precisely Kota Factory for CA aspirants – a group of students from different parts of the country across age groups come together to pursue their dream, nearly give up, get distracted, but give it a good shot. Some make it, some don’t, there are heartbreaks, disappointments and time runs out. Through the journey, some victories are literal, others moral, but they gear them for life.

Continue reading …

Mon, August 25 2025

One of the incidental pleasures of recent indie-horror films from around the world is how they’ve doubled down on the power of gaslighting. It’s chilling to see the psychological warfare unleashed on a person, enough to make them question their critical faculties and/or sanity. Why fear the monster under the bed, when family members and ‘well-meaning’ acquaintances can make up for it? The power of perception can be vital – which most people are discovering in the age of social media. Imbuing human paranoia into a folk horror-tale is one of the best decisions made by director-duo Danny and Michael Philippou in Bring Her Back – their sophomore film, after their clutter-breaking debut in Talk To Me (2023). Having started as YouTubers in Adelaide, the Philippou brothers soon showcased their knowledge about horror tropes. And they also know the points when most horror films take a leap of faith – and how ludicrous it looks. So the duo mine it for laughs. It’s another miracle of recent that instead of being rigid, indie-spirited horror films operate without any fear of flirting with their own formlessness.

Continue reading …

Mon, August 25 2025

Following the releases of Weapons and Together earlier this month, the series of top notch horror/thriller films persists. It is safe to say that Bring Her Back stands out as the most terrifying of them all, due to its staging and unfolding – complemented by an exceptional performance from the ever-dependable Sally Hawkins. You will find yourself reluctant to visit her home, even if she extends an invitation

Continue reading …

Mon, August 25 2025

Similar to numerous Hollywood films, Nobody 2 was produced due to the success of Nobody (2021), which performed well at the box office. The concept was interesting – an unremarkable office worker is actually a skilled assassin and capable of taking on a horde of thugs and defeating them decisively. It was a light-hearted film filled with action.

Continue reading …

Sat, August 23 2025

Directed by Sabarish Nanda, 'Indra' is a crime thriller starring Vasanth Ravi, Mehreen Pirzada, and Sumesh Moor. The film is too basic to make a significant impact, which a crime thriller demands.indra

A police officer on suspension. A serial killer is on the loose. A murder that hits home. A personal tragedy that blinds the police. All these plot points could set the foundation of a gripping crime thriller, if done well. Director Sabarish Nanda’s ‘Indra’ has all of it, yet the film only reaches for the low-hanging fruit, so much so that the makers seem content with the bare minimum. Indra (Vasanth Ravi) struggles with alcoholism. His addiction and rage get him suspended, and he even leads to the loss of his eyesight. He and his wife Kayal (Mehreen Pirzada) are facing marital troubles. However, the loss of eyesight brings them closer as they wait for a transplant. During this time, Kayal is murdered at home while Indra sleeps in another room. The pattern of the killing points to a serial killer.

Continue reading …

Sat, August 23 2025

Director Praveen Kandregula's 'Paradha', starring Anupama Parameswaran, Darshana Rajendran and Sangeetha Krish, is a thoughtful film on patriarchy, women coming out of their shells and sisterhood.

Women-led films don’t always have to be about a woman being belittled by everyone around her, only to later rise as someone who rides bikes in the Himalayas. A women-led film can also be about learning and unlearning - discovering that the world beyond their cocoon presents opportunities. How to make use of this vast world of opportunities is up to each individual. But the important underlying message is that they have a choice. A choice that lets them spread their wings and fly, or simply feel the freedom of having options. That is what director Praveen Kandregula’s ‘Paradha’ is all about. Subbu (Anupama Parameswaran) belongs to the fictional village named Padathi, where women, who have hit puberty, have to wear a veil till they die. This superstitious belief is told to the villagers as the story and curse of the deity, Jwalamma. If the paradha (veil) is taken off, wilfully or unintentionally, the woman has to face death. Hold on! A ritual followed by death.

Continue reading …

Sat, August 23 2025

Anupama Parameswaran, Darshana Rajendran and Sangitha Krish shine in director Praveen Kandregula’s Telugu film that celebrates gender sensitivity in myriad hues

Paradha is a refreshing breather in a largely machismo-driven Telugu cinema. Imagine three women, hailing from different backgrounds, on a road trip to find a solution to a crisis that one of them is caught up in. Director Praveen Kandregula’s film starring Anupama Parameswaran, Darshana Rajendran and Sangitha Krish, brims with warmth, joy, laughter, and tears. The journey gives these women a much-needed getaway from their daily grind. As they soak in the vastness of the landscapes, they question their own understanding of the world and gender equations. Despite the heavy folklore that acts as a fulcrum to the narrative, considerable portions are handled with a lightness that makes it enjoyable.

Continue reading …

Sat, August 23 2025

John Abraham has perfected the art of remaining apolitical, even when he's starring in geopolitical thrillers such as Tehran.

There is a scam in Punjab that Rajkumar Hirani would’ve heard about while researching Dunki. Shady travel agents are charging crores from desperate (and mostly uneducated) Indians with the promise of arranging safe passage to the American state of Georgia. The scam? These poor men are being sent to the country of Georgia instead. In most cases, they’ve sold off family land, quit their jobs, and exhausted their entire life savings; some of them even have wives and children with them. All to be sent to the land of khachapuri. To put it simply, there are a bunch of people from Bathinda knocking about in the Caucasus right now. Anyway, the folks who made the new John Abraham film Tehran are no smarter. The movie opens with a voiceover in which we are told about an operation carried out by Iran in 2012, where Israeli diplomats were targeted in Thailand, India, and Georgia. They meant the country. But the map that the movie shows instead is that of the US state.

Continue reading …

Fri, August 22 2025

Tehran—the new John Abraham political action thriller—literally cannot identify the country of Georgia on the map. The movie also goes out of its way to make its protagonist an apolitical man who somehow annoys the governments of three nations, including his own. We discuss the film’s muddled messaging, its bizarre third act, and the arrogance with which it thinks it can get away with claiming Scotland is Iran.

Mon, August 18 2025

Arun Gopalan’s film keeps refusing to hang by the scaffolding, and although it doesn’t always land, it gives us plenty to hold on to.

TEHRAN is the latest John Abraham film, where the actor is out to avenge. For a while, it was the country (Parmanu, Satyameva Jayate); then it became more pointed (in both Vedaa and The Diplomat, he saves a girl). A less obvious, but more definite, shift has been his heroism, which has shapeshifted from a combative force to inner resilience. It has become less showy and more nuanced, more cerebral and less extraneous, much like the nationalism in his filmography. In that sense, Tehran is an able extension of this humanity that props up the ideas of protection without losing sight of the cost. In Delhi, 2012, an Israeli diplomat’s car was bombed. Similar blasts occurred in Georgia and Thailand. But the one which we see in the capital (designed in a sleek shot; Evgeniy Gubrenko and Andre Menezes are the cinematographers) results in an unwitting casualty. A young girl on the street, not much older than the daughter of ACP Rajeev Kumar (Abraham), suffers injury. This pulls him into the case even when he was hesitant initially.

Continue reading …