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Guild Reviews

Image of scene from the film Dragon
FCG Rating for the film Dragon: 78/100
Dragon

Romance, Comedy, Drama (Tamil)

Ragavan, infamous for his reckless ways and academic struggles, turns to fraud after a heartbreaking breakup, chasing wealth and power. However, his deceit leads him into perilous territory. Can he find a way out, or will his choices seal his fate?

Cast: Pradeep Ranganathan, Anupama Parameswaran, Kayadu Lohar, Mysskin, Gautham Vasudev Menon, K. S. Ravikumar, VJ Sidhu, Harshath Khan, Avinash P, Gopika Ramesh
Director: Ashwath Marimuthu
Writer: Ashwath Marimuthu


FCG Member Reviewer Anupama Chopra
Anupama Chopra | The Hollywood Reporter India
A heartwarming story about ordinary struggles rather than a testosterone-fueled saga.

Sat, March 15 2025

FCG Member Reviewer Janani K
Janani K | India Today
Pradeep Ranganathan's coming-of-age film takes flight post-interval

Sat, February 22 2025

Director Ashwath Marimuthu's Dragon, starring Pradeep Ranganathan, Anupama Parameswaran and Mysskin, is a fun film that stresses the importance of education and second chances in life. The film hits the right notes, mostly.

What happens when a mistake you commit uproots the life of an already struggling person? How do you overcome this? Does it make you realise your mistake or does it push you into the depths of depression? Director Ashwath Marimuthu’s ‘Dragon’ is a film that provides definite answers to these questions. D Ragavan (Pradeep Ranganathan), a archetypal ‘good boy’, is a gold medallist in school. He confesses his love to a girl after he gets awarded the gold medal. However, she rejects him, stating that she sometimes prefers ‘bad boys’, who are unruly and roam around the school with gethu (swag). Cut to his college days, D Ragavan becomes Dragon because of the rejection and has 48 standing arrears. What he earned in college was the love of Keerthi (Anupama Parameswaran).

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FCG Member Reviewer Kirubhakar Purushothaman
Kirubhakar Purushothaman | News 18
Pradeep Ranganathan And Mysskin Deliver A Brilliant Entertainer Of Morals

Sat, February 22 2025

Dragon is shouldered by a delectable performance of Mysskin.

Dragon has a protagonist who is insufferable for most of its runtime, which, more often than not, doesn’t work in the favour of movies. Pradeep Ranganathan as D Raghavan aka Dragon is one of those bullies in the engineering colleges, who believes being macho makes him a hero. He is an instantly off-putting personality. His college attendance is 2 per cent. He is notorious for his on-campus violence. He has several ‘cases’ against him in college. You get the drift. On top of it all, he has 48 backlogs, nearly all of the subjects in the course. He was not always like this. In school, he was the naive D Raghavan with a glorious progress report. He becomes Dragon when his school crush tells him that bad boys are the thing. Once Dragon gets out of his den, which is his college, he ends up becoming a nuisance to his friends, a failure to his girlfriend, and a fraud to his parents. When the girl breaks up with him, he takes a shortcut to become a successful person, but his mistake comes back biting when everything looks up.

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Image of scene from the film Be Happy
FCG Rating for the film Be Happy: 39/100
Be Happy

Drama, Music (Hindi)

A dance-drama film that follows a single father and his witty, wise-beyond-her-years daughter. When his daughter's dream of performing in the country's biggest dance reality show collides with a life-altering crisis, the father is driven to do the unthinkable, showcasing the extraordinary lengths he will go to fulfill her wishes and find happiness.

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Inayat Verma, Nora Fatehi, Amitabh Bachchan, Nassar, Johnny Lever, Sonali Bendre, Remo D'Souza, Elli Avram, Prabhu Deva
Director: Remo D'Souza
Writer: Chirag Garg, Kanishka Singh Deo, Tushar Hiranandani, Remo D'Souza


FCG Member Reviewer Deepak Dua
Deepak Dua | Independent Film Journalist & Critic
डोन्ट वॉच एंड ‘बी हैप्पी’

Sat, March 15 2025

धारा नाम की एक बच्ची ऊटी में अपने पापा और नाना के साथ रहती है। कमाल का डांस करती है सो ‘इंडियाज़ सुपरस्टार डांसर’ नामक शो में भाग लेने के लिए मुंबई जाना चाहती है। पापा मना करते हैं तो डांस-टीचर उन्हें समझाती है कि पेरेंट्स दो तरह के होते हैं-एक वो जिनके बच्चे उनके ड्रीम्स जीते हैं और दूसरे वो जो अपने बच्चों के ड्रीम्स जीते हैं। बात पापा को लग जाती है और ये लोग पहुंच जाते हैं मुंबई। लेकिन यहां कुछ ऐसा होता है कि सारे ड्रीम्स एक तरफ हो जाते हैं। तब पापा कहता है कि मैंने धारा को कभी गिरने नहीं दिया है, आज भी गिरने नहीं दूंगा। कहानी बढ़िया है। एक बच्ची, उसका ड्रीम, कभी आड़े आया पिता जो आज उसके साथ है। यह धुकधुकी कि अब उसका सपना सच होगा या नहीं…! लेकिन यह कहानी एक पैराग्राफ में ही बढ़िया लगती है क्योंकि फिल्म कहानी पर नहीं, उस पर फैलाई गई स्क्रिप्ट पर बनती है और इस फिल्म की स्क्रिप्ट न सिर्फ ढीली व कमज़ोर है बल्कि इसमें से वह भावनाओं और संवेदनाओं की खुशबू भी लापता है जो इस किस्म की फिल्मों की जान होती है। वह खुशबू, जो दर्शकों के नथुनों से भीतर जाकर उसके ज़ेहन में जगह बनाती है, उसे उद्वेलित करती है और अंत में भावुक करते हुए उसे भिगो जाती है। इस फिल्म में यह खुशबू बस कहने भर को है जो एक-आध दफा महसूस होती है और फिर हवा हो जाती है।

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FCG Member Reviewer Udita Jhunjhunwala
Udita Jhunjhunwala | Mint, Scroll.in
Dads, daughters and dance

Sat, March 15 2025

By emphasizing drama over dance in his new film, director Remo D’Souza neglects his greatest skill

After playing the chronically ill father of a young girl in I Want to Talk, Abhishek Bachchan plays a different kind of dad in Be Happy. In this dance-drama, streaming on Amazon Prime, the actor plays a widower raising a daughter who has an unshakable passion and talent for dance. Helmed by choreographer-director Remo D’Souza, Be Happy, written by D’Souza, Kanishka Singh Deo, Chirag Garg and Tushar Hirandanani, is built on the foundations of a father-daughter relationship and dance.

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FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Emotional Dance Drama Headlined By Abhishek Bachchan, Inayat Verma Hits All Predictable Beats

Sat, March 15 2025

Directed by Remo D'Souza, the simplistic family drama emphasises the special bond between a single father and his young daughter.

Remo D’Souza’s latest dance film Be Happy revolves around the relationship between a straitlaced single father and his imaginative daughter. Together, through the medium of dance, they learn to live life to its fullest. While much of the Hindi film is focused on young Dhara wanting to achieve her dream of appearing on the dance reality show India’s Superstar Dancer, Be Happy is much stronger when it rests on the father-daughter bond. The dance portions of the film are unnecessarily stretched. Dhara (Inayat Varma) lives with her father Shiv Rastogi (Abhishek Bachchan) and grandfather Mr Nandar (Nasser) in Ooty. But her real dream is to join Maggie Teacher’s (Nora Fatehi) top dance academy in Mumbai and appear on India’s Superstar Dancer. The musical drama follows how she manages to fulfill her wishes against all odds. Along the way, Shiv also learns to be a little less rigid and protective as a single father after the death of his wife Rohin (Harleen Sethi).

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Image of scene from the film Dilruba
Dilruba

Romance, Action (Telugu)

A hot-headed college student with a troubled past navigates conflict, love and loss.

Cast: Kiran Abbavaram, Nazia Davison, John Vijay, Rukshar Dhillon
Director: Viswa Karun
Writer: Viswa Karun


FCG Member Reviewer Srivathsan Nadadhur
Srivathsan Nadadhur | Independent Film Critic
Kiran Abbavaram’s film is confusing than heartfelt

Sat, March 15 2025

Kiran Abbavaram’s film, directed by first-timer Viswa Karun, squanders a decent idea and ends up glorifying a problematic protagonist

Dilruba, the romance-action drama starring Kiran Abbavaram, Rukshar Dhillon and Kathryn Davison, has a fairly intriguing premise. To make amends for a misstep from the past, an ex returns to her former boyfriend’s turf and helps him reconcile with a current lover. Yet, debut director Viswa Karun’s film struggles to develop this idea into a cohesive narrative and stuffs it with subplots that feel unnecessary, across genres. The film opens with a pompous quote that valourises the protagonist Siddu’s (Kiran Abbavaram) character — ‘strong men have a character, never an attitude’. Siddu is an archetypal good-for-nothing hero one would find in a Telugu film. Having been dumped by his childhood sweetheart Meghana (Kathryn Davison) over a misunderstanding, he gives up on his graduation midway. Upon his mother’s insistence, he resumes the course, only to be chased by another girl, Anjali (Rukshar Dhillon).

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Image of scene from the film Perusu
Perusu

Comedy (Tamil)

After Finding Their Father Dead, and to Their Dismay, His Two Sons Discover That Something in Him is Still Alive. What Should Have Been a Day of Somber Mourning Breaks Into a Complete Bedlam as the Two Sons Try, as Discreetly as Possible to Do the Funeral. In Their Quest to Accomplish the Funeral the Two Brothers Are Forced to Confront Their Own Troubled Relationship and Deal With Their Dead Father.

Cast: Vaibhav, Niharika NM, Sunil, Balasaravanan, Chandhini Tamilarasan, Munishkanth
Director: Ilango Ram
Writer: Ilango Ram


FCG Member Reviewer Gopinath Rajendran
Gopinath Rajendran | The Hindu
‘Stand-up comedy’ gets a new definition in Vaibhav’s wacky entertainer

Sat, March 15 2025

‘Perusu’, with its simple but effective premise, works despite its limitations thanks to a brilliant screenplay and wonderful performances

A bit of googling tells how terminal erection or death erection is an actual condition that’s very much as shocking as it sounds. It is also the core idea behind director Ilango Ram’s Perusu, the remake of the director’s Sinhala-language comedy-drama Tentigo, which bagged multiple accolades. In Perusu, Halasyam, a much-revered elderly person, dies unexpectedly. But his sons Samikannu (Sunil) and Duraikannu (Vaibhav) barely have the time or space to mourn as their father’s corpse, instead of developing rigor mortis where the muscles stiffen, gets a rigor erectus, causing the dead person to have an erection — or priapism as it’s technically called in which a penis remains erect for hours. As the family — which includes the heirs’ wives Shanthi (Niharika) and Nila (Chandini Tamilarasan), Halasyam’s wife (Nakkalites Dhanam) and her sister (Deepa Shankar) — believes this to be a travesty that the villagers and relatives cannot get a whiff of, they try everything in their power to um… bring things under control.

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FCG Member Reviewer Kirubhakar Purushothaman
Kirubhakar Purushothaman | News 18
A Decent Adult Comedy That Struggles Beyond Its Double Entendre Jokes

Fri, March 14 2025

Perusu attempts to be a rare Tamil adult comedy with a wacky premise but struggles under the weight of repetitive phallic humor.

In a sense, Perusu is one of the rare Tamil films that fit the adult comedy genre, as the premise of the story, directed by Ilango Ram, is as wacky as it can get. Halasayam, a respected man from a rural town, is fondly known as Perusu, a term used for an elder or a patriarch of a family or a village. He is one of those notable people of any town who have a say in its affairs. When we meet Perusu, he lands a slap on a youngster for allegedly peeping at women taking a bath in the community pond. Along with his elderly friends, Perusu orders the young chap to behave. Before leaving the place, he doesn’t miss to grin at the ladies himself. The lad resolves to have his revenge, but Perusu doesn’t give him any chance as he dies after returning home from watching TV. But the catch is that Perusu dies with an erect penis, which lands the whole family in trouble. His two sons–Saamikannu (Sunil Kumar) and Durai (Vaibhav)–try their best to ‘de-escalate’ the problem but it won’t die down. If you frown upon my double entendres, then imagine watching a film with such incessant phallic dialogues and words.

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Image of scene from the film Picture This
Picture This

Romance, Comedy (English)

Single and without a man on the horizon, Pia runs a failing photography studio in London with her best friend Jay. As her sister Sonal prepares for marriage and her mother Laxmi urges her to partner up, a spiritual guru predicts Pia will meet the love of her life among her next five dates. With her family intervening, Pia embarks on a hilarious yet heartfelt quest for love.

Cast: Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Sindhu Vee, Luke Fetherston, Nikesh Patel, Adil Ray, Anoushka Chadha, Eben Figueiredo, Kulvinder Ghir, Asim Chaudhry
Director: Prarthana Mohan
Writer: Nikita Lalwani


FCG Member Reviewer Rohan Naahar
Rohan Naahar | Independent Film Critic
NRIs get a nasty deal in Simone Ashley’s Prime Video rom-com

Fri, March 14 2025

Does it really count as meaningful representation of minorities when the minorities in question are being represented with a mocking tone

College kids of a certain age would be familiar with the practice of filtering assignments through a very rudimentary anti-plagiarism software, mainly to avoid being caught cheating by professors. So worthless were the results of this scam that a kid might even be shamed into putting in the actual effort and writing their assignment themselves. Not only were they submitting something unoriginal, it was also impossible to read. Essentially the same route is now being taken by filmmakers. This week’s new romantic comedy, Picture This, isn’t merely a remake; it’s a remake that is happy to be released in the same week as the Oscars and actively aim for a 2/5.

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FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Simone Ashley Is Charming In Delightful Rom-Com Set Around Big Fat Indian Wedding

Fri, March 7 2025

Bridgerton's Simone Ashley plays an independent young woman who is set up on blind dates by her family during her sister's wedding.

Picture This, led by Simone Ashley, is a remake of the Australian rom-com Five Blind Dates from star Shuang Hu. Relocated to London, director Prarthana Mohan’s film takes the same elements but places it within a dysfunctional but loving British Asian family. Amidst wedding planning, blind dating, and reconnecting with an old love, Ashley’s Pia finds herself again in this funny and enjoyable romantic comedy. The Amazon Prime Video feature is fast-paced and colourful, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Ashley is Pia Jaswani, a talented photographer who owns her own photography studio, The Ninth Mandala, and runs it with her best friend Jay (Luke Fetherston). Her younger sister Sonal (Anoushka Chadha) announces she’s getting married with a month-long series of events. Their mother Laxmi (Sindhu Vee) calls an astrologer (Kulwinder Dhir) to check the groom and bride’s janampatris (birthcharts), when he suddenly predicts Pia will meet her soulmate after going on five dates. Her meddling family gets to work with unsuitable suitors, while her first love Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) walks back in her life.

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Image of scene from the film Superboys of Malegaon
FCG Rating for the film Superboys of Malegaon: 66/100
Superboys of Malegaon

Comedy, Drama (Hindi)

The residents of Malegaon look to Bollywood cinema for a much-needed escape from daily drudgery. Amateur filmmaker Nasir Shaikh gets inspired to make a film for the people of Malegaon, by the people of Malegaon. He bands together his ragtag group of friends to bring his vision to life, thereby bringing a fresh lease of life into the town.

Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Shashank Arora, Vineet Kumar Singh, Anuj Singh Duhan, Saqib Ayub, Pallav Singgh, Manjiri Pupala, Muskkaan Jaferi, Anmol Kajani, Gyanendra Tripathi
Director: Reema Kagti
Writer: Varun Grover


FCG Member Reviewer Rohan Naahar
Rohan Naahar | Independent Film Critic
Piracy can’t be condoned, but Reema Kagti’s film believes it’s essential to the survival of theatres

Fri, March 14 2025

In Reema Kagti's Superboys of Malegaon, the protagonist discovers that an act of piracy can save the theatrical ecosystem. Illegal file-sharing and the big-screen experience often go hand-in-hand.

“Jackie Chan could come to Malegaon,” says a young man who has had the misfortune of being born there. “But his films won’t.” The young man is Nasir, the protagonist of director Reema Kagti’s new film, Superboys of Malegaon. Played by Adarsh Gourav, Nasir is the sort of cinephile who would have been logging at least three movies a day on Letterboxd had he been born a decade later, perhaps in a metropolitan city. And as hyperbolic as his words are, there is an element of truth to them. As we speak, the German auteur Wim Wenders is touring the length and breadth of India, taking selfies with Madhabi Mukherjee and reclining on Satyajit Ray’s favourite armchair. But you could be forgiven for not remembering the last time one of his films received a theatrical release here.

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FCG Member Reviewer Sucharita Tyagi
Sucharita Tyagi | Independent Film Critic
A despondent tale wrapped in a feel-good package.

Tue, March 11 2025

FCG Member Reviewer Saibal Chatterjee
Saibal Chatterjee | NDTV
The Film Is An All-Round Delight

Mon, March 10 2025

Fuelled by measured performances that blend energy with restraint, the characters and the film are in reach for the sky, while staying firmly rooted to the ground

Their incredible true story has been in the public domain for well over a decade and a half but the deeds of the moviemakers of Malegaon have never ceased to fascinate. Inherent in the tale is the drama of improbable dreams of nondescript individuals clashing with daunting societal and economic constraints and, in the bargain, engendering phenomenal acts of self-belief. Director Reema Kagti captures it all in Superboys of Malegaon, a matter-of-fact fictionalized retelling. Her film is a classic rollercoaster in which dizzying and sobering, flighty and probing, roll into and out of each other. Superboys of Malegaon, produced by Excel Entertainment and Tiger Baby, is about unremarkable lives made noteworthy by trajectories less ordinary. But, operating firmly within the realms of the real and the relatable, the film steers well clear of the cliches of the genre.

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Image of scene from the film Mrs
FCG Rating for the film Mrs: 66/100
Mrs

Drama (Hindi)

A newly wed finds herself in an overcooked and tasteless happily ever-after laced with patriarchal traditions.

Cast: Sanya Malhotra, Nishant Dahiya, Kanwaljit Singh, Aparna Ghoshal, Mrinal Kulkarni, Loveleen Mishra, Nitya Moyal, Girish Dhamija, Varun Badola, Gulista Alija
Director: Arati Kadav
Writer: Arati Kadav, Anu Singh Choudhary, Harman Baweja


FCG Member Reviewer Rohan Naahar
Rohan Naahar | Independent Film Critic
Mrs: Sanya Malhotra is Bollywood’s posterchild for smash-the-patriarchy cinema, and her Neglected Housewife trilogy is one for the ages

Fri, March 14 2025

In her career, Sanya Malhotra has inadvertently curated a spiritually connected trilogy in which she plays neglected housewives. The latest, Mrs, cements her stature as a star blessed with uncommon screen presence.

A few years ago, the global cinephile community — the sort of people who compose their Letterboxd reviews even before a film has ended — was thrown headfirst into a heated debate. As far as these folks were concerned, this was a debate of presidential magnitude — the kind of debate that could make a disagreement about Marvel movies seem like a ‘kavi sammelan’ in Lucknow. The British magazine Sight & Sound, which compiles a list of the greatest films of all time every decade, had published its latest rankings. And for the first time ever, the Belgian film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles — previously viewed as a favourite only in niche circles — had claimed the top spot, sneaking past perennial favourites such as Citizen Kane, Tokyo Story, and Vertigo.

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FCG Member Reviewer Poulomi Das
Poulomi Das | The Federal
What Arati Kadav gets right in the Hindi remake of The Great Indian Kitchen

Mon, February 17 2025

Arati Kadav’s Hindi remake of The Great Indian Kitchen trades simmering rage for a language of female loneliness; it exposes how domestic servitude is romanticised as tradition

In the opening moments of Arati Kadav’s Mrs, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the film as a gentle love story borne out of the great Indian arranged marriage. In Delhi, Richa (a standout Sanya Malhotra), a dancer, meets Diwakar (Nishant Dahiya), an educated gynaecologist and her prospective match for the first time. They exchange glances and share smiles and then end up holding hands on a date at a neighbourhood restaurant. She lets him know that she’s crazy about cassata and he tells her that he’s a fan of “simple, home-cooked food.” Two cuts later, they’re married. It’s as happy as happiness can get.

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FCG Member Reviewer Tatsam Mukherjee
Tatsam Mukherjee | The Wire
Arati Kadav’s 'Mrs.' Can’t Replicate 'The Great Indian Kitchen’s' Viscerality

Sun, February 16 2025

Ultimately, it remains a low stakes film, not willing to take the risks of the original.

Arati Kadav’s Mrs. – an official remake of Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen (2021) – is a technically sound film. It opens with a montage of delicacies being cooked in an average Indian kitchen. Editor Prerna Saigal cuts the meticulous preparation of each dish with a carefully choreographed piece, drawing our attention to the ‘dance’ most women have to endure inside a household, to keep it on its axis. Scored by Sagar Desai featuring sounds from everyday life (like squeaky, rusted gate offering rhythm to the track), the montage works well. But it can’t quite conjure the rhythm of Baby’s original film, which editor Francis Louis establishes in the never-ending loop of domestic labour thrust upon women. Especially inside a kitchen. Kadav, who broke out with imaginative Sci-Fi films (The Astronaut and His Parrot) using wide-eyed imagination to compensate for oppressive budgets, also constructs her latest venture with a similar amount of distance. The food photography is immaculate, the kitchen and the home look like they were built on a soundstage. Unlike Baby’s film, where both the kitchen as well as the home felt lived-in. When Richa (Sanya Malhotra) has to immerse her hand into a clogged sink to weed out the sediments at its bottom, it doesn’t feel as viscerally icky as Nimisha Vijayan’s character having to hand-pick the chewed-out bones thrown by her father-in-law and the husband, in the original film.

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Image of scene from the film Nadaaniyan
FCG Rating for the film Nadaaniyan: 27/100
Nadaaniyan

Romance, Comedy (Hindi)

A privileged Delhi socialite hires a middle-class student to pose as her boyfriend to maintain her social status. Their pretense becomes complicated when genuine feelings develop between them.

Cast: Ibrahim Ali Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Mahima Chaudhry, Jugal Hansraj, Dia Mirza, Agastya Shah, Apoorva Makhija, Aaliyah Qureishi
Director: Shauna Gautam


FCG Member Reviewer Rohan Naahar
Rohan Naahar | Independent Film Critic
Ibrahim Ali Khan makes one of the worst debuts in years; is Karan Johar determined to set fire to his career before it even begins?

Fri, March 14 2025

Ibrahim Ali Khan essentially plays a high class escort in Netflix's new film, Nadaaniyan, one of the worst that the streamer has ever produced in India. Couldn’t Dharma(tic) have erased this movie from their hard drives and claimed the insurance money?

Inviting Javed Akhtar to the premiere of Nadaaniyan, and making him sit through it — it doesn’t matter that he had a recliner to relax on — is tantamount to elder abuse. Directed by Shauna Gautam, the Netflix romantic drama singlehandedly demolishes any argument that nepotism apologists might have preemptively constructed in the run-up to its release. Ineptly put together, lacking any insight whatsoever into the human experience, Nadaaniyan is a blot on Karan Johar’s career as a film producer, and one of the most questionable originals ever produced by Netflix India — remember, this is the streamer that deemed Shirish Kunder’s Mrs Serial Killer to be worthy of sharing the same server space as Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma.

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FCG Member Reviewer Saibal Chatterjee
Saibal Chatterjee | NDTV
A Passably Lively But Spectacularly Shallow Rom-Com

Mon, March 10 2025

Ibrahim Ali Khan and Khushi Kapoor (in her third film) are saddled with the unbearable lightness of a story that rests on vacuous contrivances built around a clash of social strata and personal predisposition.

A sham, short-term romantic dalliance in an elite, no-uniform Delhi school assumes serious overtones and flips and flops its way through predictable ups and downs. That is the crux of Nadaaniyan, a passably lively but spectacularly shallow rom-com produced by Dharmatic Entertainment for Netflix. The strictly superficial buoyancy that the film seeks to exude is as affected as the idea that the plot revolves around. Directed by first-timer Shauna Gautam from a script by Riva Razdan Kapoor, Ishita Moitra and Jehan Handa, Nadaaniyan sputters to life only intermittently, banking on the youthful charm and energy of the young lead actors. The film juggles sundry ideas from Karan Johar’s early blockbusters (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, K3G, et al) and updates them, without much originality, for the consumption of Gen Z social media addicts who would rather die than go off the grid.

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FCG Member Reviewer Sanyukta Thakare
Sanyukta Thakare | Mashable India
Ibrahim Ali Khan & Khushi Kapoor's Film Is Cringe Pro Max

Mon, March 10 2025

Not for me

Nadaaniyan set to mark the debut of Ibrahim Ali Khan turns out to be a story about high schoolers and their troubles with love and life. However, the film sets off the story without a theme and attempts to use everything woke all at once, while treating its female character like apologetic pick-me-up girls. The film treats the adult actors as teenagers, but they behave like they are in college and are of age while also looking to get into university abroad. The film seems like it was written for US based audience, but forgets to cater to its own market. The film begins with Kushi’s self-indulged introduction about her character Pia Jaisingh, but with each line it gets harder to tell if she is talking about her character or herself. The film attempts to create this self-aware humour of their privilege, but it begins to feel more obnoxious with each scene. After a long summer vacation, Pia returns to Delhi’s most privileged school, which has screens in the cafeteria and hallways so the principal can talk to the students. Her friends are upset with her for not showing up at the bonfire before summer and for talking to a guy who is off limits.

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Image of scene from the film Court - State Vs. A Nobody
Court - State Vs. A Nobody

Drama, Romance (Telugu)

A determined lawyer takes on a high-stakes case to defend a 19-year-old boy, challenging a system that has already branded him guilty.

Cast: Priyadarshi Pullikonda, Harsh Roshan, Sridevi, Sivaji Sontineni, Sai Kumar, Rohini, Surabhi Prabhavathi, Rajsekhar Aningi, Harshavardhan
Director: Ram Jagadeesh


FCG Member Reviewer Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo | The Hindu
Priyadarshi leads a compelling drama

Fri, March 14 2025

Ram Jagadeesh makes an assured directorial debut with ‘Court: State Vs A Nobody’, relying on an effectively written drama brought to life by able actors

The strength of Court: State Vs a Nobody, debut director Ram Jagadeesh’s Telugu film, lies in its simple yet powerful truth —that the world would be a better place if those in power carried out their duties with sincerity. In this case, the focus is on the judiciary. Through an underdog narrative, Ram, along with co-writers Karthik and Vamsi, highlights how empathy can help deliver justice, regardless of social standing. The drama is anchored by Priyadarshi Pulikonda’s wonderfully restrained performance. The plot is straightforward. Nineteen-year-old Chandrashekhar (Harsh Roshan) falls in love with Jabili (Sridevi), 17. He is the son of a watchman, while she comes from a wealthy background. When her domineering uncle, Mangapathi (Sivaji), discovers their relationship, chaos ensues. Chandrashekhar is slapped with multiple charges, including under the POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences). The year is 2013, just a year after the Act was introduced.

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Image of scene from the film Dope Thief
Dope Thief

Crime, Drama (English)

Two lifelong friends in Philadelphia pose as DEA agents to rob small-time drug dealers. It's a perfect grift—until they choose the wrong mark and become targets of a massive narcotics enterprise.

Cast: Brian Tyree Henry, Wagner Moura, Marin Ireland, Amir Arison, Nesta Cooper, Kate Mulgrew, Ving Rhames


FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Gritty Crime Thriller Has Strong Performances, But Weighed Down By Complex Plot

Wed, March 12 2025

Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura play two loyal friends whose side lives of petty crime drops them into the big leagues after a drug bust gone wrong.

The eight-episode series Dope Thief takes its main characters on an absolute journey as greed and corruption in law enforcement are exposed through each stage. Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura’s characters are longtime friends who are drawn into this mess and try to emerge on the other side unscathed. The story hooks you in from the start, but with each twist, you’ll find yourself rolling your eyes at the outrageous turn of events. The well-acted crime drama is worth tuning in only for its cast. Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) became the best of friends in juvenile detention and continued their life of crime undetected as adults. The duo pose as DEA agents and rob small drug dealers of their stash and money. Until one day when they hit the wrong meth house in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, they are entangled in the larger narcotic crime ring that involves more dangerous drug dealers and even the cops themselves. With no one to turn to and their families now in danger, how do the two friends find an escape?

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Image of scene from the film Dabba Cartel
FCG Rating for the film Dabba Cartel: 61/100
Dabba Cartel

Crime, Drama (Hindi)

When an investigation into a pharma company hits close to home, five women launch a tiffin service with a secret ingredient.

Cast: Shabana Azmi, Sai Tamhankar, Jyothika, Nimisha Sajayan, Shalini Pandey, Anjali Anand, Gajraj Rao, Parminder Singh Kainth, Ainth Singh Sarminder, Ishan Saxena
Director: Hitesh Bhatia
Writer: Vishnu Menon, Bhavna Kher


FCG Member Reviewer Saibal Chatterjee
Saibal Chatterjee | NDTV
Shabana Azmi's Performance Is Half The Battle Won

Mon, March 10 2025

Shabana Azmi pulls her weight without missing a beat. She is ably supported by a wonderful ensemble cast that includes Jyotika, Nimisha Sajayan, Sai Tamhankar, Lillete Dubey, Shalini Pandey and Anjali Anand.

Shabana Azmi is the pivot around which Dabba Cartel, a female-driven Netflix crime drama series, swivels. She is in her element. That is half the battle won. Winning the remaining half takes a bit of doing. Happily, it isn’t entirely beyond the team behind and before the camera. Azmi pulls her weight without missing a beat. She is ably supported by a wonderful ensemble cast that includes Jyotika, Nimisha Sajayan, Sai Tamhankar, Lillete Dubey, Shalini Pandey and Anjali Anand. The writing, too, contributes more than its mite to the show by putting a vigorous fresh spin on the genre. Yet, there is no escaping the feeling that the seven-episode Excel Entertainment-produced series, created by Shibani Akhtar, Gaurav Kapur, Vishnu Menon and Akanksha Seda, could have been a little tighter at the seams and a bit lighter at the edges. It falls just a touch short of being an unqualified success.

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FCG Member Reviewer Shilajit Mitra
Shilajit Mitra | The Hollywood Reporter India
Shabana Azmi, Jyotika show doesn’t take off

Wed, March 5 2025

The seven-episode Netflix series wobbles between coolness and chaos, menace and mirth, never quite finding its pitch

Shabana Azmi is the fiery queenpin of a female outfit. They ply a disreputable trade. Her underlings feel the heat of her glare. She suffers no fools. I’m talking, of course, about a film called Mandi, directed by the late, great Shyam Benegal and released in 1983. Its coolness remains unsurpassed, 42 years on. Dabba Cartel, a new Netflix crime series with Azmi again at the helm, tries its best to be cool. Co-created by Shibani Akhtar, the show has a novel core: a home chef’s dabba (tiffin) delivery business spirals into a perilous drug operation. The pin-balling narrative is tugged along over seven episodes. The characters are stock, but, coming at you in numbers, they keep up a busy rhythm, like players on a revolving stage. It has the mark of an Excel production: ample efficiency, not a lot of excellence.

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FCG Member Reviewer Rohit Vats
Rohit Vats | Bajarbattu Media
Shabana Azmi, Jyothika, Shalini Pandey, Sunil Grover’s thrilling drug tale on Netflix

Sat, March 1 2025

A group of naive women gets entangled in the terrifying drugs business of Mumbai. Will they survive the pressure?

The dark underbelly of Mumbai has shifted its business base to the illegal drugs trade in recent webseries themes. Netflix’s latest offering Dabba Cartel, directed by Hitesh Bhatia and presented by Excel Entertainment, mixes two popular tracks—drugs and dabbawallahs—in one, and the result is, frankly speaking, fantastic. With six episodes of nearly 45-minutes each, Dabba Cartel has everything you would need for a good timepass—nice tempo, well-paced and a great ensemble. Plots thickens with each episode and new characters are introduced to keep you hooked. And, at the end of everything, you’re left wanting for more! Shabana Azmi, Jyothika, Shalini Pandey, Nimisha Sajayan, Anjali Anand, Sai Tamhankar, Gajraj Rao, Jisshu Sengupta and Sunil Grover form the primary cast which drives this saga of guts and greed. The makers have avoided any judgmental tone and treat the drug business as any other survival business. More than well written, the characters are well-placed in the story that revolves from chawls to housing societies to farmhouses.

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Image of scene from the film Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again

Drama, Crime (English)

Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.

Cast: Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, Ayelet Zurer


FCG Member Reviewer Sanyukta Thakare
Sanyukta Thakare | Mashable India
Marvel Makes A Comeback With Old School Heroes And Villains

Mon, March 10 2025

Charlie Cox wins over but...

Daredevil has returned once again to the small screen, making his office debut for his solo series. The show, led by Charlie Cox, will also be following the story of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin aka Fisk. Daredevil’s return to the MCU is after the long-running series and spin-off like Defenders on Netflix. The series was dropped a couple of years ago, but Cox made several appearances in other MCU films and projects including Spider-Man No Way Home, Echo, She-Hulk and more. Moving forward with Kingpin’s Arc through the MCU and Daredevil’s past in the Netflix show, the new series is all set to pit them against each other in a new setting. With Fisk as Mayor of New York, and Murdock hanging up his suit, the city brings out the worst in both of them.

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FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio Reignite Steely Rivalry In Thrilling, Gritty Revival Series

Wed, March 5 2025

The new compelling reboot series takes fans back into Hell's Kitchen as Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) square off once again.

The first Daredevil series was launched nearly a decade ago on Netflix and lasted for three seasons. Much has changed in the Daredevil universe, and we’ve seen Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, pop up in the MCU to interact with other characters. However, it is great to see him back in his own show, Daredevil: Born Again, tackling new cases and standing up to Kingpin, aka Wilson Fisk, again. The actors who play these characters step right back into it as the nine-episode series sets up a new collision course for Daredevil and Kingpin. The relative peace of the law firm Nelson Page and Murdock is shattered by a tragic event in the premiere, which spurs Matt (Charlie Cox) to retire his Daredevil persona for a bit. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) returns after an assassination attempt with a renewed sense of responsibility and decides to run for mayor of New York City. A more sober Matt is focused on his law firm, while Fisk wants to be the people’s politician who wants to rid the city of all its vigilantes. The former rivals have their radars set on high again as events keep pulling them back in each other’s orbit.

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