Guild Reviews
Sir
(Tamil)
The people of Mangollai village like Colochi Saami and Saamikannu opposed education for the poor while people like Annadurai and Sivangaanam fought against oppression.
Cast:
Vimal, Saravanan
Director:
Bose Venkat
Writer:
Bose Venkat
Vemal’s Period Movie Belongs To The Era It Is Set In
Sat, October 19 2024
Sir is one of those formulaic Tamil movies with a strong cause or message it wants to put across and doesn’t mind doing so at the cost of being a didactic and dated. The style, writing, brevity, and everything that makes up for a superior form take a backseat in Sir as Bose Venkat prefers coming across as an activist to a fine filmmaker. While Sir has a noble cause at its core, the execution makes it a yarnfest, and instead of getting the catharsis such social commentary aims to provide, the film invokes a sense of guilt for feeling so.
The Apprentice
History, Drama (English)
A young Donald Trump, eager to make his name as a hungry scion of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn, the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.
Cast:
Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick, Patch Darragh, Stuart Hughes, Eoin Duffy, Chloe Madison
Director:
Ali Abbasi
Jeremy Strong delivers stand out performance in Abbasi's film on Donald Trump
Sat, October 19 2024
Former United States president and presidential candidate Donald Trump went on a rant recently on filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s latest film The Apprentice, which narrates the Republican’s initial years as a real estate giant in New York and his relationship with attorney Roy Cohn. Perhaps, Trump’s reaction stems from information that is fed to him because had he watched the film, he may have only objected to certain aspects of Abbasi’s provocative film and not ranted about it in its entirety.
Sebastian Stan As Donald Trump Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg
Thu, October 17 2024
The Apprentice is one of the film that no one asked for but now that its here you can’t look away from it. The direction, cinematography, lighting, sets and most of all the performances all are worth praising but the film majorly avoids taking sides. For first half it makes you like Trump and for the other the pre-existing hate returns, so it doesn’t really add to his public narrative, the reason for its existence left questioning. But the film is worth the watch for its art.
Paris Has Fallen
Action & Adventure, War & Politics (French)
A protection officer and an MI6 operative team up after a terrorist attack. They suspect a mole as they race to thwart a larger conspiracy threatening Paris.
Cast:
Tewfik Jallab, Ritu Arya, Emmanuelle Bercot, Ana Ularu, Nathan Willcocks, Sean Harris
Spinoff Series Of Absorbing Action Film Franchise Has Formidable Antagonist
Fri, October 18 2024
Paris Has Fallen is the first in the franchise that won’t feature Gerard Butler’s Secret Service agent Mike Banning. The actor will continue on with the character in the films; however, this spinoff series forges its own identity with new protagonists and a deadly plot in this European adventure. With only the first two episodes premiering so far, Paris Has Fallen has set up an interesting scenario in which the villain has had the upper hand; it remains to be seen how and when the ‘fall’ will come.
Shrinking S02
Comedy (English)
Jimmy is struggling to grieve the loss of his wife while being a dad, friend, and therapist. He decides to try a new approach with everyone in his path: unfiltered, brutal honesty.
Cast:
Harrison Ford, Jason Segel, Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller, Ted McGinley
Jason Segel, Harrison Ford's Optimistic Comedy About Flawed Therapists Charms Again
Fri, October 18 2024
Created by Bill Lawrence, star Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein, Shrinking focuses on a grieving therapist who decides to change his approach with his patients. Becoming more proactive, he becomes more involved in the lives of those around, both to his detriment and betterment. The second season of Shrinking charms with its loveable, goofball characters and some unexpected new faces.
Tekka
Drama, Thriller (Bengali)
Tekka is the story of Iqlakh, a janitor who has lost his job and is out to get it back by holding a schoolgirl hostage in a building. ACP Maya comes in, a woman who is trying to conceive. Add to the mix a young journalist pair, Brishti and Tintin, and we have a sentimental thriller in an office building spanning 48 hours, full of melodrama.
Cast:
Dev, Swastika Mukherjee, Rukmini Maitra, Aameya Bose, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Aryann Bhowmick, Sreeja Dutta, Paran Banerjee, Sujan Mukherjee, Anirban Bhattacharyya
Director:
Srijit Mukherji
Rukmini Maitra and Dev shine in this hostage drama
Wed, October 16 2024
The film’s story is pretty much what you have seen in the trailer. For those who are uninitiated, here is the plot in brief. Iqlakh (Dev) loses his job, randomly kidnaps a young girl Avantika (Aameya) from her school, and takes her hostage. He demands to get his job back. Maya (Rukmini Maitra) from Kolkata Police comes to negotiate. Even after his company’s maintenance manager (Anirban Bhattacharya) verbally promises to give his job back to him, he demands the owner of the firm Anubrata Adhikari (Paran Bandyopadhyay) to come personally. Meanwhile, in a turn of events, little Aratrika’s mother Ira (Swastika Mukherjee) hunts down Iqlakh’s house and takes hostage of his little boy.
Viswam
Action, Comedy (Telugu)
When terrorists target a young girl who witnessed an assassination, a heroic taxi driver comes to the rescue.
Cast:
Gopichand, Kavya Thapar, Baby Iyal, Jisshu Sengupta, Sunil Varma, Banerjee, Naresh, Pragathi Mahavadi, Shaam, Prudhviraj
Director:
Sreenu Vaitla
Writer:
Gopi Mohan, Praveen Varma, Nandu Savirigana, Bhanu Bogavarapu
Sreenu Vaitla and Gopichand’s film is marred by an outdated, meandering narrative
Tue, October 15 2024
Viswam, directed by Sreenu Vaitla, is a reminder that not everything has changed for the better with mainstream Telugu cinema. In terms of narrative style, character arcs and the plot itself, this Gopichand and Kavya Thapar starrer feels redundant. The film teems with dozen of characters and a handful of sub plots — in the name of offering wholesome entertainment — with action episodes, romance, emotional drama and mindless comedy; it can get tiresome to sit through 155 minutes of an incoherence narrative, even if one does not look for logical reasoning.
Maa Nanna Superhero
Drama (Telugu)
Johnny, a car mechanic, who grew up thinking of his adopted father Srinivas as a superhero, prepared to go to any length to save his father, unknowingly embarks on a journey with his biological father.
Cast:
Sudheer Babu, Sai Chand, Sayaji Shinde, Annie, Aarna Vohra, Shashank, Vishnu Oi, Devi Prasad, Raju Sundaram, Aamani
Director:
Abhilash Kankara
Writer:
MVS Bharadwaj, Abhilash Kankara, Shravan Madala
Sudheer Babu shoulders a patchy relationship drama
Tue, October 15 2024
A scene in director Abhilash Reddy Kankara’s Telugu film Maa Nanna Superhero (my dad is a superhero) shows the protagonist Johnny (Sudheer Babu) taking his house owner to task and abruptly pausing when the latter’s daughter comes into the picture. He does not want to make the man seem a lesser mortal to his child. The narrative attempts to ride on the universal emotion of children seeing their father as a superhero. Abhilash wonders how far a son would go to save his father, with whom he shares a tumultuous relationship. The plot becomes more complex as it involves a father Srinivas (Sayaji Shinde) and his adopted son Johnny, and later, the biological father also returns. This idea might seem intriguing at the script level, but the film seems uneven and is held together by a few endearing moments.
IC 814 the Kandahar Hijack
Drama, War & Politics (Hindi)
When IC 814 gets hijacked on its way to Delhi, hundreds of lives are at stake as the country faces its longest and most alarming aviation crisis.
Cast:
Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Arvind Swamy, Dia Mirza, Patralekhaa, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Amrita Puri, Dibyendu Bhattacharya
Director:
Anubhav Sinha
Writer:
Anubhav Sinha, Nikhil Ravi, Trishant Srivastava
Tue, October 15 2024
भारतीय इतिहास में 1999 के कंधार प्लेन हाईजैक की घटना आज भी एक काले अध्याय की तरह याद की जाती है। सारी दुनिया जब नई सदी Y2K के आने के उत्साह में मगन थी, क्रिसमस से एक दिन पहले 24 दिसंबर 1999 को करीब 175 लोगों को लेकर काठमांडू से दिल्ली के लिए रवाना हुए इंडियन एयरलाइंस के हवाई जहाज IC 814 को आतंकियों ने हाईजैक कर लिया। हाईजैकर्स के कब्जे वाला यह प्लेन पहले अमृतसर और फिर लाहौर और दुबई होते हुए कंधार में लैंड हुआ। सात दिन बाद भारतीय जेलों में बंद तीन आतंकियों मौलाना मसूद अजहर, मुश्ताक अहमद जरगर और अहमद उमर सईद शेख को छोड़ने के बदले इन यात्रियों की सुरक्षित घर वापसी करवाई गई। अब इसी घटनाक्रम पर आधारित वेब सीरीज ‘IC 814: द कंधार हाईजैक’ से चर्चित निर्देशक अनुभव सिन्हा ने ओटीटी पर दस्तक दी है।
This Anubhav Sinha directorial is one of the best ‘based on real life’ series to date
Mon, October 14 2024
Since the arrival of OTT platforms and binge-watching, Indian series have shown a marked improvement in craft and skill at telling fictional stories. But when it comes to mounting real-life stories for OTT, most have floundered, sometimes because they follow Netflix’s formulaic template, and sometimes because of who is telling the story. Delhi Crime, for example, the riveting show on the Nirbhaya rape case, was made with the help of Delhi’s former commissioner of police, Neeraj Kumar, and it naturally made heroes out of cops when it should have interrogated them.
Zindaginama
Drama (Hindi)
An Anthology series that highlights the stigmas around mental health and mental illness in India. According to the latest World Health Organization report on depression, almost 7.5% of Indians suffer from major or minor mental disorders that require expert intervention. The brainchild of Dr. Neerja Birla, Zindaginama strives towards creating an environment where mental health dialogue is encouraged. It's okay not to be okay. Six different stories from six creators with a common theme - to encourage us to be sensitive to our environment and peers and to show openness to acknowledging mental health struggles in our lives.
Tue, October 15 2024
मेंटल हेल्थ हमारे समाज में लंबे समय तक एक टैबू रहा है। हालांकि, अब कुछ साल से इसके बारे में खुलकर बातें होने लगी हैं। विश्व मानसिक स्वास्थ्य दिवस (10 अक्टूबर) पर आई एंथॉलजी सीरीज ‘ज़िंदगीनामा’ इसी मेंटल हेल्थ के प्रति जागरूकता की ओर एक मजबूत कदम है। यह सीरीज 35-40 मिनट की छह कहानियों का गुलदस्ता है, जो ईटिंग डिसऑर्डर, गेमिंग एडिक्शन, सिजोफ्रेनिया, ओसीडी, पीटीएसडी, जेंडर डिस्फोरिया जैसी अलग-अलग मानसिक समस्याओं के प्रति लोगों का ध्यान आकर्षित करती है।
A timely limited series
Mon, October 14 2024
Zindaginama tackles a set of mental health issues through six episodes, targeting a different one each time. What happens when a human begins believing in an alt reality? Purple Duniya’s protagonist, a terrific Tanmay Dhanania, sets out ostensibly to go to work, like regular folks do. But that’s all a sham. His total focus lies in the game he plays obsessively, constantly, forgetting to eat or drink. Or communicate with his sister. Therapy can help, but to what extent? And who wins finally, man or machine? Sahaan Hattangadi writes, and co-directs with Danny Mamik.
Call Me Bae
Drama, Comedy (Hindi)
Bae, billionaire fashionista is disowned by her ultra-rich family, owing to a salacious scandal and for the first time in her life, has to fend for herself. On this journey, she overcomes stereotypes and discovers who she really is.
Cast:
Ananya Panday, Vir Das, Gurfateh Pirzada, Varun Sood, Vihaan Samat, Muskkaan Jaferi, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Lisa Mishra, Mini Mathur, Shiv Masand
Ananya Panday shines but style trumps substance in story
Tue, October 15 2024
In Bella Chowdhary’s world, there’s no such thing as too many bags and in a world of fakes, she is on a path to become a Birkin. But it’s a path that she hasn’t chosen for herself, rather, a tragedy has led her there.
Outright disaster
Fri, September 6 2024
In Call Me Bae—the new Amazon Prime Video series from Four More Shots Please! writer Ishita Moitra—an extraordinarily privileged coddled young woman falls from grace and ends up on the street. (Except she has enough ultra-expensive possessions that she could get by for years by selling them in the open market.) She stumbles her way into TV journalism and, bafflingly, lands the scoop of any reporter’s dreams on the first day of the job. (Moitra clearly has a soft spot for good-looking, fashionably dressed investigative journalists. After working with Sayani Gupta’s Damini Roy in Four More, she concocts another unlikely one in Ananya Panday’s Bella Chowdhary.) In doing so, Call Me Bae needlessly complicates its fish-out-of-water tale.
Taaza Khabar S02
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Hindi)
A public toilet caretaker's poverty-stricken life takes a drastic U-turn when he helps an old woman. How long will fate smile upon him?
Cast:
Bhuvan Bam, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Deven Bhojani, Prathmesh Parab, Shilpa Shukla, Nitya Mathur, Atisha Naik, Vijay Nikam, Samarth Kaimliya, Jaaved Jaffery
Director:
Himank Gaur
Writer:
Aziz Dalal, Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal
There's little that's 'taaza' in Bhuvan Bam's show
Tue, October 15 2024
In Taaza Khabar Season 2, there’s little that’s taaza (fresh). There’s ambition, but not enough drive. There are those next big things, but not the smoothest ways forward. A show, often oscillating between past, present and future, lacks the ‘vardaan’ (blessing) of staying afloat - something that, both the series and Bhuvan Bam’s character Vasant Gawde desperately need.
Bhuvan Bam Gives The Role His Best Shot
Mon, September 30 2024
Bhuvan Bam’s Vasant Gawde, Mr. Vardaan to the world owing to his ability to see events before they come to pass, is back seeking to make a killing from the prescient news updates that he receives on a mobile phone app. This time around, the Taaza Khabar protagonist is either on the backfoot or, worse still, down on his haunches. His plight necessitates desperate measures as he faces new challenges hurled at him by a man who will stop at nothing. But the show, notwithstanding a series of dramatic confrontations, struggles to skirt around the pitfalls of an idea that is beginning to wear thin.
Angry Young Men
Documentary (Hindi)
Angry Young Men is the story of Salim-Javed, legendary screenwriters of 1970s Hindi cinema. Together, they created the archetype of the Angry Young Man - a brooding anti-hero who captured the imagination of an entire nation with his rage, defiance, and quest for social justice. Like the character they created, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, two outsiders to the Hindi film industry, defied all odds, questioning the position of writers and demanding recognition as much as the reigning stars of that time. Their break-up made headlines for many years and Indian cinema never saw a cultural collaboration as powerful again. This is a personal and candid account of their lives, their writing and their legacy.
Cast:
Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Shatrughan Sinha, Karan Johar
Director:
Namrata Rao
An entertaining home video that mollycoddles Salim-Javed duo
Mon, October 14 2024
Angry Young Men, a three-part series directed by Namrata Rao, is crafted like the many Bollywood blockbusters that its protagonists — Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar — wrote together. Starring their wives, children, colleagues, friends and fans, the series is devoted to not just telling the story of a very successful and almost epochal collaboration, but also to cast them as the best writers Indian cinema has ever had.
Tue, August 20 2024
A Spotify Review
Mon, August 19 2024
Angry Young Men, the three-part documentary about writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar’s partnership, is a massive missed opportunity. We discuss the show’s cagey approach to its legendary subjects, the overwhelming feeling of self-satisfaction, and the unearned points it tries to score for highlighting the plight of writers in the film business. We also discuss the superficial filmmaking, the lack of insight provided by everybody involved, and more than anything else, express our shock at the creative decision not to put Salim-Javed in the same room together.