Train Dreams
Drama (English)
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America. (more…)
The Great Shamsuddin Family
Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
Set over one day in Delhi, Bani, a writer, is racing against a career-defining 12-hour deadline. Mothers, aunts, cousins and former romantic interests descend on her apartment, each bringing their own emergencies and Bani has to navigate interfaith complexities, generational (more…)
Chatha Pacha
Action, Drama (Malayalam)
In the heart of Fort Kochi, three brothers and their crew of unlikely misfits stumble into the wild world of WWE-style costumed wrestling. What begins as a scrappy hustle soon explodes into a riot of masks, egos, and full-blown madness, (more…)
Space Gen: Chandrayaan
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Hindi)
Indian space engineers face mounting pressure to redeem themselves following the Chandrayaan 2 lunar mission's unexpected outcome. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Wonder Man
Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (English)
Simon and Trevor, two actors at opposite ends of their careers, chase life-changing roles.
Cast:
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, X Mayo, Zlatko Burić, Arian Moayed, Olivia Thirlby, Byron Bowers, Ben Kingsley, Hadi Ali
Marvel Series With Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Gets Intimate With Superhuman Struggles
Mon, January 26 2026
Marvel’s Wonder Man is a different kind of superhero series with fewer characters and an engaging story about an actor trying to break into Hollywood, while hiding a terrifying secret. The eight-episode series is co-created by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest and features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams, a struggling actor looking for the role that will change his life. Enter the perfect project with Wonder Man and an old familiar face with Iron Man 3’s Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley). The superhero series veers away from the usual Marvel tropes and instead creates a refreshingly honest and emotional story of two friends who connect over shared passions.
Train Dreams
Drama (English)
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
Cast:
Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Nathaniel Arcand, Clifton Collins Jr., John Diehl, Paul Schneider, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy, Will Patton, Alfred Hsing
Director:
Clint Bentley
A life-size American frontier film
Sun, January 25 2026
There’s a scene I often return to in Apur Sansar (1959), the third in Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy, that’s an eloquent defence of ordinariness. Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) is being gently pulled up by a friend for his lack of ambition. He ventures that he’s writing a novel, and starts narrating the story: a boy grows up in the village, moves to the city, studies hard. “We feel he has in him seeds of greatness, but…” “He doesn’t succeed?” the friend guesses. “He doesn’t,” Apu replies. “But to him this isn’t a tragedy. He realises one must face reality. One must live!” Robert Grainier wouldn’t be able to articulate this, but he’d agree. He’s a young orphan at the start of Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams, in a tiny town in rural Idaho. “He quit attending school in his early teens, and the next two decades passed without much direction or purpose,” the voiceover says. He becomes a logger, and though he works a few other jobs, that’s the only real profession he has. He’s in his 80s when the film closes, and has lived most of his life in the same small town.
(Writing for OTT Play)
The Ruins Of Remaining
Fri, December 5 2025
In Train Dreams, life is but an accruement of endings. Based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, Clint Bentley’s tender fever-dream of a film is rooted in the anonymity of time: an anti-Forrest Gump of sorts. It’s about the kind of man that history is wired to forget: a humble woodlogger and railroad construction worker, a normal husband and father, a survivor and soliloquy, a grafter and griever. A voice-over introduces Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) as an orphan in his childhood; it closes with him at 80, having lived and loved and lost and lived in the shadow of loss. He is a reluctant protagonist masquerading as just another person. It’s almost as if the story keeps leaving him behind in the hope that he will catch up.
Confronts Ecological Conservation, 20th-Century Capitalism Through a Faceless American Figure
Mon, December 1 2025
It takes a special kind of film to be aware of its surroundings. It is one thing to fetishise nature and invite comparison to the sweeping scale of a Terrence Mallick film but Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams does something interesting with the vessel of a meandering Mallick film. It cuts and splices the essential bits of a man’s journey fuelled by cosmic wonder: the meaning of it all. And it does that using a specific means: a voiceover (by Will Patton).
Cheekatilo
Thriller (Telugu)
When crime anchor Sandhya’s best friend is found dead under suspicious circumstances, she embarks on a dangerous investigation that collides with a dark past. As secrets unravel, Sandhya must face her trauma and rise as a fearless voice for the silenced.
Cast:
Sobhita Dhulipala, Vishwadev Rachakonda, Chaitanya Visalakshmi, Isha Chawla, Jhansi, Aamani, Vadlamani Srinivas, Ravindra Vijay
Director:
Sharan Koppisetty
Writer:
Chandra Pemmaraju, Sharan Koppisetty
Sobhita's thriller bites into cliches despite valid lessons
Sun, January 25 2026
Murder mysteries and investigation dramas always rely on thrills, suspense and high-stakes drama. Most whodunnit thrillers have a male hero leading the investigation from the front. The Telugu film, Cheekatilo, has the feisty Sobhita Dhulipala leading a murder mystery, thereby standing out from a crowd of films of the same genre. Did Cheekatilo manage to crack the formula? Let’s find out!
Sobhita Dhulipala anchors a crime drama that occasionally thrills
Fri, January 23 2026
There are two strands to Cheekatilo (In the Darkness), the Prime Video original Telugu film directed by Sharan Kopishetty. On the surface, it is a crime drama that attempts to build an edge-of-the-seat whodunnit. At its core, however, it is a social commentary that urges silenced voices to speak, heal and find closure to long-buried wounds. In a film led by Sobhita Dhulipala, this second strand proves far more compelling.
Baby Girl
Drama, Thriller (Malayalam)
It was a special day in hospital attendant Sanal’s life: his wife, who had been working abroad for many years was finally coming home to be with him and their child, who she had missed dearly. Now their little family would be complete.
Cast:
Nivin Pauly, Lijomol Jose, Sangeeth Prathap, Abhimanyu Thilakan, Azees Nedumangad, Aswath Lal, Aditi Ravi, Nisha Sarangh, Nandhu, Ranjini George
Director:
Arun Raj Varma
Writer:
Bobby, Sanjay
Nivin Pauly's film has promising core, but convenience takes over
Sun, January 25 2026
A few minutes into Nivin Pauly’s Baby Girl, we are taken into a hospital where the doctors have called Code Pink. Those who are familiar with medical dramas like Dr House or Grey’s Anatomy would be instantly hooked, as Code Pink means a baby is missing. In director Arun Varma’s Baby Girl, a three-day-old baby girl goes missing. Sanal Mathews (Nivin Pauly) is an attender who is in the thick of things here. At its core, Baby Girl shows immense promise to be an emotional thriller. But, Baby Girl takes a different route and struggles to find a balance between being a drama and a thriller.
Nivin Pauly-Lijomol Jose starrer fails to work due to dated approach
Sat, January 24 2026
Fifteen years ago, Malayalam cinema was not in the pink of health when the screenwriting duo of Bobby-Sanjay came up with Traffic, which would give a new sense of direction for the industry. In 2026, when the same duo returns with Baby Girl, after a mix of memorable and forgettable films in the intervening years, they borrow some of the elements from their most successful film yet. But then, times have changed and the tastes of the audience too have evolved, and things that worked back in the day might not work now, which is what unfortunately happens with Baby Girl’
Border 2
Action, Drama, War (Hindi)
During the events of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, a new generation of young Indian warriors were getting ready to defend the nation from an even bigger threat to the Indian motherland.
Cast:
Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh, Ahan Shetty, Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Anya Singh, Medha Rana, Paramvir Singh Cheema, Guneet Sandhu
Director:
Anurag Singh
Heartfelt and sensible war saga
Sun, January 25 2026
Border 2, like its predecessor Border (1997), throws light on the Indian defense forces’ bravery during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. But unlike the 1997 film, this one focusses on different characters who took part in the war. Major Hoshiar Singh Dahiya (Varun Dhawan) of the Indian Army, Flight Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (Diljit Dosanjh) of the Indian Air Force and Lieutenant Commander Mahendra S Rawat (Ahan Shetty) of the Indian Navy become thick friends during their training days at the National War Academy. They share a respectful relation with their trainer Lieutenant Colonel Fateh Singh Kaler (Sunny Deol).
Nostalgia props up a dishonest war drama
Sun, January 25 2026
Patriotism, in its truest form, is an unexplainable emotion. If you are patriotic, you know it is largely a one-sided relationship, almost like one’s belief in God. You either feel it, or you do not. I remember discussing Laal Singh Chaddha with someone, where the titular character saves a slain Pakistani soldier purely out of humanity. The idea that brotherhood should be placed above national pride was something my head understood, not my heart. As I sat down to watch Border 2, I wished it could evoke that unadulterated feeling, which is second only to our love for kith and kin.
Surprisingly uninterested in the how of this particular war
Sun, January 25 2026
Steal
Drama, Crime, Mystery (English)
A typical day at Lochmill Capital is upended when armed thieves burst in and force Zara and her best friend Luke to execute their demands. In the aftermath, conflicted detective Rhys races against time to find out who stole £4 billion pounds of people's pensions and why.
Cast:
Sophie Turner, Archie Madekwe, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Andrew Howard, Jonathan Slinger, Ellie James, Sarah Belcher, Thomas Larkin, Tara Summers
Director:
Hettie Macdonald
Writer:
Sotiris Nikias, Poppy Cogan, Shyam Popat
Sophie Turner Anchors Taut, Edge-Of-The-Seat Heist Thriller
Sun, January 25 2026
Sophie Turner stars in the London heist thriller Steal, which escalates the drama with each episode. Creator and writer Sotiris Nikias takes viewers into the largest armed robbery in British history as a pension-fund investment company is looted right in their own offices. The twisty drama follows Turner’s Zara, who finds herself at the heart of the mystery and police investigation as she tries to save herself. With a small cast of characters that are hard to read, the Amazon Prime Video series Steal is a bingeable watch for the weekend.
Primate
Horror, Thriller (English)
Lucy, a college student, along with her friends, spend their vacation at her family's home in Hawaii, which includes her pet chimpanzee, Ben. However, when Ben contracts rabies after being bitten by a rabid animal, the group must fight for their lives in order to avoid the now-violent chimp.
Cast:
Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Charlie Mann, Tienne Simon, Miguel Hernando Torres Umba, Amina Abdi
Director:
Johannes Roberts
Writer:
Johannes Roberts, Ernest Riera
A deliciously simple premise
Sun, January 25 2026
The Pact
Drama (Hindi)
Returning to sell his late father's home, a successful man uncovers the small, unseen ways his father showed love, forcing him to confront the emotional distance between fathers and sons.
Cast:
Parambrata Chatterjee, Kalyanee Mulay, Jayraj Nair, Vedant Sinha, Ramesh Nair, Roshan Rajesh Chouhan, Renuka Shahane
Director:
Lakshmi R. Iyer
Writer:
Apurva Asrani
यादों का हसीन इकरारनामा ‘द पैक्ट’
Sat, January 24 2026
राघव पुणे पहुंचा है उस फ्लैट का सौदा करने जिसमें उसका बचपन बीता था। दीवार पर उसके माता-पिता की तस्वीरें टंगी हैं। यहां उसे वे पल याद आने लगते हैं जो उसने यहां बिताए थे। खासतौर से अपने पिता के साथ अपने रिश्ते और यादों को वह सहेजता है। वह उस पैक्ट यानी इकरारनामे को भी याद करता है जो उसके और उसके पिता के बीच हुआ था। क्या था वह इकरारनामा…? फीचर फिल्मों और वेब-सीरिज़ की भीड़भाड़ में अच्छी शॉर्ट-फिल्में अक्सर छुप जाती हैं। एक वजह तो यही रहती है कि ज़्यादातर शॉर्ट-फिल्में किसी कायदे के प्लेटफॉर्म पर रिलीज़ ही नहीं हो पातीं हैं। दूसरी वजह यह कि ज़्यादातर दर्शक भी इनके प्रति उदासीन रहते हैं जबकि सच यह है कि यदि अच्छे से बुनी-बनाई कहानी हो तो वह कुछ मिनटों में भी गहरी बात कह जाती है, जैसे यह फिल्म ‘द पैक्ट’ कह रही है।
Chatha Pacha
Action, Drama (Malayalam)
In the heart of Fort Kochi, three brothers and their crew of unlikely misfits stumble into the wild world of WWE-style costumed wrestling. What begins as a scrappy hustle soon explodes into a riot of masks, egos, and full-blown madness, all set against the backdrop of a city that never plays by the rules. But can their brotherhood survive when the real fight begins outside the ropes?
Cast:
Arjun Ashokan, Roshan Mathew, Vishak Nair, Ishan Shoukath, Carmen S Mathew, Khalid Al Ameri, Lakshmi Menon, Muthumani Somasundaran, Thezni Khan, Mammootty
Director:
Adhvaith Nayar
Writer:
Sanoop Thykoodam
Gets the dynamics of WWE right, but lacks a compelling narrative
Sat, January 24 2026
Every minute aspect about World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestlers, ranging from their signature moves to their individual body dimensions, is imprinted in the memories of a generation that grew up in the 1990s. Debutant filmmaker Adhvaith Nayar’s Chatha Pacha attempts to tap into this enduring nostalgia of the WWE trump card-playing generation. On the surface, it appears the makers got a lot of it right, from replicating the signature moves of Undertaker and Rey Mysterio to recreating the mood of the wrestling ring with a local touch. Some of the fights in the ring have an unmistakable rhythm to them, which is further elevated by a few standout performers. But, scratch a little, and there emerges the shaky foundation, which could fall with even a weak kick, let alone a chokeslam.
Chatha Pacha is more vibes than a movie, and just about manages to get the 1-2-3 count
Sat, January 24 2026
The Boys Are OK In This Well-Made Nostalgic Action Comedy
Sat, January 24 2026
As an audience, perhaps we underestimate the power of nostalgia done right. In what was being marketed as India’s first WWE-style wrestling movie, the makers of Chatha Pacha could easily have begun their movie as a story about a group of twenty-somethings, who start their local wrestling league just as a business idea. But the writers of the film, which includes director Advaith Nayar, decide to begin the film with a flashback of three little boys, taking on each other in their life’s first wrestling ring… their parents’ double cot.
Space Gen: Chandrayaan
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Hindi)
Indian space engineers face mounting pressure to redeem themselves following the Chandrayaan 2 lunar mission's unexpected outcome.
Cast:
Nakuul Mehta, Shriya Saran, Prakash Belawadi, Gopal Datt, Danish Sait, Ankit Motghare, Udhayabanu Mageswaran
Director:
Anant Singh
Writer:
Nitin Tiwari, Shubham Sharma, Arunabh Kumar
Failure to Launch
Sat, January 24 2026
When Chandrayaan-3 nailed the first-ever soft landing on the South Pole of the moon in 2023, all I could think of was the mad scramble of studios to secure the rights to ISRO’s remarkable feat. I could almost sense it happening in real time. It didn’t take long for the child-coded euphoria to make way for an adult-coded wariness — who’s going to pitch first? Who’s going to overcook the perfectly good story? Who’s going to make the unglamorous heroes speak to each other like human ChatGPT apps? It felt inevitable, given the tailor-made ingredients: science, space, patriotism, spaced-out patriotism, a budget less than Nolan’s Interstellar, New India, first-world villains, a moon that doesn’t resemble Swiss cheese. TVF wasn’t on my Creator bingo card, but their slate has often used popular appeal to conceal themes of social conservatism and compliance over the years. Ironically, the current ‘2016 viral trend’ would flash back to TVF as the first movers and harbingers of Indian web storytelling. But space is not their jam; the future is not their cup of (mainstream) tea.
Treats its audience like toddlers, with heavy-handed exposition, wafer-thin characters,
Sat, January 24 2026
रास्ता भटक गया ये चंद्रयान
Sat, January 24 2026
23 अगस्त 2023 वह ऐतिहासिक दिन है, जब भारतीय अंतरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन (ISRO) के वैज्ञानिकों ने चंद्रमा के दक्षिणी ध्रुव पर अपना विक्रम लैंडर उतारकर इतिहास रचा। वो पल जब हर भारतवासी की आंखें खुशी से चमक रही थी, सीना गर्व से चौड़ा हो गया था। भारत चंद्रमा के दक्षिणी ध्रुव पर पहुंचना वाला दुनिया का पहला देश बना। लेकिन इस सफलता से पहले इसरो के वैज्ञानिकों को जुलाई 2019 में चंद्रयान-2 की विफलता भी देखनी पड़ी थी। चंद्रयान 2 की असफलता से चंद्रयान 3 की सफलता के इसी सफर को दिखाती है, TVF की यह नई वेब सीरीज ‘स्पेस जेन: चंद्रयान’।
Die My Love
Drama (English)
After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.
Cast:
Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, LaKeith Stanfield, Nick Nolte, Gabrielle Rose, Clare Coulter, Sarah Lind, Luke Camilleri, Victor Zinck, Jr.
Director:
Lynne Ramsay
A film that hits too close to home
Sat, January 24 2026
The Great Shamsuddin Family
Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
Set over one day in Delhi, Bani, a writer, is racing against a career-defining 12-hour deadline. Mothers, aunts, cousins and former romantic interests descend on her apartment, each bringing their own emergencies and Bani has to navigate interfaith complexities, generational conflicts and family expectations as she faces a dilemma, which could change her life.
Cast:
Kritika Kamra, Juhi Babbar, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Sheeba Chaddha, Farida Jalal, Dolly Ahluwalia, Natasha Rastogi, Purab Kohli, Nishank Verma, Joyeeta Dutta
Director:
Anusha Rizvi
Writer:
Anusha Rizvi
Home Truths and a Fun Ensemble
Sat, January 24 2026
Farida Jalal didn’t grey her hair overnight. She’s been acting in movies since the 1960s. Since DDLJ, she’s been a sweet, endearing presence in Hindi films, buffing up large ensembles with her nourishing warmth. At 75, she’s a grande dame in the tradition of Zohra Sehgal and Nafisa Ali. Yet like those greats, Jalal is very much her own actor—as Shyam Benegal’s Mammo proved. Her new film, The Great Shamsuddin Family, directed by Anusha Rizvi, is also an ensemble comedy, with Jalal billed behind everyone else. Yet it only sparks to life when the actor joins the fray.
Why 'The Great Shamsuddin Family' is both a delightful and pertinent watch
Mon, December 22 2025
Bani Ahmed (Kritika Kamra) wants to write. With just 12 hours to submit an application that may land her a job in the United States, she finds herself interrupted by the doorbell. Continuously. Each subsequent ring sees the arrival of a member of the Shamsuddin clan. There’s her easily gullible and recently divorced cousin Iram (Shreya Dhanwanthary); an over-intellectual ex (Purab Kohli) and his latest young girlfriend; another cousin in Humaira (Juhi Babbar Soni); inquisitive and opinionated aunts (Dolly Ahluwalia and Farida Jalal); another cousin and his bride-to-be. Simply said, Bani just cannot catch a break.
A family we will never see in mainstream Hindi cinema
Mon, December 15 2025
Racing towards a 24-hour deadline to submit a presentation which will hopefully get her into a top US university, Bani Ahmad (Kritika Kamra) settles down to it, but she hasn’t taken into account her family, and friends: the door-bell rings with an unexpected visitor, and within a few minutes, the trickle into a flood, and it’s full-blown mayhem. Anusha Rizvi’s second directorial feature, 15 years after rural satire ‘Peepli Live’, circles back to the city, with one day in the life of a Delhi-based comfortably-off Muslim family. It’s the kind of family we almost never see in mainstream Hindi cinema, because usually a Muslim character is safely tacked on to the periphery, biding his or her time for when the script bothers to remember them, and even that kind of tokenism has been steadily erased over these past years.