Sat, April 18 2026

Debut director V. Muniraju’s Telugu film revisits simpler times to explore human relationships and evolving mindsets

We live in an era of constant connectivity, where the smartphone feels like an extension of our arm. In moments of overload, we romanticise the idea of a digital detox, of returning to a time when television and video cassettes were a luxury. Those were the days. Or were they? There was a time when owning a television signalled status and power, and viewing, too, could become addictive. First-time director V. Muniraju’s Telugu film Thimmarajupalli TV revisits this moment, exploring television as an inflection point in a village in Andhra Pradesh, wrapped in a layer of nostalgia.

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Fri, April 17 2026

Fri, April 17 2026

Director SP Durga Naresh’s film is undone by its persistently sexual undertones, and conservative approach to marriage and gender

Actor Thiruveer’s latest Telugu outing, Papam Prathap, begins like a thematic sequel to his previous film, The Great Pre-Wedding Show. While the former focused on the drama prior to a wedding, this film opens with a marriage sequence, where protagonists Prathap (Thiruveer) and Bujjamma (Payal Radhakrishna), childhood sweethearts, tie the knot. At its core, the story is about the chaos that ensues when a personal problem between a couple balloons into a public spectacle. The drama begins on their wedding night, where something seems amiss with Bujjamma. When efforts to resolve the issue with her husband fail, she reaches out to the village elders for help. How far does Prathap go to address the elephant in the room and salvage his marriage?

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Fri, April 17 2026

Even if the film doesn’t always hit the right notes, it never shies away from going all out with its imagination and creativity, and manages to entertain as long as we, just like the makers, don’t take the film too seriously

Catastrophic. When more than one character uses this word in a spy thriller, you know that it means just one thing: Global destruction. In Manu Anand’s latest, Mr X, we hear it a few times, and every single time, the weight of the destruction-in-wait is clear. The potential attack has the capacity to obliterate an entire State, and since this is a Tamil film, it is the state of Tamil Nadu, which is in danger, and we have our homegrown R&AW agents who do the thankless job of saving the nation. But despite the massive threat of a nuclear attack, personal equations of the agents jeopardising the mission, and a couple of flashbacks too many, Mr X manages to entertain as long as we, just like the makers, don’t take the film too seriously.

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Fri, April 17 2026

The Dijo Jose Antony directorial, set amid the tumultuous period of the Liberation Struggle in Kerala, takes a very dated approach in writing and filmmaking

Subtlety has never been one of filmmaker Dijo Jose Antony’s core strengths, but even by his standards, the choices he makes in his fourth film, Pallichattambi, are quite odd. Like, the idea to introduce a much-feared antagonist by having him kill his pet dog with a fork, just because it was barking a little too much. The act was also to send a message to two men who walked in with unfavourable information during his dinnertime. The film’s treatment of history also follows a similar pattern, of landing a sharp fork at pages of history. Set amid the tumultuous period of the Vimochana Samaram (Liberation Struggle), led by revanchist forces against the land and educational reforms brought in by Kerala’s first Communist government in the late 1950s, the film’s protagonist is Pothan (Tovino Thomas), a strongman chosen by the Church to lead the ‘Christopher Sena’ to resist the Communists.

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Thu, April 16 2026

Director Dijo Jose Antony's Pallichattambi, starring Tovino Thomas, Kayadu Lohar and Vijayaraghavan, is a routine drama on feudalism and approach. While the film concentrates on scale, it struggles in terms of treatment.

A film’s mood is established in its initial few minutes. Pallichattambi opens with massive hype surrounding a feudal lord who oppresses people, without revealing his face. The narrative follows how the Church stood against the communist government in the 1950s, highlighting the history of the Liberation Struggle. Set in 1958 in the village of Kaaniyar, the story follows the Church as it seeks a strong protector against the rising influence of Communist workers. They find Krishnan Pillai, also known as Pallichattambi (the church rowdy), as their unlikely messiah. Pillai arrives in Kaaniyar as Pothan Christopher with the sole aim of halting the spread of communism.

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Thu, April 16 2026

Crescendo is not something director Dijo Jose Antony is able to build, villainy is not something he is able to sustain, and the quick-cuts begin to resemble a scrambled assemblage of a film.

In 1957, in Kerala, the world’s first democratically elected communist government took shape. They instituted land reforms that set the landscape bleeding red. The Church was peeved. They saw the Communists as the very embodiment of Antichrist, encroaching on their land. Dijo Jose Antony’s Pallichattambi is set in these ensuing years, where the Christians in the fictional village of Kaaniyaar, on the border between Kerala and Karnataka, strap up, hiring a goon to protect them.

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Fri, April 17 2026

Poduval, even when he’s not fully in form, has an unlimited subscription to his unique brain and the powers that result from looking at the world differently.

Oru Durooha Saahacharyathil (under mysterious circumstances) is an eccentric film even by the mad standards of Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval, arguably Malayalam cinema’s most idiosyncratic director. You may or may not love all his films, but Poduval, even when he’s not fully in form, has an unlimited subscription to his unique brain and the powers that result from looking at the world differently. His latest film has everything from a Maoist in love to the concept of a man who dreams up real-life events, even before they take place. It also has room for a bedridden fanboy of Kamal Haasan and a self-referential joke, which includes a review of Oru Durooha Saahacharyathil as you are watching Oru Durooha Saahacharyathil.

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Thu, April 16 2026

Despite fine performances from Kunchacko Boban and Dileesh Pothan, ‘Oru Durooha Saahacharyathil’ loses rhythm in the last act as the director trades well-written humour and heartfelt moments for shock value

A precise sense of rhythm courses through the best of Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval’s works. Like a raconteur in full flow, he packs the narrative with intriguing events and funny throwaway lines that hardly cause the attention to waver. Even when some of the jokes don’t land, we remain engrossed and go with the flow. Yet, when his rhythm falters, as it does in the last act of Oru Durooha Saahacharyathil, we sense it too. Then it is just a matter of waiting for the inevitable train wreck. One of the reasons perhaps for the film going off track is its shape-shifting narrative, with the sudden turn in character in the last act not fitting well with what had transpired. It almost feels like a copout rather than something that would evolve organically from the story.

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Thu, April 16 2026

It’s good to have Adivi Sesh back in action, building on his kinetic Kshanam-Goodachari persona. But his conflicted convict Hari, out for revenge against the love of his life (Mrunal Thakur), is overwrought.

This Telugu-Hindi thriller, meant to be a fast-paced romance between two good-looking people from opposite sides of the tracks, proves a few things: plots trying to be new shouldn’t feel familiar, it’s never a good idea to waste Prakash Raj, and that Anurag Kashyap needs to act a lot more, as he literally saves this film from sinking. It’s good to have Adivi Sesh back in action, building on his kinetic Kshanam-Goodachari persona. But his conflicted convict Hari, out for revenge against the love of his life (Mrunal Thakur), whom he holds responsible for his ruin, is overwrought. More underwhelming is Thakur as Saraswati, the upper-class, upper-caste woman whose idea of showing her lover a good time is to teach him how to drive on a straight road.

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Fri, April 10 2026

In cinema, or in the worlds that inspire it, some concepts are inherently dated. One such relic is dacoity. What do you picture when you hear of a film titled Dacoit? I go straight to the Chambal Valley, or maybe think of a Veerappan type, clad in camouflage, sporting a handlebar moustache, clutching hunting guns with a bullet rack slung diagonally across the torso. Given the dubious ways of Telugu cinema, I would at least expect one of those routine one-man battles against the system to protect mothers and sisters. Shaneil Deo’s film, however, delivers none of that. Instead, Dacoit tries to be everything else, none of which resembles a dacoit.

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Fri, April 10 2026

Wed, April 15 2026

Based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, the funny yet heartwarming TV series follows a young woman who gets knocked up by her college professor and decides to keep the baby

It takes a village to raise a child and the latest Apple TV series, Margot’s Got Money Troubles, enforces that notion. Created by David E. Kelley, it stars Elle Fanning in the lead as the title character, Margo Millet. Margo’s life does a 180 degrees once she becomes pregnant, but she remains committed to being the best mother that she can be to her child. The eight-part series takes some unexpected turns, particularly after Margo decides to create an OnlyFans account to earn money. But it’s the performances from the stellar cast that keeps the series grounded, as they all come together to help Margo raise her baby.

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Wed, April 15 2026

Created by Sam Levinson, the HBO drama returns after four years to completely revamp the tone and characters fans have known and loved.

The Euphoria that fans loved from 2019 to 2022 is no more. The HBO series is back after four years for a third season with a five-year time jump to show the characters out of high school. But this new version of Euphoria has gone through a rehaul and the premiere episode has turned into a bizarre Western with Zendaya’s Rue leading the charge. While the writing and direction are largely uneven, the actors save the muddled attempt at Euphoria 2.0, which is still worth tuning in to, for nostalgia’s sake.

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Tue, April 14 2026

Fri, April 10 2026

Director Vignesh Shivan's Love Insurance Kompany aka LIK, starring Pradeep Ranganathan, Krithi Shetty and SJ Suryah, is a fun rom-com set in the futuristic world. The film explores the consequences of surrendering control of your life to apps.

Imagine Chennai in 2040, transformed into a bustling metropolis resembling Times Square on its busiest day. Monorails traverse the skyline, government hospitals resemble hi-tech labs, and drones deliver goods across a hyperconnected city. This is the world Vignesh Shivan creates in Love Insurance Kompany, portraying a technologically advanced yet emotionally distant society dominated by apps, especially one called Love Insurance Kompany, led by the mysterious Suriyan.

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Fri, April 10 2026

Vignesh Shivan's future-world rom-com is bright, funny, and utterly committed to love, but the definition it champions turns out to be its weakest link

What makes Vignesh Shivan an interesting filmmaker is his relentless pursuit of packaging what an irreverent Gen Z would call boomerish as an ultra-modern ‘sheesh’… something even an unaware Gen Beta would lap up as a perfectly in-vogue emotion. Poda Podi is about a modern dancer whose husband eventually convinces her that family rearing matters more than her dream of winning dance competitions. Naanum Rowdy Dhaan was a cool story of a pure-hearted gentleman, now called out for being a stalker. Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal is about a polyamorous hero whose love for both heroines is so pure he doesn’t consummate the relationship with either. With Love Insurance Kompany, Vignesh Shivan has taken this righteous hero into a future where love has been utterly commodified — and it is up to him to teach his lover, and the world, what true love is.

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Mon, April 13 2026

Sun, March 29 2026

Thematically, it’s a familiar territory. A lone astronaut is stuck in space during a decade-long mission to investigate compounds from a distant star system to help save a dying planet, Earth.

Dynamic duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller return to live-action filmmaking after years of giving us some of the most crowd-pleasing animation storytelling in recent memory. You can clearly see the animation-filmmaking fingerprints from the producers, co-writers, and creative engines behind both the Spider-Verse films and Netflix’s terrific The Mitchells Vs The Machines all over the utterly delightful new space saga—Project Hail Mary. Think Interstellar meets Arrival meets The Martian (which is itself based on a book by Andy Weir, whose 2021 book Project Hail Mary this film is adapted from).

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Sun, March 29 2026

Films are never exactly about stories, but there’s nothing like a film with a refreshingly original one. As paradoxical as it might sound, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary (based on Andy Weir’s book of the same name) solidified this belief of mine. Its second lead is not even human, and yet I got to witness what we famously call a human story. In a world where uncertainty is the only constant, where technology and greed threaten to upset the balance of society, what we need and deserve is a ray of metaphorical sunshine, and this film, starring Ryan Gosling, provides this in spades, albeit in a very unexpected way.

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Mon, April 13 2026

Raman and Jayanti invite friends to a resort to celebrate their tenth anniversary. The party turns nasty when a guest, Sohrab Handa, starts bullying everyone and exposing their secrets. By morning, Sohrab is found murdered. Since the house was locked, the killer must be one of the friends. Inspector Qureshi arrives to find the truth, proving that even ‘nice’ people can hide a deadly streak.

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Sat, April 11 2026

The film aims to lift the veil on many things, most importantly how dysfunctional relationships work under the garb of yaari-dosti, bonhomie and pyar-mohabbat of blood ties

Without much ado, the film comes straight to the point. A man, but obviously Sohrab Handa (Vinay Pathak), is found murdered in a living room. For those of us who have seen ‘Knives Out’, the basic template does not come as a surprise. A whole lot of men and women, relatives and friends have assembled in this picturesque getaway home. Expectedly, the fingers of suspicion point in all possible directions. There is the disgruntled father (MK Raina), sleepwalking wife Isha (Koel Purie), business partner Raman Chawla (Neil Bhoopalam) who we later learn wants Sohrab out of their business, and TV anchor Kumar (Danish Husain) of a crime show, ‘Pardafaash’. Like most things here, this name hasn’t been chosen randomly.

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Fri, April 10 2026

Vinay Pathak’s brutal turn exposes the toxicity of dysfunctional relationships cloaked in civility in this Rajat Kapoor whodunit

Quietly subversive and more interested in human frailty than genre payoffs, Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa is a quintessential Rajat Kapoor film. It doesn’t reinvent the whodunit, but it humanises it, turning a murder mystery into a mirror held up to the insidious violence we inflict on the people we claim to love. The final reveal and tonal balance don’t fully satisfy, but it is a respectable experiment that fiercely tugs at the deepest strings of the heart. To celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, Raman (Neil Bhoopalam) and Jayanti (Palomi Ghosh) invite a close group of friends and family for an intimate getaway at a sprawling century-old mansion in the hills. Among the guests is Raman’s business partner, Sohrab Handa (Vinay Pathak), a sharp-tongued, unapologetically abrasive presence who dominates every conversation with his acid wit and honesty. Sohrab is perceptive, knowing which insecurities to poke and how to cloak them in humour.

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