Guild Reviews
Chhorii 2
Horror, Drama (Hindi)
Sakshi must rescue her seven year old daughter from being sacrificed by an evil cult to satisfy their resident leader, while fighting societal superstitions and the horror that continues to haunt her and young women around her.
Cast:
Nushrratt Bharuccha, Soha Ali Khan, Pallavi Patil, Saurabh Goyal, Shyam Gopal
Director:
Vishal Furia
Writer:
Divya Prakash Dubey
A Painfully Literal Take On Feminism
Sat, April 12 2025
If there is a perfect audience for a horror film, I’d like to believe it is me. This is not false bravado but an honest confession. Bring in someone with green eyes, throw in a jump scare, pull someone from under the bed, and you will see me scream my lungs out. I am always scared and always jumpy. I am the reason that other people, those not scared in the least, are rattled because I make my fear everyone’s business. And yet, Vishal Furia’s Chhorii 2, Vishal Furia’s sequel to his 2021 film, left me disinterested, unscared and, worse, bored. In the last couple of years, there has been a resurgence of the horror genre, except that the effect is softened by comedy. Horror comedy, the consequent hybrid result, has in turn evolved into a commercial goldmine. The context is important because Furia does not give in despite obvious temptations. He remains admirably focused and crafts Chhorii 2 in the same world as Chhorii. Except even the latter, a remake of his 2017 Marathi film Lapachhapi, was not effective to begin with.
Sat, April 12 2025
What happens to Sakshi in the final scene?
Sat, April 12 2025
When Chhorii 2 begins, it doesn’t just pick up where the original story left off. It drags us deeper into a mythology soaked in fear, grief, and generational trauma. Seven years have passed since Sakshi escaped that cursed village. She’s now a mother and someone who’s tried very hard to build a life from the wreckage of what she survived. But as fate would have it, she gets dragged back, literally in one sense, to the village. Here is all you need to know about Chhorii 2, its plot, ending analysis, release date, cast, reviews, where to watch, and more. Sakshi is now raising her daughter, Ishani, a quiet child with a mysterious condition — her skin burns in sunlight. It’s not fully explained, but it seems to be photosensitivity. It reminds one of the Nicole Kidman-starrer psychological horror movie The Others (2002). Except instead of a Victorian mansion, this one is set against the backdrop of rural superstitions and unresolved trauma.
Good Bad Ugly
Action, Crime, Comedy (Tamil)
A once powerful gangster is forced to face his former enemies, when his son finds himself in danger.
Cast:
Ajith Kumar, Trisha Krishnan, Arjun Das, Sunil Varma, Prabhu
Director:
Adhik Ravichandran
Writer:
Adhik Ravichandran
Sat, April 12 2025
A fever-dream of homages and hero worship
Fri, April 11 2025
Adhik Ravichandran’s cinema is a genre unto itself—it’s not so much a film as a rave party. And like all parties, some are more intoxicated than others. It’s not a space for nuanced conversations or emotional coherence. At any given moment, someone’s dying in slow motion, as we laugh and cheer or both. A moment later, the protagonist (AK, played by—you know who) is making soft, sorrowful eyes, while his wife makes the strange transitions between gratitude and anger. This isn’t a flaw with the film; this is its mood. Loud music, neon lights, stylised violence, dancing, homages—everyone’s high on one thing: stardom. Specifically, Ajith Kumar’s. If you should not really be one with the crowd, well, GBU, maamey.
(Writing for OTT Play)
Parody Disguised As Fan Service
Fri, April 11 2025
Here’s a social experiment. Pick someone who is unaware of the beats of the hero worship and masala film in Indian cinema. Scratch that. Let’s pick Tamil cinema because the beast is almost unrecognisable at this point as the concept of stardom is nearing, if not an end, at least a lull. Ageing male stars fall back on their history, and idolising filmmakers lean on intertextuality to create hysterical theatrical moments. Show them Adhik Ravichandran’s new film with Ajith Kumar, Good Bad Ugly, and ask if there is any possibility that this is a spoof or a parody. They will most likely answer in the affirmative. To the innocent bystander, Good Bad Ugly comes across as a spoof, as if CS Amudhan made another Thamizh Padam (2010) solely focusing on Ajith and his career. The greatest trick Adhik ever pulled is convincing Ajith and maybe the audience that he is making a fan service film. What he’s really done instead is lampoon the star for two hours and twenty minutes. But again, it really depends on who you ask.
Bazooka
Action, Thriller, Crime (Malayalam)
A cop and a businessman team up on a mission to capture a serial killer, using a series of elaborate games to track him down.
Cast:
Mammootty, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Shine Tom Chacko, Sidharth Bharathan, Gayathri Iyer
Director:
Deeno Dennis
Writer:
Deeno Dennis
Sat, April 12 2025
Mammootty’s Heist Film Mistakes Affectation For Style
Sat, April 12 2025
The impact of Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects is so enormous and timeless that even after three decades, filmmakers are unable to escape its influence on heist thrillers. Bazooka is another attempt at creating an elusive character like Keyser Soze. The catch is that such an attempt requires several things to fall into place, including clever casting that throws the audience off track and creates red herrings. Director Deeno Dennis misses out on this, leading to a predictable twist that’s visible from the get-go. The genius of The Usual Suspects lies in how the characters become real—everyone involved in the heist has something at stake, making their downfall feel impactful. Bazooka, on the other hand, lacks any real conflict. By the end of the film, when the motive behind the gamer villain is revealed, it feels like we’ve been played by the makers.
Mammootty’s gaming thriller is a dull, patchily-written film
Fri, April 11 2025
A few late flourishes can sometimes redeem a film even though it might be hurtling downhill till that point. But, in Deeno Dennis’s directorial debut Bazooka, that supposed redemption arc comes way beyond a point where most of us would have stopped caring for the characters or the plot. It comes almost like a dessert that arrives after a tasteless main course that made your stomach feel queasy. As for the dessert, beyond the dressing on top, it turns out to be the same old under it. In Bazooka, hardly a moment passes without a background score. In a film tailor-made for the superstar’s fans, a good part of this score is dedicated to accentuating his every random movement. It begins right from the moment we see John Caesar (Mammootty) at a bus stop, reading a self-help book and waiting for a bus — inside which a good part of the film takes place. But then, ACP Benjamin Joshua (Gautham Vasudev Menon) also gets the same treatment when we first see him getting out of his car to carry out a routine vehicle check. This is not surprising in a film which survives mostly on its cosmetics.
G20
Action, Mystery, Drama (English)
After the G20 Summit is overtaken by terrorists, President Danielle Sutton must bring all her statecraft and military experience to defend her family and her fellow leaders.
Cast:
Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Ramón Rodríguez, Marsai Martin, Antony Starr
Director:
Patricia Riggen
Viola Davis is wasted in Hollywood’s version of a Sunny Deol potboiler; laughably loud, chaotically clumsy
Sat, April 12 2025
Viola Davis is an EGOT. She’s one of only 20 people in history — fewer, when you consider persons of colour — to have won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. She’s done August Wilson on the stage and screen; she went to Juilliard, like Jessica Chastain and Adam Driver. For her to star in a movie like G20 — think Air Force One, but worse — isn’t unlike Javed Akhtar waking up one morning, slipping into a crisp kurta, and deciding to script one of KRK’s rant videos. Released on Prime Video, G20 is a glorified bargain bin movie — the kind of movie for which Amazon should be paying you, and not the other way around. Davis plays POTUS Danielle Sutton, an Iraq War veteran who became famous after being photographed carrying a baby out of a bombed building. The movie doesn’t show us what happened next, but you could easily imagine Danielle being deified in the press, buying into her own myth, and deciding to run for president. America loves its celebrities, and electing Danielle into office is exactly what you’d expect from the folks who’ve voted Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump into power. We first meet Danielle as she’s disciplining her teenage daughter for giving the secret service the slip, and partying with her friends at a local bar.
Viola Davis, Antony Starr Face Off In Standard Action Thriller
Thu, April 10 2025
In the new Amazon Prime Video action film, Viola Davis checked off two items in her career that most of her male contemporaries have probably done several times over theirs. G20 sees the Oscar winner as American President Danielle Sutton, who is heading an important international summit when it is hijacked by terrorists. The action thriller, directed by Patricia Riggen, doesn’t have anything new to offer. Although Davis gets the chance to save the day over and over again. Before heading to South Africa for the G20 summit, President Sutton has a mini crisis to deal with at home after her teenage daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) is caught at a party after she snuck out without her security detail. Soon, the Sutton family has bigger problems to contend with. The hotel where the G20 summit is held is taken over by terrorists who oppose the world leaders plans to end world hunger through cryptocurrency. Neither side’s plans are explained properly. Luckily, Sutton and a handful of leaders manage to escape, and soon it is a game of cat and mouse.
The Legend of Hanuman S06
Animation, Action & Adventure (Hindi)
When the power-hungry Ravan tore through the world to unleash evil, in his way stood a humble vaanar awoken to his divinity to become an immortal legend. The series follows Hanuman and his transformation from a mighty warrior to a god and how Hanuman became the beacon of hope amidst the harrowing darkness.
Cast:
Richard Joel, Daman Baggan
(Writing for M9 News)
Well-Written and Executed
Sat, April 12 2025
The Legend of Hanuman, which enters its sixth season this week, has consistently pushed the bar in retelling the Ramayana through animation on OTT across age groups, supplemented by its new-age visualisation, playful storytelling and impactful writing, exploring major events, the traits of each of its pivotal characters (apart from Hanuman too) with equal sincerity. The new season is about the fall of Ravan as much as the rise of Hanuman. Greed and ego get the better of Ravan. Emerging victorious over Ram is no longer his only priority, he wants the world for himself. While losing the support of Vibheeshan (and Mandodari partially), he misses being with his other brothers, sons (who’re no more) and hopes to meet them on the other side of the world.
Agnyathavasi
Thriller, Mystery (Kannada)
In 1997, a rural police inspector leads a simple life until a crime occurs at his quiet village outpost after 25 years. His investigation uncovers long-buried secrets in the town.
Cast:
Rangayana Raghu, Sharath Lohitashwa, Ravishanker Gowda, Siddu Moolimani, Paavana Gowda
Director:
Janardhan Chikkanna
An atmospheric investigative drama that revels in its complex simplicity
Sat, April 12 2025
Agnyathavasi is the last film where you’d expect an objectifying number finding itself in the narrative. This is a slow-burn drama set in the idyllic Malnad region. This is set in the late 90s, and features an ageing inspector, a much-older retired postmaster, a lot of conversations about parenting and farming, and a murder. So it doesn’t make sense that Agnyathavasi features a song that objectifies, literally. And the object in question is a computer… the first one to arrive at the village. The way the camera caresses the curvature of the monitor, the first time it is switched on, the first time the keyboard is used… there is so much focus on the computer, which is going to change the fate of a few people. But they don’t know it yet. And the best part? We don’t either.
(Writing for The News Minute)
Great performances, good direction make for a satisfying thriller
Fri, April 11 2025
There’s an oft-repeated phrase people use after watching certain films — it is “slow.” I didn’t understand it then, I don’t understand it now. Labels help no one. Does life move in real time or at an accelerated pace? The issue of pacing strikes the audience only when they aren’t drawn into the world the director and storyteller have created. Agnyathavasi (translation: ‘a person in exile’) is a film that insists it will breathe — and wants you to breathe with it. Editor Bharath MC works his charm here. Which is why, despite generally steering clear of thrillers and jump scares, I was drawn into the film’s world — gently, like the fog and the mist of Malnad, where the story is set. The thrills here stem not from the certainty of geography, the reliance on camera angles, or music cues — though Charan Raj’s score is fabulous — but from the possibilities of the human mind.
Jaat
Action, Drama (Hindi)
In a remote coastal village, ruthless criminal Ranatunga terrorizes the locals. A traveling stranger’s chance encounter with his men uncovers the villagers' suffering. Realizing the deep-rooted corruption, he takes matters into his own hands. Armed with truth and justice, he sets out for a final confrontation with Ranatunga.
Cast:
Sunny Deol, Randeep Hooda, Saiyami Kher, Regina Cassandra, Vineet Kumar Singh
Director:
Gopichand Malineni
Sunny Side Up, Punches & Punchlines
Sat, April 12 2025
“Yeh dhai kilo ka haath hai, is ki taakat North dekh chuka hai, ab South bhi dekhega.” The reference to Sunny Deol’s iconic dialogue is more than obvious, as is the North-South alchemy. ‘Jaat’ marks the Hindi film debut of Telugu director Gopichand Malineni and encashes upon Deol’s stardom in its inimitable southern style. Only, the actioner that builds on Deol’s ‘post Gadar 2’ starry status amplifies it many times over. Undeniably, Sunny Bhaji is once again a one-man army who can stop a vehicle with one hand and bash up dozens and dozens of muscle men; in short, do all things unimaginable, but very much possible in this Dharam-putar line of action. Instead of uprooting a hand-pump, pillars and fans become his weapons of mass destruction.
Sat, April 12 2025
Sat, April 12 2025
The Amateur
Thriller, Action (English)
After his life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder takes matters into his own hands when his supervisors refuse to take action.
Cast:
Rami Malek, Michael Stuhlbarg, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Jon Bernthal
Director:
James Hawes
Spy Another Day
Sat, April 12 2025
Amateur, directed by James Hawes, is a contemporary adaptation of the novel of the same name, which was previously made into a film featuring John Savage and Christopher Plummer. This spy thriller, while not groundbreaking, delivers sufficient thrills. It could easily be likened to a Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher film, but instead, we follow Charlie, the titular Amateur. Unlike James Bond, who possesses a license to kill, Charlie holds a license as a cryptographer for the CIA. With an IQ exceeding 170, he adeptly gathers and synthesizes information from diverse sources, quickly proving his exceptional skills. It is also evident that he is deeply in love with his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), and their affection is reciprocated. However, when Sarah embarks on a business rip to London, she never returns, having been taken hostage and subsequently killed.
September 5
Thriller, Drama, History (English)
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
Cast:
John Magaro, Leonie Benesch, Peter Sarsgaard, Ben Chaplin, Zinedine Soualem
Director:
Tim Fehlbaum
Writer:
Moritz Binder
The Munich Olympics Massacre, Seen Through the Viewfinder of a Cynical Newsroom
Fri, April 11 2025
The 1972 Munich Olympics massacre famously featured in Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005), where 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and later killed. The event became a springboard in the Eric Bana-starrer, to showcase Mossad’s efforts for retribution – through a series of assassinations. This was before actors, filmmakers called out Hollywood’s implicit Islamophobia – and the fatigue around the binary depictions of Muslims in mainstream Hollywood as dutiful or barbaric. Relatively speaking, Spielberg’s film was pretty nuanced for its time – even showcasing an argument between Bana and a Muslim character in an apartment, which they’re forced to share at one point. A lot has changed in the last two decades leading up to the release of Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5, especially with Hollywood’s apparent ambivalence around Israel’s ongoing bombing of Gaza, triggered by the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas. As much as Fehlbaum’s film would like to revel in being a single-room thriller and tackle the ethical dilemmas that the ABC team went through while observing the coverage of a tragedy, it’s simply not enough for the macro storytelling elements at play today.
Inn Galiyon Mein
Drama (Hindi)
A romantic drama that intertwines themes of love, society, and the impact of social media
Cast:
Veenay Bhasskar, Avantika Dassani, Jaaved Jaffery, Vivaan Shah, Abhishek Yadav
Director:
Avinash Das
Writer:
Punarvasu
Harks Back to a Simpler, More Sincere Bollywood
Fri, April 11 2025
It is easy to forget the what we have lost because of Hindi cinema’s tilt towards the right. Initially a mouthpiece for secular values in a post-Partition India, the film industry soon became an emblem for the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (culture). It was the place where a Muslim man would become a newly-independent India’s first superstar, where dialogues in Urdu, Khariboli and Hindi would invent a new concoction of Hindustani, which would trickle down into everyday parlance. It’s only in the movies where the three biggest stars of their time would get separated at birth into homes of different religions, only to reunite and take down the villain in the climax. Sure, some part of it was an echo of popular sentiment, and carried a whiff of opportunism. But the tragedy of our new-age Hindi cinema is how it’s eviscerated even performative niceness in favour of unbridled, authentic hate.
Sat, March 15 2025
In the lanes of love and tolerance
Fri, March 14 2025
Sometimes, the timing of a film’s release makes it special. A few years back, Inn Galiyon Main would have been dubbed dated for repeating the obvious. Today, its theme is here and now. Mostly, social values inform a film, but sometimes, a social churn leads to a creative outpouring. At a time when festivals and cricket matches have become a stick to browbeat a community, Inn Galiyon Main celebrates Holi and Eid at a space where Hanuman and Rahman Gali coalesce in Lucknow. An ode to the syncretic culture that has almost been reduced to a slur in hate-filled narratives on social media, the film exposes the divisive politics fuelled by cheap data with a poetic parable.
Your Freinds and Neighbors
Drama (English)
When a financial titan suddenly finds himself divorced and jobless, he starts robbing his wealthy neighbors to stay afloat. Stealing from his own social circle strangely exhilarates him—but he gradually gets tangled in a deadly web.
Cast:
Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn, Hoon Lee, Mark Tallman
Jon Hamm's Dark Comedy About Rich People Woes Goes Around In Circles
Fri, April 11 2025
Your Friends and Neighbors really wants you to feel bad about Jon Hamm’s Andrew Cooper, a suburban family man who loses it all and resorts to stealing from the wealthy neighbourhood. But the deeper trouble Coop lands himself in, the harder it becomes to worry about his easily avoidable problems. Hamm gives Coop some depth as he struggles after life post-divorce. However, creator Jonathan Tropper’s dark comedy tiptoes around certain issues while giving the protagonist opportunities to keep behaving badly. The Apple TV+ series deviates midway with a big twist that leadens the narrative even further. After 18 years of marriage, newly divorced Coop (Hamm) finds himself adrift from his wife, Mel (Amanda Peet), and teenagers in more ways than one. He resents his friend Nick (Mark Tallman), who is now dating Mel. To make matters worse, he is fired from his job as a hedge fund manager. Living in a wealthy community and taking care of his family, who have expensive taste, gets worrisome too. Coop also takes his sister Ali (Lena Hall), who is struggling with mental health issues. So what does Coop do? He begins to steal from his friends and neighbours to fund his lifestyle. Coop manages to stay under the radar for a bit and even picks up a partner. Until, however, the house of cards that he’s erected around himself begins to come down.
Jack
Comedy, Action, Crime, Romance (Telugu)
Jack is a Telugu spy action comedy entertainer movie directed by Bommarillu Bhaskar. An unconventional anti-terrorist operative must defy his bosses in order to foil a devastating attack on his nation in this action thriller.
Cast:
Siddhu Jonnalagadda, Vaishnavi Chaitanya, Prakash Raj, Naresh, Brahmaji
Director:
Bhaskar
Writer:
Bhaskar
An unconvincing, tedious narrative
Thu, April 10 2025
In the Telugu film Jack, written and directed by Bhaskar of Bommarillu fame, there is a recurring reference to how the protagonist, Jack, aka Pablo Neruda (played by Siddhu Jonnalagadda), was rejected by 24 coaches in his childhood for being an overenthusiastic child who lacked the discipline to train in any sport or art form. Perhaps the number 24 is a nod to the 24 crafts of cinema — we will never know. The story follows this misfit, who, with an uncanny sense of humour, positions himself as a self-appointed agent operating parallel to RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), determined to foil a terror plot. If the premise sounds unconvincing, the narrative unfolds in a way that makes it even harder to buy into. The title Jack, a metaphor for ‘jack of all trades’, leans heavily on its lead actor’s charisma and comic timing to sell an erratic character. Siddhu shoulders the film, delivering one-liners with flair and embodying both the angst and ambition of his role. But it is in vain, as the script remains flawed.