Mon, June 16 2025

Sun, June 15 2025

Stolen is a rare film in Hindi cinema that maintains a clear focus on its central issue and is executed with precision. There is no unnecessary meandering, nor are there any subplots that detract from the main narrative – this is a meaty film.

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Fri, June 13 2025

After producing two movies about a hyper-masculine cop who literally lynches people, Nikkhil Advani has attached himself as an executive producer to Stolen, the new survival thriller on Prime Video. In addition to Advani, the movie needed the support of heavy hitters such as Anurag Kashyap, Kiran Rao, and Vikramaditya Motwane in order to get a release after a festival run that began in 2023. Fortunately, it did, because it’s one of the better-made Hindi features of the year. We talk about the film’s many layers, and how director Karan Tejpal weaves them into a tight narrative. We also discuss the film’s larger commentary about contemporary India, and some of the writing missteps that it makes.

Sat, June 14 2025

A dazzlingly animated film that pushes the long-running franchise into fresh directions.

While many people have tried to project meaning onto Steven Spielberg’s Jaws — some have called it a parable about the Vietnam War, others have described it as a post-Watergate examination of the American middle-class — the movie is perhaps best enjoyed as a piece of pulp, devoid of any subtext at all. It is, after all, about a people-eating shark. Some things should remain uncomplicated. Nothing, for instance, would suck the joy out of a Predator movie more than trying to extract a deeper meaning from it. The franchise’s surprise new instalment, the animated offshoot Predator: Killer of Killers, embraces the simplicity at its core. And although it’s written by two grown men, it has the giddy energy of something concocted by teenage boys.

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Sat, June 14 2025

Far too many times in the last few years, Rajkummar Rao has played versions of the same person: a small town layabout whose overwhelming uselessness is inexplicably presented as innocent charm.

Nobody is above being typecast, not even Shah Rukh Khan. But while the Badshah of Bollywood has broken hearts and weakened knees with his culture-defining romance movies, Rajkummar Rao has become the patron saint of losers. Far too many times in the last decade, the once-promising star has played versions of the same person: a small town layabout whose overwhelming uselessness is inexplicably presented as innocent charm. The secret behind these characters’ appeal is never revealed, nor does Rao play them as particularly irresistible. In fact, in most of these movies, not only are the protagonists indistinguishable from each other, they’re positively repulsive. Even Rao would’ve struggled to bring freshness to his performance in Bhool Chuk Maaf, the latest in this long line of films.

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Fri, May 30 2025

Mon, May 26 2025

The plot is ingenious but the Rao-Wamiqa Gabbi starrer falls into the predictable trap of trying to make the jokes work with loud delivery

Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao) and Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi) want to get married. Time won’t allow them to. Funnily, it’s running time which the makers struggle to move along in this comedy about Ranjan’s tryst with time to reach his final destination. The plot is the least of problems for Bhool Chuk Maaf. In fact it’s the only ingenious bit in the film. It’s the characterisation of the lead hero, Ranjan, which makes this a hard pill to swallow. If one is to root for this guy’s predicament, one’s unable to because on paper there’s not much appealing about him. His ambition is simple: get a government job so as to marry his sweetheart; the means to go about it are questionable and ultimately off-putting. It makes Titli’s penchant for him all the more puzzling. Love does have mysterious ways, but surely idiocy isn’t one.

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Sat, June 14 2025

Rana Dagubatti makes up for the show's shortcomings as the long, tall and strong titular character, who stays the last man standing in the face of all the murder and mayhem.

Rana Naidu is back for a second-go-round, and this season is as kinetic as the first, fists and bullets flying. It also dials down the crassness, which is a good thing. The close ties that keeps the Naidu parivaar together are still intact, though, and that gives this heavy-on-action saga the occasional emo touch, which we saw in the first season. This franchise, adapted from American crime drama ‘Ray Donovan’ for India by Karan Anshuman, is shaping up to deliver on what it promises: a family man trying to do his best to keep his embattled flock safe even as he goes full tilt at what he is paid to – fix things for powerful people.

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Sat, June 14 2025

बाहरवालों के लिए अमीरों के लफड़े फिक्स करने वाला नंबर वन फिक्सर, मगर परिवार के लिए जान छिड़कने वाला फैमिली मैन राणा नायडू एक बार फिर दर्शकों के बीच आ चुका है। ‘बाहुबली’ के भल्लालदेव यानी साउथ स्टार राणा दग्गुबाती की मुख्य भूमिका वाली सीरीज का पहला सीजन सेक्स सीन, गालियों और हिंसा की भरमार के लिए आलोचना झेलने के बावजूद स्टाइलिश एक्शन, थ्रिलर और फैमिली ड्रामा की वजह से पसंद किया गया था। लिहाजा मेकर्स अब उन्हीं मसालों के साथ ‘राणा नायडू’ का दूसरा सीजन लेकर आए हैं। सीरीज में इस बार भी जोरदार एक्शन, मारधाड़, हिंसा, बोल्ड सीन जैसे पुराने तड़कों के साथ सियासत, सिनेमा, क्रिकेट का कॉकटेल परोसा गया है। हालांकि, इन सारे मसालों के बावजूद मूल सामग्री यानी कहानी की मात्रा गड़बड़ाने के कारण सीरीज का स्वाद फीका रह गया है। अमेरिकी क्राइम थ्रिलर सीरीज ‘रे डोनोवन’ का देसी अवतार यानी अपना राणा नायडू (राणा दग्गुबाती), अब वह दूसरों की गंदगी साफ करने वाले फिक्सर के अपने पुराने धंधे को छोड़कर पूरी तरह फैमिली मैन बनने का फैसला करता है। हालांकि, वह ऐसा करने की सोच ही रहा होता है कि उसका अतीत रऊफ मिर्जा (अर्जुन रामपाल) का रूप धारण करके उसके सामने आ जाता है और उसके बेटे का किडनैप हो जाता है। जाहिर है राणा को वापस अपराध में उस दलदल में उतरना पड़ता है। इस चक्कर में उसकी मुठभेड़ होती है, काले धंधे करने वाले सफेदपोश रईस विराज ओबरॉय (रजत कपूर) से।

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Sat, June 14 2025

Rana faces a deadly mission to rescue his kidnapped son Ani, reluctantly teaming with his estranged father Naga. His conflict with underworld kingpin Rauf escalates, involving family tensions, a dangerous heist, and brutal attacks on his allies. As betrayal looms, Rana joins hands with a business honcho, Viraj Oberoi, to protect his family and confront Rauf’s forces, going on the offensive. Rana Daggubati is totally in his zone as the angsty, middle-aged fixer and family man. He’s solid as a flawed character willing to do whatever it takes to protect his people. With his action-hero vibe, natural ease in family scenes, and steady presence around shady power players, he once again delivers strong, impactful screen presence. Surveen Chawla, as his troubled partner, delivers well in a meatier role this time.

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Sat, June 14 2025

A visually dazzling and emotionally grounded remake that proves some stories are worth retelling.how-to-train-your-dragon

Some tales are beyond redundancy. Despite the utmost familiarity and success, they get retold again and again throughout history, and we call them classics. Hence, a question about the purpose of a new iteration of an age-old classic is unnecessary, to an extent, absurd. How To Train Your Dragon, written by Cressida Cowell, is one such story. Hence, despite the tremendous success of its animated adaptation of the same name that was released in 2010, we now have a live-action version. However, DreamWorks Studio’s decision to do a live-action remake has more to do with easy profit than anything else. Following Disney’s route, the studio has ventured into this new space, and one should say they have hit a jackpot. Despite being a faithful remake of the original, the live-action remake retains the joy and visual spectacle that is a treat to both sets of audience: those who are and are not aware of this delectable world of dragons and Vikings.

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Sat, June 14 2025

Based on the popular Dutch reality show De Verraders, The Traitors is hosted by filmmaker Karan Johar. In this psychological game, 20 players are stationed at the grand Suryagarh Palace in Rajasthan, openly betraying each other to compete for a prize of ₹1 crore. Hidden among the innocents are the traitors, who secretly ‘murder’ players. The contestant line-up includes Karan Kundrra, Anshula Kapoor, Sudhanshu Pandey, Jasmine Bhasin, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mukesh Chhabra, Raftaar, Jannat Zubair, Sahil Salathia, Uorfi Javed, Harsh Gujral, Maheep Kapoor, and Raj Kundra. The Traitors, in its Indian debut, could be labelled a social deduction game – a classier hybrid of Bigg Boss and Roadies, where players are housed in a royal mansion, pitted against each other, guarding their true identities and undertaking adventurous tasks that lead to eliminations every episode.

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Sat, June 14 2025

Raghu, a Surat boy, flees home to join a Mumbai esports team for the Tournament of Champions, where they’ll challenge the elite Wolf Clan. The team faces internal struggles, including Joanna’s mounting debt and the shocking revelation of Raghu’s minor status, which leads to her arrest. Despite multiple setbacks, Gamerlog overcomes adversity, ultimately reaching the finals to face their formidable rivals. Darsheel Safary makes a convincing return to the screen as an adult, playing a confused yet passionate kid, eager to prove himself, yet unsure of how to connect with his gaming peers. But the real standout is Anjali Sivaraman as Joanna. She’s the emotional core of the show, essaying a layered character whose inner conflicts never overshadow her fierce loyalty to her team.

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Fri, June 13 2025

If Ajay Devgn were to show up in the new Apple thriller to help out Sydney Sweeney and Julianne Moore, you wouldn't bat an eyelid.

The central thrust of the Drishyam movies relies on one basic truth: Ajay Devgn’s character will do just about anything to protect his family. Not only does he cover up a murder, he also concocts an intricate scheme to keep the cops off his scent. The Drishyam movies don’t realise this, but the protagonist is actually a psychopath in the guise of a protective family man. In the second movie, he even allows his teenage daughter to be manhandled by the police in order to keep up the charade. The Drishyam franchise holds some sort of record for having inspired the most remakes. And although it isn’t an official adaptation, the new Apple movie Echo Valley follows the exact same beats. It would’ve been one of the rare examples of Hollywood ripping off an Indian project had Drishyam itself not been a rip-off of a Japanese novel.

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Fri, June 13 2025

Director Michael Pearce's drama about the depth of a mother's love is convoluted throughout but sticks the landing.

At the heart of Echo Valley is the mother-daughter relationship between Julianne Moore’s Kate and Sydney Sweeney’s Claire that gets strained beyond belief. Writer Brad Ingelsby and director Michael Pearce throw the impossible at them, and viewers watch the chaos unfold. At times, the feature stretches incredulity. However, the one-hour and 45-minute film is saved by its clever and twisty ending that manages to tie up everything nearly into place. To say Kate (Moore) is having a hard time is an understatement. She is barely able to keep the farm where she boards horses afloat and needs to borrow money from her ex-husband Richard (Kyle MacLachlan). On top of that, she is grieving the loss of her wife, who died in an accident. Her daughter Claire (Sweeney), who struggles with drug addiction, adds to her worries. When Claire shows up at her door one night covered in someone else’s blood, Kate decides to get into action. However, the mother’s love for her child is tested when Claire’s dealer, Jackie Lyman (Domhnall Gleeson), pushes her to the limits.

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Fri, June 13 2025

Sense and sensibility is not why you watch the Housefull series, but this instalment is neither a 'killer' comedy nor a scary comedy

The more the merrier’ goes the saying. In the case of Housefull 5, a comedy franchise that refuses to end, it’s more the painful. The parrot shtick returns and it’s still agonisingly bad and unfunny. So is the gag with Akshay Kumar and monkeys indulging in a slapfest. The most distasteful bits though are when women’s bodies are fetishised upon—again and again—for cheap jokes. Again more embarrassing than rib-tickling. This time the gang of ludicrous men is on a cruise and there’s a killer on the loose. It’s dressed up in a silver Squid Game-like mask and has the slasher skills of the Scream killer. That alone, it appears, is reason enough to give the fifth instalment of Housefull a blood-soaked scary font. But Sajid Nadiadwala, who here apart from producer also gets story and screenplay credit, forgets the killer for significant chunks of this comedy, which runs far too long. The plot’s to do with who’s the real Jolly, the heir to a throne of billions. Is it Akshay Kumar’s Julius, Riteish Deshmukh’s Jallabuddin or Abhishek Bachchan’s Jalbhushan? The three men come aboard with their partners (Nargis Fakhri, Jacqueline Fernandez and Sonam Bajwa) in tow. It doesn’t take too long before there’s infidelity and lying and some old-fashioned tomfoolery.

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Mon, June 9 2025

Sat, June 7 2025

Tarun Mansukhani’s slapstick comedy is a confused, cluttered murder mystery

Fifteen years after the first Housefull movie hit screens in 2010, Housefull 5 arrives with the usual bluster and baloney—big stars, bigger sets, and a plot that makes no sense. In an unusual twist, the climax and the revelation of the killer aboard a luxury cruise liner differ depending on which version of director Tarun Mansukhani’s slapstick comedy you’re watching. But no matter which route you take, the destination remains the same: this film is a colossal waste of time and resources. This fifth instalment of the famously chaotic comedy franchise is louder, glossier, and stacked with an even larger ensemble. You might struggle to name or remember the female characters, but the men are hard to miss. Franchise regulars like Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Chunky Panday (as Aakhri Pasta), Johnny Lever (Batuk Patel), and Ranjeet return, joined by new entrants Fardeen Khan, Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Abhishek Bachchan (previously in Housefull 3), and Sanjay Dutt.

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Thu, June 12 2025

Shockingly, Sunny Deol's Jaat is spectacular fun for over an hour. It's only natural that it nosedives in the second half, but that's only because Bollywood stars don't have a sense of humour.

The smartest thing that Himesh Reshammiya has probably done in his professional life, besides transitioning from composer to singer, is to embrace the inherent ridiculousness of his stage persona. For the longest time, he seemed entirely unaware. He’d perform bicep curls to his own love songs on Instagram, seemingly oblivious to how meme pages were responding. But something changed after Janhvi Kapoor went on Koffee with Karan and essentially pulled the curtain on what was maybe the greatest inside-joke of our times. Two years down the line, Reshammiya is starring in a movie called Badass Ravikumar and going on a ‘Cap Tour’ of sold-out live shows. It’s genius. If only Sunny Deol had the same self-awareness in Jaat.

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Sat, April 12 2025

Jaat leaves you with little time to pause and think and qualifies as a mass entertainer

“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.

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Sat, April 12 2025

Thu, June 12 2025

Fri, May 2 2025

Tue, April 29 2025

Thudarum is a new Malayalam action thriller that starts off innocently enough, almost as a family dramedy, but soon becomes much, much darker. The film is a wild ride and throws surprises every now and then. Let’s explore in detail the plot of Thudarum, its ending, which is explained here, its cast, and more. The film features Malayalam superstar Mohanlal in the main role of Shanmugham, who is better known as Benz. The reason? It’s his car, and no, it’s not a Mercedes. In fact, it is a vintage Mark-I Ambassador that he loves more than anyone. Well, not really, as he also has a wife and two children, but you get the point. Until close to halfway mark, Thudarum remains the family movie that the director promised. After that… well, let’s leave for that later. This Malayalam thriller movie also features Shobhna as Shanmugham’s wife Lalitha. The plot kicks off when the said car is seized by the cops. It was at a mechanic’s workshop after being crashed by the friend of Shanmugham and Lalitha’s son, Pavi (Thomas Mathew). The mechanic was charged with possession of marijuana.

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Thu, June 12 2025

Set in the same twisty world of the M. Night Shyamalan classic Sixth Sense and Gothika, starring Halle Berry, but far inferior in terms of storytelling and character-building, Tyler Perry’s Straw, nevertheless, makes for a semi-engaging watch. Powered by a central act from Taraji P. Henson, whose character of an underprivileged single mother struggling to stay afloat in a world that is insensitive — and, more pathetically, blind — to her pain and plight, the 105-minute film touches upon some pertinent issues, even as it shows Janiyah’s (Henson) world unravelling in the course of a single day. Those familiar with Perry’s style of filmmaking would know that everything that the actor-director says is always on the nose. Racial discrimination, the trials of the working class, the problems that those who are failed by the system face on a daily basis… Straw touches upon all of them, but with the kind of heavy-handed treatment and dense literal rather than metaphorical depiction that we have seen in Perry’s previous overwrought dramas.

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