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Guild Reviews

Image of scene from the film Colourrs of Love
Colourrs of Love

Romance, Drama (Hindi)

Avee, a young doctor, finds himself in a state of depression after his break-up. To help him, his mother calls in her friend, Rajat, a psychologist. Can Rajat bring a change in Avee's life?

Cast: Smaran Sahu, Deepika Amin, Pawan Chopra, Bhakti Kubavat
Director: Divyesh Limbani
Writer: Divyesh Limbani


FCG Member Reviewer Srivathsan Nadadhur
Srivathsan Nadadhur | Independent Film Critic
This Breezy Urban Romance Works In Parts

Sat, October 5 2024

Avee Sharma, a sexologist, is traumatised after breaking up with Shruti at the cusp of marriage. While he gradually comes to terms with it, he indulges in a no-strings-attached relationship with a patient – a married woman Rekha. Later, he falls for a neighbour Nikita. However, she hides a secret from her life that could derail their equation. Meanwhile, Rajat, a psychologist, opens him to a new perspective towards love.

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Image of scene from the film Amar Prem Ki Prem Kahani
Amar Prem Ki Prem Kahani

Romance, Comedy, Drama (Hindi)

Follows a freshly-engaged Amar who goes on a trip to London and falls heads-over-heels with Prem, a handsome man whose charm threatens to put Amar's marriage in danger.

Cast: Sunny Singh, Aditya Seal, Pranutan Bahl, Diksha J. Singh, Chetan Mohture, Tarsem Paul, Baljinder Kaur, Sanju Solanki, Rajinder Sethi
Director: Hardik Gajjar
Writer: Rupinder Inderjit


FCG Member Reviewer Srivathsan Nadadhur
Srivathsan Nadadhur | Independent Film Critic
Queer Romance Gets Slapstick Treatment

Sat, October 5 2024

Amar, who’s yet to come out as gay to his family, is off to London to meet his uncle. Over a flight, he falls in love with a flamboyant Prem. Despite initial friction, the two are inseparable and hit it off as a couple. As Amar returns to India, his conservative family is desperate to get him married. Prem decides to surprise him at the event and when they make their relationship official, all hell breaks loose.

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Image of scene from the film Devara Part 1
FCG Rating for the film Devara Part 1: 43/100
Devara Part 1

Action, Drama (Telugu)

Devara, a fearless man from a coastal region, embarks on a perilous journey into the treacherous world of the sea to safeguard the lives of his people. Unbeknownst to him, his brother Bhaira is plotting a conspiracy against him. As events unfold, Devara passes on his legacy to his mild-mannered and timid son, Varada.

Cast: N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Saif Ali Khan, Prakash Raj, Srikanth, Kalaiyarasan, Shruti Marathe, Janhvi Kapoor, Shine Tom Chacko, Ajay, Zarina Wahab
Director: Koratala Siva
Writer: Koratala Siva


FCG Member Reviewer Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo | The Hindu
NTR and Anirudh amp up the intensity in an overstretched action drama

Sat, October 5 2024

Director Koratala Siva and NTR mount an intense action drama, with huge help from Anirudh Ravichander, only for the later portions to lose steam in the over-zealousness to stretch the story for a sequel

Nine years after SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali – The Beginning left viewers curious about why Kattappa killed Baahubali, a spate of films have been mounted ambitiously, with scope for sequels. This has turned out to be a double-edged sword. While filmmakers get the scope to present in-depth character delineations and build the world in which the story unfolds, there has also been a tendency to overstretch the narrative. A few questions are left unanswered, with the hope that the audience will wait in anticipation of a sequel.

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FCG Member Reviewer Bhawana Somaaya
Bhawana Somaaya | 92.7 Big FM

Sat, October 5 2024

FCG Member Reviewer Ajay Brahmatmaj
Ajay Brahmatmaj | CineMahaul (YouTube)

Sat, October 5 2024

Image of scene from the film The Signature
The Signature

Family, Drama (Hindi)

Arvind’s life comes crashing down when his wife Madhu falls into a coma and is put on life support. Will situations hold him back, or will he be able to save his wife with the hope of a life together?

Cast: Anupam Kher, Nina Kulkarni, Annu Kapoor, Mahima Chaudhry, Manoj Joshi, Sneha Paul, Sangita Jain Bokadia, Kevin Gandhi, Varun Seth, Herman D'Souza
Director: Gajendra Ahire
Writer: Gajendra Ahire


FCG Member Reviewer Deepak Dua
Deepak Dua | Independent Film Journalist & Critic
संदेश और उपदेश ‘द सिग्नेचर’ में

Sat, October 5 2024

अरविंद और मधु अपनी शादी की 35वीं सालगिरह मनाने विदेश जा रहे हैं। अचानक मधु बीमार होकर वेंटिलेटर पर पहुंच जाती है। अरविंद जैसे-तैसे कर के अस्पताल के लाखों रुपए का बिल भर रहा है। लेकिन मधु के बचने की अब किसी को उम्मीद नहीं है, खुद इनके बेटे को भी नहीं। हर कोई चाहता है कि अरविंद उस फॉर्म पर सिग्नेचर कर दे जिसके बाद मधु का वेंटिलेटर हटा दिया जाएगा। लेकिन अरविंद का सवाल है कि मधु के मरने-न मरने का फैसला मैं क्यों लूं? कुछ अलग-सी कहानी है ‘द सिग्नेचर’ (The Signature) की, संजीदा किस्म की। इस कहानी को लेखक गजेंद्र अहीरे ने फैलाया भी बहुत संजीदगी के साथ है। गजेंद्र के निर्देशन में भी उतनी ही संजीदगी दिखाई देती है। दरअसल यह 2013 में आई गजेंद्र की ही मराठी फिल्म ‘अनुमति’ का हिन्दी रीमेक है जिसमें विक्रम गोखले ने मुख्य भूमिका निभा कर सर्वश्रेष्ठ अभिनेता का राष्ट्रीय पुरस्कार पाया था। अब इस हिन्दी फिल्म में उसी भूमिका को अनुपम खेर ने निभाया है।

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FCG Member Reviewer Bharathi Pradhan
Bharathi Pradhan | Lehren.com
To Pull the Plug Or Not

Fri, October 4 2024

It is a poignant dilemma familiar to most families. When a loved one is on life support, and prolonging it is unaffordable, can you bring yourself to sign the Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) form? For retired librarian Arvind Pathak (Anupam Kher), it is unthinkable. It’s easier for his pragmatic son (Kevin Gandhi) and daughter (Sangeeta Jain) who have their own lives to lead.

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Image of scene from the film Heartstopper S03
Heartstopper S03

Drama (English)

Teens Charlie and Nick discover their unlikely friendship might be something more as they navigate school and young love in this coming-of-age series.

Cast: Joe Locke, Kit Connor, William Gao, Yasmin Finney, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Tobie Donovan, Rhea Norwood, Jenny Walser, Leila Khan
Director: Andy Newbery
Writer: Alice Oseman


FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Queer Teen Romance Is Unapologetically Heartwarming And Meaningful

Sat, October 5 2024

The third season of Heartstopper goes a bit darker and focuses on Nick and Charlie's friendship group maturing and thinking about their futures. Read our review of the Netflix coming-of-age teen drama.

Nick and Charlie are back with a summer to remember. The third season of Heartstopper, based on the best-selling graphic novel by Alice Oseman, continues with the love story between Kit Connor’s Nick and Joe Locke’s Charlie as their relationship grows stronger despite their fears and insecurities. There is a whole new vibe to the series (the teens are now allowed to curse and become sexually active) that shows how the material has evolved along with its characters. At its heart, Heartstopper is a sweet romance with depth, especially due to the sparkling chemistry of its leads.

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Image of scene from the film Meiyazhagan
Meiyazhagan

Family, Drama (Tamil)

Twenty-two years after losing his home, Arulmozhi Varman returns to his native Thanjavur to attend his cousin's wedding. Amidst the celebrations, Arul is reintroduced to an upbeat man whom he cannot recall. With the help of the unknown man, Arul reconnects with his past.

Cast: Arvind Swamy, Karthi, Rajkiran, Jayaprakash, Sri Divya, Devadarshini, Swathi Konde, Rajkumar, Ilavarasu, Karunakaran
Director: C. Prem Kumar
Writer: C. Prem Kumar


FCG Member Reviewer Gopinath Rajendran
Gopinath Rajendran | The Hindu
Karthi and Arvind Swami shoulder this spirited bromance drama

Sat, October 5 2024

‘96’ filmmaker C. Prem Kumar gives us a thoughtful character study brought to life by some brilliant performances, and it’s a treat to watch the relationship between Arvind Swami and Karthi’s characters blossom into something gorgeous

While most filmmakers focus on the bigger aspects of their story to substantiate the so-called big-screen experience, C Prem Kumar belongs to a niche group of directors who like to concentrate on the finer, intimate moments of life. Probably because of his time spent behind the viewfinder as a cinematographer, Prem’s scenes look like animated still photographs, and just like his directorial debut 96, his sophomore outing Meiyazhagan is a series of moments in motion.

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Image of scene from the film Hitler
Hitler

Action, Drama (Tamil)

A man and his new love are caught in the middle of a dangerous conflict between a tough detective and a tyrannical politician.

Cast: Vijay Antony, Riya Suman, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Vivek Prasanna, Redin Kingsley, Tamizh, Aadukalam Naren, Charan Raj
Director: Dhana
Writer: Dhana


FCG Member Reviewer Gopinath Rajendran
Gopinath Rajendran | The Hindu
Vijay Antony’s revenge drama is outdated and ordinary

Sat, October 5 2024

The haphazardly-written ‘Hitler’ lacks the gripping social narrative or the emotional beats of director Dana SA’s previous films, and ends up as an underwhelming vigilante saga

Vijay Antony is on a spree with his recent films. While his contemporaries rarely churn out a couple of releases each year, the music director-turned-actor starred in four films last year and his latest release Hitler marks his third outing of 2024. But given how almost all of them turned out to be underwhelming, it feels like he’s shooting for quantity over quality, and Hitler, unfortunately, is the latest addition to that list.

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Image of scene from the film Swag
Swag

Comedy, Drama (Telugu)

The eternal battle of the sexes is played out across several generations of a family who seek to obtain a fortune.

Cast: Sree Vishnu, Ritu Varma, Meera Jasmine, Saranya Pradeep, Daksha Nagarkar, Goparaju Ramana, Vadivukarasi, Sunil Varma, Ravi Babu, Kadambari Kiran
Director: Hasith Goli
Writer: Hasith Goli


FCG Member Reviewer Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo | The Hindu
Hasith Goli and a brilliant Sree Vishnu strike again with a deceptive, layered satire

Sat, October 5 2024

Director Hasith Goli’s Telugu film ‘Swag’ is a lot more than a satire on the battle of the sexes and he is helped immensely by the performances of Sree Vishnu, Ritu Varma and Meera Jasmine

When a man who wears his masculinity on his sleeve laments at how his son is growing up, displaying feminine traits, his wife tries to make him understand the importance of accepting an individual’s natural expression of gender. This segment and the portion that follows gives writer-director Hasith Goli’s Telugu film Swag the much-needed emotional anchor. Until then, the narrative is like a satire, with elements of farce and ‘absurd theatre’ as the several characters played by Sree Vishnu and the dual characters of Ritu Varma slug it out to assert the power of male versus female.

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Image of scene from the film Superman
Superman

Comedy, Crime, Thriller (Malayalam)

Nithya is the deputy commissioner of the city who lives with her uncle since both her parents were killed in an accident. She was put on to investigate a corruption case done by the Home Minister and his friend a businessman called Rajan Phillip. Unknowingly she was helped in the investigation by a criminal nicknamed Superman.

Cast: Jayaram, Shobana, Jagadish, Siddique, Sphadikam George, Cochin Haneefa, Janardhanan, Innocent, Nedumudi Venu, Zeenath
Director: Mecartin, Raffi
Writer: Mecartin, Raffi


FCG Member Reviewer Avinash Ramachandran
Avinash Ramachandran | The New Indian Express
Hundred Days Hundred Films Ep 5

Tue, October 1 2024

Image of scene from the film Sector 36
FCG Rating for the film Sector 36: 30/100
Sector 36

Crime, Thriller, Drama (Hindi)

When several children disappear at the hands of a serial killer in Sector 36, a corrupt cop is forced to pursue the chilling case at all costs.

Cast: Vikrant Massey, Deepak Dobriyal, Akash Khurana, Darshan Jariwala, Baharul Islam, Ivana Kaur, Mahadev Singh Lakhawat, Ajeet Singh Palawat, Kacho Ahmad, Fareed Ahmad
Director: Aditya Nimbalkar
Writer: Bodhayan Roychaudhury


FCG Member Reviewer Udita Jhunjhunwala
Udita Jhunjhunwala | Mint, Scroll.in
Revisiting the house of horrors

Mon, September 30 2024

Vikrant Massey goes dark in this crime thriller based on the Nithari murders

Sector 36, based on the gruesome murders of Nithari village in Noida, which were uncovered in 2007, follows a serial killer who lives in plain sight. In Aditya Nimbalkar’s crime drama, Prem (Vikrant Massey) is the house-help of Balbir Bassi (Akash Khurana), an affluent businessman from Karnal. Bassi rarely visits his palatial bungalow in Delhi’s Sector 36, but when he does, his actions are also creepy. Prem, taking advantage of his unsupervised existence, far from his own family that lives in a village, abducts children from the neighbouring migrant settlement, mercilessly killing them to satisfy his deviant appetite.

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FCG Member Reviewer Akhil Arora
Akhil Arora | akhilarora.com
A Spotify Review

Fri, September 13 2024

Sector 36 is a gratuitously grisly dramatisation of the gruesome Nithari serial murders from around two decades ago. But because it unfolds with zero nuance, the movie mines cheap thrills out of a real-life horror story. We talk about the strange arcs that Vikrant Massey and Deepak Dobriyal’s characters have been given, the haphazard narrative structure, and seemingly missing sequences that could’ve helped make the story smoother. We also talk about Massey’s performance in the interrogation scene and the filmmakers’ odd decision to set the movie in Delhi and not Noida, where the actual crimes took place.

FCG Member Reviewer Akhil Arora
Akhil Arora | akhilarora.com
Botched just like the real-life investigation

Fri, September 13 2024

The Netflix movie is as poorly handled as the police’s work on the 2006 Nithari serial murders that it’s based on.

How do you approach a movie inspired by a series of gruesome killings that left a scar on the public but provided no closure? The police investigation into the 2006 Nithari serial murders—where a domestic help preyed on at least 19 minors, sexually assaulting them after their death, chopping their bodies into pieces and possibly indulging in cannibalism and organ harvesting, potentially with the tacit acknowledgement of his employer—was so badly botched that the case remains in the news in 2024, as the courts and agencies debate the sentencing. The two main accused were acquitted in 2023 over lack of sufficient evidence but India’s top crime body, CBI, has challenged it. With so many unknowable factors, this is rich territory for any filmmaker.

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Image of scene from the film Young Woman and the Sea
Young Woman and the Sea

History, Drama (English)

This is the extraordinary true story of Trudy Ederle, the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel. Through the steadfast support of her older sister and supportive trainers, she overcame adversity and the animosity of a patriarchal society to rise through the ranks of the Olympic swimming team and complete the 21-mile trek from France to England.

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Jeanette Hain, Glenn Fleshler, Sian Clifford, Christopher Eccleston, Ethan Rouse, Olive Elise Abercrombie
Director: Joachim Rønning
Writer: Jeff Nathanson


FCG Member Reviewer Sonal Pandya
Sonal Pandya | Times Now, Zoom
Daisy Ridley's Predictable Yet Inspirational Sports Biopic Has Plenty Of Heart

Mon, September 30 2024

Based on a true story, the feature film tells the courageous journey of a young American woman's fight to swim across the English Channel in 1926. Starring Daisy Ridley, the film is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

Young Woman and the Sea is a typical sports drama, like the ones that were made often in Hollywood two to three decades ago. The period drama, directed by Joachim Rønning, follows the real-life story of Trudy Ederle, a young American who set some extraordinary records and inspired a whole generation of women after her.

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Image of scene from the film Ullozhukku
Ullozhukku

Drama (Malayalam)

The film is set in a flooded region in Kerala where a woman and her daughter-in-law attempt to bury a loved one. However, due to heavy floods, the burial is postponed. This delay brings long-buried secrets and lies to the surface, threatening the family's unity.

Cast: Urvashi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Arjun Radhakrishnan, Shebin Benson, Alencier Ley Lopez, Jaya Kurup, Prasant Murali, Smruthi Anish, Veenah Naair, Roshan Mathew
Director: Christo Tomy
Writer: Christo Tomy


FCG Member Reviewer S. R. Praveen
S. R. Praveen | The Hindu
Urvashi’s powerhouse performance carries this haunting drama

Mon, September 30 2024

Urvashi and Parvathy Thiruvothu’s effective performances make director Christo Tomy’s debut film a gripping drama on secrets, mistakes, and redemption

Everyone in Ullozhukku is stranded, in one way or the other. Even a dead body remains unburied for days, as flood waters have submerged the burial grounds. The less said of the living, the better. Anju (Parvathy Thiruvothu) and her mother-in-law Leelamma (Urvashi) are in a life not of their choosing. One has come to terms with it, tempered by the struggles of family life, and even yearns to protect that way of living, while the other still has some spirit left to fight her way out of it.

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