Chandu Champion
Drama (Hindi)
9 bullet wounds (one still in the body), three different sports and an unshakable determination to fulfill the dream of an Olympic Gold later, Muralikant Petkar, India's first Paralympian to finish at the top of the podium, got the recognition (more…)
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dilruba
Mystery, Thriller, Romance (Hindi)
While evading the cops in Agra, Rani and Rishu scheme to run away together. But when their plans go awry, Rani asks a mild-mannered admirer for help. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Thangalaan
Adventure, Action, Fantasy, History (Tamil)
During the British rule, Thangalaan, a fierce tribal leader, and his tribe assist Lord Clement, a British General, to trace gold in their village. While searching for the gold, the villagers earn the wrath of Aarathi, an apparent sorceress, who Thangalaan sets out to stop with all his might.
Cast:
Vikram, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Malavika Mohanan, Daniel Caltagirone, Pasupathy, Hari Krishnan, Arjun Anbudan, Preeti Karan, Krish Hassan, Muthukumar
Director:
Pa. Ranjith
Writer:
Pa. Ranjith
Thu, August 15 2024
Director Pa Ranjith is one filmmaker with a powerful voice in Tamil cinema. Whether one agrees or not, his voice is significant and cannot be ignored. When he announced his collaboration with actor Chiyaan Vikram in 2021, it excited many. And the excitement grew multifold over the years and became one of the most anticipated films of 2024. Did ‘Thangalaan’ manage to fulfil the expectations? Let’s find out! Thangalaan (Chiyaan Vikram), Gangamma (Parvathy Thiruvothu) and their five children live in North Arcot where they rely on agriculture. However, their land is grabbed by the upper-class landlord using deceitful tactics. In the 1800s, Lord Clement, a British General, expressed his desire to trace gold near their village. However, a local myth claims that the sorceress Aarathi (Malavika Mohanan), guards the area. Thangalaan and the rest of the villagers believe in the myth.
Khel Khel Mein
Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
What if for one night your mobile phone was a public property? 7 friends at a wedding after-party decide to play a seemingly harmless but as it turns out, a dangerous game which might have earth-shattering consequences with relationships, marriages and identities being at stake.
Cast:
Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Vaani Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Ammy Virk, Pragya Jaiswal, Aditya Seal, Kiran Kumar, Alka Kaushal, Talat Aziz
Director:
Mudassar Aziz
Writer:
Sara Bodinar, Mudassar Aziz
Wed, August 14 2024
Chandu Champion
Drama (Hindi)
9 bullet wounds (one still in the body), three different sports and an unshakable determination to fulfill the dream of an Olympic Gold later, Muralikant Petkar, India's first Paralympian to finish at the top of the podium, got the recognition by his own country 45 years after he achieved what no athlete from his country could.
Cast:
Kartik Aaryan, Vijay Raaz, Bhuvan Arora, Rajpal Yadav, Yashpal Sharma, Aniruddh Dave, Nitin Bhajan, Hemangi Kavi, Shreyas Talpade, Brijendra Kala
Director:
Kabir Khan
Writer:
Sudipto Sarkar, Kabir Khan, Sumit Arora
Wed, August 14 2024
Chandu Champion finds director Kabir Khan returning to 83 territory, for better or worse. We talk about the film’s shoddy storytelling structure, its complete lack of interest in developing its protagonist, and its over-reliance on crutches like music and contrivances. We also discuss Khan’s tendency to underestimate his audiences’ intellect and his inherent insecurity about his subject’s genuine achievements. Chandu Champion is another Hindi movie that shouldn’t get even a passing grade, forget the high praise that it has seemingly received.
Fri, June 14 2024
मुरली का बचपन से एक ही सपना था कि ओलंपिक में जाना है, गोल्ड मैडल लेकर आना है। बड़ा होकर वह फौज में गया तो बॉक्सिंग के ज़रिए अपने इस सपने को सच करने में जुट गया। लेकिन 1965 की जंग में उसे इतनी गोलियां लगीं कि वह अपने पैरों से लाचार हो गया। मगर उसने हार नहीं मानी और स्विमिंग करने लगा। 1972 में हुए पैरालंपिक (दिव्यांगजनों के ओलंपिक) में तैराकी में गोल्ड मैडल लेकर आया। यह एक सच्ची कहानी है और ‘चंदू चैंपियन’ (Chandu Champion) इसी कहानी पर बनी है। आप चाहें तो पूछ सकते हैं कि यदि यह सच्ची कहानी है तो इतने बरसों से हमने इसके बारे में कहीं पढ़ा या सुना क्यों नहीं? जवाब वही पुराना है कि हमारे समाज के नायकों और उनकी प्रेरक कहानियों के प्रति हमारे समाज के कर्णधारों का उदासीन रवैया इसका मुख्य कारण है। मुरलीकांत पेटकर भी ऐसे ही एक नायक थे जिन्हें न तो उचित पुरस्कार मिले, न ही सम्मान और वक्त की आंधी ने उन्हें हाशिये पर कर डाला। लेकिन पिछले कुछ सालों में जब सरकार ने ढूंढ-ढूंढ कर ऐसे नायकों को सम्मानित करना शुरू किया तो उनकी कहानी भी सामने आई और 2018 में उन्हें पद्मश्री देकर सम्मानित किया गया। उसके बाद लोगों का ध्यान उन पर गया और नतीजे के तौर पर यह फिल्म बन कर आई है।
Thu, June 13 2024
Shekhar Home
Drama, Crime (Hindi)
Set in 1990s Lonpur, Bengal, “Shekhar Home” combines suspense & comedy as eccentric Shekhar and his new housemate Jayavrat solve a variety of cases while interacting with a vibrant cast of characters in a charming, pre-technology era.
Cast:
Kay Kay Menon, Ranvir Shorey, Rasika Dugal, Shernaz Patel
Director:
Srijit Mukherji
Writer:
Aniruddha Guha, Niharika Puri
Wed, August 14 2024
Early into Shekhar Home—the new mystery crime series on JioCinema—a middle-aged army doctor arrives as the new housemate at a guest house run by an elderly woman. As she shows him around the place, she apologises for the mess and the living area’s unkempt state on behalf of the other tenant. Shortly after, when the doctor makes the man’s acquaintance, he learns of his expert deduction skills. Taken aback, he remarks on his excellence. In response, the man with a keen eye for tiny details fires back: “No doctor, it’s elementary.” Yes, Shekhar Home is a Sherlock Holmes show and its beginning is a carbon copy of Sherlock’s start, the hit BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman from a decade-and-a-half ago.
Gyaarah Gyaarah
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (Hindi)
Three cops defy the rules of time to investigate and deliver justice in a series of cold cases. How far will they go as they work from within the corrupt system to bring the criminals to book?
Cast:
Raghav Juyal, Kritika Kamra, Dhairya Karwa, Nitesh Pandey, Gaurav K Sharma, Harsh Chhaya
Director:
Umesh Bist
Mon, August 12 2024
Sun, August 4 2024
Gyaarah Gyaarah, out on ZEE5 and adapted from the Korean series Signal, is a time-warping thriller of the dour, soulless kind. Tumbling across timelines, director Umesh Bist always makes sure to hold his audience’s hand. Bland letters appear on screen to indicate the precise date, year, location. Lest we lose our bearings, the pop-culture references are even more plain: Dil for 1990, Kapoor & Sons for 2016. This is a fairly unimaginative way to summon a period, to evoke a mood. It’s unlike the scene in Back to the Future where Doc in the 1950s exclaims to Marty, who’s traveled back from the 80s, “Ronald Reagan! The actor?! Then who’s vice president? Jerry Lewis?”
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dilruba
Mystery, Thriller, Romance (Hindi)
While evading the cops in Agra, Rani and Rishu scheme to run away together. But when their plans go awry, Rani asks a mild-mannered admirer for help.
Cast:
Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Sunny Kaushal, Jimmy Shergill, Aditya Srivastava, Bhumika Dube, Sapna Sand, Manoj Kumar Singh, Alok Pandey, Manwendra Tripathy
Director:
Jayprad Desai
Writer:
Kanika Dhillon
Fri, August 9 2024
Fri, August 9 2024
In Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey return as the murderous couple of hell who were introduced in 2021’s Haseen Dilruba. The sequel boasts an entirely different visual aesthetic and its romantic-thriller tone stands in contrast to the tongue-in-cheek pulpiness of the first film. We discuss what a huge mistake this is, while also trying to wrap our heads around the film’s illogical non-linear plot. We also talk about Pannu and Massey’s one-note performances and the pointless introduction of a couple of new characters, played by Sunny Kaushal and Jimmy Shergill.
Fri, August 9 2024
Director Jayprad Desai’s Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba begins like a pulpy, C-grade Hindi novel: with high drama. On a dark, rainy night in Agra, a woman is running for her life on a deserted road. Her wispy-thin saree sticking to her like clingfilm, she dashes into a police station, screaming. Her husband, she says, is going to kill her. She is Rani (Taapsee Pannu), currently married to Abhimanyu (Sunny Kaushal), a compounder. But at the police station, Rani encounters questions about her bloody past. Three years ago, in the 2021 film, Hasseen Dillruba, Rani was married to Rishu (Vikrant Massey) but had taken a lover, Neel. Things didn’t go as planned and she had struck Neel dead. And then she had helped cover up the murder with her husband’s severed arm.
The Instigators
Crime, Comedy, Action (English)
Rory and Cobby are unlikely partners thrown together for a heist. But when it goes awry, they team up to outrun police, backward bureaucrats, and a vengeful crime boss.
Cast:
Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Ving Rhames, Jack Harlow, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alfred Molina, Owen Earls, Hong Chau, Natalie Carter, Walter Liebman
Director:
Doug Liman
Writer:
Chuck MacLean, Casey Affleck
Fri, August 9 2024
More than midway through The Instigators—the Apple TV+ original movie with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck in the lead—a black trashed-up BMW is chased through the streets of Boston by cop cars from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Inside the fugitive vehicle, as Petula Clark’s 1964 global hit “Downtown” blares off the speakers, a well-meaning psychiatrist attempts to counsel her dispirited patient while he’s actively evading the police. In the back, a super talkative sot is incessantly cracking jokes, providing unnecessary commentary or interrupting the doctor-patient exchange. But all the driver wants is for someone to change the song. It’s the funniest high-speed car chase I’ve seen in a film in years.
House of the Dragon S02
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Action & Adventure (English)
The Targaryen dynasty is at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins when King Viserys breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.
Cast:
Emma D'Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Patrick Sass
Mon, August 5 2024
Towards the end of the third episode of the second season of House of the Dragon, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) decided to act on the pacifist advice of her cousin once removed. What followed was some of the most thrilling stuff all season. Despite the massive threat posed to her life and Team Black, Rhaenyra disguised as a septa and sneaked into King’s Landing—the home of all her enemies—to meet with Queen Dowager Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). As they dug into the murderous things that had happened on their behalf, Rhaenyra discovered Alicent’s big misunderstanding. In his hazy last moments, King Viserys wasn’t talking about his son Aegon but Aegon the Conqueror. What we knew all along was now dawning on her. Regardless, Alicent refused to budge and find a peaceful resolution because the gears of war were already turning.
Ulajh
Drama, Thriller (Hindi)
The journey of a young IFS officer, belonging to a prominent family of patriots, who gets embroiled in a dangerous personal conspiracy while far from her home turf, at a career-defining post.
Cast:
Janhvi Kapoor, Gulshan Devaiah, Roshan Mathew, Meiyang Chang, Adil Hussain, Rajesh Tailang, Jitendra Joshi, Jaimini Pathak, Rajendra Gupta, Alyy Khan
Director:
Sudhanshu Saria
Sun, August 4 2024
What sort of a spy movie is Sudhanshu Saria’s Ulajh? It begins as a Raazi (2018) in pantsuits: patriotic female protagonist, driven by loyalty and legacy, enlists to serve her country on foreign turf. Indo-Pak diplomatic relations, as fraught and fragile as they were in 1971, inform the narrative stakes. Both films hail from Junglee Pictures, and the editor, in each case, is Nitin Baid. If that weren’t enough, the new film even has a song with ‘watan’ in its title — plastered, ineffectually, over the opening credits and thereby fast forgotten.
Fri, August 2 2024
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Romance, Drama, Action (Hindi)
After 20 years in prison, a man reunites with his lost love and the truth behind his crimes is revealed.
Cast:
Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Jimmy Shergill, Shantanu Maheshwari, Saiee Manjrekar, Jay Upadhyay, Kaushal Shah, Sayaji Shinde, Hardik Soni, Shahrukh Sadri
Director:
Neeraj Pandey
Writer:
Neeraj Pandey
Sat, August 3 2024
औरों में कहां दम था जो आज के दौर में भागती-दौड़ती, चटकीली-चमकीली फिल्में परोस रहे बॉलीवुड में ऐसी ठहराव ली हुई, सिंपल-सी प्रेम-कहानी बना सके। सो, यह ज़िम्मा उठाया नीरज पांडेय ने। उन्हीं नीरज पांडेय ने जो ‘ए वैडनसडे’, ‘स्पेशल 26’, ‘बेबी’, ‘अय्यारी’ जैसी फिल्में और ‘स्पेशल ऑप्स’ जैसी वेब-सीरिज़ दे चुके हैं। लेकिन हुआ क्या? कड़ाही पनीर बनाने वाले हाथों को खिचड़ी बनाने का शौक चर्राए तो ज़रूरी नहीं कि उनसे स्वादिष्ट खिचड़ी बन ही जाए। कृष्णा पिछले 22-23 साल से जेल में है। बरसों पहले वह और वसु एक-दूसरे से प्यार करते थे। एक हादसा हुआ और कृष्णा को जेल जाना पड़ा। इधर वह जेल से निकलना नहीं चाहता और उधर वसु उस पल का इंतज़ार कर रही है जब वह जेल से निकलेगा। वसु के पति को भी कृष्णा का इंतज़ार है। वह उस हादसे की रात का सच जानना चाहता है। कृष्णा आता है, वसु से मिलता है, उसके पति से भी मिलता है और उसी रात उन दोनों से दूर भी चला जाता है। कहानी बुरी नहीं है। लेकिन कागज़ पर लिखी अच्छी कहानी भी पर्दे पर तभी अच्छी लगती है जब उसे दमदार तरीके से फैलाया और फिल्माया गया हो। यह फिल्म ‘औरों में कहां दम था’ इसी हादसे का शिकार हुई है। दो लाइनों में सोची गई कहानी को दो पन्नों में फैलाते-फैलाते ही नीरज पांडेय ने न जाने कितने समझौते कर लिए होंगे। फिर यह फिल्म तो सवा दो घंटे से भी ऊपर है जिसे बनाते हुए निर्देशक नीरज पांडेय ने जो समझौते किए, वे भी इसे देखते हुए साफ महसूस होते हैं।
Fri, August 2 2024
Brinda
Crime, Mystery (Telugu)
Young, socially awkward yet morally grounded SI cadet Brinda stumbles upon a brutal murder with a chilling modus operandi. As the killer slips through her grasp, she faces personal and bureaucratic turmoil, but the hardest challenge is the moral reckoning that could define her career and conscience. Will Brinda uphold justice, or lose herself in the chaos closer to home?
Cast:
Trisha Krishnan, Indrajith Sukumaran, Ravindra Vijay, Jayaprakash, Aamani, Anand Sami, Rakendu Mouli, Anish Kuruvilla, Yashna Chowdary, Allu Ramesh
Director:
Surya Manoj Vangala
Fri, August 2 2024
‘South Queen’ Trisha Krishnan forayed into OTT with the Telugu web series, ‘Brinda’, directed by Surya Manoj Vangala. While the web series started premiering on SonyLIV on August 2, there have been low-key promotions for whatever reason. At a time when there are many web series on multiple platforms, ‘Brinda’ stands apart. This is truly one of the web shows that deserves more promotion. Brinda (Trisha Krishnan) is a newly appointed sub-inspector, who is moody and hardly gets treated as equals at the police station. She goes to work, struggles to sleep and is quite smart. When her superiors, including Sarathi (Ravindra Vijay), want to close a murder case as suicide, she smartly points out that it’s a murder. This smart work lands her in trouble as her boss always tries to put her in place because she’s a woman. But Brinda is someone who will not take it with a pinch of salt. She teaches him a lesson.
The Test S03
Drama, Documentary (English)
A docuseries following the Australian Men’s Cricket Team, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the world’s best cricket teams fell from grace and was forced to reclaim their title and integrity.
Cast:
Justin Langer, Tim Paine, Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Frank Dimasi
Mon, July 29 2024
Around halfway of the second episode of the latest season of The Test, drama erupts. English batter Jonny Bairstow ducks a bouncer, the ball goes to the keeper and the batter walks out of the crease. Pretty much a normal thing that happens during a Test match, you’d think. But there’s tense music in the background, almost like you know something is going to happen.