Guild Reviews
Bad Newz
Comedy, Romance, Drama (Hindi)
After a whirlwind marriage with social media influencer Akhil Chadha that ends in divorce, chef Saloni Bagga meets hotelier Gurbir Pannu. One night with Gurbir – and then also with Akhil – leads to Saloni getting pregnant. But who's the father? By a one-in-a-billion twist of fate, Saloni is carrying twins – and not just any twins, each child has a different father!
Cast:
Vicky Kaushal, Triptii Dimri, Ammy Virk, Neha Dhupia, Sheeba Chaddha, Faisal Rashid, Ananya Panday, Neha Sharma, Khayali Ram, Guneet Singh Sodhi
Director:
Anand Tiwari
Writer:
Tarun Dudeja, Ishita Moitra
Fri, July 19 2024
Fri, July 19 2024
एक लड़की है सयानी-सी। एक दिन एक लड़के से वो मिलती है-बिस्तर में। कुछ देर बाद उसका एक्स-पति आता है। वह उससे भी मिल लेती है-बिस्तर में। अगले महीने आती है यह बैड न्यूज़ कि वह मां बनने वाली है और बच्चे का बाप उन दोनों में से कोई एक नहीं बल्कि दोनों ही हैं। मेडिकल साईंस का यह करिश्मा करोड़ों में एक बार होता है, लेकिन असंभव नहीं है। अब दोनों बापों में ठन जाती है कि बच्चा असल में किसके पास रहेगा। इस ठनाठनी में दोनों बार-बार भिड़ते हैं और उनकी हरकतें देख कर दर्शक हंसते हैं। इस फिल्म की लगभग पूरी कहानी इसके ट्रेलर में खोली जा चुकी है। वैसे भी यह कोई सस्पैंस फिल्म तो है नहीं। सो, ऐसी फिल्मों में कहानी से ज़्यादा कहानी का ट्रीटमैंट देखा जाता है। और चूंकि यह एक अलग किस्म का सब्जैक्ट है-थोड़ा टैबू सा, थोड़ा हटके वाला, तो हमारे फिल्मकार अक्सर ऐसे विषयों पर कॉमेडी का आवरण चढ़ा कर उन्हें परोसते हैं। फिर चाहे वह ‘बधाई हो’ जैसी फिल्म हो या फिर लगभग ऐसी ही ‘गुड न्यूज़’ जिसमें दिखाया गया था कि कृत्रिम गर्भाधान कराने पहुंचे दो जोड़ों में से क्लिनिक वालों की गलती से एक के स्पर्म दूसरे की बीवी को और दूसरे के स्पर्म पहले की बीवी को दे दिए जाते हैं। वह फिल्म हंसते-गुदगुदाते और अंत में इमोशनल करते हुए अपनी बात कह रही थी और इस फिल्म में भी वही तरीका इस्तेमाल किया गया है।
Pill
Drama (Hindi)
Pill unravels the deep-set rot in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Prakash along with three whistle-blowers face a powerful pharma giant Forever Cure to expose the corrupt nexus of pharma, middlemen, and doctors through which a pill reaches the common man. Will the good be able to overcome the evil?
Cast:
Ritesh Deshmukh, Pavan Malhotra, Anshul Chauhan, Akshat Chauhan, Baharul Islam, Nikhil Khurana, Kunj Anand
Director:
Raj Kumar Gupta, Jaideep Yadav
Sun, July 14 2024
In this post-Covid world, the timing of Pill – an eight-episode examination of the malpractices of Big Indian Pharma that end up endangering human lives — could not be more timely. Just a few months ago, AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, admitted that Covishield, its Covid vaccine, can cause side-effects such as blood clots, low platelet counts, and neurological deficits. If that’s not worrying enough, AstraZeneca is already facing a class action lawsuit in the UK that accuses its vaccine of causing deaths. So far, 51 cases have been filed against the multinational giant. That is to say, for a country that has survived the pandemic and come out on the other side only to discover the long-term side-effects of the vaccines on our bodies, such a show exists as cinematic retribution.
Sarfira
Drama (Hindi)
A young man from a remote village dreams of launching his own airline service. However, he must overcome several obstacles and challenges in order to be successful in his quest.
Cast:
Akshay Kumar, Radhikka Madan, Paresh Rawal, R. Sarathkumar, Seema Biswas, Rahul Vohra, Krishnakumar Balasubramanian, Anil Charanjeett, Ravi Khanvilkar, Suriya
Director:
Sudha Kongara Prasad
Thu, July 11 2024
Wild Wild Punjab
Comedy, Adventure (Hindi)
Four friends road-trip across Punjab to help one of them get over an ex-girlfriend, but are quickly caught in a fiasco like no other.
Cast:
Varun Sharma, Sunny Singh, Jassie Gill, Manjot Singh, Ishita Raj Sharma, Patralekhaa, Gopal Datt, Rajesh Sharma, Anjum Batra, Samuel John
Director:
Simarpreet Singh
Writer:
Harman Wadala, Sandeep Jain
Wed, July 10 2024
Early into Wild Wild Punjab—the new Indian Netflix original movie—a line of dialogue lays bare the film’s inspiration: The Hangover trilogy. It’s not implied, mind you. One of the film’s four lead characters namechecks the high-grossing franchise as a comedic reference. Except Wild Wild Punjab doesn’t stop at acknowledging its existence. It liberally borrows several subplots from The Hangover, including stealing a police vehicle, being chased by gangsters, and drunkenly marrying a random woman. But Wild Wild Punjab—directed by feature debutant Simarpreet Singh and written by Harman Wadala and Sandeep Jain—displays zero understanding of good comedic filmmaking.
Thu, July 4 2024
It was evident, even before Varun Sharma clambered onto the roof of a car, unfastened his fly and shot out a tall projectile of piss, that Wild Wild Punjab was not a serious film. But is it even that wild? The aforementioned scene is probably the looniest thing that happens — a nod, perhaps, to Fukrey 3, which had an entire pee-based plotline dedicated to Sharma. The rest of Simarpreet Singh’s film is oddly strained and docile, a blur of ham-fisted hi-jinks and inane one-liners. “Respect, dude,” someone tells Sharma’s character, a compliment I cannot extend to the film.
Mirzapur S03
Crime, Action & Adventure, Drama (Hindi)
The iron-fisted Akhandanand Tripathi is a millionaire carpet exporter and the mafia don of Mirzapur. His son, Munna, is an unworthy, power-hungry heir who will stop at nothing to inherit his father's legacy. An incident at a wedding procession forces him to cross paths with Ramakant Pandit, an upstanding lawyer, and his sons, Guddu and Bablu. It snowballs into a game of ambition, power and greed that threatens the fabric of this lawless city.
Cast:
Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Rasika Dugal, Harshita Gaur, Sheeba Chaddha, Rajesh Tailang, Anjum Sharma, Isha Talwar, Vijay Varma
Director:
Anand Iyer, Karan Anshuman, Gurmmeet Singh
Writer:
Avinash Singh Tomar, Vijay Narayan Verma, Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann
Fri, July 5 2024
In season 3, Mirzapur wishes to place an even bigger emphasis on the world outside of it. As a feud between two clans ratchets up, a meeting of all the gangsters of Purvanchal—the easternmost section of the state of Uttar Pradesh—is called more than once. They bicker, they whine, but they have no real voice, no real say in the matter. A mediator warns the two parties not to escalate violence and vows that larger powers will come down on them heavily. But it’s all talk. Mirzapur isn’t willing to follow through as it’s only the protagonists who matter. Everyone else is simply window dressing. They feel like plastic, as do those who work for the feuding clans. Its larger world is irrelevant. Mirzapur is a macro show that has no interest in the micro.
Barzakh
Drama, Mystery, Thriller (Arabic)
Unaware of the evil lurking around her, Farah makes the trip to the family farm to visit her uncle Rachid who has suddenly become very sick. Being that her uncle is her only surviving family, Farah plans to convince Rachid to return to the city with her so she can take care of him. But upon her arrival to the farm, she begins to experience unsettling psychic visions and a series of events with mysterious circumstances which pushes her to reconsider all of her plans and ultimately face her destiny.
Cast:
Fatma Nasser, Jamel Madani, Mohamed Sayari, Nour Bettaïeb, Oussama Kochkar
Director:
Kays Mejri
Writer:
Karim Elamouri
Thu, July 4 2024
“The past is not dead. It’s not even past,” wrote William Faulkner. Everything in Barzakh — images, ideas, sounds — responds to that famously Faulknerian sentiment. The title refers to a kind of limbo, an earthly purgatory, where the dead move amidst the living. The six-part series has been shot in the ravishing Hunza Valley, in Northern Pakistan, and is drenched in a despairing, deciduous beauty. Characters converse in pseudo-spiritualistic fragments and heartsick hokum (and also do shrooms). Mountains, as usual, hold the key to everything. Watching the series, I found myself nervously wondering if, across the border, the director Imtiaz Ali was paying attention. What if he feels a little bested, and takes it up as a challenge?
Jatt and Juliet 3
Comedy, Romance (Punjabi)
A police officer aspires to marry his well-off boss and joins her on a trip to the UK to track down a woman.
Cast:
Diljit Dosanjh, Neeru Bajwa, Jaswinder Bhalla, B.N. Sharma, Rana Ranbir, Akram Udaas
Director:
Jagdeep Sidhu
Writer:
Jagdeep Sidhu
Thu, June 27 2024
Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa’s Jatt & Juliet 3 does what Punjabi cinema does best — delights audiences with nutty situations, punchy one-liners, and dollops of humour, which makes for an enjoyable family entertainer. Bringing back the Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa jodi, the beloved franchise is now helmed by writer-director Jagdeep Sidhu, who has taken over the reins from Anurag Singh, and has collaborated with Dosanjh on Sher Bagga (2022) and Shadaa (2019) previously. Fateh Singh (Diljit Dosanjh) and Pooja (Neeru Bajwa) are police constables, but she is his senior. Both have their own selfish reasons for wanting to get married to each other and deceive the other about their true intentions. However, things don’t pan out as planned and threaten to spin out of control when Jasmin Bajwa (Daisy) enters the picture. She is wanted for committing fraud and Pooja and Fateh are sent to London to bring her back. In the midst of it all, Fateh is solely concerned about money and spins a yarn for both Daisy and Pooja.
Kota Factory S03
Comedy, Drama (Hindi)
In a city of coaching centers known to train India’s finest collegiate minds, an earnest but unexceptional student and his friends navigate campus life.
Cast:
Jitendra Kumar, Mayur More, Ranjan Raj, Alam Khan, Ahsaas Channa, Revathi Pillai
Director:
Pratish Mehta, Raghav Subbu
Writer:
Puneet Batra, Pravin Yadav
Thu, June 20 2024
Kota Factory has never lived up to its title. The name suggests a grim look at the dystopian reality of teenagers in their formative years transported to a town in the middle of nowhere for a single mindless pursuit. Instead—over 10 episodes across two seasons—we’ve been treated to a sentimental and meandering look at the life of students. Kota Factory isn’t in black-and-white because it’s drained of life. It’s in black-and-white because the creators, themselves former IITians, are nostalgic for the past. The third—and what feels like the final—season wants to course correct. It wants to brush up on lessons it has ignored so far. But it has no idea how to communicate any of it. Everything is too literal or spelt out.
Thu, June 20 2024
In its third and potentially final season, Kota Factory seems to be responding to past criticism. We discuss the show’s sudden bout of self-reflection, and the confused manner in which it examines the harsh realities of towns like Kota and the industries they service. We also talk about its aversion to human moments, and why the handful of them this season stand out. Later in the episode, we wonder why the show remains watchable on a very fundamental level, even though it often makes the same storytelling mistakes that it used to.
LSD2: Love, Sex Aur Dhoka 2
Drama, Comedy, Crime (Hindi)
In a high-tech world, three intertwined stories discuss identity, online intimacy and the allure of social networks.
Cast:
Paritosh Tiwari, Bonita Rajpurohit, Abhinav Santosh Singh, Swastika Mukherjee, Swaroopa Ghosh, Uorfi Javed, Mouni Roy, Anu Malik, Sophiya Chaudhary, Tusshar Kapoor
Director:
Dibakar Banerjee
Writer:
Dibakar Banerjee, Prateek Vats, Shubham
Sun, June 16 2024
Dibakar Banerjee is going to have to make two good movies to compensate for whatever hellish assault on the senses Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 was. We discuss the film’s muddled social commentary, the frustration oozing out of every frame, and the general incoherence of the arguments. We also compare LSD2’s aesthetic and thematic shortfalls, especially when compared to Banerjee’s past work, while wondering why he couldn’t find room for any self-reflection.
Kudi Haryane Val Di
Drama (Punjabi)
Attempting to impress a woman whose family is passionate about wrestling, a man accidentally bluffs his way into a coaching job.
Cast:
Ammy Virk, Sonam Bajwa, Yashpal Sharma, Yograj Singh
Director:
Rakesh Dhawan
Writer:
Rakesh Dhawan
Fri, June 14 2024
Written and directed by Rakesh Dhawan, Kudi Haryane Val Di, starring Ammy Virk and Sonam Bajwa in the lead roles, brings a freshness to Punjabi cinema with its exploration of cultural differences between the states of Haryana and Punjab. Dhawan explores the cross-cultural theme with the backdrop of wrestling to create an enjoyable drama. Shivjot (Ammy Virk) is the only son in a family of wrestlers but has no interest in wrestling. Carefree and lazy, he reads poetry in the hopes of finding a partner who will make his heart skip a beat. As luck would have it, his gaze falls across the wrestling arena, and he finds Neelam (Sonam Bajwa), the daughter of Mann Singh Dahiya (Yashpal Sharma), the proud owner of an akhara or wrestling ground. Unlike Shivjot, Neelam is passionate about all things wrestling, and in a turn of events, Shivjot finds himself as the coach of Mann Singh’s wrestling team, just as a ploy to get close to her. But when Mann Singh’s arch-rival Sheeshpal throws down the gauntlet, Shivjot must rise up to the challenge and prove himself to be worthy of Neelam’s love.
Inside Out 2
Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family (English)
Teenager Riley's mind headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.
Cast:
Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Kensington Tallman, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Phyllis Smith, Ayo Edebiri, Lilimar, Grace Lu
Director:
Kelsey Mann
Fri, June 14 2024
Inside Out was a breathtaking showcase of Pixar at its best. In imagining our inner selves, the original Pixar movie gave life to our warring emotions, how memories are formed or repressed, and what it means to embrace great change. It truly understood how our brains work. But it wasn’t a philosophical treatise—Inside Out was great entertainment too. Amy Poehler’s unbridled optimistic Joy was a driving force behind that. She contrasted nicely with Anger’s (Lewis Black) outbursts, Fear’s (Bill Hader) jittery and Disgust’s (Mindy Kaling) judgmental behaviour, and Sadness’ (Phyllis Smith) willingness to wallow.
The Boys S04
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action & Adventure (English)
A group of vigilantes known informally as “The Boys” set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty.
Cast:
Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell
Tue, June 11 2024
In one of the early episodes from The Boys season 4, a white woman—dressed in a tight-fitting red and blue outfit, who describes herself as an author, filmmaker, political activist, commentator, and leading voice of the alt-supe movement on YouTube—addresses a small audience at a conspiracy theory convention. In her opening rant, which she says will last the next two hours, she claims that Starlight (Erin Moriarty) is working with the “Hollywood paedophile cabal”. She plugs in a false flag operation, references to Satan, and implies that Tom Hanks had a whistleblower killed. Sitting amidst the audience, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) asks Frenchie (Tomer Capone) if people really fall for this kind of nonsense. He replies: “People will believe anything. Even something as ludicrous as the moon landing.”