120 Bahadur
Action, War (Hindi)
Valiant Indian soldiers fight against Chinese troops during the 1962 Sino-Indian War, preventing a potential occupation of Ladakh region in the Battle of Rezang La. (more…)
Gustaakh Ishq
Romance, Drama (Hindi)
Gustaakh Ishq is a heartwarming, quirky tale that explores the complex dynamics of love, art and self-discovery, set against the vibrant backdrop of Old Delhi and the quiet streets of Malerkotla, a city in Punjab. The story follows Pappan, a (more…)
Tere Ishk Mein
Romance, Drama, Action (Hindi)
A psychology student attempts to rehabilitate a volatile young man, before evolving into a doomed romance. (more…)
Guild Reviews
Train Dreams
Drama (English)
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
Cast:
Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Nathaniel Arcand, Clifton Collins Jr., John Diehl, Paul Schneider, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy, Will Patton, Alfred Hsing
Director:
Clint Bentley
Confronts Ecological Conservation, 20th-Century Capitalism Through a Faceless American Figure
Mon, December 1 2025
It takes a special kind of film to be aware of its surroundings. It is one thing to fetishise nature and invite comparison to the sweeping scale of a Terrence Mallick film but Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams does something interesting with the vessel of a meandering Mallick film. It cuts and splices the essential bits of a man’s journey fuelled by cosmic wonder: the meaning of it all. And it does that using a specific means: a voiceover (by Will Patton).
Gustaakh Ishq
Romance, Drama (Hindi)
Gustaakh Ishq is a heartwarming, quirky tale that explores the complex dynamics of love, art and self-discovery, set against the vibrant backdrop of Old Delhi and the quiet streets of Malerkotla, a city in Punjab. The story follows Pappan, a man with a history of failures, who dreams of reviving his father’s legacy.
Cast:
Naseeruddin Shah, Vijay Varma, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sharib Hashmi, Natasha Rastogi, Rohan Verma, Lilliput (M. M. Faruqui), Shashi Bhushan, Jaya Bhattacharya, Samiksha Tripathi
Director:
Vibhu Puri
Writer:
Vibhu Puri
A Modest Muslim Social Reclaiming Decency in the Age of Vitriol
Mon, December 1 2025
Despite its shortcomings, one thing that is impressive about Vibhu Puri’s Gustaakh Ishq is that it’s not tentative about what it wants to be. No pretence or excessive self-awareness – often a crutch for films afraid to go the distance, hedging against becoming a laughing stock. In an age when Hindi cinema has been pilloried as ‘Urduwood’ by right-wing trolls, it’s heartwarming to see Puri’s film reclaim and revive the Muslim social film.
Screenplay flatlines early with unexplained loose ends
Sat, November 29 2025
Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah are up against forced melodrama, flat storytelling
Sat, November 29 2025
The pleasure of listening to Naseeruddin Shah say ‘ool julool’, a phrase nearly impossible to translate, the closest being ‘aisa-waisa’, silly, stupid, but not quite. The pleasure of watching Vijay Varma as a lover of Urdu shairi, using his head and heart to woo an old poet and his lovely daughter. And to have all of this wrapped in a film which privileges a love of language, flowery shairi and broken-hearted shayars, mouldering old Delhi printing presses and broke publishers, should have resulted in a film which makes you ache and sigh in the best way possible.
Victoria
Drama (Malayalam)
Victoria, a young beautician in a suburban beauty parlour, decides to elope with her Hindu boyfriend after a fierce clash with her conservative Catholic parents. Amidst the turmoil, a neighbour asks her to temporarily house an offering rooster destined for a festival at St. George church inside the parlour. Juggling the rooster's antics, unexpected clients, and her boyfriend's uncertainty, Victoria grapples with conflicting emotions leading to a day of intense personal and spiritual revelations.
Cast:
Meenakshi Jayan, Sreeshma Chandran, Jolly Chirayath, Darsana Vikas, Steeja Mary, Jeena Rajeev
Director:
Sivaranjini
Writer:
Sivaranjini
Meenakshi Jayan's Rock-Solid Performance Anchors This Moving Sisterhood Drama
Mon, December 1 2025
In Sivaranjani’s Victoria, the most striking moment has more to do with a sound, rather than visuals. It feels like just another day at Victoria’s (Meenakshi Jayan) beauty salon when we hear this, as she waxes the arms of a customer. Until then, we see Victoria maintaining a happy face through it all, as she tries to manage the crowd at the salon with the worries of having to elope with her non-committal boyfriend. But each time Victoria tugs at a waxing strip in her hurry to remove them, the sound we hear is that of slaps falling on Victoria, along with the voice of a man shouting. Until that moment, we see bruises on her face, but the film doesn’t quite explain their origin. And with the sound of each waxing strip getting pulled, we listen in on the taunts being hurled at Victoria for her decision to marry outside of her religion. For women like her, the salon is therapy.
Sensitive, realistic tale of a woman bound by patriarchal men
Sun, November 30 2025
Watching director Sivaranjini’s Victoria, there’s a sense of familiarity in the everydayness unfolding on screen. Meenakshi Jayan powers through a tale of silent resilience while dealing with a busy day at work and personal struggles. And Victoria just did a wonderful job of showcasing an all-woman cast, with the men mostly appearing through video calls or through audio.
(Writing for The Polis Project)
Feminichi Fathima and Victoria Interrogate the Interiority of Women’s Lives and Celebrate Seemingly Small Victoriesvictoria-2
Thu, March 20 2025
Two Malayalam films that world premiered at the 29th International Film Festival of Kerala in December 2024 share DNA despite employing different milieu and techniques. Fasil Muhammed’s Feminichi Fathima (also screened at the 14th Indian Film Festival of Bhubaneswar) is about the eponymous Muslim housewife in Ponnani in Malappuram and possesses a day-in-the-life narrative. Sivaranjini’s Victoria designs a single day as a series of single takes in the life of Victoria, a beautician at a parlor in Angamaly who is juggling a characteristically busy day at the office and a tenuous period in her personal life. The two films have little in common in terms of setting and visual grammar, but they share philosophies and wrestle with the politics of survival and existence. They focus on women’s labor, the physical strain on their bodies, and the casually developing solidarity with the women around them.
Perfect Family
Family, Drama (Hindi)
Meet the Perfect Family - the lovable Karkarias. Perfect on the outside, but simmering with resentments, insecurities, and old wounds on the inside. When life hits hard, they’re pushed into family therapy, where issues of trust, loyalty, and communication finally explode. With their quirks, chaos, and constant derailing of every session, progress is a miracle. Join them on this hilarious, heartfelt Therapy ka Safar—where life finally meets itself.
Cast:
Neha Dhupia, Manoj Pahwa, Seema Pahwa, Gulshan Devaiah, Girija Oak, Kaveri Seth, Hirva Samir Trivedi
Sun, November 30 2025
A beautifully relatable series
Sun, November 30 2025
The Karkarias of Delhi are a family who, like all of us, are desperate to project that everything is perfect. Somanth Karkaria (Manoj Pahwa) owns a mithaai-ki-dukaan which is struggling to stay afloat in a time when people are cutting on sugar, and veering towards videshi sweets. A paterfamilias in the old mould, he carries a comfortable paunch, and a sneering attitude of daddy-knows-best whether it comes to his own wife Kamla (Seema Pahwa), son Vishnu (Gulshan Devaiah), daughter Pooja (Kaveri Seth), daughter-in-law Neeti (Girija Oak Godbole) and their two grandchildren, Daani and Daksh.
Revolver Rita
Comedy, Action, Crime (Tamil)
A woman must use her intelligence and grit to protect her family after they are unexpectedly caught in the crossfire of gang violence.
Cast:
Keerthy Suresh, Redin Kingsley, Radikaa Sarathkumar, Sunil Varma, Ajay Ghosh, Super Subbarayan, John Vijay, Kalyan Kumar, Suresh Chakravarthy, Sentrayan
Director:
K. Chandru
Writer:
K. Chandru
Keerthy Suresh's black comedy misses the mark by miles
Sun, November 30 2025
Comedy is tricky business, and to pull it off successfully requires an actor to tick off a huge checklist. One needs to have impeccable comic timing, sense of action and reaction, and spontaneity. Only a handful of female actors have been able to pull off a dark comedy, a niche genre in itself. Has Keerthy Suresh managed to score with Revolver Rita? Let’s find out!
Tere Ishk Mein
Romance, Drama, Action (Hindi)
A psychology student attempts to rehabilitate a volatile young man, before evolving into a doomed romance.
Cast:
Dhanush, Kriti Sanon, Priyanshu Painyuli, Prakash Raj, Sushil Dahiya
Director:
Aanand L. Rai
Writer:
Himanshu Sharma, Neeraj Yadav
Inanity disguised as profundity
Sat, November 29 2025
Aanand L. Rai’s romantic tragedy is messy and magical in equal measure
Sat, November 29 2025
Bollywood is in love all over again. After Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara, Aanand L Rai, another master of the poetic portrayal of passion and pain, returns with a gripping interrogation of love’s destructive underbelly, set in a social context. Connected to Raanjhanaa(2013) by an umbilical cord, Tere Ishk Mein talks of the magic of love that is lost in modern life’s logic, which entices us to trade emotions. In Rai’s universe, love is both poison and panacea, and once again, he has taken up a risky subject — the transformative power of romance.
रांझणा बनने चला ‘तेरे इश्क में’
Sat, November 29 2025
लड़की हाथ छुड़ा कर मुड़ी तो उसकी चूड़ी का कांच टूट कर लड़के को ज़ख्म दे गया। ऐसा ज़ख्म कि उसने शहर को फूंकना चाहा। लड़की किसी और से शादी करने चली तो वह उसे श्रॉप दे आया कि शंकर करे तुझे बेटा हो, तुझे भी पता चले कि इश्क में जो मर जाते हैं वो भी किसी के बेटे होते हैं। कहानी की यह झलक बताती है कि यह फिल्म हमें इश्क-मोहब्बत के उन दर्द भरे रास्तों पर ले जाने आई है जिसे देख कर आशिकों के दिल तड़पते हैं और जिन्होंने कभी प्यार न किया हो वे सुकून महसूस करते हैं। फिल्मकार आनंद एल. राय की ‘रांझणा’ भी तो ऐसी ही फिल्म थी जिसमें मुरारी ने कुंदन से कहा था-मर जाओ पंडित। पंडित उस फिल्म में इश्क करते हुए मरा तो इस फिल्म में भी वही रूप धर कर आ गया। वैसे भी सभी दिलजले, बर्बाद आशिकों की सूरत एक जैसी ही हो जाती है।
Kaisi Ye Paheli
Mystery, Thriller (Hindi)
In a sleepy hill town in northeast India, a lonely mother tries to reconnect with her estranged policeman son by channeling her inner detective to help him solve a murder.
Cast:
Sukant Goel, Sadhana Singh, Rajit Kapoor, Chittaranjan Giri, Rahul Nawach Mukhia, Nishu Dikshit, Rinchen Sherpa, Bindhiya Dhamala, Rajendra Maskey, Ujjaini Deb
Director:
Ananyabrata Chakravorty
Writer:
Ananyabrata Chakravorty
Sukant Goel, Sadhana Singh film comes off as amateurish
Sat, November 29 2025
Truth be told, the only reason why I was interested in Kaisi Yeh Paheli is because I wanted to see what Sukant Goel was up to this time, as I had enjoyed his turn in the sadly-truncated Netflix series Kaala Pani. In Kaisi Yeh Paheli, he plays a son who dislikes his mother intensely, sustaining the emotion even when he is tasked with cracking the case of a young woman’s murder.
Technical Glitches Mar A Good One-Liner
Sat, November 29 2025
Conceptually, Kaisi Ye Paheli goes for broke. The 95-minute independent film, written and directed by Ananyabrata Chakravorty, wears the cloak of yet another small-town whodunnit. There’s a death in misty Kalimpong; sullen cop Uttam (Sukant Goel) and his boss, Tamang (Chittaranjan Giri), are flummoxed by the details: a religious girl poisoned by a holy sweet? The theatrical Bondo (Rajit Kapur, always) is summoned from Kolkata by the powers that be; the senior sleuth has a direct line to “Didi,” and behaves like he’s an amalgamation of Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda in his head. Meanwhile, Uttam’s home situation is complicated — he resents his widowed mother (Sadhana Singh) for various reasons, not least because she constantly recalls their past life and late husband. The mother-son bond is strained, she aches for his attention, so it’s amusing when Tamang and team unofficially recruit her to be part of the investigation because of her passion for Bengali detective novels. Uttam’s colleagues confide in her like sons in their downtime; it’s a quirky touch without the energy of a quirky touch.
Nishaanchi 2
Drama, Crime (Hindi)
After another stint in jail, Tony finds that Rinku, his one true love and hope, has been taken by his brother Dabloo. This shocks him into reforming, but Ambika drags him back into crime, with Kamal on his trail. How Manjari gets to have the last laugh, with Tony, Ambika and Kamal at the forefront, forms the rest of the two-part gangster drama.
Cast:
Monika Panwar, Aaishvary Thackeray, Vedika Pinto, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra, Raghav Juyal, Gaurav Singh, Saharsh Kumar Shukla, Prateek Pachori, Girish Sharma
Director:
Anurag Kashyap
Writer:
Prasoon Mishra, Ranjan Chandel, Anurag Kashyap
A Spotify Review
Fri, November 28 2025
Zootopia 2
Animation, Family, Comedy, Adventure, Mystery (English)
After cracking the biggest case in Zootopia's history, rookie cops Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde find themselves on the twisting trail of a great mystery when Gary De’Snake arrives and turns the animal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before.
Cast:
Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson
Director:
Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Writer:
Jared Bush
(Writing for OTT Play)
The Snaky Path To Greatness
Fri, November 28 2025
Of all the Disney movies over the years with PG-13 racial metaphors and diversity parables, Zootopia 2 faces the most uphill battle there ever was. For it takes on the task of doing the near-impossible: the destigmatisation of Snakes. The fear and distrust of this reptile is so historically and genetically entrenched in human systems that the real-world subtext is almost secondary. In Zootopia 2, the unlikely police pairing of hyper-rabbit Judy Hopps and red fox Nick Wilde try their darndest to unscramble snake propaganda — a pit viper named Gary De’Snake emerges in the mainland, and everyone is terrorised. Except Judy, who trusts that the snake is the good guy whose ‘people’ have been maligned by the ruling family of lynxes. Gary wants to prove that the land was theirs to begin with (duh), and the patent was stolen by the sly lynxes. History students, unite.
Stranger Things S05
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Action & Adventure (English)
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
Cast:
Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton
Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown Starrer Has Slow Start Yet Ups Emotion And Action
Thu, November 27 2025
After three and a half years, Stranger Things is back, promising a return to the Upside Down and a conflict with Vecna, the big bad who has been controlling the alternate dimension underneath the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana. Co-created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things is an ode to the 1980s, with terrific references to its music, movies, and pop culture moments. But at its heart, the Netflix story is about friendship and the lengths they will go to save one another. With the first batch of episodes dropping on November 27, it’s time to check back in with the Hawkins gang.
Though far from perfect, jaw-dropping action meets heartfelt emotion in Vol 1 of Stranger Things 5
Thu, November 27 2025
Stranger Things is engaging TV. It is affecting TV. It is emotive TV. And nine years, four seasons and 34 episodes later, we know that Stranger Things is no longer simply TV. What more can be said about this Netflix phenomenon that first came into our lives in the summer of 2016, bringing in a potent mix of science-fiction, horror and mystery packaged in a coming-of-age drama that evoked unbridled ’80s nostalgia, that hasn’t been said before? As the seasons have rolled, the adventures of a rag-tag team of teens taking on forces mythical and supernatural have only grown bigger in scope, scale and storytelling. It has spurred a booming universe of merchandising, live experiences, a Broadway show, a fandom that has made it a pop culture landmark, resurrected interest in things as diverse as Dungeons & Dragons and Eggos, brought Kate Bush back to the top of the charts and rocket-launched the careers of the majority of its young actors. The launch of every season of Stranger Things has been an event, eliciting the kind of tingling-in-the-neck sensation — we know that could be a stretch, but hey, this is Stranger Things — that Will experiences every time he feels Vecna (or as we know by now, is Vecna).
Cast:
Ram Pothineni, Upendra, Bhagyashri Borse, Rao Ramesh, Murali Sharma, Satya, Rahul Ramakrishna, VTV Ganesh
Director:
Mahesh Babu P.
Writer:
Mahesh Babu P.
Ram Pothineni and Upendra lead this feel-good tribute to cinema
Thu, November 27 2025
Some bonds defy rational explanation, like the devotion an ardent fan feels for a film star. What drives someone to go to extraordinary lengths for an actor who may never know they exist? Andhra King Taluka, written and directed by Mahesh Babu P, frames itself as a “biopic of a fan” to explore precisely this question. Through the fictional journey of Sagar (Ram Pothineni), an admirer of superstar Surya Kumar (Upendra), fondly called the “Andhra King”, the film examines how fandom shapes identity and ambition.
120 Bahadur
Action, War (Hindi)
Valiant Indian soldiers fight against Chinese troops during the 1962 Sino-Indian War, preventing a potential occupation of Ladakh region in the Battle of Rezang La.
Cast:
Farhan Akhtar, Raashii Khanna, Sparsh Walia, Ankit Siwach, Vivan Bhatena, Dhanveer Singh, Brijesh Karanwal, Sahib Verma, Eijaz Khan, Ajinkya Deo
Director:
Razneesh Ghai
(Writing for The Daily Eye)
A BAttle Remembered Forever
Mon, November 24 2025
In the last decade, Hindi cinema has witnessed a surge of patriotic historical dramas, each striving to present tales of courage rooted in pivotal moments of India’s past. Within this landscape, 120 Bahadur, directed by Razneesh “Razy” Ghai, sets its sights on one of the most stirring chapters of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict. Farhan Akhtar steps into the challenging role of Major Shaitan Singh, the charismatic commander whose steadfast leadership during the Battle of Rezang La has long been revered but insufficiently explored on film. The result is a work that marries emotional solemnity with the visceral spectacle of war, aiming to honour a legacy that remains vital to national memory.
मिट्टी पर मिटने वालों की अमिट कहानी
Fri, November 21 2025
1962 का समय। हिन्दी-चीनी भाई-भाई के नारे को ठोकर मारते हुए चीन ने भारत की पीठ में खंजर भोंका था। उसी युद्ध में 18 नवंबर, 1962 को लद्दाख के रेज़ांग ला में एक ऐसी अनोखी लड़ाई लड़ी गई थी जिसमें 120 वीर सिपाहियों की चार्ली कंपनी ने मेजर शैतान सिंह की अगुआई में तीन हज़ार चीनी सैनिकों से भिड़ते हुए उन्हें पीछे हटने पर मजबूर कर दिया था। उस लड़ाई में मात्र 6 सैनिक जीवित बचे थे और मेजर शैतान सिंह समेत बाकी वीरों ने मौत को गले लगाया था। बाद में मेजर शैतान सिंह को मरणोपरांत परमवीर चक्र और उनके सिपाहियों में से आठ को वीर चक्र, एक को अति विशिष्ट सेवा मैडल, चार को सेना पदक व अन्य सम्मान दिए गए। अगर उस दिन ये लोग वहां डट कर नहीं रहते तो चीन भारत में काफी अंदर तक कब्ज़ा कर चुका होता। उन्हीं वीर अहीर सिपाहियों और राजपूत मेजर शैतान सिंह भाटी के अदम्य साहस को सलाम करती है निर्माता फरहान अख्तर की यह फिल्म ‘120 बहादुर’। फरहान अख्तर इसके लिए प्रशंसा के हकदार हैं।
Indo-China war film has a surprisingly soft edge
Fri, November 21 2025
Partly by choice, partly through circumstance, 120 Bahadur is out of sync with the times. Razneesh Ghai’s film, about a famous battle in the Sino-Indian war of 1962, chooses to be stirring, even square. Most Hindi war films adopt a very different tone now. Some viewers might be reminded of the wholesomeness of Lakshya, directed by Farhan Akhtar, 120 Bahadur’s lead actor. That film was made 21 years ago but it may as well be 40 considering how little it has in common with hard, cynical, triumphant films like Uri and Shershaah and Fighter.