Sat, October 10 2026

Despite its sharp observations, sincere performances, and noble intentions, ‘Reporting Live’ eventually becomes a safe, lukewarm watch.

At a time when investigative journalism is making news, Reporting Live exposes the high cost of illegal sand mining. The sand mafia has deep roots in the institutional architecture, but its corruption is often exposed by stringers and is buried in the inside pages of newspapers until a journalist is mowed down or a whistleblower is burnt alive. Drawing from real events, the film follows Sandhya Yadav (Parineeti Chopra), a field reporter for the Mumbai-based Hindi news channel Azaad Bharati, hunting for a primetime story. Alongside her pragmatic video journalist, Vinod Sharma (Deven Bhojani), she is dispatched to cover an infrastructure disaster in Visargaon, where the sudden collapse of a bridge claims the lives of school children.

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Sat, October 10 2026

Good intentions alright, but tepid treatment saps whatever advantages the concept might have had on paper

As this review appears in a newspaper which has actively led a crusade against illegal mining, there is no denying the relevance of the subject. Or the significant role played by the media in unmasking it. Straight up, ‘Reporting Live’ takes us to a pressing concern: the eviction of fishermen from their ancestral land. In its place, a mall by a builder has been proposed. Reporting the protest and new development plan are journalist Sandhya (Parineeti Chopra) and photographer Vinod (Deven Bhojani) from television channel Azad Bharti. Those clued in on the affairs of television journalism know all too well, it’s anything but azad. Free press is fast becoming a chimera.

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Sat, October 10 2026

This Parineeti Chopra outing coming so soon after the disappointing Shaque should have given us a chance to forget that one. But Chopra is, yet again, single-note here.

Illegal sand-mining continues to be the flavour of the season. Anil Kapoor’s ex-Armyman went up against the ruthless mafia controlling operations in the sepia-tinted hinterlands in Subedaar earlier this year. Now come Parineeti Chopra and Deven Bhojani as the intrepid reporter-camera duo from a TRP-hungry TV network (are there any other kinds?) who confront the bad guys. The nearly two-hour long duration is spent in watching Sandhya Yadav (Parineeti Chopra) and Vinod Sharma (Deven Bhojani) tracking the act itself on the banks of a river, being threatened both outside and inside the workplace, running the gamut of supportive types and unhelpful seniors, going sleuthing in tall unfinished buildings, and other dangerous places.

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Sat, October 10 2026

It is passable. It could have been, nay, should have been, much, much more.

A crackling whistleblower drama that excoriates the algorithm-driven world of Facebook/Meta/Instagram for the way it imperils nations, societies, communities and individuals struggling with disaffection and disinformation, The Social Reckoning sees writer Aaron Sorkin return (this time with directorial responsibility added on) to the turf that he trod in The Social Network (2010). He hits his target hard enough when the darts land right. When they don’t, this standalone follow-up, which rests to a great extent on the shoulders of Jeremy Strong stepping in for Jesse Eisenberg in the role of Mark Zuckerberg, is projected as a sort of cold-hearted corporate scalawag chasing revenues no matter what the price of the pursuit is.

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Sat, October 10 2026

Aaron Sorkin film is less about Mark Zuckerberg and more about The Wall Street Journal story that caused a rip in the veil cloaking the company.

Explaining the theory on which Facebook’s News Feed is based, Mark Zuckerberg once said: “A squirrel dying in your front yard may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.” What he didn’t say was that Facebook algorithm could well determine what seems closer – your front yard or Africa. ‘We’re way past making friends,’ as The Social Reckoning’s tagline says. Way past, that is, The Social Network, whose Zuckerberg was about to found Facebook, and who was this mesmeric awkward, brash, nervous genius who may not have got many likes, but whom you could not scroll past.

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Sat, October 10 2026

Aaron’s Sorkin’s standalone sequel to ‘The Social Network’ features a data scientist and a reporter who team up to expose Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook.

Imagine being such a distinct storyteller that your last name is synonymous with a whole language of film-making. It’s a privilege reserved exclusively for directors: Tarantino-esque, Spielbergian, Lynchian. But Aaron Sorkin is a screenwriter solely responsible for the cinema of ‘Sorkinisms’: a style of dialogue and atmosphere where humans speak faster than they think, flaunt intellectual credibility, exchange smug repartee without a single stutter, do deadpan jokes in a hurry, react without listening, unleash crowd-pleasing one-liners, and demonstrate robotic comfort with one another.

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Sat, October 10 2026

It’s hard to comprehend why Jessica Chastain agreed to this, though it’s easy to see the filmmakers saw her sharp, gaunt, porcelain-white face as perfect to seamlessly transition into something horrific and terrifying.

A busy mother who is “always late from work” now doesn’t have to bear just guilt and a disgruntled husband. Other Mommy tells us her dispirited child could also invite into their home “a corrupted energy looking for a host from another plane” to fill the “gap” in her heart. That’s one way of describing the creature that is haunting the Martins, comprising daughter Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark), Mommy (Jessica Chastain) and “Daddo” (Jay Duplass). Though they act like no other normal people haunted before perhaps have, such as coolly stopping by for burgers at a strip mall as they discuss how to “kill it” in front of their child, after having just seen one of their closest friends (Arian Moayed) ripped apart by the “thing”.

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Sat, October 10 2026

Gary Oldman show returns with its consistent mix of silliness and sharpness, making us care for its characters, while taking care to spice up the things with smart new adversaries.

When this sixth season of Slow Horses showed up amongst much excitement, there was this automatic question in our heads: would the change in writers — series creator and lead writer Will Smith handed over the reins to Gaby Chiappe — impact the show, which nestles comfortably in my list of best spy thrillers currently streaming. The answer is a resounding no. I have to confess I was a little sceptical when this new season began, but the way it has forged ahead, turning a show that spent a lot of time brooding in dank rooms, sending its gaggle of gabby, dank spies, on a breathless chase involving our favourite slow horses and a Russian hit-couple, I’ve barely had time to breathe.

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Wed, September 16 2026

The Emmy-nominated British espionage drama is back with its sixth season in six years, and the tension remains at an all-time high

Apple TV’s Slow Horses has never shied away from death. In the past five seasons, Slough House has lost several agents, and this season, the count is about to get higher. Gary Oldman’s Jackson Lamb must figure out who is targeting his agents and why. Based on the books of Mick Herron, the MI5 agents of Slough House have endured a lot, but this season, they’re truly on the run as sitting targets in a mission that’s out to get them. Led by Oldman and Jack Lowden, the darkly humorous spy thriller just improves with every season, as the writing, characterisation and direction just get sharper and hit that much harder.

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Wed, October 7 2026

Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, the new Malayalam film starring Nivin Pauly, is a brilliantly localised, laugh-out-loud rom-com that has become the highest-grossing Malayalam movie of all time. We discuss the film’s respectfully handled age-gap romance, praising how the narrative gives Mamitha’s character the agency to initiate the relationship. We also dive into director Girish A.D.’s masterful visual storytelling, Nivin Pauly’s triumphant return to his “boy-next-door” roots, and the highly specific cultural context of Angamaly church units that grounds the humour. Along the way, we highlight the film’s hilarious reliance on Kerala meme culture—including the brilliant meta-casting of the “Convincing Star”—and applaud the genius marketing stunt where the film was jokingly promoted as the “behind-the-scenes footage” for a short released on YouTube.

Fri, September 4 2026

Nivin Pauly and a supremely charming Mamitha Baiju star in Girish AD's comedy about an age-gap romance in a small Kerala town

‘Illey Illa’, the first song in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, has a line that translates to “your novenas have finally come true”. The word was unfamiliar to me—I later found it’s a Catholic term for prayers offered for nine successive days, or weeks. It’s one little detail among dozens in the series of vignettes that make up the musical sequence: a busload of passengers held up by a short film shoot; a bowler running out a wandering non-striker, resulting in a brawl; father and son cooking pork curry; a young woman, friendless in a new town, watching her farewell video on her phone at bedtime; a grown man proudly clutching stuffed toys won from a claw machine.

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Thu, August 27 2026

Wed, October 7 2026

Mon, October 5 2026

Impressive performances, music and cinematography lend respectability to the Ramesh Bandreddi-directed Telugu film, which has its fair share of problems

Thella Kaagitham — a blank piece of paper — is a fitting title for a story dealing with two impressionable adolescents. The success of films like Courtand Little Heartshas thrown the ball open for filmmakers to dabble with tender love, bringing a much-needed innocence to storytelling in an industry caught between testosterone-heavy actioners, cushy romances and far-fetched comedies. Intermediate students Ramu (Harsh Roshan) and Asha (Nakshatra) are 16, neither children nor adults, curiously opening up to a world full of infinite possibilities. It is a sleepy small town in late-2000s Andhra Pradesh, where landlines are commonplace, and internet penetration is minimal. Their parents have tall dreams and lead modest lives, making small sacrifices to fund their education and putting their problems aside.

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Mon, October 5 2026

Dhadakpur erupts when a mobile tower is set to be built on Banwari’s field, sparking panic. His son Bhugol grows popular as an influencer, while his daughter Roshni feels the pressure ahead of the gruelling SSC exam, just a week away. Her ex Amavas offers her a shortcut with pure intentions, while local inspector Mithlesh investigates a scam. The performances are decent, though the characters don’t make much progress. The pivotal cast – Gajraj Rao, Renuka Shahane, Sparsh Shrivastava and Shivani Raghuvanshi – do the needful, but aren’t quite tested and their portrayals hardly offer anything new. Yashpal Sharma’s cop act deserved better writing. Bhuvan Arora is strictly okay. Anjuman Saxena’s presence offers rare instances of warmth.

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Fri, October 2 2026

The laidback rural satire improves upon a scattered first season, introducing stakes and problems that echo in the real world

Dupahiya is a homegrown series that’s difficult to write about. Not because it’s mediocre or anything, but because it’s the kind of low-stakes, minor-key and watchable satire that strives to be forgotten the second it ends. It’s almost too easy to engage with as ambient and family-friendly entertainment; the cast is likeable; the craft is playful; everyone gets a track (read this in Oprah’s “everyone gets a car” voice); the setting is familiar. Season 1 revolved around a stolen dowry motorbike in the crime-free village of Dhadakpur. The Panchayat hangover was strong, despite a broad storyline connecting its several characters. But Season 2 sheds the hangover — ironically, Panchayat itself has mutated into its own imposter — by being more thematically distinct. Besides the dramedy, it grows up a bit and stays tethered to the India of today. I’ll remember it more than the first season because it’s not as…content. Pun unintended.

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Fri, October 2 2026

The second season of Sparsh Srivastava-Gajraj Rao suffers from a plot which doesn’t thicken till way past the halfway mark, even though it feels timely -- the leaking of exam papers.

One of the reasons that Dupahiya worked was its cheerful focus on the importance of the two-wheeler—its ‘whereof’ and ‘whyfor’. A potential groom demands a dupahiya to marry an excited girl who has fallen, not for his brash charms, but for the promise of getting away from here to there, a fictional Dhadakpur to a real-life Mumbai. It became the dhuri (fulcrum) around which the series revolves, telling the story of a gaon, its people and its politics in a spry and enjoyable way. The second season suffers from a plot which doesn’t thicken till way past the halfway mark, even though it feels timely: the leaking of exam papers is a fraught issue, whose fire has caused unimaginable turmoil.

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Mon, October 5 2026

An old-fashioned family drama dressed up as a new-age entertainer, ‘Avaraachan and Sons’ relies heavily on Biju Menon’s charm to compensate for its flat writing

Aspirations to be a new-age family entertainer are evident in Avaraachan and Sons, especially in the soundtrack, which contains liberal doses of not-so-great rap lyrics. But at its heart and in its somewhat dated approach, the Thamby-directed film remains an old-fashioned feel-good film, which serves up exciting bits only once in a while. Much of the film banks on Biju Menon’s lazy charm, which easily fits the protagonist Avaraachan, who doesn’t take life seriously, even as he expects a grandchild. A widower with two grown-up sons (Sreenath Bhasi and Ganapathy), he is unable to wean himself off the liquor bottle. Added to this is his propensity to get into trouble quite often. After one such episode, the family decides to pack him off from their coastal abode to the high ranges, where his sister resides.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Biju Menon brings warmth and emotional heft to Avaraachan and Sons, which works better as a coming-of-age story of a flawed adult than as a family drama

Biju Menon has a peculiar penchant for humour. After starting with serious, mostly villainous roles, the actor reinvented himself in the 2010s, mainly with his flair for comedy. Marykkundoru Kunjaadu, Seniors, Ordinary, Vellimoonga, Kunjiramayanam, Padayottam, Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu… the actor was on quite a roll before he applied the brakes — either to avoid repetition or evade typecasting. In the last few years, he has largely stayed away from such roles, yet again focusing on intense roles, which he was always good at. That is why Avaraachan and Sons comes as a whiff of fresh air, beautifully balancing the veteran’s strengths. It has Biju Menon operating largely in his delightful ‘Maamachan zone’, but with much more emotional heft. As the titular character Avaraachan, Biju Menon is the anchor to this rocky boat that braves a few dips before reaching shore smoothly.

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Mon, October 5 2026

Given how my heart beats for underdog narratives and anti-system stories, it’s so hard not to praise Meesaya Murukku 2. This is, after all, a film about people trying to get through a door that generations of powerful people have guarded. Talent isn’t enough here. Generations pass, gaana changes, and yet, the struggle remains. That’s why I totally dug the idea of Adhi playing Jeeva, and the young versions of his father and grandfather (senior versions are played by Baba Bhaskar and Karunaas). Beyond the opportunities it provides Adhi to shine, it’s narratively a beautiful emotional choice. It suggests that the years pass, the hairstyles change, the language changes… And yet, the young man trying to get through the door bears the same face. It’s the same dream being denied by the same person.

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Fri, September 25 2026

Directed by Hiphop Tamizha Adhi and starring himself, Karunas and Baba Baskar, the gaana-driven musical explores the class divide in the music world and the struggle for gaana to find mainstream recognition. Spanning the musical dreams of three generations, the film has an interesting premise but remains disappointingly hollow.

Meesaya Murukku arrived in 2017 and remains a film that still serves as solid motivation to youngsters. A coming-of-age musical that doubled as Hiphop Tamizha Adhi’s biography, it was everything youngsters lapped up. Eight years later, Meesaya Murukku 2 is here. A spiritual sequel, the second part now sheds light on gaana — often linked to a particular era — and how it hasn’t got the recognition it deserves.

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Fri, September 25 2026

Takes on gaana culture, caste and class barriers in the music industry, but its many ideas come at the cost of a focussed story

Meesaya Murukku 2 has some basic ideas that would fill the first few pages of a Pa Ranjith or a Mari Selvaraj script, which explains how it opens: a traditionalist orthodox musician grabbing a recording chance that was otherwise meant for a rooted gaana artiste. Here, we see characters named Das and Lakshmi from Royapuram, in true retro style, filling the theatre with lines in Madras baashai. Very soon, we cut to characters called Siva and Jeeva. What connects these people and why do they struggle to find success in this world?

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Mon, October 5 2026

Mon, October 5 2026

Dorothy is the work of a film-lover. That’s, perhaps, its biggest strength. But, by the end of the film, it also seems like its most glaring limitation.

One of the great joys of watching a Kartik Subbaraj film is enumerating a list in your head of his possible sources of inspiration. It remains true for his latest directorial venture, Dorothy, too. Like how a home without a woman’s touch has echoes of Kanu Behl’s Titli (2013) – a film about a carjacking crew, comprising a father and his three sons. A scene where the couple bows down to touch an elder’s feet, only to cut to a marriage scene when the couple gets back up, but the man has been replaced by someone belonging to the same dominant caste as the woman. It’s the kind of deadpan comedy scene I’d expect in a modern Malayalam film. A character tries to clumsily kill someone, and repeatedly fails, reminiscent of the assassins in Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges (2013). A black-and-white track takes place in the present, while cutting to a flashback in colour, like in Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000). There’s also the grit and rigour of the Madurai gangster film, championed by the likes of Vetri Maaran, M. Sasikumar, given how the film centres itself around young boys being taught to ‘man up’ each time they walk, eat or wince while seeing a floating corpse, violence. They’re also repeatedly told crying ‘like a woman’ is disgusting.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy is a cinema of red herrings and foreshadowing.

Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy is a cinema of red herrings and foreshadowing. In the beginning, it declares itself as a ballad to the friendship of Karthi (Rishikanth) and Subbu (Sananth), their early childhood in school, their companionship that triumphs caste, and their affection that transcends class. It is an inception that’s familiar to the Tamil audience, one that evokes so many films from the past, from Uyarndha Manithan, Paarthal Pasi Theerum and Alayamani to Sattam, Annamalai, Thalapathy and Friends. Subbaraj sets it closer to his stomping grounds—in and around a village in Madurai in the mid-90s. If the last fifteen years are any indication this points to only one genre—the gangster saga known as 3Ms, Madurai Murder and Mayhem—and so goes Subbaraj, populating the film with familiar tropes and beats, making Karthi and Subbu the muscle for a local thug.

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Mon, October 5 2026

Sat, October 3 2026

Director Ram's Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai, starring Nivin Pauly, Anjali and Soori, is an eccentric tale about a man who is 8,000 years old. His escapades in an evolving world make for an unbearable, torturous two hours in the theatre.

Over the past few months, a popular meme featuring actor Karunas’s dialogue from Polladhavan has been doing the rounds: “Seri da, ippo enna?” (Okay, what now?). It is a short, almost throwaway line, but one that fits just about every occasion when you are subjected to an inconsequential story and find yourself desperately searching for a comeback that will shut the conversation down. “Seri da, ippo enna?” does the job. Brief, dismissive and brutal.

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Thu, October 1 2026

Whenever this film moves away from the train and indulges in a fairy tale about a man and a woman finding themselves and falling in love again and again, Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai shows what it could have been...

Eternal. There is so much positivity to the idea of something being eternal. But is it always a great thing? Experiencing a love that transcends time and space is a beautiful feeling, but what if it comes with the pain of separation, the angst of yearning, and the burden of repetition? In fact, the nameless protagonist (Nivin Pauly) of director Ram’s latest, Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai, is an immortal being who has been walking through the sands of time for over 8,000 years. He is worldly wise, weary, and anything but winsome. But one can’t blame him for his irritable demeanour because, as Kamal Haasan wrote in Uttama Villain, “Saagavaram pol sogam undo…” (Is there anything sadder than being immortal?) What keeps him walking on the face of the earth? Love. So an immortal falls in love with someone (Anjali); he has met her five times over 8,000 years, and between each meeting, he craves her and lives his life searching for her. Now, this timeless love story has all the makings of a… let’s say timeless love story. But even with the backing of a whimsical idea, it is perplexing to see Ram try to ground his film in a moving train that, unfortunately, chugs around in circles.

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