Sun, October 18 2026

Sohla, revolves around a school going kid Prasad aka Pashya (Devdatta Ghone). He stays in a small village in Maharashtra named Sudkoli with his father Ramdas (Pravin Dalimbkar), a farmer, mother Nirmala (Varsha Malwadkar) and elder sister Gauri (Vaishnavi Ghodke). Ramdas is having a tough time financially since his produce isn’t fetching him much money. Pashya is all set to turn 13 in two months. As per the tradition in the village, the 13th birthday of boys is celebrated through a ceremony called ‘Sohla’. It is a symbolic ritual indicating that the boy is now ready to take on the responsibility of the family. Pashya can’t wait for his sohla. As he is a die-hard Salman Khan fan, he wants to buy the expensive kurta endorsed by him for the event. Ramdas agrees to Pashya’s demand despite his financial condition. However, soon, a major incident occurs in Pashya’s life out of nowhere, which brings a major change in him.

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Sat, October 17 2026

What new can a formulaic Tamil actioner offer in 2026? At a time when global event cinema is finding new ways to engage with themes such as climate change and animal abuse, our superstar vehicles remain stubbornly risk-averse. In a political and cultural climate where taking a stance carries commercial liability, a legend of Rajinikanth’s stature is unlikely to put his legacy on the line. And that is precisely where Jailer 2 fails to flourish: it prioritises maximum scale and safe fan-service over any kind of narrative courage. Back in 2023, director Nelson Dilipkumar’s Jailer delivered unadulterated Thalaivar spectacle. Despite a wafer-thin plot, Rajinikanth carried the weight on his shoulders, bolstered by showy cameos, a viral soundtrack, and Nelson’s signature deadpan dark comedy. It was hardly innovative, but it knew exactly what it had going for it and had fun with its superstar.

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Sat, October 17 2026

Maybe it’s the very qualities that make Nelson's films so enjoyable in the first place that keep him from finding a seamless transition from his quirky, dark-comedy sensibilities to more serious territory.

Speaking broadly, the structure upon which Nelson builds both his Jailer films is strictly pedestrian. They’re based on uncovering complex trade networks exporting priceless sculptures from Southern India. They’re also written around the tension that arises from discovering the powers that the next big boss, Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, must encounter as he climbs the corporate ladder of this idol theft enterprise. If Jailer was all about Muthuvel taking on the foot soldiers and middle management, the stakes only get bigger in this film as he schemes against those at the top of the pyramid.

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Fri, October 16 2026

Sharp first half, strained second, and a villain-proof hero whose real enemy is his own past: Jailer 2 is frivolous cinema with a surprisingly emotional core

Black and Blue, the fifth episode of the sixth season of Vince Gilligan’s Better Call Saul, begins—like a lot of cold openings typical of Gilligan’s work—with a silent montage of an artisan encasing a slide rule in a block of clear acrylic. The engraving reads, “In Liebe… Deine Jungs” (“With love… your boys”), and the piece is packed into a wooden box. (It becomes a cardinal sin to invoke the series without mentioning how criminally underwatched it is. So, here you go: it is criminally underwatched.) If you’ve managed to watch up to this episode, you already know that this setup will have a massive payoff. You also know that you will completely forget about it within a few minutes, as you get engrossed in the incredible writing of one of modern-day long-form geniuses. But when the payoff hits, the memory of the setup rains down on you!

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Sat, October 17 2026

Horror, comedy and horror-comedy may all work perfectly well as genres in their own right. But Nayyi Navelli proves that horror-comedy-mythology is a genre caught in no man’s land — or, in this case, no woman’s land. The film seems to have an idea but hasn’t the faintest clue what to do with it. Directed by Balaji Mohan, a Tamil filmmaker making his Hindi debut, Nayyi Navelli loses its way by introducing supernatural and mythological elements that are not only unnecessary but also end up derailing the narrative.

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Sat, October 17 2026

Yami Gautam-starrer begins with so much potential, which is comprehensively squandered in scattered writing-and-execution, to the point the film become an exercise in patience.

Labelling a good-looking, confident woman, unwilling to be boxed into the coy, submissive template, a ‘daayan’ happens too often even in this day and age. To decode generations of social prejudice and conditioning across genders is a chance that films should take, even if they fear falling under yet another dreaded label — ‘female-oriented’ movie. When Nayyi Navelli begins, with Yami Gautam as the new dulhan who arouses the suspicions of her devar (Anurag Thakur) and his pal, you really want the film to deliver on the promise. Fronted by Gautam, who did a wonderful job in Haq, and an ensemble which looks like fun — the last time you had Mita Vashishth and Sushmita Mukherjee, both capable of delightful ditziness, in one frame was in the 90s — this one feels like it had so much potential.

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Sat, October 17 2026

Sat, October 17 2026

To begin with, the title of the film is slightly misleading — or, more specifically, the latter half of it. There is very little that is truly ‘untold’ here, apart from the personal life of the celebrated public prosecutor who fought several high-profile cases, none more consequential than the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks involving Ajmal Kasab. The details of the case are already in the public domain, but director Avinash Arun does a commendable job of dramatising them in Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam.

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Sat, October 17 2026

Sat, October 17 2026

Prahaar examines Ujjwal Nikam’s role in landmark terror trials, championing due process while struggling to humanise its protagonist

Truth is what we ostensibly fight for, yet it is often the first casualty of the very battles waged in its name. Nowhere is this paradox more acutely felt than in a courtroom, where the clamour for retribution must yield to the rigours of evidence and the dispassionate demands of the law. It is this uneasy intersection of public outrage, legal obligation and the pursuit of justice that lends Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam its most compelling premise. Unfortunately, a film that understands the moral stakes of its subject does not always possess the dramatic finesse to do it justice. Directed by Avinash Arun and produced by Dinesh Vijan under the Maddock Films banner, Prahaar traces the professional journey of public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam through some of India’s most consequential criminal proceedings. Revisiting the legal battles arising from the 1993 Bombay bombings and the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the film eventually settles on the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist captured during the 26/11 carnage. Rather than merely reconstruct the horrors of that night, it turns its gaze towards the protracted judicial proceedings that followed, examining what it means to uphold the rule of law when public sentiment clamours for swift and uncompromising vengeance.

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Sat, October 17 2026

Director Rahul Sankrityan’s Telugu film uses Burra Katha and the 1876-78 famine to give the narrative a fresh look, but some portions struggle under the weight of history, devotion and myth

For a long time, there has been an overarching image of how Telugu cinema has portrayed the Rayalaseema region, with tales of faction wars and machismo where subtlety is a forgotten trait. Some of these films, blockbusters of the 1990s and 2000s, have become pop culture references. However, a fresh look at this region and its stories was needed. Director Rahul Sankrityan’s Ranabaali, headlined by Vijay Deverakonda and co-starring Rashmika Mandanna, is an attempt in that direction. In this film, too, the leading man is portrayed as a fierce, warrior-like figure. The difference lies in its history-inspired setting, with a mix of folklore. The result is an interesting concoction. Some portions genuinely pique interest in the history and folk tradition of Rayalaseema, while others struggle to rise above the done-to-death mainstream cinema framework.

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Fri, October 16 2026

Films like Tenzing don't come very often, because people like Tenzing Norgay don't come very often. A deeply moving portrait of the man who climbed many mountains before Everest.

Films like Tenzing don’t come very often, because people like Tenzing Norgay don’t come very often. Most of us know his biggest achievement. In 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. We know the historic story, we have seen the photographs, and we know how significant that climb was. But do we really know Tenzing? What did he have to go through before he finally reached the top of the world? That’s where this film makes a difference. Available on Apple TV, Tenzing, directed by Jennifer Peedom, takes us beyond the famous climb and tells us about the man behind it. And what I found most interesting is that Tenzing’s biggest challenges did not begin on Mount Everest. They began much earlier in his life.

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Thu, October 15 2026

டெல்லியில் குடும்பத்துடன் வசித்துவரும் பூஜாவை (மிருணாள் தாகூர்), அனிகெட் (விக்ரம் சிங் சௌஹான்) ஒருதலைப்பட்சமாகத் துரத்தித் துரத்திக் காதலிக்கிறார். திடீரென அனிகெட் தற்கொலை செய்துகொள்ள அதற்கு பூஜாவே காரணம் எனக் குற்றம் சாட்டப்படுகிறது. இந்த வழக்கில் பூஜாவுக்கு ஆதரவாகக் களமிறங்குகிறார் வக்கீலான சனா மெஹ்ஃபூஸ் (ஹூமா குரேஷி). அனிகெட்டின் மரணத்துக்கு யார் காரணம் என்பதே இந்த ஜி5 இந்தி சினிமா. மொத்தப் படத்தையும் கிட்டத்தட்ட ‘ஒன்வுமன் ஆர்மி’யாகத் தாங்குகிறார் மிருணாள் தாகூர். பூஜாவின் அச்சம், கோபம், வேதனை, தன்னைக் காப்பாற்றிக்கொள்ள வேண்டிய போராட்டம் என நீதிமன்றக் காட்சிகளில் ஒவ்வோர் உணர்வையும் மிக இயல்பாகக் கடத்துகிறார். வழக்கறிஞர்களாக ஹூமா குரேஷி, விஜய் ராஸ் ஆகியோரின் வாதக் காட்சிகள் படத்தை அடுத்தகட்டத்துக்கு நகர்த்துகின்றன. பெண்களைப் பற்றிய சமூகத்தின் பார்வை, பாலினப் பாகுபாடு எனப் பல கேள்விகளை முன்வைக்கிறது படம். ஆனால், முக்கியமான அனிகெட்டின் பாத்திரத்தை இன்னும் ஆழமாகக் கட்டமைத்திருக்கலாம். இருந்தும் முக்கியமான கோர்ட் ரூம் டிராமா இது!

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Sat, October 3 2026

Pooja and Aniket perform a play in front of a live audience. Right after it ends, Aniket proposes marriage, only to hear that Pooja is already in a relationship with another man, Vikram. Aniket is hellbent on earning a yes from her and keeps calling her. The next morning, Pooja receives the news that Aniket is no more. How far was Pooja responsible for Aniket’s death?

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Fri, October 2 2026

The over-designed social drama struggles to stay mature about the premise of an ‘imperfect’ woman who is put on trial for the suicide of her boyfriend

Pooja Meri Jaan opens with a dramatic Romeo and Juliet rendition on a Delhi stage. The Shakespearean tragedy ends with both deaths, there is applause, and the lead actors proceed to hijack the spotlight: ‘Romeo’ Aniket (Vikram Singh Chauhan) proposes to ‘Juliet’ Pooja (Mrunal Thakur) in front of a packed theatre. Seconds later, she rejects him backstage. He is devastated, her words hurt, he rides home in the rain like a broken Vishesh Films hero — and kills himself. Pooja is soon booked for abetment of suicide, and the rest of the film revolves around her trial in the court of public opinion.

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Thu, October 15 2026

இருண்ட, சிக்கலான கேத்தி கதாபாத்திரத்தில் ஃபுளோரன்ஸ் பியூ (Florence Pugh) தனது அசாத்தியமான நடிப்பால் திரையை ஆக்கிரமிக்கிறார். கிறிஸ்டோபர் அபோட், மைக் ஃபெய்ஸ்ட் தங்களது எதார்த்தமான நடிப்பால் பெரும் தாக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்துகிறார்கள். காலகட்டத்தை அப்படியே கண்முன் நிறுத்தும் பிரமாண்டமான கலை இயக்கமும், நேர்த்தியான திரைக்கதையும், மனதைத் தொடும் பின்னணி இசையும் தொடரின் ஆகப்பெரும் பலம். நாவலின் ஆழமான தத்துவங்களைத் திரைக்குக் கொண்டுவரும் முயற்சியில், திரைக்கதையின் வேகம் பல இடங்களில் தடுமாறுவது பார்வையாளர்களுக்குச் சற்று சோர்வைத் தரலாம். இருப்பினும், மனித உணர்வுகளின் இருண்ட பக்கங்களை மிக நேர்த்தியாகப் பதிவுசெய்திருக்கும் ஒரு தரமான கிளாசிக் டிராமா!

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Thu, October 1 2026

The latest retelling of John Steinbeck's classic novel by Zoe Kazan is an ambitious, sprawling saga that attempts to do justice to the author's work.

In 1955, Elia Kazan directed the James Dean starrer, East of Eden, which followed the last part of John Steinbeck’s semi-autobiographical 1952 novel. Dean played Cal Trask, who fights for his father’s love alongside his perfect brother Aron. A new Netflix limited series on the material, written and showrun by Elia’s granddaughter, Zoe Kazan, goes deep into the novel, exploring the Biblical themes, characters and the promise of America at the turn of the century. Backed by a strong cast, East of Eden follows the doomed marriage of Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Cathy (Florence Pugh) that spills over its sins to the next generation. Finely acted, the ambitious and largely faithful period drama really gets into the characterisation from the novel, while also immersing viewers into its self-righteous world.

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Thu, October 1 2026

East of Eden broke my heart more often through its supposedly good father than its murderous mother. That’s where this uneven adaptation finds its strongest drama. Zoe Kazan’s departure from John Steinbeck’s treatment of Cathy is welcome, but the series spends too much time explaining cruelty that Florence Pugh makes compelling enough. It’s more affecting when it follows the damage parents pass to their children. Those family conflicts give its ideas about choice a force the explanations often lack. Let’s dive in.

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Thu, October 15 2026

AI மூலம் கேள்விகள் கேட்டு, ஜோடிகளின் ‘பொருத்தத்தை’ (Compatibility) மையமாகக் கொண்டு இயங்கும் ஃபவுண்ட் (Found) என்ற டேட்டிங் செயலியின் சி.இ.ஓ தாரா (ஐஸ்வர்யா லெஷ்மி). மறுபுறம், உள்ளுணர்வுக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் தந்து, ஜோடிகளின் ஈர்ப்பை (Chemistry) அடிப்படையாகக்கொண்டு இயங்கும் `ஃபைண்ட் மை பே’ (Find My Bae) என்ற செயலியின் முதலீட்டாளர் மேத்யூ (அர்ஜுன் தாஸ்). இரு வேறு சிந்தனைகளைக்கொண்ட இவர்கள் நேருக்கு நேர் சந்தித்துக்கொள்கிறார்கள். அதைத் தொடர்ந்து, நவீன காதலில் எது சிறந்தது என்பதை நிரூபிக்க 60 நாள்கள் நடக்கும் ஒரு சவாலும், அதில் மலரும் காதலுமே பாலாஜி மோகன் இயக்கியிருக்கும் இந்த நெட்ஃபிளிக்ஸ் தமிழ்த் தொடரின் சுவாரஸ்யமான கதைக்களம்.

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Sat, October 3 2026

Tara, an ambitious startup founder, and Matthew, a disinterested investor backing a rival product, set each other a 60-day challenge. Their ideologies clash as they date through each other’s platforms. When a genuine romance emerges, they are caught between their feelings and their corporate careers.

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Fri, October 2 2026

An uninspired, insipid Netflix drama where storytelling and romance — indeed, love itself — struggle to survive

Love is a risk we endure. In a sense, then, love stories become thrillers where the stakes are not of life, but of the self—will the self survive love? For love turns stone-faced, gruff voiced men into pouty mush pots and softens the hardened boundaries of women—you almost don’t recognise people in love. Love ruptures the self, and something new emerges out of it. The best love stories, then, tease out this tension, this emergence, and revel in it, goad it further, while the worst think of this tension, this emergence, as reluctant plot pushers.

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Wed, October 14 2026

What if you eventually become what you feared most? The bullied becomes the bully. The abused becomes the abuser. The hunted becomes the hunter. In Balaji Tharaneetharan’s Tamil drama Baththa, a feared gangster (Vijay Sethupathi in the titular role) is locked inside a school restroom and shouts from inside, “I’ll kill you when I come out.” Terrified by his words, the one who accidentally locked him in, third-grader Sabari (Master Sai Prithviraj), refuses to open the door. He flees the scene, leaving the village to look for him while the school remains shut for summer vacation. Sabari is far from a delinquent. There’s a beach scene early on with his factory-worker father (Hari Krishnan) and his homemaker mother (Santhy Balachandran). He wants a toy that costs three rupees. In 1986, that isn’t nothing for them, but they buy it for him anyway. When the teacher takes it away during exams, the boy sneaks back into the empty school. He finds the pile of confiscated things and takes only his own. The moment is small and exact.

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Sat, October 3 2026

Director Balaji Tharaneetharan's Baththa, starring Vijay Sethupathi, Lijomol Jose and Sai Prithvi Raj, is a moving comedy drama that's wholesome and beautiful. With minor shortcomings, the film brings laughter and emotion effortlessly.

A dreaded don sees life in a certain way — he wants everyone to be afraid of him and think twice before approaching him. He almost achieves it, too. But when he strips himself of his carefully built persona, who is he? Is he someone he can be proud of? And what happens when a child unintentionally gives him a reality check? Director Balaji Tharaneetharan’s Baththa takes this concept and turns it into a wholesome drama that is equally fun and emotional.

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Fri, October 2 2026

Baththa, played by Vijay Sethupathi, is a frightening gangster. He is driven by ego, and no threat scares him. At home, he casually slaps his wife, throws a plate full of food, yells at his daughter. And he seems to be getting away with everything. So, you really wonder who’s gonna put him in his place. Balaji Tharaneetharan’s film hints that an assassination attempt is on the cards. But as it turns out, Baththa’s most dangerous adversary is not a gangster, not some man who defeats him in size and strength. Instead, it’s the opposite. His reckoning comes in the form of a little, meek boy. Baththa is full of such gorgeous ideas. The tender beauty of a child’s innocence serving as a mirror to such a gangster feels almost like a ‘pure cinema’ idea. For an entire half, Baththa is stuck in a school toilet, isolated and unable to get out. The premise seems almost like it might potentially get a bit too indulgent, a bit too static, maybe test your patience a bit. But Balaji’s Baththa is magnificently kinetic.

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Mon, October 12 2026

Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar is a frustratingly illogical police procedural that ruins an engaging premise by burying it under an avalanche of unearned twists. We discuss the film’s baffling disregard for realism, which repeatedly sacrifices basic police procedures just to serve its protagonist. We also talk about how the script bends backwards to transform Parvathy’s rookie character into an infallible mastermind, leading to absurd narrative leaps. Additionally, we point out how underdeveloped the entire cast feels, including the dull characterisation of Vijayaraghavan’s lead investigator.

Tue, September 15 2026

Shahad, who debuted with the forgettable coming-of-age drama ‘Prakashan Parakkatte’ (2022), ups his game here by several notches, aided by a taut screenplay

It may be one of cinema’s greatest tricks that it can twist one’s line of thinking about a person or an incident just with the perspective it chooses to present, the framing, editing choices, or the background score used. Reading a basic news report on the incident of crime at the centre of Shahad’s Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar might make one assume a particular stand on the culprits, knowing the long history of this kind of crime in the country and the stories that can be made up to save them. However, the film frames the incident, the events leading up to it, its aftermath and the people involved in such a way that not once do we wish for the culprits to be caught and punished. Of course, we have Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam (2013), in which we all collectively stood with those who committed the crime. The film also has quite a few parallels with Drishyam, but this one has very different concerns and approach to the crime.

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Mon, September 14 2026

A quartet of cops orchestrate a cover-up in Shahad Nilambur’s occasionally thrilling ‘Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar’

The first few scenes of Shahad Nilambur’s Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar remind one of Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, in how undramatically we find out about the death of Aleena Abraham’s (Parvathy Thiruvothu) husband on duty. Aleena, with a child and the hopes of her husband’s family pinned on her, takes the police job on offer. There are no theatrics, no sad ballads or wave of sympathy for her, her baby or her situation. Theatrics is for later, but manufacturing sympathy almost never enters the picture, for Aleena is cut from a different cloth. The film then speedruns—a montage covers her training, a split-second encounter with her husband’s former colleague, her posting to a station in Kottayam and getting comfortable with the new workplace and her sufficiently leisurely colleagues, all of them in the lowest rungs of the police hierarchy. We realize that time has passed and the baby is now a toddler.

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Mon, October 12 2026

Busan Film Festival 2026 | In Sandeep Kumar Paul’s sobering debut, a female school teacher faces relentless moral policing as she negotiates her true freedom.

There’s something incredibly acute and sensitive in how Sandeep Kumar Paul’s debut, About An Intimate Matter, cuts through to scan a woman’s sense of self-worth amidst stifling social constraint. It knows the ever-morphing yardsticks foisted upon marginal bodies that are just thrust through one ring of damning perception after another. Financial autonomy preens itself as rescue but social gaping keeps jutting in. The heroine of Paul’s film, Swarna (Sreya Bhattacharya), is a self-possessed schoolteacher in a suburb in Bengal. She lives with her partner, Driti (Shimli Basu). Within the opening stretch, you get an inkling of her mettle, her quiet resolve. Amidst deliberations of her colleagues to petition for better working conditions, she dares to stand out.

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