Cast: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Tiffany Boone, Kagiso Lediga, Preston Nyman, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James
(3/5)This follow-up to Jon Favreau’s live-action remake is a sort of biopic on Mufasa that expands on the origins of his lethal feud with his brother Scar. Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson expands on the Disney legend with this prequel that heralds...
At best, documentaries on celebrities tend to be an ode to their stardom; at worst, these end up as an exercise in image makeover for those who have fallen from grace. Rare is a documentary, especially of a living person,...
‘Girls Will Be Girls’ is a story of many firsts — the first touch, kiss, boyfriend, and a ‘girl’ being in a position of power. The first feature film by Shuchi Talati, who is also the writer of this coming-of-age...
Red One Prime Video After Santa Claus — Code Name: Red One — is kidnapped, the North Pole’s Head of Security (Dwayne Johnson) must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter (Chris Evans) in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission...
Cast: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Vikrant Massey, Medha Shankr, Anant Joshi, Priyanshu Chatterjee
(2.5/5)A documentary (or is it a mockumentary?) on the making of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s sleeper hit ‘12th Fail’, starring Vikrant Massey, is an interesting idea to begin with. Especially since post-hit book releases on the making of blockbuster films have...
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Arrchita Agarwaal, Shahana Goswami, Anand Alkunte, Riju Bajaj
(2/5)In his recent interview with The Tribune, director Kanu Behl talked about how he felt the need to present his protagonist in ‘Despatch’ not as a ‘hero’ hero. Fair enough! He has the right to present Joy Bag (Manoj Bajpayee),...
Cast: Claudio Catano, Diego Vasquez, Marleyda Soto, Vina Machado, Loren Sofía and Janer Villarreal
(3.5/5)‘Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice…’ begins the great novel. The ambitious series ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ retains the...
Cast: Ritwik Bhowmik, Shreya Chaudhry, Atul Kulkarni, Rajesh Tailang, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Sheeba Chaddha, Divya Dutta, Aditya Roy Kapur, Arjun Rampal, Yashaswini Dayama, Saurabh Nayyar, Rohan Gurbaxani, Samad Khan and Aaliyah Qureshi
(3.5/5)When ‘Bandish Bandits’ streamed on Prime Video in 2020, it was a breath of fresh air wrapped in melody and a master class in classical music. As it enters the second season, there is good news and a bit of...
Cast: Taito Ban, Genta Nakamura, Haruna Mikawa, Reina Ueda, Daisuke Hirakawa, Hiroki Touchi, Banjo Ginga, Makoto Furukawa
(3/5)This omnibus movie fan offering recaps Season 1 before moving on to two brand new, never-before-seen episodes of the upcoming Season 2. It’s the ideal catch-up for fans who want to relive the journey on the big screen and a...
Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Divyendu, Sai Tamhankar, Jitendra Joshi, Saiyami Kher and Udit Arora
(2.5/5)Hindi movies have never had firefighters as heroes, so it’s heartening to see them getting the central focus in a film that has them putting their lives at risk to save lives of civilians caught in some of the deadly...
Cast: Jack Whitehall, Jimmy Fallon, Rebel Wilson, Michael Buble, Dave Bautista, Daisy May Cooper and Tom Davis
(2.5/5)It’s just about time to hunt for films that rekindle the joy and magic of Christmas. So far, 2024 does not seem in luck, with very average outings making it to the OTT. ‘Jack in Time for Christmas’, sold as...
Cast: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari, Jagapathi Babu, Sunil, Anasuya Bharadwaj, Rao Ramesh and Dhananjaya Shanmukh
(2.5/5)It opens on a Japanese port with a clever twist to the famous song ‘Mera joota hai Japani’, giving a miss to the second line that talks of the country, now an aggressor. But the aggression in the film is...
Netflix It follows the tender journey of a young boy whose grieving family has forgotten about Christmas. He forms an unexpected bond with a girl full of holiday spirit. His uncontainable spirit breathes life into her fractured heart, yet her...
Cast: Abigail Jain, Rishab Chadha, Pankit Thakker and Cindrella D Cruz
(2/5)They should have put up a statutory warning — no journalist was harmed during the shooting of this film! A news channel with the tagline ‘Sabse Tez, Sabse Aage’; a fidget-spinning boss Panchal (Pankit Thakker); entertainment editor Nikki Kothari (Abigail...
Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Ian Harding, Kristin Chenoweth, Jon Rudnitsky, Katie Baker, Jake Brennan, Dan Bucatinsky and Tim Meadows
(2/5)It’s the season of love alright, but with a twist. ‘Our Little Secret’ has Avery (Lindsay Lohan) returning to her childhood sweetheart, but the situation is such that it has to be kept a ‘secret’. Ten years back, Avery made...
Cast: Auli‘i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Tudyk, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, HualÄ lai Chung, David Fane
(2.5/5)This sequel to the memorable 2016 original looks gorgeous, but its convoluted plotting and distracted scripting don’t allow for any great attachment. Pacific Islander Moana (Auli‘i Cravalho) is an explorer who travels across the ocean — beyond just her tiny...
Cast: Avinash Tiwary, Tamannaah Bhatia, Jimmy Shergill and Divya Dutta
(2.5/5)Heist dramas can be a lot of fun as National Award-winning director Neeraj Pandey proved with his ‘Special 26’. Based on a real life crime of 1987, it remains one of cinephiles’ favourite films on the subject. Only, as Pandey...
Prime Video Created and directed by Sooni Taraporevala, the series has been co-written by her, along with Iyanah Bativala and Ronny Sen. It features Mekhola Bose, Anasua Chowdhury, Rytasha Rathore, Chrisann Pereira, Priyam Saha, Ruby Sah, Achintya Bose, Barun Chanda,...
Cast: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Dinklage
(2.5/5)When L Frank Baum wrote the children’s fantasy novel ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ in 1900, did he have any inkling that his fantasy story and memorable characters would be inspiring films and theatre more than 100 years later? Shiz...
Cast: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Vijay Sethupathi, Nagarjuna, Rana Daggubati, Radikaa Sarathkumar, Taapsee Pannu, Tamannaah Bhatia, Nelson Dilipkumar
(1.5/5)“I have never spoken about my past relationships. People assume a lot of things and they go ahead with the stories they want to believe in,” says Nayanthara in one of the scenes from ‘Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale’. She...
Cast: Tahir Raj Bhasin, Aanchal Singh, Gurmeet Choudhary, Shweta Tripathi, Saurabh Shukla, Varun Badola and Arunoday Singh
(2.5/5)The course of true love never did run smooth. The series begins with this quote from Shakespeare and you might think it is a love story of great intensity. But those who have seen the first season of ‘Yeh Kaali...
‘All We Imagine as Light’ is an artistic narrative feature about three women struggling to make things work, in a city that never sleeps. Mumbai, the city of dreams and nightmares, is one of the subjects here. The film opens...
Cast: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Derek Jacobi and May Calamawy
(3.5/5)The sequel to Ridley Scott’s unforgettable original is a wonderful experience if you go with the expectation of having fun and being entertained by the spectacle of a high production value Hollywood blockbuster. This film leans heavily towards the original...
If one chooses to walk into a theatre for a film which is titled ‘The Sabarmati Report’, one knows what to expect. But here we get more than what’s expected! Not just a narrative aligned with the findings of the...
Cast: Mucutuy family, Pedro Arnulfo Sanchez Suarez, Nicolas Ordonez, Henry Guerrero and Shaman Don
(3.5/5)A story of courage and resilience, ‘The Lost Children’explores the rescue mission for the four children who got stranded in the Colombian Amazon rainforest after a plane crash. In the hands of Oscar-winning director Orlando von Einsiedel, the 40-day ‘Operation...
Cast: Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, Rajendra Chawla, Luke McGibney, Cordelia Bugeja, Malishka Mendonsa, Arif Zakaria, Ira Dubey, Rajesh Kumar, KC Shankar, Andrew Cullum and Alistair Findlay
(3.5/5)At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom... We, the post-Independence generation, have grown up listening to or reading this historic speech by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. But...
Cast: Christina Milian, Devale Ellis, Kofi Siriboe, Tymika Tafari and Mitch Grassi
(2/5)‘Meet Me Next Christmas’ packs in a Pentatonix treat this holiday season. A do-gooder, Layla (Christina Milian) holds the promise to meet the Mr Right of her life — James (Kofi Siriboe) — if only she can find a ticket...
Cast: Anupam Kher, Chunky Panday, Mihir Ahuja, Vrajesh Hirjee, Guddi Maruti, Paritosh Sand, Kunal Vijayakar
(1.5/5)“Because I am 69, should I stop having dreams?” roars Anupam Kher’s character Vijay Matthew. His intense monologue reminds us of one of the most memorable scenes from his debut film, ‘Saaransh’, in which his character, BV Pradhan, confronts the...
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Dockery, Gwilym Lee, Ophelia Lovibond, David Fynn, Leslie Zemeckis, Jonathan Aris, Albie Salter, Lilly Aspell & Lauren McQueen
(2.5/5)If you are looking for experiences akin to ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Here’ is not the place to be. This Robert Zemeckis directorial feels like a long-running sentimentalised commercial selling...
Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Varun Dhawan, Samantha, Kashvi Majmundar, Simran Bagga, Saqib Saleem, Sikandar Kher, Shivankit Singh Parihar, Soham Majumdar, Armaan Khera and Raimundo Querido
(3/5)Creating a prequel in itself is a challenge, and to make it even better than the master series, almost implausible. But trust the masters of the spy world, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, to do the impossible. As the talented...
