Cast: Srishti Bakshi, Neha Rai, Pragya Prasun Singh and Sangeeta Tiwari
(3.5/5)Parbina Rashid One of the biggest takeaways from my brief stint at the Women’s Studies Research Centre in Gauhati University in the 1990s was how Indian parents condition their daughters to be docile and weak by saddling them with names...
Cast: Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Sharmin Segal, Taha Shah Badussha, Shekhar Suman, Fardeen Khan, Indresh Malik, Adhyayan Suman and Farida Jalal
(3/5)Nonika Singh The signature touch of Sanjay Leela Bhansali is all too visible in his digital debut. Opulence, thy name is ‘Heeramandi’ too. As we step back in time to Lahore of the 1940s and the master of spectacles makes...
Cast: Jassi Gill, Amyra Dastur, Kavi Singh, Honey Mattu, Balwinder Bullet, Seema Kaushal, Gurdeep Manalia
(2.5/5)Gurnaaz Kaur At the heart of this story is Jassie Gill (Furteela) and Amyra Dastur’s (Noor) love story but the movie touches upon various subjects. It’s a heartfelt exploitation of the challenges and aspirations of college students in Punjab. While...
Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O'Connor, Logan Kim, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Emily Alyn Lind and James Acaster
(2.5/5)Sheetal As the American supernatural comedy franchise returns with its fifth part, it is nostalgia packed in the right proportions. At the same time, it’s definitely in sync with the much-loved modern-day idea of sci-fi storytelling set against the...
Cast: Fernando Baldassini, Samantha Chang, Alan Cooke, Bill Courtice, Deborah Gladding, Armand LaBarge and David MacDonald
(3/5)Nonika Singh More than one case in crime documentaries has been designated as ‘like never before’. One hundred per cent, ‘What Jennifer Did’ falls in that category. For, how often do you hear a story where a daughter not only...
Cast: Alisha Weir, Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Angus Cloud, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito
(3/5)Johnson Thomas Originally proposed as a re-imagination of the 1936 Universal horror movie, ‘Dracula’s Daughter’, the scripting process turned it into something else altogether. It’s brainless, but a whole lot of fun too. A gang of desperate criminals kidnaps...
Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Lara Dutta, Ashish Vidyarthi, Ashutosh Rana, Elnaaz Norouzi, Prasanna and Aakanksha Singh
(2.5/5)Parbina Rashid A convoy of CRPF jawans moving on the winding roads in Kashmir; a close-up shot revealing the bonhomie among the personnel, one of them on a video call with his wife. She wishes him ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’...
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Prachi Desai, Sahil Vaid and Parul Gulati
(2/5)Nonika Singh A film headlined by Manoj Bajpayee and you are all agog. Drama in the very first scene and you are ready for more excitement. Talks of ‘elliptical blood spatter’ and a few more technical specs and you think...
Cast: Vidya Balan, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Pratik Gandhi, Ileana D’Cruz, Thalaivasal Vijay
(2.5/5)Johnson Thomas An official adaptation of ‘The Lovers’, starring Debra Winger, the movie takes us on an intimate journey through a crumbling marriage that began on love and seems to be ending on boredom, the craving for attention, extra-marital affairs...
Cast: Monica Lopera, Angela Cano, Enrique Carriazo, Marcela Benjumea, Christian Tappan, Johan Rivera, Carlos Manuel Vesga, Valentin Villafañe, Alian Devetac, Juan Pablo Raba, Ilena Antonini
(2.5/5)Vikrant Parmar One aspect about hijack dramas is often a letdown — you can well-nigh guess the end! That is not the case though with ‘The Hijacking of Flight 601’, the six-episode, adapted-from-real-life series, which springs a surprise. First things...
Parbina Rashid This particular scene will remain with me for a long time. A father breaking down in the middle of a road, waving his hand in slow motion as if to erase the traumatic incident that claimed his daughter’s...
Nonika Singh title as endearing as Baby Reindeer, and a subject as harrowing as stalking and rape. The seven-part Netflix series not only shows how a victim’s life is messed up, but also that of a perpetrator. Only not all...
Cast: Han Hyo-joo, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Hee-joon, Lee Moo-saeng, Park Ji-yeon and Kim Sang-ho
(3.5/5)Sheetal K-dramas are known for focusing on a unique subject and weaving a love story or a thriller around it. ‘Blood Free’ is no different. Though only two episodes are streaming on Disney+Hotstar, these depict an intriguing thriller that should...
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Manushi Chhillar, Alaya F, Ronit Roy
(1.5/5)Parbina Rashid Action by the Army high command begets reaction from a friend-turned-foe antagonist! Hanging in between by a thin rope, which is presented in the name of a plot, are us viewers, braving one action scene after another. Action...
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Priyamani, Chaitanya Sharma, Amartya Ray, Davinder Singh, Tejas Ravishankar, Gajraj Rao, Nitanshi Goel, Vijay Maurya, Abhilash Thapliyal
(3/5)Johnson Thomas What ‘Chak De India’ was to hockey, ‘Maidaan’ is to football. Both films venerate those challenging halcyon days when Indian team sport came into its own at the Asian level. ‘Maidaan’ follows coach Syed Abdul Rahim’s efforts to...
Cast: Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra, Apinderdeep Singh, Nisha Bano, Rahul Mittra, Vipin Katyal and Anjum Batra
(3.5/5)Nonika Singh Can a two-hour-25-minute film decode the phenomenon that was Amar Singh Chamkila, the Punjabi singer who rose and died like a shining star? Can the maker Imtiaz Ali, whose understanding and depiction of Punjab has always been on...
Johnson Thomas This sixth feature of the franchise series that began way back in 1976, a prequel with a story predating the original ‘The Omen,’ directed by Arkasha Stevenson and based on a story by screenwriter Ben Jacoby, has...
Parbina Rashid ‘Why some people kill?’ asks one of the investigating officers in ‘Crime Scene Berlin: Nightlife Killer’. An interesting premise for a crime documentary to be set on! Who would not love to get into the mind of...
Cast: Andrew Scott, Johnny Flynn, Dakota Fanning, Vittorio Viviani, Bokeem Woodbine, Eliot Sumner, Louis Hofmann, Maurizio Lombardi and John Malkovich
(3.5/5)Nonika Singh In a space where thrillers are a dime a dozen, here comes one that dazzles you with its luminosity of both visualisation and storytelling. ‘Ripley’ is no whodunit. Sure, it’s not without its share of murder(s). The...
Cast: Rebecca Hall, Kaylee Hottle, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, Rachel House, Mercy Cornwall
(3/5)Johnson Thomas It has been a couple of years since ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ and the immediately satisfying but forgettable memories it evoked. ‘The New Empire’ is a colourful spectacle and also ape-centric. In this iteration of the franchise, we see...
Cast: Avi Azulay, Mehmet Kurtulus, Dominique Tipper, Reymonde Amsallem, Ishai Golan and Tulay Gunal Goncu
(3.5/5)Parbina Rashid Here goes a popular joke — ‘Moses led his people through the desert for 40 years. It seems, even in Biblical times, men avoided asking for direction.’ But no, Moses might have had serious anger issues (he did...
Cast: Raveena Tandon, Satish Kaushik, Manav Vij, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Jatin Goswami and Anushka Kaushik
(2/5)Nonika Singh She is a loving mother, a caring housewife and a lawyer too. Not that her legal acumen is anything to write home about, so we are told by the judge of the lower court where she practises. And...
Cast: Tabu, Kriti Sanon, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Diljit Dosanjh, Kapil Sharma, Rajesh Sharma and Saswata Chatterjee
(2.5/5)Sheetal ‘Respond with a smile at all costs’ seems to be the most important lesson instilled in flight attendants. As the leading ladies — Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kriti Sanon — take up the role of air-hostesses, a smile...
Cast: Regina King, Lance Reddick, Terrence Howard, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson and Michael Cherrie
(3/5)Nonika Singh There are winners and then there are catalysts. And here was a woman who wanted ‘nothing more nothing less than be a catalyst for change.’ Shirley Chishlom, the first black woman to run for US Presidency, is hailed...
Netflix: This Tamil-language sports action film directed by Aishwarya Rajinikanth and produced by Subaskaran Allirajah stars Rajinikanth in an extended cameo role. It has actors Vishnu Vishal and Vikranth in the lead role. The music is by AR Rahman. Fighter...
Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Divyenndu, Avinash Tiwary, Chhaya Kadam, Upendra Limaye, Nora Fatehi and Remo D’Souza
(2/5)Sheetal Call it an aspiration post ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, but we have all dreamt of at least one Goa trip with an all-girl/boy gang. Writer-director Kunal Kemmu has turned that aspiration into reality and immersed it in an over-dramatic fictional...
Cast: Sara Ali Khan, Sachin Khedekar, Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Verma, Sparsh Shrivastav, Anand Tiwari, Aditi Sanwal, Alexx O’Neil, Benedict Garrett
(2/5)Parbina Rashid Tune into Congress Radio! But before you do, adjust your mental antenna, which in all likelihood has been set to catch the ‘How is the josh’ kind of frequency. Reset it to ‘42.34 metres’ bandwidth to absorb those...
Cast: Randeep Hooda, Ankita Lokhande, Apinderdeep Singh, Amit Sial, Mark Bennington
(2/5)Johnson Thomas The biopic on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar tries really hard to enhance his image as a freedom fighter beyond what is known as fact. The film opens with the claim that research was the mainstay of this effort, but...
Nonika Singh Let us admit it, in a medium that thrives on binge watching, we are not great fans of episodic thrillers. But having said that, ‘Lootere’, two episodes of which are now available on Disney+Hotstar, will make you return...