12th Man movie review: Team Drishyam returns with a McDonald’s-style take on Agatha Christie whodunnits
Jeethu Joseph’s new film 12th Man takes off with some promise, but ends up as ordinary despite its credentials and cast.
Jayeshbhai Jordaar movie review: No ‘jor’ in this male saviour saga that can’t even capitalise on Ranveer Singh’s loveliness
Jayeshbhai Jordaar’s good intentions are lost to a poor comprehension of gender politics, lack of focus, a saviour complex and above all, ineffective storytelling.
CBI 5: The Brain movie review — Scrapes through by riding on nostalgia and Mammootty’s towering presence
Mammootty continues to imbue Iyer with dignity and gravitas, and ultimately, he is CBI 5’s saving grace.
Runway 34 movie review: Devgn plays Devgn and Bachchan plays Bachchan in a largely bland, briefly suspenseful thriller
What keeps Runway 34 flat despite the arresting in-flight crisis is the failure of the writers to inject tension into Narayan’s investigation or to give the storytelling and characters any depth.
Jana Gana Mana movie review: Suraj Venjaramoodu rises above a script that lacks cohesion, clarity, depth, finesse and calm
Jana Gana Mana is undistinctive, notwithstanding its brave throwaway lines and moments that made my liberal heart sit up and take notice.
Pada movie review: Captivating thriller on a real-life fight for Adivasi rights and the fury of the oppressed
Pada’s achievement lies in the way it chronicles the hostage crisis not just with empathy, but in a gripping, accessible fashion.
Dasvi movie review: Abhishek Bachchan and Nimrat Kaur’s version of Lalu-Rabri is mildly fun but thinly written
Dasvi largely skims over the surface of its concerns and characters, but it has just enough going for it to make it a mildly entertaining experience
Salute movie review: Dulquer Salmaan takes on an unconventional police drama
Dulquer Salmaan remains thoroughly invested in his character’s dilemmas from beginning to end.
Bheeshma Parvam movie review: Passable entertainment on a Godfather-scale canvas
Bheeshma Parvam is a polished production, but not distractingly glossy. It lies in the not-bad-not-great slot.
Jhund movie review: A Bachchan-struck Nagraj Manjule cutesyfies poor Dalits for a Bollywood palate
Jhund is excessively long and ultimately pretentious. Despite its grand ambitions and good intentions, it fails to click as a cohesive, gripping whole.
Love Hostel movie review: A chilling representation of India’s war against love
In the present political atmosphere pervading the country, where the reprehensible concepts of ‘love jihad’ and ‘honour killings’ have prominence in the public discourse, Shanker Raman has made a thought-provoking film about a bleak real-life scenario.
Hridayam movie review: An overlong Premam meets shades of Arjun Reddy meets under-written women
Hridayam's attractive packaging is no match for the lack of originality in its story and storytelling.
The pan-India triumph of Pushpa: The Rise – United we stand in our patriarchy and misogyny
The pan-India success of Pushpa: The Rise only indicates that a country divided by sectarian considerations, languages and deep cultural chasms is united in its embrace of patriarchy and misogyny in mass entertainment.
Archana 31 Not Out movie review: Aishwarya Lekshmi deserves better than a wannabe Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam
Among the major casualties of the film’s pointless wanderings is Renjit Shekar Nair who gave a stand-out performance as a school sporting team’s manager in Kho Kho last year but spends most of the little time he has in Archana 31 Not Out just sitting around.
Freedom Fight movie review: The Great Indian Kitchen’s director presents a solid anthology with a glaring blemish
Fortunately for Freedom Fight, the richness of the other shorts overshadows Pra.Thoo.Mu. My pick of the collection are Asanghadithar and Old Age Home.
Gehraiyaan movie review: Deepika Padukone is all kinds of breathtaking in a page-turner of a film
Gehraiyaan has an enigmatic air from its opening scene, and gradually takes on an additional layer of unrelenting foreboding
Looop Lapeta movie review: Run Lola Run remake with a uniquely Indian element that outruns its sensory excesses
The beauty of the source material and this remake is that it is so open-ended as to leave us scrambling with our take on its intentions
36 Farmhouse movie review: Zero-energy, zero-thought thriller produced by the director who once made Karz
36 Farmhouse, written and produced by Subhash Ghai, is cringeworthy, yet not so much as to fall into a so-bad-it-is-entertaining slot.
Bhoothakaalam movie review: Terrifying mind games with Revathy and Shane Nigam on board
Mental health, the pressures of elder care, alcoholism, drug abuse, a flawed education system, unemployment – Bhoothakaalam touches upon all this and more, but its focus never strays from its goal of terrorising the audience.
Unpaused: Naya Safar movie review — Pandemic tales with remarkable elements and unfulfilled promise
Each short in this anthology is set in the COVID19 pandemic. Nagraj Manjule confronts the pandemic full-scale in Vaikunth. COVID is the setting, significant even if not central, to the remaining four films.