Editor's Reviews
In-depth reviews by our experts 🔮
2018
"2024's Oscar submission from India, while impressed me in the category of special effects and sound mixing and editing, it fails to impress me as a disaster survival drama. It amplifies the emotions of people from all social status irrespective of their caste, creed and religion coming together to help each other to win over nature's wrath and there lies the triumph of life over despair. But, it grossly misses out on the massive destruction and death that flood inflicted…"
Navalny
"The story of the bravest dissident since Snowden who not only stared down the face of pure evil but also made it blink. This documentary is an emotional one since we now know what happened to Navalny this year but at the time this one got released and while sweeping award ceremonies including the best documentary feature 2023, the makers along with Navalny's family, his lawyers and colleagues would have had no idea that 2024 would be the stopping point…"
The End We Start From
"Mahalia Belo's ecological dystopia that left me restless and anxious in the first half and then becomes this beacon of joy and full of optimism in the second half. After the apocalyptic dust settles, what's left for the characters to face the music becomes so devastating in this movie that there isn't enough time remains even for shedding two drops of tears. And still, the female protagonist faces the music with a smile on her lips and dance in her…"
Kadaisi Vivasayi
"And just like that Kadaisi Vivasayi became my favorite South Indian movie of all time. What the hell! I am gonna go out on a limb here and claim that it is the greatest movie from any Indian industry I have ever come across. Is it about nature? Is it about arid farmland and drought? Is it about the beasts of burden? Is it about potters and masons and the scarcity and government regulations of soil and mud? Is it…"
Chup
"Probably the most incredibly stupidest Bollywood movie I have watched in recent years. That says a lot considering it is directed by R Balki who is known for his experimental ideas for scripts, even his movie titles have been eccentric. But lately with multiple failures he now comes after the critics through the script of this movie instead of working on his writing. Dulquer Salmaan is among the actors of South who have a wooden acting face among others in…"
Kumbalangi Nights
"A movie on the celebration of brotherhood and about learning both the joy and sorrow which come part and parcel with the new ways of life, while along the way a couple of children turn into men. A movie that will instantly make you fall in love with not only the mesmerizing countryside Kerala and as the official state tourism tagline correctly advertises- God's Own Country but also with the verities of people of Kerala. And somewhere in all this,…"
Mast Mein Rehne Ka
"A movie which if watched on a rainy day, could make rocks and robots cry and smile. It has the power to rekindle the dying fire that is humanity in the hearts of cynics and nihilists to the similar effect that once The Lunchbox had. For even an emotionless heart, which I often have been accused of like a stranded ship drifting in the dark ocean at night, this moving beams like a lighthouse and coming from me, that is…"
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani
"Take a syringe and test me for diabetes. Karan Johar's assault on all that is toxic about the conformity in traditional family dynamics and the so-called golden generation's styles. This movie is an antidote to movies like Animal. Having said that, movies like these are why I have never been a sucker for romantic movies, despite the fact that i like the second half leaving aside its heavy-handed approach of forceful assertion of men getting comfortable with lingerie and bashing…"
Ustad Hotel
"First, the good. In addition to the flavourful flooding in the mouth and colorful explosion in the mind because of this Anwar Rasheed movie written by the talented Anjali Menon it leaves a traditional old sense of feel good and happy ending which was used to be the climax of Rajesh Khanna starred movies and Sooraj Barjatya's Rajshri Productions. What stands out for is the warm grandfather-grandson relationship. The answer to the question- 'Where did all the wise old men…"
12th Fail
"This movie was off to a great start and then just after the first act the makers decided to take a turn which was more of a Dharma Production bent rather than the grind surrounding the grunt work of a poor young man. As if all the curve balls life threw at the man in terms of familial responsibilities, father's struggle and mother's labour were not enough, it still went on to add some chat masala by invoking a love…"
Madras Cafe
"Second watch. When I watched this movie in a theater, I didn't care much for it. Sircar was a newcomer and yet to find his spot as a critically acclaimed director. But, now that i sufficiently know the background behind the longest Civil War in history and how intelligence failure led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, I could appreciate this movie more to its intended depth. It was a meticulously made intense war/spy thriller for a year like 2013…"
The Kashmir Files
"Whatever my analysis of this movie is going to be it's gonna look like one-sided and that's because it was designed that way by the creators themselves to cease any shred of nuance from a complex historical and cultural war that has been fought in the once heaven of India since the 13th or 14th century. Therefore, I will mostly stick to the technical aspects of the movie. First thing first. The color and cinematography have a strong resemblance with…"
Road House
"This movie could have had guilty pleasure written all over it, but unfortunately it didn't make me guilty nor did it give me any pleasure. How much does it move plot-wise? Not much. Except for the disorienting camera angles, there is nothing here. It is probably the worst Jake Gyllenhaal movie since Prince of Persia and Ambulance and let me tell you it is worse than Ambulance. A stoic Buddha like veteran UFC fighter goes on a savior journey western…"
I May Destroy You
"Different colors and shades of a victim who is a fighter and all different kinds of people around her. Into the rabbit hole of trauma, revisit, state machinery, possibility and imagination of revenge, reenactment and closure or the lack of it."
Murder Mubarak
"Big Eat The Rich moment for Bollywood. I don't know why Merry Christmas got so hyped, maybe because of Raghavan's reputation, whereas this is the movie which should have garnered the buzz. By no means, it's an extraordinarily perfect murder mystery movie because it comes undoubtedly with a plot hole or two and got mired with an oversimplified twist at the end while the entire screenplay was forging something convoluted, but it is good, if not better than good. Takes…"
Merry Christmas
"Director- Sriram Raghavan. A movie that tries to be really clever with too little of a nonlinear plot peppered with very wooden performances. In fact, Vijay Sethupathi's performance was so wooden that he made Katrina Kaif look like Meryl Streep. As it is now clear that director Sriram Raghavan has a thing for French cinema, short films and French literature. The mind-blowing previous venture of his, Andhadhun was an inspiration from L'Accordeur, a 10-minute short film which he brilliantly added…"
OMG 2
"Satyam Shivam Sundaram. A well-intentioned movie which is not just a movie, it's an instrument for a cause and it's a fight. After all, the word conservative comes with a 'con' in it. That's the flight against. In a country, where every other movie has scenes of somebody slapping across the face of somebody else and nobody wags a finger because it has been so entrenched as an entitled of norm, this movie makes slaps taboo and makes taboo like…"
Revenge
"2017. A trippy, euphoric, bloody, brutal, violent rape revenge thriller filled with high octane drug-induced hallucinatory cat and mouse chase. Elevated by practical visuals and special effects, this movie is a no brainer, but in terms of color grading, camera works, music and makeup, it gives an escape medium like the title suggests."