A Visually Lush Love Story with a Faltering Heart Phanindra Narsetti’s 8 Vasantalu is a cinematic attempt at blending love, loss, and self-discovery into a slow-burning romantic drama. Framed like a visual poem, it tells the story of a woman’s journey across eight years, tracing two major love stories that shape her identity. While the…
A Humble Comedy With Underlying Potential Rahul Riji Nair’s Flask (2025) is a Malayalam-language comedy-drama that walks the fine line between satire and sentiment. Starring Saiju Kurup as the well-meaning but clumsy police constable Jyothikumar and Suresh Krishna as the cold, bureaucratic judge Venkitesh Balaji, the film attempts to explore how empathy slowly blossoms in…
A Compelling Core That Deserves a Tighter Screenplay Director Nelson Venkatesan returns with DNA, a film that dares to explore an emotionally unsettling premise: a mentally unstable woman claims her newborn has been swapped at birth. With Atharvaa and Nimisha Sajayan leading the cast, the story takes us through the murky layers of trust, trauma,…
A Mature Romance Daring to Ask Difficult Questions In Aap Jaisa Koi, director Vivek Soni attempts a rare feat in contemporary Hindi cinema — to craft a romantic dramedy between two adults from wildly different worlds and generations. Starring R. Madhavan as a 42-year-old Sanskrit teacher and Fatima Sana Shaikh as a spirited French instructor…
A Familiar Template Polished with Gloss and Heart Debutant Kireeti Reddy enters the Telugu film industry with Junior, a film that wears its launchpad status on its sleeve. Directed by Radhakrishna Reddy, this bilingual (Telugu-Kannada) drama is built to showcase the newcomer’s strengths—dance, action, emotions, and charm. While the emotional undertone does strike a chord…
A Bold Shift for Sekhar Kammula Director Sekhar Kammula, best known for his quiet, intimate dramas, takes a sharp detour in Kuberaa, a searing socio-political thriller set against the brutal landscape of capitalism, corruption, and inequality. With a powerhouse cast led by Dhanush, Nagarjuna Akkineni, Rashmika Mandanna, and Jim Sarbh, this 3-hour Telugu drama swings…
Aashiqui Vibes, Modern Faces, Same Old Suri Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara is not trying to be clever. It’s just trying to feel—deeply, loudly, and sometimes dramatically. And on that front, it delivers. This is a film that wears its broken heart on its sleeve, offers up a playlist of aching melodies, and wraps it in a…
A Thriller That Fights Too Many Battles Kussh S Sinha’s directorial debut, Nikita Roy, walks into the horror-thriller territory with an intriguing setup—a rationalist author investigating her brother’s mysterious death. But instead of staying sharp and focused, the film takes too many detours, becoming a disjointed mix of horror, crime, cult mystery, and psychological drama….
A Quirky Village Satire That Aims High, Lands Halfway Introduction: A Satirical Lens on Rural Life Set in the nostalgic backdrop of 1990s Andhra Pradesh, Kothapallilo Okappudu presents itself as a light-hearted rural drama but quickly turns into something more layered — a satire filled with questions around belief, power, and identity. Directed by Praveena…
A Story That Deserved Sharper Storytelling Janaki V vs State of Kerala had everything in place: a sensitive social issue, a layered courtroom setting, and a star cast led by Suresh Gopi and Anupama Parameswaran. What it delivers, however, is an inconsistent and confused legal drama that struggles to stay true to its core. The…
