Manik Sharma

ENTERTAINMENT

Netflix’s Ripley review: Andrew Scott overtakes Matt Damon in mesmerising adaptation of the popular anti-hero

Ripley on Netflix: Andrew Scott adds a layer of tenderness and fragility in a Hitchcock-ian tribute to a popular literary character.

ENTERTAINMENT

Godzilla x Kong The New Empire review: Dazzling CGI slugfest offers big-screen wonder & silliness

9 reasons to watch Godzilla x Kong The New Empire in theatre, if you haven't already: 1. Godzilla, 2. Kong, 3. Jia, 4. Hollow Earth, 5. Baby Kong, 6. Animal whisperer Trapper, played by the oddly charming Dan Stevens, 7. Godzilla curled up in Rome's Colosseum, 8. The prickly reunion of Godzilla and Kong, 9. Spectacular visual language.

ENTERTAINMENT

The Great Indian Kapil Show Review: More of the same as Netflix places its biggest bet for growth yet

Ranbir Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor make the first batch of guests in a show that, barring the welcome return of Sunil Grover, offers much of the same in Netflix’s search of the mainstream.

MOVIE

Crew review: Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan & Kriti Sanon rage against the system in breezy lightweight dramedy

What to watch in theatres: The casting coupe of Tabu and Kareena Kapoor Khan yields mixed results in a heist drama that offers charm and promise without the fundamental elements of wit.

ENTERTAINMENT

Disney+Hotstar’s Patna Shuklla Review: Raveena Tandon struggles to elevate tepid courtroom drama

What to watch on Disney + Hotstar: In Patna Shuklla, Raveena Tandon plays a woman fighting on multiple fronts with modest means but without a sense of tension or desperation.

ENTERTAINMENT

Madgaon Express Review: Hindi Cinema finally has its own ‘The Hangover’

Divyenndu Sharma, Pratik Gandhi and Avinash Tiwary all shine in a cantankerous buddy comedy that finally pulls the pin on the ‘Goa plan’.

ENTERTAINMENT

Amazon Prime Video’s Ae Watan Mere Watan Review: Sara Ali Khan Struggles in Film that Squanders a Great Untold Legacy

Sara Ali Khan can’t quite fill the shoes of a young freedom fighter in a film that knows its ceiling but can’t quite build the ladder to get anywhere close to it.

ENTERTAINMENT

Swatantra Veer Savarkar Review: Randeep Hooda the Director outshines the Actor in Strangely Fascinating Yarn

Randeep Hooda acts and directs a lengthy homage to VD Savarkar, in a strangely hypnotic film stolen by the Hooda who sat behind the camera.

ENTERTAINMENT

Disney+Hotstar’s Lootere Review: Absorbing Thriller Marries Impressive Scale with Ambitious Storytelling

Lootere is sprawling but cogent, obsessively detailed and beguilingly shot on a scale rarely visible on Indian streaming.

ENTERTAINMENT

Oscars 2024 Best Picture nominee The Zone of Interest is set in one of Auschwitz’s lesser-studied milieus

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a deeply unsettling view of the banality of evil. The film—led by another terrific performance by Sandra Huller (also the lead in the 96th Oscars Best Picture nominee Anatomy of a Fall)—feels like an ASMR video from hell.

ENTERTAINMENT

Shaitaan review: R. Madhavan steals the show in enjoyable supernatural thriller that provokes without clear purpose

Headlined by a terrific R. Madhavan, Shaitaan can unsettle, maybe even anger you without ever registering anything beyond the memo of shock and awe.

ENTERTAINMENT

Disney+Hotstar’s Showtime review: Emraan Hashmi is deliciously twisted in series that underwhelms

Produced by Dharmatic and chockfull of celebrity cameos (Dharmendra, Badshah, Janhvi Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur, Neha Dhupia and Angad Bedi), Showtime is stuck somewhere between self-awareness and self-seriousness.

TRENDS

Dune Part Two review: Denis Villeneuve improves upon the first film in a gobsmacking spectacle

Dune Part Two is sumptuous, immersive and grander – if that were even possible – than the first. A gobsmacking spectacle that gets stranger and wilder at deliberately ponderous speed.

TRENDS

Laapataa Ladies review: Kiran Rao’s dramedy is a delightful ode to female bonding

Led by earthy performances by Nitanshi Goel, Sparsh Shrivastava and a scene-stealing Ravi Kishan, Rao’s dramedy successfully lifts the veil on bonds that have gone unsaid and uncelebrated.

TRENDS

Netflix’s Maamla Legal Hai review: Ravi Kishan leads a charming workplace comedy that punches above its weight

Netflix court comedy Maamla Legal Hai: Ravi Kishan leads from the front in a workplace satire that highlights, with the help of news headlines, the absurdity of institutional decay.

TRENDS

Oscars 2024: Poor Things is a wild re-imagination of Frankenstein led by a breathtaking Emma Stone

Emma Stone turns in the performance of a lifetime in Yorgos Lanthimos freaky feminist fable Poor Things, which also stars Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef and Mark Ruffalo.

TRENDS

Article 370 review: Yami Gautam is terrific in rousing but overlong political thriller

Yami Gautam and Priyamani are pitch perfect in a film that manages to attach raw drama and nerve to a complex bureaucratic moment.

TRENDS

Oscars 2024: The Holdovers is a poignant yet light-hearted exploration of loneliness & self-loathing

Oscar-nominated Paul Giamatti leads an excellent troika of performances in The Holdover, a heartfelt film about the many patterns of self-loathing.

TRENDS

Strays Review: Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx lead delightfully foul-mouthed canine revenge comedy

Four dogs take revenge on an abusive owner in a film so gloriously indecent and against the grain, it might just be the best comedy of the year.

TRENDS

Action sci-fi Madame Web review: With great power comes startling mediocrity

1st Marvel film of 2024: The central idea of a superhero and villain each being able to see snippets of the future might have been interesting, except Madame Web gets caught in its own web of clichés. Even Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ plays to a shockingly sluggish action sequence.

TRENDS

Prime Video’s Love Storiyaan is a tender affirmation of love as the language of resistance

Love Storiyaan on Amazon Prime Video review: Six stories inspired by the Instagram page India Love Project make for a hopeful reading of love in its many socio-political idioms.

TRENDS

Zee5’s Lantrani review: A welcome, charming but uneven anthology about rural anxieties and dysfunction

Two of Lantrani’s three short films made by National Award-winning directors, are likeable but also hamstrung by a woke, urban lens.

TRENDS

Netflix’s Bhakshak review: Bhumi Pednekar leads a stellar cast in an unsettling but underwritten film

Bhakshak is raw, grim and cold-blooded but offers little insight into the nature of patriarchal violence or the forces looking to fight it.