Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “Bhairavam” (a remake of the 2024 film “Garudan”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Three best friends experience violent power struggles over control of a sacred temple and the land around the temple.
Culture Audience: “Bhairavam” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, “Garudan” and predictable action movies about loyalties and betrayals among family members and friends.
Sharath Lohithaswa in “Bhairavam” (Photo courtesy of Prathyangira Cinemas)
“Bhairavam” is a stale and clumsy story of three best friends and betrayals over control of a scared temple. This bloated and repetitive Telugu remake of the Tamil film “Garudan” is just a dull collection of violent fights and vapid acting performances. The movie’s song-and-dance numbers are mediocre and unnecessary.
Written and directed by Vijay Kanakamedala, “Bhairavam” is an inferior remake of the 2023’s “Garudan,” which was written and directed by R. S. Durai Senthilkumar. ” The plot is essentially the same for both movies, but “Bhairavam” is soulless and offers very little to care about the main characters. As is the case with many terrible action movies, “Bhairavam” (which translates to “fearsome” or “terrible” in English) tries to overcompensate for its monotnous story by having obnoxiously loud blaring of the movie’s score music and sound mixing.
“Bhairavam” (which takes place in an unnamed city in India) begins with an introduction explaining a Varahi Amman temple has been desecrated by various robberies. The trustee of the temple is Nagaratnamma (played by Jayasudha), who is the elderly matriarch of her family. Nagaratnamma expects that after she dies, the someone else in her family will take over the trusteeship of the temple.
Meanwhile, a circle inspector named Pardha Sarathi (played by Sampath Raj), who has 20 years of experience as police law enforcement, announces to his supervisor that he’s resigning from his job three months ahead of schedule. He says he wants to take this retirement early because he no longer feels proud to serve on the police force. Pardha says he blames one person for this disillusionment.
“Bhairavam” then does a flashback to three months earlier to show the events leading up t Pardha deciding to going to retirement earlier than he originally planned. The story focuses on three men who have been friends with each other since childhood. All three men experience various tests of their friendships and get entangled in power struggles over the temple after Nagaratnamma dies.
These are the three friends who are at the center of the story:
Gajapathi Varma (played by Manchu Manoj) is the affluent grandson of Nagaratnamma. He is the most ruthless and the most aggressive of the three friends. In the beginning of the story, Gajapathi and his wife Neelima (played by Anandhi) are childless and have been trying to have their first child.
Varadha (played by Nara Rohith) can be a good guy, but he flip-flops on his morality and loyalty to others, depending what will serve him best. He owns a successful company called Varadha Imports and is happily married to his devoted wife Poornima (played by Divya Pillai), who. Varadha and Poornima have two children: a son in his early teens and a daughter who’s about 5 or 6 years old.
Seenu (played by Sai Srinivas Bellamkonda) is the most ethical and compassionate of the three friends. Seenu was an orphan boy who met Gajapathi when Seenu saved Gajapathi’s life. A grateful Nagaratnamma then adopted Seenu, who is portrayed from the beginning as the obvious “hero” of the story.
As adults, Gajapathi (who is vengeful and has a nasty temper) does not treat Seenu as an equal member of his family. Seenu works in a low-level job for Gajapathi. Seenu has a working-class lifestyle, which is in contrast to the more upscale lifestyles of Gajapathi and Varadha. Seenu is a bachelor, but he invetiably gets a love interest. Her name is Vennela (played by Aditi Shankar), who is opinionated and flirtatious, but she’s not given much to do except go on dates with Gajapathi and dance with him in the movie’s musical numbers.
After the death of Nagaratnamma, there’s a power struggle over who will take ownership of the temple and its valuable surrounding property. A corrupt politician named Minister Vedurupalli Venkateshwara Rao (played by Sharath Lohitashwa) wants to take control. He enlists the help of his brother-in-law Nagaraju (played by Ajay), also known as Theatre, who is a somewhat bumbling criminal.
The brutal and vicious tones of the fight scenes are awkwardly mixed with some comedy that and light-hearted musical numbers that don’t fit well in the movie at all. A somewhat dorky police inspector named Sundarachari (played by Vennela Kishore) has a small role in the movie not because the Sundarachari is needed for the movie’s plot but because it looks like the filmmakers just wanted to put Kishore in the movie for some mindless comic relief.
The most impressive aspects of “Bhairavam” are the movie’s cinematography and production design, which make “Bhairavam” look very stylish. Too bad the story and acting don’t match. The movie’s visual effects are serviceable, but the over-the-top and unrealistic action sequences just mind-numbing and quite dull after a while.
Ultimately, the characters and performances in the very uneven “Bhairavam” just aren’t very appealing. Seenu is supposed to be “heroic” but he’s personality has no depth. And at 140 minutes, “Bhairavam” is entirely too long for a story that looks like a very uninspired rehash of any overblown action film about greed and revenge plots.
Prathyangira Cinemas released “Bhairavam” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 30, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India and briefly in Sri Lanka, the dramatic film “Tourist Family” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A family of four people from Sri Lanka relocate to India as undocumented immigrants and experience hardships and prejudices but also kindness and compassion.
Culture Audience: “Tourist Family” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and feel-good dramas about families and immigration.
Ramkumar Prasanna and Ramesk Thilak in “Tourist Family” (Photo courtesy of Million Dollar Studios and MRP Entertainment)
“Tourist Family” is a bit unrealistic and the movie is too long. However, this good-natured drama (about a Sri Lankan family living as undocumented immigrants in India) has a positive message about kindness and second chances in life. In a world where excessive violence and hatred have become very common in movies, “Tourist Family” is a solid alternative if you’re looking for more wholesome entertainment.
Written and directed by Abishan Jeevinth, “Tourist Family” begins in Valvettithurai, Sri Lanka, where the family members (who are Sri Lankan Tamils) are preparing to leave and cross the border into India because of the Sri Lankan economic crisis. The family consists of mild-mannered patriarch Dharmadas, nicknamed Das (played by M. Sasikumar); his friendly homemaker wife Vasanthi Dharmadas (played by Simran); their son Nithushan Dharmadas (played by Mithun Jai Sankar), who’s about 16 or 17 years old); and the spouse’s other son Mulli Dharmadas (played by Kamalesh Jagan), who’s about 9 or 10 years old. Also in the family is Prakash (played by Yogi Babu), Vasanthi’s brother who has been living in India legally and gives the family advice on what to do during this illegal immigration.
After crossing the border into India, the family is questioned at a Rameswaram beach by a group of police constables, led by A. Bhairavan (played by Ramesh Thilak), who believes the family’s pre-rehearsed story that the family got lost. Mulli also tells a lie that a stray dog nearby is the family’s dog. This lie will come back to haunt the Dharmadas family.
Meanwhile, the family settles in Chennai, India, in an area where the neighbors are welcoming. Ironically, they rent a house from a police inspector named R. Raghavan (played by Bagavathi Perumal), who does not know the family members are undocumented immigrants. Prakash coaches the family members (who are pretending to be Malayalis) on how to hide their Sri Lankan accents and cultural customs.
Das is able to find part-time work as a temporary driver for a stern elderly neighbor named Richard (played by M. S. Bhaskar), who has a working relationship with Das that has its shares of ups and downs. Meanwhile, an aggressive assistant commissioner of police named Balwan Singh (played by Ramkumar Prasanna) starts hunting down illegal immigrants whom he suspects of being responsible for a recent bombing that injured several people in Rameswaram. The rest of “Tourist Family” shows what happens when all of these situations intertwine.
“Tourist Family” has solid acting and some soap opera-like subplots in this 128-minute movie. An elderly married couple named Mangaiyarkarasi (played by Sreeja Ravi) and Gunasekar (played by Elango Kumaravel) befriend the family and experience a massive change in their spousal relationship during this story. Nithushan becomes close to landlord Raghavan’s teenage daughter Kural (played by Yogalakshmi) after they confide in each other about their love-life problems: Nithushan is distraught because his girlfriend in Sri Lanka has gotten engaged to someone else, while Kural has recently found out that her boyfriend cheated on her.
“Tourist Family” has tearjerker moments and heart-warming moments. The police investigation of the bombing is where the movie tends to falter because it has moments that look too manufactured for a movie. Although the pacing could have been better, “Tourist Family” should satisfy people looking for an uplifting story about the power of communities who care about each other.
Million Dollar Studios and MRP Entertainment released “Tourist Family” in select U.S. cinemas on May 16, 2025. The movie was released in India on April 29, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India (mostly in the cities of Bhophal and Bhoj), in 1988, the action film “Raid 2” (a sequel to the 2018 movie “Raid”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A deputy commissioner for the Indian Revenue Service contends with a powerful home minister who is suspected of financial crimes, including hiding an untaxed fortune.
Culture Audience: “Raid 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the 2018 “Raid” movie, but “Raid 2” is an example of a sequel that is very inferior to the original movie.
Saurabh Shukla in “Raid 2” (Photo courtesy of Panorama Studios)
“Raid 2” is a long-winded and preachy misfire trying to sell a fantasy that tax officials are supposed to have a Robin Hood mentality about the distribution of wealth. A cringeworthy scene toward the end of the movie embodies this film’s annoying stupidity. Most fans of the 2018 action film “Raid” will be probably be disappointed by this crummy sequel.
Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, “Raid 2” was written by Gupta, Ritesh Shah, Jaideep Yadav and Karan Vyas. “Raid” was directed by Gupta and written by Shah. “Raid 2” having more screenwriters than “Raid” did not result in improvements but made the screenplay worse. “Raid 2” is full of contradictions and plot holes. Considering the seven-year gap between the release of “Raid” and “Raid 2,” that should have been plenty of time to come up with a good story, but the 138-minuted “Raid 2” falls very short and is just one misstep after another.
“Raid 2” (which is set in India) takes place in 1988, seven years after the events of the first “Raid” movie. Amay Patnaik (played by Ajay Devgn) is still a no-nonsense deputy commissioner for tax for the Indian Revenue Service. As the title indicates, his specialty is leading raids of properties of wealthy people who are suspected tax evaders. A running “joke” in the film series is that Amay’s raids are so controversial because of the fortunes he uncovers and the powerful people he disrupts, he has to be transferred to a new city after each raid.
In 1988, Amay has been working for the Indian Revenue Service for 14 years. He is happily married to Malini Patnaik (played by Vaani Kapoor, replacing Ileana D’Cruz, who had the role in “Raid), and the spouses have a daughter named Mini (played by Pritisha Srivastava), who’s about 6 or 7 years old. In the beginning of the movie, Amay has led a raid in Jaiphur and extorts the raided official who has been taken into custody. Amay says that he’s no longer going to be an honest government worker. Amay demands ₹20 million to make the official’s criminal charges go away.
However, Amay ends up getting charged with bribery. He is transferred for the 74th time and has to relocate with Malin and Min to Bhoj. This part of the movie makes no sense until a not-so-surprising “plot twist” is revealed. Amay’s supervisor is Kaul (played by Rajat Kapoor), the IRS chief commissioner of income tax. In Bhoj, Amay’s closest colleagues are buffoonish Ashok Kumar (played by Sanjeev Jhori) and enthusiastic Geeta Devi (played by Shruti Pandey), who are both underdeveloped characters.
Amay’s next raid target is Manohar Dhankar (played by Riteish Deshmukh), also known as Dada Manohar Bhai or Dada Bhai, a wealthy politician in Bhopal. Dada Bhai uses philanthropy and other charity work to cover up his dirty deeds. The movie gives a brief summary of how Dada Bhai rose to power.
Dada Bhai started off as a the owner of a shoe shop. When he sold the business, he had enough money to donate food to needy people. This charity made him very popular with “common folks,” many of whom worship him like members of a cult. Eventually, Dada Bhai created a charity foundation named after himself.
An unnamed chief minister (played by Sushil Dahiya) became jealous of Dada Bhai’s popularity and began to public disparage him. But when the chief minister had a re-election campaign, he came to the conclusion that he needed Dada Bhai’s support and endorsement, so the chief minister made a public apology to Dada Bhai.
Dada Bhai took advantage of the chief minister’s weakened power by making the chief minister give Dada Bhai the position of home minister. Dada Bhai then abused his power n the home minister position to secretly commit crimes that are eventually detailed in the movie. Dada Bhai has fooled a lot of people into believing that he’s a humble “good guy” when he is just the opposite.
Amay finds out some information that leads him to believe that to Dada Bhai has hidden a fortune in untaxed cash. Amay convinces his skeptical boss Kaul that a raid needs to be done on Dada Bhai’s mansion home. The raid involves Amay and about 30 officials storming over to mansion. Members of the public who hear about the raid gather outside the mansion. When the raid officials arrive, Dada Bhai appears to be such a loving son to his widowed mother Amma (played by Supriya Pathak), he’s washing her feet.
Dada Bhai is a bachelor with no children, but he has a large family of siblings, nieces and nephews, who are all at the house during the raid. Dada Bhai maintains an image of politeness by introducing his family to the raid officials. Dada Bhai also has a sycophantic assistant named Chhote (played by Tarun Gehlot), who doesn’t do much in the movie but take orders from Dada Bhai.
Because the movie shows from nearly the beginning that Dada Bhai is the chief villain, there is no real mystery or suspense. When his secrets are uncovered, they are not surprising. Disgraced politician Rameshwar Singh (played by Saurabh Shukla), also known as Ramji or Tauji, who was the chief villain in the first “Raid” movie, is out of prison in “Raid 2.” Rameshwar is mostly shown following and commenting on news of what Amay is doing and has a big grudge against Amay.
“Raid 2” isn’t the type of movie that is awful because of the acting. Most of the acting is solid or mediocre. The problems with “Raid 2” mainly have to do with the screenplay and direction. It’s a long movie because it is often unfocused, as it goes off on various tangents and raises questions that the movie never bothers to answer. For example, after Amay discovers a very dark secret Dada Bhai, Amay’s wife Malini, who is not part of the investigation, suddenly and inexplicably appears in a scene as a self-appointed advocate for the victims.
“Raid 2” makes the same mistakes that a lot of sequels make. By trying to outdo the first movie in the series, “Raid 2” becomes overstuffed with unnecessary subplots and irritating new characters. One of these aggravating new characters is Vinay Bakaya (played by Brijendra Kala), an attorney who works for the IRS and who goes undercover in a ludicrous part of the movie. Vinay is also the character who does the most unrealistic thing in the movie that no IRS attorney in real would ever do.
The action scenes in “Raid 2” are not impressive. The movie also sends confused messages. It keeps pounding the idea that Amay is a diligent IRS official seeking accountability and justice for tax crimes. And yet, there are too many scenes where Amay and his colleagues deliberately do illegal things that are direct contradictions of their purpose and goals. There’s no point in trying to explain all these contradictions. The only explanation is “Raid 2” is just bad filmmaking.
Panorama Studios released “Raid 2” in U.S. cinemas and in India on May 1, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the three-episode documentary series “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” features a predominantly Indian group of people (with a few white people) discussing the scandals of the cult led by Asaram Bapu, who was convicted of rape in 2018 and in 2023, and sentenced to life in prison.
Culture Clash: Several people in the documentary say that Bapu and other people in the cult have committed several violent crimes, including murder, attempted murder and sexual assaults.
Culture Audience: “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about scandalous cults.
Chanchal Mishra in “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” (Photo courtesy of Max)
“Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” tells a familiar story about a cult led by someone who is disgraced and eventually convicted of serious crimes. This three-episode docuseries gives a competent and well-rounded overview of the Asaram Bapu cult scandals. There’s nothing new that’s reported, and the pacing is occasionally dull. However, the documentary has interviews with a good variety of people.
Directed by Naman Govil, “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” repeats a lot well-documented information that was already reported and stops short of doing its own investigation into ongoing or unresolved crime accusations. Instead, the documentary series just focuses on the most high-profile accusations against the cult: The 2008 deaths of cousins Dipesh Vaghela (10 years old) and Abhishek Vaghela (11 years) and the rapes of three females who were underage at the time and whose names are not revealed in the documentary to protect their privacy.
Episode 1, titled “The Business of Enlightenment,” chronicles how Asaram Bapu came to power through his cult, which was rocked by the cult’s first major scandal in 2008, when two boys who attended a cult boarding school went missing from the school and were later found dead and mutilated. Episode 2, titled “Skeletons in the Closet,” details the investigation results for these two deaths and has stories about cult members getting involved in occult activities. Episode 3, titled “People vs. Asaram,” has information on the court cases where the cult founder and his son were convicted of raping girls.
Asaram Bapu (known more commonly by the one-word name Asaram) was born in the village of Bernai, India, on April 17, 1941. His birth name was Asumal Thaumal Harpalani or Asumal Sirumalani. Asaram preached conservative philosophies and rules for sexual activities and gender roles. He used the Hindu religion to appoint himself as a “spiritual leader” and launched a small group of followers in the early 1970s. Gopi Maniar, an independent journalist, says that in these early years, Asaram funded the cult by bootlegging.
By the 1980s, Asaram began calling himself a messiah, and the cult had expanded to having several ashrams (places of worship) across India. The 1990s was a peak growth decade for the cult, which used cable TV to increase the cult’s visibility and popularity. Asaram also had an image of respectability and power because he was close to prominent politicians, some of whom said he was their spiritual adviser. A documentary epilogue mentions the cult has an estimated 40 million followers worldwide, with most of the followers in South Asia.
The documentary doesn’t delve too much into Asaram’s personal background before he became a cult leader. And there is no mention of his wife Laxmi Dev and their daughter Bhartishree or Bharti Devi. His son Narayan Sai is mentioned as the “second in command” heir to the cult, whose followers were taught that Sai should be worshipped too.
Mahender Chawla, a former member of the cult, is interviewed and gives the most disturbing details about what he says the cult was like for him behind the scenes. Chawla says he came from a middle-class family and had a very religious mother. When he was a medical science student, he joined the cult. “I used to believe Asaram was God.”
Chawla says gave up his regular life and cut ties with his family and friends to join the cult. He went from being a devoted follower to a disillusioned follower in 2004, when he says he saw Asaram “in a compromising position with a woman.” Based on Chawla’s tone of voice and how emotional Chawla gets when he remembers this incident, this “compromising position” might not have been consensual.
“I could not believe my eyes,” Chawla says when remembering how he felt when witnessing this sexual misconduct. “I could’ve never imagined that something this disgusting could happen. That’s when I realized that this man is no god or saint. This man is the devil.”
Still, it took a while (about a year later) for Chawla to officially leave the cult. He says he quit the cult in August 2005. He says after he left the cult, members who stayed (people whom he considered his “extended family”) shamed him and harassed him.
Chawla goes into more detail about other things he experienced in the cult. He describes cult members being taught that women couldn’t be fully trusted because women were inherently more evil than men. Women were so distrusted that cult members couldn’t eat food that was looked at by women.
According to Chawla, cult leaders also told him that people’s minds could be controlled through chanting. He says that cult leaders encouraged him to explore black magic and the occult, which was a contradiction of the cult’s image of being advocates of Hinduism. Chawla also comments that the cult also had bizarre chanting rituals that followers were told could cure diseases.
A turning point for the cult’s reputation began in July 2008. Dipesh Vaghela and Abhishek Vaghela (whose fathers are brothers) were both enrolled in a cult boarding school in Gujarat because their parents believed that this school would bring the kids closer to God. On July 3, 2008, Dipesh asked his father Praful J. Veghela to come to the school as quickly as possible, but Dipesh wouldn’t say way. Earlier, Dipesh had requested batteries for his keyboard and roller skates.
Praful and his brother Shantilal J. Vaghela (who is Abhishek’s father) went to the school and found out that Dipesh and Abishek were both missing. At first, school official that the boys were on a field trip and had not returned yet. Asharam told the fathers to do some rituals, such as pick up four stones in the road and boil some water. It’s why the parents of the boys did not file a missing persons report right away
However, by the second day that Abishek and Dipesh were missing, it was undeniable that something was very wrong, and a missing persons report was filed. On the third day that the boys were missing, their decomposed bodies were found behind Motera stadium. Their bodies had been burned and partially dismembered. (The documentary briefly shows deliberately blurred photos of the bodies, with advance warning about the graphic nature of the photos.) Shockingly, an official investigation ruled that although mutilation of the corpses was not accidental, there wasn’t enough proof for the deaths to declared as homicides.
Praful and Shantilal—who are now former members of the cult—both give heart-wrenching interviews about the ordeal they went through to get justice, which they believe was corrupted because too many people in law enforcement were intimidated by Asharam’s power. The brothers (who briefly went on a public hunger strike in 2008 to protest the faulty police investigation) also say that Asharam never offered condolences and never offered to cooperate with the police investigation. Archival footage in the documentary shows that when Asharam was confronted by the media about these two deaths, he said he couldn’t comment because he doesn’t know how the boys died.
Praful says in the beginning of the documentary that after his own son went missing and was found dead, he discovered that many other children were reported missing from the cult’s boarding schools. The documentary does not elaborate or go into more details about these other missing persons. The documentary also has no details about the boarding school officials who were on duty and responsible for the safety and well-being of Dipesh and Abishek.
Several people in the documentary say that sexual abuse was rampant in the cult, with women and girls being brainwashed into thinking that it was the highest honor to have sex with Asaram or his son. Part of the brainwashing was telling these victims that they would be closer to God if they had sex with Asaram or his son. But some of the victims fought back and filed charges for rape under India’s Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act that became law in 2012.
In 2013, Asaram was convicted of raping a 16-year-girl in Jodphur, India, and sentenced to life in prison. In separate incidents, Asaram and his son were convicted of raping two underage sisters in Surat, India: Asaram was convicted of raping the older sister and received another life-in-prison sentence in 2023, while his son was convicted of raping the younger sister and received life in prison in 2019. Needless to say, Asaram and his son are not interviewed for the documentary, but there is archival footage clips of some of their public appearances in the years before they father and son were sent to prison.
The only person defending the cult in the documentary is cult member Neelam Dubey, a spokesperson for Sant Shr Ashramji Ashram. She says the expected things about how Asaram and his son were wrongfully convicted and have done nothing wrong. Dubey says that before she became a follower of Asaram, she used to be a crime reporter who hated spiritual leaders.
Several journalists, authors and cult experts are interviewed for the documentary. The one with the most compelling comments is TV reporter Maniar, who was physically attacked by mob of cult members when she was on the scene to report a protest in the Vaghela boys’ deaths. Maniar says she was pregnant at the time of the attack, which resulted in her having to get medical treatment at a hospital. Luckily, she did not miscarry
Maniar comments on how this assault affected her: “The psychological trauma of the attack was distressing.” However, she says she overcame those feelings because she knew it was important for her not to let the attack stop her from doing her job. “I was determined that we had to do something and expose the truth to everyone.
Also interviewed in the documentary is Chanchal Mishra, is one of the most important people in law enforcement who was responsible for bringing Asaram to justice for the rape of the girl in Jodphur. In 2013, Mishra was the newly appointed Assistant Commissioner of Police in Jodphur and one of the few women to have this position. She was the lead investigator for the case. Mishra mentions that the death threats she received from cult members were serious enough that she sent her underage son to live somewhere else while she was investigating in the case.
Other people interviewed in the documentary are P.C. Solanki, the attorney for the rape survivor in Jodphur; investigative journalist Bargaav Parikh; Dr. Alexandra Stein, a social psychologist who used to be in another cult; Dr. Mara Einstein, author of “Selling the Sacred”; Ushinor Majumdar, author of “God of Sin”; and S.H. Iyer, attorney for the Vaghela family.
“Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” has re-enactments that are fairly standard for these types of true crime documentaries. The production is fairly no-frills, with minimal graphics. Throughout the documentary, there are title cards of media headlines about the case. Even though “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” does not have any original investigations that uncover new information, it’s still an effective documentary that shows how cult leaders can abuse their power and can be taken down by the right people who don’t give up.
Max premiered “Cult of Fear: Asaram Bapu” on February 6, 2025. The series originally premiered on Discovery+ India on January 28, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, from the 1960s to 1998, the action film “Retro” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people and some black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An aggressive thug has conflicts with his lady love, who wants him to give up his criminal lifestyle, and he gets an early release from prison so that he can infiltrate a “fight club” cult on a remote island, where he impersonates a comedy therapist.
Culture Audience: “Retro” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching movies that are too long and too stupid.
Vidhu in “Retro” (Photo courtesy of Prime Media)
A complete tonal mess, “Retro” can’t decide if it wants to be a brutal action film or a wacky lighthearted comedy. It’s a strange and idiotic story about a gloomy thug who has to learn how to laugh. Song-and-dance numbers are awkwardly thrown into the mix.
Written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj, “Retro” has too much going on and yet none of it is meaningful or makes any sense. And to make matters worse, this wretched movie has an overly indulgent 168-minute runtime. If you watch this abomination from beginning to end, you might never get back that precious time and valuable brain cells.
“Retro” (which takes place in India) begins in the city of Mudarai, in the 1960s, when an orphan named Paarivel “Paari” Kannan is adopted as a baby by Sandhya (played by Swasika), the wife of a ruthless gangster named Thilagan (played by Joju George), who wants nothing to do with raising this child. The movie’s cast members who have the role of Paari are Nithran Sai as pre-teen Paari, Harish as teenage Paari, and Suriya as adult Paari. For reasons that are not explained in the movie, Paari finds it difficult to smile, so a big part of the plot is about his lady love and other people trying to get him to smile.
Sandhya dies when Paari is a teenager. Her dying wish was for Paari to learn how to smile. During the funeral, Paari saves Thilagan from an attack. As a result, Thilagan begins to respect Paari and starts grooming him to become part of Thilagan’s criminal activities. As a teenager, Paari meets and falls in love with Rukimini “Rukku” Paari (played by Aavni), who will become his future wife.
Thilagan remarries in 1989. He and his second wife have three biological sons (played by Nithish, Thirshiv and Sanjay), while adult Paari has followed Thilagan into the criminal lifestyle. In 1993, Paari reconnects with his sweetheart Rukmini (played by Pooja Hegde), who is now a veterinarian, and he asks her to marry him. Rukmini says she will only marry Paari if he leaves behind his life of crime and becomes a upstanding, law-abiding person.
Paari agrees to this ultimatum and gets the blessing of Rukmini’s widowed father (played by Singampuli) to marry Rukmini. The wedding ceremony of Paari and Rukmini is a joyous celebration—except that Rukmini and her father are uncomfortable that Thilagan has shown up with his gangster cronies, after Thilagan was explicitky told not to bring his criminal associates to the wedding. Paari makes a profuse apology to Rukmini and promises that nothing will bad happen.
And that’s the moment when you know that something very bad is going to happen. At the wedding reception, Paari tells Thilagan that Paari no longer wants to be a criminal and that it was a “mistake” to get involved in criminal activities. Thilagan’s response is to slap Paari very hard and call him a “bloody orphan.” As if to prove that he’s done with his life of crime, Paari refuses to give information in an upcoming arms deal that has the code name Gold Fish.
Things get worse when Thilagan’s gangster cronies start attacking Paari, who fights back in self-defense with a machete. Thilagan tries to kill Rukmini, but Paari cuts off one of Thilagan’s lower right arm at the elbow By the end of this bloody brawl, a few of the gangsters are dead. Paari gets arrested. A horrified and disgusted Rukmini refuses to talk to Paari before he is hauled off to jail. She cuts off all contact with him.
Paari is convicted of murder and sentenced to prison, where one of the movie’s cheesy musical numbers takes place in a prison yard. While he’s in prison, Paari hears that Rukmini and her father have moved to another state in India. Five years pass while Paari is in prison. During those five years, he has heard that Rukmini’s father has died, and she is now working for a non-governmental organization.
The next plot development is when “Retro” starts to get bizarre and stupid: Paari is given an early release from prison because he’s being sent to a mysterious island, where he’s told he has to be involved in amateur fighting. It sounds too good to be true to Paari, but he takes the offer anyway because he understandably wants to get out of prison.
Meanwhile, Thilagan (who now uses a robotic prosthetic right arm) has ordered some of his goons to find Rukmini. Why? Because Thilagan is still angry that Paari quit the gangster lifestyle. Thilagan wants to use Rukmini as bait to convince Paari to go back to being a criminal. It’s a nonsensical plan that ends up being a subplot that goes nowhere.
Shortly after Paari has gotten out of prison, Paari meets Dr. Chaplin Lolly (played by Jayaram), who has the nickname the Laughing Therapist because Dr. Lolly does stand-up comedy as part of his “therapy sessions. Paari doesn’t remember Dr. Lolly at first. Dr. Lolly reminds Paari that they first met when Paari was in prison and Dr. Lolly did a stand-up comedy show for the prison inmates. When Dr. Lolly asked Paari why Paari wasn’t laughing during this comedy show, Paari told Dr. Lolly that he ever laughed it was during a part of his childhood that was too long ago to remember.
The movie takes a turn for the worse when Paari hires Dr. Lolly to go with Paari and some cohorts to Black Island, where they settle in at a place called Laughter Hospital. Paari pretends to be Dr. Lolly and does some terrible stand-up comedy for hospital patients, where Paari wears a red clown nose and a bowler hat. Paari tries to force himself to laugh during these shows. It’s as cringeworthy as it sounds.
And what a coincidence: Rukmini shows up at the hospital. She’s still a veterinarian, but she’s also now an anti-poaching activist because this island has a lot of wildlife that is being poached. The island is ruled by Lord Milton (played by Gajaraj) and his son Freddie Milton (played by Sujith Shankar), an animal abuser who sexually harasses Rukmini. And you know what that means: Paari is going to fight Freddie.
There’s also a moronic subplot about a cult on the island called the Rubber Cult, which has Rubber War games that area combination of gladiator style and mixed-martials arts, with the game participants wearing rubber suits. The opponents in these games are rich people versus enslaved poor people. The rich people wear black rubber suits. The poor people wear red rubber suits.
Paari is forced to be on the “underdog” poor people’s team. An egotistical lout named Michael Mirasu (played by Vidhu), who likes to call himself King Michael, is in charge of these games. The action scenes during the Rubber War games are unrealistic and an assault on viewers’ intelligence.
The acting in “Retro” is atrocious. The film editing is extremely sloppy. The screenplay and direction are beyond incompetent. All of this adds up to “Retro” being convoluted junk that is no fun to watch and should be avoided at all costs.
Prime Media released “Retro” in select U.S. cinemas on May 1, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “HIT: The Third Case” (the third movie in the “HIT” series) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A vigilante police detective discovers a cult of serial killers, goes undercover to infiltrate the group, and becomes a murderer on a killing spree.
Culture Audience: “HIT: The Third Case” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the “HIT” series, but this movie abandons the intriguing detective drama concept and makes it an unimaginative and gory massacre movie.
Nani and Srinidhi Shetty in “HIT: The Third Case” (Photo courtesy of Wall Poster Cinema)
“HIT: The Third Case” ruins this movie franchise’s original intent of being a compelling story series about police solving murder mysteries. Instead, this “HIT” movie is a bloated action schlockfest of excessive violence that glorifies police brutality. It just another trashy movie that panders to the lowest common demoninator by copying too many other action movie abominations that have terrible screenplays and exploitative violence and are churned out on a regular basis.
The “HIT” series began with 2020’s “HIT: The First Case” (which had a 2022 Hindi-langauge remake also titled “HIT: The First Case”) and continued with 2023’s “HIT: The 2nd Case.” Each movie features a different police detective as the movie’s protagonist. All the “HIT” movies so far have been written and directed by Sailesh Kolanu, which is why it’s so disappointing that “HIT: The Third Case” (the third move in the series) has taken such a tacky and lazy turn for the worse. The only apparent explanation is that Kolanu and the movie’s other filmmakers thought they would make more money with a mindless and gruesomely violent action flick instead of a thought-provoking and intelligent police detective drama.
In “HIT: The Third Case,” Arjun Sarkaar (played by Nani) is a superintendent of police for the Indian Police Service’s Homicide Intervention Team (HIT) in Visakhapatnam, India. Arjun is an angry and corrupt official who frequently commits police brutality. As shown in the movie, he doesn’t hesitate to break bones and beat up people whom he interrogates in custody or whom he catches in the act of committing crimes. He sometimes does this illegal police brutality in front of his colleagues, who do little or nothing to stop him.
Arjun is in therapy for his anger management problems, and he has trouble sleeping. But this therapy is clearly not working. When Arjun is shown in a therapy session, all he seems to care about is getting a higher dosage for his prescription medication. “HIT: The Third Case” is such a shallow film, there is no explanation for why Arjun is the way that he is, but his aggressive style of policing has apparently gotten a lot of people arrested.
“HIT: The Third Case” tries to have some comedy relief early on in the movie, when Arjun’s unnamed widower father (played by Samuthirakani) plays matchmaker for bachelor Arjun by signing up Arjun on a dating app without Arjun’s consent. It leads to a montage of Arjun going on numerous disasatrous dates that always end abruptly because Arjun scares or turns off the women by interrogating them like a harsh police officer. The women on these dates make excuses to use the restroom and they never come back.
Arjun is extremely judgmental, emotionally immature, and socially backwards in his thinking. However, Arjun seems to get lucky when he meets Mridula (played by Srinidhi Shetty) through the dating app where Arjun’s father created a profile for Arjun. When Arju and Mridula go on their first date, she says she admires his blunt honesty. They begin dating and fall in love with each other. Mridula has a secret that is revealed later in the movie.
Arjun is investigating a series of murders where corpses are found hanging upside down from trees in isolated wooded areas. The dead people’s throats have been slashed. It’s eventually discovered that the murderers are members of a serial killer cult named CTK (an acronym for Capture Torture Kiil), which is operating on the Dark Web. In order to join the CTK cult, prospective members have to kill at least two people in this way and video record these murders.
Arjun infiltrates the CTK cult by going undercover as a prospective member. His murder victims are criminals, whom he thinks all deserve to be killed. A huge plot hole in the movie is that Arjun is supposed to be a famous police detective (famous enough for strangers to know who he is when he’s out in public), and yet CTK’s leaders—two sadists named Samuel Joseph (played by Ravindra Vijay) and Alpha (played by Prateik Babbar)—don’t even recognize Arjun when he joins the cult. Arjun makes no effort to disguise himself.
Supporting characters in “HIT: The Third Case” are one-dimensional and have very hollow personalities. Three of these generic characters are Arjun’s HIT colleagues: director of general police Nageswara Rao (played by Rao Ramesh); assistant superintendant of police Varsh (played by Komalee Prasad); and sub-inspector Diwakar (played by Chaithu Jonnalagadda), who don’t do much in the story except enable and cater to Arjun’s nasty temper and out-of-control antics. None of the acting is impressive in this junkpile movie.
“HIT: The Third Case” (which has an overly long running time of 157 minutes) just becomes a mind-numbing, obnoxiously loud and terrible mess of heinous violence where the “hero” is no better than the villains. In fact, the “hero” murders and attacks more people than any other murderer and attacker in the movie. The action scenes also look ridiculous. Don’t expect a real detective mystery in “HIT: The Third Case.” This horrible movie is just an excuse to show vile and disgusting assaults and murders, with a meaningless story and a very warped portrayal of law enforcement and justice.
Wall Poster Cinema released “HIT: The Third Case” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on May 1, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Indian cities of Rajkot and Mumbai, the action film “Sikandar” features an all-Asian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A rich vigilante is targeted for revenge by a wealthy politician while the vigilante travels around Mumbai to meet he people who received organ donations from the vigilante’s deceased wife.
Culture Audience: “Sikandar” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching overly long and stupid action movies.
Sathyaraj in “Sikandar” (Photo courtesy of FunAsia Films)
The horrible action movie “Sikandar” can’t decide if it wants to be a revenge rampage flick or a feel-good drama about organ donations. Everything about this atrociously acted and long-winded abomination is obnoxiously stupid. This is the type of junkpile film that doesn’t even try to have a good story, while the over-the-top action scenes are actually quite boring in their lack of imagination.
Written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, “Sikandar” is a 135-minute jumble of incoherence in what this movie is trying to convey. The movie (which takes place mostly in the Indian cities of Rajkot and Mumbai) has an identity that is just a confused as the movie’s characters who have multiple names. The “hero” of the story is Sanjay “Sikandar” Rajkot (played by Salman Khan), also known as the King of Rajkot, who is described as “a king with vast empires.”
Sikandar lives in an opulent mansion with his wife Saisri Rajkot (played by Rashmika Mandanna), also known as Rani Saidha, who is a painter artist. “Sikandar” wastes some time on shallow flashback scenes of what the relationship between Sikandar and Saisri was like before they got married. Expect to see multiple scenes of Sikandar and Saisri on courtship dates where they have mindless conversations as they flirt with each other.
Saisri is a loving and devoted wife, but she is frustrated that Sikandar is a workaholic who often seems preoccupied by things he won’t discuss with her. Sikandar isn’t actually seen doing working at a real job. The movie just shows him as a wealthy guy who likes to go around assaulting people whom he thinks deserves to be assaulted.
Saisri says to Sikandar that he has given her everything but his time. There are plenty of scenes of Sikandar spending time with Saisri. Sometimes he pays attention to her in a loving way, and other times his mind seems to be somewhere else. Another strain in their marriage is that Saisri hasn’t been able to get pregnant for years.
“Sikandar” begins with a bizarre and ridiculous scene taking place on an airplane that’s in flight. A woman named Monica (played by Neha Iyer) is traveling with her son Dhruvit (played by Dhruvit Pethadia), who’s about 6 or 7 years old. The plane doesn’t seem to have many passengers, so Dhruvit is able to sit in an empty seat across the aisle from Monica.
A creep named Arjun Pradhan (played by Prateik Smita Patil, also known as Prateik Babbar) suddenly sits down next to Monica and shows her a porn video that she made years ago when she was a porn actress, before she was married. Monica’s husband doesn’t know about her porn past. Arjun says he will show the video to Dhruvik if Monica doesn’t let Arjun have his way sexually with her, right then and there.
Arjun points to two of his bodyguards who are seated nearby and warns Monica not to say or do anything, or else his bodyguards will hurt her. A terrified Monica lets Arjun cover himself and Monica with a blanket. Just as Arjun is about to sexually assault her, Sikandar bursts into this part of the plane, gets into fight with Arjun and the bodyguards, and easily defeats them.
This fight scene is badly staged. Sikandar just came from another section in the plane. How did he see what was happening and know when to start attacking these criminals? Don’t expect an answer to that question. And during his entire bloody and violent fight, the airplane employees are nowhere to be seen until after Sikandar defeats these criminals.
Arjun and his cronies are arrested, which is a humiliating scandal because Arjun comes from a prominent family. He is the only child of Minister Rakesh Pradhan (played by Sathyaraj), who vows to get revenge on Sikandar. Rakesh bribes the corrupt Inspector Prakash (played by Kishore Kumar G.) to have police go to Sikandar’s mansion to arrest Sikandar.
When the police get there, Saisri tells them that Sikandar has left to turn himself in at the police station because he heard he was going to be arrested. It makes absolutely no sense, but that’s an example of how bad this movie is. And the movie gets worse as it continues on a downward spiral of idiocy.
Sikandar is very popular with the “common people” because he’s a charitable royal, so a mob of people gather outside his mansion to protest against the police who were there to arrest Sikandar. The mob goes as far as committing vandalism on the police cars parked outside. Rakesh wants to ends this civil unrest because it will affect his chances of getting re-elected, so he reluctantly lets Sikandar get released from police custody and says that Sikandar was “saved by the mob.”
The feud is reignited when Arjun is at his lavish birthday party and he finds out that an unknown person videorecorded his attempted sexual assault of Monica and uploaded the video on the Internet, when the video goes viral. To add to the shaming, someone has arranged for the video to be played on one of the giant video screens at the party. An enraged Arjun thinks Sikandar is behind this leaked video and vows to get revenge.
“Sikandar” then goes off on an entirely different tangent when Saisri gets killed in an explosion. She was an organ donor, so about half of the movie consists of Sikandar tracking down three people in Mumbai who received some of her organs. An orphaned pre-teen boy named Kamaruddin, also known as Kamar (played by Ayan Khan), received Saisri’s lungs because Kamar was the victim of environmental pollution. A vadam shop owner named Vaidehi Ranga (played Kajal Aggarwal) received Saisri’s eyes. A lovelorn woman named Nish (played by Anjini Dhawan) received Saisri’s heart.
Sikandar does what can only be called a “do-gooder” tour, where he becomes saintly person as he goes to Mumbai. He is chauffeured by a taxi driver who calls himself De Niro(played by Jatin Sarna), who tells unfunny jokes about “Taxi Driver,” the 1976 movie starring Robert De Niro. These “jokes” include insufferable impersonations of De Niro’s “Taxi Driver” character Travis Bickle.
During this “do-gooder” part of the movie, Sikandar battles environmental pollution caused by “real-estate shark” businessman Virat Bakshi (played by Nawab Shah); fights against sexism because Vaidehi’s father-in-law doesn’t believe that women should work in business; and becomes a crusader against domestic violence when he finds out that Nisha was in abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend Kapil (played by Ayaan Lall), who dumped Nisha to marry another woman. The storyline about Arjun and his father Rakesh gets shoved to the side and then comes crashing back with predictable results.
Adding to the cringeworthy aspects of the movie are the movie’s bombastic song-and-dance numbers, where Salman Khan uncomfortably does the choreography, and the songs are utterly forgettable. “Sikandar” is also one of those terrible movies where the sound mixing of the music score is turned up to detestably high levels. Note to filmmakers: Having music that’s too loud in a movie won’t improve the movie. It makes the movie worse.
“Sikandar” has plenty of fight scenes, but none look believable, including the very fake-looking visual effects. Some of the fight scenes are absolutely nonsensical. For example, there’s a nighttime scene where Sikandar and Saisri are in a car that Sikandar is driving. And for no reason at all, he stops the car to fight some thugs, with no explanation of who these thugs are. There’s no explanation for why “Sikandar” exists, except to rob viewers of their time, money and patience.
FunAsia Films released “Sikandar” in select U.S. cinemas on March 30, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2013, primarily in Visakhapatnam, India, the dramatic film “Court – State vs. a Nobody” features an all-Indian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A 19-year-old man is wrongfully accused of various crimes against his 17-year-old girlfriend because her corrupt and domineering uncle doesn’t approve of the relationship.
Culture Audience: “Court – State vs. a Nobody” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and courtroom dramas.
Priyadarshi Pulikonda and Sivaji in “Court – State vs. a Nobody” (Photo courtesy of Wall Poster Cinema)
“Court – State vs. a Nobody” has some melodrama and an excessive music score. However, this story (about a wrongfully accused teenager and his attorney seeking justice in a sex-crimes case) has riveting courtroom scenes, good acting and engaging dialogue. It’s a cautionary tale of how innocent people can be targeted in abuses of power. It’s also an inspirational tale of how unjustly accused people can fight back against corruption and hold law breakers accountable for their crimes and other misdeeds.
Written and directed by Ram Jagadeesh, “Court – State vs. a Nobody” is his feature-film directorial debut. The movie is the first of a series of “Court” movies, with a different courtroom case for each movie. “Court – State vs. a Nobody” takes place in 2013, primarily in Visakhapatnam, India. Jagadeesh has said in interviews that the movie isn’t inspired by any particular case but is inspired by many cases that are similar.
In “Court – State vs. a Nobody,” 19-year-old Mettu “Chandu” Chandrasekhar (played by Harsh Roshan) comes from a large working-class family. He does odd jobs and is a good guy who stays out of trouble. The beginning of the movie shows that Chandu is on trial for various crimes, most of them sex-related, against his 17-year-old girlfriend Jaabili Medugupalli (played by Sridevi), who comes from a large wealthy family. Chandu has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, which include statutory rape, stalking and sexual harassment.
At the time that Chandu was arrested for these crimes, Jaabili was a few months away from turning 18 years old. Chandu and Jaabili are very much in love with each other. She did not accuse Chandu of these crimes or have him arrested. The person responsible for this wrongful arrest is Jaabili’s vindictive and tyrannical uncle Mangapathi (played by Sivaji), who framed Chandu because he doesn’t want “lower caste” Chandu to be in a relationship with Jaabili. Mangapathi is the brother of Jaabili’s widowed mother Medugupalli Sitaratnam (played by Rohini), who is very passive.
Mangapathi considers himself to be the patriarch of the family. He likes to portray himself as very puritanical and always concerned about the family’s reputation. The reality is that Mangapathi is an evil control freak who goes out of his way to get revenge on anyone whom he sees as a threat to his dominance. Sivaji gives a convincing performance as this villain, but Mangapathi is a somewhat two-dimensional character.
Chandu got arrested without any evidence that Chandu committed these crimes. He was arrested simply because used Mangapathi used his connections with corrupt cronies in the police department and because the unscrupulous prosecutor Damodhar, nicknamed Damu (played by Harsha Vardhan), also happens to be Mangapathi’s personal attorney. Chandu has been held in jail without bail and faces up to 14 years in prison. Chandu also experiences police brutality (vicious beatings) while he’s in custody.
A scene in the movie shows one of many examples of Mangapathi’s cruelty. At a family birthday dinner for one of his nieces (who looks like she’s about 12 years old), Mangapathi yells at her for wearing a sleeveless dress. He humiliates her, tells her that she’s unpure, and orders her to change into a dress with sleeves. Everyone in the family is afraid to stand up to Mangapathi and his bullying because they know he is capable of doing some very damaging things to them.
Mangapathi takes advantage of India’s Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, which allows an adult to report allegations of child sexual abuse, even if the alleged child victim does not want these allegations to be reported to law enforcement. As an example of how corrupt the police are in this case, the police did not bother to interview Jaabili before Chandu was arrested. And the only “evidence” that the prosecution has is home security video (from a camera in the hallway) showing Chandu and Jaabili going into her bedroom and staying there for about 15 minutes, without any footage showing what Chandu and Jaabili actually did in the room.
“Court – State vs. a Nobody” begins when Chandu’s trial is supposed to end in about three or four days. Much of the film is told in flashbacks, to show how Chandu ended up in this horrible situation. His mother Mettu Nagalakshmi (played by Surabhi Prabhavathi), his father M. Ganapathi (played by Rajasekhar Aningi) and other family members grow desperate because there’s a likely chance that Chandu will be found guilty. The bench trial is being presided over by an unnamed judge (played by Srinivas Bhogireddy), who makes fair decisions.
There’s a glimmer of hope for Chandu and his family: The family is referred to an up-and-coming defense attorney who could possibly take Chandu’s case on short notice. The attorney’s name is Surya Teja (played by Priyadarshi Pulikonda), who is ethical and intelligent. (Surya Teja prefers to be called by his last name.) Teja is a junior attorney at a law firm.
Teja’s father also works in the legal field, as a notary. Teja says he wants to achieve greater things in the law profession than being a notary. However, Teja has not yet been given an opportunity to lead a case in a trial. Teja’s boss Mohan Rao (played by P. Sai Kumar) is reluctant to take Chandu’s case and skeptical that Teja can be the lead attorney on the case.
Of course, as already revealed in the movie’s trailer, Teja ends up becoming Chandu’s lead attorney. Before that happens, Mohan poses a series of hypothetical dilemma questions to Teja, to test Teja’s ability in problem solving. Mohan tells a fictional story about a trolley accident where Teja has an opportunity to save one person or five people. Teja automatically says it’s better to save five people.
Mohan keeps adding information to the story, and Teja’s answers keep changing, based on this information. For example, Mohan reveals that the five people are all criminals, while the other person is not a criminal. Then, Mohan says that the five criminals have the ability to save the land of 600 families. Teja learns an important lesson from Mohan, based on this dilemma exercise: Don’t come to any conclusions until you get as many facts as possible.
All of the cast members give believable performances, but Pulikonda is the obvious standout as crusading attorney Teja. The movie could have had better character development for Chandu, who is basically shown in two scenarios: in legal trouble and in his romance with Jaabili. “Court – State vs. a Nobody” at times gets a little too long-winded and repetitive. The movie did not need to be 155 minutes. The same story could’ve been told in a movie that’s less than two hours long.
The courtroom scenes take some twists and turns, some of which are more believable than others. The prosecution uses some unethical tactics to try to win the case. A particularly outrageous dirty tactic from the prosecution is when the prosecution tries to prevent Jaabili from being called to testify as a witness because the prosecution describes her as “mentally disturbed” with bipolar disorder—even though there’s no evidence that Jaabili has a mental illness.
“Court – State vs. a Nobody” has enough in the dialogue and acting to stir up emotions. And that’s why the movie’s overbearing music score lowers the quality of the movie because this overly loud score bludgeons movie watchers on how they’re supposed to feel in emotional scenes. Despite this cinematic flaw, “Court – State vs. a Nobody” doesn’t let up in its intensity. For people who like courtroom dramas and stories of legal justice, “Court – State vs. a Nobody” is a solid option for viewers with the time and patience to watch movies that stretch past two hours.
Wall Poster Cinema released “Court – State vs. a Nobody” in select U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025. The movie was released in India on March 14, 2025
Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, the dramatic film “Artiste” features an all-Indian group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A serial killer, who considers murder to be an artistic skill, is linked to the murder of a young woman whose brother wants revenge.
Culture Audience: “Artiste” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching overly long tacky movies about serial killers and vigilantes.
Satyam Rajesh in “Artiste” (Photo courtesy of SJK Entertainment)
There’s nothing artistic about “Artiste,” a bloated mess of a crime drama about a serial killer who thinks murder is an artistic skill. Vengeful loved ones of his murder victims become vigilantes, leading to a stupid ending. You can tell the filmmakers didn’t really know how to end this 142-minute film and just threw in a bunch of ideas to see what might stick. None of it is believable.
Written and directed by Ratanrishi, “Artiste” (also titled “The Killer Artiste”) takes place in Hyderabad, India. The movie’s “hero” protagonist is a young man named Vikky (played by Santosh Kalwacherla), who is madly in love with his girlfriend Jaanu (played by Krisheka Patel) and wants to marry her. There’s a problem though: Jaanu’s mother Surekha (played by Sonia Akula) doesn’t approve of Vikky because he’s unemployed, he drinks too much alcohol, he smokes too much, and he seems to have no direction or goals in life.
By contrast, Jaanu’s father Ravindra (played by Vinay Varma), who is separated from Surekah, tells Jaanu that Jaanu can marry whomever Jaanu wants. Ravindra tells Jaanu that he will support her and approve of the marriage as long as Jaanu is happy. Jaanu prefers spending time with her father because he shows her unconditional love and is not judgmental, compared to Surekha, who can be very judgmental and somewhat cold to Jaanu.
A flashback scene shows that Surekha and Ravindra separated because she told him to move out of their home. Jaanu loves both of her parents tries to keep things as peaceful as possible between them. Jaanu says, “Even though you are both separated, you are both still great parents to me.” As for her relationship with Vikky, Jaanu loves him and tries to convince her mother that Vikky is a good man and would make a suitable husband for Jaanu.
It takes way too long for “Artiste” to establish this part of the story. There are forgettable musical numbers (with mediocre songs and basic dancing) that waste a lot of time in the movie and add nothing substantial to the plot. These upbeat musical numbers don’t fit the overall dark and menacing tone of the movie.
In the meantime, a separate storyline is shown near the beginning of the film: A serial killer named Maniac Ravi (played by Prabhakar) is seen escaping from a prison van by murdering the law enforcement officers who were in the van. Maniac Ravi can kill anyone, but he is notorious for raping and murdering women while forcing his female victims to wear the masks of celebrities. Maniac Ravi’s escape is big news in the local news media.
And you know what that means in an abominable movie like this one: Vikky is going to somehow be part of the hunt to find Maniac Ravi because of something personal that happened to Vikky. Vikky is a devoted and protective older brother to his sister Swathi (played by Sneha Madhuri), who is a college student and lives with Vikky. One night, Swathi is brutally raped and stabbed. She ends up in a hospital but does not survive her injuries.
The rest of the movie shows what happens when Vikky goes on a vigilante vendetta. One of the suspects in Swathi’s murder is a creep named Devaraju (played by Tanikella Bharani), a man about 15 years older than Swathi, who was sexually harassing Swathi in the days before she died, A law enforcement officer named Circle Inspector Prakash (played by Satyam Rajesh) gets involved in the murder case.
“Artiste” lurches along from one incoherent scene to the next, with unimpressive acting from the cast members and an obnoxiously loud sound mixing. Patel stands out for the wrong reasons because she over-acts to the point it almost looks like a parody. The last third of the movie is the worst because of prolonged and wretched scenes involving a vicious home invasion. Simply put: “Artiste” is a pathetic excuse to show exploitative and gruesome murders and ludicrous plot twists that insult viewers’ intelligence.
SJK Entertainment released in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 21, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2011, in Pakistan, in India and briefly in Malaysia, in 2017, the dramatic film “The Diplomat” (based on real events) features an all-Asian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash:J. P. Singh, Deputy High Commissioner of India in Pakistan, leads a rescue effort to save an Indian woman who wants to be classified as a refugee because she says a Pakistani man forced her into abusive marriage and wants to keep her in captivity in Pakistan.
Culture Audience: “The Diplomat” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching dramatic recreations of real-life international political stories involving refugee rescues.
Jagjeet Sandhu in “The Diplomat” (Photo courtesy of Panorama Pictures)
Based on a true story about an Indian woman seeking an embassy rescue from her abusive Pakistani husband, “The Diplomat” tends to portray the heroes and villains as two-dimensional. This drama is still very compelling. And even when some of the movie gets melodramatic, the performances are never boring and carry the story through to a predictable but gratifying ending
Directed by Shivam Nair and written by Ritesh Shah, “The Diplomat” (which takes place in 2017) does not change the names of the main real-life people who are depicted in the movie. The movie’s first sequence is filled with gripping tension that doesn’t really let up until the expected outcome. “The Diplomat” realistically shows how the woman asking to be rescued had to go through clearance checks and skepticism before she was believed.
“The Diplomat” begins on May 5, 2017, by showing Uzma Ahmed (played by Sadia Khateeb), a woman in he 20s who is covered head-to-toe in veiled clothing as a passenger in a car driven by her husband Tahir Bashir (played by Jagjeet Sandhu), with Tahir’s best friend Basheer (played by Bhawani Muzamil) as a passenger. They are traveling in Pakistan from the district of Buner to the capital city of Islamabad. Uzma is an Indian citizen and they are going to the Indian Embassy in Islamabad to get some legalities sorted out for her passport.
At first glance, it looks like a leisurely trip. But Uzma is very quiet, and there is tension brewing. When Tahir, Basheer and Uzma arrive at the embassy, they go through the usual security checkpoints. But as soon as Uzma gets out of the eyesight range of Tahir and Basheer, she frantically runs to an employee in a glass enclosed booth, announces that she’s an Indian citzien, and begs for help because she says her life is in danger because she’s being forcibly detained in Buner.
The employee lets her go into a room that has other employees. The room has a locked door. Uzma grows increasingly hysterical and paranoid that the employees will let Tahir and Basheer into the room. Uzma says she was tricked into going to Pakistan and forced to marry Tahir, who has been physically abusing and keeping her in captivity.
The employees don’t know what to think without proof that what Uzma is saying is true. Uzma has a valid passport. A background check shows that she does not have a criminal history. Meanwhile, Tahir and Basheer are outside and demanding that Uzma go back to the car with them. Uzma refuses.
And that’s when a supervisor is called in to investigate the matter: J.P. Singh, the Deputy High Commissioner of India in Pakistan. J.P. (played by John Abraham) has a tall, commanding presence and a take-charge, no-nonsense style of leadership. When he questions Uzma in a conference room, he’s skeptical of her story because Uzma says that she was able to go to Buner without passing through checkpoints or having any records on immigration travel sheets.
When Uzma is in a room with two female employees, Uzma shows them the bruises that she says came from Tahir’s beating. A medical inspection shows that Uzma has bruises from sexual assault. A female employee named Seerat (played by Vidhatri Bandi) sees all of Uzma’s injuries and tells J.P. that she believes Uzma. J.P. still does not want to come to any conclusions because he says that even if the injuries were not self-inflicted, there’s no proof that Tahir caused these injuries and no proof that Uzma is being held captive.
Other people involved in the investigation are Sushma Swaraj (played by Revathy), India’s Union Minister of External Affairs, who calls J.P. to get updates on the case; Tiwari (played by Sharib Hashmi), an Indian Foreign Service official in Pakistan; and Malik Sahab (played by Ashwath Bhatt), Pakistan’s Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence. N.M. Syed (played by Kumud Mishra) is a senior diplomat/attorney who works at the Indian Embassy in Pakistan. N.M. brings a little bit of comic relief to the movie because he is a character who often seems surprised when J.P. tells him to do something that N.M. thinks he won’t be able to handle, but then N.M. ends up handling it pretty well.
Of course, Uzma is telling the truth about being kidnapped and trapped in an abusive marriage. Tahir is the type of abuser who wants to appear calm and rational to authorities, but Basheer is a loose cannon and immediately threatens violence if Uzma is not returned to them. It’s enough for the embassy officials to see that Uzma is probably telling the truth. And the movie quickly mentions that Uzma’s brother Aamir works for the Indian Embassy. Having that type of inside connection definitely helped.
What also helps Uzma is that because her rescue plea was so dramatic and so public, the media latches on to the story, which becomes big news in India and in Pakistan. With all the media attention, Uzma’s refugee story becomes an international political and legal case that can’t be dealt with quietly. Tahir ends up filing legal action that leads to a big courtroom showdown.
Before that happens, Uzma tells her story (shown in flashbacks) about how she ended up in this terrible situation. Uzma is a divorcée raising a daughter named Noor (played by Maryam Patel), who looks about 3 or 4 years old. Noor has thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that causes the body to have less hemoglobin than normal. Uzma cannot afford the medical treatments that Noor needs.
Uzma met Tahir while they were both visiting in Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia. Tahir charms Uzma into a romance. He convinces her to move to Pakistan because he says that Noor can get affordable medical care in Pakistan. Uzma has relatives in Pakistan, which is why she did not hesitate to make this move. The relationship with Tahir and Uzma becomes serious enough where they make plans to live together.
On the drive to Buner (which is an area that is a lot more isolated and rural than Uzma expected), Tahir and Basheer are in the car with Uzma. Because they are driving in a winding mountain area, Tahir says Uzma might get motion sickness, so he gives her pill that he says will help her not get motion sickness. The pill is really a drug that makes Uzma feel disoriented.
When they arrive at Tahir’s home, the nightmare begins for Uzma. She finds out that he’s already married with kids and has a harem of other women who do whatever he says. Uzma is locked up in a room, where she is frequently beaten and raped by Tahir. The rape scenes are not graphic and poignantly show a closeup of Uzma’s eyes while she has this abuse inflicted on her.
Tahir then forces Uzma to marry him. (Polygamy is legal in Pakistan, with certain restrictions.) Uzma is living like a tortured prisoner. But with help from another woman in Tahir’s harem, Uzma is able to make a phone call that saves Uzma’s life. It’s the phone call that gives her the opportunity to go the Indian Embassy in Islamabad.
“The Diplomat” is focused primarily on showing J.P. to be the type of crusading professional that almost seems too good to be true. There are brief glimpses into J.P.’s home life in a few scenes that show he has a wife (played by Shriswara) and an underage son (played by Shaunak Duggal), as if to prove that he has a life outside of work. J.P.’s only vulnerability is shown in flashback scenes that reveal that J.P. is still feeling trauma over being in an embassy bomb explosion caused by the Haqqani Network, a Sunni Islamist militant group.
“The Diplomat” tells a story about the best and worst of humanity. However, the movie tends to depict its characters in broad strokes, with performances to match. All the “heroes” don’t have any personality flaws. All the “villains” are nothing but personality flaws. The performances are very watchable in the way that most superhero movies are watchable: You know that what’s on screen is exaggerated for dramatic purposes, but it’s a “good versus evil” story that’s kind of irresistible despite the familiar filmmaking formulas.
“The Diplomat” has no subtlety or nuances about its intentions to be a valiant refugee movie, with the Indian government presented as the best possible rescuer. It’s not quite propaganda, but the movie noticeably diminishes or sidelines the roles of the Pakistani government diplomats in this case. “The Diplomat” is not trying to educate people on the intricacies of international law. This movie succeeds in its main intention to tell a gripping refugee story based on real events, while tugging at viewers’ heartstrings.
Panorama Pictures released “The Diplomat” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 14, 2025.
