Cinema, Karam, Kapi

As much as I would like that the entire hyped-up storyline of the much touted propaganda film The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond is at least partly fictional, the reality seems to be otherwise.  This is purely based on anecdotal evidence as seen from several cases that gets the much-needed media attention from time to time. Anecdotes corroborate with fiction. And one could connect the dots backwards, perhaps.  Unlike the prequel, the second edition of the film is not entirely based out of Kerala, rather shows the plight of Hindu religion girls across the Hindi-belt of India, at Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan. Surekha Nair (Ulka Gupta) is the only child and is brought up in a secular environment by her progressive Malayalee parents. She informs them one day about “her decision" to move to Delhi to live-in with Salim (Sumit Gahlawat), a forward-thinking journalist, much to their chagrin. The typical father’s love doesn’t hold her wishes back and she moves on to another city, eve...

In the second instalment of the hugely successful prequel Dhurandhar, the force of Hamza Ali (Ranveer Singh) spans for almost 3 hrs. While watching the movie second time on OTT, I did so over 3 instalments. The two franchises put together would make sense for a 8-episode Web Series on an OTT platform.   Enough said.  In part 1, we saw the movie ending with Hamza killing Rahman Dakait (Akshaye Khanna) mercilessly in the middle of a forest for assisting the ISI    towards the deadly 26/11 attacks at Hotel Taj Mumbai.  In the sequel released on 19 March 2026 ahead of Ramzan, Hamza trains his guns on ISI Chieftain Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal) - after all he had seen success in planning and executing one of the most devastating attack by Pakistan on Indian soil. The film starts in the year 2000. Jaskirat is sentenced to death by the court for killing 12 members of MLA Jaswinder Singh at their farmhouse in Pathankot. His anger cum revenge is because his sisters Harleen ...

I When I wrote this movie review on the fifth week of its release, I continue to be surprised how and why mediocre films that are hyped by the right wing and the media alike become top box office hits.  Dhurandhar, by far would be the top grosser for the year 2025. The film is said to have made over INR 1,000 Cr in box office collections back then and is still running. I watched the movie in a Tier-3 town in Tamil Nadu called Erode. It was a night show, and the 120-seater was houseful indeed. In a city where predominantly the population is Tamil-speaking, it was surprising to see a large diaspora watching a Hindi-language film with English sub-titles! Content is King. Content is Queen. Content drives audience. Period. Hamza Ali Mazari (Ranveer Singh) reaches Lyari Province in Karachi, Pakistan as an immigrant, crossing from Afghanistan border. He joins a juice shop as a helper and gains the trust of the locals.  In an instance when the elder son of dreaded don, Rehman Dekait ...