Rachit Raj Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune is often regarded to be a pioneering science-fiction novel of the 20th century. After a shelved attempt and a shoddy adaptation by David Lynch, Denis Villeneuve’s film finally does justice to Herbert’s massive world-building ability. Like most stories that transcend generations to remain…

Debanjan Dhar The prologue of Pieces of a Woman — a prolonged one take, that spills over thirty minutes, unfolds in the cinema verite tradition. Kornel Mundruczo pushes the camera to a nearly suffocating point of proximity to the crisis the woman at the centre of the film is undergoing…

Saugata Bhattacharya Srijit Mukherji’s Feluda Pherot is a smartly executed adaptation of an outstandingly written material. The story for this very first season of the series is based on Satyajit Ray’s original story Chinnomastwar Obhishap. Unlike his previous two films, Mukherji (both the writer and the filmmaker) has lived up…

Debanjan Dhar, Subhadeep Das Here’s our list of what we consider to be the absolute best of Indian and International Web series. (Please note we are only considering series that have been officially released in India this year.) TOP 5 INDIAN WEB SERIES Scam 1992 (Dir: Hansal Mehta, Jay Mehta) (ALT’s Choice) Technically slick and…

Rachit Raj, Anshul Gupta Here’s our list of what we consider to be the absolute best of Indian films and the most sterling performances there in, which riveted and had us spellbound in equal measure. (Please note we are only considering films that have been officially released in India this…

Sagnik Kumar Gupta Here’s our list of what we consider to be the absolute best of international films and the most sterling performances there in, which riveted and had us spellbound in equal measure. (Please note we are only considering films that have been officially released in India this year.) TOP 5 INTERNATIONAL FILMS …

Sagnik Kumar Gupta A critically acclaimed director gets involved in a public brawl with a yesteryear superstar and kidnaps the star’s daughter to film his struggle in finding her in order to capture real sweat and blood. A film which may have easily been an insider joke driven by real-life…

Subhadeep Das Netflix’s Paava Kadhaigal is a brilliant depiction of how the concept of “honour”, dictated by a community, is often detrimental to the well-being of the people belonging to that community. The anthology consists of four stories concerning four people who somehow, either of their own accord or not…

Rachit Raj Every story in Unpaused, the new anthology streaming on Amazon Prime, is grappling with an essential narrative conflict. How do you convey the chaos of a crisis we are still in the middle of, without making it something that is accessible solely for the now, but also works…